Helen Speaks

Another entry in my series using Sky Latshaw’s RPG, The Magical Year of the Teenage Witch.
Introduction: https://helenspeaks.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/lucy-skylarks-magical-year/

Lucy and Suniya make a complete mess of ordering ice cream: https://helenspeaks.com/2025/06/07/lucy-skylark-entry-18-7th-june/

Characters: https://helenspeaks.com/characters/

Dear Vera,

Suniya and I went out for a long walk yesterday. It was so nice not to worry about reporters at last – the news cycle has finally moved on and they’re bored of us. Olive has some new side business that she’s putting a lot of time into so Suniya and I went around town, finding interesting second hand clothes in the charity shops and trying on perfumes in the little boutique on the corner by Coastal Coffee.

In one of the shops, we ran into Bea Furness, who was out shopping too, not for anything in particular. If her currently bright purple hair wasn’t enough, Bea temporarily making her arms longer so she could reach something from a higher shelf meant that Suniya recognised her as the “the Shimmer lady” right away. Suniya was a bit in awe of Bea, given she’s heard gossip about but hadn’t met her before, and she was very quiet even when Bea bought us both a cake from a stall and we went and sat on a bench in the market square.

Bea asked us if we’d been to the ice cream parlour, Dessert Island. Suniya blushed then, and I felt embarrassed too.

I tried not to make our actions sound too silly as I told her about the chef seeming to have a glamour, and no reflection. She looked intrigued. “That’s certainly interesting, but I don’t know that I feel happy with you assuming there’s something wrong.”

“But why would she deceive us with her face?!” Suniya blurted, only to blush harder when Bea gave her a look and her eyes literally changed colour. “I’m sorry – I didn’t mean she’s a Shimmer, I just meant…”

Bea laughed. “It’s all right. Of course we should be sensible. If something feels wrong, then it makes sense to be cautious. But that doesn’t mean something is wrong.”

“It’s just…” I started. “You know – glamour, not liking sunlight, the comment about being invited in?”

“Did you look in the encyclopaedia?”

“I – I lent it to my mentor.”

“Oh Lucy – well, if it helps, I’ve actually spoken to the couple who run the shop a few times – and I’m not going to tell you what I found out, but honestly, they’re a lovely couple. You should at least go down and get an ice cream. You’re missing out.”

She headed off then, but Suniya carried on being quiet. One thing I like about our friendship is that we don’t need to talk all the time – you know how chatty Teddy is, and Suki can talk for days! But I wasn’t sure if she was upset, or maybe embarrassed. Maybe she was annoyed at Bea for suggesting that we needed to go back, or maybe she was nervous at the idea.

And I didn’t know if I should ask her. I thought about taking Olive, or Teddy, or Olive and Teddy, but it felt like the last time had been our adventure, and it didn’t seem fair to ask anyone else.

I thought about how to ask her for about 15 minutes before she suddenly said, “Do you want to go back? To the ice cream parlour, I mean. I shouldn’t have gotten so scared, last time. And I like Bea, I’ve just heard so many weird things about Shimmers… I didn’t mean to come across as prejudiced…”

“I don’t think you did,” I said, and gave her a rather awkward pat on the arm. “Are you sure you want to go? I don’t mind asking Olive or Teddy… But I’d rather go with you.”

Her face went on a journey through several expressions, but as I finished my sentence, she nodded with determination. “Yes – yes I want to go with you.”

We’d just had cake of course, and as we walked, we debated whether we should just go in and order something and pretend nothing had happened – and then eventually one, or both of us, decided that we should probably just talk to them, at least to apologise to the chef for barging in last time.

There weren’t many people in when we got there – it was a cooler day than the last time we’d been, and later in the afternoon. I could tell Suniya was nervous, and I was too, but we went in anyway. There was a woman behind the counter – she had pink hair, like Bea sometimes has, but it was obviously dyed, with dark roots just appearing. It didn’t seem like a glamour. She was in her thirties, or forties maybe, and friendly-looking. “Hello girls – what can I get you?”

We glanced at each other. “We’d – we’d like to speak to your chef, please,” I said. “We came a few weeks ago but there was a misunderstanding and… We were a bit rude.”

She chuckled. “Ah, you’re the two who crashed into the kitchen? Yes, Kim mentioned you.” She tilted her head and looked at me. “And I know you, don’t I? Oh – Lucy Skylark! You were in the paper.”

“You read The Magical Reporter? Or was it Supernatural News?”

She shook her head. “Oh no, it was in The Barkmouth Courier, but they probably cribbed from one of those. It’s a bit of a rag but we run adverts in there.”

I wasn’t sure whether to ask if it had been positive about me or not – but then the chef herself came out. “Tanya, love, cup of tea?”

“Are you making or asking?” Tanya, the pink-haired woman, said back.

The chef smiled mischievously. “Whichever I can get away with.”

“Well, I’ll make it, since you have visitors,” Tanya said, also smiling. “The town witch and her friend – what’s your name, love? And do you take sugar?”

The chef – Kim – seemed amused to see us, and I tried not to look awkward as I accepted the tea and sat down. Suniya did the same – I tried to check discreetly that she was all right, and she caught my glance and nodded.

Kim sat down opposite us and, after pausing briefly to sigh, sip her tea, sigh again and say, “Ah, some things are always lovely,” she turned to us and looked expectantly.

I started – but Suniya came in first. “We wanted to apologise,” she said. “If we judged you. We just want to keep our town safe.”

I nodded. “And I’m sorry we didn’t properly introduce ourselves. I’m Lucy – one of the town witches. And this is my friend Suniya.”

I offered my hand to shake hers and she offered one back – her hand was cold despite the warmness of the tea. I thought perhaps she’d made a lot of ice cream sundaes that day – except not for long because she was very direct.

“I appreciate the apology, girls, and I’m glad you came back. I expect you’re wondering why a vampire would work in an ice cream shop.”

Suniya choked on her tea.

I tried to look calm and unaffected even as I patted her on the back. “Well – of course – I mean – obviously it’s fine, as long as no one’s being hurt…”

Kim’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “No – no, that’s the last thing I’d want. I didn’t choose this and of course people feel threatened. It’s just very tiring having to explain myself. I usually don’t spend a lot of time on the shop floor because of it – but you two were very inquisitive.”

The only other customers – a man and a woman with a baby – were already gathering their things, so Tanya thanked them, then came to join us, sitting next to Kim rather protectively. This reassured me and I squeezed Suniya’s hand – she had recovered from her choking fit – and I turned to Kim again.

“There’s a lot I don’t know or understand,” I said. “But I’d like to know more, if you’d be willing to tell me. As a witch I stand in between… Bea Furness helped me see that I should be a bridge.”

“Oh, we know Bea,” Tanya said, smiling. “She comes over for games nights.”

Kim sighed. Suniya was watching her intently – I think not because of what she’d told us, but because she looked…

Well, she was probably late thirties or early forties, like Tanya, and not wearing make up or carefully styled like Tanya, but she had a sort of ageless beauty. She didn’t quite seem real. And yet Tanya seemed so normal.

“Do you mind if I ask…” I started, and Tanya laughed.

“I’m a normal warm-blooded human,” she said, before I even finished the question. She rubbed Kim’s shoulder. “We both were, you know. This one might look like an elfin queen but we’re the same age. Old school friends.” She turned to Kim – “You don’t have to talk about it, love.” And to us – “Kim and I have been together nearly tweny years. I can assure you that she’s never hurt anyone.”

“I really am so sorry that we invaded your privacy,” I said, getting up. “We’ll pay for the tea – thank you.”

Suniya paused. “I can go,” she said, holding my arm. “But you should talk to Lucy, help her understand. She’s brave and kind and she always tries to do the right thing. She’ll help you if you need help – and she’ll listen.”

That felt unexpected, Vera. I don’t know if I deserve it. It was one thing reading Derringer Grant’s article – I think Olive had softened him up – but I remembered how I snapped at Suniya after the spell gone wrong, and how I’d called Kim a fiend when we’d been at the shop last! I get things wrong so often and hearing Suniya speak so warmly about me made my face feel hot.

But somehow, it made Kim melt a bit. “Sit down, both of you. It’s been a tiring day and I’m up all night, of course. But you should hear the story, it’s a cautionary tale if nothing else.”

Tanya grinned. “I’ll get the biscuits.”

She told us it had started with a holiday. “Me, Tanya, and a few others… A girls’ trip. We’d gone to Ibiza…” She gave Tanya a sideways look. “And she said it would be fun.”

“It was fun!”

Kim smiled wryly. “The first lesson, is don’t go on a holiday you won’t enjoy just to impress someone you like. During the day it was nice – the beaches were beautiful, the food was amazing. But cocktails, clubbing… Boys.” This made Tanya laugh. Kim looked at her mock-sternly. “And she can laugh, but it was a boy who got me into all this. The other girls kept bringing back dates. Even Tanya did.”

“They’re not all revolting and unhygienic,” Tanya said.

“…And I had never, not ever, not once ever found a single man attractive. But I was, well…”

“In epic level denial,” Tanya suggested.

“The early noughties wasn’t the worst time to be a lesbian, historically speaking,” she said. “But my parents were – are – a bit conservative and it was a thing that other people were.” She gave a wry smile.

“So imagine my delight when I saw him, across a crowded, sticky and much too loud dance floor – the only man I’ve ever found attractive.”

Suniya giggled – then caught herself abruptly. Tanya was smiling, but…

“It was a glamour,” I said, feeling horrified. “He made you feel attracted, but he just wanted to use you.”

Kim nodded, looking a little more serious now. “Well, there’s no shortage of men like that in clubs – and women too, I’m sure. I wasn’t exactly looking for a long term relationship, but I also wasn’t planning on having him suck my blood and turn me into someone like him.”

“That’s awful,” Suniya said. “How did you escape?”

“Oh, Tanya heard me scream, came in and warded him off with a tacky plastic crucifix from our hotel room. It was honestly incredibly brave.” She shrugged. “And I thought that was why I felt so wretched over the next few days – that I was just pining that the one person I really wanted didn’t want me back…” She smiled at Tanya fondly. “Or so I thought.”

“You were starting to… turn?” I asked her.

“Yes, but it wasn’t obvious at first. I thought I was having a migraine, which was why I couldn’t take the sunlight shining into my room. And the food tasted all off, except for a really rare steak I got one night and devoured in seconds. And my teeth…” At this point she grimaced, thoughtfully, and I saw the fangs – Suniya gripped my hand suddenly, I think in an effort not to gasp or shout. “My teeth felt weird, but I hadn’t been to the dentist in ages anyway. I thought I’d get a check up when I got back. And suddenly everyone seemed to be throwing themselves at me in the clubs and bars. And Tanya had started looking at me differently too… But not in the way I’d hoped she would.”

“How did you realise what had happened?” Suniya asked.

“It was a bit cruel, I thought,” Kim said dryly. “Tanya started trying to get the others interested in visiting the Catedral de Santa Maria, and despite my migraine she insisted I come too. She lent me some sunglasses and factor 50 suncream and a very large sunhat.”

“You said the crucifix was enough to get rid of the man who bit you,” I said. “What happened in the cathedral – did it hurt you?”

“Well, that’s a part I don’t quite understand – because it didn’t. I’m not especially religious, but I didn’t flinch at angels or anything. I just went in, looked around, enjoyed being out of the sun. Then Tanya pulled me away from the others, and showed me my reflection – or rather, lack of it. And I felt… even though I was surprised, I realised that I’d been suspecting it ever since I’d been bitten. That I’d known what it was, but hadn’t been able to face it.”

“You must have been scared,” Suniya said to Tanya.

“I had been,” she said. “But I thought – I hoped – that it hadn’t changed who Kim really was.” She smiled, wistfully. “I’d been in love with her for ages. We don’t even see those other girls we went on holiday with. I think it was just an excuse to spend time together. I wish I’d just told her on the plane on the way out – then we’d have never…”

Kim looked serious again. “I try not to have regrets,” she said. “I can work in the shade and as long as I get a good supply of animal blood, food tastes all right – apart from garlic. I don’t really get hungry anymore, apart from bl…” She glanced at Suniya, so I did too, and saw that she was trying very hard not to look as disturbed as she felt. I squeezed her hand, and Kim moved on without finishing the sentence.

“But I’d always loved cooking. I was going to train to be a chef… My savoury tastes are a bit unusual for that, but ice cream is still good. And it’s meant to be a treat. No one ever says, ‘I’m hungry, I need to eat an ice cream’.”

“So you haven’t done anything magical to the ice cream?” I said. Kim blinked at me. “I mean, they really are just very tasty ice creams? I’m only asking because there’s a cinema full of fae…”

“Oh yes, they didn’t like me,” Kim said. “Apparently glamours don’t work on me anymore. But no, I’ve not added anything or done anything to the ice cream apart from make it sinfully delicious.”

“Oh thank goodness,” Suniya said. “Because I really wanted to try the fudge brownie sundae. How long have you been making desserts?”

“Not long enough,” Kim said, smiling again at Tanya. “She kept trying to persuade me. I did a whole load of night jobs. For a while I didn’t really trust myself around other people because… Well, you can see why. Sometimes I didn’t even let Tanya see me. But I’ve got the hang of it now.”

“It must be so lonely,” I said.

“It can be. There are a few of us – accidental vampires. Ones who were turned by mistake, who never bought into the whole being evil thing. Not to mention I had to come out to my parents twice.”

“They must have been shocked – do they still talk to you?” Suniya asked.

Kim nodded. “It took them some time, but they’ll at least have us over to a very late Sunday night dinner now. At first they could only see me as an unholy abomination and a creature of darkness, but on the plus side, that made the fact that I was a vampire easier to accept.”

She grinned, and Tanya nudged her then, with the weariness of someone who’d heard the same joke many, many times. “They’re not that bad,” she said.  

Tanya smiled at us both as she cleared up our tea things. “You need actually have a dessert here. They’re magic, in the nicest and most unmagical way possible.”

Kim took Suniya’s hand – and Suniya didn’t flinch. I knew that she found this weirder and scarier than I did – but she did seem to have warmed to Kim, especially as I heard Kim say, “And you – and Lucy – are welcome to come over for games night – there won’t be blood, well, not unless someone tries to make Tanya play Monopoly.”

Suniya thanked her – her cheeks had reddened slightly. But she smiled at me, told them we’d be back for ice cream as soon as possible – and then we walked home.

She didn’t say much on the way home, and I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t even try to check if she felt all right about everything, because there was something troubling me.

I don’t quite know how to explain it, Vera. I wasn’t scared of Kim anymore, at all. She and Tanya were so nice, so normal. It was what she had said, about thinking that she was having a migraine, that she’d gone off her food, that she had all of the signs that she’d been turned, but she still had to be confronted with them head on before she saw the truth. It’s weird and scary to think that something can be right in front of your face and you can fail to see it until it can’t be ignored anymore.

I walked Suniya back to her house – finally got up the courage to ask if she was all right.

She nodded. “Yeah – I’m fine. It was scary what happened to Kim, but she’s not scary, not at all.”

I was about to say goodbye, but stopped.

“And is it all right, being friends with me? I mean, without me you would’ve just got an ice cream and never known about Kim. There’s nothing normal when you’re friends with a witch… And it’s ok to want normal things. My parents just want me to do exams and get a proper job but…”

“But you can’t,” Suniya said. “And that’s ok.”

She hugged me, suddenly. “Of course it’s scary, sometimes. But if magic exists, why should I try to live without it? And if you’re my friend, it’s not like I can have you without the magic, can I?”

She smiled and turned to go inside. She really did seem ok. I haven’t scared her off this time.

Please would you send me the encyclopaedia back, Vera? I don’t know if it’ll help, but it would be nice to read up on accidental vampires.

Send my love to everyone.

Your friend,

Lucy.

Question: Have you ever realised you were in “epic level denial” about something?

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