The Sign (Season 3, Ep 2)

Jade – Ashley McAnelly
Chloe – Grace Stone
Sam – Nichole Goodnight
Roz – Jessica McEvoy
Laura – Erika Sanderson

Jade: The encroaching darkness of night turns the Arborvitaes in front of me to a black wall. I twist the white marble between my fingers, my token that signifies I’m the last to start the maze. I’m sure if Laura had drawn last place she would be throwing a fit for us to somehow start all at once. It doesn’t matter, only one of us will make it out of the maze with only the Goddess’s assistance. Looking up at the dark trees before me, I doubt it will be me.

Laura goes first and is decisive in her path, immediately turning right and never looking back. She storms right in, never losing her stride, not that her stride is very long to begin with, but maybe there’s something to be said about how she walks. Maybe she prayed to Hecate before starting to guide her steps, and is going whatever way her feet take her. I wonder how many times she’ll stumble.

Ruth Ann is next. She crosses the threshold into the maze but stops, saying a quick prayer. She turns left, not as sure as Laura but still confident in her steps in the darkness. Out of the three of us, Ruth Ann and I are most comfortable walking in the dark. I’m surprised I don’t hear either of them treading about. It’s like once they step into the darkness, they are no longer here.

My turn. I look up at the arborvitae one more time, and to the sky beyond. There’s a full moon tonight, and the rest of the woods are cut back away from the sky. There’s a chance some of the light will shine down on us from above, but if that darkness is a true veil once we step in, we may have little hope for that.

I say a prayer as well. I can’t help myself. It’s force of habit if not belief, but tonight it may be more the belief than the habit. I step into the darkness, and say the only thing that comes to mind.

“God and Goddess, whatever You decide, just please help me make things right.”

[Intro Roll In]
I am half right about the darkness. Stepping into it is more than stepping into a shadow. It clings to my skin like the sticky mist of a muggy morning. A thrum of some sort of magical barrier hits my radar, but the same night sky sparkles down on me. It must be a ward of some sort, maybe to protect us, since they have us wandering around in the dark. The full moon is bright, but it can’t do much with the arborvitaes looming so high. Still, it’s not the first or last time I walk these woods in the dark. I see well enough to make do. The problem is which way to go.

Is it worth waiting for a sign? Or should I plow a bit like Laura is? I’m kicking myself a little for not making a decision yet, but when you’re dealing with the gods, it usually doesn’t matter what you do.

[SFX: slow footsteps in the woods]

I walk in the direction that feels right, but quickly hit a dead end. Okay, so I’ll try again. I back track to my last turn and go the other way. With every step the trees around me loom closer, and my claustrophobia starts kicking in. My skin begins to itch, hot with panic and frustration as every turn seems to lead to a dead in. I can’t afford to lose my cool right now. I breathe deeply, grounding myself. Still hot and uncomfortable and lost, but not letting the discomfort overtake me now. Please, please show me a sign. I’m not asking any one in particular, because I know I don’t deserve the help of anyone. But that’s not gonna stop me from asking.

I look up at the sky, the first sliver of the moon’s outline finally making it over the top of the maze. As the pale light creeps across the path before me, I see something that wasn’t there before. A pair of eyes glimmer in the moonlight about twenty feet in front of me. The outline of the antlers against the backdrop of the trees gives me hope as I see the rest of its body standing in the next T of the maze. It’s the size of a black bear. If it wasn’t for the antlers you might say it’s a huge wolf, except wolves don’t grow this big. It’s an Ozark howler, but it’s not Domino, the one I befriended after I saved it from the witches who abused him. As I inch toward it, I can make out some of the markings in the fur. I stop breathing. It’s Sasha, the howler I remember the most. The one who’s been alive since I was young. My mother raised me around the howlers, taught me their ways and how to speak to them. Sasha bonded to my mother more than any others, and through her, with me. But once my mother died, that bond shattered. Every year on the anniversary of her death, I try to rebuild it, but Sasha always turns me away.

But something must be different if she’s here now.

“Are you my sign?”

She continues to stare and pant in the warm summer evening. Once I’m about five feet away from her, she turns down one of the paths and out of view. I scramble after her so I don’t lose her. If she is my sign, then she’ll lead me out of here.

Did the Goddess really send me this blessing? Or did Sasha just feel my panic and frustration through whatever little bond we have left? I don’t believe in coincidences, but I’ve summoned howlers to me by accident before. I’m not sure what to think. But it doesn’t matter. I chase after her and hope she’s leading me out of here.

I barely catch glimpses of her tail as she darts around the corners, but so far no dead ends, so that’s good. Still, I’ve tripped a couple of times trying to keep up with her.

“Can you slow down?”

I get no response, just the constant pitter patter of her paws somewhere in front of me. She never was one to dote on any yearlings, so of course she only ever showed me and Mom tough love. But it was still a strong bond. Maybe this is my chance to re-establish it.

I make the last turn. There’s no sign of Sasha, but no need now. I see the exit lit by firelight a hundred feet from me. Relieved, and starting to wonder if I’m the first one out, I slow my pace, hearing no one else close to me.

Out of nowhere there are eyes in front of me, appearing so suddenly I don’t have a chance to take in who the eyes belong to, let alone time to blink away. No, as soon as I made eye contact with him, my fate was sealed. It will take less than a second for me to be dead.

The Endless Man stares down at me beneath his layers of robe, the rest of his face hidden by the mess of hair that created him. The Buried Mother’s hair, as the story goes. The last thought that runs through my mind as I feel his magic tug on my life is that I want to cut him free and kill the bitch that created and enslaved him.

I feel the energy drain from my body, my shields powerless against him. He sucks me down, but as he does, he gives me glimpses of images and sounds. I hear the Buried Mother’s laugh, images of her earthen prison flashing in my mind, her body wrapped in the black blood of the Tar Tree, hot and forever scalding her skin as it encases her deep beneath the Earth. But then I hear my mother’s voice saying my name.

Darkness takes me for I don’t know how long, but it’s a happy surprise to open my eyes and still be in the middle of the arborvitae maze with the exit still in sight. Shit, I’m alive? Why didn’t he judge me? Or maybe he did and still found me worthy, then how many more years of life did he give me? Maybe none, maybe it was just a warning of the impending doom the Buried Mother plans on releasing when she’s free.

No. Everything I know about the Endless Man tells me he doesn’t break his own rules. He must have given me more time – but who did he take it from? That’s a question best left unanswered and not thought about.

I stand and fight the urge to run to the exit. Keeping my pace as a fast walk, I hear Maureen’s voice just outside the maze. And then I see… Laura, outside with the rest of the group.

As I emerge from the maze, Maureen and Roz look none too happy to see me. The rest of the coven take their queue from them and also disquiet, unsure as to why I’m there if Laura is. But hadn’t Roz said the first to make it out would be the one with the Mother’s Blessing? Their expressions make it seem like the two losers would not have been able to navigate out of the maze at all.

Laura turns to me to see what all the fuss is about. Only a sliver of confusion overtakes her gaze, and it’s almost immediately stomped out by her smugness.

Laura: “Well, well, it’s no surprise to see you emerge from the maze, now is it?”

Jade: A few murmurs stir both in agreement and protest. The word “cheated” catches on the wind, and now that’s what’s on everyone’s mind.

Sam steps up beside Roz, dangerously close to Laura.

Sam: “Jade wouldn’t cheat. She may not always follow the Mother, but she wouldn’t disgrace the coven this way.”

Laura: “You are too young to know her ways, Sam. She fooled us all once, too. I am all about giving second chances, but we can’t turn a blind eye when someone besmirches the Mother.”

Jade: Laura turns to face the rest of the neophytes, continuing to talk about me like I’m not here.

Laura: “I know you recent initiates have seen a softer side of Jade, a more nurturing side of Jade, and I’m glad that she actually has such a side to offer. But those of us who have been here for years know how Jade ran rampant through Northwest Arkansas—”

Roz: “—Laura! We do not hold that sordid past against her. She returned to us after, her Aunt helping to break those horrid bonds so that she could be free to practice with us again—”

Laura: “—But she didn’t, now did she? She retreated to her bookstore and did not join with the rest of the coven. Only Rachel has been her lifeline to us.”

Sam: “Jade has already carried the Mother’s Blessing once by the howlers coming to her aid the night the murderers were called out in the circle.”

Laura: “Jade has had a tie to the local Howlers ever since she was little. There is no reason for us to see that as a tie to the Mother.”

Sam: “But—”

Jade: “—No, Sam, it’s all right.”

I’ve had enough of this. Every time Laura speaks, I see the reaction in the group: the neophytes questioning their decision to stand behind me, most of those who wanted Ruth Ann as high priestess moving closer to Laura. Several of them went to stand with the neophytes, and I appreciate their support, but this needs to be done. I’m more concerned right now with getting to the bottom of why the hell the Endless Man just visited me.

I step closer to the group and make eye contact with Laura when I say my next words. “Laura is right.”

The group murmurs a bit at this, but I keep going, facing each and every one of them now.

“I do have a sordid past that Sam was not fully aware of when she nominated me. She saw me for who I am now and how much I’ve helped her. And the same goes for the recently initiated Sisters. I know that a small leadership role teaching the classes is not enough to hold the highest honor we have in our coven. I’m not sure what it means for both of us to walk out of the maze shortly after one another, but I do know that Laura finished first. Roz clearly stated whoever finished first has the Mother’s Blessing to be the next High Priestess of the Sisters of Hecate. “

I turn back to Laura.

“Laura, congratulations. May the Mother bless you with the patience and wisdom you need to lead us.”
The words are sour and disgusting on my tongue. Why the hell Ruth Ann was not chosen is beyond me. It would be so much easier if it had been her.

Laura smiles.

Laura: “Thank you, Jade. I am surprised you came to that conclusion. Maybe there is hope for you after all.”

Jade: “Under your leadership, I sure hope so.”

Sam starts a slow clap of applause that takes a minute for the rest of the coven to follow. I move to stand beside my neophytes, no longer seeing uncertainty on their faces, instead… is that pride? Are they proud of me for bowing out?

Sam: (quietly to Jade) “You know this isn’t over right?”

Jade: “Let it be, Sam. Let….let Laura have her chance.”

Maureen congratulates Laura and announces the plan to get her initiated. All the while she’s talking, the Endless Man is in my head. Why did he come now?

Roz comes to my side.

Roz: “I know I said the first one out is the winner, but only one of you should have made it out. The maze was designed that way.”

Jade: “Sasha came to lead me out. I honestly do not know if I called her in a time of need or if the Mother sent her. I was praying for guidance.”

Roz: “You, praying? Now I have heard it all.”

Jade: The silence sits thick between us. Unspoken words hang in the air ready to pluck, and I know what Roz is thinking.

“If anyone wanted to cheat—”

Roz: “They would have had to know how we set up the maze, and what magic was imbued. Only three of us knew.”

Jade: “Three?”

Roz: “Rachel was the third.”

Jade: Rachel? But why would she — okay, I’ll deal with her later.

“Sasha wasn’t the only one who came to me.”

Roz meets my eyes now.

Roz: “Who else came?”

Jade: “The Endless Man.”

Roz: “How do you know it was him?”

Jade: “Because I looked him in the eyes, Roz.”

Even in the orange firelight it’s clear Roz goes pale at this.

Roz: “How are you still alive?”

Jade: “My question exactly. He must have gifted me some time instead of taking it. But he also gifted me visions.”

Roz: “We can discuss the visions with Mom later – Jade, you know he doesn’t just give time without taking it first.”

Jade: “Best case scenario it was years he has stored.”

Roz: “And worst case?”

Jade: It dawns on us at the same time. Ruth Ann.

Thank Gods and Goddess, Ruth Ann is fine. She had to be fetched from the maze – as two of us were meant to be – but when they found her she was on her ass, confused, having lost some time. Most of the coven took the answer that the maze affected her, instead of scaring the group with the truth.
Sam and her friends are still plotting something, though I don’t know what. They aren’t the only ones that have been plotting, apparently. I’ll have to confront Rachel at some point, but not tonight. I don’t have the energy for it.

As we leave the circle, I stay behind at Maureen’s house to talk to her and Roz about what I saw. Maureen doesn’t want to put much stock in it, but she does say it’s high time I hear the story about what happened that night with my Mother. She said at the next class it will be told.

Everything happening unsettles me to my bones, and sleep eludes me. I toss and turn that night wondering what the hell is going on. I set a protection circle around my bed just in case, and even let the cat sleep with me. She doesn’t cuddle like Persephone did, but at least I’m not alone.

My thoughts are still a muddled mess the next morning when I open the store. Even with an extra strong pot of coffee, I can’t seem to wrap my mind around everything that happened last night.
It’s not that I thought I would win. I thought I could. I hoped I could. I was so focused on if I wanted to be high priestess that I didn’t consider the possibility of others taking it away from me. At the very least, I thought it would have been Ruth Ann who won. She deserved it, completely. She has only ever wanted what was best for the coven as a whole. Laura and I…. Well, we only wanted what was best for us, and went after the High Priestess position to get it. She wanted it to boast about the position, while I wanted to finally have a means to an end. The coven deserves more than both of us. Why the Mother chose her over Ruth Ann… I hope to find out at some point. But right now, I just have to make it through the day.

I float through the day in a daze, selling coffee and trinkets and helping the occasional customer find a book they were looking for, but I don’t remember their faces or if they even paid for their goods. I’m distracted, I know, but I can’t help it.

[SFX: bells jingle as front door opens]

I’m pulled to the surface once more by the sound of the bells over the front door, and I move through the stacks to greet whoever has just come in.

It’s a woman, petite and nervous as a mouse, waiting just inside the front door. Her hands hold her purse tightly over her chest as if it were a shield. When she spots me coming closer, her dark eyes soften.

Chloe: “Hi. Are you available for a tarot reading today? Or can I schedule one? I would like to get some answers as soon as possible.”

Jade: I force my face into the semblance of a smile.

“I’m Jade. I own the store, and I do most of the readings. I’m not busy right now, so we can see if we can get your questions answered, although I have to warn you, you may not like what they have to say.”
She takes a deliberate step forward and thrusts a hand out for me to shake.

Chloe: “I’m Chloe. I don’t care if I don’t like the answers. If I don’t get some kind of closure in my life, I think I may do something drastic. I would rather know, for sure, whether or not it was real.”

Jade: “And if whatever happened wasn’t real?”

Chloe: “Then I’ll commit myself. I shouldn’t be out among sane people if I could invent this.”

Jade: I lead her back to the reading room, intrigued. There are hundreds if not thousands of things that could make someone think they’re losing it. The question is, what could she possibly have experienced that would make her think that?

The vervain drifts over her shoulders as she follows me, unchanged. I breathe a small sigh of relief and reach for my personal deck of cards. As my hands hover over them, though, I pause. The energy coming off of Chloe is not right for these ones. Carefully, I run my hand along the other decks of cards I keep available, stopping at a little-used deck that features simple but beautiful single line drawings. These will work.

I wait for her to settle across from me before taking my seat. I want to ask her why she thinks she’s going crazy, but I take a more tactful approach.

“Now, what question do you have for the cards?”

Chloe: “Was it real?”

Jade: “Was what real?”

Chloe: “That’s it. That’s the question. Was it real? That’s what I need to know.”

Jade: I resist the urge to roll my eyes. No one ever seems trusts me with the whole story.

“If you want a reading, I’m going to need a little bit more background information. Can you tell me what you experienced? If you describe it to me, I can better understand what the cards are telling us.”

Chloe purses her lips, clearly unsure.

Chloe: “I only need a yes or a no, and google says that tarot cards can do that. If it’s a no, then I’ll go down to the hospital right now. I’ve got my bag packed in the car. I don’t need to air my delusions to a stranger, no matter how nice they seem to be. Can you do that?”

Jade: “Yes, the cards can do that, but it depends on the reader’s interpretation of them. I will give you an honest answer, but if it’s a yes, will you explain what the whole question is?”

She thinks for a moment. I don’t need all of the details for a yes or no situation, that much is true, but I’ve been in my own head for long enough today; I need a distraction.

Chloe: “If the answer is yes, I will tell you everything.”

Jade: “Then let’s get started.”

I shuffle the deck a few times, my hands clumsy on the slick cards. I really should start using different decks for readings, giving them all some use. Maybe my personal deck can be used only for my own readings, then.

I would have to do my own readings, of course, but that’s a whole other problem I don’t want to face yet.

“Think about the question and the situation as a whole. You asked if it was real. Was it?”

I turn over the top card. The drawing shows a crown resting on top of a beautiful face, pentacles dancing in her eyes.

Chloe: “The Queen of Pentacles. What does that mean? Is it a yes?”

Jade: “She stands for practicality, stability, and comfort. It’s a yes.”

The relief that washes over her face is entrancing to watch; it looks like she has rewound time, losing five years of worry off of her features.

“So what was real?”

She takes a deep breath before explaining.

Chloe: “It was a few days ago. It was such a beautiful, clear night that I wanted to go look at the stars. I live outside of town, so I really only had to go out into the forest behind my house. There’s a field not far off that I’ve used for camping weekends with friends and family. It’s close enough to the house that you can use a real bathroom, but far enough that it feels like you’re deep in the woods.

“I went out there because I wanted to connect with the world around me a little bit. I thought I could look at the constellations, maybe see a shooting star. I really wasn’t expecting anything else.”
Jade: “What happened in the field?”

Chloe: “There was a light. Not starlight – a bright light. Right over my head. I thought at first that maybe it was a helicopter or something, but there was no sound, no wind, nothing moving the trees above me. Just this glowing light. And then I was floating, over the grass and trees and into the stars, but it wasn’t scary, not like you would think it would be. I wasn’t nervous, or afraid. I felt warm, and loved. I felt safer than I had felt by myself in a long time, so long that I didn’t even realize how uncomfortable I was in my normal life until it was all over.”

Jade: My heart starts to pick up at her words, and I press my palms into the table to stop myself from reaching over and grabbing her. It couldn’t be…

Chloe: “The rest of it felt like a dream. There was some kind of food that they gave me, and it warmed me to my bones. I felt so happy and content, like taking a warm bath with your favorite snack. It was so unbearably wonderful.”

Jade: “You ate food from… aliens?”

She gave me an open stare then.

Chloe: “Don’t say it like that. They’re not some kind of monsters that I cooked up in my dreams. Your cards told you the truth: it really happened.”

Jade: I held up my hands in defense. I didn’t want to scare her away – this was a firsthand account of an aliens encounter, and it seemed legit. I need to get as much information from her as possible.
“I wasn’t saying that they were bad. I just wanted to confirm that they were aliens. Is there a possibility that this was an encounter with something earthly, like the fae?”

She shakes her head assuredly.

Chloe: “I know they were aliens. They took me up into their ship, they showed me the stars, and the earth from space. They took me away from all of the pain that is everywhere on earth, showed me so much kindness and love that I couldn’t imagine them trying to fool me. I think…. I think they were trying to show me what I could have, if I was only brave enough to go after it. That’s why I needed to know if it was real, if I actually could go back.”

Jade: “Okay. I only wanted to make sure we were on the same page. What happened after they showed you the world?”

Chloe: “I must have fallen asleep when I was up there, because the next thing I knew, I was alone, and it was dark. I was laying in the grass of the same field. I was coated in dew, so I knew I had been out there a long time, but I didn’t know for sure how long. It could have been days, although I found out later it was only a few hours. The sun was starting to come up when I got back to my house. It all felt like an amazing dream.”

Jade: “That sounds better than the stories you typically hear about experiments and probing.” She sniffled then, and I realized that she was fighting tears.

Chloe: “I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t know what I did to make them take me, or how I could get it all back, but I need to. I can’t stay here. Everything about this place is so much worse than it was up there, and I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stand the mundane life I’m left with.”

Jade: “You want to go back? Leave your whole life here?”

The idea seems insane to me, but then again, I didn’t experience cosmic love the way she described. If I had that, I would probably want to leave my problems behind, too.

Chloe: “I have to. Now that I know it was real, I can’t live like this.”

Jade:I shuffle the cards again, and she gives me a questioning look.

“Let’s see if you can figure out a way to go back. We can do another yes or no pull. No extra charge.”

When she nods, I lay down the top card. A simple man’s face stares up at us, a laurel crown around his head. I groan internally.

Chloe: (hopefully) “Is that a yes?”

Jade: “Well… it’s a maybe. This is the Emperor, symbolizing structure and control. It means that you can’t control everything, but you can do your best to make the situation to your liking.”

[SFX: bells over the door jingling in the distance]

Chloe: “Does that mean that I just need to be happy here? Because I can’t. I’ve tried, and–”

Jade: “No, it just means that even if you could recreate the entire experience that led you to interacting with the aliens, they would still have to be in the right place to pick you up. You can control your part, but you can’t control theirs.”

Chloe: “I will go out there every night until they come back, if that’s what it takes.”

Jade: “You may have to. There’s no way for us to know why they picked you up in the first place, so recreating the event is all you can do for now. Well, that, and hope that they come back for you.”
I stand up and begin to lead her out, but she stops me with a hand on my arm.

Chloe: “Do you really think it could happen? That the aliens could come back for me, let me stay with them?”

Jade: I choose my words carefully, not wanting to give her false hope.

“It doesn’t matter what I think. The cards have already said that there’s a possibility, if you really work towards it. Stranger things have happened in this world, that I know. Who’s to say that you couldn’t be rescued again by aliens?”

Chloe: “Yes, it really was like they rescued me. But now I’m left alone again.”

Jade: “I hope they come back for you.”

I gesture for her to exit the reading room and then follow. Sam is already behind the counter, ready to ring Chloe up for her reading.

Sam: “Thank you for coming to Which Way Between the Lines! Come back soon!”

Chloe: “Hopefully not.”

Jade: Chloe smiles at me as she walks out the door, and Sam looks over, confused.

Sam: “What crawled up her butt?”

Jade: “She was abducted by aliens.”

Sam: (jokingly) “Ahh, so aliens crawled up her butt.”

Jade: “It seems that they did the opposite – she wants to go back to them.”

Sam: “Wait, you don’t believe her, do you? Oh my goddess, Jade, do you believe in aliens?!”

Jade: “With the things you’ve seen by now, how could you not believe in aliens?” Sam: “Because it’s… aliens.”

Jade: She rolls her eyes around and waves her hands beside her face as she says the word, and I laugh at her naivete.

“Someday you’ll learn to not doubt the things you don’t know about.”

Sam: “Like Laura cheating?”

Jade: I shoot her a look.

“We aren’t discussing that. I conceded and the coven let it stand..”

Sam: “But she totally cheated, somehow, and then she accused you of cheating. You know, like cheaters do.”

Jade: “How do you know what cheaters do?”

Sam:“I read reddit. It’s very standard behavior.”

Jade: “Doesn’t matter. Coven rules are very clear. We will just have to step back and let her dig her own grave. Who knows? She may even surprise us both by being a good High Priestess.”

Judging by the look she gives me, Sam doesn’t agree.

Sam: “Whatever. When you decide you want to overthrow her and take your rightful place, you just let me know.”

Jade: “Someday your unerring belief in me is going to get you hurt.”

Sam: “And when that day comes, you’ll rescue me. Again.”

Jade: “You put too much faith in me, kid.”

Sam: “You’re the only one who’s earned my faith.”

Jade: I turn away from her, pretending to stock some shelves but really I’m just trying to stop her from seeing my eyes glistening.

“Don’t you have some boxes to open?”

Sam: “Aye, aye, boss.”

Jade: There’s only so much kindness from that kid I can take right now. Between losing High Priestess, another encounter with the Endless Man on top of all the fallout from that night at the Arlington. It’s getting to be too much. And Maureen said she would give me information about my mom at the next coven class? I may ask her to hold off one more class to give me time to breathe. Being a badass witch, sometimes I forget I’m still human. Hell, some days I don’t feel human. But days like today, when I hear a story about beings from another world and the loyalty and care someone else gives me, the humanity is all too real.

Not to worry, I’m sure some other shit will hit the fan to make it all go away.

This episode of It’s All in the Cards Podcast was written by Ashley McAnelly and Morgan Valko.

Featuring the voice talents of Ashley McAnelly, Grace Stone, Nichole Goodnight, Jessica McEvoy, and Erika Sanderson

Theme music was produced by ThaArsonist