Steve watched his car drive away down the avenue and disappear around a side street, his fishing day ruined.
He couldn't believe this. This didn't happen. This only happened on The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, not
in real life! For the first time in a long time, maybe the first time in twenty years, he felt true fear. He
felt insecure, lonely, off balance, not sure where to go. Inside, Carl felt the same way, but he was better at
hiding it.
"So what are we going to do, Stephanie?" asked the now petite, female Carl.
"Stop calling me that!" Steve whined in her sweet soprano voice.
"It seems like we don't have a choice" said Carl, whose voice was equally sweet. "Let's go in your house and
see what's inside."
The two scared women walked inside Steve's house, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Carl periodically
rubbed her new pair of boobs, with Steve telling him like a broken record to cut that crap out. Upon entering
Alan's room, who was Steve's son, they saw him playing Uncharted 3. When he heard his mom's boot heels
clicking on the bare floor, Alan turned around and paused the game.
"Oh, hey mom. Hey Carly."
"Um, Alan, do you remember anything we were supposed to do?"
Alan eyed his mother suspiciously, then after a flashbulb went off they went wide again.
"Oh yeah, I think you're supposed to go to some gathering at Katey's mom's."
"Do you remember what her name was?"
"Agatha, mom" answered Alan. "Why can't you remember, mom?"
Agatha...Agatha. Oh yeah, that lady who lives four doors down thought Steve.
Steve searched around for a way to pacify Alan. "I just have a migraine, sweety" was all she could muster.
"Oh, OK" said Alan. "Yeah, you're supposed to be there in like ten minutes. It's like a book club, or
whatever."
"OK, I'll see you later then, sweety", and Steve hugged her son goodbye.
"Bye Alan" said Carl, somewhat sheepishly.
The two housewives made their way past Megan's room, where she was napping, and after Steve's and Carl's
curiosity was satisfied, they both walked back down to the patio area.
"So we're supposed to go to some ladies house? I don't remember Walter ever talking about going to some book
club. I meant Walt-ahh!"
"You're not Walter though, you're Carly" said Steve. "And I'm Stephanie. Or whatever, you get what I'm trying
to say, right? We're not our husbands, we're in some weird alternate reality."
"How do you know? Maybe we're dreaming, or have dementia! You know, my grandpop had dementia!"
"I don't think this is dementia talking, Carly. Let's just go to Agatha's house and see what's up with her."
So after about a minute more of lazy debating and hesitation, the two girlfriends made their way to Agatha's
house. Neither of them were very familiar with the lady other than that she was the mother of Katey, the girl
that Alan was going out with. Since Alan never talked about his relationship with either Katey or her mom,
neither Steve nor Carl had anything to go on.
Steve knocked on the door, and a pretty blonde woman a year or two older than Stephanie opened the door.
"Stephanie! Carly! I love your outfits! C'mon, we've been waiting for you. The meeting is about to start."
Steve and Carl looked at each other, both breathing the phrase meeting? as they followed Agatha down into her
basement.
Inside the spacious basement was a large amount of candles sitting around a chalked-in circle on the floor,
with various odd letters around the edges of it, and various arcane artifacts sitting on tables around the
walls. Seven other neighborhood women, all friends or acquaintances of Janet and Wendy, were sitting cross-
legged around the circle. In addition, Alan's girlfriend Katey, an eleven year old girl that Megan knew from
school named Molly, as well as her sister Shannon, were also present.
"OK" said Agatha. "You two sit between Lindy and Nikki." Steve looked at Lindy and waved, and acknowledged
Nikki with a nod, who he didn't really know very well. Carl was out of the loop completely, not knowing anyone
here.
"Is everybody ready?" asked Agatha. The ladies all nodded.
"Good. I hereby call Coven Chapter #2814 to order..."