‘The Witch.’

Lia held her tongue before the words left her mouth, but she was not able to stop herself from stiffening.

The person before her widened her eyes and put on a smile that did not reach the other parts of her face. She awkwardly removed her hands over Lia’s shoulders and gave her a once-over.

“No need to be on alert. I’m just checking if you are okay,” she said with a small smile on her face. “You seem cold. Let’s go home?”

Lia was pretty sure that she felt cold for a different reason. The old Lia called this person as the witch. Based on this person’s memory, she was living with this woman, but the other Lia hated her. It was not clear in the memories why, but Lia had no trouble imagining the reason.

A witch. Lia cursed under her breath and tried to think fast. “Um,” um what? She cringed and kicked herself mentally.

The lady seemed to understand as she nodded as though Lia’s reaction was to be expected. Maybe it was, the previous Lia didn’t have a good relationship with her.

The witch placed a distance between them, her beautiful face sagging to that look of pain and hurt. There was an odd sense of resignation in her eyes as she stared on the ground.

Lia frowned. This person’s a witch? That did not make sense. Her image of witches were those from picture books from her childhood. Long face, grizzly hair, wicked eyes, pointy nose, with an equally pointed hat. Their wardrobes consisted mostly of black clothes and ride brooms.

They were nowhere near this lady who made beautiful an understatement. She was beyond that, less human and more ethereal. She wore her platinum blonde hair braided, making her look more like a princess than a villain. The witch looked a lot like a wise enchantress with her ever-knowing yet understanding gray eyes. The embodiment of Aphrodite with the aura of Athena - graceful, noble, and wise.

Her skin! Gosh her skin. Lia could die of jealousy just looking at that skin. The lady didn’t even have wrinkles or blemishes or pimples. She might as well be only a few years older than Lia. If they were in her previous life, she would have begged for skincare tips and regimens.

This supposedly ‘witch’ wasn’t even wearing black. Lia was disappointed. If the previous Lia called her that, at least let her look the part. Instead, this person wore a long, aquamarine dress which made her look like someone who descended from heaven. A goddess indeed.

Lia gaped at the woman, dumbstruck. She thought that this new body was beautiful earlier. What a joke. She looked like a rag doll compared to the witch.

Witch. A name that was far from what she seemed to be.

‘But maybe, she has a cauldron and does wicked things,’ she reminded herself. After all, the eyes were the easiest to deceive. ‘Be vigilant.’

“I know you hate me. But please, don’t scare me like that,” she looked at Lia with pleading eyes.

Lia could only nod her head as if entranced.

The woman reached out her hand but took it back before Lia could even react. She replaced it with a smile as though the previous action never happened.

“Lia? Let’s go home?” she said.

Lia followed the woman while keeping a watchful eye. She did not decide to stay in this place only to get killed again, then she would be gone for good. Didn’t they say that witches can change the appearance and pretend to be young through a spell or something? What if she was luring Lia in? What if she was taking in a young woman to eat them, thereby preserving her own youth? And there was something really odd about her that Lia could not put her finger to. Not just her but with the memories she got earlier.

And why can’t her memories become clearer when she needed them to? Ever since this woman appeared, Lia put in all of her efforts to remember the original body’s life to no avail. It all came back to her in a muddled mess, blurred and choppy. She could not make heads nor tails at those resurfaced memories. She just hoped that those would come back to her before the witch decided to turn her into a delicious meal.

They walked for about a quarter of an hour with the witch in front when Lia noticed a cloud of smoke coming out from a house, bringing her to a stop.

‘Shoot. She’s really going to eat me!?’