A Girl Named Gunther

Poster I made for one of my new stories I'm working on, inspired by my love of my beloved childhood movies of Hocus Pocus and The Witches.

Summary: An evil Witch does everything in her power to stop two teen lovers from being together--Matt, the ever handsome grandson of her once feared and defeated nemesis, now her disloyal and disobedient slave, and Gunther, the bored and cynical girl next door, with acerbic wit and investigative skills, not to mention having a poltergeist as a nanny.

-Preview-

-Chapter 1-

Gunther Alice Catwright found herself home again. Well then again, she couldn’t call the place she was currently in home. She was home alone on her eighteenth birthday, back from yet another painful break-up. Just as painful as the last, and like the last boy, this one broke-up with her because she was moving schools and he didn’t want difficult a relationship that wasn’t easy. Just like the last he didn’t think she was worth the trouble, completely forgetting that he was the reason she got kicked out of school. She had believed so much in their relationship she risked getting expelled to complete his school prank he was too chicken to do. You think she would have learned her lesson the first time, but no, she never did, it was her nature to risk everything for a dead-end school romance. Maybe it was because she read too much Shakespeare or maybe it was because Gunther spent nearly her whole life in this or that boarding school.

Gunther wasn’t your ordinary poor little rich girl, well first off she was a girl named Gunther, a name she loathed and wondered why the hell her mother had named her that. She didn’t have a normal family, her mother married her father when she was twenty-one year old college sorority girl and he was a sixty year old self made broker of some sort, she didn’t care to know. She never really knew her mother for she died when she was four from mysterious causes and her being the youngest of four half siblings all old enough to be her parents, she was the last on her father’s list of priorities. But that wasn’t what made her so peculiar.

Gunther, like all the other poor little rich girls, had a nanny all throughout her life…but unlike them, her nanny was a poltergeist she knew as Cagney. Cagney was what Gunther called her because she was first introduced to her peculiar nanny at five when there were sudden power outages whenever Gunther tried to sneak watching her father’s Jimmy Cagney gangster movies.

Strange as it may seem, Cagney was very much like what you think a nanny should be, with a few slight differences here and there. Sure Cagney couldn’t be seen and frightened the hell out of everyone but Gunther, but this poltergeist loved Gunther and did everything she could to protect and take care of Gunther and bring her up right. Cagney made sure Gunther behaved herself, when Gunther would try to drink, Cagney would cause the bottle to break and spill the liquor, she made sure Gunther used proper manners and sit up straight, would not let the TV turn on if Gunther’s homework wasn’t finished, would cook for and clean up after Gunther and even pick out appropriate clothes for her to wear and would literally not let her leave the house in any outfit unsuitable for a young girl…literally, she would cause the door to be stuck shut until Gunther put on a sweater. And when any boy would try to go too far with Gunther, Cagney would scare the boy to death enough to make him never dare speak to Gunther nor look her way. If Gunther had a bully, Cagney would let her claim herself as telekinetic and make objects around her float in the air. Gunther considered Cagney her invisible Mary Poppins and couldn’t imagine life without her peculiar nanny.

But sly Gunther had found a way to rebel and get into trouble behind Cagney’s presence. But little did she know that because she was now eighteen, Cagney had loosened its authority and decided it was time to let go a little of Gunther and let her make her own mistakes. Poor Cagney could do anything but lecture Gunther and be the heartening part of a nanny. The best Cagney could do for Gunther now was be there for her.

Gunther emerged from the car, the driver getting her bags. She looked up at the large rotting manor behind rusted wire gates. It was like something out of Sunset Boulevard, unkempt, unattended, once a gorgeous place, forgotten, old, falling apart—her worst nightmare. The house looked to be every goth’s fantasy, gorgeous despite its rotting stature, but her not being a goth, it was her hell on earth. The house was empty, her father nor any staff nowhere in site. When she finally made her way into the house after looking around in aghast, there was a letter resting on the front table along with a bag of groceries. She hated letters. They had always been impersonal to her and always bearing some bad news of cancellations and promises unfulfilled.

Dear Gunther

I can’t see why you felt like you had to take one of the school’s horses out riding in three in the morning off school grounds and to the town pub. Do you have no care for your future that I’ve invested so much money into? Seeing that there’s no other private school in all the world that would take you after all your previous mishaps, you have no choice but to attend public school for the spring semester. This house that you are in is my old family home, Bixby Hall, where I spent my childhood, mind you it hasn’t been lived in since the great depression, and so you may have some fixing up to do. Since you’re eighteen, you could live alone as further punishment. Yes, you’ll have to clean this house and cook for yourself, they’ll be no staff. And in the garage, there’s a Honda for you to get yourself around in. I’ll give you $12,000 for repairs to the house. You’ll have a weekly allowance of $500 for groceries, gas, and what not. The bills are already taken care of. I’ve hired a friendly woman named Marion, one of your neighbors, to keep an eye on you and make sure you stay out of trouble and attend school.

Your Disappointed Father

She crinkled the letter in her hand in anger, the $500 in her other hand. This was going to be worse than boarding school…then again maybe it doesn’t have to be. She could easily take advantage of this. This didn’t have to be punishment, she concluded, this could be independence, a new freedom. But who was she kidding, there was no audience in this house to show off to, mock, and rebel against, except for Cagney. It was just Gunther and anything she did here, would only affect her.

And for heaven’s sake her new home was The Haunted Mansion!

Automatically Cagney made herself at home and started right away moving furniture around and cleaning indeed making the house look exactly like the Haunted Mansion attraction, with furniture moving about in the air around Gunther, as she sat there in the large ballroom with the letter still in hand.

“Who needs a staff of house servants anyways when you have a poltergeist as your Nanny?” She rolled her eyes at the letter, looking up at the furniture above her, “Having fun Cagney?” she chimed.

Suddenly before her she was surprised with a pink birthday cake complete with lit up candles. Who needs a parent with your very own poltergeist? She secretly mused to herself, reminded again that what bothered her most about her father’s letter was that he didn’t even write one happy birthday.

“So blow out the candles and make a wish eh? What should I wish for? I think I know just the very thing-or boy- to wish for.”

A pot dropped to the floor showing Cagney’s disapproval.

“What? Is it wrong to want a sweeping romance where the guy meets me halfway and puts the same amount of effort into the relationship as I do? Is it wrong to want a true love that is loyal? That’s what’s I’m going to wish for. I wish…” she blew out the candles.

0o0o0

Matt Weaver was washing the windows when he first saw her. He immediately stopped. He was automatically interested, not just because she was a girl, and a pretty one at that, but because she was the first person near his age he’d seen in a year. She almost looked like she could be a Goth dressed in a preppy yet re-arranged schoolgirl uniform with her pale completion and long dark hair. He hoped she wasn’t. Not that he had anything against Goths, just that if she was, she would be in great danger of falling prey to Marion’s wrath.

Marion, his…already it had been a year…a full year since that witch had captured him and made him become her indentured slave.

There are many kinds of witches—there are good witches who can appear ugly and act rude but are really modest do-gooders who like their privacy. Then there’s the Wiccan ones, completely peaceful, harmless, and so very far from being like the better known Evil Witches they’re constantly associated with by ignorance.

Now the Evil Witches, the truly Evil Witches…Evil witches were like wolves, they will always appear as the cleanest sheep. They value outer beauty, power, and public appearance, so therefore most of them tend to be beautiful and social butterflies. Evil Witches are two faced, and most of the time you wouldn’t know where you would stand with them until it was too late. Great manipulators they were who just love to trick and trap a person. They could also be too stubborn, bigoted, over resentful, and self-indulgent and in many cases, these factors has lead many Evil Witches to a doomed fate.

Marion was none other than the most evil and infamous head witch …well more like assumed she was, for she was more of a self proclaimed leader than an officially elected one. She was more laughed at than feared, by both her innocent-bystander foes and fake friends who were her real foes.

She was powerful, true, but very, very blind in pride. But she was still dangerous nonetheless, especially to ones she was jealous of. Like for instance, her very beautiful sister who shared the same blood as her. She was Marion’s first victim. She pushed her out of a window after she caught her locking lips with the boy she obsessively loved and stalked.

Matt’s grandmother was another one of her rivals she was jealous of. His grandmother escaped her wrath many times over with the help of his grandfather, who was The Man Marion loved and killed her sister over, who just happened to be from a noble and ancient dynasty of witches… But it was his mother she was the most jealous of, not for her beauty nor for a man she loved, but for her power, inherited from his grandfather. The witch gene of great power skips generations, his grandfather was powerless but a carrier whose spawn was sure to be powerful. Marion found this out too late.

For many years his mother and Marion fought and fought. And ironically, Marion was the one who started them all over false fear of his mother being the end of her. That was always the case with Marion, she created nearly all of her foes, drove them into being a threat to her.

His mother died in a car accident, so the authorities claimed, but Matt and his grandmother knew better. It was Marion. He was only eleven then and was put in the care of his grandmother. And in the past years they were constantly on the run as Marion had attempted many times to kidnap him and kill his grandmother, and in those many times she failed…until last year.

A year ago he was college student living on his own after the death of his grandmother. He knew why she wanted him so badly. It all had to do with his bloodline. She either wanted to prevent him from procreating offspring powerful than her or worse…wanted to procreate with him.

He had never felt safe having a girlfriend or even going out on dates in fear that Marion would have the girl killed. It was hard for him especially in high school having to convince every approaching girl he was gay while inside wishing to be able to go out with them.

He thought it’d be easier in college when really it had become much worse. Freshmen year his roommate had a girlfriend who constantly was over while he had to resort to the library where he soon got a job at. The library in the years since his mother’s death had become his sanctuary, it was the last place Marion would be. Not even two months later the girl, who he referred to as his third roommate, was found dead in their dorm. Marion had found him and killed what she thought was his girlfriend. The police ruled the girl’s death as suicide from the empty pill capsules and a supposed note she left in her own dorm.

He transferred to another college and moved into an apartment after that, with the little money in his trust, deciding it was best to live alone. He hated being forced to be alone and under the radar, not being able to have a relationship of any sort with anyone. Feeling so alone he happened to make friends with the family next door, a young couple with a hyper eight year-old son named Sammy. The frazzled couple overworked to make the bills often relied on Matt to baby-sit Sammy. Matt being the nice guy that he was, reluctantly did and without any charge. And in return they were hospitable to him inviting him nearly every night to have dinner with them. For a short while, Matt felt happy feeling like he was part of their family.

He became off guard, too wrapped up in the comfort of having family again, he didn’t see that Marion had found him. Matt came home from college to find her there in his with Sammy in a comatose state.

“Well hello Mattie boy. Are you glad to see me, because I’m glad to see you,” she smiled.

“What did you do to him?!”

“Nothing…yet. Don’t worry, he’s just unconscious. So did you honestly think that you could run from me forever?”

“What do want from me?”

She walked closer to him, “You, you to be mine forever. And finally I’ve found the price that’d buy you.”

“What is that price?” he backed away.

“His life, silly. So what’s it going to be Mattie? Him alive or your freedom?” She reached out to gently touch his face.

He looked down at Sammy lying there like a limp doll. How could he put this boy in danger, he should have known better than to associate with anyone, even worse, a child.

Matt agreed to go in her keeping without a fight in exchange that she would forever leave Sammy out of it. Marion enjoyed seeing him so reluctantly obey her; she got a sick high from it.

“You better not be looking at that girl,” Marion said from behind him, seeing his view from out the window.

“I wasn’t,” he muttered.

“Don’t even think about it, if I ever find you near her you’ll be sorry.”

“Not as sorry as I am now,” he rolled his eyes.

“Her father is rich and he tells me she’s quite the troublemaker, a lot like you were, got kicked out of every boarding school she enrolled in. Her father is having her live in suburbia as punishment, away from the city life. I can’t wait to have my fun with her,” she smiled deviously as she watched Gunther.

“You’ll be better off leaving her alone.”

“But that would be boring, enemies are more fun than friends.”

“Till they get back at you that is,” he scoffed. Suddenly Gunther looked up and saw Matt staring back at her through the window, for a brief moment they were spellbound in each other, time standing still.

“Hush! Get back to work!” Marion hissed quickly noticing their contact, making the blinds slam down shut.

Behind her back Matt smiled to himself, plotting to meet this Gunther in secret…

Living in the hell of Marion’s large Victorian house, he did everything there from cooking, the yard work, cleaning, the accounting, anything that was work. Marion did have an assistant, some super skinny tall twenty-eight-year-old red headed girl named Madge who had a crush on Matt. But Matt couldn’t figure out just what exactly she did and why she was there for she was lazy as Marion did nothing but follow her around. Madge, at the most, only drove Marion to her locations.

At first Matt was afraid of Madge and thought she was there to be his lover and have his child for Marion, but after some time he learned that wasn’t the case for Marion put a spell on Madge where if she ever so much as touched Matt she would combust in flames.

It drove Matt nuts not to know of Marion’s plans for him, but he knew she would stop at nothing to keep him from ever being with any girl. Marion both desired him as a carrier and yet feared him.

There was this other thing though, Marion was fifty-nine and too old to have a child, so he couldn’t figure out what exactly she was going to do with him. There was no possible way she could bear his child and no way she would hire a surrogate, for that was too risky in her mind.

He didn’t know how much more of living under Marion’s wrath he could take. And just when he become hopeless, there out the window was a glimmer of hope in the form of an eighteen-year-old rebellious girl.

He couldn’t figure out how he was going to see her without Marion knowing, but he knew right there and then, he was going see her one way or another, he would find a way for love always finds a way…

He was a romantic, a born and raised one by his English grandmother who had the words of Shakespeare and Jane Austen instilled in his brain. He didn’t believed at love at first sight, but of love at first wit, which he needed to have with Gunther to be sure if what he felt was real or just mere lust.

0o0o0

‘That was fast, I only made the wish yesterday’ Gunther said to herself after seeing the most gorgeous boy stare right at her. He was every girl’s dream, an absolute golden boy, a pure Adonis. In all the boarding schools she has been to, she had never seen a boy as handsome as he. He was tall, with a tan athletic build, chiseled face with sparkling blue eyes and sandy colored hair. The only kind of handsome you would see only on screen and never in real life. She could stare into his eyes forever…

Who was that, she thought, very intrigued and hoping he was a student at the high school she was going to attend the next day.

The blinds shuttered down in a fast swoop.

She rolled her eyes, “I know Cagney, no boys. I was just looking, that’s all.”

A normal person would feel alone in this situation, but she wasn’t normal and actually enjoyed the alone time after living in and out of this boarding school and that one for nearly all her life. She liked having a whole large old house to herself with no one to answer to. She spent the rest of the day buying food and renting a few videos to watch on laptop with what battery power she had left, staying up way past what she had to go to bed by if she wanted to wake up in time for her new school.

But unfortunately she rented romance movies and in no time felt alone, yearning for a loving embrace, perhaps from that boy she saw at the window.

She had admitted, she had issues that made it hard for her to make close friends, then again how could she not with Gunther as a name, a poltergeist for a nanny, along with a dead mother and an absent father old enough to be her grandfather. She grew to always bare a pessimistic shield of sarcastic wit to keep herself from getting too close to others and feeling too much.

It was times like this, when she was alone, that it was hard for her to pretend there was nothing wrong, hard to convince herself she wasn’t vulnerable.

If she were in one of her past boarding schools in the city she would escape out to some club or party and spend the night playing make believe with kids who were too wasted to care that her name was Gunther. She couldn’t do that here, here where everything closes after ten and where kids didn’t party on school nights. Here where her name would sure to be talk of the town.

Worse, this was a small town where everyone knew her story and whispered about her when she walked by. Just great, she thought, to them I’m the spoiled rich girl here as punishment. Then again, that was who she was, was she not? She couldn’t really argue with their gossip…in fact she was little tempted to try to make their gossip juicier and put on another one of her performances, but that would result in her father sending her away to a convent, so she didn’t dare.

She was going to have to be real here and the thought of doing just that scared her, she couldn’t remember ever being real and not hiding behind some persona. She didn’t know how to be herself, not even when she was alone.

Perhaps she was scared because she believed that without a persona she was nobody really worth anything, a girl with no close living friends, a girl who didn’t even have a close relationship with her own family, a girl whose only real friend was a poltergeist who couldn’t talk or be seen, a girl who was too odd for words living in the town’s creepy haunted house…a girl named Gunther.