Funk-N-Fiction

Halloween Flash Fiction readers have come to expect a fun new story from Melody Johnson each year. Luckily for us, she delivers another fantastic addition to her Witchy Business world!!

Wicked Possessions
By: Melody Johnson
Copyright © 2025 Melody Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locals is entirely coincidental. 
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

Chapter 1

Demonic possession shouldn’t be this difficult. A jerky head twitch here. A cackling laugh there. Her makeup, costume, and electric magic took care of the rest. Besides, their amateur horror movie wouldn’t be nominated for any Academy Awards with Vienna cast as the monster instead of the lead. However, judging by the enthusiasm and longevity of Julian’s criticism after that last take, her director heartily disagreed.

“You haven’t fully embodied Harriet’s terror,” Julian blathered as Dan adjusted her harness and Rachel touched up the prosthetic cuts across her cheeks. In Julian’s vision, the demon was trying to claw out of Harriet’s face.

As if a demon, having finally found an acceptable host, would willingly leave the body. Not without a little … persuasion.

“She can feel evil invading her thoughts, infecting her actions.” Julian’s voice dropped an octave, imparting a terrible secret. “Life as she knows it will never be the same.”

Such possession was a powerful feeling. Seven generations of death magic scorched through Vienna’s veins, so she knew better than most that Harriet’s terror was buried deep under the consuming burn for more.

Julian shook a rumpled script at her. “Venni, are you even listening to me?”

Vienna snarled, letting the lightning from her magic spark behind her eyes.

“Yes! There it is!” Julian ran back to his camera. “Find your marks!”

Dan gave the rigging a final tug and winked. “You’re all set.” He nodded at Rachel. “Wrap it up, Bullseye. She looks spectacularly terrifying.”

Rachel’s lips pinched even as her face flamed. She dabbed at Vienna’s temple with a final few sponge taps, then dashed off with Dan to the sound booth. Already at her mark, Shelly stayed right where she was at the base of the scaffolding, a vision in white tulle and blood spatter, perfectly embodying slain innocence without any of Julian’s criticism.

Vienna sneered at her and then at the scaffolding she needed to climb. Again. For the fifth time.

“Your third take was money, but Julian’s right. That fire in your eyes right now …” Kenneth whistled. “Priceless.”

Kenneth Carmine Daniels, the male lead saving Shelly’s ethereal incompetence from Vienna’s evil ways. And the unnerving distraction that Vienna didn’t need on this set.

She didn’t want to enjoy the shiver of his deep voice tickling her spine. Or the blade of his sharp eyes cutting short her breath. Or the heat of his surefire grin lighting her insides. She didn’t know what possessed her body every time Kenneth acknowledged her presence, but it wasn’t anything so darkly certain as death magic.

But it was doubly addictive.

A mediocre telekinetic and slight empath—very slight, considering how casually and confidently he constantly touched her—Kenneth was known more for his muscles and work ethic than his magical abilities. According to her mother, who’d heard it during a seance with their dearly departed Memaw, he had single handedly saved his family’s construction business, capitalizing on the land he’d purchased when the market had dipped by building and selling a community of luxury townhomes in record time just as the market peaked. A visionary, Memaw Maine had uncharacteristically gushed. Vienna didn’t normally listen to gossip or the matriarchs of her twisted family, for that matter, but when it came to Kenneth, she was willing to endure the unthinkable for insight behind that sizzle-inducing smirk: quality time with her murderous mother.

Maybe he was an undocumented pyrokinetic. That would explain how her entire body ignited with a single glance.

“I’m surprised Colton didn’t volunteer for this production,” Kenneth mused. “Your brother is usually so involved in our All Hallows’ Eve Celebrations.”

Vienna shrugged. Colton had been avoiding her ever since she’d tried to kill him. As if she wouldn’t have resurrected him. A shock or two to the heart, he would have been fine, and their family’s magic would have stabilized for another seven, maybe eight, years. As the most formidable family in their coven, they were surrounded by metaphorical cliffs, having reached the peak of their power. From the heights they’d already climbed, a fall would be catastrophic. Vienna’s attempt to temporarily kill and resurrect Colton had been the better plan by far when compared to the one her mother would resort to should Vienna fail a second time.

Kenneth leaned in, so close his cinnamon breath fanned her spiky lashes. “Listen, I know you’re less than thrilled with how auditions panned out, but I’m glad you didn’t skip with your siblings. You’re killing it as Harriet the Possessed.” He elbowed her ribs. “Get it? Killing it?” He waggled his eyebrows.

Oh, and his puns. Kenneth was known for his muscles, work ethic, and puns, an unfortunate trait inherited from his father’s side of the family. Only his cousin, Dan, could beat him in the cheese department. And still her heart unfathomably fluttered.

If Julian intended to revive the hot priest fad, Kenneth had been cast perfectly. His pale gray eyes paired with his wavy midnight hair was a dream turned fantasy in a clerical collar. Magic was just as capable of exorcising demons as the divine, but apparently, Julian preferred a righteous hero. The only way a witch could exorcise a demon was by wielding death magic, which derived its power from life sacrifices.

“But jokes aside, you’re a fantastic actress.” Kenneth chucked her under the chin. “So buck up. As director, Julian’s just killing it at his job, too: providing direction.”

“I don’t need to ‘buck up,’” she rasped, feeling his knuckles against her chin all the way to her curled toes. “I’ve endured worse than Julian’s misguided ramblings.”

Her voice had never fully healed from Memaw’s curse and the cruel truth behind why their grandmother had prevented Vienna from killing her brother. Not to save Colton—oh no, Memaw Maine didn’t have a heart to love with. She simply wanted to prevent Vienna from saving herself.  

But she would. Tonight.

“Great. In that case …” Kenneth nabbed her waist—there went her churning stomach!—and hoisted her onto the scaffolding’s first rung with an easy flex of those impressive biceps. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Chapter 2

I’ve endured worse than Julian’s misguided ramblings.

It took Ken’s entire will not to grin. He’d always been a sucker for spice, and even before missing final auditions—something about laryngitis, which she was clearly still battling—and being passed over for Shelly’s role, Vienna Joann Maine was the saltiest woman he’d ever had the absolute pleasure to know. What she didn’t understand was that, as the monster in this film, she was the lead. And as herself, she was the lead in life, no matter the role someone else cast for her. Her manner, without a word, was magnetic.

From the moment they’d met in elementary school two decades ago, he’d known she was his opposite charge. An inexorable pull had drawn him toward her at that first Clifton Heights Coven All Hallows’ Eve, he felt it now, and he’d undoubtedly feel it at his last. Finally, with his family’s business thriving and his finances stable, he had a future worthy of sharing with her.

Worthy of her.

By the violence of her mumbled curses as she climbed the scaffolding, she was similarly drawn to him with the same magnetism. He just needed to convince her that he was worth succumbing to it. 

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