Mistification

They entered the cellar and he locked the door behind them. He drew the mist to give the girl a sense of euphoria and anticipation. “There is magic here; tricks,” the girl said. “I know because I blink and things change. I feel like I can see germs in the air. It’s damp. What if I catch something?” He said, “You can’t catch magic. You can learn parts of it, you are born with some. Magic is not contagious, though its element is contagion. Some things can influence you long after you have stopped touching them. Some things will never stop touching you, even when they are long forgotten.” His voice was so quiet it gave her comfort.

Shirley Jackson award-winner Kaaron Warren published her first short story in 1993 and has had fiction in print every year since. She was recently given the Peter McNamara Lifetime Achievement Award and was Guest of Honour at World Fantasy 2018, Stokercon 2019 and Geysercon 2019. Kaaron was a Fellow at the Museum for Australian Democracy, where she researched prime ministers, artists and serial killers. She’s judged the World Fantasy Awards and the Shirley Jackson Awards.