There was a knock at the door. We waited anxiously for the second knock, the pattern that would tell us who it was. Three followed by two. It was Skywolf, the last straggler. Myst opened the door and in stepped the hulking, red bearded form of our coven mate. He shook the snow from his coat as Myst check the street behind him to be sure he wasn’t followed. 
     “It’s O.K., I wasn’t spotted, but I’m going to have to miss the next few Esbats. My boss is getting suspicious of me. I’ve requested too many full moon nights off. ” He was out of breath, and his normally booming voice was softened by fear. No one said anything for a long while. We were all getting nervous about the safety of our coven. Since the Morals Coalition managed to get Witchcraft outlawed following the Old Religion was dangerous. The new curfew on full moon nights was making it very difficult to get together to worship.
     The brooding silence was broken by Myst as she gestured to Paul to help her with the china cabinet. With the usual grunting and strain, the cabinet was moved three feet to the left to reveal the basement door. We filed down as always, but the mood was somber instead of the usual festive atmosphere of our monthly gatherings. There was a lot to discuss tonight, very little of it was good.
    Myst’s basement was a regular old basement. It was halfway to being finished as a recreation room, with bookshelves along one wall, and an old couch against another. Now the bookshelves held only a few old fantasy and science fiction paperbacks. Myst had her occult books better hidden somewhere else. The china cabinet in front of the door was only a precaution. There really wasn’t anything down here that could be incriminating. Maybe a few more candles than is usual, but even those could be explained away easily.
    Paul and Amber moved around the edges of the room as we stood there in the dark. They checked the covers on the windows to be sure no light could be seen from outside. Myst remarked, “I really should paint those windows over. It would save us time.”
    Skywolf shook his head, we could see it as the first flickers of candlelight filled the room, “Not a good idea, Myst. ‘People who draw their shades have something to hide.’ as Deacon McMillain says. It would only bring attention to you.”   Ah, the good Deacon, head of the Family Values Commission. The FVC was the theocracy’s answer to Child Protective Services, and was worse in every way imaginable. I shuddered and moved to help with the candle lighting as he finished speaking, “Anything we do that is out of the ordinary will only make it that much easier for the inquest to find us.”
     “’Inquest’ Ha!, why don’t they call it the Inquisition and get it over with?” spat Amber, her blond hair swinging wildly as she spun towards Sky. “That’s what it is, and everyone knows it. The only difference is no hot pokers. You heard what happened to Blue Moon Coven over in Hiensville. Poor Sue. Her house confiscated and her in ‘Therapy’. Reprogramming is what it really is. And her husband denounced her in public. In public! Some loyalty.” She really did spit this time. “If it weren't against the Rede I’d curse the whole lot of them, the politicians, the Christians, and Sue’s husband, too.” She was on the verge of tears.
     Myst stepped over then and put a hand on Amber’s shoulder. “We all know how bad it is,” she soothed. “After the ritual tonight we are going to figure out what to do about it. We are still American citizens, and we do still have some rights.” She hugged Amber quickly, then smiled sadly, “We’re not going to go down quietly, and we’re not going to let them get away with this.”
     I pulled the table to the center of the room and draped the altar cloth across it as Skywolf gathered the tools together. The cauldron was disguised as a planter in the corner of the room, and he pulled out the bucket and the fake fern, then dragged the cauldron over by the alter. We didn’t use a pentacle. Having anything with a pentagram on it was too dangerous. Instead we had a simple wooden plate that I had found at a yard sale last year. The athame was a paring knife from Myst’s kitchen, and the chalice was a wine glass from her set.
     “We shouldn’t have let this happen in the first place.” I commented, “We should have seen it coming. We should have stood and fought when it did, instead of running like scared rabbits. I guess jobs were more important than freedom.”
     “Don’t be so hard on everyone, DD, you know good and well that for most of us it wasn’t our jobs. It was our kids and our marriages. When the courts ruled Wicca a cult, we were afraid to loose our homes and families.” This was from Paul, who lost his children to the FVC anyway, despite hiding his beliefs. The courts decided he wasn’t a ‘good moral role model.’ That surprised all of us. Paul is one of the most honorable and kind people I know. “I’m not saying it was the right thing to do, only that that’s why.”
     Myst finished arranging the altar, “Well,” she said, as she smoothed out a wrinkle in the altar cloth, “talking about the past won’t change the way things are now. Dragonsdóttir, if you would, Hon, will you sweep the area, and we’ll get started.” She handed me the broom, and took the bowl of salt from the altar. We moved around the room, cleansing and purifying the ritual space. Skywolf finished changing over to his robe, and the mood became more serious as the five of us took our accustomed places for the ritual.
     We worked magick for change that night. We appealed to the Old Gods to help us restore our freedom, just as the remaining covens across the country were probably doing that night, and just as we had done on the last two full moon nights. After the ritual, but before releasing the circle, we sat for hours and discussed what to do to get our rights back. 
       “There’s something I wanted to bring up tonight.” Paul interjected, interrupting the gripe session that our talk had degenerated into. “I got this through the grapevine from the Reclaiming folks. You know that they’ve organized into cells like a wartime underground movement, right? Well, they are treating this like a war, and they are planning their own coup. I don’t know what’s in the works, but we need to be ready for it. I’ll keep you all informed if I hear more. Oh, don’t look at me like that, I don’t think they mean a literal coup d’tat. Anyway, I think we ought to join them.”
     We debated for a while, trying to figure out what they might have in mind, and deciding whether we should join them, or if we would be safer on our own. We were interrupted once, when Amber thought she heard someone walking around outside. We all froze, and I forgot to breathe. All that secrecy and skulking around had gotten us jumpy. The sound died away after a few minutes, and we all let out a sigh of relief..
     “Must have been the neighbor. He always takes his dog out about this time,” Myst rationalized away the sound, but it didn’t help. Even neighbors were bad news if they saw what we were doing. We decided that it would be a good idea to put away the candles and altar, just in case.  That turned out to be a good decision. We released the circle and cleaned up in record time. When everything was back the way it was, we went upstairs to Myst’s dining room for coffee. Paul and Skywolf had no sooner moved the china cabinet back into place when there was a knock at the door.
     We all looked at each other for several heartbeats. Then Sky moved to the door the way we had planned. He was the largest of us, six foot five, wide enough to block the door, and, though I knew he was really just a big teddy bear, he could be very intimidating when he choose to be. He would give us a chance to slip out the back if it was needed. Amber licked her lips and glanced nervously at the back door. She was trembling, and I knew she would panic if we had to run. I resolved to stay near her and see to it she made it out safely. Paul whispered through clenched teeth, “Remember the meeting place.”
     Myst, always the practical one, continued making coffee, but I could see that her knuckles were white as she moved a kitchen knife within easier reach. I hoped she wouldn’t have to use it, but I knew she could if she had to. I’d seen how efficiently she could skin a deer, and I also knew how deadly her aim was. Close up or at range, that knife would make a formidable weapon in her hands. 
     It’s amazing how slowly time seems to move when adrenaline hits you. I noticed all of this in the time that it took for Skywolf to check the door’s peephole, and I had time to make sure that Amber’s and  my coats were in easy reach, too. It was snowing pretty heavy that night. I didn’t want us to be caught outside without them. 
     After what seemed forever, Sky announced in a low voice, tight with tension, “Myst, I think it’s your neighbor. Should I open it?”
     Myst nodded, “Yes, let him in.” She ran her hand through her short-cropped hair and made a quick scan of the living room and kitchen to make sure everything was in place. She smiled as Skywolf pulled the door open, and greeted her neighbor kindly. She’d have made a great actress. The rest of us were, as my Gram used to say, nervous as long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs, and it showed.
     “Hello, Mr. Crane, come on in out of that snow. Would you like some coffee?” she motioned him in. He just stood there  in  the doorway,  looking  like  his name suggested, tall and skinny as a rail.  He shook his head.
    "I know what you Heathens are doing in here."  His eyes darted to each of us. The shone with what I believe to be a mix of fear and righteous indignation.  "I saw your altar to the Devil, your infernal ceremony.  The police are on the way."  He was shaking with anger as he stepped forward into the house.  "The Lord will punish you! Idolaters! Satanists!  You could have had Love from our Lord but you betray Him instead! Pagans!" he spat and before he could continue his shouting, Skywolf lifted him up gently and put him back outside the front door, then he waved goodby to him and slammed the door.  I would have laughed at the sight if I had not been so terrified. Sky grabbed his coat, I already had mine on and had handed Paul and Amber theirs. Myst was getting hers from the closet when banging at the front door started again.  We could hear sirens in the distance and they were getting closer.  Mr. Crane was shouting again. He'd have the whole neighborhood out on their lawns in a minute.
     We wasted no time.  Paul was the first one out the door. Myst stopped to turn off the coffeemaker and the lights, and Skywolf was hurrying her along.  I grabbed Amber's hand and pulled her. I was right. She'd panicked and frozen but once I started pulling she snapped out of it and ran too.  Paul and Myst went over the back fence with no problem. Skywolf had to help Amber and me. Amber was too short to reach the top and I had never been very athletic. I resolved then and there if I ever got out of this I would quite smoking and work out more. Sky pulled himself over after we were down.
     The other two had stopped long enough to make sure we made it over, Myst was looking sorrowfully at her house. It was likely that she would never see it again. The new laws would let the government confiscate it. The anti-cult laws put "spreading false spirituality" on the same level as crack cocaine!
     We split up as we had planned to. We all knew where tomeet. "Goddess watch over us." I whispered as I watched my friends run for their lives. I picked a route and ran for mine, too.
     Not being a fast or enduring runner, I decided the best thing to do was to find someplace to hide and hold out 'till morning.  The snow was going to make it difficult though. My tracks stood out like a neon sign. I headed towards the convenience store two blocks over. I knew that their bathroom was right next to a rear service door and that would break up my trail.
     The trick must have worked because I didn't get caught, though it was a long cold night and not an experience I would care to repeat.  I couldn'tgohome. They would be at my apartment and all my stuff would have been confiscated by morning.  It was a long walk to the rendezvous point.
     I waited in the bathroom of the rest station near the Interstate. Our meeting place was a picnic table there, hidden from the parking lot by a screen of bushes. I could see it from the ladies room window. This time of morning the rest stop was empty and it was well heated. I ducked into a stall whenever someone came in.
     I was there for several hours before I saw Paul. He glanced around quickly from his spot near the tree line.  The rest stop was busier now and he had to be careful that no one saw him come from the woods.  He hurried to the table and I left the warm semi comfort of the ladies room to meet him.  By the time I got there, Myst has arrived as well. I saw Skywolf getting out of the cab of a tractor trailer. Apparently, he had hitched a ride. 
     Amber was the only one missing, but she was more resourceful than I had given her credit for.  She'd managed to get to an ATM machine and cleaned out her savings account before the powers that be could freeze her assets.  There had been a van sitting on the cornor a few blocks from her place with a "For Sale" sign on it.  She waited for the owner to be up and about and bought the van. She used an assumed name and paid cash for it. The tags on the van were good for a couple of months, too. She pulled up a little after noon, just when we were sure she had been caught.
     Paul knew how to contact the Reclaiming Underground and we voted unanimously to do so.  We had lost everything we owned that night, but we hadn't lost hope. We contacted the Underground and they set us up with a place to stay. We joined one of the cells and we've been working with them to get things set right again.
     I think the Goddess made sure we would be seen that night. She gave us just what we asked for in that Ritual. She cleaned out all the distractions in our lives and made us see that hiding in a basement was never going to change anything. We're making a real difference here in the Underground. It's going to get better soon. One of our own is in the Presidential race this year. If we can get him into office, maybe we can get our freedom back.