Just after her fifteenth birthday she began to notice strange things happening. One day she had been trying to get a jacket from the top of her wardrobe down when it had flown down and landed on her head. Another time Merida James had been bullying her when her drink had exploded in her face. Allison was the last of her coven to inherit her powers. Most witches first start to notice their powers at sixteen but being younger than the rest of her coven, they were awakened early. At first Allison thought that she was going mad when she discovered she had the ability to make things happen just by thinking about it, but when she brought the topic up with her grandfather he informed her that she was part of a long line of witches stretching back further than the Salem Witch Trials. She
Allison and Aria messing with magic
was at first afraid of her powers and had very little control over them, working with her grandfather did help her some but they were still unpredictable. It was her grandfather that told Allison that she was part of a coven. That there were seven other witch families residing in Salem and when their powers were pooled together they were stronger than they were apart.
The first of the coven to approach Allison was quisi-friend, Arianna Kristoff, who confronted Allison after she saw her using her abilities to trip over a girl who had been making fun of her. The two began experimenting with their magic and over time they noticed that while Allison's magic was stronger, Aria was the one with the most control. Often Allison's magic would rage out of control, once setting fire to her table during science class after she had been trying to light her bunsen burner. Both of the girls were unaware of who the other families in the coven were, their families refusing to give answers and instead insisting that the coven would bring itself together.
The Coven
It was a few weeks after she first noticed the changes that the coven was in the same place for the first time. Each of them had received detention for some reason or another, Allison having been sent there for falling asleep in class. The eight of them had never been together before as Quinton Redfield and his family had only recently moved back to Hollow Creek. As each of the students began to show up to the class room strange occurances began happening, when four of them were there the lights had began to flicker, at six a storm had started to rage outside, and when Jessica Davis showed up the windows in the room had all shattered. The teens had been understandably shaken by the situation and sent home. This was the first time their teacher, Mr Jacobs, began to suspect that something was amiss.
Later Allison brought the subject up with her grandfather and asked him if the others that had been in the room were the other families that made up the coven. This time Joseph didn't not ignore her question and instead told her the truth. That the coven had once again been formed and the eight of them would be bound to each other forever, whether they liked it or not. The next day at school she had revealed what he told her to Aria and the two decided that it would be best to get the other six to meet with them so that they could discuss what was happening to them. They had decided that Aria would be the one to talk to the others, given that her reputation wasn't nearly as bad as Allison's. Only it turned out that they didn't need to worry about it. Both girls later found notes in their lockers from Daniel Kirkwood asking them to meet at his house that afternoon.
When they showed up they found most of the others there, the only one to arrive later than them was Bianca Jonston. At first Jess, Quinton, and Bianca had brushed the accusations of witchcraft off and accused the others of being insane. But when the other four confessed that they had been experiencing the same things as Daniel they finally got them to admit that there was something happening to them. It was Allison who told the others what her grandfather had told her, none of the others had tried talking to their families. Come nightfall they had decided that they would keep everything between them and wouldn't bring anyone else into it, at least not until they figured out what was happening.
Over the next few weeks they would meet up on occasion and discuss any changes they had noticed. They quickly noticed that their powers were developing differently. Allison and Ayden seemed to be the strongest but had very little control, while Jessica and Leo seemed to have the most control. It was after a month that Aria came to them one day with a book she had taken from her families attic, it had been locked away in a chest. After she'd read it she'd quickly realised that it was a book of magic, what they later discovered was they Young Family Grimoire. It was in this book that they finally learnt more about their magic. That they were descended from the first coven of witches to make a pact with nature, and in doing so were gifted with certain abilities that other witches did not possess. Power over the elements. One boy and one girl to each element. They also learnt that each witch was in possession of their own individual power, but that those in their coven could not receive said power until they mastered their power of their respective elements.
As time passed it grew harder for the coven to meet without drawing attention to themselves, so Allison suggested the cave where she went to be alone. This cave later became their unofficial sanctuary, and was referred to by Quinton as the 'bat cave'. With their magic protected from prying eyes, they began to get more bold with their practicing. Eventually they learnt each of their elemental powers, Allison's being revealed through process of elimination. She had power over the wind, along with Quinton. Bianca and Leo teased her over having what they perceived to be the weakest power, until her anger got the better of her and a small tornado formed outside of the cave and almost brought the rocks down on them. The two learned not to anger Allison from that point on.
Within two months they had all shown incredible improvement with their powers, all except for Ayden and Allison who still had difficulty controlling their magic - though Ayden was better at it than Allison. When Allison confessed her worries to her grandfather she was brought in on the family secret, that theirs was a magical bloodline infected with dark magic. The Balding line was also corrupted but not to the degree that the Darwins were, which explained why it was Allison that had the most difficulty. A witch can only possess power that it either light or dark, Allison and Ayden are still the only witches in recorded history to wield both. It is also the reason why their powers are so much stronger than the rest of the coven, her grandfather explaining it like two of them were running at one hundred percent while everyone else was stuck at fifty. Joseph had felt that was the time to give Allison their family Grimoire. Inside she had found spells and potions that were not found in the Young Grimoire, as well as entries by some of her ancestors, including Mary Darwin the one responsible for the dark magic in their bloodline.
Reading from her family Grimoire
Allison had read the Grimoire cover to cover searching for anything that would help her in learning to control her magic, but found nothing. There were spells however that were different from the others, spells she figured out were only meant for dark witches to cast. She had once tried one and could feel her dark magic grow as she did, the feeling had terrified her and so she vowed to never try again. Joseph had warned her of what giving in to dark magic would result in. There would be no going back to the light, a dark witch craved only one thing and that was power. Dark witches were incapable of the more pure emotions, the closest they could get to love was obsession. Everything was heightened when a witch went dark and they would feel no fear, only the desire to take what they considered to be theirs. It was fear of becoming this that had lead to Mary and her coven binding their magic all those centuries ago.