Twisted Magic (11 page)

“He’s already
outside,
” Elliot said
,
reaching for
me. I
took his hand and we both jumped to our feet and ran for the door. I covered my face with my shirt, letting Elliot tug me through the smoke.
Finally,
we hit the
outdoors. Fresh air
invaded my senses.

The flash of the lights from the
fire truck
pulling up shocked my
vision,
Nona and Claude were already
barreling
down the beach toward us. Easton
worked fast
to call for help. If only I knew what set the fire in the first place.
I hadn’t seen a thing I was
too
panicked.

Neighbors from everywhere offered blankets and bottled
water,
everything
felt like it was a blur as I was bounced from the sands to an ambulance.

“I am so glad
you're
okay, sweet pea,” Nona said from outside the ambulance doors. I stared at the beach house hoping it wasn’t ruined. Hoping that whatever caught fire didn’t take our only home away from us.

“Do they know what it was?” I asked Nona.

She smoothed her red hair, tugging her robe tighter. “I’m not sure yet. You didn’t take up smoking while you were away at college did you, Hope?” Her face was flooded with alarm.
This was the first time I
had seen
her since I had been
back,
and it was under horrible circumstances.

I shook my head, letting the paramedic look me over and do all the necessary things to prove I was alright. She offered me
oxygen. I
turned it away.

Out of the corner of my eye stood a gaunt man dressed in black from head to toe. His expression grim, I watched him closely,
did anyone else notice
him? His gaze matched
mine. His
eyes were dark
more or less
black, his skin ashen.

I looked away, an eerie feeling evading my body making my heart race in fear. Was he the cause of the fire?

When I looked again he was nowhere to be found. All that was left was the neighbors in various huddles watching firefighters work on the blaze.

Dad pulled
up in a hurry to get to us kids, t
he look of
absolute
fright on his face.

Dad paced the ground outside our house as firefighters did their job. It still was unclear what was going on. There were no flames coming out
of
windows, or from the roof. I was
disturbed,
nonetheless.

Nona squeezed my arm.
“Shouldn’t be much longer.”

I patted her hand. “I’m glad you guys are here.”

“Where else would we
be
sweet pea?” she said, tugging at my hair. “When is the last time you got a haircut?”

I wrenched my hair from her claws. “I like my hair this way.” Man, she really knew how to ruin a moment. “What I meant was I am glad we live near you and Claude.
It’s
nice to have family around at a time like this.”

Nona dropped her arm from around me as Jesse approached. I hadn’t seen him in forever. He sauntered over, clad in nice fitting jeans and a gray
t-shirt
.

“I’m sorry to hear about the house. Do they know what the cause of it was?”
he asked
Nona. He nodded his head in my direction, a stern tight smile on his lips. I felt the awkwardness from
only
feet away from him.

“Thanks,” I shot back. Nona tugged me
next to
Jesse.

“Jesse has been dancing at the new studio. He says they are looking for singers to
perform
at the café.” Nona told me. Jesse reluctantly nodded his head in agreement with Nona. He slowly looked me in the eye, almost cringing as he did so.  As if it pained him to lay eyes on me.

“Clive is looking for local talent. He prefers
Ashwilder
alumni, but he is willing to make an exception for Nona.” Jesse looked away.

Nona jabbed me in the ribs. My house was potentially burnt to a
crisp,
and she wanted me to discuss a career in singing at a café where they served
sub par
coffee and
odd-
shaped cookies
. “Thanks, Jesse and Nona, that’s nice of both of you.”

Jesse drug a hand through his
smooth
hair, he shot Nona a toothy smile. She squeezed his shoulder and sent him on his way.

“So we
will
talk to Clive about having you at his coffee house.” Nona informed me. “Now let’s go calm your poor papa before he shits himself.” She tugged me by the arm up to the house.

Elliot and Easton were tossing a football. And Dad was wearing a path in the sand while Lynette stood
uselessly
waiting, being his rock or whatever you wanted to call it. She smile
d
sweetly at Nona and
I
.

“Neil. Come here.
You’re
wearing a hole in your shoes pacing around like that.” She scolded Dad like a little boy. The way I was sure she did when he was younger.

“Mom, I don’t want to hear it. Everything we own is in that house.” Dad
snapped. He
sighed loudly.

“As opposed to where?
Everyone keeps their belonging in
their
home. You act like I expected them to be spread out along the beach.” She slapped him in the arm. “
Pull it together. I am rich.
I can buy you
new
stuff.”

“You can’t restore our
family’s
memories, Mom.”
He griped.
Lynette
joined
us. Dad slung an arm around her shoulders. She crossed her arms tightly.

“Your mother’s right, Neil,” she said.
What did she know?

“I was under the impression you hat
ed your memories. And your wife,
” Nona muttered.

“Ex-wife,”
Dad pointed out looking at me with a pained expression at the mention of my dear mother.

Nona wagged her head
quickly. “Yes, yes,
ex-wife. 
Don’t make a habit of divorce, as I get older I forget just about everything
,
and keeping track of the next woman to ruin your life gets harder for me.” She shot Lynette a warning glare and traipsed off toward Claude as he started in on a game of catch with the boys.

I blushed, but on the
inside,
I was laughing hysterically. Nona
made my
week with that insult.

The firefighter came down the
steps, h
is face glistening with moisture from the equipment and the humidity outside. “Sir,
it’s
all
clear. You
can go inside.”

Dad whirled around on his heels. “Excuse me, what did we lose?”

The firefighter’s expression was a bit
confused
. “Sir, I don’t know what your kids were doing in there, but all that there was, was a hell of a lot of smoke. We couldn’t locate a fire.” He started down the path to the
fire truck
, telling his men to pack it all up and roll out.

I looked back at
him. It
seemed like he was a bit disturbed. The expression on his face said a lot.
I looked at Dad. He too noticed. H
e shook his head heading up the stairs. I followed on his heels eager to see the big deal.

Nona hurried after us.

“What the hell?” Dad exclaimed, coming to a halt in the kitchen. My body slammed into the back of him. Nona all but fell on her face taking a chair down with her. I looked over Dad’s shoulder
shocked to see black ashes in the shape of a pentagram on the floor of the kitchen.

I helped Nona up from the floor. She plucked a pair of reading glasses from her bra and stared down at the mess on the floor. “What the hell is this?”

Elliot and Easton came to stand next to me. “That looks like
the
necklace in that movie we saw last weekend.”

Dad and Nona spun around to face them. “What do you mean?”

Lynette looked curiously between them and
Nona,
she
ran her hand up and down Dad’s back trying to calm him down.

“There was this old school gore flick on TV last
weekend,
a
bunch of
blood-
thirsty witches
running around slaughtering
people, the
head witch wore a pentagram.” Elliot told everyone.

“Not to mention all the hot chicks running around in skimpy bikinis,” Easton pointed out. That fell on deaf ears. I swallowed down the panic coursing through me.

Dad scratched his head confused. “What would this be doing on our floor then? Did you guys have something to do with this?”

Elliot and Easton collectively shook their heads. All eyes fell on me
now
.

“I was in bed. They woke me up and told me to get out of the house.” I gaped, shaking my head violently to get my point across that I had nothing to do with this.

“Maybe it was just some kids in the area or something,” Ly
nette suggested, she watched me. S
he smiled
with concern
at
me.

“Why are you smiling at me like that? I didn’t have anything to do with this.” I snapped.

Dad shot me a warning glare.

Nona clapped her hands together gaining
everyone’s
attention. “Let’s not fight.
I’m sure it can all be explained. W
e all know witches don’t exist, u
nless of
course,
you count Sheila.”

Everyone stared at Nona. She waved a hand. “I’m only
kidding. She's
not a
witch. She's
just a big bitch.”

I eyed the pentagram
again. The
image of that tall man raced
through my
mind
. It all made perfect
sense,
but why? I was sure this
were
some sort of warning
for
me.

Claude cut through the mass and held his phone out.
Damn technology
I thought to myself. Dad took the phone.

“Says here this is an inverted pentagram, known to be used by Satanist in the 20
th
century, i
t
was adopted as their personal symbol.” Dad read to everyone.

“Cool,” Elliot said in awe. They snapped pictures of it with their cell phones. Nona swatted them away.

“Don’t take pictures of it. Heaven knows what kind of juju is in this house now.” She looked at me. “What about that boyfriend of yours and his friends?”

I raised an eyebrow not following.

“Slash or Slain, what’s his name?”
She shook her head
,
trying hard to get it together, “Slade. They wear an awful lot of black and those tattoos. Do you think they would have done this as a joke, Hope?”

I was sure everyone could see the blood draining from my face. My throat constricted. I wished I knew a spell to get them all to shut up and forget all that they saw.

“No matter, t
he house is in one
piece. Your
dad can stop worrying about his memories with that shrew in Georgia and get on with his life now.” She lo
o
ped her
arm through
Claude’s
preparing to leave
. “And I will see
you
at five.”

I stabbed a finger to my chest, and raised an eyebrow. “Me?”

“Yes, you, we are going to see Clive. He is going to have you famous in no time.” She pinched my cheek and headed for the door. “Wear something girly, I hear Clive likes
the beautiful women."

I sighed. Dad grabbed the dustpan and started cleaning the ashes from the floor.

I
stared at my
odd-
shaped cookie
,
t
he ones that the Shore Café
was
so famous for serving. Every circular table was draped with
sea foam
green tablecloths and seashell centerpieces. The windows were bedazzled with
sand dollars
around every window
frame,
and the floor’s tiles were emblazoned with tiny shells itself.