I bit back all the snarky comments that were racing through my mind. I wasn’t about to get the sack for being rude to her. She wasn’t worth it. I wished that Ruby was here so she could deal with this woman.
She kept on ranting about the Devil and the Lord and I didn’t really know what to do.
What would Ruby do? She would probably ask her to leave.
I waited for a break in her ramblings. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave the store.”
“Don’t tell me what to do! I’m well-respected in this town. I can make your life a living hell — pun intended — if you don’t close your mouth right now, young lady—”
“If you don’t leave, I will be forced to call the police.” I pulled out my phone to show her that I was serious.
“Don’t be ridiculous, child. I’m not causing any damage. I’m not stealing anything. I’m not assaulting you.”
I made a show of pressing zero three times with the screen facing her. My finger hovered over the call button, daring her to give me a reason to tap it.
She turned toward the door and threw me a death glare over her shoulder. “You’ll regret this.”
I’m sure I won’t.
She pulled the door extra-hard to slam it, but it had one of those gadgets at the top to make it close slowly, so it didn’t work and I actually laughed out loud.
Once she was gone, I sagged with relief and tried to slow my racing heart.
That woman has some serious issues.
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I wasn’t sure I wanted to bother with a Halloween costume and had started having second thoughts about going to the party — especially after Emily going missing — but Alina had swung by after I’d finished work so we could go shopping and I couldn’t say no.
We finally decided to go as witches, so we headed to the local discount store that had a pretty decent costume section.
We tried on a few different dresses, but I thought the third one I tried and the fifth one Alina tried were the best ones. I wanted to get lost in the fun of it, but it was hard.
Concentrating was difficult because Jackson had wandered in through the front window and decided to stay to watch — and my mind kept wandering back to the stupid woman at the shop. Witchcraft? Devil worship? She was out of her mind if she thought that’s what all the crystals and candles were for. I wondered what she’d think if she knew the truth. She would probably double down on her theory.
“Maddie?”
“Uh, sorry, what?”
“I asked what you thought of this dress. What’s up with you today? It’s like your brain is elsewhere.”
I sighed. “There was this crazy woman who came into the shop this morning and said that we were devil worshippers and all the crystals and stuff were being used to summon demons.”
She giggled. “That’s a bit out there, but don’t let it worry you. I’ve had some pretty strange customers over the years. Some of them have issues. The key is to not take it personally.”
“I know. Ruby said the same thing when I told her what happened. I’m trying not to let it worry me, but it was scary the way she just suddenly turned hostile. The only way I could stop her was to show her me about to dial triple zero on my phone to call the cops.”
“Wow. Did that actually work?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t sure what else to do.”
She smiled. “You did good.” She pointed at her black dress that had embroidery on the bodice and splits in the sleeves. “What do you think?”
“It looks great.” I meant it. It really suited her dark hair and her body shape. I looked down at my costume. “Does this look okay?”
I knew this was the one I wanted and was worried she wouldn’t like it.
She looked me up and down and made a show of twirling her finger around, so I turned in a slow circle. A cheeky smile crept across her lips. “Yep. I really like the lacy parts across the chest and the scalloped skirt.”
My heart swelled a bit and I started to finally let myself feel excited about this party, but when I looked at the tag, my smile faded. “I can’t afford this.”
Alina grabbed the tag. “That’s okay. I’ll pay—”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Relax. I’ve been saving my money since you’ve been gone and haven’t really been socializing much, so it’s all good. I’ve got this.”
I felt a stab of guilt for not being around, but it wasn’t like I had any control over how things had turned out. That accident had ruined my life, but at the same time, caused me to discover my magic and my Seer ability.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say thank you.”
I wrapped my arms around her, tears stinging my eyes. “Thank you!”
Mum would have told me to forget the costume and forget the party. She hated Halloween.
Jackson stood in the corner of the room giving me the thumbs-up. “Good choice. That dress is awesome.”
Why did I get a fluttery feeling in my chest? I didn’t care if he liked the dress or not. It wasn’t up to him what I wore.
We broke apart and Alina paid for our dresses and the other bits and pieces that completed our costumes. I noticed a girl staring at me through the front window of the shop. She looked familiar and I recognized her as one of Emily’s friends.
Great.
That’s all I needed.
She stepped forward as we exited the store. Her hair wasn’t perfectly styled today and her eyeliner was a bit smudged. It was kind of disturbing to see her not put-together.
She scowled. “What did you do to Emily?”
I sighed. “Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. You wanted to punch her lights out on Wednesday night and no one has seen her since.”
“I had nothing to do with it. I haven’t seen her since then either.”
She hurled a whole heap of abuse my way and Alina and I turned away and started walking back to her car.
“Come back here, bitch! I’m not finished with you.”
We kept walking and I saw two ghosts staring at me and shaking their heads. That’s all I needed. A bunch of ghosts thinking I’m a murderer or something.
If Alina noticed me looking at no one, she didn’t let on. The girl followed us for a bit, swore some more, then stalked off.
I couldn’t wait to get home. We tried to talk about other things on the way home and went straight upstairs to my room when we got there.
Just as we settled on my bed to relax and talk, the doorbell chimed. There were muffled voices and we went to the top of the staircase to see who it was. I was surprised to see a police officer, who looked up at me and a shiver ran up my spine.
I could tell that he was there for me and my stomach sank. The conversation with Emily’s friend flashed through my mind.
Anna-Marie called me down and called out to Laynee. This wasn’t good. Alina followed me down the stairs, her presence behind me giving me comfort.
It was Senior Constable Martin. “Maddelyn Johnson? Laynee Davenport? We’d like you to come down to the station and answer some questions about what happened between you and a Miss Emily Pullman at the community hall on Wednesday night.”
18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Wb8CipwsD
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Author's Note: Have you checked out my other stories on here? There's the Tamisan Series and the Lightning Touch Series. Then there's my novelette, The Alien. All sci-fi, but with the same style of writing and with characters with psychic abilities. And Aliens.
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