Mis-Spelled

by Stacey Alabaster

  But now I was stuck with this red hair that I couldn’t wash out or change.

  So who was I?

  10

  “I hope he still wants to see me,” Vicky said a little nervously as we hurried along the street. I nodded and said that I was sure her visit would be wanted. I was distracted by someone up ahead, who was shouting about the bad fate that had befallen him and his car that morning.

  The man was cursing and stomping as he poured hot water on the windscreen to try and melt the ice so that he could actually drive his car. I glanced over but tried not to look too intently, lest I get yelled at as well. Vicky had a guilty expression on her face. “Uh-oh. This is all my fault, isn’t it?”

  I just kept walking briskly and gave a noncommittal shrug. Well, I couldn’t say for certain it wasn’t Vicky’s fault. She did mess around with the fabric of space and time, after all.

  She was blaming herself a lot these days, though. Sure, she had made some mistakes, but she wasn’t responsible for what had happened to Eamon and Matt.

  However. I had to wonder about the timing as we walked up to the hospital to visit Matt, who was recovering well but still under observation for his head wound. Vicky was clutching a box of chocolates as a gift, while I glanced back over my shoulder at the man who was trying to get his wipers unstuck. What was it that my mum had said about Mother Nature finding a way to restore the balance? Vicky had tried to bring Eamon back from the dead, and then there had been the incident with Matt almost being killed. I had to wonder if it was all a way of bringing things back into proper order.

  But I didn’t share that with Vicky as we walked in through the main entrance of the hospital and went to the reception desk. I tried to shake off the thoughts I’d had. I mean, for all I knew, my mother had no idea what she was talking about. She wasn’t even a real witch.

  Matt was still very bushy-bearded and rather groggy looking, but he looked happy to see Vicky. He said hello to me in a friendly manner, but he only had eyes for her as we entered the room. I found a seat and sat awkwardly near the window.

  “Bit of a strange spot for a second date, hey?” he asked Vicky with a little smile as he lifted his head and lightly touched her hand, the most he could manage while he was hooked up to several IVs.

  Vicky seemed to find this comment pretty charming, and she blushed a little. Well, I wished her only good luck going forward, even if this was an unconventional way to meet someone. She had never had much luck in the dating department up until now. But the two of them seemed to have a bit of a spark. And from the way he looked at her, I had trouble believing that he’d been trying to escape the date out the side door while she was in the bathroom.

  Unlike with Eamon, we had a chance to actually ask Matt what his motivations had been.

  I sat back for a while and let them catch up before I barged in with my questions.

  I asked him how he was feeling, and if the bump to the back of the head was causing any “convenient” memory loss. Matt leaned back again the pillow and shook his head gently. “I don’t think so . . . but that being said, I don’t really recall any details of what happened to me at the restaurant. One minute I was just walking, and the next, I felt something hit my head. Then I woke up here.”

  “Why were you going out the side exit?” I asked him.

  He frowned as though he was trying to remember. “I think I just needed some fresh air,” he said with a small shrug of the shoulders, as much movement as he could manage at that moment. I glanced over at Vicky to see if she was buying this story. Fresh air? Hmm. I mean, it would be pretty rude for him to say that he’d been trying to escape from Vicky when she was right there visiting him in the hospital with a box of chocolates.

  “To be honest, it is all a bit foggy,” he said, starting to sound frustrated and sorry that he was disappointing me. “The more I try to remember, the less I can, you know? I know there was a reason I stood up and went out that door, but I can’t . . . I can’t place it. It keeps slipping away every time I think I remember it.”

  “Matt, if you can remember anything at all, it would really help.” I scooched my chair forward a little closer so that I could hear him properly.

  I could tell that he didn’t really get why this was so important. “I thought the police were taking care of my case.” He was starting to get a little defensive. The more I pushed, the more he closed up.

  Did he know what had happened to Eamon? Vicky gave me a little shrug. I supposed that hadn’t been particularly enticing first-date conversation. But surely this guy at least read the news?

  “Matt. It might help us track down the killer of Eamon Barnes.”

  Matt wasn’t in the best shape as it was, but that completely drained all the color from his face. He tried to sit up, but he winced as the pillow slipped out from behind his neck, and his back became unsupported. “You think that my life was—is—in danger?”

  I chose my words carefully as I answered. “There’s no definitive proof that the two attacks are related. We just want to know if you saw anything at all. Anything that could help the case.”

  He leaned back again and pushed himself into the pillow so that it couldn’t budge this time, shaking his head. “The attack came from behind. It came out of nowhere.” He gulped.

  I glanced up at Vicky, and then decided to take a different tact with Matt. “Maybe what happened to you has nothing to do with Eamon at all. Matt, is there anyone out there who you’ve had trouble with recently? Anyone who would want to hurt you?”

  Matt thought for a moment and chewed on his bottom lip, but then he shook his head. “No one who would want to actually physically harm me, no. I’m on good terms with everyone I’ve met in this town, even the past people I’ve dated, for the most part.”

  “And are you a member of any basketball team?” I asked him.

  He looked a little bemused by that question.

  “No.”

  Well, there went that theory.

  But I was starting to think that I might have to ask Vicky some similar questions. Maybe the dating app had nothing to do with it, after all. The other common denominator both of the attacks had was that both victims were out on a date with Vicky.

  Vicky was distracted as we exited the hospital. She was all happy and giggly. I took a deep breath, glad to be out in air that didn’t smell like disinfectant and death. “Do you think he really likes me?” she asked, a little anxious as she glanced back over her shoulder.

  “Vicky. Are there any jealous ex-boyfriends from your past who would be behaving like this . . . ?”

  “Behaving like what?” she asked me, coming to a complete stop.

  “Hurting the people you are currently dating.”

  She let out a loud giggle of surprise and then shook her head. Her eyes wet from laughing as she replied, “No. No one out there who is going to kill because I have gone on a couple of first dates.”

  I let out a shriek and caught myself when I almost slipped on the ice that had formed on the sidewalk. “Jeez!”

  Hmm. Somehow, I knew that Eamon’s death, the Activate app, and Matt’s attack were all connected. I just couldn’t figure out the link. Eamon and Matt didn’t know each other . . . All they had in common was Vicky, and she was claiming to have no jealous exes lurking in the past.

  So, what was it?

  May was knocking on the front door to the office. I wasn’t working, though. I was there all alone, after hours, mulling, because it was the only place in town where I could get some time to myself. She knocked again, harder this time, and I rolled my eyes and stood up. “I told you—we are not taking on any new cases at the present time.” But I ended up relenting with a heavy sigh and inviting her into the office.

  “Why not. Come on in.”

  She shivered as she entered and said that she was glad I had the heating turned on. “I always run a little cold,” she said, keeping her plum-colored jacket on. “It is just my genetic make-up, you know. When you are this thin,
it is hard to hold the heat.”

  Hmm. Or maybe it was just because she was cold-blooded. That would explain it as well.

  Her jet-black hair looked like it had been cut—well, trimmed—just that morning. The cut of the bob was particularly sharp. She turned her head, and it whooshed past her face, shimmering.

  “So, where is that other one you work with?” May asked.

  “It’s after hours,” I replied flatly, not bothering to tell her where Vicky actually was.

  Vicky was visiting Matt in the hospital again, which I supposed counted as their third date. She seemed pretty into him, and he hadn’t told her to stay away so far. I’d asked her to try and press him for more details about the attack if he was up to it, but I had a feeling they would be spending most of the time staring into each other’s eyes.

  May looked concerned. “You look a little tired and stressed, Ruby. Have the rest of the coven been giving you a hard time as usual?”

  I sighed. For once, the coven—and the leader, Geri—had been mostly off my back. No, this time the drama in my life was a little more personal.

  I paused, unsure if I should answer. “There’s been some trouble at home. With my mum being back in town.” Why was I telling her any of this? She seemed to have tricked me into it somehow. I always found myself trusting her when I really shouldn’t. Always letting her back into my life and my affairs when everyone else told me not to have anything to do with her. What was up with that?

  May stared at me intently, and her usually dark irises had almost faded to a soft lavender color. “She’s told you a secret, hasn’t she?” May asked me softly, in an almost hypnotic manner. “Something that you wished you’d never found out about.”

  I froze a little. “How . . . how do you know that?”

  “Because I have psychic powers,” she said with a slight shrug of her thin shoulders. “Part of being a witch. Mine aren’t quite as attuned as yours are, of course. Yours are so powerful that you have to actively work to block them. A natural gift. But I have the same gift as you do, Ruby, and I can feel the pain that you are going through right now.”

  Every bone in my body was telling me this was the time to ask her to leave. But when I tried to say those words, my throat closed up.

  May tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes as she took a look at my hair. “Your natural hair color . . .” she said in this strange, breathy voice. “It’s brunette, isn’t it?”

  I stared at her jet-black hair. Strangely, it was the same color that I had dyed mine right before I’d started detective work. Right before I had met May for the first time, actually.

  If I’d kept mine that color, we would have looked alike. And I would have realized how alike we looked. It was almost like this hex that had been placed on me had been blocking me from seeing what was obvious this whole time.

  I also had dark eyes. A similar thin nose.

  And I always ran a little cold.

  Suddenly, I was starting to get this eerie sense of . . . something. It wasn’t quite déjà vu, but it was very close to it.

  It was a feeling that made me want to run.

  And yet something was keeping me in that position. Just staring at May.

  That day that I had used my psychic powers to try and find out where my mum was. The memory of how it all played out came flooding back to me. What if I’d just put out the vibe of “mother” and the universe, taking that word quite literally, had given me a different answer than what I had been expecting? What if I had been picking up the vibes of my biological mother? Because the first image I had gotten when searching for my mother the other night was of the milk plant. That was the company that May and her family owned. It was right next to her house. Her husband, who shape-shifted into a black panther during a full moon, was regularly down there.

  And he was always growling. Like the growling my mum overheard the night she found me.

  I had to think this over. I excused myself from May and said I needed to go home, that I wasn’t feeling well. She gave me a knowing look.

  “We’ll talk another time,” she said and let herself out.

  Then I was on the phone to Vicky, frantic. “It’s May,” I said, my throat almost closing up from the shock of it as I tried to speak. “May is my biological mother.”

  11

  My first time riding alone on a broomstick.

  It was rocky, and I dipped up and down as I flew further and further. I was heading toward the coast, almost like I was searching for freedom—I hadn’t chosen that direction on purpose, but it was where I was led.

  I flew until my arms ached and I could no longer hold the broomstick up underneath me. Before I crashed right down, I directed it to a clearing in the sand. I heard the waves crashing somewhere in the dark.

  I barely even knew where I was. Possibly a place called Golden Beach, but I couldn’t see any signs to confirm. It didn’t matter at that point. I just didn’t want to be anywhere near Swift Valley.

  I was so angry at May. How could she have given me up all those years ago to a human woman who didn’t know anything about raising a witch? She was so selfish!

  I kicked at the sand, wanting to kick myself for not putting it together sooner.

  So, she had placed the hex on me all those months ago, right after we first met. She was thinking that with red hair, I wouldn’t notice the family resemblance.

  My cell phone buzzed in my pocket, and I grabbed it to check the notification. I assumed that it would be May trying to offer up some sort of lame apology for abandoning me all those years ago.

  Teddy.

  It seemed that even in the middle of the coast, men could still hassle you on dating apps. I thought about turning my phone off or even deleting the app entirely, but now that I was out there all alone, I was starting to get a little bored. And so, I ended up sending him a message asking how basketball was going. Still on the case. I kept trying to find the link between all the missing pieces.

  “Can I call you?” he asked me in response.

  Seeing as I was a hundred kilometers from home with nothing to do and no one to talk to except the seagulls up above me, I agreed.

  “It’s good to hear your voice, Ruby,” he said as soon as I picked up the phone. But I launched straight into my questions, asking if he’d ever met Matt before and if he’d ever seen him on an opposing basketball team. I knew Matt had told me he’d never played, but I only had his word to go on.

  “I’m sorry, no. No basketball players with huge bushy beards that I can recall.”

  Hmm.

  “And you’d never met my friend Vicky before, had you?” I asked him, still wondering if she was the link. “Had you matched with her on Activate?”

  Teddy was being so nice in spite of the barrage of questions I was throwing at him. I was starting to think I’d gotten him all wrong. He was just a sweet guy who’d gotten a bit too keen, too quickly. Maybe I wasn’t used to guys being so open with their feelings. I mean, I had been flirting with Akiro for the past six months, and he was like a brick wall.

  “No, sorry, I’d never met her before. I did notice her at the basketball game, though. Not that she was looking at me.” He sounded a little sorry about that part.

  So maybe he had no link to Vicky. But he had known Eamon. And that was still a pretty big link.

  “I know that Eamon had been worried about using the Activate app,” Teddy said quietly. “And to be honest, I was hoping that I would be able to delete it soon. Just haven’t found that special lady yet. Well, at least, the one who wants to get to know me back.”

  I ended the call, wondering about what he had just said.

  Laying back and staring at the stars in the sky, I started to wonder if I should go back to Swift Valley. Maybe I would never return at all. Go all the way to Peru. I could just hop back on my broomstick and keep on flying, across the ocean, anywhere I wanted to go. I could be like May, a solo witch without allegiance to any coven.

  After all,
wasn’t that who I was fated to take after?

  I rolled over and heard a bad noise. Uh-oh. I don’t even know what angle I was at to cause it, but I heard a cracking noise as I accidentally rolled on top of the broomstick, and it got caught between me and a rock.

  Snap!

  “Oh no!” I cried out and jumped up, using the torch on my phone to survey the damage, hoping so badly that it was minimal. But the broom was completely snapped in half. “Can you fly on half a broomstick?” I asked myself out loud, mostly rhetorically, because I was pretty sure that it wasn’t possible.

  It was impossible. And the battery on my phone was about to drain entirely.

  Brooms don’t have chargers, a fact I had overlooked when I flew out here with a half-charged phone and no other plan except to get away from the craziness that was my life.

  I stared down at my shattered broomstick and my almost-dead phone. I wanted to scream out into the empty ocean. How was I supposed to get home now?

  But then, something weird happened. Very weird. Well, these things had always happened to me, throughout my life, even well before I knew that I was a witch. The laws of physics would seem to get bent somehow, so that I could get what I wanted. And that night, they got bent again, and suddenly I had a full battery on my phone, and it was showing one hundred percent, a bright screen. And then it started to buzz. I blinked down at it a few times and wondered if I had drifted off to sleep, and I was only dreaming that my phone was ringing.

  “Ruby, are you okay?”

  “I’m sorry, Mum!” I said, interrupting her. “I’m so sorry for everything. Mum, I don’t even know where I am. But I need you to come and get me.”

  “I will be there.”

  How? How could she find me, all the way out on the coast? I sputtered into the phone, trying to describe where I was, how I got here. It seemed impossible, that she would be able to track me down. But she said to wait, and when I heard the car pulling up, I realized she must have been on my tail the whole time.