by M. K. ROZE
. .
MUMA
Text copyright © 2020 by M. K. ROZE
ISBN:
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S.
Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
This book is the work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their
content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
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delyn glanced out the window at the historic buildings
of downtown St. Augustine, certain she wasn’t going
back there anytime soon. Not after what she had done.
Dad got into the SUV, lowered the visor from the
afternoon sun, and looked into the rearview mirror at
Adelyn. “Was this the best Spring Break you ever had or
what?”
Adelyn glanced at her duffle bag on her lap. “Dad, we
come here every Spring Break. It’s beautiful, but I’d like to
go somewhere else next year.”
“I agree, but this is your mother’s favorite spot.” Dad
pushed the starter button on the SUV, but the engine
wouldn’t turn over. He pushed the button several more times
and got nothing. “What the heck. I just bought this damn
thing.”
Adelyn’s hazel eyes left the bag on her lap and narrowed
on Dad’s angry expression. “Please don’t tell me we’re stuck
here.”
“I love this place, but we better not be.” Dad slammed
his finger on the button a few more times and the engine
roared. He let out a sigh of relief. “That was weird.”
Adelyn shrugged it off and slid her duffel bag down her
long thin legs onto the floor. “What was so funny about me
not wanting to come back here?”
“You’re going to be nineteen by then. I’m sure you’ll
drive off to Daytona Beach with your friends or to some
other well-known party spot.”
Adelyn glanced across the road at a couple of teens
laughing while they took pictures of the ancient fort,
knowing that wasn’t going to happen. “Yeah, right. I’m an
adult now and you still control me.”
Dad placed his muscular arm over the headrest and
turned to Adelyn, getting her attention. “I’m a cop. It’s in my
blood to protect. Especially my family. But it doesn’t mean
you’re not allowed to have fun. I only ask you to be
responsible and trust no one. Plus, you never asked me to go
anywhere on your own.”
Adelyn shot him a smirk. “Okay. Can I go to Daytona
Beach next year? I won’t dare drink alcohol.”
“You got that right. And we’ll talk about that when, and
if, you decide to go there.”
“I was kidding. I have no desire to travel this far.”
Dad winked and looked forward.
Adelyn glanced out the back window at the Victorian
bed-and-breakfast they had stayed at. “Where’s mom?”
“Oh, crap.” Dad rushed got out of the truck and headed
toward the back of the inn.
Adelyn stared at the lighthouse across the Matanzas Bay,
wishing she could go back in time from what she had done,
but it was too late. The guilt overpowered her, and it was
beginning to show.
Mom got in and closed the door. “I’m sure going to miss
it here.” She looked back at Adelyn. “Did you have fun?”
“Yeah, minus the ghosts that kept me up at night.”
Mom’s blue eyes sparkled. “You heard them too?”
“I was kidding. You know I don’t believe in that stuff.”
Mom turned back around. “Don’t get freaked out when
one of them follow us home.”
Adelyn rolled her eyes and smiled, knowing Mom was
obsessed with anything paranormal.
Dad placed Mom’s suitcase in the back, and they started
the five-hundred-mile journey back to Witchery Cove,
Georgia—a small town known for a beautiful, evil witch
named Sula, who was hanged in the 18th century. Sula was
famous for hunting people in the mountains, then killing
anyone she didn’t like. It took years before the witch-hunters
caught her and took her to the top of Broom Mountain.
As Sula was hanged, she didn’t fight her death. She
stared each man down with her black eyes and had a demonic
grin on her pale face. The hunters feared she would cast a
last-minute spell on them, so they burned her alive—Sula’s
guttural screams echoing through the valley—sending the
hunters running back down the mountain.
The following morning, the hunters went back up to
Broom mountain to bury Sula, but she was gone. They
believed she’d escaped death and hid somewhere in the
mountains, waiting to kill whoever crossed paths with her.
A few days later, the townspeople complained of
hearing bone-chilling screams coming from somewhere in
the mountains. The witch hunters were certain it was Sula
killing again, so they went to look for her. They vanished in
the night,
never to be found.
In the 21st century, the town and everything in it was
renamed after anything that pertained to a witch. They did
this to draw more attention and make the town’s owners
more money. When thousands of tourists visited all year
round, in hopes of finding Sula, they knew their idea had
worked. But when some of the tourists vanished, the town
flooded with their family members and reporters, certain the
myth about Sula escaping death was true. The cops didn’t
believe it was supernatural. They put out a report saying the
tourists lost their way and died somewhere in the mountains.
After hours of driving from being stuck in traffic, they
finally arrived back in town.
As Dad drove down Sorceress Street—the main street
of Witchery Cove, Adelyn rolled the window down—the
cool air blowing her hair back. She leaned her head out and
smiled as she took deep breaths of the burning pine while
looking at all the old buildings they passed by.
When Dad stopped at a red light, Adelyn looked across
the street at Sula’s Cauldron, a small family restaurant she
worked at. “Wow, they’re busy for a Sunday night.”
“Yes, they are,” Dad said. “Do you want to stop there
and get something to eat?”
Adelyn glanced at the people eating at the tables outside.
“No, I’m still full from that nasty pizza we ate earlier.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“That’s because you think anything that has cheese on
it is good.”
Dad chuckled and took off driving again.
As they passed the new age shops, which were on every
corner, Adelyn glanced at the paranormal souvenirs in the
windows, wondering why she suddenly wanted to buy
everything she saw. Maybe all the ghost tours we went on in St.
Augustine changed my way of thinking.
Adelyn thought that was possible and stared out the
window at the woods as Dad drove a few more miles down
the road. She looked up at the mountains and smiled at their
menacing presence. Adelyn couldn’t stop staring at their
imposing existence, and she didn’t understand why she was
unable to look away.
Dad yawned as he took a right onto Conjurer Drive.
Adelyn snapped out of her trance and shook her head
at Dad. “I told you I would’ve driven.”
“I know, but you wouldn’t be able to get out of a
speeding ticket like I could.”
“That’s what your badge is for,” she joked.
“You use my badge, and you’ll get a lot more than a
speeding ticket.”
“Dad, I was kidding. I wouldn’t want you to arrest me.”
Dad looked back at her and winked. He turned around
and continued the mile drive up the steep, winding road to
their two-story cabin, which was surrounded by tall pine
trees.
Dad came to a stop and gently shook Mom awake.
“Hey, we’re home.”
Mom jumped out of her sleep and glared him down.
“Jeff, you scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Adelyn giggled as she took her water bottle and candy
wrappers off the seat next to her. She opened the door and
got out. “I have to use the restroom.”
“Go ahead,” Dad said. “I’ll get your suitcase.”
“Thanks.” Adelyn walked around the SUV and glanced
at her red, run down 1996 Explorer that was parked behind
her mother’s Jeep. She rushed up the steps of the
wraparound porch and took her key out of her bag.
Adelyn unlocked the door while crossing her legs from
holding her urine in for so long. She regretted drinking so
much water and ran through the foyer, crossed through the
chef’s kitchen, and ended up in the family room. As she
opened the bathroom door, a scratching sound came from
above her. She glanced up at the loft and followed it around,
trying to locate where the sound came from, but she saw
nothing. She shrugged it off and continued inside to use the
restroom.
After Adelyn unpacked and took a long hot shower, she
said good night to her parents and went to her room. She
turned off the bedroom light and walked over to her bed,
glancing at the black shadows on her white walls from the
amber nightlight. She got into bed and lay snuggled under
her comforter, staring blankly at the cedar vaulted ceiling,
regretting what she had done in Florida.
As Adelyn’s parent’s footsteps faded to their bedroom,
which was a few doors down from hers, a faint thud,
followed by scratching sounds came from on the other side
of her room. Her body jerked slightly and her curious eyes
followed a black shadow over to the bay window, where the
silhouette vanished.
Adelyn rubbed her eyes, thinking it was her cat’s
shadow. “Mr. Snowflake, is that you?”
Adelyn grabbed her iPhone next to her and turned the
flashlight on. She aimed the phone around the room—the
light illuminating the pictures of her and her friends on the
wall. As she lowered the phone, three thumps came from
under her bed—the mattress lightly bouncing. She held her
breath for a second and froze. What the heck was that?
Adelyn leaned down to see what it was, and her cat ran
out from under the bed hissing with his white hair sticking
up. She flinched, pushed herself back up, and clutched her
chest. “Holy crap, cat. You scared me.”
Mr. Snowflake meowed as he scratched at the floor,
trying to get out of the room.
“I’m not getting out of bed, so you’re stuck in here with
me for the night.”
The cat kept scratching while meowing.
She sighed. “Mom and dad are gonna make me get rid
of you if you don’t stop tearing the floor up.”
Adelyn gave up on the cat and sat there for a minute.
She opened the diary app on her phone, selected video, and
tapped on the record button.
“I have to confess to something I did,” she said in a low
voice, “while I was on vacation in St. Augustine, Florida. I
didn’t do a video while I was there because my room was
next door to my parents’ room and the walls were thin. I
didn’t want them to hear me.
“After my parents and I walked for a mile with the tour
group in the creepy forest, we stopped in front of a cabin
and listened to the tour guide talk about the history of St.
Augustine. Supposedly, tons of people were mutilated by a
leopard. I’m not going to lie, it was spooky. Especially when
I saw glowing red eyes looking down at us from the upstairs
window. I didn’t pay it any mind because I was sure it was
done purposely to scare us. And I didn’t believe those poor
souls were drained dry by a leopard. I think it was a serial
killer, who thought he or she was a vampire or something.
Which is another thing I don’t bel—”
Something fell onto the floor, causing Adelyn to flinch
and stop talking. She paused
the video and looked around
the room to see what it was. “Mr. Snowflake, was that you
again?” Adelyn sat up and saw the cat staring at the door like
it was waiting for it to open.
As Adelyn looked around the room, she noticed a hand-
carved cross her grandmother had made for her—lying
upside down against her dresser. She got out of bed,
wondering why it had fallen after four years it been hanging
there since her grandmother’s sudden death. She picked it
up, hung it back on the wall, and got back under her blankets
where she resumed the video.
“Where was I?” She thought about it. “Oh, yeah, I don’t
believe in vampires either. Anyway, as we walked further into
the woods, we stopped at an old white building that sat alone
in the middle of an open field. Most of the tourists, including
my parents, went inside to look at the old ballroom while I
stayed outside with a young couple. I didn’t go in, not
because I was scared of the three evil ghosts that were said
to haunt the place, but because the tour guide said it was built
in the fourteenth century, and the structure looked like it was
about to collapse.
“While the couple took endless pictures of a horse
statue, I walked around the building, and I saw a gold object
sticking out from under a pile of leaves. I moved the leaves
from it and picked up the beautiful handheld mirror.”
Adelyn paused the video and looked at the duffel bag
on the floor with the mirror in it, but she didn’t want to get
out of bed, so she resumed the video.
“I’m too lazy to show you the mirror, so I’ll describe it
the best I can, and I’ll show it to you later.” Adelyn pictured
it in her mind and continued. “It’s a gold oval-shaped mirror
with a crack in the middle. The antique patina, tells me it’s
centuries-old, and the red gem on its handle is breathtaking.
I’m sure it’s worth a lot of money.
“Anyway, as I looked at myself in the mirror, my skin
was flawless, and the scar on my chin disappeared right
before my eyes. I thought it was cool, but I knew it was
wrong to steal. I went to put it back, but something inside of
