It was light as a spider’s web and had recurring rhinestones across the band that held it invisibly in place.
“It’s perfect!”
Heather gave a gigantic smile. “I think so too. The high heels I picked out match. And, I found the bridesmaid’s dresses. Come see.”
Heather led Michelle out of the bedroom to the living room and showed her a bridal magazine, flipping to the page she had bookmarked.
“I didn’t want flouncy. Everyone hates that. And I didn’t want pastel,” Heather said, showing Michelle the picture of the dresses the bridesmaids would wear. They were strapless and figure hugging to the knees in a dull brushed satin material. “They’ll all be dark blue, except yours, which will be a deep wine color. I ordered them and all the bridesmaids can have them fitted next week.”
“They’re simple and gorgeous,” Michelle said. She laughed. “Most brides don’t want their bridesmaids to look stunning. You picked friends who are all beautiful models, on top of that. They’ll look so pretty. You really don’t have a jealous bone in your body.”
“Not when it comes to Mike. We’ve been together long enough for me to trust him perfectly.”
“You’re really lucky,” Michelle said.
“Yes, I really am. The wedding is harrowing, though. I keep thinking I’ll forget something important, like deciding on a minister. Neither of us is very religious so I’m interviewing non-demonical ministers now. My parents are handling the all the flower arrangements for the dining tables and everywhere else. The band is all set up for dancing in the ballroom, and I’ll send out invitations soon. I want everyone to have ample notice. Especially the professor,” Heather said, referring to Vincent Middleton, their friend and a professor of the occult.
“It’s sure a big deal,” Michelle said. “There’ll be lots of people flying in from the mainland.”
“I’m getting kind of nervous now.”
“About being married, or about the wedding?”
“The wedding, of course. Mike is perfect for me. I’m sure of that.”
Michelle smiled, remembering all the boyfriends Heather juggled over the years, then dumped carefully and respectfully so as not to hurt their feelings. Michelle had been worried that Heather would never find a man she could really care for and respect.
“Yeah, Mike is ideal for you,” Michelle agreed. “Weddings are a mind-boggling organizational nightmare. But I predict this one will be fun and memorable for everyone.”
As Michelle made that pronouncement, she suddenly felt a cold shudder streak through her body. Like something clammy and soiled had zipped through her, something evil and malevolent. Her vision darkened and she was suddenly nauseous and dizzy. She knew she was having some kind of precognitive premonition. It didn’t feel good, Michelle thought. Not a good omen for Heather’s wedding.
“What just happened? Are you okay?” Heather asked.
“Just got a little woozy,” Michelle said, shaking her head to clear it.
Heather smiled. “Maybe you are pregnant! Sit down. Let me get you a glass of water.”
As Heather hurried into the kitchen, they both heard the key turning in the lock on the front door.
Michelle jumped up and ran for the door. It could only be Mike. He was the only one with a key. Heather was still in her wedding gown.
“Stop him,” Heather called out, from the kitchen. She hid behind the door.
Michelle made it to the front door just as Mike was opening it. She pushed hard against it as it started to open.
“What the hell?” Mike said, still pushing against the door.
“You can’t come in now,” Michelle called out. “Just give us a few minutes.”
She heard laughter from Mike. Then he whispered through the door, “Heather must be in the wedding dress.”
“Shit, you’ve seen it?” Michelle whispered back, watching Heather running to the bedroom to change, the veil flying out behind her.
“No,” Mike said. “But I knew it was in her closet, all covered up.”
“I’ll come back and tell you when you can come in,” Michelle said.
She heard him laughing, “Fine. No rush. It’s only the groom.”
Michelle went to the bedroom. Heather was already dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with thongs on her feet. Her usual everyday dress. She was carefully zipping up the garment bag, covering the dress.
“You forgot the veil,” Michelle said.
Heather snatched it off her head and put it in a box on the top shelf of the closet.
“You can let Mike in,” Heather said.
Michelle went to the front door and opened it. “Safe to come in.”
Now that Mike was here, Michelle thought it was time to leave. Give them a little privacy, she decided. “See you later.”
“Wait. I have something else to tell you,” Heather said. “Your daughters are going to be my Flower Girls.”
Hearing your daughters still boggled Michelle’s mind. Women always know about their own children, because they watched their belly swell, then go through the birth of the child. It was only men who sometimes got the surprising information that they are a father, long after a one night stand, or years after having donated sperm.
Michelle felt that same nasty surreal feeling zip up her spine and through her body. Maybe having the three little girls in the wedding would bring bad luck. Bad luck—or maybe Omar.
“Uh, how did that come about?” Michelle asked.
“I saw Leilanie and the girls in Waikiki and told them about the wedding. Told Leilanie I’d send her an invitation.”
“That’s nice of you,” Michelle murmured.
“We were talking and I just blurted out that everything was done in preparation, except for finding flower girls and a minister. Then Petal wanted to know what a flower girl was. I had to explain. As soon as I did, Shelly, Ivory, and Petal were begging to be my flower girls. And Leilanie said it was okay, so it’s a done deal. They’ll look so cute throwing rose petals from baskets in front of me when I walk down the aisle.”
Michelle thought this was dangerous on so many levels. First, Leilanie was trying to hide, and this was a sunset beach wedding. All the beaches in Hawaii are declared by law to be public, so there would be onlookers coming in from a day in the sun, standing around, watching the ceremony; many people who hadn’t been invited, and who might be in Omar’s witch coven, which was still going strong in Hawaii.
Heather broke into Michelle’s thoughts. “Is this okay for you? I think Leilanie is tired of hiding all the time. She used to have so many friends here.”
Michelle nodded and added a smile she hoped looked genuine. She didn’t want to project any gloom on this special wedding. Everything would probably be okay, she told herself. “It sounds like the girls will be a cute addition.”
Heather nodded. “I think so, too.”
Mike came into the living room with a can of soda from the kitchen. “I’m looking forward to seeing those little girls, although with Omar as the daddy, I’m keeping my distance.”
Both of the women started laughing. “Scared of little four year old girls?” Heather teased.
Mike said, “There are all kinds of legends and scary stories about evil children. They must have some basis in reality. What about ‘The Bad Seed’, or ‘The Omen’, or ‘The Village of the Damned’, or ‘Children of the Corn’? And the very worst one of all, ‘The Exorcist’.”
“Those are just scary movies,” Heather said.
“The Amityville Horror is supposed to be a real accounting,” Mike countered. “And we’ve all seen with our own eyes the scary things that Omar is capable of. The way his eyes turn yellow…”
“You’re creeping me out,” Heather cried. “Omar’s yellow eyes still gives me nightmares.”
Heather and Mike had seen the glowing eyes when Omar planted an exhaustion spell on them while they were in Mexico. Michelle had been able to get rid of that unwholesome spell, and they’d eventually managed t
o flee Omar. But knowing Omar had these black magic gifts changed Heather and Mike forever. Their whole belief system was shattered. This was especially true for Mike. He was a PHD scientist who had always believed in the scientific method and logic for finding truths.
Suddenly their whole world perspective changed. Mike and Heather were thrown into believing in the actual reality of psychic phenomena in their everyday world.
“Michelle has special gifts, too,” Mike added. “I’m just saying that things are not always what they seem. So we should take care.”
“It’s been four years since Omar left Hawaii,” Michelle said. “I want to forget about him. He can’t come to Hawaii without landing in prison. But Mike is right. Omar will eventually try to get his children back.”
Chapter 14
Michelle was really worried about the safety of Leilanie and the girls. They lived in a little home that would be so easy to break into.
She stayed after everyone left her weekly class with Alice Holcum, her Wicca teacher, and told Alice about a family who needed protection from a notorious Necromancer living in France, named Omar Satinov.
“A very bad, dark person,” Alice said, nodding her head. “I know just who you mean. He’s a one-man plague of black magic and death.”
“His former girlfriend ran away with his three children…and they’re here, in Hawaii.”
Alice gave a wicked smile. “She must be a very brave girl. You’re right. They all need protection. I’ll give you the strongest I have, and we’ll have to hope they hold, because that Warlock, Omar, is very powerful.”
Michelle got several special protective spells along with explicit instructions about how to apply them to keep Leilanie and the girls safe.
When she had everything she needed packed up and ready to go, she took a two-hour lunch break from her building management work at Heroshi Corp. and sped across the island to Leilanie’s house.
She couldn’t be objective around these children, she thought as she entered the house. The girls were affectionate, and each time one of them hugged her, her heart squished and she thought, mine! She felt her arms try to clamp closed, needing to hold on forever.
Blood doesn’t lie. These were her babies and she’d spent time visiting often in the last two weeks, just to get in her motherly fix while waiting to find out if she herself was pregnant.
Now the three girls sat on the floor in front of Michelle and Leilanie, who were sitting on the couch in Leilanie’s living room.
Michelle had prepared special amulets for each of the girls, infused magically for protection from evil. Each of the necklaces had a clear round stone on a braided silver chain. They were so pretty the girls eyes widened when she opened the box and uncovered the little necklaces.
“Put it on me!” Shelly said excitedly, waving her little arms in the air for emphasis.
Ivory and Petal repeated their sister’s demands, ‘Put it on! Put it on!’ Michelle locked each one into place around their necks.
Michelle said, “Now, who didn’t get a protective amulet?”
“Mommy!” The three girls shouted in unison.
Michelle laughed and nodded, showing Leilanie the protective necklace she had made just for her.
Leilanie thanked Michelle, clasping her amulet around her neck.
“These necklaces will protect you,” Michelle said. “To make them even stronger, I have a chanting spell. You can repeat the words too.”
The girls and Leilanie were nodding as Michelle spoke the following spell, her arms spread wide, encompassing the girls and Leilanie.
“This amulet is my power to protect against Evil.
No demons or negative entities can pass through it.
I alone determine what is allowed to pass.
No dark entities will pass through my shield.
As I will, so mote it be.”
“Now we need a chant for charging your amulet necklace with great protective power,” Michelle said, and proceeded to chant:
“This necklace is now a shield.
This necklace will protect against anyone or anything that tries to bring harm to the wearer or the location where it is placed.
No harm shall come as long as this necklace remains. No one shall be able to remove the necklace from its place.
Let this necklace remain and protect from this moment on.”
After a moment of silence, the three girls were skipping around the small living room, yelling, “This necklace is now a shield!”
“Gosh, I wish I had that much energy,” Leilanie said, watching the girls.
“Me too,” Michelle said. “I have something else for you…to guard and protect your home.”
Michelle took a large, very heavy, square crystal rock from her purse. She’d found it in a store that sold beautiful, rare rocks and crystals.
“Wow, it’s so pretty,” Leilanie said.
“You can display it on your windowsill, or anywhere you like,” Michelle said.
Leilanie carefully picked up the crystal and went through the living room into the dining room, placing it on the windowsill.
“Now we need salt to infuse it with protection,” Michelle said.
Leilanie got a salt shaker from the table and Michelle told her to apply salt thickly all around the stone in a counterclockwise direction.
As Leilanie sprinkled salt around the stone, Michelle was chanting.
“Salt of earth, Guard this home,
While we’re here, or when we roam,
Keep it safe, and all within,
For good of all, this bond begins,
By my will, with harm to none,
By Earth power, this spell is done!”
Samson, Louise, and Chloe were on surveillance, sitting in a rental car they got at the Honolulu airport, right on the corner of the street where Leilanie lived. It was hot and uncomfortable, and the women were longing to get out soon, or go back to their frigid air-conditioned hotel rooms.
They had pinpointed Leilanie’s home without much trouble the day before, when they had arrived in Hawaii from France. The map Omar gave them showed the general location, and then they spied the three girls and Leilanie while driving around the area. Samson surreptitiously followed them until he saw which home they went into.
Today, after several hot uncomfortable hours in a car baking in the Hawaiian sun, Samson grunted strangely and loudly when he saw Michelle arrive, noting her enthusiastic welcome at the door.
Louise and Chloe gazed at each other, goggle-eyed, trying not to laugh at Samson’s strange guttural outburst when the tall, dark haired women, went inside.
They had never heard a sound from Samson before, so the dark haired woman must have some significance to him.
Samson clumsily texted Omar with his gigantic fat fingers, telling him that Michelle knew all about Leilanie and the girls.
A text came back immediately from Omar: Eyes on the prize. Get Rod first.
Since Samson couldn’t talk, the two French women and he also communicated at times by texting. Both of the women spoke good English. Samson pretty much ignored their complaints; it was hot, they were thirsty, and finally one of them had to pee.
That had to be taken care of, so Samson put the car in gear, thankfully turning on the air conditioner, and drove to a gas station.
Both women took a long time in the bathroom. Then, without even asking him for permission, he watched them saunter into the little retail store connected to the gas station. They came out with snacks and drinks.
He had been told to treat the women like they were royalty, and now that he saw them fanning themselves tiredly, walking back to the sweltering car, he decided they were totally inept. This was serious work; they expected to be on an exotic vacation. His conclusion: they would turn out to be useless.
He drove back to Leilanie’s neighborhood, parked on the corner again, and after a little wait, he saw Michelle leave the house.
After a few minutes, Leilanie and the three girls
came out, dressed in bathing suits with towels draped over their shoulders. Each of the girls was carrying a pail and shovel. Going to the beach.
Samson took off without a word, driving through the streets that led to the beach, abruptly texting the women when he stopped: Get out. Go make friends with Leilanie and the girls when they get here.
Louise and Chloe got out. “Are you just going to leave us here?”
Without answering, Samson left the two women standing forlornly in the dirt and weeds on a bluff above the Kaneohe beach. Tires squealed as he abruptly took off without saying a word about when he would return.
Now that Leilanie had left her home, Samson wanted to go look around inside.
Samson knew enough about surveillance to walk right up to the house, like he was expected. He acted like he was knocking on the door, but he was covertly manipulating a lock pick to get inside. He didn’t want to take a lot of time. Neighbors could be watching.
It was a simple pin-tumbler lock, and didn’t appear forbidding. He got the first pin, four more to go. Then it seemed the pick he was using was covered with grease or something. It kept slipping in his hands.
He thought he had the second pin after jiggling the pick for a while, when the hand holding the pick was shocked, or maybe even bitten. It felt like a hornet bite, or maybe a severe electrical shock.
He nursed his hand against his chest. Damn, it smarted. Samson couldn’t see a biting/stinging insect or anything that could have caused the pain.
On the next try he dropped the tools from his sweating palms. He looked around evasively, hoping no one noticed him pick them up.
Hell with it, Samson thought. He left the porch and walked around the side of the house. Now he found a great place to break in. A side window into the kitchen.
He got the screen off and tried to push the window up. It seemed to be stuck. He couldn’t budge it. In fact, he saw a tiny fissure in the glass where he had been pushing. That slight crack would certainly become a whopping big mess if he tried shoving it any more. He’d break the glass.
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