If the Broom Fits

by Sara Bourgeois

  “I’m going to take Ms. Driggs into custody now,” he said curtly. “I hope the three of you can stay out of trouble for the rest of the night.”

  When he was gone, I invited Annika and Remy to stay in the guest rooms. I hadn’t really done anything with them yet, but it appeared that the house had taken care of that for me.

  We were up until almost dawn waiting for the adrenaline to wear off. I began to worry that Hattie would escape Thorn’s custody.

  “No, she won’t be able to get away. Thorn can arrest witches who break the law and hold them because he’s under a powerful protection spell cast by the law-abiding witches in Coventry. It gives him the unconscious ability to nullify their harmful magic and arrest the resistors. But, he’s not a witch and has no idea he’s been given that power,” Remy said when I expressed my concerns.

  “This wasn’t exactly the best introduction to our little town, but are you going to stay in Coventry?” Annika asked.

  “I was just planning on staying here long enough to fix up the place and sell it, but how could I walk away from my legacy and my potential power?” I said. “Plus, who would leave friends like you guys and Meri?”

  Meri purred when I included him and rubbed him between the ears. He was kind of a snarky little beast, but at least he was being nice when I needed him the most.

  I was a little worried about how Amelda would react to the news that I had no intention of leaving. More than that, I was concerned about how Thorn was going to take it. The look on his face when he’d left earlier told me he wasn’t exactly thrilled with me, and we’d barely gotten along during our interactions. Add to that was the fact that he probably thought I was nuts.

  But, why did I care? It wasn’t like we had to be friends. We just had to find a way to make peace with each other. Plus, it wasn’t like I was going to be involved in another murder mystery…

  Epilogue

  I’d finally drifted off to sleep on the sofa. Despite me offering the guest rooms to Remy and Annika, they were asleep in their sleeping bags on the floor.

  The scratching noise had returned, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I’d assumed that the incident I’d bad before was either a nightmare or Hattie messing with me.

  But, as my eyes came into focus, I saw the woman in the white gown again. She was scratching on the front door, and then she drifted through it.

  I stood up and padded my way quietly to the front door so as not to wake Meri, Remy, and Annika. As I closed the front door behind me, I saw her standing in the front yard, then she drifted across the street to a field on the other side of the road. There was a low fence, but I easily stepped over it.

  The area was a small section of forest between my neighborhood and the main part of town. I’d seen it every time I came out of the house, but until then, I’d never given it any thought. As the woman in white disappeared deeper into the trees, I felt compelled to follow her.

  Something hard on the ground caught my foot, and I fell down to my knees. When I looked back to see what had tripped me, I found the bottom portion of a gravestone that had broken off some time in the distant past. My eyes scanned the area, and I saw that there were more headstones. Some of them were broken, but others were just obscured by weeds and vines. I’d stumbled into some sort of unmarked cemetery.

  The woman in white was gone, but the wind began to pick up. It rose until it was nearly a deafening howl. Black mist began to rise up from the graves, and the smell of roses filled my nostrils. I had to cover my ears because the wind became so loud that it made my head pound.

  I turned and ran out of the forest area. I’d thought I was only in the cemetery for a minute or two, but as I climbed the fence and crossed the street, it occurred to me that the sun was breaking the horizon. Somehow, it was morning.

  And in my driveway was Thorn’s cruiser. He was sitting on my porch.

  “What were you doing in there?” he said looking me over. I must have been a mess with windblown hair and dirt on the knees of my pajamas.

  “Thought I saw a dog run in there,” I said quickly.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, and I saw something that looked like genuine concern and affection on his face. It caught me off guard again when he brushed some of my hair away from my face.

  “I’m okay. But, I should ask you why you’re on my porch at the crack of dawn.”

  He pressed his lips together in a line for a moment. “That’s why I’m here. I wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” he said and took a step closer to me. “I don’t know what it is about you, Brighton. The hair. Your energy. All of it… It intrigues me in a way I didn’t expect.”

  “Oh,” I said and swallowed the nervous lump in my throat.

  “Does that bother you?”

  “No,” I said, but then I got this weird feeling of discomfort.

  It was like I was worried that Remy might be watching. And, I suddenly didn’t know if I cared if Remy was watching or not because why would I care about that? It wasn’t like I liked Remy, was it?

  All of that was running through my mind as Thorn leaned in. He moved his hand under my chin and tipped my face up. “I want to kiss you,” he said, but then he lingered there for what felt like an eternity. When he didn’t move the rest of the way in, I bit my bottom lip in anticipation.

  I nodded my head yes, because Thorn had successfully drawn my attention completely to him. I wanted him to kiss me too, and I’d figure out the rest later.

  A nano second before his lips touched mine, his radio squawked, and I jumped back a foot. There was a fight at the tavern.

  “I have to go,” he said. “Another time?”

  “Another time,” I confirmed.

  But, as I went back into the house and saw Remy asleep on my living room floor, I found myself happier than I expected that we’d been interrupted. His eyes opened as I made my way toward the kitchen.

  “Coffee?” I whispered.

  “Yes please,” he whispered back.

  He pulled himself up off the floor and followed me into the kitchen quietly. I put the coffee on and got a couple of cups from the cabinet.

  “An interesting night,” I said absentmindedly.

  “Yeah,” he answered. “So, what were you doing outside?”

  “Oh that? Well, this house is haunted, and I followed a ghost across the street to a haunted cemetery.”

  “Really?” He perked up. “I’d heard rumors that there was a secret graveyard in Coventry, but I’ve never been able to find it. Figures it’s across the street from your house.”

  “I don’t really want to go back there alone, but do you want to go check it out when we’re done with our coffee?” I asked.

  “That would be awesome,” he said, and then that endearing blush crept across his cheeks again.

  “It’s a date.”

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  © Sara Bourgeois 2019

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is a coincidence.