HEX

by Stacy Charasidis

  Bill just nodded.

  “Only certain families were targeted—town council families. Claire put together a list.” John Barrington’s wife was extremely resourceful and efficient.

  “So the cursed families have been marked,” Bill Farmer said slowly.

  “So it would appear,” John agreed. “Except for one family, the Crofts. They were marked, but I’m not sure why.”

  “I heard Heimler wants to publish the names of the families,” Daniel Smith said worriedly.

  “That’s not going to happen. Claire has spoken to all the parties in question and they’ve told Heimler to keep their names out of the paper.”

  “Except for Eric’s,” Daniel reminded them snidely. Eric gave him the finger.

  “Heimler must have been mad,” Noah said with a smile.

  “If he was, he didn’t show Claire,” John said with a satisfied smile. “He wouldn’t dare.”

  They all laughed and nodded.

  “That won’t stop any gossip,” Eric said gloomily. Ye Ole Sweete Shoppe was a gossip haven for the town’s youth, particularly girls. He shuddered.

  Daniel eyed John. “That Kellar girl is involved somehow. She has to be. We’ll need to keep an eye on her, John.”

  “I’ve got that base covered. My son Luke is dating her.”

  “Anyone else picking up on this? Local folklore fanatics playing connect-the-hex dots?” Daniel asked.

  Eric snorted. “Are you kidding? I can’t believe it myself. The only one who would believe this is Xander, and he’s a fool. This is the twenty-first century for God’s sake!” he said angrily.

  Noah was the voice of reason. “Without The Circle’s book or Jacob’s diary there’s no way to connect the dots. The true nature of the windmill has never been common knowledge, the blood markings look like vandalism…”

  John cleared his throat. “So…the question now is, do we paint the barns?”

  “This is ridiculous,” Eric said with exasperation. “We’re grown men! Now we believe in witches and fairytales?”

  “It does seem like an old wives’ tale,” Daniel said dubiously. “What can paint and a symbol do?”

  “The Circle’s book says otherwise,” John replied, shaking his head. “Remember, they thought the curse would come true in their lifetime. They prepared for it. These sigils are part of the town’s defense.”

  “Defense against what? A ghost?” Daniel said incredulously.

  “Why don’t you just explain what the symbols do,” Noah suggested calmly.

  John nodded and took out the book. He held it gently. “Apparently, the spell is some sort of seal,” John said, paging through the old journal. “Ah, here…” he muttered.

  “The spelle must be caste through the sigils painted on the red barns to seale the town’s energie and bind the evil one to his cage.”

  “If it actually works…I can’t believe I’m talking about this. I feel like a teenage girl,” Eric said sulkily.

  “Eric, stop your bellyaching,” Bill said mildly.

  “I don’t agree with doing this,” he said.

  “Perhaps we need a few more signs before we take that step,” Noah said cautiously.

  “Even though we have a dead cow and blood markings?” John pointed out.

  “I agree with the boys,” said Daniel. “It’s just too unbelievable.”

  John was uneasy, but this was a democracy. “I disagree, but majority rules. We wait,” John affirmed. “Meeting adjourned.”

  Tuesday, August 6

  Nathalie’s Journal – Entry for Tuesday, August 6

  Dean and I didn’t end up riding today. Dean was sent to a client with an urgent order and wouldn’t be back until evening, so I spent the day working quietly at my desk. Unfortunately, Beth was in and she was in a rotten mood. I encountered her in the bathroom mid-morning. Beth was furiously brushing her hair and it was wispy and flyaway, the static making it stick to her forehead and face. Her normal pale face was flushed pink. She called me an “amoral slut,” and the astonishment on my face was evident as the crazy person picked up all her hair and put it in her pocket, even though there was a perfectly good garbage nearby. I could only stare at her in outrage as she flounced out of the washroom. At first I wondered if she had been in the woods yesterday, spying on me and Dean, but that just isn’t possible. I mean, even she’s not that creepy. Is she? I tried to find her later to confront her, but she had disappeared for the day.

  After dinner I walked to the fairgrounds to look around. I hadn’t had the chance to check out all the stalls yet. The regular tables were there. Clara had her crystals and crafts table. She waved at me as I walked by. I was tempted to stop and ask her what she knew about Beth, but I didn’t want to bother her. Clara was busy so I made a note to catch her another time to talk about her tenant, and suggest eviction!

  There are a lot of strange, new vendors this year. One stall had gorgeous glowing gems and stones that seemed to be filled with an inner fire. They came in all colours and sizes. Another stall was filled with different vials claiming to be love potions or cures for different things like warts or spots. Spots…and I thought about my freckles for an instant, but then, nah.

  I had moved to the next stall filled with colourful scarves edged with tiny silver bells when I saw Sadie Kellar walk by the vial stall and stop. The girl running the stall was tall and very lithe with beautiful white gold hair, pale skin, and large green eyes—obviously not from around here. She nodded respectfully at Sadie who was frowning slightly as she looked at the merchandise. She touched a couple of the vials, inclined her head once to the girl, and then moved on. She didn’t see me at the scarf stall. The girl looked at her like she’d seen a ghost. It was such an odd reaction. I was going to shout out to Sadie, but something stopped me. I don’t know why but I didn’t feel it was a good time to stop her. The same negative feelings I had experienced last Sunday, as I watched Sadie from the salon, overwhelmed me.

  Good thing because just then I saw Ella, Dean’s younger sister, arrive at the stall. She looked around and then paid for what I’m pretty sure was a love potion, if the red heart on the vial was any indication. Sadie forgotten, I raised my eyebrows in curiosity and drifted over.

  “Hey Ella,” I said casually. “The stuff here is pretty neat, huh?”

  “What?” She looked startled. “Oh, hey Nathalie. Yeah, yeah, great stuff. Very different from other years.” Ella was casually putting her purchase in her pocket. I didn’t let her get away with it.

  “What did you buy?” I asked her interestedly.

  Ella sighed. She never got away with anything while I was around even though she tried very hard.

  “I just bought a potion,” she whispered defensively, her face red.

  “REALLY? What kind of potion?” I asked expectantly, staring at the front pocket of her shirt.

  “Purchases are confidential, you know,” the shop girl said, butting in.

  I ignored her.

  Ella scowled and lowered her voice even more. “It’s just a silly love potion,” she hissed.

  “A what??” I exclaimed loudly. The din at the fair was unbelievable. Ella was mortified and looked around to see who had heard. The girl at the stall looked at me disapprovingly and “tsked.”

  “Oh, mind your own business,” I grumbled to her.

  “You should too,” Ella said stubbornly. I pulled Ella away from the stall girl’s now interested expression and prying ears.

  “Ella, I’m like your sister, so I’m not going to mind my own business,” I said sternly. “So who’s it for?”

  “Not telling.”

  “Come on!”

  “No!”

  Oh for God’s sake… “Fine! But hear me out. You realize love isn’t real unless it’s given freely, right?”

  “What? Bollocks,” Ella snorted.

  Did I hear that right? “What?”

  “Sorry, bullshit.”

  I frowned at her. “Watch your language, young lady.
”

  Ella’s eyebrows went up a bit at that. “I am not talking about this with you.”

  “Look, you can’t force someone to fall in love with you. They have to use their own free will and choose. Haven’t you read ‘The Chaser’ by John Collier in school yet??” I thought they had. It was a great short story, and it was used by our ninth grade English teacher to illustrate the negative effects of obsession to Barrington teens—not that anyone paid any attention. Case in point right in front of me.

  Ella’s face was set. “Trust me, I won’t need five thousand dollars later. Anyway, it’s worth a try. Not all of us are lucky enough to have, well, our love…love us back, like Dean loves you.”

  My heart stopped for a brief second and I flushed. Dean loves me. “True, but it took me a while to figure it out. He didn’t force me. It was much more fun the other way, even for him!”

  “HE doesn’t see me that way!” she wailed. “To him I’m just another boy.”

  Now I knew who the potion was for.

  “Things change, Ella. Maybe you’ve never given him any idea you like him more than a best friend.” I smiled at her happily. “Look at what happened with me and Dean. Give that a try first before you POISON HIM,” I said loudly, putting my arm around her and squeezing.

  “I heard that!” the stall girl yelled. “It’s not poison!”

  Ella didn’t look completely convinced, but I knew she would think about it more before doing anything stupid.

  “I’ll wait a bit, but I don’t think it’s the same with me and Max. Dean has loved you since the day he met you. Nothing has changed recently, at least not for him.” Ella then turned and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me pondering her words.

  Dean loved me. He’s always loved me. I loved him too but only recently realized it in the romantic sense. How did he stand it? The uncertainty? I could have dated other boys. I’m obviously not that observant.

  I brought myself back to earth and headed to the potions stall. The girl looked at me balefully.

  “Did you know the black haired girl that went by your stall about ten minutes ago?” I asked curiously.

  “None of your business,” she said with a satisfied smirk.

  I obviously burned that bridge.

  Thinking about Dean and lost in thought I drifted through the fair. I passed Wayman’s stall and saw he was busy with a bunch of excited kids in thrall over the horses. He seemed larger than life as he lifted up the small kids with his huge hands. I noticed that Pain was not trying to bite them. He must save that endearing trait for Dean alone.

  It was getting dark and the fairgrounds were lit up with lanterns that were strung from stall to stall. Behind the stalls, in the woods surrounding the fairgrounds, white twinkle lights had been strung through the trees, making the whole area magical and romantic. I wished Dean were here with me, holding my hand, so we could enjoy this together.

  I was passing by an herb and amulet stall when the woman at the stall called to me. She knew my name. I stopped and looked at her curiously. I didn’t know her, but she was smiling in such a friendly and welcoming way that I was drawn to her immediately.

  “I’m sorry, do I know you?” I asked her shyly. I didn’t really know what to say. She was breathtakingly beautiful in an unusual and intimidating way. She was tall with the lean muscularness of a female Amazon warrior from the myths. Her hair was a long wavy white-blond that reached her hips. High cheekbones and a pixie chin framed eyes that were an icy blue, but not cold. Right now they were warm and interested as they looked at me.

  “Sorry to startle you,” she smiled. I could swear she was glowing in some way. Must be the lanterns. “Wayman told me your name.”

  I blushed a little at that and tried to act nonchalant, not because Wayman remembered me, but because the memory of me and Dean on his horse had leaped into my mind. She was smiling at me and told me her name was Taline. She sold herbs and special jewelry.

  Taline has a very interesting stall. It’s shaped like a miniature stable, about six feet wide and eight feet deep. The back wall is built like a bookshelf and in each nook are glowing stones that flickered different colours. They were all different shapes; stars, hearts and moons in gorgeous shades of red, green, and yellows. She had them in all sizes, like small pendants for necklaces or bracelets that were all piled together in baskets that overflowed. She had all types of jewelry; brooches, earrings, and bracelets. The bigger stones had been made into figurines; fairies, toadstools, and beautiful flowers. Their colours blended together so well they almost looked real. They were all stunning. At the front of the stall was a table filled with jars of herbs, spices, and dried flowers.

  “Aren’t you dating the tall, handsome young man with the dark hair and really pale skin? His name is Dean, isn’t it?” she asked casually as she wrapped twine around a bunch of herbs that looked like parsley, in preparation for drying.

  “Yes, he’s my boyfriend,” I told her proudly. (I still get a thrill saying that.)

  Taline smiled. “Love is a wonderful thing,” she said lightly, looking towards the stable where Wayman was tossing little kids into the hay. I could see Pleasure bumping into him playfully as he did so. I had to laugh, and so did Taline.

  She looked back at me again. “It can also be destructive. There are many types of love, and not all of them are the giving type. It’s a very powerful emotion that should not be underestimated.”

  “So I’m discovering,” I murmured, my eyes taking in all the merchandise she had for sale. “So, what are all these herbs for?” I asked, looking at the array of beautifully decorated jars and tied bunches.

  “Herbs have different, and multiple, uses,” Taline explained. “You cook with some,” she said and pointed to the parsley she had wrapped into a tidy bunch, “but combined with other herbs and things, they can also be used to invoke spells of protection, healing, love, and things like that.”

  “Spells?” I thought that was weird—another person talking about spells and magic, like Beth.

  “Yes, well, if you know the lore of it,” Taline said simply, her hands moving to another bunch of plants I couldn’t identify.

  I took a better look at her and noticed that she was very much like Wayman in that she was different from the Barrington townsfolk. Taller, unearthly beautiful, with a kind of glow around her. I noticed there were a lot of folks like that at the fair this year. I felt as if something wasn’t exactly right, but I wasn’t getting any threatening feelings from her. In fact, it was the opposite. I felt safe, like she would protect me if anything were to try and attack.

  “Is this ‘lore’ something you learned from your mom?” I asked her, fingering a bunch of dried flowers that were labeled hoar’s bane and smelled like skunk.

  “Yes,” she said simply.

  “I would have thought ‘spell casting’ would be a lost art,” I said casually. Especially since it isn’t real, I thought.

  “For the most part it is, but it’s also not something you advertise, especially in a witch hunters’ town,” she said wryly.

  I laughed. “Is that what outsiders think we are?”

  “For the most part.”

  “Where do you come from?” I asked her.

  “From far away,” she said with a sigh and turned to the back of her stall and began rummaging through a basket with different necklace charms in it. She selected one, took it out, and threaded two leather cords through the loops at the top. She brought the pendant over and placed it in the palm of her hand to show it to me. It wasn’t one pendant but two, intertwined so skillfully it looked like one whole piece. It was an amber heart, but cut in relief in the middle were a man and a woman so intertwined that from a certain angle, they looked like one person. It was beautiful.

  “A gift for you and your handsome young man,” Taline said, placing the pendant in my hand and closing my fingers over it. “It comes apart. He wears one piece and you wear the other, symbolizing that you carry his heart and he carries yours.
”

  “So, he wears the female figurine?” I asked and then realized what a stupid question that was. I carefully clicked the figures apart. They started to look lonely. Cool!

  Taline laughed. “Yes, you big goose. The female figure represents you.” She laughed again and shook her head. She pointed to the male figurine. You wear him near your heart. The cord is adjustable,” she said, showing me how to lengthen and shorten the leather.

  In my delight I didn’t really think about the value of the item she had handed me. “I can’t take this,” I said, coming to my senses. The amber was flawless and the figures so perfectly sculpted, the labour alone to shape this must have been extensive. “It’s priceless!”

  “Nothing’s priceless. It’s just stone,” Taline said.

  “Still…”

  “You can accept it and you will,” Taline said firmly, closing my fingers around it.

  “Can I do something to repay you?” I asked. I really wanted the pendant. It was warm in my hand and the figures seemed to be writhing in an effort to be one again. I opened my fingers and snapped them back together and a sense of calmness returned. They were us, Dean and me, struggling to be alone together. I flushed at my one-track mind. Luckily I could blame the August heat for my red face.

  Taline looked at me speculatively. “You know, it gets pretty busy here. I’d love to have some help with the herbs. At the same time, I could teach you the herb lore I know.” She pointed behind her and I could see a huge barrel of wild plants ready for sorting and drying.

  “Well, sure,” I said happily. “I’d love to.”

  After chatting with Taline for a bit, I walked over to the huge bake table set up by the Baker family. They run the main bakery in town, The Royal Crust, where the town buys their bread. Living in a small town was interesting. Because of the bakery, Mr. Farmer, the grocer, did not sell bread or sweets from outside of Barrington, only products you couldn’t buy at the bakery.