Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance)

by S. J. West

  I looked toward the fire pit and saw the woman the voice belonged to. She was tall with short blonde hair and wore a skin tight red dress. Her heals were so high I imagined myself trying to walk in them and quickly visualized me tripping and breaking my neck.

  “Hello Izzi,” Brand called back to the woman. He took my hand and escorted me back to greet his new guest. “I see you got my message.”

  “Yes,” she said as we came to stand on the other side of the fire pit from her. “I came as soon as I could.”

  I could feel Izzi’s eyes on me. They traveled from my shoes to my hair in a quick, appraising way which made me feel like I was being judged. I felt uncomfortable under her scrutiny especially since I was only dressed in blue jeans, sneakers and a button down shirt.

  “Lilly, Izzi and I have some business we need to discuss. Would you mind waiting in the house while we talk?”

  “Actually, I think I should get home.”

  “All right.”

  I was a little disappointed Brand didn’t put up more of a fight to make me stay, but I didn’t feel comfortable waiting in the house while he talked to Ms. Playmate of the Year either.

  Brand walked me to my car and promised to call me the next day to see if I was free for another date. I started my car and drove off wondering what type of business Brand would have with someone like Izzi.

  It’s never a good sign when your car radio shuts off all by itself and your lights start to blink off and on. I had just enough time to pull off to the side of the dirt road before the car completely died underneath me. Cursing under my breath, I got out of the car and tried to decide which way to walk. Looking around, I could see lights shimmering through the pine trees not far from where I stood. It had to be Abby’s house.

  It was pitch black outside. After a bit of stumbling around in the dark, I finally made it to her front door. I could hear the melody of classical music playing inside. I knocked on the wooden front door and waited for an answer. When none came, I peered inside one of the windows to see if I could see her. Not seeing anyone, I tested the door and found it to be unlocked. Crossing the threshold tentatively, I called out, “Abby!”

  The music was much louder inside the house. The interior of Abby’s home was just like her: open and full of cheer. They had put up dry wall on the inside which was painted beige. The furnishings were completely fitting of an old style country home with pink gingham and white being the main colors used. The ceiling appeared to be the original roof of the barn but it had been stained and varnished to a glossy shine. There was a black iron circular staircase which connected the first floor to the second landing. I could see the loft area since no walls had been erected on the second floor to hide it from the first. It looked like it was Abby’s bedroom.

  I’m not sure what music was playing throughout the house but it was so beautiful it completely put me at ease. I still couldn’t see Abby anywhere but I did see what looked like a set of stairs leading to a basement. It was probably where she was since she hadn’t heard my knock or calling of her name.

  I walked over to the head of the stairs which were just off the kitchen area. I was about to head down them when I heard what sounded like a growl. It wasn’t like a dog’s growl exactly but more like what I would imagine a bear making. The next thing I heard were a pair of feet running on the basement floor in my direction. Within just a few moments, I saw Rose Marie run up the stairs towards me like a bat out of hell.

  “What are you doing here?” She demanded gruffly.

  I was a bit taken aback by her tone. Had I done something wrong?

  “I was just looking for Abby,” I said trying to justify my barging in without being invited. It certainly wasn’t something I would normally do but this was an emergency. “My car broke down. I was hoping she could help me out.”

  Rose Marie took me roughly by the arm and practically dragged me to the door. “I’ll call Mister Cole and tell him to come get you. You should just wait by your car.”

  Before I could say anything else, I was rudely deposited on Abby’s porch with the door slammed shut behind me.

  What the hell had just happened? Why had Rose Marie been so rude and what the hell had made that animal noise in Abby’s basement?

  I stumbled back to my car and waited for Brand. It only took a few minutes before I saw the lights of his Porsche come barreling down the road.

  “Hey,” he said, “what happened?”

  I told him the symptoms of my car trouble.

  “Probably the alternator,” he predicted. “Come on, I’ll drive you home. Carl can fix almost anything. I’ll have him look at it in the morning.”

  I climbed into his car. When we got to the end of his driveway and merged onto the highway, he turned to me and asked, “Is something else wrong? You’re awfully quiet.”

  “I think I did something I wasn’t supposed to,” I admitted. “Rose Marie was really mad when she saw me inside Abby’s house.”

  “Don’t worry. You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said reassuringly. “You did what any normal person would do in your situation.”

  I sat silently for a moment, unsure if I should ask my next question. But, curiosity got the best of me.

  “Does Abby keep a bear in the basement?”

  Brand chuckled. “A bear? Why would you ask that?”

  “I heard something that sounded like a bear down there.”

  “It was probably just the TV. She has a projection TV down there.”

  “Oh.” I sensed Brand was holding something back from me but I didn’t want to push the matter any further. I had been the one trespassing in someone else’s home after all.

  “I didn’t see Abby. Where was she?”

  “Probably out skinny dipping in the lake, she likes doing that sort of thing.”

  I don’t know why, but I had the feeling I was being lied to just then. I didn’t like it.

  When we pulled up in front of my apartment, Brand turned to me and handed me something black and thin.

  “Would you mind taking this so I can reach you more easily? I don’t think campus security appreciated me using them as my personal messenger service the other day, and I would feel a lot better if you had a way to contact someone if you ever have car trouble again.”

  I looked at the phone in my hands.

  “I can’t take this. It’s too expensive.” I handed the phone back.

  “Please, Lilly. It would put my mind at ease knowing you have it.”

  “Well at least let me pay for the monthly bill. I can do that much.”

  “Ok, it’s $15 a month.”

  “There’s no way it’s that cheap. I priced these things before I started school. It’s at least $70 a month.”

  “For the first phone yes, but this is like the fifth phone on my plan and it’s only $15 a month.”

  “All right, if that’s all you’re going to let me pay, at least it’s something.”

  I felt funny taking a phone from Brand, but I couldn’t deny it would make me feel safer to have a way to contact people in case of an emergency, like tonight.

  “I’ve already programmed my home and cell phone numbers in there for you.”

  “Thanks.” When I glanced at the window of my apartment, I saw Tara standing there yawning, watching us.

  “There’s Tara. I better go in and let her know what’s going on. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Carl will probably have your car diagnosed by morning” he said as I got out of the car.

  I told him I would call when I got up the next day.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning we received a phone call from Utha Mae which made both Tara and I feel guilty for not calling her our first week away from home. Not to say Utha Mae relied on us exclusively for company. She was very active in her church with her quilting club, bible study, and weekly visitation schedule. Even though Tara and I weren’t her biological children, she still treated us like we were her kids.

  She aske
d if we had time to come to an early dinner the next day after her church services were over. Utha Mae’s church was notorious for going at least three hours with their Sunday services. I’d been a few times and always found them to be more fun than the church my mother would go to when the mood struck her to get more religious.

  We told Utha Mae we would be there. Tara blurted out I had a new boyfriend and of course Utha Mae said we better bring him along too. I tried to tell her we’d only gone out a few times but she said it didn’t matter. If I was going to be spending time with someone new, she needed to meet him. I didn’t try to argue with her. Mostly because you just didn’t argue with Utha Mae. She always got her way eventually.

  Tara ended up guilting me into going shopping with her that day instead of spending more time with Brand.

  “You’ve practically spent all week with the man. Anyway, there’s this guy named Simon in my college algebra class I’m interested in. I need to go get an outfit that screams ‘Hey fool, look at me’!”

  I called Brand and told him I was going to spend the day with Tara but that my night was free. He told me Carl had looked at my car that morning and thought he could have it fixed for me by evening. I asked him how much it was going to cost but he told me not to worry about. I insisted on paying something.

  “At least let me pay for the parts,” I said, not liking the thought of Brand paying to fix my car.

  “Listen, if you want to pay me back, make me supper tonight.”

  “I think money would be better,” I tried to convince him. “My cooking has been compared to torture, by more than one person I might add.”

  I could hear the laughter under his voice when he asked me what time to come over. I told him 6pm would be fine and warned him he might want to stop by McDonald’s on the way over just for a back up plan.

  When I told Tara Brand requested I cook him dinner, I thought she was going to have a seizure as hard as she laughed, but she promised to help me out. I intended to keep her to that promise.

  Shopping with Tara is almost always the same. She always gravitates toward tank tops and shorts during the summer and sweats in the winter. So, I was completely surprised when she wanted to pick up a couple of dresses.

  “This guy must be something special for you to willingly wear a dress.”

  I could well remember Utha Mae practically having to hogtie Tara just to get a dress over her head on Sunday mornings when we were children. Once she got older, Utha Mae just used guilt to get her to dress properly for the Lord.

  “Simon’s real conservative,” Tara said searching through dresses on the sales rack. “That’s one reason I needed your help. You the straightest white girl I know.”

  I couldn’t argue with her. I was pretty conservative. I think it’s because my mom was always so liberal and wild. I guess, if I were being honest, I didn’t want to be anything like her. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother to death. But, her life choices were not ones I intended to make for myself.

  After about an hour, we finally settled on a couple of dresses. One was a cute black and white plaid dress with one inch black straps on the shoulders and black button closures that could be worn in the summer without a shirt and in the winter with a shirt. We also found a cute shirt, skirt and jacket ensemble that she could wear in either summer or winter.

  When we were finished with our shopping, we went to the food court and got something to eat. After we sat down, I looked up and saw Michelle waving to us from the other end of the food court. I motioned for her to come join us before I saw she was with Nora. By then it was too late to take back the invitation.

  “Hey!” Michelle said enthusiastically, setting her tray of Chinese food down as she sat across from me.

  “Hey,” Nora said not as enthusiastically. She evidently didn’t want to be sitting with Tara and me. I can’t say I blamed her. After her little spat with Tara in class Friday, I wouldn’t want to be around us either. I just hoped she didn’t ask about Brand over lunch and cause another ‘earrings’ fiasco.

  “What did y’all buy?” Michelle asked pointing to the dress bags lying across the back of Tara’s chair.

  “Just some dresses,” Tara told Michelle. I could tell Tara was trying to ignore Nora’s presence as much as she could.

  “Yeah, we’re here to buy an outfit for my date tonight,” Nora informed us smugly.

  “Oh?” I asked, intrigued to know who it was with. To be honest, I wanted to know if she had asked Will out again. “Anyone we know?”

  “I don’t think so. He’s in my chemistry class. Elliot Manning?”

  “No, I don’t recognize the name,” I confessed, relived she hadn’t said Will. Though, why I cared I don’t know. It wasn’t any of my business who either of them dated.

  It made me think back to the question Brand asked me concerning my feelings for Will. If I didn’t care at all, why did I care so much that he not date someone like Nora? Was it just a friend looking out for another friend’s best interest or was it jealousy? I couldn’t decide which side of the fence I was really on.

  “I think there’s a guy that’s gonna ask me out soon too,” Michelle said shyly.

  “What would make you think that?” Nora’s voice couldn’t have been filled with more disbelief.

  I wanted to slap Nora so hard she might have lost a tooth or two.

  “Well, he talked to me the other day in class and was real interested in how my day was going.”

  “I’m sure he’s just waiting to get to know you a bit better, hon,” Tara reassured Michelle as she glared Nora down, as if challenging her to say anything different.

  “Yeah, I think he’s shy like me. He sort of pretends he’s interested in this other girl, but I think he just doesn’t want to scare me off because he knows how shy I am. He’s super sweet.”

  “Well,” I said. “I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he makes his feelings known. Some guys like to play it cool for a while so it doesn’t seem like their desperate.”

  “Oh, I know. I’m not too worried about it,” Michelle said with a confidence I hadn’t seen in her before.

  Thankfully, Nora didn’t want to be around us anymore than we wanted to be around her. She drug Michelle to a nearby dress shop, and Tara and I went grocery shopping for my foolhardy attempt to make dinner.

  Tara and I agreed I should keep the meal simple: pork chops, mac and cheese, and Jiffy cornbread. I bought some pre-made sweet tea since I could never get my tea quite right. It was always either too sweet or not sweet enough.

  We got home at around three and I decided to take a short nap before I needed to start cooking.

  At around four-thirty Tara barged into my room and started bouncing on the bed.

  “Get up, get up!”

  “Good grief, woman. Stop jumping on my bed,” I grumbled, burying my head underneath my pillow.

  “Nope, cause I got news that deserves a bit of jumping on the bed!” She said making me sick to my stomach with the bouncing and snatching the pillow I was hiding behind from my hands.

  “Well are you going to tell me or make me take a wild guess?”

  “Nope, I don’t have time to play games. Simon just asked me out!”

  “The Simon? The one from your college algebra class?”

  “Yep. And he’s taking me out tonight! He’s picking me up in an hour.”

  It was then my heart sank. “But you were going to help me cook Brand dinner.”

  Tara just waved her hands in the air like there was nothing to worry about. “I’ll help you before I go and leave you directions on what to do before he gets here. Anyways, y’all can have some alone time without me cramping your style,” she said with a suggestive lift of her eyebrows. “I assume y’all didn’t kiss last night ‘cause I didn’t get any play by play when you got home.”

  “No, we haven’t kissed on the lips yet.”

  “What’s the hold up, girl? You ain’t kissed a boy since Will and if there’s anyone in this wor
ld that needs kissin’, it’s you.”

  I shrugged. “Just haven’t had the right moment. I’m not in any rush.”

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with Will does it?”

  “No,” I said, not completely sure that was the right answer. “It just hasn’t been the right time yet. The first date ended with that plane crash and the second date ended with my car dieing on me. Not the most romantic of situations.”

  “That’s true. Y’all been a bit unlucky this week.” Tara slapped me on the arm and said, “Maybe tonight you’ll get some lip action.” To which Tara started making kissy faces and mimicking me saying “Oh, Brand.”

  I just rolled my eyes and pushed her off my bed with my feet ordering her to get her butt in the kitchen so she could help me start supper.

  Tara gave me the basic directions and told me to read the directions on the boxes if I had any other questions.

  While she was in the shower, I lathered the pork chops with Lawry’s seasoning salt. I wasn’t sure I was putting enough on so I made sure to coat them a few times. I put them in the oven like she said and started to boil water for the mac and cheese. By the time she got out of the shower, it was a little after five and she told me to mix up the cornbread. I mixed it and stuck it in a pie pan. After placing it in the oven with the pork chops, the water was boiling for the mac and cheese so I dumped the pasta in the water.

  Tara came out of her bedroom all gussied up in the plaid dress we had bought her. At exactly 5:30pm Simon knocked on the door.

  I went to open it and invite him in so Tara could make her grand entrance from the back of the apartment.

  Simon was tall, like basketball player tall. He was dressed in a white polo shirt and khaki slacks with penny loafers on his feet. He reminded me of someone who might belong to the junior republican club. I was completely at a loss why Tara was so excited to be going out with him. Not that Simon wasn’t cute but she tended to like the wild boys. Simon was a complete opposite to her usual dates.

  Before Tara left she told me to make sure I kept things in the oven until Brand came over so they wouldn’t get cold. I told her not to worry, I had things under control. I soon learned that was that a mistake.