by Lucy True
“Oh, so I guess you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?” Jenna lifted her chin, which allowed her to look down even more on Burgundy. “That’s always how you are, Burg, so sure you can do anything and don't need help from anyone. That's why I ended our relationship.”
“What?” Burgundy squawked. Her? Never need help from anyone? That was rich, especially considering her inability to do what was expected of her as a witch.
Jenna examined her nails. “But I get it. You don’t need anybody, being a great witch and all. I can dig that. Just trying to help a friend. You can’t blame me for that, especially when I might have information you don’t.”
There it was – the true trap, sprung, and Burgundy toppled into it. “What information?”
“Sorry, Blueberry Head. You know the rules of the game. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
Her ensnaring glamor followed, alluring to all but an immune few. Burgundy couldn’t cast her way out of a paper bag, but at least she didn’t fall prey to the succubus’s charms.
“I showed you mine,” she said, her voice small and wounded. “And all I got in return was heartbreak. So excuse me if I’m not jumping for joy at this little offer of yours. Now, I need to close for the day. We lock up in fifteen minutes.”
Relief washed over her as Jenna turned on her heel and walked out the door. It was a small victory, but as bitterness left an unwelcome tang in her mouth, Burgundy yanked several tissues out of the box on her desk. This wasn’t the way she’d expected to see Jenna again – the blonde in reporter mode, demanding to know what was happening in her hometown. She’d thought they might run into each other on the street and hoped maybe they could have a nice little dinner where they both acknowledged the relationship was over, soothed whatever hard feelings existed between them, and agreed to be friends. Of course, that dinner included Jenna explaining her reasons for breaking up with Burgundy, but not this kind of treatment.
Burgundy wiped the tears from her eyes and dabbed at her nose. The last thing she wanted was for Jenna to come back and hear her sniffling. At least she’d maintained a stiff upper lip while the ice queen was there, looking down her nose and telling Burgundy why she’d been dumped.
After shutting down the computers in the computer lab, checking the book drop, and counting out the cash register, Burgundy tidied the upstairs. The DVD area often looked bare after patrons’ weekend runs on them, so she faced those shelves to eliminate the gaps. When Sylvia and Marian came upstairs, shutting off the lights, Burgundy had finally stopped sniffling.
After locking up, she went to the diner. She could get that healthy dinner she’d promised herself. Some nice, warm home-style cooking would hit the spot.
As soon as she walked in, she saw Charlotte standing there, eyes wide and jerking her head a bit to Burgundy’s left.
“Hey, I missed you this morning,” Burgundy said as she approached the counter. “Have I got something to tell you! Also, did you hurt your neck, because that looks painful.”
Charlotte finally grasped her by the shoulder and tugged her around the counter. She dragged Burgundy all the way in the back, into the kitchen, past the griddle where burgers and steaks sizzled. The air was smoky, but smelled of juicy meat, garlic, and onion. It made her mouth water.
“What was that for?” Burgundy rubbed at her shoulder when her friend released her. “What’d I do?”
“I was trying to signal you that Jenna’s here,” Charlotte hissed.
Burgundy rose up on her tiptoes and was able to see past the cook, into the dining room. Sure enough, there sat the platinum blonde, not a strand of hair out of place. “Ooh that bitch, coming into to my town after dumping me.”
“Well, technically, it’s her town, too. But, yeah,” Charlotte said. “Whatever is going on, don’t tell me here. You know she can’t possibly be up to any good.”
When Burgundy looked back at Charlotte, the brunette’s eyes were narrowed and her lips twisted in a pouty sort of frown. “Wow, you look pissed off. What happened?”
“Besides seeing the woman who broke your heart? Isn’t that enough?” The way Charlotte looked, Burgundy half expected her to stomp the floor, clench her fists, and let out an, “Oooh, she burns me up!”
“You’re so sweet to be concerned about me, but she’s not here because of that.”
“What? She’s not here to draw out the pain, to rub your face in what she did to you, to make you feel like complete and utter crap?”
Burgundy tilted her head to one side and blinked as she formulated her answer. “Um, no, but she managed to do that anyway. Apparently she’s here for a story. I mean, not just a story, but the story.”
Charlotte cringed, nose wrinkling. “The weird love epidemic?”
“The very same. And, of course, she came to yours truly to find out about it. Right, like I’m going to tell her anything.”
“Well...” Charlotte craned her neck and Burgundy followed her example, peering out at Jenna as she sat in the dining room. “She’ll get enough material here at the diner, that’s for sure. Observing these people is pretty telling. Jenna spent her entire life here until she moved to the city. She’ll have no problem pulling out a story by watching what’s going on between people like Chief Brandon and Martha.”
“Yeah, well, she won’t know what I know.” Satisfaction swelled within Burgundy as Charlotte turned back to her, eyes widening.
“As in you’ve learned something new?”
Burgundy put both of her hands on Charlotte’s shoulders. “Oh yes. There’s more. So much more to this and I think there might be a connection to another weird event in town history.”
“Really?”
“I didn’t have enough time to read up on a lead I got today, but I printed out some newspaper articles. Do you want to come to my house tonight? I think you might have been involved, too. And Jenna and, well, pretty much anyone we know within ten years of us.”
“Whoa. That sounds potentially heavy.” Burgundy couldn’t miss the way Charlotte’s gaze dropped for a moment and then lifted back to hers. She wondered if her friend already knew about that strange night so long ago, but then Charlotte smiled and said, “I’ll be there after I close. How does that sound?”
“Perfect. And while I’m here, I need two loaded burgers and a chef’s salad to go.”
Charlotte gave her a little salute, pulled out the pad of paper from her apron pocket, and jotted down the order. “Tell you what – I’ll get out of here a little early and hook you up with the food. You go out the back so you don’t have to see that icy twat, and we’ll be good to go.”
“Icy twat? Isn’t that a little harsh?”
Charlotte held her index finger and thumb up. “Maybe a teeny little bit,” she conceded. “But you’re my best friend and anyone who isn’t woman enough to hold on to you, doesn’t deserve you. Now go on. I’ll get those burgers on for you and see you in about a half-hour.”
Burgundy hugged Charlotte, taking a moment to enjoy how nice it felt to be close to her. To hold her, smell her, revel in her warmth. “You’re the best,” she whispered.
“Mm, I know, and I’m hoping you’ll figure out I’m more than that, sooner or later.”
As they parted, Burgundy let her hands linger on Charlotte’s arms. When she finally dropped them, emptiness consumed her. “I don’t want you to expect anything of me. I mean, I just got dumped.”
“Oh, I know, I know.” Charlotte gave a dismissive little wave. “But you know what? I’ve been here from the start and I’ll always be here. So do what you’ve got to do and then we’ll see what happens, okay?”
“Okay.”
As she left the diner, Burgundy realized she wasn’t quite sure what she and Charlotte had just agreed to. But it was the happiest she’d been all week.
Chapter Sixteen
Charlotte arrived with three bags full of food. “Okay, so we’ve got loaded burgers, chili cheese fries, chef’s salad, and spinach dip,” she announce
d, pointing to each container in turn. “Pick your poison and let’s get this party started.”
“You are a doll,” was Arthur’s proclamation. He nosed his way into one of the styrofoam containers and nibbled at a burger. “This is enough for me. The two of you can have the heart attacks on a plate.”
“Well thank you very much,” Burgundy said. “Don’t mind if we do.” She opened the spinach dip, chili cheese fries, salad, and a burger. It was her preferred amount of food – almost enough to satisfy a disturbingly large creature, like a bear filling up for its hibernation.
Charlotte had her own servings of each, as well, and Arthur shook his head. “How the two of you can eat like that and keep your figures is beyond me.”
“I’m sorry,” Burgundy said. “I can’t hear you over the sounds of deliciousness filling my kitchen. Did you hear something, Charlotte?”
“No. Nothing at all.” Charlotte shook her head and then crammed more fries into her waiting mouth. They ate like they used to, before Burgundy had a girlfriend and Charlotte stopped being welcome, all because of Jenna. It was something Jenna was never down with – pigging out on fatty foods, talking about life in their town, and then putting on a movie to mock. Sometimes, Burgundy and Charlotte would do all three at once, another thing Jenna had never understood.
“You’re ruining the movie,” she’d say to them. “Why are you talking about Walter Falter? Everyone in Slumdog Millionaire is doing a happy dance. You’re supposed to be crying tears of joy right now. Are... are you heckling? This movie won eight academy awards. Eight. Wait... Stop dancing. You don’t look remotely like the actors. You look like a couple of idiots.”
Meanwhile, Burgundy and Charlotte would laugh, carry on, and beg Jenna to join them. Until the blonde got huffy and stormed out, with a flip of her perfect hair. From then on, the only way Jenna would visit was if Burgundy would guarantee Charlotte-free time.
“I see now what a jerk I was to you,” Burgundy said after dinner. She and Charlotte were sprawled out on the sofa, picking through their chef salads.
“What do you mean?”
Sometimes, Charlotte was so sweet, it ached. Burgundy sighed and straightened on the couch. “I mean, I let some of my favorite parts of myself change, all for her. That included the time I’d spend with you, the things we used to do together. No one should have to change for any relationship.”
“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself. I think changing is inevitable, at least in some ways. In, fact, having a relationship with someone who inspires you to better yourself is a positive thing. But if you let go of aspects of yourself that you like or change to make someone like you even more, that’s not good.”
Burgundy set her salad on the coffee table and patted her full stomach. “Well, I think everything is back to normal, so at least I’m grateful to Jenna for that.”
“Wrong.” Charlotte wagged her index finger at Burgundy. “Everything is back to normal except for the weird love epidemic. So where do we stand on that?”
“Oh, right!” Bouncing off the couch, Burgundy went to her purse to retrieve the articles she’d printed earlier that day. “So, I didn’t get the chance to read these, but check them out – have you ever heard of this?”
She sat next to her friend on the sofa and, together, they read through the first article.
“Rock Grove Children Follow Siren Song. Wow.” Charlotte pointed to the date at the top of the photocopy. “We were about three or so that year.”
“Yup and we were among the children lured away from home. Every child in Rock Grove from three to thirteen wandered off with no explanation ever given. Did your parents tell you about it?”
Charlotte’s shoulders lifted and fell as she shook her head. “No, I never heard about it. I mean, I remember some of the urban legends we heard in school, especially from the older kids.”
Burgundy thought back to their school years. “Like the one about the bogeyman waiting in the forest to grab us?”
“Yeah, that story and ones like it. Once we were in middle school, I realized they were full of shit. Just ghost stories older kids used to try to frighten younger ones, you know?”
“Right.” Burgundy shuffled to the next story and said, “But what if they weren’t? What if those stories were based on a real life event?”
“Are you saying someone or something is lurking in the forest north of town? How is that relevant to the love epidemic?”
“I’m not sure it’s relevant, exactly, but I can’t help but wonder why no one told us about this.” Burgundy pointed to another headline, this from The Supernatural World Herald. “This article says people saw an unidentified man with silver eyes near the forest, but no one ever confirmed that he was connected to the incident.”
She could see the “so” forming on Charlotte’s lips. Burgundy reached out to squeeze her arm.
“I caught someone yesterday, someone aiming an arrow at Lynn and Mr. Knight.”
“No way.” Now the skeptic expression on Charlotte’s face gave way to horror. “What happened?”
Burgundy’s mouth filled with a bitter taste as she confessed, “He got away from me, but I did notice one thing about him. He has silver eyes. No one else in town does.”
“No one, except...” Charlotte bit her lower lip, but it still seemed to tremble. When she turned away, Burgundy wondered what she must be thinking. But then her friend looked at her again and smiled. “Well, at least you know who to look for now, right?”
Brushing off the strange reaction, Burgundy nodded. “There’s video footage of him coming into the library and our cameras are pretty clear. It’s kind of hard to see his face, because he was wearing a trench coat and a hat, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Wow, it’s like a whodunnit right here in our very own hometown.” Charlotte wriggled a bit into the cushions, looking like an excited puppy. Burgundy couldn’t help but laugh and elbow her.
“Settle down there, Sherlock. Even with these clues, we still have to figure out how to find the guy and stop this from continuing to happen. Both Mr. Knight and Al became extremely ill, to the point of near death, all because of the lovesickness.”
Charlotte’s excited bouncing stopped and she fastened her wide-eyed gaze on Burgundy. For a moment, Burgundy thought she could get lost in those eyes. They were rich and brown, and so very deep. But then she shook it off. They had much more important things to think about right now.
“Lovesick?”
“That’s right. I did some reading up on Cupid and it seems his arrows cause ‘a love wound that does not heal.’ I think this warlock is doing something similar, emulating a Cupid-like effect with love potions.”
“Whoa. This is the first I’ve heard about a warlock. They’re bad news, Burg. Bad, bad news.”
A harsh laugh escaped Burgundy’s throat and she set the newspaper articles on the coffee table. “Yeah, I’m figuring that out a little too belatedly, thanks to my aunt being out of town and me missing out on six years of witchy training. She told me once that all they do is amass power. I guess if I took witchcraft seriously, I’d know more.”
“Oh, stop that.” Charlotte reached out and wrapped her arm around Burgundy’s shoulders. “You went to college for a reason, a good reason. You know, not everyone born in this town stays here to do what their parents did before them. People have aspirations and interests, or the town already has enough of this or that, so the next generation has to adapt. Sometimes that means moving on to another supernatural town or even into the mundane world. You didn’t do a bad thing by furthering your academic education and I don’t think it hindered your witchy one.”
“No, I totally shot myself in the foot. Well, magickally speaking.”
“Stop beating yourself up about the past. Besides, there’s no guarantee you’d be able to deal with this guy even if you did have those six years of training. I’m tired of you being so hard on yourself.” Charlotte pulled her closer and Burgundy went willingly, resting her head
against her friend’s.
The closeness was as reassuring as her words. Someone cared, someone saw Burgundy for who she was, and someone loved her for that. She was starting to realize there was a reason for the clichéd line on wedding invitations that was usually some variation of “Today I marry my best friend.”
Unfortunately, it still didn’t answer the myriad questions looming over them. “Well, at least I know one thing for certain,” Burgundy finally said. “I can’t let Jenna go poking her nose where it doesn’t belong. She left this town and she has no business snooping, especially for her own gain.”
“True, but it’s kind of her job as a reporter. There isn’t much you can do about that.” Charlotte’s voice was gentle, still reassuring, even as she let Burgundy know things might not go her way.
Letting out a breath, Burgundy also allowed herself to relax and agree with her friend’s logic. “I suppose you’re right. Well, if I’m stuck with her, I’ll maintain my silence about the whole matter. Rock Grove doesn’t need that kind of attention.”
They sat that way, cuddled up a little longer, until Charlotte said, “Do you want to watch a movie?”
Burgundy let out a “meh” and shook her head. As much as she could use the rest and relaxation, her mind was going in too many different directions for her to actually enjoy a movie. “Another time,” she demurred. “It’s been a busy week and I need to process everything that’s happened.”
“Okay, then I’ll leave you to it.”
“I don’t want to ruin your fun, though.” Burgundy sat up as Charlotte scooted away from her and bent over to put on her shoes.
“You’re not. Trust me, I know what it’s been like for you. I had some work errands to run this morning and that wasn’t fun, but you know what? Life happens. I know sometimes it feels like the world around us carries us along, and those are the times we want to curl up in bed and stay there.” Charlotte rose to her feet and then kissed the top of Burgundy’s head. “You’re a strong person, though, and I think if you find a way to stop letting life toss you around, you might feel much better.”
