Once Upon a Charmed Time

by Rose Pressey

  “Maybe you should stay in the car and wait for us,” I said to my mother.

  She put her hands on her hips. “What, you think I’m a senior citizen and I can’t be involved in this?”

  “No,” I said. “I just don’t want you to get hurt and this could be dangerous.”

  “I’ve been taking care of myself for a number of years before you came along, Halloween, so I think I can handle it now.”

  This was no time for an argument so I didn’t want to push the subject anymore. “I know you can handle yourself, and thank you for coming along. I appreciate the help.”

  “You know I’d do anything for you, Halloween.”

  “All right, ladies, enough of this mushy stuff. Let’s get to work,” Liam said.

  We went up to the door and I almost didn’t want to knock this time because I was so angry. I still sensed some magic all the way up to the front door. I pushed on the doorbell and of course no one came. Then I knocked and no one came so I pounded on the door. Still no reaction.

  I grasped the door knob and twisted. “It’s unlocked.”

  “Well, let’s go on in. This must be an invitation,” Liam said.

  “Yes, an invitation for something bad,” I said.

  Even though I was trying to keep my positive attitude, it was really tough now. I was scared and didn’t want to let anyone know it. But I really was frightened.

  We stepped inside the house. As soon as we did that magic trail that had led us here was gone. The place looked exactly as it had before, with no one obviously home. I rushed over to the basement door. It was open, as if inviting us to come on down. I wouldn’t fall for that this time.

  “We don’t all need to go down there this time,” I said. “Let me go see if Annabelle’s down there.”

  “No, Hallie, I can’t let you do that,” Nicolas said. “I’ll go and the rest of you stay up here. If I get stuck down there then you’ll be up here to open the door for me.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  I just hoped she was down there.

  Nicolas took off down the steps. I waited anxiously for word on what he would find. His footsteps echoed all the way down to the bottom until finally stopping. Then there was silence. I was really freaking out.

  “Nicolas, are you okay down there?” I called out.

  “I’m all right,” he said. “There’s no one down here. Let me check all of it just to make sure.”

  I paced across the floor as I waited for Nicolas to come back up. After a few more seconds he returned.

  He shook his head. “No one.”

  “The fact that no one is down there at all is strange,” I said. “It doesn’t make any sense. What are they doing? Why are they playing these games with us?”

  “I’ll go check the rest of the house, you all stay here,” Liam said.

  I continued to pace while we waited for Liam to check the rest of the house. Nicolas, I supposed, got sick of my pacing and grabbed me in a hug.

  “Things will be okay,” he whispered.

  When Liam returned he shook his head, and said, “There’s no one here.”

  “We need to look around for any clues that might suggest if they have been here,” I said.

  Searching the house yielded absolutely nothing. No clues whatsoever. It was all the same as when we’d arrived.

  “Maybe we should go back to the alleyway and see if she’s there now.”

  “It certainly can’t hurt,” my mother said. “I bet you she just wandered around and got lost. We’ll find her.”

  I certainly hope that was true. We left the house and headed back toward the car. Just as I was getting in my phone rang. When I saw the number pop up I was so excited.

  “It’s Annabelle,” I said.

  “See, I knew she’d be okay,” my mother said.

  “Hey, where are you?” I asked when I answered the phone.

  “Do you want to see your friend again?” the male voice asked.

  It felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach.

  “Who is this?” I asked. “Where is my friend? What have you done with her?”

  “I can’t tell you where she is right now. There are some other things we need to take care of first. If you do you everything I say you will have her back.”

  “What’s going on?” Nicolas asked.

  Nicolas, Liam, and my mother rushed over to me. I guessed they could tell by the look on my face that something was seriously wrong.

  “Someone claims they have Annabelle,” I said, covering the phone so the person couldn’t hear me talking to them.

  “Ask for more information,” Nicolas said.

  “What do you want?” I asked when I went back to the phone.

  “We’ll let you know that at a later time. Right now just know that we have someone else too. Isn’t this a fun puzzle for you?”

  “No, it’s not fun and when I find out who you are you’re done.”

  “Try to remain calm, Hallie,” Nicolas said. “You want to get Annabelle back unharmed.”

  He was right. I would have to play along with their little game until I had her.

  “Tell me what else you want,” I said.

  “We’ll be calling you back to give you further instructions.”

  The line went dead.

  “What did they say?” Nicolas asked.

  “They said they would call back and let me know exactly what they want. They also said they have someone else, but they wouldn’t tell me who. I guess they want me to figure this out. What do we do in the meantime?” I asked.

  “Well, we wait for them to call back. In the meantime, we try to find out who they are,” Liam said.

  “We just have to regroup and look for clues and figure out who else they could be talking about,” Nicolas said. “Who do they have?”

  “I don’t know, but I hope this will be one of the things we figure out. It could be the clue to where they have both of them,” I said.

  As we got back in the car I felt defeated. I couldn’t let this bring me down. I was the leader and I had to be in control.

  “Maybe we just need to call Victoria and get the other witches involved,” I said.

  Now I realized that the more magic we had on our side the easier it would be to cast off these bad people. We pulled away from the curb and headed in the direction of the hotel. I knew my mother would be tired and have to get some rest. We could sit around the table and discuss the information we had and with any luck figure out where to go from there. I thought about going back to that alleyway again, but it would be pointless. Though I might have to go back and search for any hints of magic.

  Chapter 21

  The crinkling noise of paper caught my attention right away. When I looked to the left I spotted a piece of paper being slid under the door. We’d reached the hotel and were now sitting around the table in my room. I assumed Nicolas and Liam spotted it at the same time because they jumped up from their chairs just as I did. Maybe it was just something from the hotel management thanking us for our stay or giving us a receipt for our bill. But if it was something more sinister then I wanted to catch the person in the act.

  I rushed over, grabbed the knob, and yanked the door open. The person must have run away immediately because there was no one in front of the door. I looked to the left and then to the right, but saw no one other than a hotel employee. I reached down and picked up the paper.

  “What does it say?” Nicolas asked.

  I showed Nicolas and Liam the paper. Meet me at Venice Beach by the boardwalk was written in black ink in the middle of the page.

  “That’s it? How are we supposed to know who we’re meeting?” Liam asked. “That’s a crowded place.”

  “I suppose they think we’ll know that when we get there,” I said.

  “Maybe they’ll make themselves known,” Nicolas added.

  “What should we do?” my mother asked.

  “I suppose we have to go see what they want,” I said. Though
I knew it was a risky option.

  “They didn’t even tell us what time they want to meet us,” my mother said.

  “I’m assuming they want us there as soon as possible, so we should get going.”

  As we headed for the door my mother said, “Wait, I’m not dressed for the beach.”

  “We’re not going for a clambake, Mother.”

  She glared at me. “I just didn’t want to get my pants wet, that’s all.”

  I grabbed her hand. “It’ll be fine, I promise. Now let’s get out of here.”

  On the way out of the hotel I kept my eye out for any strange behavior, hoping that I would catch the person who left us the note. When I didn’t see anything suspicious I jumped in the backseat. Liam punched the gas—well, as much as the gas could be punched in that sardine can. The navigation gave us the directions. It was twelve miles to get to the beach, which would take about twenty-six minutes. With the traffic though, it might be a lot longer. Maybe we would be better off walking there.

  Once we reached the beach we had to find a place to park. The sky was an endless blue. The salt air surrounded us. The sound of waves drifted across the warm air.

  “Look, there’s a place to park,” my mother said, pointing.

  “I think that’s reserved for bicycles,” Liam said.

  “This car should fit perfectly then,” Nicolas said.

  I didn’t think he would actually do it, but Liam parked the car there and it fit perfectly. So we jumped out and headed for the sand.

  “Okay, be on the lookout for whoever left the note.”

  “How are we supposed to know who it is?” my mother asked.

  “I’m assuming they’ll be watching us, so anyone who is watching us,” I said.

  We looked around.

  “I don’t see anyone paying any attention to us,” Liam said.

  “I have no idea where they could be. We should go out toward the water,” I said. “We should all stay close together though. I don’t want someone to get us apart and then they could possibly attack.”

  The beach was crowded. I wondered if this person would even notice that we were here. Maybe we should have waited up by the sidewalk path with fewer people there. Too late now. I looked out over the water as the sun shimmered and reflected over the top. People played along the beach and lay in the sun. They walked up and down the sand in front of us.

  “Don’t look now,” my mother whispered. “But that man over there to the right is watching us.”

  “Well, I have to look if I want to see who you’re talking about.”

  “Just be subtle about it,” my mother said.

  I pretended to look down at the sand and then eased my gaze up in that direction. There was a man standing over there and he was watching us. Our eyes met. He didn’t look away. Even though it was a warm day chills spread over my body. I instantly got a bad feeling from him.

  At that moment he raised his arm up and I saw that he had a gun.

  He pointed it right at me and pulled the trigger.

  I wasn’t quite sure how the bullet had missed me. I heard it whiz by. I made it to the ground. I didn’t know where to go. Should I head to the water or head the other direction back toward the car? I sensed this man wouldn’t stop until he actually shot me. Nicolas had thrown his body over mine.

  Of course chaos had broken out along the beach, with people screaming and running for their lives.

  “Did that bullet hit anyone?” I asked.

  “No, not that I can see,” Nicolas said. “Everyone’s off the beach now.”

  He helped me up and we headed back toward the car. Liam had jumped across my mother and was shielding her body. Now he was helping her up as well.

  “Where did the man go?” I asked.

  “I don’t see him anywhere,” Nicolas said. “But he could be hiding anywhere and take a shot at you again.”

  Was I his target? It seemed like most definitely I was. He had looked me right in the eye and he hadn’t hesitated to pull the trigger. I couldn’t believe that I’d been shot at. A lot of stuff had happened since I’d become the leader, but never an attempt like this. Usually someone tried to get the book from me by using magic.

  The place had been so crowded before, and now it was like a ghost town. Another shot came from somewhere. I didn’t have time to look. I was taking cover, ducking and trying to get to the shield of that little car. If we could just get in there then we could possibly escape. Though the person might just follow us.

  Yeah, I knew why the person had left the note, but why here? Why not try it in the hotel parking lot or any other spot? There had to be some reason to bring me here, right?

  The sirens sounded in the distance and I knew that they were headed our way. Did we stay and talk to the police or did we just get out of there? It looked as if we wouldn’t have time. We still hadn’t reached the car by the time several police cars pulled up, screeching to a halt nearby. They brought out their guns and pointed them at us.

  “Don’t move. Put your hands up.”

  I held up my hands. Did they think that I was involved? I didn’t have a gun. I hadn’t been shooting at myself.

  “Don’t move,” one officer commanded.

  I wasn’t about to move. They came toward us and then made us lie on the ground and place our hands behind our backs. I was actually handcuffed and then taken to sit on the sidewalk where they apparently wanted to talk to us.

  “Excuse me, Officer, but I think you have this all wrong,” my mother said. “We are not the ones who were shooting. We were being shot at.”

  “Perhaps someone gave our description as the victim and you assumed we were the criminals,” I said.

  The officer looked at me. “You were the one shot at?” he asked.

  “Yes, we were standing on the beach and he shot at us.”

  The police looked at each other and realized that we didn’t have a gun so they let us go. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  “Do you have a description of this man?” the first police officer asked.

  I gave him a description as best as I could.

  “Do you know why he was shooting at you?” he asked.

  “What? No, I have no idea. I guess he just wanted to shoot at people.”

  “You don’t think that you’re the target of this?”

  “Well, actually, yes. I suppose I am.”

  Then I had to go about explaining to him that I was the leader of the Underworld.

  “You might want to consider hiring a bodyguard,” he said.

  “Oh, you think?” I asked in a slightly too sarcastic tone.

  I was a bit stressed. I had just been shot at.

  “I’m her bodyguard,” Nicolas said.

  “Me too,” Liam offered, as if they were in competition with each other again. I’d never considered either one of them my bodyguard. Nicolas was my fiancé and Liam my future brother-in-law. Was this what they thought? That they were my bodyguards?

  The police searched for the man who had shot at us. Plus they searched for any clues and got the shell casings from the fired shots. They would send that for testing and possibly get fingerprints. We had talked to them for a while and I was exhausted. I just wanted to get out of there. Plus we had a flight to catch.

  “So can we leave now?” I asked.

  “Sure, I guess we’re done here, but just be safe out there, all right?” the officer said.

  “Yeah, I’ll try my best.”

  “We will take care of her,” Nicolas said.

  Again with the bodyguard talk. I really needed to talk to him about that. He couldn’t take on that role. Maybe we did need to hire someone else. I’d never thought that my life would be that much in danger as the leader. We finally got in the car and headed away from the beach.

  We hadn’t gotten far away when I spotted the man in a car.

  “There he is.” I pointed. “The one who tried to kill us.”

  “I’m on it,” Liam said as he pun
ched the gas.

  The man had no idea that I had seen him and that we were now following him. We had to weave through traffic, just trying to keep up with him. He was going fast, but I still knew that he hadn’t seen us. He was just driving like an idiot because, well, he was an idiot. There was no other way to explain someone who tried to kill someone else.

  “Just wait. When I catch that man I’m going let him have it,” my mother said. “I will show him a spell like he’s never seen before.”

  When my mother got riled up there was no stopping her. I thought it was pretty safe to say that we were all angry and wanted answers, but at the same time we couldn’t get too close because this man was obviously a killer.

  “We have to keep our distance and stay safe.”

  “I bet he’s headed to some kind of shady place,” my mother said.

  Her eyes were focused on the road and her body was tensed up. I knew she was envisioning some kind of abandoned building this man would go to where there were probably a bunch of other bad guys.

  Liam kept his focus and calm demeanor and navigated the roads with ease. We didn’t lose sight of the guy the entire time. I was pleased with this outcome. Now what would happen next, I wasn’t sure, but to deny that I had anxiety would be a complete lie.

  The guy had slowed down and taken the next right. We were a couple of cars behind him. Liam took the right as well and now we were directly behind this guy. Did he never look through the rear-view mirror? He would have to see us, right? This area wasn’t exactly what my mother had had in mind, I was sure.

  We were on Rodeo Drive with all of the expensive shops, like Louis Vuitton and Chanel. We watched the man get out of his car and head down the sidewalk. After a few seconds, we all got out and started trailing him down the sidewalk. He never looked back to see us following him. So much for a killer instinct. I didn’t think he could outsmart Halloween LaVeau, leader of the Underworld.

  “Where do you think he’s headed?” my mother asked. “Maybe Chanel. Maybe Louis Vuitton.”

  “Don’t get any ideas. We can’t shop. We’re just following the killer, remember?”