by Savannah Mae
I sighed. “That’s terrible. What if that’s what happened to them? What if they’re in a position that doesn’t allow them to use their magic?” I remember how horrific our ordeal was for us. I couldn’t imagine what I’d do if I were in their shoes. “I don’t know them well, but I like them. They’re kind of fun. I’d hate to hear something horrible happened to them.”
Juliana clicked her tongue. “They’re not fun. Lyra and Calliope have been kind, but Calypso looks at us like she doesn’t trust us. She’s done nothing but make snide remarks and roll her eyes when we walk by her.”
Our mother interjected, “That’s because she thought you tricked her. Witches recognize witches. Not all of them are good. That’s what I think this is. I think there’s a malevolent witch behind all the strange happenings.”
I had to laugh at the absurdity. “A few hours ago, you thought all of this was our dad’s and Andrea’s fault. Now you’ve changed your mind? Amazing.”
She gave me a stern look. “Did you forget I’m your mother?”
I hung my head in shame.
“I still do believe your father is behind what happened to you, but I don’t think he had anything to do with what happened tonight at the coffee shop. What would he or his teenage bride have against Calypso and her sisters? They don’t know them. Andrea’s problem is with me. To hurt me, she knows she’d have to go after you girls. The disappearance of the sisters and all that’s happened to Calypso is a separate issue.”
“Like?” I asked.
Melanie gulped. “It sounds like a vendetta.”
My mother nodded. “That’s exactly what it sounds like to me.”
“How do we get them back?” I asked. “Is there a spell, a potion, anything that will help them get back to their lives?”
She said, “We call in the big guns.”
Ben asked, “And that is?”
“I know a family. They are a little out there as far as their personalities go, but Lola is strong. She has good instincts. We should give her a call and ask her for advice,” my mother said as she scrolled through her contacts on her phone.
Juliana and I exchanged glances. We’d heard her talk about Lola before. The last time we’d heard her name mentioned was right after this year’s witch convention.
“I thought you said you’d never talk to her again after what happened in Vegas,” I reminded her. “Didn’t she cause a scene at the midnight ball?”
She laughed. “Lola causes a scene everywhere they go. That’s old news. I’m over it. I’m not sure the event organizers will ever forgive her, but that’s not my problem.” She found the number. “I’ll give her a call to see if she knows how to help us solve this.”
Lola must’ve answered on the first ring because my mother startled almost immediately. “Oh, Lola, this is Consuelo Montoya. Yes. Yes. It really is. No, I don’t want to scold you again. What’s done is done. What I’m calling you about is a strange phenomenon in Mystic Meadow.” She went silent as she listened, the expression on her face turning grim as she listened.
Chapter 29: The Jinx Sisters
Lyra glared at Calypso. “That was your plan? Explain to me how you figured it would work? Was he supposed to have a sudden change of heart and cut us loose? No harm, no fowl, as they say?”
She cringed at the word fowl. “How was I supposed to know he’d turn into a chicken? I thought the spell would make the box disappear.”
“And what?” Lyra peered down at the floor below. “Break our necks in the process? From now on, you don’t get to use your magic. As a matter of fact, you’re no longer allowed to claim you’re a witch. Everything you’ve ever attempted to do has ended in disaster. Your proverbial witch card is revoked. For good.”
Calypso snorted, “The joke is on you. I don’t have a witch card. Our powers are a birthright, so unless you know how to erase my existence, I’m not scared of you.”
Calliope mumbled under her breath. “I knew I should’ve said yes to that proposal. Who cares if it meant I would’ve been a circus clown’s wife? Anything would’ve been better than this.”
Lyra and Calypso stopped arguing with each other and turned their attention to her.
“A clown asked you to marry him? When was this?” Calypso asked. “I seem to remember a great number of men you were known to keep company with when we were younger could’ve been classified as clowns, but I don’t recall ever meeting a real clown. Which one was it?”
Calliope had a wounded look on her face. “That proves how little you pay attention to what goes on outside of your head. For your information, many men asked me to marry them in my day.”
“I wouldn’t brag about it if I were you,” Lyra warned. “That implies you dated a fleet of men. I doubt our mother would’ve approved.”
“No. It implies that I have high standards. Out of a dozen or so men, I could never find one who suited my needs and met my expectations,” she clarified.
The chicken clucked and squawked as it ran in circles.
Calypso laughed. “I always wanted chickens. You know, our backyard would be perfect for a chicken coop? There’s nothing better than farm-fresh eggs in the morning.”
Lyra and Calliope locked eyes.
“That shows how much you know about chickens. They don’t lay eggs. In addition to your irritatingly low IQ, you do realize we’re the ones locked up in a cage right now, don’t you?” Lyra pointed out the obvious.
She nodded. “How could I forget? By the way, I’d hardly call a pine box a cage. At least in a cage, I’d get to smell something beyond your old lady creams.”
Calliope opened her mouth to protest, but Lyra shook her head to warn her not to say a word. “Save your breath. We might need it later. Besides, karma always comes back. I can’t wait to see what she does to our dear sister.”
“Was that a threat?” Calypso challenged her.
Lyra fixed a cold, hard stare on her. “Would you like it to be? I thought we’d moved past labeling things after the last time you screwed up a spell.”
The chicken revved up its noise.
Calliope asked, “What do we do now? What if the other guy comes back?”
Calypso had an answer, “We’ll tell him they lied. They said our magic wouldn’t work here. Obviously, they were wrong.”
“No, they’re right. Your spell didn’t work.” She nodded to the chicken. “Who knows what could’ve happened had you tried something else? We might all be chickens right now.”
The large aluminum door screeched open.
“This is it. This is how we die,” Calypso whispered.
Lyra held her breath as she waited for the next horrible thing to happen. She had no doubt in her mind Calypso’s failed spell would cause an uproar. The question was what price would they pay for her mistake?
“Do you see anyone?” Calliope whispered. “Who opened the door?”
Moonlight shone in, placing a spotlight on the angry fowl.
“Where did you come from?” a woman asked.
“It’s a woman?’ Calypso strained her ears to hear better. “What kind of woman would do this to other women?”
She remained in the shadows, but her voice was loud and clear. “You’re not other women. You’re witches. There’s a significant difference. I see you didn’t heed the warnings about your abilities. As much as I enjoy farm animals, I don’t want any in my life.” She chuckled as if her comment was meant to be funny. “You do realize we can’t let you get away with that, don’t you? We need our friend. Without him, our plan will become more complicated than we’d like. Reverse it.”
Calypso whispered, “Is it just me or does her voice sound muffled?”
Lyra’s voice shook as she spoke, “It sounds like she’s using a scrambling device of some sort. She doesn’t want us to recognize her voice.”
“She might be someone we know? Who?” Calliope asked.
The woman responded, “That’s the problem with people who need hearing aids. They think the rest
of us are as hard of hearing as they are, so they speak at cataclysmic levels and give away sensitive information.”
Offended, Calypso shot back, “I don’t need hearing aids. I can hear.”
“Apparently not,” the woman answered.
A male figure moved into view and attempted to lift the chicken, but the chicken skipped and ran out of his reach.
“Come here,” he said.
Lyra mumbled, “That’s the one who was here earlier. How many people are there?”
“Three but one’s not exactly a person at the moment,” Calypso answered.
He continued chasing the chicken, ignoring their cries for help. After several hilarious minutes of running in circles and tripping over his own feet, he sat in defeat. “I’m done. I don’t care about the chicken. As far as I’m concerned, someone can slather him in herbs, butter him, and call him dinner. I’ve chased my first and last chicken.”
The woman chuckled. “Do you know how ridiculous you sound? You’re going to let a five-pound animal beat you? Did you forget he wasn’t a chicken when he woke up this morning?”
The man snapped back, “Did you forget we weren’t this when the day started?” His anger seemed to mount. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You assured us their magic wouldn’t work. That’s why we went this far. It was the perfect plan. That’s what you told us. Now, look. One of us could be someone’s dinner if we don’t hurry this thing along. I say forget it. It’s not worth the trouble. I want out.”
Lyra and her sisters exchanged glances. They made an unspoken pact to remain quiet for the time being.
The woman’s voice had a sinister edge to it, “You don’t get to quit. We’ve gone too far. We’re so close to getting what we want. If we walk away now, all of this will have been for nothing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy devoting precious hours – hours I could’ve been focusing on helping my family – to get nothing to show for it in the end. So, no, you don’t get to chuck it all.”
Calliope gulped.
The man kicked up dirt and stormed off into the distance, out of their sight.
“He left?” Calypso asked.
The woman finally came into view, muttering under her breath.
“Can you tell who she is?” Calliope asked.
Lyra shook her head. “It’s too dark. I think the hair is fake. It looks like a wig to me.”
“Of course, it’s a wig. Do you think I’m dumb enough to let you see who I am? I’m afraid not, ladies. I’m no amateur. I know how these things work. If you expect to get good results, you must put in twice the effort. Believe me, I’ve put in more than any of you deserve.”
Something in her voice hinted at more than a ploy for money. This sounded personal.
Lyra dared ask, “Why us? What did we do to you?”
She lifted the protesting chicken and started for the door. “Why not you? How long did you think you could get away with it?”
“Get away with what?” Lyra had no idea what she meant. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”
She paused in the doorway, her back to them. “It’s not about you’ve done. It’s about what you’ve failed to do.”
Calypso gulped, visions of all the things and people she’d ignored in her life flooded her mind. Who was this woman? Why had she felt slighted by them?
Calliope asked, “What didn’t we do, then? We’re just small business owners in a Podunk town. We’ve never done anything to anyone.” She shrugged. “Not intentionally anyway.”
“Speak for yourself,” Calypso snorted. “I’ll be the first to admit I may have had occasion to do things intentionally, but in my defense, I had a good reason for it. People find out quickly that I mean business. They know not to mess with me.”
Lyra glared at her. “Could you not do that? It’s not helping our cause.”
Calliope concurred, “Yes, could you not do that now? You want to get out of here, don’t you?”
The woman responded, “It doesn’t matter what you say or do at this point. Perhaps you missed the little exchange I had with my comrade, but I don’t change my plans. Once I set my mind on something, I do whatever I have to do, including kidnapping a trio of elderly witches, to get the job done.”
“What’s the job? What are you after? What’s the end game?” Lyra asked. “We don’t have anything you can take from us.”
“Except each other,” Calypso mumbled.
The woman laughed. “I beg to differ. I think Melanie Abney might have something to say about that.”
“Melanie?” Calypso’s ears perked up. They were fiercely protective of her. “What does she have to do with this? She’s a good girl.”
The woman laughed a heartier laugh. “Is that what you call it? Good. Funny, but I don’t see her that way.”
“How do you know her?” Calypso asked. “Are you from here? Do we know you?”
She placed the chicken into the back of a vehicle and walked back into the building. “How many people live in Jinx Cove? Two thousand? A little less? If we don’t know each other personally, we’ve at least seen each other once or twice.” She coughed. “That’s the thing. Small-town people are known for their tight-knit relationships. Funny, though, I don’t remember those feel-good-moments in my life. Do you know why that is?”
Lyra gulped.
“Because of people like you. This, my friends, is about more than the three of you and your new sidekick. It’s about everyone,” she explained.
“But why kidnap us?” Calypso asked. “What good will that do? What good has any of it done? Was my missing car just a bonus? What about the Montoya girls? They’re not even from here.” She snorted, “You know what I think? I think all the reasons you listed are nothing more than excuses. This is about greed. If it’s money you’re after, you came to the wrong place. We don’t have any money. The joke is on you.”
The woman didn’t respond. She reached for something out of their view, then, took a step back and watched as the large door came down and closed.
“Wait. Don’t go. Tell us what you want from us,” Lyra begged. “Calypso didn’t mean it. In fact, she doesn’t mean anything she says. She has issues.”
The doors closed, shrouding the room in darkness again. All that could be heard was the sound of them breathing.
After several terrifying seconds, Calypso asked, “Do you think she’ll come back and leave us some food? I haven’t eaten in hours.”
Lyra huffed, “You can’t possibly think they care if you’re hungry or not. Don’t you get it? She wants to kill us.”
Chapter 30: The Abney Family
“Is it just me or does anyone else think this sounds like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone?” Melanie asked. “We need to regroup. Wait. Did we ever truly come together and discuss what our plan is? I don’t think we did.” She looked around for pen and paper. “Let’s find somewhere to sit and gather our thoughts. If I learned anything in college, it was to get yourself organized or you’ll never know what your next move should be.”
Ben concurred, “Yeah, she’s right. Let’s take a step back before we get ourselves in a tighter bind. There are too many open loops in this situation. It’s like someone wants to watch us chase our tails.” He noticed a notebook on a side table in the living room. “There’s paper right there. Let’s take notes and map out what we plan to do.”
Melanie caught a glimpse of something scrawled across the first page. “What does that say?” She reached for the notebook and dropped it like it was on fire. “Why did you touch it? That’s not an ordinary notebook. That’s a spell book.”
Ben shrugged as he assessed it. “Sorry. I didn’t know. I thought it was a notebook.” He looked around for another notebook. “I might have one in my car. Wait right here. I’ll be right back.” He leaned toward her and whispered, “What’s your problem? Why are you upset about a book? It’s not like I haven’t seen a book of spells before.”
She shook her head. “It’s not just any spell book. T
his one is different.” She glanced over her shoulder at the others. “This isn’t the time or place to discuss it. I’ll explain it to you later.” She slid it into a drawer, out of sight.
Consuelo grabbed the drawer handle before she closed it. “What was that?” She pulled it out of the drawer. “Whoa! You’ve got to be kidding me. Where did they get this?” She turned to her daughters. “Girls, we need to leave. Right now.”
Juliana’s eyes went wide. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Bea caught a glimpse of the book. “Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh is right. Why do the Jinx sisters have this?” Consuelo held it with the tip of her fingers.
Bea backed away from it. “This can’t be good. Do you think that’s why someone kidnapped them?”
Consuelo nodded. “If I had to guess, I’d say yes, absolutely, but there’s something not right about this. How did they get their hands on this? It’s not like anyone would leave that lying around for anyone to take. There are strict rules about things like that. We never – I mean, never – touch a spell book that doesn’t belong to another coven. What one group does in their part of the country is none of our business.”
Bea asked, “This belongs to another coven? How do you know for sure?”
She gulped, “I know because we were warned about this behavior during the convention. Witches from a Florida coven accused someone of swiping some of their belongings.” She chuckled. “It was ridiculous. No one goes to one of those conventions with the intention of stealing anything. Why would they? Ninety-nine percent of the attendees would figure it out before the thief had a chance to get out the door. No one could get away with it.”
Bea shook her head. “It looks like they managed to pull it off. I guess there’s a first time for everything.”
Juliana shivered. “I never understood why you go to the conventions. Who would want to hang out with a thousand people who could do something to you and get away with it? All they’d have to do is cast a spell to make you forget it ever happened. I’d never take a risk like that.” Her eyes lit up. “Although, now that I think about it, it might be a great way to get our hands on the motherload of jewelry and fabric and anything else our hearts desired. Could you imagine? When’s the next convention?”
