Page 34 of The Book of Unwritten Stories

Ethan was striding towards her with a coffee in one hand and the shop keys in the other.

‘Oh, hi.’

‘Desperate huh?’

She smiled at him and shook her head. ‘Desperate for a Phillips or a crowbar. Would you have one of those?’

‘Sure, probably not the crowbar. Hey, how are you today anyway, you know after yesterday? Did you sleep okay?’ He stared across at the dark stain still visible in the middle of the road.

‘Oh, yeah, erm I slept really well. Too well to be honest. I didn’t make it to work in time, and my boss is going to be so pissed with me.’

Ethan laughed. ‘Me too. You know I thought maybe I’d lie there for hours replaying that awful scene, but I didn’t. And do you want to know why? Or at least why I think neither of us was affected too much?’ Morana nodded. ‘Because she was a horrible woman. I mean speedy recovery and all of that jazz, but she really wasn’t a nice person and sometimes if you do bad stuff, it might not catch up to you at first, but eventually it does. I believe in Karma big time, do you?’

She shrugged. ‘I guess so, I’ve never really thought about it.’

He opened the door and she followed him inside. It smelled so good in here. A lot of Salem shops, especially the ones that sold all the witchy herbs, sage, Palo Santo sticks, candles and spell kits had the same kind of smell, and it was incredibly warm, inviting, witchy and very magical.

‘Hey, did you go back and sage yourself? I did the moment she’d left the shop, then I did the shop too because, you know, I didn’t want her bad vibes filling this place with negativity. Especially not after she, you know.’ He mimed swiping a hand across his throat.

‘No, I should have. To be honest, I was so shocked I ended up curled up in a ball in bed. She wasn’t a nice person though, was she?’

He shook his head. ‘Some people are just mean through and through. Their souls wallow in the darkness. Others start off nice but because of the crap life throws at them it wears them down and makes them mean, but there is always hope for those kinds of people. If they weren’t mean to begin with, they can turn it around and change things.’

‘Do you really believe that?’

He nodded and went out the back. Morana looked around the store. She could quite happily buy one of everything in here and who knows, if that money spell worked maybe she would come back and buy everything she desired. Ethan appeared with a Phillips in one hand.

‘See, I knew we had one somewhere.’ He pressed it into her hand.

‘Thank you so much, I’ll bring it back as soon as I’ve finished with it.’

He grinned at her. ‘You better had, it’s not mine.’ He winked at her and she laughed.

She left him to open the store.

* * *

She felt a little bad for not phoning Kim back and as soon as she got into her apartment she texted her.

Sorry, just woke up. So sick, won’t be in the rest of the week.

Then she turned off her phone.

She knew that was a shitty thing to do, especially when the shop was so busy, but she couldn’t be there and focus when there was all this going on in her life.

Morana didn’t notice how dark the corners of her apartment were, how the blackness was seeping through the walls and blocking out the light because she didn’t care. All she cared about was the book of black magic which was sitting proudly in the middle of her coffee table. If this spell worked, her life would be changed forever and she could use the book to make it even better. Kneeling down in her bedroom she began to unscrew the floorboards to try and get to the faded envelope that was peeping through the corner.

TWENTY-SIX

SALEM VILLAGE, 1676

Lucine was working in the garden, a cap tied around her silver hair to protect her skin from the burning sun, when she heard his gentle voice, singing. She looked up to see John riding towards her on his beautiful steed. Standing with her hands on her hips, she smiled at him.

‘Good morning, Lucine, how fares you this fine day?’

‘Good morning, John, I am well. Yourself?’

‘I am very well now that I have laid eyes upon the fairest lady in all of the land.’