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“Oh baby girl, I ain’t no hairdresser,” Magic replied, and then had to explain what a hairdresser was.
“Get some scissors, gather it back up, and cut straight across,” I suggested.
Magic looked bemused but obeyed. When my long ponytail hit the floor, I felt fear flood me before a wave of relief swept all that angst away. Magic chopped at my hair, straightening it up, and finally, it hung just below my shoulders.
“No bangs,” Magic muttered as I shook my hair across my shoulders. It felt so freeing.
“I love this!” I squealed and threw my arms around Magic and kissed his cheek. Overjoyed, I danced, giggling and throwing my hair around. Magic laughed at my antics before blushing and making me sit back down.
“Baby girl, you need underwear. I don’t really wanna pick them out with you, so look, Alexis, this is the site. Order whatever you wish. I’ll show you how to choose your sizes and then go nuts.” Magic named a figure I could spend, showed me how to choose, and left me alone to fetch drinks.
I spent the budget Magic gave me, overwhelmed by the choices, colours, and styles. When I paid, I sat back and waited for Magic to return. When he did, he carried two mugs, one with the dark-coloured drink again.
“That is my favourite!” I exclaimed, and Magic looked down.
“Hot chocolate. You can add cream or marshmallows to it. It comes in different flavours, too,” Magic said, handing me the mug.
“Now we need to buy girlie shit.” Magic sighed. Not knowing what I liked, I allowed Magic to purchase shampoo, conditioner, soap, and shower gel. Items that were often basic at the church. Then he bought perfume, deodorants, and sanitary products, which made us both blush. He ordered something called face creams and lip gloss. Magic laughingly said he’d yet to meet a woman who didn’t like lip gloss. I shrugged. I’d no idea what it was. But one thing I was sure of: I was damn lucky to meet Magic on the road and not one of those perverts he ranted about every so often. Magic was destined to be in my life and make it magical!
Chapter Two.
June 2020
Alice.
Anxiously, I sat on a bench and spun a pack of lies to Bunny. The guilt crept up, but better that Bunny thought I was running from an abusive husband rather than a cult. Magic and I understood they could still be searching for Alexis. I’d been with Magic for eleven years but still didn’t stop looking over my shoulder. For four years, all I’d done was study like mad. I soaked up knowledge hand over fist, and Magic kept commenting on how bright I was. And I got my GED and two two-year diplomas in editing and copywriting. Now, I worked for six authors on my time off, editing and checking their books. That paid well, and I could afford to rent a house alongside my wages from the bar.
Magic had been a father figure. He’d got me a new identification, which gave me the name Alice Rain, and I’d learned to drive. Magic supported me with every step I took. Eleven years on, I understood what a fuck up the cult was.
Of course, the scar on my chest hadn’t come from an abusive ex-husband. When I’d turned nineteen, I’d been taking some trash outside, and a man had grabbed me. I’d screamed for Magic before the asshole got a hand over my mouth.
He’d been ripping my clothes off when Magic barrelled out. As Magic caught the asshole molesting me, his knife cut into my chest. Better that than my throat, I suppose. Magic had snapped his neck and stood there, waiting for condemnation. I was still quite pious then, although I knew my entire life at church had been a lie. But the scar gave my supposed abusive ex credence, and Bunny bought the story.
It was one I’d told a couple of times. A cover Magic and I had come up with to keep everyone at bay. Three months after Magic had rescued me from the roadside, the Whispering Willow Church of Godliness had been raided by the FBI. I’d been stuck to the TV for days, watching the reports coming from there. They spoke of women emaciated to the point of starvation, kids who were neglected, and multiple rapes and kidnappings. Ninety per cent of the males died in the firefight, but most of the women and children were rescued.
All twelve Ministers escaped, and the FBI still searched for them. The media speculated there was another compound. For days, the talk had been about the firefight and subsequent rescues. Then the press hit with a bombshell that rocked me backwards. Bodies had been found. Magic sat with me as I cried and learned the final horror of the cult. For that was what I now understood the church to be. The Ministers had sent the Disciples out to kidnap women off the streets and then raped them until they were spent and killed them. They’d been buried behind the Minister’s building, where we weren’t allowed to go.
Also, several women had been identified as those who’d tried to escape. We all believed they’d gone of their own accord. But clearly, they had been caught, and the coroner had stated thatthere were signs of rape and torture on their bodies. They’d never left, as the Ministers claimed, and I was deep in shock for weeks. Would that have happened to me? I had nightmares hearing the baying of those damned hounds chasing me. Magic had stayed at the apartment because I was too terrified to sleep.
The past was behind me, and I was stronger, jogging and working out had fine-tuned my body. Nightmares plagued me occasionally, but my freedom had been honestly earned. I was now a modern-day woman, albeit shy.
Bunny patted my hand, disturbing my musings, and I smiled. She offered a friendship I’d not known before, but I couldn’t take her up on it. The poor girl was already in danger up to her eyeballs. Bunny didn’t need my shit, too. Especially as Magic and I had no idea where the Ministers were. They hadn’t been the only ones to escape. Some of the Disciples had also fled, which meant a danger remained.
Therefore, I was surprised when I offered Bunny to share a meal the following evening. I was becoming weakened to the girl. Needed to get those barriers back up. I started backtracking, but Bunny looked desperate for a girl’s night, so I gave up.
Luckily for me, it never happened. The next day, I was in the middle of serving when Magic yelled for silence and announced there was a missing child and a wildfire. Shit, it never rained but poured. I put the beer down that I had been opening and immediately headed into the kitchen. I knew the drill. I had done this several times over the seven years I’d worked for Magic. Bunny and I needed to prepare lunches for the rescue teams heading out to fight the blaze and search for Logan.
Bunny seemed confused by what was happening, but I talked her through the process, and we got into a rhythm of making sandwiches. The fire was burning out of control, and when Bunny, Brett (Magic’s cook), and I took a break, we could see the smoke getting closer. Magic was antsy, wondering if we’d have toevacuate. Truthfully, I was checking the closeness of the smoke. The fire worried me because the bar was my home.
“You need to leave. They’re evacuating,” Magic revealed, approaching. “We’re in the direct path of the fire.”
I stared at Magic in horror.
“Are you leaving?” I asked, and he shook his head.
Of course not. Magic would wait until the last moment.
“Then I’ll be on the back of your bike when you leave,” I said as I watched Bunny get bundled into an SUV by Big Al and Axel. “Give Bunny the bar’s takings, and we’ll go together.”
