Page 31 of Wandering Witch

Nine houses in various states of disrepair and decay sat in a horseshoe-shaped around what looked to have been most likely the town hall, center market, and... were those gallows? Why did those look to be in the best shape?

Fare shook on my back but guided me with her knees to the house that sat directly across the square from the grandest building left standing. Every door and window had been broken, but unlike the other buildings, these seemed more deliberate.

When we arrived at the house, Roan helped Fare dismount and I watched him follow her into the house. As I turned around to stand guard at the door, I saw Benny had chosen to join me instead of our mate. He saw me looking at him quizzically before he answered my unspoken question.

“I have a feeling if anything were to happen to her, it would be more likely to occur out here, not in there.” I nodded along with him as my gaze caught on the sight of a brightly colored van a few buildings down. “One of these things just doesn’t belong here,” he sang, and I knew we were both watching the 70’s Volkswagen van covered in faded paint flowers rocking back and forth.

Before a deep male voice rang out, “Clover, what are you doing? We were kind of in the middle of something!”

“I’m coming back, Fitzy, I just heard voices and I wanted to say ‘hi’!” a sweet female voice answered the first. A cheery girl with long blonde curly hair hopped out of the van, waving enthusiastically. She wore nothing but a shiny piece of jewelry around her thigh.

“Oh, hi! I’m Clover! I like your armor! Oh my goodness, I think Mip needs armor. Especially after what happened recently. You never know when you are going to have to fight shadow monsters.” She paused with a thoughtful look on her face as she muttered so softly I could barely hear her, “I need to figure out how to crochet gauntlets.”

Benny looked intrigued and I swatted his leg lightly with my paw to stop him from speaking. We had enough to deal with right now. No need to add more until we could free Fare.

A Middle Eastern looking man in loose baggy pants and an open robe peaked out of the van and wrapped an arm over the woman’s chest. “Clover, love, don’t let some random dude see you naked. I’m not in the mood to carve out eyeballs right now.” His sharp eyes narrowed, taking us in for but a moment before focusing solely on the woman, who turned her head to kiss his cheek.

“They’re not men, silly, that’s a lady and a bear.” The girl said as she shook her head.

“No, the person standing beside the bear is definitely a man,” Benny called out, only to be glared at by the man.

“Sunshine, my dear, it hath been two hundred years. I implore you, come back to bed!” another man practically shouted from inside the van.

My god, how many people were in that van?

The man holding the girl kissed her neck, eyes glowing red as two sets of hands reached out, grabbed both of them and pulled them back inside.

“It was nice meet—” her voice was cut off as she disappeared.

Unholy music filled the streets as a buff, tattoo covered male poked his head out and rumbled over the noise, “Apologies, enjoy your evening!” Before he slid back into the vehicle and half shutting the door, dampening the sound.

“You know, I didn’t peg her for a fan of 1970s porn music. Woodstock fare, yes.” Benny was interrupted as the female, Clover, giggled in delight.

He waved a hand and slammed the door shut properly to block some of the sounds of very energetic love-making.

“She was certainly an experience.”

I nodded along and looked over my shoulder at the house and prayed Fare would hurry up.

Farren

Idon’t know why, out of all the buildings left standing here, I was drawn to this one in particular. But the sense of rightness I felt as I entered this house just barely surpassed the feeling of despair.

Roan stayed at my side as I made my way through the house, stopping only once we reached a door with a hawk motif embossed on the knob.

“Does that mean anything to you?” he asked as I just stared at it, dumbfounded.

“You know that ancestor I asked you about when we first met?”

He probably nodded before realizing that I wasn’t looking at him and confirmed verbally.

“Her surname was Hawkins and reliefs of hawks were all over my oldest heirlooms.”

“So perhaps that means more of what you were told is real than we thought. Maybe she fled from wherever this is, but since the name was forgotten, someone just picked a more famous lost town?”

His guess was as good as anything I could have come up with and I knew I would not get any answers just standing in a hallway of a long abandoned house. I swallowed hard, reached to open the door, and stepped through.

The instant I made contact with the worn bronze door knob, a shot of magic jolted up my arm and I gasped softly at the sensation. The rightness that I first felt when I entered the house amplified as soon as I made contact with the bronze and I felt pulled to enter the room.

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