Page 26 of Wicked Witch

“You’re Corrine Nefari? Oddly enough I have heard about you. My great-great-grandmother told me a story when I was young about her mother, Mira, leaving a town of chaos and fire.”

Things are starting to make sense now.

“So we are cursed to never find love. How do I stop it?”

She shakes her head and reaches out to touch my face.

“You’re my descendent? My Mira survived.” She smiles, and I watch as she begins to glow a bright white.

“No, you can’t cross over yet. I need to know how to heal this curse. Please!” I shout, but it’s too late. She’s gone and the heaviness of the manor before is now lighter.

CIRRUS

Wynter stormsout of the house. She’s upset and shaking. “Baby, what’s wrong?” I stop measuring the banister and rush over to her.

“She’s gone and I don’t know how to lift the curse. I think she was the one who was supposed to show me.”

“Who?” I am confused.

“Corrine. The spirit that was inside. She’s moved on, and now I don’t know what to do, Cirrus.”

Becoming frustrated with me, she stomps down the porch steps and walks over to a willow tree. I follow her a few paces behind.

“There is something about this tree. The land is dead, but the tree is still alive,” she mumbles and I observe what she’s seeing. The tree doesn’t look to be very much alive.

Moving closer to it, she touches the bark and closes her eyes.

A loud voice swirls in the air as her hair lifts from the gust of wind.

“Nafari child, heal the land and your heart. That’s the only way to break the curse. Make what was wrong right again.”

Wynter opens her eyes and frowns. I look around at the mess that surrounds us and groan.

“How are we supposed to fix this? The dark magic surrounding this town is keeping the land sick,” I mumble, and she looks at me. Her eyes widen, and she seems excited.

“Cirrus, the vision. The night we kissed! We were here. The house was beautiful, the land green and lucious. That’s it. To break the curse we have to restore my family’s home.”

I look around again at all the destruction and groan.

“Bumble cakes, how the fuck are we going to do that?”

ASTOR

Rus is a fucking idiot. I can’t believe I am spending my vacation days tracking him down in bum fuck nowhere to tell him he’s being stupid. I mean camping sounds fun, but for his bachelor party?

“I haven’t been camping in years,” Sin says while packing up a tote full of supplies.

I load up a cooler full of drinks and snacks, then dump it in the back seat.

“But damn I’m not looking forward to three days stuck in a car. We will have to find some spots to stop or something.”

I nod and continue going through my backpack. I just finished a big case and could use the break, but I’ll still need to do some work. I have other cases to go over and some research to do.

“That’s fine as long as you take turns driving. I have a few dispositions to read,” I mumble, making sure I have Mr. Bates files and information.

“Astor, this is supposed to be a vacation. No work.”

“Yeah, I can’t commit to two weeks of not working. I will go offline while we camp.”

---