Page 127 of Blue Moon Mistress

When we turn off, the white minivan that had been riding our tail for the last twenty miles or so zooms past and I spare a moment’s glance after them. Whatever their hurry, I hope they get where they need to be.

“Park on the street right here.”

Johnny does, and they all get out with me, looking up at the stepped cement walls and grass carving level ground out of the hill.

“What is it with you and graveyards?” Thomas asks, stretching out the kinks of the prolonged journey.

“As it happens, I haven’t been to a graveyard since I was a child.”

Chuckling, Johnny is the first one up the uneven steps. “Who wants to tell her where we are right now?”

“In order to qualify as a graveyard it has to be attached to a church. This is just a cemetery.”

“Alright then, what is it with you and cemeteries?”

“There’s a lot of power in death. And the dead talk more than you might think.”

“So who are we here to see?” Joshua stops at the top of one set of stairs, and holds his hand out to me to help me up. To steady me. “And what will they have to say?”

“A witch hidden from the people who killed her, and she’s never talked to me before, but that doesn’t mean I want to pass without paying my respects.”

That gets me four puzzled looks, but I ignore them and continue on to the top of the grave-dotted hill.

Nestled between two enormous fir trees, the flat stone is roughly carved.

I clear away the needles and grass that have covered over it.

KNOWN UNTO GOD

SINS WILL OUT

MAY 6 1982

“Her name was Elizabeth Black. She was a witch, hung by a superstitious and spiteful group of men in our own, tiny town.”

“Why does her tombstone say that then?”

“Because the family that hanged her is still around, and they’re terrified of the curse she laid on them before she died.” I sweep away the last of the moss. “And if they knew she was here, they’d have dug her up and turned her bones to ash.”

“Was she a relative?”

“No. Her family is entirely gone.” If I’d thought of it, I’d have brought the tiny kit of tools I’ve compiled to get the growth out of the engraving. “But she shouldn’t be forgotten.”

A sickly feeling—like someone’s walked overmygrave—brushes over me, and Chase shivers and looks back toward the road. The others felt it too.

“We should go.” Joshua says, looking down toward the road. “The longer we wait, the later it gets.”

He glances at Thomas and a mocking look crosses his face. “And someone has been putting off his laundry.”

Thomas rolls his eyes. “I’d argue if it wasn’t true.”

Heading back to the car—slower, because it starts to rain and the steps aren’t completely maintained—I can’t help but think something happened that we’ve missed or that I should have accounted for.

That sickly feeling of dread has settled on me and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to go away anytime soon.

“I don’t know about you,” Joshua says, taking the keys and getting in the driver’s seat, “But I am ready to be get home.”

We all agree.

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