Panic Broom
by
Sara Bourgeois
Chapter One
“Oh, my goodness,” Annika gasped. “What are you going to say?”
“I mean, duh, right. Of course, I’m going to say yes,,” I said. “That’s not even an issue.”
“Well, then why are you in the bathroom calling me?” Annika asked. “Get out there and get your man, silly.”
“I guess I just wanted to tell you. You’re the first person I’m telling,” I said.
“But, Brighton, you haven’t even told him yet. He asked you to marry him and you jumped up and ran for the bathroom.”
“Oh, no, he must be nervous. I should go say yes.”
“Yes, you should. You should definitely go say yes,” she said with a laugh.
“Hey, one thing first. What is Amelda going to say? Has a Tuttlesmith witch ever married a Skeenbauer witch before?”
“Nope. Never, but don’t worry about that. You let Remy and me handle our family. If he asked you, then he’s prepared to deal with it.”
“Okay, I’m going to do it, but under one condition.”
“What condition?” Annika asked.
“You’ll be my maid of honor?”
“Yes. Yes, I will. Now go out there and say that to Remy.”
I hung up and went to the bathroom mirror. I needed to get back out to Remy, but I had to wipe under my eyes. I’d begun to cry a little, and it was messing up my makeup. I didn’t want to look like a racoon when I accepted his proposal.
As I walked back out to the table, I thought of the six months we’d been dating. Even if we weren’t both witches, it would have been magical. Remy was everything. He was my best friend and the love of my life. I couldn’t imagine a world without him in it, and that night, he’d asked me to marry him.
We’d gone out on what I thought was just a regular date, and when the waiter brought our dessert, there was a little red velvet box on the plate. It was funny because the menu had listed red velvet cake as the dessert special for the evening, and I had to wonder if Remy had orchestrated the whole thing. I was also sort of concerned that there was no cake, but Remy knew me so well, he’d made sure the waiter brought us a piece of cake as soon as I’d opened the box. He was too good to me.
“What’s this?” I asked with a chuckle when the waiter set the plate with the ring box down in front of me. “No cake?”
“Open the box, baby,” Remy said with a Cheshire Cat smile.
I did, and when I saw the ring, it almost took my breath away. “Remy, this must have cost a fortune.”
“One, you’re totally worth it, and two, I’ve saved most of the money I’ve made working. I’ve got quite the nest egg, but don’t go getting any ideas.”
“Ideas?”
“About marrying me for my money,” he said with a laugh.
“Dork, you are literally asking me to marry you right now. Aren’t you? Am I reading this wrong?”
“Not at all,” he said and got up from his chair. Remy came over to my side of the table and got down on one knee. “Brighton Longfield, you are the moon in my sky. You are my best friend, and I love you more than I could ever put into words. I wouldn’t care even if you were marrying me for my money if it meant you would marry me. So will you? Will you be my wife?”
“I have to go to the bathroom,” I’d said and shot out of my seat and to the back of the restaurant.
That’s when I’d called Annika. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to marry him or say yes, I’d just panicked. I had no reason to panic other than wondering what the Skeenbauer coven was going to say about all of this. But for some reason, I had to get up and move. I later realized it was more excitement than it was nerves. It was a good thing he hadn’t asked me to marry him outside, or I might have run off into the wilderness.
“Better?” Remy asked when I returned to the table and sat down.
He was smiling, and I was glad I hadn’t upset him or made him worry. In fact, he looked completely at peace. I had to wonder if Annika had already texted him, but that could wait until later.
“Yes,” I said.
“So, about what I asked you…”
“That’s what I mean, Remy. Yes…”
“Wait.” He got up and got back down on his knee with the ring. “Okay. Now go.”
“Yes, I’ll marry you. A thousand times over,” I said and he slipped the ring onto my finger.
It was a huge pink princess cut diamond. The kind of ring little girls dream of getting from their Prince Charming someday, and there I was getting one from mine. I lived in a magic house with a talking cat, and everything seemed so perfect.
The restaurant erupted in applause. Remy stood up and pulled me into his embrace. My heart beat harder as his arms wrapped around me. No matter how many times he held me, it always felt like home. He was home.
“So, did Annika tell you I was going to say yes before I did?”
“Nope. She just said you were coming back and that I shouldn’t worry,,” Remy said and kissed me.
“That’s the same as telling you.”
“Do you want to work together and turn her into a goat?”
“Now you sound like Meri,” I said and kissed him again.
“We should get back to Coventry,” he said. “Annika is no doubt telling everyone, and I’m going to need to have a talk with my grandmother.”
“Amelda isn’t going to take it well,” I said.
“She’ll be fine,” he said and took my hand. “Remember, the spell they cast is still in place. The effects work on everyone in Coventry including the casters.”
The spell he was talking about was one not unlike Marie Laveau had cast on New Orleans. It was intended to bring peace and calm to Coventry. The Skeenbauer coven decided that was the best thing to do until they got a new sheriff. Thorn had been gone for six months, and so far, the deputies had been able to handle it because of the calming spell.
Remy and I went out to his car so we could head back to Coventry. He’d wanted to go to dinner somewhere special that night, so we’d gone into the city. It wasn’t late when we left, and the drive back was only around a half hour.
The drive back home was uneventful. We talked a little about the wedding. I’d assumed that since we were engaged after dating for six months that Remy would want to have a longer engagement, but that hadn’t been what he’d had in mind at all.
I was about to make a joke about him just wanting access to the Tuttlesmith library in Hangman’s House when I saw something odd. We were just at the town limits, and Remy slowed way down. I assumed he’d seen it too.
“Did you see that?” Remy asked right on cue.
“I’m not sure what I saw,” I said. “I definitely saw something, but it could have been nothing.”
“Around here? Nothing is nothing in Coventry,” Remy responded. “Should we pull over?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got a bad feeling, but if she was hurt, we can’t just leave her there.”
“So you think that was a woman?” he asked.
“I don’t know what else it would be. I guess I don’t really want to know what else it could be. Definitely didn’t look like a ghost, but if it was a woman, I mean. What could have made her look like that?”
“Let’s just check it out,” Remy said. “We can handle whatever it is.”
He pulled the car over to the side of the road, and both of us got out. What we’d seen had disappeared into the tree line. If it was a woman, I was worried that she was injured and disoriented. I didn’t want to wish pain and suffering on anyone, but I had to hope that it was an injured person. Any other possibility scared me.
“I’d tell you to stay behind me, but I think that perhaps I should stay behind you,” R
emy said with a nervous chuckle.
“You can if you want,” I responded and started for the tree line. “I’ll protect you.” I sounded far braver than I felt.
I could hear something moving around beyond where I could see, and there were some strange noises. But I couldn’t quite figure out what they were. It sounded a little like heavy breathing, but we weren’t close enough to whatever it was to be able to hear them breathing. It was as if they were just beyond my visual field, but also standing right behind me.
The closer we got, the further away the sound moved. Remy and I looked around for a few minutes, but we couldn’t find her.
“Let’s just go,” I said after a while. “Maybe we were seeing things.”
“Both of us?” Remy asked.
“Yeah. Do you know what you saw? Can you be sure?”
“I can’t,” he countered. “You’re right. Let’s go. I don’t want to spend our engagement night wandering around in the woods looking for ghouls.”
We went back to Hangman’s House, and I wasn’t too surprised to find a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator. I took that to mean the house was happy with the engagement situation.
“What’s that?” Meri asked as he appeared from upstairs.
“What’s what?” I asked.
“That thing on your finger.” Meri jumped up on the table and sniffed my hand while I was trying to pour champagne.
“It’s an engagement ring,” I said and finished pouring the bubbly.
“Really?” Meri asked. “We just got rid of your brother. Now you’re going to move him in here?”
We hadn’t just gotten rid of Brody. He’d moved out a few months before and into a townhouse on the other side of Coventry. Brody had decided not to return to his old apartment, and most of that was because of Annika. He’d also decided to do his graduate program off campus utilizing his university’s online option. Brody had to go see his advisor occasionally, but the rest of his studies he could do from home.
As far as income, he’d been hired to assist Remy at the archives. It was only part-time, but he supplemented his income doing freelance writing and research. He made enough to get by, and he seemed happy in Coventry.
I was happy to have my baby brother back in my life. My mother and grandmother had thrown a fit about him moving to the town they hated, but Brody recognized that they’d been the ones to drive a wedge between us. He’d pretty much stopped calling them too, but at least we had each other.
He didn’t have to leave Hangman’s House either. I’d inherited the house, but I wasn’t going to kick him out. The move had been Brody’s decision, and I think he wanted more privacy with Annika. It was an idea that I’d grown to embrace. I’d thought he wasn’t ready to date when they met, but the two of them had proved they were made for each other. By that point, I secretly hoped he’d get off his duff and make Annika my sister.
“Yeah, I mean. We’re not going to go live at his place, right? This house is a part of my family’s heritage. Plus, it’s bigger than his place. Your wall tunnels are here too, and the library. This is our home.”
“I’m not his familiar,” Meri huffed. “And speaking of tunnels.”
“Can we not tonight?” I pleaded. “I know you think we’ve found the tunnel that leads to where the demons are coming through, and I promise you we will find the rip in the veil. I swear, but tonight can we just celebrate?”
“I don’t think you quite understand how serious this all is,” Meri said. “It’s not just you and the King of the Dorks getting married. It’s so much more.”
“Well, then tell me what it is,” I said.
“Not yet.”
“Meri? Come on.”
“Whatever,” he said and jumped off the table. “I’m going exploring.”
I opened the basement door a crack and let him through. “Don’t get eaten.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Chapter Two
The next morning, I went downstairs to fix Meri and me some breakfast. Remy had gone home after one glass of champagne. He insisted that we not live together until after the wedding, so even though we were officially engaged, he did not spend the night.
As I walked past the front window, I heard a creaking sound come from one of the porch boards. It was followed by what sounded like someone dragging their fingertips across the glass. Kind of a weird smooshy squeak noise.
“That’s weird,” I said. “At least it’s not someone pounding on my door, though.”
“Who are you talking to?” Meri asked.
He’d been in the kitchen and sauntered out just about the time the sound came. “You didn’t hear that?”
“What I didn’t hear was the sound of some bacon frying for my breakfast.”
“I think there is someone on the porch.”
“Well, maybe they’ll ring the bell in a second,” Meri said.
So we stood there starting at the front door for a full minute not saying anything. When we crossed over into what had to have been minute two, the rubbery sound of someone dragging their fingers across the window happened again followed by what sounded like someone running into the side of the house.
“That was weird,” I said.
“You should totally check it out.” Meri started to walk away.
“Hey, wait a second, cat. You’re my familiar. You check it out.”
“No, you,” he said.
Then we stood there staring at each other for a full minute before the sound of someone running into the house again. “This is weird,” I said.
“Maybe we should call the sheriff,” Meri said. “Oh, wait, the town doesn’t have a sheriff because you can’t keep a man.”
“You are the worst,” I said. “And, I can keep a man. Hello.” I wiggled my fingers and the sun caught the diamond.
It sparkled right in Meri’s eye, and he flinched. “That doesn’t count. That guy would marry a bottle of laundry soap.”
“I’m not sure who you just insulted more, me or him,” I said and narrowed my eyes. “That was really mean too. Are you sure you’re not evil Meri?”
“There is no evil Meri. You’re just nuttier than a fruitcake like your insane great-aunt.”
“Wow, that was mean. You might be evil Meri. Oh, wait, he’s adorable, never mind,” I said. “Besides, I wasn’t the only one who saw evil Meri that day.”
“You’re all bonkers,” Meri said and started to walk away again.
Thump
“I’ll go look,” I said with a sigh. “Will you at least stick around to make sure I don’t die?”
“Fine.”
Thump
I walked over to the door and reached for the knob. For some reason that I was about to find out, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
“You could just look out the window,” Meri said as I opened the door a crack.
His voice startled me. I was already on edge, so I slammed the door shut and locked it.
“Why didn’t we think of that before?” I asked.
“I did,” he said and licked his paw before running it over one ear. “I just wanted to see if you’d open the door without looking.”
It was stupid, but I wasn’t ready to admit that I’d almost messed up really badly. I rolled my eyes at Meri and went to the living room’s huge front window.
I peeled back the heavy velvet curtain and screamed. Despite his sass, Meri jumped up into the windowsill and put himself between me and what had scared me. He did it without a second of hesitation.
“Oh,” Meri said. “Oh my.”
A woman ran into the glass when Meri and I appeared in the window. Her fingers found the window again, and she raked them down.
“Is that?” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Even in a town like Coventry, it was too weird.
“I think it is, but…”
The woman, if you could even still call her that, let out a moan and then ran into the window again. Her grey skin bounced off the glass. She looked
like a walking corpse with soulless eyes that had no light behind them.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“Let’s get out of here,” Meri said. “The protection wards should keep her out, but I don’t want to risk it.”
“Yeah, but if this is like in the movies, there have to be more of them,” I said.
“That’s true, but this is the first one we’ve seen. So it’s like early in the movies, right?” Meri asked. “There won’t be that many of them yet.”
“So we should go to the courthouse and get Remy,” I said.
“But we haven’t had any breakfast,” Meri protested.
“Seriously, Meri? We can’t worry about breakfast when there is a zombie on my porch.”
“We can worry about it a little bit,” he said. “We’ll need our strength.”
“Fine, I’ll grab something from the kitchen on the way out, but there is no time for bacon.”
Before we made our way out the back door, I grabbed some smoked salmon for Meri and leftover pizza from a couple of days before for me. Oh, and two cans of Diet Coke because if it was the apocalypse, who knew when I’d get more. For a moment, I contemplated bringing a whole twelve-pack, but that seemed like excessive paranoia.
I opened the backdoor slowly after looking out the window in the door and the other kitchen window. There was nothing in the backyard, so Meri and I rushed out.
We ran to the car and dove in. While we did draw the attention of the zombie on the porch, she fell trying to get down the steps. There was no chance of her catching us unless the car wouldn’t start.
“I hope this pile of junk starts,” Meri said. “You really should get a new one. You can afford it now.”
“It’s not like I knew there were going to be zombies,” I said. “How could I have known that?”
“It pays to be prepared.”
“Whatever,” I said, and I turned the key, and the engine came to life. “See, it’s fine.”
I stopped at the end of the driveway. The woman zombie was back on her feet and moving toward us. “We should do something about her,” I said. “We can’t just leave her roaming around the neighborhood.”
“What do you want to do?” Meri asked from his spot on the passenger’s seat. “We can’t kill her like in the movies. We don’t have any kind of confirmation she even is a zombie.”
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