by Mara Webb
“Well that’s a relief,” Sundae said from the bottom step of the basement stairs. “The police officer with the curse round his neck is outside hammering on the windows.”
19
Ryan and Amber were looking at each other and exchanging information silently, we had been given less time to solve this thing than we had anticipated. I held the book aloft and that prompted the other two to hurry over to me so that we could read the guidance that the book gave about breaking the curse.
The incantation itself was written in an ancient language, but there was one instruction written in plain old English that we could all understand. Whoever was performing the spell that would break the curse had to be in possession of the cursed item.
That meant I would have to have my hands on the engagement ring around Brent’s neck before I could do anything. I knew that the silence in the room was because the others were thinking the same thing I was, how on earth did we get the ring?
“He is really giving those windows a good kicking,” Sundae said. “I mean, they won’t break but he is probably getting mud all over them, it is still pouring down with rain outside. Cecily will be pretty upset if the house is a mess when she wakes up.”
I thought that Cecily would be lucky if we were all alive when she woke up, who cared about a bit of dirt?
“Can we summon it from him?” I asked.
“No, you can’t snatch other people’s property that way, especially not from another wizard, which technically he is now,” Ryan said. “He is limited obviously, until he completes all the training, he has restricted power. Maybe we can use that to our advantage somehow…although your magic is also limited so…yeah I have no idea.”
Great.
“I don’t want him to get hurt,” I said in anticipation of whatever Amber was about to suggest. “He has been caught up in all of this by mistake, it isn’t his fault. He isn’t doing this with his free will, he’s been corrupted by this…this thing and I have to free him from it.”
A tear ran down my face and I could see it roll over the lipstick marks on my cheek. “You two are more powerful than I am, you retrieve the ring and then I can break the curse with the spell, once I can read it.”
They would have to go outside to get the ring from Brent and they wouldn’t have time to run back around the building to get back inside. I couldn’t hide away in the safety of the basement and wait for them, I had to go outside too. I was the focus of Brent’s anger and was the one in the most danger.
Sundae seemed to be able to sense what I was feeling so shook her tale slightly, causing a box with a dozen donuts to appear on the table beside Amber’s lipstick. Maybe Quin had told her I was a nervous snacker.
I opened the box and grabbed the nearest one, sinking my teeth into it and quickly realizing it was filled with a hazelnut and chocolate cream. Ryan and Amber stood in amazement as donut number one disappeared in a couple of bites, as did donut two and three.
“Good?” Ryan asked.
I nodded, I now had chocolate smeared all across my mouth, so I was more visible than I had been with the lipstick alone. Ryan and Amber picked up a donut each and for a moment everything felt calm, as if the maniac standing out in the rain ready to attack the first person he saw was just a racoon or something, pawing gently at the glass looking for some trash to dive through.
The chewing sounds died down and Amber pulled a wet wipe out of thin air and started to clean the chocolate off her fingers, Ryan followed suit and did the same while I sucked the sugar off my fingertips. I didn’t mind being disgusting, I was invisible; you very rarely get to enjoy being filthy without being judged.
“I can show you another way out, but be clear, it is exit only. You won’t be able to get back into the house that way, but it should make it easier for you to make it outside without your angry friend seeing you,” Sundae said.
I re-read the instructions from the book, committing them to memory. I reached into my pocket to check something and my suspicions were confirmed. There would be a point when I would need to be made visible again so that I could complete the spell, I would have to be quick and Ryan and Amber would have to defend me.
There were a lot of weak spots in the plan, many points where it could fall apart, but we had no choice.
We followed Sundae up the stairs and the banging on the glass was now audible. Brent was shouting but mixed with the rain and his rattling of the windows it was indecipherable. We walked through to the kitchen and Sundae nudged up against a tall kitchen cabinet that I hadn’t thought to be anything other than a cupboard.
“Through here, it will take you to the far end of the garden so you can technically sneak up on your guy outside, but he will probably see you immediately. Keep your eyes peeled and good luck! Oh, and Nora,” Sundae said, “Quin told me to tell you that Delphi said that Echo looked in the refrigerator and that it seems Howl and Chomps ate that whole thing of tuna that was in there.”
“Thanks, yeah I’ll get right on it,” I replied. Cats.
Amber waved her hands around in the air and summoned a raincoat, different shoes and a toothbrush for herself. I could understand that she wanted to avoid being weighed down by wet clothes, but I didn’t see why she needed to brush her teeth before a showdown.
I whispered my plan to Ryan, and he nodded in acknowledgement.
Once Amber was dressed with minty fresh breath, she opened the kitchen cupboard and ran through. I followed her with Ryan behind me. I could feel the cold night air suddenly and the light from the kitchen disappeared. We were back among the trees at the bottom of the garden with rain trickling down from the canopy above, I could see Brent through a gap in the branches.
We had to move.
Amber and Ryan both pulled out their wands and ran in separate directions while I stayed put underneath the trees. Was there any chance that he didn’t already know where I was? The plan was to distract him long enough for one of us to run up and snatch the necklace chain from him.
Once Ryan and Amber were out onto the open grass, Brent turned and started running. I had never seen him like this, he looked possessed. I had never seen him look so angry, the closest to this emotion I had ever witnessed was his screaming accusation that I had murdered Joanne.
The curse was completely in control.
I didn’t know where Brent had gotten a wand from, or how he could possibly know the first thing about how to use it, but as clear as the lipstick covered nose on my face, he was firing magic at my friends.
Ryan fired something back at him which missed, Brent shot at Amber and she staggered backwards. I was useless here in these trees, I couldn’t stand back and watch this fight play out with people I cared about, people I loved.
I ran forward onto the lawn and lifted up my hands in preparation of using magic to defend myself and the others. I could see the lipstick marks on my skin, but not as clearly as I could see every other part of me.
I was still invisible, but the rain was bouncing off my body and creating an absence in the rain fall that allowed me to be seen. Brent turned and saw the outline of my body and lifted his wand.
I ran.
“Don’t do this, Brent!” I shouted. “Please, this isn’t you!”
“You don’t know me. You don’t know the first thing about what I am,” he shouted. A spark flew past my ear and hit a shrub just ahead of me, he had missed but was definitely trying to cause me harm.
I zigzagged around the house, changing direction to run back past him so as to avoid him having a clear shot at me. I needed him to stop, if he was still for even a moment then someone could grab the chain, I had an idea.
I ran towards Ryan who was firing towards Brent, I stopped by his side and turned back to face my police officer boyfriend. “Ryan and I kissed!” I yelled. The rain was so loud that I wasn’t sure if my voice had travelled enough for Brent to hear, but he must have heard it because he stopped running.
“What?” he said.
His voice w
as quieter and I could see a wounded look in his eyes as if the Brent I knew had returned and the curse had taken a step back. Before he had chance to think of his next move, Amber sprinted up behind him, wrapped her fist around the chain on his neck and continued to run.
The chain snapped and he lifted up his arms as if to react, Amber was almost at the spot where Ryan and I were standing. Ryan put his hand onto the top of my head and shouted “Conpareo!” as I reached up to snatch the engagement ring from Amber.
I felt warmth rush over me from Ryan’s palm, as it ran over my face, I could see the skin of my nose where the line of lipstick was. I turned and could see my shoulder re-appearing, then my arms and chest. Nearly. Once the spell had travelled down to my waist, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the velvet pouch with my rune stones.
I dropped to the ground and placed the ring down on the grass, laying the rune stones out around it in a circle in the order that the book had instructed. I had checked in the basement to see if my runes were usable, but the invisibility spell had made everything I was wearing, and anything in my pockets, invisible too.
Ryan and Amber stepped in front of me to prevent Brent from interrupting the curse-breaking spell. Once the final stone was in place, I held my hands flat over the ring and the circle of runes and whispered “Peractio”, a silver fluid seemed to bubble across the surface of the ruby before evaporating up into the air and dispersing.
I looked up to see Brent and saw a similar silver cloud drifting away from him before he dropped to the ground. The rain was still beating down heavily on all of us and there was no way to know if the curse was truly broken, but at least for now it was over.
20
In the weeks that had followed the breaking of the curse, life had been strange. I had passed my O.W.L. assignment with flying colors after interpreting a children’s book written using the Theban alphabet and answering questions about it when my tutor, Professor Alse Eastey, had called me about it.
The imposter syndrome that overwhelmed me so often was satiated for another day, I was learning what I was capable of and it was impressive. I had brought up the rune’s assignment at the University where I work, and it had opened up conversations with other staff members about a special project they were interested in planning that involved solving old, magical mysteries based on ancient texts.
It was exciting, but also lucrative. The research grant would help me keep seven cats in fresh fish for a long time. I had even started looking at new cars to replace the one that the police still had hold of.
I had considered keeping my old car and using the extra income for something else, maybe a vacation or something, but after sitting down and crunching some numbers I realized I could afford to do both.
There was also the fact that my current car had been taken away due to a dead body lying on the roof, it made the thought of having it back on my driveway less appealing. After some conversations with Edith, Joanne’s ghost had managed to formulate a plan to address her unfinished business in a calm way so that she may move on.
The curse had been a huge part of her life for such a long time that she said it had felt like a physical weight was lifted from her shoulders when it ended.
Speaking with Joanne had actually been enjoyable, she was able to provide an insight to the inner workings of the Lundeen Curse that hadn’t been reported before, I convinced a Professor from my University to come over to my house to speak to her.
He specialized in spectral memory and activity and we co-authored a very boring paper that we would present at a conference next Spring. Edith had also been an endless font of knowledge that Professor Elrond spoke to for hours, he was keen on having her recorded as part of his conference presentation, so I left them to chat in the entryway mirror as often as he was free.
Quin, for reasons known only to himself, had been crying almost every day. Brent and I had decided to part ways, something that Quin was taking harder than anybody. The breakup had been a lot calmer than I had anticipated, we had both made mistakes that were hurtful, and we had both been in the wrong, just in different ways.
He had remembered our confrontation on the grass outside the curse-breaker witches house, there was no gap in his memory. The feeling of uncontrollable rage that the curse had created had been so strong that he described it as watching himself scream, shout and fight as if he was floating above his own body with no way to control it.
It was a sad situation, despite it being a mutual decision. We had only just been talking about a proposal, the progression to marriage and all of the wonderful adventures that could bring. Within a week everything had changed, and he had already collected his belongings from my house.
I had offered him a shoulder to cry on as he processed the death of his uncle, it hadn’t been a murder as the police had initially suspected, he had passed away peacefully on the same day he had spilled ketchup down his shirt. There was nothing sinister about it, but it was sad none the less.
I tried to fill my weekends with as much time at The Catmosphere Café as possible. Helping out at Quin’s café allowed me to keep my mind busy and not let me dwell on my single status too much.
Cecily had been to visit a few times and brought Sundae along which allowed her to chat away to Quin and for Cecily to ask again and again if I would be interested in a little freelance curse-breaking as a side hustle.
I hated to turn down money and I wanted to fill my days as much as possible, so I finally caved and we set up a date for me to meet at her place to draw up some plans and divide up some of her more simple cases for us to explore together as part of my training.
Professionally, things could not be going better for me. I was being offered new job opportunities at every turn and I felt more comfortable knowing that I was using my skills for good, I was earning an honest wage doing something I thought was important.
It was a huge boost to my self-esteem. If I could only match that success in my personal life, then everything would be great. There were only so many more days that I could justify eating an entire carton of ice-cream at 10pm.
I woke up on a Saturday almost one month since all the craziness and let my body enjoy the stillness for a few moments as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight. It had been another night where I hadn’t dreamed even once, I didn’t know if I should be concerned or if I was still just recovering from a stressful period of time with intense catch-up sleep.
At first, I had been suffering with awful nightmares about dead women everywhere I went, giant police vans filled with officers kicking my door down and chaining me in a dungeon. Once Amber explained that she had worked a little magic to erase my jail break from everyone’s memory, most of the nightmares had stopped. I wasn’t going to be dragged off to prison and the right person was in jail.
Penny still had all of her memories after the curse ended. She had confessed to everything immediately afterwards because she was so horrified by what she had done. I felt bad for her because after everything that had happened, she seemed like a caring person.
All she had done was fall for a guy that was caught up in a curse that ended up ruining her life, killing two others and almost forcing Brent to murder me. In a way she was innocent, but she was to be judged under human law and I doubted that it would end well for her.
“It’s another bachelorette party this afternoon,” Quin said, as if we had been mid-conversation. There was no ‘good morning’ or anything like that, just straight to the point. He swaggered his way over to the bed and jumped up onto the pillow beside me so that his tail was across my face. I wriggled my hands loose from the blankets to brush the fur from my eyes.
“May I help you? Get off my pillow, Quin!” I rolled over and sat up, still blinking to focus in the brightness of the room. “I thought you liked the bachelorette events, it’s a group of women buying cakes and drinks all afternoon and giving you all endless pets. Why are you sulking?”
“If I have to hear ‘I’m every woman’ by Chaka Khan
again I think I will scream in front of them, human or not. I will blow the cover of the entire magic community over it, watch me. I promise. Don’t think I won’t,” he rambled.
I gave him a little scratch behind his ear and smiled.
“Just take deep breaths and remember that The Voice is back on tonight, if you manage to keep the town’s secret from the human’s then we can watch it all together. If you blow it then I’m unplugging the TV.”
I stood up and shuffled towards my bedroom door, the other cats were running up and down the hallway at dangerous speeds in a wild game of chase that almost caused me to trip three separate times before I made it to the top of the stairs. As I started to descend, I heard a roar that sent my heart racing. It was the unmistakable sound of an engine revving, the engine of a 1969 Mercury Cyclone to be precise.
It was Ryan.
I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know that my hair was sticking out at all angles and that I had melted chocolate ice cream stains down the front of my shirt. We hadn’t really spoken about the kiss or my separation from Brent, but I knew that if that conversation was going to happen this morning, it wasn’t going to be happening with me looking like this.
“Venusto!” I shouted with haste. My pajamas were replaced with a beautiful sundress that was covered with delicate flowers, cute sandals adorned my previously bare feet and my hair transformed from the flat, tangled mess to a vision of bouncing curls that fell loosely over my shoulders.
I could feel a tackiness on my lips that indicated that I was now wearing lip gloss, a nice face full of make up would also help me look like I had been awake for more than five minutes.
I ran down the remaining steps and waited in the entryway while I paced nervously in circles. I wasn’t sure where the anxiety was coming from.
Ryan was my friend; he was very likely just coming over to discuss the type of things that friends talk about. We also worked together on the council, so maybe he had council business to discuss. He’s just ‘my friend Ryan’, just a man that I kissed once. Just a very handsome man that I have had blossoming feelings for over the past year that I have fought hard to suppress.