by M. L. Briers
It started with Marilyn’s foot having a mind of its own and tapping against the floor, that spread up to the knee as both legs moved to the beat. Then she nodded her head, a moment later and her shoulders felt the rhythm – bum cheeks flexed and relaxed against the plush seating, and finally, she moved her arms.
Claudia grinned to herself. If Marilyn thought Claudia was going to let her give up her middle years and move straight into being an elder, she could think again. Some older people sat about waiting to die, and some middle-aged people sat about waiting to become pensioners who were waiting to die.
None of that was right, there was only one life to live, and she wouldn’t let Marilyn choose the path of a slow, tedious procession to death.
“See,” she called over the music. “There’s life in the old dog yet.”
Marilyn opened her mouth to speak, but she ended up chuckling instead. How could she be mad when footloose was playing? She just rolled her eyes and continued bobbing in her seat to the music.
Claudia always could cheer her up, but could her friend have the answers she was searching for as she hurtled towards old age at what felt like an alarming rate? She doubted it, Claudia was a different type of personality to her with varying experiences of life, and she just wouldn’t understand.
By the time they got out of town, Huey Lewis and the News were taking her back in time with the theme tune to Back to the Future – The Power of Love – and she forgot to worry about her car, her daughter, or the damn vampire as she remembered how it felt to be in her teens again.
Of course, back then she didn’t have a beautiful house, a car, or the trappings that money could bring – if only she could have lived her life backwards – but then, she’d hate to go from having nice things to just starting out – but she wouldn’t mind a dose of her youth again.
That youth flashed before her eyes when the car swerved around the bend. Marilyn glanced to check if Claudia had fallen asleep at the wheel and woken up to find she was driving. “What are you doing?” She panicked as the rest of her life flashed through her mind.
Claudia looked just as panicked as she shot a look at Marilyn and fought the steering wheel for control. “Slow down!”
“That’d be a great idea, and I’d love to,” Claudia bit out. “But for that, I’d need brakes.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“That’s not funny!”
Marilyn gripped the seat on either side of her thighs and alternated watching the road and Claudia – neither one of those scenes filled her with joy. They were taking the winding road too fast, and Claudia looked like she was battling dragons. “Use the handbrake!”
“Why, do you think doing doughnuts would be good right about now?”
“Doughnuts?”
“Three sixty – which would be more like flipping the car over, and over, and over down the road if I tried it at this speed…”
“Fine, I get the picture,” Marilyn shot back, worried that she’d never get the chance to be a cantankerous elder like her mother.
But then an idea snapped into her head; she drew on her magic and unglued her hands from the seat to snap her fingers.
“Holy crap!” Claudia yelled. “I just lost the power steering – it’s a brick!”
“Huh?” Marilyn was confused. She’d been sure that if she cut the engine, then the car would just naturally slow down at some point. She guessed she was wrong.
“The engine died,” Claudia rushed out.
“I know, I killed it…”
“You did wh-at?” Claudia said with a half-squeal as she took a corner a lot faster, battling the steering wheel, and she was sure two wheels left the road. “You wanted to give me another challenge?”
“I thought…”
“Put it back on!”
“Calm down,” Marilyn hissed and snapped her fingers once more. The engine roared back to life, the steering came back, but none of that helped them with the double bend that was coming up.
“Calm down?”
“Slow down!”
“I can’t…”
Marilyn couldn’t see that there was much choice – it was either do what she was thinking or take a chance that Claudia could keep the car on the road. With a mental squeal, she started to use her magic to slow the wheels spinning beneath them, too fast and they’d flip like they’d hit a ramp, too slow, and they’d be toast on the double bend – like damn Goldilocks – she needed to find the right porridge.
~
“My car got a flat, and you lost your brakes – what are the odds?” Marilyn bit out as she slammed the car door and tried to shake off the feel of death that clung to her like an icky shawl around her shoulders.
“I’m good at odds, give me a minute to calculate…”
“It’s not funny,” Marilyn snapped back over her shoulder. “And just when that damn vampire comes back into town.”
Marilyn snapped to attention at her own words. Of course, the vampire – how could she not expect him to do something dastardly and wreak havoc to get his revenge on her?
For once, Claudia was the voice of reason. “Now, we can’t be certain…”
“What are the odds?” Marilyn bit out, kicking the tyre, and hopping in pain when the tyre got its revenge by not being soft and gooey. “Motherfu…!”
“Are we going to be playing the odds game, or are we going to push the car to the side of the road before something bigger comes along and hits it?” Claudia asked.
Marilyn lifted her hand. With a shove of her magic, the car was at the side of the road. “Done,” she hissed.
“No, it’s fine, I’ll just get the axel checked when they do the brakes,” Claudia said, and the sarcasm dripped from her tone. She yanked the collar of her jacket up and shivered at the cold wind that had suddenly blown through the woods right at her. “Let’s get home.”
“Why?” Marilyn snapped, and then tossed up her hand in frustration. “Great, a walk, just what I need when I have so much to do to prepare for dinner and…”
Marilyn stopped ranting the moment that the sting of her friend’s magic hit her. She stood stock-still, and her lower jaw slowly drooped downward. “You needed it,” Claudia said with a shrug.
“I did not,” Marilyn said with a look of disbelief.
Claudia nodded. “Be grateful I’m a witch, in the movies they give the irate woman a slap, I can show you if you like…”
“So help me, Goddess, if you slap me, you’ll be visiting the dentist to get caps and waiting each time you crap to find your teeth.”
“There’s a pretty picture,” Claudia grinned, and Marilyn huffed out the frustration within her. “Feeling better?”
“Not much,” Marilyn shot back.
“Less irate?”
“Hardly…”
“Ha! Gotcha,” Claudia said as Marilyn shot daggers at her.
“Fine, you got me,” she said, tossing up her hands and letting them slap back against her thighs. “Now what? We still have to walk home.”
“Or maybe we can hitchhike,” Claudia said with a teasing grin.
“This isn’t the eighties. There’s more chance of a serial killer picking us up now, killing us, and wearing our skins than there was then – so no – not bloody hitchhiking.”
“You do have a warped mind,” Claudia said with mock disbelief. Marilyn grunted and wrapped her arms around her body.
“Well, I’ve been told I’ve become my mother, so…”
“Who said that?” she asked and when Marilyn looked anywhere, but at her, she held up her hand. “The damn vampire, well, you’re not your mother.”
“Thank you,” Marilyn replied, and sighed.
“Yet,” Claudia said and Marilyn flustered. “So, we can stop it happening with a little effort on your part.”
“Nope, it’s inevitable.”
“Tonight, we do takeout,” Claudia said, waving her hand in the air like she was summoning up a spell.
“Scott likes a h
ome-cooked meal when…”
“Then let Scott make it, he’s a grown man,” Claudia tossed back and noted the way that Marilyn looked slightly lost. She groaned. “Look,” she said, and stalked over to her friend, looping her arm and dragging her along with her as they set off for home. “Your children are grown-ups, for the most part, and you do not have to be Mrs Mom to them every minute of every day for the rest of their lives – or yours.”
“But…”
“Nope,” Claudia said. “Besides, we have bigger fish to fry.”
“Fried fish?” Marilyn looked confused again.
“My brakes, your tyre, a certain vampire in town, and we need to come up with a cunning plan to get two steps ahead of that sucker.”
Marilyn tossed her a curious look. “You think it was Neal?”
“Don’t you because it sounded like you were blaming him?”
“I have no idea…”
“What are the odds?” Claudia said with a teasing grin.
“Ugh! Shoot me now,” she groaned.
“Well, then who am I going to sit on the porch with rocking out to eighties music when we’re in our eighties?” Claudia asked with another teasing grin.
Marilyn winced. “Personally; I saw your future as a crazy cat lady.” She couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I can do cats,” Claudia said with a shrug.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
Scott tossed a look back over his shoulder whenever the door to the bar and grill opened. Maybe sitting at the bar with his back towards the door wasn’t the best idea, perhaps if he sat at a booth, he’d at least see it coming if one of Roland’s henchmen were to walk in.
He’d run home to mummy, what a wimp.
As far as he knew; nobody who worked for Roland knew where he’d come from. Scott had played the Mr Mysterio card, and he hoped that any digging would lead them far away from Clearview and over to the East coast where he’d set up a sweet little persona for himself. But not everything in life worked out the way you hoped.
Scott reached for the bottle of beer and jolted when a firm hand hit him on the shoulder - strangely, his warlock alarm bells didn’t start ringing until he shot a look at who was beside him. Wonderful, even his magic was defective these days.
“Someone we both know has been looking for you,” Neal said, keeping his hand in place to stop the young warlock from getting any ideas about taking off on him.
Scott tried to swallow the large lump in the back of his throat, but it was impossible, it was his damn tongue. How the vampire had found him, he didn’t know, but he’d led trouble right back to his family’s doorstep, and that was the scariest damn thing about any of this.
Scott reinforced the wards around him to try to block the vampire from reading him, and just hoped it worked. “I was passing through on my way to…”
“Now we both know that isn’t true,” Neal said, releasing his shoulder and sliding onto the stool beside him. He got the barman’s attention, motioned to the beer Scott was strangling with his hold and held up two fingers. “You came home to mummy.”
Scott felt the flush of fear. But, the vampire wasn’t wrong – he’d run back to what he knew, and in turn, he’d put everyone in danger. “You caught me; I’ll come back with you…”
“Who said that was an option?” Neal asked, and eyed the warlock who looked pig sick and ashamed. So he should be. He’d led a vampire right to the heart of his family.
“Fine, kill me, just leave my family alone,” Scott begged. He’d never begged for anything of importance before in his life.
Sure, as a kid, everything that he’d wanted seemed to be so damn important that he could taste owning it in his sticky little fingers. But this – this was the most important thing in the world to him, and he’d screwed it up.
Neal accepted the beers, paid the cash, and waited for the barman to leave. Then he nudged one bottle towards Scott. “You know, in some circles, the sins of one person would become the sins of the whole family?”
Scott felt sick, sick to the point where he might just throw up all over the damn vampire. “They didn’t…”
“They’re witches – what are the odds they’d let things slide and keep their noses out?” Neal asked. He had no problem spelling it out to the young warlock in terms that would stick in his memory for life – however long that might be.
“I can create a spell…”
“That would vanish the moment you were dead,” Neal reminded him. “This isn’t my first witch hunt.”
Scott turned on the stool and eyed the vampire. The way he was sitting there, blank of all expression as if he was any other guy just shooting the breeze, told Scott that his family wouldn’t see him coming – especially if this was the vampire that his mother had been speaking of. “What do you want?”
“Now, you’re asking the right questions,” Neal said with a crooked grin that didn’t reach his eyes.
This wasn’t just Clearview anymore, this was hell, and Scott was walking through the fires, and it was a hell of his own making. He wondered what price he was going to have to pay for keeping his family safe. Whatever it was, it was worth it.
~
“I quit,” Sandy said, but she sounded like a lame-duck rather than someone who was doing it out of principled conviction.
Amber looked up from the cut flowers on the counter that she was arranging into a cut-glass crystal vase and nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that’s the shortest assistant I’ve ever had,” she said, keeping her voice even. “Want to tell me why or are you just heading for the door?”
Sandy didn’t just sound lame; she looked it as well. She couldn’t seem to bring her gaze to meet Amber’s, and she was fidgeting on her feet. “I have to leave town,” she muttered, but she didn’t sound happy about it.
“That was sudden,” Amber replied, trying to get blood out of a stone without attacking it with a hammer and chisel.
Sandy sighed and looked out of the window. “The fire damage at the boarding house means I can’t stay there, and the only other boarding house in Clearview is already fully booked with guests from my boarding house, and I have nowhere to stay.”
Now the woman did look like she was a puppy who had been kicked. “You can stay with me until something comes up,” Amber offered.
Maybe living and working together wasn’t the best idea. Amber didn’t know much about Sandy; she had a feeling that any danger lurking around the woman came from outside and not inside of her, and that was good enough for Amber.
“Oh, I couldn’t,” Sandy rushed out.
“You don’t want to stay in town?” Amber casually asked as she placed a blood-red carnation into the heart of the display and angled her head to change her viewpoint.
“No, I do,” Sandy said, and she did.
The town was great, she’d found a job, she’d met friendly people – and Claudia, and she was hoping to stay off her ex-Carlos’ radar. It was a win-win, only she’d already lost – lost her place to stay, and soon her job.
“Then it’s settled,” Amber said with a bright and breezy smile and a little magic to entice Sandy to look at her.
Sandy turned her attention to Amber and frowned. “Really?”
“Really,” Amber assured her. “And if we both hate it, then we’ll just have to look for a rental for you, and I know everybody in town so I can smooth those wheels.”
Sandy felt the spark of hope within her. For the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel as if there was a black cloud of doom over her head raining down on her life. “Why?” she asked in a mouse-like voice that tugged on Amber’s heartstrings.
Amber thought that was the saddest thing she’d ever heard. How terrible was the outside world when people questioned generosity and kindness in others?
“Why am I helping you?” Amber asked and got a nod in return. “That’s what people do…”
“Not where I’m from,” Sandy said.
“Then it’s lucky you found this
town,” Amber said, snipping off one last stem and placing the flower in the display. She nodded. “Looks good.” She scooped up the cuttings and walked around the counter to dump them in the trash.
Sandy had a million and one questions that she wanted to ask, but she held her tongue. Clearview certainly was a different kind of a town, and Amber had to be the sweetest person she’d ever met, but something bugging her, and she wasn’t sure what it was.
Maybe it was a sense of hope and belief sparking within her that things could turn out all right for once. Something inside her felt a little bubbly, a little strange – but maybe it was just the fact that she’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop, and now that it had, it wasn’t the end of the world for once.
Maybe Clearview was just the place she needed to get her life back on track – or maybe there was another shoe waiting to drop that she didn’t see coming. For now, Sandy liked to believe that good things were finally happening in her life, but a little part of her held back, just in case she was disappointed again.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
“It had to be the vampire!” Marilyn exclaimed as she dropped to her backside on the comfy cushions of the sofa and allowed her head to fall back against the cloud of comfort the back cushion provided, and let her body sink into the seat and her tired bones to rest.
It felt like her body was melting but in an unclenching kind of way.
“He who shall remain nameless,” Claudia said, tossing herself down in the seat beside her friend and groaning as every inch of her said thank you and started to relax.
A three-mile hike back to the house hadn’t been on her to-do list – if it had, then she wouldn’t have been wearing six-inch heels and a figure-hugging dress that wouldn’t allow her legs to get into a good stride. She bet she looked like a penguin as she tried to keep up with Marilyn, and that wasn’t an easy thing to do when the woman got up a head of steam about her.