by Tess Lake
“Wow, that one was hot,” Jack spluttered and took a drink of wine that evidently didn’t do anything to soothe his burning tongue.
“Too much for you, builder man? Feel free to tap out anytime you like,” Aunt Cass said with an evil gleam in her eye.
Jack’s face was turning slightly red, but I knew he at least had enough sense to stop eating the chili sauce when it got too hot. Molly, on the other hand, was going to keep up with Bella even if it killed her. I glanced across at my cousin and saw tiny flakes of brown foundation had come off and landed on her shirt, revealing pale skin underneath. She was sweating so much that soon she was going to wash all of the foundation off her face.
“Maybe you should stop eating the chili sauce,” I whispered to Molly.
“Do you see the way Ru keeps looking at Ollie?” Molly whispered back to me.
I glanced across at Ru, who was calmly eating from the platter of tapas and dipping them in the chili sauces. She was calm and cool, as though she was eating ice cream rather than chili sauces that may have been illegally imported.
“This next one is, well, I don’t have the exact translation, there is no English for it, but it roughly translates as the burning grief of our endless loss,” Aunt Cass said, holding up a bottle emblazoned with Arabic writing. She squirted the chili sauce into plastic cups and passed them around again.
“Okay, but I think this is the last one,” Jack said. The red that had started in his cheeks was now creeping down to his neck.
“As I was saying before I was interrupted, it’s such a delight to work in my hometown again—” Bella said, looking at Aunt Cass, who had interrupted her with her chili sauce announcement.
“There’s a lot of other people at this dinner table. Why don’t you give one of them a chance to say something?” Aunt Cass replied.
Bella’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Aunt Cass, be nice,” Mom scolded.
Bella stood up from her chair and whacked her hands on the dining table.
“Did I do something to offend you?” she asked Aunt Cass.
Aunt Cass looked up at her and narrowed her eyes.
“Do you remember Derek Farnsworth?” Aunt Cass said in a dangerous tone.
Never before have I seen someone transform from angry to chastised in such a short time. Bella sat down and took a bite of the battered and fried tiny squid and a sip of wine before replying.
“Yes, we briefly dated in high school,” she said.
“He was my top salesman, and then you cheated on him, and then he wasn’t selling anything at that point,” Aunt Cass said.
“Salesman of what?” Sheriff Hardy asked lightly.
“Jars of strawberry jam!” Aunt Cass snapped back at him.
“Jars of strawberry jam that explode into bursts of fire in the sky,” Molly muttered under her breath. Aunt Cass must’ve heard her, because she flicked a glare in Molly’s direction.
“You should care about Derek Farnsworth, because after she was done with him, she moved on to Henry,” Aunt Cass said.
Henry was the boy Bella and Molly had fought over, and I do mean that in a literal sense. Molly had punched Bella in the face, and Bella got a few good hits in herself.
“I did not cheat on Derek! There’s always more than one side to the story,” Bella said indignantly. She skewered a small gherkin, dipped it in the chili sauce Aunt Cass had sent around, popped it in her mouth and started chewing aggressively even as her face turned red. Molly did the same, determined to keep up with her.
“Well, I heard Derek’s side of the story. What’s yours?” Aunt Cass said.
“It happened years ago when we were teenagers, so it doesn’t really matter, does it? Somehow you’re still so hung up on the fact that someone didn’t sell your illegal fireworks for you that you need to be rude years later? Let it go, it’s pathetic,” Bella said.
I heard Luce gasp from down beside Will. Both of them had been pretty much silent and focused on eating the dinner, obviously intent on getting out of there as soon as possible.
“Pathetic? Oh, really?” Aunt Cass said.
“No more fighting! Bella is our guest and I want everyone to forget those things that happened in the past and focus on being nice to each other,” Mom said.
“You’re only saying that because she paid to book all the rooms last night and tonight,” Aunt Cass sniped back at her.
“What do you mean she paid for the rooms?” Molly asked. More of her foundation had flaked off, and the skin underneath was slowly turning red thanks to the chili sauces.
“Because I am a famous movie star, I can’t go to normal things like you. So I had to book up the Torrent Mansion Bed and Breakfast so we could have some privacy,” Bella explained to Molly in the most condescending tone I’d heard since Aunt Cass.
“What does everyone think about the tapas?” Aunt Freya said desperately.
“They’re delicious, aren’t they?” Aunt Ro prompted and elbowed Sheriff Hardy.
She must’ve caught him at an awkward moment, because he started coughing on a piece of octopus. He eventually cleared his throat.
“Very delicious, amazing dinner,” he said and put his head down. I expected as a law enforcement officer he had many years of experience putting his head down to stay out of danger.
“What do you say we skip the rest of these sauces and move to the final one?” Aunt Cass said to Bella.
“I’m game if you are,” Bella said.
“Me too,” Molly added.
“I will take part also,” Ru said, her voice smooth as silk.
At first I thought Molly was being a little bit crazy about Ru and Ollie, but then I saw Ru smile at him, and it was definitely not only a simple friendly smile across the dinner table. This was a smile with intent.
“I’m out, this is crazy,” Ollie said.
“Excellent, fill in these waivers,” Aunt Cass said, passing around sheets of paper and pens.
“I said no waivers at the dinner table,” Mom said.
“You want a movie star to burn her tongue at our bed and breakfast? We need this signed so we don’t get sued into oblivion after Miss Can’t-Keep-it-in-her-Pants chickens out,” Aunt Cass said.
I’d been mostly staying quiet during the meal, mainly focusing on eating all of the delicious things and drinking wine and staying calm, but there was a limit to how much even I could take. The storm above the mansion had grown increasingly strong, and the magic down at our level was surging back and forth like waves in the ocean. It felt like there was some kind of feedback loop, and the worse the storm got, the more distressing it was, which in turn made the storm worse again.
“Maybe we skip the chili sauce, move on to a delicious dessert and try to have a good night,” I said, trying to inject some calm into the evening.
“There, I’ve signed it. Let’s go right now, old lady,” Bella said, thrusting the waiver back at Aunt Cass.
Molly and Ru handed back their waivers and Aunt Cass put them to one side.
“This last chili sauce comes from a line of peppers known only as the Drumcott 41. In the 1970s, Dr. Drumcott ran an illegal lab in Brazil, where he experimented on the locals in an effort to develop weapons for the US military. As part of these illegal and horrifying human experiments, he bred a new super strain of chili peppers. Some say that he went insane and used very early gene technology to splice in genes from dangerous animals and plants around the world. What we know is that the lab burned down in the early eighties and Drumcott disappeared. Some say he had a lab hidden out in the jungles, and for the last few decades the locals have feared to travel at night down certain roads because men, women and children go missing. Some of them have been found dead years later, their mouths horribly blistered. After the fire, only a few seeds were saved by some of the locals. They were planted and the resulting chili was smuggled out of Brazil, where it is now being grown in a secure location somewhere in Norway. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Drumcott 41,�
�� Aunt Cass said. She presented the bottle with the tombstone on it.
She reached down to the box under the table and pulled out thick gloves and eye protection.
“Oh, give me a break,” Bella muttered.
“Our bakery delivery business is going fairly well,” Aunt Ro said, trying to start a new topic of conversation.
Aunt Cass opened the final bottle of chili sauce and carefully filled four small plastic bowls with it. She then carried them around to Molly, Ru and Bella before returning to her seat.
“This was supposed to be a lovely family dinner with a special guest,” Mom fretted to herself. Aunt Cass picked up a long sweet potato fry and dipped it into the Drumcott 41. Molly, Bella and Ru followed her.
“I’m not really sure this is a good idea,” Sheriff Hardy said. But it was too late. Aunt Cass bit down on the end of the fry. A moment later Ru, Bella and Molly followed.
Remember how I said the magic was surging back and forth? Within about half a second, it felt like I’d been smacked on two sides by giant waves of fire, one emerging from Aunt Cass and the other from Molly.
“Oh my,” Bella said in a quiet voice, a frown on her red face.
“Too hot for you?” Molly said through gritted teeth. The waves of magic hit me again and I fumbled my fork, dropping it onto the plate with a loud clang. The storm outside roared in power and there was a gigantic crack of lightning that sounded like it hit the mansion. The boom of thunder came an instant later and the room was flung into pitch darkness as the power went out.
I heard Luce scream and the table jolted as someone on the other side stood up and hit it with their legs.
“Everyone stay calm,” Sheriff Hardy said and then turned on a small flashlight he had connected to his keys.
There was a crash from the head of the table as Aunt Cass passed out and fell face-first into the chorizos.
“Ha, beat you!” Bella said before collapsing to the floor.
“Yeah, well,” Molly said before passing out. There was another crash of lightning and the power flicked on for a moment before dying again, leaving me blinking, sparks in my vision. I heard the kitchen door slam open as one of the moms rushed in there, presumably to grab a flashlight. Jack was on his feet, lifting Aunt Cass out of the assorted food and sauces she had fallen into.
Sheriff Hardy pulled Bella around to where Aunt Cass was, and I helped drag Molly even though it felt like I was about to faint. The magic was going crazy, surging around and pushing me back and forth with such force that it was almost a physical thing. There was another burst of lightning so bright that it lit up the room.
“They’re still breathing, it looks like they’re okay,” Sheriff Hardy yelled over the sound of the storm.
Mom came rushing out of the kitchen with two flashlights in her hands. Even with all the swirling magic, I could tell she had cast a spell on them to brighten them up. She placed one in the center of the table pointing upwards, and it lit up the room.
“Are you okay, Ru?” Sheriff Hardy asked her.
In the commotion, Ru had moved around from her side of the table to beside Ollie and was now holding his arm.
“I am good,” she said.
It was only a moment more before Aunt Cass, Molly and Bella began to stir. A moment after that, they were all awake and demanding water (or wine in Aunt Cass’s case).
The majority of Molly’s foundation had fallen off, and her black eye was dark purple under the stark light of the flashlight.
There was another lightning strike, and this time I saw it through the front window, hitting only a few feet away from Sheriff Hardy’s car.
Aunt Cass gulped down her glass of wine and got to her feet, pushing past everyone and grabbing me by the arm.
“Come with me,” she croaked, pulling me into the living room. I stumbled along with her, trying to remember to breathe, trying to get a hold of myself, but I just couldn’t.
“You need to stop this storm right now,” Aunt Cass croaked. Her voice sounded like she’d roughed it up with sandpaper or had been smoking cigars since she was born.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“Yes, you can, now do it,” Aunt Cass said and gripped my hand.
A memory flared out of nowhere, hitting me almost with as much force as the magic surging around me. Aunt Cass holding my hand and whispering something to me. The magic pushing. What was it? I couldn’t remember.
Suddenly, Molly was at my side, gripping my arm with fingers that were like steel.
“We need to stop the storm or else Bella is going to have to stay here tonight as well as Ollie and Will. I don’t trust her within ten miles of our boyfriends,” Molly said, her voice sounding as croaky as Aunt Cass’s.
“Don’t stress her, she’s about to do it,” Aunt Cass said.
They sounded confident, but I was anything but. In the clouds above the house, I could feel the electricity surging about, getting ready to strike down again. Who knew if this time it would hit a car, or crash in through the house itself and electrocute somebody?
Then I looked up and saw Jack standing in the doorway, lit from behind.
“Are you okay?” he asked and crossed the room.
Aunt Cass and Molly let go as Jack came to stand in front of me and clasped my hand.
His fingers were cool like a lake on a hot summer day. At the touch of his hands, I felt calmness flow through me, and I let out what felt like a long-held breath. The relaxation pushed out, zipping up to the sky so quickly for something that felt so soothing. The storm grumbled and then broke apart.
“I’m okay,” I said to Jack and squeezed his hands in return.
Chapter 11
“It’s clear she recognizes talent!” Aunt Cass said, waving the script pages in my direction.
It was two days since the great chili sauce tasting fiasco, and Molly, Luce and I had been very sleepily having breakfast together when a courier had driven up to the other end of the mansion to deliver a package. Not long after that, Aunt Cass had come rushing down and burst in to announce that Bella had, for some unknown reason, pulled some strings and gotten us minor roles in the film.
Aunt Cass was going to be the mysterious shopkeeper who Bella visited while searching for a lost book of spells. Molly and Luce were going to be coffee shop girls, and I was supposed to be running a fashion store and even had a line: “It’s fabulous, darling!”
“I don’t understand why she did this,” I said, looking through the few script pages that had my name printed on them.
“Probably trying to rub our noses in it,” Molly said viciously.
“I wish she was dead,” Luce said.
Luce had been particularly upset at Bella when Will had revealed that Bella had invited him to come out to the mansion on the pretense of having a look over the gardens to change them to her liking. When he’d gone out there, he’d discovered that Bella was not interested in the landscaping of her rental mansion but rather in the landscaper himself. Will had declined her invitation and, being a truthful sort of guy, had told Luce about it.
“Wait, that’s too mean. I don’t wish she was dead. I wish she was… bald,” Luce said.
I put the script pages down on the counter and decided to ignore Aunt Cass, who was practically dancing a jig. It was strange that Bella would arrange to give us roles in the film, albeit minor ones, after what had happened at dinner. Aunt Cass had gone way beyond crotchety and swayed into outright meanness.
“I’m not going to do it. I don’t care how much money it is,” Molly said.
Aunt Cass slapped the cover sheet from the package down in front of Molly and pointed to how much she’d be paid as an extra standing behind a coffee shop counter. Molly’s eyes widened and she mumbled something about “Maybe I could do it.”
“Okay, well, I’ve got to go to the set now, so I’ll see you all later,” I said and grabbed my stuff and rushed out of there while Aunt Cass envisioned a whole movie career starting from her one scene.
Not that he could really do much to me, apart from maybe break some coffee cups, but following me around and shouting at me would be certainly enough to disrupt my life.
I was barely out of my car when one of the director’s many assistants rushed up to me in a panic. She was a small Asian girl whose cheeks were flushed red, and she was carrying a clipboard and a stopwatch.
“Harlow, today you’re interviewing Cyro from ten a.m. until ten fifteen. I need you to meet me at nine fifty at his trailer and you cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot be late,” she said.
“Um… I hadn’t planned to interview him yet,” I said.
She thrust a sheet of paper at me. It was covered in the type of generic vapid questions reporters ask movie directors.
“We need you to interview him. Here are the questions. Remember, meet me at nine fifty and do not, do not, do not, do not be late,” she said before rushing off back to set.
I had a brief look through the questions and then folded up the paper and slipped it into my bag. There was absolutely nothing interesting in them. What I really wanted to know was things like what was a movie director who had once been on the cutting edge and renowned for producing controversial films doing making a cozy witch film? How was it the guy who locked some actresses into a shipping container with rotting meat to get the best performance out of them was now making this?
I made my way onto set and went inside the giant warehouse where they were redoing the scene where Mattias had a heart attack. I knew vaguely who Gustaf Hemingway was, but this was the first time I’d seen him in person. Much like Mattias, he was in his sixties, had a big round stomach and a beard, and generally gave off a kindly grandfather vibe. He was sitting in the chair Mattias had fallen out of, talking to one of the makeup girls, who kept laughing. Even from a distance, I could see he was about a thousand times more friendly than Mattias. I also noticed the plates in the background had been changed back to their original color.