“If I wanted chowdah don’t yah think I woulda gotten up by now?” he argued. “I don’t want the damn chowdah, Moonshine.”
I bit the inside of my cheek and cleared off the table, tucking the newspaper under my arm and holding the coffee mug in one hand, the used tissue bundle in the other. Before I reached the door, I turned back around. “You know, Benny. I don’t ask for much. I came all the way out here, more than willing to take care of you, no questions asked. The least you could do is treat me with respect.”
“I don’t know how many times I told yah, I nevah asked yah to come. Nevah wanted yah heyah in the first place!” His eyes brewed with indignation, a coldness.
My heart slammed against my chest as a thousand needles poked behind my eyes. But I would not cry in front of the man or increase his stress. Instead, I closed the door, fell back against it, and held back the tsunami inside me. The empty mug shook in my hand, and I looked down, forcing my hand to steady. Calm down, calm down, calm down …
Whenever Gramps had the chance to remind me he didn’t want me here, I had to remind myself he was the only family I had left, and the same for him. Past the cruel exterior, I knew he wanted me here too. Why couldn’t he admit it?
I placed the cup in the sink and went to stack the newspaper on the window sill with the others when a circle around a specific date grabbed my attention.
TWO FULL MOONS FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER
STARTING WITH THE 1ST.
Based on how the year has gone, expect this October to be filled with magic, murder, & madness. The full moons could show kindness, a cursing, or unveil truths that have been buried.
Chapter 10
Fallon
Oh My Stars Boutique was located on the east side of Town Square, owned by the Sullivan family. When I’d visited Voodoos Bar, Fable and I clicked instantly, but I hadn’t gotten to know the other two sisters, Ivy and Adora.
All three sisters were a year or two apart in age, all three beautiful and bewitching in their own, opposite ways. Ivy was the oldest, with the coal-black hair that angled sharply at her shoulders. Fable was the youngest, with fawn skin and chestnut-colored hair that pooled around her shoulders and flowed to her waistline. Adora was the middle, tendrils the color of dandelions and honey dripping down her tanned skin, and she’d been the most distant from me since I’d arrived.
The glossy floor had been hand-painted into a swirling galaxy of purples, blues, and blacks, whereas the walls and ceiling a crisp and bright white. Clothes and dresses hung from silver rods, stretching up and down the walls of the store with circular tables in the middle to showcase shoes, masks, and costume jewelry.
The heels of my boots sent an echo off the tile. “The floor is gorgeous.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Adora sighed, pulling her joined hands to her chest. “Fable doesn’t take compliments well, but she’s a true artiest.” She kissed the tips of her fingers, and her fingers stretched open in the air.
Fable rolled her eyes and shook her head from behind the counter, having to work this shift. “I just don’t respond to compliments well,” she corrected. “Doesn’t mean I don’t take them.”
“What do people wear to this Superstition Day anyway?”
“It depends on whether you will defy or not. If you defy, you wear a mask so the universe can’t see you,” Monday said, holding out a black leather jacket out in front of her with studs and spikes at the shoulders, similar to one I already owned. Her head tilted to the side, a lollipop stick poking from between her lips. “If you’re not defying, you’re basically just drinking and avoiding superstitions. But the people in masks will be out to get ya, try and force ya to break ‘em.”
“I’m wearing a mask,” Fable added. “I’m not having a repeat of last year.”
“Oh, last year was so good,” Ivy joined in with a laugh. “Remember that?” She turned to face Adora, her straight black hair slapping her cheek like a dark storm. Adora absentmindedly nodded as she draped another shirt over her arm. I hadn’t found one thing yet. “Those who don’t wear masks, you try to push them to defy superstitions. Fable …” she paused to calm her laughing fit, “By the end of the night, Fable was so drunk, she ended up toasting with a shot of water after I’d switched out her glass. And the worst part? It was with crazy Jasper Abbott.”
Monday, Adora, and Ivy all lurched forward with a loud cackle.
Fable did not.
“I’m so sorry, Jasper. It wasn’t me. I didn’t mean to,’” Ivy mocked Fable and what had happened the year before.
“And look at him now,” Fable pointed out, a finger pressing the air.
“Oh, stop. The man’s still alive,” Adora said.
“I don’t get it.”
“You don’t cheers someone with water unless you’re wishing death upon them,” Monday explained. “Just grab a mask. You’ll be better off. No one will mess with you.” She picked up a Greco Roman mask from the center table and handed it to me. “This one suits you.”
It was silver with a beaded design around the edges and eyes. “Guess I’m wearing a mask then.” If I’d told myself a year ago I would be in Weeping Hollow, taking care of my grandfather and picking out a mask for Defy Superstition Day, no way would I have believed it.
“Oh, wicked.” Adora gasped with a devious smile. Her long blonde hair piled over one shoulder as she shifted the clothes that were lining her arm. “I have the perfect dress to match that.”
Adora waited outside the curtain of the dressing room as I gazed at myself in the mirror with the black leather dress glued to my skin. It was a scoop neck, the hem hitting at my upper thigh, with capped sleeves. It was something I’d wear, but never to a small-town festival. I turned and reached for the zipper at my back.
“Won’t I be overdressed?” I called out from behind the curtain when Adora pushed it to the side and pulled it closed behind her. She walked behind me in the mirror and pulled my white hair off one shoulder and draped it onto the other when it cascaded down to my waist.
I felt the zipper tug at my back. “You know, Fallon,” she started, keeping her green eyes on me in the mirror. “I have a feeling you’re going to be trouble. Especially in this dress.” But there was no smile on her face, no humor in her tone. The zipper slowly slid up my back as her breath hit my neck.
“Hardly,” I tried to say, and I wanted to say more, but the air grew thicker in the room. It was too small for both of us, too enclosed. My lips pressed together when her pointed red nails dragged down the length of my arm.
A weak and unbelieving smile braced Adora’s pouty lips. “As much as I hate it, you have to become one of us.”
I swallowed. “Why do you hate it?” She didn’t know me. Out of the three sisters, Fable was the only one who took any interest in getting to know me. Adora hadn’t talked to me until today.
“Because I was supposed to be with Kane.”
“But I’m not Kane’s type, he said so himself.” I turned to face her. “You have nothing to worry about, Adora.” I didn’t have space in my mind for anyone else anyway when Julian Blackwell consumed most of my thoughts.