Something Wicca This Way Comes (2 page)

He was quite tall, with Impressive broad
shoulders and a powerful torso that tapered down to a firm stomach
and muscular legs.

From this range, she could see that besides
stunning blue eyes, he also had amazing hair. It was the most
unusual shade of ash blonde she'd ever seen. A thick and glossy
mane of pale cream-silver.

In that instance, all of her fantasies about
the Forsythe boys were shattered. They were nothing compared to the
vision of male perfection before her.

She abruptly realized that her friends had
continued on to the car as she’d been shamelessly staring. So with
a small whimper, she hurried to catch up.

"Hi guys, I guess I lost you in the crowd,"
Beth waved as they approached, playing as if she hasn't
intentionally abandoned them all to chase down her male companion.
"This is Johnny, he's new in town. Johnny, these are my friends.
Judy, Karen, and the brunette is Elizabeth, but she prefers
Liz."

As Beth began introductions, sapphire blue
eyes flashed up to greet the newcomers. His searching gaze
flickered from girl to girl, before capturing and focusing upon
Liz.

A dizzy rush of heat and pleasure flooded
through her body, turning her cheeks pink and sending her heart
skipping into her ribs. No man had ever looked at her that way. As
if she were a fat and sassy lamb, and he were a starving lion.

His eyes devoured her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you.” Full lips
curled up into a slow and sexy as hell smile that made everything
and everyone else around them seem to fade a few colors. With that
intense gaze focused on her, Liz found it hard to see anything
else.

But he wasn’t just gorgeous. There was a
smooth grace to the way that he moved as well, even shifting his
weight from one side to the other.

He had an elegance and balance that reminded
her of a large feline, which she found utterly fascinating. She
could easily imagine him in some exotic country, walking with
lions.

"Johnny was just telling me about how he
plans to rent the old Bailey house on Liz's street." She was so
focused on the man, Beth’s voice almost failed to reach her.
"You'll be neighbors Liz, isn't that great?"

She managed a mute nod.

"Why on earth would you want to live in
Aspire?" Judy broke in, sounding appalled. "This has to be the most
boring town in the entire state of New York."

"I'm a biology major," he explained without
the slightest hint of offense. "I'm doing a study on how the
pollution from the larger cities south of here might affect
wildlife in this area."

"Pollution?" Karen asked with a confused
frown.

"It's not something you probably hear a lot
about this far north," he explained. "But it's becoming a big deal
in larger cities. In fact, a couple of years ago it got so bad in
London they estimated that around four thousand people died
prematurely and a hundred thousand more became ill. They called it
the Great Smog. There was pollution in the air so thick you could
hardly see more than a stone's throw in any direction."

"Is that for real?" Karen asked, growing a
shade paler. "Is that pollution stuff here?"

"Probably," he admitted, "but only in a very
diluted form. You don't have to worry about getting ill from
it."

"That sounds like a dangerous job," Judy
considered, tilting her head as if she were seeing him for the
first time, a glimmer of newfound fascination in her eyes.

"Not at all," he assured Liz, oblivious to
the disappointment it caused Judy. "It's no more dangerous than
waking up and taking a long hike through the woods each day."

A flicker of light on the big screen warned
that the movie would soon be starting.

"I'll let you ladies enjoy your evening," he
smiled at Liz again. "I better be getting back to my own
vehicle."

"See you around," Beth called after him as
he walked away.

"He's gorgeous," Karen sighed. "But I think
he has the hots for Liz. Did you see how he kept looking at
her?"

"Like a lovesick puppy," Beth beamed. "And
look what I got."

She fished a crumpled napkin from her pocket
and waved it at them.

"I snatched it out of the trash after he
threw it away. You can even see the smudge where he wiped off his
mouth."

"Beth!" Gaped Liz, "Why on earth would you
do something like that?"

"I needed something that belonged to a
handsome stranger for my spell on Friday. This was prefect! I'm so
glad we came tonight. Now I have everything that I need. It's going
to be amazing!"

Liz stared at the handful of soiled tissue
and silently debated that declaration.

A Ghost on the Road

As much as she loved her friends, Liz wasn't
sure how she felt about them casting a spell for her. What if
something went wrong? What if, instead of bringing joy or blessings
into her life, they gave her a chronic case of bad breath or
flatulence?

Judy still complained about the time she'd
tried to change her hair color using an herbal potion. Her hair had
turned to a lovely shade of deep chestnut red, but something in the
potion had caused a reaction that made her whole face, neck and
shoulders break out in the most awful case of acne.

It had taken months before the hair color
faded and the acne went away. All three girls assured Liz that
their magical skills had greatly improved since that fiasco, yet
for all her fears, time would not stand still.

Beth, Karen and Judy showed up a little
before six on Halloween night. Just as the first of the
trick-or-treaters were finishing up their hasty dinners and racing
out to collect their sugary bounty.

Resting next to Beth in the back seat were
several large bags filled with snacks, drinks, and a collection of
ominous looking boxes and pouches.

The interior of the car was thickly perfumed
by a strange but pleasant combination of herbs and spices,
suggesting that at least a few of those mystery packages contained
dried plant matter.

She silently prayed they were not the same
herbs which had resulted in Judy's travesty.

"We still need to stop and pick up Mary, so
we'll have to squish together a bit." Karen told her as Beth piled
half the bags into Liz's lap, "Sue, Kathy, and Betty will be coming
with Bev. Shirley, Patty, and Vickie will be riding with
Donna."

"This is going to be amazing," Beth cheered.
"I'm so glad everyone can be there tonight."

"Where exactly are we going?" Liz asked.

"There is a really beautiful meadow a few
miles out of town, on that dirt road that has the old lumber mill,"
Judy piped up from the front of the car.

"Nobody ever goes out there anymore, so it's
perfect," Beth added. "Although the mill is really spooky at night.
Sometimes the wind blows through there and makes a sound like
tortured souls sobbing in the dark."

"I don't think it's always the wind," Judy
offered in a frighteningly solemn tone. "I think those are the
lumber mill workers that died during the fire, back when my dad
still worked there. I heard him telling my mom that three men were
trapped in the basement when the stairs collapsed. He could hear
them screaming, but nobody could save them."

Liz shivered in horror.

"I remember that night. My dad got a call in
the middle of dinner and rushed away to help. Mom was so upset she
couldn't eat."

"Bev's uncle died in that fire," Karen
murmured. "They weren't very close, but her mom still cries for him
when she thinks nobody is watching."

“
Look out!” Beth shrieked
as something small and ghostly pale abruptly darted out in front of
their car.

Then all four girls screamed as Judy slammed
on the brakes and yanked hard on the steering wheel to avoid
hitting it.

The car fishtailed for a moment, threatening
to abandon the road and send them crashing through the heavy
underbrush that choked right up against the edge of the asphalt on
either side. But Judy managed to regain control and pull them to a
screeching halt.

For a moment, none of them could speak.

Liz had to pry white knuckled hands out of
the leather seat to brush the bangs from her eyes and look around
to assure that everyone was alive and safe.

“
What was that?” Karen
gasped, still trying to catch her breath.

“
I don’t know,” Judy
answered shakily. “It was small and moved really fast. I don’t
think that we hit it, but maybe we should get out and
look?”

Liz was struggling to catch her breath, she
wasn’t sure if she trusted her legs to hold her. But the mental
image of a small and wounded animal somewhere on the road behind
them drove her to move.

“
I’ll go
check.”

Beth instantly reached out to grab her arm.
Her face was ghastly pale, making her eyes look huge.

“
Wait, I don’t think you
should go out there alone.”

Liz frowned and looked out of the window.
Despite the growing shadows of dusk, there was still enough light
for her to see clearly in every direction. She couldn’t see
anything that might look dangerous.

“
Why not?”

Beth looked a little sheepish, but that
didn't stop her from confessing.

"What if it wasn't an animal? It was so pale
and it moved so fast, like it didn't even touch the ground."

"You think it was a ghost?" Judy suggested
without her usual pessimism.

"You're all just spooked because we were
talking about those poor men from the mill," Liz argued, but she
felt a chill creeping along her spine.

"Maybe I should go with you," Beth
suggested, but she was looking out the window the way someone might
approach a haunted house.

"Stay in the car," Liz directed with her
best attempt at a smile. "I'm sure that whatever it was, it's
probably long gone already."

Before her friend could argue the need to
search at all, Liz flipped the door handle and scooted out into the
cold October evening.

Three wide-eyed faces watched her from the
relative safety of the car, as she began to walk back down the road
towards the place where they'd seen the creature emerge.

A wintery breeze rustled through the
overgrown grass and shrubs that lined the street, making it seem as
though a horde of tiny creatures might be sneaking along, following
her progress.

At last she reached the spot where she
thought the pale figure had appeared.

There was no fur or blood on the street. No
sound of a creature thrashing around in the brush. But she looked a
little closer just to be sure, then crossed to check the other side
of the road as well.

Just as she was turning to walk back to the
car, she heard it. A deep gravely sound that almost could have been
a human moaning.

An icy blast of fear raced through her veins
and temporarily froze her feet to the earth. Every horror show that
Judy had ever dragged her to flashed through her mind, stirring up
unwelcome visions of long teeth and razor-sharp claws.

Liz had to force herself to remember that
Beth and the others were watching her from the car and would come
running if anything terrible jumped out of the bushes to attack
her. Although that hadn’t always helped the people in those horror
shows.

She had just about talked herself into
returning to the car and forgetting this madness. Then the sound
came again and this time she recognized that it was a low and
hesitant meow.

There wasn’t a monster hiding in the brush,
only a frightened cat.

The realization brought a warm wash of
relief.

“
Here kitty, kitty…” she
called softly, hoping that the poor feline wasn’t badly
injured.

The cat meowed again, helping her pinpoint
where the sound was coming from. Crouching, so as not to frighten
the little animal, she moved in that direction, searching the
shadows for where it might be hiding.

Then the grass parted and an unexpectedly
large gray form peered out at her.

“
Oh my, you’re a big
little guy, aren’t you?” She offered in a soothing voice. “And what
pretty blue eyes you have. Can I pet you, pretty boy? Here kitty,
kitty…”

She continued to speak in a soft sing-song
voice as she approached the cat. They were quite a distance from
the nearest house, so he was likely someone’s pet that had gone
feral or become lost.

As she drew close enough to touch him, the
feline appeared to make up its mind and stepped boldly out onto the
road to meet her. He held his tail tall and jaunty as he offered
her a much friendlier meow.

“
Good boy,” she praised in
delight, gently stroking her hands over his body to check for any
injuries. But the cat appeared to be very healthy and in beautiful
shape.