"Gross," both of them said. Casper made a grunting sound.
"Which you ruined. He was supposed to become the new mayor and I was going to be welcomed back to my home. My home. Not yours. He had laid the groundwork of getting you kicked out of here, but like a little bitch, you ruined it," she said, to Ursula.
Eloise gave Ursula a proud look. "You're so impressive."
"Thanks. Some of my best work," she replied. "Now, tell us why we would leave you The Lost Souls House?"
Cassidy leaned back against a gravestone and smiled again. "Easy. You either leave peacefully, or I pin the murder of your former, philandering, abusive lover on both of you. Which will be simple as I've spent the last month setting it up. Plus, the whole town already thinks you're the ones hexing everyone. Won't be a leap of the imagination."
Eloise's body went taut. Her breathing kicked up. Ursula tugged on her arm to get her attention but she didn't budge. "He's here, isn't he?"
"Well, when you sent him a postcard telling him to leave you alone or you'd go to the cops again, and didn't do a very good job hiding your current whereabouts," she shrugged, "as a predictable predator without basic logic he fell right into my trap." She cupped a hand against her mouth like a secret adding, "By the way, he's not very good in bed. The man won't even go down on a woman, which is so typical of an alpha male," she said.
"You and I can agree on that," Eloise said then sighed. "So if we leave The Lost Souls House, you won't kill him and we won't be framed."
"Kind of," she answered slowly.
"Kind of," Ursula said raising a hand. "How is that a kind of?"
"Well, I already killed the guy. He was becoming a bit of a bother. Getting real close to going rogue, visiting you at the coffee shop, stalking you, and I couldn't let that happen and ruin my plan," she said picking something absently from her nails. She looked up at a thought. "Though, good job on the protection hex against him. He couldn't cross the bounds of this land no matter how hard he tried."
"Ohmygod, the club," Eloise said, realization hitting her. "You came into the bathroom when the redhead and I were talking. You hexed me, didn't you?"
"Can I be vulnerable for a moment?" Cassie asked in all seriousness. "Because yes, I did hex you with a truth-telling hex, but I intended for you to dance around all night telling anyone who would listen. Make you look absolutely insane. But turns out, you bitches are hard to hex," she laughed shaking her head. "I was actually impressed. Mostly pissed, but also impressed."
Eloise looked at Ursula who looked at her. The realization that they were in serious trouble was palpable.
"Where is he?"
"His body?" Cassidy looked back up at them from her nails. "Oh, probably being discovered right now by the good ole Salem Police Department." She straightened from where she was leaning against the grave. "Leave."
"No," Ursula said.
"Do you think this is the time to be bold?" Eloise asked Ursula.
"I think this is the time to stand up to her," she whispered back.
"I don't want you to lose The Lost Souls House, but we could go to prison, Urs," she said.
"I don't care about the house. But what, we let her move in, continue her dark magic and torment our friends?"
"We need a minute," Eloise said to Cassidy.
"Nope. Time's up. I'm bored and I think I'll take the houseandlock you away. Good luck in prison. You're both very pretty and I imagine you'll do real well," she winked and then walked off into the trees where Casper chased after her, his deep bellowing barks loud.
Ursula called Casper back as she and Eloise stood there in the fog-filled graveyard, having been handed a sentence they hadn't seen coming. After Cassidy left, the forest around them sighed and shivered in relief. The world around them seemed to have frozen in its own memory of her and now the branches swayed and the bullfrogs croaked with the cricketing crickets.
Dawn broke. The dew clung to the leafy vegetation of the backyard garden like clear jewels. The fog brought the sunlight in like it was holding a finger to its lips and asking it to whisper. Golden and soft, blurry light lit up the backyard like it was cloaked in gossamer.
"I love this place," Ursula said tenderly.
Eloise looked at her friend, her sweet profile a thing of beauty in this early morning light. She smiled. Her fingers laced with hers and Ursula turned her loving gaze from the garden and the house to her. "I think I could write a love poem about how much I love you. I think you're my soulmate in the ways that we were never taught to look for one; in the ways that leave roots inside of us and grow the most lovely things."
"There you go, Walt Whitmanning again," Ursula said with a smile. But it froze on her face when she realized what Eloise was doing, shaking her head even as Eloise shushed her and continued.
"I need you to listen to me, Ursula. They're going to come here, for us. But you're not going to be here."
Her dark head was vehemently shaking. "No," she said forcefully.
