Rules and regulations.
No more magic.
No more unnamed oddities would go uninvestigated.
This is a warning to those who would put a bad name on a good town.
This is a warning to The Lost Souls Coven.
17. Rules and Regulations
"My doorknob fell off."
Tilly stared at the brass doorknob in the guest's hand. This was the sixth odd occurrence in the last three days. The Fourth of July festival had been three days ago, and since then the town had taken an odd turn.
People had been poisoned or magicked, depending on who was reporting it, by the peach shortcake at the festival.
Multiple stories had come out about the strangers in town, and then a press release was given with a statement from none other than Astra Goodwin, head of some department of investigation with an unnamed federal bureau.
A lie to hide who they truly were; a lie too many people swallowed without question.
People would be interviewed. People of interest would be questioned and given strict warnings. In the interest of what was left ambiguous at best.
But that alone had set off a chain of human nature.
Posters were made by townspeople and business owners stating things like, "No Magic Here," and "Keep your oddities out of our Good Neighborhood,".
The air had turned chilly in the middle of July. People were acting strange, staring a little longer at each other as they passed by on the streets, wrapping cable knit cardigans around their chilled bodies and pulling them tighter when they were near someone they deemeda person of interest.
Secrets started spilling out of houses like the walls were pushing out old dust.
Philip Perry shouted on the front lawn that he was in love with their toddler's babysitter. Mrs. Grayson, just off Main Street, pulled her neighbor from grabbing her mail to tell her that she had been committing tax fraud for eighteen years. Sixteen-year-old Serena Willis told her boyfriend in the middle of a cold July necking session that she wasn't attracted to him and thought that he was boring. And at his horrified look, she placed her hands on his face and added that she found her friend, Amber, beautiful in that kind of way.
Their town had become an unseasonable autumn globe in the middle of summer, with frenzy, confusion, and suspicion. Theirs had always been a town that danced the line of scandal, but right now it was waltzing without grace.
And the women of The Lost Souls Coven had a particular role to play in this new musical, one that they were familiar with. Suspicious looks were not few whenever they went to town, and angry glances landed on them heavily, each day dragging them down.
Posters were plastered on The Black Cat's three-paned window and Ursula's garden truck.
Fewer and fewer customers were coming into the coffee shop, and the local grocery store canceled their Monday order of Ursula's fresh roses and bundles of bushy hydrangeas andranunculuses that people loved to pick up with their weekly shopping to display on kitchen islands and tables.
Witchandbitchwere whispered with ill intent.
And while many turned their backs on the group of women, there were still a faithful few who kept close; some quietly, but still without hesitation.
Even the Grandmother Clock had taken on a sign of what Tilly recognized as The Hierophant, giving them a fresh sense of unease as Kelsea stopped by the inn with a clay mug of tea that morning. She hadn't slept well and felt that Tilly had suffered the same malady.
Tilly went to check on the screen door that had started opening and closing by itself, beginning at sunrise, until she called Judy. Judy had stood there in sunflower overalls, looking at the door with a puzzled expression. "Well, if it's magic, not sure if new hinges will work, but we can try."
The new hinges were on, and the door continued its screened doorslap!every few minutes.
"Hi, honey."
Tilly looked up, seeing no one there. She frowned.
"Hi, honey."
Again, the voice, which was oddly pitched, made her look around the porch, walking outside to the back, still finding no owner of the voice.
