Spells & Life

had my full attention.
“Please,” my mother said. “Tell us what you’ve seen.”
It wasn’t very often that I saw my mum agitated. One of her knees bounced where her foot moved quickly up and down on the floor. In fact, her hair wasn’t as well-kept as usual, the strands not brushed into a neat straight hairstyle.
When she glanced at me, her usual confidence was missing as her gaze dropped to the mug in her hand.
“As you all know there’s a serial killer on the loose,” Mary started. “The dream I had last night was a prophecy.”
“A prophecy?” Dave blurted, his hand rubbing his stubbly chin.
Nodding, Mary glanced between the three of us, her bright blue eyes dulled. Was the seer afraid?
“Yes. In my dream, I saw the Earth barren and burnt. Fires raged over the land, water engulfed and disappearing at a rapid rate as it steamed into the air. Standing nearby, I saw a man with a demon mask. This man will be responsible for the end of the world if you do not find him.”
My heartbeat rapidly increased as I swallowed hard. I knew that the responsibility of the Essex Obsessor was in my hands, but I hadn’t realised how serious a threat he was to the Ley lines and to Earth.
As I tried to wrap my head around what Mary was saying, my mother held a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide, the lines around them deepening as her expression turned into a frown. No doubt she would turn the blame on me.
“I don’t suppose you have a way for us to find him?” I asked, almost flippantly.
Dave got to his feet, moved around the table, and started to pace across the floor. His anxious energy was not helping. It pulsed out over us, making me shiver again.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any clues,” Mary muttered. “Have you figured out the link to the rings yet?”
The rings? What was she talking about? Oh yeah, I didn’t have any memory of what she was talking about.
“I need my memory back.”
My anguish was evident in the tone of my voice. Mary and my mother stared at me, their gaze penetrating every thread of my existence.
Getting to her feet, Mary came closer. As she reached out her hands, I allowed her to place them on my head. She closed her eyes and muttered a few words in Latin. I often heard witches cast spells in the Latin language, but not seers. That was a new one.
When Mary’s eyes flew open, I almost jumped out of my skin. She tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear and shook her head. “I see another Essex witch helping you to regain your memories. Your mother can help, although there is much to be healed between you.”
Moving away, Mary went over to my mother and placed her hands on her head. Dave came closer to me, putting his hand on my shoulder for a second. His reassurance was comforting, even if I wasn’t used to it.
“You hold onto something from the past,” Mary told my mother. “And yet, the person who is affected doesn’t even know the full extent of your secret. If you do not tell her, life will unfold very differently to what you imagine. You must tell the truth.”
My mother’s gasp echoed around Mary’s home. The shudder of her whole body made me clench my hands into fists. It was the marriage, I just knew. She had been keeping something from me about the bet that my father had made.
“I can’t,” my mother whispered. “I just can’t.”
Stepping away, Mary tutted as she shook her head and wagged her finger towards my mother’s face. Although the seer was very powerful, it seemed that she could get a little judgemental at times. However, seeing the fear that crossed my mother’s face before she buried it made me bite my lip.
“Are you talking about the stupid bet?” I barked, getting to my feet.
Dave’s hands clasped my shoulders, stopping me from approaching my mother. On the outside, the woman who had given birth to me had pretended that she loved me and wanted the best for me. But, when it had come down to it, she had tried to force me to accept my father’s gambling debt with no quarrel. As soon as I had rebelled, she had turned into a witch. Well, a nasty witch, no longer putting her daughter’s happiness first. Not that I believed she had ever tried now that I knew what she wanted from me.
“Tell me the truth,” I bit through my teeth as my mother stared.
Standing back, Mary waved her hands in the air. “I will not have violence in this place. It is a sanctuary. Gemma?”
Forcing myself to rip my gaze away from my mother, I looked at the seer. She was pointing towards her wall of paintings, nodding her head in that direction. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I shrugged Dave off and moved to where she had indicated.
My hand reached out, my fingers tracing the picture on the wall. The cool surface made the tip of my finger numb as my stomach churned. There I was, standing at an altar, a man by my side. It wasn’t the background that made the blood in my veins run cold, it was what I was wearing.
“Who is she getting married to?” Dave asked over my shoulder.
I couldn’t repress the anger that boiled up from my feet and came to rest in my stomach. Making sure my hands were clasped in front of me, I took several deep breaths before I turned to face the room again.
“What is it?” I asked my mother, leaving her no room to ignore me.
Sitting forward, she placed her mug on the table and got to her feet. Straightening her black pencil skirt, she tried to regain her composure. It was a rare occurrence to see my mother looking less than cool. What was it that plagued her so