Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Me: Just a bit sore. I plan on being there tomorrow if I can get a good night’s sleep and it doesn’t feel like someone is stabbing me in my ribs.
Manny: LOL. Don’t worry, Lucas. We’ve got this. I won’t let you down.
Smiling, I looked into the dining room, to see Hollie busy with whatever the hell she was doing.
Me: I know you won’t. Thanks, Manny. See you soon.
Taking another look to see Hollie still busy, I sent Shawn a text.
Me: Hollie seems to think she’s the reason for my bout of bad luck.
It didn’t take Shawn long to reply. My phone beeped less than a minute later.
Shawn: Why in the world would she think that?
Me: Ready for this?
Shawn: I’m not sure, but hit me.
Me: She said she put a spell on me.
My phone rang.
“Hey.”
“Did I read that right? Hollie Craft thinks she put a spell on you? Did she hit her head or something?” asked Shawn.
I chuckled, then stopped when the pain shot through my side. “I’m not sure about that.”
“I know her sister and aunt are into that, but where did she come up with that?”
“I can’t say.”
There was a moment of silence. “Dude, is she there with you now? Are you home?”
“I’m home. My mother wasn’t able to help with that, so Hollie gave me a ride home.”
“Hollie brought you home? How in the hell did that happen?”
“I can’t comment on that right now, but I can get back to you on it.”
“When did you get home?”
I glanced at the time on my phone. “Maybe an hour or less.”
“And she’s still there?”
“Yeah.”
“Text me. I’m hanging up.”
Before I could say anything, Shawn hung up, so I acted as if I was still speaking to someone. “Sounds good, keep me up to date with the progress. Thanks.”
I hit End and noticed Hollie wasn’t in the dining room, so I quickly sent off a text to Shawn.
Me: The short of it. She thinks she is a witch, got drunk the other night, and put a spell on me but says it was the wrong one, and it somehow put a jinx on me.
I watched as the three dots bounced.
Shawn: What was the spell supposed to be?
Me: I haven’t figured it out yet.
Shawn: LOL. Good luck with all that.
Me: Thanks. Witching hour is about to begin. Later.
“Are you ready?”
Glancing up, I flashed her a smile. “I’ll only do this if you tell me what spell you meant to put on me.”
Her face went from ghost-white to bright-red. “Don’t ask me to do that, Lucas. Please.”
Damn it. What was it about the way she said please that made me want to give in to her?
I slowly stood. “I’ll let it go for now, but I’m not going to drop this.”
Her shoulders relaxed, and she let out a small sigh of relief.
“Okay, let’s head into the dining room. I had to make this into an altar.”
“An altar?” I asked as we made our way into the dining room. There was a candle in the middle of the table, a couple of bags that were filled with something, and a note she had written.
“Do you need help sitting down?”
I shook my head and sat in the chair. I wasn’t about to tell her it was uncomfortable as hell. I was too curious to see how this all would play out.
“Okay. Now, I need you to take this seriously. Will you promise me, you will?”
Nodding, I crossed my heart.
Hollie sat down and drew in a deep breath. I could see her hands were shaking, yet she was super focused.
“We have to put a protective circle of salt around the candle.”
“Like Hocus Pocus,” I said, trying to sound serious.
She shot me a dirty look, and I held my hands up. “Sorry. Serious.”
I watched her as she carefully put a circle of salt around the candle.
Glancing at her notes, she looked at me. “We both need to take a deep breath. Or wait, maybe I’m supposed to take it. No, you are! Shit. I think you were supposed to pour the salt. Fuck!”
I watched as she quickly cleaned up the salt, put it in the bag, then handed it to me. When she held it out, she was still shaking.
“You really believe this, don’t you?” I asked.
She blinked a few times, chewed on her lip, then answered, “I do.”
“Okay,” I softly said as I took the bag and stood. I poured a circle around the candle, then sat back down.
“Deep breath,” she whispered.
I took about as deep of a breath as my bruised ribs would let me.
“Now, say this after me: Bad luck, I command you to leave me right now.”
I stared at her for a moment, and when she looked at me with pleading eyes, I repeated her words.
“Um, bad luck, I command you to leave me right now.”