Page 20 of Hexes and Hiccups
Daisy squinted as the memory came back to her. “That’s right,” she murmured.
Evelyn was only twenty years old when she disappeared. Daisy could remember the feeling she had when she saw the news story on television. She was only a few years older at the time, and the case surrounding Evelyn soon became every young woman’s worst nightmare. While stories like that plagued bigger cities far from Willowbrook, it wasn’t at all the norm within their sleepy town. What happened to Evelyn felt like an anomaly, a single outlier in a place where crime happened to be a rarity. In the end, despite the entire town flooding to the streets in search of her, Evelyn Harper never turned up, and her family was left wondering what became of their young daughter.
All of Fern’s house felt like a shrine to her missing daughter. Daisy looked upon it all with a new light, suddenly intrigued as to why that cold case from long ago was connected to the odd one they found themselves within.
“I remember the gossip surrounding her ex-boyfriend,” Daisy finally said. The news had been plagued with pictures of the boy who was around her age as the local police began to seek him out. “He left town shortly after she was reported missing.”
“It was suspicious,” Tessa murmured. “What I remember the most is that creepy old guy.”
Daisy’s eyes narrowed. “Huh?”
“You know,” she explained, “the one who was, like, obsessed with her, despite being almost a decade older?” Tessa shuddered. “The whole thing still puts a chill down my spine.”
“They were both proclaimed innocent, though,” Daisy said.
Tessa shrugged. “But it doesn’t mean they were, does it?”
They continued carrying on through the house, their newfound information lurking suspiciously in the back of Daisy’s mind. As they kept looking, all she could think about was how terrible it must’ve been for Fern. Her only daughter was ripped away from her, leaving a mother suddenly childless, and she was forced to continue on living, like nothing had ever happened in the first place. Daisy couldn’t imagine raising a child only to lose them.
Daisy sighed as they came back to the front door. “None of this makes any sense.”
“There’s no page,” Tessa said.
“Not even a hint of one.”
“What does this mean?”
Daisy shrugged. “This time, it’s different. I’m not sure why, yet, but that much I know for sure.” She breathed in deeply as the uneasy feeling began to take hold of her once more. “Why don’t we get out of here and plan on meeting Malric sometime soon? The sooner we clear his name, the better.”
Tessa nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
Leaving Fern’s house behind, Daisy and Tessa stepped back out into the afternoon and marched towards her car, noticingthat Serelith was nowhere to be seen. The peculiar feeling quickly came back to Daisy, bringing an eerie chill down her spine once more. Everything continued to become muddled and incoherent, but it only made her far more determined to see it through – once and for all.
9
Daisy
Daisy wasn’t one for staying up late. Ever since she was a kid, she always preferred the early mornings to the late evenings. There was something about the smell of freshly brewed coffee and sizzling bacon that made her excited for whatever was to come. The sun would shine upon her bedroom as she came to life, beckoning her out of bed with a warm and gentle embrace. The nighttime, though loved by many magic users, left Daisy feeling rather cold beneath the moonlight. Hecate’s magic seeped into her, then, but it still made Daisy homesick for another time. For the morning.
Despite being well into her fifties, Daisy tossed and turned in bed for hours before flicking on her bedroom light, and sitting up straight. Her mind raced far too much for her to settle, to count the sheep and try to get some well-needed shut-eye. Every time she closed her eyes, scarlet red words bounced across her vision, reminding her of the conflicts that were tearing apart her sleepy little town. Riven’s petrified state haunted her dreams, now accompanied by the eerie statue of Fern Harper. And, once again, Daisy was brought back to the fear that she’d experienced from Fern’s daughter's disappearance.
Though she was no longer a helpless young woman, Daisy was riddled with unease even within the safety of her own home. Daisy’s hand gravitated towards the empty space beside her. The bed she slept in was no longer big enough for two, but had a bit of room upon either side. Sometimes, when she felt sorrowful and alone, Daisy would lean towards one side and imagine a breathing chest beneath her, the familiar scent of Gary’s cologne slipping past her memory. Recently, as she did the same thing, she was more inclined to imagine Ethan beside her. Either way, it left her no longer feeling so dreadfully alone.
Since the investigation began, Daisy had been plagued by the feeling that something else was afoot beneath it all. There were the statues growing in number and the rumors being left for the entire town to find, but there had to be another thing. Something that she had not yet seen, something that alluded her skillfully. Daisy grew more frustrated than anything, and perhaps it was that mounting irritation that kept her from having a deep sleep. She could only think about the fear in Tessa’s face when the Council blatantly admitted to believing the empath-in-training was the culprit behind Riven’s petrification.
She could only remember Anne’s sorrowful wails, the despair written so plainly in her face. She could only remember the animal lover’s hands shaking at the idea of her volunteer privileges being taken from her, the ability to see strays be adopted suddenly out of her hands. They all deserved more, even Rebecca and Marigold. Whatever they had done before didn’t mean they should be plagued with rumors now, their secrets displayed for all to see. No one deserved that sort of treatment – a fact that Daisy was quickly coming to terms with.
Daisy fluffed her pillows and snatched up her current read, Bridge to Terabithia.Though she had read it plenty of times before, it remained a yearly pleasure that she readily gave herself. While the beautiful descriptions within the preciousbook could easily put her to sleep, it couldn’t distract her from the things she didn’t understand now and everything that awaited her tomorrow. Daisy snapped the book shut and put it back on her nightstand, seconds away from flicking the light back off.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
The sharp doorbell rang through the house, followed by a few knocks against the front door. Daisy shot upright in the bed, finding the analog clock immediately.
1:15 am.
Daisy pressed her lips together. Who could be knocking on her door so late in the evening? She threw herself out of bed when the buzzing came again. Her feet hit the cold floor and sent a shock through her system. Daisy yanked her robe over her shoulders, almost tripping as she went down the narrow staircase. Daisy glanced through the thick windows beside the front door and felt her shoulders sag.
“Tessa Hala,” Daisy breathed as she opened the door. “It iswaypast your bedtime.”
