Page 59 of All My Witches
“I told you when this first started that soap sets were minimal,” I reminded him. “That’s what we’re dealing withhere.”
“What else are we dealing with?” Thistle asked, turning to face an ornate door with a series of runes carved into the frame. “Look atthese.”
“What are they?” Landon moved close to me. “Do you know what thoseare?”
I shrugged. “They look relatively familiar. I’m sure they’re from some book oranother.”
“Witchbook?”
“Wiccan, but sure.” I flashed him a smile. “She put these symbols here to signify the shift in the story. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she picked runes to mark this door. It’s a warning ofsorts.”
“What kind ofwarning?”
“We’re heading into a paranormal world when we open thisdoor.”
Landon stilled. “Isn’t the whole worldparanormal?”
It took me a moment to realize what he was getting at. “Yes … and no. Aunt Tillie is using magic to make us believe we’re in a different world where the rules of soap operas are key. The world itself is fairly normal, at least in the grand scheme ofthings.”
“She’s saying that this isn’t a magic world,” Thistle added. “It’s not as if Aunt Tillie shoved us into a horror world where different kinds of magic might be at play. It’s not even a scientific world, so we can’t use Bay’s ridiculous amount ofStar Trekknowledge.”
I balked. “Hey!Star Trekrules.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Thistle rolled her eyes. “The most important thing is that this world has mostly followed real-world rules. Sure, people come back from the dead here and we have evil, more evil and most evil triplets, but the laws of life still holdtrue.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” Landonprodded.
“Not all soaps follow the same rules,” I replied. “Not all soaps are createdequal.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that there were three soaps that created their own rules and featured paranormal creatures,” Clove supplied. “Dark Shadowswas the original. It had an intricate vampirestoryline.”
“Are you telling me that we’ll be dealing with vampires in this scene?” Landon was incredulous. “Soap operavampires?”
I held my hands palms out and shrugged. “I really don’t know.Passionshad awitch.”
“And a doll that came to life, but that was altogether creepy,” Thistle said. “I don’t want this to turn intoPassions.Dark Shadowsisbetter.”
“You said there were three supernatural shows,” Marcus prodded. “What’s thethird?”
“PortCharles.”
“And what’s wrong withPort Charles? I can tell something is wrong by the looks on yourfaces.”
“Port Charleswas simply a really odd mixture of things,” I replied. “Vampires, vampire slayers, angels – other things. It was completely loopy and crazy. Plus, it was set in the same city asGeneral Hospital,but the characters there never commented on the paranormal aspects being highlighted onPort Charles. It was simply …weird.”
“Isn’t that the status quo for allsoaps?”
“Not likethis.”
“I don’t even want to see what’s on the other side of this door.” Landon rubbed his forehead. “I just know this is going tosuck.”
“Vampires suck,” I agreed, smirking when Thistle and Clove broke into giggles. “Shall we?” I gestured toward thedoor.
“Let’s do this.” Landon put his hand on my lower back. “I can’t wait to see who rips my shirt off in this world. I hope it’s awitch.”
“That sounds lovely,” Imuttered.
