Chapter 3
THREE
Morana had pushed the brown bag with the book inside under the counter.
The first of the day’s tourists had begun lining up outside Nocturne ready to browse the magic inside of this beautiful shop that Kim and her partner, Mike, had created.
Her shift had literally flown by in a whirl of iced coffee, serving customers, taking cute photos of dogs and wondering what the hell kind of book the crazy lady had dumped on her.
Lauren had come to take over and Morana was more than a little relieved.
Unable to leave the planchette necklace behind, she unlocked the glass display cabinet and took it out.
Hooking it around her neck, it felt good.
It felt as if the necklace had sighed in her ear, a quiet whisper of relief that she hadn’t abandoned it.
The book was a different matter. She was unsure if she should leave it under the counter and feign complete ignorance about where it came from or if she should take it with her.
Morana realised that she couldn’t leave it, she needed to know what was so important about it. Why had it made the woman act so weird?
Morana decided to get herself a coffee from the iconic Blackcraft Coffee to take home with her.
She felt as if she needed something and as much as she enjoyed cocktails or champagne, she thrived off coffee – it was her guilty pleasure.
It didn’t matter if it was gone nine p.m., she could still drink a cup before bed and get to sleep.
The store was a short walk from Nocturne.
There were tourists everywhere, filling the sidewalks and overspilling into the roads.
There were lines of them outside every shop and restaurant, but she’d had the foresight to message her coffee order to her only friend, Addison, who worked in the magical coffee shop at the back of the huge store.
The line outside of the store was long, but she knew Fin, the guy running the line, and he waved her inside even though she had no reservation.
Nobody complained because Morana looked as if she was an employee.
She stopped in the middle of the store to look up at Nydia and blew her a kiss.
Nydia was a shadowy, painted witch who dangled from the centre of the stained-glass dome that was lit up orange today.
She was a huge witch, and if she had to guess she’d estimate she was at least thirteen foot high.
Morana loved her, she encompassed everything about Salem that she adored.
She had only lived here for six months, moving from Boston because she was so obsessed with the whole Salem vibe, but boy was she smitten with the witch city.
Standing in line for the coffee shop she realised her hands were a little shaky and had no idea why.
The book was safely tucked into her coffin-shaped backpack, and she imagined it glowing inside of there, those little red sparks zapping from it that she’d seen when the crazy lady had thrust it towards her.
Maybe all the exhaustion and excitement had been too much for her and she’d imagined it.
The small coffee shop was like stepping into a witch’s cottage.
It had a huge cauldron on the counter that housed the coffee machine, bunches of dried flowers dangling from the ceiling and on the wall was a huge print of a group of older witches sitting around a table drinking coffee.
Addison was busy, but grinned when she looked up to see her and pointed to the most wonderful reddish, coffee-coloured iced latte on the counter.
The label read ‘Slasher Latte’ and Morana grinned.
She and Addison had spent the last four Fridays tucked under throws covered in ghosts and spider webs, watching all the old slasher films, using Addison’s pumpkin cushions to cover their faces when Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees got a little too stab happy.
‘Impressed?’ asked Addison, and Morana laughed as she picked up the cup, using her finger to scoop a dollop of the whipped cream covered in red sauce and biscuit pieces into her mouth.
Sucking her finger clean, she nodded. ‘Totally.’
Addison shrugged. ‘Good, I thought you’d approve.’
Morana took out her wallet to pay, and she waved her away. ‘That’s an experimental one, so it’s on the house.’
Morana blew her a kiss and squeezed past the line of people waiting to get their orders, feeling a little guilty that she’d breezed right in, but hey, there had to be some perks of having a bestie working there.
Instead of trying to get back down Essex Street past the crowds, she walked a little further in the opposite direction and cut down a side street to take her down to Norman Street.
Passing her favourite tattoo shop, Blood and Thorne, she carried on walking down to the intersection and crossed over to Derby Street.
It was busy, but nothing like the overcrowded main street.
Morana’s apartment was down on the wharf, and she didn’t think she would ever get tired of opening her bedroom blinds and looking across at the sea view it afforded her.
The apartment was small, just one bedroom, but she didn’t need anything more and it was also just in her price range.
Real estate in Salem was expensive, but worth every penny in her opinion.
As she sipped her coffee, she could feel the book pressing into her back as if urging her to get a move on.
Her apartment was above an empty store, across from Enchanted, another of her favourite witchy places, and she was glad that she had no need to battle past more tourists to get home.
The air was turning cooler with the breeze blowing off the sea and she closed her eyes for just a moment to breathe in the salty tang that reminded her of her childhood that had been spent on sailing boats.
Morana opened her eyes, more than a little confused – she had never set foot on a sailing boat, what was she thinking?
Chalking it down to exhaustion, she opened the communal door and went upstairs to her own door.
As she opened it, she kicked off her boots, shrugged off her coffin bag and long black dress before going into her bathroom to take a quick shower.
She needed to feel revitalised, energised before she attempted to look at the book inside of the brown paper bag, because she had a feeling deep inside her of foreboding, that whatever it was, it might change her life forever.