Chapter Four
Sarah got off the large yellow contraption with awe. "P- I mean James. What was that that we were on?" Her voice seemed very loud as they approached a large home.
"Huh?" Oh. She was supposed to know? "That thing is Hell." Sarah did not think that was possible, at all. But then again who was she to judge?
"Why? The people seemed pleasant enough."
James turned. His eyes were so cloudy. Gray as rain clouds before a storm. Just like Peter. "Yea well," he started. James hesitated to continue but Sarah encouraged him. He turned a little red. "They treat you like that because you're mysterious and let's face it really pretty." He turned around and continued walking on the hard stone path that lead to the strange house. "Oh." Was her only response as her face went pink a little as well.
He opened what seemed to be the front door. Hesitant, she removed her dark cloak from around her shoulders and placed it on a coat rack on the inside of the home by the door. Her tan dress was splashed with mud and leaves. Her boots were even worse. It still held the scent of the forest. But a new smell emitted from the home that caught her attention. She had never smelt anything like it before. It made her stomach gurgle.
James heard this and chuckled. "Hungry? Smells like my dad is making pizza." What was pizza? She wondered.
As he led her around the house, Sarah noticed several paintings and portraits hanging on the red walls. The portraits always had a man and a woman. James was in a few as a child. Then it was only James in some newer looking ones. They soon entered a large kitchen with a view into the living room where both had just come from. You could see a huge mess of cheese, tomatoes, meats, mushrooms, and other such ingredients all over the place. There was smoke coming from what seemed to be a large box by the stove. A tall man with light brown hair and glasses came up from the floor where he was picking something up and hit his head on the counter.
"Dad!" James ran over to the man after turning a peculiar knob on the machine off. He helped the person up and into a tall chair opposite of the smoky mess.
"Oops ha-ha. Klutz that I am. Well hey James how was the museum?"
"Actually, really strange." James turned to Sarah who was in the door way of the living room and kitchen. The thin, tall man looked over at her, too. She flinched when she saw through his glasses that he also had gray eyes. He was also recognized as the man from some of the pictures in the previous room.
"Well son? Who is this lovely young lady?" Oh so this was James's father.
"This is Sarah, Dad. She is a friend from school. Do we still have any of Mom's old clothes that may fit her? As you can see she got a little messy."
Mr. Johnson looked up at the ceiling in thought. The two teens awaited his answer. "Hmmm. Maybe? I can go check for you if you would like."
"Nah, that's okay Dad. Just save us some of that extra crispy pizza, okay?"
The father went back to his cooking. James motioned for Sarah to follow him back through the living room to a staircase at the front of the house. The house was unlike anything Sarah had ever seen but it also looked worn. Like it had been used for decades.
James showed her to the wash room and then left to find some new clothes for her. She scrubbed at the mud on her skin and tried desperately to comb through her tangled hair. James soon returned with a dull pink sweater and worn out jeans. He laid them on the sink for her and waited for her to change outside the door.
When she came out he noticed how slim she really was. The clothes looked a little big on her, and his mother had been fairly skinny herself.
"These are very strange," she whispered. "I enjoy it very much." He smiled at her response and told her to follow him up another smaller flight of stairs down a narrow hallway. They arrived in an old dusty attic. There were several boxes that said Baby toys or James on them. There were dusty books on old looking desks and several old leather chests.
Sarah looked around and spotted a familiar green leather book under one desk to level it. "James!"
"What did you find something?" They decided on the bus ride home that they would find out Peter's intentions of the mirrors. If Peter and James really are related somehow then there should be some old family junk in the attic. Sarah also believed that her sister's shared the same fate as she did only hours before. Trapped between time and space in a small mirror. They needed to find them, too.
"This was Peter's when he was 13. Maybe it talks about us a few years later…"
"Wow," James murmured while flipping the pages. "This book is hard to read. It's really worn out and dusty."
James landed on the first page. It looked like some pages had been torn. He noticed the date was only a few weeks before Halloween. Before Sarah was trapped. He started to read aloud:
Today I discovered Sarah's secret. I knew she had to be a witch. There was really no other explanation. She had dolls in her house and strange jars filled with things I have never even heard of. Now that I know what shall I do?
"Did you know he found out Sarah?"
"Well he did start acting strange later on." Her voice ran out smooth and sweet like honey. "But I shouldn't have been careless either. You see I was telling my eldest sister Catherine that if a man that she had been sneaking around with were to tell that we would be hanged for sure. I suppose Peter put that together easily."
James flipped the pages again. He stopped when something caught his eye. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the amulet. He layed the stone next to the stone drawing in the book. "Sarah." James said. Sarah looked down at the page. "Sarah, how did Peter come up with a spell? How was he able to do magic that night? How was I able to do it today without being aware of it?"
Sarah looked guilty. James could think of several different angles at once it seemed. "Well, to cast a spell you can either be born with the magic, like the Willow women. Or, you could have magic cast upon you. That night we put a curse on the entire Johnson family. The curse's purpose was to make the men very unlucky. It cannot be broken without my sisters. I am not powerful enough to lift it James if that is what you are asking of me."
So James tripping all the time, or his father being a terrible cook. Maybe even his mom's accident. It was because of Sarah's revenge.
"There is something else James. If we do not find my sisters before Hallows Eve ends then the curse will never be broken. Because we will all disappear. That is my theory any way."
James stared at her. He was a little angry. His dad has always wanted to be a cook. But that dream would never come true. And why? Because of one teenager's broken heart.
"What is a little bad luck?" He said.
"James you do not understand. The luck gets worse as the next generation nears. In other words the older you become the worse of your luck is."
That is when the smoke alarm went off and they heard James's dad yelling for someone to dial 911.