Cassandra stood at the front of the cemetery gates and closed her eyes, concentrating on the map her mind was showing her. She walked for in and turned to her right then made her way to the old section on the northern end. A pattern of symbols similar to the ones on the necklace appeared. She looked around and saw a mausoleum covered by thick brush and weeds. She pulled back on a branch and recognized her symbol, the eagle at the top.
"This is it, I know it." She said. The door had a thick wooden beam bolted across it. No one had been in this place for a very long time, but she knew this was where she would find the answers. "Hello! Is any one in there? Can anyone hear me?" She called out. No answer.
She tried to find another way in to no avail. "I'll be back." She promised as she turned to go. Her head started to ache, she stopped and sat on a bench to rest.
"Are you alright miss?" a voice said to her. A woman who looked to be in her sixties approached.
"I'll be fine, I just need a moment." Cassandra rubbed her head.
"I have some aspirin if you need them."
"No thanks it's getting better." She got up to go.
The woman noticed Cassandra's necklace. "What a pretty heart charm. What's that inscribed on it?" She looked closer. "Promise. What does it mean?"
"It was given to me by someone very special." She held on to it and smiled.
"Ahh…a special fellow I imagine."
"Yes he is." She said.
"Is he the one?" She asked. Cassandra blinked and remained silent, not sure how to handle her forwardness. She got up to leave.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry. It's just you seem a bit uncertain."
"No that's not the case at all…"
"You know there is a way you can be sure you two are meant to be together." The older woman came closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. "It's magic."
"Go on." Cassandra replied with a suspicious interest.
"I don't have it now but I can get it. It's been in my family for generations. I have personally helped eight women find lifetime happiness by making sure their man was the right one for them."
"You're Lucia Martinez." Cassandra realized.
The woman stepped back. "How do you know my name?" Her mouth twisted and brows furrowed. Cassandra reached in her purse and pulled out a clear plastic bag that held the necklace. "Where did you get that? That belongs to my family." She tried to snatch it back but Cassandra pushed her hand away.
"I got it from your co-worker Rose McNeil. I'm investigating the disappearances of four men who were last seen in this area. Her boyfriend Jim was the latest one to disappear, and I think you and this necklace have something to do with it."
"Me? No I don't know anything about any men disappearing." She shifted her eyes and started to walk away but Cassandra caught her by the arm.
"You know something and unless you tell me what you know these men will die and you will be to blame."
Lucia sat down on the bench and started to cry. "I don't know anything honest. All I know is that if the symbols match for the couple they will be happy. It's worked for me and generations of my family."
"But the symbols for Rose and Jim didn't match. What happened to him?" Cassandra continued her interrogation unconvinced by her tears.
"When Rose told me their symbols did not match I told her it was for the best, the necklace is never wrong. If she didn't break it off, something bad would happen. She stopped seeing him, but one day she told me that she changed her mind and that she was going back to him. I tried to warn her but she wouldn't listen. I didn't know he was missing, she never told me that."
"What about the other men? You mean to tell me you don't know about them either?"
Lucia sniffed, her eyes reddened from crying. "I haven't seen those couples in years, I assumed the women got on with their lives and met someone else. The other four are living very happy lives with their spouses and families."
"They must have rekindled their relationships and gotten back together again fairly recently then." Cassandra thought out loud. She led Lucia to the mausoleum. "Does this mean anything to you? It has the same symbols carved around the entrance."
"It's the burial place of one of my ancestors. He was a great chief among his people."
"Were you here to visit it?"
"No… I was visiting the grave of my first husband."
Cassandra looked at her in shock. "Wait a minute, Rose told me you and your husband have been married for 40 years and you two are very much in love."
"That's true my Roberto is the finest man anyone could ask for but he was not my first husband. Tony was."
"Let me guess, your symbols didn't match."
"No they didn't but we were nineteen and in love and we weren't going to let some old superstition keep us apart. We married secretly and ran away to Mexico, but a few weeks later he died under mysterious circumstances."
"How?" Cassandra felt sick, she wished she had never tried the necklace on.
"He just died. The doctors couldn't find anything to point to his death, not a heart attack, poison, foul play, nothing. He simply stopped breathing. I went home to my mother heartbroken, feeling guilty for his death. From that day on, I never doubted the necklace again. I met Roberto two years later and when our symbols matched I knew he was the one. We have been together ever since."
"But how does it explain the disappearances? Four men went missing all on the same day but only Jim was reported missing. I need to talk to the other women."
"Maybe I can help, I still have their phone numbers back at the shop." They went back to the flower shop where she and Rose worked. As Cassandra talked to the women the same story revealed itself. They were called away for business and would be back in a few days. "Someone lured them to that spot and we need to find out who and why."
"How are you going to do that?" Lucia was shaking with fear. "You mustn't go against the magic of the necklace."
"If we don't those men will die, if they haven't died already. Do you want that on your conscience?"
Lucia sighed. "What do you suggest?" she asked.
"Whatever spirit or magic that dwells inside the necklace is angry that four women defied it, but it needs a physical form to link it to this world so that it can get it's revenge. I think it used you to lure the men here somehow. We need to go back to the mausoleum. Are you with me?" Cassandra asked.
"I'm frightened. I lost one love. Who knows if the spirit will retaliate against me or Roberto." Lucia shook her head and turned away from Cassandra. "I can't go. I'm sorry."
Cassandra couldn't believe her selfishness and stormed out. It was only 3:00 p.m. but something told her she wouldn't make Emma's competition tonight. An overwhelming feeling of loneliness and sadness washed over her. She wished more than anything to have Jake with her to feel his strong arms around her and hear his soft voice calm her when she felt like she was losing control, but her own happiness had to take a back seat as the lives of these men depended on her at this moment.
