A New Beginning Part 7
In Phoenix, Arizona, Athena gradually faded into sight outside of a Starbucks restaurant, and the people who were looking her way didn't seem to have been aware that something unusual had happened.
Athena continued into Starbucks and looked around soon after stepping in.
Lilith was seated at one of the tables while drinking coffee, along with sharing a large muffin with Marty—a young man who she had met after entering the mortal realm—and having a pleasant conversation. Like Lilith, Marty was 5' 9".
Without hesitation, Athena stepped up to Lilith and Marty's table. Lilith did a double take when she saw Athena.
As Lilith stared worryingly at Athena, Marty asked, "May I help you, Miss?"
"I'm here because of Lilith," Athena told Marty. "I'm her parole officer."
"Wait, you're on probation?" Marty asked Lilith.
As Lilith's worry expression deepened, Athena continued with, "Probation; being thrown into a prison cell—her future hasn't really been determined at this point."
"What did you do?" Marty quickly asked Lilith.
"Something that she shouldn't have done and had violated the condition of her parole," Athena was the one to reply. "So, Lilith, you need to come with me now before things get worse for you."
"Take care of yourself, Marty," Lilith said while standing. "Most likely, we won't see one another again."
"I have money to get you a good defense attorney," Marty said while also standing.
"Don't bother, Marty," Lilith told him. "My fate will be determined by how merciful the Gods will be."
"You have that right," Athena replied before making a head gesture towards the exit. "Now let's go."
"Officer, wait," Marty quickly requested. "Where are you taking her?"
"Sir, this isn't your concern," Athena told him before her eyes flashed. "So sit down, finish your muffin and continue your life as if you haven't met Lilith."
As Marty was retaking his seat, Lilith accused, "You removed his memories of me."
"I did and be glad that is all I'm doing," Athena retorted. "Now move."
"I expected that it would be months before the Olympians would come looking for me," Lilith uttered and drawing attention from other customers. Athena saw right away that customers were paying attention to them. "Man was I wrong."
Athena's eyes flashed again for only a moment before telling Lilith, "If you are trying to cause a scene, don't bother. Mortals can no longer hear us, see us or even remember us being here."
"That's Olympians' solution for everything," Lilith hissed. "Erase the knowledge from the mortals' minds that you don't want them to know about."
"You need to remember who you are speaking to, Lilith," Athena warned. "My family and I have always treated you kindly and fairly, so your insubordination is unwarranted."
"Fairly?" Lilith chuckled with no humor as she approached the door.
"You disagree?" Athena questioned.
Lilith stopped at the door and faced Athena. Athena stopped as well while Lilith was hissing, "You keep us prisoners in the Underworld."
"No one is a prisoner, Lilith," Athena quickly told her. "You, along with any other half-mortal, have the right to be reborn as a mortal anytime you have the desire to do so."
"How gracious of you," Lilith sarcastically said. "Meanwhile, you and the other Olympians can come and go to any realm whenever you and they feel like it."
"The only time we step foot on the mortal realm is to correct a cosmic imbalance that occurs after mortals mess with magical forces that they shouldn't be messing with; otherwise we don't involve ourselves with mortals," Athena informed.
"And you honestly expect me to believe that?" Lilith questioned in a disbelieving tone.
"I couldn't care less if you believe me or not," Athena replied. "But what I do care about are the names to all of your coconspirators and the whereabouts to all of the twenty-five gallons of water that you and your group had stolen from Hecate."
"I can't help you with who all are involved." Athena could sense that Lilith was being honest as she spoke. "None of us knew who all were involved. It was done this way because if one of us got caught we couldn't inform on the others."
"Okay, then tell me about the twenty-five gallons of water," Athena replied. "Where is it?"
"I was only given five gallons of it, and as instructed, I allowed it to evaporate into the atmosphere," Lilith replied.
"And who had given you the water and your instructions?" Athena asked.
Lilith shrugged before saying, "It mysteriously showed up seven days ago with instructions on what to do with it. It was for a cause that I agreed with, so I followed its instructions."
"You had helped give unbridled magic to mortals and now you might be facing harsh punishment because of it," Athena told her.
"The mortals deserve the chance to bloom and to flourish with magic," Lilith replied. "Once that happens, we half-mortals can once again live amongst the mortals, so whatever happens to me will be worth it."
"You're foolish if you think that mortals will bloom and flourish with unbridled magic," Athena informed.
"I never realized how cynical you were, Lady Athena," Lilith told her.
"You think I'm cynical," Athena commented before acting as if she was listening for something.
"Very much so," Lilith uttered just before Athena gestured for her to wait.
A second later, a satisfying expression came across Athena's face, and she reached out with her right hand.
"I'm going to show you something, so take my hand," Athena told Lilith.
"Okay," Lilith said skeptically before taking hold of Athena's hand.
Within moments, the Starbucks's dining area was replaced by the scene of a skirmish between ten teenage boys. The skirmish was taking place at a basketball court within a nearby park.
One of the boys was beaten severely when Athena and Lilith arrived unseen by mortals. Sirens were heard and were getting louder with each passing second.
"This is mortals without unbridled magic," Athena pointed out as she gestured towards the fighting teenagers. "If these mortals had unbridled magic they would be throwing fireballs and lightning bolts at each other instead of their fists and kicks."
"Of course there will always be some irresponsible mortals," Lilith said on the mortal's behalf. "The Olympians can't judge all of the mortals by only a few irresponsible ones."
"You're not getting it, Lilith," Athena replied as four squad cars pulled up with their sirens and lights on. "There aren't a few irresponsible ones; there are only a few responsible ones." Athena gestured towards the now fleeing teenagers as she continued to say. "This is not an isolated incident. This is a widespread problem within the mortal realm and it has been throughout history. So giving them unbridled magic isn't going to help them. Nor will it bridge the gap between them and us. But what it is going to do is cause devastating destruction towards one another."
"Perhaps the mortals will surprise you and be responsible," Lilith suggested in a tone as if her belief of most mortals being responsible was waning.
"Prior to two thousand years ago, the mortals were given tests after tests to surprise us and they—as a whole—had failed each test," Athena informed. "I don't foresee mortals doing any better today. However, thanks to you and your coconspirators, mortals will have unbridled magic anyway."
Lilith started to speak, but stopped herself when she saw two of the cops manhandling one of the bigger teenagers with slightly more force than necessary in order to apprehend him.
Athena noticed what Lilith was looking at and asked, "Do you still think that mortals can handle what is to come?"
"Okay, you proved to me that I was wrong," Lilith replied. "How do I correct what I did?"
"You can't; in fact, no one can," Athena said. "The damage is done and the only thing we can do is prepare for what is to come. Anyway, it's time for us to leave."
"Are you sending me to the pit?" Lilith asked.
"No," Athena replied. "I'm taking you to the populous section of the Underworld and there you will remain until it can be decided on what to do with you."
"Thank you, Lady Athena, for showing me mercy," Lilith said graciously.
"Your actions were misguided; not evil," Athena replied before taking hold of Lilith's upper left arm.
Within seconds, Athena took Lilith to the Underworld and then transported herself to London, England.
Friday morning, around 8:50 A.M., Nicki was unlocking the door for Jason and Melanie to enter. Lizzy was upstairs in the kitchen eating breakfast.
Nicki and Melanie wore black slacks. Nicki wore a short-sleeve navy blue blouse and Melanie wore a short-sleeve light gray pullover shirt that had a collar. Nicki wore her black flat shoes, and Melanie wore her mom's brown flat shoes.
Jason wore navy blue slacks, a tan short-sleeve shirt and black shoes.
Once the door was opened, Melanie and Jason greeted Nicki with, "Good Morning."
"Good morning," Nicki echoed as she backed up.
Melanie stepped in first followed by Jason.
"I made sure I had my birth certificate and social security card before coming here," Melanie added as she indicated to her purse.
"The printer at my desk has a copying feature," Nicki told Melanie while gesturing towards the desk on the mid-level balcony. "Go copy them and give me the copies."
"Do you want just one copy?" Melanie asked as she and Jason moved deeper into the store.
"Yes; one copy each is all I need," Nicki replied as she flipped the sign to indicate that the store was now open.
Nicki then moved deeper into the store behind Jason.
"Oh, so how did things go with your dad last night?" Jason asked as Melanie was reaching the stairs that led to the mid-level balcony.
Without climbing the steps, Melanie swung around as Nicki replied, "It went well."
"Wait," Melanie quickly requested. "You spoke with your dad—Lloyd Senior—last night?"
"In this reality, Melanie, my parents never married, so Lloyd Junior was never born," Nicki informed. "In fact, he only has two other daughters besides me and no sons. So my dad's name is Lloyd; not Lloyd Senior."
"Okay, but I thought that you and he had never met," Melanie replied.
"Up until yesterday evening we didn't," Nicki replied. "And why are you concerned about if my dad and I had met before?"
"It's not that I'm concerned about it," Melanie replied while thinking of an excuse for wanting to know. "It's just that my psychic feelings told me that your dad didn't know about you, and I had never been wrong with my psychic feelings before… that I'm aware of, anyway. And if your dad was aware of you, then my perfect record wouldn't be perfect after all."
Nicki amusingly grinned before saying, "As far as I know, your perfect record is still intact, Melanie. My dad was in town yesterday, and while you, Lizzy and I were out, he came in to see if my mom had still owned the store. When he learned that I—my mom's only child—had inherited the store, he made a point to come back, and he came back just before I closed for the night."
"Oh," Melanie said. She then gestured up the steps. "I'll go make those copies for you."
Nicki held her amused grin and nodded in agreement before Melanie could turn and climb the stairs.
As Melanie was reaching the mid-level balcony, James, Alicia, six female earthbound spirits and two male earthbound spirits appeared before her and she came to a sudden stopped. All of the earthbound spirits—other than James—appeared to be in the early to mid-twenties of the time of their deaths.
"What's going on?" Melanie asked the earthbound spirits as she looked into each of their faces.
"What was that Melanie?" Nicki questioned. Jason was standing next to Nicki.
"James, Alicia and a few of their spirit friends are here," Melanie told Nicki.
"We're here because Jane Reece isn't the only witch who had stolen bodies," Alicia told Melanie before gesturing towards the other earthbound spirits. "Jane's coven members had stolen their bodies as well."
"Except for me," James said. "Jane just simply tricked me into committing suicide."
"Melanie, what's going on?" Nicki asked.
"All or most of Jane's coven members had body swapped and their victims are here," Melanie told Nicki.
"Those two detectives from yesterday only know about me, and they need to know about them as well," Alicia told Melanie while again gesturing towards the other spirits.
"Those detectives weren't exactly believers when it came to witchcraft and your body being stolen," Melanie reminded Alicia.
"I realize that, but please try," Alicia said. "They need help and justice as well."
Melanie pursed her lips for a moment before saying, "Fine. I'll try. Let me find paper and something to write with so I can write down your names."
"Melanie, what's going on?" Nicki asked.
Melanie filled Nicki in on what was going on before she sat at the desk and searched for paper and a pen.
"Once you get the names, give me the list and I'll call Detective Gilbert," Nicki instructed.
"Alright," Melanie replied before finding paper and a pen.
Melanie asked the spirits one by one for their names and then wrote each one down once she was told.
Nicki used her smart phone to find a non-emergency police number.
Once Melanie had the list of names, James, Alicia and the other spirits told Melanie that they were grateful for her assistance, and then faded from Melanie's sight.
Melanie then made copies of her birth certificate and social security card before taking everything to Nicki.
After Nicki took the list of names, she used the non-emergency police number that she had obtained, and as she was making the call Melanie and Jason went to straighten the shelves.
Within ten minutes and being transferred three times, she was reciting the list of names for Lucas to take down.
Once Lucas had the complete list, he and Nicki said their goodbyes and hung up. Nicki then began to help Melanie and Jason as they straightened and cleaned; however, when customers came in forty minutes after the store was opened, Nicki and sometimes Jason waited on the customers.
10: 40 A.M., Chloe—while wearing her three-inch high-heel ankle boots—stepped in with a Minolta Maxxum 7000 camera.
Nicki was standing up and reading the daily paper at the display-case/counter. Lizzy sat in the lounging area while watching TV and playing with three dolls. Melanie and Jason were putting out some of the clocks that they had received from the day before.
"Good morning, Chloe," Nicki greeted as Chloe was approaching the display-case/counter. "How are you and your family doing?"
"Things could be better," Chloe informed. Melanie and Jason abandoned the clocks that they had just put on display and stepped closer to Chloe. "It's taking us longer to track those cursed…"
"My eight-year-old daughter is watching TV over there," Nicki informed while gesturing. "She's not ready to learn about certain things, so choose your words appropriately."
"Of course," Chloe replied while glancing at Lizzy. As she faced Nicki again she continued to say, "Anyway, it's taking us longer to track down you-know-what kind of items than what we expect it would take." Chloe held up the camera as she said, "However, we did track this one down."
"There's nothing special about that camera," Melanie informed while gesturing to it.
"It's the same camera that my family had obtained before," Chloe replied.
"I believe you, but unless items can lose their…" Melanie glanced at Lizzy as she continued to say, "Their imprecating attributes over time—which I highly doubt—your family didn't stop anything by keeping that camera away from people."
"We took this camera from Sheldon Samson—his initials 'SS' is even carved into the camera," Chloe said as she pointed to the initials. "And every young person that Sheldon had photographed with this camera had passed away from old age within forty-eight hours. Now I don't know what trade off that the camera was giving Sheldon, but he was…" Chloe glance towards Lizzy as she continued to say, "He was using the camera inappropriately."
"Do you mind if I hold that camera?" Melanie asked. "I want to see if I can get a psychic vision from it."
Chloe slightly hesitated before saying, "Okay, sure."
Chloe held out the camera for Melanie to take, and Melanie held her breath while forcing herself to take the camera.
When Melanie didn't fall into a trance she shook her head and said, "I don't know why you thought that this camera was imprecated, but there's nothing special or abnormal about this."
"But the deaths had stopped once we took Sheldon's camera," Chloe replied in a volume that prevented Lizzy and even Nicki from hearing.
Nicki was able to read Chloe's lips though.
"If the deaths had in fact stopped after getting hold of his camera then that had to have been a coincidence," Melanie said while matching Chloe's volume.
Nicki was also able to read Melanie's lips.
"The deaths had stopped," Chloe said with certainty in her voice and in the same volume as before.
"Or Sheldon had gotten better with hiding those deaths once he realized that he had drawn your family's attention," Melanie countered.
"Okay, that… that had never dawned on me or my family that that could happen," Chloe replied.
"If the camera is truly an item that should be locked away, then it can't be broken," Nicki reminded everyone. "So let's see if we can break the camera."
"Let's take it out back and I'll take a sledge hammer to it," Jason said.
"Alright," Chloe replied. "Let's find out which it is."
"I'll stay here in case customers would come in," Nicki told them.
"Okay," Jason replied as he, Melanie and Chloe respectively walked towards the back door. Melanie carried the camera.
Soon after Jason, Melanie and Chloe left the store by the back door, Nicki's attention was drawn to the front door when it opened. Nicki then watched as Laila and then Lucas stepped in.
"Good morning, detectives," Nicki told them as they walked towards the display-case/counter.
"Good morning," Laila and Lucas echoed as Lucas glanced over the store.
"With the help of Chicago P. D. we just apprehended Alicia Branney one mile from here," Lucas continued to say as he faced Nicki. "She was walking towards Karen Merkel's front door and we stopped her before she could get inside."
"Karen Merkel is one of the people I called you this morning about," Nicki replied.
"She was," Lucas agreed as he and Laila stepped up to the display-case/counter. "There were eleven others there too and I have a hunch that eight of them were from that list that you gave me. I would have liked to find out, but the purpose to my and Laila's visit was to find out how well she knew Sheila White." When a confused express came across Nicki's face, Lucas continued to say, "Sheila's name was on that list that I found yesterday and up until last December Sheila had owned Karen's house. Sheila then suffered a massive stroke soon after selling her house to Karen and then died days later."
"So Alicia Branney had owned the house that Jane Reece used to own and Karen Markel bought her house from Sheila White," Nicki said as if she was brainstorming. "Jane's name and Sheila's name were on that list you found yesterday, and Alicia's name and Karen's name were on that list I had given you today. Any other names from that list from yesterday have a coincidental link to anyone from that list I gave you today?"
"That's a good detective work, Counselor," Lucas praised. "Unfortunately, the only four from yesterday's list who had ever owned any property were—in order from the list—Lewis Vendredi, Lysa Redding, Sheila White and Alicia Branney. I don't really have to tell you about when and how your Great-Uncle Lewis had died. However, less than two years after your great-uncle had died, Lysa died from a fall from a second-story window and her property had went to her son, Michael. Michael was ten when he inherited the house and when he came to age, he sold the house. The company who bought it had the house demolished and during the demolition a secret subbasement was uncovered, which makes two of the four to have known subbasements."
"I have a feeling that you are going to ask me if I know about a subbasement on my property," Nicki said.
"I think you would have made a good detective, Ms. Foster," Lucas replied. "Anyway, do you know anything about a subbasement on your property?"
Nicki only considered lying to Lucas, before saying, "My mom and Jack—Jack was her business partner at the time—had discovered a subbasement two years after she had inherited the store and the subbasement was converted to a hidden storage area soon after that."
"Would you mind if I take a look inside?" Lucas asked.
"I have my reasons when I say, I prefer that you didn't look inside, Detective," Nicki said as politely as she could.
"If you're just using it as a storage area then I don't know what the big deal is about you showing it to me," Lucas replied.
Nicki pursed her lips for a moment before turning towards Lizzy and calling for her. When Lizzy answered, Laila commented, "I didn't even notice that your daughter was even over there."
Nicki waited for Laila to get done speaking before telling Lizzy, "These detectives and I are going to have an adult conversation, so I'll need you to go upstairs until we're done."
"I can't wait to be older so I don't have to leave the room when you talk with grown-ups," Lizzy grumbled as she made her way towards the steps.
"Yes, I know, it's rough being a kid," Nicki said sympathetically.
Nicki, Lucas and Laila waited quietly as Lizzy made her way across the shop and up the steps.
As Lizzy was disappearing behind the door on the mid-level balcony, Melanie, Jason and Chloe were making their way towards the display-case/counter.
"It broke, Nicki, so I guess that means that it's not…" Chloe had stopped talking when she stepped close enough to the display-case/counter to see the two detectives. "Sorry, I didn't know that you had customers."
As Melanie, Jason and Chloe were joining the detectives, Nicki gestured appropriately while saying, "These two are Detective Gilbert and Detective Gordon. Detectives, you know Melanie and the others are Jason and Chloe. Jason also works for me and Chloe… well Chloe will be part of what I want to tell you."
"Okay, I'm listening," Lucas said.
Nicki took a breath before saying, "Detective Gilbert; Detective Gordon, you two learned yesterday at Alicia Branney's house that my Great-Uncle Lewis was a coven leader, but what you two don't know is that he was also a devil worshiper. Thirty-eight years ago he had made a deal with the devil to sell cursed curios through his store… through this store, and in return he would get immortality, wealth and magical powers. Five years after he made that deal guilt caught up with him and he attempted to renege on that deal and the devil killed him for it.
"My mom and her cousin Ryan then inherited the store. Of course Mom and Ryan didn't know anything about the curse curios, so their plan was to sell off the entire stock and closed the store for good. In fact, they sold most of what was left of when Great-Uncle Lewis had own the store, but then Jack—an old friend to Great-Uncle Lewis—showed up and together the three figured out what Great-Uncle Lewis had done and how he had actually died.
"The three then made it their mission to get back every cursed curio that Great-Uncle Lewis had ever sold and every cursed curio that they had unwittingly sold. However, from a bizarre incident—a story for another time—Ryan had to leave the store after two years and another man named Johnny joined and helped track down the cursed curios. Anyway, it took Mom, Jack and Johnny seven years to find and get back every cursed curio, and now all of those cursed curios are stored in that aforementioned hidden storage area. And no offence, detectives, but until I get to know you two a lot better, I prefer not to show either of you—or anyone else as far as that matters—where I keep those cursed curios."
Lucas pursed his lips for a moment before nodding and saying, "I don't believe in cursed curios, but it's obvious that you do, so I understand why you don't want to show me your hidden storage area. So for now, I'll settle with knowing that it's there. So that makes three of the four houses with known subbasements." Melanie, Jason and Chloe gave Lucas curious looks. "Being the betting man that I am, I'm willing to bet that there's a subbasement in Karen Merkel's house as well. Unfortunately, I have no legal grounds to examine her basemen; also Detective Gordon and I are actually out of our jurisdiction at the moment. Anyway, what does Chloe have to do with what you had told me?"
"Mom, Jack and Johnny only knew about the curios that Great-Uncle Lewis had cursed," Nicki began. "Chloe, her two brothers and her dad knew about other cursed objects and they had hunted down those objects."
"Unfortunately, we didn't store them correctly and they had gotten back out into the world," Chloe added. "Now when we get a hold of one, we bring it here for Nicki to store."
"Assuming that cursed curios or cursed objects are not figments of your folks' imagination, what exactly will curse objects do?" Laila asked.
"It actually depends on the object," Nicki replied before she and Chloe began naming off cursed curios and objects and saying what their curses were.
Nicki and Chloe listed five objects and described their curses, and as Chloe was about to list another cursed object, Lucas stopped her.
"I have a feeling that the stories of cursed objects will be as long as the series 'How I met your mother' and Detective Gordon and I actually need to get back to work," Lucas told them.
"Of course," Nicki replied with a slight grin. "Lizzy is probably ready to come back down anyway; however, before you two go, you two should know that cursed objects are totally indestructible."
"That's good to know," Lucas was only able to get out.
"Wait a minute," Laila requested. "Chloe, when you first came in, you were telling Nicki that something broke."
"Yeah, I thought my brothers and I had tracked down one of those cursed objects that had gotten back out into the world," Chloe began. "Melanie can sense when an object is cursed though and when I brought the object in to be stored, Melanie was insisting that the object wasn't cursed. I was certain that the object—which was a camera—was cursed, so we took it out back to see if it can be destroyed, and it took very little effort to destroy."
"Interesting," Lucas replied. "Anyway, Detective Gordon and I need to get back out there."
"Alright; take care," Nicki told Lucas and Laila.
"Take care," Lucas and Laila echoed.
"See you later," Melanie said as Jason and Chloe echoed Lucas and Laila.
Lucas glanced at Melanie before he and Laila walked away.
"I wonder if I can find the correct Sheldon Samson in a Google search if I look him up," Chloe commented as Lucas and Laila were leaving the store.
"If he's hiding his killings then locating him might not be enough to find out what he's using to kill people," Melanie pointed out.
"True, but I need to try," Chloe said.
"Chloe, if you would like, you can use my computer to do your search," Nicki told her while pointing towards her desk on the mid-level balcony. "The internet speed is good."
"Alright," Chloe replied before moving towards the stairs.
"Melanie, go tell Lizzy that she can come back down," Nicki requested.
Melanie nodded before following Chloe up the stairs.
During the passing minutes, Chloe did her search for Sheldon. Lizzy returned to the lounging area. Melanie stepped up behind Chloe and watched what she was doing over her shoulder. Nicki continued reading the daily paper and Jason continued to put out the smaller clocks where there was room.
During Chloe's search, she looked at five webpages and/or Facebook pages belonging to five different Sheldon Samson before finding the correct one.
"Found you," Chloe commented while looking at his large photo.
"That's him?" Melanie rhetorically questioned. "His eyes look worn and sad."
"Yes, well, that's definitely him," Chloe replied before reading what the webpage had to say about Sheldon.
Melanie read over Chloe's shoulder and learned that Sheldon was in his late fifties and was a family photographer in Queens, New York. He owned his owned studio next to a large park. His operating hours were from 9:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M., and then again from 1:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. Monday through Friday, and his reviews were from mediocre to excellent.
"There's not much information on Sheldon," Melanie commented.
"There's enough information here for me and my family to find him," Chloe replied before moving the mouse and clicking on the print option.
"How old was Sheldon when you first encountered him?" Melanie asked as the printer began to print.
"He was in his late twenties then and since he looks to be in his late fifties or early sixties today, the curse isn't giving him other people's youth," Chloe replied. "Which is what I thought the curse did."
Sheldon's photo was printing first and it was taking up the entire first page.
As Melanie watched as it was printing out, she told Chloe, "Sheldon's picture wants to tell me something. I can sense it from here, so I'll see what it wants to tell me as soon as it prints."
"I hope it has something useful to tell you," Chloe replied. "And how often can you get a psychic hit from a printout of someone's picture?"
"Not often, but it does happened from time to time," Melanie replied. "And if the photograph that was used is less than a month old, then the chances of me getting a psychic hit increases." Chloe looked at the monitor and slightly chuckled. "What?"
Chloe pointed to the date on the screen and said, "This photograph of Sheldon was taken and added to the webpage five days ago."
"I didn't notice that date," Melanie replied just before the printout of Sheldon's picture was finished.
Melanie took the printout as another page began to print and she fell into a trance as soon as she took it.
Seconds later, as Melanie came out of her trance, Chloe asked, "So what did that printout had to tell you?"
"It told me that you need to look for a light pink Then-and-Now photo frame—the kind that sits on a desk," Melanie replied.
"Wow, it's a photo frame that is cursed?" Chloe rhetorically asked. "My family and I were definitely looking for the wrong object. Anyway, did you see anything else?"
Melanie nodded before saying, "Sheldon had bought the frame for his wife as a symbolic gesture thirty years ago while not knowing that it was cursed, but he soon found out what it did when he put a new photograph of his young wife in the 'now' frame and a new photograph of his mom in the 'then' frame. Their age switched and his wife died of old age within two days. Sheldon was about to smash the frame… or attempt to anyway, but his mom took possession of the frame before he could."
"So Sheldon's mom was the one who was killing?" Chloe questioned.
Melanie shrugged before saying, "My vision stopped when Sheldon's mom stopped Sheldon from attempting to smash the photo frame." Melanie showed Chloe Sheldon's photo printout and gestured towards his eyes. "But judging by his sad eyes, I would say yes."
"You see sad and worn out eyes, but all I see is a normal face," Chloe replied before she went to close the search engine.
Melanie again shrugged before saying, "Perhaps seeing sadness and guilt in someone's photograph is part of my psychic ability."
"Wait, do you see guilt in Sheldon's face also?" Chloe asked.
"No," Melanie replied. "Last week, Andi—my best friend—showed me a photograph of her uncle, and when I looked into his eyes, I saw guilt. However, the photograph didn't have anything to tell me, so I don't know what he was guilty about."
"Okay, well, thanks for your psychic assistance, Melanie, but I'm going to get going," Chloe said as she went to stand. "I need to tell my dad what's going on. So most likely we will be going to Queens, New York, this afternoon."
"Good luck," Melanie told Chloe.
"Thanks," Chloe said before stepping around Melanie and moving towards the steps.
Melanie followed Chloe down the steps and then asked Nicki what she wanted her to do.
