4. Swearing girl at church
Alya and Alix banged the purple door like barbarians.
"JULEKA! For the love of God, get out here right now!"
Rose knocked softer.
"Come on, Jules, Lila and Chloe must be with the Lenoir girl already."
A window opened in the second story of the house and a handsome man smirked from there.
"Good morning, ladies."
Rose and Mylene blushed.
"Spare us your horseshit, Luka," yelled Alix, "where the fuck is your sister?!"
The girls blushed at her language.
Luka laughed.
"I am most terribly sorry, but Jules is asleep."
"What?!"
"You know that my mother does not care much about Church issues."
Alya groaned in frustration.
"Enough, come on girls, we have to save this girl from those goats. Juleka can catch up later."
The four girls walked to the church, where people were already waking inside and choosing their seats. Alya saw Madam Lenoir and led her friends to her. There was a girl with her. They sat in right behind them.
Judging by the way that everyone was looking at the new girl's black braided bun of hair, absolutely no one would pay attention to the lecture.
Father Damocles cleared his throat and began his routine of religious warnings about sin. Just like Alya had predicted, no young person was paying attention to him. Surely no one had yet seen the girl's face and everyone was interested. By the end of the Mass, Father Damocles cleared his throat again and announced that he had important things to let them know.
"As we all know, our ministers and governor work hard to keep us safe from human and spiritual threats. It is on everyone's behalf, that I have asked Minister Agreste and Governor Bourgeois to extend our protection measures: good people of Saint Emilie, we have victims of witchcraft."
Everyone in the church gasped and most of them prayed out loud. Adrien frowned and looked around him shocked, they haven't had a single witch in town in decades, also why did his father not tell him?
"The fields haven't been as fertile as past years and the Rossi's cattle died last winter without explanation. Now, if this is not proof enough that there are witches among us, Minister Agreste's men found this in the woods."
He took a package in white cloth and opened it on the floor, where everyone could see: it was a couple of poppets, a man and a woman, tied up together with red threat and pinned dried rose petals. Clearly, a passion spell. Adrien leaned on to see it better and a shiver ran down his spine, not because of the evidence, but because of the consequences; he knew his father and what this could trigger in his mind.
"Therefore, in order to protect us all, Minister Agreste and Governor Bourgeois have determined new rules: absolutely no person will be outside after ten o'clock, no woman is allowed to go out alone under no circumstances, there must be a man with them every moment, the use of herbs and color cloths will be regulated and justified by Madam Tsurugi, and we encourage the good men of Saint Emilie to denounce any suspicious behavior, because the woman that has no sin, has no hell to fear."