The Rite Twins

5: Abole

The war had begun and these nine people were left to care for Abole. Marlina drove the boys and Cassandra to school in the morning to buy her goods, and before she picked them up she took care of trading. The store was open throughout the rest of the day. 10-2 during the day and 5-8 in the evening. Edna was often at the inn talking to her brother, and when he wasn’t tending his post, she was doing it for him. Kaelie stayed at the bookshop, where a few tourists would stop on their way through. Her father stopped by at lunch to bring her food he had prepared for her and later for the boy as well. George was seen around often. Cassandra and the boy Courtney began to grow close as Cassandra and Marlina grew apart. Adrian ran away ten times in two years. It was the final year, when things began to change, that he stayed.

It was 1953. Rock and Roll was hot on the radio and growing in record sales. Even the older folks in Abole were “in” with the times. Clothes, hair, music; they were all up-to-date and up-to-fashion in their own way. But things had changed in Abole. Everyone had begun to change. Everyone had secrets. It seemed the spirits of Abole were disturbed in this year. It was the year the soldier’s had begun to come home. No, it was the year the bodies begun to come back, at least the parts of the bodies that remained. Mothers began to die of broken hearts. Fathers became enraged, driven mad with fear and anger. Lovers were alone, and many committed suicide. This was America at it’s worst. This was Abole in its beginnings. Men who were forced to fight for what they did not believe, and families forced to suffer for the ignorance of a nation. And now, the spirits would not rest. 100 years had passed and they could no longer linger in the shadows.

Kaelie would lie awake and night and hear the whispers calling. During these times, Michael was sound asleep. It was when there was silence that her four-year-old son seemed the most disturbed. During Marlina’s trips to the city, she would often bring back books Kaelie requested, books to figure out what was happening to their towns. There were ghost books and vampire books. There were stories that could never be proved and books based on pure fact. She bought research books and novels alike, trying to find out if anything connected with this town. Soon she began to request books on witchcraft. She was going to get to the bottom of this one way or another.

“Are you sure these are the books you want, Kae?”

“Marlina, there is no other way. Everybody’s starting to act weird, to keep secrets. Michael wakes up on the quietest nights disturbed by dreams and voices. I’m going to find out what’s going on here, and you’re the only one who can help me. You’re the only one I trust.” Marlina just nodded and walked out of the store.

As she drove towards the city, she kept looking at the list of books she was to bring back for Kaelie. White Magick: Beginning Your Journey; Black Magick; Beginner’s Book of Shadow’s; The Witch’s Curse: and on that list, that interested Marlina the most were the books Secrets and Shadows.

What kinds of books are named Secrets? Or Shadows? That’s odd, Marlina thought. She didn’t quite understand what Kaelie was getting into, but she figured there was a good mix of material there. Kaelie was obviously doing her research before she stepped into anything serious.

But things had gone horribly wrong after that. Horribly wrong...

I had left behind all I’ve ever known for the last time. Or at least it seemed to be the last time. I knew they would never leave. They’ll never truly be gone. Not in the sense that you think. No, the citizens of Abole were stuck in their purgatory forever, just as I had been. I still am in a way, but I’ve found my OWN purgatory away from Abole. Yes, we’ve left, and it was about time.

My sister was still behind us thought, following our trail. Cassandra was nothing more than a ghost hunter, chasing herself. Not that she was a ghost, or any of us were ghosts. We were very much alive. The problem was we were alive for too long. Kaelie had brought Magick into the picture, but it was Adrian who painted a different portrait.