practical magic

ocho.

She snipped away at the tough vines watching one by one as the flower tumbled onto Ashton's grave. She groaned, as she continued to cut, she thought if she snipped away enough maybe she could snip away her problems as well.

"Kinda early for roses isn't it?" She was startled by a voice coming from behind her.

"Can I help you with something?" Sophia asked ignoring the man's question.

"I sure hope so. My name's Justin Bieber, I'm a special investigator from the state of Florida." He waved the badge in her face.

"Well you're a long way from home officer," Sophia said with a nervous chuckle.

"I was hoping to talk to your sister Jillian. If she's around. She may have some information on a case I'm working on." Justin removed his sunglasses and Jillian looked into his deep brown eyes, while he ran his hand through his sandy hair.

"I'll just uh- go get her," Sophia mumbled and walked quickly up to the house. Justin bent down picking up one of the roses, and before Sophia could reach the house she turned around facing him.

"How did you know I was her sister?" She asked him.

"Lucky guess." He shrugged.

"Yeah, well why don't you come inside." Sophia offered, and Justin stood up fixing his brown hair once again and followed Sophia in the house.

"Jillian," Sophia said once she got upstairs. Jillian was in her room listening to calming music after her little episode outside. "Jilly, there's a cop downstairs!" Sophia said removing the headphones from her sister's ears. "He wants to talk to you about Azrael, and I uh, I think I'm having a heart attack." Sophia placed her hand on her chest.

"It's okay Soph, just calm down. How much can he really know?" Jilly said, trying to make her sister breathe normally.

"Well, he seems to know an awful lot since he came all the way from Florida! And I know this may sound really strange, but I- I don't think I can lie to him." Her breathing became more erratic and Jilly stood up from her cross-legged position.

"What the hell Soph, of course, you can lie to him! Okay, you know what, here is the story: I left him because he hit me, and we haven't seen him since. It's as simple as that, just let me handle this Soph alright?" Sophia nodded, keeping her hand to her heart, as Jillian got ready to meet with the officer.

"Is he cute?" Jilly whispered, and Sophia's face flushed.

"Yeah. Um yeah, I guess." She muttered and ran down the stairs to find Justin.

He was in their greenhouse when she found him, and she hid behind the door watching the tall brown haired man as he looked through the herbs around the room. She watched his every move, curious to see what exactly he was looking for. He picked up a small bottle and examined it skeptically.

"Just herbs," Sophia said, making him jump a little.

"Oh- uh." He laughed nervously putting the bottle down and walking in Sophia's direction, out of the greenhouse.

"So what brings you to the island?" Sophia asked, trying not to sound too suspicious. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar white envelope.

"This." He said and unfolded it. Sophia reached up, but he pulled it back and she felt her cheeks flush and eyes grow wide in anger.

"You read my letter?" Sophia asked. She felt as though it was a complete invasion of her privacy, and what did her letter have to do with Azrael anyway?

"Yes, ma'am I did." He nodded.

"That's a personal letter." Sophia scoffed.

"Yes, ma'am it was." He chuckled, and her cheeks flushed crimson again.