The Promise (Book 1, The Coven Series)

Chapter Three

I heard the shouting match as I walked up the flagstone path to the front porch. My parents seemed to think civilized conversation consisted of screaming at each other these days. I debated going in. I hated it when they fought. They hadn't always been like this.

There was a time when Dad brought Mom roses home just because and Mom used to smile all the time. Not anymore. She filled her days with committee meetings while he worked himself to death in his shop. They'd grown to hate each other. Why they just didn't get a divorce and put everyone out of their misery was beyond me. It had to be better than this constant fighting.

I heard something crash against the wall and then the distinct sound of tinkering glass as it fell. That made up my mind for me. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and started back the way I'd come. I had no doubt Dad would start drinking soon and I didn't feel up to dealing with that right now.

Instead, I strolled down the sidewalk and watched the activity going on around me. It was October 1st, the official start of Halloween, Samhain, in New Salem. We'd had our own celebration by the lake last night, but today decorations were going up everywhere all over town. We were definitely a Halloween town. We even had a huge contest every year to find the scariest house. Homes and lawns, storefronts, and even the parks were transformed into scenes of terror and mayhem. Witches, ghosts, goblins, ghouls, tombstones, corpses—there was nothing off limits.

I was surprised Mom hadn't dragged our stuff out of storage by now. She was always one of the first to decorate. She loved Halloween more than I did, I think, and that was saying something. Halloween was my holiday. I loved the decorations, the scary movie marathons, the candy corn, and especially the costumes. I loved them all—funny, scary, or just plain weird. There was just something about that night of magic and make believe that struck a chord within me. Then again, it could just be because it was my birthday.

I waved to Mr. Corey as he strung the bushes in front of his drugstore with orange lights. His wife worked in the front window of the shop crafting her magic. Beginning on the first day of October through Halloween, they created a new scene each day in the big front display window of the drugstore. Those window scenes attracted people from all over just to get a glimpse of them. October brought in more revenue to the town than some of the beaches did all summer, and it was all thanks to the Corey's amazing window displays. I couldn't wait to see what she was doing. Hopefully by the time I came back, she'd have it finished.

I stopped a moment as I stepped off Main Street and onto McKelter Avenue to take in the view of the rolling hills it offered. Fall was in full force, which only added to the ambiance of the town. The trees blazed with a life of their own, as if to defy the death of summer at winter's cold hands. The leaves that fell to the ground were a glorious myriad of browns, yellows, oranges, and reds. The sharp, crisp air made the shivers all the fiercer as one walked the streets of New Salem during October.

The monument caught my attention as it always did when I passed by this way. A stone circle surrounded a smaller stone pillar that stood about four feet high. A plaque rested on its top. The old plaque had been crafted when the town was first established in 1693 and now resided in the library under a glass case. My dad had replaced it with a newer one a few years back.

The original settlers were from Salem Village, Massachusetts. Our town, New Salem, had been settled shortly after the Salem Witch Trials. The plaque held the names of the thirteen innocent people who had been persecuted during the trials. Their deaths had been the reason their family and friends fled here to North Carolina.

My feet turned away from the monument and started upon a well-worn path they knew intimately. I slipped quietly through the massive gates of the cemetery and trudged up the west hill. A sharp wind whistled through the trees and I shivered. It was getting colder now with the onset of fall. I should have grabbed a jacket this morning, but had been in such a hurry to get to school, I'd forgotten.