Dear Diary,
Remember how I said small town's eat up gossip quick? Well, suffice it to say my relationship with Johnny didn't stay quiet for much longer. I wouldn't have cared so much, if it weren't for others reactions. It's amazing how fast your perception of people can change once you're the target of gossip.
I was having another great, carefree day. Johnny gave me his credit card, so I headed down to the grocery store to pick up some things. I was wearing jean shorts and a tank top with some four inch heals with white ankle socks. I left my hair down, letting my curls go wild. Johnny had stolen my last clean bra that morning and refused to give it back, saying it was his prize after last night.
I walked through the super market, feeling as giddy as Dorothy skipping down the yellow brick road. I paid no mind to the brainless scarecrows around me, I figured they were just checking out my new look.
I snacked on a jar of pickles as I headed to the checkout counter. I snatched up a pack of those double chocolate chip cookies. I love those!
I went to the checkout line and grabbed copy of this week's newspaper. My face fell when I read the headline:
LOBEAUX MANSION SCANDAL!
Dear God! It was all about me and Johnny! Mr. Heard approved of this?! How could he?!
"Excuse me!" The cashier snapped. "Are you buying the paper or not?"
"Uh... yeah" I stammered, suddenly feeling two feet tall.
"Slut..." The woman behind me muttered.
I glared at her. "What did you just say?"
"You heard her!" The woman next to her said.
I frowned deeply. I couldn't believe this! I had lived in this town my whole life and here they were, my friends and neighbors, treating me like I was trash! The minute I tried something new and exciting in my life, they berated me for it! A few weeks ago, I was just another drop in their little puddle and now they acted like I was an oil spill! I could imagine this happening in the city, but a small quaint town like Eastwick? Is there no loyalty? No compassion?
As I walked out of the store and got into my car. I headed into town and decided to deal with this right now.
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"How could you do this?" I demanded, standing in Mr. Heard's office, holding the newspaper I just bought.
"Calm down, Y/N" He popped an aspirin in his mouth and washed it down with his coffee. "We only used Depp's name."
"Then why is this whole damn town shunning me like I'm the whore of Babylon?!" I snapped.
"Well, it's pretty obvious" Mr. Heard said. "The whole town was talking about you and him, long before I even printed this."
"Nevertheless, it isn't anybody's business!" I told him. "You have no idea what's going on up there!"
Mr. Heard scoffed. "You know you can't keep a secret in a small town like this, Y/N."
I pointed to the paper. "This shit isn't just unfair, it's also untrue!"
"No, no, no!" Heard pursed his lips, shaking his head.
"Yes, it is! This isn't even reporting, David!" I told him. "It's not a real story! It's just speculations and rumors! You can't just post things like that! You know that!"
"It is true!" Heard nodded. "Depp altered the Lobeaux Mansion, which may I remind you is considered a historical landmark. The town is sueing him for two million dollars. It's all true!"
"Well, what about me, David?" I asked. "How can you do this to me? I've been working for you for five years now. I'm one of your best reporters! When a forest fire broke out two towns over at two a.m, who got out of bed and beat all the other papers to it, huh? Me! I'm a good writer and a good worker!"
"Alright, alright, alright!" Heard held up a dismissive hand to me. "I-I-I... I'm not just the owner of the newspaper, I'm also a family man--"
"It's Amber, isn't it?" I asked softly.
"Yeah," Heard sighed. "She's... she's very sick, Y/N. She's having a hard time right now. And I'm a father first, I have to do what's right by my kid." His voice was cracking and his eyes welled with tears as he turned to look out the window. "She's looks more like her mother, y'know. Same eyes. But ever since she broke her leg, she hasn't been the same. I don't see her mother in her eyes anymore. I see... I don't know, a stranger. A crazed stranger who's trying to warn me about things I don't understand."
I sighed. I sympathized with the poor bastard. I didn't like being around Amber at the office, but to live with her... it must be rough. I stared down at the paper, clearly Amber influenced his choice in this. It was meant to placate her wailing. He was at his wit's end.
Finally Mr. Heard sniffed and turned back to face me. "What am I doing?" He asked absent-mindedly.
"You're firing me..." I said.
Mr. Heard glanced up at me and shrugged sympathetically. "I understand" he nodded. "I'll send you your severance pay in the mail."
I nodded with a tight smile, before leaving his office.
"Y/N?" Mr. Heard asked.
I turned in the doorway to look at him.
"These things Amber's been saying..." he asked. "They're not true, are they?"
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"I think we should stop seeing each other" I told Johnny that night at dinner.
"Hey now," Johnny said as he poured the wine. "Let's not overreact. You just had a bad day, is all."
"You don't understand, John" I shook my head. "It's a small town, people talk. This won't just go away."
"We have not done anything wrong" Johnny told me. "Why would we stop seeing each other?"
"Not permanently" I shook my head. "Just for a little while, until the town cools it's heels. Y'know, Mr. Heard even said that Amber's been having visions of us. She's says she see's the devil here in Eastwick."
Johnny's eyebrows shot up. "The devil? Like this?" He stuck his fingers on either side of his head and wagged his tongue.
"You're not funny" I told him, biting back a smile.
Johnny held up his fork. "And here's my pitchfork!" He poked me with it. "I'm gonna getcha! I'm gonna getcha!" He reached over and tickled me.
I squirmed. "Stop it!" I giggled. "This is serious! It's not just that! You're also being sued for I don't know how many millions."
"Yes, that is an convenience" Johnny muttered, sitting back in his seat.
"Exactly!" I said. "Amber is not fooling around with all her fake morality bullshit! She not going to quiet until she gets what she wants! That's the way it's always been! I remember back in high school, she suspected-- not know, suspected that another girl was after the guy she liked. So her father made some calls and had the girl's mother promoted to another paper five town's over." I reached over and caressed Johnny's cheek. "And I love you too much to let anything that bad to happen to you. That's why I think it's best, if we do a... short couple's separation."
"You can't be serious, princess" Johnny pouted. "We're a family, me and my girl." He held my hand under the table.
I gave him a reassuring smile. "Just for a while until things settle down" I said. "I don't like it anymore than you do."
Johnny sighed. "Don't let Amber get to you" he said, reaching over to a large golden bowl and pulling of the lid. "Have a cherry..."
I smiled and popped one of the cherries in my mouth, chewing. "Hmm... there's no pit in the center?" I asked curiously.
"No, it's a special kind of cherry" He explained, taking one for himself. "Have some more, there's plenty."
I took a handful and let the sweet red juice fill my mouth.
"They taste almost as good as your cherry" Johnny smirked.
"Johnny!" I gave him a light smack on the arm, smiling.
He chuckled.
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Simultaneously at the Heard's Ranch house, Amber was on another rant as Mr. Heard was cleaning his hunting rifle at the coffee table.
"Did you know, they're selling pornography at Kluke's corner store now?" Amber said. "It's true, I saw it. Right there on the shelf, Shamelessly displayed for everyone to see." She turned to her father. "Children are looking at this--" she began to gag, putting a hand to her mouth. "--in brock lay kite..."
"I can't understand a word you're saying" Mr. Heard told her in a cold tone. "Not one word!"
"I said they're staring at--" she gagged and coughed. Finally she reached into her mouth and pulled out a cherry pit. "--Staring at this filth in broad daylight..." she studied the pit with wide eyes.
"Right, right..." Mr. Heard sighed, rolling his eyes.
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I laid on my back on the edge of the pool, staring up at stars through the glass ceiling above and running my fingers through the pools surface. Johnny floated near by on a zebra innertube with the bowl of cherries in his lap. By this point it was almost empty.
"She made a whole scene at Kluke's today" I licked the cherry juice from my lips. "Snatching magazines out of some poor little kids hands and berating them. Telling them they would go to hell and chasing them out of the store. And I'm certain Mr. Heard started drinking again. I could smell the Jack Daniels off him before I even entered his office."
"That whole family's twisted" Johnny shook his head, remorsefully.
"Part of me wishes I could do something to help them" I moaned. "But there's another part of me that enjoys the idea of... putting them out of their misery. I mean, all that bitching and moaning Amber does! She's done it for years now, she lucky her father even bothers with her overgrown bratty ass! If she isn't content with that, I don't know if I should have any sympathy for her."
Johnny nodded popping another cherry in his mouth.
"I guess I shouldn't judge them though" I said. "It's not like I'm family oriented at the moment."
"But you are" Johnny floated over holding my hand. "You're my family..." he kissed my hand. "And it hurts me to see you so stressed about all this. It really does."
"I wish they would both just go away" I said absent-mindedly.
Johnny gave me a reassuring smile. "Have another cherry..."
I smiled, sitting up and plucking one out of the bowl and holding it between my teeth. I wiggled my brows suggestively.
Johnny leaned forward and bit off half of the cherry, kissing me tenderly.
"Luscious..." he smiled.
"Yeah, must be a good season for cherries" I said.
"I was talking about you" he smirked charmingly.
I giggled, popping another cherry in my mouth.
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Amber's eyes watered as she gagged and hacked up more cherry pits into a tissue. She caught her breath and cleared her throat.
"He's trying to get inside me, Dad" she said. "He's trying to use me. And Y/N, he's using her too."
Mr. Heard groaned as he finished putting the gun back together.
"He wants to get inside us" Amber said. "He wants to take all our goodness."
"Mm-hmm..." Mr. Heard moaned.
Amber rose from her chair, gasping as she groped herself. "He wants to get inside me, Dad" she gasped. "Just like a man. Tickle tickle. Diddle, diddle."
"Mm-hmmm..." he responded in monotone.
"God made us into the image of goodness and look at what we've become" she snarled like a wild beast. "Animals gone mad! Devoring the earth and each other. Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat... RAUGH!" She snarled.
Mr. Heard jumped. "Okay, Amber, honey" he said. "Take it easy. Calm down."
Amber panted, practically foaming at the mouth. "I know who he is, Daddy..."
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"Have another cherry..." Johnny offered.
"I shouldn't" I said.
"C'mon, there's only two left. One for each of us" Johnny smirked lightly. "Then we can say we finished the whole thing."
I glanced in the bowl and picked up my last cherry. I placed it in Johnny's mouth as he placed the one he held in mine. I sucked his fingertips softly as he kissed mine.
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Amber garbled and her stomach lurched. Her knees buckled as she leaned over and spewed an explosion of cherry pits all across the sofa and lamp shades.
"Amber!" Mr. Heard grimaced. "What... what have you been eating?"
Amber breathed heavily. "Poor Y/N" she panted. "I-I have to warn her." She froze as another thought came to her. "My God. He's going to propagate, Daddy."
"What?" Mr. Heard asked.
"He's going to increase his number" Amber muttered shakily. "Y/N is going to bear him sons. He's going to take her love and continue to destroy the earth with it!"
She gagged and turned away as she began to spew a river of cherry pits, that clattered againt across the hardwood floor. They just kept coming and coming. Like she was a possessed pit-puking machine!
Mr. Heard watched on in wide-eyed horror. He stared down at the newly cleaned twelve gage in his hands and his mind was numb. Whether it was from the six glasses of whisky he had today or the stress or the shock of the flailing, vomiting, self-sabotaging mess his daughter had become, he couldn't decide. But he suddenly knew what he had to do.
He leaned over the couch with his gun in hand. He cocked the trigger and pointed it at Amber's back as she was still vomiting profusely.
"Sweetheart..." he said with a blank stare. "Let's call it a day..."
They say the gunshots could be heard from six blocks away. Three for Amber and the final one for Mr. Heard.
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The next afternoon half the town was standing outside the entrance to the Heard Family ranch. Gossip was being exchanged and theories and rumors as to why David Heard did it ran wild.
I stood on the outskirts of it all, leaning against a tree. Johnny pulled up in his black chevy impala and rushed over to me.
"You okay, baby?" He asked sympathetically.
"I just don't believe it" I whispered. "I-I worked with him. I knew him... he could never do something like this."
"I know" Johnny rubbed my shoulders.
"No!" I shrugged off his hands. "Don't you get it?!"
"Get what?" Johnny asked.
"This! Us!" I snapped. "Last night, all that talk!"
"Well, that's just talk" Johnny shrugged. "Those are just words."
"No, they're not" I shook my head. "They make things happen. You know it and I know it. I make things happen and you..." I sighed. "You're an enabler."
"We had nothing to do with this" Johnny told me.
"Yes, we did" I hissed. "And you know it! Are you going to be honest with me or not, John? Because I don't think I want to be with a man who doesn't give me the truth."
Johnny licked his lips and avoided my glare. "Listen, how about we go home and relax?" he suggested. "It's been a hard day with all of this and it's got you stressed, that's all. I can help you with that..."
"Do you ever stop thinking from between your legs?!" I snapped.
Johnny glared at me. "I didn't mean it like that" he retorted. "Y'know if you think that's what I was suggesting maybe you're the slut in this relationship?"
"You prick!" I squinted angrily at him.
"Shut up, Y/N!"
"Right, cause I'm the one with all the problems and you're the fix-it man, right?"
"Because you always come crying to me about it!"
"You're the one who dragged me into your house that day, not me!"
"Bullshit! That's bullshit and you know it!"
The wind began to pick up as we continued our yelling match. Ugly, grey storm clouds engorged the sky above. The anger roiled within me like hot white electricity.
We seized our arguing as a sudden bolt of lightning hit the tree behind us, causing a large branch to catch fire. Almost simultaneously, the ground beneath us began to tremble and lift. I backed up as the earth split open between the two of us, leaving a deep trench between us.
I sighed, both in sadness and exhaustion as I turned and began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Johnny called after me.
"Home" I answered without turning around.
"Well, let me drive you" Johnny said like it was obvious.
"I mean, my apartment" I told him.
I quickened my pace as I felt the tears start to roll down my cheeks. I wouldn't let him see me that way.
The rain began to fall over Eastwick, as if matching my mood.
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When I got back to my apartment, I took a hot shower and cried the whole time. I admit it, I missed my Johnny. But I couldn't be around him, it only caused trouble when we were together. I have no idea what powers I hold. First I injured Amber on the stairs that day and then, what I said last night about putting the Heard's out of their misery... I was unintentionally hurting people and I didn't know how to stop it.
And Johnny, my sweet, loving Johnny... he was so enamored and amazed with me that he just encouraged it. He called my powers a gift. But if you ask me, they're a curse. They made me hurt the people around me and they even cost me the greatest love I've ever known.
I'm a ruthless monster... I thought as I cried myself to sleep that night.
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Johnny sat alone in that big, empty dark mansion that night. He wanted nothing more than to hear the door open and the sound of her platform heels clopping across the polished marble floors towards him. Wrapping her arms around him from behind, her soft lips pressing a tender kiss to his cheek.
Instead he slouched in his recliner, his hair disheveled, his face greasy and long. He was a man in the depths of despair. In his lap was a photo album that Y/N had created. She had been working on it, she filled it with scattered Polaroids of them, and love letters they had written each other.
Tears filled his eyes as he looked at them. He had finally found her, his match. The one creature he could love and she was gone. The tears began go fall, he closed his eyes and thought back to her touch, her smile, her laugh. The way it felt when she was on top of him, curled up next to him.
And those powers! They made her a rarity among women! They were a part of her and yet she was ashamed of them. It pained him to think Y/N would want to hide something so beautiful. She was a witch... his witch.
Johnny let out a shuddering sigh, as he dried his eyes on the sleeve of his smoking jacket. He lock of his long brown hair fell in to his eyes. He grabbed a hair tie from the nearby end table and used it to tie back his hair. As he did, the dark red knarled horns protruding from his skull were revealed.
Johnny sighed. Perhaps if I told her about who I was sooner, she wouldn't have felt so alone... he thought. But just how do you go about tell a girl you're the devil?
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All the next morning, I felt terrible. Aside from the heartache, I was nauseous, I had heartburn and acid reflex. I was still tired despite going to bed early last night. My breast were aching like never before and I just realized that I haven't had a bowel movement in three days!
I was googling 'Can you get sick from a broken heart?' on my phone, when the doctor came in with my blood test results.
"Miss L/N?" She asked.
I turned to her. "What's wrong with me?" I asked nervously.
"Nothing's wrong" the doctor smiled. "You're pregnant."
My eyes widened. "What?" I asked stunned.
"You're pregnant. Four weeks, it appears" she smiled, glancing at my chart.
"Ar-are you sure?" I asked a smile tugging at my mouth.
"Positive" the doctor nodded happily. "Congratulations, Miss L/N."
"Oh my God" I beamed, my hands going to my stomach. "I don't believe it" I laughed happily. "Thank you, doctor." I hopped off the examination table and ran for the door.
"Uh, Miss L/N!" The doctor ran after me. "Your clothes!"
I looked down at the paper gown I was wearing and how my ass hung out the back of it.
I grabbed the stack of clothes. "Right!" I nodded, a little embarrassed. "Thanks again, doctor."
To be continued...