"They found the other half of the body." Eleanor told Malcom, in a tone meant to be low enough that Cordelia wouldn't hear them.
They had been talking about the events of the previous night for around five minutes, and Cordelia had been sitting in the stairwell for the past five minutes, eavesdropping.
She understood why they didn't want to talk about it around her. Parents didn't talk about gruesome murders with their children, especially not when their children had found the victims of those gruesome murders.
At that moment, Cordelia decided to make her presense known, by walking into the kitchen as if she hadn't heard every word they had exchanged.
"Hey sunshine." Her mother greeted her, with a forced smile for Cordelia's sake, and a term of endearment her mom hadn't employed since Cordelia's childhood.
Cordelia nodded, moving overly slowly, to look like she had just woken up, when really she hadn't slept much with the image of the body and another she had never seen, but vividly remembered from her dream. That body belonged to a woman, and the only connection it bore to the body from last night was the way they'd been killed.
Cordelia dismissed all thought of her more and more frequent nightmares from her mind, as she sat down at the kitchen table with pop tarts.
"Your mother and I agreed that it would be best if you stayed home today." Malcom mentioned as she sat, pressing his lips together. Cordelia had figured as much. Her parents only ever let her miss school when she was throwing up, but they probably figured she was traumatised enough to miss a day of school.
"Unfortunately neither of us can stay home with you." He added, rubbing his eyes. They were exhausted. Mentally. And physically. The events had taken a toll on them as much as they had on her. Never before had her parents age shown so much. For the first time in seventeen years, Cordelia thought her parents looked old.
"I really need to go to the station to sort out this mess, and your father has to give a tour of the school to visiting professors." Eleanor explained, rubbing her hands together.
Cordelia nodded, "It's fine. I'll be fine home alone. I'll probably just sleep and read most of the day." She told them, forcing a smile, this time for her parents benefit.
The last time she had told them she'd be fine home alone however, the cops showed up at their house. They weren't reassured.
"Okay. I'll call and check on you at lunch." Eleanor told her with pinched lips.
"Okay Mom." Cordelia smiled, reaching across the table for her parents hands and giving them each what she hoped was a reassuring squeeze.
Two hours later, Cordelia was home alone and sitting at her desk, pulling up her browser on her laptop.
She couldn't get the nightmares out of her mind, and so she thought back to the very first one, and typed into Google; witch trials.
5, 300, 000.
That was the number of results her search had.
Good thing she had nothing better to do.
Cordelia sat in front of that screen for hours. She read about what she had already learned from Mr. Pierce, and dug deep into the history of witch trials. In every culture, every religion, there was something that resembled witchcraft. Most of the time it was seen as Wicked. Unatural.
Exodus 22:18 said, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Which was used as justification by christian witch hunters.
But in rare cases, witches were worshipped, or valued for their powers of healing or divination.
This search led to a search about witchcraft itself.
Cordelia learned that there were people today who thought they were witches, and practiced witchcraft (or Wicca) in groups of other believers called covens. There were holidays, shops, and books for these people.
Cordelia even found an occult bookstore, that was in Redvale, the next town over. According to it's website, they had a good selection of books about Wicca.
Cordelia only stopped researching the topic she found so fascinating when her phone rang, caller id showing her it was Eleanor.
_______________________________
Later that day, when Cordelia was at her favourite vintage clothing store, she thought of the occult bookstore. After her earlier search, she was really curious about witchcraft. Maybe too curious.
But here she was. After walking past a Meyer's Pharmacy, Whole Foods, and Baskin-Robbins, she got to the end of the row of stores.
"This must be the place." Cordelia mumbled to herself, before pushing against a heavy double-glass door, with gold lettering that said Practical Magik. She wondered about the odd spelling of the word magic.
Cordelia felt a bit like Alice about to go down the rabbit hole as she stepped into the shop. As if simply entering would set her on an unpredictable journey. An idea she found strangely irresistible.
The store was small and dim. She hovered by the door to give herself time to adjust. The air was heavy with incense, and the shop was long and narrow, with a high ceiling. Wooden shelves lined the walls carrying old leather-bound volumes, modern paperbacks, and cheesy pamphlets.
Each row of shelves had a sign with a category, Cordelia read a few of the signs; Tarot, History, Healing, Herbs, Scrying...
Looking at the books spines showed Cordelia a whole new world. She hadn't known books this ancient, describing magic and rituals existed.
One large shelf was candle mania. There were huge pillar candles; tiny little birthday-style candles, candles in the shapes of men and women, nice dining-table candles: You name it the store had it.
She then moved on to a shelf of glass jars filled with herbs, powders, and essential oils.
As she gazed at labels on packets of incense, she felt a slight prickling on the nape of her neck, "Cordelia?" She heard a deep, gravelly voice ask tentatively from behind her, and turned to meet the intent gaze the guy who'd been with Cal last night, had fastened on her.
"That's your name isn't it?" The ridiculously good-looking guy asked, with a quirked brow. His expression was impatient, stony, and a little annoyed.
Cordelia's eyes were busy looking him up head to toe, so she didn't answer right away. He wore dark skinny jeans, and a royal blue v-neck knit sweater, that hugged his muscular frame.
"Yeah. It is." Cordelia managed to answer, forcing herself to stop being creepy.
"Kol Sterling." He introduced, "Cal's older brother." He answered her question, before she could even ask it.
"Oh. I didn't know Cal had a brother." Cordelia answered awkwardly, avoiding eye-contact.
Kol's face was as stony as ever at her answer, almost as if he hadn't heard her. "May I ask what you're doing here? I'd have assumed you'd either be in bed or in school." He asked, with a furrowed brow.
"I-I was. In bed. I was going stir crazy, and needed something to do, so I went to the thrift shop, and well here I am." She stammered.
He nodded, "After last night, Cal was concerned about your well-being. I'll let him know you're..." He searched for the right word, and Cordelia helped him out. "That i've been better."
A heartbreakingly beautiful smile crossed his perfect lips, "That you've been better." He repeated, before he nodded to say goodbye, and made his way to the counter to checkout his items that she hadn't even thought to look at.
Why was Kol Sterling in an occult bookstore?
A better question might've been, why was she in an occult bookstore?
A/N: Yay! We finally meet the gorgeous, brooding Kol Sterling. First impressions? Do you guys have a favourite Sterling brother? Or is it too soon to tell? Let me know!
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~Liz