Meredith:
"You two look like scraps the world chewed up and spat out." She muttered, her voice gruff but her eyes oddly soft.
"You can stay, but you'll earn your keep. This place looks dusty and musty in every corner. It needs some justice. Clean hearts and sharper minds are what I raise here...not loafers." Mason gave a small grunt, between relieved and wary. And don't worry. I don't bite, unless you bite first." I felt a tiny flutter of warmth in my chest. This woman was tough, but not cruel. Maybe this place could be a weird kind of home if we didn't mess it up at first. Why the dramatic introduction, then, if she had a soft spot in there?
"Lift it." She said, her eyes piercing through me like a burning dagger. My hands shivered. I lifted the blouse, and she frowned. "Its deep." She picked a bowl with a smelly pasty green mixture. Then scooping some of it, she smeared it on my wound. I winced in pain. Her fingers were long and bony, and they felt rough on my skin.
"So you saw the light?"
"Was it you?" Mason sat in a worn out sofa, looking uncomfortable.
"You were smart enough to follow it." She wound a bandage around the wound.
"Why did you help us?"
She paused, "You'll see." Then she laughed, almost like she was forcing it from her nose. The tiny bones tied around her neck shackled with her movement. "You would have been killed if I hadn't smoked that goon's gun."
"That was you, too?" He looked impressed. That strange green smoke from the man's gun was her doing? The witch did help us immensely, and we surely would have been killed if she hadn't. She should be appreciated.
"Thank you." I said, leaning helplessly in the sofa.
"I'll only take that after you've paid for your stay." She grinned. "When your girl gets healed, you start your work." Your girl? It sounded so...belonging. I looked over at Mason. He was already looking at me. I turned away quickly to avoid meeting his eyes again. "In the meantime, don't touch anything. I have a spirit calling to make...don't interrupt with unnecessary noise." She picked a black necklace hanging from a nail. "You'll sleep in that room." She pointed a door in the dark corner. Both of us...together in one room? I could see Mason's questioning glare as well. She knew what we were thinking. "Yes, both of you." She grinned and then left us.
There was silence. I felt so pressured...entering another body, being a criminal, living with an unknown man, running all night and staying in a haunted house. These were things I never did in my previous life. Could I keep up?
"How's the wound?" Mason started.
"There's no improvement." I replied, feeling exhausted. "Do you think she can help us uncover what is happening?"
"Maybe...but we might have to work for it." He shrugged. "I'm so glad my mother told me about her. She can come in handy." I nodded.
Then out of the blue, a question popped up, "Are you scared?" I asked Mason. Was I the only one so naive and introverted that I didn't know anything about this kind of life? Mason had lived life like this all along, so he should be used to it, shouldn't he?
"I'm just worried about what might happen next." The wind rushed in through the slanted windows, rustling brown teeth hang on the lamps. I shivered, crouching so that I got some warmth from my own body.
He hesitated, like he wanted to take off his jacket. "It's pretty late. We need to rest." He stood up. He waited.
I got up feeling dizzy, and stumbled into a table with lighted candles and bones. They scattered to the floor and the candle lights went out. Oh no!
"I told you not to touch anything, girl!" Came the witch's scowl from the other end. My heart pumped. "Get out from there! Go!" Mason held my arm and pulled me away. This woman had a whole different kind of personality. She was nice at first, but became an actual witch when she got angry.
We opened the door to our room. It wasn't impressive for a guest room and it wasn't so bad for a witch's. The room was small and dark. The bed was positioned right in the middle of the room with a bedside table at each end. On each table was a statue head adorned with stringed bones and teeth. What was it with witches and bones? The bed was big enough, thankfully!
Mason didn't hesitate. He took off his jacket and slumped against the bed.
"Care to join me?" He smirked teasingly. "We could have a good time tonight." I frowned. He noticed my discomfort and chuckled. "I'm just joking."
"It wasn't funny." I stood by the door, giving him a dirty look. "Let's divide the bed." I said.
"If you have an axe, I'll be ready to help." He smirked.
"Not like that." I scowled. "We could use a cloth...or candle wax."
"I didn't know fabric was sharp."
"We're not cutting the bed." I walked over to him and took his jacket from his hand. I placed it right in the middle of the bed. "Like this. You sleep there, I sleep here."
He looked at me amusingly, "You don't want us to cuddle anymore?"
"Stop." He was getting irritable. "I'm taking the right side." I climbed the bed and laid down with my back facing his side. I made sure to lie at the farthest edge of the bed so our bodies never made any contact. Goodness...that would have been catastrophic! I heard him chuckle again.
I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to take over me. It didn't take long, I fell asleep before I knew it. New life, new people...what was going to be my new goal? I knew there was a reason why I entered this life, and I had to find that out.