THREE

"There's too much confusion,
I can't get no relief." - Jimi Hendrix

I woke up before the rest of the house and went for a walk. I grew up in and around Chicago. The skyline has never been far from me and I didn't like to travel far outside the area. It felt weird not to be able to down the road on a clear morning and see the Sears Tower. Instead I was treated to a view of the Atlantic. From the House of the Seven Gables I could look across the harbor. I smelled the sea air and crinkled my nose.

Filled with a sense of home sickness I turned back and walked for Megan's house. About a block away from her house I lit up a cigarette. Nicotine would help me through the ordeal. Once I was inside I was greeted with the smell of cooking onions.

In the kitchen Megan was at work making something sauteed vegetable concoction. I could hear the shower running, so there was some relief that I wouldn't be caught alone with her for too long.

"Dragyn said you smell atrocious. You're not still using that vampire repellant are you?" She didn't look up from her cooking. I could have dealt with her if she put cheese with the vegetables. Cheese was pure and delicious. Damn her.

"Isn't it early to be harassing me?" I plopped myself into a chair at the table. Megan's cat, Socrates, was on the table. He hissed at me, I hissed back.

"Leave the cat alone!" She snapped, this time turning around, spatula in hand.

I put my hand up in defense. "Socrates started it."

"If you say. And about that repellent..." she went back to her vegetables. "I can't believe you would have that in your system coming into a vampire's home."

"Didn't know a vampire lived here."

"And that recipe came from a demon gifted book."

The shower stopped and that meant no more of this conversation. "We're not talking about that now."

Megan scopped the food onto a few plates. "He doesn't know about-"

"No and if you tell him I'll risk the wrath of Dragyn and make you sorry." Conversation averted. Megan knew better. I'd risked scarier things to bring down justice on offenders.

Instead she put the food in front of me. Onions, asparagus, and mushrooms, cooked in, I had no idea. These were all things I ate deep fried. David came out of the bathroom dressed in jeans and a Chicago Bears hoodie. He looked at the food Megan had made. Then he looked at me. We'd choke this down and make haste to any place in town that served bacon and gravy.

"Looks delicious," he said.

"I have to leave and get the shop opened, but I thought it'd be nice to make some breakfast first." Megan was happily eating her breakfast.

"Can we stop by and check the place out?" David sat next to me. He poked at a mushroom.

"Of course you can! But since Halloween's tomorrow I've been really busy. Wiccans preparing for their new year, tourists picking up gag gifts, real witches getting ready for the party tomorrow," she cut her eyes to me for that. "Stuff like that. But come by around four, it's usually pretty quiet around then."

After Megan left I changed out of my sweat pants into jeans and my White Sox hoodie, let the people of Massachusetts know David and I were damn proud of our city, which blew their state out of the water. It was around one when we headed for the downtown district. The walk was brisk, but pleasant. The trees were almost bare, but enough of them were still the rich orange and reds of fall, just enough leaves to make the journey beautiful.

Our first stop was the Salem Memorial at the first graveyard of Salem. It was not what I thought. "All those people died and this is what they get? A couple of trees?" We wandered around the graveyard for a few minutes before making for the Salem Witches's Museum.

A young man in a cloak stopped us as we made for the museum. "Would you be interested in hearing about the true and noble Wicca-"

"No," I said, attempting to push by the twiggy man with bad skin.

"But tomorrow is a very important night for the religion."

"That's nice." He continued to block us.

"We're just out sightseeing, we're not really interested." David said tactfully. "Sorry, man."

"This will only take a few minutes."

I pulled a vial, no bigger than a perfume sample, from my pocket and gave it a shake. I uncorked it and held it up. "I'm a real witch, you know."

"Then you must-"

I splashed it in his face. He began sneezing uncontrollably for about twenty seconds, then he began to giggle. I figure in about five minutes we would see him running naked around town, but he got out of the way.

"What did you do?"

"I mixed a couple potions together. Figured it might come in handy for us." I shrugged and continued to walk. My stomach gurgled. "Let's hit up the museum later. I need real food."

~*~*~

David and I spent a few hours enjoying lobster rolls and chowder and delicious deep fried goodness. We tried to walk it off, but decided just to go to Megan's shop. There was a group of people out protesting. It happened to Others pretty much every Halloween. Angry humans protesting that which they didn't get. I was a little disappointed I used my potion on the Wiccan. Though looking out the window of the diner and seeing him tackled naked by the Salem police was pretty much worth it.

As we got close to the door of the shop a woman pushed a clip board in my face. "We're trying to get this petition to the mayor. We want Others and their businesses out of our town."

I thought that was rich, "Yeah, that's nice. Get your clipboard out of my face."

"Others are a nuisance!" She looked to David for support.

"Ma'am," he said coolly. I hoped for an appearance of angry black man. Angry black man had gotten us out of trouble with the law more than once. "We don't have time for this ignorance."

She grabbed my arm as I made to enter the shop. I couldn't have that. I kept my wand up by sleeve or in my belt at all times. Faster than the woman could react I had my wand out and zapped her. I would have liked to power it up enough drop her, but not enough to bring down a bull elephant. Didn't want murder on my list of offenses.

"Oh dear me, she's fainted!" I cried, but no one believed that. Luckily my wand was back and hidden.

David grabbed the hood on my shirt and dragged me into the shop. I put up a safety barrier on the door so no one could get in. Assholes would riot, the police would disperse them, and Megan would lecture me. This nonsense happened at the bar on Halloween more than once.

Behind the counter Megan looked up from helping a customer. She was angry, but being a witch she was probably pleased someone had zapped a protestor. "Shall I be calling the police?"

A man tried to barge in, but my barrier deflected him. I laughed and pointed at him. David answered. "Yeah, probably should."