First Frost Page 6

  “The family was broke. They lost everything during the Great Depression. They were going to lose the house, and he had a wife and children to take care of. He lost his job as a professor at the local university, and he was running out of ideas. He knew about all of the treasures he had in the attic, so he decided to open a part of the house to the public and charge half a penny to anyone who could afford it. Those who couldn’t pay would barter their goods or services.”

  “He was able to feed his family and get a lot of repairs made on their house. Lots of people wanted to see Snow White’s items. If only to forget about life for a while, they didn’t care whether they were real or not. People drove for miles just to come and visit the ‘Fairy Tale Museum’ as they lovingly called it back then. When Great Grandpa Francis had enough money to save the house, he let people come in for free once a week. Once the Great Depression was over, he started acquiring newer items for the museum.”

  “How?”

  “He went to Europe a lot. There was a lot of stuff there, especially in Ireland. The fairies love it there for some reason. And then after World War II, a lot of soldiers came back with items they found. They would go to Great Grandpa Francis and sell the items, not knowing what they were. They only wanted the money, and he paid well for those items. Word spread quickly that he was purchasing unusual items, and that’s how we got a lot of the things that are in the museum now.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah, it’s amazing what you can learn when you sit down and read the journals. Everyone who ran the museum kept a journal. Great Grandpa Francis, Grandma Paulette, Aunt Rosie, my mother, and now me. Hopefully you’ll run it when you’re ready to take over the reins.”

  Bianca nodded. She didn’t think she would ever want to run the museum when her mother passed away. She wanted to live a life that was her own. Not a hand-me-down of her ancestors. But now that she knew and understood the history of the museum, she would never be able to sell the place or let anyone else run it. She began to understand why Rose had the “family only” rule. Who else but family would ever be able to understand?

  Chapter Six

  The next three weeks passed by in a blur as Bianca learned everything Rose knew about magic and their family history.

  One night while Rose and Bianca were eating dinner, a huge brick sailed through the window. Glass rained all over the hardwood floor.

  “What the hell?” Rose stood up and ran to the window.

  Bianca followed closely behind her mother. Rose studied the brick without touching it. Then, with a flash of light, the brick turned into a bright red snake. Rose took a step towards it and the snake hissed at her. It bared its sharp white fangs and recoiled, as though it were getting ready to spring at her. Rose narrowed her emerald green eyes at it. To Bianca her mother was a lioness trying to protect her home and her young.

  Bianca gasped and took a step back. Just as the snake was about to lunge at Rose, she waved her right hand and used her magic to turn the snake into a handful of roses. She glared at the shadow standing outside her house.

  Bianca followed her mother’s steady gaze and found Lenore’s pale and haunting face glaring at them. She was taken aback by the anger and hatred that was evident on their enemy’s face. Thanks to the wards Rose had set on their home, there was no way that Lenore could physically enter and wreak havoc inside the house. Other items? That was an entirely different matter.

  “Bianca, go upstairs,” Rose whispered.

  “But, Mom—” Bianca protested but Rose cut her off.

  “Now, Bianca,” Rose said in a loud and firm voice that Bianca very rarely heard.

  Mother and daughter looked into each other’s eyes for a brief moment. She felt ready to fight alongside her mother and actually be of some assistance. Bianca wanted to argue with Rose, but instead she reluctantly obeyed and went upstairs. She made it as far as the top of the steps.

  “Come out, you coward!” Lenore shouted.

  If there was one thing Bianca knew for sure, it was that her mother would never, ever back out of a fight. She slowly inched her way down the stairs. Rose stepped out of the house and was far away from the safety of her wards. Bianca tried to call as little attention to herself as humanly possible. She duck-walked across the living room until she was directly underneath the broken window. She peeked every now and then to watch her mother in action.

  “Where’s the book?” Lenore asked.

  “Where is my husband?” Rose demanded.

  “How about we make a trade? Your husband for the book,” Lenore said.

  Rose remained silent. Bianca knew that somewhere in her mother’s mind she was seriously considering trading whatever book Lenore was talking about for her father.

  “You’re not getting anywhere near that book,” Rose replied.

  Lenore snarled and contorted her face in anger as she created a fireball and threw it at Rose.

  She created a wall of water around her, and the fireball vanished with a hiss. She then used the water that surrounded her and attacked her adversary.

  Lenore used an ice spell and froze the water, and caused it to crash all around her with soft clinks.

  “You have to learn to control your brat. I can smell her better now that she’s downstairs,” Lenore said and then cackled.

  “You shut your filthy mouth about my daughter,” Rose shouted.

  “Want to come out and play, little one?” Lenore taunted.

  “Bianca! Stay inside the house. Do you hear me?!”

  “Mom, let me help,” Bianca pleaded.

  “You do as I say!” Rose snapped.

  Bianca’s heart skipped a beat as she ducked underneath the window. She knew she was safe inside the house because of the wards. Bianca risked a peek at the battle, and the witches were fighting viciously. They were both putting everything they had into their spells and doing everything in their power to destroy each other.

  Lenore had Rose trapped in a small tornado. Bianca could see her bright red hair whipping in every direction imaginable as her mother struggled to counter the spell. It was enough time for the dark witch to reach in and take something out of her pocket. Lenore pulled out a tiny glass vial and drank a black potion that swam inside the container.

  What is that?

  Lenore flashed her sharp yellowed teeth at Bianca and then turned her attention to Rose. Bianca turned her gaze to her mother and saw that she had finally countered Lenore’s tornado spell. Lenore took a deep breath and then blew black fire at Rose. The dark flames took on the shape of a sinister dragon.

  Bianca gasped; she had never seen anything so menacing in her life. The dragon’s yellow eyes zeroed in on Rose. It chuckled as it looked upon her. It launched itself at her mother and wrapped itself around her body. The dragon pried Rose’s mouth open and shoved its clawed hand down her throat.

  “No!” Bianca shouted. The blood in her veins froze, her stomach dropped, and her heart leaped to her throat. She watched in horror as her mother did everything she could to fight off Lenore’s monster…and failed.

  “Mom!” Bianca dashed to the front door and stopped herself from running into the front yard.

  Lenore had kicked Rose in the stomach and grabbed a fistful of her red hair. The smoke dragon took away Rose’s voice. She was now mute. She looked like a fish out of water as she tried to cast a counter spell, but it was no use. The damage had been done. Her mother had lost her voice and the battle. Rose turned her green eyes to Bianca.

  “There, now we can have a little chat…no interruptions. Come on out here and sit with me a while,” Lenore said. The false saccharine in her voice was obvious.

  Rose shook her head violently. Bianca knew what her mother wanted her to do. She wasn’t sure she could obey Rose’s request to stay inside the house now that she was in danger of losing her life.

  I can’t just sit here and do nothing. God…what do I do? What do I do?

  “Come here!” Lenore roared as her face contorted with rage, ma
king her look uglier and older than she actually was. Lenore yanked on Rose’s hair so hard she opened her mouth as though she were screaming…except no sound came out of her lips.

  Bianca tried to remember everything she learned with Rose. She tried to concentrate on a spell, a thought, anything that could help her mother. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on her fire spell…or anything that would work for her at the moment.

  Lenore laughed and said, “You’re joking. All right, I’ll play. Let’s see what you’re made of.”

  Bianca thought her heart was going to burst out of her chest. She took several deep breaths before stepping out of her house and into the front yard. She put every thought, every ounce of energy she had into her hands, just like Rose taught her to.

  “Humph. Looks like I have to crush a little fly,” Lenore said to Rose. “Don’t go anywhere.” She muttered a spell and vines sprouted from the ground, covering Rose’s body. She struggled to free herself, but the more she fought the tighter the vines held on to her.

  Suddenly, Bianca could feel everything: the grass beneath her feet, the wind flowing all around her, the blood rushing through Lenore’s body, and her mother’s beating heart. Bianca’s breathing quickened. She didn’t understand any of what she was feeling. What did it mean? This was without a doubt a brand new sensation to her. She wished this wasn’t happening in the middle of her first real fight. She wanted so desperately to be able to speak to her mother about what she was experiencing and why. But it would have to wait for another day. If she succeeded, then she and Rose would be able to speak about it that same night. Bianca wasted no time. She attacked. She threw every spell she could think of at Lenore.

  The witch was able to deflect Bianca’s spells, save for one, which hit her squarely in the chest. It knocked her down momentarily. Lenore snarled as she got up, showing off row after row of yellowed crooked teeth.

  A shiver ran down Bianca’s spine as her eyes locked with Lenore’s. She had never seen anyone so devoid of humanity and compassion. This wasn’t a woman anymore; this creature before her was more monster than human.

  Bianca used a fire spell and instead of directing it at Lenore, she threw the spell at the vines that had ensnared her mother. The vines were ablaze within moments. Rose was free, but it was short lived. As soon as Rose got up, Lenore leapt and landed on top of her knocking them both on the ground. Lenore tried to claw Rose’s eyes out, but she grabbed the evil witch’s wrists, and they struggled with each other for what felt like an eternity.

  Bianca grabbed the shovel that rested on the fence and hit Lenore on the back. She howled, but kept her attention on Rose. The hatred she had for Bianca’s mother oozed out of her. If she hadn’t been thrashing as she was, Bianca was certain she could touch the feelings that surrounded Lenore. Bianca was ready to strike her once more, but all of a sudden she was blinded by a bright green flash that knocked her back several feet.

  Bianca landed gracelessly on the ground with a heavy thud.

  “Not bad, little one. But I don’t have time to play with you anymore,” Lenore said.

  Lenore muttered a spell under her breath and opened a portal. A swirl of shadows sucked up what little light there was available.

  “Find the spell book and you will get your mother back, though I can’t guarantee she’ll be in one piece when you do,” she said as she dragged Rose by her hair.

  “No! Wait! I don’t know where it is,” Bianca shouted. She tried to stand up, but her legs gave out. She was still trying to recover from being thrown several feet in the air.

  “Find it,” Lenore snapped.

  “No!” Bianca shouted as she struggled to walk toward the portal. It closed before she could go through it and save her mother.

  “Oh, God. What do I do? What do I do?” Bianca muttered.

  She lost all sensation in her legs. She fell to the ground, unable to do anything except breathe. The night felt colder, the crickets seemed to mock her. She looked up at the sky and the stars laughed at her. They no longer seemed to wink at her playfully like she had always thought as a child. Everything just seemed wrong, distorted, and ruined, as though she were in an alternate universe.

  Then she heard a little tinkling sound. It took her a moment to realize that it was her cell-phone ringing. Her fingers were numb as she pulled it out of her pocket.

  “Hello,” she said as she flipped it open.

  “Hey, B. Did you wanna come over and watch the rest of 30 Rock? My mom bought popcorn and I think there are still some Sour Patch Kids from the last time you were here.” It was Ming.

  “Ming, I can’t…I can’t go anywhere right now.” Bianca didn’t even know how to explain what happened.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Mom…Mom’s been kidnapped.”

  “What? By who? Have you called the police?”

  All of these were valid questions, only Bianca didn’t know how to answer any of them.

  “I can’t call the police. They won’t find her. I don’t even know where to start looking for her.”

  “Umm…have you seen CSI? They can find anyone.”

  “This isn’t a TV show, Ming,” Bianca said, trying very hard not to scream at her friend.

  “Sorry, just trying to help. Why would someone kidnap your mom? She wouldn’t hurt a fly,” she said.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Never in a million years, did Bianca think she would ever have to use that sentence.

  “I’m your best friend. If you can’t tell me, who can you tell?”

  Bianca remained silent as she thought about whether or not she should tell Ming everything.

  “Helloooo? Bianca? You still there? I can hear you breathing.”

  “Fine. You wanna know what happened?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “A witch took my mother. A freaking evil witch took my mom and told me she’d kill her if I don’t give her a spell book. And to top it off? I don’t know where the stupid book is, so my mom may as well be dead!”

  Her confession was met with silence. “Hello? Ming?”

  “Sorry. Yeah…umm…I’ll be right over.”

  “Okay, but come alone,” Bianca said.

  “Okay.”

  Bianca looked at the spot her mother had vanished from. There were black singe marks where Lenore had attacked Rose using her fireballs and the second singe mark from where Bianca had used fire to free her mother. It’d worked, but the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if it could’ve changed everything had she just let her mother free herself. She cried out in frustration. No matter how she played it out in her mind, she still would’ve done everything the exact same way.

  Even though she had seen it happen first hand, she still couldn’t believe it. How could Rose be there one moment and gone the next. Poof! Just like that. Gone.

  “This can’t be real,” she whispered.

  Bianca closed her eyes tightly and thought to herself, Wake up. Wake up from this nightmare. Mom is gone. Dad is gone. I’m all alone. Wake up. This has to be a nightmare. Wake up!

  She opened her eyes and half expected to appear in her bed with the bright morning sun shooing all the bad things back into their hiding places. But all she could see was the pale moon hanging overhead and reminding her of the things that were wrong in the world.

  She went inside and waited for Ming to arrive. The house felt empty and vacant of the love and soul that made it a home. Without her mother, the house was nothing but walls and a roof.

  Everywhere she looked she was reminded of her mother’s absence. Helpless. That was how she felt, completely and utterly helpless. There was no one to turn to. No one to tell her what she should do next. No one to tell her that everyone would be okay. Before she knew it, she burst into tears and sobbed so much that her body folded itself in half. She watched as her tears pooled on the hardwood floor. It felt like hours had passed by when she finally heard Ming’s car pull up on the driveway.

  S
he wiped her tears away and tried to pull herself back together. Ming turned the car off, and Bianca heard her friend’s footsteps as she ran to the front door. Before she could lift her hand to knock, Bianca opened the door and let her best friend inside the house. Bianca locked the door behind them. Ming hugged Bianca and did her best to sooth her dearest and oldest friend.

  “What happened?” Ming asked gently.

  Bianca then told her everything that had happened. When she finally finished speaking, Ming said, “That’s just…” Ming struggled to find the right word.

  “Incredible?” Bianca said.

  “Crazy. This is just twenty different kinds of crazy, B. I mean…I believe you because there’s no way you’d make something like this up, but that’s what I have to say about it.”

  “Yeah…it’s definitely crazy,” Bianca agreed.

  “What do we do now?”

  Bianca looked at the clock on the living room wall. It was already eleven o’clock. She was bruised and dirty. Every bone in her body ached. Her head was pounding, and her temples ached. She kept massaging them, hoping that it would somehow help to ease the pain, but it was hopeless. Besides it wasn’t like she could go lie down and sleep it off, she had work to do.

  “Right now? I gotta cover that broken window with a tarp or something and I need to tear this house apart and find that book.”

  “Well…I’m gonna help you.”

  “Really?” Bianca asked.

  “Of course,” Ming replied.

  “Thanks.” Bianca smiled.

  “Do you want me to stay the night?”

  Bianca nodded. She didn’t want to be alone in the house. Not after everything that happened. Even with Ming close by, she was terrified. Every sound made her want to leap out of her skin. Then the air conditioner turned itself on. It made a loud clanking sound whenever it was ready start. Bianca flinched and began to tremble.

  “It’s just the AC. Calm down,” Ming said.

  “Sorry, it’s just…you didn’t see what I saw. You have no idea what I’m up against.” Bianca rubbed her arms to try to get rid of the goose bumps that riddled her skin.