Havermouth's Secret Keeper

Chapter Two

Monday

“So?” Bianca looked at Aislen expectantly.

Aislen managed not to roll her eyes as she lifted a spoonful of the glob in an earthenware bowl and let it plop back into the mix. “What is this?” She asked in disgust. “It looks like frogspawn mixed with berries.”

“It’s a chia seed pudding,” Bianca sighed wearily. “It’s rich in protein, fibre, and healthy fats. So, you and Aaron seem to be getting along? He’s eye candy isn’t he? Has a great job, too. And he’s very respected by the Rideten coven. You know how happy it would make Stella if you attended the local coven at least occasionally.”

“Is chia seed hippy for frog spawn?” Aislen avoided the question. She took a tentative mouthful. The texture was funky, but it wasn’t awful to taste. “If I give birth to baby frogs on the toilet later, I’m blaming you for this,” she said to Bianca.

“It’s not baby frogs,” Bianca took a sip of her tea. “But, seriously, M, you need to get some type of spawn in you. You need to get laid. If you let this go on for much longer, the local nunnery will recruit you, and homespun habits really aren’t good in this climate.”

“Is there a nunnery in Kabramatta?” It was the first Aislen had heard of one.

“Focus,” Bianca tapped the table with her spoon.

Aislen sighed. “Fine. He isn’t ugly,” she admitted. Aaron was actually pretty cute. Clean cut, blond, and built with really nice arms. With his square jaw and blonde good looks, he’d reminded her a little of Heath, enough that when she’d first met him on a night out with Bianca, she’d had to do a double take.

He'd been attending yoga ever since, and always went out of his way to be nice. Flirty. Aislen knew that it was a set-up. Aaron was part of the Rideten coven, and Bianca had even dragged Aislen along to the local tea shop owned by the coven leader. Aislen had shut her down quickly on that one.

“See, that’s a good start,” Bianca was happy with the answer, her expression lightening. “And he’s one of us,” she added. “So, he gets the whole reading his head thing and can ward himself if you want to get funky in the sheets, so you’ll have an easier time of it.”

“Bianca,” Aislen picked some of the frogspawn off the berries before eating them. “We’ve already gone over this. Stop pushing Aaron at me. I’m not interested. I’m just not interested.” The last time Bianca had pushed Aaron at her, they’d fought, and not talked for a week.

“The man took up yoga just to get to know you. And drove all the way to Rideten to see a band he’s not really a fan of because he knew you liked them and would be there. Just saying.” Bianca raised her eyebrows as she dropped her eyes to her food, but let the matter go.

“Talking about getting some,” Aislen decided to lighten the mood. “I had a weird dream last night.”

“Oh?” Bianca looked up with interest. “What about?”

“I dreamed I was back in Havermouth, at the house I used to hang out with with…” She still struggled to talk about the Triquetra, even after so long. “Those guys. And we were you know,” she rolled her eyes.

“Oh, do go on,” Bianca smirked. “Deets.”

“We had been swimming in the river and were all naked and…” Aislen realized the old ladies at the nearby table were pretending not to listen. She leaned forward on her elbows towards Bianca. “They were all over me. Wet, naked, smoking hot. And then, they turned into zombies,” she leaned back with relish. “I so shouldn’t watch horror movies and drink wine before bed.”

“f**k you,” Bianca laughed and threw her napkin at Aislen. “You’re a f*****g c**k-block in your sleep too. Only you would have a s*x dream that ends with zombies. Are you going to eat that?” She added.

Aislen looked down at the frogspawn. “Nope.”

“Let’s go then,” Bianca pushed back her chair. “I desperately need a shower, and then I have an appointment at one.”

They walked to the shop door together and Bianca caught Aislen in for a hug.

“Eww,” Aislen teased her. “You desperately need a shower, but you’re going to smoosh me into your stink anyway?”

“You love it,” Bianca teased as she released her. “See you soon.”

They headed in opposite directions along the road. It was a fifteen-minute walk back to her apartment, and Aislen was proud of herself for avoiding the temptation of a convenience store selling cigarettes and alcohol. She always had a renewed craving for nicotine after a dream of the Triquetra, though she only rarely smoked anymore. The wine was a temptation because now that she’d had time to process the dream, the nostalgia had turned into sadness.

Things had been such a mess with them. She’d been to therapy, a lot of it. She couldn’t tell the therapist precisely the truth – saying she’d dated a trio of werewolves when she was eighteen was a one-way ticket to the ownership of a particularly unstylish long-sleeved jacket and an extended stay in a locked, padded room – she had managed to relate a lot of what had happened between them. The s*x, the manipulations, the abuse.

“It wasn’t love,” she told herself as she let herself into the apartment. It wasn’t love. It had never been love. People who loved you didn’t treat you like that. It also hadn’t been s*x. Maybe that first time with Rhett… Though even that had been coerced, with Rhett acting as the bait to trap her. That still hurt, she admitted.

They probably were married now, with kids, receding hairlines, and beer bellies, she told herself as she showered and dressed in a comfortable shapeless black smock. She wasn’t going anywhere else that day, just working, so why not be braless and comfortable whilst she was at it? She turned on the TV and returned to her drawing desk, working through lunch and into the afternoon.

Still, she couldn’t stop obsessing about the Triquetra. She was confident that they had not spared her a single thought since she’d left Rideten. They had to have known where she’d gone and Rideten wasn’t that far from Havermouth – though it had apparently been far enough for Tiffany and Patrick to ignore her existence for the three years she’d been there.

Bianca was right, maybe she did need to just bite the bullet and f**k someone to get over the Triquetra. It just never felt right. In fact, most of the time someone cracked onto her, it made her skin crawl.

Her phone was ringing again, but she was deep into drawing and didn’t want the distraction so she ignored it, trusting that they would leave a voicemail if they really wanted to talk to her.

“f**k it,” as it got dark, she surrendered and dug out the packet of smokes that she kept in a ziplock bag at the back of her underwear drawer. The packet she told herself was for emergencies. It was half full.

She took it and a glass of wine out onto the balcony, leaning her elbows on the handrail as the city lit up for the night. As she blew smoke out into the night, she wondered if perhaps what she really needed to do was go back to Havermouth. IT had been five years, after all. Perhaps if she saw the Triquetra with their wives and families, it would forever put them to rest in her heart and she would be able to move on.

Perhaps she didn’t want to move on, she admitted to herself.

Her phone began to ring. “f**k!” She stubbed out the cigarette and hurried inside to answer it. How had she missed six calls from this number she wondered as she answered it, and why hadn’t they left a message? “Hello?”

“Is this Aislen Carter?”

The name was a shock. Even Bianca called her Morgana. She had not heard Aislen Carter spoken out aloud in almost two years. She swallowed hard. “I guess. Who is calling?”

“Ms Carter, my name is Tony, I am from Zeus Forest Works,” the man said.

“Oh?” Aislen was confused. “What can I do for you, Tony?”

“I am very sorry to be the one to tell you, Ms Carter, that your father was involved in an accident last night on the job.”

“Oh,” her lungs emptied of air. “Is he okay?”

“I’m very sorry, Ms Carter,” he repeated. “The accident… Your father was deceased when he was discovered.”

Aislen sat down heavily in her chair. “Dead?” She repeated. She felt as if someone had thrown cold water over her. “No, that’s… That’s just not possible. He’s… Look, you must be mistaken. That’s just…”

“I’m really sorry, Ms Carter,” Tony repeated. “And I assure you, we have performed all the right checks, the police have been out, and the body has been identified as Patrick Carter.”

“You’re serious,” she whispered. “Dad’s dead?”

She heard him swallow on the other side as if fighting his own emotions. “I’m really sorry,” he said again. “Patrick’s being held at the local morgue whilst his lawyers make the arrangements for his funeral as per his instructions to them. They will have the paperwork, and the possessions that were on him at his time of death, held in their office… I’ll give you their number. As his next of kin, you’ll have to talk to them about the funeral, his house, and possessions.”

“Okay,” she was numb. “What’s their number?” She stumbled over to her workdesk and wrote it on a scrap of paper in charcoal.

“Ms Carter, on the behalf of Zeus Forest Works, we extend our very great sympathies for your loss.”

“Umm, thanks.”

“Will you be alright?” He asked in concern.

“Yes,” she looked around the darkening apartment. “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

After he disconnected, she dialed the lawyer’s office and answered their questions without really hearing them, writing down the instructions. She called Tiffany and listened to her mother wail and rant down the phone until Vince got home, and Tiffany had fresh ears to hear her woes.

By that time, the apartment was so dark that the glow from the screen of Aislen’s phone was the only light within it, and cold from the night air blowing in through the open balcony door. Aislen rose to her feet and found her legs shaky. How long had she been sitting there, her wine untouched, on the phone, she wondered, glancing at the time. Three hours. It seemed as if no time had passed at all.

She walked over to the balcony door and closed it, before turning on the lights in the living area and called Bianca.

“Hey, M?” Bianca was well drunk. “Whassup? I’m out with some girls, having drinks, if you’re looking for company?”

“My dad died,” Aislen told her. “Would you be able to watch my apartment for me, for a couple of weeks? I’m going to have to drive to f*****g Havermouth for the f*****g funeral, and everything. I don’t know how long that’s going to take.”

Fuck, she thought, could she possibly get into and out of Havermouth without seeing the Triquetra?

Did she want to?