Exquisite Poison (Original Draft)

Chapter 23 - The Broken Half

The Witches of the Gardenia Clan had wasted no time in taking the intruder into their home.

Their living room was a messy area that bespoke of many different hobbies and focal points. Netta was asked - without it ever really seeming like a request as much as an order - to sit down in a chair. Before she could, it had to be uncovered by some hasty work to remove the stacks of books on it.

They were a ragtag group of women. Even at a glance, they seemed older than their youthful bodies let on. Unlike most Witches, they all looked firmly in their twenties as opposed to the late teens.

With the initial pleasantries out of the way, the Matriarch, Miss Kienna, spoke.

"Do you mind telling me how you know that two nights past, we suffered the loss of one of our own?"

Netta shut her eyes and clenched her hands together. "I - I'm sorry. I had hoped that it was a warning, that there would be time to stop it before it happened..."

The feeling of weakness and failure overcame Netta.

She pitched forward to press her hands to her face, feeling the potent memory of the girl's fear and her pain. It went away only she felt hands - Ash's - caressing her shoulder.

The feeling of his touch felt surprising, like the touch of a blast of heat on her skin.

Netta looked up then into Miss Kienna's eyes, trying desperately to suppress her trembling. "I came as soon as I had this - terrible dream that felt too real."

Another one of the Witches, spoke up then - a woman who looked liek a stern primary school teacher. "A psychic dream? Those don't happen between strangers."

Netta shifted, feeling the weight of all of the assembled womens' gazes on her.

"Right - but I think that it's possible that the strength of Anais' will must have infected my dreams - somehow. How else would I be here if I wasn't telling the truth. How else would I know what her last moments looked like?"

Another one of the Witches, a stout woman who smelled like a heady array of spices and earth, spoke up. "Don't need much deductive reasoning on this one - you killed Anais."

Netta jerked back in her seat and blurted out, "I didn't kill your little Sister! I would never kill -" She paused then, the admonition stuck in her throat.

The one that looked like a teacher snorted. "Don't sound so sure of that, you don't mind me saying."

The girl that Netta had first thought looked like Anais spoke up. She had been quiet while Netta had hurridly been trying to explain why she was there. Her words surprised everyone, shocked them into silence.

"She didn't kill my sister."

There was a deep, long silence that stretched in the room. Before Netta could thing of anything to say to agree with the young woman, the girl continued.

"First of all, she wouldn't of come back if she had. Second off, she doesn't smell like my sister's blood."

Another of the Witches softly said, "Morbid, Ophelia."

"Thank you," Netta said.

The girl ignored her and turned to Miss Kienna.

"That doesn't stop me from not trusting her. But I want her help with discovering who murdered Anais."

Kienna, a tall, elegant woman with dusk-toned skin, cast a long glance over at Netta before she turned back to Ophelia.

"Are you sure that this one's innocent?"