Delilah Recovered **2017 Watty Winner**

chapter twenty-two

Waking up at Tabitha Anthea's home was disorienting for Delilah. After drinking poppy tea, recovering a memory, and fending off an angry ghost mob, she was spent. Then there was the fact that Samuel tried to feed her, and their unborn child to an angry mob. There were two things she desperately needed: coffee and answers.

Delilah wasn't at all surprised to find Jonathan in the kitchen wearing an apron with large juicy roses on it making strawberry crepes and homemade whipped cream. Faye was in the yard smoking and swinging on a rope swing.

"Where's Thea?" Delilah asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"She was gone when I woke up," he said, placing a plate of crepes in front of her and sitting down.

"I have so many questions."

"I can only imagine."

"In that life, I gave birth to a healthy baby."

"Babies. You had twins," he corrected her.

"What would bring Samuel to try and kill us? It doesn't make sense."

Tabitha Anthea's perfume entered the kitchen before she did. "You're all up, I see, finally," she teased unwrapping her cashmere scarf. Placing a velvet jewelry box in front of Delilah, "Maria, wanted you to have this."

At the mention of Maria's name, Delilah felt a hitch in her chest. The grief always took her by surprise like someone was piece-by-piece digging out her heart with a melon baller. She opened the box and inside it was a dark gold round pendant with her family's crest on it. Gently she picked up the necklace, it had tiny indentations all over it. On the back, there were the words "anneau gardien" engraved in it.

"Garden of the ring," Delilah said, out loud.

Tabitha Anthea took the necklace and placed it on Delilah's neck. "Jonathan, can you give us some space?"

"Sure." He said, as he stood up and placed his cup in the sink. "I'll grab Faye and we'll head into town to pick up supplies."

She looked Delilah over. "How are you holding up?" She asked, sitting down in Jonathan's empty seat.

"Super. Couldn't be better."

"You're always welcome here. No matter what. You know that, right?"

Delilah nodded."I know just after the funeral I don't know, I wanted to be alone." She took a sip of coffee. "Do you really want Samuel Solomon at your door?"

Tabitha Anthea snorted. "That boy, I can handle him."

"Of course, there's nothing that can bring you down."

She took Delilah's hand in hers, "There's first love, there's bad love, and there's..."

"True love," Delilah completed her sentence. She knew this speech all too well.

"First love, it never leaves you fully becomes part of you. Bad love. Bad love gets into your blood," she said as she set Delilah's hand on the table and gave it a pat, "That isn't easy to shake, it can take lifetimes."

"It feels like I have lost my mind, Thea."

"What do they say? It wouldn't make for sanity living with the devil. He's caused you enough trouble and heartache for ten lifetimes. But I know one thing for sure, when the time comes you'll do the right thing."

Delilah suddenly felt hungry and couldn't resist Jonathan's crepes. Tabitha Anthea placed her hand on Delilah's shoulder. It felt good to be with her in her childhood home again. She felt cared for, she felt safe for the first time in weeks.

"Thea, you were there in my memory. You saved me."

"The Salem Witch Trials were a dark time for our people." She said, as she got up and poured a cup of coffee. "Need a topper?"

Delilah nodded. "Because twenty witches were killed?"

"Those poor women who were hanged were not witches. They were innocent humans caught in cross hares sacrificed by the OB's greed."

"The Salem trials were a bunch of hysterical young girls."

Tabitha Anthea sighed. "They were under a spell to create chaos. It was one of the most diabolical uses of witchcraft. By the late sixteen hundreds, the trials were dying down in Europe, humans were starting to lose their appetites for torture. OB wanted to secure their foothold in the New World, so they used the trials as a distraction."

"They created the trials as a way to gain what?"

"Land, in those days, power was in land ownership. You have a town completely upside down, people lost their lands, their farms, it gave OB the opportunity to take it all over."

Tabitha Anthea sighed and shook her head. "Humans, distract them with chaos; wars, stock market crashes, disease and they turn on one another, and OB, in turn, continues to amass more wealth and more power."

"Why don't we stop them?"

"Honey, that's what we've been attempting to do for centuries."