Malediction

2 - Dark History

Thankfully, lesson 2 and 3 had passed relatively fast, without issue.
I absorbed the sun, warmth dancing over my face and bare arms as I sat at a picnic table with my friends, listening to an unsurprising conversation form.

"Wait, so can someone explain to me what exactly happened?" Paisley questioned, her head resting on Dayton's shoulder, her thick laminated eyebrows scrunched in the middle

Paisley was unfamiliar with the rumours, she had only moved to the area roughly two years ago, and with each passing year the Newscast family kept to themselves, the less the community seemed to really remember that they were still around.

"It's been going on for generations" Cara began "Since before I was born, since before the brothers were even born"

I tried to act uninterested, not wanting to submit or partake in the gossip that had defined who the family was, however the mystery that surrounded the family intrigued me. I'd always been curious about them, but now that they were thrust back into our lives so abruptly that curiosity had intensified.

"It's like they have some kind of serial killer gene, heaps of women that were involved with the family have died " Cara continued "in some really wild circumstances too"

"So they're murderers?" Paisley attempted to understand "you think the brothers would do that kind of thing too?" 

"No" Dayton scoffed, almost amused "from what I've heard, it's more like a curse, there's no way you could murder that many people in a small town like this and get away with it"

"A curse?" Paisley lifted her head, now lightly chuckling "I definitely believe the serial killer thing, curses aren't real, karma maybe, but not a curse that would kill people"

"Nobody knows" Cara continued "Every rumour is different, I mean, at some point there was a rumour going around that they were vampires like in Twilight"

"Or they could just be a family with really shitty luck, my family knew a woman who basically lost her whole family from cancer and random car accidents, it's unfortunate, but it can happen" Skyler interrupted "I mean, think about it, everything you're saying, it's crazy unrealistic"

"My grandma told me about what happened to all of William Newscots girlfriends" Cara argued as she shook her head, eyes narrow, skeptical "He was Danny and Andy's grandfather"

The others watched her carefully while I kept my eyes down on the green apple I twisted in between my fingers

"His first girlfriend, Marsha Greenwater was found dead on Tarmin Street, a hit and run within a month of meeting him"

"That could have happened to anyone, like I said, accidents happen" Skyler argued back

"But then" she leaned forward with a pointed finger "he was involved with another two girls, Lucy Jenkins and a Georgia someone, and the same thing happened" Cara spoke as though she was telling a scary story  around a campfire "They both died in super weird circumstances, one in the bathtub, the other in a freak explosion"

I rolled my eyes, sounded like genuine accidents to me, just like Skyler had said. My mother and father hadn't ever talked about them, all that I had heard were the crazy rumours, rumours were unreliable, and these ones in particular were so blown up out of proportion it was almost movie-worthy.

"Okay, but that is really coincidental, you have to admit" Paisley bought into it "now I get why everyone stays away from them"

Everyone was entitled to their opinion, and for those who believed the wild stories I could understand why they felt the need to keep away. I wasn't convinced, even if their grandfather had committed such heinous crimes, that didn't mean the brothers were inescapably capable of similar crimes. Cycles could be broken, but it was a small town, gossip was inevitable.