Shire Bottom Chronicles

Chapter Three

"If Allie doesn't stop texting me, I swear I'm going to block her number," Twenty-four-year-old Matt Koil muttered, shoving his phone back into his pocket. This was the third text from their former classmate in the last hour. He wasn't sure what was going on that Allie found so urgent, but when it came to Shire Bottom, the possibilities were endless.

He turned his attention back to his laptop but glanced up when his girlfriend, Rory Johnson, walked into the room. Matt's lips curved into a smile as he noticed how her jeans and t-shirt hugged her slender frame in all the right places. Her long, curly brown hair was pinned up in a messy bun, and exasperation glinted in her blue eyes.

"What does Allie want this time?" Rory wondered, and Matt stifled a laugh. So she had texted Rory too. No surprise. Allie was the queen of gossip.

"The usual—she wants to have an emergency meeting of the Moonshine Coven." Matt could never figure out why Allie had started her so-called coven. Her boyfriend Jesse was a loyal member, and they had managed to recruit several other people their age. None of them had a true understanding of magic.

Rory groaned. "Those meetings are worse than a college frat party."

"Allie is going to get herself killed playing with this witchcraft bullshit," Matt said. Allie and her friends would hold seances with Ouija boards in a desperate attempt to contact someone who could prove Allie's theories. Sometimes they got drunk, and that usually led to a Truth or Dare debacle.

Matt knew more about Shire Bottom than Allie ever would, though she claimed to have all this insider knowledge about the town's secrets. Matt received all of his information directly from his adoptive father, Komazzi. But he also had personal experience with the town's dark side. Just before his thirteenth birthday, Matt had gone for a walk at night and was attacked. He would have died if Komazzi hadn't found him.

He became extremely sick and ended up in Crimson's research hospital with an illness no one seemed to know much about. Eventually, he was released to go home, but his mother was convinced that he had sold his soul by going to an actual hospital. She only believed in the healing powers of prayer and holistic medicines. All real medical doctors were the devil's minions. When he got sick once again, his parents kicked him out of the only home he had ever known.

The relapse forced him back to the doors of Crimson. It seemed like he was locked up there forever. After countless more tests and treatments, Matt recovered. Since he had nowhere to go, Komazzi decided to adopt him. Having control of the legal system, Komazzi had no trouble winning custody. Thanks to Komazzi, Matt was given a chance to be a part of the inner workings of the company as well as the town.

"Matt? Are you all right?" Rory's voice pulled Matt out of his thoughts. She gently pushed his blonde bangs out of his face and stared into his blue eyes, the concern on her face evident.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Matt insisted, wrapping a well-toned arm around his female companion. "Allie's crap just had me thinking about...you know." He didn't like talking about the attack, but he had shared all the details with Rory from the beginning. Sometimes he woke up at night, hyperventilating, trapped in the clutches of a nightmare, and she comforted him until he fell back asleep.

Before Rory could question him further, the doorbell rang. She looked through the peephole—Allie stood on the porch of their second-story apartment. They couldn't avoid her unless they jumped off the balcony.

Rory opened the door.

"Thank God you're home! When I couldn't reach you, I started to worry. I think something happened to Rose last night, but she won't talk to me about it." Allie paused to catch her breath. "Rose, Sarah, Lydia, Josh, Jesse, and I were playing Truth or Dare at my house last night and Rose went to the Hellborne House. I didn't hear from her after that until this morning, and she doesn't remember coming home on her own!"