New Winslow S8E51
Olivia’s phone rang as she was getting Mia into her car seat, doing her best not to think too hard about how Noah and Iris were right now looking for the missing pages of the town history underneath the general store. Mia was chatting at her and she clasped the safety harness, then pulled out her phone. Her heart skipped a little to see Isabel’s name on the display. She hadn’t seen her since that quick connection before Olivia had allowed herself to be possessed again. And now she was probably calling to say Olivia was terrifying and needed to lose her number.
“Hello?”
“Olivia, hi. It’s Isabel.”
“Hi.”
“Um, are you alright?”
She didn’t sound as breezy and confident as she always did when she dropped off deliveries, which probably meant she was scared of Olivia now. “I’m alright,” she said. “Are you?”
“Yeah, yeah. Still scrubbing the blood from my truck.”
She hadn’t even thought of that. “Can we do something for you?” Olivia asked. “I mean, you drove that asshole to safety, maybe we can pay for a cleaning service?”
“Nah, it’s fine,” Isabel said, a gentle laugh in her voice easing Olivia’s worry somewhat. “I just figured… we didn’t get a chance to talk last night.”
“No, it was…” She didn’t even have words for it. “Listen,” she said. “You don’t have to bel-”
“I believe you,” Isabel said. “Seriously, how could I not? Tell me what you want to tell me without assuming I’m going to not believe you, please.”
“I see ghosts,” Olivia blurted out. “And one possessed me last year and it was the scariest thing I’ve ever dealt with. And I’m not over it and I probably never will fully be over it. It overpowered me when I was walking home, then tried to trick Andrew and Noah into letting it into the house. And the only reason I… it couldn’t get in was because Andrew knows more magic than he lets on and he’d protected the front entrance. When I told my-my-” She groaned. “He didn’t believe me.”
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Isabel said. “And if I hadn’t, why would you lie to me? But I wanted to just tell you that you were incredible. I don’t know that other woman, but I did feel the way my truck stopped, and how the doctor was desperately trying to save that guy. You got him out. And the curse is completely broken, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Olivia said, unable to believe the words coming out of her mouth.
“Good. I don’t have to stress my deliveries anymore.”
Mia threw her rabbit, hitting the back of Olivia’s head. “I need to go,” Olivia said, picking up the rabbit and handing it back with a stern look. “Can we talk later?”
“Can’t wait. And remember what I said, your account is still open. No matter how you reopen.”
“I don’t know if-”
“In whatever form you reopen,” Isabel said. “I’ll be there.”
—
Andrew couldn’t sleep. He was on Cleo’s couch and it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t his squashy old one, now a burnt frame in a rubbish heap somewhere. Nor was it Liv’s, with the glow of Mia’s pink night light seeping in from under the nursery door. And the pillow and blankets Cleo had generously supplied him with weren’t the same either.
But he was in Boston. He was back in Boston and the lights of passing cars were dancing over the ceiling every few minutes to remind him of that fact. He thought maybe he’d think it was too loud, that after two years in the silence of New Winslow, he’d have trouble sleeping because of the noise. And he was having trouble sleeping, but the noise of cars and the sound of people passing by the building felt right. That all felt like home.
The flat was part of a building full of units, probably eight or so. On the second floor, they were surrounded by other people.
He likely couldn’t buy a flat out here. That ship had sailed, and he’d need to accept it. But he was back where there was energy and life, exactly how he liked it.
Even if the footsteps upstairs were the wrong ones.
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