Set in Stone: The Rose Secret

Chapter 15: Curse 🗝

"I am sure you all are confused, between the secret underground cavern below White's mansion, to the masked gunman, and myself", Marla confessed. "Why wouldn't we be?" I added. "True. The town Bluntwood has a strange occurrence that happens every 25 years." Marla told her voice becoming serious. "A curse would be laid upon the town and make a few descendants of the founders of Bluntwood go mad and terrorize one individual." She spoke. "Curse? How?" Sasha yelled. "A hundred years ago a powerful witch, Edeith cursed this town when the head council member took away her children. She cursed all of his future family, so every 25 years some of them go mad." She spoke. "The curse can be uplifted each 25 years by performing a spell on all the people who have gone mad. In 1917, the first curse took place, then 1942, then 1961 and now 1986." She continued. "How do you know all about this?" I asked.

"Well the last curse, 1961 was the year I was the victim. I was lucky enough to lift the curse. Now I am here to help you." Marla nodded pointing a finger at me. I looked around me for a second, studying the expressions on my friends faces. "I'm the victim"? I yelled. "You better sit down, I have quite some explaining to do." She remarked, sitting on a stump. "You are luckily not the victim, although your sister Blue is" she spoke, poking a stick into the ground. "What? How am I involved then? What have they done to Blue?" I questioned my mind racing. "Because of your underground discovery, you have become a threat to the curse. As Blue's sister, you have the motive to uplift the curse and free Blue, which is not there goal." She said.

"You have made your friends targets by letting them in on your discovery. We must work together, find the descendants and we must uplift the curse." She yelled raising her fists in the air.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Sasha questioned. "There is no meantime! We must always be on the move!" She yelled bringing herself to her feet. "We must start by finding all living descendants of the old mayor Heath Heartstone. Then find traces of witches and use their power to uplift the curse" she said with envy. "Sounds like a lot of uplifting" Liannetta scoffed. "Wait, what exactly is the descendants goal?" Antonia mentioned. "The curse had always been uplifted before we could figure it out." Marla sighed.

The skies were now lit by stars and the midnight musk of dew, and the scent of crumbled leaves had left my senses at peace, but my mind still filled with never ending questions. " I think you have had enough for the day" Marla noted. She crouched by the water cupping a sample and splashing it on he face. "Ahhh that is better" she whispered. "Who even are you though?" I asked. "Marla Pierce, private detective from the sister city of Bluntwood, Theras. I moved here in 1959 when I was 19 with my family. I fell to be best friends with a kid named Eddie." She smiled. "Wait, Eddie DeFrancis" I gasped. "How'd you know?" She asked. "Various articles of paper around my house. I thought he went missing in the fifties"?, I questioned.

"Well Eddie, once he had disappeared in in 50's changed his whole appearance and name, hoping he could escape from his curse." She told a slight frown on her face. "What curse"? Liannetta  added raising her eyebrow. "His family curse, Eddie is Heath Heartstone's daughters son. He went by the name Chad Livingston and hoped to escape his family ties to the curse. I had met him the year I moved here. We were close, but he never told me about any of his background story until 1961 when the curse happened." She said trying to pick burs from her coat. "Wait so Eddie was the one who was after you because of the curse"? Antonia shuddered. "Yes. After I uplifted the curse he seemed to have disappeared." She spoke her pupils falling to the floor. "One of his relatives is after Blue, the same way Eddie was after me", she said.