“I’ll have two eggs over-easy” Brian says to the waitress “with a side of grits and bacon.”
“Ok, and you sir?” The waitress replies looking towards Ethan.
“I’ll have the grits with scrambled eggs and bacon” Ethan offers handing her his menu “and can I get a few pieces of toasts”
“Sure thing, I’ll have that for you in a jiffy,” the waitress says as she gathers up Brian’s menu and walks away.
Brian waits for the waitress to walk out of earshot before speaking “So you think it was a hag that killed Mr. O’brien?”
“Yes” Ethan begin, “its like I told you back in the room, I followed its psychic footprints on the astral plane.”
“Astral Plane?”
“Well the Astral Plane is …….”
“Excuse me, sugar, would you like a refill on that coffee?” the waitress asks Brian.
“Um, sure.” Brian replies.
As the waitress refills Brian’s coffee the men sit in silence. When she leaves they resume their conversation.
“Ok, what were you saying about the Astral Plane?”
“Forget about that for now, our priority now is to find the hag and destroy her.”
“Are you sure about this hag thing?” Brian asks “I’ve heard stories about hags all my life, but nothing like this.”
“Well these myths often have a ring of truth about them. Since many of these stories come down to us from word-of-mouth there are bound to be variables.”
“Like what?”
“Well, some cultures believe the hag to be a spirit.”
“That’s can’t be true, I mean we actually saw one in the flesh. That ugly thing sure weren’t no spirit”
“Right” replies Ethan. “Many of the ancient legends have a few things in common. Hags are always female. During the day they are thought to be either ugly old women, or beautiful young ladies. The young and beautiful ones are thought to love luxury and comfort so they attract and marry rich young men. At night they shed their skin and sneak into unsuspecting people’s homes to sit on their chest and suck out their breath.”
“Here you boys go.” the waitress says placing Ethan and Brian’s plates before them. “Can I get you anything else?”
“No thanks.” Brian replies for both of them.
“So they feed off a person’s vital energy?” Brian asks
“Right.” Ethan replies
“How can you tell who’s a hag?”
“Hags aren’t like you and me” Ethan offers “their feet are on backwards. During the day, they twist their feet around to appear normal.”
“That’s disgusting, Ethan.”
The two men share a laugh and they continue to chat and eat their breakfast.
“So, what are you going to do go around town and check out every woman’s ankles?” Brian asks.
“No, there’s actually a ritual in the Book of Shadows to attract and destroy a hag.”
“Ok, so what do we do?” asks Brian.
“That’s it? No argument, just what do we do?”
“Babe, I shot that thing multiple times at point blank range and it still came at me. If you hadn’t come in and sent that bitch flying I’d probably be dead now too. The way I see it we take her down, or she keeps killing people and we can’t let that happen.”
“Good, cause I’m going to need your help?” replies Ethan.
“What do you want me to do?”
“I’m going to need a secluded place to perform the ritual. We can’t have people snooping around when we confront the hag.”
“Ok, I’ll work on that after breakfast. I have to go check on our car today anyway. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go back to the hotel to consult the Book of Shadows. I’ll have to gather some supplies to perform the ritual.”
The two men finish their breakfast and then go their separate ways. Brian to Hambone’s Garage to check on their car and Ethan back to the Come On Inn. As Ethan approached the Inn , he notices a stretch limousine outside.
Walking inside Ethan approaches the front desk to check for messages he notices a woman wearing a $3000.00 black Versace pants-suit and $400.00 pair of Milano Bilonics, and carrying a $4500.00 Gucci handbag who he surmised was not from Moonshine Mountain
“I’m sorry but Mrs. O’brien is still in the hospital” Mrs. Curry says to the woman in black “and I just oversee the cleaning staff.”
“If you could just give her my card” the woman in black replies “I’d appreciate it very much.”
Mrs Curry takes the card and holding it out at arms length slowly reads the print. “Faye Powers, Bakhtak Corporation….”
“Yes. I’m very interested in speaking with Mrs. O’brien as soon as possible.”
“What would some big corporation want with an Inn owner?” Mrs. Curry asks
“Frankly, we are interested in buying the Inn .”
‘The Inn ? Why would you want to buy the Inn ?”
“I can’t comment on that at this time, but please see to it that Mrs. O’brien gets my card.”
Faye Powers turns around abruptly to leave and runs into Ethan, who she hadn’t noticed standing behind her.
“Oh, excuse me” she says dropping her purse.
“I’m sorry” Ethan replies, as he stoops down to get her purse “It was my fault entirely”
As he picks up the purse, Ethan notices that though the woman’s shoes are quiet beautiful her feet and ankles seem to be bruised.”
“Do you like them?” Faye asks
“Like them?”
“The shoes? They’re Milano Bilonics. Beautiful as hell, but murder on the feet and ankles.”
“I didn’t even notice.” Ethan replies handing the woman her purse.
“That’s the price of beauty” she says walking away.
“Mr. Knox” Mrs. Curry says “back from breakfast already? Where’s your….um brother?”
“My husband,” Ethan replies is at the garage checking on our car.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Do either of us have any messages?”
“Nope, nothing at all.”
“Thanks Mrs. Curry”
“Have a good day.”
Ethan walks up to his room and unlocks the door to find that it has been ransacked! He quickly steps inside and shuts the door behind him. Preparing himself for a possible attack he searches the closet and bathroom for any sign of the intruder.
Ethan is relieved to learn that he is alone in the room and he begins to inspect the damage. It is then that he notices his ancestral Book of Shadows open on the edge of the bed. Walking over to the book his relief turns to terror as he realizes the spell to Attract and Destroy a Hag has been torn from the book!
“Son of a …….”
