The Time Witch - Part #30

Recap: Evangeline takes Samuel, Charles & the witches to Mabel. They need to see Charles’s journal to know when to go back in time, but Mabel will only give them one word: Locket, making Danna reveal she has Evangeline’s family locket. When Evangeline and Samuel touch the locket at the same time… all hell breaks loose.

LINKS: The Beginning, Last Part (#29), Time Witch page

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“They disappeared!”

Samuel released his hold on the locket, leaving it in Evangeline’s hands. He looked around. Their friends had vanished, and the kitchen had transformed into a much smaller space.

The walls were closer, the wrap-around windows a distant thought, and the only light came from double doors. They stood open, exposing a sideyard. Sun streamed across the floor, but the intense warmth radiated from a cast iron stove. Heat suffocated the space.

“They didn’t disappear. We did, and this is a summer kitchen,” Evangeline said, taking in the space. “We’ve traveled back in time.”

“After all I’ve witnessed, it should not surprise, yet I am flummoxed. This place is from my childhood.” A stunned Samuel went to the open doors. “I often came to beg Nan for a treat.”

The locket pulsed in Evangeline’s hand. She held it out, certain it had guided them to the spot. As it throbbed, the cherished piece of family history fractured and disintegrated. It crumbled into a fine dust, which floated out of her grasp, fading into the air as if it never existed.

“No!” Evangeline shouted. “The locket! Where did it go?”

Samuel had no answers, but a thought teased at his expression. “I remember something. We must hurry.” He went into the yard, expecting her to follow.

Leading the way to the back of the mansion, Evangeline realized she was seeing an early version of the Covington-York homestead. It would be considered modest in this time, with only one story and the detached summer kitchen. However, its smaller size accentuated the land and its rural ties. The closest neighbor’s roof was barely visible through a clump of trees. Dense woods surround the yard, with several paths branching off into the overgrowth.

In 1910 and 2024, the mansion sat on a street lined with similar-sized residences. Their lawns were impressive but within shouting distance. The amount of acreage visible before them spoke of country living instead of city space. Evangeline couldn’t help but believe she was seeing Baxter Creek before the town took shape. It was the perfect place for a rambunctious boy to grow up.

“How far back have we gone?” she asked Samuel as he stalled at one of the paths, listening.

“I would have been ten,” he said, “if I am correct as to where we have landed.”

Evangeline listened, too, but outside of birds and wind caressing the trees, she couldn’t hear anything but nature.

“I believe this is the day we met.” Samuel turned to her, hesitant.

She shook her head. “It’s not that day.”

“Not at the library,” Samuel corrected her. “I believe we met as children. I said so before.”

Evangeline recalled the statement. He’d felt familiar from that moment behind the library, but surely, she would remember if they’d met. She didn’t.

“I cannot explain,” Samuel said, “but if we take this path, we may witness the meeting.”

Hanging back, Evangeline wasn’t sure if his suggestion was wise. If he was correct, what consequences would they trigger by stumbling into a shared past? Of course, she was eager to know the truth. It could be the key to everything, especially since the locket took them to this moment in time.

“I don’t know what will happen.”

Without her finishing the sentence, Samuel nodded. He understood. “Did the locket bring us here for a reason?”

For at least the zillionth time, Evangeline wished she’d been raised with magic, like Danna and Nixie. The disadvantage of stumbling along and relying on instinct was foolhardy. She could as easily be manipulated—something Adas Abernathy appeared to master—as make the right moves.

Samuel looked down. “I might wish to take the question back, but can you tell me of the locket? The pictures inside were not usual, at least not in my experience. The subjects were so alive.”

Evangeline rarely spoke of her parents. Telling Samuel about them, however, seemed like telling a part of her soul. Have I gotten so close to this man in such a short time? she questioned herself. She wanted to tell him everything.

“The photographs weren’t what I’d expect, either,” she said. “I must have looked at them a hundred times, but it’s like I never saw them. Maybe it’s too painful. The photographs are my parents.”

“And you lost them?”

She nodded. “At a young age.”

“Another mystery,” Samuel added.

Something stirred in Evangeline’s memory, and she wondered if it could all be connected. “Time pushes back,” she murmured, sensing she had all the answers even if she didn’t know it yet. “Is time pushing back? Now, I mean. Is it because of  the locket?”

Samuel agreed. “I remember the locket, as well, from this day. At least, something very similar. I took a locket from my grandmother’s bureau and gave it to a girl.” His eyes filled with hope as he waited for her reaction, perhaps longing for a shared recollection.

Evangeline shrugged, having to disappoint him. She did not share the memory.

“We cannot disregard such an occurrence,” Samuel said, crestfallen but determined. “Instead, I would suggest that we take advantage of this moment and follow it wherever it takes us.”

With a sigh, Evangeline shook her head. “Okay.”

“It makes one wonder,” Samuel said, “what would happen to the locket we brought if it already existed in this time.” One eyebrow rose as if he already knew the answer.

Evangeline reached out for his hand, and he took it. “We might make things worse because this epitomizes winging it. Seriously, I don’t know how this works.”

“Yet, perhaps you do.” He squeezed her hand.

Closing her eyes, Evangeline had to trust the magic, even if she didn’t understand how it worked. “Okay. Take me to our first meeting, where I’m guessing you brought your grandmother’s locket.”

He kissed her hand, guiding her onto the worn path.

Close enough to hear the waves from the bluff, Evangeline realized the Covington-York property once had a clear path to the ocean. They probably hadn’t owed all the land, but to be able to walk the woods along the bluff would have been a luxury. She hoped one of Samuel’s ancestors had taken advantage of the proximity. However, their journey didn’t take them to a view; instead, the worn path led to a clearing. It was big enough to fit a couple of motorhomes, protected by a canopy of trees.

Pulling up short, Evangeline and Samuel hid at the edge of the clearing to witness three children arguing. The older two boys were engaged in a tug-of-war with a young girl in the middle.

“She’s to marry me,” one of the boys said. He was taller with dark features and an ugly scowl.

The other boy stuck out his chin. “It’s my family locket. She’s bound to me, now, not you. Let her go.”

“That’s me,” Samuel whispered to Evangeline.

She would have recognized him at any age. Something about how he held himself, even as a child—even when standing up to a bully.

“And that’s me,” she whispered back, stunned to recognize the girl, all of seven, the object of the fight. “Who’s the other boy?”

“Adas.”

The one word sent a shiver down Evangeline’s spine. For some reason, she did not expect to see Adas as a child nor that Samuel had known him. It was hard to imagine the man as an innocent kid. Not that young Adas appeared clueless or unsure of what he wanted.

“I have to put a stop to this.” Evangeline stood, crying out, as she felt her body weaken. She turned back to Samuel, but he couldn’t help. He couldn’t stop the magic.

As her body disintegrated, just like the locket, it faded from the edge of the clearing as it rushed toward the young girl. Samuel grabbed at the wisps of her, coming away with nothing but thin air. The disturbance alerted the kids that they were not alone.

The threesome turned. Guilty. Fearful.

Samuel stood, tortured. “Evangeline!”

The name made the young girl take a step in his direction, and it broke the hold that young Adas had on her. Shock, however, twisted her features, and she turned away toward young Samuel for comfort.

“Evil!” Young Adas cried out, pointing at the adult.

Samuel intended to prove the kid wrong, but he stumbled to his knees. Trying to crawl forward, he lost all control of his body. With a startled gasp, he disintegrated into nothing.

Young Adas turned to the other children. “You see? I told you they are coming.” He stuck out his hand to the girl. “Your only choice is to join with me.”

“No!” Young Samuel held tight to the girl’s shoulders. “It’s too late. The bond is set.”

Biting his lip as if he contemplated using his fists, young Adas sneered. “You have no magic. The Founding Families are forbidden.”

“Love is its own magic.” Young Samuel held his chin high.

Looking up at him, young Evangeline smiled. “We are bound. Now and forever, Samuel.”

He kissed her forehead.

“No!” Young Adas grabbed the girl, slamming the bulk of his body into young Samuel.

The girl spun around and shoved Adas in the chest. He fell back, landing hard on his butt. Venom spit from his mouth in the cruelest of words. “Witch! You will never escape me!”

The girl stood over him, a depth to her eyes that had not been there before. “I’ve already escaped,” she said in a clear voice. “I have lived many years and have come back to right a wrong.”

Bursting into the clearing, Evangeline’s parents, Adele and Corbin, shouted for their daughter. “Stay away from our her!” 

Corbin ran forward and right into Adas’s glare. With one hand, the child snapped his fingers, sending the man to his knees. With a second snap, Adele crumpled to the grass.

“Your will is mine.” Adas sounded bored.

Corbin tried to crawl to his daughter.“We made a terrible mistake.”

“Bringing her here?” Adas asked. “Yes, you did.” The evil child turned to young Samuel and snapped his fingers again.

“That won’t work,” the girl said. “We aren’t your puppets.”

The girl and young Samuel shared a nod as if they could communicate without speaking. 

Adas snapped his fingers, and Corbin was on his feet, picking up a heavy branch, wielding it like a baseball bat, and running toward young Evangeline and Samuel in a staggering, halting gait. Adele screamed a warning, but Corbin closed the distance to the young couple. They appeared small as he loomed over them, no match to the adult or young Adas’s evil intent.