The Murder Of Willowstream

Ch.07. Magic Micah

The Wallace family was as wealthy and influential as the entire Santana estate. The families were by no means rivals, although they did occasionally acknowledge each other as ships passing in the night. There were two major differences between the two. The first being that while Mr Santana and his son kept an aloof distance, supporting the community with their wealth; The Wallace family was actually apart of the community. They were integrated practically everywhere, and it was rare that you met someone from Willowstream who didn't personally know at least one Wallace or a cousin.

The second, glaring difference was Witchcraft. The immediate gathering of family were all Witches, operating a small unit of five members. To most folk, they were merely an old family with roots strong in Willowstream, that were just a little odd. Perhaps eccentric or strange, but always kind and friendly.

But then again, Willowstream had always been a home to the strange.

Always kind and friendly would be almost the perfect way to describe their entire family, if it were not for one Micah Wallace, the youngest child. If they say every family produces a bad egg, an apple that was rotted before it grew. Micah was that egg.

From selling small charms as drugs for a tidy profit, providing 'little accidents' for people who paid the right price, to activities a little crueller, he fancied himself the hidden puppet master of the school yard. A mob boss of sorts. And he had, had dealings with the group in the past.

Needless to say, he was more than a little vengeful when they refused to add him into their little fold. When he discovered that Yasmine was a Witch, he did his best to worm his way within her graces. Teaching her of magic, giving her a link to an entire world she was just beginning to explore. But she couldn't be with him. Even young, Yasmines ability to see into the heart was strong, and she saw he was dark.

It met a turning point when, after having put up with the denial of his advances long enough, he turned to what he did best. Magic. He tried to ensorcel her, warp her mind so that she would be his and his alone.

From then on they were at a stalemate. A deal was struck. Micah would leave Yasmine and the group alone, his family would not know of his dealings and additionally: Alaric would not kill him. It was a stalemate purely because they were never sure that Micah's family would actually act against him, and Micah was never sure that Alaric would never kill him.

Regardless: Micah promised to stay away, and as everyone knows: a Witch never breaks a promise.

The air was much colder now that they had pulled up outside the Wallace house, which sat on the slightly wealthier side of town. It was a large building, not quite as big as the gothic manor of Alaric's home, but much better maintained on the outside. The walls were an almost perfect white. The colour visible even in the midnight light, where the glow of gentle lights from the interior lit the building with twinkling gold. The grass was cut low and uniform, a complete contradiction to the veritable bounty of flowers covering every inch that was not grass, or the thin driveway.

It all sat neatly contained by black iron fence that stretched around the entire plot. The group exited the car, and stared upwards at the heavy gates.

There had been quite the debate on the way over as they recounted what went down in the morgue to Rhys and Marshal. Alaric insisted that he go alone as it was much easier for him to get in undetected. Alice argued that if anyone was going to butcher Micah: it was to be her. Rhys said that there's no way to be sure that it definitely was him that killed Yasmine, and Lilly asked why they didn't simply knock on the front door and ask to see him?

They had agreed to go with Lilly's idea. It was all of them, or none of them. Alaric stepped forward to the heavy gates, halting his finger above the intercom buzzer when the sudden cry of a crow caused all but him to jump slightly.