The Hocus Pocus Magic Shop by Abigail Drake

Author:Abigail Drake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abigail Drake

CHAPTER 23

IF IT SQUIRMS, IT’S BIOLOGY. IF IT DOESN’T WORK, IT’S PHYSICS. IF YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND IT, IT’S MATHEMATICS.

I finished up in the lab as the first students started pouring in for class. I’d come very close to tying it all together. Once I received the results from Megan, I’d be able to finish my thesis. Even if I never had the chance to defend it, a sense of personal satisfaction enveloped me. I knew I’d done something original and unprecedented, and it made me proud.

From the first time I stepped into a chemistry lab, it all made perfect sense to me. The lessons seemed familiar, like remembering something I already knew rather than learning a new subject. I loved all the sciences, but with chemistry, it was different. It came naturally.

Unfortunately, the same did not apply to relationships. What happened with Dario proved it. I rehashed it over and over again in my mind but couldn’t figure it out. It did, however, make me pose the same question Dario suggested regarding the problems I faced at the university.

Why?

Something changed after Dario’s single phone call from Philly. He told me he planned to meet a guy in a bar, but maybe he didn’t meet a guy. Maybe he met a girl. Or maybe he hooked up with someone randomly, but why lie to me? Our relationship had barely started. Nothing was official yet. It seemed out of character for Dario to behave this way, but perhaps I didn’t know him as well as I thought.

In a lab, I’d have trashed the experiment and started again, but in real life I didn’t have such an option. Even if I could, I’m not sure I wanted to erase the memory of my one night with Dario. No matter how it pained me to think about it now, at the time it had been pretty close to perfect.

After finishing in the lab, I stumbled home, exhausted. The morning air made me shiver, and I couldn’t wait to crawl under my warm blankets and enjoy a few hours of sleep.

As I dug through my backpack, searching for my keys as I neared the shop, I stepped in something sticky and strange. Confused, I stared down at my feet, and for a moment I could not process what I was seeing. The entire sidewalk in front of the Hocus Pocus Magic Shop was bright red. The color of blood.

I forced myself to calm down and analyze the situation logically. Yes, it looked like blood, but it wasn’t. The consistency and color were both off. It had to be paint, but why had someone dumped paint all over our sidewalk? I wondered if it could have been an accident, but then I saw a message, written in the same red paint, on our window.

WHICHES, U R SATAN’S HORES.

The vandal had struck again, and the paint wasn’t even dry yet, which meant they did it not long ago. I checked my cell phone for the time. Eight o’clock.

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