Rumor of Evil by Gary Braver

Author:Gary Braver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 33

MORGAN

Nineteen years ago, October 29

WHENEVER WE HAD sleepovers, they were almost always at my house because we had more rooms and a large backyard with a fire pit and, of course, the treehouse. But that night Riley Malone was insistent that we all overnight at her place. My first thought was that since Sylvie had just gotten a new Nokia cellphone for her birthday, she and Riley wanted to show some goofy shots they’d made in gym class.

The Malone house was a basic ranch on the other side of town, with only one guest room, which would be fine for me and Krista; Sylvie would sleep on a couch in Riley’s room. It would be tight, but I welcomed not being under the same roof as my father or fucking Vadima Lupescu.

But it wasn’t about Sylvie’s new cellphone. It was Riley. She was beside herself, nearly hysterical about Gee Gee’s charge that Vadima was responsible for Justine’s death.

“She put a curse on her that night she did the palm readings,” Riley said, her face so puffed with conviction that it looked as if it were ready to explode. “We were all there. We saw her. She looked at her hand, mumbled something weird in Gypsy talk, and then left without a word because she’d put a curse on her. And then when she died, it was like she had expected it all along.”

“You mean like she’s psychic or something?” Sylvie said.

“That’s what I’m telling you. She’s a Gypsy, and Gypsies cast spells on people they don’t like and can see the future.”

She was attesting to what I had half-seriously accused Vadima of to her face. But as Riley went on, I felt a chill.

“How do you know that?” Sylvie said.

“Because I checked. She’s from Slovakia, but she’s not a Slovakian. I looked it up. She’s like pure Romany—fancy name for Gypsy. And guess what? Her name—Lupescu—means ‘like a wolf.’ Yeah, like in werewolf.”

“You serious?” Sylvie said.

“Yes. And those people are all over Slovakia and Slovenia, Romania, and the rest of those backward places. And that’s where Dracula’s from. He was one of them. And they’re known for putting hexes on people because they have these psychic powers and do black magic and stuff—which is why they’re banned from so many countries.”

“That’s kind of hard to believe,” Krista said, always the skeptical one—a female doubting Thomas.

But Sylvie was all eyes and ears. “Oh my God! You think she has supernatural powers?”

“Yeah, or something,” Riley said. “I knew she was weird from day one. There was something sneaky and really off about her, the way she just stared into space and mumbled to herself in Gypsy, but was suddenly super sweet when you talked to her. She’s wicked weird is all.”

The thought jogged through me that Vadima had put a sexual spell on my father, casting him into some kind of horny trance that lured him into her room that night.

“I’m telling you, she’s pure evil,” continued Riley. “She put a curse on Justine.

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