The Curse: The Curse Saga

By Shannon Simpson

You know how high school is supposed to be fun? Okay, so freshman year isn't really fun. That is the year the seniors haze you by selling tickets to the elevator, so you don't have to take the stairs. Or my personal favorite- access to the swimming pool on the roof that doesn't exist. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Words Matter Publishing
• Release date: Sep 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781953912343

Shannon Simpson

As a child, I wanted to be a teacher. I realized around the beginning of my teenage years I didn't have the temperament to be a teacher. My first vampire book was Forever and the Night by Linda Lael Miller. I loved it! Over time I read every vampire book I could. A few years back a dear friend recommended Twilight. Just because I'm older doesn't mean I can't dive into a YA novel ever now and then. I'd seen the movie but didn't know it was based on a book. The thrift store I worked at got in one of the mass market copies of Twilight with the movie cover. I took it as a sign. I read it and was hooked. Thankfully it was after all the books had been released. Patience isn't one of my virtues. I loved them! That was the only copy of that particular edition of Twilight to be donated during the time I was at that job. Witches have always appealed to me. I can't say what it is about them, the powers, or the spells; maybe it's the flying. Whatever the reason I decided to give a short story about witches a try. Nothing overly complicated. It was a little fantasy about an ordinary girl hiding the fact she was a witch and the boy next door. I loved writing it. I took a chance and combined my love of vampires and witches and suddenly the Spellbound Saga was born. This journey has barely begun, but I can't wait to see where it goes. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Book preview

Prologue

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You know how high school is supposed to be fun? Okay, so freshman year isn’t really fun. That’s the year the seniors haze you by selling tickets to the elevator, so you don’t have to take the stairs. Or my personal favorite - access to the swimming pool on the roof that doesn’t exist.

It’s really when you hit the junior and senior years the fun is supposed to begin. At least that is what I’d seen in all the movies. I believed it would be the same for me. After all, I was going to be with my best friend, Everleigh. We could face anything as long as we were together; even buying tickets to a pool that didn’t exist and a pass to take the elevator to get there.

No one told me about curses and what would happen if I kissed my longtime crush. Such things didn’t exist in the movies I watched.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back, back to when I believed anything was possible as long as I had Everleigh at my side. Back to when I was alive.

Chapter One

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I met Everleigh Taylor when we were one. Her family moved next door and our parents became friends. It was only natural for Everleigh and I to become besties, we were around each other almost daily. I felt as much at home at her house as I did mine and vice versa.

Our lives were suddenly changed upon the death of my parents. My dad was a pilot. He was taking my mom on a second honeymoon and the plane went down. Everyone on board died. It happened the week before I started middle school. I was a few weeks shy of my twelfth birthday. In the blink of an eye my world changed. My Aunt Sandra, my mom’s only sister, had taken me in. She lived just outside of town.

Suddenly, I found myself an orphan living with an aunt I barely knew with my bestie half an hour away. I wanted to stay with the Taylors, and they wanted me, but my aunt insisted I live with her. She said there was something only she could give me. She wouldn’t explain her cryptic statement no matter how many times I tried to get her to. If not for Everleigh I would have gone insane.

It took a while to get used to, but Aunt Sandra and the Taylors did everything they could to keep my life as close to normal as they could. I had a very bad year. I couldn’t concentrate, I slept little and when I did, I had horrible nightmares. I couldn’t do my schoolwork. Aunt Sandra pulled me from school and attempted to home school me, but I failed anyway. Everleigh, ever my best friend, failed deliberately so we’d be together at graduation. Her parents had been livid but accepted her excuse of togetherness and being there for her friend through such a difficult time as acceptable. And we promised to take extra classes in high school so we could still graduate on time. They didn’t even ground her knowing how badly I needed her. Everleigh had been there to comfort me through the hardest times. Our friendship had grown closer through the last three years. We couldn’t have been closer if we’d been sisters.

We were inseparable, I thought. When eighth grade began, we made a pact to have the slumber party to end all slumber parties at the end of the year. Aunt Sandra had agreed the party could be at the Taylors’. Their house was bigger. Everything was perfectly planned, right down to the guest list. Only girls to be invited were ones we’d grown up going to school with. Girls that in some way had made our lives better.

I thought this slumber party would be an end to our childhood and the first step toward becoming adults. This was going to be a fun-filled farewell to middle school and that trying time in my life. A final goodbye to the heartache I had endured in recent years. Yet here I stood huddled in the Taylor’s linen closet fighting back tears.

The guest list had been changed without my knowledge at the last minute. When I’d gotten in Mrs. Taylor’s Explorer this afternoon, I found Everleigh and the five girls she and I had dubbed the Bitches in sixth grade. Brittany, Iris, Teresa, Christy and Hannah had tried to make our lives hell from the first day of our second year in the sixth grade. Five girls who had ruled every year at their elementary school. They thought everyone should bow down more or less to their superiority. Everleigh had wanted desperately to fit in with them but nothing she could do worked. I thought she’d gotten past that until I found them laughing like old friends when I got in. The look they gave me had been anything but friendly.

Mrs. Taylor didn’t notice the way I sat silently on the drive to Everleigh’s house. No one did. Especially Everleigh. I watched my best friend behave as if I weren’t there. For the first time since I lost my parents I felt alone. I tried to convince myself it would be fine once we got to Everleigh’s house. After practically living here for the last thirteen years I just knew I’d feel better.

I was wrong. The second everyone was crowded in Everleigh’s room I realized I was an outsider in a place I’d once felt at home. Brittany had designated everyone’s sleeping arrangements. When she got to me, she had put a hand to her chest in feigned shock, as if she’d just realized I was there. Oh, Shyann, I don’t know... She’d looked around the room at the sleeping bags everyone was rolling out. There’s really nowhere else to put a sleeping bag.

I took a deep breath before answering. That’s okay. I’ll share with Everleigh like always.

She had the nerve to look remorseful, then said, Everleigh already said I could share with her.

I had looked at my best friend in total shock. She couldn’t have said that.

Everleigh had given a half-hearted shrug. Brittany can’t sleep downstairs on the sofa or in the guest room. That wouldn’t be polite. You can use the couch.

It had felt like my heart stopped. I’d stared at her, unable to speak. She couldn’t be my best friend, the girl I’d grown up with.

Are you sure the couch will hold her? Iris had asked snidely.

Everyone had laughed including my bestie. My cheeks had turned red with embarrassment. It took everything in me not to run right then from the room. I wasn’t the size two they were, but I was far from obese. Curvy was how my mom had described me once. I’d never been self-conscious around the Taylors or even Everleigh’s hot older brother, Wyatt, because of my size. I had always felt at home here until that moment. I couldn’t speak past the lump in my throat.

Teresa had tossed her long luxurious black hair over her shoulder before practically throwing my sleeping bag and overnight bag at me. Run along now.

Again, everyone laughed. I could only stare at my best friend wondering how she could side with the Bitches.

Christy had opened the door and all but shoved me out before slamming it in my shocked face.

The tears slipped out as I had stood frozen to the spot. I felt like I was in an alternate universe. I could hear the continued laughter through the door. I’d struggled to get my emotions under control.

I heard someone coming, that’s how I ended up in the linen closet, if you could call it that. Every room in this house was huge, but the linen closet was nothing more than a bunch of shelves with very little space to stand.

That’s because it’s not meant to hide in, my conscience said.

Once again, I tried to shut the door completely, but my backside prevented it. I jumped as someone knocked softly on the door.

Are you okay?

I barely suppressed a groan. Just what I didn’t want. I turned and pushed the door open. The last person I wanted to see me like this was Wyatt Taylor. He was the most popular boy in high school even though he was only a sophomore and Everleigh’s older brother. Tall, tanned and ripped in all the right places, he had every girl in school in love with him. Not that he noticed. Being the quarterback, he only had eyes for the head cheerleader. I’d been in love with him since I was old enough to understand what that meant.

Having spent so much time here through the years, I was at ease around him. I knew he only saw me as his little sister’s best friend. Looking into his unusual aquamarine eyes I felt heat fill my cheeks. Could today get any worse? Hiding my pain and embarrassment behind anger I snapped, I’m fine!

Excuse me for asking. He ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, causing it to fall in his eyes.

I wanted to brush it aside but knew that would cause a whole other embarrassing situation. Once more I resorted to anger. I don’t need your pity, Wyatt Taylor! His pity would be the icing on this disaster of a day.

I wasn’t offering any! You looked like you needed a place to hide.

I bit my lip, barely keeping my tears at bay. I wasn’t expecting that. I’m sorry I snapped at you.

Wyatt shrugged my apology aside and nodded toward his room. It’s yours as long as you need it.

Wyatt’s kind offer combined with Everleigh’s treatment forced the tears to slip out. I hated to cry, but even more in front of anyone. I ducked inside Wyatt’s room as quickly as possible. As I shut the door, the look on his face made me frown. He was looking at me with a mixture of anger and concern. Surely, I was wrong about that. Why would Wyatt be concerned about me?

Pushing Wyatt’s look from my mind, I barely glanced at his room as I dropped onto the edge of his navy blue covered bed. In all the years I’d been friends with Everleigh I’d never been in Wyatt’s room. Right now, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I let the tears flow as my heartache grew. How could my bestie treat me this way? Bestiches before bitches we always said. It had been a joke we began the first day of sixth grade after first encountering the Bitches.

A fresh wave of tears rolled down my cheeks. When had Everleigh decided she wanted to be friends with them? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. We’d talked about this night all week. Not once had Everleigh said anything about inviting them. She’d been with me all week, how had she gotten word to them to invite them? I couldn’t make sense of any of this.

Closing my eyes, I curled into a ball and gave into my tears.

What is your problem?

What are you doing, Everleigh? Wyatt and Everleigh’s raised voices pulled me from my heartache. I glanced toward the balcony, noticing the door was slightly ajar. I knew I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but considering how things had gone lately, I didn’t care. Quietly, I moved to the door staying just out of sight.

Shyann is your best friend!

I know that! Everleigh snapped.

Then start acting like it! She’s crying her eyes out in my room while you are chilling with those fakes! You even failed sixth grade the first time through because she did.

What a mistake that was! She sighed. You don’t know what you’re talking about! She tossed her long brown hair. What is your deal, Wy? You’ve never given Shyann a second glance and suddenly you’re her knight in shining... I saw her glance at his grease covered white tee. Dirty armor.

Wyatt glanced toward his room.

I held my breath; afraid he’d see me. If he did, he gave no indication. You don’t treat friends like this, Everleigh! That’s all I’m saying! The two of you have been inseparable since we moved here, even after Shy moved away. Yet suddenly those half-brained twits are more important. What gives?

Everleigh sighed. Things change, Wyatt. Shyann and I have grown apart. We’re going to high school next year. It’s time to leave childish things behind.

Childish? Was Everleigh seriously calling me childish? I’d show her childish! Shock and anger filled me. I wanted to walk out there and tell Everleigh what I thought but I was rooted to the spot.

Are you listening to yourself, Everleigh? You are the same age as Shyann.

Everleigh tossed her hair once more. That was something she’d picked up from the Bitches. Just because we’re the same age doesn’t mean she can’t be childish! Honestly, Wyatt, you’re acting like I’ve committed a crime.

Wyatt sighed. Why did you invite her if you were going to treat her this way?

I saw Everleigh roll her blue eyes. I didn’t want to. Mom said I had to. You know I’ve planned this party since my first year in sixth grade. Just because it took an extra year to get here doesn’t mean I’m just going to let it go.

She only invited me to a party we planned because her mother made her. I couldn’t have heard her right.

Again, Wyatt glanced toward his room. Shyann has too. It’s all the two of you have talked about.

Everleigh rolled her eyes again. Another trait picked up from her new friends. She’s here, isn’t she? She walked away.

Wyatt shook his head. This isn’t what she has planned for four years! She ignored him. He glanced my way again before coming toward me.

I didn’t have time to move before he caught me. My cheeks flushed.

I’m sorry, Shy. You weren’t supposed to hear that.

I tried to force a smile, but my anger had faded. Tears filled my eyes once more. I turned away so Wyatt wouldn’t see, stumbling over his football cleats. I knew I was falling, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Seconds before I face planted on the navy-blue carpet, strong arms caught me. Before I could register that Wyatt had saved me, I found myself pressed against Wyatt’s rock-hard abs, his arms around me.

My heart seemed to stutter to a stop before doing a cartwheel and racing. At some point I had wrapped my arms around his waist. I knew I should pull away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. I expected Wyatt to pull away, but his arms seemed to tighten a little. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I buried my face against his chest.

I fought to get control over my emotions. I didn’t want Wyatt’s pity. That’s what this was. It had to be. There was no other reason Wyatt Taylor would be offering me comfort. I was smart enough to know that. If not for the years I’d spent around him as Everleigh’s bestie, he wouldn’t give me the time of day.

Is there anything I can do, Shy? Wyatt asked softly.

Sniffling, I forced myself to pull away. I couldn’t look at him. "I just want to go home. I’d call Aunt Sandra,