nancy werlock's diary s01 - episodes 10 by julie ann dawson

Deception

     
    October 5 th ,
     
    I wake up to the sound of Houston hitting his punching bag in rapid succession and regret letting him set the thing up in his room. I should have made him put it in the basement. But usually he works out his frustrations at the gym and it never occurred to me he would use the thing in the middle of the night. I turn to look at the clock and, of course, it is 3 o’clock in the morning. Because, you know…witches…
    After five minutes of listening to him work out his issues, I throw on a robe and walk down the hall. I knock on the door and he stops working the bag. “Sorry,” he replies.
    “You all right?”
    “I’ll be fine, Nancy.”
    I open the door. He turns around and I can see he’s been crying. “Houston, what’s wrong?”
    “I’ll be fine.”
    “But you aren’t fine now . What happened?”
    “I’m just…Harlan…just...I don’t want to talk about it.”
    Harlan, our house brownie, was attacked by the neighbor’s cat a few nights ago. Cats for some reason see brownies as prey and often attack them. But the cat in question actually has a good temperament and wouldn’t have gone after a brownie on someone else’s property. Our investigation indicated something possessed the cat to incite it to violence.  The agency says Harlan will make a full recovery but that is all we know.
    “Harlan is lucky that you found him,” I say. Houston just nods. I can tell from the look on his face there is something he wants to say, but he can’t seem to get it out. But when I try to open up a channel to talk to him telepathically, I realize he’s warded. Then I notice the charm around his neck.
    Realizing I’m looking at it, Houston touches the charm and says, “I got it from Risha. She was worried.”
    “What did you tell her?”
    “Nothing! But…she knows Brynwolf is out there. And she’s knows we’ve been up to our eyeballs in weird shit. So…oh, that reminds me.” He goes over to his dresser and pulls another charm out of the drawer. “I meant to give this to you earlier but my mind was in a million places.”
    “Thanks.” I take the charm. Lead core from the weight of it, dipped in silver and inscribed with runes. “Did Risha make these?”
    “No, she knows an Artificer. He owed her a favor.”
    “You realize we won’t be able to talk to each other telepathically wearing these.”
    “Yeah, well, you’re always saying I need to learn to communicate without jumping in people’s heads, right? Now’s as good a time as any.”
    “Well, we don’t need them in the house,” I say. Between my mother, your mother, and—”
    “Yeah, well, something got to Harlan despite all of them,” interrupts Houston. “So humor me and wear it.”
    I put the charm on. “Better?” He nods. “Try to get some sleep.” I turn to leave.
    “Oh, um, I forgot. Eric needs you to sign off on some progress reports for his internship?”
    “Um, fine. Weird thing to think about now.”
    “I got his file. He gave it to me when I left the shop and I forgot to give it to you so here.” He hands me the folder.
    “All right. Could have waited until morning. But Okay.”
    “Sorry. I’m just so distracted by everything. And spooked. And pissed .”
    “I get it. Try to get some sleep.”
    I go back to my bedroom and leave the folder on my dresser. I start to remove the charm and then look around the room. I realize I am shaking. I decide to leave the charm on and try to go back to sleep. By 5 o’clock, I give up trying and get out of bed. A hot shower doesn’t help shake off my tiredness.
    Vivika staring back at me in the mirror, however, does the trick.
    “My son won’t talk to me,” she blurts out. I can’t hear her because of the charm, but I can read her lips well enough.
    “He’s freaked out, Vivika,” I reply as I wipe the condensation off the mirror to see her better. “You are aware what happened to Harlan?”
    She nods and vanishes from the mirror. As I leave the