Alaina Ramone Flowers pushed her hands further into the bowl of dirt, feeling the pull of the earth in her finger tips. She sighed, breathing in deeply, the smell of grass and sun filling her nose, even though she was in a dim, musty basement. The candles around her flickered, as if she were actually outside and the breeze was blowing just slightly. Her eyes popped open and she stared at her customer with warm, chocolate eyes.
"The Earth is trying to tell you something," she said in her best spooky voice. "You must open your ears and listen carefully. The wind is calling your name." Her customer leaned in closer, a haunted look in his dark blue eyes. "Why is it calling me? What does the earth say?!" Alaina obviously had this guy hooked, and she smirked. Another easy customer. Most customers thought she was a hoax, and in a way, she kind of was. But tourists mostly ate every word she said, and then sent all of their friends in for a reading. It was a cop out of her gift, but Alaina made quick, easy money this way. She was able to charge customers $40 for a one hour session, and she spent most of her time lighting the incense and setting the mood. Alaina dubbed herself as Alaina Flowers, the Earth Witch. Flowers wasn't even Alaina's last name -- it was Parker. But she mostly used Flowers, because it sounded much more mysterious, and also flowed way better than Parker did.
She looked at her customer, and bowed her head. "I am but a humble servant to our great planet. She has a master plan for you, it would do you well to listen on your own. You must not take the easy way out. Work hard for your answers, and you will be better rewarded." Alaina looked down at the giant hourglass that kept time through her sessions. The last grain of sand had just fallen through, and she looked towards the gentleman sitting across from her, and smiled. "Our session here is over, sir. If you would like another, I'll need payment up front." The man shook his head. "No, I shouldn't. My girlfriend is in another session, she's probably done though. Thank you! I will take your advice." Alaina grinned at him. "It's not my advice, sir. It is as the Earth wishes."
Though Alaina was kind of bullshitting everyone who came through, she
did have a connection to the planet. She could feel power in the sand, and the wind seemed to belong to her. The sea listened to her deepest desires, and fire could never touch her. She didn't know much about her heritage, but she knew she shared blood with Alice Parker, one of the women accused of witchcraft in Salem all those years ago. Something about the town stuck with her and her family, because they had never left. Alaina still lived in Salem, right in the center of town above the magic shop where she worked. The rent was okay, and the landlords were nice -- they allowed her to have pets and they never bothered her for any reason. Her home was filled to the brim with plants hanging in every direction, and all of the available counter space was green with foliage. Alaina's two cats,
Shadow and
Ghost kept her company, along with her dog,
Juniper. She lived alone in the one bedroom apartment, but it was big enough for her, and also very cozy. She checked her phone and realized it was 4:30 already. Alaina began to close up shop for the day.
~~~~~~~
Rhiannon Silverman was wondering around downtown Salem in her favorite tourist-style outfit. It was quite the ironic outfit, considering it was both bought from a gift shop in the very town itself, and that Rhiannon was actually something of a witch. She wasn't sure if that's what you would call it, but ever since she was a young girl, Rhiannon had been having visions. They were murky and strange, and never made sense immediately, but they were there nonetheless, and she was typically able to decipher them before the event actually occurred. She had gotten much better at controlling them -- when she was a kid, the visions would cause fainting spells, and dizziness for near weeks. They would cause her to miss school, and eventually her mother wound up homeschooling her, which was better, because most of the lessons actually just involved learning about being a witch.
The gift had skipped her mother, but her grandmother was also a clairvoyant, and she had managed to predict her own death. Unfortunately, Rhiannon also predicted this death, months before her grandmother had, but no one knew what it meant, until it was too late. Ever since then, Rhiannon dreaded any vision that involved a crow.
Rhiannon turned a corner and headed straight for her favorite cafe -- Jodi Bee Bakes. It was a quiet little place on any given weekday, but on the weekends it was swamped with tourists, and there was no doubt. Most of their food was vegan, and gluten free, and also the most delicious thing in the world. Rhiannon walked in, and was greeted by all the staff members at the counter. She grinned and ran up, giving the cashier, Jenny, a big hug. "I'm so glad you're here! I have so much to tell you," Rhiannon said, dropping her voice to a low whisper. Jenny was Rhiannon's best friend, and also the only other person who knew Rhiannon was a clairvoyant. She had discovered it one day when Rhiannon predicted that Jenny's boyfriend was going to break up with her, and she had been right -- which was unfortunate for Jenny and whatever his name was, but it had made the bond between the girls nearly unbreakable. Jenny fell into Rhiannon's trust, and the two girls went everywhere together, and told each other everything. Rhiannon kept having visions that would better both of their lives, and so far, they had managed to lead pretty good ones.
Jenny went to tell Marco, her boss, that she was taking her half hour break, and she grabbed 2 pumpkin chocolate muffins from behind the counter. Jenny whipped up Rhiannon's favorite brew of tea (lavender with a hint of honey) and pulled her to a small table at the back of a restaurant. "Tell me everything," she said, pinching off a piece of muffin and popping it into her mouth. Rhiannon took a deep breath, and started to plunge into the tale of her latest vision.
"There's a red crystal on a table, and it keeps spinning around. Every time it stops, it points North. So I get the feeling that I'm supposed to head that way, right? So I take my personal red crystal, and I walk North through Salem. It leads me directly to Bridget Bishops grave. That's my super great grandmother that was in the Salem Witch Trials. Nothing has continued past that point, so I have no idea what else that's supposed to mean, but the universe definitely wants me to find out something about Bridget. Super spooky, right?" Rhiannon smiled at the wide eyed look on Jenny's face. "That's so cool!" she blurted a little too loudly. Rhiannon glanced around to make sure no one was listening, and she nodded vigorously. "I want to go back through my records of her, to see if there's anything that will lead me to the next clue. You should come over tonight and look through some documents with me."
Rhiannon knew that Jenny thought it was the coolest thing that she was related to a Salem Witch. In all honesty, it was a bit of a heavy burden to bear. That's why her great grandmother changed their last name. The name "Bishop" got a lot of recognition in Salem Town, and in her old age, Rebecca Bishop had gotten sick of trailing such a heavy name behind her. She legally had it changed to Silverman.