LOCAL GIRLS MISSING AFTER ABDUCTION FROM LACROSSE GAME

A heavy sigh passed through my lips as I stared at the grim newspaper headline that stared cruelly back at me. Violet sensing my now sour mood simply gave the newspaper a mere glance, then sipped her tea.

"Mother is pissed about this right now. Those two girls were too young to be even be taken like that," Violet informed me, "I can't blame her though. I'd be pissed too if two, innocent young girls were being taken. It's like these traffickers have no damn hearts when they do this."

Violet and I were disguising our conversation about the two missing girls as one about human trafficking. It took the suspicion of us and gave the organization a mundane conversation that didn't give them any hints.

"They never have and never will. This has been an ongoing problem for centuries and you know that," I sighed shaking my head. Violet grimaced deeply.

"How do these people sleep at night knowing that they're taking innocent boys and girls away from their families never to be seen again?" She grimaced.

"Like babies. They sleep like babies at night knowing they cause us suffering each and every single day," I responded. Violet made a noise of disgust and continued to sip her tea.

"Hopefully someday things will get better and I won't have to worry every single day about my own daughters being taken away from me, but I am not going to hold my breath," She murmured, "I'm going to protect my children and my family as best as I can."

"I'll be right there to help you guys," I said placing my hand on the table. Violet smiled at me warmly and put hers into mine. I squeezed her hand lightly.

"So mother tells me that you have six months to find a suitable husband or else she's doing it herself," Violet said. I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I folded the newspaper. She sighed loudly.

"As much as I don't agree with my mother on everything, I do agree with her on you finding someone to spend the rest of your life with," She said. A loud groan made its way from my lips.

"Why is it a requirement for me to get married? Why can't I just stay single for the rest of my life?" I inquired.

"Because we just want you to find someone who will make you happy," She answered, "Is that so bad?"

"No," I muttered under my breath, "But you two know how I feel about marriage, especially after what had happened to my mother when she remarried."

Back when I was a child my mother had remarried a man named John Abernathy. John was a very handsome man with dark chocolate skin, full lips, dark brown eyes that were almost black, an upturned nose with flared nostrils, high cheekbones, a toned and muscular body from years of working on a farm, and a frame that towered over my mother's 5'6 frame at 6'3.

John, at first, was a very kind man who would help us around our home when we needed him to, he always played with me when I asked him to, he always complimented my mother when he had the chance, he brought flowers for my mother and grandmother as well too, and he even let me run through his fields too while keeping an eye on me. John was the most perfect man that you could ask for.

Or so we thought.....

Two years after John and my mother had been married, his crops weren't doing so well due to a horrible drought that had plagued our town. John was frustrated that he couldn't grow any crops at all so he resorted to drinking, which in turn caused him to lash out. I remember the first time he lashed out like it was yesterday.

The first time he lashed out was when I woke up crying from a nightmare. My mother had gone to my room to try and comfort me, but John told me to "shut the hell up" and to "quit being a scared little pussy". It scared me to hear someone who I had considered a second father talk to me like that. My mother, upset that he would even talk to her little angel like that, became upset and began to tell him that he had no right to talk to me like that because I was just a child.

John became upset with the fact that she was yelling at him for it. My mother, unknown to her, was practically poking the sleeping giant. John, not being able to take anymore of her yelling in his drunken state, struck her right across the face. My mother ended up falling to the floor right in front of me. I cried even harder at the sight of my own mother being hit by this man who was now a monster in my eyes. He threatened to do the same thing to me if I didn't shut up and so I did.

This went on for another year before my mother finally snapped once she found John in the field one day with another woman. She was finally fed up with his shit and fed up with everything. My grandmother, who had just sat back and did nothing, was proud that my mother was finally taking action against him. My mother, that very night, had seduced John with a nice cooked meal with all of his favorites and the best wine that she could buy. John was so happy about it that he didn't suspect a thing. He didn't suspect that the woman he was married to was planning something just for him to witness.

Since my mother had planned this entire thing, she had soundproofed my room and my grandmother's with her magic so we wouldn't hear what was going on, even though my grandmother knew what was going to happen. After dinner, my mother took John into their room and they made love to each other. My mother, as she rode on top of him, leaned down to kiss him while her hand slipped under the pillow and stabbed him with a poisoned dagger.

Once that entire thing was over, my mother swore off men and kept her focus on me and me only. She didn't want to bring another man into our home who would turn out to be just like John so she turned down any and all suitors.

After witnessing what he had done to my mother, I had decided that getting married was nothing but trouble and swore on it. I did date a few people here and there over the centuries, but only one managed to get further than that. 

"You can't let one bad experience with one man completely turn you off from the idea of marriage," Violet said, "What you witnessed and experienced from your mother's second marriage should be a learning experience for you so that way you know what to look out for when someone tries to court you."

"And what I should get rid of so no other woman ever has to go through the same shit," I mumbled.

"As much as I would love for you to get rid of all the abusers in the world, you can't," Violet replied.

"Why not?" I inquired.

"You'll go to jail," She simply responded. Even if I did kill an abusive man, I'd avoid jail time like the plague. Why? Because I'm a witch and I can go anywhere I wanted in the world. I'll even change my face and my entire name to make it less likely for me to get caught. Violet knows I'd do it for sure, but to keep ourselves from being targets we have to kind of lie a bit.

"So what if I do? One less abuser in the world," I murmured.

"That's true," She agreed, "But being some woman's prison wife isn't all that it's cracked up to be."

"You act like I've never been with a woman before," I smirked. Violet shook her head with a chuckle.

"I know you have, but some women in prison may not be all that attractive," Violet said.

"Nothing a little prison makeover can't fix," I winked at her.

"You are incorrigible," She laughed. The door to the shop opened and the bell over it dinged lightly. My eyes merely took a small glance at the person who walked in for a split second before I went back to conversing with Violet.

"Wait-" I looked over again and a deep frown appeared on my face. It was him. The one man in this world hat I never ever in my life ever wanted to see for as long as I lived. Violet's expression had changed into one of disgust at the sight of the man who had just walked through the door.

My ex-boyfriend, and the most well known Warlock within our community. Giovanni Ricci. Giovanni was a year older than me and he was a second generation Italian man that I used to date while living in Italy back in the 1920's. Giovanni was a very skilled and talented warlock within our community who many witches swooned over all around the. Not only that, but he was also a savvy businessman who had women of all ages falling at his feet.

To those who didn't know the real monster behind the pretty face, he was, for a lack of a better word, a bastard. He was a bastard who was excellent in bed, but a bastard all around. The man had poured sweet little lies into my ear like honey and made me believe that he loved me, and almost made me want to marry him, until I caught him in bed with some countess. After that, I was heartbroken and bitter. 

As for this bastard, he's been pressuring me for about a century to give him the time of day and I have turned his advances down constantly. He always pops up whenever he's bored with whoever he just fucked and tried to get back into my good graces. It's quite annoying and it makes me want to gouge out his eyeballs and feed them to pigs.

"What a pleasant surprise," Giovanni gave us his usual dazzling smile that held a snake like quality to it. Violet, because we are close, knew about Giovanni and hated his guts. She knew about what he did to me and she wanted to kill him with her bare hands when she saw how heartbroken I was because of that asshole, even though killing another witch or warlock was a mortal sin in our community.

"More like a horrible surprise," Violet muttered. Giovanni ignored her remarks towards him like he always does.

"You are looking as beautiful as ever, Sofia," He complimented. Silently, I rolled my eyes out of irritation and disgust. This bastard really thinks that a compliment will have me wanting to jump in his arms like we were still lovers or something. Ha! Like that'll ever happen. Not on his life.

"Don't be like that, my beautiful bambina," He smiled at me. The smile made my skin crawl.

"What do you want, Giovanni? I am not in the mood for your little games," I looked at him with an unamused expression. He grinned and sat down at an empty seat at our table that he had moved closer to me.

"I've come to town on business and I thought it would be the perfect to come see you, my dear," He informed me.

"For what? You know I don't like you at all, Giovanni," I said.

"Bella, you must let go of the past. I am a changed man now," He replied. An unfeminine snort was my response towards his bullshit ass statement.

"Did you really expect me to believe that? You are much naïve than I thought," I taunted. Violet chuckled softly from her seat as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Please believe me, bella. I am a changed man who has seen the error of his ways after many years of regret over what I did to you," He said.

"If you are a changed man as you say, then I am a changed woman who will not ever let you pour honey like words filled with poison into my ears again," I countered. He took my hands into his causing me to look at him like he was crazy. His mint green gaze bored into my chocolate brown eyes.

"My sweet, sweet Sofia. I beg of you to give me another chance after all these years. I am deeply sorry for all the pain that I have caused you with my foolishness and I hope that you can forgive me for my transgressions. That woman meant nothing to me and will never mean anything to me for she doesn't compare to your beauty or your grace," He softly recited. My eyes searched his for a hint of a lie or bullshit, but I found none.

"Giovanni...."

"Yes, my love?" He looked at me hopefully.

"You....you...." I started to say, "....you are the biggest piece of shit that I have ever met in my life and I regret ever meeting you."

All traces of hope were gone from his eyes and they were replaced with anger now.

"You are such an infuriating woman. This attitude is why I never wanted to make you my wife in the first place," He snapped. Violet and I looked at each other and began cracking up hysterically as he went off on me. That seemed to have pissed him off even more because he raised his hand ready to strike me. Not wanting to show him any fear or backing down, I looked him straight in his eyes as he brought his hand down to strike me.

The slap never came at all. Why? Because someone was holding his arm in a steel grip to prevent him from even touching me. Violet, Giovanni, and I looked over at the person who had stopped Giovanni from taking his frustrations out on me.

"You must be out of your goddamn mind if you think that I'm going to allow you to hit a woman right in front of me."

The person holding Giovanni's hand was a very handsome with long brown hair that touched his shoulders, a beard to match, and piercing green eyes. The man had an air of danger that peaked my interest and attraction at the same time. Giovanni glared at the man holding his arm and tried to punch him, but the man was very quick with his reflexes as he blocked the hit. The man let go of Giovanni's arm and quickly punched him in the face.

Giovanni stood to his feet and glared at me with burning anger.

"This isn't over," He spat venomously. My knight in a faded, black Ramones t-shirt stood in front of me with his muscles flexing as he stared down the bastard.

"Since it's not over, let's step outside and finish it," The man said. Giovanni, realizing how serious this man was, glared at me once more before storming dramatically away in anger like the bastard he was. My white knight turned around to face us.

"You two alright?" He inquired.

"Yes," Violet and I responded in unison.

"That's good. It pissed me off seeing that guy try to hurt a woman," He told us.

"It was very sweet of you to do that, even though I could have handled it myself," I replied. A small smile formed upon his features.

"I don't doubt that one bit, but just seeing him do that ticked me off," He said. A soft chuckle fell from my lips.

"Well thank you for protecting me," I replied.

"You're welcome. You ladies have a nice day," He nodded.

"You too," I said. He gave me another smile before walking up towards the front counter to order something. Violet turned to me with a smirk on her face. 

"What?" I asked rolling my eyes.

"A very handsome man just protected you from that roach who never goes away and you don't think to ask him out on a date," Violet remarked, "Are you sure you're looking hard for a man to possibly marry in the future?"

A loud groan passed through my lips as soon as she said. I should've known that she would say that and I should've never entertained the idea in the first place.

"Just because he prevented Giovanni from even laying a finger on me that doesn't mean that I owe him anything, except a 'thank you'," I murmured, "I swear for someone who prides herself on such progressive thinking you sure do say some misogynistic things at times."

"When you put it like that, you're right. I guess I still have some things my mother and father taught me still ingrained into my head," She told me.

"Yeah you do, especially the stupid sister of yours," I mumbled.

"True that," She agreed. We both took a sip of our coffee together.