Chapter Two

The Sorcerer's Emporium of Enchanted Objects


Viya was twenty again. She was in the shower when someone knocked on the door.
"Who's there?" she asked through a mouthful of water.
"Chris is that you?" her younger brother Sean asked.
"No," Viya sighed.
"Daymian?" he asked again.
"Nope. Get lost Sean."
"Viya? What are you doing in our bath? Remember when you stressed you were the only girl in the house and needed some privacy?"
"Sean, please.”
"Well, that's why you got you your own bath. Get out I’m late," Sean sulked.
"My sink needs some plumbing. Don't want the plumber sneaking up on my naked butt. What are you late for by the way? It’s Saturday."
"Got a date," Sean replied.
"Wow, a date! Have I met this one?" Viya screamed in the shower.
What for? So you can scare her away, too?"
"Scare them? I just want to approve of the girl you hang out with"
"Viya please, all my girl friends have been frightened by you, "Sean sighed." Would you please hurry?"
"Well" Viya said slowly. "I have a feeling I won't like this one so I'm taking my sweet time," She started whistled.
Sean stood there speechless for awhile then finally said;
"I'm going down the road to get some stuff. Since you love to be in there so much,” he paused and locked the door from outside, “Happy shower time." Then he ran off.
"What?" Viya wiped her face with her hands. "Sean, come back here and open this door,” She said trying the door but it was dead bolted from outside.
Viya sighed. Now what? Should she wash and rewash her body until her skin faded? Sean had better not taken his time at that store and be back as soon as possible.
She was about to call for help Daymian when she heard a lot of noise coming from the living room suddenly. She turned off the shower and listened.
"Daymian?"Her voice was hardly audible.
There was a lot of scuffling and shuffling, things knocked over and the sound of broken glass. What in heaven's name was going on?
Then out of nowhere, BANG BANG! "Oh my God! Viya almost screamed, "What was that?" she was dying to call Chris or Daymian. Or her parents. But her judgements told her it would be better to stay as inanimate as possible. She retreated to one end of the bath and clasped her hand to her mouth.
She was shivering like a rat in water. Then there was bang, bang!
And more bang, bang!
Viya just sat there stifling herself and waiting for what seemed like a lifetime of gun shots to be over. Then someone approached the bath.
“This one’s locked from outside Ollie,” a male voice said. He fiddled with the bolt for a while. “i don’t think there’s anyone inside.”
“You sure about that?” Another voice asked. “Just make sure Andy.”
“We don’t have time,” Andy replied.
“Someone might have called the police already. I say we get out of here.”
“Okay grab what you can and let’s run,” Ollie said as they scampered out of there as fast as they could.
Sean triumphantly whistled in twenty minutes later. He kicked the door open swinging a grocery plastic loaded with all kinds of sweets, yoghurts and chocolates.
It was awfully quiet, he thought as he walked in. He’d left Daymian and dad engaged in a serious Playstation football battle. Chris had been ironing some stuff down the corridor while stewed away in the kitchen.
Sean needed to borrow Daymian’s pair of sneakers and was about to yell out his name when he found his dad lying in a pool of blood. Before the scene could even register in his mind, Sean found Daymian a few feet away in his own pool. He felt for heart beats but nothing moved. Sean brought his t-shirt to his face and shut his eyes tight. He tried not to imagine what had happened to the rest of his family. His trembling legs slowly carried him to the corridor where to his horror his eyes met what he’d been dreading. Chris was sprawled like a rag doll on top of their mom. He’d probably been trying to defend her when they’d both been shot.
Why would anyone want to hurt them? Sean thought in pain. Only a few minutes ago he’d been playing with Viya and now here he was...
Wait a minute? What about Viya? Where was she? Had they found her locked up in bath and...? Oh God please, let Viya be okay, Sean prayed silently. She was all he had left now.
“Viya!” He screamed as he scrambled towards their bath. It was still bolted from outside. “For the love of God Viya please be in there.”
Viya quickly shielded her face and almost bore a hole in the wall with her body when she heard the door open.
“Please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me,” she begged continuously.
“Viya?” Sean asked in disbelief. “You’re alive!”
“Sean you’re back!” Viya leaped when she saw her brother. “Something terrible was going on here. I had no idea what because you locked me in,” Viya spoke quickly but she stopped when she saw the look on Sean’s face.
“What’s the matter Sean? Is everyone alright?” Viya asked wrapping her towel around her now dried body and moving towards the living room.
“Viya don’t go on there,” Sean tried too late to stop her. He heard a frail gasp escape Viya’s lips when he got to her. Her towel had dropped to the floor and she was standing there bare-bodied staring at her brother’s lifeless body in total shock.
“Come here Vi,” Sean said picking up her towel and wrapping it around her again. “You don’t need to look at this.” Sean hugged her tightly.
“Who were they?” Viya whispered.
“I don’t know,” Sean said and went to phone. A few minutes later he was on the phone with the police when he heard Viya’s voice behind him.
“Daymian did two hundred push-ups every day,” Viya said more to herself than to Sean in a childlike tone. “Nobody is any match for him. Chris was the best Law student i ever met. He could talk himself out of any situation. Mom could cook up a storm and dad was simply my hero. This isn’t happening right? I’m dreaming.”
Sean pulled Viya closer.
“You locked me in. I owe you my life,” Viya whispered.
“We’re going to get them,” Sean whispered.
“No, I’m going to get them,” Viya said.


Viya awoke with a start. She had no idea when she’d dozed off on the soya. The last thing she could remember was being pissed at Nadine. That would explain the half-empty bottle of wine.
The nightmares had returned. Every time she passed out, they would return. Each one more grotesque than the last. She tried to blink away the bloody images of her family lying helplessly on the ground that fateful day nine years ago. Now was 2016. She had a whole new life before her now. Sean had not returned to the apartment since he left in the morning. She had not told him about the nightmares returning. He would be worried about her and that was the last thing she needed now.
No matter how hard she tried to forget, the incident would always hunt her. But she had changed. Toughened up. Because she needed to look out for Sean and herself but she wasn’t one of those people who would put blame all their misfortune on one unfortunate event in their past life. She was the way she was because she loved it. Men needed to be taught a lesson...
As for Nadine, she was coming for her. Viya looked at her watch it was getting to 7pm. The One to One would be bustling with people by now.
They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, well Viya was more that furious, that she was sure of. But Donatien was also a scorned man. Viya’s next move depended on how much scorn he had for his beautiful bride.
Viya thought as she hit the shower.


After chatting with the private investigator, Roman had decided to return to the One to One motel. He had a strong feeling the seductress was going to visit the place again. He sat in a bar across the road from the motel and watched intently as the clients flooded in. It was only after seven in the evening. Tuesday night apparently was a busy night for the small motel. He lit a smoke and took a long drag. He sipped on his beer and ignored the girls who were making desperate passes at him. Roman was definitely a catch. He was all muscle (in the right places) and no fat. He had a beautifully strong jaw line that any artist would want to capture in a painting. It had been a while since he got laid. But that was the least of his worries now. There was only one girl he was looking for right now and if the need arose only then would he go down on her but for now sex with a hooker or with any other girl for that matter was far from his mind. The victim had been able to describe ‘Eva’ vaguely. If that was her name in the first place. People like her were fund of using aliases.


Tinsel decided to call up the private investigator himself after concluding that roman had been suddenly very dismissive with him. Tinsel sensed Roman was up to something. He wasn’t sure what but when money was involved people tended to go loony sometimes. The phone rang a few times before the investigator picked up.
“Ludwig Asu,” he said over the receiver.
“Oh, it’s Tinsel,” Tinsel said adjusting himself. He was lying on his bed.
“Tinsel?”
“We called you in the morning about a girl? At One to One?”
“Yes, I remember. Did Mr. Roman find his sister yet?” Ludwig asked.
“His sister?” Tinsel almost yelled.
“She’s his sister right? He told me she had eloped a long time ago with a crazy husband and now the family was trying to find her. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that. You’re his friend aren’t you?” Ludwig asked sounding suspicious now.
“Of course,” Tinsel replied quickly. “I knew that.”
“So why were you calling anyway?”
“I just thought maybe you some new leads,” Tinsel swallowed.
“I think you should talk to Mr. Roman. He knows everything I know. Is that all?”
“Um, yes,” Tinsel said. Before he could say anything else the investigator had dropped the phone.
So Roman had told the investigator he was looking for his runaway sister, tinsel thought. If he was lying to others about the whole affair then he was probably lying to Tinsel too. Maybe they weren’t only after a few thousand after all. This was probably way bigger than Tinsel had imagined. He had been played once but he wasn’t going to be a second fool and let it happen twice. He was going to that motel. It was only after seven anyway. Motels were open till then rite?
Tinsel sighed and got off his sandy bed. Sometimes he wished he had more experience with such things.