Crimson Echo by Dusty Burns

counter and stood beside him to get a better look. He clicked through pages and pages of moon necklaces; some big, some small. Some were silver and others were gold, but none were midnight blue like mine.
    “ I have to make a confession, I’m not the one that does the appraisals, usually my boss does that. Why don’t you give me a few days and I’ll see what information I can come up with.”
    “Sure, anything you can find would be a big help.” I said with fake enthusiasm.
    The bell above the door rang and an old woman with silver hair walked in.
    “Hi Mrs. Weathers, what are we looking for today?” He asked the women as she pulled off her white fur coat.
    “I’m just looking to spend some of George’s money. What’s the most expensive thing you have?” She winked at me and let out a tiny giggle.
    I’m going to look around. I mouthed to him, trying not to interrupt.
                I wandered around aimlessly scanning the jewelry under the glass counter. There were diamond rings, wedding bands, watches, bracelets, diamond hair combs. Some still shiny, some had rust all over them—all of them centuries old. There were old collectable paintings of celebrities all over the walls, portraits of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Elvis Presley. Terrible furniture from the sixties sat by the window—a horrid green color, marked down by fifty percent.
                The woman’s husband who was tired of waiting in the car came through the door to hurry her along and got side tracked by a collection of records. A gust of rain blew through the door and a breeze followed swirling toward a purple curtain at the back of the store. I could see candles behind the curtain as it swayed. My eyes darted to Gabe who had his hands full with the elderly couple. I took a deep breath and headed for the curtain as subtle as possible—keeping my eyes on him the entire time.
               I had a feeling I wasn’t allowed behind the drape, but that only made it more enticing. I pulled the purple sheet back and there were hundreds of candles, all flickering in the dim light of the room. It looked like some sort of small table sat in the middle of the room and it had been immaculately decorated. It was adorned with a dagger or a knife, a black candle was placed beside the knife and a single red rose lay on the table.
              There was a podium to the left of the table and on it were three sheets of worn yellow paper. The pages were full of text in an unfamiliar language. Symbols were drawn on the floor along with a large red star. Behind the wooden stand were books. I skimmed the titles quickly. History of Wicca, The Occult for Beginners, Spell Crafting 101, The Laws of Witch Craft, Black Magic— it went on and on. One book in particular caught my eye, it had a simple red cover and on the front a symbol of a half moon and half sun melded together, it was titled Crimson Echo. I was drawn to this book and I couldn’t leave here without it, besides that Faith might get a kick out of it.
    “Tristan, what are you doing back here? Employees only , didn’t you read the sign?” He shouted. “I, I was umm, I was looking for the bathroom.” I shoved the book under my jacket before he could see.
    “It’s that way,” he pointed to the other side of the curtain. “And Tristan, don’t tell anyone about what you saw back there.”
    “What did I see?”
    “You didn’t see anything, that’s what I’m saying. If anyone found out that you were back there, we would both have our heads on a chopping block.”
    “Gabe, I get it. Calm down, you’re going to give yourself a stroke.”
    “Please, just keep quiet about this.” He begged.
    “Will you at least tell me what it was?” I knew by prodding I wasn’t easing his stress levels, but I had to know.
    “No, it’s not something you should know about.”
    “Just tell me what the table was and I won’t ask anything else.”
    “Fine, it’s called an