Threat or Blessing

 Alexa picked up the sparking object from among the pieces of candy on the table from her daughter’s bag. To her amazement, and dismay, she held a silver cross in her hand. She clasped her hands around the cross tightly.

“Leona, where did you get this? Do you remember?”, she asked, as calmly as she could.

Leona shook her head. “No, Mother, I didn’t even know I had it, until Antonio noticed it in my bag.”

Alexa relaxed, a little. At least her children didn’t know what it meant.  She checked threw the candy that both of them had brought home, and sent them into the next room to play and enjoy it.

Once they were gone, she paced the floor anxiously, trying to figure out what to do. She knew that Victor would be livid if he found out. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

Why, why, put such a thing in a child’s bag? Was it to torment her and Victor? To say, we know what you are, that you are not like us? But why involve a child like Leona? Alexa couldn’t fathom it.

It was Leona’s birthday, and Alexa had always before thought that there was no harm in letting her children dress up and go trick or treating like the other children on Halloween. It was like Leona was getting extra treats for her birthday, and it hopefully made the children feel a little less ostracized.

Alexa had known that it was common knowledge among their neighbors that she was pagan, and practiced witchcraft, but apparently, now someone also knew that Victor was a vampire. She thought about her beautiful, innocent girl, Leona, and shivered with fright. Who would try to torment a child in such a way, no matter how much her parents were despised?

She checked on the two children, who were playing and trading pieces of candy, then came back to the kitchen and fixed herself a steaming cup of herbal tea, and tried to relax. By the time she had finished her tea, she had decided that when Victor came home, she was going to suggest that they move, to a place that would be safer for their children, and for them. She had heard of a small place in North Carolina, called New Bern. It was home to a good-sized witches’ coven. They would be welcome there; they would be safe. Even Victor, as a vampire, would be more welcome among pagans that he was where they were, among primarily Christians.

Suddenly the door opened, and her debonair husband, Victor, walked in out of the night air.

He kissed her lips lightly, frowning when he saw the worried look on her face.

“What is it, Beloved?”, he asked gently.

Alexa ran to his arms, wanting the comfort that only his embrace could provide.

Hot tears sprang from her green eyes as she told …..and showed….. him the silver cross that had been in Leona’s candy bag.

Victor looked away, after a quick look, and Alexa put the cross away. But his dark eyes flashed with anger, and also fear for his wife and his children.

“Victor, let’s leave this awful place! People here hate us! They will never accept us, and we will even be in danger. What kind of life is that for the children, or for us?”, she wept.

Victor brushed away a tear as it trickled down his wife’s cheek.

“Perhaps you are right, my Alexa. I know that I have resisted the idea in the past, but perhaps it is time to do it.”, he agreed.  “Don’t cry any longer, my love. I promise we will leave in a few nights.”

Alexa nodded, and gave him the hint of a smile. “Alright, Victor. Thank you, my husband.”

As they went in to join the children, Alexa began to feel that everything was going to be alright.

Leona came over to her mother and smiled her sweet smile.

“Mother, can I have the shiny thing back?”, she asked innocently.

Alexa gave Victor a quick glance, then kissed her daughter’s forehead.

“No, Leona. Not now. Perhaps when you are older. Let your father and I keep it safe for you until then.”, she finally answered. “Happy Birthday, my little love.”

What Alexa said seemed to satisfy Leona, and the child smiled. “Alright, Mother.” Innocently she went back to trading candy with her brother.

She knew that she and Victor couldn’t protect the children forever, but for now, she was content.