Excerpt: The Cabin

"Why would people be afraid of you?" asked Gabrielle as she sunk back down in her chair. "You don't seem all that frightening to me."
A loud laugh to her right almost made her jump back out of her chair again. Miss Portia was now laughing quite maniacally while still refusing to look at the woman who'd just professed to be the nature of her fear. Gabrielle shot a look at Thomas, indicating mentally that all the town had probably gone insane overnight, and wondered if she just hadn't had a severe lack of sleep. This could not be happening. "My dear, sweet girl," laughed Miss Portia, "she's a witch!"
Silence followed her words. Even the conversation further away from them had now fallen silent. It took all of Gabrielle's willpower, and probably also Thomas's, to not burst into loud laughter right then and there. This was absolutely preposterous. The worst people she had ever questioned seemed to keep popping up like toadstools out of the forest grounds. She had certainly heard stories that bordered on the fantastical before, but this just took it one step too far. Nora Sterling could not be a witch. Witches were meant for fairytales and crazy things. They weren't meant to pop up in a serious murder investigation that'd left two people dead with one killer still on the loose.
"You're kidding me," came the moan from her partner as he, too, slid back down in his chair. He put his head into his hands, which was something she felt the urge to do as well now that she thought of it, and moaned again. He echoed her thoughts every step of the way. "This is just ridiculous."
"It doesn't matter if I am a witch or not," said Nora Sterling with a sigh, "because nobody here is going to believe otherwise. They see the advertisement in newspapers concerning my services to the general public and automatically assume the worst."
"What services?" Gabrielle pinched the bridge of her nose to stop the headache that was now setting in earnestly. "Excuse my ignorance, but I usually don't confront myself with any type of newspaper. I have missed the ad."
Nora Sterling's laugh sent chills down her spine. It was the tinkling kind of laugh that didn't hold any kind of amusement, but it carried on for quite a long period of time. "I am a psychic," she proclaimed amidst such laughter, "and apparently that's the same as being a witch. Mind you, I am pretty limited in my abilities."
"This just keeps getting better," spat Thomas sarcastically. Gabrielle eyed him with some degree of surprise. It wasn't often that he lost his temper with anyone. "Care to tell me, Miss Sterling, where your friend is?"