The Cricket Curse

"What was yesterday is gone tomorrow, the home in which you have caused sorrow. What seeds you sow today, your children will reap, and they and their children will continuously weep!"

The black-haired woman's eyes shot open as she sat up, beads of sweat trailing down her voluptuous body. California heat still managed to bleed through the AC blowing in the small apartment. She slipped out of her bed, padding down the hall, and peeked into the two bedrooms where her four children slept.

Seeing her children asleep in their beds, she nodded in approval and went to the bathroom. Washing her face and shaking hands when she was done, she took a sip of water from the glass she kept on the counter, looking in the mirror. She was thick, and curved in all the right ways. She couldn't be considered fat, but she was certainly phat - as they say. Her hair currently dyed black, though her eyes were dark, though there was a haunted echo in the back of her soul seen through her eyes.

What was yesterday is gone tomorrow, the home in which you have caused sorrow...

"Damn." She whispered, looking at herself scornfully in the mirror. She knew why this was happening. That group of Beverly Hills Biggest Liars. Paige knew what she was, and while she didn't blast it out loud, she never pretended to be anything she wasn't.

And here she was, trying to turn a new leaf. She had promised she would be on the straight and narrow with her former lover, the leader of the Chicago branch of the Italian mafia. She wouldn't do anything to get into trouble or cause waves in her new home or job.

She just couldn't help herself. Her new boss downtown had complained of dissatisfaction in his life. He had lamented to her about how he felt so misplaced in his life and he didn't know why. So she had done an itty-bitty eye-opening spell on him.

The next day she'd gone to work, he'd barged into the office, eyed her up and down, pinned her against the wall, and ravaged her for hours. She barely knew what hit her. Not that she minded, it had been weeks, and she was not the sort of woman to go without what she wanted.

That was...until his wife found out. It turns out his wife was a lot like Paige. Except she had a coven. And Paige didn't know about this until after he'd walked in and ripped her clothes off.

So here she was, staring at herself in the mirror scornfully.

"That's what you get for trying to help someone. It bites you in the ass. Well, that will be the last time." Paige said out loud to herself angrily. She sighed as she tilted her head tiredly. She had work to do in the morning. She had to figure out what kind of curse her now ex-bosses's wife and coven put on her family.

Decades passed beyond that day, and Paige couldn't ever break the curse. It was a curse of misfortune, and it was aimed at her family, not even herself. The most Paige could ever do by herself, she who had forsaken the ways of the coven, was attach a ward to the curse.

"A witch's rage, a price unpaid, children in the crossfire. Shield the innocent life, protect them from adult wrongs when they hear a cricket song."

She raised her children to be wary of crickets found within the house. She taught her middle daughter Willow everything she knew, as she held the most potential. She taught them to catch the crickets in their house gently and release them back out.

"Should a cricket ever die in your home, the curse shall affect you..."

And when she died of cancer in Florida, her last prayer was that her children and grandchildren would be safe.

It was a long time before any of them were hit with the curse. First her son, he died of a tragic heart attack when his wife killed a cricket in the kitchen. He had never believed in magic and never paid attention to the curse. He died at 59.

Her eldest daughter's daughter was born with a disease that made her dwarven and fragile when a cricket was accidentally crushed while pregnant. Unfortunately, Anita crushed another cricket in her 60's, and died abruptly.

Only Willow and her younger sister were left. Her younger sister had forsaken everything important when she turned to drugs in her teens. Willow had three children of her own. She had trained her oldest daughter, and together they were powerful. Thankfully, Willow also had made a powerful friend who was much like a sister over the years.

Willow came to realize that they could prepare and know all the wanted, accidents happen, and she didn't want to risk the lives of her children to chance. It was not only herself and her children at risk, but the children her children would bear. A generational curse.

The three of them got together and spoke heavily one night about the problem. The three of them together didn't know if they were strong enough. They knew that out of the original coven, the ones who were part of the spell mostly died of old age, and the ones that were alive were frail, in their 90's.

So on the full moon, borrowing strength from the world around them and calling upon the energies they lit candles and focused on the bonds of the curse. It took several hours, but eventually, the curse broke.

The little coven of 3 were victorious, and perhaps a little disappointed it wasn't a harder fight.

"Well, what do you expect when most of the original curse casters are dead." Sighed Willow's daughter in a mournful voice. As Willow cast her eyes at her daughter her world spun before going dark briefly.

Her head went back, her eyes went white and within her minds eye she was shown a vision.

Her daughter, older, with three children by her side that looked a lot like her, and together they were battling a dark force in the shape of a wispy black cloud with red glowing eyes. Behind them were people with heads bowed and hands pressed together, tendrils of light flowing to her four descendants facing the evil presence.

Her daughter and what she assumed were grandchildren were grinning in excitement as they each unleashed a power of their own at the cloud, dispersing it with a final scream.

Willow came back to the present with a small gasp, and her daughter grabbed her arm gently.

"Mom?"

"I'm fine. Just being given confirmation of our success darling. Everything will be just fine." Willow said with a smile.

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