First Vision of Destiny - Alicia

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Copyright © 2009 Kallysten

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the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First Published July 2009

First Edition

All characters in this publication are purely
fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is
purely coincidental.

Edited by Mary S.

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First Vision of Destiny –
Alicia

With a deep sigh, Daisy took a last look at
her preparations. Everything appeared to be in place. She had set
out enough finger food on the dining room table to get the party
started, and she had more stacked in the fridge. Three bottles of
wine waited, uncorked; she had a suspicion that some of her friends
would need some liquid courage before they went through with it,
never mind that they had pestered her for months to set this up.
She couldn’t wait to see their faces when they heard about the
small print.

She trailed a finger along one of the two
bottles of champagne, drawing a line in the fine droplets of
condensation. The bottles would stay in the ice bucket until
midnight. It was New Year’s Eve, after all. Whatever else her
friends wanted, she intended to welcome the New Year properly—which
didn’t mean with excess. She had kept the decorations to a minimum.
They were all adults, and a few balloons, streamers and some red
and gold confetti on the table around the food were more than
enough.

“If they’re not happy, they can organize the
whole thing themselves, next time.”

Her voice sounded too loud in the empty
cottage, reverberating off the high ceiling. She winced. She had to
calm down a little before her guests started arriving, or she would
ruin the night for everyone.

It was her own fault for telling her friend
Alicia about Sam Woods. The self-proclaimed seer and Daisy’s older
sister had attended college together, becoming close friends over
the years before he had become famous. Daisy had thought he was a
charlatan from the first time her sister had explained what he did
exactly, and finally meeting him at the wedding he had supposedly
foretold hadn’t changed her mind.

Alicia had ignored Daisy’s reserves. Her eyes
had widened when Daisy had told her about him, and right away she
had asked about arranging for a séance. It had only become worse
when Alicia had told the rest of their friends, seeking support
when she couldn’t sway Daisy on her own.

Sighing again, Daisy went to the table and
picked a cheese-covered cracker from a plate. She munched on it
while helping herself to a glass of wine. The scent of berries rose
from the glass before she even brought it to her lips. She hadn’t
looked at the labels when raiding her father’s wine collection in
the basement, trusting him to have only flavorful bottles in stock.
He had known, when she had asked to use the cottage for a party,
that she would be helping herself to a few bottles, just like her
mother had known she would be using the china and glassware. Even
now that they were adults, that was the good thing with being the
youngest of four children; her parents had seen and heard it all,
and they didn’t ask too many questions.

Taking the glass of wine along, she stepped
through the French doors and onto the balcony. For a couple of
seconds as she took in the view, she forgot to breathe. A symphony
of gold, red and orange played through the sky, lighting the
horizon on fire. As far as she could see, the ocean glittered under
the slowly setting sun. A few white sails were catching the wind in
the distance. She took a sip of wine. She envied those people who
would greet the New Year on a small boat, with only a spouse or
lover at their side, or maybe their children. She loved her
friends, she really did, but this was not her idea of a good time.
She tipped the glass and finished it in one long gulp. Not her
idea, and yet, there she was, ready to play hostess.

A few more minutes passed before the first of
them arrived. The clear chime of the doorbell startled her. She
glanced at her watch as she stepped back inside and went to open
the door. Five minutes to seven: just a little early.

She set her empty glass aside and smoothed
her hands down her dress nervously. She had opted for a blue cotton
dress she had been told matched her eyes. A quick glance in the
mirror by the door reassured her that what little make-up she had
on was still perfect. Her short hair looked windswept, but she
didn’t mind. She swallowed hard as she reached for the door handle,
wondering who she would find standing behind the door. She hoped it
wasn’t Woods; the last thing she wanted, she told herself, was to
be alone with him, even for a few minutes. Still, her relief was
tinted with a twinge of disappointment when she opened the door to
greet a beaming Alicia.

“Hi,” Daisy said, warmth filling her voice.
“Glad you could come.”

Alicia was almost bouncing as she entered,
her curly hair dancing like red flames on her shoulders. Her wide,
excited eyes made her look like she was fifteen, and not almost
twice that. “I wouldn’t have missed this for anything! Is he here
yet?” She craned her neck to peer around the living room and the
attached dining room.

“Not yet,” Daisy said with a short chuckle.
“You’re the first.”

She showed Alicia to the guest bedroom so
that she could put down her jacket and purse.

“I’m so excited!” She clutched Daisy’s arm.
“He said he’d do it for all of us, right?”

Responding to the hint of anxiety in her
friend’s voice, Daisy tapped her hand gently before freeing
herself. “He said he’d do up to ten people. Ben has a shift at the
hospital, so that’s nine of you. You’ll get your turn.”

A shadow passed over Alicia’s face at the
mention of Ben’s absence. She paused with one arm out of her
jacket, then shrugged out of it. “Nine of us?” Alicia asked as she
sat on the bed next to her jacket. She leaned back, her hands
resting on either side of her. “Does that mean you won’t do
it?”

Daisy’s eyes flittered for an instant to the
charm bracelet on Alicia’s left wrist. Was it a trick of the light,
or were the bite marks hiding beneath the charms redder than usual?
She looked back at Alicia’s face. Maybe later, Daisy would try to
talk to Alicia about it. Right now, Alicia was too excited to
listen to her.

“I said I’d get him here. Not that I’d
play.”

Alicia jumped back to her feet, grinning.
“You say that now…”

“No, I’ve been saying that since the start. I
like a bit of mystery in my life, thank you very much.”

Alicia laughed. They returned to the living
room; already, another guest was knocking on the door. Daisy let
Jack and Lydia in, and as she greeted them, she could see a car
coming up the alley. She left the door open as she invited her
friends inside.

“So, what made you decide to come?” she asked
Jack, her voice teasing.

Of all her friends, he was the only one who
had seemed to think like she did that the whole thing was
ludicrous. Daisy had thought it strange. His job as a Special
Enforcer put him in regular contact with magic, after all. She
would have expected him to be more open to this kind of thing. She
was glad for the support, though, even if it hadn’t helped in the
end.

Hands in the pockets of his faded jeans, Jack
shrugged. He threw Lydia a sly look. “I still think it’s all a
waste of time,” he admitted. “But if it amuses my girl, what can I
say?”

Lydia huffed, crossing her arms as she
mock-glared at him. Her dangling earrings swung at the small
movement, catching the light. “If it amuses me? You said you’d do
it, too! And I didn’t even ask you to!”

“Jack is going to gaze into his future?” Mike
said behind him, and Jack stepped aside to let him, Brad, and
Cathleen in. “So you finally believe in seers?”

“I’ve always believed in seers,” Jack said,
on the edge of being defensive. “And hello to you, too.”

They shook hands, and as everyone said hello,
Daisy herded the growing group toward the dining room and the
refreshments she had prepared. As she gathered their jackets and
purses, she couldn’t help noticing that, aside from Jack who never
wore anything other than jeans, her friends had disregarded her
request to keep the party informal. Both Mike and Brett wore suits
and ties, while Alicia, Lydia, and Cathleen put Daisy to shame in a
rainbow of cocktail dresses. She was sure they had dressed up to
impress the guest of honor, and now Daisy found herself wishing she
had done the same. She left them for a second to place their
belongings in the guest bedroom, listening to the continuing
discussion.

“I believe in seers,” Jack said again “I’m
just not sure anyone can do what this guy says he does. I’m not
sure anyone needs to know their future, either.”

When she returned, Daisy was pleased to note
that eager hands had reached for hors d’oeuvres and wine glasses.
She smiled and nodded graciously when wine and amuse-bouche were
praised, happy that her efforts at playing hostess were
appreciated. She still felt underdressed, however. As the
conversation returned to topics that had been discussed ad nauseam
the last few times they had met, her eyes flitted toward the master
bedroom. She might find an appropriate dress in the closet there.
Should she change?

“What about the seers who help the police
find missing persons?” Alicia said. “They’re telling the future,
and it’s a good thing!”

“And how about the one that predicted all
those earthquakes?” Mike pointed out, raising his glass as though
toasting the woman they had all seen on television.

With a slight shake of her head, Daisy
focused on the discussion. She had no reason to dress up for
someone she claimed was a fraud, after all. “How about all the
earthquakes she didn’t predict?” she said. “Or all the other
catastrophes that happen every day without anyone being
warned?”

“Keep it up, and I’m going to start feeling
guilty.”

She started at the words and turned to find
that Sam Woods had arrived, along with her last three guests.

“Well, maybe you should,” she said. Heat was
rising in her cheeks, but she ignored it, pretending to herself
that it was just the wine. “It’d be far more useful if you could
tell us if one of us will have a car accident or where to invest
for our retirements. What you do—”

“I didn’t choose this gift,” Woods said.
Cathleen handed him a glass, and he accepted it with a nod of his
head without taking his dark eyes off Daisy for more than a second.
“I don’t choose what to see. It’s just there.”

Forgetting the people around them, forgetting
that she had asked him to come precisely to tell them about their
futures, she gave him a hard look. “And you could let it stay
there. We’re not talking life or death.”

He took a sip of wine, then smiled. “Ah,
but my dear Daisy, we’ve had this argument before. Sometimes
love
is
a matter of
life or death.”