The house the note led to was in a quiet neighbourhood, a little respectable place surrounded by middle class homes. They parked the bike down the end of the block and walked up to it quietly, getting a look around. Viv peeked quickly into the front windows, but the only one with any light in it was down the side upstairs. She went around to the front door and was about to pick the lock again when she noticed the symbol painted on the door frame.

“Bother.” she said, stepping back.

“What? There an alarm or something?” Rich asked.

Viv pointed to the pentacle in the top corner of the frame. “Nope, but the owners one of mine. I can’t just go breaking into a sister’s house like this. We get enough shit from the Christians without dishing it out to each other.”

“What, you’re into black magic?” Richie asked, disbelieving.

“No.” Viv said, annoyed. “That’s a protective pentacle, point up. Means it’s probably another witch lives here, another priestess of the goddess like me. Nothing to do with devils or demons.” she considered a minute. “Oh well. If stealth fails, try boldness.” she decided and without checking with Richie she walked up to the door and knocked.

“Viv! If he runs..” Rich said, stepping up next to her and grabbing the door handle. It turned easily, the door left unlocked. They stood there a moment in surprise as the door swung open.

“Well.. I sure hope She meant that as a sign, cos that’s the way I’m going to take it.” Viv said, with a quick glance at the moon above them. Then she stepped inside cautiously and took a look around, Rich behind her.

The hall and stairs were full of book shelves, and the walls above and behind them were covered in beautiful complicated knotwork designs and flowers and symbols. The book shelves were full of works like ‘The Magic in Stones’, ‘Egyptian Magic’ and ‘The power of amulets’. Up the top of the stairs the one light spilled out of a half open door.

“Well, let’s go see...” Viv half whispered, and started stealthily climbing the stairs.

Well he had seen a miracle.

He found it for her, just when they needed it like she always said they would. He took it and he brought it back here and he gave it to her just in time. Just before she died. She’d just looked down at it and smiled and died.

Eternal life. That guy in the alley, he proved it. It worked, he’d seen it work. So why wasn’t it working?

He heard the knock downstairs like it was something from another world. He just sat there watching her, waiting for her to take another breath, just draw in a breath and sit up and be well again like before all of this. But it didn’t happen.

From the corner of his eye he saw someone appear in the doorway. He didn’t look round. What did it matter?

She paused there a long moment, then stepped into the room. Came over and sat in the other chair, just quiet and ..respectful or something. Like she cared.

Someone else came in, a guy he felt through his shock he really ought to recognise. He saw the amulet and looked ready to get really angry, then noticed the new wearer wasn’t breathing and went really quiet. The amulet. Oh yeah, that guy.

“Why doesn’t it work?” Adrian asked quietly, hoarse after all that time crying, and sounding really detatched and distant.

The other two were quiet for a moment, then the woman reached over and touched the back of his hand where he was holding his mom’s hand.

“The magic wasn’t in the stone, love. Never is. Magic is in people.” she said quietly.

He started crying again. He’d thought he was all out of tears.

“So he gets to live forever and she just dies all alone? Damn it, it’s not fair. It shouldn’t work like that. She should come back...” he sobbed.

“I guess it doesn’t seem fair. Never does. I’m sorry.” she said, just holding on to their hands. Not yelling or angry or anything. “I know it’s hard, being left here.”

“She didn’t leave me! She died! She wouldn’t leave me!” Adrian gulped through the tears.

“I know, I know. I’m sure she hung on as long as she could. Just.. sometimes wanting to stay isn’t enough.”

“It doesn’t make sense. I thought... the amulet... eternal life.. it made so much sense. I thought she’d come back. I thought I’d found what she needed. She always said, if you need something enough, you always get what you need.”

“You do, love. Faith manages. But what you need and what you want aren’t always the same thing. Eternal life... everyone’s got it, one way or the other.”

“Could have fooled me.” he sobbed bitterly.

She took her hand away, and traced the shape of the amulet. “Wheel and road love. Wheel and road. The wheel turns, we go along the road of life. Every turn ends sooner or later, but the wheel turns again and the road goes on. Her turn was over for a time. Right now, she’s on a nine month holiday, then she’ll be back with the rest of us, slogging along.”

“That’s bull. She said she’d been Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth and all sorts like that. Stopped talking to one of her friends who said she’d been those people too. We don’t come back. It’s just over. you die, you’re dead.”

“So you’ve stopped believing huh?”

He nodded viciously, trying to stop crying and wiping his face on his sleeve. “A long time ago.”

She smiled sadly. “Looks to me more like you put everything you had into believing.”

He looked at her and then started crying even more. She put an arm around his shoulders. He tried to shrug it off, but then he just sat there and cried. “She’s gone.” he sobbed. “She’s just gone. Ashes to ashes, d-dust to dust.”

“Back into mother Earth, so she can give us birth again.” the woman replied gently. “Which doesn’t help us back here, I know.”

Adrian just sat there crying, until the tears ran out again. Then he sat for a while looking at his mom. He turned to the woman sat beside him and asked “Who are you anyway?”

She half grinned. “What you need, when you need it love. Just a passing priestess the Lady thought you might need a word with. Are you one of ours?”

“Pagan? Yeah, I guess. Mom called herself a witch, but me.. I dunno. It just seemed so.. I mean if the guys at school found out..”

“Isn’t the word that counts, it’s the community.” She saw his bitter expression at that one. “Not much of that lately? I’m sorry. But if you need a friend..”

“No, that’s okay. I can look after myself.”

“We all can love, but sometimes it helps to look after each other too.” she replied, and sat there for a minute.

Adrian looked at her, then he glanced back at the guy who’d come with her, who was standing near the door looking sort of uncomfortable. He looked around and looked Adrian in the eye, and Adrian looked down shamefaced and blushed. He turned around and reluctantly took the amulet from around his mom’s neck.

“I guess you want this back... I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken it.. I thought she would.. but she wouldn’t want it if she knew how I got it. Here.” He turned and held it out to the guy. What was the name on the wallet? Ryan?

Ryan reached out and took it, running his fingers over it and holding it like it was very precious. Then he quickly reached up and tied it around his neck again. “Thanks.” he said. He picked it up and looked at it a moment, then looked Adrian in the eyes again. “What this means to me... It was a gift. It means.. that love is eternal. Even if you aren’t together right then.”

Adrian looked back at his mom, and understood. “I guess she was right after all then. What we need, when we need it.”

There was quiet for a moment, then the woman stood up. “We better go. Do you need any help with anything?”

“Nah, we’ve been ready for this for a while. I’ll call the funeral home. Then I guess I better call the police, turn myself in.”

Viv turned to look at Rich, who nodded and looked at Adrian. “One question.. did you pull the trigger the other night?”

“No. No way. Miller had the gun, Dave was my friend, I wouldn’t do something like that.”

“So you just stole this.” Rich was quiet for a minute, thinking over all the second chances he’d been given. He looked up at Adrian again. “I won’t press charges. As long as Miller ends up in jail for what he did, everything’s cool with me. And you probably won’t have to do anything about that.”

Adrian looked at him to check he was serious, then just nodded. “Thanks.” he said simply. “I.. won’t waste this.”

“Then we understand each other.” Rich replied, then turned and went back down the stairs.

Viv had been writing something. “I guess it wont be easy from now on, on your own. If you ever need anything... well, here.” she passed him the bit of paper with a phone number and her name scribbled on it, then hugged him. “Just remember, faith manages. You’ll do okay, kid.” Then she left.

Adrian turned and saw his mom lying there, the smile still on her face. He sighed, shoved the paper in his pocket, and picked up the phone.