#16 – Vera Macrae.
A place like Highacre draws a lot of different people to it. Vera Macrae came here as a young girl. Leaving her the home in Scotland that she adored so her dad could come and work the thriving docks Highacre. Vera’s mother ran a local shop; she sold old books and trinkets nothing very exciting to the eyes of a young girl like Vera.
Now eighty years later Vera runs the shop, her parents long since passed. Her interest in the shops wares has grown a great deal of the years. The spark of interest was ignited the evening an old gentleman in a long flowing coat came calling, his knock came at well past midnight. Vera snuck down the stairs to see her mother handing the man what looked like an old wooden jewelry box she had seen about a hundred times, just resting on the mantle piece in the lounge. His face lid up as he opened the lid pulling out a heart shaped crystal from within. Crushing it in his frail old hands the gentleman ate every last piece of the crystal. Vera couldn’t believe her eyes as the old mans face stretched and then pulled taut, right in front of her as she watched him grew younger and younger, until he stood, tall and handsome no older than twenty. The gentleman thanked her mother, handed her a selection of small diamonds and other wondrous looking gems before turning and leaving.
Over the next few years Vera saw more and more of these strange events, woman vanishing into old mirrors, rings healing a broken limbs. Vera final confronted her parents about what was going on. They couldn’t hide the truth anymore and told her everything. They where the crafters and collectors of all manner of magical, mystical and supernatural trinkets and charms, the experts in the fields of magical constructs and transferral of magical energy to a non magical item. It all seemed so wonderful to her back then as she was trained and educated in all these new and exciting things.
After fifty years of running the place alone, dealing with all sorts of strange people and creatures, all in search of power or knowledge through her wares, she was sick and tired, ready for something else.
Luca Bell the local crime boss and by all accounts vampire had sent men to turn her place over twice in the last month, he was just like all the others looking for something, acting like Vera had something secret and hidden away. They never found anything and would leave her to clean up their mess.
They never paid attention to her tiny little lounge upstairs.
Opening the old wooden jewelry box on her mantle piece Vera looked longingly at the crystal heart inside, it was nearly ready a month more and it would be fully formed, after all these years of waiting. Vera could finally do something new; she could be anything she wanted in her new life. And Vera wants to be young and powerful.
Category: 2012
About the Author (Author Profile)
Shaun was born, a baby, like most. He grew up in a small village in the U.K and went on to read The Hobbit, play tabletop fantasy games and see the greatest movie of all time, Die Hard. Through these wondrous events he grew into the man he needed to be. The one who spends his Saturday nights at home drinking Pepsi, (other fizzy pop brands are available) whilst writing comics he one-day hopes someone will actually draw into a nice pretty comic book. Until then he will just keep on writing. Shaun can be found on the Internet at his blog. Or if you’d rather have his words 140 characters at a time over on Twitter under the very imaginative and clever handle of @ShaunRichensSubscribe
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