In Search of a Curse

Brett was sat in the lounge with two of his senior associates. He was hoping to schmooze them into putting his name forward as a potential partner in the finance company where he had worked quite successfully for the past fifteen years. He was relieved Haley and Kelly weren't visiting tonight, as a repeat of the naked prank Haley had decided to play on him when he was with his poker buddies would definitely not create the serious and professional impression he was hoping to make. Of course, Jessie had been walking around the place in the nude for days now, but she was more mature than her cousins and knew to stay out of the way whenever there were guests.

The discussion seemed to be going well when Tammy came back into the room, just moments after passing through it on her way upstairs. She looked like she was in a hurry.

"I'm going to Philip's place for the night" she announced as she scurried to the front door.

Moments later, a second pair of footsteps came thudding towards the group, before grinding to a sudden halt as a naked Jessie appeared in the doorway.

She was monetarily frozen in place in stunned silence, like a rabbit in headlights. In her urgency to catch up with her cousin she had completely forgotten that Brett had invited some business colleagues over after work. She had kind of forgotten she was naked as well. Now both things were extremely apparent to her. Tammy would have to wait.

"Oh sorry, I should leave you guys to it" she mumbled before turning to retreat but, to her horror, Brett called out for her stop.

Her uncle had seemingly become tired of the naked pranks his younger relatives seemed to have taken to playing on him whenever he had guests over. He therefore decided the best way to put a stop to future stunts like this was to play along this time and make an example of poor Jessie.

"Steven, Bobby, this is my niece Jessica. It seems she is keen to join us"

"Oh, well she's more than welcome to!" Steven smiled with great enthusiasm.

"Yes, absolutely" Bobby nodded "You know Jessica, if you were looking for work, I'm sure we could find you a nice, junior role at the company. Why don't you stick around and I could talk to you about it?"

"Uh, thanks but..."

Jessie shot Brett a "What the fuck?!" look, but he wasn't done with her yet. Still thinking this was a stunt to embarrass him that had backfired he had little sympathy for her, and he suddenly realised the longer she remained in the room the more Steven and Bobby would enjoy their evening and the greater his chances of making partner would be. Since she was here now, he was going to make damned sure she stayed.

"We've been allowing Jessica to live with us rent free, providing her with all the food and drink she wants and letting her have the total run of the place" Brett explained "Now Jess, you aren't going to be so unfriendly as to leave without introducing yourself properly to these very important associates of mine are you?"

"I guess not" Jessie sighed as she walked into the room and quickly found herself surrounded by businessmen as if they were sharks.

"So Jessica, why don't you tell us all about yourself"

"Yes, and don't skimp on the details. We aren't in any rush!"

---

"Rosalind" Tina whispered to herself as she made a note of the name.

She hadn't discovered any information that Tammy's Mom hadn't already dug up years earlier, but Holly had made the assumption the witch who had originally placed the Petersen curse had died centuries ago, and wouldn't have wanted to make contact with her even if that wasn't the case. Tina, though, had a completely different mindset.

She didn't really know Haley or Kelly but, on top of wanting to help Tammy, she didn't like the idea of anyone being controlled against their will. Especially by horny guys. It was true that the curse did seem like it could be a blessing under the right circumstances, and with the right master she would be totally into the idea of falling under it. But with the wrong master it seemed worse than a lifelong jail sentence.

The current plan, as far as she could understand it, was for the good guys group to spend as much time with Martin and Carl as possible and try to figure out what to do from there. It wasn't a bad start, in fact Tina had already suggested to Tammy that the group of eight should socialise with each other almost exclusively for the foreseeable future, and not just while gaming. It would be an unlikely gang - pretty, popular kids like Haley, Kelly and Emily, mixing with nerdy outcasts like Carl, Martin and, to a lesser extent, Philip, while she and Tammy had a foot in both camps and could perhaps provide some kind of balance. But it was a friends close, enemies equally close situation.

That said, long term she wasn't sure any amount of socialising could really fix anything, at least not properly and permanently. For that she figured she would need to go right to the source. Her plan wasn't exactly fully formed either, and she had no idea what she would do if she was able to track a living Rosalind down, but it at least seemed to be worth investigating. Tina had been fascinated by magic and curses since she was a child. This was the first proof she had that they actually existed, and if that were possible so was anything. Perhaps the witch was still around and, if that were the case, maybe she could be persuaded to remove or modify a curse that was never really intended for the likes of Haley or Kelly.

As luck would have it, she had an Aunt she was pretty close to living in the Sheffield area, not much more than an hours drive from Lincoln. Tina's Aunt knew her niece was fairly eccentric and had been interested in anything witchcraft related since childhood. so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to ask her to dig up some local information on the curse without giving any clues that it was real or that she had friends affected by it. It was a long shot for sure, but worth a try.

"Hey Auntie Rita-san" Tina began cheerily as she called her overseas relation "You know how much I love magic and curses and shit like that? Well I need you to do me a solid"