<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Crossroads, 2016</span><br/><br/>The words “small town” could have been written with Crossroads in mind. With a little over three thousand people, it is fair to say that everyone knows everyone else. If they don’t know each other personally, they at least know that they are there. Others meet in church, the local farmer’s market, the local school… basically, everyone knows a little about everyone else’s lives. <br/><br/>Being this small, the town didn’t offer much in terms of entertainment. The only place designed for entertainment was the social club, which was geared towards the younger people, so they had a place to go. Most of the time, though, people would go somewhere for a cup of coffee or just meet up at each other’s houses.<br/><br/>Most people who lived in the town were locals, with one or two people having moved from other places due to marriage or work - not that there was much they could do in there to make money. And the town itself seemed to choose those it wanted. Some people were not allowed to leave at all - something always happened whenever they tried - and some found out that, once they left town for something, they were not allowed back in.<br/><br/>That had been the case with some locals, and with some who had moved in from the outside as well, as the man who had married the keeper of the only Inn in town, Mrs. McCoy. The man had not even had the chance of getting to know his baby daughter, and his wife had been devastated at knowing that he was out there and being unable to reach him.<br/><br/>Unfortunately for the town, it had been just one more case. There was something - a curse, people said - that caused these strange events. Nobody knew why, how or who exactly had placed the curse over the town. But they knew it was real, and it was getting worse, as though the person who had placed it had been getting stronger. <br/><br/>Crossroads was no stranger to the supernatural. There were witches, wizards - both light and dark - and even werewolves in the town. Some of them wanted to lift the curse, and others wanted things to be kept as they were. And those were definitely about to come to a final clash. It was getting closer, and neither side knew exactly when it would happen.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">The Inn - 9:15 a.m.</span><br/><br/>The small Inn was one of those place where people stopped for a cup of coffee, a meal or even to have breakfast with friends, so it wasn’t a surprise to see people who were not staying in there drop by just for a meet up or to hang out with the young Innkeeper, who had lived there her entire life. <br/><br/>Whoever came in was usually welcome, as they were all old friends, or at least acquaintances Arianna had a good relationship with. Not this morning, though. This morning, <span style="text-decoration: underline">The Cottage</span>, Arianna’s inn, had some unwelcome visitors. <br/><br/>“What do you want here?”, the young woman asked from behind her counter, her voice clearly exasperated. <br/><br/>One of the men who were standing at the other side smiled. “You know what we want, dear. We just came here to kindly invite you to a meeting tonight. Oh, and we would like to see the baby as well. I have heard she is beautiful”.<br/><br/>Hearing these words caused conflicting reactions. Arianna felt her heart freeze and her blood boil at the same time. Threatening her child, even remotely, was not something she was willing to take lightly.<br/><br/>Stepping outside the counter, the woman stood face to face with the man who had said these words. “Don’t ever mention my daughter again, you dirty fucking dog!”, she all but growled. “I want all of you out of my Inn, now!”.<br/><br/>The three men laughed at the woman’s bravado. “...or what, sweetheart?”, the man who seemed to be the leader of the small group completed, brushing his fingers against Arianna’s cheek. The young woman’s hand pushed the man’s away. “...or I will <span style="font-style: italic">make</span> you leave”. The men laughed again, and this time, it was another one to speak. “Oh, really? You and what army?”.</div>