Spellbound

"At some point their affection began to drift from familial to thoughts best left unspoken. My mother's desire woke the stone which from the time Timothy gave it to his two daughters to that point had seemed dormant."

"Jason's father was caught having another affair, but this one became public because he got a woman in their church pregnant. My mother was humiliated and angry and Jason, well dad to me after I discovered he truth, told me her anger sent the stone into over drive and she came into his room and seduced him.

"He said he tried to resist, but once my mother started," Robin cleared her throat. "Coming onto him, he couldn't resist her. They carried on a few months behind Jason's fathers back until the woman had her baby, then my mother told him to go play family with her because she was done."

"Timothy's vineyard was left to his daughters and with a provision their husband's or any husband to any of his female descendants could have no claim to it. So my mother and her son remained in the house as lovers and I was born a year later."

"So this thing keeps making mothers want their sons?"

"Only if there's a problem. My sister Janice was born two years later and we both got married. I lived in the house you're in now, Janice in the one I now call home. My husband..."

Robin put the album back in her purse. "I told you about him and won't talk about him anymore except to say he was as bad as they come. My mother had left me her necklace and given Janice the other. I never wore it because I knew what it did and honestly I felt the way you do."

"The way almost everyone would." Emma added.

"But one night when I lay in bed barely able to move from the beating he'd given me I was in tears and like any woman, even an adult woman with a child of her own, I wanted my mother."

"She was gone, but I remembered the necklace and how she wore it all the time. I put it on and within a few days it began whispering to me. Telling me how I deserved better and how there was an amazing young man right there in my house who longed to treat me the way I should be treated."

"I knew my mother's story and the history of the stone. I tried to take it off, but as I'm sure you've found out, you can't."

"But your mother did. You said she gave it to you."

"Because she had consummated her love with her son. The stone was dormant and content. If I was happily married putting it on would have never affected me. But I was unhappier than my mother ever was and had thoughts of Cliff who at the time had just turned eighteen."

"You had thoughts before you put it on?"

"I did, I would have had to. As I said, Emma it can't create the desire from nothing. There has to have been some prior thought or some type of incident that planted the seed."

"Cliff used to rub my shoulders for me to try and help me relax. One night he was doing it and I was hot and took my robe off. Cliff's hands felt so good on my shoulders and at one point he leaned over and kissed my cheek."

"I had this image of him kissing my neck, first softly, then much more passionately. I thought of turning my head and my lips meeting his. As he kept rubbing my shoulders and upper back I found myself going into a full fantasy.

"I thought of my son returning that kiss and putting his arms around me and pulling off my top, fondling..." She stopped and gave a mock shudder. "Sorry, getting myself going."

"Great." Emma sighed.

"But of course I didn't do anything. But that little waking wet dream stayed with me. It turned into some nastier dreams, but nothing more. Until I put this on."

"So the one I'm wearing was your sisters. Where is she, and why is it still working?"

"Janice was much luckier than I was. She married an amazing man who loved her very much. She was completely happy and wanted for nothing. She knew its history just like I did, but in her case she knew she was safe and wore the pendent as a family heirloom to remind her of our mother."

"When Cliff and I had been sleeping together behind my husband's back for a few weeks..."

"You keep saying your husband," Emma interrupted. "What was his name?"

Robin's eyes grew hard and her lips curled into a sneer. "Something I swore I would never repeat because that disgusting animal doesn't ever deserve to be acknowledged."

"Wow, tell me how you really feel." Emma joked, but was taken aback at the look of malice on Robin's normally serene face.

"I just did. He suspected I was having an affair and lied about a trip for work. He snuck back home and caught me in bed with our son."

"Oh jeez."

"He tried to attack me, but Cliff got in the way. His father was as big and mean as a man can come, but my son had hated him for years for how he treated me as his mother and now I was his lover. It was an ugly fight and one Cliff wasn't going to win."

Robin looked down and idly poked at the crumbs on her plate.

"Frightened for my son I went and grabbed the shotgun and told my husband if he didn't get the fuck out I'd kill him. He laughed at me and came at me." Robin gave her a nasty smile. "I was a woman of my word."

"Oh my god." Emma whispered. "You killed him?"

"I had no choice and when the police came and saw the scene they agreed. People in town knew what he was like and what he did to me. I could have shot him in his sleep and gotten away with it."

"But Janice put it together and asked me if I was with Cliff. She was my sister and my best friend so I told her the truth. She was disgusted with me and demanded I stop my evil relationship with my son."

"I refused and she was so upset she convinced her husband to put in for a transfer at work and she picked up and moved. She left the necklace behind and I took it. I rented the house to a family and I..."

Robin shook her head. "I don't know how it happened, but the next thing I know the woman, her name was Sherri, comes over to ask if Cliff could help her husband move something and she's wearing it."

"I asked where she got it and she said she found it in the closet. I told her it was mine and I'd been looking for it. She gave it back to me, then two weeks later it was on her again. She didn't remember me ever asking for it back and when I did this time she couldn't get it off.

"We were out on the deck and she'd been sunbathing and while we were talking I happened to look up and catch her son in the window. He was staring down at his mother and taking pictures of her. It had started."

"What happened to her?" Emma asked warily.

"One night Cliff and I were out in the yard and we heard the husband yelling at Sherri. I sent Cliff over to make sure everything was okay and when he got there the husband," She narrowed her eyes. "Harry, that was his name, was leaving with a suitcase."

"Cliff asked what happened and Harry told him he'd found a bunch of pictures of his wife having sex with another man. He didn't know who because the man's face wasn't in any of them."

"Pictures?"

"Her son, Robert was studying to be a photographer. His mother became his favorite subject and when they crossed the line he mixed his passions and took pictures. Harry found them. He had no idea the mystery man was his son, but it was enough to make him leave."

"And Sherri and her son?"

Robin looked away.

"What happened to them?"

"Robert left to live with his father in the city and after spending weeks in a deep depression Sherri entered some type of commune."

"A commune?"

"Yes, she told me and Cliff she had committed a huge sin and wanted to rededicate her life to God in order to earn forgiveness. She didn't tell us what she did, but we knew."

"She didn't have the necklace on when she left and we searched the house and couldn't find it. Then Kathy and her husband and son moved in and guess what? She found it, said it was under her bed."

"Kathy." Emma repeated. "Her and her son Paul were the ones who vanished and you said turned up in California."

"And are very happy together to this day." Robin smiled. "They moved far away where no one knew them and people just think she's a lucky older woman with a good looking young boyfriend."

"So they're happy?"

"Very."

"Then why didn't this thing." She tapped her chest. "Go back to damn sleep like yours? In fact why didn't she keep it?"

"The necklace is bound to this family and when it was broken some of its essence and power seeped into the dirt where Timothy's father buried the pieces he could find. Its now bound to the land as well."

"So Kathy just took it off and left it."

"No, she came to me on the day she left and I noticed it wasn't on her neck and she said she lost it."

"But I bet it showed up with the new tenants, didn't it?"

"The next tenants no. They lived here for a year and I never saw it. Then it appeared on Maria."

"Okay so I think I've heard enough history. What does this mean in the present?"

"The stone is trying to accomplish its mission which is to bond a mother and son together in a loving relationship, but one that will remain here in this house."

"This is so fucked up." Emma grumbled. "But not as fucked up as the fact I'm sitting here listening to it."

"Because you've heard it and felt it and you know what it wants." Robin paused meaningfully. "And my guess is its getting it."

"You make it sound like it has a mind of its own." Emma ignored Robin's comment, refusing to acknowledge what she'd done with Eric that had her actually giving credence to this whack job story.

"It's sentient to a point, but has no reason. It has its agenda and isn't going to stop until accomplishes it."

"Okay, so let me get this straight, its affected at least four women who lived in the house."

"More like six." Robin admitted.

"Lovely. Two women are dead. One woman turns into a guilt ridden zealot. One son is dead, one ran away and who knows what happened to him and one lost his mind for a period of time. Sherri's son abandoned her after something happened between them."

"But don't forget about Kathy and Paul who are happy and Cliff and..."

"The odds aren't in favor of happy endings here. In fact your ancestor was killed by her husband. This thing drives mothers to fuck their sons then, " She tapped the table. "Okay, wait something occurred to me."

"What's that?"

"This thing pushes this desire and makes them think they want it, but then when it's over it seems like they end up realizing what they did and bad things happen."

"Yes."

"Why? If the agenda is getting them together then why does it all go to hell?'

"It brings them together, but once the act is fully consummated, it releases its hold. At that point there is no more influence and they are left to deal with the consequences. For me and Kathy we both still desired our sons and they wanted us as well. Others, well unfortunately you've heard what happens."

"How can I get rid of it?"

"You can't. Not until you..."

"Don't even say it." Emma snapped. "I am not seducing my son and even if I tried he has no interest in me."

"Emma..."

"I'll leave. If I pack up and go it will fall off my damn neck and lose itself won't it?"

"You won't leave." Robin said simply. "You're too close for it to let you go."

"Excuse me?"

"Emma, what I'm going to say I won't ask you to answer because I'm sure you wouldn't be able to bring yourself to admit I'm right. So I'll just say it and you know in your heart if I'm right."

"Go ahead and get it over with."]

"At some point, I'm guessing after your husband's death you had a sexual thought about Eric."

"Bullshit! I..."

"I said you don't have to admit it. But I'm saying it to get you to understand why this is inevitable."

Emma felt her stomach tightened at that word. As crazy as this was it had happened before and Robin had witnessed it each time. If she thought something was going to happen she couldn't just discount it.

"Maybe it was a passing thought or a sudden surprising fantasy like it was for me. Maybe you saw something you shouldn't have. Something that would make you see your son as a man and not a boy and not your son."

Emma looked down at the table and knew she may as well have just admitted it had happened. That she had watched Eric with Ashley and it had an effect on her she'd been ashamed of.

"Whatever it was the power of the pendent has augmented that desire in you and is inching you closer to what it, and you, want."

"I do not want my son." Emma insisted. "Okay, maybe I had a weak moment where something I saw at a time when I was very frustrated caused me to have a thought best left unsaid, but it was one time."

Robin raised her eyebrows. "So you saw something and never once thought of it after that time? I don't believe that, but said I wouldn't push you. The fact the pendent is affecting you tells me I'm right."

"So you're telling me there's nothing I could do. That I couldn't just go home tell Eric to get in the car and hightail it out of here?"

"Something would happen that you wouldn't leave." Robin told her. "I don't mean that in an ominous way, but you'd change your mind or decide to wait a little longer."

"Why doesn't Eric remember anything?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Seeing you've seen this play out before I won't pretend nothing's happened. There's been a couple of shall we say incidents. He has no memory of them, but I do."

"Because the pendant is bonded to you, not him. It, and you through it, are the instigator so to speak. I'm guessing Eric is a proper son, but when he comes into contact with the stone he's very receptive to his mother as a lover."

"But why? At this point I'm willing to admit it's having an effect on me, but how can it just throw that switch in Eric?"

"Have you been listening to me?" Robin asked as if the answer were obvious.

"Yes, but..."

"The pendant doesn't create the lust from scratch. Both parties have to have had thoughts of each other. If the son has no desire at all and never has the stone will have no effect on him and at that point the mother either because it's pointless. The goal of the stone is not a forced relationship, but to push something being repressed because we're taught its wrong."

"My son has never thought of me like that."

"If you're experiencing everything I know you are than he has."

"No."Emma was adamant. "Eric would never think of me like that."

"When he touches the stone does he say that or does he tell you things a lust filled young man would tell you?"

"I'm not answering that."

"The things he says are what he would love to be in position to say to you if he felt he could get away with it. The stone is augmenting it and bringing it to the surface, but they're his words."

Emma thought about some of the things he'd said to her the times they'd come dangerously close to crossing the line. Then how he'd behaved last night when she'd...

"Its like alcohol. It..."

"Speaking of what's in that goddamn wine?" Emma demanded harshly as she turned her anger at what she'd done last night towards Robin. "Ernest said it was banned from being sold because it was like a damn date rape in a bottle."

"An exaggeration, but my grandfather did have a wine that was infused with aphrodisiacs. He marketed it as a date night wine for lovers who wanted a special evening. It had never occurred to him some men would try to use it for such a disgusting purpose."

"But you still make it and you gave a bottle to me and tried to get Eric to drink it."

"I did and yes it was to help set the mood so to speak."

"You admit it?"

"Emma you have to understand, I feel terrible about the things that have happened because of the family jewel. I was incredibly fortunate that mine worked for me and I've been happy with what it brought my way."

"But the one you have has never been able to bring that peace to anyone. I thought it would end with Kathy and Paul, but they ran from her husband and the stone has to stay here."

"You don't think it tears me up what happened to Maria and Mary? Even Sherri, losing her relationship with her son and now wasting her life living like some kind of nun? I want it to end, Emma, I really do."

"Then you should have never rented the damn house anymore!" Emma hissed at her. "This cursed fucking rock couldn't do anything if no one was there to find it."

"I wasn't going to. In fact when the realtor I used called and asked me if I would rent again after Mary I told him no. But for some reason he never told his partner and they ran the ad anyway. I told him to pull it when I found out and the next day you called."

"Why didn't you say it wasn't for rent then?"

"Because," Robin touched her chest. "The stones were once one and still have a connection. I planned on telling you no, but what came out was me asking you questions and we started chatting and you told me why you wanted a new start."

Robin put her hands out. "I just kept thinking that what kept getting in the way were the other women's husbands. In most cases they were the cause of the mother seeking happiness elsewhere, but also the reason things became complicated.

"It took longer for the stone to get the mother to realize who it was she needed and made the opportunity to do it more difficult. Most importantly once the stone's hold broke after the culmination of their lust, there was now the guilt of having cheated on their husbands and the fear of what would happen if they found out.

"That's what drove Sherri to exile and Maria to suicide. Mary was caught red handed and you know what happened there. Kathy and Paul, the couple that would have been the fulfillment of the stones purpose, had to leave because they ran from her husband."

"That's why you made the comment about looking for a specific pairing."

"I actually wasn't looking, but what was I going to say? A voice in my head gave me the idea once we spoke?" Robin chuckled dryly.

"But it made sense. No husband to feel guilty about or to fear or to be discovered by or run from. Just a mother and her son. A mother who's heartbroken and lonely and frustrated and who needed a man in her life, but couldn't get over the one who'd been her life until recently."

"But what about Eric? He..."

"When you told me what Eric's girlfriend did to him, I felt this was even more perfect. Your son's in the same state as you. Lost, lonely, in his case betrayed, and unable to get over his heart break. But also wanting to see his mother happy."

"So you have me come here, give us some horny goat weed wine and fill my son's room with mother son porn." Emma shook her head. "You set this whole thing up."

"I did. In fact seeing it's all out in the open I'll confess that I planned your catching Cliff and I having sex. Just one more thing to awaken that lust."

"You're a real piece of work. You know that?"

"I know it seems bad, but Emma I think you and Eric are perfect and you both need each other and love each other and want each other to be happy. The thoughts were blurring already even if it was subconsciously."

"The stone is moving much more quickly than I ever saw it before because there's not another man in the picture to cause hesitation on either of your parts. Your calling me told me something happened between the two of you.

"You haven't crossed the line completely, but I imagine you've gotten close." Robin reached out and put her hand over hers. "Don't fight it, Emma. You have no idea how beautiful it can be."

"Christ, Robin, you hear yourself? I guess I can understand the draw of the fantasy in flat out porn. The taboo of screwing a family member, but you're talking love."

"Emma when something is off limits to you, but you do it anyway, isn't it more of a thrill? The extra spice added because you know it's wrong, but doing it anyway?"

"We're not talking about sneaking out with a boy my parents didn't like or getting drunk at a friend's house. We're talking about..." She lowered her voice. "Incest."