(An Evening Out.)Buttercup was emotionally afraid, but mentally fearless.You never knew you were lonely until you found somewhere that you belonged. She belonged with her friends.They had rented rooms in The Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa, bought new clothes and were all getting ready to eat out.Buttercup walked the red carpet hallway, admiring the art on the walls and in the ceilings. She met her friends in an area where the sky could be seen from the roof of a square glass.She saw them sitting in the chairs around the fountain."Ready Everyone?"Doug said, as soon as she had arrived.He had on a short sleeve shirt, so white that his skin appeared even darker and a white pair of pants over black leather sandals."Yes. Where should we go?"Moonstruck asked, wearing a pleated black skirt and a ruffled front, orange blouse, her black pantyhose slipped into flat shoes."Let's take a walk and decide where to dine from there."Opal answered. She looked wonderful in cream dress pants, a zipp

(Changing Faces.)Buttercup returned to the hotel, she had spent the day alone, visiting a honey house that had different flavours of honey.Her eyes widen when she tasted the creative ways of adding other spices to the sticky food. After which she toured the pastures, where lines of bee boxes were positioned under the fruit trees and she wore protective gear to avoid being stung, by the swarms of bees roaming the area.Next Buttercup took a taxi across the warm countryside, passed a sunken house that was buried in a crater of volcanic residue.Finally, she ended the day by going up the charred landscape of cold Mount Etna. Here she saw burnt lands and beyond that vibrant, green forest.Many craters were wide and deep from every direction and filled with rocks formed from cooled lava. Buttercup felt a sense of accomplishment for climbing the highest mountain in Italy. When the sunset rose to heat up her temperature, then dropped quickly into the blue ocean, the golden rays went out

(A Birthday Gift Gone Wrong.)It was their last night in Sicily. They had gotten what they had come here for. Opal kept the three stone tablets in her suitcase and thought of it no more. Tonight was Moonstruck's night. Today was Moonstruck's birthday.They had gone out into the town and ordered a chocolate cake from the bakery. Moonstruck loved chocolate, she was always munching on a Hershey bar every chance she got.The top of the cake was of white chocolate with brown chocolate dripping down the sides and colourful sprinkles around the bottom, set in a silver tray.Sixteen candles cast bright light upon Moonstruck's face.Sixteen was the age every girl dreamed of. The age when make-up was allowed, the leash of parenting was loosened, dreams drew closer to fulfilment and one walked the tight ropes of feeling like a woman and knowing you were not quite there as yet.Moonstruck spent the day at a spa, Doug's treat. While everyone else went out to get presents for her. Moonstruck go

(Love Is Crazy.)It was a brilliant first night at sea.The sky covered their heads and reminded Opal of a black sheet she sat in bed under as a child and read by flashlight countless novels, when the household had gone to sleep.The light of the moon was close and dusted her face with glowing fingertips, as the flashlight once did.The water cantered, splashed and rolled in waves around the sides of the yacht.Moments later a huge wave curled itself into monstrous shapes, rising up and opening like a paper fan before the boat. Almost like a flick of the hand, the fan snapped closed and the wave relaxed into the ocean.Opal yawned as she held on to the side of the upper deck, she whipped her hair to the side with a dash of her head and from the corners of her eyes, she saw Buttercup walk the back of the yacht. Buttercup had not seen Opal. She stood where the propellers spin the water into a sudsy strip. She transformed, spread her wings and soared.********************** Now it was j

(The Antidote.)Jatray flew down the stairs. Sometimes she wondered why they were there, if she never physically climbed them. Yet she loved this old house. She was comfortable here to be herself. Of all her properties, this was the only one, where all her staff were Vampires. Here she kept the old ways, where Vampires stick to their own clan. Here she could be nothing else but a Vampire.She walked over to the shoe stand and laced a blue sneakers to her feet.She decided to take an evening walk.She went out the back door and towards the park.The trees made her think of strip dancers on a pole. They were almost naked as fallen leaves came winding down the bark, settling as discarded clothing on the ground.She came to the open iron gates of the park and sat on a wooden bench, observing a child's birthday party in full swing.Two portable, folding tables were loaded with refreshments and snacks. The cake was shaped like a racing car. Five candles stood in the blue icing top, that slan