Arts and Witchcrafts (PAPERBACK)

CHAPTER 1

The doll was lying on my doorstep. I knew better than to touch it. Its eyes radiated malice as they fixed on me. It was made from black fabric and covered in black pins, and worse still, a white gauze funeral shroud enclosed it. A piece of my hair was tied to its hair and a piece of my scarf was pinned to it.
Even if I hadn’t recognised this as a death curse, the objects in my driveway were a dead giveaway, no pun intended. A large pentagram was drawn in chalk on the pavement and a skull glowed in the middle. Upside-down black candles burned at each point of the pentagram. The stench of sulphur and red pepper reached my doorway.
To most people, especially Australians, this would appear as nothing more than a prank by teenagers.
However, I’m a journalist, and I had interviewed an author for an article on New Orleans hoodoo voodoo the previous month. I had found out then that voodoo dolls were mostly for healing, but it was clear someone with malevolent intent made this doll. The pentagram was a different matter. That was clearly intended simply to frighten me.