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Hallmark movies tend to give people high expectations of a small town that are often disappointed.
More often than not, they’re dead-end places losing more and more residents every year.
But Hallmark aren’t entirely wrong. There are places that truly capture the small town magic, with a sense of community spirit and togetherness, and lots of social events and festivals that draw in visitors as well as the locals.
Their secret is simple. Real life magic.
When Alina is a child, Keramzin is grey and tired, a town failing on every level.
And Alina dreams of a place like the ones she sometimes sees in the movies on TV. Bright and warm and always bustling.
As a teenager, she grows more realistic. She’ll likely never have the money it would require to make Keramzin like one of those movie towns. Her enthusiasm and volunteering can only go so far, after all.
So, Alina goes a different route.
Aunt Ana calls herself a wiccan, which in her case seems to involve a lot of crystals and chanting, as well as the occasional naked moonlit dance or use of magic mushrooms.
That’s all well and good, and her aunt seems very happy, so Alina won’t judge, but she thinks she’d like to try something a little different.
Their town library doesn’t have much in the way of modern books.
Old, dusty tomes of questionable origin, however …
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Alina summons the devil on a sunny Friday afternoon two weeks after she graduates.
She’s not going to university. She’ll support herself and pay rent to Aunt Ana using her art commissions and a part-time clerical job for the mayor. After all, she has a goal and she needs to be in town to succeed in making it a reality.
It has taken time to get to this point.
The offerings require to call devil are not insignificant, after all.
Luckily, Aunt Ana has a herb garden and all sorts of interesting substances around the house and won’t notice a little going missing.
Her own blood is easy too, as she’s never been squeamish.
The final requirement is the difficult one. A human sacrifice.
Alina is a vegetarian. She once punched a classmate in the face for tormenting some abandoned kittens (and then she promptly adopted them all). She doesn’t agree with the death penalty (largely because she doesn’t trust the courts not to execute innocent people) and she frequently attends peace protests with Aunt Ana. She is not, on paper, a particularly good candidate to become a killer.
But Alina needs the devil’s help to make her dreams come true. And the devil requires a human sacrifice. Therefore, Alina is obliged to provide one.
Luckily, Alina is confident that she has excellent judgement.
If she chooses a victim, then they deserve it.
The crimes which Mayor Pyotr Lantsov is guilty of are extensive but they are not things Alina wishes to dwell on, lest she lose focus and decide to torture the odious man instead of simply killing him.
It is depressingly easy to lure him to the shed at the top of Aunt Ana’s garden where Alina is preparing her offerings. Lantsov is liable to follow any young woman in a short skirt if they make vague promises of favours, especially when they are barely legal.
Easy enough to kill him too. Pyotr has never been athletic and he is easily distracted by a hint of cleavage.
“What an enterprising girl you are, Alinochka.”
He steps out of the shadows, the acrid smell of brimstone clinging to his black robes.
Like a statue carved from marble, almost painfully beautiful, his dark eyes glittering like the night sky.
She bows her head briefly, unsure about what the proper form of greeting is for the devil, but not wanting to appear rude.
“So, you have summoned me,” he says, foot nudging Lantsov’s still body, “shall I get rid of that for you?”
“Oh, would you,” Alina beams, “I was dreading dragging him out to the woods. I’ve got very little upper body strength, you know.”
He flicks his fingers and Pyotr Lantsov is gone, as if he were never there at all. And, since Alina was careful to lure him away where no one was around (and knowing that he’s too cheap for any of the security cameras around town to actually work), she is fairly confident no one will link her to his disappearance.
“Now,” the devil takes a seat on one of the rickety chairs in the shed, lounging on it like it is a throne, “shall we discuss the terms of our bargain, Alinochka?”
He’s very businesslike and efficient. Alina is intensely relieved, since it would have been embarrassing to summon the devil and find him incompetent.
No, the devil – Aleksandr, but you can call me Sasha, Alinochka – clearly knows what he’s doing.
They discuss her wishes and her needs, and Sasha contemplates the issue for a few minutes before deciding that what Alina needs is a little magic of her own.
“It would be tiresome for you to have to ask me to help with every little issue that will arise. Better that you can fix the smaller issues yourself, and I’ll come in and assist with the bigger projects. With a sprinkling of luck and prosperity, I think we’ll be set.”
“And the price?” Alina asks, because all the reading she’s done on the devil makes it clear that you should decide on that before agreeing to permanent bargain.
“The standard is your soul, but I have the feeling you’re far too interesting for me to allow your soul to be consumed by my demons on your death. And you know, there is an empty throne next to mine.”
Alina stares, wide eyed and, she must admit, rather turned on at getting what amounts to a proposal from the hot devil on their very first meeting.
“You don’t have to, like, kill me, right?”
“Of course not, Alinochka. I’d miss that lovely blush on your cheeks. No, you would simply stay as you are in this town for as long as you wish, and once your business is concluded, you would come with me.”
“This sounds too good to be true,” she says, a little suspicious.
Sasha shrugs, “I’m usually not summoned by anyone as charming as you and it would be a waste to turn your soul into fodder for the demons. Besides, I can see the truth of your heart, Alina Starkova, and I know your worth.”
“I think that might be the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“Thank you, Alinochka.”
“Well, it’s a pretty low bar, but you totally cleared it.”
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She signs the contract he gives her.
Alina is not generally prone to foolish decisions, but it may be unwise to make a deal with the devil.
Still, big changes require bold choices.
Besides, Sasha may be the actual devil but she trusts him more than she does anyone else.
Their first harvest festival is a few months later.
Luck, and a little infernal magic, have seen competent, terrifyingly beautiful Genya Safina elected as the new mayor.
Alina loves working with Genya, especially when they find things left behind by Pyotr and have impromptu bonfires.
Already, there is improvement to be seen in Keramzin. Genya is enthusiastic about community and charming enough to talk people into getting involved.
Alina has worked very hard on the festival, which has attracted more people than they’d ever hoped for.
There’s nothing like it in this part of Ravka and many visitors are simply curious to find out what it will be like.
She has luck and magic on her side, but that doesn’t mean Alina hasn’t been doing a lot herself. She doesn’t want to be one of those slackers who relies too much on supernatural gifts, just wants them to give her a boost.
For the first main event, one of the farmers has decked out their barn with pumpkins and fairy lights, setting up rows of benches and a space for dancing. There’s a local band playing and, from the cheering she can hear, they’re very popular.
Outside the barn, people mill around chatting and working at the pumpkin carving stations.
There are stalls selling local produce and cider, and those Alina has infused with a little bit of magic. They are wonderful enough on their own – she’s taste-tested all of them – but she wants to give them a boost so that people really remember them, enough to spread the word to their friends and family.
There is more to come, for this festival of theirs.
Competitions and games, stalls and arts and crafts, carnivals and musical performances and shows.
It’s going to be fantastic. Alina is sure of it.
And it makes her glow with delight, to see how happy everyone is.
Not that long ago, this would have been unheard of, and yet it’s clear that all the town really needed was some magical luck and a little push to embrace the community spirit that they’d previously lost.
As the evening wears on, Alina spots movements in the shadows.
She doubts anyone else can see him, but she spots Sasha, watching with a half-smile on his face.
“You have a gift, Alinochka,” he says, “even with the magic, it needs someone like you to make this a successful reality.
“I’ve dreamed about it for so long,” Alina beams with satisfaction, “this is only the beginning.”
“I have no doubt you’ll turn this place into a wonder.”
He fades away before she can say thank you, but she feels a whisper of shadow brush against her cheek as he goes, almost like a kiss.
Keramzin doesn’t do chains.
They want family-run stores with local products, where everyone knows each other’s names and favourites.
Much better than mass-produced rubbish and with the bonus of ensuring local suppliers have plenty of orders.
Artyom Zlatan is an executive of a company Alina has no interest in learning about.
It’s big, it’s corporate and it lacks character or soul.
And Zlatan wants to put a giant superstore right in the middle of their town.
The wages he’s suggesting are a pittance, and the management would be recruited from outside Keramzin because, in Zlatan’s own sneering words, “your twee little town lacks the calibre we look for in our management.”
Few people want it, least of all Genya, but the mayor’s powers are not infinite, even in a town like Keramzin.
The town’s revival is in its infancy and there are still those who would sell it out to make some quick money for themselves.
After all, Zlatan soon proves he’s not above bribing councillors.
This is not a problem Alina can fix alone.
She might manage to get Zlatan sent away, but she knows that more corporations will come, their greed never-ending, always looking for a new market. Alina has to put a stop to that.
Zlatan leaves to go and report to his bosses, but he never actually makes it out of town.
Instead, he ends up in Aunt Ana’s shed, bleeding out on what is quickly becoming the unofficial altar for her devilish dealings.
Zlatan is trickier than Lantsov, since she has made no secret of how much she hates his presence in Keramzin, but certainly not impossible. She simply loiters around his car, looking suspicious and pretending to plant something in his car – when he comes to confront her, she whacks him over the head with Aunt Ana’s favourite cast iron frying pan and then gets out the pearl-handled dagger she’d found at one of Keramzin’s antique stores.
Sasha looks impressed when he arrives.
“My demons will enjoy this soul. They always like humbling the proud ones.”
“I don’t want any more corporate drones coming to Keramzin,” Alina says, “can you help?”
“Of course, Alinochka, since you do give such lovely offerings.”
He asks for maps of the town and, comparing old and new, Alina manages to draw an appropriate boundary line on a copy of her favourite of the maps – one drawn just over a century ago by her great-great-grandmother – and then Sasha presses his bloodstained fingers to the page and murmurs in a guttural ancient language she cannot understand. The boundary line glows faintly and then fades back to normal, the blood staining the page vanishing too.
“You shouldn’t have any trouble now, Alinochka, but do summon me if you do.”
He stands to go, but Alina finds she wishes he’d wouldn’t.
She has a lot of questions, after all, about life and death and the universe, and she thinks he probably has both the answers and enough indulgence to actually oblige her curiosity.
“You could stay a while, if you want. I’ll make hot chocolate … does the devil drink hot chocolate?”
As it turns out, the devil does. He has, she discovers, a terrible sweet tooth and it endears him to Alina even more.
It’s three more hours before he leaves and, when he does, his kiss on her cheek falls very close to the corner of her mouth.
Sasha comes, even without her having to summon him with blood and runes.
He steps out of the shadows more and more, and never even bothers with trying to make up excuses for his presence.
“I want to be here,” he says, “I want to be here with you. My demons are generally capable of avoiding trouble for a few hours.”
They talk about everything and anything. He’s surprisingly candid about Hell and the process of running it.
He laughs when she questions his openness, “there’s a reason I fell from Heaven, Alinochka. I don’t hold with the view they have upstairs of being secretive and talking in riddles, not with people I care about.”
“You … you care about me?”
Another laugh, slightly incredulous, “you have a spark of sunshine in you, and you behave with me in a way no one has ever dared. It is delightfully refreshing. So yes, I care about you a great deal.”
He seeks to prove that only a few moments later, with a kiss that nearly takes her breath away.
Alina must admit that she’s smitten. That’s alright, though, she thinks, because so is he.
The second harvest festival a year later is even bigger and better than the first.
They’ve got more visitors and more events, and Genya is charming everyone, making it obvious why she’s the most popular mayor in over a century.
Alina flits from stall to barn party to pumpkin carving to maize maze checking everything is running smoothly. Last year, people required a bit more hand-holding, but they’re getting the hang of it now and managing well this year.
It’s a wonderful day.
True, Alina has been dodging her old boyfriend Mal, who has recently been dumped by his girlfriend Ruby after she caught him cheating, and who is clearly looking for sympathy where Alina wants to give none, but she’s moving around too fast for Mal to pin her down, thank the devil.
Even better, when she has a bit of time to herself, she can slip away to one of the empty fields and summon Sasha.
She doesn’t have to go through the whole rigmarole of a full summoning now if she doesn’t want to.
A quick sprinkling of her own blood and some runes traced in the soil are the equivalent of ringing Sasha’s doorbell.
It’s only a minute or two before he appears, stepping out of the shadows and immediately embracing her.
“Alinochka,” he kisses her thoroughly, mussing her hair, “it’s been too long.”
Alina laughs, “I saw you yesterday morning.”
“As I said … too long.”
“You know … everyone’s so distracted I’m not sure they’d notice if we went back to my room at Aunt Ana’s for a small private party of our own.”
“You have the very best ideas, Alinochka.”
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“I saw you, Alina, communing with the devil!”
It’s the morning after the festival and the town is quiet and slow moving, sleeping off the excesses of the parties.
Alina doesn’t want her pleasurable memories of the night before to be ruined by the buzzkill that is Mal Oretsev.
“That wasn’t the devil, Mal, that was Aleksandr.”
“You summoned him from the pits of Hell and made an infernal bargain. That makes him the devil, or a demon.”
“It doesn’t really matter what he is, Mal. His name is Aleksandr – I actually call him Sasha but he probably wouldn’t like it if you did – and he deserves to be referred to by his name. How would you like it if I called you human instead of Mal?”
“How can you make jokes!” Mal grimaced, “you are entertaining Satan in your midst.”
“You sound like a puritan, Mal. And I really don’t think it’s your business who I date.”
“I’ll tell everyone. You’re under the devil’s spell. You’ve bewitched this town.”
“Well, sure, haven’t you noticed how much livelier it is? Business is booming.”
“It is the devil’s work.”
“Mal, you’ve been watching too many movies. You need to relax.”
“I’m calling the police,” Mal says, “and the FBI and the –”
Alina sighs. She’s glad she always carries her dagger with her, just in case.
Still, she hopes she doesn’t get any blood on this jacket – it’s new and dry-clean only.
It’s been fifteen years since Alina made her deal with Sasha.
And now she thinks she’s finally ready to move onto the next stage of her life.
Keramzin is thriving, and she thinks she’s laid enough groundwork that it can carry on without her.
She doesn’t have to even say his name these days, only thinks it and he’s there, stepping out from the shadows.
“Hello, Alinochka.”
“I think it’s time, Sasha.”
His smile is wide and pleased, joy in his eyes, “truly?”
Alina nods, “yes, it’s for the best. I’ve done what I can here and they’ll be fine. Besides, I’ve been thinking a lot about what you’ve told me about Hell and I have a few suggestions.”
Sasha laughs as he leans down to kiss her, and then he takes her hand, drawing her through the shadows with him, “I look forward to an eternity of working with you, Alinochka. You and I are going to change the world.”