A Witch's Curse (13 page)

The news anchor reporting the story told it wearing a large and perfectly white smile. She watched as they jumped to the next account. The newest breaking story had happened last night.

In Lakeview Mobile Estates, three teenagers living in separate trailers had all been killed by the same man. The murderer was a brown haired pharmaceutical worker who everyone synonymously described as being silent. His motivation, according to the host with the microphone covering the event, remains unclear. The person who committed the crimes had already addressed the families of the deceased. He lowered his head and said he was sorry.

Those teens were ones she had known. Not well, per se. It is not as if they were enemies, but only that they had different groups, and she never came to hang out with them enough to even feign interest in saying hello to each one on a normal basis. Doing so would have been stressful, because they were on the outskirts of her world. Still, she liked them. They could have gone on to have lived both introspectively enriching and financially gratifying lives, the kind that she may have been able to read about in magazines some time in the future. Now they were maimed, stabbed, beaten, run over, and for what?

For Rose. For Karen. For Hemera. The curse was killing people, and she knew that, despite how she never intended harm, she had blood on her hands.

Rose took in a deep breath and clicked the station off, staring at the black screen silently for a few long seconds.

The evil presence, the bad luck, the curse itself was introducing its power into the lives of residents with greater rapidity, and its results were becoming much more menacing with each and every minute. Although Rose knew that Alexis had asked her not to feel guilty, to blame it on her own mother instead, she could not help but perceive a sense of great contrition coming over her like a sea of repentance.

She drove to school while blasting the radio, trying to prevent herself from crying.

The announcer doing the broadcast did not help much, either. He shared recent local stories of an uprising of breaking and entering felonies and muggings. She turned the switch off by the time she got into the school parking lot.

Rose went through the first two classes without being able to concentrate on any of the paper work before her. She felt calm for a second when lunch came, and decided to find Grady.

Rose was ready to inform him of something that she had she swore she would never confess to anyone outside of Alexis.

It would be fifteen minutes of walking around campus, past the cafeterias and white roofed buildings in the pallid hot sun, before her venture proved successful.

He was in the library, sitting at a table next to a lofty shelf full of scientific hardbacks.

“
There‘s something I need to tell you.”

His expression grew solemn, for he must have heard her voice shaking. Grady set his pen down and folded his binder.

“
What is it?”

It was the first time he had used that last mentioned word. Something told her this is what his parents probably said to each other when the mood was acerbic, and as a central result sweetness was vital.

“
Do you believe in the supernatural?” Rose asked.

“
As much as the next person.”

“
What’s that supposed to mean?”

He leaned back in his chair, gliding deeply into thought.

“
I believe in an afterlife,” he continued. “I’ve had encounters with the unexplained, as have other people in my family. I lived in a haunted house when I was little, crazy as that sounds. Nothing major happened, just noises coming from upstairs when everyone was asleep. I could have sworn that I once heard a baby crying.”

“
That’s fine,” she said, shaking her head. “But that’s not what I’m talking about.”

An audible crashing was heard in the background. It was the sound of a stack of heavy books hitting the floor, its audibility reverberating off the walls. Within a fraction of a small moment, she saw the ledge in front of them beginning to tip over, and every single novel spine which had been lined up began falling onto the ground. She quickly realized that the mantelpieces were running into each other, causing each and every one to plummet forward like a set of dominoes.

There was only a half second for her to perform a proper telekinesis spell. Alexis had taught her one eons ago, and although it did not involve an entire bundle of objects, she thought what could it hurt. There was no time to move or even think beyond that.

She quickly cleared her mind of all thoughts and then put her arm out.

Time slowed down to a sluggish pace. Countless bibliographies of works were flying around her and Grady. After miraculously finding the proper amount of relaxation, she cleared a shelf not only of its volumes, but of the wood in the back.

The shelf landed on both of them. Exhausted, Rose looked over at him, to make sure he was not hurt.

They were both standing up. By the time the book case had crashed down, its rows of hardcover works were emptied, and they were positioned in the right spot so as to not be harmed. Instead, a hollow square had allowed them to remain standing. The frame had missed them and they came through on the other side without a scratch.

A period of time passed before either one said anything.

“
How did that happen?” Grady asked.

She shrugged her shoulders, hoping to deflect the very event. Grady moved away from the square, and then held her hand so as to help get her out.

“
You were going to cover me,” she said. “In order to make sure I was safe.”

“
Of course,” he said.

They turned around and saw that a good crowd of students were staring at them, wondering what and how this had happened. Once again, before she clawed her way through a massive heap of literature and found her backpack, they moved through the swarm, each and every person gawking at them with bulging eyes, not believing how the two had managed to avoid being crushed after a set had just collapsed on top of them.

My mother’s curse is gaining strength, Rose thought as they walked out into the hallway, and then finally made their way out onto the sidewalk, where they searched for a space that was a bit more private. They found a metal table situated under a colossal tree which gave the dark green bench a proper amount of shade. They sat down, simply to try and catch their breath from the event.

Grady turned his head sideways, and took in a deep inhalation before peering into her eyes. “I have something I need to ask you.”

After hearing this, the words felt like cement weights tied to her feet. The dread of anticipating what it was he was preparing to inquire overtook the positive sensation she had been feeling within her deepest self only a short while ago.

“
How did you do that?”

There was a long hush. Rose knew what was coming, and she already had an answer.

“
What did I do?”

“
Rose, an entire library just fell on us, and we don’t have a single splinter. At least I don’t. Do you?”

“
No,” she answered.

“
I could have sworn that the moment you stuck your arm out, a few books went flying in the opposite direction.”

Another break in their conversational proceedings ensued. Grady let out a laugh.

“
What is it?” Rose asked. She felt that now was certainly not the time.

“
My life’s changed since I met you,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a cigarette. She could tell this was not going to a pure compliment so much as one laced with a but. “I’ve experienced two insane hallucinations that only people wearing straight jackets can relate to.”

“
They weren’t hallucinations. Everything you’ve seen has been real.”

“
Stop trying to mess with me.”

“
Grady, I’m someone you can’t believe. You remember earlier when I asked you if you believed in things from the unknown? Well, I’m part of the unknown. I‘m a…”

He smiled faintly, and then shook his head frustrated, recoiling his hand. “Tell me.”

The word was as easy to get out as a nail from a patch of infected skin. “Witch.”

He stared at her in complete incredulity. Grady stood up, groaning and looking at the ground whilst in deep thought, scratching the sides of his head, both out of apprehension and lack of understanding towards her confession.

“
Grady, I-”

“
Stop it. I can’t hear this right now. You, you’re crazy. What are you going to tell me next, Rose? You going to turn me into a frog, is that what‘s up next? Bring me to a house of candy and show me your Aleister Crowley collection? Or is this a test to see how smart or dumb I am? I knew you were a little strange, but God, Rose. I thought you were above crackpot beliefs. No, you know what I think? You’re pulling my leg, and it’s not funny.”

“
What?” Rose said, pained. “That’s not it at all-”

“
Didn’t I tell you to shut up?” The quarterback’s voice had risen. “You think I’m just some stupid jock who’s never read a book in his life. Here I was, putting you on a pedestal every day, and you suddenly decide you’re a witch, huh? You expected me to buy that? You probably think I would be eating out of your hand if you told me you were Queen Elizabeth too, right?”

“
I’m not lying,” she said firmly. “And that’s not what I’m been trying to do at all.”

Here it was. Their relationship was falling apart. She felt her cheeks redden. Whether it was out of malice, embarrassment, frustration or all three eluded her.

“
No,” he shouted. “You’re pathetic. You know what? I’m out of here.”

She took in a deep breath as he turned his back to her, and began walking away.

To deal with the shock of the event, that very hour she went out into the wide field where she and Grady had met for the first time.

Staring down at the acreage, she noticed how it was still a mess. There were crews of men still working on picking up the remains of the scoreboard. She laid down underneath the same tree, one that on that day had looked stunning, but now appeared distorted, twisted, and weathered.

Wanting to cry, she laid a hand over her forehead, feeling a headache born from stress beginning to throb ever so lightly in one small part of her brain. Moisture still had yet to develop in her eyes, and she was proud of herself for holding off on sobbing.

Looking to her right, the man in black was many yards away. She saw him lift up a hand. At first, Rose thought he was about to wave, before it became apparent that he was holding some kind of flame in his hand. He brought his arm down.

A fire started.

She grabbed her bag and ran away, turning around to stare at the blaze while in mid step. Doing so caused her to fall flat on her back.

She was now a good twenty feet away from the original inferno. The fire had made a straight path towards the wooden trunk. The tree was already in a shifting dome of orange and yellow. That was when she realized that she was laying directly next to another small flame. Grunting in frustration and endless fear, Rose stood up again, this time sprinting even faster, as far as she could. After her face had run dry, and she wiped away the rest of the moisture and decided to jog to the campus, with the hopes of informing someone, anyone, that help needed to be called. She looked over her shoulder to see that the stranger had gone missing.

By the time she had reached the center of campus, a good deal of damage was already done. She watched in horror as the tongues of the flames lashed out and swabbed against the back wall of the theater building.

What had once been a place she had seen an endless stream of performers, guest speakers, teachers, students, musicians and entire plays put on display for the past three and a half years was turned to an enormous mound of radiant cinders in a matter of seconds.

She was reminded of Alexis Harvey’s warning that since her mother is near, her powers will then, in turn, be heightened. Now felt to be a reminder that this was not so. If anything, she only felt overwhelming guilt, and maybe a certain fear of her own mother’s abilities extending.

Running to the office, she heard the emergency bell ringing. Soon, floods of students came pouring out of classrooms, quickly darting about. While they had always had fake drills so as to discipline them, it was a common, if not slightly cynical, belief that if something bad did indeed happen, there would be no such thing as organized lines of pupils crossing to the field, but rather an insane crowd of panicking kids rushing to the gates. This skeptical opinion turned out to be accurate.

While it was her goal to reach the superintendent’s administrative center, the hordes of people dashing everywhere in a frenzy made it impossible to move another inch without being trampled. Hysterical screams flowed through the air, and when she turned around, she was shocked to see many getting closer to the flames, so as to see the sight of the scene.

Soon, it was raining ash. Everyone’s clothes were covered in gray and white soot. Fire trucks shrieked in the distance. By two a clock, everyone was safely evacuated. Half of the buildings on campus were now charred remnants of the past, their crumbling barriers carried away by the afternoon’s blustery current. She stared at the destruction while trying her best not to continue weeping.