Page 7

Souxie Lafayette

I walked into the bathroom with a shove of the door and heard toilets flushing and laughter echoing against the tiled decor. I had a few minutes until my class opened up for students to be let in, so I thought I’d come in to do a touch up but instead, I was greeted with a group of girls in the corner, hovering over their phones laughing. Their all black uniforms told me we were in the same school of the spiritual with the black sweater vest and knee-high socks, but they looked like they were fresh out of high school.

So, I quietly dragged my hand down the stall door before pushing it up from the top and stepped inside, closing it shut with a loud snap of the lock. I hung my bag on the hook and leaned against the wall with my ankles crossed over one another.

“Do you remember that boy from the hall last week? The one that came up to our table?” one of the girls asked. “He asked Nellie out–––”

The girls screamed and giggled as the one named Nellie spoke softly .

“Y'all don’t even get me started. You know what he’s after–––”

“But he’s cuteeeee…Have you been texting him?”

“What’s his name again?”

“Ronan,” Nellie said.

I closed my eyes and just listened, decompressing for a bit before lifting my skirt and yanking the hem of my panties to slide down my thighs.

“He’s a hoe. We know that for sure so don’t take him seriously,” one girl warned.

“Oh I already know how he gets down, that’s why I’m looking like, what do you want with me? I barely said two words to you…”

“But this is your chance to make a name for yourself…We said when we all got accepted into Drew Collins, we would make a name for ourselves as witches… the top witches at this school, did we not?”

“We did,” Nellie groaned. “I just…I don’t know. It’s so many girls here…”

“And yet he came to you…that has to mean something.”

My brows came together as I hovered over the toilet to pee and stared up at the ceiling, wondering if I had a normal upbringing, would I sound like that? Grabbing the tissue, I wrapped a few layers around my hand before wiping in between and chucking it in the water .

“He sees something in you that he doesn’t in the other girls…These other girls, the overly pretty ones like…” She began to whisper but I could tell they were pointing towards my stall.

“They are boring to talk to. You have brains, beauty, and substance…Men, real men get tired of just a pretty face.”

“That’s true,” another agreed.

I picked my foot up to press down the metal handle to flush the toilet. I yanked my bag off the hook and stepped out towards the multiple rows of sinks and square mirrors. The girls got quiet but only for a second, seeing as I didn’t pay them in any mind.

“He wants to link up tonight, and I’m just like…I don’t know…”

“He’s cute…Clearly got money. Have you seen his car?” another one of her friends hyped. “I would do it if I was you. We’re young. You don’t have to make him your boyfriend. Just go have fun. This is what college is about.”

I cut the sink on, wanting to roll my eyes as I washed my hands. I smiled at the playful water art of tiny fish and shells spilling out of the faucet before turning into water against my skin. The art students here never ceased to amaze me .

“So, when do you meet up with him?”

“Tonight,” Nellie whispered as I looked up in the mirror. With a single glance, I did a double take, seeing the dark figure stand against the stall behind the girls. I froze. Slowly, I reached for the handle to cut the water off, never once taking my eyes off the dark shadow. Looking back, I saw nothing but the row of stalls and the girls continuing to talk with one looking at me funny. I looked back at the mirror, seeing the shadow again, simply hovering behind the group of girls like tiny, black sand that formed a tall, looming figure. I leaned over the sink to stare into the mirror for the full reflection and saw that the figure didn’t touch the ground. Just barely hovered over it. When the girls decided it was time to break and walk off, it waited for a second before disappearing right behind Nellie.

Death.

It was death. The same thing I felt with Hillary only this time, I was seeing it for the first time… They opened the door and walked off as I quickly followed, trying not to be obvious, and watched as the crowd of students maneuvered through the narrow halls, and there it was… That dark shadow moving in and out of the short, petite girl named Nellie with the chunky braids. In and out of her backside like it was constantly checking her soul and body to make sure it was still intact .

Looking at my time on my phone, I began to follow her around the corner and down the flight of steps to the next level of classes. Only stopping to look over the railing when she stopped in the corner of the stairwell to check her phone. Death hovered behind her like a shadow, perched over her shoulder before moving in and out of her headspace.

“ Mortem ,” I whispered, just barely a breath of the Latin word coming out when death snapped its neck to look up at me, seeing a dark face form, before disappearing into the corner of the walls like a puff of black smoke. The girl suddenly looked up and our eyes locked. I knew she was confused but I also knew she suspected me of following her.

There wasn’t much you could do in this school and students wouldn’t notice. Not with the caliber of talent and magic here. So instead, I walked down the steps towards her and watched as she pushed her glasses up and shrunk underneath my presence.

“What are you?” I asked.

“Excuse me?”

“What are you? What type of witch are you?” I asked, looking her over.

“I’m a cosmic witch…” she let out, trying to find the confidence to speak up. “I use magic from the stars, sun, galaxy…universe. I have a concentration in world astr ology and constellations…as it relates to African descents and culture…”

A bell ringing in the distance signaled the start of a new hour. She glanced at her phone, and I caught the name of the boy texting her the address of where to meet.

“Um… I have to go,” she nervously said. She inched her way towards the door. I simply watched as she hurried and pulled the door open to walk out into the hallway.

…

“She’s alive!” I blurted out as I slammed my bag down on the kitchen table at the Wisteria House. Quan’s bowl of whatever the hell he was eating jumped as he looked up at me. His black framed glasses only made his vertical bright eyes that much more expressive when he put the fork down and sighed, annoyed. He was sitting at the table with no shirt on, a single little chain link around his neck, fresh cut on the sides with the curls laying over the fade, and black shorts that struggled to contain his muscular thighs.

“What are you going on about now, Souxie?” He groaned. “Why won’t you talk to the girls…usually you bother them with this stuff, not just me. ”

“Celeste is still alive,” I told him as I pulled out a chair to sit across from him. “I was in the bathroom earlier today and I saw death.”

“ What ?” He cringed.

“Death! I saw him!”

“How do you know Death is a him ?”

“Never mind that, Quan,” I said with a wave of my hand. “I saw what I felt when Hillary was here… The last night we walked out of our dorm to spend the night at Asha’s house…death had followed us in the hallway. When I was in the building, I saw Professor Akeem that night…death was crawling all over that place but they use that building for autopsies and crime related research…Now…I finally saw death in its full form.”

Quan scratched at his head before leaning back in the chair as he crossed his beefy arms over his chest. The only thing saving him from looking like an intimidating giant were the nerdy glasses that scaled back his size and downplayed his features.

“Alright, so what does this mean exactly?” he asked. “You saw death following behind a girl, now what? Did you warn her?”

“No but what exactly is a school like this letting something like that walk around The Grounds?” I asked just as I heard a key slip into the lock. The alarm beeps went off as Isis walked in with a stack of books in her hand. Kicking her shoes off, she checked the small mailbox slots by the door, hung up her decorated skeleton key next to ours, and walked by with a smile towards us.

“Hey, y'all!” She greeted. Quan and I said nothing as her smile slowly dropped to a frown. “Okay well…I’ll be upstairs studying if you guys need me. Big exam tomorrow.”

I gave her a small nod, not wanting her to think anything was wrong or adding to the already tense house. Quan kept his eyes on her before looking back at me with a double blink of his vertical pupils. We both waited for the door to close shut to her room before he leaned in.

“You think the girl is alive?” He asked again.

“She has to be…given what she is… I’ve been doing some reading on oracles… They are able to jump bodies when they feel threatened. She was obviously threatened. She jumped when she was here. If they did the research the way that I did, she is probably no use to them now so why kill her? They should be out looking for the next oracle, yes?”

“That’s your problem now,” he pointed out as he swiped the bowl off the table to finish eating. “You’re always fixated on something…sticking to the one thing and never letting up…even when everyone else has moved on.”

“So seeing death walk around, following behind a girl is not news to you?” I asked. “You’re not the least bit curious as to why that is? ”

“No because people die all the time–––”

“People don’t just die here at Drew Collins,” I said. “They don’t go missing as well. Same with the four girls from Society Hill. How are you not questioning this?”

“I would question why you’re able to see it and nobody else can’t.” He scooped whatever the food was into his mouth for a mushy chew. “Guess only time will tell…”