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must be a witch

R ecently, I’ve begun dreaming in my sleep. Odd because I never used to dream. Ever. It was always the same. I’d end up in the middle of the salt flats and sometimes I would see Reaper, but only for a moment before I’d wake up. She haunts me in my sleep too.

“Where’s Lin?” I asked. Lunch was half over, but he still hadn’t shown up to the table.

Jamiel shrugged. “Said something about tutoring someone.”

“During lunch?”

Lin usually only tutors after school and on weekends, and when he wasn’t tutoring, he was studying or interning at the hospital.

The only time he ever relaxed was during lunch or when there was a party and I would say when he slept, but it's more like he passes out.

Lin doesn't really show it and he never complained, but I knew the pressure got to him.

“Guess so.”

I inhaled smoke, it wasn’t the same when one of us was missing. I took out my container, but there were no more pills left. Wonderful! Thankfully I had a second container in my locker. “I’ll see you guys in class.” I tossed my cigarette on the ground and headed up to the twelfth-grade hallway.

Lin’s voice, calm and gentle, was explaining some concepts to someone. As I passed the room, I got a glimpse of who he was with and halted dead in my tracks. There’s only one girl in this entire school who had long, straight hair .

Dog.

I stepped back and stared from the open doorway, my hands shoved in my pockets. “Yeah, you got it.” He smiled at her and a jolt surged in my stomach. “Now, for this next question—” Lin paused as he met my eyes, fearful. Reaper turned back to look at me as well.

“What are you doing with her?” I spat.

“She missed four years of school, so the principal asked me to help her with some subjects.”

Traitor.

“I had to do it,” he explained. “They specifically asked me.”

“You really couldn’t have said no?”

“It’s only twice a week,” Lin said.

“Afraid he’s going to steal me from you?” Reaper’s eyes sparked with amusement as she leaned closer to Lin, tauntingly.

“I’d be happy if you could mess with someone else’s head, but my friends are off limits.”

“Yeah?” She reached her hand up to play with Lin’s hair, just like she did with me the other day, looking at me the entire time, slowly pulling him closer to her. “Doing something I’m not supposed to just makes it more fun, don’t you agree?”

Lin was too stupidly mesmerised to stop it.

I was in front of her in a flash, grabbing her wrist and pushing Lin back in his seat. “Stop.”

Lin’s face was flushed as he cleared his throat.

Reaper smiled, looking up at me through her thick lashes. “Hyacinth.”

My grip on her faltered. “Shut up.” My gaze lowered to the thin silver chain around her neck. I've noticed it for a while, but I never knew what was at the end of it. Curiosity got the best of me and I reached for the necklace .

She smacked my hand away, a glimpse of fear on her face, though she covered it with a laugh, adjusting her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “Could you leave now? I need to learn.”

And I need a bloody smoke. I glared at her, then turned to Lin. “Don’t fall for her witchcraft.”

“I mean, I’m not gonna stop her.” He shrugged.

I let out a breath and went around their table, pulling out a chair. “Don’t mind me, I just want to make sure you don’t get Lin to sign some contract, Rumpelstiltskin.”

She rolled her eyes at my joke, but I could see she wanted to laugh, before turning back to Lin, waiting for him to speak.

He cleared his throat again. “Right, so…”

I couldn’t help but wonder if Reaper dreamt about me too or if she was some sort of witch who casted a spell on me to have her on my mind every bloody second of the day.

Though, I don’t think witches existed. Then again, Demons, Angels, and Selkies were a thing, so how far off would it be to assume she was a witch?

She could be a Demon.

Though female Demons haven’t existed in centuries, thanks to Angels hunting them down due to how powerful they were.

A female Demon was rumoured to be lurking in Soulesity.

But that was over a decade ago and Reaper wouldn’t have shown any signs of being a Demon back then, and it was probably just Bernadette.

An Angel?

Angels weren’t known to be attractive, only kind, and Angels only kill Demons. She’s also much too tiny to be an Angel, they were giants, at least two metres tall.

Selkie ?

She was as mischievous as one and had a beautiful voice. Though, Selkies didn’t have nails and Reaper liked to paint hers. Their eyes were also more commonly green with wavy hair and iridescent skin.

But she couldn’t possibly be human, there was a certain aura Reaper radiated that just wasn’t. So, she must be a witch.

The muscles in my body became more and more tense as she continued to avoid looking in my direction.

“Cinth, you’re distracting her.”

“Good.”

Lin shot me a glare, and I had to hide my laugh. I always found it funny when people tried me. “Come on, Cinth, I know you hate her, but this is her education. Don’t mess with that.” Knowledge was a line Lin never crossed. No matter how much he didn’t like someone, he’d never want to see them fail.

I met Reaper’s eyes and gave her a smirk. “Who said I hated her?”

With that I got up and left to my locker to pull out what I was originally getting. I desperately needed a pill or two.

***

Late Saturday night, I had just completed my assignment and wasn't too far from home, a half-hour walk.

The weather wasn't bad either, just a bit of a cool breeze.

The East side is much quieter than the West, with shops closing earlier and everyone on this side having normal nine to four jobs, so there weren't many people walking or cars driving.

Yet here were the Kokkino clan twins sprinting away from something or someone. I had been seeing them so much lately. Too much. I exhaled my cigarette, watching them disappear behind a building.

Then Reaper showed up, looking frantically around for them as a group of people shouted behind her. She locked eyes with me, and I thought she was going to ask for help. Instead, she raced into an alley and seven people followed just behind her carrying bats and knives.

It’s never a bore here, is it?

Dropping my cigarette, I pressed my foot onto it before heading in the direction of the alley, pretty sure it was a dead end and not sure how fast Reaper could scale the building. Not that I should care.

I was just going to pass it, see if she got away, but she was cornered and surrounded by the group. One of them noticed me standing at the end, watching.

“Vulture,” one of them warned the group and all of their heads snapped towards me.

“Why are you cornering Reaper?” I asked, stalking closer.

“She and the twins stole something of ours.” He glared down at her. “And we’d like it back.”

With me as a distraction, Reaper took the opportunity to move.

They attempted to grab her, but she managed to just barely dodge their grasps and slip through them, sprinting towards me and gripping onto my hoodie.

It wasn’t until she was close that I saw how tired she was.

But why would she come to me? I could kill her right now and all the blame would go to these people.

How convenient.

I took out my knife, turned Reaper, and held her against me. Her arms trapped under one of mine while I rested my knife against her throat. She sucked in a breath.

“Leave.”

They didn’t need to be told twice as they scurried past us out of the alley.

“I haven’t seen you all day,” she said. “Did you miss me?”

“It was a good day until now.” I leaned closer to her. “Are you afraid of dying, Reaper?”

“Are you?”

“I can’ t be killed.”

“You sound so certain.”

“I can’t imagine my death.” I pressed the blade further into her neck. “Do you want to die?”

“Not so much recently,” she admitted in a whisper. “Are you going to kill me?”

I chuckled. “I can’t do anything to you at school, but shit, it’s hard not to,” I said. “You trusted me to save you like some stupid, na?ve little girl.”

She didn’t respond, but I could feel the ripple of her pounding pulse against the blade on her neck.

“You don’t even know me, Reaper,” I spat.

“Why can’t you say my name?” Her voice was barely audible.

I ignored her question. “You know that night, when you caught me watching your clan. Why didn’t you tell them I was there?”

She took a moment. “Well, what were you doing spying?”

“I was bored.”

“Bored? The meetings are boring. They never talk about anything interesting.”

There were several things mentioned I was curious about. “Phobus has a child,” I started. “Is that true?”

I could hear the smile in her voice. “Can you guess who it is?”

“You know?” I asked.

“I know a lot of things, too much, actually.”

“Why haven't you said anything?”

“Don't you think it'd be more fun to keep the mystery?”

How would she even know? As I pondered whether she was bluffing or not, the silver necklace around her neck caught the light with a quick flash.

I pulled at the chain, slowly pulling it out from under her top.

Her body tensed against me and my jaw fell at the sight of the silver ring with the skull of a vulture hanging at the end of the chain .

No.

There’s no bloody way.

“Where did you get this?” I growled.

“You… Gave it to me.”

I furrowed my brows. “When?”

“A long time ago,” she whispered.

I thought I had accidentally dropped it and some girl found it.

Using it and bragging about it as the rumours got far enough into the Stygian clans.

I knew the Kokkino clan found her when they asked me about it after my accident.

But because I didn’t actually believe I would have ever claimed anyone, I denied it and never looked more into it.

I didn’t want to be threatened or blackmailed for someone I didn’t even remember or told Niko and my friends about.

“Why do you wear my ring around your neck?”

“I’m not quite sure.” Liar. “Did you want it back?”