by M. K. ROZE
Brittany always claimed she was the hottest girl alive because
of her long blonde hair, green eyes, and muscular body,
which she thought didn’t match her gothic look. Brittany was
known to take anyone’s boyfriend just to prove that she
could, and Adelyn hated her for that.
When Jake, a few rows in front of them, turned around
to find Adelyn, Brittany sexually licked her lips his way.
Adelyn saw Jake smile, and she glared at Brittany,
knowing she had done that on purpose.
When Brittany smirked at Adelyn while twirling her hair
around her middle finger, Adelyn scowled at her, not backing
down. She got that from Dad. He told her never to show
fear or she would make an easy target. She ignored Brittany
the best she could until the class was over.
At lunch, Adelyn walked over to a table and glanced at
Brittany sitting next to Jake. She rolled her eyes, hoping Jake
wouldn’t stoop that low and sat next to Marissa with her
back toward them, not wanting to see what was going on.
Marissa sat across from her. “Hey, your lover boy is
sitting with Whore Bag.”
Adelyn shrugged. “I already saw them.”
“Aren’t you going to say something to her? She knows
you like him.”
Adelyn peered over her shoulder at them laughing about
something. She faced forward. “He’ll have to learn the hard
way just like every other boy she screwed over.”
Marissa bit into an apple. “I would kick her ass if that
was a boy I liked.”
Adelyn looked at her. “Remember what happened to me
the last time I got into a fight?”
“Yeah, but three days suspension was worth it after that
bitch smacked you for looking at her the wrong way.”
“Not having my phone for two weeks wasn’t.”
Nellie sat next to Adelyn. “I think I’m in love.”
Adelyn let out a low sigh and took a bite of her grilled
cheese sandwich.
“Let’s not talk about that right now,” Marissa warned.
“Why not?” Nellie asked.
Marissa pointed at Jake and Brittany. “That’s why.”
Nellie looked behind her. “He’s not all that anyway. Just
go for Carson. He’s way hotter.”
Adelyn tossed her sandwich on the tray. “I don’t need a
man to make me happy. They’re nothing but drama, and I
don’t need any more of that right now.”
Marissa chuckled. “I wish I could think like that.”
“I don’t,” Nellie said. “I can’t wait to get married and
get the hell out of this witchy town.”
Adelyn giggled and looked at Marissa staring past her.
“Will you stop staring at them, please? I don’t want him to
know I saw them together.”
“Fuck him,” Marissa shot back.
Nellie quickly peered over her shoulder and faced
forward again. “I hope Brittany gets herpes on her lips from
sucking all—”
“Nellie,” Adelyn whispered, as she shook her head,
smiling, “keep it down, loudmouth.”
“I hope she drives off a cliff,” Marissa added.
Adelyn gave up on them, knowing they always spoke
their minds, and there was no way of stopping them.
“What do you hope happens to her?” Marissa asked.
“Yeah, what’s your secret wish?” Nellie added. “We
know you have one.”
Adelyn didn’t want to answer them, but she knew if she
didn’t, they would keep asking her until she did. She thought
about it. “I hope someone beats the crap out of her, so I
don’t have to get expelled when I flip on her.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Marissa said and held up her bottle
of water.
“Me, too.” Nellie raised her milk carton.
Adelyn smiled at Nellie’s milk and raised her water
bottle. They tapped them together—the milk splashing in
Marissa’s eye. Adelyn laughed and handed Marissa a napkin.
After school, Adelyn said goodbye to her friends and
went straight to Sula’s Cauldron. She parked out back,
grabbed her black uniform, and rushed inside.
“Hey, Adelyn,” the cook said while flipping burgers.
“Hi, Walter. How have you been?”
He put the burger on a bun and turned to her. “Busy as
hell. You’ve missed an eventful week.”
“Yeah, I saw all the cars here last night. What’s going
on?”
Walter dropped fries into the oil. “It said on the news
that four couples came here a few days ago and vanished.
Some lady on the news said she and her husband heard
people screaming somewhere in the mountains. And they
weren’t the only people that heard the screams. That’s when
all the paranormal people came flooding in the next day.”
Adelyn leaned against a wall. “Let me guess. They think
it’s Sula?”
Revenge is a beautiful thing, a woman whispered with a
Southern accent in her head.
Adelyn grabbed her head. What the hell?
“Are you alright?”
Adelyn looked at him—sure she heard a woman’s voice
but thought she was tired. “Yeah, I’m fine. Please continue.”
Walter thought about it. “Every time someone dies, they
always blame the witch. You better go make that money
before the hunters find out it was just another accident. You
know these broke ass locals don’t leave good tips.”
Adelyn thought about the accident from the year before,
where a couple went to Broom Mountain and disappeared.
She remembered her dad finding their dead bodies and
telling her and her mom that they were torn apart by wolves.
The image of the couple haunted her for months. “I’ll try.”
Adelyn shot Walter a smile and walked through the kitchen,
where she used the restroom to change into her uniform.
After Adelyn looked herself over in the mirror, she
clocked in. She spoke to the manager for a few minutes,
asking him what section she was covering, and waited on
table after table without a break. She was drained, but she
was glad at the end of her shift when she counted over one
hundred dollars in tips.
On the way home, Adelyn stopped by Dunkin Donuts
and grabbed an iced coffee with a turbo shot in it, hoping it
would wake her up. She knew she couldn’t go to bed because
she still needed to do school work. Adelyn took a sip of the
coffee and her face puckered up from the strong taste. She
forced more down and took off toward home.
As Adelyn drove down the side streets, singing and
dancing to a pop song on the radio, a black shadow hit the
windshield and vaporized. She slammed on the breaks—the
tires screeching to a hard stop—jerking her body forward.
She looked in the backseat, thinking the shadow was in the
truck. “What the hell was that?” she said clutching her chest
with her shaky hand.
Adelyn turned around and scanned the deserted road
that went on for miles. She rubbed her eyes, hoping it was
her mind playing tricks on her from being tired.
As she
calmed her nerves, a low moan came from
outside the driver window. She stepped on the gas—flooring
it down the road—not sure of what was out there.
he following day, Adelyn rushed downstairs. She
went to grab a cup of coffee and grimaced at the
nutty aroma, wondering why she didn’t like the
smell anymore.
“Adelyn?” Dad called out as he skipped down the stairs.
She poured a glass of orange juice. “I’m in the kitchen.”
Dad walked in and took a paper bag off the counter. “A
girl from your school got assaulted last night after she left
her job and ended up in the hospital. We didn’t catch him,
so make sure you have someone walk you out after work
tonight, okay?”
“That’s horrible. Did they rob her?”
“No, they beat her up.”
Adelyn gulped and thought about what she wished for
the day before. “Who is she?”
Dad looked at her. “You know I can’t tell you that.”
“Dad, it’s me. I won’t tell anyone. I promise. Plus, you
told me other stuff that I never mentioned to anyone else.”
Dad sighed and walked toward the door. “Not this time.
She’s underage.”
Adelyn grabbed a banana off the counter and followed
him outside. “Was it a girl named Brittany?”
Dad turned to her with a suspicious look. “Why would
you think it was a girl named Brittany, out of the two-
thousand kids that attend there? Do you know something I
don’t know?”
Adelyn looked away from his gaze, wondering if Marissa
and Nellie beat her up, making her wish come true. “No, I
just know that she likes to cause trouble, so I assumed it was
her.”
“Who was she having problems with?”
“So, it was her?”
“Yes, but you didn’t hear that from me. And don’t tell
your friends. No one knows what happened except for us
cops, the victim, and her parents. Got it?”
Adelyn nodded. “Did Brittany see anyone?”
“No, someone knocked her out before she could get a
look at him, or them.”
Adelyn frowned. “I hope she’ll be okay.”
Dad opened the patrol door. “She’s badly banged up,
but she’s being released today. I have to go. I’ll see you
tonight.”
“Okay, love you.”
“Love you, too.” Dad started the patrol car and left.
Adelyn got into her truck, wanting to ask Marissa and
Nellie if they were in on what happened to Brittany, but she
knew Nellie had a big mouth, and she didn’t want to risk her
father’s job. She was sure they’d tell her if they knew
something.
At school, Adelyn met Marissa in the bathroom, anxious
to see if she knew anything about Brittany, and she wanted
to tell her about what had happened the night before. She
opened her backpack and stared at herself in the handheld
mirror while she told Marissa about the shadow she saw.
Marissa flushed the toilet and opened up the stall door.
“That’s crazy. Are you sure it wasn’t a bear or something?”
Adelyn quickly slid the mirror back into the bag, hoping
Marissa didn’t see it. She wasn’t ready to show her, and she
didn’t want her to make fun of her new obsession. “No, it
was a black mist that evaporated when it hit the windshield.
I thought it came into the truck. And when I heard
something moan, that really freaked me out.”
“What road were you on?”
“Haunted Road of all places, by the Broom Mountain
exit.”
Marissa washed her hands while looking at Adelyn in
the mirror. “It was probably one of the kids’ apparitions you
saw that were killed by their mother a few years back. Tons
of those ghost hunters claimed to see them and hear their
cries.”
“It was a moan I heard, not someone crying.”
“Same shit,” Marissa said and grabbed a paper towel.
Adelyn rolled her eyes. “Anyway, my mom said it was
ghosts, but Dad thought it was a bat or maybe fog.”
“I agree with your mom. The way they died was fucking
horrible.”
Adelyn frowned, remembering overhearing her Dad
telling Mom about the woman tossing her kids off of Broom
Mountain, then blaming Sula. Adelyn thought the lady had a
mental break down just like the people on the news said. “If
I believed in the paranormal, then yeah, I would agree, but I
don’t. It had to be a bat or the fog coming off the side of the
mountain like my dad said. Or I was just tired and the coffee
made me hallucinate.”
Marissa opened the door. “What kind of coffee did you
get? I want to see some cool shit like that.”
Adelyn giggled, shaking her head. “I doubt people
would waste their drugs on me.”
“I know I wouldn’t. If I did them.”
Adelyn smiled and looked at her hands to see if there
were any marks. “Did you work last night?”
Marissa shook her head. “My dad asked me to go with
him to look at a stupid boat he wants to buy. Why? Did I
miss out on something?”
Adelyn was pretty sure Marissa wasn’t involved with
what happened to Brittany. She gave her the opportunity to
confess, and she didn’t, so she had to make up a quick lie.
“No, I called you, but you didn’t answer.”
“I never got a missed call.”
Adelyn looked away, hoping she wouldn’t think
something was up. “I guess it didn’t go through. It was after
that shadow tried to run me off the cliff.”
Marissa smiled. “It was a ghost. Come on, dork, before
we get written up.” Marissa pushed open the door and spun
around, walking backward. “I’ll see you at lunch.” She
twirled back around—her sneakers squeaking on the floor—
and walked away.
Adelyn smiled and went the opposite way to her history
class, where she sat in the back row.
Carson, who sat across from her, smiled Adelyn’s way
and handed her a handful of Hershey Kisses.
Adelyn smiled, used to him giving her treats every day.
She thought he was cute, but she liked Jake more. “Thanks.”
She unwrapped one, popped in in her mouth, and let
the smooth sweet chocolate melt away. She thought about
the shadowy figure and wondered if it was possible that she
might have seen one of the dead kids’ apparitions like
Marissa said.
As she got her book out of her backpack, she thought
about the cross in her bedroom that fell a few times and
remembered something cold touching her. Adelyn thought
it was possible, but she knew it would take a lot more than
those odd episodes to convince her the paranormal world
was real. She stopped thinking about it and focused on the
teacher, Ms. Rogers, who was about to read from a book.
Ms. Rogers looked around the class. “Pay attention to
what I’m about to read. You will be quizzed on this and what
you watched yesterday after I’m done.”
Adelyn
rolled her eyes, not wanting her to read again
because she was a slow reader. It made her want to fall
asleep.
Ms. Rogers sat in a chair at her desk. “In 1883, John
Bishop, who was a butcher, lived on a farm near Spell
Mountain. John was married to the young Andrea Bishop.
They had three boys, ages one, three, and seven. On the night
of Christmas Eve in 1884, his wife and children had been
hanged.
“When he was asked by the townspeople what had
happened, Mr. Bishop told them it was his brother who had
hanged them, one at a time up on Broom Mountain. When
the townspeople asked him how he managed to escaped
death, he told them as he was hanged, the limb snapped, and
he was able to run back down the mountain and get help.
“The townspeople believed the butcher until they found
out there was no broken limb, and he had no brother. When
they asked Mr. Bishop what really happened, he said a witch,
whose name he refused to give, killed them and he got away
before she killed him.
“The townspeople ordered Mr. Bishop to confess to
who the witch was, or they would cut his fingers off one by
one until he did.
“Ew,” a girl said.
Ms. Rogers looked up. “I agree,” she said and resumed.
“After Mr. Bishop lost three fingers, he told them that it was
Sula who had killed his family.
“The townspeople charged him with witchcraft and
ordered Mr. Bishop and Sula to be hanged three days later
from the same limb his family was hanged on that horrible
winter day. But as you remember from the video you
watched yesterday, Sula wasn’t found and hanged until the
hunters found her five years later.”
Adelyn’s body jerked slightly, and Ms. Roger’s voice
faded in and out. She looked over at Carson’s face spinning
out of control then it stopped. Adelyn glanced around the
room— hatred welled up inside of her. She kicked the desk
a few times, getting the teacher’s attention.
Ms. Rogers looked up. “Is there a reason you’re kicking
the desk like my four-year-old does when he wants
something?”
“Well, yes, there is,” Adelyn scolded in a Southern
