Dark Humanity

by Gwynn White

  Instead of telling the truth, she just smiled. “I hung out with Cassidy, we didn’t really do much. How about you?”

  “Homework. After everything that happened with you, my parents are keeping me permanently grounded. I can’t leave the house unless it’s to go to school.”

  “They do realize that wouldn’t have helped here either, don’t they? I was at school, it wouldn’t have stopped me.”

  “Do you want me to be banned from school too?” Gabe laughed. The sound was possibly the most beautiful sound Ariel could hear.

  “No, I don’t want that. Just as long as you aren’t talking to any other girls.”

  Gabe took off his sunglasses to stare directly into the camera, the sight of his completely black eyes always surprised her. She tried not to let it show, she wouldn’t let it frighten her or bring back the memories of when he had almost squeezed the life out of her.

  “Ariel Cole, you are more than I can handle, I don’t need any other girls,” he said sincerely. She knew it was true, she didn’t think he would stray from her. Not when their feelings were so strong for one another.

  “Good,” she giggled. “Maybe you could try out for the track team or something? That would give you a few more hours out of the house.”

  “With these things?” He pointed to his sunglasses. She hadn’t thought of that, it would be pretty hard to run with the shades on. Even harder to explain to the rest of the team.

  “You could be the mascot?”

  “A raven? They don’t normally wear sunglasses, but I guess I could start a trend.”

  Ariel made a mental note – his school’s mascot was a raven, that had to cut out the majority of schools in the country. She was narrowing down her list.

  “It only takes one person to start a trend,” she replied, not missing a beat. A knock sounded on her door, catching her attention. “My parents are home, I should go. Thanks for calling.”

  “Thanks for answering. I miss you.”

  “Me too.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be waiting.” She blew him a kiss, he pretended to catch it and smear it on his cheek. As she closed her laptop, she couldn’t remove the grin from her face.

  Since he moved away, she had gotten to know the real Gabe and not the persona he used to keep the world away from him. Ariel soon learnt how incredibly funny and charming he was. He often goofed around and he always listened to her intently. There was nothing about the real Gabe that would betray his murderous secret.

  She quickly opened her textbook and allowed her mother to enter, keeping her own deadly secret to herself.

  Chapter Ten

  Ariel couldn’t bear to face school on Monday. Not when she had more important things to do. She wouldn’t miss anything anyway, it was only the sports carnival. She wasn’t planning on competing in anything so it was pointless to sit around in the sun all day. Especially when she was trying to lift a centuries old curse.

  She went directly to the public library as soon as it opened. At least she knew she wouldn’t run into her parents there. They would definitely freak out if they knew she was skipping school. She would most likely be grounded for the rest of her life.

  The witch had said she needed to find the descendants of the original tribe that had cursed the Black Eyed People. It sounded simple enough but they lived centuries ago. That was a long period of time to cover and a mighty big family tree to build.

  Ariel sat down at one of the archive computers and started typing. She had already done some work on her own computer but there was limited information available online. To get to the really old stuff, she had to delve deep into the archives.

  For the next four hours, Ariel did nothing but go through microfilm and dusty old books. She had to go back to the sixteen hundreds and start from there. Once she found the tribe, then it was a matter of finding marriage details. If they weren’t married, then she searched for details on a death so she could sever the branch. If they were married, then she needed to look for birth records of any children they had.

  The tree Ariel was putting together could have had hundreds of branches. And each one of those would have hundreds more. The whole project was starting to get overwhelming.

  Suddenly it dawned on her that she didn’t need hundreds of branches, just a few. Providing everyone in the family didn’t die, then she would be able to trace it back to a descendant alive right now. The whole point was to find living people, not every single one of them.

  Ariel chose a few branches and stuck with them. Using the archives and the old books that recorded all the births, deaths, and marriages by hand, she steadily traced the lineage as far as she could.

  By the end of the day, she had exhausted all the records she could find. Unfortunately, they ended in the late eighteen hundreds. There were still a few generations she needed before being able to find a descendent that would still be alive.

  Frustrated, Ariel left the library and headed to the one person she could vent to: Cassidy. School had been out for over an hour so she expected her to be home.

  Knocking on her best friend’s door, Ariel couldn’t keep her eyes from the house over the road. She imagined Gabe standing on the stoop, telling her to go away like he always did. It seemed so long ago but not far enough for the memory not to hurt anymore.

  “Hey, you weren’t at school today,” Cassidy said as she answered the door. “Tell me you were sick.”

  Ariel tried to look innocent. “Um, I was sick?”

  Cassidy just rolled her eyes and let her in. They went upstairs to her bedroom, well away from the prying ears of parents. When the door was closed, Cassidy wanted answers. “So, the truth now? What was it this time, witches? Warlocks? Goblins?”

  “None of the above. Try a sweet little librarian.” Ariel explained about her reasons for being at the library. Cassidy only sighed once, it was a good sign she was coming around. “I still have a few generations to go before I have any hope of finding someone alive.”

  “I would have thought the more recent stuff would have been easier to find?”

  “Me too, but the branch kind of just stops. There are no records anywhere. I either have to try another branch or keep persevering.”

  “So choose another branch,” Cassidy shrugged, it sounded easy enough to her.

  “That means going right back to the beginning again. It took me six hours to follow the branch this far. Six hours, that’s like an entire lifespan of a bug or something.” Ariel flopped back onto the armchair, exhausted with just the thought of starting over. She never thought researching a family tree could be so tiring.

  Cassidy stared at her friend, trying to work her out. No matter how many times she had tried to talk sense into her over the last two months, it never seemed to make any difference. “What is it about Gabe that’s got you so obsessed? He’s not even around anymore. Why do you keep doing this to yourself?”

  Ariel sat up again, wide awake now. “Because I love him. I can’t explain why or how, but I know I’ve got to do this. It’s something inside me that I just can’t let go. I wish I could.”

  “If you want to stop, then stop. He’s not worth it.”

  “But I can’t,” Ariel sighed, wishing she could articulate it better. All she knew was that she couldn’t get over Gabe. He was inside her, under her skin and running through her veins. If she could cure herself of him, she would. But until that happened, she had to keep going. She didn’t know how to stop.

  “You’re crazy, you know that, right?”

  “I know.” Ariel nodded, knowing exactly how she sounded.

  Chapter Eleven

  “We trusted you, Ariel, we gave you leeway and you disappointed us. Your mother and I are in shock.” There was nothing more terrifying than the disappointment lecture from a parent. Ariel tried not to get emotional, maintaining a sullen but sorry look on her face. She hoped it would be enough.

  “I only went to the library, it’s not like I went o
n a crime spree or something,” she pleaded, begging for leniency. Somehow her parents knew she skipped school, which only led them to snoop around her life even more. Ariel wasn’t entirely sure how much they knew about everything else she was trying to keep secret.

  Her father stood over her, making sure Ariel continued to sit on the stool in the kitchen. He just needed a spotlight and he would have been a great police interrogator. “What made you think it was okay to skip school? Did we ever tell you that would be acceptable under any circumstance?”

  “No, I just needed to do something.”

  “Do what?” Her mother yelled, trying to keep her voice under control and failing dismally. “What could be so important at the library? Isn’t there one at your school?”

  Ariel was trapped in a corner, she wished she hadn’t said anything. Her mind whirled, she needed a good excuse, why did she have to be at the library? What would they believe? What would get her out of trouble? She wished she had a contingency plan for the event of getting caught. But, of course, when it came to anything Gabe related she wasn’t thinking at all.

  Finally, it came to her. “I had an exam at school and I didn’t think I’d studied enough. So I went to the library to study some more.”

  Her parents exchanged a look, silently questioning each other about whether they believed her or not. It wasn’t like she had a long history of teenage delinquency or anything. Prior to two months ago, she had been the perfect daughter.

  Her father spoke for the both of them. “I doubt that is true but even if it was, you should have studied harder in the first place. Skipping school is not an acceptable form of behavior, do you understand?”

  “Yes, I do,” Ariel replied, holding her tongue so she didn’t add ‘Sir’ to the end of it and make him even angrier.

  “We’re taking away your privileges until further notice-”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “Yes, I can,” Dad countered. “No computer, no internet, no phone, and a personal escort to and from school every day.”

  “For how long?” Ariel already hated it and it had only been in force for two seconds. It hadn’t been that long since she’d been allowed to walk home on her own and now it was already disappearing.

  “Until you’ve proven you deserve them again. Now go to your room.”

  Her parents stood side by side showing a united front. Ariel knew there was no point in arguing, it would only prove their point even more. She dragged her feet to her room, her mind only thinking of one thing. With no computer, there was no Gabe. She wouldn’t even be able to let him know why she wasn’t answering his calls.

  She slammed her bedroom door and threw herself on the bed. It was going to be torture being without her Gabe fix. She already missed speaking with him and it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since his last call.

  Ariel figured if her parents actually knew about Gabe, her punishment wouldn’t just be losing her privileges. They would forbid her to ever see him again, which was absolutely impossible. They wouldn’t understand, just like Cassidy didn’t.

  Never before had Ariel felt so alone. There was nobody she could talk to about how she felt. And now her only lifeline was taken away from her. She was trapped in a cage, completely on her own. She may as well have been adrift in the ocean, that’s exactly how she felt anyway.

  The next day things didn’t look any better with fresh eyes. Ariel hadn’t slept well, tossing and turning all night long. Her dreams were of Gabe, but not the good ones. He had his hands around her neck, squeezing the life out of her. She tried to scream but couldn’t get enough breath to do it. Several times she had jumped awake, gasping for air.

  Pulling up outside the school gate, Ariel was still tired. She definitely wasn’t in the mood to deal with her parents. The feeling seemed to be mutual.

  “I’ll be here at three o’clock to pick you up, don’t be late,” her mother said sternly. She looked tired too, perhaps regretting dishing out such a harsh punishment? Ariel hoped so but doubted it.

  “I have Math class last period, the teacher never lets us out on time.”

  “If you’re not here at five minutes past three, then I’m coming to look for you. And I’m not going to be quiet about it.”

  Ariel rolled her eyes and opened the door, she needed to get out of there before she said something that would only bring on more punishment. “Fine. Goodbye.”

  Her mother didn’t answer, just watched her walk through the school doors. Ariel turned and waved sarcastically, silently stated that she was going inside and not running off. Her mother refused to move until she was no longer in sight. Even then, she waited a few more minutes to be on the safe side.

  Ariel found Cassidy at her locker. “Guess who’s under house arrest?”

  “What did they find out about?” Cassidy asked, pulling books from her locker before closing it. “Was it the skipping school, the cursed boyfriend, or the visits to the witch? Come to think of it, there is a lot you could be grounded for.”

  “They found out about my unauthorized trip to the library yesterday. You didn’t talk to them at all, did you?”

  “Of course not, I’ve got your back. I’m crazy for doing it, and you’re probably going to get yourself hurt, but you can count on me.”

  They started walking down the crowded hallway, trying to hold their conversation in amongst the chaos was not easy. “I have no idea how they found out then.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “That I was studying, what could I say?” Cassidy shrugged, she wouldn’t have had an excuse either. “Anyway, I won’t be doing it again anytime soon. I’m grounded and have a personal escort to and from school until further notice.”

  “It could have been worse, they could have taken away everything too.”

  “They did.” Ariel watched the look of sympathy wash over Cassidy’s face. She felt justified in her anger, so it wasn’t just her that thought it was completely unfair.

  “So how are you going to talk to Gabe?” Cassidy asked, thinking through the consequences.

  “I’m not going to. They took away my laptop and my phone. I’m completely cut off.”

  “That’s harsh.”

  Ariel nodded, it was the harshest punishment she had ever received and her parents didn’t even realize it. They walked to class in solemn camaraderie.

  The morning went painfully slow but it did give Ariel time to formulate a plan. She was banned from using her laptop, but they couldn’t stop her using the school computers.

  As soon as the lunchtime bell rang, Ariel made a beeline for the Computer Science rooms. They were open to the students during lunchtime and a lot of the restrictions were removed for the forty minutes. You could visit nearly any website, providing it was G rated.

  She found a desk at the back where people couldn’t creep up on her and see what she was doing. It wasn’t like she was doing anything wrong, but considering what it was related to, she didn’t want to have to answer any questions.

  Logging onto the genealogical website she had found the most helpful the previous day, Ariel continued her search through the Morbose family tree.

  She made it down one more generation, painstakingly scrolling through hundred of records to find the right person. The names weren’t exactly unique, making it even harder. If only they could have had weird names, her search would have been much quicker. There were definitely too many Williams, Johns, Kates, and Elizabeths in history.

  Ariel found the record she was hoping not to – the death certificate of the branch she was working on. John Mulgrave died at the age of fourteen, too young to have fathered any children. He was an only child, his other siblings dying when they were just infants.

  The entire branch was a complete dead end – literally. There was at least six hours of work down the drain. Ariel let her head fall onto the desk, wanting to drown out the entire world. How could an entire family lineage stop with just one person? It was tragic and frustrating at the
same time.

  She was going to have to go back to the next closest branch and start all over again. Five generations would have to be traced to see if there were any living relatives. She reminded herself that she only needed one. Surely out of all the people in the world, she could find one?

  The bell rang again, signaling the end of lunch. An entire break wasted and she hadn’t even remembered to eat something. Ariel closed the web browser and went to her next class, having second thoughts about whether she was doing the right thing or not.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Can’t talk, the warden is waiting,” Ariel managed to get out as she ran through the corridor. Cassidy could only watch her go.

  She made it to the front of the school and scanned the parking lot quickly. Her mother’s car was waiting. She had never picked her up on time before, never ever. Ariel checked her watch: six minutes past three. Damn it. She hurried down the stairs, almost breaking an ankle with the haste.

  Opening the car door, Ariel landed in the passenger’s side seat, breathless.

  “You’re late.”

  “I came straight from class.” She tried to keep any whining or sarcasm out of her voice. During Math class, Ariel came to one conclusion, the only way she was going to survive her punishment was to get it lifted. She needed to be on her best behavior, even if it killed her.

  Her mother didn’t reply, she just put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. It wasn’t a good sign. Ariel kept her eyes focused ahead, trying not to look at her mother. She was certain she would only see disappointment there. She didn’t know if she could take any more emotional impacts in one day.

  The entire drive home was made in the same deathly silence. It wasn’t until they pulled into their driveway that her mother turned off the engine and shifted in her seat to face her.

  “Do you want to tell me why you really skipped school yesterday?” Her voice had softened, she was much more like the mother Ariel knew. “It’s just you and me here, Dad doesn’t have to know.”