by Gwynn White
Next, she checked her voicemail. It was much of the same. The desperation in Gabe’s voice grew with each one as he assumed Ariel was shutting him out of her life. It was a fair assumption, considering she never got the chance to tell him why she couldn’t talk to him.
Deleting the last voicemail, Ariel resolved to fix it. She needed to speak with Gabe and clear everything up. She needed to apologize and then they needed to focus on lifting the curse. It was as simple as that.
She logged onto her Skype account and scoured the profiles for those online. Gabe! He was online. With a shaking hand, she called him, so happy to be able to sort everything out.
The call rang… and rang. Gabe didn’t answer. As Ariel watched, holding her breath, his icon was switched to offline.
“What’s going on?” She asked herself aloud. She tried again, but she only got a message saying he was offline and wouldn’t be available for the call.
Perhaps he was angry with her, playing her game of silence just as well as she had. Ariel felt horrible that he wouldn’t even talk to her now, she wouldn’t get a chance to explain everything.
She switched off the computer, not wanting to stare at the offline status any longer. She crawled onto her bed, wondering if there was anything she could get right anymore.
Chapter Fifteen
Without being able to talk to her best friend, Ariel figured her life was torturous at best. She needed to fix things with Cassidy and she needed to do it before she went crazy. Five days of avoiding each other and death stares across the room was five days too many.
Ariel gripped her lunch tray and headed for their usual table. Cassidy had claimed custody of it in the fight so Ariel had been eating lunch outside in the courtyard by herself. It wasn’t a good look. She headed for the table, determined to make it right. One of them had to apologize and it may as well have been her. It was worth swallowing her pride for the sake of the friendship.
She placed her tray on the table as Cassidy’s head shot up. “I’m sitting here, do you want to fight about that too?”
Cassidy shrugged, indifferent. “Do what you want.”
They ate in silence. Ariel had hoped it would be easier to find the words she needed to say. But hostility flowed from Cassidy, all directly at her. She didn’t think she had done anything to deserve such a reaction.
She had to keep reminding herself that she needed her friend. It was stupid to throw away a lifetime of friendship over… what? A prom? A boy? It wasn’t right.
“I’m sorry we fought the other day,” she started. With no reaction, she continued. “I’ll join the prom committee with you.”
“You don’t want to.”
“I want to hang out with you and if that means helping to pick out streamers, then I’ll do it.” She smiled, hoping to look sorry enough. “I think purple is the new black.”
Cassidy couldn’t suppress the smile. “Fine. But you can’t complain about any of it.”
“I promise I won’t. Are we good?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we’re good. I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you too. We shouldn’t fight.”
“Well you should just do everything I tell you to and then we won’t,” Cassidy teased.
Ariel nodded somberly. “I will follow your orders better in the future.”
“Good.”
With five days of school gossip and scandal to catch up on, they spent the entire lunch break talking. Ariel shared the lifting of her ban with Cassidy but didn’t mention Gabe. Considering they had just made up, she didn’t want to bring up a topic that had caused them to fight in the first place. That was a discussion for later.
By the time the afternoon bell rang to signal the end of school for the day, Ariel was feeling much more positive. At least she had fixed one relationship, perhaps she could fix the other broken one too.
But instead of going home, Ariel decided to take a detour. She didn’t want to go alone but she knew Cassidy wouldn’t come with her either. Not after the last time and certainly not after the whole prom committee deal. She needed to go alone, despite how that terrified her.
The woman was just a witch, it wasn’t like she could really harm her, right? Ariel asked herself that question over and over again as she approached the trailer. The old woman had helped her before and she had been nice enough, perhaps she would feel amicable again.
Ariel knocked, half hoping the woman wouldn’t be home and she would have to come back again later – when she’d had more time to muster her courage. She felt like a little girl standing on the ground, like she was dealing with something so much bigger than she could ever fathom. But still she stood, waiting.
The door suddenly swung open. The woman cast a shadow over her visitor. “Who’s there and what do you want? Oh, it’s you again.”
“I hope I’m not disturbing you?” Ariel asked tentatively, trying to be as polite as possible. The woman was under no obligation to help her, she needed to pull every string she had to convince her.
“Of course you’re disturbing me,” the woman said grumpily. Yet it didn’t stop her from standing away from the door, allowing Ariel to enter. “You’d better get inside before someone sees you here.”
She followed the woman over to the booth, the same one they had sat in just over two weeks ago. Ariel felt just as nervous as she had then too and now she didn’t have Cassidy by her side.
The woman stared at her expectantly when she didn’t speak. “Well? I’m not getting any younger here, tell me what you want or go away.”
Ariel swallowed and took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady. “I’ve been researching the Morbose lineage, like you told me to.”
“So you can follow orders, good.”
“I think there’s something wrong though. All the tree branches finish at the same spot. I think there might be something wrong.”
The woman sized her up, staring at Ariel like she was a science project. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“I think you knew that was what I would find.” Ariel held her breath, scared about how the woman would react to her accusation. But she had thought long and hard about it. The woman was the one who guided her in the direction of the lineage, she knew all about the Morbose people. She also had to know what she would find – or wouldn’t find to be more precise.
“So you’re calling me a liar? That’s strong words for a kid.”
“It wasn’t lying, it was just not telling me the whole truth. You left stuff out, that’s different.”
The woman smiled, her mouth revealing a litany of crooked teeth. “You’re perceptive, that’s a good skill to have. You’re also right. I couldn’t have you running around talking about the Morbose people until you had learned your lesson. I needed to be certain you were serious about your quest.”
“I am serious. What happened to them?”
“The Morbose people were powerful, but they were also worried that someone would take advantage of their power. They feared someone would harm them to harness the magic they held.”
“Why would someone do that?” Ariel didn’t think it would be wise for anyone to take on powerful witches, let alone harm any of them. After all, they did curse the Black Eyed People, there was no reason why they couldn’t do it again. Or worse.
“Because people wanted what they had. Power is a strong motivator, it can blind someone to the dangers,” the woman explained carefully. “There are many people in this world who would do anything for that kind of power. They will stop at nothing to get it. Their evil would know no boundaries.”
“Did they get them? Is that why the tree stops?”
She shook her head slowly, sending her hoop earrings dancing. “No, they were smarter than that. They cast a protection spell to hide their heritage. To anyone outside of the group, they were just ordinary people. It would have taken only the most powerful of warlocks to see through their veil.”
“So their branches didn’t stop, they just b
ecame untraceable?”
“Exactly. They erased their past and for all intents and purposes, they ceased to exist.”
Ariel could feel her search jump completely out of her reach. It wasn’t just a case of needing to do more research anymore, she needed to completely go back to the drawing board. How did you find someone who was under a spell to ensure they were never found? It seemed absolutely impossible.
The only thing she could hope for was that someone else had already found them. “And nobody worked it out? They didn’t find them?”
“I told you they were powerful, they are still hidden to this day.”
“So how on earth am I going to find them?” Ariel felt like crying, it all seemed so impossible now. So much for all the hope she had when she had first knocked on the woman’s trailer door. It had all but dissipated now.
The woman’s gaze suddenly turned menacing. Ariel noticed she had one lazy eye, the left one. She couldn’t stop looking at it, watching the eyelid move slowly in comparison to the other one.
Finally, the woman relented, giving up her threats again. “Tell me something, girly, how far are you willing to go to lift this curse?”
An icy chill ran through Ariel’s veins at hearing the question. How far would she go to lift the curse? Would she endanger her life? Would she put herself into a situation that was uncomfortable? Would she risk everything for Gabe? She was suddenly filled with doubt, she shouldn’t have come there.
“This was a mistake,” she said, standing. As she did, the woman’s hand shot out to grip her wrist, making sure she couldn’t move any further.
“I asked you how far would you go to lift the curse?”
“You’re hurting me.” Her voice was quivering, as much as she tried to keep it steady. She looked down at her wrist, wanting to shake the cold hand from her but the grip was too strong to be able to. The woman was far stronger than she looked, there was nothing frail about that grip.
“And the answer?”
Ariel sat back down again, showing some goodwill that she wasn’t going to suddenly leave again. The grip around her wrist relaxed – slightly. “I really want to lift the curse.”
“But how far are you willing to go for this boy you love?”
“Pretty far.”
She let her go entirely, taking her hand back to clasp with the other. “You have to be completely committed to this mission. You must draw on some dark magic and it will take great strength. You cannot enter this lightly.”
Ariel didn’t like the sound of that. Dark magic? Her mind instantly conjured up images of witches dancing around a cauldron, evil spells, and… blood sacrifices. All she knew about dark magic was that it shouldn’t be messed with. And the idea of getting involved with it completely freaked her out.
“Think about it,” the woman said, interrupting her thoughts. “Only the brave venture down this path and you have to be sure it’s right for you. Dark magic can swallow you up and never spit you out. If you want to enter into the belly of the beast, there is no going back.”
Ariel didn’t need to say anything, the woman could see the doubt written right across her face. She knew she wanted to save Gabe, but all the talk of dark magic was making her hair stand on end. She didn’t know whether she was ready for it all, despite how much she loved him.
“Leave,” the woman ordered. “Come back only if you’re sure and we’ll begin your quest. Don’t ever return if you still have doubt in your heart.”
Ariel nodded and thanked the woman. Her mind was spinning, the words running around like she was stuck in a tornado. She left the trailer, dazed and confused as the door slammed shut behind her.
Chapter Sixteen
Ariel hit send on the text message – the fifth one that evening. It said the same thing as all the others – I need to talk to you. She was still shaken up about her meeting with the witch and really needed to talk to someone about it. She knew Cassidy would only get angry so that only left Gabe. And he wasn’t answering.
She checked her laptop again – offline. Where was he? At least she had an excuse for being out of contact for a week. Ariel seriously doubted Gabe’s parents would have taken away his communication gadgets. They weren’t like normal parents, they didn’t care what he did as long as he wasn’t hurting anyone. They compensated for bringing him into this world being cursed by giving him the kind of freedom that most teenagers would kill for. The only thing they didn’t like was Gabe still talking to her. Ariel knew he wouldn’t have a good excuse for ignoring her.
Frustrated, Ariel threw herself on the bed and prayed to hear the familiar beep of an incoming text message. Even better would be a phone call. But apparently that was too much to hope for. Silence. Nothing but silence.
She needed to hear Gabe tell her that everything would be alright. She needed to know what knowledge he had about dark magic and whether he would support her if she got involved with it. He might warn her against it, say that he wasn’t worth the risk. Whatever he had to say, she needed to hear it. Desperately, like now.
It suddenly crossed Ariel’s mind that perhaps there was a reason why Gabe wasn’t contacting her. What about if something bad had happened to him? Maybe someone else found out about his curse and got to him and his family? What about if he harmed someone? A thousand scenarios, each more terrifying than the last, ran through her head. None of them she wanted to believe.
To distract herself, Ariel opened up a web browser and typed in Dark Magic. If Gabe wasn’t going to guide her, then she had to work it out for herself. She needed more information so she could decide for herself whether she was prepared to start her quest or not.
Perhaps it was a good thing she couldn’t talk to Gabe about it. The witch said it had to be her decision and only she could make it. She was putting herself at risk, nobody else. Ariel needed all the information she could find before she decided and the internet was going to be the only place to find it.
There were millions of hits on the search. Ariel started at the top and worked her way down, ignoring anything that just looked commercial and not authentic. She also ignored all the wiki answers, anybody could have written them. She doubted whether a real witch or warlock would sit at their computer and write a wiki entry. They wouldn’t want anyone to know the real facts.
One of the websites in particular caught Ariel’s attention. It was called The Witch’s Council. Despite the dodgy name, it did look authentic, like they were posting real information instead of the Hollywood version of witches. Ariel went through the alphabetized index until she found an entry for the Black Eyed People. She clicked into it.
Reading through the article, everything it contained supported what she already knew. It was a good sign that the website really did know what it was talking about. She moved through the index to the Morbose people. It spoke about their power and the curse they cast but it didn’t elaborate. It also didn’t mention how they had hidden themselves with a protection spell. Ariel wondered how many people actually knew about that part of their history. If the spell was as powerful as the old woman had alluded to, then she doubted it would be many people.
Feeling good about the website’s authenticity, Ariel clicked through until she found a discussion about dark magic. She wanted to know what it entailed. Were her images of blood sacrifices and full moons justified, or was she completely misguided by urban legends she had heard her entire life? She needed to know the facts, all of them. Even if she didn’t want to hear them.
While she waited for the page to load, Ariel noticed her hand shaking. She tried to calm it, not realizing how much it was affecting her. She was worried about what she was going to see and read. If it was all too horrible, then would she have the courage to keep going? Would she be brave enough to do it anyway?
She thought about the possibility of giving up and whether she would be able to. The consequences would be that Gabe never got his curse lifted. He and his family would forever have the compulsion to murder people. He wouldn’t
be able to be happy or live a normal life. If he did happen to have children one day, they would also have to suffer the curse. It would be never ending, forever he would know the pain of the curse.
Suddenly giving up didn’t seem like much of an option. She had the chance now, right now, to do something to stop his pain. She could change the future, change his fate forever. If she had that chance, then shouldn’t she do everything she could to take it?
She read through the information on the website, trying to absorb the information about dark magic and remain logical about it. Ariel couldn’t let herself get carried away, she had to think it through, she had to be smart about it. If not, she could be putting herself into unknown dangers that she wasn’t prepared for.
The website warned that dark magic should never be taken lightly. It was the most serious thing in the world and could never be dabbled with by the uninitiated. It required someone to tap into their innermost energy and connect to a world that most would deem evil.
Just the mention of the word evil was enough to make Ariel’s skin prickle. Images of the devil, hell, fire, and pain flashed through her mind. To her, they all represented evil. And they all spoke of danger, pain, and torture. Did she seriously want to get involved in something that dangerous?
She wondered whether even the old woman was strong enough to cope with the dark magic. Her grip had been as strong as a lumberjack when she clamped onto her wrist, but that might have been nothing compared to the strength she might need to go against something evil. If the witch wasn’t strong enough, then she might expose them both to unspeakable danger.
All of a sudden, it felt like a thousand eyes were staring at Ariel. She looked around, her eyes darting everywhere for their source. Her bedroom door was still closed, her parents hadn’t been spying on her. Curtains were shut over her windows, allowing nobody to peek in and watch unannounced.
Ariel had never felt so exposed before. She couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. All the hair on the back of her neck was standing on end. She quickly closed the laptop and disconnected from the internet, suddenly not wanting to read anymore. She had found everything she needed to.
