The Death

When Victoria had taken Katelyn home, Katelyn’s parents had already been there, sitting in the kitchen. Katelyn’s mother had risen from the table as they entered and walked into the main kitchen area, a small square room connected to the table but sheltered from it by a tan wall. Katelyn’s father had sat on one of the small wooden chairs with his head resting in his hands on the table. His newspaper had been in front of him, open to the third page or so, but he had not even glanced up. He almost never stopped reading the paper partway through. It seemed almost like a dark shadow hung over the room, though Katelyn could not place the feeling.

“The Constant?” Victoria had exclaimed seeming surprised. It had been the same paper Katelyn’s father had read when she was younger. By then, Katelyn had known it took a predominantly conservative viewpoint. She had even heard the members of the Social Unity Party accuse it of being authored by the Conservative Party while complaining about their non-magical neighbours. Brittney had mentioned that it was highly rhetorical and propagandistic. Katelyn’s father had looked up and there was an expression of sadness on his face.

“Won’t you sit down and have some tea, Victoria?” Katelyn’s mother had asked, smiling, though her smile did not reach her eyes. She had emerged from the kitchen carrying a pot of tea and a stack of four teacups. As she had laid them on the table, Katelyn’s father had shaken his head at Victoria, but she took a seat at the table. Katelyn’s mother had poured her a cup of tea.

“Have you read the news, Victoria?” Katelyn’s father had questioned somewhat anxiously. “The Conservatives are planning to harden the sentences for witchcraft, especially against Miss Ecclestie, bringing them ahead in the polls.”

“I don’t read The Constant,” Victoria had retorted irritably.

“But you heard the news?” he had pressed.

Victoria had sipped the tea, but immediately set it down as she had started choking. Katelyn’s mother had taken Victoria’s purse. Katelyn had stood in shock, but she had done nothing. Katelyn’s father had hung his head and glanced up at his wife desperately but had also done nothing. Moments later, Victoria had collapsed and laid completely still. Katelyn’s hands had shaken but she had remained standing completely still.

The bloody body of Victoria Leste swam before her eyes, haunting her. She had done nothing and unlike in Kindergarten, it had totally been her responsibility to act.

She looked up into Ki’s kind eyes and shook her head, the tears pouring from her eyes once more. “I don’t care.”

“About returning to class?” He questioned. She had been silent for a long time as the memories flowed through her aching brain.

“About anything,” Katelyn clarified and bit her lip. She did not like to admit it. She would rather keep her pain to herself and then die silently all alone.

Ki stared at her with a soft look on his face asking the silent question, “Why?”

A rushing pain crushed Katelyn’s ribs like a large pounding wave, and she shuddered and crumpled forward, locking her eyes with the ground. She whimpered, but all the anger and red fire had died from her. She wanted it all to be over. She wanted everything to just pass over her head and flood away from her spirit. The crushing feeling of her soul that she had felt long ago when she had first run away returned to her. The debilitating heart burn rushed up to her chest. She wanted to scream, but she did not. Instead, she held it back even as the pain shot through her like a crack in the ice if the ice were her soul and her soul were trapped in her burning heart.

“Katie?” Ki whispered, worry etched throughout his voice.

“They killed her,” Katelyn whined, but by now she knew the pain in her heart stretched far beyond her guilt over Victoria. It had started long before. Perhaps, it had started with the girl in Kindergarten. “My parents killed Victoria.” At Ki’s unasked question, she clarified, “Victoria Leste.”

Ki’s bright green eyes widened with horror. They were so bright that they almost seemed to glow. It was definitely not natural, which could only mean that he had been telling the truth and he was a witch after all.

“Victoria Leste,” Ki considered, “as in the leader of the Social Unity Party?”

“Yes,” Katelyn choked, “and it is entirely my fault. They used my magic.”

Ki raised his pale hand to his face and covered his eyes shaking his head gently. His short dark hair blew slightly in the wind. He was wearing the same v-neck white shirt with a lace fringe at the bottom covered by a black jacket and paired with black pants that he always wore, but she was suddenly irked with the feeling that he resembled someone else she had seen before who did not have as bright green eyes. She brushed the feeling from her mind. She could feel the wind again, but it was gentle and completely not aligned with her current feelings.

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She fell down to her knees with the tall fescue grasses brushing across her grey jeans.

Ki withdrew his hand from his face and sighed. “I’m sorry, Katelyn,” he whispered. “I can’t believe...” he continued but his voice broke.

The other students had vanished from the field. It was likely they had gone back inside and that recess was over. Katelyn bitterly wondered why high school students even needed recess. They had classes at different times, so they already had breaks throughout the day. It was just another way the K-12 messed with her head. Elementary students had recess after all, but she never saw them. Ki did not seem to care that he would likely be late for class, even though he had told her that she would get in trouble. Does he not think he will get in trouble? She thought, but she did not really care what he thought. The pain within her was almost too much to bear. It was chilling, almost as if a layer of herself had been lost whether through shedding her parents’ secret or from accepting the truth of it or even from plaguing herself from the guilt she did not know. Regardless, she hated it. She hated school. She hated her parents. She hated herself.

“It’s not your fault, Katelyn,” Ki spoke gently, “but you have to tell the police.”

She was not sure how he even knew that she had not told the police. Because otherwise it would be all over the news, a critical voice chastised her.

“I don’t want them to know about me,” she admitted. She glanced back at him.

“Don’t let them daunt you,” he advised.

She remembered the man dragging the blonde girl out of Kindergarten. She remembered the way that Mrs. Frélein shrieked, “Witch!” She remembered the news story about Miss Ecclestie being caught practicing traditional magic in public and the punishment she had been given: reverse magic. Katelyn knew what reverse magic was. It was a curse that sent the opposite coloured magic against the witch’s magic, attacking their soul and tearing it apart until it faded. She knew about the hatred the people had for magic. She had seen her own parents who she had always thought were at least moderately understanding kill Victoria in front of her. Her father had tried to warn Victoria, but he had still done nothing. He had soaked up that newspaper that loved to defame witches just like Mrs. Frélein had done every day in Kindergarten. He had not called the police, and in doing so had tried to hide the crime. He was equally complicit in it to her mother. They had been so quiet that day. They had just silently invited Victoria to sit down and have tea with them. It was something they would never ordinarily do. Why did my mother hate her so much? She wondered.

Don’t let them daunt you, she thought. How can I even think that? They will kill me. My mother killed Victoria for being a witch after my father hired her and he must have known what she was. Of course, I didn’t before she told me, but he must have known. He read that paper that even discussed her! She let her mouth open slightly as she tried to think of something to say. Don’t let them daunt you. How?! I don’t want to die. It was an odd that when it occurred to her. All along she had been thinking that she had wanted it to all end and that she wanted to die and yet here she was, and she feared death. It was almost ironic. It could hardly matter if they killed her or if something else did, yet it seemed to her to make a great difference. She bit her trembling lip and threaded her pale fingers through each other.

She did not want to go back to class. She did not want to face any more of those hateful stares. She imagined how the Carrie play would go. All the students would hate Carrie, because Carrie was a witch and she resembled everything the students would fear. It would create a much different battle. Normally, students would want to be the main role, but she doubted they would want to be Carrie. Mrs. Frélein thought they should do a different play, not that she strictly believed in plays at all, and many students would probably agree but to no avail. Miss Corinne was set on her theatrical ideas and she had probably already adjusted her own creative and horrifying retelling of Stephen King’s already controversial novel.

Katelyn stood up, running her shaking sweaty hands against the sides of her jeans. “I can’t tell the police,” she snapped, but her voice was barely audible. Ki did not respond but instead stared at her intently. He was not going to argue with her, yet he was clearly certain that telling the police was what she had to do. It was the right thing to do. He did not seem to pay much regard for what the police might do to her.

Surely, they would blame her for killing Victoria since her parents had used her magic. They had taken a blend of honey she had prepared and hidden in the cupboards before she had started storing her potions in her purse. It was a weak solution, but she knew it was what they had used, because Victoria had magical asthma and magical asthma was triggered by a specific blend of magic that reacted with the colours of a witch’s soul. Truthfully, she could not say that they had not simply purchased a potion of both honey and her colour of magic, but if they had found out about Victoria’s allergy, it was likely that they had also found Katelyn’s magic and used that. A shiver ran through her. Her parents knew she was a witch. They had found out she was a witch and they had killed Victoria because of it.

Ki continued to stare at Katelyn meaningfully and crossed his arms across his chest, but he still remained silent.

“Come to the Social Unity Party with me,” Katelyn requested.

“I can’t,” was Ki’s pained answer.

“What happened to ‘don’t let them daunt you’?” Katelyn demanded with a trace of mockery as she repeated Ki’s words.

Ki opened his mouth as if to say something but reconsidered and curtly assented.