Day Three: Chapter Eight

It was noon. Jada hadn't slept since Etta woke her with fire early that morning. Instead she spent hours putting the spare room back together, and stressing over how she could explain the irreparable damage to her uncle. She highly doubted that he'd believe there was a literal tornado in the room, or that she had somehow caused it. She especially doubted that he'd believe the story about the fairy that climbed down her throat and made her ... what was she now?

What was she going to do now?

A tiny smile curved the corners of Jada's round mouth. If Persephone knew, she would be so jealous. Too bad she still wasn't answering Jada's calls, and her absence seemed only to annoy Adisa. According to him, Ayodele goes missing all the time and it was nothing to worry about. The rest of the Pham family thought Persephone was with Jada. She couldn't help but worry though, and besides that, Jada couldn't think of anyone else in the world who would believe her story. And besides that, Uncle Tim was going to be pissed when he saw the bedroom. He might even send her back home.

Jada stared into her half empty mug of black tea. The mild caffeine wasn't enough to wake her up, but there was obviously no way she was going to sleep anytime soon. No point in sitting around the house feeling down. She'd visit mid-town alone.

As she left, she locked the door and checked it three times just to make sure. She turned to leave, but before she could, she noticed an ancient looking book was on the floor by her doorstep with a bright pink sticky note attached that read: Please study for your safety. Probably sent by Etta. Jada got the strong impulse to throw it over the side of the third story walkway, but as Urkel weaved in between her feet, rubbing his gray fur against her bare ankles, Jada softened and tucked the book under her arm. The vampire's warning had never left her head. Etta's voice seemed to be echoing over and over in her mind all night: "All kinds of people, creatures, and things will be after you now. Your life will be different." That's exactly the type of thing that normally made her skin hot and her hands start shaking but now all she felt was a melancholy absence of feeling.

That wasn't true. She felt angry, and her body felt, in many ways, foreign.

As she waited for bus 49, she flipped through the stiff pages, skimming through the handwritten headings. The entire book was handwritten, tabbed and heavily annotated with sections that were obviously tabbed more recently, using bright yellow plastic annotators. The first heading read, Simple Spells. A long list of entries followed, formatted like a dictionary, but three of them were highlighted: cut, speed, and shield. The next yellow tabbed heading read Intermediate Spells. Like the Simple Spells section, there were many entries, but this time, only one was highlighted: heal.

Did Etta want her to learn these? If so she'd need a lot more information than was given. She didn't understand any of the instructions.

Cut- 1. dominant hand. sharp. Strong motion in any direction.

2. (spoken)

The rest of "2." was covered with whiteout. Jada wondered why she hadn't covered the entire row if she was just going to do that.

She spotted the bus down the street, packed the book into her purse, and stood to flag it down.

The moment it stopped in front of her, as sinking feeling weighed her gut. Her skin began to feel cold. She should catch the next bus. She boarded regardless, but the feeling only intensified. Eyes were on her.

No, she was probably imagining it, as always. She pulled the book out and continued skimming through it. Besides, if anyone was following her it was probably just Etta again. But maybe that was even more reason to be concerned.

She allowed herself to become immersed in her reading, hoping to drown out her worries.

Q:Why doesn't melanin protect those cursed of the fifth?

A: Vampires are not natural creatures. Their natural bodily functions stopped the moment they became cursed. Without a functioning body, aspects such as melanin bear no relationship to a vampire's well being. See: Of the Cursed by A.A Innings.

Xhole Injury Reverse Shot - High Grade

Ingredients:

1 lemon wixho (fruit ferri soul)

6 ginger soaxho (root ferri soul.)

1 tbs blood of cursed of the fifth.

1/8 tsp venom of cursed of the third

1/3 cup ground fennel

Salt to taste.

In small pot, extract-

A warm breath raised the hairs on the Jada's neck, interrupting her thoughts and filling her nostrils with a familiar, unpleasant smell. Before she had a chance to jerk away, something cool and hard poked her thigh, through fabric.

"Shhh, be still" said the owner of the foul smell, whispering in her ear, "If you make a scene here, I'll kill you."

The plump girl found herself holding her breath and gripping the book tightly with both hands, heart pounding, her pulse ringing in her ears, too afraid to look to her left and lay eyes on her harasser. She already knew who it was without looking. How had she forgotten about him?

"That's a good girl," said the man condescendingly. "Why don't you look? I want you to see what you did to my face."

Jada glanced to her left. His face was inches away from hers ... and the meat around the guy's eye was fat and purple.

The man she punched in the face the other day continued "When we get off this bus, I'm going to beat the shit out of you. Nod if you agree."

Jada remained motionless, her body refusing to respond to her. How had things ended up like this?

The guy Jada punched wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her even closer to him.

"I said nod," he growled.

But what if I don't agree?

She nodded reluctantly, trying not to show the panic she felt.

How on earth did she forget about him?

"Next stop we get off. Pull the wire."

Jada did so obediently, and peeked out the window. The next stop was right in front of a construction site, the one that had been abandoned before it was ever completed. Of course he'd take her here.

What should she do? She couldn't try the mace punch and run thing she did last time. She'd be completely alone with him. What would he do?

She packed the journal as soon as the stop ended as casually as she could and exited, the guy she punched that one day following close behind her.

"This way," he said curtly. "Don't fall behind either."

With wobbly legs and a light head, she followed the punched guy, all the way to a hole in the gate surrounding the would-be-building, then deep into it's shadows. The closer they got to his destination, the more gruffly he handled her, tugging on her wrists and clothes, and finally pushed her, head first into a concrete pillar. For a moment, everything around her became blurry and seemed to rock side to side. The shadowy form of the tall, greasy headed man rocked side to side as she gripped the pillar for some sense of stability.

He grabbed her by the fat of her arm, and twisted her, pressing her back into the concrete. His arm cocked back, and a useless scream escaped from Jada's round lips as she balled herself up, anticipating the punch.

In that moment a strong wind cut through the air, no, through her body, and sliced the purple eyed man into red, wet, ribbons. Slivers of flesh, chunks of bone, and crimson littered the cement before her like confetti and paint.

Before she realized, Jada found herself back peddling, then running full speed in the opposite direction, shrieking for reasons she didn't understand.

"STOP!" yelled a familiar voice as she was tackled, a long slender hand covering her mouth. "You're going to attract the police."

And before Jada could say a word, she was lifted and carried away, riding in the arms of a tall, lean, and quite literally sizzling vampire, a thin blanket covering them both.

"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner," said Etta, once she'd pulled Jada into the Bentley with her. She immediately began wrapping herself in the cloth like a mummy, wincing whenever the sheet touched an open sore.

Jada said nothing, only stared at her own shirt and thighs, both sticky with someone else's blood.

"You know," started Etta, in a surprisingly warm tone, "It's not your fault. You only received the xhole surplus earlier this morning. It would be impossible for anyone to be able to control it in just a few hours. It's his fault for threatening you. You were just trying to protect yourself."

The vampiress pulled out a bunch of her wipes and offered them to Jada who failed to respond. So, Etta wiped the blood, gingerly clearing the filth off of her skin.