Chapter Five, Salem

Salem groaned and turned around in his seat, resting his chin on the sofa, and tried to call Victoria back to the couch as she stood up walked away from him and threw his head against the back of the couch. He looked back at the hallway and groaned again, then stood up and walked to his room. Salem lazily pushed open the door and then quietly shut it behind him. Salem’s room was average size. It  was painted white and had a bunch of band posters or anime posters hanging up on his walls. Other than those, his walls were rather bare. He had a bunch of clothes thrown about the room and his bed was far from made; in fact, the only time it had ever been made was the day he moved in with the family. His bed was pushed up against one of the walls and he had fairy lights hung up on the headboard to always give himself reading light. Next to his bed was a cluttered desk that had random papers, water bottles, and his laptop on it.

Salem walked over to his closet and started getting out of his dance outfit and into something more comfortable. He took his vest and shirt off and casted them to the side and watched as they both landed on another pile of clothes and then turned to face himself in the mirror. At first glance this boy looked flawless, he had a nicely toned chest; not too muscly but not scrawny either, and he had a flat stomach that looked soft but when he presses his hand against it he has muscle there. Looking at himself in the mirror he grimaced as he started noticing all the small cuts and bruises flawing his perfect body. He looked to the side and removed his pants and opened up his closet to pull out a baggy shirt.

He threw on a Fall Out Boy shirt he bought at Hot Topic and then plopped onto his bed, too lazy to close his closet door. He laid back on the mattress and stared up at the ceiling. What was Victoria thinking? Just giving up on the idea? On her idea? One that she talked him into agreeing with. This is stupid. She even said that this is going to start happening to Lexi, wouldn’t that be even more inspiration to commit! Was this all because of how Omile reacted? Maybe she didn’t want to loose her friend. That’s completely understandable but something still needs to be done about their parents. And going to prison isn't going to do s**t. Like that’s going to even happen though.

Salem’s phone went off and he looked over to the pile of fabric on the floor, sighing softly. He turned his head back up to the ceiling and ignored the faint buzzing sound every few seconds. Eventually he got tired of hearing it go off and he sat up, literally rolling off the bed, and going over to his pants to pull his phone out. He laid on the floor and pressed the answer button and held the phone up to his ear.

“Hello? Is this Salem?” The boy on the other end spoke softly.

“Yeah, who is this?” Salem asked, pinching the bridge of his nose and readjusting his glasses.

“It’s Daman, from the dance, I was wondering if everything was alright?” His voice gained a bit more confidence.

“Oh, yeah man, I’m sorry. Totally forgot I gave you my number.” Salem sat up and leaned against his bed, pulling his shirt down a bit.

“It’s cool, so….is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” Salem said a bit too quickly. “Everything’s fine.” Salem covered his eyes with his hand. “Just dandy…”

“You don’t sound so confident...why was your friend refusing to help with a spell? How bad of one is it?”

“Ah s**t! You heard that?” Salem threw his head back against the bed.

“Don’t worry! My sister’s a witch, so it’s not weird….but what kind of spell was it?”

“I can’t tell you, Victoria will kill me.”

“Who?”

“My sister.

“Oh, well...uh….I’m always here if you need help with anything.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome...oh and uh….one more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a great kisser, we should do that more often.” Salem could hear the smirk coming from the other end.

“Consider it done~.” Salem pulled his shirt down a bit more, smirking himself.”

“Wonderful, night.”

“Goodnight.” Salem hung up and then placed his phone on the bed.

Salem’s lips curled up into a huge grin and he sat at the edge of the bed with his legs crossed just smiling up at the ceiling like a dork.

Suddenly, feeling confidant, Salem stood up and walked over to his closet again. He pulled out a pair of black skinnies and tugged them on and then pulled out his Kingdom Hearts belt buckle and wrapped that around his waist and buckled it. He then pulled out a pair of red converse and pulled them on to his rather large feet, cursing at the laces as they refused to work properly. He walked over to the bed and grabbed his phone, putting it in his pocket, and then exited his room. He knocked on Victoria’s door, which was right across from his, and let her know that he was going out for a bit. When he heard her grunt in response he left the door and wandered into the living room and exited the house. He walked over to the car and patted around for his keys and realised that he had left them in the house. Groaning quietly he walked back to the house, hoping that he didn’t close the door all the way, and pushed on it. Luckily for him the door wasn’t closed and he stepped back into the room. Victoria was standing there with the keys in her hand.

“Where are you going?” She crossed her arms and stood on her hip, dangling the keys on her finger.

“Out to see a movie.” He reached for the keys.

“This late? Got a date or something?” She stepped back a bit.

“Yes, actually.”

“Oh yeah?” She smirked a bit and cocked her head at a downward angle and to the side a bit. “Is it with that boy you were playing tonsil tennis with from earlier?”

“We weren't playing tonsil tennis, and yes.” He reached for the keys again.

Victoria laughed a bit. “Yeah okay….my eyes would disagree.” She handed him the keys. “You better not go talk to Omile tonight. She’s had enough to deal with from us tonight as it is. Last thing she needs is to hear the same thing three times in one night.”

Salem turned around and walked out the door, waving a hand at her as if to say “yeah yeah, don’t tell me what to do” and got into the car. Victoria shook her head and closed the door behind him as he pulled out of the driveway and out onto the street.

Salem pulled up in front of the shop and parked in front of dimly lit shop. The place usually looked so lively, even at night with all the lights off, but now it just seemed to be dark and gloomy. Salem turned the car off and stepped out, walking slowly over to the front door. He pressed his palms up to the glass and looked through the foggy windows. The flowers were all drooped down and seemed to be lacking in color. He sighed and pulled away from the window and then walked around to the back of the shop. Running his finger along the rough texture of the brick walls while he whistled softly and looked around the area. Upon reaching the back of the building he went over to a pull down ladder that was folded up and unfolded it. He shook it a bit to make sure it was still sturdy and then slowly absconded up the rusty ladder. The wind howled past him, reddening the tip of his nose and blowing his blond curls into his glasses.  When he made it up to the only window on this side of the wall he carefully let go of the ladder and knocked on the glass. A couple seconds later the window quickly opened and a panicked looking Omile with a spatula held up in the air stood in front of him.

“Salem! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Omile set the spatula down on a desk
next to the window and then helped pull Salem up into her room.

Salem climbed into the nice and cozy room and wrapped his arms around himself. “Chilly out there, fall must be coming early.” He gave her a small smile and then sat down on her bed.

Omile glared at him and shut the window, switching it into a locked position. “Salem, it is one in the morning. Why are you here?”

“I’ll explain in just a second….but first I have a really quick question.” He slowly wrapped her flower patterned comforter around himself.

“What?” Omile asked with a sigh.

“You thought someone was breaking into your room? Which, I have no idea why because I knocked and what logical robber would knock if they wanted to break into your house. That’s stupid. Of course, unless they were just trying to see if anyone was home in which case then I guess that is actually a pretty smart assumption that someone might actually be trying to break into your ho-”

“Salem.”

“Yes?”

“Get on with your question already.”

“Oh right, so you thought someone was breaking into your home and you brought a spatula as your weapon of choice?”

“I-I-I-I was making food and the spatula was the closest thing to me! I panicked, okay!”

“You were making food? As in you were in the kitchen, with a bunch of knives…”

“You already asked your one question! Stop making fun of me! Why are you here?” Omile’s hair bun fell to the side of her head.

“Well….you see….um, you need to convince Victoria to go through with the spell.” Salem fiddled with his fingers.

“So what you’re saying is, I actually got through to her that it’s a bad idea and now you want me to convince her to go through with it?” Omile waved the plastic spatula in the air.

“....yes” Salem averted his eyes from her.

“No way.” Omile crossed her arms and walked out of the room, a slender black and white short haired cat trotting behind her.

Salem groaned and stood up, following her into the kitchen. “Please!”

“Why should I? I don’t even think it’s a good idea to go through with the plan.” Omile went back to browning her chicken sausage and mixing her pasta.

The black and white cat went over to the bowls and started crunching loudly on her food while the plump calico one patted its way over to Salem and started wrapping himself in and out of the tall boy’s legs, rubbing his head against Salem’s ankles.

Salem picked up the cat and rubbed his fingers in between the cat’s ears. “Because I’m going to convince you that it’s a good idea.”

“Oh yeah, because so far that’s been going great for you.” Salem pouted and let out a soft huff, stepping closer to Omile. “If we don’t stop them now, nothing’s going to happen and they’re going to start abusing my little brothers and sisters. Who, keep in mind, are two to seven years old. And we’ve called the police before and they didn’t do anything, since my dad is all buddy buddy with them.”

Omile  stopped what she was doing and moved her eyes over to the foaming noodles, her grip tightening on the spatula. She ignored the bubbles foaming over the edge of the pot and allowed herself to be moved when Salem took over the cooking.

“Go sit and think, I’ll take over this.” Salem said while setting the cat down and slowly removing the utensil from Omile’s hand.

“Don’t forget to mix the pesto into the sauce.” Omile whispered as she walked slowly into her room, both cats following her trail.

Salem turned off the heat from underneath the burnt sausage and poured them into a plastic container on the counter and then drained the soft shell-shaped noodles. He placed the pan that the sausage had been on back onto the stove and turned the setting onto low then slowly poured in the two containers of alfredo sauce. followed by half the container of pesto. He let it heat up a bit and then mixed the alfredo and pesto together and tasted it. Satisfied with the taste he turned the stove off and went over to the drained noodle shells and poured them back into the pot, followed by the sausage and then sauce and mixed it all together.

Salem pulled out two bowls from the cabinet and filled them up with the pasta. He grabbed two forks from the drawer and then walked into Omiles room while carrying the two bowls. He set one down on the bedside table next to Omile and then he sat down next to her. By the time Omile finally spoke up Salem had finished both his and her bowls of pasta and he just walked into her room after cleaning them off in the sink and putting the dishes back where they belonged.

“If I get in any sort of trouble for this, I swear to god, I will make your life a living hell.” Omile turned to face the open bedroom door to find an opened mouth Salem staring at her. “Now, what were the materials you needed again?”

“We-well um..uh f-first we need to convince Victoria it’s a good idea too before we just start going all willy nilly, I’m not a witch so I can’t do anything.” Salem slowly walked into the room and sat down next to her.

“I can put a spell on her, but I need her here for that.”

“Okay.”

“Can you get me a list of all the things I need to help you two get in the meantime at least?”

“Uh, yeah one second.” Salem stood up and looked around Omile’s room for a pencil and paper and then found some on her desk and scribbled the list on to a post-it-note.

He set the pen down on the table and handed the piece of paper to Omile. “What on this list do you already have or are able to get on your own?”

“Uh….” He sits down beside her and peers over at the note. “I can get the bowl, water, and paper.”

“Okay well, I can get everything else except the quill and ink or the candles.”

“I’ll ask Daman if he can get those for me.”

“Who?” Omile looked up from the list.

“Oh, the boy from the dance. He know’s about this and offered to help.”

“Then why do you need me and Victoria!”

“He’s not a witch!”

Omile groaned and shook her head. “If you want, I can go get you the items, I have them all downstairs.”

“Okay.” Salem stood up.

“Hold on.” Omile stood up as well and wandered into her bathroom and returned with the jasmine oil.

She handed it to Salem and then walked out of her room. Salem followed her out of the room and down the stairs to the shop. She turned the lights on and walked over to a case of roses. “You’re gonna have to pay for these.” She pulled out a rose and then went over to a cabinet and pulls out some lavender. She walked over to the counter and rang him up. “Five dollars please.”

“Uuuhh, s**t, hold on.” Salem stuck his hands in his pockets and pulled out five crinkly one dollar bills.

Omile took them and then put the rose into a protective sheet and then into a bag and handed it to Salem. “I want my oil back as soon as possible, you hear me?”

“Yes, and thank you so much. I will have Victoria over as soon as possible.” Salem took the bag and smiled at her.

“I’m closed tomorrow so just come over whenever. I’ll be home. But make sure to call me when you get here so I can come let you two in. No more climbing through my bedroom window.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Later doll.” Salem kissed her head from over the counter and then walked over to the front door and unlocked it then left the shop, waving goodbye as Omile told him goodnight and locked the door behind.

He walked over to the car and opened the passenger door and set the bag in the seat and then closed the door and walked over to the other side of the car and got in. He sat in the car for a couple of seconds and then pulled his phone out of his pocket. He pressed a few buttons, the light beaming into his eyes causing him to blink for a couple seconds, and then held the phone up to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Hey, uh, can you do me a favor?”

“Yeah sure, what is it?”

“I need your help getting a few things.” Salem put the key into the ignition and turned it. “Do you happen to have any black candles and some red ink with a quill?”

“Why of course, meet me at the school. I know a place where we can get them.”