Chapter Eight, Victoria

After Lexi got sent off to bed the three teens went into the living room and all sat on down on the couch, Salem in the middle of course. Victoria had just informed him that she wanted to go through with the Spell idea, but she needed help getting everything together and planning everything. Smirking, Salem put an arm around Omile and leaned back into the couch.

“Well you see lil sister, I had already planned on this working out. I was gonna have Omile use a convincing spell on you to get this thing going but that’s aside the point from now.”

“You were going to do what?” Victoria crossed her arms and held her chin up disapprovingly.

“Doesn't matter, as I was saying; Since I had planned this all planned out I went ahead and got all your supplies for you. With the help of Omile and Daman of course.” Salem smiled and pulled Omile closer. Omile smiled awkwardly and kept her eyes on the floor.

“And I was thinking that we could do it friday night? After school? Then we can all go see a movie and act like nothing ever happened?” Salem asked.

“Who is “we”?” Victoria lowered her chin.

“You, me, Omile, and Daman.” Salem listed off casually.

“Hey whoa! Why am I coming with!?” Omile pushed herself away from Salem and looked at him wide eyed.

“An excuse to get us out of the house and then so you can come enjoy a movie with us afterwards? Why else?” Omile let out a sigh of giving in.

“Your presence would really help me Omile. But I don’t want Daman coming with you two will be smooching it up the whole time!” Victoria squirmed and hugged her knees to her chest.

“He’s coming with because he’s letting us use his dad’s work place to do this at.”

“Oh yeah, and where is that gonna be?” Victoria questioned grumpily.

“At the circus parking lot.”

“At that creepy place!” Omile scooted closer to Victoria.

“C’mon guys, it’s the best place to do it.”

“Fine….but first things first. What movie are we watching?” Victoria huffed out.

“I don’t care I’ll let you pick that. So friday night?” Salem held out his hand.

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Fiiine.” she placed her palm in his and shook his hand.

“Be ready for us by eight on friday.” Salem winked at Omile and earned a roll of her eyes.

Victoria waved goodbye out the door as Salem and Omile slipped into the car and drove off before re-entering the house and let out and exhausted sigh. This is happening. This is really happening. She’s going to kill her parents on friday night and everything will be better. Hopefully it’s fast. She put her hands on her head and groaned as she made her way back to her room. Why does it feel so right? Why doesn't it feel wrong? Why does it feel wrong to not go through with it? Victoria closed her bedroom door behind her and leaned against it then slowly slid down against to the floor. She curled up against the door and looked up at the ceiling. She felt sick and terrible for thinking this way, that this is the only way, but she knew what she was doing was right. This is the only way they will set things straight. Sighing Victoria stood up and walked over to her closet, changing into her pajamas, a tank-top and baggy sweatpants. She walked over to her bed and plopped down, closing her eyes and letting sleep come in and take away the mess that had been her day.

Friday came much quicker than Victoria had wanted it to, no that’s an understatement. The days for her had passed like hours on a clock. Friday night at exactly eight o’clock came much quicker than Victoria would have wanted it to. Salem turned on the car and pulled out of their driveway, looking over at her on occasion only for Victoria to give him a faint smile and return her head towards the window. For once in her life she didn’t know what to think, she thought that she would have questions racing through her head. But she didn’t. She thought that her subconscious would be arguing with itself over whether she should still go through with it or not. But it didn't. Her mind was as quiet as an empty unused room. Nothing happening inside of her head. No stuck songs, no going over what to do in classes. It was like an empty shell. Nothing was going on in her head. Not even the sound of Salem trying to talk to her, that is until she felt a slight jerk on her shoulder and turned her head to face Salem.

“Hey, we’re about to pick up Omile. Do you wanna sit up front with me or in the back with Omile?” Salem asked as he pulled up to the small shop.

“We’re picking up Daman too, right?” Victoria asked unbuckling her seatbelt.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll go in the back.” Victoria said opening her door.

“Alright, hurry back!” Salem rushed out as Victoria closed the car door quickly after getting out.

Victoria pulled her grey hoodie around her more, regretting her choice of wearing the long sleeved maroon colored crop top. Luckily her only pair of black tights were made for fall time and her legs stayed warm despite the fact that she was wearing her high waisted shorts. Protecting her hands from the cold, Victoria rose her sleeve covered fist up to the door and lightly tapped her knuckles against the wooden frame. Victoria watched as Omile looked up from her book and the put it in her bag as she walked over to the door and exited the shop, turning the lights off and locking the door before they went back to the car. Omile’s teal skirt and lilac cardigan blew in the wind and Omile pulled her cardigan closer together. Victoria opened the back door and climbed in all the way onto the other side with Omile following in after her and the two of them buckled themselves in.

“You two cold?” Salem asked turning the heat up.

Omile nodded faintly and then averted her eyes to the window.

“Man, I hope Daman’s more conversational than you two are.” Salem started the car up again and pulled out of where he was parked and headed towards the school.

“You can’t expect us to be happy that I’m going to kill people tonight.” Victoria looked at him through the side-view mirror.

Salem sighed and looked back at her through the mirror. “Look, we’re gonna take you there, you do your magic, we go watch a movie, and then we wait.”

“I uh….I was looking into the spell and it said that we need to come back to it before the sun rises the next day….how are we going to get around that?” Omile said glancing at the two of them.

“We can just watch a movie here in the car and stay the night in the parking lot. That okay with you Vi?”

“Yeah sure, whatever.” Victoria said looking back out the window.

Salem let out a soft sigh and turned his attention back to street as he made his way to the closest movie store. He pulled the car into an empty parking spot and turned the ignition off then got out. Omile and Victoria followed his lead and the three of them wandered into the rather empty well lit movie store. Salme steered himself and the girls over to the dvd section and started scanning the filled racks. Since Victoria was the one who is going to need to most distraction, he would hold up movies and ask her if they were good enough or not. After about five or six vetoed movies Salem went over to the H’s and pulled out Hocus Pocus. Victoria giggled and nodded.

“Perfect.” Victoria purred.

“Getting yourself into the mood huh?” Salem chuckled and checked the price tag on it.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about….it’s simply just a good movie.” Victoria stuttered and looked at the ground. “If you say so.” Salem said taking the three of them up to the counter and paying for the movie.

Salem climbed into the driver's seat as he pulled out his phone and put it up to his ear as he started the ignition. “Hey, sorry we’re running a bit late. Some plans have changed but we’re on our way now.” He paused to let the other talk. “We bought a movie to watch and are going to stay the night in the car at the parking lot, is that okay? Victoria sighed and looked out the window.

“Alright see you in a bit. Love you. Bye.” Salem ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket and pulled out of the parking lot.

The quick ride to the school was uncomfortably silent. Victoria moved her gaze out the window and away from the others to watch all the trees blur past her in the dark. The lights of other cars and street lamps lit up her face every few seconds to reveal an emotionless expression etched onto her face everywhere but her troubled eyes. Just as before, her mind was empty and just as emotionless as her expression. And she hated the numbness.

The silence killed her. Not having any opinion on what she was doing was way worst than anything before. All those times she wished she had been numb to a situation she had put herself in she now regrets. Nothing that she has gone through is worst than not feeling. It hurts her more knowing that she has no feelings towards it than knowing if she hated it or not.  The numbness makes her feel inhuman. Almost like an animal just doing their everyday chore of hunting down their prey and eating dinner. How is she supposed to learn from this if she has no feelings towards it? Aren’t big choices like this supposed to be a life lesson. You can’t learn from something you don’t have feelings over.

On the way back to the school Victoria noticed that Salem had made a detour that was heading back to their house. Victoria dismissed it as him simply just getting things for them to sleep in and turned her attention back to window. She spotted Omile sitting as she normally did through the sideview mirror. She was sitting with her legs against to each other as if they were magnets and with her hands clasped together and resting on her knees. Omile was also looking out the window, most likely admiring the garden, and had pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Victoria moved her gaze off of Omile and adjusted her own hair to behind her ear. She soon heard the sound of the trunk opening and closing and then felt the weight of the car shift as Salem got into the car and drove off.

Victoria’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a door opening and closing and she turned her head to the front of the car. Daman had just climbed in and was putting his seatbelt on and saying hello to everyone. Salem leaned over and pecked Daman’s cheek and Omile softly said hello back while Victoria just nodded at him and turned towards the window. Once again the ride was uncomfortably silent, only in the back though. Victoria’s ears were filled with the sounds of the two boys conversing quietly in the front seat about god knows what as she kept her eyes fixated on the outside word.

Victoria sat in the back seat of the car next to Omile with a determined look on her face. The girl next to her sat with her hands on her knees and looked rather uncomfortable with her situation. This had actually happened. Victoria agreed to do the spell finally and now her, Salem, Daman, and Omile are going somewhere more private to commit this crime. Was it even a crime? Is this justified enough? Victoria let out a small sigh and Salem turned his head to look out the review mirror face her. Victoria gave him a reassuring smile and he smiled back before turning his head back to the road. Daman turned around in his seat and promised her that they wouldn’t get caught and he had already made precautions the night before and then patted her knees reassuringly before turning to Omile.

“If you want, I can take you home when we get there if you don’t want to be part of this.”

Omile shook her head and grabbed onto Victoria’s hand to prove, mostly to herself, that she was going to be there for Victoria no matter what.

“Hey Omile, I know this is asking for a lot but could you do one of our parents? It would go by quicker that way.”

“Salem, I don’t think I can. Like I said earlier, I looked up the spell she’s doing and I don’t really have any negativity towards them, let alone any darkness in me. I’m sorry. Besides….this is hard enough for me to do already and I’m just here for support. I’m sorry.” Victoria looked at her and smiled.

“Thank you for coming with. It means a lot.”

“Of course, I got myself involved so if you three are going to get in trouble then I deserve to get in as much trouble as the rest of you.” Omile smiled weakly and tightened her grip on Victoria’s hand, not fully believing that last part but knew too well that it was true.

“I’ll just do dad tonight, besides; we don’t have enough ingredients to do two people anyways. Give it a couple months before we get to mom.”

Salem nodded as he turned into where he parked the first time they had come to the circus parking lot and then stopped the car, pulling the key out, and then opening his door. Everyone else filed out behind as Salem walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk, Victoria following behind him. He pulled out a blanket, tucking it under his left arm, and the bag of materials and then walked back to the front of the car by everyone else with Victoria after closing the trunk again.

“Where you want ‘em?”

“We can do it out here or in the tents, doesn’t matter.” Daman said while walking over to Salem and then looking over at Victoria.

“Here is good.” Victoria said while wrapping an arm around a nervous Omile’s shoulders and around her own torso.

Salem handed the bag to Daman and then laid the blanket out on the ground. Daman took everything out and placed them on the ground where they belonged and then told Victoria to sit. Victoria let go of Omile and sat down on the blanket, crossing her legs and then looking up at the others and then at everything laid out in front of her. The three candles laid out, two on either side of her and one in front of her. The bowl, now with the river water in it from Salem pouring water from a water bottle he put river water in earlier, placed in between her and the candle and everything else placed either in front of her or next to the bowl. She picked up the matches and lit all three of the candles while the three other teens went to the car to let Victoria do her thing in quiet. Victoria hesitated as she closed her eyes and breathed in and out soothingly and then opened her eyes again.

Victoria slowly picked up the quill laid out in front of her and dipped it into the red ink. She then closed her eyes again and softly placed the quill on the piece of paper sitting in front of her. She quickly wrote down “Alex Hastey Adrienne” and then set the quill down next to her while opening her eyes again. She reached over to the rose and picked up it and then plucked off the petal furthest from her and waited a few minutes for the ink to dry before rubbing the flower petal across her father's name. She then picked off a thorn from the flower’s stem and pressed it into the paper until it went all the way through and then removed the thorn and lightly kissed the paper.

She set the paper down and then picked up her rose again. Closing her eyes she slowly let out a calm breath and channeled all of her hatred for her father to travel through her body and out of her fingertips out into the rose. She imagined him driving home drunk from the bar, in the rain, him swerving around everywhere. His eyes faintly closed for a second and when he reopens them, the next thing he knows his car is toppling over, her father gets flung out of his seat through the windshield and is flung up against a tree where the car rolls over and smashes against him, but that doesn’t matter because when he smashed into the tree his head hit the trunk and he instantly died.

Victoria opened her eyes again and whispered into the flame in front of her “Nyx, Erebus, Thanatos. I call upon you, O great deities. Rise from your old thrones once more, and accept the soul I offer. May they be chained to your feet. May they serve you for eternity." Victoria continued to quietly chant those words as she burnt both the rose and the paper and didn’t stop until they were completely burnt.

Victoria leaned forward and blew out the candle then placed the ashes, wick of of the candle along with some wax that had melted, into the bowl of water. She added six drops of the jasmine oil and lavender into the bowl and then blew out the other two candles. Once submerged into the darkness around her she moved into a kneeling position and held the bowl high above her head with her eyes closed tight and her head facing downward and sat clearing her mind for one minute, using the counting up to sixty as a way to calm herself and to clear it. Once the minute was up Victoria stood up with the bowl and walked out into the open field and placed it to where moonlight could reach it and then walked back to the car, opened the door, and climbed into the back seat next to Omile.

“Just gotta wake up before the sun rises tomorrow.” Victoria let out a sigh and looked out the window and over at the bowl.

“Alright, let’s put everything away and get ready for the movie.” Salem smiled and opened up his car door.

“I gotta get out again?” Victoria groaned while opening up her door.

“Only for a couple seconds, don’t complain.” Salem said walking over to the blanket and picking everything up.

Omile and Victoria went to the back of the car and opened the trunk to pull out the rest of things they had brought. The two girls placed them on the ground as Daman and Victoria laid the back of the seats down flat and then did the same with the front seats. Omile placed the pillows and blankets down on the seats as Victoria set up the movie and Salem placed everything that Victoria used earlier on the floor in the backseat and then got into the back seat and laid down with Daman following in and curling up next to him. Both Victoria and Omile rolled their eyes while getting in the front seat and situating themselves after putting the movie in.

A loud beeping noise slowly woke the four teens up. Victoria rose from her seat and looked around at the other three who disregarded it and went back to sleep. She quietly opened the door and carefully stepped out of car, pressing her feet into the soft grass as she pulled her hoodie around her and tried her best to stop her teeth from chattering. She jerkily walked towards where she had laid out the bowl while letting out quick sharp breaths of cold air and watching them fade off behind her. She bent down and picked up the bowl then carefully walked over to the closest tree and poured out the liquid. After shaking out the bowl she wrapped her arms around herself and quickly walked back to the false warmth of the car. She opened the door and climbed back into the car, turning it on and slightly waking up Omile, and pressed the seat warmer button on her seat. Omile closed her eyes again and the two of them went back to sleep.