Chapter Twelve

Omile turned off her tv and sighed as she got off of her bed and ran her fingers through her hair. Three teens found dead at a robbery, what a coincidence that those teens were people who made fun of Victoria. Oh wait. It wasn’t. Omile turned her head to her cat, Tansy, and sighed. She was worried this would happen. Victoria wasn’t the type to let things go and she knew that. Why did she agree to help with that? She brought her bowl out into the kitchen and added it to the pile of dishes and then shuffled back into her room where her phone was going off. She reached down and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Are you dressed?”

“Well I mean, I’m in pajamas.” Omile stated as she looked down at her clothes.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“I just ate a bowl of grapes.”

“Get dressed and meet me downstairs in ten minutes. We need to talk about Victoria.” The phone hung up and Omile tossed it onto her bed.

She looked over at Tansy again and shook her head. “You have no idea how good you have it.” She walked over to her and patted the cat’s head then walked over to her closet and pulled the door open.

She pulled out a pair of black tights and put them on after she took her baggy pants off and then reached in to put on a white skirt with cherry blossom leaves on it over her tights. She grabbed a black long sleeved shirt and put it on over her white tank top then grabbed her purple cardigan. She grabbed her bag, once again checking for money like she always did and then got her phone off of her bed and dropped it into her bag. She walked over to her bedroom door and slid into her flats, then turned the light off and made her way down to the flower shop and outside to wait for Salem.

Omile sat outside on an old wooden bench she had purchased a few years back and placed outside of her shop in front of the big window as she waited for the car to roll up. She had her phone out and was listening to music while playing a game of tetris, the only light around her coming from faded street lamps and her cellphone. She didn’t notice the blue car roll up in front of her and only looked up when she heard a car horn honk and about dropped her phone from being so startled. She took her earbuds out and put her phone back into her purse as she stood up and walked to the car. She quickly opened the door and apologized for not noticing him as she put her seatbelt on. She looked over at Salem’s face and could tell that he was a bit agitated so she turned her head to the front of the car and didn’t say anything else.

She watched Salem’s hand reach over to the glove box and pull out a package of cigarettes and then used one hand to pull one out with his mouth and put it back. He looked over at her and she turned her head to face the window and he turned his head back onto the road and pulled out his lighter once they got to a red light. He lit it and put his lighter back then pulled it out of his mouth and puffed out a bunch of smoke. He rolled the window down a bit and put the cigarette back into his mouth. Omile sighed and looked at him again.

“What?” Salem looked over at her. “You’ve seen me smoke before.”

“What’s happening to you Salem?” Omile sighed. “Ever since your father died you’ve been different.”

“It’s not been since my father died, it’s been since Victoria’s been acting like a b***h and taking this f*****g thing too far.” He puffed out some more smoke. “Five people Omile. And four of those five didn’t deserve to die.”

“Five? Who is the fifth one?” Omile looked at him confused.

“My mom. After I told her not to. After I told Victoria that mom didn’t deserve it! She never listens to me.”

“Oh no, she listens to you.” Omile scoffed. “That’s how this all started, is it not?”

Salem shook his head and started driving again. “I knew when to stop. I knew who deserved it and who didn’t.”

“Yeah well you, of all people, should know that Victoria wouldn’t. Once you gave her that little bit of power you should have known it was going to do something to her.”

“Are you trying to justify what she’s doing?”

“No, why would I Salem? I didn’t even want her to do this in the first place. I’m just saying that you are at fault here too.”

“Yeah well, so are you.” Salem turned into a parking lot of an old diner.

“You think I’m not aware of that?” Omile unbuckled her seatbelt. “But it’s your fault that I’m at fault here.” She opened the door and step out.

Salem stepped out the car and put his hand in his pocket. “Take that out of your mouth.” Salem looked at her and took it out of his mouth and put it out. “You don’t make a very good smoker Salem.

They both made their way up to the door and Salem opened it for Omile. “Besides, I don’t think Daman wouldn’t appreciate kissing someone who taste’s like cigarettes.”

“Can we not make this about my problem, and besides. He smokes too.” Omile shakes her head and waits behind the other people standing in line.

Salem sighed and pulled his pack out of his pocket and dropped it into a nearby trash can. “You happy?” Omile chuckled and shrugged. “I’ll throw the others away later….maybe.” He chuckled as well and walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulder.

The two of them made it up to the front of the line and when a lady at the podium asked how many Salem holds up two fingers and the lady smiled and motioned for them to follow her. She lead them to a small round table in the middle of few other full tables and handed them their menus and asked what they would want to drink. Salem ordered a mountain dew and Omile got an iced tea; after the lady left they both picked up the menus and opened them, even though they already know what they are going to eat.

“So is this going to be a delightful dinner, or is the subject of Victoria gonna get us kicked out of the restaurant?” Omile asked while scanning the menu.

“I’m hoping it won’t lead to that second one, but I can’t tell you that it’s going to be delightful.” Salem looked over at her over his menu.

Omile sighed and closed her menu then put it down. “I don’t know why I even bother looking at the menu. I get the same thing every time.”

Salem chuckled and closed his. “You and I both.” The waitress came back and dropped off their drinks and took their orders.

“Alright, so uh….you were right. This was a bad idea and we never should have done it.” Omile tried not to smile by taking a sip of her drink. “And we need to help Victoria. She’s uh….she’s not right in the head.”

“You don’t say.”

“No I mean like….I’m very worried about her. Okay so like, she made this orb thing that does her dirty work for her. Like, so that way she doesn’t need all the ingredients. That’s how she’s been able to like, kill all of these people.” Omile nodded to show that she was listening to him. “And so like, ever since she’s made that orb-bear in mind she doesn’t know that I know about this orb- but uh, ever since she’s made it she hasn’t been the same. She’s not alright. She is cray cray Omile. Cray cray.”

The waitress came back and set down a plate with an egg burger and onion rings in front of Omile and a bacon cheeseburger with curly fries in front Salem. The two thanked her and they both took a bite into their burgers after she walked away.

“Well Salem.” Omile started between bites. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve never heard of an orb thing that does that.”

“I think she learned it from Daman.”

Omile almost spit out her food. “Daman isn’t a witch though?”

“I know, but they’ve been hanging out a lot and everytime I see her with him he’s teaching her

something. I don’t know what he’s teaching her, but I’m pretty sure it was that orb thing because god knows Victoria doesn’t do any research on her own. Research is apparently only for school work or ‘non magical’ subjects. Maybe he thought he was helping her or something, I don’t know.” Salem took a bite of his burger.

“Why don’t you ask him?” Omile picked at her bun.

“Cause that’s none of my business.” He ate a fry.

“I mean it kinda is, your boyfriend is teaching your sister weird stuff that looks like it’s gonna be bad. At least get to know what he taught her, ya know?” Omile crunched down on an onion ring.

Salem shrugged and took another bite of a fry. “I don’t want to get involved and make it look like I don’t trust them. Last thing I need right now is for Victoria to not trust me. She might try and kill me next. And I’m pretty sure she’s already hella upset with me so like, no need to add wood to the fire.”

Omile cocked her head to the side and gave him a disapproving look as she took a bite of her burger.

“What? Am I wrong?” Omile sighed and shook her head. “Exactly. We need to do something but I don’t know what. Right now though, I wanna get that orb away from her.”

“Then do it, it can’t be that hard.” Omile finished her burger and started eating the rest of her onion rings.

“I don’t know what she did with it. Like, it just disappears when she finishes using it or something? I don’t know, she’s a pain in the a*s, that’s all I do know.”

Omile threw an onion ring at him. “Rude.” Salem giggled and finished off his fries while Omile finished her onion rings. 

“It's not rude because it’s true and you know it.” He pushed his empty plate to the side as Omile finished her last bit of rings.

Omile slowly ate her last onion ring as a way to avoid his statement. When she finished her onion rings she put her plate on top of Salem’s and leaned back into her seat. “I have no answer for you.”

“Ha! See, it's true.” Salem smirked as he waved the waitress over to them.

“I never said such a thing, I simply said I have no response to your statement.” The waitress picked up their empty plates and placed the bill onto their table.

“You’re just too afraid to say anything because you think she might kill you for it.” Salem chuckled as he pulled his wallet out.

“Salem!” A few people looked over at their table and she shrunk down a bit. “That is the farthest thing from the truth, stop being so rude about your sister.”

“How sweet of you. You care about my wellbeing.” Salem paid the bill and then stood up from the table.

Omile puffed out her cheeks in frustration and stood up as well. “This is all your fault. I hope you know that.”

“Yeah yeah, that’s what you keep telling me.” Salem put his arm around her and walked out of the building as he waved goodbye to their waitress.