Confessing

Darkness hung over the sky as they left the school and began the long walk to the Witch Party’s headquarters. Katelyn knew she should not have forced Ki to skip school or skip school herself. She had never skipped school before. Hanna Jean, Katelyn’s best friend, was the top academic of the school and even moments ago Katelyn had tried to fit in with her, but the pain in Katelyn’s heart was too great for her to think about that at the moment. Admittedly, the guilt she felt for leaving only made the pain increase, but she did not think she was ready to re-enter the school quite yet. She had made her decision and she was not about to just change her mind.

The wind increased as the dark clouds shifted across the sky. The air smelled fresh, foreboding oncoming rain. Katelyn increased her pace. The streetlights looked familiar. She told herself she knew where she was going, but the familiarity had a haunted aspect to it. It reminded her of the night that she had run away from home. The darkness from the clouds only increased her apprehension. She was sure she would get lost at any moment. It did not matter if Victoria had led her this way before. The feeling of escaping was scandalous. Her parents had not punished her after that night, nor had the school punished her for being late. Now, she understood why the principal was afraid of Victoria. He had known she was a witch.

Every step she took, a feeling of dread started to take over the sensation of heart burn, leaving her with a chilling emptiness. What point is there to continuing? She wondered. What will they think of me for coming now? What will happen at school if I ever return? She did not want to walk any further. She did not want to turn back. She did not want to stop, but she could not bring herself to continue either.

Tiny raindrops began to speckle the dark grey concrete squares in front of her as she tried to continue at a much reduced pace. Ki walked beside her with a concerned expression, but he did not say anything about her slowed pace or that she had sped up earlier. It had not been raining that night, she reminded herself. It had also been night, but now, no matter how cloudy it was, it was still the middle of the day when she should have been in school. A chill spread through her. She had missed school that day, too. Even if it had been the beginning of the morning, she had still missed school then. It did not make what she was doing now any more acceptable regardless of how much Hannah Jean had noticed that she was gone. This time she had deliberately left school. Last time, it had been a mistake after she had gotten lost. She had left home. She doubted she would escape consequences again, though. Even if she did, Ki probably would not. She was going to get him in trouble.

Victoria had gotten her out of trouble and now Victoria was gone. The dull grey eyes swam before Katelyn’s now closed eyes. Victoria’s pale skin had looked so sickly. Katelyn opened her eyes again, but Victoria’s face would not fade from her vision.

Ki placed his arm around Katelyn and then led the rest of the way to the party’s headquarters. Apparently, he knew where it was. The two-storey red brick building stood before her. Their lawn was the only one on the street that was not littered by the blue Conservative Party signs. The Conservatives who were planning on toughening anti-witch laws, the laws that would ensure she was punished for sure. I don’t want to go any further, she thought, but she entered the building anyway. Ki shifted behind her almost as if he wanted to hide. He was short for a guy, but he was still two inches taller than her.

Brittney hovered over the papers spread across her matte black desk. She dragged her hand through her greying blonde hair. Her lips trembled as her caramel eyes shifted back and forth. Looking up, her eyes narrowed. “Is it after school already?” She raked her hands across the front of her hair hurriedly. Under her breath she added, “Victoria doesn’t show up for one day and I’m buried in paperwork. Why did she have to pick the day the officials stopped by?”

Katelyn stepped forward. Her hands were trembling. She would have to tell Brittney the truth that Victoria was never coming back, but she could not bring herself to say anything. Brittney would be so angry. From the start she had doubted Katelyn for being a Valedette. When she found out what Katelyn’s parents did and that they had used her magic to do it, she would be outraged. Her throat constricted. Her mouth was dry. Her breath came short. She felt like she was dying and there was nothing she could do. Everything would flow away from her and everyone would hate her.

“Just tell her,” Ki whispered.

Brittney’s eyes scrutinized his face. She had the same look of alarm as when Katelyn had first entered. “Tell me what?” She demanded. “Is the world ending?”

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Katelyn opened her mouth to speak, but her throat constricted again. A gush of panic whistled through her. There was nothing she could do and no place she could go that she would be safe. If she told Brittney what had happened to Victoria, it would all be over. Her life, everything would be as good as gone. It was bad enough that she had told Ki. It would have been better if she had let her parents keep their horrible secret and had forgotten and it had all ended there, but there was no way she could have forgotten. Victoria was still a person and she deserved justice. If Katelyn said nothing to anyone, eventually the party would realize that something was wrong and that Victoria should be there and was not.

Tears fell down Katelyn’s cheeks. She closed her eyes and tried to fight them away, but it did not matter. They just kept assaulting her vision and her composure. Her body was racked by sobs. She was in public. She had to hide it and do her best to not look vulnerable, but whatever she told herself, it did not matter.

“What happened?” Brittney asked. Her voice was gentler than Katelyn had ever thought it could be and her eyes had softened. Brittney had shed some of her anxiety and looked beyond her papers to glance concernedly at Katelyn. She looked between Katelyn and Ki as if one of them would give her an answer, but it was a genuine glancing. For all her suspicions, she was kind. The worst part was that her suspicions were absolutely right.

Now, Katelyn was not sure whether to be afraid simply because she had no idea how Brittney would respond. Brittney had laid aside so much of her resentment only for her deepest fears about the “conservative parents” to be confirmed.

“Where is Victoria?” Brittney asked. Katelyn’s face paled. How did Brittney know something happened to Victoria? From the vague ghost of a smile on Brittney’s face, however, she had no idea. Katelyn always came to the Party’s headquarters with Victoria. She had been introduced to the party through Victoria. Perhaps, she just wanted to know since Victoria had not showed up all day, but then why ask now when Katelyn was upset?

A foreign thought flittered into Katelyn’s mind: Victoria would know what to say to make me feel better. Emptiness filled Katelyn once more.

We will all fall, Victoria’s words flew back to Katelyn. She must have known her death was coming. She must have known to be careful when Katelyn’s father had shaken his head at her. But why would she? A voice in Katelyn’s mind asked. Wouldn’t it be paranoid to expect that someone you were around frequently would kill you? Whatever you had heard, why would you believe that death would happen to you?

“Katelyn?” Brittney inquired, her tone so light, it seemed to flutter almost like a butterfly. She was afraid of hurting Katelyn.

Ki stared at Katelyn meaningfully, but he was not about to say anything. She knew it was her story to tell. Surely, my parents should say something? She considered, but that was wishful thinking. They were the murderers. Katelyn was the witness. If she said nothing she was as guilty as them. It was her magic. If they said something, she would be blamed. Her father, as far as she knew, had been innocent. He had not put the solution in Victoria’s tea, but he must have known. He had warned her by shaking his head. He had regrets, but he was still culpable.

“Victoria,” Katelyn coughed. “Victoria is gone.”

“What do you mean she is gone?” Brittney demanded her tone rising to confusion, but still light and cautious. When Katelyn was silent, Brittney raked her hands through her greying hair once more and sighed. She swore.

A young woman walked into the room from down the hall holding a box full of papers. She had an elections pin on her white blouse. Her dark hair was pulled into a tight bun. Her green eyes narrowed on Ki, but she directed her attention to Brittney. “Miss Pallivar, watch your tone.”

“Ma’am, don’t you wonder where Victoria is?” Brittney demanded the dark-skinned elections officer. The elections officer raised her eyebrow and her eyes flickered across Katelyn. Surprise clouded her vision.

“School is not over yet,” the officer snapped, seemingly ignoring Brittney’s question. Katelyn was surprised Brittney spoke to the officer with familiarity, but even more surprised that the officer just assumed they should have been in school.

Ki glanced at Katelyn nervously as he stared into the dull green eyes of the officer. He returned the officer’s stare rather sheepishly. She looked like she was trying to decide between killing Ki and phoning his parents, but there was a darker more distant edge to it. Her eyes shifted back to Brittney uneasily like she was not really interested in what Brittney had to say. It was not surprising, really. Elections officers were supposed to be neutral, which meant they could not be witches, so they inevitably hated witches.

Brittney looked at Katelyn expectantly, as if to indicate to her to tell the elections officer, but there was no way she was going to tell this woman. Katelyn wanted to run out the door and leave all the pain behind her and to do her best to force it to just end. She turned around to face the intricate lines along the wooden surface of the door, trying to use them to calm her thoughts, but another jarring pain was spreading through her heart. It kept tearing back into her soul and throwing her apart. School is not over. She did not care if school was over for the day or never over again. To her it was forever over. Charlotte’s face swam before her vision. The girl would probably get a star part in the play, maybe even Carrie. Katelyn was not sure why it bothered her if Charlotte was to get Carrie. She still felt unnervingly left out.