by M. K. ROZE
me told me not to. That’s when I slipped the mirror into my
duffel bag, knowing the tour guide told us if we found
anything, not to take it, and give it to them.”
When Adelyn heard a bang, she stopped talking and
looked at the cross lying on the floor. “How the hell do you
keep falling off?” She looked back into the camera. “I think
mom was telling the truth when she said she invited ghosts
back here with us.”
Adelyn walked over to the cross and zoomed in on it
with her camera. “This is the second time it fell since I’ve
been recording. I’m going to hang it back up. If it falls again,
I will become a true believer.”
She picked the cross up, hung it back on the wall, and
made sure it was secure. Adelyn shook her head as she took
the duffel bag off the floor and got back into bed.
“As I was saying about the mirror. I know this sounds
crazy, but I felt like I was drawn to the mirror somehow. And
like I said earlier, it was as if someone took over my mind,
telling me to take it. Maybe the mirror is enchanted or
something. Ridiculous, I know. But anything I think or feel
ever since I got into that car accident last month, doesn’t
seem right. Or maybe I’m just using that as an excuse for
stealing.”
Adelyn paused and showed the mirror to the camera.
“Here it is. I feel guilty, but I can’t part with this. Plus, Dad
would flip out if he found out I stole anything. I’ll keep it
and say someone gave it to me.”
She stopped talking and set the mirror next to her.
“Anyhow, that was the first time I have ever stolen
anything. But I don’t call it stealing. I mean, it was on the
ground. Finders keepers, right? It’s not like they’ll know it’s
missing. Who knows? I’m tired. I have school in the
morning, then I have to go to work and wait on the rude
tourists. Good night.”
Adelyn stopped recording her nightly video of her life
and set the phone on the end table. She looked into the
mirror, smiling at her perfect pale complexion. She placed
the mirror under her pillow and glanced out the window at
the pine trees swaying in the light breeze.
As Adelyn watched the clouds fly by, something ice-
cold touched her arm. She leaped out of bed, turned the light
on, and looked around the room—pure adrenalin rushing
through her shaky body—sure ghosts were real.
delyn tossed and turned when she heard a door
open, followed by footsteps getting closer to her.
“Honey, you’re going to be late for school,” Mom
said in a calm voice while shaking her foot. “Didn’t you hear
your alarm going off for the last half hour?”
“No, I didn’t hear anything.” Adelyn forced her eyes
open and looked at Mom’s teal scrubs as she walked toward
the dresser and put her black hair in a bun. “Vacation isn’t
over yet.” She pulled the blanket back over her head and
curled up into a ball, shivering. “It’s freezing in here.”
“Funny.” Mom lifted the blanket and wiggled Adelyn’s
toe. “Come on. Get up before you’re late. I have to be in the
emergency room in twenty minutes.”
Adelyn groaned as she sat up. “I feel like I’m coming
down with something.”
Mom leaned down and felt her forehead. “You feel fine
to me. Come on, get up, please. Your last year of school is
important. And don’t you dare throw you being an adult in
my face like you’ve done in the past.”
“Breanna, where did you put my keys?” Dad called out.
Mom thought about it. “In the kitchen. Next to the
toaster.” She paused, thinking. “I think that’s where I placed
them.”
“You always lose Dad’s keys.”
“No, I don’t. He’s just senile from old age.” Mom
wrapped her arms around herself. “It is chilly in here. I’ll turn
the heat up.”
Adelyn draped the blanket around herself, wanting to
tell Mom about her scary experiences from the night before,
but she didn’t want her to get excited and start talking about
how ghosts were real, so she didn’t mention it. “Turn it up
to one hundred, please.”
Before Mom could reply, Dad walked into her room
adjusting his gun on his police duty belt and glanced at Mom.
“The keys aren’t anywhere in the kitchen.”
“They’re there, but according to mom, you’re old and
senile, so you can’t find them,” Adelyn teased.
Dad looked at Mom and chuckled. “Nice.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “I was kidding.”
Dad kissed her. “I know you were, old lady. But
seriously, they’re not there.”
Mom smiled with a puzzled look. “I swear I put them
there last night after I got my soda out of the truck.” She
went downstairs.
Dad walked over to Adelyn and kissed her forehead like
he did every morning before he left for work. “You always
get up earlier than me. What’s your deal? Did you have too
much fun in St. Augustine with all the ghosts?”
Adelyn forced a smile. “No, I mean yes, I had a blast,
but I feel like crap today. I think I got too much sun.” She
glanced at the pile of clean clothes on the desk, debating on
what she was going to wear to school. “And you of all people
know I don’t believe in the paranormal.”
“I know you don’t. Me, neither.” Dad glanced at her
arm. “You’re whiter than Mr. Snowflake.” He petted her cat
who was laying on the end table.
Adelyn looked at her cat, wondering why he was sitting
there when he always stayed near her. She turned to Dad and
playfully smacked his arm. “I’m darker than you are.”
“That’s because I don’t use a bronzer.”
“I’d rather use bronzer than get sun cancer.”
“Smart thinking,” Dad said
Adelyn held her stomach. “I don’t feel like me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I—”
“Jeff,” Mom called out, cutting Adelyn off. “I found
your keys on the coffee table. I’ll leave them there.”
“Alright, thanks, honey,” Dad shouted back. He looked
back at Adelyn. “What were you about to say?”
Adelyn decided not to tell him that she felt like she had
gained weight overnight—sure he’d give her another lecture
on eating healthier, so she didn’t bother. “It’s nothing.”
“Alright.” Dad kissed Adelyn on her forehead and
froze. He reached to the side of her, picked up the mirror,
and examined it in wonderment. “Where did you get this old
thing from?”
Adelyn did her best to keep a straight face and not show
her guilty look. The one where she always looked down and
went silent. She knew she had to come up with a quick lie
and make it a believable one because Dad always knew when
someone wasn’t truthful.
Adelyn snatched the mirror away. “Marissa gave it to
me.”
Marissa was one of Ad
elyn’s two best friends since
elementary school. Nellie was her other one, but she and
Marissa were much closer because they shared more of the
same interests.
Dad glared at her in shock. “Hey, that wasn’t nice.”
Adelyn lowered her head and stared at the mirror.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to snatch it away like that. I told you I
don’t feel right.”
“You don’t look sick to me.” Dad winked and walked
out of her room.
Adelyn shook her head. “Hey, that’s what mom just
said.”
“She’s the nurse,” he replied and chuckled as his heavy
footsteps rushed down the stairs.
When Adelyn set the mirror on the end table, Mr.
Snowflake hissed, jumped down, and gunned it out of her
room.
“What’s your deal?” Adelyn staggered over to the
dresser to take a look at herself in the mirror. She frowned,
wishing all mirrors, like the one she found in the woods, hid
the scar on her chin.
As Adelyn put the concealer over the scar, which she
didn’t think did much, but she thought was better than
nothing, she noticed a red mark on her right cheek. She ran
her finger over it and pouted. Great, I’m breaking out again.
Adelyn put concealer over the pimple. She pulled the
hair tie out of her hair and brushed the snarls out. When she
was finished, her curly dark hair looked like she stuck her
finger into a wall socket. She giggled at herself and set the
brush down.
After Adelyn straightened her hair, she got dressed in
the same colorful clothes she always wore to school. As she
looked herself over, she frowned, wanting to wear all black,
which wasn’t normal for her. She didn’t know why she
wanted to suddenly change her look, but she did. She
thought it was strange because she always loved bright colors
since she could remember.
Before Adelyn walked out of her room, she narrowed
her eyes on the mirror. She walked back over to the end
table, picked the mirror up, and smiled at her flawless skin.
When a tingling sensation ran through her hand, Adelyn
quickly set it down on the end table and stepped back. She
stared at the mirror, wondering what just happened, and if
she should toss it in the garbage. She picked it back up, ready
to toss it out, but she couldn’t do it. She felt obligated to keep
it and set it back on the end table.
Adelyn grabbed her backpack, went downstairs, and
continued to the kitchen. She poured a cup of coffee and
said goodbye to her parents.
When Adelyn walked outside, she stood there and
smiled as she smelled the cool crisp air, glad to be away from
the humid, Florida heat.
As she glanced at the tall trees swaying in the light wind,
she took a sip of the coffee, grimaced, and spit it back into
the mug. “Ew, that was so bitter.”
Adelyn dumped the rest of the coffee off the side of the
porch, wondering why she didn’t like the taste. She shrugged
it off, thinking it was a bad batch, and continued to her truck.
After she started the truck up—the engine backfiring—
she sighed with relief, knowing she was weeks away from
buying a newer truck and headed down the mountain.
At Beldam High school, Adelyn parked the truck in the
same assigned spot she parked in every day. She inspected
the old, red brick, church-like structure, to see if her friends
were around. When she didn’t see them in the crowd, she
grabbed her backpack and got out.
As Adelyn walked down the cobblestone pathway
toward the gold gates, she couldn’t help but look up at
Broom Mountain behind the school. She glanced at the
lifeless tree at the top where Sula was hanged then burned,
sure the towns story about the witch was made up to lure
people there.
Adelyn continued inside and walked down the hall,
where she met up with Marissa and Nellie, who were
standing in front of her locker as they did every morning. She
glanced at Marissa’s black top and ripped black jeans and
smiled at her freshly dyed red hair with blue tips, which she
thought made Marissa’s green eyes stand out more.
Adelyn picked up speed and shot a quick look at Nellie’s
red leggings and her white, fitted top. She always liked the
way Nellie dressed, especially because of her Barbie look,
with her sandy blonde hair and baby blue eyes. But that time,
she was more attracted to what Marissa had on for reasons
she wasn’t sure of.
Adelyn took turns quickly hugging them, knowing it was
against the school rules.
Ms. Smart stormed down the hall. She was the math
teacher, rumored to be the witch of the school. Adelyn
thought her long black hair and dark brown eyes added to
the myth. She always wore a black flared out skirt that fell to
her ankles with a white Victorian blouse. Adelyn thought that
was the only outfit she owned.
Ms. Smart stopped in front of them and cleared her
throat. “Hands to yourself, young lady,” she ordered in a
high-pitched tone.
Adelyn backed away from her friends. “I’m sorry, Ms.
Smart. I haven’t seen them in a week.”
She grinned. “You know the rules, Miss Mae. I’m not
getting fired because you’ve been choosing not to obey them
lately. One more time and you’re getting written up.”
Adelyn looked at the white vinyl tile floor, not wanting
to stare into her beady blue eyes. “It won’t happen again.”
Ms. Smart walked on. “Good. Now, get to class before
the bell rings.”
Adelyn watched her walk away and didn’t say a word.
She hated the rules at Beldam High, but she knew the
school’s committee didn’t want girls and boys hanging all
over each other as they did in most public schools. That’s
when they decided to make it the same rule for everyone so
the school didn’t get sued.
Marissa flipped Ms. Smart the bird as the teacher
continued down the hall. “I really hate that old witch. She’s
such a bitch.”
Nellie giggled and flipped Ms. Smart off next. “Me,
too.”
Adelyn smirked. “She wishes she was a real witch.”
“Duh. She is a witch.” Nellie hugged the air like she was
hugging Adelyn goodbye, and she walked off.
Marissa and Adelyn had the same homeroom, so they
walked with each other as always.
“Hey, before my dad asks you, I told him you gave me
an old gold mirror with a red gem on it. And the mirror is
cracked, in case he asks you what it looks like. Just say you
gave it to me, okay?”
Marissa stopped in her tracks.
Adelyn turned to her wide eyes and slowed her walk to
a stop. “What?”
Marissa put her red hair into a ponytail and approached
her. Adelyn knew she was upset because she always put her
hair back when she was mad. “Why? Did you steal it?”
Adelyn looked o
ver her shoulder at a bunch of kids
walking their way. “No,” she replied in a hushed tone. She
looked into Marissa’s curious eyes. “Maybe … kind of ... but
not really.”
“You what?” Kids glanced her way from Marissa’s
elevated voice.
“Shush. I don’t want to go to jail.”
Marissa sighed. “Your wide eyes tell me you’re lying.”
She grabbed Adelyn’s arm and pulled her down the hall until
they got into the bathroom. “You either stole the mirror or
you didn’t. Which is it?”
Adelyn paced the small bathroom. She looked under the
green stalls to see if anyone was in there. When she didn’t
see any feet, she approached Marissa. “I took it from a tourist
site in St. Augustine. It’s no big deal, but Dad asked me this
morning where I got it from, so I told him you gave it to me.
I mean, what else was I supposed to say?”
Marissa looked at her cell phone. “We’re going to be late
for class. Let’s go. We’ll talk about your new stealing habit
later.” She walked out of the restroom shaking her head.
Adelyn sighed. She hated Marissa being mad at her, but
she knew she’d get over it. She knew they’d never stay mad
at each other for long.
Adelyn continued to homeroom and sat next to Marissa
in the middle of the classroom.
Jake, the jock of the school, whom she adored, walked
in. He sat in front of her, peered over his shoulder, and
smiled. “How was your vacation?”
Adelyn blushed as she always did when he spoke to her.
“Great, yours?”
“It was good, but it’s better now that you are here.”
She smiled ear to ear and couldn’t help but melt in his
green eyes. When he spun around, she glanced at his curly
blonde hair, wanting to run her fingers through it.
Marissa leaned into her. “You look like a stalker,” she
whispered.
Adelyn shot her a dirty look, hoping Jake hadn’t heard
her. When he didn’t turn back around, she sighed quietly,
thankful.
In social studies, Adelyn sat next to Brittany—a girl she
never cared for because of the rumors of her practicing
voodoo. And another thing she disliked was the fact that