THE TRAGIC + DIVINE

by MELODY FELIX-PRIETO

  “Are you okay, sis?” Isaac put his hand on my shoulder.

  I turned to him and gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m fine.”

  Exiting the car, I wiped a tear that escaped my eye. I didn’t want Isaac to see me this way. I walked to the back of the car, took out my cell phone and dialed my dad’s number. After a few rings, I heard his voice.

  “Hey,” he said breathless and excited to hear my voice. “How’s my baby girl doing?”

  I cringed. I hated when he called me ‘baby.’ It made me feel like a little kid. Even after my constant reminder to quit calling me that, he did it anyway. I wanted to tell him about the abuse I endured daily, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. In the background, I could hear the dings of machines, and hustle of a crowded bar.

  “Where are you?”

  “Uh…” he hesitantly began. “I’m at the casino.”

  Tears filled my eyes threatening to pour out at any moment. I tried my best to hold in the soul-crushing disappointment I felt as I suffocated with each breath. He was gambling again. Throwing away his money hoping to become insta-rich to make our problems go away. It was the reason my mother left my dad ten years ago. While he was out gambling away the rent money, she worked two jobs to support us. But despite his addiction, my dad always took care of us when my mother wasn’t around. He made sure Priscilla, and I ate our breakfast before walking us to school, he read to us every single night before leaving for the casinos, and he always made sure we felt loved. But love wasn’t going to pay the bills, or at least, that’s what my mother always said.

  “Is everything okay? Do you need money?”

  “No—”

  “I have a few hundred saved in the bank. I could wire them tomorrow.”

  I don’t need money, dad. I need you. Turning away from the phone, I let out an angry sob. I hated that my dad wasn’t there when I really needed him. I hated he chose to stay in Los Angeles instead of coming after us and fighting to keep his family together. I hated he never bothered to come looking for Priscilla after she ran away. I hated that I felt so alone. Wiping the tears, I took a deep breath and calmly placed the phone over my ear.

  “I don’t need anything, dad. I only wanted to talk to you.”

  “Daniel, get back in the game man!” I heard someone holler.

  “Listen, I have to go. But I’ll call you later, okay?”

  I swallowed hard. “Okay.”

  Filled with rage, I threw my phone against the concrete smashing the old outdated thing into pieces.

  Shit!

  I let out a loud aggravated groan. Now I had to replace the stupid phone which was going to set me back a few hundred dollars. It was just my luck—and my lack of rational thinking—that always made me do stupid things. When one thing broke, something else was sure to follow. Maybe I should have taken my dad’s offer to send money.

  Sighing, I picked up the pieces before getting back into the car.

  It was dark out when we got back from the ice-cream parlor, the old Victorian house looked haunted and eerie sitting silently in the darkness. As I pulled into the driveway, I noticed a dark figure standing near the wrap around porch. I stared trying to make out any details, but it was too dark to see anything but the silhouette of a man. At first, I thought it was Paul screwing with us, but my gut told me otherwise. The figure was lanky and much taller than Paul.

  “Who’s that?” Isaac asked.

  I answered by locking the doors. “I don’t know.”

  I took out my cell phone to call my mother but was hit with reality when I saw the cracked screen.

  Damn it!

  Of course, I had to total my phone when I needed it most. When I glanced back up, the figure was gone.

  “Where’d it go?” I looked around searching for the figure.

  “To the back of the house,” Isaac said ducking into the seat. “I’m scared.”

  Isaac’s lip trembled. I faked a smile and patted him on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” I told him unsure if I believed it myself.

  In spite of my fear, I decided to do something very stupid. I took the keys out of the ignition and stuck one key between each finger forming a claw. I cursed under my breath, this is the very thing that got you killed in horror movies. I thought about going to the hospital to get my mother, but I didn’t want her mad at me if it turned out to be a false alarm.

  “Lock the car,” I instructed Isaac. “Whatever you do, don’t get out.”

  “No! Don’t leave me here!”

  “I’ll be right back.” I promised.

  “But what if it’s a killer?” Isaac asked.

  I pushed the thought aside. We lived in a relatively safe neighborhood where hardly anything bad ever happened. And I liked it that way. The last time someone died was a local who accidentally shot himself while cleaning his guns.

  “It’s probably your dad playing a cruel joke on us,” I told him, trying to sound calm.

  With a lump in my throat, I exited the car and heard the click of the doors locking after I closed the door. Good boy.

  My pulse quickened as I crept in the direction the figure disappeared.

  It’s nothing. I kept telling myself. It’s Paul trying to scare us.

  I strained to see past the darkness when I turned the corner toward the backyard. There was no light back there, not even a glint of moonlight. The only sound I heard was the soft howling of the wind. Though the figure was nowhere in sight, I could feel its eyes on me and a strong smell of rotten eggs.

  What if it was Satan? No way, Satan, Lucifer, the devil— whatever his name was—wasn’t real. The angels confirmed it. Evil, however, still existed.

  I froze at the sound of footsteps behind me rustling softly on the gravel.

  The hair on my neck rose. There was someone behind me. All I could hear was the beat of my heart pounding away. Gripping the keys in my hand, I spun around throwing my arm in the air in a slashing motion. I stopped when I saw Isaac jump back clutching a baseball bat in his hand.

  “I told you to stay in the car!” I yelled snatching the bat from him.

  “I wanted to help.”

  “Isaac—” I began when the trash can tumbled down. We both jumped up and whipped around to see a cat leap onto the neighbor’s fence. And just like that, the rotting smell vanished along with the feeling someone was watching.

  Weird.

  “Let’s go inside.”

  CHAPTER

  9

  The rest of the week flew by pretty quickly. Aside from the strange encounter with the dark figure on Monday night, nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happened. I told my mother about what I saw, but she brushed it off and told me it was a figment of my imagination. I know what I saw—and smelled. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel…human.

  That night, Isaac slept in my room with the lights on. I made sure all of the windows and doors were locked. Equipped with a few knives, I stayed up all night watching funny movies to ease my mind. It didn’t help though. I was paranoid it would break into the house and kill us in the middle of the night.

  It was Friday night, while every single person in town was at the football game, I sat behind the register counter of the Dixon Corner Mart working the evening shift. On days the store wasn’t busy, I sketched in my leather journal. I was working on a storyboard for a short film I wanted to shoot someday called The Girl in the Black Mustang. It was the story of a superhuman girl who owned a 1970 Mustang—hence the name—and lived in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by evil angels. I hadn’t given the main character a name yet, but she was strong, resilient, and totally badass. It was a labor of love. The only escape out of my shitty miserable reality.

  There was a loud rapping at the window. When I turned, I was greeted by Mitch, a mentally disabled and deaf middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair. Most of Dixon considered Mitch the town bum even though he didn’t smell, stood in a corner to ask for money or drank out of a brown paper bag. I suspected he lived in a cozy c
abin in the woods, but no one cared enough to find out. On the nights I worked, he always stopped by to see me because he knew I had his favorite chicken biscuits waiting for him.

  I waved back at Mitch, walked over to the microwave to grab the biscuits and a few water bottles. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Savannah’s blood red Mercedes pull in. She walked out of the car with her Dixon Chicks in tow and pointed at Mitch in disgust, prodding and chanting ‘Crazy Mitch.’

  I ran outside pushing through the Dixon Chicks and shielded Mitch. “Get away from him, you crazy bitches before I karate kick your asses back to 1985!”

  “Or what?” Savannah challenged. “You’re going to call the police? My momma owns this town. They’ll just give me a slap in the wrist and send me on my way.”

  “I’ll just have to rip your face off before they get here then.”

  Savannah looked over at Ruth-Anne and Mallary-Rose, both wore troublemaking smirks. “You heard that ladies. She threatened me.”

  “I heard her,” Ruth Anne replied. “Said she might even pull out a knife.”

  I ground my teeth wishing I could punch the shit out of both of them. But I knew it was my word against theirs. I couldn’t afford to go to jail and risk being stuck in Dixon on probation.

  “What’d I tell you?” Savannah turned to the Dixon Chicks. “She’s like a dog; all bark but no bite.”

  I turned to Mitch, who had his hands clutched against his chest—a sign he was scared. I patted his shoulders reassuringly.

  “I’m sorry, Mitch,” I signed to him. When I realized Mitch was deaf, I searched the web for sign language videos and apps to figure out how to communicate with him. Even though I wasn’t great at it, it got my message across.

  He signed a grateful ‘thank you.’ When Mitch saw the food in my hands, his eyes sparkled with hunger. I sadly watched Mitch scarf down the biscuits and chug the water. How could anyone be so mean to someone who couldn’t help how he was born?

  When I walked back into the Corner Mart, I heard glass shatter on the ground followed by giggles.

  “Clean-up on aisle five,” I heard Savannah say.

  I growled. Grabbing the mop and broom, I walked to the refrigerators located at the back of the store and found a 4-pack of wine coolers splattered all over. Savannah smirked, enjoying my agony, as I mopped. Before I could finish the mess another bottle shattered splashing a green liquid all over my shirt.

  “What the—” I said as I watched Savannah giggle. “You did that on purpose!”

  “It’s not my fault you’re a klutz,” she said.

  “Yeah. We saw you knock it over with the mop.” This time it was Mallary-Rose who spoke up.

  My nose flared and my grip on the mop handle became tighter. It drove me crazy how these bitches liked to harass me every opportunity they got.

  Screw it.

  I’d had enough. I wasn’t about to stand by and play the victim any longer. Spending the night in jail was going to be worth breaking Savannah’s stupid little nose.

  I shoved Savannah into Mallary-Rose so hard, it knocked both girls to the ground. Ruth-Anne backed away like a wimp. Savannah got up furious and tried to swing at me, but I moved out of the way. She ran into a display of bagged candy that came crashing down to the ground.

  “What’s going on here?” My boss Dan ran out of his office.

  “She did it!” They all pointed the finger at me.

  “Your employee attacked me! I want her fired, now! Or I’m telling my momma—the mayor, so she can sue for negligence,” Savannah said as Ruth-Anne helped her get up.

  “They’re lying, Dan. Check the surveillance video if you don’t believe me,” I said pointing at the camera above.

  Dan glanced at Savannah who raised an eyebrow waiting, he then turned to me with an apologetic look on his face, and before he even said anything, I knew what was coming.

  “I’m sorry Alexis. I have to let you go.” Savannah gave me a triumphant smirk and pushed past me before heading out of the Dixon Corner Mart with her posse. I met Dan’s gaze. I couldn’t believe he took her side over mine.

  “I can’t have the mayor’s daughter running her mouth around town about the store. She’ll ruin me. You can pick up your last check next week.”

  I stood there for a moment too stunned to move. I didn’t know what to say until I blurted, “Coward.”

  I turned around and walked away before Dan could reply. I grabbed a handful of beef jerky sticks and raised them in the air. “This is for making me work Christmas last year, fucker!”

  “That’s coming out of your check!” Dan yelled after me.

  When I got to the register counter to grab my journal, it was gone. Rushing behind the counter, I searched every corner but didn’t find it. There was only one person who could’ve grabbed it: Savannah.

  I slammed my fist down, picked up the store phone, and dialed Julian and Dawn then said, “Let’s crash Mason’s party.”

  CHAPTER

  10

  Mason lived in the rich part of town where the houses resembled castles more than they did ordinary homes and the lawns were perfectly manicured. When Julian and I arrived, the party was in full swing. There were cars lined down the street for miles. Luckily, the universe had an empty spot reserved for me right in front of Mason’s house.

  We walked through the foyer leading into a large living room turned dance floor packed with couples grinding and girls shaking their hips. Repulsion swept over my body at the thought of some guy shaking his junk behind me. I didn’t understand how this was considered dancing.

  Challenges of shots and loud laughter came from the kitchen, and red Solo cups littered the floor. The party looked like something straight out of a teen movie.

  “Oh God,” Julian said. “This is why teen pregnancy is on the rise.”

  “Where’s Dawn?” I asked Julian.

  “She said she was on her way,” Julian replied.

  I scanned the living room searching for Savannah, but she was nowhere in sight.

  “Do you see Savannah?”

  “She’s probably in the bathroom throwing up her dinner,” he replied sarcastically.

  I sighed. “Can you go outside and look? I’ll search in here.”

  After Julian left, I squeezed by the edge of the living room through a tight space, trying not to bump into anyone. I entered a luxurious kitchen where the kids from my school were doing keg stands by the island that served as a bar for the booze. I looked for Savannah with no luck. When I turned in the opposite direction, I felt someone grab my arm from behind then twist me around.

  It was Eddie. And he was wasted. His breath reeked of alcohol.

  “You made it!” He gave me a huge bear hug and held me a little too long for comfort.

  “I did,” I said pulling away, but Eddie didn’t catch my sarcasm.

  “I’m glad you came.” We stood in silence as Eddie studied my face. There was a yearning in his eyes like he wanted to kiss me, but I kept my distance. I wished I could turn back time when things were simple and we were just friends. I hated the awkward tension between us.

  “Do you remember the paper game you used to give me during Government class freshman year? The one with the hidden messages?” he asked rubbing my arm. “What was it called?”

  “Uh…” I tried to pick my brain to remember. “Origami fortune teller. Yeah, I remember. It was hard staying awake during that class.”

  “Yeah.” He smiled. “I still have them. I kept everything you’ve ever given me.”

  “Wow.” I raised my eyebrows and held back my breath for so long, I thought I was going to pass out. “I can’t believe you still have all that stuff.”

  “I’m happy you’re here,” he said, then his eyes suddenly sparkled. “And you’re wearing the necklace I gave you.”

  The necklace? The necklace. I forgot I still had it on. My cheeks flamed as I rubbed the heart nervously.

  “I’m very thirsty,” I said.

  “Wan
t a beer? You can have mine.” He handed me his drink, there was only about a quarter of beer left inside but chugged it anyway. It tasted gross.

  “Let me get you more.”

  “Okay.”

  Eddie disappeared into the kitchen, which I took as a cue to leave. I walked down the dimly lit hallway toward the rooms on the west wing of the house where intertwined couples were locked in a slobber fest.

  As I passed one of the doors, I heard someone puking inside the bathroom. I cracked the door open, and sure enough, it was Savannah. She was on her knees hovering over the toilet puking her guts out. I wanted to confront her and demand she return my journal. I wanted to confront her about Eve’s Paradise even though I knew she would deny it. I wanted to humiliate her in front of all of our classmates the way she humiliated me every opportunity she got. When she tried to get up, she tipped over and fell right into my arms.

  “Whoa,” I said. “Maybe you should sit down.”

  “Lemme alone. I’m fine,” she snapped as she tried to keep her balance.

  I opened my mouth to say something, but she beat me to the punch.

  “Whad’ya you have that I don’t?” Savannah asked slurring her speech.

  “What?” I asked confused.

  “What iss it a’bout you Eddie luuves sso much?”

  “Eddie does not love—”

  “Yah, he does. He follows you a’round like a lost puppy while he uses me.” She pointed an accusatory finger. “You stole ‘em away from me when ya moved here. If it weren’t fer you, we’d still be t’gether. You don’t even luuve ‘em like I do.”

  I stood there motionless. I didn’t know what to say. Everything Savannah was saying was a new revelation. I had no idea Savannah loved Eddie. And there was no way Eddie was in love with me…or was he? Was I so heartless and blind I never realized it?

  As much as I wanted to scream and reveal Savannah’s secrets to all the corners of the world, I couldn’t. For the first time in my life, I actually felt sorry for Savannah. Spilling her dirty little secrets wasn’t going to make me a better person. I’d be lowering myself to Savannah’s shitty standards, and that’s the last thing I wanted to do. And to my luck, karma would bite me right in the ass.