Sean turned the knob on the unlocked door and tried to walk into the apartment, but Andre pushed from the other side.
"Andre, let me in," Sean insisted. He'd always been allowed in their home anytime he wanted.
"Man, go away. I'm busy," Andre said.
"I need to talk." Sean pushed the door. Andre may have been taller, but Sean was stronger. When the opening was wide enough, he hopped into the apartment.
"Damn!" Andre cursed. He wore a black hoodie, and he kept his head down like he was trying to avoid eye contact.
"Are you sick?" Sean asked. "Why weren't you in school this morning?"
"Yeah, I'm sick. You need to leave before you catch it." Andre backed away and lowered his head.
Sean smelled it: the effervescent scent of magic.
"What's wrong with you?" Sean reached for Andre's hood, but the boy moved away. As if they were on the basketball court, Sean anticipated the dodge and moved in the other direction, parallel with Andre, and pulled off Andre's hood.
As the hood fell, roaches scattered across his face, running away from the light.
Andre yanked the hood back over his head, but Sean couldn't un-see what he just saw.
Sean swallowed the bile and regret rising from his belly. "Damn. Jade got to you, too?" he asked, sick with guilt.
"I'm fine," Andre snapped. "We've just been having roach problems."
"Roaches don't move over a person's face."
Andre's façade cracked, and he wept. "Oh my god. What am I going to do?" he asked.
As Andre cried, bugs ran across his hands and disappeared underneath his hoodie, but Andre didn't seem to feel them. "It just started this morning. I'm scared, Sean. What is my mom gonna say when she sees this?"
Guilt settled in the pit of Sean's stomach. If he'd done something about Jade when he first found out, this whole thing could have been avoided. But shoulda, woulda, couldas wouldn't change the past. He had to do something now.
Sean forced his gaze back to Andre. "Come with me. You're not the only one. She's been messing with Shemeya and Ashley, too. Maybe between the four of us, we can fix this."
"I'm not cutting my hair." Shemeya stood in the doorway of her apartment with her hands across her chest, and her dreads tied back in a ponytail.
"That's not why I'm here. Can we come in?" Sean asked, checking to make sure Jade, and especially Latreece, were nowhere near.
Shemeya narrowed her eyes and glared at Andre, who was fidgeting with his head down, acting like he'd just robbed a store. "What's wrong with him?" she asked.
"That's what we need to talk about," Sean said.
She turned up her top lip as if she smelled something bad. "Okay. I guess. But don't try nothin' silly, because I will stab you and him."
"You don't trust me after everything we've been through?"
She furrowed her brow. "I trust you, but I ain't stupid."
When they were safely inside the apartment, Sean made sure to close and lock the door.
"Okay. So, what's going on?" she asked, her suspicion replaced with curiosity.
"Show her," Sean said to Andre.
"No." Andre lowered his head and turned away.
"Show me what?" Shemeya asked.
"She'll understand. She's going through the same thing," Sean insisted.
"I don't see anything crawling on her face?" Andre said, anger straining his voice.
Understanding flashed in Shemeya's eyes. "Jade got to him, too?"
"Yeah," Sean replied, relieved to share the burden. "Can you show him what she did to you first?" Sean asked Shemeya.
Her eyes glittered with excitement. "I've been practicing." She removed her hair tie and ran her hands through her dreads, shaking her head like she was an actress in a damn shampoo commercial.
After a few shakes, her hair rose as if her dreads were attached to helium balloons. As they rose and came towards Sean, the hair fell back, and the five snakes he'd seen a few days ago smiled and hissed in his direction. If she had a few more snakes and wore a white toga, she'd look like the Medusa statue he'd seen as a kid in a Washington DC museum.
Andre's hood had fallen off, and he cowered against the wall. Fear radiated in his eyes as he stared at Shemeya and her snakes.
Shemeya's mouth dropped open. "What the hell is that on your face?" The snakes' hissing increased tenfold; they snapped at him in response to Shemeya's shock.
Sean covered his ears and got between them. "I told you. He's like you. Call off your snakes."
Shemeya stepped back and raised her palms in defense. "I'm not covered in bugs. Gross."
Andre stood straighter, finding his courage all of a sudden. "Girl, I prefer bugs to those damn slimy ass snakes."
She stepped towards Andre, the snakes riled once again. "My snakes are not slimy."
"Well, my bugs are not gross," Andre insisted.
"What the hell?" Sean shouted, unable to believe the conversation he was hearing. "Both of you are crazy. You are covered in bugs. And you have snakes as hair!"
"Calm down," Shemeya snapped. "And don't scream at me in my own home."
"Yeah, man. Calm down." Andre's fear had disappeared, and now he sounded just as prideful as Shemeya.
"Did Jade do that because you said all black girls look like cockroaches?" Shemeya asked Andre.
"Man, you heard about that, too?" Andre asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"That's what you get. You're lucky she didn't turn you into a roach completely."
Sean shook his head. The strangeness of it all sank into his gut and made him feel like he was living through an episode of the Twilight Zone. "Will y'all listen? I have to tell you guys something." He needed to tell the truth before he lost his nerve.
* * *
Andre laughed, the bugs moved anew on his face. Some even crawled out of his mouth. "You see fairies?" He looked around, mockingly while he sat in Shemeya's living room. "Are there fairies flying around my head?"
"There are roaches crawling in and out of your mouth, and you're laughing at me?" Sean asked, sitting next to Andre. The day felt too long, and the frustration seeped into his tone.
Andre lifted his hands in defense. "Hey now, I was just joking. Why you gotta start insulting me?"
"Talk, Sean," Shemeya said. "Why do you keep talking about fairies?"
"I can see fey. Monsters."
"So," Andre said.
"We're monsters, and we can see each other." Andre motioned towards Shemeya.
"I'm not a damn monster," Shemeya snapped.
"They're not just monsters," Sean interrupted before they could start arguing again. "They're fey, beings from another realm."
"Another realm?" Shemeya drew each syllable out.
"Let me finish," Sean said.
"Yeah, let him finish," Andre said. His bugs stopped moving, and they focused their hair-thin antennaes in Sean's direction. "Go ahead. I like a good story."
"So Jade is fey?" Shemeya asked after Sean told them about his mother and how she died.
"I'm not sure. I can't see her as a fey. She looks human, but she smells of magic, and she has fey coming in and out of her house."
Shemeya paced back and forth in her living room. Her snakes were lying still on her head, nestling each other. "You see fairies. Your mother saw fairies. You were young and kept looking at the damn things, so your family moved to the middle of Oklahoma. Eight years later, you see fey here, and then we turn into monsters." She stopped mid stride and turned to Sean.
"But you're not sure if she's a fairy?" Shemeya asked.
"Not a hundred percent, but she does things humans aren't supposed to do," Sean answered.
"Like turning me into Medusa and Andre into a bug boy."
"We sound like super villains," Andre said with a hint of humor.
"We would make really cool super villains," Shemeya added, laughing.
"This is not a joke," Sean insisted, confused by their laughter. Were they going crazy on top of everythi
ng else? "We have to fix this."
"You're right," Andre said, all humor gone. "If my mom sees me like this, she's gonna trip. They'll hide me away for my entire life, and I'll never get another girl."
"Maybe you can control it," Shemeya said to Andre. "I have mine under control."
"Really?" Andre and his roaches looked at Shemeya expectantly. "How?"
"Relax," Shemeya began. "Think of them as your friends, as an extension of your arm." Shemeya stood tall, and her snakes rose, swaying side-to-side. She shined with triumph and satisfaction. "Now, you try," she said to Andre.
Andre stood and faced Shemeya and Sean. The whites of his teeth and eyes contrasted sharply with the hundreds of brown and black roaches that scampered across his face. He breathed deeply. By the fifth inhale, the bugs began to disperse into Andre's clothes until they were completely out of sight.
"Woohoo! You did it." Shemeya's snakes bounced as she jumped and clapped.
Sean watched them both with a sense of dread. He couldn't let them live the rest of their lives as freaks, even if they seemed to be accepting it. "Come on, guys. We have to come up with a plan."
They were at Sean's house, waiting for Ashley. At first, she had refused when Sean asked her to come over. But as soon as he mentioned Jade, she told him she was on her way, and she hung up before he could tell her anything else.
While they waited, Shemeya sat on Sean's white plastic covered couch watching television.
"When did you get that?" Sean pointed to Shemeya's belly. She'd changed into a pair of jeans and a short t-shirt that revealed a loop-piercing hanging from her belly. The jewelry complemented her dark skin and flat stomach.
"I got it a couple of days ago." She scooted closer to him. "Do you like it?"
Sean licked his lips and swallowed. "Do I like what?"
"My belly ring," she whispered, her breath hot on his ear. He pulled away but found himself staring at her lips. He remembered the night at the party and how soft they felt. He wanted to taste them again. He reached towards her, but then he saw the snakes hovering above his head, and he jumped off the couch.
"It looks nice," he said, remembering the question.
She frowned like she'd just had a piece of candy taken from her. "Whatever." She moved back to the other side of the couch and began flipping through the television stations.
Sean walked to the kitchen to stop himself from thinking about Shemeya and her belly ring. Since he found out about the snakes, he had found himself both repelled and attracted to her.
He entered his kitchen to see roaches scurrying over his trash can, and Andre munching on a discarded apple. "What are you doing?" Sean asked, repulsed.
At the sound of Sean's voice, the roaches scattered and ran under Andre's pants. "I'm sorry. I can't control it. Regular food doesn't taste good anymore."
"Man, get out of my kitchen," Sean said, not bothering to hide his disgust.
Something clung to Ashley. It smelled of magic, and it wavered back and forth in and out of Sean's sight. He made sure to look away from it, focusing instead on Ashley. The thing was wispy, immaterial, and when it decided to focus on something, its eyes grew completely black.
Ashley's hazel eyes had always been the most intriguing thing about her. Now, they no longer held color. Instead, they were murky, as if she had severe cataracts.
Sean didn't expect Ashley to believe anything he said. He had expected to have to show her Shemeya's snakes and Andre's bugs, but when he'd told her about Jade, she cried with relief.
"She cursed me, too," Ashley said, sitting next to Sean, looking weaker by the second. "I knew it. I started getting sick right after she did my hair."
"How sick?" Shemeya asked. She sat near Ashley on the arm of the couch. From the lack of fear on her face, she didn't see the thing clinging to Ashley. If she knew about it, Sean didn't think she would be sitting so close.
"My nose started bleeding," Ashley began. "My head hurts. I pass out at least once a day, and I have no energy. I can't keep any food down."
"Have you talked to her?" Sean asked.
"No, I'm scared. But I have something that might help." She pulled the purse from her lap and took out a book that used a brown paper bag as a cover.
He had no idea if it was a ghost, but spook was the only word he could think of. It left Ashley and floated towards the book. The spook looked from the book to Sean expectantly, like it wanted Sean to take it from her.
Shemeya reached for it, and Sean hit her hand away. "If you got it from her, it can't be any good. You need to get rid of it," he told Ashley.
"Oh, Gawd!" Ashley wailed. Her voice so shrill it sounded like a banshee's death cry. "I tried to get rid of it. I've tried. It keeps coming back. I've thrown it in Lake Hefner, Lake Overholser, and in a landfill. It won't leave me." Her voice climbed in panic, "My baby has been staying with my mom because she's scared of me. And her dad went out for beer a few days ago and hasn't returned since. Please, help me."
"That's why we're here." Shemeya patted Ashley on the back, still oblivious to the monster she was a few inches away from touching.
"How are we going to fight a witch, though?" Ashley whined.
"She's not a witch," Sean corrected.
"Fey. Witch. It makes no difference. How can we fight her? We don't have magic," Shemeya said.
"Jade can't go against all of us. All we have to do is tell her she has to make you better, or we'll call the police," Sean said.
"The police would never believe us," Andre leaned against the wall. "And if anyone saw me or Shemeya like this, they'd lock us up."
"She's an unlicensed beautician working out of her home," Ashley said. "And she's always leaving that little boy of hers outside playing by himself."
"I babysit for Coal and letting kids play outside is not a crime," Shemeya said defensively.
"It doesn't matter," Ashley said. "Social services will still take him. They did it to my cousins last year."
"That's not a bad idea," Sean said. "We can threaten to report her to the state."
"But how do we know she won't just kill us?" Ashley asked.
"There's power in numbers, and I don't think she is strong enough to take us all out," Sean said.
Jade beamed when she answered the door and saw Shemeya standing on the other side. "How is it going? I've been wondering why I haven't heard from you."
"Shemeya!" Coal appeared beside his mother. "Are you here to play with me?"
Shemeya gave Coal a hesitant smile. "No, I'm sorry. I have to talk to your mom."
That was the signal. Sean stepped away from the side of the door. Ashley and Andre followed.
When Jade saw them, her smile disappeared. "What's going on?"
"We need to talk to you." Shemeya tried and failed to keep the guilt from her voice.
"Why?" Jade asked, ignoring Shemeya and looking directly at Sean.
"Can we come in, please?" Shemeya asked. "It's important."
"Go outside and play, Coal. This'll only take a few minutes."
Coal slumped his shoulders and walked past the four of them. Once outside, he began kicking a red ball that had been lying in the grass.
When Sean stepped into the apartment, the intense feeling of otherness overpowered his senses. The earthy smells brought the memory of his mother's death crashing back.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and gathered his courage. He was in charge. And Jade was nothing compared to the monster who had killed his mother.
He could do this.
"What's going on?" Jade asked, her sharp voice pulling Sean out of his thoughts.
"You need to fix us," Ashley demanded. She looked stronger than she had at Sean's apartment, the hope of a remedy giving her strength.
Jade glared at them all in turn before she asked. "Fix what?"
Ashley pulled a gun out of her purse. "Take this damn curse off me, or I'll kill you."
Sean stepped back, surprised. "Ashley, we never talked about bringin
g a gun."
Jade never moved. She stared at the weapon as if Ashley were holding a stick. "There is no curse on you," Jade said. "The book you took is warded. All you have to do is return it, and the curse on your back will be gone."
All confidence left Ashley, and her hands shook.
"Did you bring the book?" Sean asked Ashley, anxiously eying the gun. He feared it would go off, and they would all be charged with murder. He didn't think Jade was human, but the police wouldn't know that.
Tears sprung from Ashley's eyes, and she plopped on Jade's couch, looking exhausted. The phantom on her back grinned with triumph. "No, I left it in your house."
Sean took the gun from Ashley, deciding he liked the confidence of having something dangerous between them and Jade, just in case she was more powerful than she appeared. "What about Shemeya?"
Jade furrowed her brow. "What about her?"
Shemeya spoke up. "I have snakes as dreads." Her voice shook as if she was betraying her best friend.
"Really?" Jade glanced upwards, disbelief in her voice. "You look normal to me."
Shemeya shook her head, and the snakes rose, hissing.
"Wow!" Jade said with amusement and awe. "How did that happen?" She lifted her hand towards the snakes. They hissed and moved away. After a moment, they relaxed and leaned into her hand.
Angered by Jade's feigned ignorance, Sean stepped closer.
"What do you mean 'how did this happen'? You did this to her."
"I didn't do this." Jade caressed the snakes once more before she turned to Sean. "I have never seen someone's hair turn into snakes. Besides, Shemeya has never done anything to me. I thought we were friends." She turned from Sean to Shemeya. "Child, you must have some type of magic all your own. I used your essence, a power you already possessed, to give you confidence. Your snakes have nothing to do with me."
"You're lying," Sean gripped the gun tighter. "You're Fey. You're doing all of this. What about Andre?" Sean walked over to Andre, and with his free hand, he pulled back Andre's hood. The roaches covering his head scattered.
"Hey," Andre said with a weak voice, unable to muster any anger.
A smile touched Jade's lips. "Okay. That is my fault, but I was going to call the roaches off tonight." The tips of her fingers moved across Andre's face as the roaches scurried away. "Damn. I didn't know the spell would take so well." Andre stared at her, his jaw clenched, but he did not pull away. "Do you still believe black women look like cockroaches?"
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 174