Her Dark Sins

by T R Tells

  After a moment, he slid over to me in the computer chair and said, “But how is Mahogany? Every time I ask Trey, he gets upset. He said, at first, her parents had been hitting her, but then said something about she was sick and no one was doing anything?”

  The smile on his face faded. Alessander cared for Mahogany as much as I did. Moa was like his little sister, and, like Juniper, he’d get protective if anything were to happen to her. That was just Alessander. His family, friends, and I were the people he cared for the most and would do anything to make sure we were safe.

  “Yeah, I visited her, and it was weird. I saw the trail of smoke that led to her house—”

  “—That’s the Apathy Current you mentioned, right? Allows you to see those creatures?” I nodded, surprised he was picking things up so quickly. “Did you find anything?”

  “She was kind of pale, for a moment a little aggressive, then lethargic,” I said, recalling the events that happened. “And then I saw something… A shadowy presence, maybe, but it vanished. I had to leave, though, or else her mom would have called my mom or Omari.”

  Alessander sighed, and he reached out for my hands, bringing his lips to kiss my fingers. He looked up at me. “I won’t say I know what’s going on or if things will be fine, but trust your gut, Ira. You’re usually right when you do.”

  I gripped onto his hands, knowing that he was right.

  For the rest of the day, we laid in bed and watched Netflix, cuddling together, reveling in one another’s embrace. It made everything seem so far away, and for once, I didn’t have to worry.

  Chapter Eleven

  The air in the school bus was tight, and the array of students with swirls of clouds over their heads was making me sick. Mom had to go into work early this morning, so I couldn’t ride with her. My chest tightened. . I wasn't sure how long I’d be able to hold out, but fortunately, the school came into view. When the bus parked, I barreled out of the door like my life depended on it.

  Helene had been standing at the school's front lawn and walked over to me when she saw me approach.

  "Jeez, you look worse for wear. I didn’t think you were claustrophobic."

  We walked up the pathway toward the school.

  "I am now; the air’s so thick with people's anxieties and lethargic energies—it gets kind of hard to think, especially in enclosed spaces."

  She leaned in as we approached the metal detectors.

  "... So are you going to tell me what happened after the Paper Doll? And how Alessander's memory returned?"

  Helene and I were in the line as I briefly explained everything that happened. From Veronica, to her odd powers, Alessander’s memory coming back, and recognizing the Umbra Shade. The last thing I mentioned was that I told him everything.

  I would let her know about what I’d learned in church and my theories on it when we were in private.

  "...Then, we just cuddled and watched stuff on Netflix like we always used to do. It was as if everything that I had gone through never happened."

  Helene stuck her tongue at me. "Boo. How boring, give me the details." I playfully flipped her off as she grinned like a Cheshire Cat. "But no, that's sweet, I already 'ship' you guys. That was something Kirstin and I liked to do, too. We didn't have sex all the time like 90% of the population think teenagers do."

  I assumed that 'Kirstin' was her ex-girlfriends name.. It was nice that Helen was opening up a bit. I wanted to ask more, but I doubt we were on that level yet.

  "So, what are you going to do about Veronica? It doesn't seem like she's going to leave well enough alone."

  My throat tightened hearing Veronica's name. "I don't know. We don't exactly know her intentions, except she's made it perfectly clear that she wants him."

  Helene snorted. "True, but she could have tried at any time. Why did she come back now?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know, but we'll get through this together."

  We passed through the security check on the line, and headed down the halls so we could get to our first period of the day. As I walked Helene to her classroom on the first floor, a tingly sensation sprouted on the back of my neck. I turned when I recognized a familiar face in the crowd.

  "Oh, there's Noah," I said out loud to catch Helene's attention. "He was the one Brodie and Jett were bullying a few days ago outside the school. I'm going to see how he's doing."

  "I know them, too. They’re a part of the LGBTQIA+ club with me. They’re kind of quiet, though, and they don't like to talk much about their home life, but if you get them talking, they're kind of funny."

  "They?" I asked. I hadn't meant to be disrespectful.

  Helene nodded. "Mmhm, They transferred to the school a year ago and recently came out as transgender. The committee is trying to get the principal and the Board of Education to build a bathroom for transgender students, since we do also have a few intersexes here too. We need over 100 signatures, and the student body needs to agree with it." Helene shook her head, annoyed.

  I appreciated that someone was trying to make a difference. Still, the fact that over a hundred signatures was needed, and the student body had to approve it, was stupid and unfair. The only voices in the school shouldn’t be straight cis-gendered females and males.

  "How much do you have now?"

  "Sixty, so far. You’d think in 2019 people wouldn't give a damn about someone's orientation."

  I frowned. If I could rid the entire school of their negative outlook, I would do so in a heartbeat.

  "Well, definitely let me sign, and I'll have Trey sign the next time I see him. Once Alessander gets back in the school, he'll sign up too."

  We headed over to Noah, who was taking out some books from their locker. As soon as they did, from the corner of my eye I saw something flying in the air. It was too late for me to warn anyone when Jett had caught the football. He bumped into Noah, making their books crash out of their hands. Brodie saddled up to his friend, laughing at Noah trying to pick up their books.

  "You should watch where you're going, fag." Brodie spat. Jett laughed beside him, twirling the football in his hands.

  Oh, hell no.

  I stepped forward. "Why don't you get the hell out of here, or should I go tell your football coach you're failing?"

  Brodie turned to me and frowned. It looked like he might have punched me if Jett didn't hold him back.

  "Nah, come on, man, we should head to class. These bitches ain't worth it," Jett said, trying to get his friend under control. Brodie's nose turned up at me, and he regained his cocky smile as the two of them left.

  I scoffed. What I wouldn't give to see those two expelled for life.

  I turned around to see Helene help pick the rest of Noah's books off the floor. I walked over and greeted them with a wave. Their cheeks immediately turned red.

  "Thanks for that, both of you," they mumbled, “Especially you, Hira. Thanks again.”

  "You remember me?"

  Noah nodded. "Of course. Everyone always just stands there, except for you. You fight back."

  Helene rolled her eyes. "Yeah, people can be little shitheads, and they only care about posting on social media or gossiping about pointless drama."

  "So, are you okay?" I asked. "You know if you ever need anything, I'm more than willing to help and lend a hand."

  "And I, uh, appreciate that," Noah said, looking down at their feet. "But I don't want to bother you. I just wish I could take them on myself."

  I understood how they felt. It wasn't the same if someone kept helping you over and over, you would want to know that you could stand on your own two feet. If not, bullies would never stop bullying you.

  "It might not be the ideal choice right now," Helene said to Noah. "But have a teacher come with you to your locker. If they can’t, ask the teacher to let you leave five minutes earlier. It is definitely no way to live, but it lessens your encounters with bullies."

  They shouldn't have to, though.

  Noah nodded, but it wasn’t clear
whether they would take Helene's advice or not. "I should get to my first-period."

  "Oh, Noah, what should I… well, what would you prefer I call you?"

  Noah's lips turned into a small smile. "Noah's fine. Thank you for asking."

  We watched Noah head off for their class.

  "Noah shouldn't have to go through that, especially not for another couple months until Brodie and Jett graduate."

  Helene snorted. "If those meat heads graduate. It sucks, but what can we do when there is always some kind of discrimination because of people's ignorance. Hollywood, the media; people have been brainwashed for years because someone said only a man and a woman should be together."

  And that gave me an idea.

  I turned to Helene. "I think I might have a plan. It isn't ideal, and they're kind of a bitch, but if we could have someone spread news and awareness, they could jeer the student body into helping the committee out."

  Helene laughed and shook her head. "Oh, boy. I have a feeling I know exactly who that is. I doubt she'll even do a 'story' like this."

  "And she should, my mother has done similar pieces, and if Amelia Bennett knows what real journalism is, then she should too."

  Helene shrugged her shoulders. "Welp, I'm headed to my class. Text me how it went."

  We departed, and I headed for the second floor so I could wait in front of her AP literature class. Sure enough, I saw Amelia and Alexei walking toward me.

  "Well, look what the cat dragged in," Amelia said when she was close enough for me to hear. She had her arms crossed over her chest, wearing a long-sleeved tunic dress, leggings, and boots with her Louis Vuitton bag on her arm. "I'm surprised you made it out alive with the chaos that happened the other night at the bar."

  I waved her off, not wanting to feed her curious demons. "Yeah, well, I got lucky. Anyway, I came here—of my own volition, mind you—with a story that needs to be heard."

  There was a gleam in Amelia's eyes that only appeared when she was about to get the big scoop on something. She prompted Alexei to take out his cellphone to record me.

  Alexei nodded at me to let me know that I could speak.

  "... It’s standard journalism for you first to tell us your name before you get into the issue you wish to present," Amelia piped in as I parted my lips to speak.

  "Oh, uh, Hira. Hira Night. I want to talk about the school's lack of acknowledgment toward its fellow peers. The student body needs to be more aware and consider those of the LGBTQIA+ community. Just today—"

  Amelia held up her, cutting me off mid-sentence. Alexei did the same and stopped the recording on his phone.

  "That's it?" Amelia questioned, tilting her head to the side as if I was talking about something as boring as the weather.

  I frowned. "Uh, yeah, but I have more to say, and if you like, I can actually get you someone to interview that is going through these problems as we speak."

  Amelia chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Wow, this is a waste of my time. Alexei, erase that."

  "Are you serious?" I half yelled as I watched Alexei press his finger on his phone. "This is not a waste of your time. There is someone right now that is being bullied, and they can't even get their shit out their locker without being fucking harassed!"

  My throat tightened, and my entire body was warm all over. This was one of the things wrong with society and how they treated people they deemed 'different' when we all bleed the same color.

  "Okay, look," Amelia said with her arms crossed. "It is sad and unfair that society can't seem to accept anything that appears 'abnormal' to them. It's how they were taught by their parents and the media. But it isn't exciting news, and it doesn't catch the attention of the audience."

  Is she serious right now?

  "We're in high school, and the attention spans of teenagers are like squirrels." Amelia pointed out. "I didn't become President of the Journalism Club and an intern at Tribune Publishing to tell vanilla stories."

  "And this isn't a softcore piece!" I shouted back at her. A few people were giving me looks as they passed by us in the hallway, but I didn't care. "It's a real issue that is bigger than our school, and people need to hear it now, or they'll go through life being assholes to everyone ."

  Amelia sighed. "And that isn't my problem. The boomers screwed over the millennials, and they’re doing the same to us Gen Z's. Then we’ll probably do the same thing to the next generation, a never-ending cycle of unjust B.S. My motto? If their momma ain't teaching them, the news isn't going to do jack about it either."

  Amelia tried to sidestep me to get into her class, but I blocked her with an outstretched arm. Her gaze snapped toward me, hard as daggers.

  "And sadly, our generation listens to things on social media. Why not use that outlet for something good and not negative, like what you're spreading? News that caters to violent and depressive natures are only going to increase the Apathy that's already in them." Which was true. It was like my pastor said, these people might have erased their thoughts right now, but without proper guidance, a true path, they'll go right back on feeling and doing the same thing they were doing before.

  "—That's not real journalism. If you're going to tell the ugly truth, why not start with facts and what's really going on in the world so we can prevent these things from happening in the future?"

  I expected Amelia to, at least, show some kind of humility. I had known her to be self-absorbed and shallow, but she surprised me when she started laughing.

  "Do you really know anything about journalism?" the smile on her face dropped. "People don't want to hear the truth, the truth makes them angry. They want to be lied to and told fantastical stories they can sink their teeth into and escape the misery they call life. Out of the many 'positive' stories out there, it's the raw and negative articles that get viewed the most. Why do you think on sites like IGN or Gamespot, even TMZ post controversial topics? Because they know people will respond to it."

  Amelia tucked her hair behind her ears and let out a heavy sigh as if she was exhausted of this conversation. Only to continue,

  "That's what people want in 2019, and they will want that in 2020 and the next 100 years afterward. The world is filled with negative people who don't give a rat's ass about others. They just want to see blood, arguments, and fights, sprinkled with the occasional 'let's make articles and movies about the sociopath and not the victim.'"

  I couldn't believe what Amelia was saying. Even though some of what she claimed was the truth, it didn't mean that people couldn’t change.

  "Look, if you really want to make a difference," she said and shrugged her shoulders, "You should put on some spandex and a cape. Now that might be interesting. Come on, Alexei." She pushed me aside with her shoulder and walked past me with Alexei behind her.

  ***

  I told Helene what had happened with Amelia. We were walking down the hallway toward English when she sighed,.

  "Yeah, I figured that it would be a long shot, but thanks for trying. It sucks it has to be this way. If people would just sit down and talk, they’d realize that just because someone is gay or transgender, doesn’t make them any less of a person. They might even be friends if they would give them a chance."

  "Exactly!" I exclaimed. I shook my head, annoyed. "Maybe we should go back to the principal and present the case again? Maybe even have some kind of rally or festival. We can have a Pride Winter Festival."

  Helene pursed her lips, nodding in agreement.

  "That could work, we could make it free to other high schools and not just our own."

  We discussed more on the topic as we headed for class and took our seats when we got there.

  After the bell rang, people started making their way into the classroom. I was surprised when Trey didn't show up. After a few minutes, I began to worry about him.

  When Amelia came into the room right after Mrs. Xiong, I didn't pay her any attention, and as usual, she didn't pay me any, either.

  "Alright, everyone, break
into your teams so you can begin drafting your final project."

  I got up from my seat so I could sit with Helene in the back when I heard Amelia's voice,

  "Mrs. Xiong, my partner, isn't here, so I'm going to take the liberty and take a break. I mean, we probably weren't going to get much done anyway."

  I rolled my eyes, wanting to say something, but after this morning I was sure nothing would get through her thick skull.

  "Hey, just ignore her," Helene said, reading my thoughts. "I thought we should do a story in the form of a poem, something like the Divine Comedy. You could write it and I could act it out."

  I sucked my teeth and frowned. "I don't know, Helene. I'm a bit rusty. I haven't really picked up a pen and paper since Dad or Alessander."

  Helene shrugged and tapped her cheek. "Writer’s block, maybe? You have to get out of that funk, Hira."

  "Nah, that's a myth. I just don't have the inspiration anymore. It's like the passion just ran out of me."

  Her brow raised, and she grinned. "Or it just sounds like you lost your ‘true path’."

  I rolled my eyes at her subtle joke.

  "But I'm sure it hasn't left you. You're just distracted right now with everything that's going on, and you need to find that spark again."

  I shrugged, knowing that it was easier said than done. We read and examined Dante's trials. His guide, Virgil, led him through the Nine Circles of Hell. In his journey, he encountered, and fought, the nine Apostles of sin: Lust, Anger, Heresy, Gluttony, Greed, Fraud, Violence, and Treachery.

  My stomach churned at Dante's descent into Hell itself. I figured it was a good a time as any to tell Helene about the 'almost prophetic' events I had heard in church. Then, There was another tingling sensation on the back of my neck. I glanced around the classroom and then outside, but when I didn't see anything, I pushed the thought out of my head. I told Helene about a possible 'End of Days.'

  ***

  The class ended, and Helene and I parted ways so I could head to lunch. I knew today was tacos, and that was one of the few things on the menu that did not suck.