Her Dark Sins

by T R Tells

  Fat tears collected underneath Amelia’s eyes before finally rolling down her cheeks. “America ‘land of the free and home of the brave’, my ass,” she retorted.

  I had never seen Amelia this way, so shattered and worn down. She always seemed confident, like she had it all figured out, but behind that wall, she was vulnerable and crying out.

  “Well, that may be true, and I know you’re struggling, but...” Helene said, I could see the sympathy outlined on her face. I was sure she was feeling Amelia’s story as much as I was. “How did you manage to afford those?” she pointed over to the purses near her closet in the corner of her room.

  Amelia sighed and wiped her eyes. “Well, since I’m sharing, you might as well know… ”

  She pulled the drawer from her nightstand and took out a box. Inside of it were receipts and handed them to me.

  “What are those from?” I asked.

  “The money I make from vlogs and product promotions help. The money goes to my mom and the bills, but sometimes I want to splurge on myself and not have to be looked down on because of who I am. I shouldn’t have to.”

  The cloud above her head minimized, and the pressure in the air lessened.

  Well, that’s how she managed to get a new look or purse every day.

  I rifled through the box, moving receipts around until my hand brushed across a photograph. I examined the photo of a young Amelia, maybe ten, sitting beside a handsome man with copper brown hair and a pearly white smile. The two were grinning in front of a camera holding a cake.

  “Is this your dad?” I asked, turning the photo around so she could see. Helene got up and looked over my shoulder.

  Amelia turned her nose at the photo and shook her head, but the anger melted away as she couldn’t contain it.

  My chest tightened, and I watched as the cloud started to grow again, the pressure surrounding me began to build once more.

  Helene tapped my shoulder, mouthing if I was okay, but I assured her everything was fine.

  “That was the last photo I have of him. He used to send me gifts, money, take me out on my birthday or just random days… ” She smiled for a moment before the smile dropped. “He ended up cheating on my mom after she worked to put him through school, and he had nothing. He left us for another woman, and he now makes boatloads of money. He doesn’t even send child support, and my mother can’t even sue because of our situation.”

  Amelia stood on her feet and paced around the room. She gripped her hands together, anger etched on her face.

  “My mother doesn’t deserve this. I can see how much she struggles, and she tries to make due, for me, for her father. And it kills me how he can live a life of luxury with his Swedish wife and my eight-year-old half-sister. She’s living the life that I should have. Why is it that when good people struggle, they get shit, but someone who lies and cheats can still get everything, and they don’t get reprimanded. Ever.”

  Helene and I are quiet as we listened. Tears started dripping down her cheeks. She stopped to wipe them away, composing herself entirely. So much so, that both the pressure and the cloud that were there had disappeared.

  “I have to get through this. I need to get through this. Not just for me, but my family who had to struggle until they died—I won’t let that be the end for my mother. It scared the hell out of me when that incident at the school happened, and I thought that if I died, I would never be able to help my family and achieve my dreams. I told you before that people don’t give a damn about the truth, and that’s true, they could care less about what really happens, but… It’s about time they do.”

  I couldn’t be sure, the moment was too quick, but it looked like there was a gleam in her eyes.

  I stood up from my seat and approached her.

  “And I think what you told me was admirable, and even if you can’t fix your situation right now, there are things you can still say. You have the charisma and the voice to speak out, and people will listen. I’m glad I got to see this much of Amelia Bennett, but maybe it’s time to see more of her.”

  “Hira’s right,” Helene said, and Amelia turned to her. “You write the things you write because you’re hiding behind a wall that empowers lies, fabrication, and cruelty. Why not weave them both? Use your voice as a weapon, your ability to craft words that will make them see the truth. Not everyone will like it, but they need to hear it, and there are people out there whose voice is small, but you can speak for them.”

  Amelia looked between us, then started smiling at me. “You know, I remember before that you sent in some pieces. Why did you stop writing?”

  Her question made me freeze. I didn’t know how to answer.

  She smirked. “How about this, if I start writing the truth, you have to start writing, too.”

  “That sounds like a good deal to me,” Helene chimed in with a grin on her face.

  I let out a long groan before finally sighing. Even Alessander had wondered why I had stopped writing.

  “Fine, I’ll give it a try.”

  “Well, now that we have that matter out of the way,” Amelia said, grinning from ear to ear. It was as if the cloud hovering above her head no longer existed. Was she able to gain control of her feelings?? “Now you can get the hell out of here.”

  “And the Wicked Witch has returned,” Helene said as she started to make her way toward the door. “Come on, Hira, before she takes your little dog too.”

  I rolled my eyes and started to follow Helene when Amelia called me back. I turned around and saw the calm expression on her face.

  “Thanks, you know, for checking in on me. It’s weird; I’ve been feeling like this for a few days but telling you all of this… Well, you’re not so bad, I guess.”

  I grinned. “Kind of like guiding you out of the darkness? Yeah, you’re not so bad yourself. We could exchange numbers if you ever need to talk. Sometimes negativity comes out of us and turns us into.... monsters.”

  Amelia tilted her head. “Hmm... I’ll keep that mind,” I began to head out of her room again until she spoke.

  “But then again… I thought I saw something that night—like you said, monsters—and the way that girl handled that situation… How she was fighting. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?”

  Panicked surfaced throughout my body, and my heart was beating wildly. Calm down, Hira. She can’t see your face. And for all you know she could be bluffing to get something out of you.

  I turned around to meet her gaze, hoping that she would believe my façade.

  “Maybe you were just seeing things that night. You were terrified.”

  Amelia narrowed her eyes. I was starting to wonder how she could control her cloud and how she could’ve seen the Umbra Shade in the exact same way Alessander did.

  “Are you coming?” Helene called. Taking the opportunity, I waved to Amelia and ran out of her room before she could question me further. Helene and I rushed out of the house. Still, despite Amelia’s questioning, in the end, I was glad that she had felt confident in herself to keep fighting again.

  It made me think of Mahogany. If Amelia could bypass her negative emotions, so could Moa. I couldn’t fight anything—not yet—but we would sit down and talk, even if she fought me tooth and nail about it.

  I wouldn’t let my best friend suffer at the hands of her negativity demons.

  They couldn’t have her, I wouldn’t let them.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Early Saturday morning was the day of the mandatory memorial service. I was getting ready in an angel sleeve black one shoulder dress. I slipped on my black boots and began to adorn myself with my silver jewelry.

  I hadn’t gotten over the shock that people were dead, people like Brodie and Jett were dead. They were bullies who harassed people for no reason, and everyone either praised them or didn’t call them out on their actions. They didn’t deserve to die, just like anyone else, but they sure as hell should’ve been punished for their crimes.

  If h
uman beings were kinder and more supportive instead of constantly bringing each other down, we wouldn’t have as much discrimination as we did.

  We wouldn’t have Umbra Shades.

  The knock on my door pulled me out of my thoughts, and I went to answer it, seeing Omari dressed in his police uniform.

  “I didn’t know you were working this morning.”

  “Yeah, Davis and I are assigned to your school since that recent attack. Do you want a ride? Mom had to leave early for work.”

  “Yeah, let me get my coat, and I’ll be down in a minute.”

  Omari had his car already running when I left the house. I went to the passenger side and put my seatbelt on.

  “Got everything?” he asked. I nodded.

  Omari drove out of the driveway. I pulled out my cell phone and texted Alessander to see if he was already there.

  Alessander: Yeah, Trey and I saved everyone's seats. Your mom dropping you off?

  Me: She had to go into work early. Omari’s dropping me off, he and his partner are assigned to patrol the school.

  I didn’t get a chance to talk to my brother about what he thought about all of this, from the ‘hooded vigilante’ to the incidents that had been taking place. We had already lost our dad and it reshaped things in our family. We were still going strong, but if something happened to me…

  My phone vibrated, alerting me to Alessander’s message:

  Alessander: This is about the attack on the school, right? With the Umbra Shades? I know what you’re doing is to save people, Hira, but I’m starting to get worried, and now there’s this Detective. There could be law enforcement getting involved, your brother being one of them. I don’t want anything to happen to you. And it sucks that I can’t do more, that I can’t even protect my girlfriend.

  My stomach churned, reminding me of his conflicting emotions and how all of this must have been stressful on him. It hurt me to think that Alessander felt so vulnerable.

  Me: Don’t, okay? You’re doing what you can, and I love you for that. I’ll be more careful. I know this is hard, but promise me that you will try and stay calm. I’m worried all of this is putting too much pressure on you.

  “You seem to be into your conversation,” Omari said, pulling me away from my phone as soon as I pressed send. “Is that your friend Helene, or are you and Alessi fighting? I don’t want to have to taser him.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “No, we aren’t fighting; he’s just worried about everything that’s been happening.”

  Speaking of Helene, I quickly sent a text to see if she was going to be late.

  I looked back over at my brother, focused on the road. “What do you think about what’s been going on lately?”

  He glanced at me. “What? You mean, what happened at your school, the kidnappings going on, or that vigilante that was on the news?”

  Vigilante. Was that what my brother thought, or was he only repeating what everyone else was saying?

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not going to say I know what’s going on. There wasn’t any proof of a terrorist attack or an explanation of how those two boys were killed. And the CDC had already cleared the place, soit had nothing to do with any disease.”

  My brother’s voice was calm as he spoke, and I wasn’t able to pinpoint his exact emotion.

  “...Do you know anything about the kid named Noah?”

  Omari slowly nodded. “Yeah, we spoke to his parents. The kid’s track record is clean. There were a few witnesses that said he’d been acting weird, lethargic, but there was nothing suspicious about him. We suspected, though, that he didn’t have a healthy home life. The parents seemed indifferent and didn’t care that their child might be hurt or convicted, but a week later, he disappeared.”

  That had me alert, and my phone vibrated at the same time, probably from Helene, but Omari’s words had my heart squeezing in my chest.

  “D-Disappeared? How?”

  Omari shrugged. “We don’t know if he ran or not.”

  Or what if he could have been kidnapped? It was a long shot, but it was possible.

  “But you don’t have anything to worry about, Hira,” my brother said. “Just as long as you keep your head down, go to school, and don’t get into any trouble, there’s not a chance in hell anything will happen to you. I wouldn’t let it.”

  My stomach did a flip, and I hoped the smile on my face seemed genuine.

  Omari dropped me off in front of the school before he headed to the back. I walked through the metal detectors with ease since it wasn’t as packed today, and hurried toward the track and field.

  I came out from the side of the school building from the girl’s gym. Alessander had said that he and Trey were in the middle rows. My eyes scanned the metal bleachers where several students were already in their seats. I tucked my hands in the pockets of my coat, breathing out a puff of smoke from the cold, as I looked around for signs of my boyfriend and best friend.

  When I finally found them, I skipped over to where they were sitting and I excused myself to the people already seated.

  “Hey,” Alessander said, getting up, wrapping an arm around my waist, and kissing me on the lips. “I got you a hot chocolate; they’re passing it around to students.”

  I took the white styrofoam cup filled with a cocoa aroma, and the heat warmed my hands through my gloves.

  “It is way too cold to be out here, why couldn’t we do this inside?” I asked, taking my seat beside Alessander and sipping my hot chocolate.

  Trey snorted. “You’re telling me. I didn’t care about them enough to freeze my ass off.”

  I noticed Mahogany sitting on Trey’s right-hand side. She looked gray-faced, and her forlorn expression worried me. I leaned back and called out to her until she looked at me.

  “Are you okay?”

  Mahogany shrugged. Her eyes held no spark in them, and she seemed far away. There wasn’t even a cloud above her head..

  “I’m fine. I hope your afterschool event was fun.”

  I couldn’t tell if her tone was sarcastic or not. Still, there was definitely a change in the way Mahogany spoke to me.

  I was about to ask her what had gotten into her, but the loudspeakers on the track interrupted me to announce the beginning of the memorial service. The crowds of people in the bleachers were clapping aimlessly, and some even had signs that read ‘RIP.’

  “...I have to go to the bathroom,” Mahogany said, already getting up. I watched as she walked past Trey and put her hand up to stop him before he could follow her. As soon as she passed me, I lurched forward and almost choked.

  I grabbed my chest, gasping. The sudden wave of pressure that hit me was like being struck by an ocean wave.

  That was not normal.

  Alessander was the first to catch my reaction, and his hands rested on my back, rubbing it. Still, my attention was focused on the nonchalant form of my best friend, and I saw the purple cloud above her head enlarging.

  Shit.

  “Hira, are you okay?” Alessander asked. I could hear concern lace his words, but I was still looking at where Mahogany had climbed up the steps and back to the school—a trail of Apathy Current following behind her.

  No. No.

  “I thought you said things were getting better,” I heard Alessander say beside me, his head turned to Trey. His brows were furrowed together, and he shrugged. I could see the pained look on his face from Mahogany’s actions.

  “There are some ups and downs, but she’s fine, just going through the motions.”

  I frowned. “And what motions would that be? Because she practically gave us the cold-shoulder.”

  Trey sucked his teeth, and his brow twitched, waving me off. What the hell was going on with my friends?

  “HEY!”

  I turned my head to see Helene taking her seat beside us on the bleachers. Her cheeks were red from the cold, and her hair was slightly frizzy.

  “Sorry I’m late. I had to
wait for the replacement RN to show up, and then I rushed over here. Did you know they mark you for being late?”

  I hated to change the subject, but right now, my friend was in possible danger.

  “Helene, Mahogany might have developed Apathy. That pressure hit me so hard that I couldn’t breathe for a second.” I rubbed my chest, where the needle-like pain remained from the initial reaction.

  Helene frowned. “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. “I recognized something was off yesterday, and today she looks worse for wear, like an Apathy Victim.”

  She nodded. “I did pass her in the hallway briefly, and she didn’t respond to me, but I had no idea. Do you want to go after her?”

  We both got up from our seats to find her before it was too late. I told Alessander that I was going to go after Mahogany

  “Do you think she has Apathy?” he asked. I didn’t want to worry him, but lying wasn’t what we needed right now. I told him she might, but before I could leave, the tingling sensation pricked my neck, and seeing Veronica halted my movements.

  “You can’t be serious,” I mumbled. I couldn’t see her stomach beyond the coat she was wearing, but I could see that it had doubled in size.

  “Going to save your friend, are we?” Veronica said with a smile, her hand rubbing her stomach in circular motions. “She didn’t look so good, you’re probably too late. She’s as good as dead. And like Brodie and Jett, she isn’t worth saving.”

  “It’s not worth it,” Helene whispered in my ear. “I’ll stay here and make sure she keeps her hands away from Alessander. You go and save Mahogany.”

  How thankful I was that Helene was there because if she wasn’t, I was sure I would push Veronica down the stairs.

  I nodded to Helene and walked past Veronica, who wiggled her fingers at me. I ignored her and excused myself through the people sitting down and rushed up the stairs so I could make it back inside the school.

  Careful to avoid the security guards, I raced toward the third floor. The back of my neck tingled a second too late, and I collided with a hard surface before falling backward onto my butt.