Damien’s room had become the official meeting place for the 'Hexers' as they were now calling themselves. It felt good to have a name for the group that didn't focus on their victim status.
"I still think we should have gone with the Punishers," Kiaan—the comic book fan of the group—commented.
Jess laughed. "Na, then I'd have to walk around in kinky boots and leather with a whip or something weird."
Damien whistled. "I'd pay to see that."
Jess laughed and blushed. She kind of liked being the only female member of the group. It made her feel special, even though Sammy was gay, and Caine was... well, he didn't seem entirely straight either. Jess desperately wanted to know if he was into girls at all but couldn't think of a smooth way to transition the question into casual conversation. It would be rude to blurt out the question, regardless of her intentions.
As Jess watched Caine, she noticed the way he would touch Sammy every so often. Sammy would panic, shy away and blush. Pushing her jealously aside, it was quite adorable to watch.
Kiaan was looking through Damien’s stack of graphic novels when he held up a book. The cover was black and covered in white symbols, including the encircled pentagram he'd drawn on the floor in blood.
"Is this where you got the spell?" Kiaan asked.
"Erm, no." Damien coughed. "I... well it sort of... came to me in a dream."
"Seriously?" Jess asked.
Silence fell over the room as Damien paced, scratching his head.
"Yeah, in the dream I was told the spell, who to gather, the rules, everything," Damien revealed.
"Rules?" Jess frowned. "You didn't say anything about any rules."
"I'd forgotten. It just came back to me," Damien muttered. "Dream memories are weird like that."
"So... fill us in on the details," Caine prompted as he took a seat on the floor.
Jess joined him, sitting cross-legged on one of the many rugs. The others joined her while Damien took a seat on his bed, looking down at them from his position of leader of the group.
'The Hexlord,' Jess thought.
"Well, it's sort of like a game," Damien explained. "We win if they apologise for their crimes, and they win if we decide to forgive them."
"All of us?" Caine asked.
"I think that's why there had to be an odd number. Majority wins," Damien replied.
"You could have told us," Sammy whined. "I came close to forgiving mine."
"He apologised then?" Caine asked with a sly smile.
"You know he did," Sammy said. "What did you say to him to make him so scared?"
Caine pressed his finger to his nose. "It's a secret."
"So... how come you didn't forgive him?" Damien wanted to know.
"I don't know." Sammy looked out of the window, eyes glazing as he focused on some point in the distance. "I just... went into a... a sort of trance. I knew he wasn't genuinely sorry."
Damien stood abruptly, knocking the books off the bed. He wore a wide, dopey grin as he paced the room. "Yes, it's working. It's the spell. He's guiding us."
"He?" Jess asked.
"Uh... the uh... guy from my dream," Damien muttered.
Jess exchanged worried glances with Sammy and Kiaan. "What guy?"
"He's just a guy I dream about," Damien said.
"Ooo," Caine made a face and laughed, making light of the situation. It didn’t feel light to Jess.
"Okay... you didn't think to tell us any of this before we all gave you our blood?" Jess asked. Something about this new information didn't sit well. The idea of some mystery dream man caused the hairs on her forearm to stand erect. Or maybe it was the draft from the windows.
Jess hugged herself, feeling a chill on the air. She noticed Sammy doing the same.
"In other news, the post I created on Kiaan’s account went viral. He's up to forty-five thousand followers," Caine said, looking down at his screen.
"What?" Kiaan cried. He let out an excited squeal as Caine passed him the phone.
"I only had ninety-five yesterday and most were family," Kiaan said.
"It's thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement," Caine said. "People aren't tolerating racism anymore."
"Good," Jess said, smiling at Kiaan.
"Plus it might be something to do with this striking picture I took," Caine said, scrolling through Kiaan’s page. "People are commenting on your eyes."
"Even people from school are writing on your wall," Caine said. He jumped up off the floor. "Oh, I have a brilliant idea, but I need your computer."
Kiaan nodded. "Okay, we were pretty much done here, right?"
When nobody answered, Damien turned to them, realising all eyes were pointed at his back.
"Oh yeah, sorry guys, I was just looking something up," Damien said, looking over from his bookshelf. "Meeting adjourned."
Jess looked down at her phone and saw she had a couple of missed calls from her older brother Johnny. It was odd for him to speak to her at all, let alone call her.
She frowned, giving the others a distracted goodbye as she called him back.
"Johnny?" she asked when the phone connected.
"Where are you?" Johnny asked, his voice sounding oddly strained.
"At a friend’s house, why?" she replied.
"There's a guy here for you. I can't get rid of him," Johnny told her.
"On my way home," Jess said and hung up.
She tried to swallow away the lump in her throat, but it wouldn't budge.
'It has to be Ricky. Who else would it be?' Jess thought.
The nervous energy flowing through her veins meant it was easy to make the walk in record times. She almost felt as though she was flying, high on fear and anticipation. What did Ricky want? He wasn't seriously going to hold her to her ridiculous promise.
'Have I made a huge mistake?' Jess wondered.
She found him sitting at her kitchen table, feet up and holding one of her Dad's beers. Her brother stood nervously in the corner. As Jess flashed a questioning look he gave her an angry shrug and left her alone with the notoriously cruel bully.
She found herself blushing as he stared at her, lazily swilling the beer bottle and taking a sip.
Tight little curls of white-blonde hair spilled from beneath his cap. He usually shaved them off, but Jess didn't understand why. He had amazing hair. The combination of blonde curls, dark skin and turquoise eyes was stunning when you looked at him objectively. It was only his terrible personality, chavy dress sense and general demeanour that made him seem ugly. Plus the way he spoke like he'd seen the film kidulthood a few too many times.
"I didn't know you knew where I live," Jess muttered. She felt stupid for saying it the moment it left her lips.
"Yeah, I figured," Ricky smirked. "I asked your former mate."
He had to mean Catriona. Catriona Sykes had been her closest friend until the day she decided to spread malicious rumours about her family and turning everyone against her.
"So, what do you want?" Jess asked, feigning ignorance. She knew why he was here.
"You said to call you when I'm in the mood," he said.
...
After a pause, he added, "Well, I'm in the mood."
"Are you ready?" Caine asked Kiaan.Sammy felt a spark of jealously over the fact the two boys were planning to head off alone, which was ridiculous. Kiaan wasn't gay, and as such, he wasn't competition for Caine's heart.'It's because you thought you were special to him,' Sammy realised....'How stupid.'The sadness and disappointment must have been plain to see, as when Caine caught his eye, the kindhearted boy extended an invite."So long as it's okay with you?" Caine turned to Kiaan. "It's your house after all.""Sure, yeah," Kiaan said, flashing him a smile that looked genuine enough.'Do I truly have friends now?' he wondered. The idea still seemed unreal, like a dream or an elaborate rouse. That people could want or value his company. It seemed false.Sammy hadn'
Never before had Jess felt out of place in her own home. Ricky's presence was cloying and dominating, tainting the safety of her sacred personal space.This was all she had; her family and home comforts. As bad as things got as school, she always felt a sense of relief on returning to her house."So?" Ricky shrugged. "Do you wanna do this here?"Jess shook her head in the negative.She backed away instinctively as he rose from the chair and stepped toward her, smirking at her reaction as he handed her the empty beer bottle.It made a hollow ding as she dropped it into the recycling pile behind the bin. Staring down at the empty boxes and cartons, Jess felt herself relaxing. The chaos of the outside world melted away, leaving nothing but the blank quiet of her mind.She let Ricky grab her wrist, lead her through her front door and out into the street, faintly
"Stupid, stupid, stupid." Mike cursed himself under his breath as he stomped home.'Why can't I tell him how I feel?' he wondered.Plonking himself on the sofa, he sank into the cushions, wishing he could disappear completely; fall into the cracks and become forever lost.'I know I've blown it,' Mike thought. 'So why can't I just let it go?'He loaded up his social media, searching Sammy in profiles.Nothing.'He doesn't even have a profile?' Mike frowned. He wondered if he was partly responsible for that before challenging himself with the very real possibility he was the sole reason. Sammy didn't have any friends until Caine turned up. The friend's he'd bought over from primary school had been quick to abandon him when Mike and his friends had singled him out as their victim.'I ruined his childho
Belle re-applied her make-up using the works bathroom mirror. She kept her eyes low until it was time to apply the kohl liner and she was forced to look herself in the eye.Memories of that boy flooded her brain. Every time she looked at her face, she saw his, crumbling as she issued her crushing rejection.Each time she tried to think about something else, anything else, but his face would always appear. His sad blue eyes, messy dyed-black hair, and stereotypical snake-bite piercings.When he'd asked her out, her response had been laughter followed a verbal bashing.She'd been trying to make her workmates laugh. And they had. Vigorously.'I need to apologise,' she realised. She'd been meaning to, but the boy hadn't returned since and she had no way to contact him. She didn't even have as much as a first name.Giving her lips a last coating of burgun
Jess dithered at the front of the queue, taking in what remained of the school's meagre offerings with an audible grimace. A pile of green beans, steamed fish portions and some grain that was probably quinoa. It was always quinoa.She grabbed a banana from the fruit tray and placed it on her tray beside her apple juice.'A healthy meal indeed,' she thought.Out of habit, Jess scanned the cafeteria for a vacant table before remembering she had a group to sit with now. Walking over to their table, she almost tripped when Ricky threw his hefty arm into her path."Sit here," he grunted, kicking out the plastic chair opposite.Jess felt the eyes of his friends sizing her up as she slid into the chair. She tried to ignore them, concentrating on the tiny meal in front of her. Every move she made felt deliberate and robotic, as though she were under scrutiny; a bug bene
The final lesson of the day was Religious Education. A waste of time by all accounts. Occasionally it was interesting, but having the class taught by a devout Christian meant the discussions were often one-sided.Today the teacher was reviewing the scientific evidence for creation. Mr Porter finally turned their attention to the football sitting in the centre of his table. The class had been wondering about its purpose since they piled in and took their seats."Can anyone hazard a guess at how this ball came to be here?" he asked the class."Erm... you put it there?" Cat said."Any other guesses?" Mr Porter pressed."That somebody else put it there," someone spoke up."So we can agree that somebody put the ball on the table. Where would you place the mathematical probability that someone sat the ball on the table?""One," Damien said. "Or
Mike was captain of both the school football and the basketball team. Blessed with a muscular built, limber form and the surefootedness of a mountain goat, he rarely stumbled. It had to be today of all days that Mike managed to trip, and over his own feet no less.He ducked as Sammy turned, looking over his shoulder a few times before turning back on himself to inspect the bushes."Erm... why are you following me?" Sammy asked."I was just..." Mike tried to dream up an excuse but drew a blank."Please stop following me," Sammy said before spinning on his heels and rushing off."Wait," Mike called. He fished himself from the brambles and underbrush, wiping away the 'sticky willy' seeds as he pursued his target.He caught up to the smaller boy with ease."What?" Sammy cried, stopping dead. "What do you want?""Did you t
Sammy watched the captain of his own high-school basketball team from the window of his flat. The guy was hurting, that much was obvious. But did he deserve this level of punishment?He hated to admit it, but Mike's company hadn't been awful. Though he wasn't exactly sparkling with wit, there was something almost cute about him. A childlike innocence. And it wasn't as if the guy was unattractive. His body was near perfect; all in proportion and with tight, neat little muscles.'I'm a pervert for noticing that,' Sammy scolded himself. To be fair, Mike had been checking him out almost constantly for the past few hours. He hadn't even been sneaky about it.The memory of Mike's eyes on his body caused his blood to rush in the opposite direction of his brain. He considered sacking off homework and relieving himself instead.Knock knock knock...The door creaked as his mother