The space had a cozy atmosphere, and the smell was capable of relaxing the nerves of someone having a panic attack, but Josie couldn't help but feel the hair at the back of her neck stand.
Goosebumps appeared on her skin.
She could hear creaks as the branches of the tree swayed slightly.
"I come here almost all the time." He breathed behind her.
Her chest heaved.
"You drew all this?" She asked.
"Yeah, I did," he said. "When you told me about what you saw and that no one would believe you, it took me back two years ago. Sometimes I see things… like some sort of hallucinations." He looked at her bare neck and swallowed. "No one would believe me too, even my parents. So I stopped telling anyone and started putting them down on plain paper."
"You… saw this?" She frowned.
"Yeah." He pointed at the dark drawings on the wall, "That's a few of the many ones I've seen."
Josie turned around in the small space. Bryan moved a few steps backwards to give her more space. "Is it usually chaotic, painful, scary?" She asked.
"Sometimes it's like a vision. It could get scary at times but never painful." He looked at her suspiciously. "Do you get visions, too?"
Josie shook her head. "I only hallucinate things."
"Guess we're more alike than I thought." He smiled.
"Your parents?" She asked, attempting to change the topic. As much as she was bewildered and had questions to ask—tons of questions—she wanted to deviate from the topic as it gave her chills.
He thrust one hand into his pocket and leaned his head slightly backwards.
"I didn't get the chance to know them." He continued. "They died in a car crash when I was three." His expression turned hard, but Josie knew it was only to mask his emotions.
"I live with my granny now."
"That's..." Josie let her words trail off. "I'm so sorry."
There was a moment's hesitation before she embraced him. She thought it was disheartening—loosing ones parents.
"It's alright." He said quietly. "I'm fine now."
Wrapped in his arms, she listened to his pulsing heart and stroked his back gently.
"Thank you, Bryan." She breathed.
He pulled away and stared into her amber eyes. "For what?" He asked.
"Granting my wish."
In that moment, time, to Josie, seemed to stand still. Her heart pounded against her rib cage and knots tightened in her stomach. She felt her own body betray her when she saw him leaning towards her, and she pulled herself closer to him. Their lips met, and everything around them faded away.
It didn't feel right to Bryan. He never believed in love at first sight, but when he saw Josie in class for the first time, he had felt a connection and he thought she felt it too.
Josie pushed gently against his chest.
"No." She said. "This isn't right." She swallowed.
"Yeah…Yeah. Sorry."
She fidgeted. "I have to go."
Bryan attempted to stop her, begging her to stay. "I didn't mean for this to happen." He told her.
"I know," she said, quietly and climbed down the ladder. The wind blew coldly on the tears on her face. She could hear cars honk in the distance.
"Okay. I'll walk you." He said and made to climb down the ladder with her.
"No," she stopped him immediately. "I'd prefer to walk alone."
Bryan sat on the floor in his tree house and slammed his head incessantly into the wooden wall.
"What came over you, Bryan?" He asked himself.
* * *
Josie walked into her house late that day. The sky had taken a darker shade but there was no moon or stars yet. When she walked down the corridor and made the corner into the living room, she almost missed her father, who sat alone in the shadows on a couch in the living room. She greeted him with a forced smile and proceeded to her room to let out the shame and guilt as would usually do when her emotions were against her. Sometimes she would push her head out the window and scream, or bite down on her pillow, or—mostly when she hear screams in her head—lay in a bathtub filled with water so all she can hear is the world going silent.
Malcolm called her name, rising from his seat.
"Can we talk about this?" He held up a compact.
"Did you search my room?" Josie frowned.
"You know you aren't supposed to have mirrors around you, Josie!" He yelled.
She trembled at his outburst and as he advanced towards her, she backed a few steps. "I need you to tell me what you saw in the cabinet earlier."
She was quiet for a while. The last time she opened up to her parents about the unnatural things she was experiencing, they had her go to therapy for two months that, to her, only worsen things. If she told her father the truth now, she did not know where he'd take her to next. Maybe the church for an exorcism, she thought as it had become terrible than their initial knowledge of it.
"It was nothing. Like I said, I just remembered a nightmare I had the night before. It's no big deal."
"What kind of nightmare?" Malcolm pressed but she was quiet, even if minutes had passed since he asked. "I wished you'd just be honest with me for once, Josie."
"Right, because you've been so honest with me."
Malcolm paused to look at his daughter. She looked past him but her gaze wasn't focused on anything particularly.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"There's something you haven't to me about why you hate mirrors, isn't there?" She asked. "You have a phobia, why drag all of us with you?! Look around dad, we're the only house in Westhill that still uses a wooden window. We have no glass materials in this house. I barely even know what I look like." Tears formed in her eyes.
"Stay away from mirrors, Josie!" He hollered. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to wish you had heeded my warnings."
"That's why Mason and Kira never want to be around you!" She sniffled. "You make us feel as though we are prisoners in our own home."
"Josie." Malcolm called softly, but she ignored, making her way up the stairs.
He regretted having raised his voice at her, but his fear of the curse felt threatening to his soul.
Tears continued to flow down Josie's eyes, and she couldn't hold back the sobs.
* * * *
The next morning, Josie's shoes thudded on the hardwood floor as she made her way down the stairs. The smell of her mother's cooking filled the air, and her stomach rumbled. She tried to keep her face expressionless as she took her seat next to Mason on the dining table. Eggs, bacon, and toast sat arranged on the breakfast table, with steam rising from the plates. They all had their mugs filled with a freshly squeezed orange juice.
"How did your birthday go yesterday?" Gwen asked. "You hung out with Maggie and that boy, right?"
Josie paused for a while, her eyes darted to everyone, then she went back to her food. "Yes." She agreed.
"It was fun."
When Josie was done with breakfast, she dipped her lunch into her backpack, told her mother that she was ready to leave, and exited the building. Standing next to the car, she waited for her mother to step out of the house, but she saw her father walk out.
"No, I want mom." She said.
"Come on, I'm driving you to school," Malcolm said, walking towards his SUV parked in the garage at the rear of their house, but Josie didn't bulge.
He looked back at her.
"Let's not debate on this; get into the car and let me take you to school."
"I'd rather walk." She turned and walked away from her house.
"Josie, wait!" her father called after her but instead of answering, she picked up her pace and within minutes; she had covered a reasonable distance.
Turning a corner, out of sight of her house, she slowed her movements and to calm her racing heart; she took a deep breath. The sun was glowing over the clouds, and the birds pitched melodies, but she couldn't appreciate the beauty of the day. As she walked down Bellatrix street, her footsteps scrunched twigs on the deserted road. The wind whistled softly, swaying the branches of trees, but she walked amidst them alone with her thoughts.
At last, she reached school. She stood outside and looked up at the school building, wondering why it had suddenly turned a burden on her.
'When was my life ever going to feel less miserable?' She asked herself. Now she didn't know which was better—staying locked up at home or being free like she wanted.
Looking up at the sky, questions reeled in her mind. One that nobody could give her answers to—no one at all.
Just as she was about to walk into the schoolyard, someone bumped into her and they both fell to the ground.
She groaned with a scowl forming on her forehead.
"Damn it, Bryan!" Josie hissed.
"I'm so sorry." He stood up quickly and helped her to her feet. Blood trickled from a cut above Bryan's left brow. He occasionally looked behind him as if searching for a lurking predator.
"Someone chasing you?" she asked and suddenly began to fume with anger when she noticed the small cut. "Who did that?" she gestured towards his wound.
He tapped on the blood rolling down at the corner of his eyes. "Oh, that?" he waved dismissively. "It's nothing."
She looked behind him and caught sight of two students who were in the same class as them. They kept pointing at Bryan and snickering. Even from where she stood, it was obvious to her that they were making fun of him.
"Is it Richie and Leo?" she asked, and he gave a sly nod. "If no one will throw them in the trash, where they belong, I will." She sneered and began stumping away.
"Wait, wait." Bryan grabbed her arm. "I don't want any trouble."
He gasped shortly as she flashed a glance at him. "Your face." He breathed.
Bryan thought he had seen her eyes go all black, with veins around them and on her forehead.
She pulled her hands away from his grasp and touched her face with her brows furrowed in a deep frown. "What. What's wrong with my face?"
"I thought… All your eyes became black for a second." He said.
Josie shook her head.
"That beating had probably done something to your brain. Why didn't you fight back?"
"I'm on a scholarship, remember?"
Josie looked genuinely confused. "What does that have to do with kicking their asses?"
"Richie's mother is the principal, Jo, and Leo's father is—"
"The school's sponsor? Yeah, I remember all that. It still doesn't explain why you should let them treat you like that." She looked up at Bryan.
"You're hurt; you need to get yourself to the school clinic."
"I'm fine. It's just a bruise." He said simply.
Together they proceeded into the school in silence and as they walked down the hallway, halfway through, Bryan halted and bowed his head.
"What's wrong?" Josie asked.
"I'm really sorry about yesterday. I don't know what came over me."
"Me too." She moved a few inches closer to him. "I thought I was the only one who felt it."
"Felt what?" They heard Maggie as she approached them.
"Uh... Richie and Leo had me beaten just outside the school." Bryan answered immediately.
"What?!" Maggie hurried to him, caressing the skin around his wounded brows.
"Those two idiots." She grunted. "Just because they treat them like school princes doesn't give them the right to walk over the rest of us, you know."
Josie's face flushed with anger as Maggie's hands caressed Bryan's face. She tried to keep her expression normal, but it didn't work. She thought she would explode as she felt her head swell and heat up with rage. If only Maggie had been looking at her, she would've noticed her fury, but Bryan's eyes never left her. She clutched the straps of her backpack and fled to the restroom to cool off.
She threw her bag to the floor and glared at her reflection in the mirror. All she felt was the urge to walk out there and break Maggie's neck which she thought was long, and the feeling scared her. As she kept staring into the mirror, she saw her eyes darken just as Bryan had told her earlier. Black veins crowded her face and… It smiled at her—her reflection—and said. "Hello, Josette Andrews. I was wondering when you'd show up."
A quick knock came on the door, and she shot a stare at it.