"Come on! You'll love it, I promise!" Katy said, reaching out to draw the heavy red curtain aside. "She's really good!"

I rolled my eyes. "Doubtful," I mumbled, wiping the sweat off my brow.

I was assaulted with an overpowering small of incense and the light tinkling of bells as we both stepped inside the cloying, smoky tent. And there she was, in all her predictable glory - the great Madam Kostana.

Madam Kostana had long, bushy black hair that she had tied back with a long red silk scarf. Her skin was leathery, her teeth, cracked, and her claw-like nails were painted black.

Oh please.

"Sit, my darlings, sit!", she said as she waved her hand towards the two dark wooden chairs across the small table she sat at.

With a sigh, I sat down on the chair closest to the entrance and folded my arms.

"I brought him!" Katy said gleefully to the old Fortune Teller, as she sat down on the other chair.

"It was a struggle, but ... this is Milton," Katy said, gesturing towards me.

"Mill," I said abruptly, "just Mill." I shot Katy a look - she knew I hated it when people called me by my full first name.

"Well, Mill, it is a pleasure to meet you," said the fortune-teller, her voice laced with an accent that I couldn’t place.

I tried not to pull away as she grabbed my hand unexpectedly.

"Come, come, Mr Mill. Do not be shy, eh? Madam Kostana read your fortune..." she said as she peered at the palm of my hand.

I really tried not to roll my eyes again.

Completely oblivious to my nonchalance, Madam Kostana frowned as she stared at my palm. After a few moments, she let go of my wrist and cleared her throat uneasily as her eyes flitted momentarily to meet my stare. Anyone would think she was feeling uneasy. A great little actress we have here, I thought.

"What?" Katy said, sitting forward in her seat, "What did you see?"

Madam Kotsana held up a hand and slid over a heavy crystal ball that had been perching precariously on the far edge of the table. We watched in silence as she hovered her hands either side of the crystal ball, and closed her eyes.

I was fighting to not roll my eyes again when she started humming. But all skepticism flew out the window when she suddenly jerked backwards and her eyes flew open to reveal nothing but the whites of her eyeballs.

"Ohhhhh, Mill-Mill-Milly. My, my, what 'ave we got 'ere?" she hissed in a raspy, callous voice, face pointing upwards to the low ceiling of the tent.

I jolted back, knocking the chair over. I knew that voice.

"Dead but not forgotten, Mills. D' you think I'd forget you? My darling, precious, little toad?", Madam Kotsana said, lowering her head, the whites of her eyes pointing straight towards me.

Only one thing had ever called me that awful Mill-Mill-Milly nickname... and they were dead.

I looked at Katy and then back at the fortune teller. "Stop this. Stop..."

By this point, Katy had gotten up too and was frowning at me, not sure what was going on.

"But why would I stop, Milly? I might not get this chance again. And I must tell your darling friend here what a very naughty boy you've been."

Madam Kotsana smirked and waggled a gnarly finger, still in some sort of trance.

"Tut, tut, Milly-boy. You won't go far with that attitude," she said,

That was it. I bounded out of the tent and ran as far and as fast as my feet could carry me. I heard Katy's voice trailing behind me for a few seconds, but I kept on going.

Never again will I be in the presence of that... that...

I came to a stop and leaned against the old church I'd reached, gasping for breath. I knew I could run, but I couldn't hide. Nowhere was safe.

And as I looked in horror at the ground before me, I saw the dirt being parted by something invisible to the naked eye.

"Mill-Mill-Milly" etched itself out before me in large letters.

I stared at it, my heart in my throat. And sure enough, the words disappeared as though they were swept away by a breeze. This, on a still, hot, sunny day.

First there was the strange smell like burnt leaves and cat piss. Then there was the wall of clown dolls. Holy John Wayne Gacy! Dolls are creepy enough. Jessie must’ve noticed my sour expression because her perpetual smile wavered. “I think it’s sage, you know to cleanse the house of evil spirits,” Jessie said. Just then decrepit one eyed tuxedo cat wandered into the living room and hissed at me and wandered out. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Jessie is my new friend. My bookshop and her antique store face each other. We both have an affinity for magic and I’ve helped Jessie with a couple of freaky items. The last time an annoying little ventriloquist’s dummy trashed my apartment and threw my iPhone in the toilet. Jessie wanted to surprise me. I was thinking karaoke but instead we’re at a psychic’s lair/messy apartment. I studied the psychic’s bookcase and noticed numerous dog eared pages. I yelped. “Jaime all right let’s go.” She grabbed her purse. I caught her arm. “No I want to be here.” “Boy stop playing.” “Okay I don’t want to be here. I want to be on my sofa reading locked room mysteries. But I trust you. You brought us here for me. I’m down.” Suddenly the medium appeared in a puff of smoke. I patted my forehead with my pocket square. Madame Koiki, in a pair of overalls and a muppets tee, exhaled another plume of bubblegum vape. Jessie went behind the curtain first. The room felt colder without Jessie. Born into a family of witches, I’ve studied the craft as an academic for years but now I’m practicing. I glanced over at the kitten on the window sill. It looked back at me seriously and then hacked up a hair ball. I patted my forehead again. “Come in baby warlock.” Madame Koiki’s voice rang out behind the shimmery curtain. I ducked into the back room. “Where’s Jess?” “I sent her out the back door. She’s waiting for you in the car. So what do you have to tell me?” The medium asked. I did a double take. “Wait aren’t you supposed to tell me my future!” “First stop calling me Madame in your head. It’s weird. Second you know what going to happen. Magic attracts magic. You know in your bones what your Jessie is and what you will be together.” I sat stunned as puzzle pieces fell into place in my mind. Feeling stupid and enlighten I got up to leave. “Oh your kitten threw up.” Koiki turned towards curtain. “I don’t have a cat. Not anymore.” “Well your old cat wants you to get a kitten and maybe a cat brush. “ I climbed back into Jessie’s car. She looked at me expectedly. “Koiki said more magical objects and beings were coming by way and I was glass and that—“ As if pulled by a magnet I pressed my lips to hers. “You’re a Glass, an energy magnifier.” Jessie was silent for the first time ever then she grabbed my blazer and kissed me back.

“Bible basher!” some idiot laughs as they shove me into the wall.

Nothing’s changed, really. I am still the strange kid from the Catholic school ten minutes’ walk away, even if I’ve technically been missing for a couple of months. I am still someone who is different, someone easy to taunt, and that… well, that didn’t even change in Karatela.

But I guess I’m incredibly different, aren’t I?

Honestly, where is Neve? She’s normally one of the first out, but I’ve been here since, like, ten minutes before the bell.

Okay, I’m trying to get to 8000 words for my ONC entry on Wattpad today, and I’m at about 7192 now… so that’s why this is a half-started entry. Will finish this when I have the chance.

The flap to the tent fell with a heavy slap to my back. Layers of its red, lacy fabric muffled the commotion from outside. The stillness prickled, uneasy on the back of my neck.

My shoes sunk deep into the plush paisley rugs, and from the tent’s spire, a dim lamp dangled, the wire cage around it casting sharp shafts of orange light that did little to eliminate the shadows.

Sweet, perfumed smoke consumed the air. Thick, twining swirls floated about the confined space, and in an instant, I had the brittle lungs of a seventy-year-old chain smoker. After a healthy cough, dispersing the gunk from my chest and wiping the sweat from my forehead, I croaked, “Hello? Vanya?”

I had half a mind to turn around and leave. No one was here—Vanya most definitely wasn't here, that sneak—but then the smoke dissipated, and a voice spoke from the shadows. “Hello?” It croaked, and I likened the vocalist to a punching puppet show puppet.

“Er, hi,” I said. “Apologies, but I’m looking for my friend. She said to meet me here. She believes in all this stuff. Have—”

“Hello.”

“Yes, hi.”

“Hello. Hello.”

A table appeared beyond the haze. Nicknacks cluttered the circular wood in an array of typical clairvoyant tools. Intricate tarot cards and smoking smudge sticks lined the rim. The table’s centre was taken over by a polished crystal ball, cradled in the talons of a giant black claw. Behind the table was a high-backed chair, and resting on the top rail a creature stood, one usually found on the rounded shoulders of a pirate.

“Hello,” the cockatoo screeched.

Atop his white crown forked a brilliant crest of yellow feathers. His head tilted, and his beaded black eye caught mine. I felt awfully exposed—once again a jester red-faced before a jeering court.

“Butter...fly,” he spoke and clicked his black tongue.

“Er, yes,” I brushed the yellow and black pin on my lapel. “A butterfly. My buddy Bex made it for me. But, ah, I’m looking for my other friend. Have you...” I glanced around, and my face flushed. Gods! I was talking to a parrot. “Is your... Is your person about? My friend booked me an appointment, and I’d prefer to get this out of the way.”

“Hello. Die.”

“Er, no, I’m Jes,” I said, pointing to my chest, and the cockatoo bobbed his head, nodding towards the bowl on the table. Wrinkled, bean-sized fruits filled the small container, and I, like an expert, translated his squawks. “Oh, you mean date. Would you like a date? Between you and me,” I whispered, pinching the soft food between my fingers. “I don't really believe in all this fortune teller nonsense. Seers are just con artists dressed in fancy silks, right?”

I held it up, a few centimetres from the bird. His head twitched, his eyes flashed. The bird saw red, not from the luscious decorations, but because of me.

His crest flattened, and his beak snapped, nipping hard.

“You beast!” I cried. A dot of red bulged from the tip of my thumb. “And I've fought wyverns,” I mumbled.

“Kill. Shift, change. Green. Brown. Gone.”

“Right. Well, as menacing as those words are, they don't make a sentence. They mean nothing. And you've now hurt my finger, as well as my feelings.” I thumped my fist on the table, and the tarot pack scattered, one of the cards coming to a delicate stop next to the bowl of dates.

The cockatoo clicked his tongue. “Uh-Oh!”

I stared at the golden upright card. A man laid down on the ground, his face hidden, turned away, and from his back, protruded ten swords, their hilts extended towards a bleak, sunless sky. My chest tightened.

I was no expert, but even I could figure out the card was a literal depiction of 'stabbed in the back'.

“I’m..." I dragged my eyes away. The card meant nothing; it was just a card—a fluke. I hadn't even shuffled the deck. Any one of them could have slipped from the pack.

It meant nothing.

"I’m... I'm going somewhere else,” I said to the bird. “Enjoy your... your wrinkled dates.”

A burst of cold air prickled my skin as the door flap flung open. Bex rushed in; her pale skin shadowed, a red flame in the light.

“Oh, marvellous!” she blurted. “I found you... in here of all places. How... excellent.”

“Vanya said I would find it interesting or something.”

A sudden ear pinching screech consumed the clairvoyant’s tent. I winced and clapped my hands over my ears. The cockatoo hopped from his perch and onto the table, then disappeared behind the chair.

“Monster,” he squawked. “Green! Green!”

Bex chuckled and tucked a piece of lime hair behind her ear. “What a humorous bird.” She grabbed my wrist, and her face settled, severe. “But we have to go.”

“Ah, wait. Where's Vanya?”

“She's outside, where we should be.”

The bird screeched.

“Should we leave the bird?” I asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I hate it, but should we leave it alone?”

“It’s fine. Let's go. No, Jes, don't go round—”

I followed the cockatoo around the chair.

I wished I hadn't followed the cockatoo around the chair. Gods, it was a mess.

Orange hair that wouldn't have been amiss on a lion sprouted around the woman’s gaunt face. Blood oozed from her parted lips, and her eyes stared at me, lifeless, like glazed orbs of creamy glass. The bird stood on the woman's still chest, next to the bloodied dagger.

My legs gave way, and my hip smacked the rim of the table. Pain smarted, and I folded onto the floor. An invisible cord of panic took hold. It tightened, and my hand clutched my throat—suffocating sucked. It really, painfully sucked!

And a woman was dead.

“Call someone!” I cried. “Bex!”

But Bex had gone.

“Jes!” Soft hands squeezed my shoulders, and Vanya came beside me. A fresh cut slashed her cheek, and the brown skin under her left eye looked purple like she'd been punched. I hadn't seen her enter—it's funny how you can miss things. “Are you hurt?”

Maybe I should have been the one to ask her that, but instead, I said, “I don't understand what's happening.” Black spots blotted my vision, and pins and needles found a new home in my hands.

I didn't understand.

“I wanted you to come in here,” Vanya said slowly, “because I knew you’d learn the truth. I didn't—”

“But this stuff is nonsense; it's not real!” I gestured towards the body, and bile tasted bitter on my tongue. “That’s real!”

“And how do you feel?”

“This isn't therapy, Vanya!”

“How do you feel, Jes? Bex killed her; how do you feel?”

“I-I don't know.” I pushed the heel of my hand to my forehead. “I don't understand. Disgusted? Shocked?”

“Shocked.” the bird echoed. I’d forgotten he was there. White wings flapped, and he hopped onto the table; his foot touched the corner of my tarot card.

“Stabbed in the back,” I muttered. Perhaps there was some tangibility in it.

“I knew the truth would be revealed,” Vanya said. “Now, do you understand? Bex is a monster. She tricked us.”

“Why?” I swallow sawdust. “Why did she do it? Kill her?”

“She was worried, I guess, that Madam Imelda would spill her secrets.” Vanya knelt and picked something yellow and black from the floor.

A butterfly.

I brushed my lapel. My butterfly. Bex's butterfly.

Vanya held the small pin out to me, but I didn't take it; my head hurt. “And in a way,” she added, “I suppose she did.”

“That’s sick!”

“I know.”

“No, not that... Well, yes, that, but you! You knew this would happen, and you didn't even need a dumb crystal ball to see it! You're just as bad as Bex!”

“Betrayed!” The cockatoo called, and I knew I‘d never heard a more accurate word.

I step out of the room, and something feels different. The light brush of the wind against the tiny hair follicles on my body. The almost silent song of blades of grass rustling. I feel the ground beneath me, but also the ground for miles and miles more. All the way down to the center of the earth. I feel the tree roots reaching as far as they can, desperately hoping for more food, for another chance to live. I feel the clouds, drifting delicately in the sky, just barley floating. It feels as if I’m one with the earth. As if the earth understands me. And I start to think, maybe this life isn’t so bad. Because even when I think I have nothing left, I still have sunsets, the moon, the ocean, the dirt, the wind, the sand, the sun, and myself. I’ll always have myself.

“im, what? this is too fake!” I scream at the psychic as I run out. It all sounds too much like a novel. A forgotten princess in a modern world. Right? I could see the novel. I write it off as a joke as I walk out. I remember what she said before I left

“maybe not a perfect novel. Be careful of the color.” It all just sounded like a joke, but as I walked out I screamed. The world was covered in a purple fog surrounding me. I saw the signs change. I heard noise and I jumped. I had always flinched at certain things. why? No, no, that is a crazy woman talking. I see one figure apear in the fog. Out of the sweats and t-shirts he usually wears, there he is. The one who cracked my heart. Now, in royal garbs. I look down to see me in a pastel green ballgown as he smirks.

“Finally. Welcome to agonia, Princess (y/n)

After meeting Madam Sombra de la Muerte, Ernest knew how to try to get money for his car. Looking online, he found a website of seance and studied everything to perform a ritual of the dead. He laughed as he wrote notes. “Like taking candy from a baby.” He took a towel from the bathroom and wrapped it into a turban and put heavy dark curtains in the family living room. His mother never minded his antics, but this ranged on the extreme for Ernest.

“What are you doing?” said Evelyn. She wore a blue business skirt, a button down white shirt, and held her purse.

“Don’t worry, mom. You really need to get going to work.” He wondered if she’d call off after realizing how the living room looked.

“Whatever you do, just don’t burn down the house. Love you, I’m running late.” She rushed out the door leaving the sixteen year old to his dark living room.

After she left, he checked through the front window on and off. Finally, a Fire Bird pulled into the drive way. He put on his bath robe and rushed to the door.

After a knock, he opened the door to a blonde woman in a dark veil and black dress. “Senior Shadows? You look awful young.”

He posted online that he could speak to the other side, and she wanted to speak to her dead husband. Jackpot.

“Yes, my child. Please, come into the liv… I mean room of divination. We will be speaking with your husband shortly. Did you bring a few of his personal items, Cynthia?”

She held out a tobacco pipe and a pair of bifocals as she walked into the living room.

At the table, they held hands with the pipe and bifocals between them, then Ernest arranged some notes he’d taken from the internet and started.

“I am calling to the other side! I wish to speak to… now say his name.”

“George.”

“I wish to speak to George! The dead husband of Cynthia Gardens! Let us hear you George! Speak! Speak! Speak!”

Ernest took the bifocals and pipe, then put them in a bowl and set them on fire with a match. Taking her hands again, he noticed that a wind began to encircle them. Pictures, magazines, and other loose pieces of living room furniture flew like leaves carried in a spring breeze. A lamp flew through a window.

“Is this supposed to be happening?” said Cynthia.

Ernest started to sweat. This didn’t happen when he was in the circle with the other medium. He began to realize that he might have actually called to the other side. He tried to think of a way to stop it, but his notes had flown along with the other goods.

“Don’t worry! I have everything under contr—“

Before he could finish, they began to float. That’s when he started to cry big tears, and Cynthia cried, too.

“What have you done! Make it stop!” she yelled.

“I can’t!” he cried.

“Aren’t you Senior Shadows?”

The table began to fly back down. The swirling stopped. A voice called as if from above.

“A soul for a soul, or I run wild. What will you do, child?”

“I don’t want to die!” he cried.

A giant thud came from outside the house. Ernest and Cynthia stared out the window. A giant hove came down from the sky and crushed her car. They stared on in terror as a gargantuan winged boar on two legs with arms of a man walked down Kentucky Street, smashing the other residences.

Ernest’s jaw dropped in terror. As he looked around, Cynthia had left. He stood alone in a house with broken windows, and was helpless as he watched the creature walk off into the sunset.

“Oh come on let’s go in, besides I already paid them for this hour of the unknown” my so called friend said as he pulled me thru the

Smokey colored mysterious glass door. As we slithered slowly to the female that was sitting in front of some orange colored tapestry

that separated my life from hers my knees grew surprisingly weak. “Are you my next victim or perhaps not” she asked with a sly

Grin that could melt diamonds. My once relaxed stomach now had more knots in it than ever and I felt like passing out.

I sat in the chair that had probably had more stories of life then the local library. She this so called physic or doctor or what ever her

Title suddenly grabbed my hand and a jolt of shock went thru me. “Now you are relaxed” she said as she took out a small purple

Velvet covered box and asked me for a piece of my hair. I was not even going to argue so I just nodded my head in agreement, still

Shaking I pulled one out and waited. Her next move was to shake and roll the small box in her bony ring less fingers and mutter

A few unexplained words only she could know. “You are going to come into some ancient artifacts and they will do you no good.

My Aunt and Uncle collected old statues and other stuff we used to see in National geographic magazines. We as kids didn’t pay

Attention to what they stored in the attic and basement in boxes left unopened. The woman pulled out of her shabby pheasant

Blouse a wrinkled note of some sort and handed it to me. “Take this note and bring it to the warehouse down by the docks by

Midnight and my thug will meet you there and if you don’t show up he will find you”. “Now off with you I have others waiting

For their dish of fate” she cackled to me as I stumbled out finally letting my breath out. Midnight didn’t come soon enough as

My heart rate didn’t slow down at all in anticipation of the night. As predicted the thug was waiting for me and he was packing

A piece outlined in his greasy tightly buttonless jacket. Once again my knees were shaking and the words couldn’t come out

As I wanted them to. “Come with me” he said as he pushed me into the warehouse door and slammed it shut. “This trunk must

Not leave your sight tonite as you bring it home and do not open it no matter what” Well I am a pretty wild child and sometimes

I don’t always listen and I’ve had my share of police stations in my earlier life but I will listen or I thought. Once I got home and

Dragged this monstrosity up my front steps I tripped and fell and the old box split open on the lawn. Greenish dusty smoke

Filled the air and coughing overcame me as the content slithered out of the box and to my surprise it wasn’t old vases or

Artifacts but some type of old radio covered in dust. The dial on its face glowed fire red and as I watched in fear it turned.

A unfamiliar voice started to speak to me and at first it sounded like my parents, then grandparents and hard to believe all the

People in my life I done wrong. Bit by bit they screamed all the guilt and pain and all the other things that you were guilty of

To them being thrown at me. Even my school teachers were part of the verbal crowd as they got louder and louder making

My head feel like it was going to explode. Well I never thought my words would come true so quickly as this radio began

To grow with negativity and soon it too exploded and took me with it. The last thing I thought of as I silently screamed

Was “I’m sorry” as pieces of me mixed with metal disappeared into the universe. “I guess the thug was right don’t

Open the box or else”.

“Yes! There beside me. Allen say something” he stuttered but said nothing, he looked petrified (Allen is scared of cops)

“Young lady, I’m going to need to come with me,” said the cop

“WHY!”

“Because I think you have Dissociative disorder”

“What?” I said in a small voice, I had just learned about this in school. People with dissociative disorders escape reality in ways that are involuntary and unhealthy and cause problems with functioning in everyday life. Like imagining people who aren’t there. I remembered that Allen showed up after my mom's death. Connecting the dot’s I realized

Allen isn’t real.

Allen (my best friend) believes in this crap, and they thought that we should go see the old hag who was coming to town in her pop-up shop. I told them like a million times that I didn’t want to go but they insisted.

“Fine!” I said Fed up with their asking. We were in my car, on our way to get some bubble tea. “When you want to go?” I asked with a sigh.

“Well………”

“What?”

“I kinda hack ed your GPS”

“No”

“And we’re on our way right now”

“What!” I yelled “you were going to take me whether I wanted to or not. Come on, not cool”

“I’m sorry,” they said defensively “it’s just, you’ve been acting kinda weird lately, this was the first thing I thought of.”

“What? You mean you don’t actually believe in this shit?”

“I mean, I don’t know. It could be real or not. But I thought that we could try this. You never know. Come on don’t be mad, I’ll be with you the entire time.”

“Fine. But I’m not going to believe what she says.”

They sighed, but I kept driving

We got in and got out of the car. “This way,” they said motioning for me to follow them.

When we entered I immediately felt dizzy, the lady had the strongest incense I had ever smiled The old lady was sitting on a beanbag at a small circular table and when we entered she said

“My dear, you have a very strong aura,” she said in an airy, mystical tone

I rolled my eyes

“Look into the ball, what do you see”

“This is crap, let's go,” I said annoyed

The old lady broke out of character and said in a normal voice “young lady I can’t leave, I work here.”

“I wasn’t talking to you!” I said

“Then who were you talking to?” She asked looking concerned

I gestured to Allen thinking that it was obvious who I was talking to

The old lady said “I don’t understand”

“Allen! They're right next to me can’t you see them or are you blind?”

Allen looked at me, they’re face looked like I felt annoyed and confused.

“My dear,” said the old lady now looking scared “I’m not blind, I can see you perfectly. But there’s no one else in here but me and you”

“This is ridiculous, Allen is right here”

“Yeah!” Said Allen, they looked at me and said “come on let's just go.”

I started to walk out with Allen when the lady said

“My, my dear would you like some water?”

“NO!” I shouted “No I don’t want your water. It’ll probably make me hallucinate or something”

I turned my back when she yelled “Oh, Oh help me I-I’m C-choking H-Help me!”

I looked at Allen, I didn’t like the lady but I couldn’t just let her die. I ran over to her and started to give her the Heimlich maneuver. But something was off, the lady’s choking sounded fake, I stopped and said

“You’re not choking!”

The lady stopped pretending “My dear, listen-“ but just then three policemen came in the door,

“Hands in the air!”

“What!” Me and Allen shouted, but we put our hands up nevertheless.

“What’s going on?!” I yelled

“I-I called them,” said the old lady

“Why?!” Me and Allen asked

“Be-Because you young lady, are seeing things,” she said pointing a long finger at me

“What are you talking about?” I asked

“You said you came in with your friend, Allen”

“Yes, and?”

“You also said that he-“ “they” I corrected her

“Yes, you said that they are here right now”

“And they are,” I said, “they're right there,” I said nodding my head over to the spot where Allen was standing, a little to my right

“What is going on?” Asked one of the police officers, he had a deep voice

“This old hag thinks that my friend Allen who is right there isn’t here, or something”

“What are you talking about,” he asked “there’s no one else in this room”

“There right beside me!” I yelled

Allen looked too stunned to speak, which was unhelpful.

One of the cops said, “you really think there’s another person in this room, don’t you?”

There were too many words to finish, but I have the rest on the story as a part 2. I’d love it if you would read it:)