No Good Witches | ONC √

EPILOGE: Getting Away With Murder

I wake up and it feels like I'm being strangled.

That's just the sunlight coming through my window, of course.

"Get up." My mom said, pushing open my curtains and then navigating as best she could out of my room.

I groaned, burying my face in my pillow. No way it was Monday already.

I hear her footsteps as she descends the stairs. "I said Get Up!" She's got her I'm not playing with you, Cassandra Janelle Landry voice on.

I guess I better get ready.

I push myself up, throw my legs over the side of the bed. When I lift my head, a sharp pain rolls down from my temples to my shoulders. I wince, not just the sunlight then. Alright.

As I stumbled down the hallway and toward the bathroom, I do the math and realize it is, indeed, Monday and I have, indeed, slept through the weekend. I hadn't cast a single spell since friday, my magic was so spent. Besides, like Rebecca I too was a shadow vessel. There was no telling what my spells would be like now.

I try the bathroom door handle and...locked. I knock on the door, swallowing around the lump in my throat. "Jesse! Hurry up!"

A pause. And then, "Use Mom's!" he tells me through the door.

I roll my eyes and then hobble off in the direction of Mom's room. So much for life threatening sibling bonding time.

Mom's bathroom is only slightly bigger than ours, but crammed in every corner and crevice are Marnie's bath toys and toiletries. When I turn on the shower and step inside, I nearly slip on a doll that's sitting in the tub for some reason and fall on my ass. I curse, throw it out. I'm never having kids.

The shower feels nice, I fall asleep standing up. But I only have hot water for a good five minutes. I hear a toilet flush and what feels like ice bullets begin to hit my skin and I'm jolted awake. I pull the curtain aside and there's the culprit: Marnie staring at me wide-eyed, hand on the flusher.

"What are you doing?"

"I had to—"

"Get out! Now!"

And off she runs.

Well this was a bust. And the back of my head down to my neck is still aching. I turn off the water and step out of the shower, grabbing my towel and wrapping it around me. I stop in front of the mirror to get a good look at myself. I look tired, yes, but there's a brightness under my skin that wasn't there before. I'm thinking of Mallory and then I have to stop. I haven't talked to her in two whole days, who knew what she was thinking. It was no good getting excited to see her if she was just going to pretend like I didn't exist.

It seems most of the silver hair dye came out in the shower. My hair was a dingy yellow now. I wonder what color I would dye it next...

It was when I lifted my hair that I saw it, the mark on the base of my neck. It was a black upside down triangle that hadn't been there before. I drop my hair, shiver. Pull the towel tighter around me. Weird. Creepy. Shadow Vessel Creepy? I'd have to ask the girls if they had one too.

I pull on my uniform, grab my backpack, and run downstairs.

Seeing me from the kitchen, my Mom raises her eyebrows. "Well good morning."

"'Morning." I said. I picked an apple up from the fruit bowl on the counter. I point to it. "Is this plastic?"

"Uh...no." She tilts her head at me. "What? You're not even going to ask me to take your temperature?"