Katelyn and The Witch Party

Chapter 9: Plays

When she was younger, Katelyn had joined the plays, but none of them had been surrounded on horror novels. She had always played a minor character, but Miss Corinne had seemed to have a fondness for her. In Grade three, it had been the nutcracker and she had played a small grey mouse. Charlotte, then in Grade two, had been Clara. Meleena had been the sugar plum fairy. Naturally, Mrs. Frélein had been disturbed by the sugar plum fairy interpretation, criticizing the fairy as a dangerous distraction. Back then, Meleena had liked the sugar plum fairy and had been fascinated by the opportunities to explore the imagination, but more recently she had become more serious and taken more to the school's official line: magic is dangerous. She still acted in Miss Corinne's plays, however. It did not matter how wicked they were in Mrs. Frélein's views. It was all a part of the indoctrination. Hanna Jean had chosen to stay out of them and take Mrs. Frélein's side, although she spoke nothing in contempt of the symbols instead only criticizing their portrayal.

She pushed the door open for what seemed like the thousandth time, a darkness shrouding the tender shards of her soul. She felt broken. She wished she had never spoken at all about Victoria's death. If only Victoria would rise from the shadows and reassure her like only Victoria could.

It was raining. The large round droplets fell across Katelyn's brunette hair and soaked her red tips, leaching the red dye she had never added into the fabric of her black t-shirt. She touched the tips of her hair and her fingers came away red. Her eyes leached red tears. She held up her necklace to the light only to see fine glowing red lines etched into the surface like cracks. Victoria had told her that her necklace would protect her soul. She had not trusted Victoria, but at Victoria's death the pink swirling gas had disintegrated. Her soul had passed away. Katelyn's soul felt like it was following the same direction, but it had always been that way.

"Katelyn," the voice behind Katelyn was foreign to her ears and when she turned around the elections officer was behind her. It seemed either Ki or Brittney had asked the elections officer to speak to her but for what purpose Katelyn had no idea. The officer extended her hand. "Naji Ailen. I am Ki's older sister." Katelyn bit back her shock. The elections officer and Ki did not exactly look alike. They both had black hair, but completely opposite skin tones and while they both had green eyes, Ki's were much brighter. Naji stood very straight with her hands clasped behind her back. She had left the files in the Social Unity Party's headquarters. Katelyn knew the woman was angry with her, but Naji kept her face neutral. "I am sorry about Victoria," she spoke more softly, but her tone was not quite apologetic. She was most certainly not a witch supporter. The last thing Katelyn wanted was for this woman to find out her secret. "You will have to come and inform the police."

Katelyn shook her head ardently as she stared at Naji's gold hoop earrings. She could tell by now that Naji was very proper, so she was probably not going to avoid the police any longer.

"But they'll take my parents away," Katelyn protested, but more likely they will blame me and torture me.

"That would be the idea," Naji responded softly, causing Katelyn to look at her in disbelief.

I don't want to lose them, Katelyn considered, but instead she found herself admitting, "They'll blame me and torture me."

Naji's eyes narrowed on Katelyn's hands and her voice quieted even further, "Ah, we do not do that anymore..." Her tone cut off as she averted Katelyn's gaze. This time it seemed less from hatred as from a personal sense of shame, although Katelyn could not place why she should be met with such a reaction. The woman had also used the informal 'we' even though she insisted on using more formal constructions in her speech. Did she mean that it was no longer government policy? Katelyn did not care. She was not going to the police. It was all her word after all.