Season of the Witch

Chapter 4: Fearful Pranks Ensue

In the end, Zoe and Melanie decided to stay. Despite the vicious attack on his mother, Kyle didn't seem ready to hurt them. They left Kyle where he was and retreated to the sofa in the front room while they tried to figure out what had happened and formulate some kind of plan. Melanie thought they should leave Kyle's room, his mother's body, and the discarded murder weapon untouched. She thought it would be better that way when the cops investigated after the body was found, because the only prints and DNA they would find in there would be Kyle's, and he was supposed to be dead, so they would probably assume those prints were from when he was still alive and that the crime had been committed by an unknown assailant wearing gloves. Any fingerprints left by them in other parts of the house could be explained by their harmless little visit earlier in the day. But they couldn't shake the subject of why he did it. What would make Kyle kill his own mother? Did he just snap, or did he have a reason? "Maybe she provoked him? Maybe she rejected him, like you said, and he couldn't control himself," Zoe said.

"Maybe..." Melanie said, looking around the room. For some reason, she couldn't stop staring at the family photos that were out on display. Zoe followed her gaze. She bit her lip and tears welled up in her eyes upon seeing a picture of the mother and son together. Of the family they had destroyed. Melanie was startled when she suddenly burst into sobs.

"I'm sorry," Zoe told the smiling woman in the photograph. "I'm so sorry." Her body shook from how hard she was crying as she buried her face in her hands. "I didn't mean for it to happen. It's all my fault. All of it. Because of me, Kyle... and now his mother's dead. He killed his own mother. I should've listened to you. We never should have brought him back..."

"It's not... you didn't know," Melanie said, struggling to think of the right words. "You didn't know." Hesitantly, she reached out and placed a hand on the distraught girl's shoulder. Zoe leaned against her for comfort, wrapping her arms around her. Melanie could already feel her shirt growing damp from her tears and something that felt a little slimy, like snot or spit, but she didn't push her away. "You... you're not the only one to blame, you know. It's my fault, too. That night, before we went to the party... I changed my mind about going because I used my tarot cards to do a reading. I knew something bad was gonna happen, but I didn't know what or to who it would happen to. I knew Madison wouldn't listen to me, so I went with you guys to try to stop it. But I failed. So it's my fault. I could've prevented it. All of this. I should've just tied her up or knocked her out. But I didn't. I let her go. And she got raped. Kyle and those assholes got killed. You and Madison revived Kyle. And Kyle killed the coroner and his mother. You see, it's not your fault. It all comes back to me. Everything that happened is my fault." If she thought that would calm Zoe down, she was wrong. Instead, Zoe clung tighter to her and started crying harder. Melanie realized she was crying too. Her cheeks were wet, and her nose was in danger of running. It really was her fault. She had been trying not to think about it, but the truth had finally caught up with her. All of this was on her. Despite her usual aversion to being touched, Melanie found herself hugging Zoe back. They held onto each other as if they were adrift at sea, and they were the only things keeping each other afloat. They cried, and they cried. For how long, they weren't sure. But it must have been hours. By the time they realized that they had run out of tears and were too exhausted to cry anymore, it was too bright in the room for it to still be night. Melanie's eyes widened as she whipped her head around to look out the window. "Shit," she said. "It's already turned into the next day."

"Shit," Zoe cursed in agreement. When the hell did that happen? They couldn't have been crying for that long, could they? The two witches quickly pulled themselves together and started wiping away the evidence of their crying.

Melanie frowned slightly when she realized she could hear something coming from another room in the house. "What's that thumping sound?" She and Zoe looked at each other and their eyes widened as they realized who it had to be. Kyle.