Wilt

Chapter 3: Occult Tea (cont.)

The old, brick schoolhouse was thrown into harsh grays in the afternoon gloom as Gen stood beside Briony's car waiting for Theo. The creeping vines that enclosed the dull windows combined with the cloud-deepened sky gave the illusion of a gothic novel, with grotesque nightmares and clanking chains just around the corner. Gen cracked the car door open slightly to share this description with a miffed Briony. Her friend, after a cool glare, told her that her thoughts sounded like something Samantha the Goth Vampire Poet would say. None of Briony's negativity could dull Gen's mood.

It was like she was a detective in a noir novel. She was even wearing a knitted beret and carrying a shoulder bag to complete the illusion. Now all she needed was the secretive photo developer to join her so that they could talk to Grandmother Youko about magic.

Briony rolled down the window. "Will you get inside, I'm sure we can spot pretentious photography boy from the interior of the car."

Gen sighed. "I'm amping myself up."

Briony raised an eyebrow, something she had graduated with Honors in, which conveyed exactly what she thought about Gen getting excited. "Please don't. I think you're vibrating," The tall girl leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, crossing her arms lazily across her chest. Gen had noticed her friend had become more lethargic in the past few days. She was always serenely detached from wherever she was, and seemed to look at the world with an expression of mild amusement but no real investment in how things would turn out. But today, her eyelids looked leaden and her lips kept curving into cat-like yawns. Someone cleared their throat from behind Gen and she leaped at the intrusion.

"Should I be worried? Because the last time someone looked that afraid to see me she had just accidentally killing my cat," he peered at her expression with concern. Gen tried to relax a little. She thought about how it had felt to float above Haslemere, dancing through the stars. Her face relaxed into a soft smile and she felt some of the tension leave her shoulders.

Gen shouldn't pretend it was all real, but it felt real and wasn't that all that mattered?

She rapped on the window and waited as Briony peeled one dark eye open. She circled around to the passenger seat and Theo began to fold himself into the backseat. "Who is this psychotic cat assassin?" she asked.

He scooted into the center and leaned his elbows on the center armrest. "My mother, I honestly think she was more scarred by the experience than I was. Hello Briony, sorry to wake you up."

Briony sat up and inclined her head drowsily in response. Almost as though her sleepiness was contagious, Theo yawned loudly. "So," he said. "Grandmother?"

Briony absentmindedly plucked at the pouch dangling from her throat but didn't say anything. Gen rotated in her seat so that she was looking at Theo as she talked. His head tilted to the side as though he was memorizing every word she said.

"Briony's family is one of the oldest in Haslemere, her ancestors were some of the first settlers. As the stories go, there were, um, necromancers among them. You know, evil, soul-sucking sorcerers. The people of Haslemere got tired of their tyrannical rule, they refused to be sacrificed and they drowned the creepy necromancers in the Wey.

"It's a classic story about humanity trumping magic," Gen joked, "But Briony's grandmother tells it differently."

"What do you mean?" Theo asked. When he blinked, his eyelashes brushed the lense of his glasses. Gen wondered if that was distracting for him.

Briony turned down a narrow drive, her car brushing the overgrown hedges that obscured her house from view. "It's the sort of story other people can't tell." She stopped beneath an ash tree, pieces of glass hung on strands of colored string like Christmas decorations draped across the branches.