Don't Play With Fire

Chapter two-The Necklace

"You shouldn't be here," Parker hisses at me.

It's easy to find Parker because his gift always gives him away. The cemetery smells of weed, blood, fire, and of course, death. Parker is still staring at me, his black hair is getting longer, the curls are getting rough. I shrug my shoulders, "Mom's meddling."

He sighs, trying to look annoyed but I know that he's actually relieved. Parker's the only one I can really talk to (maybe it's because of the fact that he's about a year older than I am). And treats me the same as everyone else. We also look a lot like each other.

A tall figure comes out from a nearby tree. Their head is bent as they walk towards us. I give Parker a nervous look and he crosses his arms over his chest.

"Do you have it?" Parker asks.

The person's voice is lower than I ever think is possible. "Yes," they say.

One word is all it takes for the hair on my arms to stand on end. They lifts up a necklace that looks like a skull with three red jewels-one in each eye socket and one in its mouth. I watch Parker pull out a thick wad of cash from earlier today and hands it over to the creature. The creature slowly gives Parker the necklace, the creature's head is still bent. But I can see small horns poking out from under his head of hair. It's a Tulpa, I think to myself.

I keep calm, making sure that they both don't see my unease. The creature stands there and Parker starts to walk away, not even turning back, only calling my name once, the way he does when he wants me to follow him. And I go willingly, not wanting to be near the thing for any longer.

"Shut the fuck up, Harlem," he says under his breath to me once we're far away. The entrance of the cemetery comes into view.

Parker knows that I'm going to ask him why he bought something from a Tulpa. There's screaming coming from the direction that we came from. I turn my attention to Parker. He's holding up the necklace, the moonlight making the jewels  shine, a giddy smile on his face.

Parker never plays fair. And he never tries to because it just isn't him. Even as little kids, when we used to play hide and seek, he would always go out of boundaries, or when we got allowance, he always seemed to get a lot more than all of us but rarely got caught. Even when he did get caught, he never got a real punishment. Dad said that he was a real charmer and could get out of anything with it (or get into anything with it) and said that he might have the two gifts: being a necromancer and the gift of luck.

I shake my head at my brother, "do you ever wish you played fair?"

The smell of rotten flesh fills my nostrils. A dead body drags itself over to where Parker stands. The corpse lifts a rotting arm, the flesh is barely hanging onto the bone. Parker takes the money and shoves it back into his pocket. The corpse turns around but not without shooting him a look of pure hatred.

"If I ever did, I would be a loser. No one would ever want to hire me for a job. Also, I would be like you- a complete loser," he says the last part with a smile. We walk down a quiet street not far from our house.

A smile crosses my lips but then quickly disappears once I realize what he said. My body lunges at him, my hands aiming for his neck. He laughs at how stupid my plan is.

"Get back here!" I yell at him. I watch him run faster down the street, a car pulls up beside him, out of nowhere. He stops running and leans into the dark tinted window of what looks like the backseat.

I walk up moderately towards the car and my brother as he nods his head again and again. It reminds me of the little Parker who listened to everything someone said to him, but then also thinking up a plan to betray them. And he wouldn't get caught.

"you were paid to kill that Tulpa, weren't you?" I say once he walks away from the car and it drives away. He nods his head and put a smaller roll of cash into his pocket.

He pulls out the necklace again, this time, he puts it in front of my face. "What do you think?" he asks with triumph in his voice.

I stare at the skull, at the three dark red jewels it's carrying. The jewels are used for protection, it protects the holder from any and everything that may cause pain. There are different jewels for different things. Blue is for power, green is luck, yellow is healing, white is life, and black is death.

"I think," I start, holding the skull in my hands. It's tiny, easy to hide but it's heavier than I anticipate, maybe heavier than an iPod. I peer closely at its eyes and the hair on my arms stand on edge again.

"I think that you're a fucking moron, Parker."

I'm an outside in my own family. That's one of the worst things about being brought up in a gifted, con full, family. I'm not the only one without a gift a gift, there's also my grandmother (but I haven't met her yet).

The only thing good about not being gifted is that there were three quarters of the world's population that's like me. So, I wasn't alone.

"Harlem, I swear to God, if you don't move it, I will embarrass you in front of your rich, snobby, friends," Lucas said. Caleb usually drives Parker and I but since he had to use his gift to get them out of the bank without getting caught, he got attacked with an awful blowback that didn't happen until Parker and I got home (he's still in bed because of it. And it's awful because sometimes, he's there in his bed groaning and then the next moment, he's gone to some different place).

I get out of the Lucas' white Audi and he drives away fast, leaving Parker and I to go ourselves. We go to a private school called Eagleton Academy. The only way we got in was because of our father and his connections (he wants us to get out of the life, but it's too late for that now).

I look over at Parker and he's staring at me, amusement in his laughing eyes. I want to hurt him.

"Yes, Parker?" I ask as sweetly as I can manage.

Parker shrugs and leans really close to me, "I hear you like Matt Redmereq. A mark. Following in mother's footsteps, I see?"

A gush of wind hits me and I feel my cheeks get warm, my head feels lighter. He's lying, I don't like Matt. I just find him very attractive.

"It's okay, Harlem," he says and starts walking towards the second building (which is known as the science building) but turns back towards me one more time, "we've all liked someone a little too much before. Even if we know they're no good for us. And they're really stupid."

He means a mark. It's okay to fall for a mark. Even if they are really stupid (with their money). But I am still light headed from being caught off-guard. And the worse thing about it is that Parker knows it too.