To Be Burned

Chapter 4

“So, like, what do you need of the other person?”

“Well, first you need one of their hairs, and a sample of their blood type, not their blood, just any blood of their type. You also need a personal affect and their passport,” I rattled off items, “Got it?”

Willow stared at me, then started to nod slowly, “OK, ok, I think I got this, I think I can find those things.”

It was my turn to stare at her, “Really? What- What even- Willow! You would steal someone’s passport? What the hell? I was kidding! This is an ancient practice. Why the hell would you need someone’s passport? You don’t need any of that stuff.”

“What?”

“Duh! Why would you- Do you even- How could you- you think that?”

“Well, why did you lie to me?”

“It’s not a lie if its so obviously false.”

“Well then what do you actually need?”

I sighed and looked at Willow, “Understanding.”

“OK, I’m done with all your shit. Is it just a hair or what? Will you please just tell me?”

“No, Willow I’m serious, all you need is to understand them.”

“Well what if you want to voodoo someone you don’t understand?”

“Then its not your right to do so.”

“What? I thought voodoo was,” She paused searching for the right word, “Different.”

“Different how?”

“Well, you know, more, more powerful.”

“Knowing voodoo doesn’t make you a god. Voodoo is about justice and helping people. Look, you know that you can’t hurt anyone, with voodoo, right?”

“I can’t as in I shouldn’t or as it it is actually impossible.”

The fuck is wrong with you to ask that question? “Willow, voodoo doesn’t just bind their soul to the doll, it also binds their soul to yours. If you give them joy, you feel it too, but you can also feel their pain.”

“But what if you’re trying to give someone, like retribution or something?”

“Then you must suffer with them and know it’s for a good purpose,” I must say this conversation was really confusing me, my entire thought process during this was like: What the fuck Willow do you actually want to hurt people? But I didn’t say that because I was trying not to swear at her anymore. And she would probably take it badly. Well I’m not sure that there would be a better way to take it.

Willow seemed to be at a loss for words, but its not like I could stop teaching her then. I mean, she was definitely fucked up and had some crazy revenge plan in mind, but if I just stopped, she would try on her own with her candle and who knows what crazy shit she would try. And I just can’t deal with any ritual sacrifices right now.

“Vyri, I- its not like I want to hurt people, I’m just curious.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I sounded like a sulky teen, but I couldn’t help it. She was just so… freaking fucked up. Why did I have to deal with all this shit? 

Sometimes I wish I was normal like everyone else. I always wondered who I would be then. If I wasn’t Vyri the witch, would I be Vyri the nerd, or Vyri the jock, or Vyri the fucking bitch. Isn’t that pleasant.

“OK, Willow, yes, all you need is an understanding of your target. You need to know how they think and how they feel. You need to be able to connect with them on an emotional level, before you can connect on a more… magical one.”

Willow took a long deep breath in as if to steady herself, “Yes, I got it, but, no offense, you;ve never seemed like to most… empathetic type.”

I smiled at that because of course she would think that. Everyone would think that.

“Willow, did you know that I used to be friends with all of them?”

“What?”

“I used to be… popular.”

“You? Ok, Vyri. I call BS on this one.”

“No seriously, in middle school that was me. Honestly, I hated it. But I had lots of friends and they told me everything. At the end of middle school I had a complete understanding of every single kid there.”

“What the Hell happened that made them, hate you now?”

“Well, they all forgot.”

“Wait- you- every single one of them?”

“Yup.”

“How did they come up with the voodoo thing?”

“You seriously think any of them found out? I started that, so I could laugh whenever they said all their bogus stuff about voodoo.”

“Why wouldn’t you leave yourself at least one friend.”

“Well, if the rest of them hated me, I couldn’t put someone else through that, unwillingly. Don’t you see the way they all hate you for hanging out with me?”

“Yeah but, I don’t care.”

“You don’t care, but you had a choice. Look Willow, I’m just trying to show how hard it was to get the understanding of someone. Because it’s hard. So before you can do anything else, we have to get you the understanding of someone. I would just pick a simpler one that I understand and explain them to you, but you need to learn the proper way.”

“Meaning what?” 

“Meaning that we’re going on a field trip.”

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OK, thanks for reading this, I love feedback so don't hesitate to point out flaws. I'm glad I got my first chapter on the new regime in on time so remember: bug me if I miss the Wednesday!

Another thing you probably don't care about, but my frined has comanded me to share her tumblr blog in my novel, so:

thepointoftimewasting.tumblr.com

Thanks, guys!