Katelyn and The Witch Party

Chapter 5: Deep Secrets

             Outside the classroom, there were posters on the wall printed on a striking fiery red paper with the upcoming school play, Carrie, inscribed in black across the top and 'auditions' in a dark grey beneath. Katelyn loved to act and she had been in the school plays since Grade three, but not this year. Not after everything that had happened and everything her parents had done. Students had already been admitted into preliminary practices, essentially drama class, but Katelyn had not applied. Her teacher was disappointed, but people had started mostly to avoid Katelyn as if they knew something was wrong even though they acted like nothing happened and she was certain they did not know Victoria had died or that she had any relation to Victoria. Most of them probably had never even known who Victoria was. No one knew about Victoria's death yet. They could not.

A student in the grade below Katelyn, Grade nine, who Katelyn knew from previous drama seasons walked into the drama office, a small room hidden by a stretch of brown wall, and that had a staircase leading underground where it possessed a wide expanse of practice space and dressing rooms. It had another entrance near the stage. The student, Charlotte, had dark brown hair braided across her shoulder and wore jeans and a pink flower patterned black shirt. She was talking to her friends, a blonde girl in her grade, and Meleena, who was slowly becoming the most popular girl in the school. They were excited by auditions in a few weeks, talking about what parts they might get and who would play the part of Carrie. This question was not followed by much enthusiasm—Miss Corinne, the drama director, was making her own adaptation of the novel and students tended to find her somewhat overly imaginative. Mrs. Frélein had criticized her adaptations for being dark and immoral, but Mrs. Frélein was generally over-reactive. 

Miss Corinne had a strong set of morals and she was more devoted to them than most teachers, but her interpretations of the world did not often align with the majority. Students liked to speculate that while the majority of the school, city, and province were conservative, Miss Corinne was a strong liberal. Indeed, Miss Corinne often complained about the reigning Conservative government. Katelyn liked Miss Corinne, but she was afraid of the world after the murder of Victoria, and she did not want the enthusiasm of Miss Corinne to move her beyond her protective complacency and ignorance. Nevertheless, seeing Charlotte, a girl Katelyn often admired for her assertiveness and debate skills entering the drama department made her uncomfortable. She felt a familiar sense of longing, but that was exactly what she was trying to avoid in not joining. She could not become part of the spotlight, not now.

She ventured out the school doors. The wind was strong, and the air was chilly, but there was not yet snow even though it was already early November. Katelyn walked around the wall of the school, treading through the tall grasses as she clutched her arms close to her body. She had not brought a coat. She had not even brought a coat to school at all, but when she exhaled she could see her breathe condensing in the air. Hanna did not follow her.

Across from the school, on someone's lawn a blue sign blew in the wind, advertising the candidate running for the federal Conservative Party in this district. She wondered if Mrs. Frélein had the same sign on her lawn, protesting against the infractions of the supposedly immoral other parties. The Conservatives had hard promises for the next election: they were going to toughen punishments for witch crimes and that terrified Katelyn. If they find out how Victoria died... she worries. It was a hate crime by her parents, but in the eyes of the Conservatives it would be a lot more than that. Victoria had not used magic and she had been killed by non-witches and that was a proven fact. Even if the police speculated that Victoria was a criminal, she had a party, which for the time was legal, and she had been legally employed by Katelyn's father. If Katelyn told the truth, the police would either have to believe her, or they would have to blame her. The witch party would publicize the true events as much as they could if the information was released and that would draw serious questions to the Conservative campaign, especially if the witch party brought its suspicions over The Constant forward, claiming that it used wizard magic to induce ideological support for the Conservative Party and against witches. For some reason, Katelyn realized she did not want Victoria's case to become public, because if it did, it would likely become a scandal and then everyone would know who her parents were and what they had done and maybe even who she was. That is, if she herself was not charged with the murder. Her parents had used her magic, after all. At fifteen, Katelyn would be just old enough to be charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Miss Janice had raised her eyebrow irritably when Katelyn had entered leading Katelyn to wonder if she were mad Katelyn was late or upset that she had arrived at all. Miss Janice had been her Grade five teacher, but sometimes she had acted as if she was in Grade five because she was such a bully unlike Miss Caroline who seemed so firmly in charge. Even Mrs. Frélein with her childish naivety had had a sense of false sweetness hiding all her cruel beliefs. Meleena, too, had given Katelyn a hard stare, repeated by some of her friends. Why do they hate me so much? She had wondered. She had sat down and stared at her desk, wishing she were not there and feeling distinctly sick. Even sitting in the principal's office with that strange woman had seemed more pleasant than this. Tears had begun to stream down her cheeks, earning her more sneers from her classmates. She had laid her head down on the desk and closed her eyes, trying to slow her rapidly speeding heart rate. Miss Janice's sharp voice had faded as the darkness had slowly consumed her.

"Katelyn," a soft voice had hissed. She had looked up to see Ki and Hanna standing behind her. "Class is over for the morning," Ki had informed her. Even after four years, she had not understood why the two of them insisted on being her friends. They were always there when she was at school, and they always seemed so nice, but she liked to hide her feelings from them. Under all their pretences, she thought they must be just like all the other students. On the other hand, the other students did not seem to like them either, so she might have been judging them wrong.

"Come on, we should go have lunch," Hanna had suggested hesitantly. Hanna was a quiet and intelligent student who consistently impressed her teachers with her grades. Despite that, however, the teachers had seemed oddly displeased by her as if her blonde hair or her blue eyes drew offence.

They had led her to the cafeteria, and she had shared their lunch again.

"So how was your morning?" Ki had asked rather carefully. She had tried to ignore them, staring at the table innocently while eating their lunch, but then they had turned their sharp glowing eyes on her and it had given her a strange feeling, as if with their eyes they could sense her whole soul.

"I slept in," she had muttered, examining her fingers. That had been partially true. She had looked into Hanna's eyes and noticed tiny flecks of orange the exact opposite colour as the blue that primarily filled them. Hanna had blinked and kept her eyes closed for a few seconds and when she opened them, the specks were gone. Hanna had fixed her with an inquisitive stare. "And skipped breakfast." They almost had certainly sensed that as they always did. She had hated talking to them about anything. She clenched her fingers together tightly.

"Katelyn!" Ki exclaimed swishing through the grasses towards her. Other students were outside now in thin jackets to play around between their classes. "I get it if things aren't okay." She turned away from him. How can I reveal the truth? They'll never understand. "Katie?" She glanced back at him wondering why he kept calling her by a nickname.

"What?" she nearly yelled at him, a rapid anger suddenly spreading through her. What do they even care? She could feel the blood pulsating through the veins in her fingers, shaking her hands. There was a voice in the back of her head that told her to slow down, to stop, but she could not listen. She could feel the air rising around her almost suffocating, vibrating like the pulsing of her veins. There was a dark spirit, a dark voice leading her on, telling her she should be angry and that everything that had happened would always stay that way.

"Katie!" he exclaimed with his eyes directed to her hands. His brow was stained with alarm. Can he sense it? She wondered, but she worried what that would cause. They could not find out, except that that meant Victoria would never receive justice. It had to be that way, or they would do the same to her as they did to Victoria, and then they would cover the truth like they did for Victoria and the girl in kindergarten, but she could not stop the pulsing of her veins. She could not calm her pulse. She could not calm the air. She could hear voices around her, shouting and laughing, but she could not sort between them, and she tried to push them out because she was afraid of them. A pain cut through her chest, and she felt slightly lightheaded, but still the air raged around her. Still her pulse thickened. "Katie?" Ki took her hands, causing them to sting.

What is he doing? Why does it hurt? She wondered. She opened her mouth to protest, but her anger had stilled. Her pulse had slowed. The air was silent.

"What did you do?" she asked, before she realized that might tell him something that she did not want him to know.