15

  It was five in the afternoon and I still had my work clothes on. I was at the park with a sweater pulled close to my chest because it was forty-five degrees out. My shift at Riley Jr.’s was over, and I came here to unwind. I grabbed a bag of breadcrumbs and spread them on the floor to feed the birds. Once I did that, I pulled out my phone and pressed my thumb against the music app.

  I pulled all my songs to listen to, starting with a favorite Taylor Swift song I loved so much – Bad Blood. I pushed my phone back into my pocket and readjusted the headphones in my ears so they fit better. While I listened to my songs and saw the birds have a free-for-all melee for the bread, I couldn’t help but think about him.

  I needed a plan to fight and kill the shapeshifter to avenge Aunt Carrie. But with Derek no longer in the picture, it was impossible for me to plot a plan to fight this monster. Even though I hated Derek with all my guts for lying to me and making me look stupid, I was just a mortal girl.

  Here I was trying to draw up a plan to battle a supernatural monster when I had all the world's weaknesses as a human. The odds were stacked against me so high I couldn’t see the top of the stack. At least when Derek was by my side, I had a werewolf who would fight with me. I had the help of another supernatural monster who used its powers to weaken the monster I was so trying to exterminate.

  Now I was all alone. Maybe I was shutting Derek out of my life because I was so mad at him for lying to me. But more importantly, I was angry at myself for believing him when I had one of the best intuitions of any female in this world. I felt humiliated and dumb instead for taking the word of a werewolf over my instincts.

  Maybe I was too harsh on him. I mean, being a wolf must mean watching your back 24/7 from humans. Maybe he lied to me because he was afraid I would expose him, and he would be hunted down by a human lynch mob and killed or something. I did threaten him with it, and I must’ve scared him into lying to me. All these maybes were clouding my head. I had so much on my mind.

  I sat on the bench, troubled over what plan or step of action I would take to fight the shapeshifter alone. Things became worse when I suddenly remembered the Latin phrases that the shifter shouted, which were some hidden supernatural powers it had. The shifter threw me on the ground without touching me.

  On top of that, the shifter made me so frozen and so immobile I could barely move anything. All from these Latin phrases. How on earth was I supposed to battle the shifter now that my brain has suddenly remembered these things? Will I even come up with a plan for killing the shifter now that I know some of its hidden powers?

  I paused the music on my phone and turned it off. I pushed it back into my pocket with anger and frustration. I even took the bag of crumbs out of my sweater and threw them on the ground in pure rage. I saw multiple birds fighting for the bag and its contents. I felt like I was back to square one with this whole mission.

  I felt as lost as when I first saw the shifter and didn’t know what it was before I discovered the existence of monsters in this world. Should I contact Derek and team up with him again to fight against the shifter and tell him about those Latin phrases from the shifter? Doing so meant giving him a pass for what he did to me, and I wasn’t ready to forgive him.

  At the same time, he was a valuable resource to me about the world of the supernatural. No one else knew about monsters other than other monsters. I needed something or someone so bad to help me with my mission, but I wasn’t ready to welcome Derek back into my life yet.

  “Ericka? What’s wrong?”

  I heard a worried voice to my right side. It was high-pitched in tone and I knew I heard it before. It was a girl with light brown hair and a recognizable flower bomb scent.

  “Maisy? What are you doing here?”

  I hadn’t seen Maisy since last Fall when I was still enrolled at Angelwood for my senior year. It’s been a while since I almost forgot I had her as a friend. Maisy sat down next to me and started to rub my back.

  “I always take a walk through this park whenever I feel like it. First, let me say how sorry I am for your aunt’s…death. I heard about it on the news, and I wanted to see you so bad, but I didn’t know if you still lived at your aunt’s house after what happened or where you live now. So, I’m thrilled I’m with you now.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Why are you sitting here in the park all upset and sad? Are you still grieving the death of your aunt? I’m so sorry if you are.”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s something else.”

  “Well, what is it? You can tell me anything. I’m here for you.”

  She rubbed my back more and moved closer towards me. I contemplated whether I should tell her the same lie I told MacKayla or a new lie since MacKayla and Maisy don’t speak all the time anymore. She wouldn’t find out from MacKayla about what I said to MacKayla, but I just thought I'd play it safe and keep my story consistent.

  “There’s this guy named Derek. We were friends for a brief time, and we met in the cafeteria at Angelwood. We became good friends. Derek and I went bowling a week ago and I beat him. He was a jerk afterward and acted like a sore loser.”

  “What did he do? I hope he didn’t physically attack you or anything. You need to get the police involved if he did.”

  “No, no. He didn’t do anything like that. He just yelled and cursed at me, and I yelled and cursed at him. He then disrespected my dead parents.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah.”

  I looked at Maisy and saw her mouth was wide open. I looked away from her and lowered my head down to look at the bread crumb remains on the ground after the birds all disappeared.

  “You’re working yourself up over a guy who’s not worth it! If you’re telling me that you’re sitting here in this park being miserable because of some jackass, then you don’t need to! You don’t need a scum of the earth like that in your life to make you cry and cause you sorrow and pain. He’s not worth it, Ericka. Please tell me this guy is out of your life.”

  “Well yeah. I told him I didn’t want to see his face again, and I told him to lose all contact with me.”

  “Good. I’m glad. I can’t believe this guy would act like a sore loser. What did he say to you?”

  “He accused me of cheating and told me I was using a lighter ball. I was like, ‘Yeah, because I’m smaller than you.’ I could go into detail about it, but I won’t. I want to move on from the situation and forget about it. Forget about Derek, too.”

  Maisy nodded and continued to rub my back. She smiled and placed my head on her shoulders, after which she hugged me, and I embraced her back.

  “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

  “Thanks, Maisy.”

  The embrace between us ended and I managed to smile mildly at her.

  “So, what’s going on with you? Tell me about you. What have you been doing in your life since the last time I saw you?”

  Maisy made a look of excitement on her face as she sat up on the bench right next to me.

  “So, there’s this guy I’m courting, and his name is Nathan. I met him in December, and we’ve been dating since.”

  “Oh, my goodness!” I said with a big smile on my face and widened my eyes. “That’s great, Maisy. I’m happy for you.”

  “Thanks, hun. He goes to Angelwood and we see each other there all the time! Isn’t that amazing?”

  “It is. I’m happy for you.”

  “Well, what about you? Anything good in your life happened lately?”

  “Umm…I got a job at Riley Jr.’s –”

  Maisy gasped and covered her mouth.

  “What?”

  “That’s my favorite restaurant! I always try to go there! Oh my gosh, they have the most amazing pizzas ever. And their sandwiches are so warm and toasted. They’re so good!”

  “Awesome! So, I’ll see you there from time to time?”

  “Yes, of course!”

  “Maybe it’ll be my treat.”

  Maisy shook her head and looked at me with a serious expression.

  “No, you absolutely won’t. It’ll be my treat.”

  “Oh, come on. It was your treat the last time we went to the movies. I have a job now. Let me repay the favor. Come on, please.”

  It was then that Maisy sighed mildly and looked at me with a cute smile. I could even see a little twinkle in her eyes from when the sun’s rays hit her face at an angle that caused the whole right side of her face to shine bright.

  “Okay, fine. If you insist.”

  “Great! I look forward to it!”

  Maisy took out her phone and looked at it briefly to see the time. She placed it back in and turned her gaze towards me.

  “I have to go home. I’ll see you and talk to you later, alright? You can text me whenever you want. I’m here for you.”

  “You’re sweet. Thanks, Maisy.”

  Maisy wrapped her arms around me and mine around hers. I felt the heat of her head when the sun shined on it behind her. The strands of her long brown hair were as warm and toasty as the sandwiches she described.

  “Stay strong, okay? Keep your head up and don’t cry over anybody who doesn’t deserve it.”

  “Okay. Thanks, hun.”

  “You got it, Ericka.”

  Maisy let me go and walked away from me, waving at me as she went further in the distance. I remained sitting on the bench and stared at the people in the landscape in front of me. I saw couples walking, owners walking their dogs, and birds wolfing down seeds being thrown at them from the pale, wrinkled hands of a woman with short, curly gray hair.

  16

  I spent most of the day in my room, drawing up a plan to defeat the shapeshifter. I mean, how hard could it be? It was a humanoid shapeshifter. All I had to do was find its heart and plunge my long, silver machete through it, which had to be in its chest. Except I got the nagging feeling it wasn’t the case.

  It couldn’t be that easy. It was a monster, after all, not a human with a normal heart or chest. I even began to think that maybe shapeshifters didn’t have a heart, that they were powered by supernatural fuel or something.

  I wish I had Bart Ramsay’s book.

  My only plan of action was to try and stab the shapeshifter everywhere I could to see if I penetrate its heart somewhere in its body if it had a heart. I also thought about decapitation as another possible way to end the shifter’s life once and for all. But then, an idea came to mind. It was an epiphany I never thought of before.

  I couldn’t act on it immediately because my phone buzzed with so many message notifications. I opened up my phone and saw I got three texts from Derek. I opened my phone and I looked at all three messages.

  Derek: Ericka, it’s been days since you’ve discovered my secret. It’s been days and you haven’t talked to me. Would you please let me talk to you?

  Derek: I messed up so bad and I reaalllyyyy feel bad for it. There’s no excuse for betraying your trust and your friendship, and I feel awful for it. Would you please let me explain why I lied to you about Josh and being a werewolf?

  Derek: I was afraid to lose you. You mean so much to me, Ericka. I was worried if you knew who I was, you’d never talk to me and be anywhere near me. Please, let’s talk and I’ll give you every reason why you shouldn’t be afraid of me.

  I closed my phone and tossed it to the side. I felt so bad for the way I’ve shut him out like this after doing so much for me. But I needed guys in my life who were honest with me and confessed to me the skeletons in their closet. Derek took advantage of my naivety about the world of the supernatural and made me look stupid. I won’t fall for that trap twice. But all the times he took care of me at his cabin came flooding back to my mind. He was so sweet to do that.

  I dealt with a huge headache from my feelings about Derek. I knew he would agonize because I read his messages and ignored them since he would see on the text messaging app that I read his messages. Do I forgive him for lying to me and move on because of all the kind and caring things he did for me? Or do I continue slapping him with silent treatment as a small punishment for lying from the tips of his lips? Maybe I would consider doing the first option in due time.

  But I didn’t think about this pair of burning questions anymore for the night because I had an epiphany involving Derek. More specifically, it involved that show he watched, Supernatural. I opened my laptop and went on the wiki page of the show. The second I opened it, I saw pictures of four flaming hot, gorgeous guys who I thought were the show's main characters.

  I took a brief second to study their appearance, but what I thought was a brief second turned into like five minutes.

  Damn, they’re hot. But focus, girl!

  I got rid of my distraction and typed the word "shapeshifter" in the search bar of the Supernatural wiki page. I went to the page on shapeshifters and immediately saw a table of contents, and one of the sections was "weaknesses." I clicked on that section and saw silver and iridium as some of the weaknesses for shapeshifters, which Derek already told me about.

  But then I saw things like heart extraction, explosions, and decapitation as other ways to weaken or kill a shifter. I needed to find its heart first to extract it and destroy it. I didn’t know how to get my hands on any bombs or explosives to blow the shifter to pieces. I didn’t know how to make one and if I were seen trying to make one or appear with one anywhere in town, I would land in prison for the rest of my life.

  It was bad enough that I had to be careful to hide the silver machete Derek gave me in the trunk of my car. No one would ever know it was there. Explosions were not an option. But I could decapitate the shapeshifter. That was in my thought process earlier and Supernatural confirmed it.

  So now, I planned to find and extract the heart of the shapeshifter by stabbing it anywhere and everywhere in its body to find the heart, starting with its chest. I could also do it the easy way and kill the SOB by decapitation. I would do it all using my silver machete.

  Great!

  I still got the feeling that I should be equipped with more weapons than a machete, though. I needed a weapon made out of iridium. I didn’t have that and I sure as hell wasn’t going to get it from Derek. Then I thought about getting a silver necklace or something to weaken the shifter if it got close to me. I could burn its skin with it or something.

  I still had one more piece of the puzzle to figure out. I had a plan of action and even thought of the weapons to use against the shifter. But I still needed to know how to negate the effects of those Latin phrases the shifter used against me. I was beginning to think they were some types of magic spells. The idea of a shapeshifter with knowledge of magic frightened me, and I needed to go somewhere for help, as well as an iridium weapon and a silver pendant.

  I exited out of the Supernatural page and opened another tab. I thought about where to go for magic, a place with knowledge about magic, both white and dark. I typed up the question, ‘Where can I go to learn about magic?’ I got no relevant answers, but something helpful came up, nonetheless.

  A list of magic metaphysical supply shops came up, and I learned there's one in Appleton named The Magic Witches’ Bazaar. I made up my mind to go to this place, thinking it was like a library for people who knew about magic.

  The next day, after my shift at Riley, Jr.’s ended, I made a secret trip to The Magic Witches’ Bazaar. It was a small boutique store and the first sight I saw was numerous shelves containing different bottles and jars with herbs, incense, strange-looking rocks and jewelry, oils, and plants.

  The creepiest part of the store was the section of shelves containing several statues, idols of monsters and creatures with heads different from their bodies, skulls, Egyptian and foreign artifacts, and even the most horrifying-looking dolls I’ve ever seen in my life, which gave me the chills. I finally saw candles, bowls, bells, and other things that could be placed on a table or altar of some sort.

  I couldn’t help but smell the fragrance dominant inside the store. It was an incense of some sort and the smell was of a combination of berries and citrus fruit. At least the scent calmed my nerves from all the dreadful artifacts in this shop and the ominous pale décor. I walked up to the front counter and saw a bell that I pressed to let whoever worked here know that I was there.

  A wooden bead curtain leading to a back room opened, and a woman who looked to be in her fifties walked through it. She was a bit taller than I am and had long, raven dark hair that was thinning, which made me guess she was almost in her sixties. The woman had light gray eyes and wore eyeliner around them. The woman looked at me with a wide smile on her face along with squinted eyes.

  “Hello, dear. How may I help you?”

  “Hi. Yes, umm…”

  I didn’t know how to tell why I came to this shop. How do I say to this lady that I was here looking for a way to negate the magic spells of a shapeshifter? Did she even know about monsters at all, let alone shapeshifters? Maybe her shop was just for props and gags, not actual magic. How do I talk to this lady?

  Oh, gosh. Pull it together and do it.

  “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m not here to buy anything. I came for help about magic.”

  The woman looked at me with intrigue in her eyes. She raised her head and nodded, with the smile on her face fading away. The lady squinted her eyes at me, which made me nervous.

  “What type of help?”

  I was getting flustered with her. There was no easy way to tell her about my situation, so I just decided to say it bluntly. I don’t care if she thinks I’m a lunatic. I need someone to hear me and help me because it won’t be Derek, at least not right now.

  “I need your help in a battle I’m waging against a shapeshifter. It’s a monster that can shift into any appearance like its name says. Before you say anything, I need to tell you that monsters exist. I know this sounds strange and you might think I’m a nut, but monsters are real. A shapeshifter killed my aunt, and it would've killed me when a werewolf saved me. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true. Monsters are real.”

 

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