Lunar's Curse

Maybe he just wanted a smoothie but I highly doubted it. It was hard to believe when he was standing in front of us with that horrible look in his eyes like he wanted to devour the both of us.

“Hello...Xavier,” Justine managed.

His eyes flicked in her direction. “Justine,” he said. “How very nice to see you here with Myra.”

The way he said it made me shudder. It wasn't that kind of nice greeting that meant you were glad to see both friends. It was the kind of tone that said he was glad that we were both together—both together so he could “kill two birds with one stone”. Or I think that's how the saying goes anyways.

“Very nice,” he said, examining the both of us.

“Do you...” My throat felt dry. “Do you want to order something?” I stood up but I still felt shaky as I headed over to the counter.

Xavier looked amused, like he wanted to say something else but he didn't. “It's fine,” he said. He stared into Justine's eyes. “It's fine.”

Then he waltzed right out the door just like he had come in. He didn't look back. I was beginning to think that his coming was just an ostentatious act. Just some showy act so he could feel 'oh-so-cool'. But the way he had looked at us... It wasn't the normal kind of arrogance that you saw on typical boys. The arrogance was somehow...different. So very different.

“That was odd,” Justine managed. “But hey, he looked at you.” She winked in my direction as if she didn't feel a major creep factor from looking at him. “Big achievement.”

I wanted to say “You really think so?” in a sarcastic way but I didn't have the energy left in me. Xavier had left me slightly shaky and I could still hear the voice of the raspy old woman repeating the prophecy-like words like a mantra. I stood up from the floor, holding out an arm against the display to balance myself. Justine gave a me a look of concern.

“Are you depressed that he just walked out like that? It's okay, it's the 'guy' thing to do.” Justine smiled at me knowingly and I felt like screaming. It was clearly not a 'guy' thing to do as she said. Xavier was plain out...weird. What kind of boy walks in a coffee shop says a few words and then leaves? What kind of boy does that?

No one that I knew of, of course. But Justine kept on ranting about what a romantic gesture that was and how we were going to 'totally blow up in Amanda and Ella's faces'. I didn't care much about Amanda and Ella but Justine did. And for her sake, I kept quiet and let her go on about her twisted fantasy.



“La-me-ah,” Justine said, saying every syllable of my last name slowly. “Like an Italian last name, don't you think?” she asked me.

I shrugged because in truth I had no idea what country my last name originated from. I wasn't even sure what race I was and usually when I had to answer questions like that on questionnaires from the school, I usually ticked off the 'mixed' section and left the blank asking which mixed races blank.

“My last name is so generic,” Justine said, pouting. “Anderson. I mean, a gazillion people out there must have the same last name as me.” Justine then went on to rant about how generic the rest of her name was. It wasn't unlike Justine to whine about things so I tuned out on her. I'd admit: her whining is annoying. But honestly, after a few years around Justine, I didn't find it so annoying anymore. It was an attribute of my best friend. Her whining is what makes her, well, her.

“Justine,” I said, abruptly cutting her off. “You're suppose to help me.”

We were in the school library again. We always hung around here during lunch break because we had to do our homework... That's what we'd say to the librarians. We mainly hung out here because Amanda and Ella would never be here on a spare period or lunch break. In fact, I was sure that Amanda was out being a slut somewhere. Or more recently—with Xavier.

I didn't feel anything when I thought about Xavier all over Amanda which is pretty funny considering that I (usually) take interest/lust in them. Not with Xavier; something about him was just so wrong that I couldn’t even see him as anyone to be interested in.

“Right,” Justine said, straightening in her seat beside me. “Well, I call dibs on searching up your family tree. I am not looking at pictures of naked women anymore.” Then she opened up the search bar and began to type in 'Lamia surname family tree'. I turned back on my screen where I typed in 'Lamia'.

Like I expected, a thumbnail of the renaissance painting of the naked woman showed up again. Like Justine said, I also didn't need to see that again. Instead, I clicked on the first link which led me straight to a site titled 'The Lore of the Lamia”.

Intrigued that my last name was part of a 'lore', I read the article.

The Lamia is a woman that is half snake from waist down. In myths, she is said to eat young children. But that is most likely not real and said just to scare the children. The Lamia usually appears in the form of a lovely woman and seduces men. Afterwards, her snakeskin appears and she eats them. The Lamia is said to have Vampire characteristics. Of course, these are all myths and legends but I am here to tell the truth of the Lamia.

The Lamia exist in the world as we know it today. Except, they live in a place called Seul Åme. This place is what many people associate as the Underworld today...

I didn't read the rest of the article. They were crazy paragraphs based on the site author's imagination. There was a link at the top of the page that led me to the site author's profile. I expected a crazy looking person to be in the picture but I was wrong. There was a handsome boy who was probably my age smiling from the photograph.

Before I could click 'back' and look for a better and not as crazy site, Justine leaned over and saw the picture of the boy.

“Ooh! Are you sneaking out of researching? Letting poor me do the job? But I gotta admit, he's pretty cute. Is he your online chat buddy or what? Ooh! Maybe he's a new actor!”

I shook my head and pointed at the title page. “And I'm pretty sure he's not an actor.”

Justine let out a tired sigh. “That sucks. I was hoping that I would get to have another celebrity to mentally date. So what did you get on your last name?”

“The Lamia is a half-woman half-snake that eats children and also has Vampire attributes,” I said, wondering how in the world I could present this in English class without sounding...crazy.

Justine squealed. “Vampires? Oh my God, it's like a dream come true! My best friend is part Vampire!”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Please. Do you think that all Vampires are like Edward Cullen? And I have to admit, he freaks me out. You know, creeping on girls and all that...watching them sleep...”

“That was romantic!” Justine argued passionately. I waved her off. I didn't want to have another debate about things like this. The problem was that Justine didn't understand that Vampires are bloodthirsty monsters, not sappy, romantic 'Twilight' Edwards. I supposed that she would never understand things like that with the media to brainwash her.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “But tell me, how am I suppose to present this in class? It's going to be so...” I didn't even want to think about how awkward it would be. I was sure I would sound like a ranting inept fan-girl.

“No idea. By the way,” Justine told me, checking her watch. “Lunch is almost over and I haven't found much on your surname. Well, not anything that relates to your family tree. I say that we leave now before Ms. Grey gets all pissed at us again. Hey—isn't it funny? She has grey hair and her name is Ms. Grey!” Justine gave a short laugh. “I guess it fits her. And her style.”

I was used to Justine making fun of all the teachers in our school but I always had the 'nerd' instinct to stand up for them. Ms Grey was pretty nice except that she was very strict. Justine hated rules and dedicated half her life in trying to break the rules so of course Ms. Grey and Justine definitely did not coexist well together.



Math had me avoiding Xavier the entire time. It wasn't too hard, really. Every time Xavier would get up, Amanda and Ella would cling to him. Not that he ever tried to make his way towards me. Even Dean was beginning to get annoyed as he wasn't the eye of Amanda and Ella's apple anymore.

I met up with Justine after school. She was pacing back and forth—a sign that she was eager and impatient for something. Her face lit up when she saw me and she ran towards me, almost knocking over another student in process. She didn't even look back at him to say sorry and she definitely did not catch the dirty look he was sending her.

“Myra!” she called, waving her arms in the air like I couldn't see her. Finally, she stood in front of me slightly out of breath.

“Yes?” I asked her. It wasn't unusual for her to act that way but there was a sheen of sweat across her forehead and her blonde hair was in a tangled mess. She was never like that at school and she despised sweating. Justine noticed my look and frantically tried to straighten her hair. She wiped a hand across her forehead and frowned.

“Ew, sweat,” she said as she attempted to get her sweat off herself.

“So what is it?”

“Oh, right! Well... I mean, I promised that I would come to Coffee Coven today but... I mean, Alex!” She let out a squeal at his name. “Alex asked me out! Well, he didn't say “Can I be your boyfriend?” and all but invited me to go to a dinner with him, and Myra, you know that I just can't say no to a boy like that—”

I held up my hands. “I get it Justine. It's okay.”

Justine's face lit up at my words and she smiled. “Don't forget to tell me everything about it!” I told her as she began to leave the school grounds. She turned and waved at me.

“I won't!” she called back before she disappeared around the school corner. I smiled to myself. Even though I had never met Alex myself, he seemed like an okay person. Well, as far as I had heard from one of Justine's rants about how amazing he was.

I turned the other direction and left the school grounds by myself. Taking the short-cut, I was about to go through the school garden. I opened the metal gate and closed it behind me before I walked through the paths to get to the other side.

There were voices and I ducked behind one of the larger sycamore trees. The voices grew louder and I could make out the words and the voices they belonged to.

“—please, just once.” I recognized that voice anywhere. Amanda. I disliked her much more than Ella. By the sounds of it, she was probably trying to get some guy to sleep with her. To the point where she had to beg and please. That was so revolting.

Then came a voice that I could also recognize anywhere. Even though the voice had only been directed at me once, I could still distinguish it. The Italian-like lilt and his lisp. Xavier. His voice was cold and even...annoyed?

I didn't want to hear much of this conversation anymore. I was about to step out of the shadows of the tree and try to nonchalantly walk past them when a piercing stream filled the air. The hairs on my skin rose and my heart started beating faster.

The scream was definitely Amanda's. But it didn't sound like that joyous in the heat of the moment scream. This sounded like...like she was...in pain—being tortured. I wanted to run, to get as far away from this place as possible but my legs were frozen. I couldn't bring myself to move. Blood pounded in my ears.

Finally, the screams ceased and there was a thump that sounding suspiciously like a body falling onto the ground. Then there was stone hard laughter. Xavier.

“Puny little things,” I heard him mutter before the crunching of leaves under his foot signalled his leave. I stayed where I was for a few more minutes. There was odious smell in the air and I gagged. Finally, until I was sure that Xavier was gone, I stepped out from behind the tree.

Amanda was lying still on the stone path, her eyes closed. I didn't even see a twitch of a finger as I approached her quietly. Maybe she just passed out from whatever Xavier was doing to her—

I saw her face and I almost gasped out loud. Her face was so pale and turning into a blue colour which I'm sure that Amanda wouldn't let that happen if she was...

Did that mean she was...dead? I couldn't find wounds as I did a circle around her body. Not until I leaned closer to the body that was starting to stench, I saw to punctured holes in her neck. They weren't tiny but they weren't huge as well. In fact, it had been well hidden behind her brown hair before I flicked it back. For a moment as I leaned closer I thought I saw red oozing out of the holes but it was just my red hair in the way. Tentatively, I placed two fingers on the holes in her neck. Her skin was ice cold and I noticed a faint vein just below the holes.

The pieces seemed to snap together. She was drained. Of blood. But...no, ever as much as I disliked Amanda, I didn't like the thought of her being dead. Maybe she was just asleep. This couldn't be real. I was just making this up to scare my conscience... Taking a shaky breath, I moved my fingers from her throat to her nose. I waited for the breeze to signal her breathing.

There wasn't one.

That's when I spun around and ran out of the garden, screaming, the way I had come.