Feeling This...

“I don't think I can wait another table,” I set my head down on the bar in front of my uncle, we had been slamming busy for fourth of July weekend.

“I believe in you!” I heard the smile in his voice and a glass being sat down beside my head.

“You alive?” Zacky's friendly voice asked as he took a seat beside me at the bar.

“No,” I said with a deep breath, “I think I walked my feet off an hour ago,” I turned my head to look over at one of my new favorite people.

“They seem to still be there!” he smiled, “Come eat with us while you're on break,” he reached out and tugged on my hand. “Come on!” he pulled harder when I tried to ignore him.

“Look what the cat dragged in!” Matt smirked as we got to the table and I threw myself down at the end of the booth beside Brian.

“Take a picture because I'm going to die,” without thought, in auto pilot, I put my head on Brian's shoulder, and I felt him tense up.

“Sorry,” I muttered but couldn't bring myself to pick my head up.

“You’re fine,” he whispered and loosened his shoulder up again.

“You're done in a few hours, and then you get to come to our show tonight” Matt was still smirking over at me. “Cheese stick?” he pushed the plate of fried cheese over towards me.

“Then I have to clean, help Joe with dishes!” I whined, my feet were in the state of pins and needles finally having my weight off them. “I'll probably sleep in the car tonight,”

“I'll come out and get you,” Gena spoke from the other side of Zacky. “You're to hot of a commodity to sleep in a car, you probably would get kidnapped,” she joked but none of us laughed.

“Are you planning on doing anything today?” Sarah my snarky cousin came over to the table tapping her little foot on the floor beside the booth. She had gotten lucky and was playing hostess today.

“No girl, I think I'm just going to lounge around today,” my eyes narrowed at Sarah.

“You need to get out of here,” Brian snapped at her, she jumped as his deep voice met her ears, and without another word she walked away.

“I'll keep you around if you can get rid of her that easily,” I peered up at the man whose shoulder I was occupying and smiled. “I need to go back to work,” I grabbed a few cheese sticks and hopped up from the booth while my feet protested.

“My feet are broken!” Josie came up behind me and grabbed a cheese stick out of my hand.

“Nothing is my own in this world is it?” I smirked at her and began hobbling towards the back room to let Josie have a break.

“Brian is,” she smirked, “And he ain't ugly, We still going to see the witches tonight?” she asked following me down the hallway towards the break room where we knew no one would be.

“Yes, the guys are doing that show tonight, we go out there while they are playing and we should be back before they notice we are gone,” I smiled at my own genius plan.

“If they'll help us,” she had always been a downer.

“Because, we are at a dead end of our own, if need be we force them to help,”

“You can't force witches to do anything they don't want to do,” she continued to tell me, “they have their own rules like us,” she punched out for break as I punched back in.

“Well they are going to have to get their shit together,” I tried to smile.
--

“I can't feel my legs,” Josie yelled over to me while we watched the first show of the night.

“I can't feel anything,” I replied, barley able to keep my eyes open after a long days work.

“You two are whine asses,” Kevin shook his head from in between us, “You better stop before Avenged comes on!” his voice was even louder as the band on stage stopped playing.

“Go up there and get us a good spot would you?” Josie asked, we had found a way to get away from everyone else, now all we needed was Kevin to leave. He had been acting strange for the last few days, anytime we asked him questions about Charles he sort of became quiet, but continued to say he hadn't figured anything out, that is why we were going to the witches.

“Yeah, I'll see you two up there!” he pointed towards the front as they announced Avenged Sevenfold and we started towards the parking lot.

“Do you remember the way?”

“Why do you think I would say we would go out there if I didn't know the way?” I got into the drivers side of her black car, mine was still in the shop after it was found in the parking lot destroyed the other day. “Give me a little credit please,”

“We are so fucked if we get caught!” she added, “we better not have to run either,”

“You should of worn sneakers,” I laughed over at her heels.

“You should of worn heels,”

“We were wondering when you would show up,” The witches had met us at their doorway in the forest, as if they knew exactly when we would be coming.

“We tried to do a little research of our own,” I looked directly at Zelena when speaking.

“And?” she questioned.

“We've got nothing,” I admitted, “I need to find my mother,”

“We know,” the shorter one whose name I have forgotten answered.

“To cast a spell to lead you to her, we need a piece of something she loved the most for the longest,”

“That is very specific,” Josie raised her eyebrow at the witch.

“Spells are never half done,” Zelena snapped.

“What is in this for you? Why are you helping us?” I questioned the witch.

“That is not for you to know now, just know our help is true, find the ingredient of what we ask,”

“We need to find something of my dad's then,” I spoke to Josie, “some of his clothes or something,”

“NO!” the third witch screeched, “You do not understand, we don't need a possession, we need a piece, of DNA, something she pressed her soul too,”

“My dad is dead, how are we going to get a piece of him?” I asked grossed out.

“Bring us a piece of him,” three witches blinked at the two of us.

“Where?” I snapped back.

“Where all the dead enemies of the pack are, the grave yard,” Josie grabbed my arm pulling me towards the door, “We will be back!” she yelled into the room of witches.

--
“Not that I'm not grateful, but why do you have a shovel in your trunk?” I held the shovel up in the air a bit following Josie through the woods.

“Just be thankful,” was her only reply, she had lost her shoes back a few minutes ago in a sink hole and had been complaining ever since. “Those were my favorite shoes,”

“I told you not to wear heels,” I mumbled again.

“Shut up,” she made a disgusting face as mud pushed between her bare feet, “We are here,”

I looked out over the flat field, that was exactly what it was, it looked just like a clearing leading to another patch of woods.

“This is the grave yard?” I pointed out over it from beside her.

“Yes what did you expect? Head stones or something?”

“Maybe some kind of something...” I felt both of my eyebrows raise. “How do we find him?”

“The age of the dirt, he was the last one buried,” she began unbuttoning her jeans; I started to question her about it, but before I knew it Josie was gone and a wolf was on the ground, a beautiful black wolf, whose fur in the moon light almost shone blue.

“Josie?” I knew the answer but it just slipped out anyways. The wolf tipped it head towards the ground and began sniffing, it's tail standing straight out the whole way; I could only stare at the wolf as I followed behind it.

After a few minutes the wolf Josie stopped at a patch of dead grass and let out a whine pressing both of her paws to the ground and began digging.

“Good girl, remind me to give you a treat later,” I muttered to her and began digging with the shovel.

Vomit filled my throat as only a few feet down a body shone back in the hole. “Dad,” I spoke more to myself than the body. This was my own father in the hole, in several pieces, the man who taught me how to ride a bike, how to swim, everything that should be taught to you, he taught me when I was younger, but around 8 he had become a complete ass to me and I had forgotten all of these things, pushed them to the back of my mind, anger filling my heart.

“You okay?” Josie's regular form filled the space beside me as I stared into the hole.

“Yeah,” I bent over and felt the goose bumps cover my body when I touched the cold leathery skin, “Think this arm will be enough?”

“Should be, Kevin text, the guys set just ended, they are meeting all their fans, so we are in a clear for a while longer,”

“They did this to him,” my temperature raised even in the cool night air.

“And he did this to you,” she watched me begin to wipe the sweat off my forehead, “Come on,”

----
“Very good girls,” Zelena smiled at both of us, grabbing the arm out of my hands, like it didn't belong to my father, “Once we cast this spell, it should lead you to your mother,”

“What are we going to do if she's in New Orleans?” Josie questioned.

“We are going to need to stop and get gas,” I raised my shoulders, “You can back out now,”

“Not a chance in hell,. We're already in deep,” she smiled over at me putting her hand on my shoulder, “If you jump I jump Jack,”

“Do it!” I nodded at the witches.

They each put a hand on his arm and began chanting some language, while both Josie and I stared at each other, our life got stranger by the moment,”

“It's not very clear,” the short witch muttered, “ It's not big enough,”

“It's the whole damn arm!” I reminded her, “what were we supposed to do drag the whole body here?

“Wait,” Zelena opened her eyes and began inspecting the arm, she leaned in close, “a piece of your hair is on there,” she wrinkled her nose like that was the gross part of this whole thing and flicked it to the ground.

They began chanting again clearly becoming angrier by the moment, “Why isn't it working now, they have brought us the wrong ingredient I see nothing now,” the other witch let go of the arm and they all looked over to us again.

“No they had the right piece, just not enough of it!” Zelena smiled coming over towards me and pulled a handful of my hair.

“OWW!” I snapped, “What was that for?”

She dropped the arm on the ground and brought the hairs over to the woman, “She loved you the most,”

After a few moments of chanting again they finally relaxed.

“Now hold these hairs, and it will lead you to what you seek,” Zelena held the hairs out to me, “But be warned, sometimes the answers you are given do not come as you think they will,” I reached out and grabbed my own hairs, a piece of me my mother loved the most, and a proud feeling passed through my body before a spark showed in the moon light, like a shimmer path in the air.

“Come on,” I grabbed Josie's arm with my other hand and began following the trail towards the woods.
---
“God, we are not walking to Louisiana are we?” Josie whined after we walked through the woods for an hour, I had forgotten that she was still barefoot, but it didn't seem to be bothering her any, I guess if we were being technical she was a wolf.

“I think this is the wrong direction, we are going north not south!”

“Damn I could of gone for a daiquiri right now,” Usually I would of agreed with her if the path didn't stop when we came into another clearing, it lead straight into the ground.

“It stopped,” I informed her, knowing she couldn't see what we were following, “It leads into the ground up there,”

“In the ground? Like an underground lair?”

“MOM?” I yelled into the field. Nothing.

After we got closer I continued yelling to my mom.

“Well, we should of brought the shovel,” I got down on my knees where the light went into the ground and began pulling at the dirt, feeling the grit of dirt building under my nails.

Soon two paws began helping me.

It seemed like we dug for hours, but eventually we got deep enough that the light stopped.

“It's gone,” I said to the wolf as she jumped into the hole, tears began falling down my eyes at finding nothing.

“Take a few deep breaths Charlie,” Josie must of shifted back down in the hole, “ I need you to shine the light down here, but I need you to be ready first,” I did as she said and began calming myself, maybe we had got the ingredients wrong, maybe I wasn't what my mom loved the most.

“I'm coming up,” her form jumped up beside me and began dressing, “Give me your hand,” she asked for it but took it right away squeezing tight.

“What is it?” my eyes felt heavy as nerves rose in my stomach.

“Bones,”

“What?!” I yelled, quickly shining the small flash light down into the hole, where two skulls and multiple bones filled the hole.

“These can't be my moms Josie?” my legs began shaking, I was becoming hysterical, “Those are old bones,” the skulls were a yellowish color from being in the dirt so long, the bones around it broken into pieces.

“This was down there with them,” she started crying as well, pulling a zip lock bag out of her hand and showing me the picture through them, it was a picture of my parents years younger than when I last saw them. Dead. “I'm calling the guys,” she informed me pulling me away from the hole, and pulled out her cell phone.