OLAMIDE
It all went to hell after the supposed seer's statement. As Jason took hold of my hand and walked me back to the car, I could not help but linger on the words of the blind woman. The conviction in her lips as she uttered those words. The accusing look in her bleeding eyes. It cemented the words that had echoed at the back of my head one too many times. I was cursed.
"Coming here was a mistake," Jason said. He looked aghast. I wasn't even sure why. I was the one who had been tagged a walking breathing misfortune. The worst part was that I even agreed that the words of a total stranger had to be the truth. The signs were there after all. The second my parents got my brother and me abroad. We seemingly lost contact with one another. Not to mention that the night Deji was murdered, I intended to follow him but I was too lazy to make good on that. All of that could not just be a coincidence. Jason escorted me to a passenger seat and slammed it shut. I watched him walk to the driver's seat with an evident scowl on his face and he began driving. Once we were out of the church premises, I felt his eyes studying me intently.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"No," I confessed. "I keep thinking about what she said. I think it's true. I think I'm cursed." It came as natural as breathing and I felt the back of my throat catch just admitting it. My body trembled and my eyes welled up with tears that threatened to fall at any second.
Jason drove slower. He took my hand and sighed. "Trust me when I say you should take the words of the eye of Cassandra with levity. Half the time, the words they spew are rubbish and don't even come to pass. I have come across cruel hexes and trust me when I say you are as normal as it gets."
"Normal?" Jason had to be clueless about what normality looked like if he could place me in the same category as 'normal'. Nothing in my life was mundane. Not anymore. "You don't understand. I think she is right. My bloodline vanquished! My life was stolen! All of those things happened to me."
"Your brother..." Jason tries to say but I cut him off before he could finish.
"Deji isn't the only family member I have." I disclosed with the tears now rolling down my face. "I am an immigrant you know. My brother and I were whisked to Wentworth by a family friend. The moment we arrived in this godforsaken town. I tried to reach out to my parents. I initially believed our contacts got jinxed along the way but when my guardian couldn't reach out to them and my letters home kept turning, I assumed my parents wanted me to forget about them and focus on ensuring financial stability for myself. But when Deji was murdered and I reached out to my family in every way I could, I got nothing. I was alone. I had been content with telling myself several lies to deal with the blaring truth that I had been abandoned but what if that wasn't the case? What if all those while I thought they had ignored my calls and acted like I didn't exist anymore... What if they were dead?" I ached for a reply from him. Something to deter me from the path I knew I was now headed for. One that had no answers to the pressing question that burned through my mind.
"That can't be true."
That should have been enough to stop me but unfortunately, I refused to give it a rest. I wanted... Scratch that, I needed answers I knew neither Jason nor I had.
"Then explain to me why loving parents would abandon their children for sixteen years without for once trying to reach out?"
"I didn't say they were loving," Jason said. "What I did mean is your family cannot be all dead."
A laugh erupted from the back of my coarse throat. It surprised me because I was not supposed to find a comment that cold hilarious but I did. Jason had that kind of effect on me. "That is grim."
"I am aware but I was being realistic. When my pack was attacked by the Silverlaws. At least three individuals of every family in the Crow survived and that was not natural selection. It was blatant murder. So believe me when I say no alleged curse can wipe your entire bloodline."
It was not easy to believe all he said. I wanted to. I truly did but misfortunes have befallen those I had loved and while I blamed the strange way I now saw Jason as an aftereffect of the mate bond and heat cycle closing in on us. I still felt something and that made me worry about the prophecy the blind seer had affiliated with Jason and his brother. "What about the prophecy of the tyrant king?" I queried. "Are you not even slightly worried that you might be the subject matter of divination?"
"Don't." Jason pleaded but I could not let it go.
"What if there is some truth in the prophecy and I am the connecting factor?" He didn't reply so I continued. The vortex of paranoia continued to spin as I faced Jason squarely. "What would you do if someone killed me?"
Jason's eyebrow furrowed. He didn't answer my question. Instead, he swerved the car to the left side of the road and pulled out his mobile device. He hit a few buttons and proceeded to call someone. The call went through and he had a conversation with someone at the end of the line which lasted for about a minute. After a short while, he ended the call and looked my way. "Since the eye of Cassandra has successfully infiltrated your thoughts, I think it's up to me to give you some closure."
"And what do you mean by closure?" I had barely finished that sentence when a bright light flashed behind us.
"Hello, Ginger." Jason greeted, craning his head to the back where the light has originated from. In place of whatever I was expecting to be seated there was a young woman with olive skin, deep brown eyes, and the fieriest hair I had ever set my eyes upon. She smiled at me when our eyes met.
I turned to Jason who did not seem to be bothered at all about the ginger girl popping out of nowhere. "Is she a witch?" I asked.
"Some might say best in the town." Ginger chipped in, withdrawing a knife from her backside. "I really would like to sit and chit chat but my mom is very strict about fraternizing with werewolves these past few days. So can we get on with the spell then I can be on my way?"
"S–ure." I stammered, unsure of what she was babbling about.
"So what spell is it?" Ginger demanded, her face was buried in her phone like she was on a kind of countdown.
"A locator spell." Jason filled in. "My luna here believes her family might be dead. Could you prove her wrong?"
A nervous smile escaped Ginger's lips. "A locator spell can't prove that someone is alive. It only pinpoints the location of its targets. I barely have the ingredients you would need for that kind of spell."
It was like a godsend message. A spell like this could pinpoint where Deji was since he was not in his grave. It would save me a lot of trouble and I wouldn't have to involve a third party. That being David Flament, a witch I barely knew.
"Do it," I muttered before an argument that would ruin things ensued. The ginger witch looked at me puzzled. A minute of complete silence passed before she spoke again.
"I feel I have to repeat that a locator spell only pinpoints where a subject is. Whether they be dead or alive."
"I'm aware but I really don't care. I just want closure." I hoped it didn't sound cheery. The last thing I wanted was Jason's skepticism. I played it cool and collected and Jason didn't seem to notice anything erratic.
"Who are we locating?" The ginger witch asked, opening the map app on her phone.
The goal was to be as vague as possible. "My family," I answered. I watched her go into a deep thought for a moment right before she snapped her right fingers. I didn't need anyone to tell me what she was asking for. I graciously stretched my hand and watched as the knife on her left dug into my skin, drawing blood. Ginger took a swipe at my bleeding cut managing to get some of the Crimson liquid that seeped out onto her blade. She then dangled the blade above her phone. Droplets of red splashed on her screen and Ginger began to chant.
"As her heart desires, I seek. Come to me. Wherever ye hide, I shall see and as my word so mote it be."
Cold air seemed to rush into the car. The phone glitched and the blood on the screen began to move. It split into two tinier drops but they slithered in the same direction. The drops of blood were headed for Nigeria. There was something odd though. Ginger has mentioned that this sort of spell located individuals whether they were dead or alive. If that were true, the droplets were supposed to split into three. The crisp cold air that filled the car vanished and was replaced by a moist one. At the same time, the blood on the screen stopped moving.
"Two of your family members are currently in Nigeria and they happen to be very close," Ginger spoke.
That had to be Mom and Dad. The burning question however remained. Where the hell was Deji?