Witches of the Elements - Book 12: Red Ruby, Part 1

Episode 49: Memone Cemetery

THE SOUND OF a finger being snapped rang through Zac's ears and would not end until he had opened up his eyes as his eyesight went in and out of focus. He blinked a couple of times and could fully see in front of him was a gate with the giant words Memone Park Cemetery above it.

"Out of all the places to be sent to...it just had to be a cemetery. Really?" Zac moaned to himself. Zac was accustomed to going with the flow, but recent events had left him sort of skeptical and more caution. Maybe it was the time of day or the lack of seeing anyone in sight that made him even more uneasy and this was only just the entrance. His hand touched the rusted bars of the gate, hoping that maybe it would be locked and he was at the wrong location. A cold shiver traveled throughout his body and at that moment he knew not only was he at the right place, but was warned upon entering. However, his subtle removal of his hand caused the gate to open so easily whereas before it seemed locked shut.

To his discomfort, he proceeded inside the cemetery as the aged gate closed behind him. Dried leaves that featured an array of yellow, orange, and brown covered the damp ground on the main pathway. The full moon was soon covered by a roaming cloud, with its light now blocked Zac couldn't fully see how far the cemetery stretched. When light from the moon came back, he noticed that the main path broke off into three different directions from the mausoleum.

Before Zac could make up his mind, he turned around after he heard the faint sound of a whistle, but saw no one. His attention went back to the mausoleum and out of the corner of his eyes, he caught the light of a flashlight that panned quickly by.

"Anyone there?" he shouted, but he was unable to get a good sense of any territorial dominance within the area that presented itself as a threat. Zac worked up enough courage to venture off the main path after he heard the noise of a whistle being called again. He started and looked through some of the shrubberies, but it was the snap of a twig that made him turned around back at the main pathway he had just moved from. Though his focus was more so there until he felt something poking at his back.

"Move one inch and you're dead. Hands up," someone commanded intensely. Startled, he subtly regained composer from what she had just ordered him to do and raised his hands.

"State your business here?" she got straight to the point. Zac didn't even contemplate anyone beside himself being at the cemetery this late at night as he could only sigh for not having a believable story ready.

"You...you wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Before she could respond back, they both heard rustling in a bush next to them.

"Syd? Oh, there you are! Who's he?" another voice who sounded so clear, light, and pleasant compared to the other one.

"Really Lori? Are you serious right now? I told you and the others to stay put. And while we're at it, don't say my name in front of him," the girl barked in a brash tone.

"But...but...you just said mine," Lori frowned. Zac heard the girl closest to him release a deep sigh and with swiftness, he rolled to the side and grabbed the hand that held the object and bent it back until the knife was dropped.

"Ouch!" the girl complained in discomfort. Zac's left arm wrapped around her neck and held it in place in a choke hold.

"Ahh! Let her go!" Lori pleaded with a shrill of desperation.

"Yeah right! She literally pulled a flipping knife on me...and that shit was real! You now expect me to just let her go so she can start stabbing me with it?" Zac posed and adjusted his grip.

"She didn't mean anything by it. We heard something and she wanted to check it out and she must have thought that you were going to hurt us," Lori explained as her hands jestered her words.

"Me? Hurt you? I don't know you," Zac said and pushed the girl in his hold away from him toward Lori. "Kind of hard for me to hurt you when just a few minutes ago I didn't even know anyone else was even here," he confessed. Lori held on to the girl she had called Syd. She had thin African braids and darker complexion from his own. Her brown eyes were fixed on him as she breathed heavily for oxygen while she rubbed her neck. "Don't look at me like that, you pulled the knife out on me first. Sorry for the choke hold, reflex moment," Zac apologized in his own way. He bent down and picked up the switchblade and handed it back to the girl.

"Reflex moment? What situations have you been in where that move is just out of pure instinct," Syd wailed and snatched the switchblade from him.

"Like I said before, you wouldn't believe it even if I told you," Zac repeated.

"Try me," Syd continued to press while she folded the blade and placed it inside her pocket.

"I'm Zac by the way and I take it that you're Syd and you're Lori correct?"

"Wow, are you some kind of psychic? How did you know our names?" Lori asked wholesomely. Zac scratched the back of his head and wondered if she was being serious or not, but when Syd face palmed herself, he knew Lori was actually serious with her question.

"Please, don't mind her," Syd advised.

"Anyways, you should be more careful with that thing," Zac warned. Syd looked at him as if she was analyzing his DNA before she said,

"You have your self defense, and I have mine."

"Not really self defense if you're the aggressor, just sayin'," Zac mumbled to himself, but Syd must have had ears of a hawk as she caught the tail end of his words and gave him a death glare.

"Hey I know! Can Zac come with us and meet the others?" Lori asked.

"Are you serious? Wait, you are. Yeah sure, lets just invite a total stranger into our circle," Syd jokingly entertained the thought, however it just completely went right over Lori's head.

"Great! You hear that Zac, come with us," Lori called out and reached for him with her fingertips. Before Zac could say yes or no, Lori had finally latched onto his shirt and pulled him very close to her side as a whiff of her pumpkin pie perfume burned his nostrils.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," Syd complained, but in the end followed along with them through the shrubberies and trees.