Chapter 6

Damien’s room had become the official meeting place for the 'Hexers' as they were now calling themselves. It felt good to have a name for the group that didn't focus on their victim status.

"I still think we should have gone with the Punishers," Kiaan—the comic book fan of the group—commented.

Jess laughed. "Na, then I'd have to walk around in kinky boots and leather with a whip or something weird."

Damien whistled. "I'd pay to see that."

Jess laughed and blushed. She kind of liked being the only female member of the group. It made her feel special, even though Sammy was gay, and Caine was... well, he didn't seem entirely straight either. Jess desperately wanted to know if he was into girls at all but couldn't think of a smooth way to transition the question into casual conversation. It would be rude to blurt out the question, regardless of her intentions.

As Jess watched Caine, she noticed the way he would touch Sammy every so often. Sammy would panic, shy away and blush. Pushing her jealously aside, it was quite adorable to watch.

Kiaan was looking through Damien’s stack of graphic novels when he held up a book. The cover was black and covered in white symbols, including the encircled pentagram he'd drawn on the floor in blood.

"Is this where you got the spell?" Kiaan asked.

"Erm, no." Damien coughed. "I... well it sort of... came to me in a dream."

"Seriously?" Jess asked.

Silence fell over the room as Damien paced, scratching his head.

"Yeah, in the dream I was told the spell, who to gather, the rules, everything," Damien revealed.

"Rules?" Jess frowned. "You didn't say anything about any rules."

"I'd forgotten. It just came back to me," Damien muttered. "Dream memories are weird like that."

"So... fill us in on the details," Caine prompted as he took a seat on the floor.

Jess joined him, sitting cross-legged on one of the many rugs. The others joined her while Damien took a seat on his bed, looking down at them from his position of leader of the group.

'The Hexlord,' Jess thought.

"Well, it's sort of like a game," Damien explained. "We win if they apologise for their crimes, and they win if we decide to forgive them."

"All of us?" Caine asked.

"I think that's why there had to be an odd number. Majority wins," Damien replied.

"You could have told us," Sammy whined. "I came close to forgiving mine."

"He apologised then?" Caine asked with a sly smile.

"You know he did," Sammy said. "What did you say to him to make him so scared?"

Caine pressed his finger to his nose. "It's a secret."

"So... how come you didn't forgive him?" Damien wanted to know.

"I don't know." Sammy looked out of the window, eyes glazing as he focused on some point in the distance. "I just... went into a... a sort of trance. I knew he wasn't genuinely sorry."

Damien stood abruptly, knocking the books off the bed. He wore a wide, dopey grin as he paced the room. "Yes, it's working. It's the spell. He's guiding us."

"He?" Jess asked.

"Uh... the uh... guy from my dream," Damien muttered.

Jess exchanged worried glances with Sammy and Kiaan. "What guy?"

"He's just a guy I dream about," Damien said.

"Ooo," Caine made a face and laughed, making light of the situation. It didn’t feel light to Jess.

"Okay... you didn't think to tell us any of this before we all gave you our blood?" Jess asked. Something about this new information didn't sit well. The idea of some mystery dream man caused the hairs on her forearm to stand erect. Or maybe it was the draft from the windows.

Jess hugged herself, feeling a chill on the air. She noticed Sammy doing the same.

"In other news, the post I created on Kiaan’s account went viral. He's up to forty-five thousand followers," Caine said, looking down at his screen.

"What?" Kiaan cried. He let out an excited squeal as Caine passed him the phone.

"I only had ninety-five yesterday and most were family," Kiaan said.

"It's thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement," Caine said. "People aren't tolerating racism anymore."

"Good," Jess said, smiling at Kiaan.

"Plus it might be something to do with this striking picture I took," Caine said, scrolling through Kiaan’s page. "People are commenting on your eyes."

"Even people from school are writing on your wall," Caine said. He jumped up off the floor. "Oh, I have a brilliant idea, but I need your computer."

Kiaan nodded. "Okay, we were pretty much done here, right?"

When nobody answered, Damien turned to them, realising all eyes were pointed at his back.

"Oh yeah, sorry guys, I was just looking something up," Damien said, looking over from his bookshelf. "Meeting adjourned."

Jess looked down at her phone and saw she had a couple of missed calls from her older brother Johnny. It was odd for him to speak to her at all, let alone call her.

She frowned, giving the others a distracted goodbye as she called him back.

"Johnny?" she asked when the phone connected.

"Where are you?" Johnny asked, his voice sounding oddly strained.

"At a friend’s house, why?" she replied.

"There's a guy here for you. I can't get rid of him," Johnny told her.

"On my way home," Jess said and hung up.

She tried to swallow away the lump in her throat, but it wouldn't budge.

'It has to be Ricky. Who else would it be?' Jess thought.

The nervous energy flowing through her veins meant it was easy to make the walk in record times. She almost felt as though she was flying, high on fear and anticipation. What did Ricky want? He wasn't seriously going to hold her to her ridiculous promise.

'Have I made a huge mistake?' Jess wondered.

She found him sitting at her kitchen table, feet up and holding one of her Dad's beers. Her brother stood nervously in the corner. As Jess flashed a questioning look he gave her an angry shrug and left her alone with the notoriously cruel bully.

She found herself blushing as he stared at her, lazily swilling the beer bottle and taking a sip.

Tight little curls of white-blonde hair spilled from beneath his cap. He usually shaved them off, but Jess didn't understand why. He had amazing hair. The combination of blonde curls, dark skin and turquoise eyes was stunning when you looked at him objectively. It was only his terrible personality, chavy dress sense and general demeanour that made him seem ugly. Plus the way he spoke like he'd seen the film kidulthood a few too many times.

"I didn't know you knew where I live," Jess muttered. She felt stupid for saying it the moment it left her lips.

"Yeah, I figured," Ricky smirked. "I asked your former mate."

He had to mean Catriona. Catriona Sykes had been her closest friend until the day she decided to spread malicious rumours about her family and turning everyone against her.

"So, what do you want?" Jess asked, feigning ignorance. She knew why he was here.

"You said to call you when I'm in the mood," he said.

...

After a pause, he added, "Well, I'm in the mood."