Chapter 3

My anger was like a wildfire, growing out of control.

I chucked the amulet to the floor with all my might, but it was as good as new. Not even a scratch could be seen.

I grabbed a craft knife and tried stabbing it. I even took a hammer to it, but nothing worked. It would not budge.

My head throbbed like crazy. The more I tried, the worse I felt, like I was suffocating.

Desperate, I tried to torch the amulet, but instead of it burning, I felt like I was the one on fire.

Was I somehow tied to this thing? Was death the only escape from its grip?

I looked closer at the amulet and its weird patterns. They seemed… familiar.

A memory clicked, my previous life. The Mystic had given me stuff with the same patterns before!

I snatched the amulet and bolted outside.

I ran all the way to the underpass, and there he was, the Mystic, acting like he had been expecting me, not even bothering to look up.

He murmured, "Darkness clings to you. You can't shake off that gloomy vibe. Looks like you've got an evil trinket on your hands. It's an amulet, am I right?"

I nodded and showed him the amulet.

He looked grave and pointed at it, "This thing's bad news. It feeds on human blood. Whoever tries to hurt the owner of the amulet ends up hurting the blood donor instead."

He sighed. "Then again, a life's at stake. That's what really counts."

He let out a sigh, brushed the air around me with a handful of willow fluff, and sketched a sigil of protection I could not make heads or tails of, pressing it onto my forehead.

"This amulet's got a deep hold on you. Keep these sigils of protection, tuck them under your pillow, and you'll start feeling like yourself again soon."

The moment he said that, I felt like a weight lifted off me, and the tightness in my chest eased up.

The amulet in his grasp let out a mournful cry and then just fizzled out.

I tried to pay him, but he would not take my money.

Back at the dorm, Joanna barged in with some guy I had never seen before. They were all over each other right off the bat.

I was totally grossed out. "You're always dragging random people back here. Aren't you worried about catching something? Take your guy and beat it!"

She just rolled her eyes and shot back, "They're into me because I'm hot, and they hit me up. Can't say no to that kind of attention."

Then she had to go and rub it in. "Hey, Wren, how come Zack hasn't been around looking for you lately? He's so into you, I bet he doesn't even care about a couple of zits. No biggie, we've got to be the heroines of our own stories."

With that, she and her flavor of the night headed for the bed, and I even caught him muttering under his breath, "Your roommate's face… It's kind of freaky. It's not catching, right?"

I could not stand the thought of them putting on an X-rated show right there, so I bolted to find a hotel to crash at for the night.

I only started to relax after I had dropped off my application to live off-campus.

Then my phone buzzed with a new notification. It was Joanna's latest update on her social feed.

[Just another night of hitting the dance floor and knocking back drinks.]

The photo showed a sea of empty glasses with a bunch of guys lounging around. The comments were already rolling in.

[Totally jealous! How do you party like that every night and not break out or pack on pounds? Meanwhile, your roommate's cooped up and just keeps getting bigger…]

Amidst a sea of comments, she zeroed in on one to respond to.

[Hey, don't talk like that. Girls gotta have confidence. We should all embrace our imperfections. I'm just lucky to have this natural glow, while my roommate's been battling zits every single day.]

[We need to be kinder to her, keep her from feeling so down on herself.]

Her words were dripping with sarcasm, aimed right at me. No matter how much I tried, I could not compete with her flawless complexion.

That message got my blood pumping with anger.

'Without that amulet, I'd love to see how you'd keep up this phony chill vibe!' I seethed silently.

The phone rang off the hook all night long.

It was Joanna. I cut the call and crashed hard.

The next morning, as I was getting my stuff together, I noticed the protection sigil I had stashed under my pillow had vanished.

Joanna looked up, her gaze locking onto me, the mega zit on her chin impossible to miss. It made her look downright spooky.

A look of suspicion crossed her face. "What's the deal with these? You know they're bad mojo, right?"