Bold Lies

Evelyn is 16. At school, she does
not particularly have a lot of friends. The only so-called friend she has is
Mira. Evelyn guessed the only reason she managed to become her friend was
because of her natural friendliness and people skills. People naturally get
along with Mira. She is popular.

On a school day, Evelyn came home
late. Something weird happened to her today. She felt like a figure have been
wandering in sight peeking on her the whole day.

Evelyn throws herself on her bed
with few minutes to spare until she falls asleep.

"A figure," he says

"what?" Evelyn said,
looking around in the dark woods.

"A figure, you see"
There's the voice again.

"What is going on? Who are
you? Show yourself!"

The woods suddenly became quiet
than ever. She glares around slowly. A break of a twig from behind snapped her.
She turns around but before she could blink, a creature with skin of abyss
sprint right to her at the speed of light. "AAHHH!"

Knocking her down, woke her from
her deep sleep.

Evelyn breathes profusely. Sweat
running down her forehead. It was a dream.

The next day, Evelyn walks to
school again because her father seemed to have an urgent call from the office
so he had to use the car early today.

When she walks down the hallway
at school, she felt a shiver on her shoulders. As she starts to see other students,
she noticed something- uncommon mingling on them. Not just a few students. All
of them. It appears whenever they are talking. What are those?

As she is busy staring at
everyone's shoulder, Mira taps her from the back. It made her jumped.

"hehe..di I startle ya?
Sorry girl" Mira joked. Pulling the friendliest smile. I smiled back.

"welp, I'm headin' off to
class-- you coming?" Mira implied.

Evelyn continues to head to her
locker.

"You go on ahead, I have to
fetch some things here"

"Alright, then, see
ya~" she left.

While Evelyn practically
rummaging her own locker, she realized. 'That's right, that thing did not
appear on Mira..'

'what is exactly is that thi-"

Before she could proceed
monologuing, a scream came out of a distance. Everyone went running towards the
voice. Evelyn decides to look for it herself.

There they see, in a classroom,
blood coming out of Mira's head. Pale. Fainted to the ground. Evelyn
simultaneously ran towards her. Tears almost come running down, freaking out.

Everyone else seemed to be
piercing along with sympathy. But there are other whispers..,

Student 1: "Poor Mira"

Student 2: "Does this mean
she won't be coming to school next time?"

Student 3: "Well at least my
boyfriend won't have to see her anymore"

Student 4: "Finally, the boy
students will focus on me more now that she's gone"

Student 5: "There goes my
chance exploiting her riches"

Student 6: "Hope she
dies-"

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU
PEOPLE?!" Evelyn burst. Heart aching.

"Why are you guys saying
this!?"

The other students froze.

"w-what did we say?"

"But you said-" before
she could continue, the teachers came in to haste Mira to the hospital. The day
went by abnormally as those figures keep on emerging on everyone's shoulder the
whole day. Saying the opposite of what the owner says.

Evelyn walks down an aisle on her
way home. Seeing two women approaching one another. Seeming happy but what they
say isn't as the same as what the figures imply.

Women 1: "Macy, Is that
youu?? It's so good to see youuu, oh my god! (I have to act this way so you
would like me but truthfully I'm actually darn tired)"

Women 2: "Oh my gosh, haii!!
Great to see you too, I missed you! (I don't actually miss you, because I
forgot your name)"

Evelyn turns away and heads home
soon. She buries herself on her bed then remembered the woman's conversation.
" but *truthfully* I'm actually darn tired"

Evelyn turned to face the
ceiling. Concluding.

"Could it be- They say the
truth?" she whispered.

Later drifted to sleep, she woke
up in the middle of the night decided to have a drink. Turns the tap on when
suddenly, she hears a thump on her window. She turned to see, a black huge dog
glaring straight at her.

"come"

Evelyn looks at her drink to see
maybe she had drunk the dish shop again.

"Oh, I'm dreaming again. Of
course!" The dog stays silent. she moves closer to the window

The dog squints its eyes.
"Just come" it insisted again. Evelyn goes ahead went out through the
back door to follow it.

It leads her through the woods
and  in the front of a pretty vintage
house. The door opens and a beautiful lady invited her in.

Thinking that it was all just a
dream, Evelyn didn't hesitate to do as asked.

"That power you have, it was
rightfully mine. Unfortunately, Mason here decided to play fetch with it"
Henna the lady highlighted the word fetch. Eyes sharpening towards Mason. It
whimpers with guilt.

Evelyn looked at the dog. Mason,
the dog. His fur is beautiful. It is as dark as the black hole but shines like
the nebula. If that makes sense.

"Power? You mean those small
creatures that appear behind people's shoulders?" Evelyn broke Henna's
stare towards Mason.

"Oh yes, dearest, that power
which allows you to hear the truth from anyone- or most likely, to detect if
someone is bluffing you."

Evelyn didn't blink. Shook. It
was as she interpreted.

"Unfortunately for me, that
spell is not retractable. Whether I remove it and its gone forever, or..leave
it permanent on the one who wears it." The lady, no, more like a witch,
grins then pouts. Evelyn is nothing but confused.

She pinches herself. Again. And
again.

"Dearest, why are you
pinching yourself?"

"I'm trying to wake up."

"It's not a dream, dearest"

Evelyn's heart dropped. Realizing
what state she's in. " what do you want from me?" she implied.

"well, more of favour I will
do for you. You see, I'm not ThAt kind of witch, I'm a cool one. Unlike
Isabella, she'd already kill you by now just so she can take the spell
back"

Evelyn made no response.

"I am offering that spell,
silly little turd! Aren't I the nicest witch?" she laughed wikedly.
Throwing her hands in the air.

'Did she just called me a turd?'
Evelyn monologued herself.

"But, what if I don't want
it?" she said.

The witch looked at Evelyn almost
in disappointment.

"You can't just undo it, it
took YEARS FOR ME TO MAKE IT-- No, take-backs, no refunds, no.can. do"
Henna pouts and crosses her arms.

"Please henna. I never asked
for this. It's not my fault your dog played fetch with it and hit me. You can
say, I'm the actual victim here!"

Henna clipped her lips. "How
could you not want it anyway? Its a gift"

"It sucks, henna. I want no
business with other people's minds"

"If I say that there is good
can be done from it, would you reconsider?"

"...I guess.."

"Great! I give 24 hours to
do so, dearest!"

Once Evelyn is back home, she
gets ready for bed. Glancing at the clock, 12 o'clock..

Her face crunches but decides to
ignore the fact that all that journey didn't seem to affect the time at all.
She finally goes to sleep.

The next morning, Evelyn gets
ready for another weird day of school. She walks down the stairs in her uniform
just expected to see her parents sitting at the dining table whilst breakfast
with cereal is already served.

“So how did it go with work,
honey? You said something urgent came up yesterday.” Evelyn’s mother asked.

“Oh, umm..yeah my boss needed me
to fax some proposal that morning since his secretary was on her vacation. She
had to come in late and I was the closest to the office” A figure pops from her
father’s shoulder, “(My girlfriend just had a baby yesterday, had to dash to
the hospital)”.

Evelyn choked on her own milky
cereal. Coughing. Her parents gave a second strange look.

“Chew slower Ev” The mother
advice. She then continued arranging a lunch bag for her daughter.

Evelyn's hands starts shaking.
Her mother interrupted. “Well, today I’m going out for a little while with some
friends. Could you pick up Ev after school, hon? (Truthfully, I have to go to
the hospital for an abortion before your father knows it's not his. It has been
3 weeks.)”

Her mother too lied. Evelyn
rushes to leave the house immediately. She couldn’t bare it anymore. Her whole
life has basically been a lie.

Evelyn already has the urge to go
back to that forest and remove the spell but she had to suffer another 24 hours
of this misery.

Once school ended. She picked up
her stuff to run back home and wait another half the day in her room to pass
by. Wishing not to engage with anybody for that time being. At the main gate,
she stopped running after hearing the name Mira coming out of someone’s voice.

Student 1: “you know the drill
tomorrow right? We’re gonna visit Mira and give her some..flowers. (The plan I
made just for Mira. To finish what we started)”

Student 2: “Yeah after school
right? Of, course. She deserves it. I’ll meet you at the hospital (Killing her
is for the best. I don’t want the police catching me after what I did to her.
If she wakes up, my life screwed)”

‘Someone is trying to kill her’
Evelyn thought. She proceeds to go home.

‘If I say that it is good can be
done from it, would you reconsider’ remembering those words, she can’t deny it.
It does have some good in it.

That night, Mason came to assist
Evelyn like before. Evelyn refused to come for the spell’s removal.

The next morning, she managed to
convince the teachers about the cruel plot. Police officers were involved, and
Mira was safe.