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No Funny Business!

Lake? No...this was a fucking swamp.

I had waded through the entire nasty thing in the dark fog.It wasn't that deep at all.It was more disgusting then anything.

The first thing I saw as I got to the other side of the lake was a school of gravestones. If curiosity killed the cat, then I was one dead pussy.

There was a cold cold breeze that was sweeping through the air.The fog had become so intense that I couldn't see the other side where Jules and Monte were. They had been calling out for me to come back but their voices had been droned out.

Then there was the cottage.

It was a black, creepy thing. My heart was skipping a couple beats. I was never scared of horror movies. I always thought they had the corniest actors. Halloween had always just been the day when kids got kidnapped from neglecting ass parents. I was never a `scared person'.

Yet as I walked to the dark cottage, my hands sweat even in the cold air.

I felt my heart through my chest as I turned the knob.

"Hello!" I called into the house, "I'm trespassing, don't shoot me!"
The house creaked a little as though finding it funny. There was silence for a minute and I didn't want to walk in but my body...it seemed like it was no longer in my control. I found myself walking into the house, closing the door behind me.

I walked through the hall as though I've lived their my entire life. My mind began to panic but my body was...calm.

I found myself walking into a lit room.

It was the only clean room in the house. The carpet was red and there was a slow song playing in the background.There were golden trinkets lining up on top of a fireplace. And there were pictures.They were pictures of a beautiful ebony young woman...with dark hair falling down to her lower torso.She had the same dark, almost mystifying expression in all her pictures. And then there was only one picture, on the very end of the mantle there a picture of the woman and a girl...a toddler.

There was something so...familiar about this toddler. It was scary how familiar. Who was this little girl and why did I have such a connection to her?

"I've been expecting you," a voice stated in a heavy Creole accent.

A woman crept into the room. She was a middle aged woman but moved as though she was very old. There was darkness in her eyes. It was hard to explain in words. I hate how that happens. When you see something and its as though a word hasn't been made up for it yet.Well...if I could explain her eyes...it would be as though she'd lost her soul.

"Madame Tini?" I ask.

She sits in the chair opposite mine, "Yes and you are Syn.My Syn..."

"Excuse me."

She crosses her arms, "No need to explain now...you'll learn in time.You've heard me calling you, haven't you?"

"What?"

"I've been calling you for a long time. The fates have blessed you to be brought to me. Even when you were in Brunswick...I was calling you. Remember the dreams of water...the dreams of rain...it was me..."

She was scaring me. I didn't want to show it though. I sighed loudly and laughed a little as though amused by her. How did she know my name? How did she know where I was from? Was it possible she had snuck across the lake and spied on me? No...how could she have known about my dreams.Was it my old psychiatrist Dr. Lopez?Was she telling people my business?

"Listen, I don't get into old ladies...um...just not my type," I stated.

She looked over at me and rolled her eyes, "Silence. It's amusing...you don't even know who I am or how wrong your little was..."

"Should I know you?"

"In time chile...but right now tings get cloudy," she said and smiled at me, "I need you. This family called the Barons. You know of them?"

"Yes..."

"They come and they take and take. Perhaps they felt like they were better then me. I studied the old ways while they grew with there books and modern knowledge.They felt like they were stronger.They felt like they had more right to life than I."

Her voice shook as she told me about her relationship with the family.

It was almost like she couldn't control it much longer.

"What old ways?"

She smiled and looked at me, "People don't believe anymore.The craft.When love is taken away, all I have is the craft. You know what I mean.Just like you know what it means to lose love."

"Yes I do."

I turned around thinking. The flood. The flood that took Sampson away from me was still in my memory.I didn't know if he had died in that flood but a part of me was assuming the worst. So many had died due to that hurricane. Most of the bodies were washed away. There were people like me...many like me who didn't know if their loved ones were still alive or not.

"What if I told you he didn't survive?" she asked me.

"No!"

All of a sudden I broke out in tears. I couldn't take that. Where the fuck was strong Syn? Hadn't I protected myself against this just in case it came true? I was sure I built up a wall of defense for my emotions.

That wall was broken down.

"The craft is a strange thing," she told me.

"I don't know or give a fuck about this craft! I have to get the fuck out of here!"
I tried to stand up...but I couldn't. My body remained on the floor and I was unable to be removed. Tears were still falling down my face. They were falling so quick and fast that I couldn't wipe them off.They were...burning.

I put my hands up to catch the tears. They were...red?They were thick...blood!I was crying fucking blood!

"What the fuck! What the fuck are you doing to me!" I shouted at the old lady.

She smirked and began to sway in her rocking chair, "It isn't me. It is the craft."

She was serious. The crazy old bitch was serious. I had blood on my hands and tried to run up to her. I was going to threaten her. I was going to hold her down...but I couldn't. As I ran to her, my legs gave out and I fell, right in front of her.What was going on with my body?What the fuck was this lady doing to me?

"I wouldn't that if I were you...or if I were you and wanted to see Sampson again?"

She knew his name. She knew everything.How could I fight something like this?I felt so powerless for the first time.

"You said he was dead."
"I asked you what if he were," she explained and shook her head, "It all depends on the craft in the end..."

"What is the craft?"

"It's been called many things. Voodoo...black magic...but it's a study. It's a study just like you have in Baron's school. This is my school. And Baron was afraid of the lessons I taught. The craft is everything...the craft is the fog...the lake...the craft is this town."

"I don't know who you are. I am not doubting it. But neither Sampson and I have nothing to do with your beef with the Barons. If you do something to him..."

"You and I are the same," she explained to me, "We are so similar. We are slaves to passion. I can see me in your eyes.Don't you feel our connection?I will bring Sampson here to see you.If you do something for me. If you disagree...you'll never see him again."

"Blackmailing me?"

"No...it's a choice."
"What do I have to do?"

"They took from me everything I owned. You know why they call this city Tini Lake.The lake is mine."

"All this for the title on the lake."
"No...they took from me something I cannot get back. They took my daughter. They seduced her with their technology, brought her across the lake. They married her and in the end they killed her."
"They killed her!?"
"They called it an `accident'. If they never would have took her away from the lake, she never would have died.Now it's alright.Now I will get my revenge.I'll bring you Sampson...but you'll help me get revenge against the family...that hate-filled family."

"How?"

"You'll know when the time is right. It'll just happen. The craft works through fate."

"Why me? Why me?"

"Look at yourself...that is the reason."

I looked at myself. I was covered in blood. I didn't get it.I didn't understand. Suddenly I got up off the floor and started to walk away. I didn't want to walk away. I was being forced to. She was controlling me again.Somehow she was controlling me and then I got a glimpse of it. It was...it was a doll. She had a fucking doll in her hand underneath the comforter that was in her lap. Was she using that to control me?
"Wait no!I have blood on me. Blood.What does blood have to do with it?

"Everything."

I didn't remember how I crossed back across her swamp of a lake.All I remember was being on the dirt...feeling the soil beneath me. The fog was still covering me and my body felt limp as though I'd been holding myself up from a tree for a long time.

"Syn!"

The voice came from the side of me. I barely could turn my head to see Jules standing there. He helped me up. Monte came running a few seconds later. He was wet...I wonder if he had went into the lake after me.

"What the hell happened to you?" Jules asked as soon as he got me up and put me up on a tree, "You have blood on your shirt. Where the hell is this blood coming from?Damn...Syn...we should probably call someone."
"She's crazy...she's fucking crazy."

Monte was laughing all of a sudden! Laughing. What the fuck was so funny? I looked at Jules for explanation.He looked as confused as I was.

"You really look scared," Monte stated.

"Hell yea I'm scared, what the hell is wrong with you?She is ... she's real.All the stories you probably heard were real. She has a grudge against the Barons. She has a grudge against their whole fucking school. She...she controlled my fucking body. I need a fucking shrink. God...you guys have a shrink?"

Monte found this even funnier, "Syn you're a hoot.You know that?"

I gave him this look, "You think I'm joking. What the fuck is wrong with you Monte? Do I look like a HBO comedy special to you?"

"So you mean to tell me there is an old witch on the other side of that lake?" he explained and laughed, "And she put a spell on you.Syn, you joke around all the time. Are you ever serious?"

He found this shit hilarious. He was telling me this with the biggest grin on his face.I was so irritated.How the hell did he think I was joking.

"You are the dumbest nerd ever. Who gave you permission to live?" I snapped.

He found this shit even funnier. How annoying was this? Someone who refused to be offended? And I was the KING of being offensive.

Jules seemed to notice that I was annoyed, "Hey, Monte, go check if the gatekeeper is walking around. We have to sneak back in."

"Aw...but Syn was just getting funny."

I was about to open my mouth again when Jules continued, "Go, please..."

As he walked away Jules gave me this serious look. He wasn't amused at all. He looked a little scared if anything. I could see his chest rising and falling.

"What is the grudge about that she told you?"

I shrugged my shoulders to his question, "Something about Baron.When he built the school.He took her daughter and her lake.She wants revenge."

"How?"

"I don't know. Um...she, uh...wants me to help her...get revenge. She knew things.God, things she couldn't possibly know about me. She said we have some type of connection."

"Fuck...we are fucked, we are fucking fucked!" he said, "This school is going straight to hell."

My mouth hung open and I shook my head in disbelief.What the hell was wrong with these people? One of them thought I was joking and the other one thought I was serious. I knew what I was. I was fucking looney.

I shook my head, "I need a shrink. I need her to prescribe me a pill and I need a hit of Bacardi.That's it."

"Syn, you aren't crazy...that lake.It's weird. It scares me. I always thought it was her really behind this fog. You aren't crazy."
"No, yes I am and you are too!" I told him, "I'm grown. So are you. We don't believe in voodoo and shit like that..."

He shook his head and hugged himself as though trying to stop the shivers coming up his body, "Well sometimes shit like that believes in you."

"You aren't the shrink. I need a shrink."

It was the next morning. I had barely slept the night before. I kept thinking about Tini. I started to complain and before I knew it Ms. Trials had taken me to a room and promised to get me some sort of help. I told her I refused to go to class until I got it. I needed it too. Thoughts of Madame Tini kept rolling in my mind.This couldn't be healthy.

The room was small and smelled like old people just like the entire school did.Some teacher walked in the room.He was escorted by Ms. Trials.I had seen the teacher.This asshole looked familiar.I had probably seen him on the field with a bunch of students. Was this the gym teacher? The really must have wanted me to go the hell off!

"Mr. Kong has a masters in psychology."

"He has on sweats! He's a gym teacher!"

"No...he doesn't teach gym, Syn...he teaches our Ethics program."

"You have a guy in gym sweats teaching your Ethics program.

She seemed to be getting upset with going back and forth with me, "You woke everyone up at 5 o'clock in the morning running through the corridors screaming, and I quote, `I'll turn the school into a fucked up version of Shining' if I don't get help in two minutes'.We figured it was an emergency."
"It is!" I stated, forcing a tremendously upset expression, "But is he a shrink?"

"No but he is familiar with psychology."

Familiar? I needed professionals and she was talking about familiar.

I got up out of the seat, "Well I need a shrink. I'm crazy! You don't believe me. AHH!! I can scream all day.I can bounce off walls.I'm going to act like Boy, Interrupted in this bitch until you guys give me a REAL shrink.Someone who can prescribe me REAL pills!Not some washed up gym teacher who probably studied psychology to find out how to get a date!"

I could see the gym teacher grimace and bite his lip.He looked like he was going to break already! I could tell he wasn't a real shrink. I heard Ms. Trials whisper something to him. His face regained it's composure after she said what she said.

"Why we whispering? What the hell is this?"

"Listen, Syn...this is the best we can do for you at the time being. Lake Tini is kind of far from the nearest town and it isn't in our best financial interest to pay a psychiatrist if this isn't...real."

"Isn't real? What the hell?You say all that just to tell me this schools broke! You guys are broke! I can't believe I was sent to a damn BUDGET BOARDING school!"

"Dear god," the gym teacher stated as though he wasn't just surprised but he was `flabbergasted' in a real uppity type of way.

"What if I threaten to blow the school up? Isn't it written somewhere that you'll HAVE to pay for help then?Cause I will. I'll send this school to Smithereens..."

"STOP!" Ms. Trials said, as though about to reach her breaking point.

She stood there for a moment, gathering her composure.The gym teacher took a deep breath.It was obvious I was getting to them.

"Oh...scary...maybe we can share a shrink," I told her, "Is there something you want to talk about? Your childhood..."

"Look Syn, that's enough. Either you talk to him or you don't talk to anyone at all," she stated and made her way to the door before turning to the gym teacher, "Mr. Kong...Principle Baron will be in soon to see what your recommendation for this student is."

She walked out leaving just him and me. I could just look at this weak little thing and tell that he was intimidated by me. I had a long, long list of shrinks and it was just so obvious that he wasn't one. I jerked my body a little bit and watched him jump. I sneered at him. He definitely didn't know how to handle someone like me.

He opened up a folder and placed it on the table. I leaned in to see what it was but he pulled it away.I huffed heavily and laid back in my chair, putting my feet up on the table and giving him a real dirty look. I hate PEOPLE!

"So here are some notes from past...uh...professionals that were sent in your student file. Says here there are a lot of things that you are facing...you're parents died disastrously..."

"You make it sound like Armageddon. They were in a car accident...shit happens..."

"You are a bit of a narcissist..."

"Isn't everyone?"

"No...Syn, everyone isn't. You've been through a lot however I can tell from this.Attempts at your life by a young girl named Mercedes..."

"Now that is understated! Her name is Trash! And she may be of 5 feet but her brothers look like the cast of 300. It was devastating."

He gave me this weird look. It was almost as soon as I said that Trash was under 5 feet tall. Everyone had that look. They didn't understand how close the bitch had actually come to killing me.

"I bet it was dramatic. Hum...I see her she was responsible for the death of your best friend..."

"Damn...that's in there too?"

"Yes," he continued, "There is expansive information in here.Love triangles...murder...crime..."

I shrug, "What can I say? I am a walking soap opera."

"Hm...what about this last thing in here?The impact of the hurricane on you seemed to be the last detail. You lost yet another loved one, didn't you."

He had struck a cord. I don't even know if he knew. I tried not to show it, but my eyes did wander away from staring into him for a second.Suddenly I was realizing that he was right. I had a pattern of losing people...I had a pattern of losing everyone that I loved.

"Look...coach..." I state, "I didn't come here to talk about that.I was crying blood.Let's talk about that.I am seeing witches and shit and you want to talk about the flood? What kind of shrink are you!"

"Syn, let's talk this over.

"Are you or aren't you going to give me a pill to make me forget about the witch? That's all I need."

I repeated the question multiple times as he barraged me with all these nonchalant questions. This guy had no idea what he was doing.How hard is it to get a good shrink in this world? You would think I was asking to take the place of Obama in the White House or something. I just wanted a damn shrink for god sakes!

Before I knew it Baron walked in the room. The old fat ass just slugged his way into the room. He had on this mean look on his face. It wasn't hard to tell why he and the old witch disagreed.They both seemed like very disagreeable people. Baron looked over at me and sighed.

"You again?" he asked.

"Oh...you'll get real familiar with me. We are going to be like best friends.Especially if I don't get any pills."
"Dramatic, aren't you. Let me see the folder," Baron demanded the gym teacher and didn't wait to grab the folder up himself, "I'll show you how to deal with delinquents."

"Delinquents?"

"Hm...homosexual...figures..." Baron stated looking through my folder.

"Figures what?"

I was going to go crazy. I knew I was. Baron was just blowing me off. Those shrinks were just spreading around my business like it was a fucking blog! Baron just kept looking through my folder.He thought he was so powerful because he had this school. He had all these people that sucked up to him. Not me though. This school nor Baron meant a fucking thing to me.

"It can't be..." he stated suddenly.

He looked hard at me. He looked really hard. It was surprising.He was looking into my eyes with this dreadful stare as though he was reliving something from in his past.He just kept looking at me with this creepy look. I didn't get it.

"What? Listen homie. I may be gay...but you're way too old. So, no funny business!"

"Hm...I knew you're parents..."

"What?"

"I knew your parents," he stated and looked over at me, "I knew both of them.Strange..."
"What do you mean you knew them?Knew what about them?How did you meet them?"

"You don't know much about the past of your parents do you?"

"No..."

They never talked about it. I never really conversed with my parents at all. It was almost like I wasn't related to them even when I shared the same house as them.I was always so disconnected from them.

Baron turned to the gym teacher, "Call the city. Have them send a psychiatrist out here."
The gym teacher looked at him as though he had two heads, "Sir, the city is 2 hours away.It'll cost a lot to have a psychiatrist drive all the way out here."

"I didn't ask for your opinion," he told the gym teacher.

I raised my eyebrow. That was rude.I watched as Baron gave me another hard look. It was a very hard look but then he walked away without saying a word.

What the hell was he talking about?

Where did he meet my parents?

Why was he giving me that weird look?

I walked out of the room and started to return to class.I was surprised when I saw that no one was in the class. I felt like that was good. Shit,I wanted to go rest.I needed rest after this busy ass day.The weird shit that had gone one yesterday and then Baron acting all weird was too much.

I walked back towards my room. I knew the sophomore students would be in the lower corridor by now.I'd seen them in there before, but they weren't there either. Maybe they had called the day off or something. They should have been going on a damn witch hunt across that lake if they were smart.

That was when I heard footsteps...quick running towards me.

I turned around fast and to my surprise I saw Ty...

"Hurry," he said, "I think something's happened...I'm not sure.You have to see for yourself."

He grabbed me by my hand. That was another thing about Ty. He was never too masculine to hold my hand.I jogged behind him but he was running.It definitely seemed like something had happened.

As we got to the front of the building I started understanding where all the students had gone. They were all near the front of the school standing around gossiping and talking in low voices.

Ty had to push me past a couple people, squirming past the ugly ass uniforms and outside to the front gate.

"I found him this morning," Ty explained as we walked down to the front gate where the heavy fog from the lake seemed to have spread, "I had forgotten my phone near the lake last night.That was when I saw him.He came from towards the lake.He was naked and wet.He was covered with twigs and dirt.It was almost like he came out of the lake itself. He just walked up to the school and he his name...then he said yours."

That was when I saw him.

He was wrapped in a towel with a cup of coffee on his hand. I had no doubt he was naked under the towel. He looked up at me.

I uttered his name, "Sampson..."