Dulce Lacrimae

Aniela choked awake to the sound of her phone buzzing. It's 4 in the morning on a Sunday morning, she sat up in her nest of papers. Around her were millions of little pots with soil and inside them were different types of flowers. She located the source of the sound: her phone. She grabbed it and looked at the message. It was from Nadia.

"need a distraction, meet me at our place."

Aniela immediately grabbed her coat and stuffed her phone in it. She looked over her bed covered in pages and cut up papers. She opened her door and went out.

Aniela walked to the cemetery in Nadia's town. She spent all Second year and summer break gathering money and she nearly can afford her own bike. She reached the cemetery and went to the back. There her fifteen-year-old friend leaned against a wall smoking and drinking a red bull. Her mother once told her that energy drinks is the worst thing you can put in your body. She didn't tell Nadia that.

"Aniela! I'm so happy to see you." She went and gave her a hug. "Sorry for dragging you out, I just need to clear my head."

"No problem." Aniela smiled. "What happened?"

Nadia sighed. "Oh, you know, parents.

Dad got a woman pregnant, and now my mom is really angry. They are going to divorce, honestly it was going to happen someday anyway. But they are both stressed as fuck and they put their anger out at me! I didn't fucking ask to be alive! And you should've probably gotten a better reason to marry instead of just fucking." Nadia took an angry drag of her cigarette.

"And now neither of them know who'll take me. They'll probably settle with sharing, but neither of them want me clearly." She sniffled. "And mom is thinking about going back to Slovakia so she could live with her mom. That means I'll be stuck with my dad and his bloody mistress because I don't want to go to Slovakia, and my grandmother hates my guts anyway." She takes a deep sigh. Aniela didn't know how to comfort her, so she awkwardly stood there fiddling her fingers.

"Come on." Nadia suddenly got up.

"Let's walk around for a bit." Aniela nodded and they started by walking back to the road.

They walked down the road for a while.

"Time flies, doesn't it?" Nadia said.

"It's does." Aniela agreed. "Already a month through Third year, and it feels like we met just yesterday."

Nadia chuckled. "It does. But I'm glad we did." She playful smacked Aniela's back.

"You've heard anything from John by the way?"

Aniela shook her head. "Never even got his phone number."

"Oh right, I forgot he's a prick."Nadia rolled her eyes and gripped her phone tightly. "He just stopped talking to me altogether. As if I'm worth nothing." She said through her gritted teeth. "He could've at least given his ghost hunting gear."

Aniela nodded. "But we still have the ouija board."

"That's right. I wonder if Darla liked to try it out with us."Nadia mused at Aniela.

"Yeah! We should." Aniela suddenly beamed. "I'll ask her."

"How is Darla? Ye two are quite close I noticed."

"She's fine. Don't worry, l'm not replacing you." Aniela chuckled.

"You better not! But I think I deserve to be thanked, after all it was my idea to go to that club."

"Ugh, sure." But Aniela was thankful.

She thought back to Darla, how her freckles resembled Van Gogh's Starry Night. Her mother told her that freckles can be the most beautiful thing you can adorn a person's face.

"Hello, Earth to Aniela." Nadia chuckled and nudged her friend.

Suddenly, they both heard voices from ahead. They turn to look forward. The sound seemed to be coming from a field ahead. Nadeja turned to Aniela.

"You want to investigate?" The brown-haired girl nodded.

"Follow my lead."

The two girls crouch down slightly and quietly walked towards the fields.

There they saw the shack. Aniela shivered when she saw it, the last time they were there is when they tried using the ouija board here. Ever since she's been feeling weird. They walked a bit closer and hid behind a bush. They saw three older lads with hoods and sweatpants, crouching over a bag and muttering to each other.

"You think no one will see us here?"

One of them asked.

"Of course not. This spot was recommended to me by Owen. Well hidden, yet easy to run from here."

"Right. Then what you got ginger?" The girls watched as the guys started trading with packets of definitely not drugs. "Who you get the weed from?" The third one muttered with a gravely voice.

"A town at the outskirts of Castlebar has a few fellas that trade the shit. They say it's legit, and I felt high using it so it probably works." The ginger chuckled.

"What if they tattle?"

"As if they'll fucking tattle when they are making bank on it."

"Where do you hide it so no one will find it?" The first guy asked.

"As if I'm telling you where I hide my shit. But i heard that a good spot is under a floorboard, old fashioned. Or put the green under some green energy." The ginger grinned. "Under a solar panel."

The guys nodded.

"Is it true a guy died here years ago?"

The first one asked while looking around the shack cautiously.

"Not a guy, but a girl. It was a shame. I knew her. Was a friend of my friend. Nice girl, fun to be around. At least now we know how much is too much."

"Why do you still go here then?" The third one asked.

"It's still a good spot. And it's nice to visit it occasionally. Even put a flower here if I happen to have one." Nadia started to get bored of their conversation and Anielas legs felt cramped after crouching in the same position. "Let's go back." Nadia whispered to her. Aniela nodded but when going back the way she tripped over a root and fell into a rose bush.

She could almost feel her mother scowling at it. Nadia quickly turned to help her out but the damage was done.

"Hey!" They heard a yell. "Who's there?"

They decided it's better off to start running. But the ginger guy saw them and started running after them.

"Oi! You bitches better get back here!" The girls ran until they got to their spot, they quickly turned and jumped into a ditch. Nadia dragged Aniela so they were both hidden. Spiders crawled on Nadia and the girl nearly shrieked but Aniela covered her mouth. The ginger also made the turn as the girls. He walked up to the back of the cemetery panting like an old dog. He averted his eyes looking for them, but he didn't seem to see the ditch in the dark. He walked up to a bush beside it. Aniela was so close to him, she could smell the stank of weed and sweat on him. But he was too occupied looking through bushes then to look down and see the ditch. "Damn it. I swear when I fucking see them-" He got up and made his way back up to the road. Aniela couldn't believe it.

How did he not see them. After a good five minutes, the girls got out of the ditch. Nadia started patting at her clothes to scare any spiders off her.

"Oh my God, I swear I was so close to ending it all when the fucking spider climbed on to me." Aniela looked at her. She was a bit rattled as she feared on what possibly could be man do to them. But something itched at her mind. "Did you hear what the man said? About now knowing what's too much?"

"Yeah?“

"I think he meant the girl died from a drug overdose."

Nadia's eyes widened. "Oh my God, like the ghost said! The Ouija works!"

"Nadia quiet down."

"Right, sorry."

"How about we just go home. We'll talk about this some other time." Nadia agreed. They started making their way to Nadia's estate, but they decided to go the long way through a field just in case.