Category : Stories

Sub Category : YoungAdult

Kunda, Ubu, Edgard, and Yuka stood at the festival entrance. Night had fallen and the four of them had decided to wait for the wife of the deceased principal. Ubu didn’t understand what the big deal was for everyone else. She found it angering to stand around and wait for a woman.

Esther is going to kill me, she thought to herself. She was worried she would be walking into her death when she got back home. They hadn’t spoken or seen one another in several days.

“She’s coming.” Kunda pointed to a brunette haired elderly woman wearing a bright red dress, red pumps and lipstick to bring the attire together. “That’s Mrs. Radavo. She was the one doing some weird things at the memorial.”

“That’s the wife?” Edgard and Yuka examined the woman from a distance. They watched as she nodded politely and had a few short conversations.

“No, no. The wife is Mrs. Goode. I think they knew one another but they didn’t speak.”

“How would they know one another then?” Ubu’s attitude bit like a snake in Kunda’s ear. Though she, too, watched the woman in red.

“She seemed to be doing a ritual and not just speaking on the principal’s behalf.” Kunda looked back at her friend. “Are you angry with me?”

“Why would I be? You three have us here, stalking some crazy old ladies who probably are minding their own damn business.”

Yuka turned around, leaving Edgard to watch the woman closer on his own. “You, Ubuntu, need to start believing. Things are not as they seem to the human mind.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are stupid enough to believe in souls, too, right? Stupid enough to believe that any person’s soul can leave their body. That nothing is as it seems and everything is energy to be controlled by us humans if we believe in ourselves.”

Yuka stared up at the young woman. She seemed unphased and unhappy while Kunda finally hears the truth in what her best friend thought of her.


“Is that what you think of me and my truth, Ubu?”

Ubu looked toward her friend. “I’ve tried to understand you and your beliefs. But it makes no sense to me.”

“So you call it stupid and call people like me the same?”

Edgard interjected before the conversation could continue. “Ubuntu. Do you know what your name means?”

She stared at him and didn’t respond. She blamed him for everything that was happening. “If you don’t,” he continued, “you should learn more about yourself before you call people and their beliefs ‘stupid’ or any other name. We’re trying to help your friend become whole again and you want to tear her down.”

“Not a single one of you have told me what we’re doing. You just dropped a fucking child on my doorstep and left me there. I thought you were her father trying to avoid taking care of her. Then I find out she’s more than capable of talking and she chooses not to because I’m not who she wants to speak with.”

“You’re right, it’s unfair. But believe me, the less you know, the better.”

“Then why the hell are you making me come with you? I told you hours ago I can just go home.”

“Because of who you know you are not safe.”

“The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you should watch yourself, Ubuntu.” The foreign voice caught Ubu off-guard and she turned around quickly. “Hello.”

Before her stood the woman in red, but this time she wasn’t an elderly woman. “W-”

“Sh-sh…” The woman smiled wide and Ubu looked back to see the others. Unfortunately, they weren’t there anymore. “Sometimes, things are not as they seem.”

Kunda’s view…

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” Ubu’s anger was rising, but Kunda saw what the others didn’t see coming. She watched her best friend drop to the ground. Her body no longer full of life and Edgard was the unfortunate one to be spattered with the blood from the young woman’s back, insides, and chest.

Kunda screamed at the top of her lungs as she watched the profile of her friend’s abdomen become chunks on the young man. Yuka stared at the end of a shotgun barrel unphased.

“Hey Edgard?”

Edgard looked over. “I know, I know.” They both sighed and Edgard watched as the child-like adult was turned into bits and pieces. He didn’t flinch. Instead, he looked the shooter directly in his face. “This is the fifteenth time we’re doing this. I’m so done coming back here.”

The shooter raised a brow in confusion and shot Edgard in the chest. His Eye catching Kunda and without a thought he pulled the final trigger.

Her vision turned white and in a blink of an eye she sitting nude in the snow. The cold hit her immediately and she stood up, confusion running through her mind as she quickly started calling out for help. She called for Ubu.

“Ubuntu!” She looked around, the cold freezing her form in a literal sense. Ahead of her was a lit small building. Getting inside was her goal, beating the oncoming storm was a must. Clouds rolled in toward her and she had no plans of getting stuck.

Through the frigid cold, Kunda pushed through the two feet of snow. Though she was freezing, she didn’t feel any real harm. As if she were already covered and was only getting hit with wind.

Almost there...