“She’s just a wee girl! How can you be sure she’s a banshee?” a short, pudgy woman declared as she waved her hands in the air. This was Cathrine, Shelbie’s aunt.
“Oi, Cathrine, my girl is a banshee just like her great-grandmother! Just look at her!” Shelbie’s mother shouted in response. She looked identical to Cathrine, but slightly taller. “She looks just like her, the vibrant hair, the eyes. That’s Grandma Vie in her!” She gestured wildly in her daughter's direction.
Shelbie stood there, awkwardly tugging on her dazzling bright orange ponytail. Her eyes wandered to the mirror hanging from the wall, and her aqua blue eyes met her own. She took them in for a moment, her mind wandering to her sparse memories of her Grandma Vie, before her attention was once again drawn to her mother and aunt.
“Helen, get yer head out of yer arse! Some fairy lady and Death!? That’s hardly tea and crackers!” Cathrine grabbed the cookie and threw it in the sink. Helen gasped at her, and they started smacking at each other. Shelbie stood back and observed.
“Looks like mum’s gotten herself into a fight again.” Shelbie’s father mumbled. He pressed his thin lips together, making them all but disappear. Absentmindedly, he rubbed a tanned hand against the stubble on his chin, his tired green eyes taking in the scene before him. He let out a sigh as he wiped a few beads of sweat off his wrinkled brow, then turned to look at Shelbie. “What do you want to do?”
Shelbie sat on the question and thought to herself. They directly contacted her. They didn’t say much besides wanting to meet her, but she told her family that it happened. There was nothing special about her. The only thing to make her special was the vision she had when she was six. A vision that never came true. When she told her mum she was set on the idea that banshees came back to their family, but she never had a vision again.
“Why me? I’m not sure that I’m even a banshee,” she said quietly. Both her aunt and her mom heard her, and their fight came to an end as they turned to look at the girl.
“Of course you are, sweetie! You had a vision!” Helen exclaimed proudly.
“That never came true!” Cathrine yelled back.
“Auntie has a point, mum.” Shelbie pointed out. Helen stared daggers at her husband whose face went pale.
“You don’t know that. You never know what it could have been.” He stuttered nervously. Shelbie glared at him and he looked away.
“I don’t want to remember the vision. I can always say no, but I do have questions that maybe they could answer.” Shelbie stated quietly. This time no one responded. Shelbie felt satisfied. The conflict had come to an end. “I am going to go upstairs. To let them know.” She quickly ran out of the room before anyone could respond. She didn’t want to take any longer than she already had. She opened the door to the room and when she turned around she was met by complete darkness. Shelbie never felt so cold. She began to shudder.
“You might want to use your human form.” Lorelei sighed. She was sitting on Shelbie’s bed, reading a book of folklore as she waited. The darkness was swallowed up into a human woman, Death. Shelbie didn’t move, just stared at the two strange women in her room. “Oh!” Lorelei exclaimed and then chuckled. “I always forget. You humans… anyway, I am Lorelei,” she pointed to herself, then to Death, “This is Death.” She placed her hands in her lap, “You’re called?” Lorelei smiled sweetly at Shelbie. Shelbie opened her mouth, but no words came out. Death and Lorelei stared at her as they waited for some type of response.
“We don’t have much time, so we needed to meet quickly.” Death explained. Shelbie pulled out her desk chair and sat down.
Lorelei continued to flip through the book on Shelbie’s bed. “What vision did you have as a child?” Lorelei asked abruptly.
Death swiftly turned on Lorelei, glaring at her. “Lorelei!” Death almost hissed. Lorelei shrugged in response, and Death turned back to Shelbie. “Did you scream?” Death asked quietly.
“Mum said it was more of a howl.” Shelbie replied, “But yeah… It woke up everyone in the town. It took mum weeks to convince people it was a pack of wolves.”
“How old were you?” Lorelei asked. She had stopped flipping pages once Shelbie started to speak.
“Uh, eight,” Shelbie replied.
Lorelei shifted on the bed, and she looked at Shelbie, concerned. She reached out as if to put a hand on Shelbie’s shoulder, but thought better of it, and put it back down on her lap. “Eight years old?” Lorelei whispered, “H-how, did you recover?”
“Years of therapy…” Shelbie laughed uncomfortably. “The nightmares lasted a lot longer.”
“Do you remember it?” Lorelei asked, her voice hollow. Shelbie nodded slowly, a single tear slid down her cheek. “Can you tell us? You don’t have to if you can’t.” Lorelei said softly.
Shelbie looked between Lorelei and Death a few times. She fidgeted with her hands in her lap. “I’m not sure if it will make sense… It was just flashes of images.” Shelbie explained.
“There are many spells that can be cast to bring out memories, even the names of the people in the vision.” Death started, “but I doubt you are in the physical or magical shape to go through them… Your magic is weak. For now, what you remember is enough.”
Shelbie’s breathing became rough. She looked down at her hands and fidgeted with her fingers. “I uhm-” she breathed in heavily and closed her eyes. “Dublin, Belfast… C-cork…” Shelbie gasped, “Derry.” She let go and opened her eyes, tears ran down her face. Lorelei and Death got up and knelt before her. “I saw flashes of purple, blood, grass. The day was… beautiful, but I could feel so much death. There was a young girl. She was covered in blood. I heard growls and screams. I smelled iron and blood. But that’s all.” Lorelei shifted uncomfortably. She and Death looked at each other with concern. Shelbie saw the look and questioned. “What is it?”
“There was an incident at a compound a few days ago.” Lorelei told her quietly, “Everyone died. It was a compound that had all types of supernatural creatures and humans living together. In harmony.”
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Shelbie was silent for a moment before she spoke again. “It came true?” She asked, almost in a whisper. Lorelei and Death both nodded, and tears began to roll down her cheeks. She covered her face with her hands and wept. Her body trembled, and she leaned over into her lap. She gasped for air in between sobs. Lorelei bit the inside of her cheek. She moved closer to Shelbie and placed her hands on Shelbie’s head. Shelbie stopped shaking, and Lorelei muttered a few words under her breath. A green-purple light shined brightly through her hands. Lorelei hummed softly as Shelbie calmed down, her sobs subsiding. Shelbie looked up as Lorelei pulled her hands away. “What was that?”
“A spell… it helps calm the mind.” Lorelei said as she gently wiped the tears from Shelbie’s face. Lorelei sat back on the bed, and for a moment silence drowned the room.
“I am going to assume you’ve been asking yourself why we picked your family. A family line that is known to have no recent banshees. One that integrated itself with humans and all but disappeared.” Death said as she stood up and started to pace the room. Shelbie nodded. “We need a banshee that is strong.”
“We are starting a school, where all Life and Death creatures can coexist. Learn not to fight. We truly believe you would be the perfect fit. Your age, your family line,” Lorelei eyed Death, “And because of your vision. It was a vision no other banshee would have been able to see so far into the future. Banshee’s visions are warnings. These events are usually carried out within hours of the warning being sounded. Your magic may be faint, but it’s there, and it’s different. With the right training, you could be extremely renowned.” Lorelei gazed at Shelbie hopefully, but Shelbie just stared back, unsure. “But I understand if you want to continue this life. That is your choice, and we cannot, by any means, take you from it.” Shelbie looked away from them. She stared at her photos of her friends and family.
“Can I ever come back?” she asked shakily. “To see my family?”
Lorelei looked confused for a moment before she responded, “Well, of course. It would be absurd to keep you from them.”
“It might not be, but to each their own.” Death sighed. Shelbie sat in silence for a moment. She looked over the photos of her parents. Her mom’s excitement that she actually was a banshee would be shattered the moment she told her that she’d have to leave. Her father’s supportive attitude would flip towards paranoia and disdain.
“Will I be safe there?” asked Shelbie, “My parents will want to know. I can’t,” Shelbie looked back up at Lorelei and Death, determination on her face. “I can’t make a decision without them.” Lorelei and Death looked at each other confused. Shelbie sighed and stood up. She grabbed Lorelei and Death by the arm and dragged them downstairs with her. She’s met with bewildered looks from her aunt, mother, and father.
“I didn’t agree to this.” Death stated flatly to Shelbie’s parents. Her Aunt turned a sickly pale color before she screamed and ran out of the house in fear.
“Lorelei and Death are starting a school to educate, um, supernatural creatures.” Shelbie grinned at her parents. They both stared at Lorelei and Death with mortified looks on their faces.
“C-creatures? As in there’s… there’s more?” Helen asked. Her gaze shifted back and forth between Lorelei and Death. They both nod in unison.
“What are you educating them on?” Her father asked hesitantly.
“The coexistence of all supernatural creatures. They will also learn how to use and control their magic and be schooled about the history of well, the entire universe.” Lorelei talked smoothly. She gracefully wandered around the kitchen. She examined the mundane things she found there. She leaned in close as she stared at their espresso maker, and inhaled the smell of coffee. She put her finger to her lips. Shelbie’s parents watched her carefully. “Shelbie would be the youngest of the bunch, but her advantage is her intellect.” Lorelei turned to them, her hands behind her back, “We are aware of how smart she is.”
“How?” Helen asked.
“We have our ways.” Lorelei hummed, “Your town is a hub for the supernatural.”
“And what does that mean?” Helen asked again. She threw her towel on the counter, “Are we the only normal ones here?”
“To be completely honest, we aren’t the weird ones here.” Death stated calmly. Lorelei glared at Death, and Shelbie rubbed her temples in annoyance.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have said that,” Shelbie whispered.
“Look here, missy.” Helen snapped. She pointed her finger in Death’s face. Death’s eyes narrowed at it. “You can’t come in here, a vision of Death, and tell us that we’re weird! Our entire lives, we didn’t think there was anything else in this world besides banshees, witches, and humans! You can’t just walk in here and expect us to fill in the blanks. Explain to us what’s going on!” Helen huffed, her cheeks red but her eyes fierce. “We had half a mind to rip up your letter when we found it in the box, but we thought that even if there was a smidge of a chance that you could help our Shelbie here, we’d take it. You are the one needing to do us a courtesy now.”
Death opened her mouth to respond, but after Lorelei took one look at her face she stepped in between Helen and Death. “If your family reported this sooner, gone through the right channels, she would have been taught to deal with the vision properly instead of going through her young life in physical and mental pain.” Lorelei stepped forward toward Helen and Helen took a step back, “Your daughter was considerate enough to let her parents make this decision, something I can respect. But if you are unwilling to see the world for what it truly is then we cannot help your daughter.” Helen eyed Lorelei carefully. “And that will be so unfortunate.”
“Channels? What do you mean, the right channels?” Helen snapped, her face a bright red. “We did what we could. We had that banshee lass here for what seemed like years. Nightmares, they said. Didn’t mean anything, she told us.”
“Oh.” Lorelei stuttered out. “I didn’t know.”
Helen sighed heavily. She walked behind Lorelei to grab a bottle of whiskey from her cupboard and four glasses. She poured out each one, downed a glass herself, and refilled it. “Now you do.” She stood there for a moment before she asked. “What are the terms like?” Helen asked as she turned to look at them both again.
“I don’t quite understand.” Lorelei laughed uncomfortably.
Shelbie sighed, annoyed. “Human schools run in terms or semesters. Summers are usually free and, of course, the major holidays.” Shelbie explained. “It’d be nice to have a schedule that runs normally for me, and maybe any other types of students like me.” Lorelei and Death looked at each other.
“Actually, there is only one other like you. But the rest of the students… They’re special cases.” Lorelei said carefully.
“So, there will be someone else in Shelbie’s situation?” her father asked. Death nodded.
“Lorelei and I, with a group of teachers, will oversee all the students. No harm will come to any student under my watch.” Death said with a stern voice. She locked eyes with Shelbie. There was silence between them.
“Well, when does it start?” Helen asked, looking at Death.
“We are hoping within the end of the month,” Lorelei responded.
“We are still bringing all the pieces of the puzzle together.” Death mumbled.
“Can I be totally honest with you two?” Shelbie asked. They looked at each other, then back at her, “I didn’t realize there was more.” Both of them raised an eyebrow as she spoke. “I mean,” She stared at Lorelei. “I didn’t realize fairies were real. Y-you don’t really look like what I thought they would look like, but you also don’t look human. I kind of thought they were wee looking flying things.” Shelbie pinched her fingers together. Lorelei shifted uncomfortably and looked away from Shelbie while Death smirked shamelessly.
“I like her. She’s honest.” Death smiled.
Her father raises a glass.“That’s why we kept her.” he smirked while Helen and Shelbie glared at him.
“There are many different types of Life and Death creatures,” Lorelei added as she took a drink of the whiskey.
“Where do I lie? I-I mean banshees in general.” She corrected herself quickly.
“Banshees, like witches, are in between but are more closely related to Death. Since you can foresee it happening.” Death explained, “you’ll be able to learn more about banshee history while at this school.” Death paused, “have you heard of Wilhelma?”
“Wilhelma the Proud?” Shelbie asked. “Isn’t she, like, 400 years old?”
“Your great grandmother, Vievienne, lived to be 218 years old.” Lorelei smiled. Helen looked surprised. “Wonderful woman. She made these potato pie things.” Lorelei sat down on the couch, “Wilhelma is up there in age now, but if you want to keep aging yourself I wouldn’t remind her of the fact.”
“My grandmother was that old!?” Helen exclaimed.
“Mmm. Yes.” Lorelei smiled, “She had many children. Unfortunately, none of them were banshees, including all her grandchildren.”
“I’m still hung up on the fact she probably ate dinner with them,” Shelbie muttered to herself as she grabbed a cracker.
“I thought Wilhelma was a folk tale.” Helen sighed heavily, pouring herself yet more whiskey.
“Willie lives up to her name that is true. She is also one of the teachers I picked.” Death sighed, “She’s a handful, but she knows everything about Banshee culture.”
“You really want to do this?” Helen asked Shelbie.
“I think they can help me with my problems.” Shelbie responded, “I think it’s worth trying.” Helen grabbed Shelbie’s hand, holding back tears. Shelbie thought, “There it is. The instant feeling of regret my mum would feel, but,” Shelbie thought about the spell Lorelei used to calm her. So much weight lifted instantly. “That was magic.”