E. A. Koetting - staticfly.net

WORKS OF
DARKNESS
the foresight to smoke their cigarettes quickly, or whatever other
delinquent activities they may be compelled to indulge in before school
began. Nevertheless, five minutes after that electronic bell had given
its last warning and threat, the door to my classroom swung open and
the tardy student that entered was one that J had seen every day in
class, but had never before noticed in any conscious way.
"A long cigarette break might have kept her," I told myself,
searching for the possibility that this girl who appeared about as
purposely unkempt and fashionably grungy as I could have a moral
code or the lack thereof more akin to mine than my other so-called
peers.
My actual experiential journey into the occult had just been
moving forward the months preceding the day that she was "marked
tardy," and I was hungry to experiment with my newfound powers.
set my sights on her and performed a similar, although rough version
of the ritual given above that night. Two days later the tardy girl was
right on time, finding me in the food court of the local 10 shop mall.
She asked to sit with me, and I allowed the Magick to work itself. Her
lips were blue from her raspberry sucker, which opened the door for
innuendo peppered conversation.
We parted for the weekend laughing and smiling, although
mine may have seemed a bit more like a cackle and a grin.
Monday morning we did not speak in class, as if I had never
seen her enter late the week before, and had never chosen her to be my
victim. I half-expected her to take a seat on top of my desk and begin
our whirlwind romance with a kiss. I wondered if the ritual had given
me a single opportunity at the mall, and I had passed it up.
I dragged my feet through the linoleum halls to my next class,
head down and heart sunken. As I considered the failure of this ritual,
and even the failure of Magick as a whole, the girl who was late to class
on the right (or wrong) day called after me. Jogging to catch up,
exhausted and out of breath, she managed to announce, "1 wanted to
call you over the weekend, but realized I didn't get your number the
other day." I stared at her. A blank, dumb stare. She looked at me in
wonder, asking herself if she'd made a fool of herself, or perhaps if J was
just a fool.
"So... , can J have it?"
That one ritual, half-assed and muddled with my own
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