The shadows danced in the candle flames, skittering across surfaces of my room. Actually the candle had no effect on what I'm about to do. I just like a bit of drama on my side for this bit of magic I'm doing.

I pick up the straw doll that bore the name of a boy I loathe as much as I loathed the cawing bird outside my window. The straw doll had tufts of human hair sprouting from its head, like unruly and untrimmed grass by the sidewalk. A piece of blue cloth was sewn as a shirt to fit the doll. A piece of talisman that the real boy wore around his neck was taped to the doll's throat.

I chant some incantations from an old leather-bound book three times, just to

make sure. He had to suffer, after all.

-

I walk into school the next day, confidant and grinning. As I walk to my locker, my best friend, Jodie fell in step next to me. She grinned at me cheekily as a greeting.

"What?" I asked, smiling back.

"Great job, Na," she smiled, patting my on the back. "Thanks."

I picked up a shoulder and let it drop. "It's nothing. How bad is it?"

She held up a hand. "His right wrist, twisted left knee, broken right leg and a broken nose."

Wow, it's better than I anticipated. I unzip my backpack and drew out the crumpled straw doll. Some straw were sticking out unnaturally at odd places, its right hand twisted

in an obscene angle.

I hear a gasp from across the hall, and then a scream.

-

"She made a voodoo doll of Brian! That freaky African kid cursed Brian!" I hear the stupid blonde girl tell non too softly to her group of stupid blonde girls. "It was gross: black straw sticking out, little black beady eyes. Ugh."

I sit at is homeroom, a smile playing around my lips. They had no idea.

"You know what? I heard her parents are witch doctors. Like practitioners who sacrifice animals or something," a girl whispered, darting glances at me.

A few intake of breathes from the group. "I hear that they dig up bodies from t

hat old graveyard by the forest for their weird little rituals."

I stare at my best friend. Are they serious? Stupid gossips. I roll my eyes. My parents may be witch doctors, but they certainly do not sacrifice animals and dig up corpses from graveyards.

No, my parents sacrifice humans and babies. Jodie knew that. They drew blood from her to be my best friend, of course.

A/N : Just a story, of course.