"No trouble, tonight, Baccay." Coach had warned. The woman had been in a particularly good mood after the match because they'd nailed a routine they had been practicing for months, it had been Kylie's idea to mix it with their former one, Coach had been hesitant but in the end, it had worked out. There was nothing to complain about, except Coach always found something to complain about.

"I don't want to hear of any of you girls being spotted at the Greek Row." Coach added. Kylie remembered the look on the woman's face when one of the girls had objected, reminding the older woman that some of them were in sororities.

Now after a quick shower in the girls' locker room, Kylie changed into fresh clothes and chucked her sweaty uniform into her backpack, she took out her mirror and redid her make up painstakingly, even if she wasn't going anywhere afterwards. She was one of the few students in Howard that lived off campus, her parents were Filipinos who'd migrated from their country to England when her father got a job there, they owned an apartment just outside campus and it was her choice to stay with them rather than stay on campus, they didn't mind that their twenty one year old daughter still lived with them.

She was slipping on her sandals when she caught hint of the conversation behind her. It was Fiye inviting the girls to hang out and getting apologetic replies instead. The girls had validate reasons to decline to hang out, some of them were in sororities, others probably wanted to just crash and sleep off the day, and the rest were headed to pubs to chug beer.

Everyone knew that Fiye's idea of hanging out involved visiting the Keystone library on Salem Avenue, it wasn't a typical library, for one, it wasn't owned by the university and it was more like an ancient museum that was dedicated to displaying African arts and history on the things nobody wanted to read about, like witches and secrets societies of old empires. To their credit, during Halloween season, they served free wine.

Kylie nudged Mariam besides her. The girl startled and Kylie instantly knew that she was stalling, afraid to go home and find another note waiting for her.

"Hey, Fiye!" Kylie shouted above the ruckus of slamming lockers and giggling chatters. "You headed to Salem?"

Fiye turned, there was a hint of surprise in the furrow of her brows.

"Yeah, dumb right?" Fiye said, adding a self deprecating laugh. The other girls were quick to chime in quick apologies, they didn't think it was dumb, they just had other plans made beforehand.

Kylie watched with amusement, if they caught a wobble of Fiye's lips, they'd be cancelling their plans to follow her wherever the hell she wanted to go, it was what she loved about the team, they weren't all best friends and tomorrow, two of them might even get into a fight, but there was this bond between them that came above everything else when it was needed.

"Actually, me and Mariam want to come, got room for us?"

Kylie pretended not to see the grateful look Mariam sent her. Fiye tried to hide the pleased look on her face, but her smile stretched wide, exposing her front gap teeth.

"Sure, let me ask Sita if she wants to come too."

In the end, it was just the three of them. It was still raining when they finally left the stadium, waving goodbyes to the other girls. The cheerleaders usually left in groups of threes and four, the ones without rides hitched with other girls.

They all knew the truth. Bad things happened at night to girls who walked alone.

Φ Φ Φ

Two bottles of wine later, two of them were quite tipsy. Mariam didn't drink, but she indulged herself in the root beer she'd been offered. By ten pm, they were giggling to each other and whispering embarrassing tales of their first kisses.

When it was eleven, Fiye was stumbling towards the rows of shelves. They'd been pretty much left to their own devices since they arrived, the owners of the place were a close family friend of Fiye's and it was party why she hung out there so much.

"That art is so beautiful." Kylie wept into Fiye's shoulders, Mariam had seen the cheer captain get drunk many times and when she did, she tended to get sentimental, once she'd wept at the beauty of the night sky. Mariam rolled her eyes as they both gazed up at a sculpture of a child wedged between two shelves.

Mariam peered down at it for a second before looking away, the eyes were stone but there was something unnerving about how the crooked smile didn't match the serious eyes. She trailed after Fiye and Kylie walking down an aisle, oohing and ahing and everything they saw. Again, they stopped at a shelf and Fiye made a clapping gesture of surprise.

"Oh, look, this aisle is dedicated to the history of the Salem witches," She said.

Mariam glanced at it, disinterested.

Kylie oogled it like it was a hot boy. "Witches." She echoed in awe and then recoiling when the lights above flickered. Fiye giggled.

Kylie moved to caress the spine of a bulky book on the shelf when the lights flickered off, bathing them in thick darkness. Mariam tensed, feeling hysteria rise up in her chest.

The lights flickering out, a cold male laugh — her slurred speech.

Feeling her chest tighten with panic, she moved without thinking and bumped into something hard. She flinched, thinking that there should be nothing behind her, but she'd felt something now.

Mariam whirled around just as Kylie screamed.

"Just lie down, baby, this'll be quick."

She remembered the harsh tug of the zipper of her jeans. His chuckle and then the bright flash of a camera.

There was the light thud of footsteps approaching, a shaky breath.

Mariam prepared to scream, that was when the lights flickered back on, bright like she'd never seen before.

She looked and saw that Fiye was clutching Kylie in a death grip, the latter was shaking furiously. Mariam found what they saw and her heart sank.

There was a bulky book that had slipped from the shelf and fell to the floor, it was wide open to a page that was filled with writings she could only describe as ancient, it was written in ink that was blotted, quick scrawls that bled onto the paper, dark like blood.

That wasn't what scared Mariam the most, it was the loud heartbeat that filed the silence among the three of them. Pulsing in and out in a wild beat, the pages were deathly still as if the wind held no sway on it.

Whatever it was, it was alive.

Φ Φ Φ

Somewhere in the little town, something wicked celebrated its release.