1st 5 Pages May Workshop - Becker

Name: Jessica Becker
Genre: YA Paranormal
Title: The Body Thief

I never should have left the house. I debated this even as I sat shivering on one of the stone-cold benches planted along the perimeter of the fair. I ticked off the reasons in my head. Summer project for school. Babysitting my cousin Hazel. The dead girls that kept showing up on new moon nights.

Needless to say, this last fact changed the very atmosphere of the fair itself. The truth though: no one knew why teenaged girls tended to die on this night. It could happen at home or while waiting for coffee at The Shack. But whenever you heard a story about eleven girls dying in your town, you tended to think about it. And I did. A lot. I mean, who wouldn’t?

It was the last weekend of July and too cold to be considered summer. The fair emerged within the large parking lot in front of Ojai Valley high school. Trees separated us from the main road, but I still had a clear view of the bell tower on the other side. Rows of white tents lined one side of the rectangle with food trucks parked opposite. The middle filled with rides that spun in crazy circles and ones I had to crane my neck to see the top of. I loved the fair. I loved the food on sticks and games no one ever really won, and the way people raced from one ride to the next. I loved the smell of barbecue and spun sugar intermingled with the sticky sweetness of everything fried.

My best friend, Jai Bennet, glanced in my direction with a smirk. He wasn’t fazed by the new moon stories. Jai, who jumped out of an airplane once for fun, and who chased creepy stories to thrill some weird fascination. He liked to be scared.

“You okay, Callie?” He asked in his too-concerned voice as he sorted our ride tickets.

I nodded.

“Then stop looking like that,” he said.

I snagged a piece of funnel cake I held balanced on my knees. “Like what?”

“Like you’re going to puke. Like the whole world is about to explode.”

“I’m not.” I fiddled with the ring around my thumb, and watched the reflection of the strung lights flicker in the puddles on the street. Food wrappers littered the ground. Neon colored flyers plastered the walls and scattered the ground reminding us of those who had died. The posters had become commonplace—black and white pictures plastered on the walls throughout Ojai. The girls on them always looked sad. Almost like they knew what was to become of them.

“You’re sitting there like a lump. I thought you said this was your favorite weekend?”

“Shut up. I’m fine.” I glanced at the clock. The minutes pressed forward.

My ten-year-old cousin cozied into my shoulder, watching me closely. She probably sensed my restlessness. Hazel wasn’t like other ten year olds. She carried this seriousness within her and rarely spoke. She used big words and read books I could never finish. And she often stared at me like one of her books, like I was some story she was meant to discover.

“Think we’ll know her?” I asked Jai. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t want to see the worry in his eyes confirming what I already felt.

“It’s not even going to happen.”

“Don’t tell me you’re like every other person that thinks it’s a coincidence.” I said coincidence like it tasted sour in my mouth.

The sides of his lips tugged down and his brown eyes studied the crowd. His voice dropped to a whisper. I almost couldn’t hear him over the screams from the nearby rollercoaster. “It won’t be you.” He sounded as if he were trying to convince himself as much as me. “And if it is, go out with a bang. At least have some fun first.”

I smirked.

He nudged me in the side.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I worried for nothing. But it would happen somewhere. And how could it be stopped if no one ever saw it coming?

A girl with dark hair and skin the color of paper sidled up next to Jai. I turned away as she touched his shoulder in a familiar way. Jai laughed and said something into her ear. It could be her.

Hell, it could be me. Well, it could if my skin lightened a couple of shades. And my eyes would have to change color. Most of the girls had blue eyes and mine were decidedly mixed. One brown and one blue. Still.

“Oh, you were Raven’s sister, right?” Were. Past tense. As in no longer. Now I was just sister-less. The word pinged inside my head like an annoying reminder. The girl paid no attention. It was just a word after all. Raven’s sister. Even dead, she was my identifying feature.

Jai glanced in my direction with a worried frown. He looked almost as if she struck him. The mention of Raven’s name would forever haunt him no matter how much time passed. He didn’t need to hear her name to remember, he had his silver hooked scar on his cheek for that. It faded to almost nothing in the last year. Almost.

I bit my lip and tried not to think of her. Funny thing though: as soon as you tried not to think of something, then it stuck around for an uncomfortably long time. So, I did what I did best—I avoided eye contact and looked up. I swallowed the knot in my throat and I counted.

The girl prattled on and on, and it wasn’t until she said goodbye that I realized I hadn’t heard a word.

“Hey, Callie?” I could tell he had been saying my name for a while by the way his eyebrows pinched together. He pulled a handful of change from his pocket and shook it in his hand like dice. “Want to go on a ride or something? Or get some more food?” He turned towards the row of food trucks lining the street. Terriyaki beef sticks, corn dogs, brisket sandwiches, fried onion blossoms, chocolate covered bacon…

Hazel leaned forward. Her sandy hair fell over her shoulder, matching her hazel eyes completely. She was tanned like a bottle of honey and dotted with freckles across her nose. “I should take Hazel back to my aunt.”

“Do you want me to come with?” He asked. “Winnie said she’d give me a reading for five bucks.”

“It’s okay. I just saw someone go into her tent. You should eat or whatever.”

Winnie’s chosen profession involved reading palms and tarot cards to the tourists. Sometimes she’d delve deeper into séances and talking to the dead. She’d get all glassy eeyed and her lips would pinch together like she tasted something sour. Then she’d speak in a voice much deeper than her own. I didn’t doubt her abilities or anything, but my aunt Winnie had a flair for theatrics.

“You want to meet over there when you’re done?” I asked.

“Sure.” Jai smiled and in this light, the scar on his face bloomed silver. He spun on his heel, an almost graceful move considering his height. Jai was freakishly tall. Between that and his aquamarine t-shirt, he made it easy to spot him in the crowds.

Out of the silence, Hazel asked, “Do you see anything?” She pressed her chubby hand into mine and gave a gentle squeeze.