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“What the fuck?” he heard her nearly shriek right into his ear as they crossed the campus quad.

With his concentration broken and a hand to his aching ear he turned to face her to see just what the hell her problem was.

“You fucking perv!” she shouted “You were looking at her boobs weren't you?”

Shit. He had been caught red handed. And of all people to call him on his shit, it just had to be his twin sister.

“Well, I-” he stammered trying to think of some sort of excuse.

“Holy fucking shit! It is so embarrassing to even know that you and I shared a womb at one point!”

“Would you calm down already?” he urged while trying to keep his voice within normal range. “It's not like she had them covered or anything!”

“You are hopeless!” she groaned and proceeded to walk faster.

Looking around, her little outburst had done more than garner him some unwanted attention, it was just what he was hoping to avoid. The damage was done and all he could do was hurry to his next class before anything else could possibly go wrong. While he walked fast she had managed to walk faster, leaving him behind before she quickly disappeared around a corner. That was fine, the last thing he wanted was somebody seeing if he was checking out any of the girls on campus; besides, looking didn't exactly hurt, and everybody there was of legal age so what was the problem? This line of thought made him turn to look over his shoulder real quick to see if maybe he had been made thanks to the shrill voice that called him out.

His eyes scanned the quad that was filled with students and staff members scurrying about, but not a single one of them appeared to charging at him with any sort of anger or frustration. In spite of being outed in such a boisterous manner he was safe, at least for now. He turned and resumed his travel to his next class, Advanced Trigonometry; the last class of the day and the last class before Spring Break. All the rest of his classes had been a joke that day, but he was willing to bet dollars to donuts that Professor Hart was going to be the professor to have an exam on the day before Spring Break.

He entered the classroom with stadium seating and scanned the dry erase board at the front of the room. To his horror but not to his surprise, it read in plain English “Exam Today”, great. He walked down the steps until he was halfway down then side-stepped to his right to find an available seat; placed on the desk of the seat was an exam sheet with everything except for the name and answers filled in. Professor Hart was a special kind of Hell when it came to exams; there was no last minute help or review. It was just sit down, take the exam, and hope with everything that you had that you would make it through unscathed.

He raked his hand through his short hair then sat down, pulling a pencil from his organizer and working through the exam as fast as he could while ensuring the answers he gave were correct. When he reached the fifth problem, Professor Hart entered the classroom from one of the side doors; he looked up to watch as the deadly, raven-haired woman slowly crossed the front of the class to her desk. For somebody who could be so cruel, she was certainly hot. Often times when he was hanging with the guys, whether it was getting drunk or getting high over a game of asshole or spades, they would often try to wonder if somebody paid her quite well to not be in modeling of any kind. They were all convinced that is why she was teaching because she certainly could have pulled off modeling and made bank.

He did not realize that he had slipped into a daze until she looked right at him. Twice in one day he had been busted looking at a woman, the only thing that could have made this any worse was...

“Professor Hart?” a familiar voice had called as one of the side doors opened. “The Dean sent this down for you to sign.” Go figure, it just happened to be his sister that had enough free time to run something for the Dean.

Professor Hart sat there for a moment, still looking in his direction to see if he had a question about the exam, at least that was her guess considering he was looking up instead of at the exam on his desk. When she was convinced that he was not going to look up again, she turned to face his sister who had walked in and apparently noticed where she was looking. “Thank you, Sara” she warmly spoke and reached out for the piece of paper in Sara's hand, taking it and looking it over for a minute or two before signing it.

Sara on the other hand took her attention off of Professor Hart and looked to her brother. He looked up and met with her eyes, and she responded with a shake of her head. Of course she could have outed him once more, and the temptation was there but being disrespectful in a college environment was not something she wanted on her record. A corner of the paper that Professor Hart had signed grazed her forearm and called her attention back to the professor. She took the sheet of paper and instead of leaving the same way she came in, she decided to take the stairs to the exit in the back. Both Sara and her brother kept their eyes on each other, but she was the only one who cracked a devious smile while shaking her head.

“Not nice to stare” she mouthed to him.

He said nothing in return and returned to the exam. When he finished he looked through his work twice to make sure that he didn't make any mistakes then stood up to deliver the exam to Professor Hart. The only good thing about having to take the exam on the last day before Spring Break was the fact that he could just leave after he handed the exam in. Once he sat the exam on her desk, he turned to leave.

“Have a good Spring Break, David” Professor Hart cheerfully called.

“Yeah,” he replied, “I will try to.”

That was it! He was free to go. He gathered his organizer and quickly yet quietly headed up the stairs to the back of classroom to leave Hell behind temporarily. At least that was what he had in mind until...

“You are such a pervert!” Sara sharply spoke from just off to the side of the door.
He turned to face her and rolled his eyes as soon as he turned back to leave for his dorm. “Just lay off of it, Sara.”

“Just lay off of it?” she scoffed. “When you are being such a pervert? Hell no!”

David turned back to face her and put a finger of his mouth “Would you be quiet about it!”
“How can I when I am so embarrassed?”

“Embarrassed? Is it that or are you jealous?” he taunted.

Sara's face slowly changed from it's typical flesh tone to a deep red in a fit of anger. She knew exactly what he was referring to when he said that and it always pissed her off. He resorted to taunting her about how underdeveloped she was compared to other girls; she had been a late bloomer and what bloomed was hardly anything worth bragging about. “You asshole!” she shouted.

“Whatever” he dismissed her with a wave of his hand and left her standing in the hallway.
She was enraged with him for that. Whenever they argued it was his ace in the hole, especially if she was winning and when he used it she lost. She lost the advantage, she lost her composure, and he got a laugh out of her misfortune. That was why whenever she caught him staring at another woman's chest she would make sure he would pay for it as retribution. Most of the time she could walk away from it satisfied, other times it would come back to haunt her when some of the girls who were not in her social circle would point at her and whisper “God, her brother is such a pervert. How much of a freak do you think she is?” She was never certain if they meant for her to hear it or not, but she would and it was infuriating.

While she would still call attention to his obvious gaping, it was getting to the point where she needed to do something in order to avoid the blow back later. She couldn't just stop doing it, that would mean that he won, but calling attention to him and it biting him in the ass was getting old. That was when she stumbled across the Goth chick. It was a fast and furious collision in the hallway, so much so that Sara had dropped her organizer and smart phone.

“Watch where you are going!” Sara barked reflexively.

“Why don't you open your eyes, bitch!” the other girl sharply retorted.

Sara gathered her personal effects then realized who she had collided with; “Stacy? Sorry, I must have been distracted.”

“Distracted? I doubt you even looked around the corner” Stacy replied.

Sara stepped back to examine Stacy a little more; “Still sporting the Goth look?”

Stacy examined Sara in return “Still sporting the stuck up bitch look?”

Sara was about to retort, but it was the usual recoil that Stacy had doled out. She relented with a sigh then let out aggravated groan.

“What's the matter? Did your phone break when it fell?” Stacy asked.

“No, just David being his usual self.”

Stacy nodded in return. She was well aware of his voyeuristic behavior; it was half the reason why she hunched forward a little whenever she spotted him. “Great” she replied and trailed off.

“I just wish that he would stop.”

“You and every other girl on campus.”

“If there was only some way to make him stop, then it wouldn't be a problem.”

Stacy had fallen silent for a second as the gears in her mind started turning. She had an idea, although it was very far fetched one that happened to involve her Mother's side of the family; the side of the family that even her with all of her quirks didn't really keep in contact with. Stacy let out a long sigh; “I might have something.”

“Oh?” Sara piqued with interest.

Stacy nodded and looked around; “I have relatives who are gypsies. We're talking old world gypsies who are not fortune tellers or con-men.”

Sara raised an eyebrow, “I didn't think there was any other kind.”

Stacy shook her head; “Yeah, a stereotype for sure. A lot of them just want to be free to live wherever they settle then move on unhindered.”

“Okay,” Sara was ready to drop the whole subject but gave the benefit of the doubt and prodded further, “so how does that help us?”

“On the outside, they look like nothing but a band of disheveled wanderers in trucks, trailers, and cars. However, I have heard they dabble in some old world stuff; curses, hexes, and stuff like that.”

“I thought you said there weren't fortune tellers.”

“I didn't say they were. I just said they dabble in old world stuff.”

“Okay...” Sara could not think of anything else to ask or add to the conversation that would have made it make any more sense.

“Do you have anywhere that you have to be later today?” Stacy asked, resigning the fact that no matter how much she explained, Sara would still be lost on all of it.

“Not really. I was thinking about going home for Spring Break.”
“When are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

Stacy nodded and smiled, “Okay, this will not take long at all. Do you need to pick up anything?”

Sara wasted no time at all in delivering her response with a simple shake of her head.

“Good, we'll take my car.”

“Where is it?”

Stacy pointed down the hallway, “Just out the door and across campus in the West parking lot.”

Not too far of a walk but she had thought that Stacy could have parked closer. No matter. Something as trivial as where Stacy had parked paled in comparison to the alliance that the two of them had formed; it was beyond highly unlikely and just shy of impossible. Once at the car, Stacy opened the door and was about to take a seat when she paused to look over the roof of her car.

“It's going to be a bit of a drive,” she warned cautiously, “if you need to grab something really quick I can wait.”

“No, I'll be fine.”

Stacy nodded her head and unlocked the passenger door with the push of a button as she seated herself. Sara carefully opened the door and let herself in; the exterior was absolutely pristine but the conditions inside were something else. It wasn't nasty or uninhabitable, but it certainly could have used some tender love and care. No sooner had Stacy pulled out of the parking lot, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and proceeded to smoke, carefully reaching for the CD player in her dashboard to turn up the volume.
“Those things will kill you” Sara had spoken just audibly.

“What?” Stacy asked, obviously not hearing what Sara had said.

“I said 'those things will kill you'.”

Stacy rolled her eyes and took a long drag to spite Sara; “Do you really think that you're going to live forever? We are all dying the moment we are born, so fuck it and enjoy it.” Stacy took another drag of the cigarette and offered it to Sara, who politely declined. “Suit yourself.”

Sara wanted to push the subject further but had instead determined that it was best just to leave it alone. The thought to say something had come up again when Stacy lit another cigarette right after, and again with a third; at least Stacy kept the window open the cigarette near the opening. The rest of the car ride was filled with loud music and verbal commentary from Stacy about how people fritter away their lives trying to establish themselves with useless material possessions that do very little in the end.

“You know, it's like when people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home that will allegedly be theirs, and what happens in the end? They die and their children argue over who gets what and how much. It's all just pointless.”

With that said, Sara interjected for the first time in about seventy miles; “If you think it's pointless, then why are you going to school?”
Stacy rolled her eyes; “That would be my father's doing. He didn't want me to follow the path that my mother's family followed, you know the gypsy way? Anyway, he gets this idea that if I go to school I can go into business management and be successful. I held out as long as I could, but it's kind of hard to bargain when you're the one with a minimum wage job at the stop and go down the road.”

“I see.”

“So what about you? What's your deal?”

“I just want to have a better life than I would if I was not educated.”

“And the perv?”

“We are both on free ride scholarships. I'm not sure what he is in school for aside from finding potential eye candy. Speaking of which,” Sara paused as Stacy reached to turn down the music a little bit, “what exactly are you thinking?”

Stacy shrugged, took a drag of her cigarette and sighed; “I don't really know for sure. I was thinking about asking my relatives to see what they could come up with.”

“Any idea what that might be?”

“Not a clue” Stacy replied with resign.

Just as the sun was setting, Stacy had pulled off of the main highway onto a gravel road that was shrouded with trees and shrubbery. It was kept, but only by the passing traffic that had come through; it was otherwise unimproved and neglected. Sara looked around uneasily as the dense forestry overtook the sky overhead, leaving the road ahead looking dark. With a flick of a switch Stacy turned on the headlights to help light the way. When the sunlight had finally faded, Stacy and Sara arrived at a small encampment of fifth-wheel trailers, old cars and trucks, roughshod tents, and a few chairs strewn about. In all, the place looked abandoned.

With a light squeal of the brakes the car had come to a stop and Stacy stepped out, looking around while Sara remained inside. Closing the door behind her, Stacy slowly walked towards the encampment and put a hand to her mouth, squeezing her lips and calling out with a whistle. All at once the abandoned-looking encampment had become populated once more with people of every age, height, and size. A couple of the emerging people kept their distance while most of them held out their arms welcoming Stacy.

Sara watch carefully as Stacy turned to face her and motioned for her to step out and come meet everybody. She slowly opened the door and stepped out, the people stood back and kept a watchful eye upon her. Some of them were not all that happy with Sara being there from what she could see in their faces and body language. She almost turned around to walk back to the car until she heard the voice of an older woman speak firmly in a language she was not familiar with. She was not at all certain what it was that she said, but she was able to determine that she was probably the eldest of the small gathering and therefore the head.

“Come child” she called, “Ve are more than happy to have you here” she continued with a smile.

Sara slowly continued to approach the people who were now a little more receptive of her being there.

“Yes, come. Come. Come” the woman continued motioning a little more warmly until Sara was now amongst them. The old woman turned her attention back to Stacy and smiled; “Look at you! I hardly recognized you! You've gotten so big!”

Stacy smiled and nodded, she was happy to be there but an air about her seemed to speak that something was wrong.

“What is it, child? Has your father been feeding you gadjo(outsider) lies again?”
Stacy shook her head and sighed. “I don't want to come across as coming to see you only because I need something.”

The old woman held up her hands with a scoff, “So long as I get to see you, that is all that matters. Sure, you can come here in need of something, but I know you will stay the night. Now, tell me what do you need?”

Sara was actually pretty surprised. In any other culture it would have been impossible to see that kind of response.

Stacy looked around and sighed; “Can we discuss this in your house?”

The old woman nodded and looked around, “Yes, we need some privacy. Come!”

The old woman led Stacy away by the hand, Stacy in turn looked to Sara and motioned for her to follow with her head. In the center of the camp was a fairly expensive looking fifth wheel trailer still hitched on the back of a super-duty pick up truck. From what she could tell, the elderly were very well taken care of here among Stacy's relatives; this idea was supported even more by the looks of the interior of the trailer. It was comfortable, cozy, and had everything that a person could ever want or need.

As soon as they were sat down, the woman smiled and clasped her hands together “So, what brings you and your friend here?”

“Well, we have a problem at school.”

“A teacher?”

Stacy shook her head, “No. Nothing like that. It's...” Stacy trailed off and turned her eyes to Sara unsure of how to approach the subject.

“My brother is a pervert” Sara softly spoke.

The old woman nodded “As most boys are.”

“He,” Sara began trying to form the words, “well, you see...he likes to look.”

“Look?”

Stacy nodded and leaned back, bringing her hands up to her chest and cupping her breasts, “Yes, he likes to look.”

The old woman nodded as a smile crossed her face. Neither girl had to say anything else. “So, he likes to ogle your bosom?” She took a moment to contemplate what she could do, “I could make him blind. He would never see again and that would fix the problem.”

While it would fix the problem it was too permanent of a solution for Sara's taste. “I don't want him to be blind. I just wish he would stop.”

“Hmm, maybe if he were a homosexual?”

Sara shook her head in disgust “I just wish that he understood-”

The old woman smiled and held up a hand, “Perhaps if we gave him something to occupy his attention?”

“Like?”

The woman smiled and pointed to Stacy, her chest to be precise, with a finger that was crooked after years of dealing with arthritis. She gave a couple of waves with her finger as the smile widened. “I will give him exactly what he wants. He likes to ogle at breasts, we'll see how he likes to ogle at his own.”

Sara had though that the woman must have gotten too excited; she started laughing, but the laugh had turned into a full blown coughing fit. Stacy put a hand behind her and the woman covered her mouth with both hands until she was able to make it through the coughing. Once she was sure she was finished coughing, the woman pointed behind Sara to a shelf with an assortment of old books, a couple of small trinket boxes, and some candles.

“Child,” she said with a voice soft and calm, “please find me the black candle and a book with the symbol of Venus.”

Sara turned around, expecting to find quite a reach behind her to the shelf only realizing she could accomplish her task by reaching out with her hand. She eyed the black candle and grabbed it right away, then scanned along the shelf for the book that had been described to her. After a moment she had come across an old book bound in leather with the symbol of Venus on the binding with no accompanying words. Once both items were in her possession, she turned back to face the woman and Stacy, placing the items on the table.

“Thank you, child” the woman spoke again with the same soft and calm tone.

The woman leafed through the book, running her finger down a couple of pages and shaking her head in rejection when she apparently came across something that did not fit the bill of what she was looking for. At long last she had come to what she had been looking for near the back of the book.

“Let's zee. Ah, yes. This must be it! Features of a woman on a man! Of course!” she excitedly spoke, then broke into another coughing fit.

Sara slowly forced herself back against her seat as far as she could. Everything started out far fetched, but it was only getting weirder as it went on. The features of a woman on a man? This was just too weird.

“His name” the woman barked through the coughing. A moment later she regained her composure and took a deep breath. “His name, child. Please tell me, what is his name?”

“David.”

“And now I need...” the woman began and scanned through the text in the book, “ah, the blood of a relative.”

“I'm his sister, but-” Sara began and was cut off when the woman reached out with both hands, taking her by the wrist with one and cutting her palm with a small blade in the other. “Ouch!”

“That should do. Zee here,” the woman said pointing to the center of the table, “let the blood fall here.”

Sara was hesitant, her hand really hurt and the woman just reached out and cut her like that. After some deliberation, she figured why not? She was already there and already bleeding, albeit involuntarily. She held her hand out over the center of the table and turned it palm-side down allowing the blood to fall in a small pool.

“That is good” the old woman spoke and sat the candle in the center of the pool. She reached down to her side and pulled out a box of matches, taking a match out and lighting the candle. Once the candle was lit and she was satisfied that it would stay lit she read through the book and started reciting the words within.

Sara was unsure of the language the woman was speaking in, it certainly did not sound all that familiar to her. It sounded like something from Eastern Europe, maybe even Russia for all she knew, but not a single word had any hint of familiarity. Finally some words in English began to surface.

“A weighted burden this boy will earn, thus is the lesson that he will learn. When he sleeps they will start to grow, when he awakes he will be sure to know. He's gone through life observing like a pig, let them grow soft, round, and big. One final thing to make it worse, only I will be able to lift this curse.”

The lights in the fifth-wheel dimmed for a moment then returned to normal as the women blew the candle out.

“It iz done” she spoke with a serious and firm tone. “Now, who would like some rabbit stew?” she asked with her tone sounding much lighter and friendly. She stood up from the table and took short and careful steps to the kitchen area, leaving Sara and Stacy alone at the table.

“I hope you don't mind,” Stacy whispered to Sara, “it's a little treacherous to drive at night around here.”

Sara, still holding her hand close to her, shrugged. “I guess I don't have a choice.”
“My Mom says they are not always this...” Stacy looked around the room for a bit and sighed, “weird. For the most part they are nice people, so long as you are not a cop.”
“Not a cop?” Sara asked.

“Cursed garda!” the old woman spat. “Corrupt if nothing else and never to be trusted.”

“Garda?” Sara asked with confusion wrapped in her tone.

Stacy shrugged and leaned closer to Sara, “I think it is their word for cops.”

“And it's your word too!” the old woman spoke as she took a ladle and started serving rabbit stew from a pot into three bowls.
“I know, puri daj (grandmother)”

The old woman returned to the table with two bowls for the girls with spoons already dipped into the hot concoction. It did not look all that appetizing, but Sara was surprised with the flavor. As soon as she had finished she no longer felt out of place or in any kind of danger. One of the members of the encampment even took a look at her hand and offered her a salve to help it heal as well as a bandage to cover it. Before she decided to call it a night she thought to herself that these people were not as bad as she had initially thought.

Morning had come quickly, at least she thought it was morning. Amazingly enough her cell phone had reception out wherever they may have been. At least it was enough reception for her to receive a text message. She could hear the chorus of her favorite song calling out to her from her phone, a sure sign that somebody was trying to get a hold of her. She sat up and shook of the last bits of sleep as her eyes focused to find her phone; she took it in hand, ran her finger along the screen and in all capital letters she found a message.

"NEED HELP NOW!"

TO BE CONTINUED...