Maya Dre's Story

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{ June 21st | 6:00pm | Teraton, North Carolina }

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The Summer Solstice Festival has been a staple of the Teraton community far before it became set aside for the relocation process of the supernatural community in the area. Once simply referred to as the Summer Fair, it has now come to be called by a more appropriate name. It is most greatly celebrated by the witch community of the somewhat small town, and many run stalls or have special sales for the event. Lights are strung across buildings and trees to create a magical, picturesque atmosphere. The festival is something that most look forward to, and while it is not incredibly large, it is a dear part of the community.

It serves as many things. For the witch community, it is expected that young witches, coming of age, begin to create some product, or develop some skill for a service, which they will demonstrate here. The faerie community is also known to take special joy in the event, especially the summer fae, as a matter of course given that it is a summer holiday. Many people also take it as a romantic event, and the music [different bands or DJs on various corners] as well as the lights help this concept along. It also happens to line up to be just after the schools get out, so clusters of high schoolers, middle schoolers, and elementary schoolers can often be seen in various places.

Attractions of Note
Ferris Wheel [Provided By The City Council]
The Magical Lane [All-magic Corner of Witch's Wares]
Local Bands [The best of which playing on a platform in Town Square]

The sound of wood striking the stone tiles echoed through the hallway of Rafia's two-story home. The tempo of the footsteps was calm and laid back, clearly there was no hurry. Rafia raised her head and looked at the full-length mirror in front of her, inspecting her dark jean jacket. She smirked whilst grabbing a gray fedora hat, and gently placing it on her head with her left hand. She tipped the fedora so it would cover her eyes, crossed her right leg in front of her left and leaned slightly to the side, making a 'smoochie' face at the mirror. Then she raised the tip - adjusting the hat and turned on her heels, grabbing the car keys on the shelf. Just as she was leaving, she turned her head and looked at the mirror once more, putting her right hand on her hip and then into the back pocket of her light gray jeans.

"I'm going to the festival, Maya" She shouted, her deep and yet ever so feminine voice echoed through the seemingly empty hallway as she leaned against the white wall. She waited for a moment, not quite sure what she was expecting to hear in return, but then she turned back towards the door and opened it, taking a step outside with her right foot first. "I need to run some errands first so I'm not offering you a ride right now. If you really need it, text me and I'll come pick you up. Then again, I'm sure you're perfectly capable of getting there yourself." She yelled into the house once more, then closed the door and made her way towards the crimson Rubicon Jeep standing right in front of the house. She hurriedly sat inside and started the car, driving down a few blocks before stopping.

Rafia was never really a social butterfly when it came to her own personal life. Sex life included. She preferred keeping such juicy details to herself, after all, the less people knew - the easier it was for her to manipulate them into believing differently. She moved slightly towards the right side of the road so she wouldn't block other cars, got her phone and started typing a text:

From: Rafia
To: Ciaran

Yo babes, you better be comin' to the festival.
Heard there's goin' to be a lot of interesting people. (;

"Okay, that's done.. " Rafia muttered those words silently, then looked at a small folded piece of paper lying in the cup holder. 'Right' she thought as she remembered that she had forgotten her wallet at home. Luckily for her, she almost always kept her driver's license in the drawer in front of the passenger seat. She sighed and started typing another text.

From: Rafia
To: Maya

Hey.. Hng..I forgot my wallet at home. I'm a little too far to go back now, but it'd be great if you could get it for me and bring it to the festival, or when I come pick you up. If you need me to. I'll buy you fries if you do.

The vessel put the phone into the black leather purse lying on the passenger seat, turned on the radio and leaned against the back of the chair. 3!Oh3 - We Are Young started playing. She tapped her foot against the gas pedal to the rhythm, but not hard enough to actually push the pedal. The music was loud enough to block out any sounds coming from outside the car, which pleased her. Out of boredom, she reached for her phone, and just as she picked it up, it started buzzing.

"Rafia Brelyn speaking."
"Hey Raf', it's Oliver. The guy from the gym? You said you wanted to meet later today? Wanna go to the Festival?"
"Oh. Oh, I'm not going to the Festival," she paused. Oliver was nothing but food for her, but she's been sucking boys dry for three days in a row now, and not even in the sexual sense. "Right. No, I can't meet you today. You know what. Actually - I can't meet you at all. Just, don't talk to me. And trust me on this, I'm being nice right now" and with that, she dropped the call. Getting intoxicated off of something as delicious (For Rafia) as blood and then feeling hung over wasn't really for Rafia, especially because she might actually go get some alcohol and a double hang over didn't sound fun. She stared at her phone, waiting for a reply from either Ciaran or Maya.

The whole town felt lifted on air with the buzz of the Summer Solstice. Derrick preferred to stay inside until later in the evening, when the parties were starting up or he was preparing his own. Several bottles stood tall in the refrigerator at the moment, but he would be locking up his house for the night this time around. His whitewashed home was intensely close to the fairgrounds and he suffered a headache each and every year. Good vibes were not Derrick's forte. Alas, though, his phone buzzed along the deep oak wood of his night stand. He regrettably awoke and rolled over to open the message.



He sent the message and covered his face with the blanket again. Five more minutes never hurt anyone. His mind was just beginning to drift off when his phone went off again, this time from Belinda. He read the message and then paused to stretch his long body out along his bed. Mid-stretch, he froze as the text actually sank into his mind. He looked to the side of his queen-sized bed only to find it empty. All of the Redbull and vodka had left last night's memory a hazy blur. Surely he would have remembered bringing someone home though.

Belinda's lovely voice rang through the walls of his rather small home. Through his stretch he hadn't heard the door unlock. "I'm in here," his sleepy voice called. Derrick threw the covers off of his body and slid into a pair of jeans and a black hoodie before walking out of his room, stepping over clothes on his floor along the way.

He didn't bother with walking around the corner, preferring to slip through the walls that separated him from the living room. His ghostly figure snuck up behind Belinda, and he leaned down over the couch to kiss her cheek.
"Why aren't you at the festival yet, babe?"

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Maya was curling her long dark hair into loose waves for the celebration. Her makeup was natural and inviting and already finished. She donned a flowy yellow sundress with a halter-top neck and her modest body accented in all of the right places. It was such a good day already. Work had her so busy this past month but it paid off; she had two hundred dollars she could spend on whatever she liked tonight. She didn't often have money for events like this and she felt like gold walking.

Rafia's voice startled her, and she was glad the demon wasn't in the room to see her jerk the curling iron away. She sighed and put it away, having finished the last curl anyway.
"I've got my own ride," she shouted. "Don't hit my car on the way out, I had to park close because of that douche next door again." A moment later she heard the front door open and close and she had the home to herself. Her spirit relaxed as it always did when the demon was out of her home. Rafia always had her on edge.

She threw on gold bracelets before slipping on blue pumps, then made for her car outside. She took a deep breath to calm her excitement as she ignited the engine. The purr of the engine was a sound that emanated throughout her heart. She remembered her racing days with nostalgia and wished she could fly down the streets again. Her phone made a ping. She tried not to be irritated as she climbed out of the car and into the house again to retrieve the wallet Rafia had forgotten. Then, she was off to the festival.

The first thing she saw when she was parking was the lit up ferris wheel, standing proud next to the ocean as one of the main attractions. She wished she could teleport when she was standing in line. Lucky demon bitches. Once she was in, she began searching for familiar faces. She didn't see any, so she brought out her phone and sent a text.

Rafia was on her way to the festival, quite quickly too. A cop stopped her for driving too fast, but she managed to manipulate the old man into ignoring it. Manipulating people was so much fun for Rafia, it could've been a drug if it drained anything more than her hourly limit of ability usage, but Rafia didn't care much. She could handle things quite fine without the help of her demonic powers, or atleast so she would consider. The demon hasn't ever yet had the fun of an actual physical fight, not even when she drained the poor boys who wandered into her spider web, in fact, she manipulated them into giving themselves to her willingly, and she'd either walk away clean or with cold blood on her hands, but it didn't matter, the police would never be able to track her down anyway.

She heard her phone buzz, she was hoping it would be Ciaran, but it could also be Maya, which wasn't too bad since the Witch might've actually been nice this time and gotten Rafia's wallet. The traffic light turned red, and she slowed her car down just as she approached the "Stop" on the road. She reached into her purse and started digging in a hurry, untill she latched onto her phone with her nails and finger tips, then swiftly pulled it out.

2 Unread Messages

'Just my luck, might be both of them' she thought as she unlocked her phone using her Mega-Secret-Pin-Code which Ciaran might've known from all the times she let him borrow her phone, which made the pin code a little less secret. As soon as she hit the '2 Unread Messages' on the top of her screen, the traffic light turned green and there was a row of cars behind her, most likely people who were hurrying to the Festival while all the tickets to the fun rides were still available. One of Rafia's favorite puns for that was ' I am the fun ride', but no one would actually know that. Or would they?

There was now only a five minute ride untill she reached the festival, so there was no use in bothering to reply untill she got out of the car. As she was getting closer, she could see families walking down the sidewalk towards the park, all wearing festive summer dresses, and some kids even wore costumes. It always confused her: Why did such a small thing like a Summer festival mean so much to a Human? Infact, didn't they celebrate those almost every month, or atleast every Season? But she managed to answer that question herself, Teraton had to stand out somehow, maybe it was it's way of saying "Hey, we're different!"

She got out of her car, parking it just a few houses down the street which lead to the festival. She locked the Jeep and began walking towards the fun, finally being able to reply to the text messages. First, she opened the one from Maya.

To: Rafia

I brought it for you. I'm already at the festival so just call or something when you get here.

From: Maya

Rafia snickered silently to herself as she read that. She appreciated how much the Witch did for her, especially since the two almost hated eachother, but she truly appreciated that Maya would still do that for her. There were moments when Rafia and Maya were actually nice to eachother, gave good advice, but that wasn't as often as the two of them had wished. Infact, Rafia never knew why she was so mean to Maya, perhaps it was her fear of getting close to people, even friend-wise. She nodded slowly and started typing:

To: Maya

I'll be there in a few minutes. Where are you?

And BTW, thanks. (;

From: Rafia

Then she checked the other message. It made her content to see that it was from Ciaran. She loved talking to the boy. He was her best friend, like, an actual friend. She sometimes felt bad whenever she was mildly mean to him, but she had to keep things in line, she could't risk 'humanity' infecting her with this thing called "Love." What was love? Rafia didn't know, she didn't want to find out. She's heard people say it was scary and a waste of time. Finishing her trail of thought, she began typing swiftly.

To: Ciaran
You're such a charmer. I'd apologize for making you wait, but you know I'll make it worth your while anyway. *;

From: Rafia