Yesterday I killed a boy. His dark red blood was on my hands. It felt good. Real good. The thought of breaking his neck was satisfying.

Still, I needed more blood, so I took a knife and cut his throat. As his blood dripped on the kitchen floor, I felt alive again. I could breathe again. Although he was the handsomest boy I’d ever seen in my entire life, he was as deadly as a scorpion.

I had to kill him. My mother instructed me to do so, so evil outweighed good—at least, for now. It was a mission I couldn’t resist, because deep down, I craved to be that bad. I knew I was a bad girl, and I liked it.

I took a clean towel and wiped the knife. It had carved spider webs on the handle. I looked at it closely and sniffed the fresh blood that I’d cleaned off it. The smell—that would draw the police’s attention, so I took some antiseptic and wiped it clean and burned it with black fire that I lit from my palms. The knife smelled like burned blood and chemicals.

His eyes were wide awake, very still. Nothing human in it, and he couldn’t fool me with his charms, not anymore. I bent down and carefully closed his eyes with my gloved hand. He had a baby’s skin, and he smelled of fresh lavender soap.

But soon he will be ashes, and my sisters and I will use him to create a spell around our house to protect us from any intruders. “Sleep well, my rival,” I whispered. “You’ll be headed to hell tomorrow morning, after we burn you with our black fire.”

Mother told us not to keep bodies on the kitchen floor, because the last time, we had a burnout in the kitchen and the flames almost ate away our house. We’d burn like witches under the daylight, and that’s always been our biggest fear. Our mother’s mother was burned to ashes, because people discovered that she was a witch, and it was centuries ago. People don’t believe those things nowadays. I stood up the moment I heard my sisters entering the kitchen, and waved over the boy’s body.

“Ya sakin and rouh, ekhtifi,” I said in Arabic.

The body descended from the floor, and disappeared from sight. I turned to my sisters, Emily and Ella, who were both as gorgeous as I was. That’s what all the boys told us. That was why it was easier to lure them into the dark forest. We wore the same black dress that touched our knees. Black lace and black gloves covered our hands to protect anyone we touched.

We called it the fatal touch, as it sucked out human souls. Mother always made new ones whenever we would lose them or if they tore. My sisters looked at each other momentarily, and then turned to look at me again with a smirk. They approached me and Ella reached for my hand and clasped it to hers. Her eyes were filled with tears, and in a very disappointed tone she asked, “What have you done?”

She then gritted her teeth as if to underscore her emotions. “Sister, what have you done?”

I wasn’t fazed by her appeal to humans, and why she loved them so much. It wasn’t our fate to be with the humans, nor was it hers. Ella was the one who was pure good, and not evil—like me. I was a senseless black witch, without any emotions towards humans whatsoever.

On the other hand, Ella was quite nice to everyone which made her so weak. She was fragile—my dear sister was fragile—and she needed much guidance to become a strong witch. She’s already stronger than us, but in the wrong direction.

“It had to be done,” I said.

Ella shook her head and covered her lips with her hands as her eyes glimmered in terror. It’s like she isn’t even our sister with her silly emotions. Oh, silly Ella. Sometimes, I wished I had another sister that would do more bad than good. What have I don’t to deserve this?

“You’re a heartless creature,” Ella whispered. “How could you?”

Emily watched us fight again, and whispered something in Arabic, and soon, the kitchen went dark. We were in complete darkness from whatever spell Emily put on us. “I…shut the world down,” Emily said in the dark.

“That does not make killing a stranger any better!” Ella shouted, and I felt someone slap my face. It was painful, and loud. I placed my hand on my cheek where it hurt.

“You’re so naive,” I said, while fighting down the pain. “Do you think this boy is innocent like you?”

“Lucy, please.” Emily tried to calm me down. I wanted to explain all the things that the boy had done, but she wasn’t going to take it, so I chose to stay silent for the moment. Ella wouldn’t understand that people have both evil and good, and people weren’t trustworthy. I sighed. “Emily, put the lights back on.”

She did, and soon everything was back to normal with full color. Ella rolled her eyes, and then glared at me. Emily looked at her watch and signed number three with her fingers, and then she counted down to one.

Finally, our mother came back home. We heard her footsteps as she came to the kitchen with some groceries. She had her dark hair up in a bun, and she wore a yellow sweater along with a matching yellow skirt. She also wore a warm smile. “Good evening, girls.”

“Yes, mother?” we said in unison. She bobbed her head as her dark hair bangs danced across her creased forehead.

“Why did the world shut down for a few minutes?” We looked at each other, and headed our way to our bedroom fast so she won’t ask us any further questions.