The Devil's Vessel

SIA’S POV

Finally,

Everything was going right.

Graduation was guaranteed for me and with my thesis alone, I could probably pass even if I submitted it blank just because of the credit load I've managed to gather.

Job offers were already stacking up like I suddenly became someone important and even St. Margaret’s Teaching Hospital wanted me.

HUMAP in New Orleans wanted me and even my university, after years of treating me like background noise, was suddenly offering me a lecturer position to my surprise.

Me, an actual lecturer.

The universe was either correcting itself after all my years of bad luck or it was setting me up for something catastrophic.

But when I think about my boyfriend, I brush the doubt of life away.

My boyfriend and soon to be fiancee, Zach.

The ring was already ready. All I have to do is just pick it from Macary & Co.

I even planned the proposal already.

A skyline dinner with soft lights and her favorite music three days from now.

I was going to ask him to marry me and turn my life around.

Which, in my experience, usually meant something was about to go horribly wrong.

—

I was at my usual spot selling lemonade outside the edge of the rich people block with the brutal sun in my skin.

Today the business was extremely slow and I'd only gotten twenty nine dollars by noon.

Pathetic.

On a good day, I made nearly ten thousand before lunch but today, I was being disrespected by the weather and money.

I leaned back in my chair, fanning myself with a flyer I probably shouldn’t have stolen when I heard a call.

“Bus girl!”

I sighed without looking up.

Sharleigh Stevens.

I raised my head slowly to see the walking advertisement of plastic wealth in her plastic car.

“What do you want, Charlie?” I asked lazily.

Her face twitched with annoyance. “My name is Sharleigh.”

“And mine is Sia, nice to meet you.”

She narrowed her eyes like she was deciding whether I deserved to live.

“Whatever. My mother is hosting a charity fundraiser today with free food. We got ice cream and lemonade, real lemonade.”

That got my attention.

“Real lemonade?” I repeated.

She smiled like she had just won something.

“You should come, you know? You might learn how it’s actually made.”

Then she turned and drove away leaving me angry and pissed off.

“Oh,” I said quietly. “So that’s how it is.”

Fifty minutes later, I went not because I cared but I wanted to see the reason for my sabotage.

The venue was loud and expensive.

It all screamed money laundering disguised as charity for orphaned disabled children.

I stopped walking to see people crying already with influencers pretending to be humans.

I felt my mood shift as I heard their fake tears of sympathy.

It is right there and then I hear it inside my head.

‘Fake.’

I froze in fear as I saw a small shadow on the railing beside me.

A bird.

Or well my bird, seeing as she's been following me for years now.

She tilted her bird head at the crowd like she was judging.

Three years ago, she started appearing in front of me and spoke with words so I had to train myself not to reply and be the weird orphan that talked to birds.

I looked back at the stage to see everything all prim and polished… something felt wrong.

It's all too staged and rehearsed.

Maya gave a single statement..

‘It’s not real.’

I was furious about it, but there was nothing I could do, especially not against rich people like them who had the money to hire young children to act as disabled orphans.

Maya grew startled as she warned me with a small warning.

‘Alert, danger Sia.’

Before I could even react, I saw movement at the edges of the crowd before the venue erupted in shouts and chaos.

Rats and birds in dozens attacked the venue as all of their fake smiles and sympathy turned into genuine screamings of horror.

Someone dropped a tray as they started leaving in chaos.

While I wasn't involved, I stood still and watched because oddly enough, I got the same feeling from them as I got from Maya.

By the time I understood what was happening, it was already over as the charity collapsed into panic and terror.

And I?

I walked straight to the buffet because if it's all going to be bizarre and crazy, I might as well eat.

---

Fifty minutes later, I was walking home dragging my lemonade cart behind me.and eating a chicken thigh of the bone like I just survived a war.

“This,” I told Maya proudly, “is called justice.”

She landed on my shoulder giving me a side eye.

“I don’t want to hear it,” I said. “You helped.”

She blinked, causing me to gasp.

“Maya! How rude!”

.

.

.

By the time I got home, Aunt Carrie was already gone for her night shift leaving me in peace.

And when I laid down, it was then that I see a small velvet pouch on the floor.

“…Maya,” I frowned. “Is it my birthday?”

She said nothing, which means no, so I picked up the warm pouch and opened it to see a beautiful red brooch in it.

It looked like blood frozen in metal.eith black thorns around.

It looked expensive and alive.

“…Where did you get this?” I asked slowly but Maya didn’t respond.

I narrowed my eyes on her. “If I wear this, I’ll get arrested for theft. You know that, right?”

Still nothing.

I sighed.

“Fine. I’ll sell it. Then I’ll buy you that Tom Hardy autograph you keep harassing me about.”

Maya looked offended but my attention was caught on the brooch that seemed to glow.

“…Okay, that’s new.”

Then it pierced my skin sharply causing me to feel a sinking feeling like I was drowning.

“Maya…” I whispered as the world tilted and everything just went black.

The last thing I saw was Maya lunging towards me and just before I hit the floor, I swear I could hear her audibly speak up instead of speaking in my mind.

“Sia–?!”