[mp][gravesend] graveyard girls | senna

august 2003

"But when she was dangling from the rafters, still singing, that was insane!" Rheya said, skipping ahead a little on the sidewalk they were traveling down. The sun had long set but she was so far from sleepy it was almost silly. There was a quietness to the town of Gravesend that felt deafening, especially after the concert they had just left. There were no muggle cars, no factory noise, not even church bells ringing in the distance. It was the middle of the night, and it was the time Rheya loved most. Walking down the dimly lit street with Senna next to her she felt giddy, electrified by the Weird Sisters concert they had just left, and a little bit drunk still.

"Like how did she apparate up there so fast? Didn't even miss a note in the song?" The Weird Sisters had always been one of her favorites bands, well okay, she had hundreds of favorite bands, but they were certainly pretty high on the list. And after hearing they were coming to Gravesend, her home town, Rheya didn't wait a second before scoring two tickets. They had sold out in minutes but she managed to snag a few. If she had to, Rheya would have resorted to asking her father, Gravesend Hero, Wyatt Hawkins, Sr. for an assist but luckily it never came to that.

She sighed dreamily as they turned down the next street, Rheya leading them to a cemetery she'd been meaning to show to Senna for a while now. It was as old as the city, half the stones were broken or falling apart, and being magical, it was absolutely haunted. She just knew Senna would find it interesting, she'd probably make friends, and Rheya was always looking for things to make her best friend happy. Hands-on the hem of her dress, Rheya flapped the material side to side, buzzing from the excitement of the night. The dress was a step up from her typical oversized shirts but it stuck true to her no pants mantra. The dress was fancier than normal, showing off her thin figure and the minimalist tattooed that lined her boney spine.

"So what was your favorite part Sen?"

"Dangling! From the rafters! Insaneeeee!" Senna echoed each of Rhey's words, the brightest of smiles on her face as she flew on the wings of the post concert high. She still felt her hearting beating out of her chest, the music thrumming through her body like it was her own heart beat. That was what music did to her and whether it was her own concert or someone else's, she didn't think she'd ever tire of this feeling.

It was all the more special with Rhey at her side because she knew that they felt the same way.

"She even sounded better when she was upside down singing," Senna gushed with a wide smile, remembering the moment, her head craned back, staring in wonder at the performance. "How is that possible?" she asked on a laugh, immediately wondering if she sounded better upside down too. She skipped in front of Rheya and stopped in her tracks. "Quick, levitate me so I can see if I sound that good upside down. Maybe that's the secret," she said, laughing before twirling away her baby blue velvet slip dress fluttering around her pale legs.

"Where are we going anyway?" she asked curiously, glancing down the street. Was there some kind of 24 hour diner ahead, knowing her and Rhey's go to post concert meal was some kind of hearty diner food. She danced back to her friend and looped her arm around her friend's, marveling at how different they looked on the outside, caramel skin to pale alabaster, and yet they were the same in so many ways that mattered more. The universe worked in wondrous ways and Senna felt like she was bursting full of emotion after that concert.

"I love love loved the ballad. It looked like a thousand stars in the stadium with everyone swaying and raising their lit wands," she said, the memory of it making her heart squeeze. "Think we'll ever have a moment like that on stage?"

"You would sound good even if you were upside down, underwater, and half-naked," Rheya told her best friend before giggling, "Better even, probably, now that would be a show~" She skipped ahead to catch up with Senna, and the pair laughed together. It was such a good show, Rheya hoped their band would put on such performances one day. They were doing well enough, but they didn't have that same kind of presence yet. Okay, well, Jonesy, Oliver, and Senna, absolutely had that larger than life thing going; Rheya, not so much. She was still nervous on stage, fumbling and making mistakes, but at least the music still sounded good. She couldn't lose focus, not even for a second, because she kept the tempo. It was too important. And she certainly couldn't do it hanging upside down.

"It's a surprise~" She sang to the other witch as she looped her arm with Senna's and dragged her down the street. The cemetery was the next block over, less than five minutes away, and she was so excited to share it with the other witch. "Ooh yeah, that was so dreamy," Rheya agreed, staring off at the sky, remembering the way everyone's wands swayed together like a sea of stars; it was so great. "I think so," She offered; she hoped so anyway.

Rounding the corner as they arrived at the large stone and iron gates, Rheya brushed off the overgrown and abandoned sign, "Falkreath Cemetary, est. 1703" She read it out loud and gave Senna a wiggle of her eyebrows. "Come," Rheya beckoned, pushing open the creaky gates with some effort and stepping over the threshold. Magical cemeteries were far more haunted than muggle ones, but this one took the cake. Almost the instant they stepped inside, things started to spring to life undead. Leaves rusted like little cyclones around their feet, and the temperature dropped nearly five degrees. "Spooky~."

Senna laughed, light and airy, even as she gave her best friend an impish look, complete with dimples and a glint in her eye. "That sounds like  a show I want to do, how can we convince Ollie?" she said, grinning as she imagined her trying to pitch their lead singer on a number where she was upside down, underwater like a mermaid, oh and naked. She wasn't exactly into marketing and gimmicks, but she might actually try it at home in their clawfoot tub to see if Rhey had the right idea about her vocals. She just hoped she wouldn't drown. She made a note to try it on the next full moon when her vocals were bound to be at their best.

"A surprise for me?" she asked with glee, feeling warm at the thought that Rheya had planned something special just for her. She hadn't thought this night could be any better, but then her best friend had gone an done this just for her. Senna let herself be dragged by Rheya, following along willingly, leaning into her friend. "I hope we have moments like that. Can you just picture it?" Senna asked, looking over to Rhey with a hopeful smile on her face. It felt like they were ramping up to something and she just hoped that it would turn into something real.

As soon as they rounded the corner, Senna felt a breeze on her legs and she just knew she was really going to love this surprise. The iron gates were a dead giveaway and a small smile grew brighter and bigger as Rhey brushed off the sign. "Wicked," she whispered, excited as she traced one finger over the three on the sign before she grasped Rheya's hand and followed her inside. She loved cemeteries and magical ones were even better. "Have you been here before?" she asked as she shivered at the change in temperature, her honey colored eyes glinting gold in the dark as she traced the shapes and shadows of the tombstones.

"I hope there are some ghosts to meet!" she whispered excitedly, glancing about for any floating figures who might want to make an appearance. Senna had been friends with more than one of the Hogwarts ghosts, some of whom weren't keen on her friendship but she had a curiosity and an interest that couldn't be killed.

"Only once, but it was on a Wednesday, so there weren't many spirits hanging around," Rheya said with a nod that she assumed Senna would understand. Of any day of the week, Wednesday was the least spiritually connected, , of course. Pulling her friend further into the graveyard, the witch covered her mouth to keep from making too many impressed sounds.

To their right, she could hear the sounds of children laughing and playing some hopscotch game, she couldn't quite see them, just their ghostly outlines, but their giggles were easy to hear. There were sounds of cannon fire and marching and a pair of soldiers leaning against tall tombstones drinking some vintage whiskey to the left. Rheya watched both sets of ghosts in turn before finally turning her gaze back to her best friend.

"Hopscotch or whiskey?" She asked, motioning toward both of the groups with the bouncing nod of her head. Rheya wasn't frightened, not yet anyway; there were at least twenty minutes left before the witching hour, and that was when everything got incredibly spooky. So they had some time to explore and make friends before they might have to be more on guard. "Unless your scared~?" She asked, wiggling her fingers at the other witch and reaching to tickle her before laughing.

Senna hummed a noise of agreement with a roll of her eyes. Wednesdays were the worst. Middle of the week hell, no doubt about it. Even the spirits seemed to agree.

She followed Rhey further into the cemetery, feeling so light and free that she was almost floating over the dark twists and turns of the small footpath as they entered deeper into the realm of the dead. It was perfect. Senna felt the hairs on her arms raising in warning, in delight just before she spied them.

Ghostly figures like slivers of moonlight shimmering near their graves. She squeezed her friend’s hand, smiling, not sure if she would be able to resist approaching them. The Hogwarts ghosts had never really taken to her, not even the Fat Friar, but Senna was always optimistic that she would find a ghost bestie one of these days.

Rhey left the decision up to her and she grinned, quickly glancing between the two groups. Soldiers always had interesting stories to tell, but then again, so did kids. Still, she left a pull toward the left so she was about to take a step toward the soldiers when Rhey tickle-attacked and she tried to dance away with light footsteps, but ended up shrieking in delight as Rhey tickled her. She curled up against her friend in a sort of defense and then straightened after a moment, grabbing Rhey’s hand instead tugging her closer. “Of course I’m not afraid,” she said truthfully, boasting a little, eager, but also with a subtle question in her eyes. She knew her hobbies weren’t for everyone.

But as she looked back toward the left, she noticed the ghosts, both groups, young and older, staring at them. Some with surprise, some with the dull boredom of the afterlife, and one of the young girls with what felt like hatred. Her shriek of a giggle had called attention to the living, breathing humans, out of place in this land of the dead in the short time before the witching hour. Within a few moments, they had all vanished.

“Oh no, come back,” she called softly with a step in their direction. Their leaving felt like her Hogwarts days when no one wanted to play with her then either. She fought against that feeling taking root. She knew that energy wouldn’t convince them to come back.

Senna's laughs were infectious, and soon enough, Rheya was holding her stomach as she giggled along. This was what she loved the most about the two of them: the comfort. Rheya felt like she could do anything and be anyone when Senna was around. Like the other witch made her stronger, but at the same time, she asked absolutely nothing of her. There were no expectations, just love, and laughter. And sometimes ghosts.

"Oh, no," Rheya whispered as the spirits all started heading back toward what she assumed were their tombstones. The little bits of carved stone serving as tethers from this world to the next. Rheya followed a set of children, two young girls who giggled in the same way that the pair of living souls had just been, and was led to a matching set of markers. "Clara and Eudora Addington, Born 1897, Died 1909." She read aloud, thin fingers tracing along the top of the tombstone as she did.

"Should we sit? Maybe if we are still and quiet, they will get curious and come back?"

Senna drifted closer, following Rhey's wake as she examined the headstones. With the ghosts gone, she realized there was a chill in the air that wasn't there before. Maybe because there were less spirits around now. She was.. disappointed. But she shook her head at Rhey's suggestion. She didn't particularly like ghost children, they were.. different. Stuck. And it warped them in ways Senna didn't want to explore.

She extended a hand to her friend, "Can we walk instead?" she asked, with a little nod to a path that would take them further into the cemetery. Maybe they would see other spirits or maybe not, but Senna loved walks at midnight through a cemetery and she knew this one had lots of stories to tell. She clasped her hand around her friends as they fell into step with each other headed down the path, darkness and shadows accompanying them.

"Think you'll be a ghost one day?" she asked out of the blue, her voice low and musical as she grinned, her white teeth flashing in the dark.

"Of course, babe," Rheya began softly and moved to walk close to her best friend. Senna's fingers interlaced with hers's and Rheya wrapped her other arm across her own body to touch Senna's forearm gently. Falling easily into step beside Senna, the young witch couldn't help but stare at what surrounded them. The night sky, the dark clouds that rolled lazily over the moon, and the gravestones scattered across hallowed ground that hadn't been broken in nearly a century. Everyone here was long dead, but that didn't mean they were long gone, and Rheya was hoping for it.

"Oh, right, I brought these for you," Rheya began to explain as she let go of Senna's hand to move away for a moment. Pulling her canvas and tye-dye bag around her body, she dug her entire arm into the bag to fish out the little candies she'd stolen from JR's stockpile when she visited the house earlier. The kid had more candy than he knew what to do with, so Rheya felt no guilt helping him handle the load. Holding the little candies out to Senna, she thought of another thing to make her friend happy, and a warmth filled her. Rheya lived to make others happy, to the point that she often forgot to take care of herself.

"Will you read my palm?"

Her smile grew a little brighter, like a full moon on a dark night, as Rhey took her hand, the two of them fitting snugly together as she leaned her head against her friend's shoulder as they walked for a bit. Senna had always found cemeteries peaceful and intriguing, a mystery, a question right around every corner. And she was happy that Rheya didn't mind coming to places like this, for her. It was a moment where she truly felt the warmth of the universe in her blood that she had been given such a good friend. In all the people in the world, all of the students at Hogwarts, all of the musicians in London, her and Rheya had found each other and the significance was something she didn't take for granted.

Those thoughts danced around her head like night clouds before she blinked back to the present, straightening, tucking her silver blonde hair behind her ear as she peered around to see what Rheya had brought. "Ohh!" he eyes light up as she saw the candies sitting like little gems in her palm and she took a few, leaving the red ones that might be cherry-flavored for Rheya since that was her favorite. The plastic crinkled as she twisted the candy open and popped it in her mouth, her eyes sparkling as she said, "Mmm, caramel," around a mouthful of candy.

Read her palm? Senna smiled brightly and grabbed her hand without hesitation, pulling her over to a shadow-lined bench on the edge of the path as she sat, her legs folded beneath her, and pulled Rheya onto the bench beside her. She took her friend's palm in both of her hands, rubbing her thumbs across the back of Rheya's hand a few times before flipping it over. The faint light of the moonlight falling on them as Senna's lips quirked. "You just going to argue about everything I read like last time?"

"Probably... not?" Rheya said smugly as they sat together on the bench in the cemetery. Crossing her legs under her much like Senna had, Rheya faced the other witch and held her hand out. "Last time you told me to avoid the negative energy of avocados, how else was I supposed to react?" Rheya loved Senna with all of her heart, but that had been utter tosh. Or at least, she had thought so until she'd done a face mask with her younger sister, Magnolia, and broken out in hives. Whoops.

Seeing the remaining cherry-flavored candy in her other hand, Rheya used her teeth to pull the crinkly wrapping from it and was careful not to litter. Stuffing the candy into her mouth and the wrapping into the abyss that was her bag, she smiled up at Senna. "Alright girl, I'm ready; lay it on me." She said between sucking on the candy and moving it around in her mouth, her cheeks bulging as it moved. Feeling Senna run her fingers along the top of her hand Rheya fought back a shiver. Goosebumps ran down her arms and legs as the leaves behind them rustled in the wind. What a perfect setting for a palm reading.

Rheya tried to be still, but it was hard to keep from bouncing. The high from the concert, spending time with Senna, and being in such a creepy (yet somehow peaceful?) setting had her buzzing. She felt the electricity running through her, feeling like she could stay up for days and let her mind wander to far off places.

Senna shook her head ruefully as they mirrored each other, sitting on a cold bench in a cemetery, hands together. She rolled her eyes for the benefit of her friend. "Avocados are very judgmental, I'll have you know," she answered, tilting her nose up gently as she made a face at Rhey before smoothing her thumbs over the other girl's palm, feeling the warmth of her friend physically and spiritually as she touched her.

She examined the lines and recalled the things she had learned from Nella, a friend who owned her own amulet and crystal shop and had a pretty aura that was lavender and silver, as she sucked on her caramel candy. "Round palm means your artistic. Your ring finger is very long so that means you're creative, but we know that, don't we," she summed up neatly.

Her silver blonde hair floated on the wind as she shifted a bit and traced a line down the center of her palm. "The heart line is good, strong. A little frayed at the end so might mean some issues in the future..." Sen added ominously.

She turned her hand on the side to see the lines on the side just below where her pinky ended, running her fingertip over the lines there. "Marriage and children lines," Senna announced with a glance up at her friend and a smile. "The marriages are horizontal lines so it looks like you have three, see this one is a good, strong line? That'll be a good one. Or maybe it just means our marriage," she laughed softly.

"Oh, are they now?" Rheya giggled, her free hand moving to cover her mouth. It was a silly thing to think about avocados' energy, but Rheya was not in the slightest bit surprised. This was Senna; after all, she operated on a whole other wavelength, and Rheya felt lucky to get glimpses of it now and then. Senna's fingers trailing along her palm sent little shivers up Rheya's arm, and she smiled. It was a warm feeling; tingly, she liked it. "Mmmhmm," Rheya murmured, she was creative, though she had felt less so lately. Now that things were going with the band, but that was just anxiety acting up, she knew it would pass.

"Issues like what?" Rheya asked, her mind immediately jumping to a specific man's face, the long black hair he was constantly pushing out of his face, and the cigarette that was dangling dangerously between his fingers. Kai. "Wait, three kids? Or three marriages?" She blurted out; all thoughts of Kai washed away as she shook her head at Senna. "My dad is not going to pay for three weddings, babe," Rheya said with a laugh, but she knew he would, not that she would ever ask.

"When are we going to get married, then? Can you see that?"

"They areee," Sen insisted, smiling lightly as she heard Rhey laugh. She knew it was silly, but she couldn't help but think those fruits(?).. vegetables(?) were always slightly judging her. And then of course, she blinked and they were all brown on the inside.

Senna shrugged at the question. "Issues of the heart," she said mysteriously, smiling lightly. She had no clue. She didn't even know if she was reading it right. She needed more practice. Merlin, she was jealous of natural-born seers. "Three marriages," she added then her eyes met Rhey's with a devilish glint. "Maybe the first husband will be mega rich and we can live off the money from the divorce. We won't have to ask Mr. H to pay for all of them, we'll just be two badass witches with our own fortunes." She could imagine it, but it made her laugh considering there were still hustling even despite the recent upswing in popularity Ollie and the band were getting these days.

"Babe, whether we make it official or not, you're stuck with me for life," Senna told her with a smile before leaning down to kiss the center of Rhey's palm lightly and interlacing their fingers as she stood up. "C'mon, let's walk a little more. Do the Hawkins have a family mausoleum or plot?" she asked curiously, the excitement shining in her eyes.

"Senna, that doesn't mean anything?" Issues of the heart? From a bad break up (been there), or from too much fried food (she went to the deli a lot), or perhaps from drinking too much coffee and not sleeping enough (one day she'd catch up... maybe). And yet, despite all her awful habits and heartbreak, Rheya felt like she was living her best life. It was easy to feel that way, though, with Senna sitting so close. No matter where she was, from the middle of a cemetery to playing a show on stage, Rheya felt infinitely safer when her best friend was there. Rheya moved a lot, she was always on the go, especially now with the band, but one thing had remained constant: Senna was home.

"Oh, I like this plan." She added, giggling at the little story that Senna had weaved and knowing it had nothing to do with the lines in her palms. Even if Senna could read them, Rheya doubted she could get all of that from a simple wrinkle. "Wouldn't that be nice?" Rheya didn't mind having a few side jobs, whatever they had to do to pay the rent, but it would be nice to have the extra sickles. It would let them focus solely on music and creative hobbies. What a luxury. "We could get a pool." She said with a smile, though she didn't mind running through the sprinkler when the heat in London got unbearable. Or sneaking into her parent's house when she knew they were on holiday.

Asking Senna when they would get married had Rheya giggling again, but Senna's answer made her feel all fluttery. Stuck with me for life, but it wasn't such a scary thought. "Less paperwork this way," She said with a shrug, warmth radiating from where Senna had kissed her palm and then hopping off of the bench. "Yeah, oh, wow, it's ridiculous, I'll show you, and you will laugh." Rheya tugged the other witch in the direction of the Hawkins mausoleum, the one her father had constructed when she was twelve, and held back the rest of her judgments until Senna got a chance to see it.

The marble and granite stone structure was daunting, just like her giant of a father, with a wrought iron door and the name HAWKINS carved above the entrance. Sigils and charms were engraved around the door frame, warding to keep things in and out, just in case, and decoration. Rheya felt like something magical shift around them as they reached the building, and the iron gate creaked open, allowing them entrance.