My Neighbor Is A Silver Haired Banshee - 7 The Real Betha MacSweeny Friday, 2 August 2019

Betha had been watching Apollo’s every move since she saw him a month ago. She’d been looking for a new place to live in and didn’t have any luck in finding one, until she got sidetracked by Apollo’s visuals while he was jogging. At that time, she was riding her silver Hyundai Tucson, a small SUV that she had stolen from a reporter in his early 30s. His name was Ken. She took his car right after wailing for him. It’s been a year since he passed away and Betha loved every bit of her sophisticated vehicle with such refined fluidic design. She had been taking things that she wanted from every person who died after her wailing. She just loved taking things for free.

Betha wanted to take Apollo for herself and it was the first time she had wanted a human. She normally had a strong affection for material things and now, Apollo had been added to the list.

He had the most alluring scent, almost like a scent of a virgin except that he wasn’t. His entire body smelled so youthful and sinful that it was hard for her to act normal around him. She had one goal; Apollo should fall in love with her despite the disgusting old hag Banshee form so that when he does, he’ll die and Betha will absorb his youth to get rid of the ugly transformation. I’ll be a beautiful Banshee forever. Betha thought with an evil grin on her perfect beautiful face.

In discreetly following Apollo, there was a vacant house in front of his place, so everything was of perfect timing. It was as if she was meant to see him and her boring secret life finally had something exciting to do. When she moved to the new house, the plan to lure him into being attracted to her had worked although she was already 100% sure it would. Anyone would’ve fallen for a beautiful lady; the challenge was to make him fall in love with her despite her form. After Apollo and Gab had accidentally seen her, she did her best to make Gab believe she was nothing but a normal being cursed to be a Banshee. She had helped him come down from the old treehouse with Apollo and had shown him nothing but her sweetest voice in her beautiful form. It took about 15 long minutes to finally get his trust and she knew that Apollo would believe anything that Gab said.

She wasn’t expecting for them to show up at the pharmacy though, so she was taken aback when they did. For the first time in her life, she was nervous to be found out as a Banshee, so she hid her real name and instantly used the character from The Underland Chronicles, a book that she had read because she was a fan of Suzanne Collins. The book was a series of 5 impressive fantasy novels and Nike was a princess of the fliers. She was her favorite because of her sense of humor, and she played a very important role in the fifth book that it had stuck to her. Later, she thought it was useless to use a fake name because she needed Apollo to see the real Betha MacSweeny. She wanted his trust and love. It felt cheesy and she didn’t like the idea of a fairy-tale-like story where true love would save the lead character, but she just had to do it if she wanted to get rid of her ugly side.

At 9 in the morning, she got a call from the pharmacy and got flustered when she realized she was late. She had been spying on Apollo since 5am but he didn’t get up to go jogging by that time. She levitated and peeked through his room’s window only to see him sound asleep and even smiling. He was probably dreaming of her. By 7am, he was finally doing his daily routine, so she creeped quietly on every big tree to hide herself. She realized she should’ve just pretended to jog but none of her outfits were sporty. She then decided to go shopping after her work at the pharmacy.

On the other line, Mr. Park was waiting for Betha’s response. “Yes. I’m sorry. There was an emergency last night, so I didn’t wake up on time today. I’ll be there in an hour.” After a quick 30-minute preparation, she was done showering and dressing up. When she opened her garage, she could smell food and wondered if maybe Apollo and Mrs. Rodriguez were having breakfast and talking about her. She tiptoed her way towards their backdoor which she slightly opened to eavesdrop and heard Apollo firmly confirming to her mom that she was a normal human being. After their conversion, she saw him preparing himself to wash the dishes, closed the backdoor and tiptoed her way back to her garage. Wearing heels wasn’t a good idea so she promised herself to add flat shoes on her shopping list. By 10am, she was already at the pharmacy but for the nth time, she forgot her ID again. Being so forgetful made her feel like a klutz. She was changing her bag almost every day to match her outfit that she would always forget her working ID. She wondered if she would be reprimanded this time, but she didn’t care. Her only concern was to keep playing the sweet irresistible beautiful woman for Apollo and eventually get him eating out of the palm of her hands.

By lunch time, she was wondering why Apollo had not texted her. He might not be as drawn to her as she thought and that made her anxious. Betha accumulated every bit of control she had not to send him a message first but by 1pm, she was already fidgety.

“You didn’t take your lunch?” Hannah asked as Betha stocked bottles of vitamin capsules near the counter.

“I’m not hungry.” She answered. And she wasn’t lying. She was more worried to even think about fending for her stomach. She didn’t have her breakfast as well. Despite the lack of appetite, her tummy highly disagreed as it growled loud enough for Hannah to hear.

“Girl, you need to eat. The peak hour is done so I can handle this with Ralph. He’s just doing the inventory. ”

“It’s okay. I’m not in the mood to eat.”

Hannah surrendered in convincing Betha and went back to the counter to assist a young man whose neck was about to break from looking in between shelves. “How may I help you? You seem to be looking for something. Can I have your prescription?”

“Oh no. I’m not here to buy anything. I’m looking for Betha.”

Betha was hidden just behind the first aisle of medicine shelves fronting the counter. She was still stocking vitamins when she instantly recognized Apollo’s voice. She smiled before showing her beautiful self to Apollo.