The Witch Box

by Laura Ellison

  Chapter Twenty–Three

  Anna was heading for the hallway door when she heard the crying; a squeal becoming a wail.

  She stopped and turned around. Anna walked back to the office area, near her desk. The door to Max’s office was still shut.

  She heard another squeal behind the door. Anna reached for the knob.

  The first thing she saw, surrounded in candlelight, was Max’s desk, covered with another black embroidered cloth. In the stitched pentagram in the center, a human hand sat, palm up.

  Ruth’s hand.

  Anna recognized a Hand of Glory. But she knew the hand had to belong to a murderer in order to be effective.

  Davey, she thought. They were all murderers.

  The next thing Anna saw was Max’s chair, which was turned around. The candles revealed the shadow of the chair’s occupant.

  The baby cried. A woman hummed then started to sing. “There was a boy...”

  Anna almost gasped, covering her mouth.

  “...who travelled very far, over land and sea...”

  She pulled her hand away. “Elizabeth?”

  The woman stopped singing, turning the chair around.

  Anna thought this woman couldn’t be Elizabeth Hildebrand. She was bald, her face a mass of thick scars, covered with heavy makeup. This woman, bundled in a white coat sticky with smeared blood, looked as if she had been burned years ago.

  “You took Colbie’s baby?” Anna asked.

  She was shaking, close to tears. The baby was wrapped in a white sheet, also stained.

  “We needed the baby,” Liz said. “We’re all so sick. And tired...”

  “I thought you died in the fire.”

  “I did. But Harvester favored me. I woke up. Max knew; he just wanted me to stay away. I had to leave my Joshua behind.”

  “Why did you...take the baby?”

  “Colbie was a stupid girl. She thought she was so smart, but she didn’t know a thing. Harvester found her cheap. Same thing with Brenda the Bombshell.”

  Anna looked down at the baby, who had become quiet. “You brought Colbie here?”

  “Alice did. She told the girl you and Joshua needed help, that your car was stuck in the snow. Alice took her to Max’s SUV by the church. Leo was waiting. They brought her here.”

  “Leo?”

  “What’s left of him. He was strong, but we could get him to do anything. Like a dancing bear.”

  “We?”

  “Alice, Rebecca, and I. Rebecca had a massive stroke. She heard Harvester’s warning, but she had to be dead for a while. Sneaked out of the morgue in Falls River, naked in a sheet. Alice had to go get her.”

  Liz’s laughter was soft as she rocked the newborn from side to side. “Ah, poor baby. His suffering will end soon. So will his father’s...”

  She doesn’t know, Anna thought. But would it matter?”

  “Josh wouldn’t stand in your way,” Anna said. “He understands Harvester’s favor.”

  “That’s why I wanted him to have the crystal. I needed to know where he was at all times. I didn’t want him around when Alice sent out Leo.”

  Bonnie would have let Leo right into her house, Anna thought.

  “That hand...”

  “Yes,” Liz said. “Hand of Glory to protect themselves. That’s what Ruth and Bonnie were trying to do when Leo showed up. They were desperate. The hand could be used to control Leo but Ruth and Bonnie didn’t know who to be afraid of. Who would suspect good ol’ Leo? But he’s starting to lose strength. Joshua is young, so are you. Even Colbie.”

  Anna tried to swallow down the lump in her throat. “What are you going to do with the baby?”

  “You seem like a smart girl. Do I have to tell you?”

  “Why?”

  “Because Harvester promised us everlasting life. Blessed be.”

  “I have to give myself credit,” Alice said. “I sure wiped out your memory. The girls wanted to end your pain, but Harvester has his own ways. Who knew you would become so sick? But you survived. Strong boy.”

  Joshua set the witch box down at a table. “Where was I found?”

  He was looking at Rebecca, who had been staring down at the floor. “As you know, we are related to the Curtis family. Liz is my daughter, Alice my grandniece.”

  “But I didn’t grow up at the old house,” Alice said.

  Rebecca chuckled. “It was falling apart even then. Anyway, the grand dame Charlotte Curtis was my great-grandmother. She brought her talent with her from Oklahoma. She taught my grandmother about Harvester, but he was just a mythical figure to that generation. They were religious, those people. William made sure of it. He controlled the wealth and Charlotte liked being a rich wife. But she had her ways...”

  “There’s people buried on that property,” Alice said. “The little ghost hunters don’t know about that, I’ll bet.”

  “Dead babies. Dead servants. The throwaway people. That’s how you would have ended up, Joshua. I gave you that name.”

  “He would have ended up another dead baby.”

  “The Curtis women have a strange dislike of their children.”

  “Are you saying I’m a Curtis?” Joshua asked.

  “Yes,” Rebecca said. “I found you in the house. This girl had come to town. Her name was Heather Curtis. She claimed to be Louise’s great-granddaughter. She said the house was hers, she had inherited the place. She came to see us, brought you with her, on her hip. But she didn’t seem right. She looked sick.”

  “Drug addict,” Alice said.

  “It’s always drugs. She had her camper out there. Some guy was with her. Maybe your father. I came by to visit a few times in May and June. Then he left and she was alone with you. I didn’t come by for a while. She probably thought I was being nosy. Then, one day in July, I came by. The front door was unlocked. I let myself in to that wreck of a house. I heard you crying, Joshua. Heather was dead on the floor, wrapped in a sleeping bag. All of her drug garbage around her–needles, a spoon. She was starting to stink. You were in a little bassinet. I took you out of there.”

  “What about my father?”

  “He looked like something out of one of those grunge bands. He was long gone.”

  “Did anyone come looking for her?”

  “No. Alice and I buried her on the property. Got rid of the camper. No others have come around since. It’s been eighteen years.”

  “And you gave me to Dad and Mom?”

  “Liz very much wanted to have a baby. I helped her with some fertility spells. But we, as a circle, focused on ending the drought.”

  “Praying for rain,” Alice said. “The fruit crops all failed. Dreadful. People coming into the bank every day, begging for loans. We waited for summer to end. September and no rain. My husband wasn’t the only death that year. I was working on my grimoire one night in September, and Harvester spoke to me. He told me he needed a boy to make it rain. I knew what he meant, but we knew Liz would never agree to give you up to Harvester no matter how devoted she was, so we offered Davey.”

  “Why would Harvester favor a sick child?” Joshua asked.

  “He accepted Davey and it rained hard the next day.”

  “There were no questions? Davey is buried in the cemetery—“

  “No. He was buried on the Curtis property.”

  “You killed your own son, Alice.”

  “I know. He would have been lucky to live to be a teenager. Cystic fibrosis is a nasty disease, worse than cancer, because there is more hope with cancer.”

  “What about my birthday? Was I born in July?”

  “No. That’s when I found you,” Rebecca said. “Max and Liz chose that day because it was easier. We had no idea of your real birthday.”

  “The diabetes?”

  “You were born with it. Most likely, your son could have it, too. But Harvester would very much favor a baby. So pure. Like angels.”

  They don’t know, he thought.

  “Colbie will be gi
ving birth soon,” he said. “I’m sure she would not be willing to give her baby away—“

  “She wasn’t willing at all, was she, Leo?” Rebecca asked.

  Leo did not respond, looking as if asleep, his chin on his chest. He was not breathing.

  “What do you mean she wasn’t will—“ Joshua stopped himself, realizing what the old woman meant.

  Leo’s chin sunk down some more and then his whole body fell forward to the floor.

  The two women laughed.

  “Time for a new model,” Alice said. “Or two.”

  “Harvester will bless us,” Rebecca said. “He will make us strong again. We’re already half-way there. Show him your grimoire.”

  Joshua shook his head, continuing to stare at Leo’s corpse. Alice rose stiffly from her chair. Next to her tote-bag was a leather-bound book the size of a large Bible. “I had this bound myself. Paid a pretty penny for it, but Harvester liked to speak to me sometimes. I just wanted to learn more about his power, where he came from. I had his favor, but not like Liz. He would...touch her. She never told Max about it, he would be jealous.” She handed Joshua the book. “Everything is here. All the things Aunt Becca and Liz shared with me, Harvester’s words...”

  Joshua looked down at the worn leather, thinking of Liz and her circle. Harvester promised them their deepest wishes and they were willing to kill for him.

  Colbie could be dead, he thought. And where is the baby? How can I stop them?

  He opened the book at the table. His witch box was near his elbow. Alice resumed her place at her chair, next to Rebecca.

  Joshua became fascinated with every page; some handwritten, some typed. Alice’s sketches looked familiar, but the sketch of the green stone made him stop.

  The same stone in his witch box.

  The spirit stone. Spirit. Fire.

  He flipped open his box and pulled out the stone.

  I don’t have Harvester’s favor, he thought, but I have talent. I can try.

  “What are you doing?” Alice asked.

  She would need time to get out of the chair to reach him. He lit the black candle with the table candle, placing the green stone over the black candle’s flame. He held it for a moment then placed the hot stone on the grimoire.

  The pages burst into flames.

  Joshua pulled his hand away, but he wasn’t burned.

  “What the Hell did he do?” Rebecca asked.

  “You little bastard!” Alice cried.

  Joshua threw his cooled stone and smoking candle into the box, taking it with him as he ran to the door, the flames in his wake. When he reached the end of the staircase, he laid the stone on the last step, watching the flames rise, knowing the fire would keep Alice and Rebecca from following him.

  “I could have spent many years feeling guilty,” Liz said. “But I didn’t actually do the sacrifice. I was there, but I didn’t raise a sword. Five swords. Rebecca. Alice. Ruth. Bonnie. Lois. Marilyn was the witness. I never touched the boy. They had been practicing, placing their sword blades in the shape of a pentagram. Five sides. In the middle, the head. This how Harvester came to be. Rebecca and Alice knew his history.

  The boy’s death was quick. His head and body were buried separately in the cornfield. The drought ended and Max started his business.”

  “They...cut the boy’s head off?” Anna asked.

  “Yes. Those old cement steps. You found my cloth...”

  “The dog?”

  “It had been there for a long time...”

  “Why was your cloth there?”

  “I put it there. I wanted to tease Joshua a bit; I wondered how much he really remembered.”

  “He is recalling more and more.”

  “Alice and Rebecca have him upstairs. I’m sure they’ve told him a lot. He deserves to know, but it won’t make a difference. We have other plans for him.”

  “What are you going to do with the baby?”

  Anna and Liz heard the piercing shriek before Colbie’s cold, naked body crashed in. The candles toppled over, wax spattering on to the black cloths. Colbie pushed Anna towards Liz.

  Liz kept a tight hold on the baby. The room filled with the smell of smoke and decay. Colbie had fallen with Anna and Liz. Colbie grabbed Liz under the chin. The woman screamed and the baby started squalling. Colbie stuck her fingers in Liz’s eyes and Anna was able to get a grip on the baby.

  Liz let go. Anna rolled away with the newborn, the sheet dragging. She gathered it as she rose, heading out of the office.

  She could hear the fire alarms over Liz’s screaming.

  Anna turned the inside lock at the front doors, ready to run out with the baby.

  “Anna! Keep going!”

  She turned around and saw Joshua with the green stone in his hand, the witch box cradled in his other arm. “Get the baby to the hospital!”

  “Joshua! No!”

  He headed for Max’s office. Liz was crawling out, her eye bloody, lips torn. “Help me...”

  The vision of Colbie; naked, screaming, with the gaping, bloody wound in her gut. He saw the pentagram on her chest, realizing she was no better off than Leo. She came towards him. He pressed the stone on her flesh, grimacing as he did so.

  The flames ran up her arm to her hair. Colbie had been a beautiful girl and Joshua immediately regretted what he did but, for a moment, he saw the real Colbie in her eyes; her naïve, intelligent spirit.

  She threw herself on Liz as she burned.

  He heard something crash.

  “Anna! Get out!”

  The smell of smoke and cooking flesh was becoming overwhelming. The baby was squealing in shock. Anna pushed the door open to the winter cold.

  Liz and Colbie were enveloped in flames. Colbie’s body was turning black. Liz had become still.

  Joshua, his palms sweating, had not meant to drop the stone. He was helpless to stop the white flames rising from the floor around his feet. He was ready to run, but he heard the whispering. He looked to his side.

  A cloud of smoke took on a shape.

  “Alchemist...”

  The smoke was in the shape of a very tall, slender man with broad shoulders and long arms. The face, once fully formed, featured slanted eyes and full lips. The face of a Mongol warrior, someone who lived so long ago, he was as foreign as a space alien.

  Joshua started taking steps back. The smoke was reaching him, filling his lungs.

  “Stone makes fire. Death creates life. So much power. Too much for humans. Too weak. Quick to love, quick to forget...”

  Joshua was coughing, his eyes stinging. He wanted to hear more, to know the answers, the questions a torment all these years.

  “Pain...”

  Joshua could see the ceiling start to buckle.

  “Go now...”

  The smoke figure dissipated. Joshua headed for the doors. Just as he stepped out, the ceiling started to cave in.

  Anna had placed the baby in the backseat, wrapping the squalling newborn in her coat. She was shivering by the time she turned the key in the ignition.

  She knew the baby needed to see a doctor, but decided to wait a few more minutes for Joshua. She turned around in her seat and checked on the baby again. Colbie and Max’s son. Joshua’s half-brother.

  Smoke was billowing out of the downstairs windows. Anna could hear the sirens in the distance.

  The employee entrance door blew open and, through the smoke and darkness, Anna saw the cane and white hair.

  Rebecca was bent over, but walking. Anna heard the old woman coughing. She turned away from the parking lot, crossing the road.

  The sirens were getting closer. Anna put the car in reverse. She was pulling out when she saw movement in her rearview mirror.

  Joshua was running towards her car, the witch box in his arms.

  Anna and Joshua were out of the parking lot before the fire trucks arrived. Joshua was in the backseat with the baby.

  They were a few blocks from the plant when the headlights from
Anna’s car revealed a figure walking down the two-lane highway. Anna took in the bent-over old woman.

  “That is not Rebecca,” Joshua said.

  “Yes, it is. She can keep on walking.”

  “Everlasting life...”

  “They blew it.” Anna almost laughed, a dry chuckle. “Now that you have your witch box, you feel better?”

  “I feel like shit.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s just a box.”

  “Where’s the stone?”

  “I left it at the plant.”

  “What you were doing was alchemy. That’s special, Joshua. Not every witch can make fire from a stone.”

  “I don’t remember learning anything about alchemy. It just happened. Like someone was telling me to try...”

  “What now?”

  Joshua rolled down his window. He tossed the box out. “Whatever happens, I’m staying free from the past. I can’t change it, anyway.”

  They were miles away by the time Rebecca came upon Joshua’s box, contents spilled to the side of the road. She poked with her cane at the stones, candles, and other tools. Nothing of any value to the old woman.

  They had all studied Joshua’s witch box while he was in the hospital. Alice, now stuck on the downstairs floor with burns and a broken hip, had called Rebecca well before Joshua became ill. The green stone had done nothing for them; they never had that kind of talent. However, the box itself was interesting.

  The wooden antique box had belonged to Liz’s father, Rebecca’s first husband, who had died in Vietnam. He had shown her a secret compartment, a place to hide money or a small weapon. She opened the box, pulling at the green felt near the hinges. Inside, a tight opening allowed an object to be slipped in. The tips of her stiff fingers searched, brushing against something hard. As she pulled, the chain unraveled, the crystal almost invisible in the dark.

  Rebecca could take it home, find another use for it.

  She knew how to make old things new again.

  ###

  Thank you for reading-L.A.E

  Laura A. Ellison lives in Muskegon, MI. She is a graduate of Grand Valley State University, where she majored in English, her emphasis in creative writing. She is also the author of the novels Karma House, The Last Girl, Blood In Trust, and Consumed.

  Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EllisonLaura

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laura.ellison.90

  Author website: https://spiritimmortal.weebly.com