by Jamie Davis
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* * *
A groan went up from around the table as Eddie exhibited another of his horrible rolls on the pair of twenty-sided dice. The low result on both dice meant the team would fail to find any traps as they entered the passage that led to the Lich’s lair. Sam just smiled and gave a mock laugh “mwa-ha-ha-ha.” He was enjoying this night’s game a lot. Every one of the four players had shown horrible luck when rolling their dice for the game and several characters had come close to dying. Everyone was tense and the mood in the room was both excited and a little annoyed at the string of bad luck.
Sam asked them what they wanted to do next. He knew that there was no real choice. They had come here to play the game and the game led them down into the underground lair of the undead creature waiting for them. The trap had been laid.
“Man, Sam, you’ve outdone yourself this time,” Sandra said. “The whole scenario tonight is super-creepy. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up.”
“Thanks, Sandra. Jill and I like it when you guys come over and play. I thought we could go the extra mile for tonight’s session. So what do you all want to do next? Eddie detected no traps ahead.”
The players all looked at each other around the table. Eddie and Steve had both gone to high school with Sam and even though they had gone off to college, they both had kept in touch with their old friend, rejoining his weekly games when they graduated and returned to Elk City to settle into their adult lives. Sandra was a work friend of Sam’s wife, Jill. She was a divorcee and the newest member of their group. He suspected she was using this as a way to get out of her house once a week now that her ex-husband had moved out. She added a lot to the group, though, and she was easy on the eyes, too.
“We will go down the passage to the door at the far end,” Steve announced. “It’s what we’re here for. Let’s kill this Lich and steal his treasure.”
There were nods of approval and Sam smiled. Now it was time for the fun to begin. Eddie had failed his attempt to find traps and the party of adventurers was about to walk right into the Lich’s first defensive trap, laid out just for invaders like them.
“You step forward and hear a ‘click’ from down the hallway,” Sam announced.
“Run away!” Sandra shouted
“I duck to the floor,” Eddie proclaimed.
“I draw my sword,” Steve said standing up.
“Me, too,” Jill added.
“Too late,” Sam said. “You are all transported by magic to a large room. There is a pentagram drawn on the floor and you find yourselves within it. None of you can move so much as a muscle. You hear a weird deep voice begin to speak nearby and you can’t understand what the words are saying. It is in a language you have never heard before.”
Sam picked up the sheet of paper and began to read the words printed there. He was really in the groove and was surprised that he didn’t stumble over the unfamiliar word structure he encountered. There was a strange, green glow from the center of the table as he read and he heard the players gasp as he continued reading. He wondered where the glow was coming from, but found he could not stop reading the words once he had started. It was like someone else was reading them through him. He did not hear the spell’s final words. He felt his consciousness fade to the background as the being now speaking from inside his mind took over, finishing the dual spells of summoning and transformation. In the small apartment, there was a flash of bright green light and then the darkness came.
* * *
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* * *
“Great game, Sam,” Steve said as he stood up to leave.
Eddie joined in. “Yeah, that was the best one yet. Keep it up.”
“Eddie, can I get you to walk me out to my car?” Sandra asked
“Sure, we can all go down together.”
Jill closed the door behind them and looked up at him. “You outdid yourself this time, honey. Come to bed. We can clean up this mess in the morning.” She walked back to the bedroom in the tiny apartment without looking backward.
Graadu smiled to himself. None of them suspected that Sam was no longer in control of this body. He was still there, but not in control. The demon lord could hear the pitiful screams and protests in the back of Sam’s mind. Once the spell had been cast, the four players had been put into stasis while Graadu took some time to acclimate to his new surroundings. He spent two hours deciding what he would do to the band of adventurers in the apartment. In the end he decided to transform each of them in a different way. Each would begin to cause havoc in this small earth city, and each would be unaware of how they had become the monsters of their own nightmares.
The demon turned his attention to the two figurines on the table. Together, the pair had just enough power to help the human fool, Sam, to bring him here in this limited form. He recognized that the idols were actually part of a trio of summoning stones. If he could locate the third summoning idol of the set, it would allow him to fully manifest himself on earth, rather than merely possess this flimsy human body. This fleshy shell was so fragile and delicate. He would have to find the other stone figurine if he were to complete the summoning and enter this world for real. It had been more than six hundred years since he had come to earth. He longed to come back, take revenge on humankind for banishing him away in the first place, and see what this newer, modern world offered in the way of entertainments.
He had been amused by the way the humans of this time and place “played” at the tasks that would have been all too real for individuals just a few hundred years earlier. Had they all forgotten that things really did go bump in the night? Maybe this time, he would be able to remain on earth and create a hold over an entire region. If the humans were all so unsuspecting and unprepared for a true manifestation of evil, this was going to be easy.
Graadu looked at the statues again and asked Sam, cowering in the back of his mind, where they had come from. When he discovered they had been found at a nearby construction site, buried in the rubble after a fire, he became excited. All he would have to do is search the site. He would turn up either the third idol or maybe find the previous owners. They would likely know where the other stone idol was located. It would be child’s play to take the last one away from its owner if all the humans of the present time were such fools.
“Sam, come to bed. You’ve got work in the morning,” Jill called from the bedroom.
“Be right there,” Graadu said. He could start the search in the morning. Tonight he had other plans. It had been far too long since he had enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh. He had left Jill unchanged so he could savor her fear and terror when she realized her husband was not the man she thought he was. He was not a man at all.
Chapter 5
Two days later, Dean got up and made breakfast. It was his day off and ordinarily he would be getting ready to do some chores around the house and yard for his landlords, the Baxters. They were a nice elderly couple that Dean liked a lot. They offered him a break on the rent if he mowed the lawn for them and did other odds chores around the outside of their house and property as they needed.
That would have been his normal routine for a day off, but this wasn’t a normal day off. This was the day they sent Jo back to the future. The local Wiccan coven had to wait until the “stars and heavens were aligned” or some such nonsense. He didn’t know how magic worked, though he had benefited from it several times before since he started working at Station U. It did work, though, and if all went well, Joanna would be going back home today. He had mixed feelings about the spell and sending her back.
He and Joanna had become close over the last few weeks. He had come to grips with the fact that he had a daughter, and that she was the future teenaged version of that child. She was a good kid and had turned out alright. He had always wondered what kind of parent he would become when the time came. He had grown up with a single mother and a missing father. It turned out that, for all that he could
see in Jo, he was a pretty good dad despite not having a good role model of his own growing up.
He was thinking about this over a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal when Jo came padding out of the spare bedroom. She was still tired and had a serious case of bed-head hair going on.
“Hey, Jo,” Dean said. “There’s some more coffee on if you want a cup. Are you ready for today?”
“I guess so, Dad. I’m not sure I’m ready to go back. You and Mom need me to help you out with things. How are you going to find those other two figurines without my help?”
“We’ll just have to make do, I guess,” Dean laughed. “Seriously, Jo, how did you think we got along and got things done before you got here?”
“I don’t know and the two of you didn’t get along before I got here. It took me to make you stop fighting and start working together.” She had a big grin on her face. She wasn’t exactly wrong.
Dean didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was not the cause of the friendship between him and Jaz. He considered himself easy-going and he made friends easily. He would have found a way to get along with Jaz even if Jo had not come back and forced the issue while they searched for Ashley.
“Well, you can’t keep staying here, Jo. People would talk. I told the Baxters that you’re my niece and that you’re only here for a short time. No one will believe you’re my daughter and it will make me look like some sort of creepy guy with a teenaged girl living with him.”
“Eww, Dad. Way to make it weird.”
“See, that’s just what I mean.”
Jo came over and made her breakfast while Dean cleaned up his. The two of them chatted about other things while she finished her food, and he admitted to himself that he would miss her when she was gone. She was a good kid. The two of them cleaned up the breakfast dishes together one last time and then they headed out to drive to the Wiccan coven in Elk City where they would cast the spell to send her back.
* * *
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* * *
Anya, the leader of the Wiccan clan met Dean at the door of their large home located in one of the more prestigious neighborhoods of the city.
“Welcome, Dean, and welcome Joanna,” Anya said, gesturing for them to enter. “It is wonderful to finally meet you after all that Dean has said about you.”
Jo rushed forward to give Anya a hug that startled the older woman for a moment, then she enfolded the teen in her arms and returned the hug. She smiled at Dean over his daughter’s shoulder.
“Jo, your father sent us the details you shared about the spell that sent you here and we believe we have the necessary power and items needed to cast the reverse of it to send you back. We must be careful, though, in that we do not wish to have you cross over and alter the timeline in any way. This could be disastrous for all of our futures.”
“We are confident that you can do this, Anya,” Dean said.
“Don’t be so sure, Dean Flynn. The Coven has not always had great success when it comes to casting spells on your behalf.”
Dean remembered the magical explosion when they had tried to do a scrying spell to uncover who was at the heart of an anti-Unusual terrorist plot just a few months before. That had been the spell that had required the promise of his firstborn daughter to the coven in the first place. Jo would not have ended up in the hands of the Wiccan coven were it not for the price paid for that spell. It made him think. Nothing came for free.
“Anya,” Dean asked. “What is the price for this spell? I know there is always a price.”
The older woman laughed as she led them into the communal casting room with its circle of chairs and the waiting women of the coven arrayed around it.
“Payment is for outsiders, Dean. Joanna is one of us, promised to us by you in your past. This spell is for one of our own. We will assume the price for the magic cast here today.”
“Well, I certainly hope that this one goes better than the last spell you cast for our family. I do not wish there to be any problems or injuries from such a powerful spell.”
“Dad, this is not a spell like the scrying spell where the Coven had to pierce the defenses of another magical being. That was what caused the danger before in that instance. This is more of a magical price to be paid in drained power and fatigue. They can only cast this type of thing once in a while.”
“She is right Dean,” Anya added. “We will not be up against those types of countering forces today, although, the power of the spell required to pierce the veil of time is significant. We would not try this were it not for the fact that young Jo here is proof that it can be done. The sun, moon, and planets are in a good position to assist our efforts as well. We will have ample power to do this today.”
Dean heard a knock at the door behind them in the hallway and turned to see Jaz being led into the room. He heard a sharp intake of breath from several of the assembled Wiccan sisters. They could see that she was a hunter, one who, in another time and place, might have been chasing Wiccan casters down. Anya shushed them with a sharp glance.
“Welcome, Jaswinder Errington,” the elder Wiccan leader said. “Your presence here is an important part of the casting and we wish you well while you are within these walls.”
Jo walked over to her mother and gave Jaz a hug. Dean was pleased to see the two of them continue to bond, although this would be the last chance for a while.
“Thanks for coming, Mom.”
“I was told that my presence was necessary for the spell to work out. Plus it is my last chance to see you before you go.” Jaz smiled at her daughter. “Of course I would be here.”
“It is time,” a voice intoned from the circle behind the family. “Will the spell’s focus please enter the circle.”
Dean and Jaz turned to watch as Jo walked to her place in the center of the large casting circle. Anya had assumed her place at the apex opposite from where Dean and Jaz stood. Dean could feel something, he wasn’t sure what it was, as the low chanting began. He watched as Jo closed her eyes and tilted her head up toward the high domed ceiling, painted with a motif of heavenly bodies and zodiac symbols.
The chanting grew in intensity and Dean looked around as the light streaming in the windows from the sunlight outside seemed to dim. The room grew dark and the chants reached a crescendo, stopping with a sudden shout and then Dean turned to see Jo collapsing in the center of the circle. He started to rush forward, but Jaz’s steel grip on his arm stopped him. Dean knew she was right. His entry into the casting circle would only serve to break up or even alter the spell.
The chants began again and the whole process repeated itself as Dean and Jaz watched. This time, there seemed to be an edge to the tone, something that had not been there before. The darkness returned again and this time Dean kept his focus on the casting circle. He watched as the thirteen women leaned in from their seats around Jo as if forcing their wills to push her back to when she belonged. Then there was a collective gasp and the light returned to normal.
Dean heard a whimper and saw Jo struggling to rise from the center of the circle. She was unsteady getting up from where she lay on the floor. This time he could not stop. He broke free of Jaz’s grasp and rushed into the circle to Joanna. As he got closer, he could see her crying.
“Are you alright, Joanna?”
“Daddy, it didn’t work. I tried to release myself to the spell. I did everything right, I promise.”
He embraced the teen and looked around at the circle of watching women. Anya came forward from her chair as the high priestess of the coven. She looked pale and drained of energy. Jaz came and joined him at the center of the circle, too. She rested her hand on her daughter’s head where it lay on Dean’s shoulder. The girl was sobbing now.
“Anya, what happened?” Dean asked.
“There is something holding her here,” the Wiccan leader said. “Some great evil has entered the region and young Joanna is tied to it magically somehow.” She looked down at Jo. “Child, have you cast any sp
ells recently? I told you that you must be free of any magical ties to this timeline in order to be sent back.”
Jo looked up at the three adults clustered around her at the center of the casting circle. Her brow was furrowed as she considered the question.
Jaz answered for her. “The protection spell.”
“What?” Dean asked.
“The protection spell. Jo cast it on you, and the figurine, when you pulled the summoning idol from the box back in my apartment.”
“What is this summoning idol you speak of, huntress?” Anya asked.
“It was one of three placed in my family’s care for safe-keeping. When my family was attacked and the building burned down, the protection spell and the box for the three summoning idols were both destroyed. We only found one of the idols in the items salvaged from the fire. The other two belonging to the set are still out there. We thought they were at the demolished building site but a search there proved fruitless.”
“And young Jo here cast a protection spell over the one idol to keep its effects from harming her father, yes?” Anya asked.
The three of them nodded.
“Well, there is bad news and worse news, then,” Anya announced. “The bad news is that Jo cannot be sent back until the other idols are recovered. The worse news is that our spell’s failure revealed that the other two must have been used by someone to do evil. That evil is now tied to her. If she does not break that tie before the next time we might cast this spell, the autumnal equinox in three months, she will never be able to return to her correct time.”
Jaz spoke up. “I think you’re missing the bigger picture, Mistress Anya.”
They all turned to look at her.