Blood Magik- A Cold Day In Hell

by Corwyn Matthew

  “So, he really is Marty’s brother…” The thought of him made her skin crawl, especially knowing they were actually related. She shivered in between sentences and not because of the cold. “What a creep… Reminds me of Marty’s dad…”

  He hesitated at her mentioning Marty’s father, as if he had something to say but was reluctant to do so.

  “I hate to keep throwing terrible news on top of a horrible circumstance, but I think you should know…you haven’t seen the last of Marty’s father. He has a part to play in this as well. And I want you to be prepared when the time comes he reenters your life.”

  It was official. Fate sucked bull’s balls and spat the gooey excrement all over her deranged existence…

  She sighed a breath of accession in figuring the future couldn’t get much worse. After all, it wouldn’t really be Hell on Earth without him back in her life. She decided to take it all in stride and add it to the list of obstacles she’d eventually overcome. But in the meantime, a thought occurred that she wanted to run by the old man.

  “So…if this demon witch chick can open up the gates of Hell and raise an army of the undead, does that mean I can get God on the horn and call on some roadside, angel assistance?”

  She was halfway hopeful when asking it. It made perfect sense to her. She thought she might already have this whole thing figured out; ready to save the Earth, dust her hands off, and call it a strong night’s work.

  He smiled at her question but wasn’t so happy to deliver the cold, hard facts it required.

  “That…isn’t very likely, I’m afraid.” A sympathetic frown replaced his smile. “For one; Imala’s spell that allows Hell to exist here also prevents any creature of an angelic nature from setting foot on Earth…”

  “But…this is God we’re talking about… Can’t he just…I don’t know…snap his fingers and wipe her off the planet? Send them all back down to Hell?”

  “Which…brings me to the second reason it isn’t very likely…”

  “He won’t interfere…” It was a question in the form of a statement that he really didn’t need to give an answer to. She threw her hands up to vent her frustration, accepting the finality of her own words. “Of course not…” She took a breath and sighed. “Stupid of me to even think it…”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re starting from scratch, and that was a…rational assumption. The thing is, as far as I can tell… God doesn’t live here.” She didn’t like the sound of that but allowed him to continue. “This world we live in isn’t something that he’s a part of. It would be a little like you or I crawling through the dirt with bits of food on our backs to help feed an army of ants. Or maybe more like one of us saving the little ants from the big-bad spider that’s pillaging their community. What happens here on Earth isn’t the responsibility of those who were created in heaven; it’s our own.” She listened intently, reluctantly taking in everything she could, knowing she shouldn’t miss out on a single word.

  “Haven’t you ever wondered why there aren’t any newer versus in the Christian bible? Why there are suddenly no more stories to be told?” He paused, letting her contemplate his question. “It’s because the human race is on its own and has been for a very long time. There are no new versus in the bible because God’s lessons have been taught – there is nothing more for him to say… At least, not while we’re here on Earth. Some people who have a strong connection here after they ascend can visit this plane, but only in the presence of the ones who they’re connected to. And through them they can connect our two worlds, but only for a short time.”

  “Like with my mother.”

  He nodded. “And, like your mother, they have a different perspective of the world and time and can offer keen insight beyond what humans have the ability to realize. They can guide you, and give you strength, but they can’t interfere, no matter how much they may want to.”

  “So, is that how you know so much about all this? Do you have a connection with someone who’s passed?”

  He smiled and nodded. “In a manner of speaking…”

  They were nearing the top of the hill. As they rounded its peak, a small valley came into view with a mountain range in the distance and a lake in between. Alex looked over the grounds at the bottom and the moonlight bounced off the still water and lit up a graveyard below. There weren’t more than a hundred or so tombstones and wooden crosses that made up the majority of the cemetery, and a few small totem poles next to graves with piles of rocks marking others. Alex wasn’t sure where her father was going with this and felt a little awkward when he started making his way down toward a specific grave.

  “Eight generations of my…our family,” he corrected himself, “are buried here; my wife being the most recent.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I wish I could have met her…”

  “She died this past year and was laid to rest at the base of that rock.” There was a small boulder in the distance that was cut in half so the flat center of the three-foot formation was made into the headstone of the grave. “We never had any children together, so she’ll be the last to lay to rest here.” He smiled. “I told her about you… She wished she could have met you too…”

  Alex had been opting to avoid the topic, but the moment seemed to leave her with no other choice. She gathered herself and tried not to sound too emotional, but it was nearly impossible for her to cover up the rush of remorse and pain from the feeling of abandonment she felt inside.

  “Why?” She said it in a way that he knew exactly what she meant, but he stayed silent long enough for her to get it all out. “Why didn’t you come find me? Did you even know the man who I thought was my father has been in prison since I was four?”

  “I knew.”

  “And…?” Her voice shook under the tension of her twisting sentiments. She didn’t mean to, but she allowed herself to feel angry with him, aching for an explanation that would help her to cope.

  “And…if I would have taken you and your brother in, you would never have been in that place in your life that opened your mind and heart to let you speak with your mother. You wouldn’t know the truth about Marty’s father, and you wouldn’t be the person who you are today.” He looked into her eyes, moonlight glistening off the moisture that covered them, and hoped she could understand. “Everything is the way it is because that is how it needed to be. I would have done anything to have been there with you, to watch you grow, to be a part of your life… But it wasn’t possible. The fates could only allow us this time together…and for that I’m grateful.”

  Alex hadn’t realized, but they’d stopped walking and were now standing in front of the half-boulder with the tombstone engravings on its face. Her eyes gave in to her feelings and allowed a few tears to run free, so her father raised his hand to wipe them from her cheek. In spite of her emotions wanting her not to, she understood what he was trying to tell her and her expression and silent gaze reflected that.

  “You are so…beautiful…” He smiled caringly. “And so strong. …I wish I could take credit for the woman you’ve become…but you’ve done it all on your own.” He lowered his hand from her cheek to her shoulder and she came in closer for an embrace that’d been twenty-two years in the making. “Tell your brother thank you for me.” She squeezed even harder with his mention of Marty and couldn’t help but let another drop fall from her eye. “I couldn’t have handpicked a better man to watch over my daughter.”

  She smiled with her face pressed against his shoulder. It was strange, but even though they’d just met, she felt as if he’d always been there. Being in his arms seemed right, somehow, and she felt more at home now than she ever had before. She indulged in the moment for a few seconds more until she finally let the poor ol’ guy go before squeezing what was left of the life out of him.

  “You know…” She let her hold around him slide off and lifted her hands to wipe her eyes.
“I was more a mother to Marty than he a father to me.” She sort of chuckled at the thought. She was eight years younger, but had been more mature than him since she was seven. “The big lug would’ve never made it on his own without—”

  She suddenly realized she was talking to herself.

  Her father was gone.

  Her heart jumped at his absence and she fearfully looked around, jerking her head for answers.

  “Old man?”

  What the hell just happened?

  “Old man?”

  She raised her voice out of fright, but did her best to keep her cool. Where the hell did he go? He was in her arms one second…then just gone the next…

  Her first thought was that maybe that demon wolf-thing was somehow responsible…but that didn’t make any sense… She would have heard, felt, or saw something. But she didn’t…

  She looked over to the large boulder beside her and walked around it as if maybe he was crouched where she couldn’t see, but…he wasn’t. She turned her attention toward the moonlit lake reflecting the starry sky and the water was still as still as it was when she’d first laid eyes on it. She peered back up at the hill behind her…but there was nothing there to see other than lifeless shadows and a sycamore tree. Her father was just…gone… And she somehow found herself in a quiet cemetery in the middle of nowhere entirely alone…

  …Then it hit her…

  She looked down at the grave at her feet as his words to her echoed in her mind…

  “I would have done anything to have been there with you, to watch you grow up, but it wasn’t possible. The fates could only allow us this time together…”

  Etched into the boulder in front of her were two names…

  “We never had any children together, so she will be the last to lay to rest here.”

  There were two people buried in the grave in front of her…

  Wife…

  “No…”

  …and husband…

  Alex let her jaw hang in shock and despair and fell to her knees.

  The engraving proclaimed her father had been buried there for more than nineteen years…

  This whole night she’d been conversing with a spirit…but one unlike any she’d ever seen before.

  She again found her cheeks wet with tears, but this time…tears of sorrow. She’d only known him for an hour, but felt as close to him as she was to anyone in her life.

  Her heart ached with pain…but the sight of the little, not-so-pretty, orange daisy still in her hand infused her chest with warmth and certainty.

  She smiled softly through her frown and trembling lips and lifted the daisy to her heart. A green aura shone from her chest, basking over the wildflower, saturating it with her love’s glow.

  “Thank you,” she whispered over her father’s grave, kissing the daisy’s pedals and then placing the glowing flower at the foot of the headstone. “I promise I’ll be strong for you.” She reached back up to her chest and clenched her hand over where her amulet would have been. “For all of you.”

  The flower kept its glimmer about it even after she stood up and took a step away. Its luminance made her feel strong and virtuous, and she took in a breath to settle her cascading emotions.

  Her father was right when he said she wouldn’t be the woman she was today if things had happened differently, and that undoubtedly included the outcome of what happened on this night. He also said he was grateful for the time fate had allowed them to have…and so was she. Their time here would stay with her always, and nothing could ever take that away from her.

  She took another step back from her father’s grave, and almost as if it were scripted to fit the moment, a dark cloud-cover rolled in from above and cast its rolling shadow over the cemetery, snuffing out the reflection of the stars in the lake, replacing its shimmer with a suffocating blackness. The full moon was next on the list to go, and just as quick as she could gaze up, darkness swallowed the surrounding valley with the only light remaining that of the glowing daisy a few feet away. She suddenly felt claustrophobic as a tightness griped her chest, but quickly remembered the promise she’d whispered over her father’s grave.

  She took another breath, inhaling a deep, concentrated composure and exhaling a calm that steadied her beating pulse…

  Then there was this smell…of breath…and death…and blood…

  She sensed the demon behind her even before she turned to face it. Its deep huffing perturbed her thoughts, sounding as if it came from several feet above her. As far as she knew, the wolf that trailed her stood as tall as a large dog, no taller… But the feel of its breath left the impression of its warm stench as high as the top of her head…

  She again remembered her father’s words: that it couldn’t hurt her… And she believed him. Otherwise, she felt she very likely wouldn’t still be around to contemplate if she did.

  She took another second to gather her courage before turning to face the eight-foot-tall beast standing five feet away. Its eyes were the very same piercing yellow she’d seen following behind her in the street, but its entire shape reconfigured to constitute that of a nightmare.

  Tessura growled and drooled and barked where she stood, but Alex held her ground. The beast took a step closer and growled again, testing Alex’s bravery…but couldn’t break her spirit. It raised its monstrous right hand, unsheathing its horrible claws to strike…

  Alex felt her heart jump, flinching at its threat, clinching her head to a tilt, but dug up the courage to slowly look back at the beast until she could hold her head high. She stared into the eyes of the malicious figure with a rebellious green glow stirring in her own. It was only a spark, but enough to enrage the demon beast to a snarling roar.

  Alex found the courage in its frustration to let a smirk climb over her lips just before Tessura – stewing with vehemence – finally swung her impending claws for Alex’s bare throat—

  For an instant, her newfound confidence wavered against the peril of the beast’s razor-sharp hooks, her heart leaping at their approach. She cringed with her head pressed up against her shoulder and pinched an eye shut. Through her other one, she caught the sight of two, distant, yellow irises behind the beast before her, immersed in the shadows adorning the hilltop. When she realized the eyes were those of the demon-wolf, she could see straight through the giant brute for the projection it really was…and as its claws swiped across her throat, they dissipated into nothing but a waning, empty illusion.

  Tessura couldn’t even come close to Alex now that she’d found her strength, so she instead used her wit to project the image of her demon form. She’d hoped to have the girl on the run – to keep her distracted, if anything, and on her toes. But Alex was cunning enough in her own right to see through Tessura’s deceptions. The wolf paced back and forth at the hilltop and gave her one last vicious glare before turning to disappear in the shadows. Alex got the impression this wouldn’t be the last she’d see of the beast, and when next they’d meet, it was sure to have a new set of guiles to attempt to deceive her with.

  Her rising pulse settled once the demon was out of sight, and the green flicker in her eyes rescinded into the black of her pupils. Crimson clouds rolled over her head and red lightning crackled above. There was a strange sensation that invaded her body as the clouds passed, and a wave of heat sparked the adrenaline in her veins. She found the new atmosphere surrounding her hard to breathe in, like the air was thicker and required more effort to push through her lungs. She wondered if everyone felt what she had as the storm infiltrated the skies or if she was just more sensitive to those changes taking place around her.

  There was a feel to her surroundings now, almost as if it they weren’t real, like they were a dream or one of her ghastly visions. It was a dizzying sensation that made her lightheaded and nauseous, and she tried to regain her stability by taking in, then releasing a controlled b
reath. She wasn’t looking forward to hiking her ass back up the grassy hill that lay ahead. It wasn’t more than fifty feet high, but was looking to her like one of the Himalayas.

  Nevertheless, the hill wasn’t about to climb itself. And even if it did, that wouldn’t really get her anywhere, now would it?

  “Ok… Chin up, girl.” She gave herself a brief pep-talk before making her way. “Get your ass in gear. …Your family’s counting on you.”

  Still, she dreaded the idea of making it to the top. It was as if once she got there, there would be no turning back. All Hell was waiting for her over the rise of that grassy knoll, and apparently, she was supposed to stare it square in its face and give it the finger. She’d never really been the badass type – that was more her brother’s department – but it seemed she’d better get her fashionably-practical shit-kickers laced up and ready to rock because Marty couldn’t take on an army of Hell’s militia entirely on his own. According to her father, he’d need her by his side, and what else was family for if not to be there when they needed you most?

  Family…

  The word running through her mind felt odd to think it. She’d never really had a family to speak of before today. It was always just her and her brother… Still was. But with her father making his presence known and her mother recently coming back into her life – despite the fact they were both as dead as doornails – she finally felt like she actually had a family to think of. It was a beautiful feeling… But it brought to mind a few questions concerning her recent chat with her old man.

  The restaurant, for starters. What the hell really happened there? When she thought back on it, her first impression of the place from the outside was that it was rundown and possibly abandoned. Did she really just waltz into an old building, make herself at home and have an imaginary tea party with the ghost of her father? And speaking of tea… What the hell? She poured it herself! She experienced the weight of the kettle in her hand and smelled its aroma in the air. It felt hot against her lips… And the taste… The taste was so real… But if it wasn’t, that might explain why her father tasted a different flavor than she did. Maybe she tasted what she expected or imagined she would…and so did he…