by Luke Metcalf
As Tom walked her to her front door she was still burning with desire. She wanted to reward him for helping her. She looked at him intently for a moment, then pulled him to her and kissed him again. They took their time, savoring each other, finally breaking apart at the same time.
“Thanks for helping me.”
“Any time,” he said, forcing himself to move away from her and walk backward to his car, grinning mischievously at her all the way. She watched him drive away, waving breezily from the open car window as he went, and clung onto the front door frame for a few moments before trusting her legs to carry her inside. Once safely in her bedroom, the excitement became mixed with a confusing twinge of guilt. It was as though she had done something wrong.
“Hello, Emily.”
She jumped, startled at the sight of Mercurios sitting on a bookshelf, biting his claws.
“Man, I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to you popping up out of nowhere like that.”
“A wise idea to bury the desk until we find out more, wise indeed. Yet, I wonder how wise it was to tell the boy.”
“Well, who else was I going to get to help? You said you couldn’t levitate it, I can’t cast a levitation spell, and it’s too heavy for me to carry. I needed help. Wait, you weren’t watching us, were you?”
“I am your guardian.”
“I told you I want privacy,” she hissed at him, clenching and unclenching her fists.
“Please, don’t smite me, I’m sorry! But it’s your mother’s spell, her command to watch and protect you, I must obey it! At home I will stay in the living room or on the porch as you have commanded, but when you go out I must accompany you.”
Emily suddenly had an idea. “I feel bad that you have to do nothing but watch over me, Mercurios, but I really want to learn magic. If I set you free right now, will you still teach me? Once I’m a wizard, I won’t need your protection anymore.”
“You would need to become very powerful indeed in order to do that, yes. Very powerful indeed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Only a wizard with more power than your mother can dispel her command. Until then I am bound to you. Either that or until you die.”
“Then you better learn to walk as far away as the spell allows, stand on the other side of a wall or tree or rock or something, close your eyes, face the opposite direction, and plug your ears. I demand privacy!”
“Yes, I will obey, thank you for not punishing me.” He stopped cowering and stood up straight. “No matter. What’s done is done, and if he betrays you, I can teach you some spells that he might find most unpleasant indeed, tee-hee-hee. You could make his flesh rot off.”
“Ew! You are truly wicked! Let’s get this straight; I have no interest in ever hurting Tom. Listen, can you teach me a spell to read minds? Then, not only will I be able to find out what this Sanctuary place is and what Cady Sunner wants with the desk, but also when they have the meeting I’ll be able to find out everything about them, their plans and who killed my father!”
“All in good time, Emily. That is an advanced spell.”
“But I need it now!”
He hopped off the bookshelf onto her bed, making her scoot backward away from him. “I said it takes time! The plan is to teach you magic until you are powerful. Then, we will have a great deal of fun with the puny inhabitants of this ridiculous world, a great deal of fun indeed.”
“Hey, I happen to like this world and its ‘puny inhabitants.’ Well, at least, some of them so lay off.”
“I don’t think you understand. Once you have been trained at the Fengusberry Academy in Magella you will be able to return to this world and rule it if you want. We can make them all slaves! Or perhaps force them all to leap into erupting volcanoes.”
“What? I never asked to rule anything. And that’s ridiculous!”
“I am quite serious. You have never tasted true power, and when you do and embrace your great destiny, I think you will find it to be delicious indeed. Yes, so very, very delicious!” He glanced at Emily’s spell book and before she could reply, it opened to page seven. “First, though, you must promise me that you will not go after Cady Sunner again until you have learned at least the basic spells. It is foolishness to rush forward now when you are still so weak and risk almost certain death. All you need to do is to be patient, study, and in time you will have the whole world at your feet.”
She shrugged. “Then, I better learn them by Halloween, because that’s when I’m going after him.”
“AACHT!” shrieked the imp, waving his fists in the air. “You could rule the world and you’re willing to throw it all away because you are impatient? Weak and foolish indeed! Your mother would be furious at this stupidity! We must focus on finding out what this ‘Vadas Asger’ is and locating the Well and taking you back to Magella.”
“Listen, I’m not going to another world and if we don’t get Cady Sunner busted it might be only a matter of time before he kills me and my mom. So we better get started.”
The imp sighed in resignation.
Emily lit some candles and sat down in front of the big book for her lesson. “Mercurios, this spell book, is it evil? I can feel the power in it every time I take it out of the chest. Is it going to, like, affect me in some way?”
“Very powerful indeed,” nodded the imp. “But it is not evil, it is a neutral power, it will not control you, if that is what concerns you.
However, the longer you spend with it and the more you study it and its secrets, the more its power will absorb into your being. It has no will of its own, but yes, it is a source of great power and power is capable of influencing your nature.”
They worked late into the night. The spell book was written in Elvish. Mercurios said that was what all spells were written in because the elves had been the first to discover and refine the art of spell casting. He made her spend a great deal of time learning the proper pronunciation and meanings of the words, as well as the accompanying hand gestures and mental images she was supposed to focus her mind on while casting. The first spell he wanted her to learn was a simple illumination spell, since invisibility was too advanced for her to even begin to study yet. Her first few attempts were clumsy and did not go particularly well. The first time she tried to cast the illumination spell, the light bulb in her bedside lamp exploded. It was a shocking and uncomfortable reminder that she was playing with supernatural powers that she had no understanding of, and putting her trust in a crazed imp. However, after considerable effort she finally managed to create a fairly effective illumination spell. It was one of the most exhilarating moments of her life. The room glowed with a haunting, silvery-blue light that didn’t seem to have any particular point of origin. Emily danced about and squealed with joy at this sign that she was soon going to be able to do things she had never before dreamed possible.
Mercurios also taught her the command words to activate her Sphere of Protection, Ring of Teleportation and Wand of Lightning, although she didn’t actually use the ring or wand, not wanting to waste any of their energy. By the time she went to bed at one o’clock she was exhausted and plunged straight into a deep sleep.
A couple of hours later she found herself awake, staring into space. She could see the stars shimmering in the sky through her bedroom window and only gradually realized that there was an eerie, glowing mist approaching. She sat up, rubbing her eyes. The mist grew thick outside her window and Emily stared at it as it swirled. She drew in her breath. Outside her window a ghostly apparition was forming in the mist. She sat bolt upright and stared in horror, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. The corpse of her father appeared out of the mist, floating outside her window. His face was deathly pale and his eyes were milky white. He was grinning grotesquely at her and she saw to her disgust that all of his teeth ended in sharpened points. He clawed at her window and his long, sharp, rotting nails made a sickening, light screeching sound as if being drawn along a blackboard. Emily was paralyzed with a mixture of
terror and fascination.
“Daddy?” She choked on the word.
“Open the window, honey,” came an eerie, otherworldly, distant voice from her father’s mouth.
Mercurios appeared beside her. “Look!” He pointed at the chain hanging around her neck as he danced about waving his other hand frantically. “Take it off and put it on the ground and say the magic words. We must send your father back to his grave. The skull has raised him. Your father is undead, he is a ghoul.”
“A what?”
Mercurios snatched the charm from around Emily’s neck and threw it onto the floor. The miniature chest was glowing.
“A ghoul, your father’s corpse reanimated. Undead.”
“Emily,” moaned her father as he floated before them. “You are in great danger and I am here to tell you… that you have no hope. You will die.” The ghoul cackled and clawed at the window.
“Say the words,” insisted Mercurios.
“Go to Sammy and offer yourself to the cult, Emily!” the ghoul cackled again. “You know the old saying, with friends like these…”
“Emily, ghouls eat dead human flesh,” shouted Mercurios. “Say the words!”
“Almeron Sidella,” muttered Emily in a daze, staring at her father, shivering uncontrollably.
The chest expanded to its full size and Mercurios flipped the top open. “Look!” he exclaimed, pointing inside. The ruby eyes of the Skull of Monster Summoning were pulsing with a red light. Emily stared at them, her own eyes wide in fear, and then looked back at her father.
“Say ‘Gorhel velsten!’” shouted Mercurios. “The Skull summoned him when you wished to speak to his ghost! Pick up the Skull and say the words, Emily, we must deactivate it. Who knows what other undead beings or monsters it might summon. It is quite temperamental and very unpredictable.”
Emily slid off her bed and knelt down beside the chest. As though in a trance she reached in and picked up the skull. She held it in front of her and looked into its glowing eyes. Then glanced up at her father.
“Who were all the people involved in killing you?” she asked.
“The real question, Emily, is who will kill you?” The ghoul tore the windows open and bared its teeth.
“Gorhel velsten,” she said. The lights in the gems flickered out and with a wail the ghoul disappeared and then the mist dispersed.
“Daddy!” Emily called after him, but he had vanished into the night.
The next morning when she awoke she felt groggy. She had cried herself to sleep after the disturbing encounter with her father, haunted by the horrible look on his face. She thought about what he had said. Then her mind went to her recurring dream about the gorgeous, mysterious boy with the glittering eyes. She was shocked to find that in her waking hours she longed for him as though a part of her was missing and he was in possession of it.
“Mercurios?”
The imp appeared a few moments later. “At your service.”
“My father had a friend named Sammy who works at one of the shipping warehouses. He occasionally picked up antiques there that had been shipped in from various places. Could it have been Sammy who told Cady Sunner my father had that desk?”
“Quite possibly. They must not find out about ‘Vadas Asger,’ until we know what it is. Stay away from them.”
Just then her mom pushed open the door to her bedroom. Mercurios disappeared.
“You know you could knock, Mom,” Emily said.
“Don’t be silly, dear.” Her mother looked her up and down. “Honey, I think it’s time you started dressing like a lady. Those clothes are just terrible. How do you ever expect to be taken seriously dressed like that?”
“Thanks, Mom,” Emily snapped. “By the way, your hair looks like you had it done at the dog groomers.”
“Emily! What’s gotten into you?”
“What’s gotten into me? Why don’t you just go back to work and focus on your great career. These random attempts to act like a mother every few months are a waste of your time and mine.”
“Excuse me?” Her mother pushed the door all the way open, and Emily groaned. “It’s my hard work that has allowed you to live in such a nice house. You’re a grown woman now. It’s time you started acting like one.”
“Okay, fine. So stop telling me what to do then, since I’m a grown woman and all.”
“Emily, this is my house and there are still certain rules—”
“Oh, so I get it. When it’s convenient for you, I’m a grown woman, and when it isn’t, I’m a child. Is that how it works?”
“I don’t have time for this.” Her mother turned and walked away. “I’m late for work. Clean up this room and get to school.” She headed downstairs, and Emily slammed the door shut behind her.
“Go back to living in the office, Mom,” she shouted through the door. “So when you die you’ll be able to look back proudly and think, instead of spending time with my family, I wasted every waking hour of my life working so I could purchase the most expensive kitchen appliances available.” She gave the door a kick.
At school, the halls were alive with an expectant buzz about Tom’s party that night. At lunch Emily and her friends sat talking in the cafeteria.
“So, uh,” Emily said to her friends. “I broke into Cady Sunner’s place last night.”
“What?” the others exclaimed simultaneously.
“Are you insane?” Cindy demanded, leaning forward and grabbing her friend’s hands, looking into her eyes. “What were you thinking? I know you’re devastated by your father’s death and you aren’t thinking clearly but this is getting out of control.”
“If Cady Sunner and his gang aren’t busted soon they might kill my mom and me. I have to do everything I can. I mean, we’ll only be safe if they are all in jail.”
“Oh my god,” said Cindy, wringing her hands in anguish.
“Really, Emily,” said Bethany. “That’s nuts, what do you think he would have done if he’d caught you? He’s a killer. He would probably have you tied up in his basement right now and be torturing you just like in that TV show I Was Kidnapped by a Freak.”
“Yeah, Emily,” said Chester. “Listen to us, that’s crazy.”
“I need to get some kind of evidence.”
“The first step to getting evidence,” said Bethany, “is gathering information. Just like on that show World’s Most Deranged Drug Lords. You gather intel and that will hopefully give you leads to find hard evidence.”
“Emily, please,” implored Cindy. “You’re my best friend and you have me really scared, what you did was really stupid, please stop this.”
“You could set up a camera to automatically film his house, or maybe set up a microphone,” said Bethany. “You should buy some spy surveillance stuff.”
“Spy stuff?” Emily laughed. “Where would I get that and… wait… Cindy, your dad’s got an electronics store…”
“Oh no! Now you’re talking about wire-tapping Cady’s house?” said Cindy, exasperated. “No, Emily.”
“Not necessarily. The kitchen window is always open. He has a big backyard and there are bushes at the far end, I might be able to hide a shotgun microphone in those bushes and just leave it there and record everything. I wouldn’t have to go near him.”
Cindy looked thoughtful. “I don’t know, Emily.”
“Please, Cindy, help me out.”
“But what are we going to tell my father?”
“We’ll say I’m doing a biology report on birdsong and I need to record them.”
“Ohhhh, this is so exciting,” said Bethany. “We’re going to expose a killer satanic cult.”
“Yeah, or get murdered,” said Chester. “I don’t want you going near that man’s house, Cindy.”
“I won’t, babe. Okay, Emily, if this will keep you from breaking into his house I’ll help you but you have to promise me you won’t go back inside.”
“I promise.”
As Cindy and Emily left school that afternoon, C
hanel Boxer and her minions walked by.
“Nice outfit, rhinoceros nose,” Chanel taunted Cindy. “Shouldn’t you be selling Girl Scout cookies or something?” Her minions giggled obediently.
“Hey, Chanel,” Emily said. “Just shut it.”
“Oh yeah? Or what?” Chanel shot her an insolent sneer.
Mercurios appeared on Emily’s shoulder. “You dislike this one a great deal, don’t you, Emily? One day, we’ll prepare something of exceeding nastiness for her, won’t we? Oh yes, indeed!” Emily looked around to see if anyone else could see or hear him. “Don’t worry, no one but you can see me.”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” she said, ignoring the imp and staring directly at Chanel.
Chanel laughed. “Wow, original comeback. Well, once you and Cathy Cupcakes here figure it out, let me know.” She gave Cindy another dirty look and stalked off.
“See you at the party tonight, Chanel,” Emily called after her.
Chanel glanced over her shoulder, angry eyes blazing, not breaking her stride, obviously unsettled by Emily’s new show of confidence. As she should be, Emily thought.
“How I hate her,” Cindy said as they walked out of the school.
“Yeah,” Emily agreed, her mind already on other matters.
“So, tell me honestly what’s up with you and Tom?” Cindy asked as they climbed into Emily’s car. Emily frowned, a little uncomfortable. She wasn’t ready to share what had happened between her and Tom last night. “A lot of people are saying that you are together. Is it true?”
“No, we’ve just hung out a bit that’s all.”
“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.
“What?”
“Nothing. He seems like such a great guy, though. And it would be so much fun to double-date…”
“Double-date? That’s what this is about?”
Cindy blushed. “Yeah.”
“Okay, well, we’ll see.”
First they went by Cindy’s father’s electronics store, picked up the shotgun mic and a wireless recording device and got a tutorial on how to use them. Then they stopped at a Halloween store called Marabar’s to buy some costumes. Emily decided to dress up as an eighteenth-century vampire. It would be classic gothic all the way. Cindy found a hilarious bunny rabbit outfit. She leaped out of the changing room.