Panic Broom

by Sara Bourgeois

  “Do you want to check her bedroom first?” Meri asked.

  “Sure,” I said, but even as I answered, I changed my mind.

  We’d walked right past an open door to Margery’s office. That seemed like an even better place to begin.

  “I didn’t even know witches had offices,” Meri said as we walked in.

  “I’m sure a lot of them do,” I said. “I just don’t because I don’t have a reason.”

  “Because you’re unemployed,” Meri said.

  “That’s kind of mean.”

  “Hey, lady, it’s the truth. You don’t have a job,” he said.

  “I have plenty of money,” I said. “Isn’t that what matters? Plus, I’ve done some work. I’ve freelanced for the city more than once. They were probably glad I didn’t have a job.”

  “Whatever,” Meri said. “I’m going to check out the closet.”

  While he was snooping around in Margery’s office closet, I took a look at her desk. I went through her computer first, but there wasn’t much there. That’s probably why it wasn’t password protected.

  As far as I could tell, it seemed like all she used it for was watching Netflix and writing bad Star Wars fan fiction. The stories weren’t good, but they weren’t so awful that someone would have killed her over it. So, the find didn’t help me at all.

  The good stuff was what I found in her desk drawer. In a bright red folder, I discovered divorce papers. Everyone kept saying that she hadn’t gotten over her husband’s death, but my discovery told me that they’d had marital problems.

  I read through the papers, and it was pretty standard stuff. One thing I did notice was that the husband was the one filing against Margery. He’d asked for the divorce.

  The documents were about a decade old, though. They also weren’t signed. I’d have to ask Remy how long it had been since Margery’s husband died. Perhaps they had fully reconciled. But then why had she kept the papers? You’d have thought she wouldn’t want that kind of reminder.

  “Let’s go, cat,” I said. “I found a clue and I need to ask Annika and Remy about it.”

  “One second.” Meri’s voice trailed out of the closet. “I’ve got something here too.”

  A few seconds later, the window in the office reappeared. Meri had found a way to get us out.

  “How did you do that?” I asked as he sauntered out of the closet.

  “Easy, peasy,” he said. “I kind of thought she hadn’t been the one to cast that spell. If she had, we’d have never gotten out. Dead witch’s magic and all. Our only hope was that someone else had set the trap. So there are these little witch spell bags, and I bet there are more all over the house. But all I had to do was dump this one out to release the spell.”

  After that, Meri came out of the closet holding the tiny black velvet bag in his mouth. He dropped it on the floor at my feet like a fresh kill and preened with pride.

  I bent over to pick it up and brought the item to my nose. Whatever herbs were used had been pungent, and I winced at the sour smell.

  “You think someone was trying to trap Margery in here?” I asked.

  “That would be my guess,” Meri said.

  “But it didn’t work. It didn’t trap her, but it did get us. I wonder why?”

  “Perhaps the person that killed her planted these here in the hopes to trap Margery before she did her necromancy thing. Maybe Margery didn’t come back here that night like the murderer planned. They were just going to trap her, but they had to kill her instead,” Meri offered. “I doubt it would have held her for long. There must have been more to the plan.”

  “That does make sense,” I said. “That would mean it’s possible that the killer knew about the necromancy and tried to stop her, but they didn’t go to the Skeenbauer coven about it.”

  “They took matters into their own hands,” Meri said. “So, I doubt we’re dealing with a hero here.”

  “I’ll take this. Let’s go see what the others found.”

  We went back downstairs and found Annika digging through the cabinets. Remy appeared a moment later in the doorway that I assumed led to the basement stairs. He was a white as a sheet, and I could have sworn he was shaking a little.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  Annika and I both rushed to him. I took his hand, while Annika pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. It was an extraordinarily maternal gesture, and lines of concern etched themselves into her face.

  “I’m guessing you guys didn’t find any hint of her being a necromancer on the upper floors,” he said.

  “I didn’t,” I said.

  “I didn’t either,” Annika added. “Why?”

  “Because it’s all down there.” His voice cracked a little.

  “What’s down there?” Annika asked. “By the way, it appears that Brighton got the windows and doors open.”

  “It was actually Meri. He found this,” I said and showed her the spell bag. “He said there are probably more around the house, but that’s not the most important thing right now. Remy, what’s down there?”

  “A lot of skeletons and some dead bodies too. None of them are reanimated, but she just has them stacked up down there. Plus what looks like a torture room along with a lifetime supply of black candles and tons of herbs and crystals.”

  “We should get those,” Annika said. “We can’t just leave that here.”

  “Annika, we can’t go down there and just take all her spell-crafting materials.”

  “Why not?” Annika asked. “She’s dead, and Margery is the one who got us into this mess. She owes us, plus we’re her family. We’re not stealing. We’re inheriting.”

  “You don’t want to go down there, Annika. It’s bad. It’s gross. Plus, there’s got to be a river of demonic energy coursing through the area.”

  “Hmm,” Meri said. “I would like to check that out. If you want, I can make all the dead bodies look like something else while you’re down there. A little illusion spell to make your… inheriting of the items easier?”

  We all agreed to let Meri work his magic, but when we got down there, all of the bodies looked like giant creepy dolls. I wasn’t sure how that was much better.

  “Meri?” I asked as I tried to pry my eyes away from the freakish sight.

  “What? I did the best I could. There really is a river of demonic energy running through this basement. It was dolls or piles of rotting fruit. I made a call.”

  “I think I would have preferred the rotted fruit,” Annika said.

  Her face was a mask of horror, but Remy’s looked better. The dolls were disturbing, but they had to be better than stacks of corpses.

  “Let’s just get this over with.”

  Fortunately, we’d brought bags from the kitchen and there were some empty boxes in the basement as well. We loaded all of the herbs, crystals, candles, and some assorted magical tools into the containers. Then we jetted out of the basement as fast as our legs would carry us.

  Back upstairs, I noticed that Meri hadn’t followed us. I looked through the doorway, and he wasn’t on the stairs or at the foot of them either.

  “Meri,” I called down. “Meri, where are you?”

  I felt my chest clench in panic. Had something happened to him while we were downstairs?

  “I figured out where the river of demonic energy is flowing.” I heard him call.

  That was a bit of a relief, but it still sounded like he was really far away. I started to head back down the steps.

  “Brighton, where are you going?” Remy called after me.

  “I’m going to find my familiar. Wherever he is, I’m going.”

  Chapter Seven

  “This was a terrible idea,” Annika lamented.

  “Hey, I didn’t tell you to follow me,” Meri said.

  He’d found a tunnel under Margery’s house, and we were walking through it following the trail of demonic energy Meri had tuned into. All of us were carrying bags or boxes, and the dark path seemed to str
etch on forever.

  Just like the tunnels under my house, there were boarded off areas. I began to wonder if we were in fact in the same tunnel as the one under my house. Or perhaps if one of the boarded off doorways lead to my tunnel. It had to, right?

  I had a sinking feeling about where the river of demonic energy would lead us. At least Meri’s light spell was keeping the tunnel from being completely pitch black, though the shadows made it creepy.

  It was dusty too, and the air felt thick. More than once I’d had to lift the boxes I was carrying to scratch my nose or cover my mouth when I sneezed. But it was just dust making the air thick. There was something intangible too. It was black magic, and we were just breathing it in.

  As we moved through the tunnels, I was taken back to when I was a kid walking down the hall to the bathroom at night. I kept expecting something to jump out of the darkness and scare us. It didn’t happen, but the fear was as real and bone deep as it had been when I was a kid.

  We finally got to a boarded-up doorway, and Meri stopped. “This is it,” he said.

  “That’s it?” I asked. “That’s where the demons are coming from?”

  “No, this is the tunnel that leads to our basement at Hangman’s House,” he said. “I’m pretty sure the demons are coming from Margery’s place. The river of demonic energy runs from her house to here.”

  “So what next?” I asked.

  “You’re going to take these boards down and go home. I’m going to go back to Margery’s and dam up that river of demons.”

  I watched as Meri ran off back toward Margery’s house, and wondered if it was a good idea to let him go alone. Then I remembered the time he obliterated the demons that showed up in my basement.

  “We should get these down and get back to the house,” I said. “It’s not going to be pretty when he blows up the demons.”

  All three of us used a little magic, and the planks blocking the tunnel entrance came down easily. It was mere seconds later that I wished they hadn’t.

  There was a moaning sound followed by a distinct shuffling. We didn’t have Meri’s magic light anymore, but Annika pulled out her cell phone and turned on the flashlight ap. I got mine out and turned it on before shining it down the tunnel.

  “We need to go back to Margery’s place,” I said. “We need to go now.”

  Down the tunnel that led to Hangman’s House, shambling toward us in the dark, was a mass of zombies. Not just the newly made ones from the hospital and their recent victims either.

  These were decaying and covered in dirt. While we’d been searching Margery’s house, the dead had risen in Coventry, and they’d overtaken my home.

  “Run,” I said. “Go. Go back. There are too many.”

  “We can’t,” Remy answered. “Meri went back to destroy the demons.”

  “Then we better run fast,” I said.

  The three of us called out to Meri as we ran back down the tunnel to Margery’s house. “Stop, Meri! We’re coming back! Don’t blow up the demons!”

  A minute later, he appeared in the tunnel in front of us. “What’s going on?”

  “Zombies in the tunnel. We have to go back to Margery’s house. Please tell me you didn’t set the demon bomb yet.”

  “I was about to,” he responded. “Come on. I have an idea.”

  We followed Meri back into Margery’s basement. The dead bodies no longer looked like dolls, and I almost screamed. Sensing that I was about to lose it, Remy grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction of the basement stairs. His hand was cold and clammy as it clasped mine.

  When we reached the kitchen, Remy was about to slam the basement door closed. “Wait!” I said. “Meri is still down there.”

  He scurried up the top stairs and skidded across the kitchen floor a few seconds later. “Close the door! Close the door! Close the door!”

  Remy finally slammed it just, and it was followed by a loud boom. The scent of roses filled the air.

  “Did that take care of the zombies?” I asked hopefully.

  “Absolutely not,” Meri said. “But it will help keep demons from spawning down there while we do the next part.”

  “The next part?”

  “Everybody upstairs,” Meri said. “Let’s go. Brighton, do you still have that bag?”

  “I do,” I said.

  We followed Meri upstairs. He asked for the bag back, and I gave it to him. My familiar disappeared into the closet with the bag. We heard some soft noises coming from inside, and then a minute later, the office window was gone again.

  “Great, we’re trapped in here again,” Annika said. “What are you up to, cat?”

  “I think he just saved us,” Remy said. “We can’t get out, but the zombies can’t get in either.”

  “Oh,” Annika said. “What about Brody?”

  “My brother, oh, no. We made him stay behind too. This is my fault.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Remy said. “He’ll be fine. I’m sure. We couldn’t have helped him if we’d been overwhelmed by those zombies anyway. At least this way, we’ve got a chance to save him and the town.”

  “We didn’t search the whole house, right?” Annika asked. “It’s possible the answer to who killed Margery is in here somewhere.”

  “If we can figure it out, Margery will lift the spell and we can get out of here,” I said.

  But I could already feel myself getting fuzzy around the edges. The mullein was wearing off, and I’d need more soon. It wasn’t just my mind, either. My stomach growled loudly.

  “I’m hungry,” I said. “I’m going to go check out the kitchen.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Meri said.

  “No, wait,” Remy said. “Are you really hungry, or do you need more of the mullein?”

  “Why can’t we do both?” Meri asked petulantly.

  “Because what she needs is more of the herb, and the longer we put it off, the worse she will get,” Remy said.

  “But if you want to go look around in the kitchen while I get the pipe ready, I’m sure that’s fine.”

  “I’ll go with them,” Annika said. “See if this witch has any cookies.”

  “We’ll all go,” Remy said.

  We went into the kitchen, and Remy sat at the table packing the mullein into the pipe. Annika went through the pantry looking for snacks, while Meri and I perused the refrigerator.

  “Isn’t this a little strange?” I said, but my stomach growled again.

  “No,” Annika said when she popped her head out of the pantry. “This is our inheritance too.”

  I found some leftover chicken and gave half of it to Meri. While he was finishing that, I went back in for a block of cranberry cheddar I’d seen. I ate the whole block in five bites.

  “Whoa,” Remy said as I polished off the last piece. “Okay, I’ve got this ready for you.”

  Annika happily found some cookies and a can of tuna for Meri. After she popped the top off the fish and handed it over to Meri, she sat at the table with Remy and they ate some of the chocolate-dipped macaroons she’d found.

  I walked over to the other side of the kitchen and lit the pipe. It wasn’t just that I didn’t want to get the smoke all over them, but I felt weird smoking the pipe while they all sat around and watched.

  When it was done, my head cleared, and I couldn’t believe I’d eaten a whole block of cheese. It had seemed like a completely wonderful idea in the moment. I wasn’t sure if I should’ve been impressed or horrified with myself.

  “All right,” I said. “I’m okay now.”

  “Great, so let’s see if we can figure this thing out,” Remy said. “Where do you want to begin?”

  “The only room I searched upstairs was the office. I found the divorce papers, and then I came downstairs.”

  “Divorce papers?” Annika asked.

  “Yeah, I guess I didn’t tell you guys about that,” I said. “Okay, so there were divorce papers in the drawer.” I handed them to Remy.

  “T
hese are from a few years before he died,” Remy said and handed them to Annika.

  “I was wondering about that,” I said. “I didn’t know how long before her husband died that he’d wanted the divorce. If it was long before he passed, then they must have reconciled.”

  “I would think so,” Annika added. “The way people said she never got past his death.”

  “Never got past it, or never got over it?” Meri asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It makes a difference,” Meri stated. “Was it hard for her to move on with her life because she was crushed by grief, or was it something else?”

  At first, I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but then the lightbulb went off. “You think she was bringing him back from the dead for nefarious reasons and not because she loved him so much that she couldn’t live without him?”

  “So we have to figure out what caused the divorce,” Remy said. “Maybe that ties back to the killer.”

  “Have we seen anything in the house that looks like it might have belonged to her husband?” I asked. “I’ve mostly seen Margery’s things, but I expected that. He’s been dead for a few years.”

  “Let’s check the closets,” Annika said.

  “There were boxes in the office closet that said Henry,” Meri said.

  “Well, then we’ll start there.”

  “Whoa, this closet is much bigger than I expected,” Annika said when we walked in.

  She was right. I’d expected it to possibly be a walk-in closet since the office could have served as a bedroom, but it was more like a mini attic.

  Meri showed us where the boxes marked Henry were located. Some of them were on the floor, and a couple more were up on a shelf. Remy pulled those down and we all started going through them.

  One thing that struck me was that they weren’t just Henry’s things. Everything from their wedding was shoved into the boxes as well.