Into the Darkness

by Michael Clement

  Her right eye was a massive shiner. Bruises covered the area above and around the eye socket, which was puffed shut already and turning purple.

  The nurse glared at me and then looked away.

  Bastard. I could almost hear the nurse’s thoughts.

  Yep. I was the bastard that hit her.

  But, what the fuck was I supposed to do, let her carve Brynn up? If Hana had tried, Brynn would have blasted her with her glare, probably killing the younger woman. And, if she succeeded, Brynn would be dead. I wasn’t sure how I felt about my wife, but I wasn’t ready for her to be murdered in front of me.

  And, why had Hana disregarded everything that I said to her? I was supposed to be her master. My merest wish became her life’s goal. If I told her to kneel, she would sink to her stomach as quickly as possible.

  But, not anymore.

  I watched the nurse clean her off and wondered how I felt about that. Hana was as sociopathically messed up as Mary. Both of them would happily butcher a convent of nuns, just for fun. Having control of them kept them from committing acts of pure horror.

  But, I didn’t like having that level of control over anyone.

  Not one bit.

  I’d rather that both of them would walk a bit away from their evil sides. Yes, I was a Goblin. And, yes, I had killed… but only when threatened. I didn’t walk up to people on the street and slit their throats for a breakfast bagel.

  I needed them to be a little more… social and civilized. Just a little though.

  Hana began to wake up.

  And, I could feel rage pouring through our connection again. The younger woman was beyond pissed. She still wanted to hurt Brynn.

  “Going to cut her…” Hana mumbled, as her hands instinctively searched the table for her knives. When she didn’t find them, they slid under her shirt instead.

  And, came out with two shivs.

  “Fuck,” I cursed, grabbing her wrists.

  The nurse’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.

  “Restrain her,” I demanded. “And, knock her out.”

  The nurse complied, but she didn’t want to. She already thought that I was an abusive pig. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who had hit her. She gave Hana a dose of something that made her fall asleep again. The wound on her face was deep and still bleeding a lot. We needed to get that healed or stitched up before she woke up again.

  Then, we would talk about her attacking people with knives.

  And, we needed to talk about whether she still wanted to stay with me.

  Hana had chosen to be mine, but now, that choice seemed like a burden to her.

  - 36 -

  I found a place to lay down. Brynn was still taking a bath, which I found strange. Abigail and Gavin were missing, but my wife didn’t seem worried.

  So, I decided to follow her lead.

  I felt a blast of cold as we left Charleston’s light. The windows became dark, and I heard the whirl of motors as armored shielding came down over them, sealing us in.

  On the roof, I heard a plink-plink-plink, as something scampered along the top. I hoped that it was our guards, but the noise sounded like talons.

  Shadar.

  It had to be the ghost-spiders of the Whitehaven Line. When the dark fell, they were free to crawl out onto the canopy to protect the train. It made me feel safer, and in more danger, at the same time.

  Sighing, I opened up my grimoire and looked at the next spell.

  Heal Imperfections.

  Lovely.

  The spell was designed to allow me to change how the women looked. That didn’t make me happy. I was starting to figure out that the Mages who had harems, which was all of them, liked things exactly how they wanted them. And what the women wanted… didn’t matter.

  If you didn’t like that your girl had brown hair.

  Make her a blonde.

  Then, I realized that this spell would be precisely what Hana needed to help her feel better about her body.

  No more acne or pockmarks.

  No more scars, or tiny breasts.

  Each and every imperfection that she imagined could be removed.

  The power in that one little spell staggered me.

  And, I realized that it was a “saleable” spell. Women everywhere would love to remove their wrinkles, change their hair or eye color, remove acne or blemishes. The application was endless.

  I leaned back and let the rocking of the car relax me, as I tried to think.

  Finally, I decided to master the spell. If it wasn’t applicable later, then I would erase it. Focusing internally, I studied my remaining unused bubbles.

  I had three that hadn’t been marked yet with arcane symbols, and the spell only needed two bubbles, which was great. It only took me a few moments to inscribe the two arcane spheres and then rope them together.

  When I opened my eyes, one of Taesa’s zombies was sitting across from me. Its guns were scattered all over the table between us, and she was cleaning her new weapons.

  “Brynn went upstairs to eat,” Taesa said. “She said that you could take a bath, and join her for supper if you wanted.”

  Laughing, the zombie whose wounds were now stitched shut said, “She emphasized, bath first.”

  “How long can you stay in those two zombies?”

  The dwarf shrugged.

  Then, she said, “Until they collapse. But, by then, they will smell bad.”

  “How long until they stink?”

  “About two weeks,” she replied. “My mist acts like embalming fluid. It keeps the corpses soft and pliant.”

  “How long are you planning on using them?”

  “Until I feel safer,” she replied, looking away.

  I wanted to touch her hand, but caressing a dead zombie dwarf’s hand wasn’t something that I wanted to do.

  “Alright,” I said. “I’m going to take that bath then.”

  - 37 -

  I floated in the tub, feeling cleaner than I had in days. The constant tension that I had felt ever since I married Brynn was finally starting to settle.

  Then, Hana stomped into the room.

  “Have you seen my face!” she screeched.

  She had a bandage on that covered the whole left side of her face, not to mention a shiner that made her look like a beaten raccoon.

  Hana pointed her finger at me. “You punched me!”

  I sat up and pointed to several blemishes on my ribs, along with the wounds that were still slowly healing on my arm.

  “You stabbed me… at least three times. If I hadn’t been in my stone skin, I’d probably be dead. And, you threatened to kill Brynn.”

  “My Mistress was nearly murdered because of her,” Hana hissed. Her face was beat red, as was her throat and upper chest.

  And, she looked terrible. Hana had dried, crusted blood all over the remains of her shirt. I was positive that the nurse would have given her clean clothing, but she must have said no.

  “What was I supposed to do?” I growled. “Let you murder all of us?”

  Hana fumed. I could feel stress pouring out of her.

  And, her heart was pounding in her chest. I could feel her almost unreasonable agitation through our link.

  Hana glared at me, while I tried to figure out why she was no longer trying to do everything that she could to make me happy.

  Being pissed at me wasn’t how the Taming spell was supposed to operate. I quickly peeked through our bond at her mental state.

  Swirls of emotion were pounding the inside of her brain. It felt like I was in a hurricane that was ravaging a coastline while an earthquake destroyed it. It was a miracle that she was even standing. Her anger was almost uncontrollable.

  Restraining her or redirecting her thoughts just wasn’t working. I needed to try something else.

  Breathing slowly, I created an area of calm in her mind and then gradually expanded it. No matter how her rage pounded against my mental structure, I continued to stay quiet.

  Th
at was hard for me. I wasn’t the calm, zen monk that I needed to learn how to be. I tended to let my emotions run wild.

  Finally, I retreated from her soul and looked at her with my own eyes. Hana was sitting down on the edge of the tub. The crimson glare was gone from her eyes, and so was the flushed skin.

  “Are you alright?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  I just sat and waited to see what she wanted to do now.

  Hana didn’t look at me. Instead, she unbuttoned her bloodstained blouse and took it off, dropping it without thought onto the floor. Then, she slipped out of her skirt and underwear.

  I didn’t move. I didn’t want to set Hana off again.

  But, she must have sensed my reaction.

  Intense.

  Excited.

  Aroused.

  How could this little slip of insanity turn me on? She was bat shit crazy.

  The bitch had stabbed me three times, but I didn’t care.

  Maybe I was bat shit crazy as well.

  Hana smirked, and then carefully climbed into the deep tub and sank under the bubbles.

  Leaning back, she still didn’t make eye contact with me and made sure that we weren’t touching.

  “My family was rich,” she mused. “But, they were embarrassed by me. I wasn’t pretty enough to attract a rich husband, not even when my father took control of my love life and tried to buy me a husband. No one wanted the girl with the pockmarks and acne all over her face.”

  Sighing, she blew bubbles up into the air. “Plus, the men that did come courting, who didn’t care about the acne, hated how the rest of me looked. I heard one of them whisper to another that I looked like a skinny pear with a big ass, huge feet, and no tits. The second whispered back, did you see her ears?”

  Tears dripped down her face, but I let her keep talking.

  “My family was devastated. They needed the political connections that my marriage could create. I hated them… and myself. So, I ran away.”

  Sniffling, Hana said, “No one wanted me, not even for a fuck buddy. So, I joined the cult, and even there, I was a pariah.”

  Looking up, she added. “I was shocked when we fucked. I couldn’t believe that you wanted me. I felt your desire and acceptance… of my flaws.”

  “I still want you,” I said, surprising myself. Something about Hana drew me like a moth to a flame.

  Maybe it was the insanity.

  - 38 -

  Hana scowled.

  “Bazal, I was diagnosed with bipolar by my father’s doctors when I was a child. It means that my emotions swirl out of my control, most of the time. I’m either too happy, depressed, or violent. That’s why I attacked you and Brynn.”

  Sighing, Hana added. “I can’t control it. And, the geas that makes me want to make you happy, just evaporates when I get mad.”

  Sobbing, she added, “I wish that I wasn’t so broken.”

  I had no idea what to do.

  Crying women weren’t my forte.

  Snuffling, she blurted out, “Even if I were pretty, I’d probably strangle my husband when he snored too loud.”

  “I can make you pretty.”

  The words fell out of my mouth before I could think.

  Hana looked up and me and scowled.

  “How?” she asked.

  “I just learned a new spell,” I started to explain.

  I could sense that she wanted to get mad. But, instead, she asked, “How pretty?”

  I shrugged. “I have no experience with it yet. You would be my first candidate.”

  “Your experiment,” she growled.

  I didn’t say anything else, I just slunk down into the bubbles to wait her out. I had hoped that she would like the idea since she complained about herself all the time.

  But, maybe not.

  Women were a mystery to me, even though I now had four wives.

  I guess skipping the heal imperfections spell might have been a good idea. I wonder what the next one was.

  “Can you heal my face?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  Hana shivered, then she moved closer to me.

  “Do it. Now,” Hana ordered

  “Alright,” I said, “But, you need to tell me if it hurts.”

  Hana nodded.

  Reaching up, I cast the spell.

  My hands grew warm, and they glowed with a golden intensity.

  Carefully, I touched the pockmarks on her forehead. In my mind, I saw an unblemished forehead of clear skin.

  Hana’s flesh began to glow, matching my hands, as I rubbed and caressed the marks with my thumbs.

  Removing my hands, I watched to see what would happen.

  When the warmth faded from her forehead… the pockmarks were gone.

  Moving on, I ran my hands over the acne that was caked on her skin. It flowed off like water, leaving smooth, porcelain skin behind.

  Removing her bandage, I touched her sutured wound.

  The glow intensified, seeping deep into her skin.

  Hana began to breathe hard, but I could feel that she wasn’t in pain. She was excited and nervous. Her heart started beating faster, and I found mine matching it. Running my hands back and forth over her skin aroused me.

  And, it made me feel like God.

  That was dangerous.

  If I let myself get too proud, too arrogant, disasters would follow in my wake.

  But, I did enjoy fixing her.

  I just hope that it helped fix the broken girl inside as well. This spell couldn’t repair the mental damage that she had suffered or remove her bipolar diagnosis.

  Maybe the next spell could help me with both.

  Shivering, I felt the call of magic. Its siren song promised to fix and repair everything around me. But, if I weren’t careful, I’d change everyone and make them mine.

  Instead of themselves.

  I’d end up with four little robots, without a thought amongst them.

  But, they’d be pretty.

  Shivering, I let the glow fade.

  Hana’s face was perfect.

  She launched herself to her feet, pelting me with bubbles.

  Hana threw herself out of the tub, running and almost falling to a mirror.

  “Oh. My. God,” she moaned, looking at herself. “They’re all gone. The marks. The acne. The scars. Everything.”

  She turned back at me in shock.

  “My face is pretty,” she said, not believing her own words.

  - 39 -

  Hana’s face wasn’t pretty.

  It was beautiful.

  Hana made her way back to the tub and slid into the water. She stared at me with anticipation.

  “I want bigger breasts and a smaller ass,” she blurted out. “And, I want smaller ears and pretty red hair. Or, maybe blonde, or brunette.”

  Squealing in happiness, she added, “And pretty white teeth that aren’t broken and twisted.”

  Hana climbed onto my lap. And, then she realized just how hard I was.

  “Are you afraid of me?” she whispered, looking deep into my eyes, and changing the subject one hundred and eighty degrees.

  “A little,” I answered, trying to be truthful.

  “Can you fix me?” she asked. “When I get mad, I lose control. I don’t like that.”

  “I can’t fix that yet,” I replied. “But, maybe someday.”

  God help me if I learned how to do that. What other crazy things would I change if I could? Some wizards had wives with fur, claws, and teeth, while others gave their wives wings or scales. Being able to change things didn’t mean that they should be changed.

  Hana leaned in closer, making me focus on her lips that were only inches from mine.

  “How long until you can do more?”

  I shut my eyes to concentrate, which was really hard because she was sitting on my lap.