The Magic Shop

by Justin Swapp

  “Stay on the path,” Elba said. “You would not want to fall in.”

  Marcus walked across the steppingstones. The water along the path burped and bubbled in a green hue under the torchlight. The rocks got smaller and further apart from each other as they approached the door.

  Marcus hopped from the final stone onto a dirt-covered landing some thirty-feet from the entrance. Elba followed, her servants trailing close behind her.

  Marcus’s mouth gaped open as he looked around the cave. There was another door, blood-red, surrounded by blurry images painted on the walls.

  “What is this place?”

  “The outer entrance,” Elba said.

  “To what?”

  “That depends on you. Look at that door.”

  Marcus examined the door more closely. It was red. He had noticed that before, but something was different about it. What was it?

  The door had no handle.

  Marcus squinted. The door had no handle, but a perfectly round hole, lined in green metal, was positioned in the middle of the door.

  “Where’s the door handle?” Marcus asked.

  Elba reached into her blouse and pulled out the small globe with Marcus’s blue wisps still alive inside.

  Marcus suddenly felt a lurch in his stomach. His head felt hot.

  “That’s mine,” he said, reaching for the crystal ball.

  “Take a deep breath.” Elba held the sphere up between her finger and thumb. “Breathe.”

  Marcus had forgotten about the servants. He turned and looked up at the smoke rising from the bowls, and instinctively took a deep breath. He felt slightly better, but he turned back, not wanting to take his eyes off the sphere.

  “Give it to me,” Marcus said, taking a step forward. “Please.”

  “You are joined to this sphere, Marcus,” Elba said. “Did you know that? You can feel it, can’t you?”

  Marcus winced, and nodded.

  “And what is it that binds you, Marcus?”

  “I…” Marcus searched his feelings.

  “Say it.”

  “I don’t know.” He flinched slightly.

  “Yes, you do,” Elba stomped her foot. “Stop fooling yourself.”

  Marcus’s hand shook. “Just give it to me. I just want to hold it for a moment, and then I will give it back.”

  “Name it!”

  Marcus recoiled, and then, after a long moment of silence, he said, “Magic.”

  “And do you believe that?”

  “I don’t know what I believe anymore. I’ve seen too much, and I can’t explain any of it.”

  “What you’re about to see, what I’m going to teach you… it’s a lot to take in.”

  “I can handle myself,” Marcus thrust out his chest.

  Elba scoffed at him. “Then you have a choice to make, Marcus, and you will have to make it once I give you this sphere. Just remember to use this sphere to get through that door.”

  Elba turned to her servants and waved them off, sending them back the way they had come. Once they had gone, she turned back to Marcus and offered the sphere.

  Irritated and angry, Marcus lunged at Elba, swiping his crystal globe out of her hand.

  “You had no right to keep this from me,” he said, breathing heavily.

  The instant Marcus touched the sphere, energy surged through his arm. His hair stood up on end. He looked down at the glowing globe cupped in his hands as if he had found a long-lost child. A moment later, he looked up at Elba with contempt.

  The room around him changed. The faint depictions on the walls became clearer to him. Uniform rows of painted skulls surrounded the red door. Behind him, he now saw through the green bubbling water, like a lighted swimming pool. Bones, both human and animal, lined its bottom.

  They were moving.

  “What’s happening?” Marcus asked, “I… I can see things that weren’t there before.”

  “You have been exposed to your true nature in its rawest form, Marcus,” she said, “and now you must decide whether to control it, or to let it consume you. You must fight the anger.”

  Marcus was sick of the way Elba spoke to him. He was beyond frustrated. “Why don’t you just speak English, lady? I’m tired of all your psychobabble.”

  A splash erupted behind Marcus and he whirled around. Several dripping skeletons had crawled out of the water and were slopping their way toward him. Most were made of human bones, but one walked on all fours, and looked like it had been an animal.

  “What’s going on?” Marcus asked again, turning back to Elba, furious but frightened. “Are you doing this?”

  She shrugged and said, “You’ll get no more psychobabble from me.” She took a step back toward the red door.

  Marcus felt heat rise to his face as the skeletons inched closer. Hatred for Elba built up inside him. Was she trying to get him killed? He felt the sphere shift and tug him in Elba’s direction. Had he felt like his normal self, he would have found the sphere’s behavior curious, but in his state he didn’t realize that the sphere was drawn to Elba too.

  As if it were the natural thing to do, Marcus raised his sphere, palm open, and closed his eyes. He felt at peace.

  Blue tendrils whipped and twisted inside as the sphere grew larger in his hand.

  Elba tensed up, and shut her eyes. A faint, blue mist gathered around Elba and accumulated into thin wisps that made their way to Marcus’s sphere.

  After a moment, Elba’s arms began to shake, and her lips quivered. She squeezed her eyes tighter.

  A moment later Marcus’s eyebrows came together. He thought he felt a strange sensation on his shoulder, and his eyes shot open. “Hey!” He whirled around. Marcus stood face to face with an ugly skeleton.

  The others weren’t far behind.

  Marcus jerked away from the nasty bone hand that had clenched at his shoulder, and dropped his sphere on the ground. Only then did he realize he couldn’t actually feel this horrible creature. The skeleton appeared to have some kind of death grip on him, but if it truly had, he would have felt his flesh tear off when he pulled away. But he didn’t. Instead, the bony hand went right through him.

  Marcus scrambled backward. He bumped into something soft, and then he couldn’t move. Something held him firmly in place by the arms.

  “Look at it,” whispered Elba’s familiar voice weakly.

  Marcus was surprised at her strength. When he tried to pull away again, he felt her vice-like grip sink into his skin. He couldn’t move.

  “Look at it,” she repeated, a little louder, jerking him upright again. “Your disobedience could get you killed today.”

  Marcus looked at the hideous creature again. Something was off with these creatures, something wrong. Perhaps he didn’t notice it before because he only faced one of them, or perhaps because he expected to see sharp teeth and glowing eyes.

  It sounded odd even as he thought it, and he knew it wasn’t even a real possibility, but Marcus couldn’t help but think that they looked…sad.

  “And what do you see?” Elba asked anxiously.

  “Dull eyes, not mean,” he said, surprised to hear himself say that out loud. “And their jaws are moving, as if they are trying to say something.”

  “Good,” Elba said, “but you haven’t seen what we came for yet.”

  “Seen what?” Marcus asked as the skeletons moved in. But even as he said it, he knew what she was talking about.

  Images seemed to flicker around the skeletons. As they drew closer, he saw flashes of what he assumed were their former selves. He stared at the closest creature. After a flash, he saw a bearded man dressed in fine clothes with a concerned look on his face. Another flash and he was a skeleton again. The flickers grew more frequent as they neared Marcus and Elba.

  “What do they want?” Marcus asked, now digging his heels into the ground, trying to back up further. “What is this place?”

  The animal skeleton motioned a howl, but no sound came out.

  “This
is the place where you decide if you become like them, or if you become like me,” whispered Elba. “Listen.”

  Marcus listened as hard as he could, hoping that Elba hadn’t lost it. As he calmed down and became more concentrated, he thought he did hear something.

  “Can smell it…,” whispered some of the skeletons as they walked right up to Marcus, flickering between their skeletal and human forms, all reaching out for him. “Must have it…”

  “Sense it…” Another skeleton put its bony hand on Marcus’s chest which passed through him.

  They couldn’t actually touch him, but that didn’t make Marcus feel much better.

  The animal skeleton had veered off from the group and stopped at the sphere that Marcus had dropped. It seemed to flicker more than the others. It sniffed the sphere and tried to lick it.

  “What do they want?” Marcus turned his head to avoid looking at them.

  “They want your magic,” Elba said, “even though they are dead.”

  A skeleton flickered into female form and licked Marcus’s cheek.

  “I have magic?” Marcus winced at the nasty skeleton. “Let me go.”

  “You have a choice, Marcus,” Elba released his arms. “Go through the door and become like me, or accept their fate and finish what you started when you stole that sphere from me.”

  Free at last, Marcus ran to the globe on the ground and swiped it away from the animal. The animal flickered and lifted its skull to howl, but it produced no noise.

  He felt his power return the instant he touched the sphere. The skeleton spirits must have sensed it too; they turned and gazed intently at the now active sphere in Marcus’s hand.

  “What will you do now, Marcus?” Elba asked. “Drain me of my magic and kill me, or use the magic you have collected so far to get through that door?”

  The spirits flickered as they approached, faster this time. Fear and anger built in the bottom of his stomach. Marcus remembered Elba’s words; he had to calm down.

  Marcus took a deep breath. They can’t hurt me, he thought. I have no reason to be afraid.

  The urge to unleash the sphere’s power on them all returned. It wanted to be let loose and he felt it. Marcus shook his head, trying to shake the thought. He breathed deeply again, but it was ineffective.

  “You did this to me!” Marcus yelled and pointed the sphere at her. He felt at one with the sphere; with the magic. “You are trying to kill me. This is self-defense.”

  Marcus’s eyes widened and the sphere’s assailing tendrils reflected on them like spider webs.

  Elba shrieked in pain then fell to her knees as Marcus’s orb absorbed her power.

  The flickering skeletons gathered around and watched him with open mouths and outstretched bones. Marcus now seemed oblivious to anything but Elba and her magic. He didn’t even notice that as each skeleton closed in, the flickering stopped, and its previous human form remained constant.

  “Stop.” Elba reached for Marcus. “Please. You don’t know what you are doing.”

  “Magic…” sighed one spirit, closing its eyes euphorically. “Mmm. Remember the drain.”

  “What about your family, Marcus?” Elba asked, her arms shaking, her hands the only thing keeping her from falling to the ground. “You are throwing all that away.”

  Undaunted, Marcus gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, his gaze distant, lost in thought.

  “You would leave your grandfather to die?” Elba asked, breathing heavily. She looked in a bad way, and then screamed again in pain. “What you do to me, his captor will do to him. You know that, don’t you? You and he are alike.”

  Marcus pulled the orb back slightly, but said nothing. The blue tendrils licked at Elba.

  “Please stop this,” she said with what sounded like a final gasp of breath. “If you kill me, I can’t…” she struggled to continue. ”…I can’t take you to your father.” She collapsed, motionless.

  Marcus was stunned. “My father? But…”

  He dropped the troublesome orb, which was now full of imprisoned life and moving energy. The ghosts flickered into skeletons.

  Marcus shook his head and sprang to Elba’s lifeless body.

  “Elba,” he shook her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t understand. It wasn’t me. Talk to me.”

  Elba didn’t speak, but lay lifeless in his arms.

  After some time, he realized the futility and gently lay her body on the ground.

  “My father’s alive?” he whispered to himself. “But Elba’s dead.”

  Suddenly, fury, sorrow, and many other emotions filled him all at once. He wailed and pounded the ground.

  Marcus searched the room for the ball. He wanted nothing more than to smash it into a million pieces, but that would require him to touch it again. He had just killed someone, and he hadn’t even realized it at the time. When he held the ball, something inside of him changed, and he wasn’t fully in control.

  A huddle of skeleton spirits gave the location of the sphere away. They swiped and grabbed at the orb, but couldn’t take possession of it. That didn’t stop them from trying again and again, however.

  Marcus’s mind raced in confusion. Elba had wanted him to get through the door and he didn’t want her to die in vain. He still faced the small matter of coming into contact with the sphere, though.

  He considered further. He saw no way to do what she had asked without touching the orb. He would have to grab it and use it once more. Perhaps when he was through the door, he could destroy the orb. Yes, that was the plan.

  “Get out of here,” Marcus said to the spirits, but they paid no attention; they focused on the magic in the sphere.

  He stormed over to the huddle as if they weren’t there. He grabbed the orb. On contact, the sphere illuminated, and the wisps became more active.

  He moved toward the door again, but caught sight of Elba lying lifeless on the ground. Before leaving he felt compelled to say some last words.

  Marcus cried: “I’m sorry, Elba. I never meant for this to happen. All you did was try to prepare me for…” Marcus couldn’t think of the right word to describe what he had just experienced, so he simply said, “this.”

  “Magic…” a voice said from behind him. “Give… magic.” The ghosts were on the hunt again, and perusing Marcus.

  He held up the sphere that had changed his life forever. He studied energy twists floating in the orb and felt dirty, like a thief.

  “If I could give these back to you, Elba, you know I would,” he said. A tear trickled down his cheek. “If I could, I would give you all this…magic.”

  As he said those words, the energy in the ball began to change. Before the wisps had twisted in one direction; now they traveled the opposite path, faster than ever. Blue flames coiled and curled out of the sphere and into Elba’s limp body.

  Her body shook as it absorbed the energy, and then stiffened, levitating for a moment before settling back down. Finally, a gasp of air filled her lungs, and her eyes glowed for a time before they regained their normal color.

  Marcus couldn’t believe his eyes. ”Elba?”

  She got up slowly as her strength apparently returned.

  “Marcus, you—” she put a hand to her head. “You drained me.”

  “I’m so sorry,” He rushed to her and hugged her.

  “The door, quickly!” Elba said. “Before you’re tempted again.”

  “Earlier, you said you could take me to my father. How?”

  “Because I’m the Crypt Keeper.”

  Marcus rubbed his eyes. He had hoped that his father would somehow be alive. He knew it was too good to be true. He dashed for the door.

  The metal plated hole waited where it had since his arrival. Marcus looked at the sphere and wondered if it was a good idea to let the orb out of his hands.

  “Do it,” Elba said, still finding her balance as she stood. “Before it overpowers you again.”

  Marcus felt anger and frustration return in the pit of his stomach. W
hat was the rush? He collected his thoughts. It was beginning; he had to remain strong. Following her orders, he quickly placed the orb into the hole and instantly regretted it.

  The orb’s energy wisps discharged; twisting and crawling across the door. In that same instant Marcus collapsed, writhing in pain. The little magic his sphere still contained was released into the door, which clicked, sending an echo of finality throughout the cave.

  Marcus opened his eyes and saw something he couldn’t explain. He used all his strength to fix his gaze on Elba. She had closed her eyes and raised her hands like someone who loves standing in the rain; he knew that look. She relished in the drain. Somehow she was connected to the door, and she was taking his magic.

  12

  The Catacombs

  Marcus rolled over on the ground and groaned. Beforelong, it was over.

  Elba moved to the door and removed the sphere from the socket.

  “Hey, that’s mine,” Marcus reached out weakly. “You have no—”

  “I will hold onto this for the time being,” she said, hiding it in her blouse. “You have been a bit unpredictable with it in your possession.”

  “I don’t understand,” Marcus rubbed his head. He felt weak and empty. “What happened?”

  “There is nothing to be confused about, Marcus. You’ve proven yourself worthy of what’s to come.”

  “What are you talking about? I drained you.” Now Marcus felt even more puzzled. Proven himself? How had he done that?

  “Come,” she offered him a hand, “I have much to show you.”

  “You could have killed me,” he said, befuddled, and then took her hand.

  “Yes, I could have.”

  Marcus thought her tight lips might have curved just a little then.

  “But that wasn’t the point of our time together today.”

  She pushed the large door open to reveal the thick, musty darkness on the other side. She clapped her hands and a pair of servants appeared behind them shortly thereafter, bearing torches and incense.