Ancestral

by Kirstie Keatings

  Once this was done, she looked over to Troy. “Okay. Take my hands and close your eyes. You're going to feel a really uncomfortable pull, but don't fight it, okay?” Lila asked, and he nodded, trusting her. Taking his hands, she closed her own eyes and allowed her body to relax, murmuring for him to do the same almost subconsciously.

  When Troy's relaxation set in, he instinctively entered a meditative state. This was something Lila never asked for when trying to guide people like this; they became too focused on 'How do you meditate? Is there some magickal thing you have to do?' and the answer was no, you just had to be so relaxed that your mind broke free of the cares of your physical body, opening yourself to the world around you. Almost effortlessly, Lila used her powers to reach for Troy's, blanketing it with her own and gently pushing until she joined their powers together. At that point, their consciousnesses were able to interact, and she started by soothing him.

  “Okay, firstly; don't freak out.” she murmured, just as she felt him start to pull away in shock. At her mental words, he forced himself to calm down. She was vaguely aware of his hands squeezing hers tightly, then relaxing, but it felt distant and disconnected from where she was now. Lila could almost feel Troy sighing. “What next?” he murmured, clearly unsettled by the use of his mental voice. A nervous laugh followed. “This feels like when I'm trying to sort out my chores in my head.” he explained. “I feel like I'm nuts and talking to myself.”

  “Well, you're not.” she assured him. “I promise. Focus on what I'm saying. This bit gets weird. I'm going to share an image with you.. and I want you to imagine yourself painting it inside your mind, on your skull if that helps you visualise it. You need to think of each stroke. I'll give you two more, and then when they're done, you'll be protected from anything coming from Death. It'll leave your mind – and your body under your complete control and only you will be able to choose to leave it.”

  “Aren't I kind of leaving it right now?” he asked with a slight frown.

  “No. You've just expanded your consciousness to include a wider net. That's the best way to explain it. All witches can do this, connect minds. It's just not taught very often because few think it's important since we have mouths.” she chuckled, then settled them both into silence again. Casting the images of the symbols into his mind, she let him carefully paint them in his consciousness as she supervised, making sure he had them perfect with regular coaxing. The better they were done, the more effectively they would work.

  When she was satisfied with it, she gently pulled back from the connection so it wouldn't unnerve him too much, took a moment to breathe and then opened her eyes. Troy's eyes opened at the same moment, and he smiled gratefully, seeming far more relaxed. “Thanks, Lila. For agreeing to this, I mean. It sounds odd, and I know compared to everyone else, we haven't talked much.” he frowned a little. “But I respect you. I have no idea how you're keeping your head about this but I can tell you that you're helping everyone. A lot.”

  At that moment, Sadie walked in and leaned against the door frame. “Troy, if you didn't play for the other team, I'd be concerned you were hitting on my girl right now.” she teased, indicating Troy's hand on Lila's leg, where it had fallen when they'd finished the rite. Thinking quickly, Troy threw his arm around her and put on his most affected voice. “So? Maybe she's done it for me.” he acted smitten. Lila laughed.

  “Yeah, Sadie.” she teased. “Sometimes, you just gotta go with it.”

  The joke was exactly what they needed, and Sadie's lips quirked as she fought back a smile. “Oh, I see how it is, Li'! Cheating on me already? Well, then!” she huffed, folding her arms. “And casting a circle to keep me out, I'm wounded.” she gasped.

  Chuckling under her breath, Lila quickly uncast the circle and said thanks to the Goddess for bearing witness. Standing, she shook Troy off, who pretended to cry.

  “Are you dumping me?” he pouted.

  Lila nodded firmly. “I'm sorry Troy, I don't know how to tell you this. I'm not a boy.”

  Troy gasped dramatically, clutching his heart. “But you have such masculine long hair!” he wailed.

  At that, Lila lost it, bent over double laughing. Sadie was grinning, and came over to throw her hand around Lila's shoulders. “Guess that means you're mine then, huh?” she asked, and Lila jabbed her in the side playfully which made her jerk away with a yelp and a laugh.

  The tension in the room had broken, and Troy had climbed to his feet. “It's okay, you'd both make terrible looking guys anyway. Too girly. Yeuch.” he stuck out his tongue. “However, if one of you can cook, I will pledge my undying love anyway. Platonically.”

  Sadie threw up her hands, shaking her head as if warding the idea. “Nu uh. I put an aluminium can in the microwave the last time I tried to cook. I've been banned for the rest of my natural life, on orders of Cammy.”

  Lila almost smacked her palm into her own face. “Are you two grown ups or not? Seriously. Okay, lemme see what we've got.” she sighed, heading into the kitchen. In the end, she wound up making pasta with a meat based sauce, not quite bolognese but tasty nonetheless.

  A soft bang echoed through the house, and she poked her head out of the kitchen just in time to see Elsie walk in, looking stressed.

  “Hey. How did it go?” she asked, inviting the girl into the kitchen with her conversational tone. Elsie dropped her car keys on to the counter with a discordant jingle and a smack, loud enough to make Lila flinch in her exhausted state.

  “Bad, good, I don't know. Adam's a wreck. He wouldn't come home. Did you make enough food for one more?” she asked. “I'm starving.” Elsie almost sounded guilty for feeling hungry, and Lila reached over to squeeze her shoulder.

  “Hey, you're human. You need sleep and food. Adam gets that. Hopefully the nurses will force him to eat. If not, we'll take him breakfast in the morning.” she comforted. Elsie gave a weak smile in gratitude.

  “Yeah, I guess. Though, I don't think he's gonna be able to come with us yet.”

  Lila nodded; She'd expected this. How could she not? If something had happened to someone she loved, particularly so soon after the death of her parents, there was no way that she'd let anyone tear her away from them, no matter how important the task. “Well, unfortunately we do have to carry on. I think Rose was attacked by spirits. It seems to be a recurring theme.” she sighed. She didn't mention the hex bag, but did monitor Elsie's face for any indication that she knew anything was amiss. “So... solving whatever's going on here could actually be Rose's best chance.” Lila sighed.

  Plating up food, she carried it through to the dining room, where Troy and Sadie were having an animated conversation about how best to protect the house. It was a different side to Troy, for Lila at least. His face showed serious concern, maybe a little anger at himself for failing to stop the attack. Or was it because he knew the hex bag was gone? Lila really didn't know who to trust any more. Everyone was a suspect, and that really, really sucked because she needed help with this. Cursing the self-proclaimed Nain Rouge under her breath, she placed the plates on the table and plastered on a smile. Keep it natural, she thought; if she gave the game away, everyone could be in danger, particularly as she had no idea who the culprit was.

  Before sitting down, she went back into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of pop and some glasses, heading back in to the dining room to several sounds of appreciation. “This food is awesome. None of mum's chefs make stuff like this. It's all stuff like foie gras and Kobe beef.” Troy made a face, and Sadie raised an eyebrow at Lila as if to say, see?

  Still, she was a little surprised. “You have chefs?” Lila asked, trying to make it seem non-judgemental. She was also trying not to talk with her mouth full, but apparently stress and lack of sleep translated into her needing to shovel food down faster than she could chew. Attractive.

  Troy nodded, suddenly looking self-conscious. “I'm not a snob. I promise. I just couldn't say no to my parents, not while I was living under their roof and all... and
now they're gone, I'm all alone and they never even taught me to cook. I tried asking the staff, but they said they were too busy.” he frowned. “I wanna go to college, but I'll get laughed outta the dorms if I tried.”

  Without even stopping to think about it, Lila answered him. “I'll teach you.” she promised – it was worth the extra time it'd take just to see the grin that Troy gave her. He definitely didn't look like a psycho killer who left hex bags under little girls' beds. Wow, that sounded creepy.

  Abandoning the thoughts of who might have perpetrated it, Lila let herself get into the conversation which broke out about food and if more expensive foods were tastier than ordinary food. It was a conscious decision to stop obsessing about who the deceiver may be. After all, there was always tomorrow.

  Chapter Eight

  The next day came with a glaringly unwanted winter sun pouring through the curtains into the lounge where all four of them were sprawled out on sofas and on the plush rug on the floor. Lila was the first to awaken, her groaning and scrubbing at her eyes enough to wake up Troy, who looked like he'd barely slept at all. In turn, he reached over to wake the other two, and they all gave each other a silent look which spoke volumes about the injustice of having non black out curtains. It was good, however, that they had woken when they did – The door clicked open, the four witches turning their heads almost in unison to see who was coming in. Of course, it was Adam – as much as some of them were hoping it may have been his younger sister.

  Where they looked tired, Adam looked like he and sleep had been enemies for decades. Dark circles rimmed his eyes, which also looked puffy and red as if he'd spent the night crying. Which, Lila reasoned, he probably had. Standing up, she moved over to him, wearing pyjamas which were clearly a size too big, the top making her seem even smaller than her five foot four frame. “Adam... is there any news?” she asked – somehow she knew better than to ask how Rose was doing; his face said it all.

  “No change.” his voice was gruff. “They have me on speed-dial, though. They actually told me to go home, that my being there wasn't going to help anyone. By anyone, I guess they meant me.” he sighed.

  Lila smiled sympathetically, realising that there was no way for Adam to really get through this – he couldn't process it when he didn't know what happened. “Oh, hey, Adam... could you tell me what this thing I found is? It's in Rose's room.” She diverted her gaze between Adam and the three on the floor, waiting to see if anyone panicked. No one did. Aware that there was someone in that room right now who thought she had figured them out, she decided to cover her own backside. “It was in that box thing on her night stand.” she added. No shoulders falling in relief, nothing. Leading the way upstairs into Rose's room, she shut the door behind them and cast a simple enchantment to stop anyone outside hearing their conversation.

  “I hope you're not about to try and hook up with me, because now is so not the time.” Adam asserted, though he couldn't hide the barest hint of amusement beneath his grief and worry.

  “You wish. No, this is about Rose. I wasn't lying, I did find something, but it wasn't on the dresser and it's gone now, with good reason. Adam, I found a hex bag. Someone did this to Rose deliberately, attacked her – she was supposed to sleep through it, at least if the bag's ingredients are anything to go by. The fact that she got up and ran into the hall is nothing short of a miracle.” Lila explained, frowning lightly. “The thing that worries me is that pulling someone's soul out of them is spirit magick, and no one in this group but me practises that.”

  “Woah, wait. We're accusing the people downstairs, now? How does that figure?” he asked, sounding a little offended on behalf of his new friends. It wasn't a surprise, given how many relationships he'd had wrecked recently.

  “Right. I didn't tell you that, either. I had a visitation... From a spirit calling itself the Nain Rouge.”

  Adam's eyes widened – apparently the tales of the childlike harbinger of doom extended beyond the Spirit coven. He didn't speak, however, waiting for her to go on.

  “He said to me that someone in our little group is deceiving us. Up until last night, I couldn't rule anyone out. I know you wouldn't attack Rose, though.” she added the last part hastily.

  “You're damn right I wouldn't.” he growled, glancing at the door. “I've got an idea. Why don't I just go down there and beat a confession out of them?” Adam was teetering dangerously close to that earthquake he'd warned her about.

  “Because that wouldn't work – that's the problem with using violence to get a confession. Everyone has a breaking point, and pretty soon one or all of them would confess, and there's only one of them the Nain Rouge mentioned.” Lila tried to calm him down, hoping the small infusion of Spirit magick in her voice would bring him back from the edge.

  It seemed to work, at least a little. Adam sat down heavily on Rose's single bed, which rocked a little at the sudden weight. Running his hands through his dark, medium length hair, he pinned the loose strands against his scalp, looking stressed. “I still can't believe this is happening. What about Rose? What happens to her?” he asked, biting his lower lip.

  “Well...” Lila began, sighing softly. “Right now, nothing. There seems to be a lot of spirit activity going on right now, since our parent's murders actually, and I don't think that we should toy with that unnecessarily.” she held up a hand to stop him when he was about to object that bringing Rose back was necessary. “Look, Adam, for what it's worth, Rose isn't in any immediate danger. She's just lost. No one will touch her back there, spirit worlds rarely overlap, since they're personalised experiences. Once we've settled this activity down, which is our duty anyway, I can come back here and try to enter Rose's spirit world... then hopefully I can bring her back.” It was more complicated than that; she'd have to go to the hospital and hope they didn't notice her writing runes and wards on the girl before she made it invisible to the civilians, then come back here and tune into Rose's world, using an item of significance to the girl to find her way there and back again. Still, it would be better if she put it like that, gave him hope. He sure needed it.

  Adam gave her an indecipherable look, seeming to mull it all over in his mind before seeing that she was right. “Okay, fine. What do we do now?”

  Lila was about to question the 'we', but decided not to – Adam was set in his ways. If he'd decided he was fit to continue their quest, then he was. No questions asked. “Well, I went into Death the other day in the car, and my ancestor guide told me there's a ritual we need to perform in each place. Sadie already got her coven to carry it out there with the help of one of mine, so we don't have to go back. It does mean we're gonna have to do the same thing in Brampton, Hamilton and Markdale before heading down to Waterloo again and putting an end to this by cleansing the place they died.” The last part was an addition of her own – something wasn't right about that place, and Sadie had mentioned that she'd been talking about a blood rite in her journey. It made her shudder even to think about it. While blood was a natural part of their rites – usually just a drop in a chalice to signify their bond to the elements, spilling blood against another's will was a tainted and dark practise.

  Sighing softly, she took a moment to glance out of the window. The sun was nestled in amongst fluffy white clouds which reminded her less of cotton than it did ice – there was no question that it would be a cold day, possibly the coldest of the year so far. Lila was struck by the same melancholy that she'd had that first day after she'd been formally told of her parents death. Though she'd known before, it was the police officer coming to relay it to her which had brought the grief down on her, and on that second day her tears had faded into numbness. On that day, less than a week ago but seeming like so much longer, she'd been looking out of the window and had come to the realisation that, while her life had been tipped on its head, life continued as normal for most other people in the world. What she was feeling now, she knew, was nothing compared to what Adam must feel – first his father's death and now h
is sister lying in a coma.

  Though it should have been awkward, the silence between the two was anything but; it was as though they were comrades at war, knowing all the cruelties life could throw at them and yet realising they at least had each other. It certainly felt that way for Lila, who had felt like she was going to explode, having no one to trust and yet finding no reason to doubt any of them other than the ghostly whisperings of a child spirit claiming to be the Nain Rouge. With all her heart, she wished she could simply dismiss the apparition as little more than a trouble maker, one of the mischievous dead who liked to play tricks on those around them, but while the accusations seemed to lack merit on their own, there was no doubting that a witch had killed their parents, and that someone in this house had placed that hex bag beneath Rose's bed. She wasn't sure how the two were related, but it was starting to seem like there was a faction working against them, perhaps dark witches who had somehow infiltrated their covens. Tainted witches were rare, but it was possible that they'd come out of their solitary existence to exact some revenge or another on the witches they felt were weak and fit for ridicule. She couldn't understand why any of her companions would make this move, and in that light, she refused to believe anyone capable of.