The Witch Cave

by Sara Clancy

  Her moment of relief soon wilted into despair. A part of her wished to be a little more like Basheba. Just enough that she could storm out there to help them. But she wouldn’t do that, she corrected herself. Basheba had once described herself as playing by ‘killer doll’ rules. She relied on ambushes and stealth. She knows her limitations and strengths. Mina turned back to the pile of bags laying discarded on the sand. And I know mine.

  Cupping Buck’s muzzle, she directed his line of sight to the bags. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Basheba had taught him to fetch such things. What that command might be was anyone’s guess. Still, she pointed to the bags, whispered ‘fetch,’ added ‘quietly’ as almost a plea, and released him. Buck looked to her before tipping his head into the air, black nose twitching as he scented Basheba.

  “No,” she mouthed. Pointing sharply at the bags she ordered, “Fetch.”

  Buck crawled forward on his stomach then paused to check over his shoulder. Not at Mina. His attention was taken by Basheba, who had just begun to stir. Whitney’s hand made a resounding crack as she drove it across Basheba’s face. Buck’s answering growl was lost under Cadwyn’s own. Whitney couldn’t let the reaction slide without a bit of mocking, and so, the attention remained away from Buck.

  Not daring to clap, Mina almost soundlessly tapped the tips of her fingers together. The movement caught Buck’s attention, and she thrust a hand toward the bags. He wiggled forward again.

  “Why is it that, when I wake up, there’s always a fifty-fifty chance I’m going to be surrounded by murders?” Basheba’s voice was groggy but light. Almost as if she found it all rather amusing.

  Whitney hit her again.

  “Can you just get your monologue over with?” Basheba replied. “Or better yet, make it a soliloquy, so we don’t have to hear you.”

  “Always so brave. So defiant.” Whitney put one finger under Basheba’s chin and forced the blonde to meet her gaze.

  Mina quickly checked on Buck, sure that the woman would see the massive dog in the corner of her eye, but his dark fur bled into the shadows. Slowly, he closed his mouth around the bag straps.

  “I guess it’s easy to be like that when you have a demon backing you.” Whitney paused to look over at the dark water. “Although, he doesn’t seem to be helping you all that much right now.”

  “I don’t know. I’m still alive.”

  Whitney’s teeth were stark white pillars between her crimson lips. “Not for long.”

  Once more, Mina tore her attention away to check on Buck. The dog held the bags in his front legs as he lay flat upon the earth. His dark eyes were on Basheba. In jerky little motions, he opened and closed his jaws around the bag straps, torn between Mina’s order and Basheba.

  “Why don’t you just let us, what’s the word?” Basheba popped her lips casually, but the last word was said with force. “Go.”

  Tumbling into mocking laughter, Whitney didn’t notice as Buck shuffled forward on his belly, obediently following Basheba’s command and returning to Mina.

  “Let you go?” Whitney said. “Oh, no, my dear. You’re dying here today.”

  Mina reached out for Buck the second he was within reach. She pulled him back to her, making sure he was concealed once more.

  “Why don’t you just stay away from us?” Basheba asked.

  Obediently, Buck’s rump hit the sand. His tail nervously flicking back and forth, as if he was waiting for Basheba’s praise and was unsure why he wasn’t getting it. Mina bit her lips and gave him a quick pat before tearing into the packs.

  “And people called you quick-witted,” Whitney smirked. “Now, explain to me what you were hoping to achieve with Isaac’s death? Is this how you’ve survived Katrina for so long?”

  Mina blocked out the interrogation, pouring all of her concentration into the items before her. Cadwyn always boasted that his kit was well-stocked—the man was a walking apothecary. It didn’t take her long to find the bottles of medical chemicals deep in the bottom. Sulfur for skin conditions. Charcoal for poison absorption. A scalpel made quick work of shredding the bag’s metallic inner lining. She dumped everything else out onto the ground and turned to Basheba’s pack.

  The blonde’s scream almost shattered her resolve.

  Where is it? Where did she put it? Her fingers trembled as they closed around the bottle of saltpeter.

  Dread boiled in the pit of her stomach, agonized screams pierced her ears, and the stench of rotting flesh bombarded her nose.

  Don’t freeze.

  Hot tears burned the corners of her eyes when she saw the music box amongst the scattered objects.

  Don’t freeze.

  Grinding her teeth, she knocked aside the music box to snatch up the crumpled pack of cigarettes underneath it. She never thought she’d be so happy Cadwyn was a smoker. Sulfur, charcoal, saltpeter. She mixed them together with the tip of the scalpel, fearful that a stray static charge, or any unlucky strike against a hidden stone, would cause a spark. All the chemistry books warned that this recipe for black powder was notoriously unstable.

  Her breath shuddered in her lungs as Basheba’s shrieks came again. Buck whimpered and pawed at the ground while Mina filled the cigarette papers with her mixture. The thin paper ripped in half with her first attempt, spilling the powder out over the sand. Mina squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a few fearful tears drip down her cheeks. If you’re going to be a surgeon, you better be able to roll a piece of paper. The thought was cold and calm within the fevered frenzy of her mind. She clung to it, took a deep breath, and began again. While she felt as if her whole body was shaking apart, her fingers worked swiftly. The paper remained intact, and she capped the ends with the strips of the thin metallic lining she had cut from Cadwyn’s med kit.

  Cradling the small pile of cylinders in the palm of her hand, she pulled the strap of Cadwyn’s bag over her shoulder and eyed the distance to Basheba’s knife. Buck’s eyes followed her. Waiting. Don’t freeze. Mina pinched the top cylinder in two fingers and tossed it toward the bonfire. It dropped into the sand. Goddammit! In frustration, she threw them all, praying that at least one would find the flames.

  The explosion blindsided them all. Instead of the small pop and crackle Mina had been anticipating, the fire roared, embers shot out in blazing tendrils, and a shock wave rattled the stones. Trapped by the walls, the blast was driven back in on itself, amplifying the force until stalactites cracked free from the roof and fell on them. Note to self, Mina thought wildly as she scurried back up onto her feet. Never put makeshift gunpowder into a witch’s sacrificial fire.

  She glanced down at the dog by her side. “Kill!”

  Instantly, Buck bolted forward, throwing himself over the boulder rather than run around it. White smoke billowed out, obscuring Mina’s vision and choking her. A tower of stone crashed to the ground just before her. It wedged itself deep into the earth, toppling over when another burst rocked the cave. Buck’s snarls joined the howl of chaos. Mina ran straight for the knife. The moment Basheba appeared from the smoke, bloodied and soaked, eyes wild and teeth bared, Mina shoved the knife into her grasp.

  “Keep them off me until I can sacrifice Katrina.”

  “What?”

  “Just do some gratuitous violence.”

  Basheba flashed a bloody smile and unsheathed her knife. “All right.”

  They sprinted for the ancient corpse. The smoke had thickened to the point that she could barely see Basheba within it, but Mina never doubted that the woman was there, guarding her back. Keeping all the lurking monsters at bay.

  Even in the mist, the bones sparkled. Mina fell into a skid beside them, scraping them up and dumping them into the bag. She clawed at the sand, searching for the sharp crystal peaks that covered even the smallest bones. Don’t miss one. Can’t miss one. Cadwyn broke free of the fog to slam into the ground beside her. The minotaur followed, its blood-soaked horns leading the charge. Buck appeared as a black streak. His momentum and weight forced
the minotaur to stagger to the side. Only a few paces and Mina lost sight of him again. Cadwyn glanced at Mina. She nodded rapidly.

  “I’m okay. Go.”

  He was up and gone before she finished the sentence. Two-hundred and five. Two-hundred and six! Clutching the bag to her chest, she shot to her feet, and almost right into Whitney.

  “What have you got?” the woman snarled on a raspy breath.

  Bones dug into Mina’s stomach as she tightened her grip. She took a step back, but Whitney charged forward, keeping her in sight as a string of words tumbled from her lips. The meaning was lost on Mina. The effect wasn’t. It only took a second, but that second was agony. One second and the opening of the bag had melted into Mina’s skin. Trying to tear it free was like ripping off a limb.

  “Stupid child,” Whitney hissed.

  Another few words and the smoke began to lift. Mina ripped at the seams of the bag as she retreated closer to the bonfire. She saw Buck hanging from a minotaur’s neck, blood covering them both. Cadwyn had the second minotaur by the horns, leveraging it back while Basheba shredded its stomach. They were soon shaken free and scrambled to close ranks as the minotaurs circled. By the water’s edge, Ozzie and Jeremiah had a cult member’s ribs as their defense against the charging satyr. All they could do was get out of its way as it forced them back toward the water. We’re going to die here.

  Whitney seemed to hear Mina’s thoughts. She smiled, holding one hand up to beckon her closer. “Make the smart choice, and I’ll spare them. I have the power to do that now.”

  She didn’t finish the sacrifice. She’s using Katrina’s power. Blood soaked the sand. Jeremiah screamed. She clawed at the bag, feeling the bones rattling around in their impenetrable case. If the Witch is gone, all of this stops.

  “Don’t you want to save your family?”

  Mina sobbed a broken breath. “It’s all I ever wanted.”

  Don’t freeze. Wrapping her arms around the bag, Mina flung herself into the flames to burn with the Bell Witch.

  Epilogue

  A voice drifted through the dark haze, looping around Mina like a comforting hand and dragging her from the dark depths. It was a struggle to open her eyes. She would have given up on the task altogether if the voice hadn’t been so insistent. The lights were too bright. Her eyes couldn’t focus.

  “Willimina?”

  Stark white light blinded her. She tried to flinch away only to find that she couldn’t move. Fear spiked inside of her. Swiveling her eyes around, she searched her surroundings. Dad? The word pushed through her numb lips in a muffled grunt.

  “You’re okay, Mina,” her father said. “Just rel—”

  Jeremiah shoved their father aside before he could finish and took his place.

  “Hey, welcome back,” he smiled brightly. “We’re all okay, don’t worry about that.”

  She wanted to reach for him, but her hand would do little more than a twitch. The original voice spoke again. Warm but crisp.

  “I’m Doctor Patel. You’re in Guardian Saints Hospital. I need you to look at me again for a moment.”

  Mina flicked her eyes back, her gaze swept back over her family and the vast room. Her brain struggled to handle both the speed and motion and, for a while, everything blended into a kaleidoscopic blob. Doctor Patel rechecked her pupils.

  “You’ve been in an accident. Do you recall that?”

  “Yes.” Mina’s voice was rough, and her throat felt like sandpaper.

  “Take your time,” Doctor Patel said. “You’ve been in a medically induced coma for a month. You’re going to feel a little groggy for a while.”

  A series of questions followed, along with a number of small tests and some equipment checking. Mina would have been interested in observing everything were it not for her present situation. Whenever she managed to get control of her mind, a thousand questions swirled in her head. After a small eternity, the doctor finished her examination.

  “Can we have a moment alone with her?” Jeremiah asked. “I think she’ll react better hearing it from us.”

  “Ten minutes only. The FBI is going to question her tomorrow morning. You can all return then for a longer visitation.”

  The angle of Mina’s bed didn’t allow her to watch the doctor all the way to the door. She could see far enough to know that Ozzie’s family was paying the hospital bills. The place looked more like a hotel suite than a hospital. Danat Al Emarat, her brain sluggishly offered up. Vaguely, she recalled reading about how the Danat Al Emarat hospital was creating an all-female staff, and how she had then spent a great deal of time mesmerized by the photographs of the ‘royal suite.’ An insane amount of luxury meeting practicality. If she hadn’t had her life plan all set, she might have tried to get a job there.

  “Am I in Abu Dhabi?” she asked on a breath.

  A few people chuckled, but she didn’t see who. The moment the door closed, Jeremiah regained her attention.

  “You’re still in America, Mina,” he said. “Ozzie’s parents are just insanely rich.”

  “This is a hospital?” She felt the need to check.

  “Yeah, apparently Ozzie’s dad, I mean Ethan—not Percival—was terrified of Ha-Yun having complications with her pregnancy. So, before Ozzie was born, he bought a hospital and just went nuts outfitting it. You get a butler with this room.”

  Wait. His voice flooded into her ears too fast for her sluggish brain to make sense of it. Where am I? The question got lodged in her throat, and Jeremiah continued.

  “This place is so great, I think that’s why most of these guys are here to see you wake up.”

  A sharp voice protested behind him. Jeremiah half-turned to insist that he was joking.

  “Everyone’s been counting the days. Some of the kids are a little annoyed that the doctors decided to bring you out of it on a school day, so they couldn’t come and skip school. We have a lot of cards for you.”

  The information poured into her brain like warm honey. Slowly coating her thoughts and sticking them together. The more she tried to pry them apart, the worse it became, until everything within her was a single, jumbled mess.

  “Hey,” Jeremiah said softly. “Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you. Are you still with me?”

  “Yes,” she mumbled. “What happened?”

  “You didn’t respond to Ava’s safety check.”

  “What?” Are you kidding me? The safety check worked?

  Jeremiah chuckled like he couldn’t believe it either. “When she couldn’t get in contact with you, she called mom and dad. Of course, that didn’t go very far.”

  “Jeremiah,” their father growled.

  Jeremiah bristled. “Leave it alone, Dad. I’m talking to my sister.”

  “Don’t speak to your father like that,” their mother interjected.

  Mina jerked with surprise when Jeremiah whipped around to face them. “If I have to get security to see you off the property again, I will.”

  Their father’s face darkened. “You have no right—”

  “She’s a legal adult, Mr. Davis owns the building, and the doctor said not to stress her out,” Jeremiah cut him off. His hands were shaking, but his voice stayed strong. “Either play nice or leave.”

  Mina instantly recognized the tension crackling between the two men. She had experienced it herself right before she had been cast out of the family. Jeremiah had been through the Harvest, although not in the conventional manner, and he had been altered by it. Not just by the horrors he’d witnessed, but by the truths he’d been forced to confront. And now he’d have to learn to walk through a world alien to everything he had ever known. Hopefully, Dad will be a bit more understanding this time around.

  Unable to hold their father’s furious gaze, Jeremiah turned his attention back to Mina. His voice softened as he continued. “So, she called Ozzie’s parents. After what happened with the cult, Ha-Yun called some senator friends and got the FBI involved. I didn’t even get back to the surface be
fore I ran into a search and rescue team. They had you evacuated in a few hours.”

  The safety check worked. Mina couldn’t get past it.

  “Are you still with me?”

  “Yes,” she managed. “But I’m getting dizzy.”

  “Okay, here’re the bullet points. Whitney and the others got obsessed with the legend of the Bell Witch. They formed a cult that attacked us because of our ancestors.”

  “Okay,” she said when he paused.

  “Whitney poisoned the group. We all fought back. In the chaos, you ended up in the fire, and Whitney escaped.”

  The door burst open. With an ecstatic yelp, Buck raced across the room and leaped onto the end of Mina’s bed. The jolt brought far less pain than it should have. Buck’s back legs wiggled about as he swooped down to lick her. Jeremiah’s quick reflexes kept his tongue from making contact. The fur on his head was splotchy and charred, exposing glimpses of red skin. The panic that coursed through her family shifted into an uneasy murmur when Basheba sprinted into the room with Cadwyn, Ozzie, and his parents close behind.

  “Look who got up,” Basheba smiled. “A month-long nap. That decimates my record.”

  “Do you mind?” Mina’s mother hissed. “This is a private occasion.”

  Basheba held up her left arm, displaying the burn scars that covered her hand.

  “Buck and I literally pulled your baby out of a fire.”

  The way her mother clamped her mouth shut suggested that this wasn’t the first time Basheba had used that to win an argument. She slid onto the end of the bed and called Buck onto her lap.