The Promises of Demons (The Witch of Whitebridge Book 1)

by Keith Keffer

  "Why did you make it sound like my family was involved?" asked Morgan. "Why did you drag my dad's name into this? You could have helped us find answers, but instead you made everyone look guilty."

  "Look at me," said Alisha. "I'm 21 years old. Do you really think I have any say in what they run on that TV station? I was one step above intern. When they ran that piece, I was horrified. I could only imagine what it was like for you and your family. When I complained, they fired me."

  "Then why did you come back?" asked Morgan. She waved Alisha's phone in the air. "You were taking videos of my house. Why are you stalking my family?"

  "I wanted to know what happened, but thanks to my ex-boss, no one would talk to me. Whenever I tried to get near you, someone would block me or steer you in a different direction. When I missed you in the hospital the other day, I had decided to give up. I was on my way home when I heard about Henry being found."

  Alisha sighed. "I needed to know what happened. I came back and waited for you to show up. I figured that was my best chance to talk to you. That's when I saw the guys drive into your backyard. That's when I started recording."

  "You got fired?" asked Morgan. The doubt clear in her voice.

  "Check my text messages if you don't believe me. They didn't even have the decency to fire me in person. They sent me a text telling me not to come in, and that they would send my things to my house."

  "Wow. That's low," agreed Morgan.

  "Tell me about it. Listen, everything you've told me is crazy, and I understand if you don't trust me," said Alisha. "But, your friend is in trouble. Let me help you find him. I couldn't help my brother. Maybe, I can help you find Bob."

  Morgan thought about it for a second. Alisha didn't call Bob a thing or a monster or anything else condescending. She called him Morgan's friend. Maybe she wasn't such horrible person after all. Besides, Morgan could use the backup. She nodded. "Alright. You're in."

  "Really," asked Alisha. "Just like that."

  "Yeah," said Morgan. "Just like that. He's my friend, so I call the shots. Got it?"

  "I got it," answered Alisha. "Now can I have my phone back. Your room is trashed, but your laptop looks like it is still in one piece. Let me upload the video to it. Maybe on a bigger screen, we'll see something we missed earlier."

  Alisha wasn't joking about the room. The damage the Hunter did was minimal compared to how the room looked now. Fortunately, the black slime it smeared everywhere was gone. Maybe it vanished when he got sent back to Hell.

  The physical damage remained. A leg had been broken off of the bed, and it titled awkwardly with the mattress half hanging off. The closet door was smashed and pushed into the closet, knocking most of Morgan's clothes on the floor. That's not counting the holes in the wall and the broken window. This must have been where the men took Bob, and from the amount of damage he put up a fight. It was amazing they didn't destroy the rest of the house.

  Surprisingly, Morgan's laptop was still on her desk. It had been pushed against the wall, but as Alisha said, it was still in one piece. Morgan slid the computer into the middle of the desk and hit the power button. It flickered to life with no problems, and in less than a minute she was logged in. Morgan righted the chair in front of the desk and then handed the phone to Alisha along with a USB cable. "It's all yours, " said Morgan. "Let's see what we can find out about these guys."

  While Alisha worked, Morgan tried to straighten up her room. It was either do that or pace back and forth aimlessly between breaks of watching over Alisha's shoulder. That grew annoying really quick, especially when Alisha started to download some application that would help enhance the video. It was some freebie tool that wouldn't let you save the file, but you still got to play with all of the bells and whistles.

  Morgan had pulled the door out of the closet and had almost finished hanging up her clothes when Alisha announced she was ready. Leaving the rest of her clothes scattered on the bed, Morgan rushed across the room to see what the video looked like now.

  It looked just like the video on the phone, only bigger and grainier. Morgan sighed. "That was a waste of time."

  Alisha looked over at her and smiled. "Check this out." She drew a box on the screen and the video zoomed in on that spot, and the image seemed to get sharper. Now, when she clicked the play button, only the zoomed in portion moved, and it was definitely a lot clearer. They were able to make out the faces of the men in the hood. Alisha froze the video in a few spots to get screen captures of the clearest images. It was during one of those times that she let out a gasp.

  "I know that guy," she said.

  "Really? Who is he?"

  "Well, I don't really know him," Alisha said. "I saw him at the hotel yesterday morning. He came down to the continental breakfast, loaded all of the donuts onto a tray, and left with them. He took over a dozen donuts. Who does that?"

  "Someone stocking up for the team," said Morgan. "I didn't recognize anyone, so that's a start. What about the license plate. Can you find that?"

  Alisha nodded her head and started zooming in on other parts of the video, but there was no sign of a license plate on the car. Alisha never got a picture of the back of the SUV, and the spot in the front was empty.

  "What's that?" asked Morgan. She pointed at the screen, indicating where an odd shaped shadow stood out on the car. Alisha zoomed in until they could make out what it was. There was a basketball size dent in the front corner panel. Was that one of the cars at the laundromat? Morgan vaguely remembered a dark SUV. It would make sense if it really was the same guys,

  "That's a weird dent. It doesn't look like they hit something," said Alisha.

  "Yeah. More like something hit them, or in this case someone. I ran into these guys last night and a few of them got tossed into cars."

  "Is that one of the cars?"

  "I don't know, but I'm pretty sure those are the same guys."

  Alisha and Morgan spent another ten minutes studying the video, but they didn't come up with anything else. Morgan pushed the mattress back on the bed and tried to sit on it. Thanks to the broken leg, the corner of the bed dropped suddenly. She almost slid off, onto the floor, before catching herself. Morgan just finished finding her balance when Alisha spun around in the desk chair to look at her.

  "That's not a lot to go on," said Alisha. "What's next?"

  Morgan stared at the image frozen on the screen. It showed all of the men standing behind the house with Bob trapped in the cage. The leader was off to the side with Morgan's bags in his hands. Her notebook and the spellbook were missing. They had been taken along with Bob.

  At least she knew Bob was alright. She could still feel him through their connection. If the robed guys had killed him or banished him, Morgan didn't think she would be able to sense the little demon. As long as she could, he was alive and in this world.

  Sitting on the bed while Alisha sat at the desk reminded Morgan of the first couple of hours with Bob in this room. He had worked on that same computer to help her locate Henry. That was the first time that she had known that her younger cousin was still alive. It was such a sense of relief when Bob had shown her how to visualize Henry through the haze.

  Morgan smiled.

  "What," said Alisha. "Did you just think of something?"

  "We've been going about this all wrong. I'm still thinking like a run of the mill mortal. I can use magic. The same magic that helped me to find Henry."

  "Wait? Do you mean you can look into a crystal ball and find him?"

  "Not exactly," said Morgan. "I don't have a crystal ball, but I think I can find him."

  Morgan jumped to her feet and the bed swung back into place as soon as it was free of her weight. She'd definitely need to get that fixed before she tried to sleep in her room. Then again, she was getting really good at sleeping in chairs. She pushed aside the debris on the floor until she cleared a space around the summoning circle. The salt had been scattered everywhere, but at least the scratches marking the edge of the ci
rcle still remained.

  When Bob had her try this with Henry, she held her cousin's jacket to help strengthen the bond between them. She and Bob had a literal bond connecting them, and it all started in that circle.

  Morgan sat on one side of the circle and pointed to a spot on the floor right next to her. "Sit there. I don't know if we have to hold hands for this to work or not, so I'm just going to assume we do."

  After a moment’s hesitation, Alisha got off the chair and took a seat next to Morgan. She held out her hand as she said, "I don't know whether to be terrified or excited. What's going to happen?"

  "Hopefully, we'll see Bob."

  "Will he see us?"

  "I don't think so," said Morgan, taking Alisha's hand. "Maybe. I'm still pretty new at all of this. Now, hush. Let me concentrate."

  She tried to remember how Bob had walked her through this when she looked for Henry. First, she needed to visualize images of him, then she needed to relax and let the images guide her. If all went well, she'd see wherever they had Bob hidden away.

  Morgan began by thinking of how Bob had looked when he first appeared in the circle. How he squished his nose against the barrier the circle created around him. Then she remembered him laughing at her when she got embarrassed by his nakedness. A blue haze rose out of the circle. It was a light, wispy smoke. In the smoke Morgan could see Bob. He was wearing the shorts and t-shirt she had pulled off the teddy bear.

  Apparently, Alisha could see it too. She gasped and squeezed Morgan's hand, but somehow remained quiet.

  As Morgan played back events in her mind, the images flowed faster in the smoke. There was Bob listening to music in the bottom of the backpack. Another picture showed him looking over the dashboard of the Explorer. They were picking up speed until they were going so fast Morgan couldn't separate one image from the next.

  Morgan took a deep breath and let it out. She did it again. She repeated the deep breathing and by the fifth or sixth time, Alisha had joined in. They were breathing deeply and slowly in unison and as they did, the smoke began to thicken.

  Bob appeared inside a cage. It was the same one that Morgan had seen in the video. He was pulling at one of the bars, but unlike the wooden cage that held Henry, this one was made of metal and symbols had been scratched into each bar. Bob's shoulders bulged, but the bar didn't move. In frustration he kicked the bar with no better luck.

  It was like watching a blue tinted, silent movie. They could see the pictures, but there was no sound except for Morgan and Alisha breathing and the faint ticking of the clock from downstairs.

  The cage was in a windowless room. A bare light bulb hung from the ceiling, and that was the only source of light. The walls looked like stone blocks that had been painted over with a pale color. It was hard to say because of the blue haze. Morgan would have guessed it was some shade of white. The only entrance that she could see was a huge, metal door. It was closed, and a crossbar had been dropped across it.

  There were no shelves or boxes in the room. No other furniture that Morgan could see. The only other items in the room besides the cage were Morgan's backpack and tool bag. She sighed in relief, thankful that they had been left in the same room as Bob. That would certainly make getting him back easier.

  Bob slowly turned around until he was facing Morgan. He made the poopy face that meant he was thinking. Squinting his eyes, he pressed his face against the bars and mouthed the word "Moda." He smiled and winked just as the image faded away. The blue haze dissipated throughout the room.

  "He saw you," said Alisha as soon as the haze was gone. "How did he see you?"

  Morgan was already on her feet, moving toward the halls. "Got me," she said with a glance over her shoulder. "He's the expert. I'm just making this up as we go. Come on. I need to find wrapping paper, markers and a really big rock."

  CH 17 - You Can't Hide

  Morgan couldn't find a big rock. Instead, she grabbed a cracked flower pot off of the back porch. She drew two symbols on its side and then placed it in the middle of the yard. It would serve as the portal anchor for her spell. Next, she took a roll of Christmas paper and drew two copies of the portal spell on it.

  Without her notebook, Morgan worked from memory. Alisha followed her but said little as Morgan prepared the two spells. One of the spells was drawn in black marker, just like the symbols on the flower pot, and the other was drawn in red. They were the only two colors that Aunt Helen had in the kitchen junk drawer. They had to be the biggest spell scrolls anyone had ever made.

  It wasn't until Morgan put down the marker that Alisha asked the obvious question. "What are you doing?" Alisha had watched everything Morgan did with amazement, and although she didn't understand everything that had gone on, her reaction to it was one of awe, not disbelief.

  Morgan pointed at the flower point sitting in the yard. "That's an anchor." She then pointed to the black scroll. "And that is a portal spell. If I place that on the ground and chant the right words, it will create a portal to wherever the anchor is. Then all we need to do is step through the portal and poof, we're back home."

  "What's the red one for?"

  Morgan smiled. "Those idiots didn't just take Bob, they took all of my notes on magic. That included the anchor stone that we had used to escape from the Candy Crone. Bob didn't want to just leave it lying around, so he grabbed it and tossed it into the tool bag. I can use it to go wherever they are keeping Bob."

  Alisha thought about that for a second before asking her next question "Won't you appear inside the tool bag?"

  "Nah," said Morgan. She sounded a lot more confident than she felt, but talking it through with Alisha was helping, and that was a good question. "When I cast the portal spell, it's like opening a doorway to walk through. We can see through it, so we won't be jumping blind."

  She rolled up the black scroll and slipped a rubber band around it to keep it in place. There were snowman and giant snowflakes on the side of the paper facing the outside. It certainly didn't look like a magic scroll. Morgan handed it to Alisha along with a roll of clear tape. She then picked up the red scroll and went outside. "Don't lose that, said Morgan. "It's our way home."

  Morgan rolled out the red scroll, flat on the ground, and it immediately tried to curl back into a tube. She grabbed a few clumps of muddy dirt and dropped them on the corners. With the scroll in position, she was ready to cast the spell.

  "Wait," said Alisha. "Give me just one minute."

  Without waiting for an answer, she ran into the alley and out of sight. Morgan watched her go, and for the first time since she saw Bob through the haze she felt worried. She didn't know if she liked Alisha or even if she trusted her, but it was nice to have someone tagging along. Morgan didn't want to do this alone. What if Alisha didn't come back?

  Maybe Alisha had been faking her interest. Maybe she thought Morgan was crazy or dangerous, and she had just been waiting for her time to escape. It's not like Morgan could blame her. They were going to rescue a demon armed only with a scroll written on the back of Christmas paper. If that's not crazy, Morgan wasn't sure what was.

  She'd give Alisha five minutes. If she wasn't back by then, Morgan would do this by herself.

  It turned out, she didn't have to wait even a minute.

  Alisha reappeared, moving at a much more reasonable pace than the sprint she used to escape from the yard. She was carrying something in her hand.

  "That's a gun," said Morgan, immediately summoning the magic for her push spell. "Why do you have a gun?"

  "Protection," said Alisha. "Why else would I have a gun? My parents were always a little self-defense crazy, probably because of what happened with Ron. They bought me this gun when I got my driver's license and made me learn how to use it. I left it in my trunk when I decided to go into your house. You know, just in case the police showed up, and I got arrested."

  "And, you're not worried about getting arrested now?"

  Alisha laughed. "We're going through a magic portal to rescue
a demon from cultists. Nope, getting arrested and having to explain why I'm carrying a weapon is the least of my worries. Maybe you should grab a weapon too."

  Morgan thought about running upstairs and grabbing the baseball bat in Henry's room, then smiled as she felt the magic thrumming through her body as she held the power of her push spell at the ready. Her magic would be much better than a bat.

  "I know a spell that will let me toss four grown men across a parking lot," said Morgan.

  "Yep," said Alisha. "That'll do." She clipped a holster onto her belt. It wasn't one of those big, bulky things that you see in westerns. This one looked more like a small, black plastic case someone might use for a wide cellphone. Alisha checked to make sure her weapon was loaded before securing it the holster. It was completely hidden when she closed her jacket.

  They both nodded at the same time, and then walked over to the red scroll lying on the ground.

  "Do we need to hold hands or anything," asked Alisha.

  "Not this time." Morgan took a deep breath and started to chant the words to the spell. They came easily to her, although she still had no idea what they meant or even if they were words. They were just sounds she made that seemed to do the trick. A blue haze rose up from the circle in the middle of the scroll. Morgan was glad that she had drawn the spell on such a big piece of paper. The portal spread out to reach the edge of the spell circle and didn't go any further. It would be big enough for them to go through single file. Morgan reached over and took Alisha's hand. "I changed my mind. Don't let go until we are both through."

  Alisha squeezed her hand and said. "Where's Bob?"

  She was right. Bob and his cage were missing. They were looking through the portal into the room where Bob had been. The two bags were there, but otherwise the room was empty.

  "What do we do?" asked Alisha.

  The Christmas paper had begun to smoke as the edges of the circle turned black, and flames flickered across the symbols. Alright, maybe Christmas paper wasn't the best material to use for a scroll. It wasn't going to last much longer.