by R. E. Rose
“Oh, so you do know what’s going on?” Smarting from Thesia’s tone. I turned and craned my neck a little to get a better look at the massive specter, who looked an awful lot like a furry, floating, black and hairy pumpkin. As I awaited Maisie’s arrival, I saw William rise, stretch and then come over to the table I sat at.
I called to Sia, but she wasn’t interested in cuddling next to me and Thesia, the ghost, spoke quietly into my ear.
“Don’t sit back and relax here missy. Don’t you find it strange that Whitman’s helping you out? I mean whose side is he on?”
I looked to William, the great huge panther with eyes so green, bright and large – alert like a lighthouse. He left me at the desk and returned to his spot in the shadows. He stayed crouched in the darkest corner of the tent. When his eyes were closed, he was invisible. Sia had fallen asleep and slept between William’s huge front paws, snoring.
“Silvio needs his paw for all his powers to work. He’s the leader of the rival gangs. He’s promised to divvy up the town once he and Maisie take the place over,” Thesia said.
“He and Maisie?”
“Yes, it requires one witch and warlock working in tandem to acquire all the powers available. That’s why when you arrived it became imperative to train you and initiate William.You’re Plan B.”
“William and I are plan B?”
“You two are supposed to make sure Silvio and Maisie don’t succeed.”
“Or what?” I asked.
“Instead of the pleasant little funky West Coast suburb we live in, we literally become a Hell hole.”
“We? I always knew Maisie had power, but I never thought she’d abuse it this way.”
“She tried to do the right thing.”
“Oh, yeah, how’s that?”
“She tried to get you to become the deck’s guardian. Her time in the deck is over. If she remains its guardian, it all goes dark.”
“Like me taking over the guardianship was going to save anyone.”
“It would and still could,” Thesia said, and sounded insistent.
“She’s manipulative,” I said. “She only wants to become a restaurateur and get on with her life. She’s not interested in saving Meadowvale,” I argued, truly believing that.
“You’re right, and you’re wrong,” Thesia said. I strained to look over my shoulder at the ghost cat, so she could get a good look at my confused expression, but she had become nothing more than a grin and a pair of green eyes.
“I’m right, and I’m wrong?” I asked, seeking clarification.
“If you become the deck’s guardian, Maisie is free to pursue her dream. The powers she bears pass to you, after your initiation of course. Of course, then Silvio has no partner and cannot complete his plans,” she said as if everyone but me knew this.
“What about Temmie? I thought she hooked up with Silvio.”
“Maisie sent her there to keep an eye out,” Thesia said, then looked at me with only one eye. Her body quite literally faded and the invisible ghost Cheshire was now only a single, green, floating eyeball, which creeped me out.
“To spy on Silvio?” I asked.
“More or less.”
“Silvio isn’t stupid. He’d figure that out in no time,” I said, beginning to disbelieve Thesia’s story about Silvio. “He’s the Tower of Destruction,” I said. “I expect that’s a pretty powerful card.”
“Don’t under estimate him. He plays his role nicely, and doesn’t want any suspicion coming down on him.”
“What’s the big deal about Silvio? Who the heck do you think he is? Just because he claims to be the –”
Anesthesia clapped a ghostly invisible paw over my mouth. It felt very much like old socks stuffed with tissue.
“Better not to utter his name. It gives him power,” she then let go of me…
“Pffft, blah!”
“You, as William’s lover, you two are now entangled and become the master pair,” she said.
“Why hasn’t Silvio tried to off his rivals, namely me and William? If that’s the case?”
“He has. He and she will continue to “off” you while you remain unprotected from the deck’s powers.”
Thesia was still a single green eye hovering around the desk, like the dot at the end of a laser beam.
“Are you telling me that if I don’t accept Maisie’s offer to become the tarot deck’s guardian, Silvio will kill me?”
“Uh, hum, no, not you, but yes, that’s crass, but sure. That will do.”
“If not me then who?”
“William of course!”
“He’ll kill William?”
I wanted to run from this place and get out of town. My old life with my ex, Manuel, seemed like a better option than this. The direness of my situation hit me. The old, ghost cat had nearly disappeared.
“Don’t go, Thesia. Tell me what to do.”
“Once that was a simple answer, now it’s more complicated,” her disembodied voice echoed.
“Of course.” I rolled my eyes; hit myself in the forehead with the palm of my hand.
“William must become a man and you a woman,” I heard her say.
“Oh, that’s as cryptic as usual!” I shouted at nothing.
“Take the shriveled, black paw into your tarot card and hide it in the Star, and never let Silvio know where it is, or how to get it. Over time, you must pass this paw on to the next witch and warlock couple that may one day arrive in Meadowvale. If you fail, then a lot of bad things happen. I can list them for you,” her disembodied voice said.
“Never mind.”
Thesia’s eye winked out and Silvio, the man, stepped into the tent.
I looked over to the shadows to see who had my back but saw no one. Not William, or Sia, and certainly not Thesia.
I turned back to Silvio.
He stood in the dark and stared at me. I stared back and checked his hands for a weapon.
“The Silver Bullets have Maisie. They won’t let her go,” he said.
“Call the police. I can’t do anything,” I said.
Silvio’s dark eyes glittered in the candlelight, the whites of those eyes disappeared until they became dark as wet stones in his face.
A few more steps brought him to the very edge of my table. I wanted to get up and run from the tent, but I also wanted to follow the directions Whitman gave me. I’d never trusted my principal before, but for some reason, it felt right to trust his words this time, and nothing could move me from my chair, nor would I dare reveal the box with the shriveled panther’s paw to Silvio.
He put his hands on the table, and I noticed he had tattoos running down his fingers and across his knuckles. His long sleeves slipped up on his wrists and exposed a black, rhinestone Cheshire cat collar on each wrist? That told me that he needed to stay solidly in this dimension and out of the Cheshire. He was a cat, granted a large one. I found it hard to believe that this bad man came from that dimension.
“Where’s Temmie?” I asked in an attempt to break the tension. He lifted one hand. A deck of tarot cards appeared there. The lid blew off, popped into the air and did several twirls. I caught it before it hit the ground. The Temperance card happened to be at the top of the pile and there, Temmie’s pretty face smiled up at me.
“Maisie asked me to bring you to her,” he said.
I stared at Temmie’s form on the card then back to Silvio.
“I can’t leave. I’m waiting for William,” I said, as calmly as possible. Silvio’s eyes lost their hold on me, and he looked quickly around the room.
I’m certain he looked for William.
Trying to keep my voice steady, I said, “If it’s William you’re looking for, he’s gone. He left. But he’ll be right back. He went to help Maisie. Maybe you should go help her, too?” I asked.
He smirked at me.
“Where’s my paw,” he said. “I know Maisie gave it to you.”
“I imagine that if you’re looking for a paw, it’s on some an
imal, somewhere.”
“Do you know who I am, Jane?”
I nodded, yes, and as he was about to lean in close and tell me his big secret, Devon, of all people walked into the tent! I swear I heard Silvio hiss in Devon’s direction, as he approached. Devon appeared cautious.
“Master!” he said to Silvio, “Quickly, Maisie’s escaped!”
“That’s not possible,” Silvio said, emphasizing all the ‘s’es.
Devon hurried out as quickly as he hurried in.
“Devon answers to me. He always has,” Silvio said, and then he, too, made a dramatic exit from the tent, never taking his eyes from me. I did everything I could to prevent my mind and my face from revealing that the box with the panther paw sat at my feet, under the table.
After Devon and Silvio left, I felt exhausted. I wanted to stand stretch and walk around, but I was too afraid to move. I wondered what next? I tapped my toes against the box. I looked down to confirm that it still sat there.
When I looked up again, a huge panther sat across from me, staring. Its presence jumbled my nerves.
“William, is that you?” I asked. The animal purred. I noticed all four paws were intact. The panther did something quite strange. It coughed a little and then a lot, to dislodge a giant fur ball from its throat. But, instead of a fur ball, out of its mouth popped a sparkly object. A rhinestone bracelet! The panther stepped with his large paw into it, and the bracelet snapped closed on his leg.
“Jane.”
Instead of the panther, William, more handsome than I ever remembered him, stood before me! My heart fluttered, and that’s when I knew I really loved William, but all that had to wait. I didn’t know what he wanted at this point.
“Why are you sitting there when all hell is breaking loose in the carnival?” he asked.
“I – I – I…Whitman told me to sit here and not to move no matter what and don’t give the paw to Silvio. I’m waiting for Maisie. This is her tent.” I said, holding up my hands to indicate our surroundings. “But you know that William, you were here earlier.”
“You saw me here earlier?” I nodded frantically.
“Yes, yes, I did.”
“Then you’re seeing into the Cheshire dimension. I wasn’t in this dimension until moments ago.”
“Seeing into the Cheshire dimension? Is that good?”
“Maybe, but for now I need your help to save Maisie. The Silver Bullets have her.”
“But I can’t leave – the paw,” I said.
“Take it with you. Last I remember, it had a chain around it. Keep it around your neck and tucked down your top where no one can see it.”
“Oh, ewww –”
“Jane, please, there’s not a lot of time, and we need your powers.”
I kicked the box open, grabbed the paw and found the chain. I hung the horrible thing around my neck and tucked the scratchy, old paw down my top. I didn’t think it flattered me at all. William grabbed my hand, and we ran from the tent.
*
William didn’t kid around. It seemed like the same tornado that hit Maisie’s shop had now moved its forces to the carnival grounds, some of the tents flapped into the night sky, held to the earth by nothing but a few of their remaining pegs and ropes.
“Who did this?” I asked.
“The Silver Bullets’ rivals, the Razors. They’re trying to unbalance the power here in the carnival.”
“Where have they got Maisie?”
“We don’t know. Use your abilities to figure out where she is.”
The wind whipped my short hair in crazy directions. My purse banged crazily against my hip. I swear, the paw beneath my shirt crawled around my boobs! I grabbed the chain and pulled the paw up from between my breasts. I pulled it out, and the wind caught it. The paw spun crazily on the chain. It pointed steadily in one direction.
“I think this thing wants us to follow it,” I said, to William.
24.
Cheshire Initiation
The black paw stayed erect when we followed the right track. If we wavered in a direction it didn’t like, it slowly sank down to hang like any regular pendant. We eventually followed the black paw back to the main tent, but getting inside proved tricky. The tent was locked down, and all of the emergency exits were closed and locked, too. The tent itself was the only building unaffected by the gale force winds. I tried a couple of magic mutterings on one of the doors, but nothing worked.
“Got anything sharp on you?” William asked.
I checked my tiny, little Guess bag but nothing sharp came out of it. Not even a pen.
Then the claws on the black paw caught my eye.
“Hey, what about this?” I said tapping on one of the claws.
“You’ll have to do it. I can’t touch Silvio’s paw,” he said.
“Why not?”
“If I touch it, it will come back to life in a strange way.”
“How’s that?”
“It’ll become animated, like – like a zombie paw,” he said. He gesticulated, formed his hand into a claw and drew back his lips to contort his face.
“Eww, okay. I’ll try this myself.” I took the paw from around my neck and pushed it against the tough outer skin of the tent. It worked, like a hot knife through butter; sparks flew from the point of contact, like a welder’s arc. It worked so well I got carried away with cutting up the tent.
“That will do, Jane,” William said, and stopped me. “Put it back around your neck and keep it hidden.” So, I did.
Inside the tent, it was dark. At first glance, it looked empty, and in such a large space anyone could be hiding. Who knew what might lurk in the back area. We didn’t take more than a few steps before the lights came up and we saw a gathering of robed people standing in a group, their backs to us. One man turned to us. Christian Whitman, of course, the scene came right of my dream. He came toward William, and he carried a robe. He put it around William’s shoulders. Will took the cloak without a fuss. I looked at him, expected him to explain what the heck was going on, but he didn’t.
“This is part of William’s initiation,” Whitman said to me.
“I thought that was all done with,” I said to William.
“Not quite. There’s a bit more to it,” he said, sounding apologetic.
“A bit more? Like what?” I asked, suddenly feeling vulnerable. “I thought Maisie was in trouble?”
“Well, the Silver Bullets do have her, but she’s not a prisoner, or anything like that,” Whitman said, picking his nose.
And suddenly there stood Maisie, in amongst the robed figures. They parted to let her through. She, too, wore a long brown robe with a deep hood and a silver lining. She wore her hood down on her shoulders otherwise I might not have recognized her. Behind Maisie stood what I assumed were members of the Silver Bullet gang. They did not wear robes. They had their own outfits. Most wore black leather vests and jackets with a silver bullet emblem on the sleeves and on the backs of jackets. Maisie came forward and carried a robe which she held out to me.
“This is for you, Jane.”
“I don’t want it,” I said.
“You should take it,” William said sternly, which shocked me more than anything.
“I’m not part of this cult,” I said.
“It’s not a cult, and you are a part of it,” William said.
Before I could respond to William, I felt the paw down my top clawing its way around my neck to my back. I could hardly keep myself from ripping the thing off and throwing it across the three rings of the circus tent. Maisie looked at me.
“He’s coming,” she said. “You can feel it, can’t you?” she said to me, staring with piercing eyes.
“Who?”
“Silvio. He needs to be here for your initiation.”
“Mine?” I turned and looked at William.
“It’s only a formality, Jane.”
“But initiation into what?” I asked.
“The Cheshire of course. That’s what this is all
about. Surely, you’ve figured that out by now.”
I thought about it a minute and realized he was right of course. I finally started pulling the dots together.
Everything I’d encountered since meeting and dating William had to with the Cheshire: my magic had evolved, my volume of magic was greater, more powerful, the cats, Sia and Thesia seemed to be my guides, if somewhat random ones. Then there was William the man, William the panther, and the terrible Silvio. All of them came connected to the Cheshire, and now me, now I was going to be connected to that strange and gray dimension. Did I really want that?
Were any of these people around me trustworthy? Where could I go? Who could I figure this out with? I wanted my powers, but not at the cost of losing my personal freedom. I didn’t want to be a member of a cult, or secret society, not really, or any society. I looked around--all these people that I didn’t really like, except for William, but I began to doubt my own ability to pick a “good man.”
My goodness, I’d picked Manuel, and he was more evil than any of these folks jammed together in a shoe box. But here I stood with a severed panther’s paw around my neck, surrounded by a bunch of KKK-looking types in robes and their gang member cohorts, all wanting me to participate in a ritual I didn’t really understand.
I really wanted to wake up from this nightmare, but I knew I wasn’t at home in my bed asleep. I felt trapped, manipulated, pressured. No one was going to save me.
And then I heard the wind enter the tent.
25.
Transitional Magic
I ran from the gathering into the wind. The instant I got outside, a flying piece of debris hit me in the head leaving me unconscious, but with my out-of-body dreaming abilities intact…
“...you’re joining the circus,” Sia said.
“It sure seems like it,” I answered her. Sia floated in a zone of light in front of me but slightly to the side of my vision. I seemed to be disembodied, a feeling I’d become quite comfortable with.
“No, really, once you’re initiated you’ll be part of this circus act. You’ll be running the carnival, and it happens every one hundred years or so, unless of course you change the dates. This carnival is how you initiate Cheshires, and how you find folks for the deck, as well as release them from the tarot deck. Maisie took Silvio’s paw to get most of her freedom returned to her. She’s kept it hidden with magic for a very long time and waited a very long time to find someone to gift that thing to.”