The Babysitters Coven

by Kate M. Williams

  I blinked, thinking, wishing, hoping for a second that maybe the light had shifted and I just couldn’t see the Portal now. But no. It was gone. It had taken everything with it, and that included Cassandra and MacKenzie. I screamed.

  * * *

  —

  At the sound of footsteps, I spun around, hands raised and palms out, ready to kinetically blast whoever or whatever was coming for me.

  It was Janis, holding a glowing blue object in her hand. “Esme,” she said, breathlessly, “it’s for you!” She thrust the object out at me.

  “It’s for you,” she repeated. The glowing object was my phone. “It kept ringing, so I answered it.” I reached out and took it from her, reeling from the fact that MacKenzie was gone, Cassandra was gone, a hole to another dimension had opened, and demons had flown out, yet something as normal as Janis answering my phone could still happen.

  Then she said, “It’s your mom.”

  “What?”

  “It’s your mom.”

  Mom? Mom? MOM? Mom had never called before. As far as I knew, she had no idea what to do with a phone. “Who?” I asked again.

  “Your mom!” Janis was yelling now, joined by another voice, this one far away and filtering through the phone, that was screaming my name.

  I put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

  “Esme?” said a shaky voice on the other end. “It’s Mom.”

  “Mom? What?” I choked out. “Where are you calling from? Are you okay?”

  “Esme, we don’t have much time,” she said. “But I need you to listen to me. Did you open the Portal?”

  “Well, I didn’t open it, but it opened, yes,” I said, still in shock that she was talking. And making sense. “How did you know? What happened to you?”

  “I can’t explain right now,” she answered, “but you need to listen carefully. It is very important that you do not let Erebus leave. Keep him here. Or there.”

  “Keep who where?” I asked. “Keep Dion in the mall?”

  “No. Who’s Dion? Erebus. Keep him wherever you are.”

  “Erebus?” I asked. “Who’s Erebus?”

  A few feet away, someone cleared his throat. “That would be me,” he said.

  Without hanging up, I lowered the phone to my side. “Okay,” I said. I squinted in the dim light and could see that this man Erebus, whoever he was, looked familiar. He looked like he was probably in his late twenties or early thirties and was dressed like he’d come straight out of a time warp. Retro, but not in a good way. He was wearing an oxblood leather jacket and a ball-chain necklace, with three days of beard scruff and hair that fell someplace between longish and shortish. He also looked human, totally and completely human.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. “Did you come over from the haunted house?”

  “Oh, so that’s what you’re calling it these days,” he said, and laughed. Or, more precisely, he said, “Hahaha,” exactly like Dion Vader had a few minutes before.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “Of course you don’t,” he said. “I came from there.” He pointed a finger up, but I didn’t look. What if it was a trick? And I didn’t need to look, really, because with a dawning chill, I knew exactly what he was talking about.

  “You came from the Portal,” I said. “When we were fighting all the demons.”

  He grinned. “Ding, ding, ding, ding. I’m the whole reason the Portal was opened. Though I had hoped to bring a lot more friends with me when I came, but you know, nothing closes up a Portal like the passage of a Sitter.” He took a step toward me, and I took a step back. “I guess we should be formally introduced,” he said. “My name is Erebus. I’m Cassandra and Dion’s father.”

  That was why he looked familiar. He hadn’t aged a day from the photo that Dion had showed me. I swallowed, not wanting to let him know his words had shocked me. I found my voice.

  “You’re why Dion wanted to open the Portal?” I asked.

  “Correction,” he said, and sniffed. “I opened the Portal. Dion merely helped. I tried leaving it up to him, but he couldn’t even successfully kidnap a tot on his own. I kept telling him he should take one from the parents, not a babysitter, but nooo, he had to mess with his sister’s friends and do things his own way.” Erebus shook his head, just like Dad did every time he talked about the driver’s ed car. “I stepped in, because there’s no way he could have handled a Red Magic ritual,” he continued, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  I was wondering what he was talking about, when the pile of black plastic that was lying on the floor behind him groaned and sat up. It was Dion.

  “Dad?” I heard his voice croak. “Oh my God, did it work?” He struggled to get to his feet, and stumbled over the cape, putting a big rip in the plastic. “Where’s Cassandra? Does she know?”

  “What? Are you stupid? Your sister got sucked up!” I shouted at him.

  “What do you mean? Sucked up where into what?”

  Dion wasn’t playing dumb, I realized. He really was dumb. He had no clue what was going on, and I wasn’t going to waste any more words on him. At least not right then.

  I turned back to Erebus. “You have to help get your daughter back,” I said.

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said. “It’s better for me if she stays where she is. I hadn’t planned it, but what a happy accident. I needed you here for the ritual so we could siphon a little magic off the top, but there’s no way I could have handled two Sitters, as I’m not up to speed yet.” He started to dust off the sleeves of his jacket. “Which is lucky for you,” he continued. “Because if I were, you wouldn’t be standing here right now.” He paused, as if he were thinking about something. “I could try to take you out now, because you don’t look like much,” he said. “But I’d rather save my strength and come back for you later.”

  He turned, then turned again, and again, before finally ending up right back where he’d started, staring straight at me. “Now, sweetie, if you could be a dear, I’ll be on my way just as soon as you tell me where the exit is.”

  “It’s up your butt,” I said. Real mature, I know, but it just came out. Janis was standing behind me, and I heard her make a small snicker that warmed my heart.

  Erebus, on the other hand, laughed like he’d never heard anything so funny, and that made my blood run cold. He was actually slapping his knee. “Aw, Esme Pearl,” he said, and hearing my name come out of his mouth felt like slime in my ears. How did he know who I was? “No, we haven’t met,” he added, registering the look on my face. “But I can tell from the annoying voice and odd outfit that you are most definitely Theresa’s daughter.”

  Odd outfit? Who the hell was he to talk? “Excuse me,” I snapped. “This is my costume! And how many Denny’s booths did you have to slaughter to make that jacket?”

  Erebus threw his head back and laughed again, this time opening his mouth so wide I could see his molars. “That was a great one,” he said. “I’ve always said that if a woman can’t be beautiful, she should at least be witty. So tell me, how is your mother these days?”

  Through the phone, Mom was screaming my name again, as if she’d heard him talking about her. I put the phone back up to my ear.

  “Esme,” she was saying, “don’t let him leave. Keep him there. Don’t let him out of your sight.”

  “Okay,” I said, and raised my hand, palm out, intending to use my powers to knock him to the floor and pin him there. He looked at me, smiled, and disappeared.

  Into nothing. Poof. Like a firework.

  “Esme?” Mom said after a few seconds had passed in silence.

  I found my voice. “He left,” I said. “He just vanished.”

  “Dammit,” she said, letting out a tense breath. “You and Cassandra are going to have to split up. One of you shou
ld—”

  “Cassandra’s not here,” I interrupted.

  “What?” My mom sounded surprised. And not in a good way. “Did he take her with him?”

  My voice went up a notch. “She went into the Portal after MacKenzie, and it closed behind her,” I explained.

  “Who’s MacKenzie? Another Sitter?”

  “No—” I was getting frustrated. “She’s a little girl. Erebus, who was Dion, kidnapped her and put her in the middle of this circle. It was drawn with chalk, and then he flicked a match and she shot up into the air, and there was a Magic 8 Ball…” My voice trailed off. I didn’t know how I was going to explain all this. It was certifiable. Though if anyone could understand certifiable, it was Mom.

  “Slow down,” she said. “Take a deep breath. Who’s Dion?”

  “Cassandra’s brother.”

  Mom was quiet for a second. When she finally spoke, all she said was “Darn.” I felt like my legs were made of paper and were about to fold underneath me. Then she said a very Mom thing, the first Mom thing I’d heard her say in my entire life. “Well, I’m sure you did your best. We’ll fix this.”

  I swallowed, the lump in my throat growing bigger by the second. “Where are you?” I asked.

  “I’m in my room. But I think someone should be coming in soon.”

  I started to do what she’d told me, and take deep breaths. We had to get MacKenzie back, and Cassandra. Mom could help me—she clearly knew what was going on—but I needed more. My mind flashed back to Brian’s Bat Cave. His wall of sharp objects and his shelves of old books. That was what I needed. That was where I needed to go. No matter what I was going to do, I didn’t have much time.

  Janis stood a foot away from me, looking at me intently and listening to my conversation. Dion, still looking lost, was trying—mostly in vain—to take off his costume.

  “Mom,” I said. “There’s something called an Uber. I’m sending you one.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s like a ride you pay for.”

  “Like a taxi?”

  “Yes, but people use their own—” I stopped myself, because now was not the time to try to explain the sharing economy to someone who’d been, for all intents and purposes, in a coma for the last decade and a half. “Okay, listen, Mom, we can talk about that later. Go to your window. You see that alley down there? I need you to go there and wait for your Uber.”

  I could hear her put the phone down, and then she was back two seconds later. “I see the alley,” she said, “but the window won’t open.”

  “You’re going to have to break it,” I said. “Can you do that?”

  “Can I do that?” she scoffed. “My own daughter talking to me like I’ve never broken a window before.”

  I found myself smiling for the first time since I’d gone into MacKenzie’s room and found her missing. “I’m glad you’re back,” I said. “And I’ll see you soon.”

  * * *

  —

  I opened the Uber app on my phone and crossed my fingers that Dad wouldn’t get a notification as soon as I ordered a ride. I typed in the facility’s address for the pickup, and then the address for the drop-off. It was prime time on Halloween, so it might take forever to get a ride, but I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I could see that Jeffrey in a Toyota Prius had accepted.

  Then I called him. “Hi, Jeffrey,” I said. “When you pick up, I actually need you to go around back, to the alley. Your passenger should be waiting there. Her name’s Theresa. And, like, you don’t even need to stop. Just slow down, and she’ll jump in.”

  “What? That’s not even legal.” Jeffrey did not sound convinced.

  “Five stars if you do, Jeffrey,” I said. “And a big tip. Like, huge.”

  “What is this place I’m picking up from, anyway?”

  Next to me, Dion started to cough.

  “Gotta go, Jeffrey,” I said. “I’ll see you soon. With Theresa. Remember, big tip!” I hung up, then turned to Janis.

  “Janis,” I said, “I need one more ride, then you can go home.”

  “No way,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “I won’t be alone,” I said. “My mom will be there.” Something about those words made me stand up a little straighter.

  “I’m still not leaving,” Janis said. “I’m too far down this rabbit hole to turn back now. This night is too insane to even be scary.” Part of me remembered what Brian had said, about keeping normies out of Sitter business for their own good, and this part of me knew that I should get her out of there and away from me immediately.

  The other part of me, the bigger part of me, was happy that she was there. I mean, she’d hit Dion with a food court chair. Janis was the real MVP in this nightmare. “Okay,” I said, smiling at her, “but if anything comes after you, you run, okay?”

  “Got it, boss,” she said, then pointed behind me. “But what about him?”

  Dion was sitting in a chair now, his elbows on a table and his head in his hands. I walked over to him, and when he looked up at me, he looked confused. And scared.

  “Esme, where are we? What’s going on?”

  “Do you seriously not remember?”

  He shook his head, and I could tell it was the truth.

  “Do you know what all this stuff is?” I gestured at the chalk lines, then picked up the teddy-bear head and held it out to him. He took it from me, turned it over, and pulled a clump of stuffing from its lacerated throat. He shook his head again.

  “It was part of a ritual,” I said. “You did a ritual to open up a hole that ate a kid and your little sister!”

  “I swear, I don’t know,” he said, looking more confused than before. “I don’t even remember coming here. Where’s Cassandra?”

  “She’s gone! Because of what you did!” I was getting frantic and desperate. Janis had come over and was standing next to me, and when Dion looked at her, recognition washed over his face for the first time that night.

  “The 8 Ball!” he said, taking it from her and giving it a hard shake. “Dad,” he said to it, “did it work? Where are you?”

  “Oh my God,” I said. “You think a Magic 8 Ball is your dad!”

  Now he looked at me as if I were the one whose brain was cracked. “No. I talk to my dad through it.” Of course. That was why he’d been reading off it earlier. It was how Erebus told him what to say.

  He shook it again. “Dad, where are you? Did it work?”

  The triangle that floated to the top just said, “As I see it, yes.” I grabbed it from him, then used my powers to yank him up and onto his feet. I still didn’t know what Dion had thought was going to happen, but in this moment, it didn’t really matter. All I knew was that I wasn’t leaving him behind. Not because I cared what happened to him, but because I didn’t trust him for a second.

  I led us back through the mall, marching Dion in front of me, with Janis right by my side. I’d given her the 8 Ball to carry, and as we walked, she shook it. Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks.

  “Janis!” I couldn’t hide the annoyance in my voice. “Keep going.”

  “I think you should see this,” she said, and passed me the 8 Ball.

  I looked down, and the little blue triangle didn’t say “Signs point to yes” or “Cannot predict now.” Instead it said “Esme?”

  In my shock, I almost dropped it. “Cassandra?” I said, then gave it a furious shake.

  The triangle floated to the top again, surrounded by a froth of blue bubbles. “Yes,” it said. I shook it again. “I’m with MacKenzie,” the triangle said.

  “Is she okay?”

  “I think so.” I shook it again, in case she had more to say. “Her eyes are open, but it’s like she’s asleep.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

 
“For now.”

  “What’s it like in there?”

  “It’s grim. I don’t know if I can hold out much longer. I am running out of positive things to think about.” Her sentences were broken up by what could fit on a triangle, and I had to keep shaking the ball to refresh. I didn’t want to think too much about what Cassandra and MacKenzie were enduring, because I was sure that anything I could imagine wouldn’t even come close to their reality, and the thought was overwhelming. They were counting on me to get them out.

  “You can do it,” I said. “Think of bunnies, and free samples, and babies dancing to hip-hop. Just hold on. We’re going to get you out.”

  I looked up from the triangle to see Dion staring at me intently. “Is it my dad?”

  “Shut up,” I said.

  The Mall of Terror was still raging, and we walked silently through the crowd and out into the parking lot, me keeping a tight grip on the back of Dion’s neck with my powers. I shoved him into the back seat of Janis’s car and turned on the child locks, since I knew all about them now. I punched the address into Janis’s GPS and told her to drive carefully. “Not like you normally drive,” I said. “We do not want to get pulled over.”

  “Got it,” she said. “Nine miles an hour over the limit.”

  “Five,” I said.

  “Seven,” she said.

  “Deal.” She put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot with minimal squealing.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Brian Davis’s house.”

  “Who’s that?”