by N. C. Reed
The others had no immediate answer for that, and silence reigned around them. They began walking again, ambling along toward their houses. Finally Donna spoke up again.
“Look, if a spell from that book made Waldo a monster, and I can’t believe I’m actually saying that,” she shook her head, “then there’s got to be a spell in that book, or another one, that will either turn him back, or. . .or. . .well. . . .”
“Kill him?” Angie asked, eyebrows raised. “Again?”
“Well, yeah,” Donna sighed. “It sucks, I know.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Chip nodded, clearly thinking about it. “Problem is, how do I figure out which one to use? I mean, I picked the one we used yesterday because it said reanimation. I thought that meant it would bring Waldo back to us.”
“And we don’t have Waldo anymore, body or otherwise,” Alvin pointed out. “We might need him to make the spell work. Right?” he looked at Chip.
“I don’t know,” Chip lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “This all seemed so simple yesterday. Now. . .I don’t know,” he repeated. He stood there a minute longer, then took a deep breath. He looked at his friends.
“There’s only one thing I can do,” he said dejectedly. “I’m going to have to tell my dad. Don’t worry,” he held up a hand to ward off objections. “I’ll tell him I did it alone. That I was the one who did it all, and now I don’t know what’s happened. None of you will get in trouble,” he promised.
“That doesn’t seem fair,” Angie frowned, and Donna nodded in agreement. Donny joined them, and they all three looked at Alvin.
“I didn’t want to do it to start with,” Alvin objected. “But I went along with it, so I’m as guilty as anyone,” he admitted. “I’m willing to go with you, Chip. We weren’t trying to do anything wrong. At least we don’t think we were,” he added.
“I’ll go too,” Angie agreed.
“So will we,” Donna said, looking at her brother as if daring him to argue. He didn’t.
“Guys, you don’t have to do this,” Chip told them. “It really is my fault.”
“Your idea, maybe,” Donny said. “But we all helped. If we did something wrong, then, well, we’re all at fault. Like it or not.”
“My dad should still be in his office,” Chip said finally, secretly glad that he wouldn’t have to face this alone. “Let’s go over there.”
Chapter Five
Chuck was surprised to say the least when his son and friends showed up at his office.
“Well, what brings you kids out to see me today?” he smiled, forcing his worry about other things, other-worldly things, down for the moment. “Need some insurance?”
“Hey dad,” Chip said.
“Hello, Mister Douglas,” the others said in near unison.
“Why the long faces?” Chuck asked, noting the tension in the group.
“Dad, I need to talk to you about something important,” Chip said. “Something that we did, and maybe, almost certainly, shouldn’t have done, it looks like.”
“That sounds ominous,” Chuck tried to keep things light. What could these kids have done that could cause all this? It couldn’t be that bad.
“We did a ritual yesterday from one of your books trying to get Waldo to come back to life,” Chip said all in one breath. “Now, we think we’ve turned him into a monster of some kind. That he’s what I heard, me and Donny both heard,” he added, and Donny nodded, “last night. And we don’t know what to do now.”
Chuck sat down. It was just the first thing that occurred to him to do. He had been searching for what had happened, and who could have done it, and now. . .it had been their children?
There has to be another explanation, Chuck thought. It couldn’t have been them. They’re kids, they don’t know the first thing about. . . .
“So, which book did you use?” he asked, trying grin. “And you know you shouldn’t have been messing around with that anyway, right?” he added to Chip. His son nodded mournfully.
“We just wanted to get Waldo back,” Chip told him, and the others all nodded in agreement. “We didn’t mean anything bad.”
“I know you didn’t, son. All of you,” he added, looking at the other teens. “But sometimes just because we don’t mean for bad things to happen doesn’t mean they can’t, or won’t. Understand?”
“We do now, Mister Douglas,” Angie replied. Again, the others all nodded agreement. “We really just wanted Waldo back.”
“Are we talking about Waldo, the stray dog you kids are always playing with and sneaking food out to?” Chuck asked.
“Yes, sir,” Donny answered that one. “He got hit by a car day before yesterday. Whoever the guy was drove right up on the sidewalk. Could have hit one of us just as easy as he did Waldo.”
“Do you know who it was?” Chuck asked, angry that someone had endangered his son and his friends.
“No, sir,” Chip shook his head. “Didn’t recognize him or the car. He hit Waldo and then just kept right on going.”
“I need to know what book you used, son,” Chuck said seriously. “Though I doubt you turned Waldo into a monster,” he added, smiling tightly.
You just offered him to a monster summoned back from another plane, who probably wasn’t happy about that at all, he thought to himself.
“I used that old leather one that you keep in the closet,” Chip replied. “The one that’s kinda cracked and the pages are all yellow and brittle.”
“Did it have a name on it? Anything I can identify it with?”
“No sir, just a plain old book. We used something that was supposed to be for reanimation, or at least I thought we did. But once we said all the words, this blue wave thing hit us, and when we got up, Waldo’s body was gone. Then, me and Donny heard that howling last night, and. . .well, we figured we must have turned him into a monster. We didn’t mean to,” he added. “We just wanted to bring him back.”
“I think we better go to the house,” Chuck said, getting to is feet. “I need to see exactly what you did. That way I can explain better what might have happened.”
“Okay,” Chip sighed. “We’ll meet you there, I guess.”
“That’s fine,” Chuck nodded. “Make it twenty minutes, okay?”
“Yes, sir,” the teens chorused. They left the office, headed back the way they had come.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Alvin said, breathing easier. “For a minute there, I thought we were in real trouble.”
“We still may be in trouble,” Angie was frowning. “Didn’t you guys see?”
“See what?” Donna asked.
“Mister Douglas was scared.”
*****
Chuck was scared, but he had managed not to show it in front of the kids. He was almost certain he knew which ritual they had used. And it wasn’t reanimation, but reclamation. As in reclaiming.
Reclaiming the Earth.
He started dialing numbers as soon as the kids were out of sight. There was no way he was going to face this alone.
As he waited for the first number he dialed to answer, he wondered at the fate that had put all of their children together and allowed them to work one of the most dangerous, most powerful spells ever written.
Some days it didn’t pay to get out of bed.
*****
When the kids all got to Chip’s house, they were surprised to see their parent’s cars there as well as Mister Douglas’ truck.
“I guess we’re in trouble after all,” Alvin said sourly, seeing his dad’s truck sitting on the curb in front of the house.
“Looks like it,” Angie sighed. Of course her mom was there. Chip suddenly moved in front of them, holding up his hands.
“Look, let me take the blame for this,” he insisted. “This is my fault. I’m the one who started it. So let me take the heat. All of you may get some kind of punishment, but most of it should fall on me.”
“Either we’re friends, or we’re not,” Donny said suddenly, and every
one looked at him.
“We’re friends, then we stand together,” Donny said firmly. “We’re not, then. . .well, we’ll just be what to each other? Buddies? People we know? We’ve been friends through thick and thin since we were all in kindergarten together. As far as I’m concerned, we’ll always be friends. No. Matter. What.”
The normally taciturn Donny rarely made such statements, and it caught the others off guard for a moment. Donna looked at her brother with something like respect, which, had Donny noticed it, might have scared him a little.
“I don’t want to be in trouble,” Alvin said miserably, “but Donny is right about one thing. We’re friends. I’m not going to let you take the blame for something I was part of doing, Chip. I’ll take whatever happens. I won’t like it,” he added with a frown, “but I’ll take it.”
“Same here,” Angie nodded. “We all wanted Waldo back. There’s nothing wrong with that, either, as far as I’m concerned. We may have screwed up, but we weren’t deliberately doing anything bad.”
“I’m in,” Donna said simply. “No sense putting it off. Besides,” she pointed toward the house, “we’ve been spotted.” Everyone looked to see all the parents gathered outside the front door watching them.
“Let’s get it over with, then,” Chip sighed. He was proud to have such good friends. He felt guilty that he had led them into this trouble, but proud that they were willing to stand with him.
Walking across the yard toward the adults, the first thing the teens realized was that their parents didn’t look all that angry. In fact, they looked kind of scared.
“This seem wrong to anyone else?” Angie asked softly.
“I thought my dad would be foaming at the mouth,” Alvin admitted just as quietly. “I don’t get it.”
“We’ll know soon enough, I guess,” Chip said. They arrived at the porch before anyone else could speak.
“Let’s go out back, kids,” Chuck said simply. “We all have a lot to talk about.”
*****
“Wait a minute,” Angie said as Chuck finished his explanation. “You mean to tell us that you, all of you, have been doing this stuff? For how long?”
“Yes, we have,” Kat replied to her daughter. “And I’ll remind you to watch your tone young lady,” she added.
“My tone?” Angie almost goggled. “You guys are. . .are. . .what? Witches or something? And you’re worried about my tone?”
“Angie,” Chip tried to calm her down. “Remember this was my fault,” he said.
“That’s bull,” Donna said at once, and Donny backed his sister up with a firm nod. “We’re all to blame. We wanted our dog back. Sue us.” She was just as upset as Angie was, but was better at dealing with her anger. She figured that came with having a twin brother.
“Sue you, huh?” Belinda snorted. “If you had any idea what you kids have done, you’d be worried about a lot more than that.”
“We know what we’ve done,” Alvin said sadly. “We turned poor Waldo into some kind of monster.” The boy looked as if he were going to cry over the dog.
“Waldo?” Alfred started. “You mean that mangy stray you kids were always messing with?” His tone sounded angry, but still scared.
“He didn’t have the mange!” Alvin shot back. “He was a good dog, and the man who killed him could just as easily have killed one of us! We were all on the sidewalk together when the car hit him.”
“What?” Valina stood up, white hot in an instant. “Who was it?” she demanded.
“We don’t know,” Chip admitted. “We’d never seen him or the car before. Haven’t seen it since either,” he added.
“Let’s get back to the spell you used,” Chuck said gently. “Is this the book, Chip?” he held up the battered old book. Just a plain brown leather covered book with yellow pages.
“Yes sir,” Chip nodded.
“Show me,” Chuck ordered, opening the book. Chip turned the pages until he found the spell, and showed it to his father.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Chuck groaned, reading the heading. “What made you use this spell, Chip?”
“It says right here, reanimation,” Chip pointed to the heading. “That’s what we were trying to do. Bring Waldo back to life.”
“That’s old, old script, son,” Chuck sighed. “That doesn’t say ‘reanimation’. It says ‘reclamation’. It’s a spell that allows certain creatures to return to this world from. . .well, somewhere else. Did you follow the ritual exactly?”
“Well, we might have stumbled over the words a little, here and there,” Chip admitted. “But we were pretty close, I thought.”
“This particular spell is written for a demon call Monusuol,” Chuck told everyone. “You had Waldo’s body in the circle I’m guessing?” he asked the kids. All nodded.
“Demons hate dogs,” Chuck rubbed his face with one hand, holding the book with the other. “You basically sacrificed a dead dog to summon a demon that hates dogs, kids. So when he got here he was already mad. Where did you do this?”
“Behind Mister Jamison's house,” Chip replied. “Where no one would see us.”
“Well, I think we can safely assume that you failed to erect the barriers properly, since if Monusuol was still trapped behind the salt barrier in Mister Jamison's backyard, someone would have seen him by now.”
“Salt?” Alvin looked up. “Is that what the salt was for?”
“Yes,” Chuck nodded.
“I did the salt,” Alvin looked stricken. “That was my job.”
“Doesn’t mean you did it wrong,” Chuck promised. “The wave might have dislodged it. Had you knew what you were doing, you would have time to fix it. Since you didn’t, I’m assuming that you all assumed that you had failed, and went home.”
“Pretty much,” Chip agreed, looking at the ground.
“This was very irresponsible of all of you,” Belinda said. “You had no idea what you were doing, or what you were getting into.”
“We know that, now,” Donna agreed. “But all we wanted was our dog back. We thought this would do it.” The others nodded.
“Well, this is Chuck’s responsibility,” Valina said, rising. “You can deal with it, as far as I’m concerned. Had you not let Chip get hold of that book, none of this would have happened. As for you, young man,” she looked at Alvin, “you can forget playing any more games for the foreseeable future. Not to mention some other unpleasant consequences.”
“I agree,” Kat nodded, standing up too. “Chuck, you let this happen. It’s up to you to fix it. And I don’t want Angie playing with Chip anymore.”
“Now wait a minute,” Stacey stood too, hands clenched. “You’re going a bit too far blaming Chuck for all this.”
“I don’t see how,” Alfred entered the fray. “It’s his book, and it’s your son,” he told Stacey. “He led the rest into this, just like you led. . . .”
“Hey!”
The adults all turned to face their children. Angie was standing to the fore, hands on her hips. Donna was standing right beside her. The boys flanked them on each side.
“This isn’t Chip’s fault anymore than it’s ours,” Angie declared hotly. “We all had the chance not to do it, and we did it anyway. We all agreed to do it trying to get Waldo back. And if you think I’m not going to be friends with Chip anymore, you’re mistaken.”
“Ditto,” Donna nodded firmly, folding her arms across her chest.
“Same here,” Alvin managed to get out without his voice breaking. He was afraid, but he was staying true to his friends.
“I’m with her,” Donny jabbed a thumb at his sister. “Whatever she says.” Donna looked at him in shock, only to see her brother wink back at her. She couldn’t help but laugh, and that got all of the teens to laughing.
Soon even the adults joined in, and everyone started sitting back down.
“Well, since you all feel like you’re in charge, what are you planning to do about this?” Valina asked, once the laughter had sett
led.
“We don’t know,” Chip replied for the group. “But Angie, she says if what we caused this, then it’s our responsibility to fix it. And we all agreed with her.” Kat looked at her daughter.
“Did you say that?” she asked. Angie nodded, and Kat smiled proudly.
“Donna said there had to be something in that book that would fix this,” Chip went on. “And if there was, then we had to do it. We didn’t want to, not then, because we thought it would be like killing Waldo again. But now. . . .” he trailed off.
“We’ll do it,” Donna spoke for them all. “We did this. Teach us how to undo it.” All of the teens nodded in support.
“It’s not that simple,” Chuck hated to spoil the mood, but it was time for some serious truth to be told. “There is a way to send him back, but Monusuol is smart. He’s been banished before, and he’ll be expecting a trap of some kind every time he sees a human. Or a dog,” he added. “Dogs were once used to hound, no pun intended, creatures like him into traps. We’ll have to come up with a way to get him out into the open, and then work the spell before he can get away.”
“But, if he’s a demon, then he could be inside anybody by now!” Donny exclaimed. “We’ll have to find him and exercise him.”
“I think the word you want is exorcise,” Chuck managed to say with a straight face. “Where did you come up with that?”
“From Supernatural,” the teen replied. “Don’t any of you watch that show? Demons live inside humans, and use their bodies to get around and do things!”
“Okay, we may need some broader explanations here,” Chuck held up a hand. “Demon, in this case, is an ancient term for ‘monster’ or ‘unknown beast’. Not some kind of satanic thing. We don’t have to exorcise anyone or anything. But we will have to be careful,” he added. “This beast is strong, and dangerous. Eons ago, creatures like Monusuol roamed the earth, preying on humans. These creatures couldn’t be killed unless someone was able to decapitate them, which was all but impossible. Druids, shaman, and other arcane practitioners found ways to banish them into an alternate plane, to protect the people around them.”