Something Wicked

by Brian Harmon

  Eric shook his head. “I’m not. I’m just—”

  “He’s the guy our spells said was the only person who could save us,” interrupted Holly. “And he’s asking for your help.”

  More murmuring.

  “What’ll we have to do?” asked Mustache. “’Cause we’re not exactly Hogwarts graduates.”

  “Exactly,” said Eric. “When magic fails, I’m afraid Holly and her sisters are going to be in big trouble. There’s one thing we don’t have and that’s muscle. We need a last line of defense, something to physically keep the monsters off them, to buy them that extra time while we fight the magic man. In short, we need big guys who can kick some monster ass.”

  “This shit is crazy,” said a neatly dressed bouncer that might have looked like any ordinary guy, maybe a realtor or something, if not for the fact that he was twice as wide and at least three times as heavy as he should’ve been. He had a fairly handsome face and wore khaki pants and a bright green polo shirt that were perfectly unremarkable except for their immense size. “You know that right?”

  “Of course it is,” said Eric. “We’re asking a lot of you.”

  “They need us, man,” said Mustache. “I’m in.”

  “Thank you, Bernie,” said Holly.

  Eric glanced at her. Mustache’s name was Bernie?

  “Crazy,” the realtor-looking bouncer said again.

  “Maybe,” offered Eric. “But what do you have to lose by coming to see for yourself?”

  He glanced around at the others, saw he was the last one convinced, and shrugged. “Okay. Where to?”

  “Follow us,” said Eric. “We’ll take you there.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  When Eric pulled up to the farmhouse, leading the small convoy of pickup trucks, he found almost the entire coven standing on the front porch, waiting for them. Only Poppy (naturally) and Charlotte remained inside and out of sight.

  “You made it,” said Delphinium as he stepped out of the van.

  “We did.” His eyes drifted to the sky. Though it’d been clear and sunny at the club, the wind was picking up here. Dark clouds were gathering. When she told him there was a storm brewing, he didn’t think she meant literally.

  He opened the side door and he and Holly helped Marissa out of the van.

  “Oh God!” gasped Alicia when she saw her sister’s bruised face.

  “That son of a bitch!” snapped Cierra.

  “You look worse than I imagined,” worried Delphinium.

  “I’m okay,” Marissa assured them. “Holly and Eric saved me. I’ll be okay.”

  “Get her inside,” Delphinium ordered. “Get her something for the pain. Then help Charlotte with the water.” She glanced up at the sky. “We don’t have much time.”

  Obediently, Alicia and Jude led Marissa into the house as Norval and his small army of strip club employees emerged from the trucks and gathered around.

  “What a fine-looking bunch of protectors we have,” Delphinium marveled.

  “I’d feel better if it was the National Guard,” grumbled Cierra.

  “I think they’re magnificent,” decided Delphinium.

  “I agree,” seconded Holly.

  Eric thought that Norval might have blushed a little under that furry beard.

  “We came to help Holly,” said Margarita. “She said her family was in trouble.”

  “We are,” agreed Delphinium. “And I’m afraid we don’t have time to explain very much. He’s near.”

  “Just give us the abbreviated version,” said Bernie with the mustache. “Start with the part where you’re witches.”

  As Holly did her best to summarize the whole, complicated ordeal for her friends, Eric’s phone rang. It was Paul. He turned away from the group and lifted it to his ear. “What’s up?”

  “Are you okay?” asked Paul.

  “So far.”

  “Isabelle just told me I can’t get to you because there’s a magic spell on the place.”

  “That pretty much covers it.”

  “A real magic spell?”

  “I guess so. The stuff I’ve seen, I don’t doubt it for a second.”

  “True. But it’s still seriously messed up.”

  “I know.”

  “I mean…real magic?”

  “Why not? I was almost eaten by a wardrobe once. Why not believe in magic?”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that it wasn’t my fault. I don’t even have to blame it all on Kevin.”

  “Hey!” shouted Kevin.

  “Karen will still blame you,” Eric warned.

  “I know. But I’ll know it wasn’t my fault. So she can stick it in her nose.”

  “Can she, now?”

  “Please don’t tell her I said that.”

  “Okay. I owe you gas money. Don’t let me forget.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I got it covered.”

  “I will worry about it.”

  “You’ve got other things to worry about. Isabelle says you’re about to fight the magic freak.”

  “Looks that way.”

  “Are you going to be okay? I mean, if the guy really is magic…”

  “Don’t forget, I’ve got magic on my side, too.”

  “I guess…”

  “Just head on home. There’s no way you guys can get here until the spell comes down. Then it’ll be too late.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I do. Drive safe. You’ve been up all night.”

  “I have. And I will. We may need to stop somewhere and take a break.”

  “I would. Or just let Kevin drive.”

  “Nope. I drive.”

  “Now you’re just being stubborn.”

  “I don’t care. You take care of yourself. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “You’re right. I know you’ll do something stupid. Just try not to die when you do, then, okay?”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Good. Tell Isabelle to call me when it’s over.”

  “You already did.”

  “I what? Oh. Yeah. Anyway, good luck out there.”

  “Thanks.” I’m going to need it. He hung up the phone and glanced up at the darkening sky. In fact, it seemed he was going to need more than just luck. He hoped someone up there was watching out for him.

  When he turned back, Holly was telling her friends about the night Grandpa died.

  Delphinium excused herself to oversee things inside and Eric followed, filling her in on everything that had happened at Neemley Farms.

  “It’s strange,” she said when he was done.

  “I know. He must’ve known I wouldn’t have trusted him. What was the point?” His eyes drifted to Marissa. She was sitting between Poppy and Alicia on the couch. He’d half-expected to find them muttering in Latin and smearing magic potions on her face, but they were treating her with ordinary ice packs and antibacterial pads from a perfectly ordinary muggle first aid kit.

  Delphinium stood over the table and peered into the water bowl as Charlotte filled it from a steaming tea pot and Poppy lit the candles. “He was looking for something.”

  Eric scratched at the back of his neck. “Something to do with me?”

  “You’re the wild card in all this,” she told him. “You’re the one the spell gave us. The game changer. He must know it, too.”

  “So why didn’t he just kill me back there? Why didn’t he kill me when he first realized I was here?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. Maybe he can’t.”

  Eric had been staring into the water bowl, but now he looked up at her, surprised. “Why couldn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” asked Poppy. “Why couldn’t he? Not that I’m not happy he hasn’t lived this long, but what’s so special about him?”

  Delphinium sighed. “I don’t have those answers. I’m sorry.”

  “Maybe we’ll get some when he shows up,” suggested Charlotte. “Like, any
minute now.”

  Delphinium nodded. “We have to get started.”

  Eric’s phone rang. It was Karen.

  “I should take this,” he said.

  Delphinium nodded.

  He turned and walked away from them as he accepted the call and lifted it to his ear. “Still not asleep?” he asked.

  “I keep telling you I can’t. What’s going on? Isabelle says it’s almost time to fight the magic man.” Isabelle obviously called her as soon as she was done talking to Paul. It was good. He wouldn’t want them trying to contact him once things started getting real. He wouldn’t be able to answer and that would just worry them.

  Eric walked into the kitchen as Jude was walking out, carrying a red plastic cup filled with water and a bottle of Ibuprofen. Their eyes met briefly, and he could see the worry in the boy’s eyes.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s about that time.”

  He walked over to the sink and looked out the window. Those clouds were getting darker and starting to swirl. He’d never seen the sky look so menacing before.

  “You saved all the girls?”

  “I saved six of them. For now. Whether it’ll make any difference…”

  “Don’t talk like that. You’ll save them. You have to.”

  Eric almost asked why she suddenly cared what happened to the coven, but he bit back the question. Of course she cared. She was angry with him, not heartless. She didn’t want to see anyone hurt. And besides, if they lost to the magic man, then he would lose. And she knew as well as he did what losing meant.

  He wouldn’t be making it home for their anniversary. He wouldn’t make it home for anything ever again.

  “They may be witches,” Eric told Karen as he turned and looked out into the living room, “but they’re also just women. They’re not indestructible.”

  He didn’t have to explain it to her. She already knew. “Isabelle told me about Marissa. Will she be okay?”

  “She should be.” Assuming she survives whatever’s coming, he thought.

  “Did you really have to relocate her shoulder?”

  “I did.” The memory made him a little queasy.

  “God… I didn’t even know you knew how to do that.”

  “Part of my first aid training. Never thought I’d have to use it.”

  “It sounds horrible.”

  “I know.” It was horrible. So much of what he’d seen had been horrible. Marissa screaming in agony. Shondra Lowe slowly dying in the grip of some kind of psychic parasite while her daughter watched on, drowning in her own grief. The timid-looking woman who’d looked so small sitting in the big armchair of the Wordsley House with bruises up and down her arms. Sylvia Dodd, lying in the middle of an inferno, burning to ash. And behind it all, ten different stories of girls all alone in the world, driven from their homes by fear and cruelty, cast into the dark, cold world, unloved and doomed. “Believe me, I know.”

  “Isabelle also told me you were going to kick this creep’s ass because you’re just that awesome.”

  Eric laughed. He could easily imagine her saying just that. “Isabelle thinks I can do a lot of things. She still thinks it was me who saved her from Altrusk, when it was clearly the other way around.”

  “Isabelle’s also always right,” Karen reminded him. “And you saved each other that day.”

  He smiled, but it was a brief smile. “I’m not sure if she’s right this time. This guy… He’s different. I can’t put my finger on it, but he’s not the same kind of monster I’m used to fighting.”

  “Remember last year, right after you first escaped from Altrusk’s house? You’d lost a lot of your confidence then, too. You came to that lake and didn’t know what to do.”

  Eric did remember. “She’d saved me, but I couldn’t take her with me. I thought I’d left her behind. I still didn’t know she’d escaped. It was still hours before she managed to contact me for the first time over the phone.”

  “You remember our conversation about the lake?”

  He did, but she reminded him anyway.

  “You couldn’t see an answer, but I told you there had to be one.”

  “You talked me through it. Helped me find my way.”

  “You were on an amazing journey. You were seeing things that no one had ever seen before. And it all came to you in a dream. It wasn’t a coincidence. You were chosen to take that journey, by forces well beyond our comprehension, forces that wouldn’t let your adventure end because of something as stupid as a stolen boat.”

  Eric remembered. The problem was that the foggy man had beaten him to the lake and taken the only boat. But Karen convinced him that if he was truly meant to be there, if his bizarre quest had any meaning at all, then there would have to be another way across. And once he convinced himself of that, he’d been able to find the second boat half-buried in the brush.

  “This isn’t so different,” she told him.

  “You’re saying I just need to find another leaky boat?”

  She laughed a little. “Something like that. Isabelle said that Delphinium cast a spell when everything looked hopeless, asking for help, and it showed her you.”

  “It also showed her there would be ‘pain, death and heartache.’ Not overly encouraging.”

  “There’s already been pain, death and heartache. It doesn’t mean it won’t end well.”

  Eric scratched at the back of his aching neck. He hadn’t thought about that. There had already been pain, death and heartache. And yet they still carried on.

  “I know I’ve been a big brat all night. I’m sorry.”

  “You had every right to be upset. I broke my promise.”

  “You had to make a more important promise. Whatever I might’ve said, I know you had to go. I’m really proud of you. My husband, the big hero.”

  “So would now be a good time to tell you we picked up four more strippers?”

  “I take it back. You’re an asshole.”

  “Well that went to hell fast.”

  Karen laughed.

  “I can explain it. I swear.”

  “Isabelle can explain it. You’d better go and save the day, hero.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “You’ll do fine. I know you will. You have to. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” he told her.

  She hung up.

  Eric stared at the phone for a moment. Whatever else may happen, he was already a lucky man.

  SHE’S AWESOME, agreed Isabelle.

  Eric pocketed the phone, helped himself to a drink of water, and then stepped out into the hallway.

  It was now that he noticed the open door at the rear of the house and the small figure sitting on the bed.

  He walked over to the door and pushed it open.

  Siena looked up at him and gave him a smile. “Hi.”

  Shondra was lying in the bed, resting. She looked up at him when she heard her daughter’s voice. “Hello there.”

  “What are you two still doing here?” he asked. “I thought Charlotte was going to take you off the property, out of harm’s way.”

  “We refused to leave,” said Siena. “I want to stay and help.”

  Shondra nodded. “We don’t have anyone else in our lives,” she explained. “And I was so far behind in my rent, I doubt we even have a home to go back to. If I’d died in that hospital…” She looked at her daughter. “I can’t stand the thought of it. Those girls out there saved us both. We won’t abandon them. If there’s anything we can do to help, we’ll do it.”

  Eric was impressed. They were both surprisingly brave. But Shondra was still weak from the pneumonia. And Siena was still so young.

  As if reading his mind, Siena said, “Del says I could be a witch. She says I could add energy to her spells. I could help protect everyone.”

  He recalled the words of the messenger at Neemley Farms: “Ten, if you count the two strays you dragged home from the hospital.” It knew about these two, which meant that the magic man
knew about them. And if he also knew that this girl had the potential to become a witch, there might not be a safe place to hide them anyway.

  “There you are,” said Delphinium from behind him. “It’s time. I feel him closing in on us. We have to put up our defenses.”

  Shondra stood up from the bed and the three of them followed her back to the living room, where Holly’s strip club army was gathering around the witches at the table.

  “Is it safe to use the water again?” asked Eric, looking at the bowl on the table and half-expecting it to explode again.

  “We’re not opening any channels with it,” Delphinium explained as she seated herself at a chair. “Nothing he can turn back on us.”

  The other girls (and Jude) were already starting. Siena sat on the arm of the couch next to Poppy and tried to concentrate, too, though she clearly wasn’t sure yet what she was supposed to do.

  Shondra took a seat between the couch and Jude and watched patiently.

  “What are you doing now?” asked Bernie.

  “We’re drawing in the blanket,” replied Delphinium.

  “The what now?” His mustache twitched as he asked the question.

  “The protective spell that was cast out over the land to help protect my sisters,” she explained. I’m drawing it in and concentrating it over this property. It’ll cover the entire yard and a little beyond, a radius about as far as the length of the driveway. It’ll let the magic man know exactly where we are, but he’ll find us any time now anyway, and it’ll increase our defense a hundredfold at least.”

  “What kind of defense?” asked Norval.

  “It’ll be a barrier he can’t easily breech. It’ll bottleneck his forces. The monsters won’t be able to storm us all at once. And once inside, it’ll weaken them and strengthen us. Our spells will be stronger. They’ll drain less energy. You and your friends will be stronger, more durable.”

  “Cool!” exclaimed Bernie.

  “Don’t let it make you careless though. It won’t make you invulnerable.”

  Something changed. The air seemed to grow a little heavier and a little warmer. Eric felt like his ears were going to pop.

  “It’s done,” announced Delphinium. “The blanket is drawn back. We’ve just declared war on the magic man.”