Holly leaned over to whisper in my ear, “It’s Oliver!”
“Shh,” I hissed back. Squeezing her hand tighter, we moved forward, protected by the shadows of a row of hemlock trees to our left. Silently we circled the fire, far enough from the outer perimeter of it that we wouldn’t be visible. When we got to the back of the fire the outline of a girl strapped to a table, straining to free herself, became visible. With a heavy heart, I knew immediately he had found another virgin.
I reached in front of me and poked Alba. She turned and I nodded towards the girl. “We’ve got to free her!” I whispered as quietly as I could.
Alba nodded. Silently the five of us crept forward, drawing strength from one another. My heart pounded furiously in my ears. Closer and closer we crept until finally we were crouched down low behind the table. I motioned silently to Sweets and Alba to untie her hands and the rest of us would untie her feet. As my hand touched the girl’s foot, her head immediately shot off of the table and looked around with wild eyes at the five of us. She was gagged and tears drenched her cheeks. Her dark brown hair was matted down behind her head and stuck to her cheeks in clumps.
I put a single finger to my lips. “Shh,” I whispered and pointed towards Oliver.
She nodded emphatically and leaned her head back onto the table, her body trembled with fear. Holly and Jax were first to free her feet, but Alba and Sweets struggled with her wrist cuffs. The knots were tighter and had less slack to work with.
Alba lifted her head up and whispered at the girl. “Pull on your hands. The rope is too tight. See if you can get it to stretch a little.”
“I’ve tried,” she cried. “The ropes won’t budge.”
“Well, well, well,” we heard a voice call from beyond the fire. I peeked out around the side of the table to see Oliver approaching us. His eyes were wild, demonic almost. Fear paralyzed my arms and legs and I froze where I was. But it was too late. He had seen Alba. “Don’t be shy girls, come on out.”
Alba, the bravest of our five, stood immediately with her hands on her hips. Ready to battle him as necessary. “Stop what you’re doing Oliver!”
“Oh, and just who intends to make me?” he sneered, combing one hand through his graying hair.
“I do,” Alba said haughtily.
“And me!” Through no decision of my own, my legs forced me to stand and my mouth spoke bravely.
“The two of you think you’ll take me, do you?” He threw his head back and laughed.
“And us,” said Jax bravely. Standing up next to me with Holly and Sweets following her.
“This is amazing,” he cooed. “Five little witches, gathered for me, which one shall I kill first, la-di-da-di-dee.” He danced around in front of us like a deranged psychotic institute escapee.
“You’re psychotic, Oliver,” I said emotionlessly.
“I’m sorry, are you saying you think I’m crazy?”
“If the straight jacket fits,” I deadpanned.
The wide smile on his face vanished as he moved towards me quickly. “I’ll show you who’s crazy!” With one hand he wrapped his grisly fingers around my neck and lifted me off of my feet. I looked down at my feet while I felt the blood draining from my face.
“Mercy!” Jax hollered.
He had me lifted off of my feet so high, that I could see the edge of the table right by my shins. I lifted my legs and shoved off of the edge of the table with the tips of my toes and in one quick toss, I had flipped myself over backward. As his wrists twisted with my movement, he couldn’t keep hold of my neck and I landed on my feet in a crouching position just beyond the table.
“You think that impresses me?” he sneered. “You’ll have to do a lot more than that to impress me!”
I heard Jax giggle just then. “That impressed me.”
“Oh it did? Well, then maybe you should be the first to go!” he hollered, sending a lightning bolt of electrically charged energy towards her with one quick motion. Jax’s reflexes worked quickly enough that she was able to dodge the shot and while he was focused on Jax, Alba took the opportunity to launch herself at him, sending him reeling down onto the ground, towards the fire.
While they wrestled, I sprung forward, working on the girl’s ropes once again. “What’s your name?” I asked her quickly.
“Christine,” she answered nervously. “Christine Brimsley. He-he-he’s my youth group counselor.”
“Christine, I am, I mean, I was friends with Morgan. My name is Mercy and we’re going to get you out of here.”
Christine looked at me curiously but nodded. I worked quickly to loosen her ropes. Suddenly, I had an idea. “Christine, I have an idea to get these off, but it might hurt. Do you trust me?”
She nodded emphatically. “I trust you, Mercy.”
“Alba, I need fire!” I hollered.
“Little busy here, Red,” she hollered back while using her full weight and strength to keep Oliver down.
I cast a sideways glance towards Holly and Sweets who were standing frozen in the shadow of the table. “Girls, a little help over there?” I said, pointing at Alba.
Sweets nodded and shot forward, plopping herself down on Oliver’s stomach with a thud while Holly squatted over his legs, pinning them down. Jax jumped up and rushed to help by grabbing his arms. “We’ve got him!” Sweets hollered to Alba. “Go help Mercy.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, go, hurry.”
Alba jumped up and rushed to Christine and I. She cupped the knot in one hand and snapped the other hand’s fingers and blew, shooting an instant spark towards the knot.
“Ow, ow, it’s hot!” she cried.
“Pull, Christine. Break the ropes!”
Christine strained against the ropes as the fire burned through the knot quickly. The charred rope fell to the ground as Christine pulled her right arm free. Alba rushed around to do the same thing to her left.
“Hurry!” Jax called out, while wrestling Oliver’s wiry arms. “He’s getting stronger!”
In no time, Christine’s other arm was freed. Alba and I helped her off the table. “We’re parked back there,” I hollered at her. “Go to the car and stay there! You can’t be here right now,” I instructed.
Christine nodded and fled. Oliver arched his back to watch her go. “No! You can’t do this!” he cried. “I need her!”
A sudden power surge filled his body and he broke free of Jax’s grip on his arms. He shoved Sweets off of his stomach roughly and then easily pulled his legs out of Holly’s weak grasp. Oliver nimbly jumped to his feet.
“Not bad for a one hundred year old guy, eh?” He laughed.
“What do we do Mercy?” Jax asked.
My brain was too panicked to think clearly. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like we were out of options. I only wished we were further ahead in school to know some applicable spells.
“Thanks to you witches,” he spat as if witches were a dirty word, “I’ve got to go retrieve my sacrificial lamb.” He turned on his heel and began to walk towards where we had parked our car. I felt nauseous. We were out of options, he was too strong for us and our minimal knowledge of magic wasn’t enough.
“No!” Jax hollered. “Use me!”
My eyes flared as I spun around to look at Jax incredulously. “Jax, no!”
“It’s ok, Mercy,” she said quietly. “I can’t let him hurt that girl.”
Oliver stopped in his tracks with his back to us, slowly he began to turn around. “Use you? You’re a witch. I can’t use a witch in this spell.”
Jax stepped towards him solemnly. “I’m not a witch.”
His head cocked slightly to the right as he considered her. “But you’re a student of Saralynn Stone.”
Jax nodded. “I am.”
“But Saralynn Stone doesn’t take non-witches at her school,” he insisted.
“She made an exception,” Jax said quietly, staring him down.
He shook his head. “Why would Saralynn Stone
make an exception for you?” he asked, dumbfounded.
“Because she’s my daughter!” we suddenly heard come from a voice behind Oliver.
{ Chapter Twenty-Three}
Our heads collectively swiveled towards the voice. Sorceress Stone was walking towards us. My jaw dropped in awe.
“And my niece,” said another voice. Behind Stone was a tall woman who looked very similar to her, but her hair was onyx black.
Our eyes flipped back to Jax, who looked like she just wanted to crawl in a hole and die of embarrassment now that her secret was revealed.
“BethAnn, I’m so glad you could make it!” Oliver gushed. “I’ve missed you my darling.”
“Wait, so who is BethAnn again?” Holly whispered to us girls.
“It sounds like she’s Sorceress Stone’s sister,” I whispered back.
“She’s my aunt,” Jax admitted. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you girls. I-I-I couldn’t.”
“BethAnn, she’s the one in the yearbook picture with Oliver?” Alba asked.
“I’m so confused,” Sweets muttered. “I thought BethAnn was the Black Witch.”
“I’ll lay it all out there for you girls,” Sorceress Stone announced. “Oliver is my sister’s ex-boyfriend. After they broke up many many years ago, he became a different person. An evil person. So to bind him to a life of good versus an evil one, she put a curse on him. It took away the majority of his powers, leaving him with only enough magic to grow old gracefully and maybe make himself a sandwich. He is here tonight, outside of my sister’s house on the Autumnal Equinox to sacrifice a virgin. He thinks he has found a spell to break the curse and retrieve his powers.”
My sister’s house? All of our eyes swung to BethAnn. Did this mean that Jax’s aunt was the Black Witch? My jaw dropped, I couldn’t believe it. Her face wasn’t burned by acid. She wasn’t an atrocious monster looking thing.
“Am I right, Oliver, dear?” the sorceress purred.
“You know me so well, SaraLynn” he stammered nervously, running another hand over the top of his head. “How did you know I’d be here?”
“Oh, I didn’t know, though I should have, all the signs were there,” the sorceress admitted, then turned her gaze to stare directly at me. “It was really because of Mercy, here, that I was alerted to what was going on this evening.”
“Me?” I asked, dumbfounded. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Your mother told me that it was you and your friends that freed my daughter from Evan and found Morgan’s body. She told me that you all figured out that it was Oliver who killed Morgan because she was a virgin. Once I had those pieces of the puzzle, it didn’t take much to figure out that you were going to pull a big stunt tonight. When BethAnn alerted me that someone had started a bonfire in the field next to her house, I knew who it was.”
“My mother told you?” I asked, stunned. “But my mother is in Illinois!”
“She said she likes to call it – what did she say – Skitches? Skype for Witches?” Sorceress Stone laughed. “I thought that was pretty creative. Skitches…” she trailed off and let a little giggle escape.
“You can talk to her too?” I asked as more of a statement than a question.
“Mmmhmm, dear. I can talk to animals. I am a witch, you know.”
“Glad that you’ve got this whole family reunion thing figured out,” Oliver said, breaking our focus on each other to remind us what we were dealing with, “but I’m sorry to say, I’ve got work to do, so if you’ll excuse me.” Before anyone could object, he sent a stream of energy towards Jax, sending her reeling high into the sky above the flames of the fire and began chanting as he had been when we’d arrived.
Holly and Sweets screamed. I looked helplessly to Alba. Her eyes shamefully swing towards the ground. Neither of us knew what to do.
“Girls, we’re going to need your help. Focus your energy, concentrate on moving her body, visualize Jax’s feet touching the ground. To bring her down it will take all of us,” she hollered, throwing her robed arms out to her sides, she extended her hand to me. Her sister took hold of one of her hands and I took the one offered to me. I held my other hand out to Alba and quickly she took it, starting a chain reaction where Alba, Holly, and Sweets all joined hands. When Sweets took the Black Witch’s hand and the circle was complete, I felt the energy flowing between us.
Sorceress Stone closed her eyes as did her sister. I followed suit and did what she said, focusing my energy on Jax and visualizing her feet on the ground.
“No!” I heard Oliver holler. I peeked one eye open and saw Jax finally moving despite the electrical current he was still heaving towards her. “NO!”
She was away from the fire, finally hovering over the ground. We sat her down gently, flat on her back, but as we did, Oliver hurled a blast of energy towards BethAnn. “Curse you, witch,” he spat.
The Black Witch held up her two flattened palms to meet the attack and as she fired it back towards him, Sorceress Stone hurled a bolt of energy towards him, causing him to fly to the other side of the bonfire. The double sided attack lit up the night sky in one solid flash of light. Oliver fell into a crumpled heap as we saw flashing lights flying up the Black Witch’s driveway in the distance. The wail of the Aspen Falls PD’s sirens filled the night air.
The rest of the Witch Squad ran to Jax’s side. “Jax, Jax, oh my god, are you alright?” Sweets asked as she got to her side first.
“Is she breathing?” I asked. Fear filled my whole body.
“I don’t know,” said Sweets.
“Move aside,” the sorceress said from behind us. She rushed to her daughter’s side and knelt down next to her. “JaclynRose, are you alright?”
I looked up at the other girls in surprise. “JaclynRose?” I mouthed.
“Mother! I told you not to call me that,” said a raspy little voice from the ground.
Jax had her eyes open faintly and she had a cross look on her face. Sorceress Stone let a tiny little smile escape her usually stony exterior.
“A little spit fire as usual,” she said with eyes I thought looked a little damp around the edges. “You’re going to be just fine. Girls, take care of her. I’ve got to go see to Oliver.”
I nodded, looking down at Jax’s tiny outline. “You’re going to be alright JaclynRose,” I teased.
“Shut up, Mercy, it’s Jax. I’ll run away again if you start calling me that,” she said with a pout.
I crossed my heart with my finger. “I couldn’t stand it if you did, Jax, never again, you have my word.”
“Good,” she said with a weak cough. “Help me up?”
We pulled her to her feet and walked towards Oliver and the flashing police lights.
“Looks like you were right,” Detective Whitman said as we approached Oliver’s lifeless body. “Oliver was Morgan’s killer. Her family will be very thankful you caught her.”
“What about Oliver, is he…” I began.
Detective Whitman nodded. “Yes, he’s dead.”
My shoulders finally began to loosen.
“You’ll also find Christine Brimsley in our car,” Alba told him.
He nodded and looked back towards the car. “We found her. She came running the minute the cruisers pulled into the driveway. You saved that poor girl’s life. Thank you.”
I smiled shyly, while Holly and Alba beamed with pride.
“You saved my daughter’s life too,” Sorceress Stone added. “I’m sorry I was so harsh on you, girls come from far and wide and get in trouble very early in their college career. I make it a point to keep everyone in line, but maybe I take it a bit, too far. I’m sorry I made it impossible for you to come to me with your knowledge. Thank you for saving Jax. I don’t know what I’d do with her.”
We all looked at Jax who was beaming from ear to ear. “Thanks Mom, I don’t know what I’d do without you either.”
Suddenly a thought occurred to me. I turned around in a circle. “Where did your aunt go?”
Sorceress Stone waved her hand dismissively. “She’s not one for a crowd. She’s gone back home.”
“But…I don’t understand…people say she’s…” I began.
“Now is not the time or the place, Mercy, dear. It’s been a long night, a long week, I suppose. Perhaps we should get the five of you back to campus. I’m sure a nice hot shower will do you all some good.”
“And dessert, dessert will also do us some good,” Sweets tossed in.
{ Chapter Twenty-Four}
Breakfast the next morning was certainly something to behold. The Witch Squad, as we were now being called by everyone at the Paranormal Institute, was subject to dozens of sets of interested eyes. It was all over school – we had solved the Morgan Hartford murder. And saved Jax from Evan’s evil wrongdoings. And we had most certainly saved a town girl from certain death. And best of all – we’d met the Black Witch!
I didn’t know how excitingly grand that last part was myself. I mean BethAnn Stone certainly didn’t look like one would think a Black Witch would look. I had to wonder if she was evil at all or if she was just the subject of a rumor mill a mile wide. While I wanted to ask Jax, I’d promised her that night that we’d save family stories for another day entirely. I’d also promised Jax, as had Holly, Sweets, and Alba that we’d keep her family lineage a secret just as we promised to keep Jax’s lack of powers and her real name a secret as well.
One thing the Witch Squad could agree upon was that we definitely needed to learn more about witchcraft. If it hadn’t been for my mother’s meddling, Sorceress Stone and the Black Witch’s powers, we wouldn’t have been able to stop Oliver on our own. Sorceress Stone guaranteed us that if we kept going to classes, by the end of our time at the Paranormal Institute, we’d have a much stronger grasp on the craft.
“We’re like celebrities,” Holly chirped excitedly.
“Except we’re not,” Alba grumbled into her ham and cheese omelet. “It’s just weird having all of this attention.”
I laughed. “Yeah, the last time I got this much attention, my entire chemistry class was watching out the window as I was being hauled off in cuffs in a squad car.”
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