Hexed

by Michael Alan Nelson

  She saw Trish sitting next to the bathtub, looking at the timer on her phone, while Buck knelt with his hands in his lap, his head hanging in defeat. But it was Lucifer’s own body lying dead in the tub that terrified her.

  The lips of her corpse were blue and its skin ashen. Black, limp hair floated next to the ice in the pooling meltwater. It was the most disturbing thing Lucifer had ever seen. But it wasn’t simply seeing her own dead body that bothered her so much. It was how small she looked. How fragile. To see herself reduced to such a tiny, insignificant thing filled her with a profound sadness.

  But Lucifer didn’t have time for self-pity. The clock was running. If she didn’t act now, both Gina and David would be just as dead. And as much as Lucifer wanted to be with David, she didn’t want it to be as ghosts heading hand-in-hand into the great beyond.

  She turned and headed for the stairs. But once outside of the house, Lucifer was taken aback. What she saw was like smoke poured into a mold of the world. Buildings rose in dark slabs against the darker sky as spirits meandered over the landscape in between the towering shapes. Most of the structures were just as they were in the living world, though several lay twisted or collapsed in defiance of any laws of physics. There were even a few buildings that had no living counterpart.

  Lucifer watched as spirits floated through the air like aimless, sentient clouds. The denizens of the Shade were every form imaginable, from the horrible to the stunningly beautiful. Some appeared merely human, while others were vile and monstrous. Lucifer had no idea if it was a result of a violent death, a reflection of their inner selves, or simply how they chose to appear to the other spirits in this world.

  The moon was high in the sky, ten times bigger than in the living world. It looked down on her like the engorged eye of a curious god, its light filling the sky with a cardinal glow. But the blood-red moonlight paled next to the blinding beacon rising to meet it. Not too far away, a spotlight of golden light rose straight into the air until it was swallowed by the impossible darkness directly above it.

  The strange light originated from a collection of smaller structures that sat in a clearing just at the edge of the horizon. Each of the structures connected to the other with a strange latticework. Though the light prevented Lucifer from seeing all of the structures in the tiny village, she knew that there were seven.

  She had found Witchdown.

  The light rising from the town pulled at Lucifer, beckoned her, as if it were calling her home. Something about that incredible light made her want to bask in it, revel in it. The strange pull even seemed to be affecting the other spirits as well. Ghosts ambled and floated in the same direction, all heading toward Witchdown.

  She ran, covering more ground than she could have in the living world. Part of her wanted to study her fellow spirits, examine them, study this world. But there wasn’t time. The full moon was nearly overhead as it quickly approached the vertical beam of light. Minutes was all she had.

  Lucifer stopped when she reached the edge of Witchdown. The town was protected by an invisible dome of magic, preventing the thousands of ghosts and spirits from getting inside. They swarmed over the magic dome, crawling over one another as they tried to claw their way inside. Lucifer understood their desire. The source of the light was coming from inside, and the light pulled at them, filling them with an incredible need. The closer they were to the light, the more desperately they wanted to feel its radiance.

  The ghost of a man with impossibly wide eyes and very little flesh still left on his bones pushed past Lucifer and forced his way into the throng of swarming spirits. Lucifer couldn’t see beyond the swirling mass into the town, so she followed his lead.

  As soon as she approached the gathered mass, it swallowed her, pulling her under like an ocean current. It was odd, touching other spirits. Neither she nor they had actual bodies, but they all seemed to adhere to the same physical laws of the living world. But Lucifer could see that a few ignored those laws, allowing themselves to pass through one another, float, even fly. It made sense. Such physical laws didn’t apply here, so why should she confine herself to them?

  Lucifer relaxed. If she could fly, she could reach the top of the dome and get a better view of what was happening inside the town. She rolled and tumbled as spirits jostled to get a look inside, swimming closer only to be pulled away again. They moved in waves like the undulating thermal currents of a black star.

  But as she concentrated, the unrelenting pressure slowly eased. Hands and arms now passed through her. She was a ghost among ghosts. With a thought, she was able to rise through the swirling mass until she was above it, floating at the top of the dome over Witchdown. Only a few other spirits were with her now, all focused on the source of the light beneath them. Lucifer could see it clearly.

  David and Gina.

  Lucifer’s heart sang with joy at seeing David again, but his imprisonment in this hellscape filled her with horror. David and Gina huddled together in a cage made of bones, their bodies shining with blinding light that emanated in all directions. The force of their life burned like twin suns in this world of death and shadow. They were the source of the great beacon in the sky, the light that called to her and every other spirit in the Shade. At that moment, Lucifer realized that she had been wrong about the Shade. The spirits here didn’t hate life. They craved it. Though she had been dead for only a few minutes, she could feel the undeniable need to be close to them, to be alive again, to bask in their light. She could only assume that the longer one stayed in the Shade, the stronger that need became. Any living thing that traveled here would be torn apart by all the ghosts desperately trying to feel life one more time.

  From this vantage point, Lucifer could see the entire layout of the Sisters’ grand spell, recognizing it from the book. The whole of the town was covered in symbols, seals, picts, every possible magical notation all intertwined to form an intricate design that glowed with the same pale orange light of the Sister’s Wheel.

  The latticework that joined the seven structures together were made of bones arranged in specific geometric patterns that connected to the glowing lines of the spell. Several whole specters were entwined in the bones to finish out some of the more intricate shapes, each writhing against their restraints and trying to free themselves so they could get closer to David and Gina.

  The spell was incredibly complex, but something about that complexity tugged at her memory. It was something the Witch of Cape Vale had said to her while she mocked her inside the pocket dimension of 47th Street. Minnie Hester had said that only witches had the skill to craft a spell this complicated without it all falling apart. One wrong move, and it would all collapse like a house of cards. Though Minnie had been trying to insult Lucifer for her lack of innate magical abilities, she had actually given her the clue she needed to dismantle it. All she had to do was get inside the dome. But the Sisters had created the dome to keep their sacrifices safe within the confines of Witchdown. Gina had been here for days, yet none of the spirits had been able to breach the protective spell. How was she going to get through?

  The swollen moon inched closer to its zenith. Lucifer didn’t have time to study the dome. She needed to get through now. Her only chance was to break into the dome the same way she had broken into Isaac Haldis’s safe. Lucifer could only hope the Sisters of Witchdown put all their efforts on safeguarding the side of the box with the door.

  Lucifer floated down from the top of the dome. She descended far enough away that the host of ghosts wouldn’t notice her. Again, she focused, concentrating on the lack of physical boundaries in this world. But this time, instead of flying, Lucifer sank into the earth beneath her feet.

  Thick emptiness surrounded her. There were no spirits, no ambling ghosts, just the endless expanse of the Shade’s shadow planet engulfing her. The light from David and Gina penetrated the earth like a golden spike through the world’s black heart. She moved toward it, drinking in its warmth and vitality until she was directly undern
eath it. It was euphoric.

  Slowly, she rose back aboveground and found herself next to the cage with David and Gina inside. They were surrounded by the seven structures, each really nothing more than a shack. They were simple abodes where the witches could sequester themselves away from one another while they worked to find their way back to the living world.

  Lucifer was about to call to David and Gina and let them know she had come to help, but at that moment, seven figures emerged from each of the structures. The Sisters of Witchdown were coming.

  The witches were horrible, beyond even Lucifer’s worst nightmares. They were tall and emaciated, like diseased trees that shed their leaves only to replace them with unruly tumbles of black wire. Wicked rows of needle-sharp teeth lined their smiles, their obvious glee standing out in stark contrast with their gaunt features. Their tattered robes and dresses clung to their misshapen bodies, dragging behind them as they floated over the ground.

  They glided to the center of their commune and gathered around a wide, squat seven-sided altar with heavy rings attached to each edge. They held hands. One of the witches turned to the caged boy and girl and her lustful smile swelled like a maggot fattening itself on rotting flesh. Together they chanted. The runes of the spell glowed brighter. One of the witches broke away from the circle and floated to a nearby platform. With a wave of her decrepit hand, the air above the platform shimmered.

  What appeared truly sickened Lucifer. A row of humanlike creatures hung from a rusty scaffold shoulder to shoulder in a straight line, each with their hands and feet bound behind them. Every one of their heads were upturned with a single pipe-organ pipe of varying lengths rising up from their throats and out of their mouths.

  The witch produced a cat-o’-nine-tails and lashed one of the creatures. It howled in agony, resulting in a deep, bowel-rattling tone that erupted from the end of the pipe. The conducting witch lashed an awful tune to the merriment of her Sisters. With every note, the magical light of their spell grew brighter. Their ritual was beginning.

  As the music droned on, two other witches went to the cage. When they opened the door, David stood in front of Gina, doing his best to protect her, but one of the Sisters extended a finger and sent a bolt of black straight to his heart. David screamed and collapsed to the floor in pain, while the other witch grabbed Gina and dragged her from the cage. The girl fought and clawed to free herself, but the strength of a witch, even a dead one, was too much for her.

  Lucifer came to the edge of the cage. David was on his side, clutching at the bone bars. Being so close to him, to life, was ecstasy.

  “Gina! Gina!” David shouted.

  “Quiet, David. Don’t draw their attention.”

  David turned. “Lucifer? Is that you?” His eyes blinked in confusion. “What happened to you?”

  “I’m . . . in disguise. But now isn’t the time to talk about it. We have to get you back to the Worcester House.”

  Gina screamed. Lucifer and David turned to see the witches chaining her to the altar. Lucifer admired how Gina struggled and fought, though she knew she wouldn’t win.

  “We can’t leave her here,” David said.

  “I don’t plan to,” Lucifer said. “But we need to get Gina back in the cage with you.” Lucifer easily manipulated the rather primitive locking mechanism, opening the cage door. “When Gina runs this way, let her in and then lock this behind her. It’s the only way you’ll be safe.”

  “Safe? Lucifer, what are you—”

  But Lucifer was already moving. The terrible music echoed through the black, aided by the raucous clamor of a thousand ghosts clawing at the magic barrier. The glowing lines and runes of the spell were everywhere. Thanks to Minnie Hester, she knew it wouldn’t take much to destabilize the great spell. And from what she read in the book, Lucifer knew exactly which part of the spell she needed to alter to stop the ritual. There was a node on the great seal that would undo everything the witches had accomplished.

  She found it next to one of the structures. It was infused with a dozen smaller symbols that linked together to form a larger pict that, in turn, connected with others to form larger ones still. The patience and attention to detail needed to craft such a thing was impressive. It had to have taken the witches decades to properly prepare for this. But like most magic this complex, it was built on a house of cards. Pull the right card, and it all came crashing down.

  The music crescendoed into a single note that boomed across the Shade. The moon was directly overhead now. One of the witches floated above Gina as the others chanted around the altar. The light of Gina’s life force faded as the moon siphoned it away. As her light went up into the moon, dark tendrils from the Sister’s spirit floating above her drifted into Gina’s body.

  Gina howled then went silent. Her light was growing dimmer. There was no more time. Lucifer desperately scratched at the node in the ground beneath her, erasing the node until the lines and symbols slowly began to fade. Gina gasped as her golden light slammed back into her body and the hovering witch was thrown clear of the altar. The witches exchanged confused glances, trying to figure out what went wrong.

  Then every witch turned to face Lucifer.

  If Lucifer still had a body, she would have wet herself.

  All seven Sisters were looking at her now with such malevolence that Lucifer couldn’t bear to watch them. Instead, she focused on the node, reworking it, changing it. Lucifer could feel the witches closing in on her, their ancient guttural curses flooding her ears. They reached for her as she made one final swipe with her finger. The great, elaborate spell of Witchdown flashed and went dark.

  Then the barrier collapsed.

  Thousands of spirits poured in. Shocked, the witches turned to repel the oncoming hordes. If the denizens of the Shade got hold of Gina, they would tear her apart, and then the witches would need to find another sacrifice. Centuries in the Shade had, no doubt, made them impatient.

  The Sisters of Witchdown ignored Lucifer for the moment and lashed out at the ghosts that swarmed down on them. Lucifer swept past them and reached the altar.

  Gina pulled at the chains that held her to the black slab. “Get me out of here!”

  “I’m trying, but you have to give me some slack in the chain.”

  Gina looked at Lucifer, her face riddled with terror and mistrust.

  “I’m a friend,” Lucifer said. “Your dad sent me.” With a final heave, the chain came loose. Lucifer helped Gina off the altar and half led, half carried her toward the cage. Magic exploded around them as the Sisters pushed back against the rushing spirits. The ghosts burst into clouds of dust and black flame only to coalesce back into form and begin their charge once again. The Sisters couldn’t kill what was already dead.

  Lucifer and Gina tumbled underneath a scything line of energy that cut a swath fifty feet wide in the wall of ghosts crashing down on them like waves. David held the cage door open and yelled, “Hurry!”

  As soon as they were inside, David slammed the door closed and locked it. Outside, shadows and witches warred among themselves. “Okay, Lucifer. Now what?” David asked.

  “You know her?” Gina asked. Her voice was brittle from scream­­ing, but there was still plenty of angst in her. She was tough. Definitely Buck’s daughter.

  “Yes,” he said. “Long story. Well, Lucifer? Please tell me pissing off the Sisters of Witchdown was part of your plan.”

  “Not exactly. Look, I had to act or else they would have sacrificed you guys. I barely made it in time. But pretty soon they’ll be able to hold back the spirits of this world long enough for them to spell another barrier.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “A transport spell. I hope. I’ve never done one before,” Lucifer said apologetically. “David, take off your belt.”

  “What?” David and Gina said in unison.

  “I need the buckle.”

  David whipped his belt off in a single motion and handed it to Lucifer. Carving with her ghost hands was
difficult and she hoped his buckle would make it easier. She took the buckle and began carving lines and symbols into the floor of the cage. “In case you haven’t figured it out,” Lucifer said, “the creatures that exist in the Shade have a thing for the living. I always thought it was hate, but it’s not. It’s desire. They crave life. They want to consume you. I bet it takes everything the witches have not to devour you themselves.”

  “How is scaring us going to help?” Gina asked.

  “Sorry, that’s not what I . . . what I’m trying to say is this. When you were pulled into the Shade, they had to bring you to Witchdown to prevent you from getting mauled by the locals. As you can see, that’s a tough thing to do.” Both Gina and David looked out at the spectral violence unfolding outside the cage. “So once you were in the Shade, they transported you.”

  “Like in Star Wars,” David said.

  “Star Trek,” Gina corrected.

  “It doesn’t matter. There’s something called the Sister’s Wheel,” Lucifer said as she continued carving. “It’s a massive series of glyphs and symbols, like a giant seal. It’s under the floor at the Worcester House. It’s a multipurpose spell, and they included a transporting element to it. So if I can carve that element of the spell here, I can get us to the Worcester House. Once I get you there, I can get you back to the world of the living.”

  “Why not just use theirs? I mean, they’ve already built this thing, right?” David asked.

  Lucifer looked out at the chaos. “A, we don’t want to be going out there and B, I kind of sort of ruined it when I shut down their whole sorcery party.”

  “How long will it take?” Gina asked.

  “Just about finish—”

  Pain lashed at her. Intense, otherworldly pain. She watched her body disintegrate into dark snow, every black flake a searing agony. When she finally coalesced back into form, she was outside the cage and the witches were standing before her, malevolence radiating from their cold, hateful eyes. The spirits of the Shade swarmed past them and over the cage in such numbers that David and Gina’s light couldn’t penetrate them.