TwoSpells
Page 2
“Sarah,” her mother started. “No one here is an idiot. Be nice to your brother.”
“Yeah, knock it off kids,” Percy added. “I think I flew over this place several times on military reconnaissance missions over Europe you know.”
“What kind of missions? Bombing runs?” Jon asked.
“No—no. Weather balloon recoveries for the Air Force,” Percy replied with a chuckle. “But wouldn’t you believe it, not once was there ever an opening in that crazy cloud cover.”
“You sure are an interesting man, Percy McCardle,” her mother said affectionately.
Percy smiled, winked at her then snapped his fingers. “I remember now. It’s a dormant volcano.”
“Forget all that boring stuff. There are such things as vampires,” Jon interrupted, leaning over the seat. “Have you guys even seen any movies?”
Percy turned to face Jon. “The notion that there are immortal creatures that sleep all day in a coffin and then turn into bats at night to prey on the blood of young beautiful women is absolutely ludicrous—preposterous—a bunch of Hollywood hoo-hah.”
Sarah made a cross with her fingers and snickered at Jon. “Boy, Percy just stuck a wooden stake into your heart.”
Jon slumped against the window. “Buzz-kill.”
The car pulled up to a rugged stone sign that read: TwoSpells. Beneath it hung a smaller sign: Private Property for Members Only. A long line of traffic snaked along the lengthy flagstone drive to the gate.
“See?” Sarah’s mother said with a smile. “TwoSpells.”
“You were right, Sam,” Percy said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “What do you suppose the attraction is?
“They can make dreams come true,” Sarah’s mom replied.
“Let’s go check it out!” Jon cheered.
“It says private property for members only,” Percy said. “We gotta get to your grandparent’s place before dark.”
Sarah’s mother put the car back into gear and eased onto the roadway once again. “We’re almost there. What do you think, Sarah?”
“It doesn’t seem so special,” Sarah mumbled under her breath, playing with her phone.
“You’ll see,” her mom said, grinning. She turned to Percy. “We must be close now, what’s the GPS say?”
“I’m not sure. It’s acting…strange.” Percy shook the GPS as the screen flickered. “And you’d think a place as big as this would be posted on a map.”
“Acting strange like what?” she questioned.
Percy knocked it with the butt of his hand. “Power issue, I think. I hope you remember where you’re going because this thing isn’t going to be any help at all.”
As he leaned forward to re-attach it to the dashboard, Sarah spotted a small smear of blood on the back of his neck. Was that a bite? Had that creature actually bit him?
Sarah leaned against the car window again and watched as they left TwoSpells behind. Before long, her eyes grew heavy.
When she opened them again, she was stumbling aimlessly through mounting snow drifts, thunder-snow erupting all around her. Her thin, pale skin blistered in the freezing fury, frostbite beginning to numb her aching extremities as ice crystals stung her squinting eyes. What was this place?
Visibility was measured in feel and sound. A barking dog trailed her, closing in. Her teeth chattered and ached on one side of her face. A warm salty taste lingered in her mouth. She reached in, probed around and found several loose teeth. When she withdrew her fingers, they were stained with red.
Everything seemed a blur. Her breath shortened. Her heart palpitated. She was afraid and trembling violently.
She cried out in the deadening wind for her family, the cries buried and laid to rest without a eulogy. Lightning flashed brightly, followed by deep rumbling thunder. Nearly snow-blind, she pressed on. She tripped in the deep snow, the hard, icy ground meeting her body with a sickening thud. She moaned and crawled a few yards until she thought she saw something.
Sarah cleared her vision with several purposeful blinks and clawed into the white snow, feeling something metallic. She ran her hands across its surface and realized it was a door. She screamed for help, her tiny voice silenced once again by the storm’s ferocity. Lightning burst nearby and charged the air with electricity, adding the taste and smell of burnt ozone to the flurry of wet snow.
The storm eased momentarily as she examined the door more closely. It appeared to be multiple doors within one, each larger than the next. The doors within doors stretched up into the air and out of sight. Her hands found an impression in the door. She pressed closer and read the word ABADDON. It meant nothing to her.
She slowly reached for one of the many doorknobs, shaking. Suddenly a loud knocking came from the opposite side of the door. Sarah hesitated until finally her thin legs wobbled and gave out and she slumped against the door. The door shuddered and rattled as the assault began again. She managed to get to her feet, stepped sideways and stumbled over something in the snow. Beneath her feet was her brother, his face pale and waxy and his mouth agape in a crooked cry. His eyes were wide and lifeless. Dead.
Sarah fell back into the snow, floundering and gasping for air. She dragged herself back to the door weeping and whimpering softly for help. The taste of salt was heavier on her tongue. She screamed.
One of the doors burst open to reveal a blinding light. She squinted, trying to see through the storm. A warm rush of hot air surged across her aching frame, smelling of mold and mothballs. She got back to her feet and staggered towards the open door, reaching for help. A strong shadowy hand grabbed hold of her, dragged her limp body inside and slammed the door shut.
It was her brother. He was alive, after all. She cried out his name. He answered by seizing her throat and smiling grotesquely, exposing two rows of repulsive yellowed teeth. Blood trickled from one side of his snarling mouth as he began to laugh.
Sarah’s eyes searched the room frantically as she fought to free herself from his cold, dead hands. They were inside a massive cathedral lined with hundreds of towering bookshelves and, within them, were thousands and thousands of books. The room was littered with them—pages flapping and waving somehow despite the uneasy stillness of the air within. Ghostly figures twisted and writhed, crawling from the pages, screaming for help.
The door they’d passed through suddenly swung open again, allowing the raging storm to blow inside. Rolling thunder shook the room violently, spilling books of every size and shape across the stone floor.
Jon roared hysterically, spewing bloody spittle across her face. The droplets burned her skin and his breath stank of rotten eggs.
Suddenly, a pair of hands shoved her from behind, pushing them both from the room. She clawed and kicked hard, trying to free herself. Jon was only partway through the door when it crashed shut on his wiry arms. The snapping of his bones and his wail of agony brought her to her knees with a nauseating thump. Flashes of light flickered across her blurring vision and she cried out one last time before passing into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 3
“SARAH, ARE YOU OKAY?” HER MOM ASKED.
Sarah clutched her throat, gasping for air. She reached up and rubbed her aching head. A tiny knot was already forming on one side. She realized that she must have banged her head on the window.
“What?” she mumbled, looking around the car. “Huh?”
“I’m sorry, Sweetheart, you must have had a bad dream,” her mother said. “Bless your heart, you were sleeping so soundly though.”
Sarah didn’t respond immediately. She stared out the window in silence, bits and pieces of the nightmare already fading from memory. She swallowed hard, massaging her throat. “Yeah. Yeah, just a bad dream.”
Jon was hammering away on his video game and Sarah shot him a sideways glance. He looked every bit as annoying as he usually did. Definitely not creepy or dead.
“Didn’t we pass these houses already?” Sarah’s mother asked, interrupting Sarah’s thoughts.
Sarah’s mother pointed up ahead. “Yes. I’m sure of it. Look, there’s TwoSpells!”
“That’s not possible,” Percy said, his nose to the GPS and tapping away at the screen. “Piece of ju—”
“You’ve reached your destination,” a sultry voice interrupted him.
“See that!” Percy cried.
As they passed TwoSpells once again, Sarah stared out the window at the imposing iron gates. Tiny blue and green bolts of electricity arced across the sky.
“Now that’s cool!” Jon cried. “Maybe now we’ll see a dragon and some knights or something.”
“Like King Arthur?” Sarah asked. “He was from Wales.”
“Very good, Sarah,” Percy replied. “King Arthur and his court were, of course, entirely fictional. But there’s usually a little truth behind most legends, so who knows—oh!” He stopped to play with the GPS again. “Looks like we’re back in business. It’s working again.”
Jon leapt up and pointed frantically out the car window. “Look!”
Up ahead they saw what appeared to be an old western cavalry fort under attack. Indians on horseback were cascading down the mountainside and across the road, circling the wooden fort. Cannons fired from the top of the fortress’s towers while the Indians shot flaming arrows over the walls. Several of the cannonballs exploded along the road ahead of the car, blasting large holes and blowing back a large swathe of the Indians.
Sarah’s mother mashed the brakes, bringing the car to a stop.
“How—in—the—heck…” Percy muttered, staring in astonishment. “This fort wasn’t here before. And these Indians—”
“Awesome!” Jon shouted. “They’re shooting a movie!”
“This doesn’t look like a movie…” Sarah’s mom said, peering over the dashboard.
“Maybe it’s one of those reenactment things,” Sarah suggested.
Suddenly a huge cannonball exploded right in front of them, casting mounds of debris onto the hood and windshield. All four of them screamed and covered their heads, crouching down in their seats. As the dust settled, everything went silent except for the faint sound of crickets.
Percy was the first to lift his head and look around. The windshield was covered in soil and a cloud of gray smoke drifted over the car. He cautiously eased the door open and peered out. The smell of burnt gunpowder was heavy, wafting into the car.
“What do you see?” Sarah’s mother asked from her hiding space on the floorboard.
“Nothing!” Percy said. He stepped out of the car and everyone followed. “Well, maybe not nothing.”
“What happened to all the war stuff?” Sarah asked, her phone camera set to record.
“It disappeared!” Jon said. “Even cooler! Maybe it was a hologram?”
“Impossible. That’s impossible,” Percy said, shaking his head in disbelief as he paced. “Something’s not right here. These holes in the road. All this dirt…”
Sarah noticed something sticking out of the side door of the car and bolted over to it, yanking it free. “What’s this?”
“Sweet! An arrow!” Jon popped up over her shoulder and snatched it away. “Think I could kill a cowboy with one of these?”
“Get back in the car,” Percy ordered. “This place is too strange for me. Let’s go.”
As Sarah’s mother buckled her seatbelt, she turned to Percy. “Didn’t you do one of those Civil War re-enactments once? Could it be something like that?”
He didn’t answer. He just wiped the dirt and dust from the windshield and continued to shake his head before getting back inside the car.
They pulled back onto the roadway and proceeded to follow the GPS directions, making small talk about the beautiful countryside. Sarah swiped through photos on her phone and Jon pressed his nose to the window, on the lookout for more Indians. Finally, the GPS announced that they were close to their destination.
“Okay, this time I made sure I turned the right way,” her mother said as they came around an unfamiliar bend in the road.
“I don’t know if I trust the GPS. Maybe the werewolf messed it up,” Jon chimed in.
Percy turned around in his seat. “Enough nonsense. It was a dog and the bumper has nothing to do with GPS.”
Jon stuck his tongue out. “Don’t bite my head off. I didn’t build this old junker. You seem angry Percy. Isn’t that the first stage of rabies?”
“Not the rabies thing again!” Percy spun back around and shot his arms into the air. As they crested the next hill, a set of towering gates rose in the distance. TwoSpells. “I’ll be a son of a—”
Sarah’s mom jabbed a finger toward the backseat. “Don’t say it!”
“Can we go inside this time? Please?” Jon bounced in the backseat.
“That’s it. I’m driving,” Percy growled as the car came to a stop. He unbuckled his seatbelt and stormed out of the car. “It’ll be midnight by the time you get us there.”
“Fine by me. Clearly this is a navigation issue and I’d be more than happy to actually lead us there,” her mother spat back.
The two of them swapped seats and Percy fumbled with the shifter. He swore and grumbled something about it having been a while since he’d driven one of these. Sarah and Jon looked at each other and giggled.
Percy eased off the grassy median and back onto the roadway. Suddenly, a loud explosion erupted from the front of the car pulling it to one side. Sarah’s phone launched across the backseat, hitting Jon in the arm. Her mother jumped out of her seat, startled.
“Did you hit something again?” Sarah asked.
“Damn it!” Percy groaned. He grit his teeth and reached across the seat for Sarah’s mom. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Is everyone else okay?”
“I’m okay Mom,” Sarah replied, fumbling for her phone.
“Nice job, Percy,” Jon added. “Hit another dog I bet…”
“Smart-aleck,” Percy mumbled, opening his door and leaning out. “Good news is—it’s not the engine. Bad news is—we have a flat.”
“Cool!” Jon said, sliding out of his door. “Let me see.”
“Yeah, real cool,” Percy muttered. “I gotta find the spare in this leaker.”
Percy and Jon rummaged through the trunk acting like they knew what they were doing. Sarah and her mom exited the car and watched. Once the guys found the tire and jack, Percy set to work while Jon wandered away playing with his phone.
“Why don’t we walk back to Frankenstein’s castle while Percy pretends he’s fixing the tire,” Jon joked to Sarah.
Percy shook his head. “No way. I’ll have this fixed in a few minutes.”
“Please, can we go?” Sarah pleaded. She even tried hugging Percy. “We want to see TwoSpells.”
He grumbled, struggling with the tools. “Why is everything over here metric?”
“Kids, leave him alone so he can focus,” their mother said, leaning against the car. She held her arms and looked around. “Does anyone else feel like somebody’s watching us?”
“Hey Percy!” Jon said, staring down at his phone. “I googled TwoSpells and found some cool stuff. Wanna here it?”
“Sure, whatever,” Percy grunted, twisting a lug nut.
“Wikipedia says it’s a smelly old castle built on Snowdonia Mountain in Northern Wales. It sits atop a dormant—volcano. Awesome! It’s three-thousand, five-hundred and sixty feet at the summit and is privately owned. No definitive date on its construction, but estimated to be over a thousand years old.”
“See,” Percy said. He torqued another lugnut. “I told you it used to be a volcano. Wait—did it really say ‘smelly old castle’?”
Jon smirked without looking up from his phone. “Nah.”
“I thought not,” Percy said.
Jon continued. “It’s estimated that there was more stone used in the construction of TwoSpells than the entirety of the Great Wall of China. A local myth surrounding the castle
attributes its construction to Dwarves and Elves. This legend is only furthered by the constant cloud cover overhead.“
“Amazing!” Percy said as he tightened the lugs down.
“No satellite has ever photographed it,” Jon added. “Cool! Like a climate cloaking device.”
Sarah had been patiently watching Percy work. “Isn’t that what you said Percy?”
Before he could answer the skies rumbled overhead and they all looked up.
Percy stood back up and arched his back, his spine cracking. He kicked the tire and tossed the tools back into the trunk. He reached out his hand, showing off a huge claw that he’d found embedded in the old tire. “Would you look at this.”
Sarah poked the broken claw. “Ouch! The poor thing must have broken a nail.”
Percy stuffed the claw in his front pocket and shooed everyone back into the car. “Chop, chop! I’ll drive again. Sam, you relax.”
“You can’t be trusted,” she teased, jumping in the driver’s seat first. “I’ll handle this.”
Sarah’s mother fired the motor up, ground the gears, and slowly eased back onto the roadway. Percy cleaned his hands with his handkerchief and unfolded a paper map he’d found in the glove compartment.
After only a few minutes of manual directions, Jon pointed excitedly to a small cottage in the distance. “Is that it?”
“That’s it!” Sarah’s mom announced. She turned to Percy. “And we did it with a regular old, everyday paper map.”
“I don’t see a car. Are they home?” Sarah asked.
“Maybe they don’t know they’ve been invented yet!” Jon said.
Their mom laughed. “Most folks here use bicycles to get around.”
“Ugh!” Jon groaned. “That would take forever.”
As they pulled up to the little cottage, Sarah spotted her grandparents sitting on the porch. Jon rolled down the window and stuck his head out.
“You kids are in for a treat. This is a special place, like no other in the world,” their mother said as she parked the car.
Sarah groaned. Somehow, she doubted that.