“It’s a Kubo demon.” Sarah’s mind was dragged back to reality by Rebekah’s calm voice.
“So she can bring in reinforcements? How in the hell are we going to keep it in there now?”
Without bothering to look at the frightened girl beside her, Rebekah explained that nothing, not even magic, could escape the barrier the runes provided. “Besides,” she continued, “does it look like they’re trying to help each other?”
Sarah watched in silence as the Kubo demon slashed its wicked looking claws at Malleus, who ducked the attack easily and punched the creature in the face. With howl of anger, the demon dropped to all fours. Malleus waited unflinchingly as it went through a short metamorphosis. Already bulging muscles grew even more pronounced, the jaws lengthened slightly and the talons on its feet and hands grew longer. Finally, what looked like a scorpion tail grew from its back, stabbing the air with furious abandon.
“Why doesn’t Rav- I mean Malleus use her sword?” Sarah whispered as the Kubo demon lunged at the monster in question.
“Because I’m not stupid enough to let a horrifying demon who wants to kill me have access to a weapon that can cut through anything.” Rebekah casually held up Raven’s rune covered sword.
Bekah spoke nonchalantly but there was uneasiness behind her words. Sis wanted Sarah to see this, felt it necessary if they were going to remain business partners. Rebekah argued against it, feeling that if they hadn’t told Felicity, Amanda or even their mother, then someone whom they had only known for a little over four months couldn’t be trusted. Raven won that point by saying that since they no longer lived together, it would be a good idea if someone was around who knew the warning signs that Malleus was getting stronger. In a final, desperate move, the older sister had asked what it would do to Sarah, finding out that the terrible monsters of their childhood nightmares not only existed but the worst happened to be sharing a body with someone she thought of as a friend. “Lil’bit is a lot tougher than she seems”, Raven answered, ending the discussion.
Since Malleus Maleficarum was Raven’s albatross, Rebekah accepted defeat and agreed they would tell Sarah. However, she intended for the two of them to sit down with her and explain things carefully so she wouldn’t be too frightened when the change took place.
Now things had happened to quickly to allow time for explanations, the demon within her sister taking over after the fight with the Protectorate guards. Rebekah knew the only thing she could do was keep Sarah, whose gray eyes were displaying a mind-snapping panic, calm and hope that Raven was right about the blacksmith’s mental fortitude. It was the first time Bekah could remember wanting Sis to be right about anything but she wished for it with all her heart.
In the magically sealed chamber, Malleus toyed with the Kubo demon, not appearing to need Raven’s sword. The demon stabbed with its tail, yellow poison dripping from the end of the stinger, and she grabbed it with an open hand, feeling bored rather than worried. A vicious kick sent the demon flying head over heels to lie in a broken heap against the wall. Black ichor poured freely out of the wound where the tail had once been attached. Malleus held her new trophy up and examined it closely, noticing battle scars that marked the shell, oblivious to the not quite dead creature that was slowly struggling towards her until it was too late. As if from a great distance, Malleus heard the mortal named Sarah shriek just before a white hot pain tore through her back. The Kubo demon raked its talons across the soft flesh as she fell heavily onto the stone floor. She would have smiled if she knew how.
Blue fire burned across the jagged wounds, healing them instantly as she rose to her feet, still holding the demon’s tail in her right hand. Looking down her nose at the dying creature Malleus swung its stinger down in a final thrust, piercing the demon’s neck and impaling it to the floor. Slowly the Kubo demon dissolved into a puddle of black tar that bubbled and steamed.
Feeling sick to her stomach, both from the sight of the liquefying Kubo demon and the brutality in which it was killed, Sarah turned from the barrier saying she would walk home. Rebekah’s voice stopped her before she reached the second step.
“We’re stuck down here, Sarah.” Bekah said. She pointed to a seat that Sarah hadn’t noticed.
“Why? You’ve done this before and Bryson is right up there.”
“Bryson would be why we’re stuck down here. He’s the second line of defense.”
“And we’re the first, I suppose?” Sarah snapped. She was becoming more pissed off by the second, the anger bringing her mind clarity it hadn’t had since Raven collapsed back in Augusta.
Bekah shook her head as she selected the softest rock she could find and made herself comfortable. “No, the barrier is the first. You saw how easily she killed that other demon. If it falls, we’d be dead before we knew it was gone.”
“Then why are we here?” Sarah begrudgingly accepted the circumstances and sat down.
“To turn on the barrier and let Sis out when she finally regains control.”
A wet, sickening crunch made Sarah and Bekah jump. Malleus had apparently pulled another demon into the room and smashed its face into the barrier. Blood and more solid gore dripped down, seemingly in mid air. If looks could kill, Bekah and Sarah would’ve died right then as Malleus’s crimson eyes glared at them. Madness and death were reflected in those bloody orbs. In the silence, bits of what looked to be teeth hung suspended for a minute before clattering to the stone floor.
“It isn’t polite to speak of someone as if they weren’t present, Rebekah.” Malleus growled as the demon it its grasp thrashed violently. One of its claws pierced her stomach but healed instantly. Malleus paid it no mind.
“Yeah? It’s not polite to take over someone’s body either, Malleus.”
“Perhaps you would like to come inside and discuss manners face to face?”
“Maybe you should come out here.”
The monster wearing Raven’s body smashed the demon’s head against the barrier hard enough to shake dust loose on Sarah. Malleus’s voice was a promise of violence, her red eyes pledged retribution. “I’m going to be free eventually. You cannot keep me contained forever.”
Rebekah shrugged her shoulders as Malleus stormed away from the barrier, the demon it had just killed dissolving where it lay. Sarah looked at Raven’s older sister, saw tears in the girl’s eyes and felt a rush of sympathy. She started to stand but Bekah stopped her in a whisper.
“Don’t let it see weakness. It just makes things worse.” Sarah nodded and settled back into the chair.
The two sat without talking for a long while, the silence broken by occasional inhuman screams from the chamber as Malleus continued her rampage. Finally Sarah could take it no more and asked Bekah how often they had done this.
“Sis has given up control forty-seven times, not counting the first few when we didn’t know what we were dealing with, or this place.” Bekah sat up a little straighter and answered the questions she knew were coming as best she could.
“Malleus first took over about ten years ago when Sis was twelve. We were exploring in the woods close to here when she- Sis- had an attack like you saw tonight. She- Malleus- took over very quickly that time but her control was shorter back then, less than a minute, though it seemed much longer.”
Sarah remained silent as Bekah continued, seemingly relieved at having someone to share the burden with. “After Sis came back, we talked about what happened and did some research. There’s not a lot to go on but what’s there is enough.”
Rebekah lapsed into silence but Sarah had more questions. “What did you learn?”
“Demons are bad. Malleus is one of the worst; stuff of prophecy type worst.”
Sarah blanched. “You mean, tonight I…”
Standing and stretching; Rebekah smiled down at Sarah with a hint of pity. “Sis and I have been dealing with it for a decade now and she’s never gotten free. Believe me, there have been much closer calls than tonight.”
Sarah wanted to cont
inue but Bekah gently rebuked her. “Tomorrow we’ll sit down together and tell you everything. Right now I think she wants to go home.”
Inside the chamber, the blue flames had changed back into their normal orange. Raven leaned against the barrier, swaths of drying blood marring waxy skin. Her clothes were torn, bloodied, and beyond repair. But Sarah didn’t pay attention to anything other than Raven’s eyes. They were once again the sparkling emeralds, though dulled with pain, which she had grown so accustomed to. “Sorry for scaring you, Lil’bit.”
Quickly Bekah pressed the runes and the barrier faded. Raven slumped into her sister’s arms.
Exhaustion weighed heavily in Raven’s voice. “Almost didn’t make it, Sis.” Rebekah merely grunted and motioned for Sarah to help.
Walking to the first step, Bekah yelled at the top of her voice that they were coming up, then held a yellow fireball above her head as the three slowly ascended the stairs, Bekah in the front with Sarah and Raven close behind. Bekah explained as they went that the fireball was to let Bryson know it was them and not Malleus.
Bryson watched them warily, his eyes darting from one figure to another as they exited the cavern. Satisfied that none of the three were possessed he settled down and gently chided Raven for putting them into so much danger.
“I know and I won’t do it again. Pinky swear.” Raven rubbed the dragon’s cheek sleepily before climbing onto his back, helped there by Sarah and Bekah. The other two climbed up and he lifted into the air, turning, finally towards home as the sun broke over the horizon.
CHAPTER 14: NO GOOD-BYES
The redhead walked around the room, straightening things up. A picture hung crooked here, a bit of ash had fallen there. She busied around the room, picking at random objects and moving them around. After she was finished she nodded in the middle of the clutter and congratulated herself on a job well done.
She decided not to take notice that now only four windows allowed the light to shine through.
Sarah awoke the next morning in a strange room with sunlight streaming through the window. Confused at first, she remembered the events of the prior night and having to stay at Bekah’s house because she and Raven were too tired to go home. She pulled her jeans and shirt on then stepped out into the hallway where laughter could be heard from the living room. She stumbled, still half asleep out of the hall and rubbed her eyes, muttering “morning” to the two sisters.
The redheads burst into another peal of mirth, which would have offended anyone who wasn’t used to them and their private jokes. Still chuckling, Bekah told Sarah that there was lunch in the kitchen and that she had ordered Buckler’s, if that was alright. The blonde simply shuffled into the kitchen. She ate quietly at the table and when she finished, joined the other two settling down on the leather couch. Bekah and Raven were sitting cross-legged on the floor playing a game of cards. Sarah had no interest in joining despite their offers to start anew.
“I think we should have a talk, if the two of you don’t mind. Afterwards, I’ll decide if I go or stay.”
The laughter quickly faded like the sun behind a thunder cloud. Bekah joined Sarah on the couch while Raven sat in a large chair facing them. “Would you like for us to explain, or do you have some questions first?” Raven’s voice was worried, something rarely, if ever heard there.
Sarah thought for a moment then decided. “One question first and then we’ll go from there.” She looked directly at Raven. “Am I in danger around you?”
Taking a long, deep breath to steady her nerves, Raven nodded. “Yes.”, the pale woman responded matter-of-factly. “The truth is everyone would be in danger if she gets out.”
Afraid of what she would hear, Sarah told them to explain and she would ask any questions as needed.
It was Bekah who told the story, “I told you last night that the first time it happened was about ten years ago. What I didn’t tell you was that Malleus nearly killed me then.” Ignoring the wounded sound Raven made, she continued. “What we’ve discovered as time has gone on is that the stronger Sis gets, the longer the Malleus can stay. We don’t know why that is but it saved me that day.”
Sarah took advantage of the pause as Bekah took a sip of water, “What do you mean, ‘the stronger Raven gets’?”
“It means that Sis is currently one of the most powerful sorceresses in the world and we’re not sure how much she’ll continue to grow. When she was younger, the demon stayed for very brief periods. Now, as you’ve seen, it can stay in control for hours.”
“Anyway, we couldn’t tell anybody because who knows what they’d have done with her. We talked about it and-“, Bekah looked at Raven who finished the thought.
“I can tell when Malleus is about to take over. I can feel her getting closer to the surface, if that makes sense. Usually, with only three exceptions, we make sure I’m locked away from others. At first, we put me in handcuffs behind a locked door. That didn’t last long because, as you heard last night, she can use my voice and chains won’t slow her down. So we had to find a better solution.”
Bekah picked up the thread, “We discovered that barrier by accident a year or so after the first attack. I was reading a local history book for school and it told about a prison they used for magic users years ago, though nobody could remember where it was. We know this area better than anyone so finding it wasn’t a real problem. The hard part was figuring out how to open it and then seal the chamber.”
“It happens four or five times a year but I can tell about a week in advance when I need to go down there, so there’s plenty of time to make arrangements.” Raven interjected.
Sarah mulled over the information and thought of how to phrase the next question. Speaking carefully, taking ample time to consider her words, she said, “I’m only asking this for my benefit but have either of you considered outside help? There must be a way to exorcise it.”
The two sisters answered, “No.”, in unison and Bekah explained.
“Forget what you’ve heard in stories, Sarah. Possessions don’t just happen and demons can’t cross over from their world. They can take over a mortal’s body using forbidden spells, but it takes an incredibly powerful magic user to cast them.”
“Their world?” Sarah confusion showed on her face.
Trying to keep the explanation brief as possible, Bekah summarized what they knew. “Our world is a nexus point. Hundreds of different realms border ours, and the demon’s world is one of those. Barriers were put in place eons ago by the Gods, but Malleus can break through those from this side.”
“But you just said it takes a sorceress to do something like that?” Sarah pointed out. The two sisters looked at each other with identical expressions of trepidation on their faces.
“She has more magic power than anybody-- or anything-- else on the planet.” Bekah revealed.
Raven lowered her eyes and curled her feet beneath her. Sarah felt an almost instinctive desire to comfort her friend but held back. “Did you notice that the torches in the chamber burned blue after she took over?”
Bekah carried on without waiting for Sarah to answer Raven. “She has so much energy that it can’t be contained by a human body. Blue fire is the visual aspect of that, which is why I held the fireball in my hand as we were walking up the stairs. That way Bryson would know that it was us coming and not Malleus.”
“And there is no way to keep it sealed forever?”
Raven shook her head, “We went to the Oracle years ago. He wouldn’t tell us anything.”
Sarah sat back and considered what she had learned. She never expected to hear about anything like this in her life, much less see it first hand. Her first instinct was to get up and leave; taking what little money she had earned in the shop with her back to Vestavia. Then her eyes fell on Raven. In spite of everything she had just heard she had grown fond of all of them.
Sarah nodded one final time and stood up, facing the two sisters. “I’m going back to the shop. Raven, I need some time t
o think things over so stay here tonight. If I’m there in the morning, I’ve decided to stay. If not, please don’t look for me, alright?”
With that, Sarah walked out the front door, heading towards their shop.
Raven slept fitfully that night and was standing in front of her shop at precisely eight a.m., the time they regularly opened. She wanted to rush right over first thing to see if Sarah was staying but Bekah forced her to have some breakfast first, pointing out that pressure wasn’t what Sarah needed right now. So here she stood, alone, after telling Beverly they were closed, with a hand resting on the door of the shop, afraid to open it, terrified not to. Steeling her resolve, Raven twisted the handle only to find it shut tight. With a shaking hand, she slid a key into the door and stepped inside.
It was empty, as she expected it to be. Still the young girl couldn’t keep the tears from her eyes. Slowly she walked to the counter while Rebekah closed and locked the door behind them. A note was lying beside the register and through a prism of tears Raven read it.
“Dear Raven,
I’m going to Vestavia for a few days to think things through.
I do not know if I will be coming back or not. The truth is I am afraid
of what could happen if I stay around you but I know how hard you and
Rebekah work to keep your problem contained. Please do not come for me. If I
decide to return, I will let you know. Perhaps this can be a good thing for us.
Please tell everyone I said goodbye and give Rebekah an especially big
hug for explaining everything to me last night.
Yours, Sarah Petty”
Raven let the paper fall from her numb fingers as Rebekah embraced her with a reassuring hug. They stood like that for fifteen minutes as Raven’s pain wracked sobs drowned in her big sister’s neck. Finally Raven stood and, through the occasional sniffle, asked if Elspeth was at the castle.
WINDOWS: A BROKEN FAIRY TALE Page 15