The Accidental Witch

by Jessica Penot

  “What are you writing? What language is that?” I asked as I watched him work.

  “It is the Transitus Fluvii. It means the passing through the river. It is the occult alphabet used by warlocks and witches to summon and control demons. It is used in the black arts. I use it sparingly and carefully.”

  “You can’t control Abaddon,” Nineveh croaked from the corner. “Only the Phoenix can control him.”

  “Lucky for us you aren’t the Phoenix,” Fred answered.

  Nineveh’s face went white. Fred threw me some rope.

  “Bind her,” he said.

  I went to work quickly. I bound Nineveh before she had time to realize what was happening. When I was finished tying her up, Fred dragged her to the center of his large circle and staked her to the ground. By this time, she was fully aware of what was going on around her.

  “You can’t kill me,” she said. “I am the Phoenix.”

  “You are not,” Fred said.

  “I am. I am. I am. I am Nineveh. You can’t kill me. The demon won’t even take me. Abaddon will only take blood from kin.”

  Nineveh looked at me and her realization was complete.

  She spoke to me. “You can’t kill me. I’m your mother. I love you.”

  I shook my head.

  “I am the Phoenix,” she screamed.

  “You are wrong. Phaedra is the Phoenix. You are just an old witch who is going to pay for all the death and destruction you left behind you.”

  “No!” she howled. “I am the Phoenix.”

  “We spoke to the oracle. She said the girl is the Phoenix.”

  “No! I am!” she wailed again. “I am your mother. You can’t kill me!”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “If there were any other way out, I would take it, but I can’t let that thing hurt anyone else. My town is dying. I have to stop the demon. I’m sorry.”

  “Time to die,” the pooka said with a giggle.

  Fred touched one of his tattoos and whispered something under his breath. The pooka didn’t look too happy about it. “Time to go,” Fred said as the pooka vanished.

  “I hate pookas,” Nineveh said.

  Nineveh lunged for me but was cut short by her bindings. I bit my lip and suppressed the desire to cry. I wasn’t sure I would have the strength to kill Nineveh. I wasn’t sure I had it in me.

  A sudden scream from the house pulled me away from Nineveh. I looked up. There was a light on in Diane’s room. I dropped the candles I was holding and ran. Fred grabbed me in a futile attempt to keep me in the circle.

  I ran as quickly as I could. I didn’t think. I just moved. I ran up the stairs and pushed my way into Diane’s room.

  Diane was on the bed and Abaddon was on top of her. He was straddling her with one long claw cutting into her flesh. Diane wailed again. Diane’s blood dripped from the demon’s claws. He turned and looked at me. He looked like a toad, but when he saw me, he became the handsome man from the woods. He turned towards me and smiled. It was a disturbingly artificial act that was designed to elicit a positive response in me. The affect was quite the opposite, however, and my repugnance only multiplied with the demon’s cruel grin.

  I walked towards the creature. It watched me with its reptilian, green eyes. I moved slowly and deliberately. I put my hand on its arm. It was cold, like a snake. Abaddon climbed off of my friend and leaned towards me. I kissed Abaddon on the lips and it grabbed me in a greedy violent motion that made me so sick, I had to swallow the vomit that was rising in my mouth. I smiled up at Abaddon. It was a false smile, but he wouldn’t know the difference. Abaddon looked quite pleased with himself. I could feel him drawing from me already. He was taking my strength.

  I fell onto the bed beside Diane. Abaddon expected me to be weak. He took my weakness as a cue that I had surrendered and I could feel him feeding off of me even more intensely. I lay down on top of Diane and touched my tiny circle.

  I hadn’t focused on anything in particular. I hadn’t had the energy. I had just drifted. My mind had wandered away and in its weakness, it had carried me right into Aaron’s bedroom. I hardly had the strength to stand. I lay on the floor by Aaron’s bed with my body over Diane’s. Her blood covered me. Aaron woke up and looked down at us.

  It would be impossible to describe the series of emotions that went over Aaron’s face. They ranged from disgust to shock and hit every other emotion in-between. I waited. I had to gather my strength before I could talk. I just lay on the floor next to Diane, breathing.

  Aaron was much quicker than I was. He leapt to his feet and pulled open Diane’s shirt. He looked, in horror, at the terrible jagged gash Abaddon had left on her abdomen. He grabbed some linens and ripped them up, stopping the bleeding. He bound her wounds as tightly as he could and then he grabbed the phone from beside the bed and called 911. While he was talking, he sat Diane up and looked for other wounds. He then moved to me. He lifted me up and checked my entire body. He cleaned and dressed my wounds.

  “Can you talk?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “What’s going on? What happened? How did you get here?”

  I laughed. It was a mad, brittle laughter. “I don’t think you’d believe me,” I said.

  “Try me. The ambulance will be here in five minutes.”

  “I’m a witch and a demon wants to take me. It did this to Diane and me,” I answered.

  “You’re right, I don’t believe you. Are you high?”

  I touched the small circle on my arm. “Promise me you’ll get Diane all the help she needs?” I asked.

  “Of course,” Aaron said in a very professional tone.

  “Thank you,” I said and I whispered Odin’s name and vanished.

  * * *

  I stood in the middle of Fred’s ring. He was finishing up writing his strange script around the circle. He looked at me with heavy eyes. There was no way for him to soften what he was asking me to do. Fred handed me the knife. I took it and looked down at Nineveh. My mother. I knew she was a monster. I knew I would never fully understand the extent and depth of the darkness that lived in her rotten soul. I knew all these things, but it didn’t matter. I held the knife in my hand and I couldn’t will myself to move. I couldn’t make myself slit her throat. I wanted to kill her. I wanted to be a woman who could kill her, but I couldn’t do it. Taking a life is harder than it seems.

  I looked into her emerald green eyes. She was an utterly beautiful woman. I could understand how she was able to lure both men and demons for so many centuries. But there was evil behind those eyes. She’d never cared about helping people or making the world better. All she cared about was power itself. There was a crazed look on her face. There was a desperation in her. I wondered if she’d ever truly faced death before, or if she’d always known there would be some way to cheat or murder her way out of it. I held the knife to her throat and she pleaded with me. I tuned her words out. Outside the circle, the demon had sent its minions. They stood around the circle watching me with their fiendish green eyes.

  The cold came again. It began to snow and I started shivering. I looked up at the black sky and let the snow fall on my eyelids. I couldn’t remember the last time it had snowed in Dismal. The knife grew cold in my hand.

  “You have to do it,” Fred said. “There is no other way.”

  I shook my head and the knife fell out of my hand. It dropped in the snow that was beginning to accumulate around my bare feet. It was so cold. I looked at Fred and smiled and then I walked through the snow and stepped out of the circle of protection.

  Before I had time to fully digest what I had done, Abaddon had me again. He had me pressed up against his chest and he was licking me. He didn’t even bother with the human form anymore. He held me to him and all his vile stench crept through every pore of my body.

  “To hell with this,” I said.

  I touched the top band on my arm and flames engulfed Abaddon and I. I put everything into the fire until all I felt was pain and burning so int
ense, I imagined that this is what Hell must feel like. The demon screeched and attempted to flee, but even as it ran, I clung to it. It attempted to vanish, but I had it and wherever it went, I was there too. I was there and I was burning. I touched the small circle and whispered Odin’s name and in my mind all I could see was fire and all I could feel was pain. It was the only vision I could muster and the only place I could take Abaddon. So Abaddon and I went down. We went down into the fire.

  The fire went through me with such intensity, I knew I would die with the demon. I knew I would die and I felt that moment people describe when your life flashes before your eyes. I saw my life and I knew that everything good I’d done, I’d done in the last year. I saw the things I loved. I saw my shitty little hospital and all the patients I had loved helping. I saw Diane and her infectious smile. I saw Fred and I saw Ellie. I saw all that I had that I was losing and then there was nothing but pain. The pain was so intense and so brilliant, I knew I had to be dead. I was dead and this was Hell. I was in Hell and all I had was the demon shrieking in agony at my side.

  * * *

  I opened my eyes. I was in my bed and it was a beautiful day. I yawned and stretched. I rolled over and hugged my pillow. Someone had cleaned up. There were fresh cut flowers on the nightstand. For a minute, I thought it was all a bad dream. Of course, it was a bad dream. What rational person would believe what had happened to me in the last seventy-two hours? It had to have been a dream. I stood up and stretched again. Something smelled good. I ran my fingers through my hair and all I could feel was fuzz.

  I went to the mirror to check my hair.

  “Damn,” I whispered.

  I was bald. Well, not completely, but I could certainly pass for a skin-head. I ran my hands over my head. I was not pretty or dainty enough to pull off this look. I sat back down on my bed and began to sob. I sobbed like a snotty, ridiculous little girl. I sobbed because I was bald and hideous. I sobbed because I was pretty sure I had dragged Abaddon back down to Hell with my bare hands and climbed my way out again. I was also pretty sure that Hell had been Hell and what I had seen there would probably haunt me for the rest of my life. I sobbed because I was alone and the world was just as it should be, but it would never be the same for me.

  Diane came in. She had a tray with tea on it and some kind of fluffy, French pastries. She smiled.

  “Get back into bed,” she said.

  I wiped my nose on the back of my hand and followed her orders. Diane looked pretty and perky. She set the tray down beside me on the nightstand and sat down on the bed. She wiped my tears away with some tissues she had on the tray. It must be easy to be prepared when you are an oracle. I took the tissues from her and blew my nose.

  “Why are you crying?” she asked.

  “I’m bald,” I said as I tried to pull myself together.

  Diane laughed. “You are lucky to have your skin after what you’ve been through. You looked a lot worse when I first saw you.”

  “How long has it been?” I asked.

  “It’s been a while, Phae,” Diane answered in that kind of lowered voice that tells you the problem is bigger than you expect.

  “How long?” I asked.

  “You’ve been out for two months,” Diane said. “You started out in the hospital, but there wasn’t any progress there, so Fred had you moved back here. He had to use some powerful magic to convince Aaron that home health would be better for you, but Fred’s got a big bag of tricks. He spent weeks working on you. You were burnt from head to toe. You looked like Freddy Krueger. I didn’t think there was any medicine or magic in this world or the next that could save you, but here you are and you are still pretty, just a little bald.”

  I touched my head. “What did everyone think happened?” I asked.

  “Fred told everyone that your mamma did it. He said she set you on fire in a fit of rage and since folks around here never did care much for Nineveh, they believed him. She got away from the police, of course, but The Guild sent some folks and they caught her.”

  “What will they do to her?” I asked.

  “There will be a trial,” Diane said. “They want us to go to France to testify.”

  “I love France,” I said.

  I reached over and took the cup of tea that sat beside the bed. There was a rose quartz in the bottom of it and a stick of cinnamon sticking out of the top. I smiled. Fred was still in the house. I lay back and drank the tea, letting the warmth spread over me.

  “You’ve had a lot of people worried about you,” Diane said. “Everyone’s been to see you at least once. Ellie, Aaron, Brenda, Candi, Sam, Aaron’s entire family, John, and even Johnny Boy flew down from Chicago to see you. Amy even stopped by with flowers. You’ve changed a lot of people’s lives, girl. I swear the way Sam talked, you are a saint and miracles follow you wherever you go.”

  I smiled. The room was filled with flowers.

  “You know, your step cow and all her evil progeny have even been here on more than one occasion to make sure you were okay,” Diane said.

  I put my hand on Diane’s and smiled. “Thank you,” I said.

  “No,” Diane answered. “Thank you. You saved my life.”

  I smiled again and then I stood up and walked over to the window. I was wearing a flannel nightgown. The floors were cold beneath my feet. It was snowing. It was snowing outside like it had in Chicago. I’d never seen anything like it. It didn’t snow in Alabama. It was beautiful, maybe the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

  “Fred says Abaddon changed the weather, maybe for good. He made a big mess. Millie will never recover. She’s retired. Some other of the older folks have retired, too. The demon just took too much out of them. There are a lot of job openings at the hospital and I have it on good authority that if you ever got back on your feet, your job at the hospital is waiting for you. The patients have been complaining about you leaving. They loved you.”

  I turned and put my slippers on. “Is Fred here?” I asked.

  Diane gave me a knowing sort of glance. “You know,” she said, “I wouldn’t normally approve of someone like Fred. I’ve never trusted the immortals, but that man has fought night and day for you. He’s here. He’s downstairs. He wanted me to see you first.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “He’s afraid you might blame him.”

  “For what?”

  “For the ritual, for everything that happened after. I don’t know. He’s a man. They’re all a mystery to me.”

  I walked to the door. Diane smiled at me and I walked slowly down the stairs. My legs weren’t working quite right yet. They probably wouldn’t have been working at all if it hadn’t have been for Fred. I stumbled through the front and back parlors to the library where Fred sat with a book in his lap. He wasn’t reading the book. He held it on his lap as if he was, but he was looking out the back window, out into the distance. He looked like he looked the first night I saw him. He had his glasses on and his terrible corduroy jacket. It’s funny how time can change perception because all I saw when I looked at him was beauty. He was absolutely the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.

  Fred pulled me onto his lap and his book hit the ground. He pulled me to him and kissed me like it was the last time he would ever see me. He kissed me all over and buried his face in my chest. I held him and it was the best thing I had ever felt.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” he said.

  “You brought me back,” I said.

  “Can you ever forgive me?” he asked.

  “For what?” I answered.

  “For trying to make you do what you shouldn’t have done. I should have never asked you to do that damn ritual. Never. You reminded me of what goodness was out there. You reminded me of who I should be.”

  “Please,” I said. “Shut up. You saved me. You came and you changed everything, so just shut up.”

  And he did. He kissed me all over. I locked the library d
oor and he pulled off my nightgown. I kissed each of his tattoos and we made love on the hardwood floors with the boards groaning beneath us.

  When we were done, we lay on the floor for a long time. There was a fire in the fireplace and it had started snowing again. Fred stroked my short hair and I kissed his neck. It all seemed very surreal. He seemed surreal. Slowly, he began kissing me again. He kissed my stomach and my hands. He kissed my inner thighs. He made me cry out in joy and then he made love to me again. We spent an entire afternoon that way, wrapped in each other’s arms.

  Evening came and there was a gentle rapping at the door. Fred left me sitting on the floor wrapped in an old afghan and answered the door. He didn’t let Diane in, but he whispered a few things to her and then closed the door. He sat down next to me.

  “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes,” he said. “Perhaps you should clean up and get ready for the meal.”

  “Diane cooks?” I asked, incredulous.

  “Not really,” Fred answered. “But she does a marvelous job of getting carry outs.”

  “Good,” I responded. “You scared me for a minute. I thought that Diane must be possessed or insane or something.”

  Fred smiled. “No, she’s not possessed.”

  I walked slowly up the stairs. I was still unsure of myself. I took a long leisurely shower. I had noticed I was a bit smelly. I had been at the mercy of others for my grooming for some time now, apparently, and others don’t always clean as well as they should. I felt much better after the shower. I felt stronger. I stepped out of the shower and stared at myself in the mirror for a very long time. It wasn’t too terrible. I had lost quite a bit of weight in my coma and the effect caused by the short hair and my gaunt face could only be described as waifish. I put on a good deal more makeup than I usually would in order to offset the effect of the masculine hair and slipped into a dress.

  Diane and Fred were waiting for me downstairs. I smiled at them and sat down to enjoy my Ruby Tuesday. For a while we ate in silence, but I couldn’t bear it. I had to fill the empty space with conversation.

  “So,” I said. “How’d you do it? How’d you save me?” I asked Fred out of curiosity.