Clockwork Dolls

by William Meikle

  Maggie pulled Dave close and spoke into his ear.

  “Keep inside the circle. We should be safe here.”

  “Should be, or will be?”

  By now frost covered all the surface of the windows, so thick it looked almost opaque. The noise of the engine revving up sounded as if it came from right beside them. The wind whistled, sending their hair flying, tugging at their clothes. The floor froze underfoot, cold biting into Dave’s feet and ankles. A twin beam of headlights ran around the walls.

  As quickly as it had started, it stopped. Everything went completely silent again.

  Maggie and Dave looked at each other, fear in both their eyes, their breath steaming in the air, their skin pale, almost blue from the cold.

  A loud bang came from the front of the house. Maggie started to move but Dave tightened his grip on her hand, keeping her close to him.

  “It could be a trick,” he said.

  The noise was repeated. The banging became more frantic.

  “Dave?”

  It’s Jim.

  Dave started to move. This time Maggie pushed him backwards.

  “Don’t leave the circle. I’ll go.”

  She let go of his hand and stepped out of the circle. She stood, just outside Dave’s reach, and waited to see if an attack would come. Nothing happened.

  Jim Barr banged hard on the front door again. Maggie went out into the hall beyond and now Dave could only see her as a dark silhouette. Beyond her there was a darker shadow looming outside the front door.

  “Is everything OK?” Dave shouted.

  “Shush!” Maggie replied in a mock whisper.

  Renewed thumping on the front door caused Maggie to jump again.

  “For fuck’s sake, Dave. Let us in. It’s coming back.”

  Maggie relented and opened the door. Jim Barr stood there, holding up an unconscious, bleeding Jane. Even as the door opened, Jim started to fall. Maggie got to him just in time. With Jim half-carrying Jane, and Maggie trying to support all three, they staggered towards the main room.

  Dave started to step out of the circle.

  “No. Stay there,” Maggie shouted. “I’ve got this.”

  She pushed Jim and Jane into the circle. Jane’s trailing leg caught some of the crystals, sending them rolling across the hardwood boards.

  Wind blew through the room. An engine, impossibly loud, revved up. Light washed across the walls.

  “Take them,” Maggie said to Dave. “I’ve got to complete the circle.”

  Dave nearly fell over as he took charge of the combined weight of Jim and Jane. Jim crumpled, exhausted, to the floor, taking Jane down with him as Maggie moved to fix the gap. She had to step outside the protection to fetch the last two crystals. The engine howled in anger, and the wind buffeted her, threatening to knock her sideways. She forced her way against it, stepped back into the circle and placed the crystals on the floor.

  The room fell quiet and still once more. The only sound was Jim’s labored breathing.

  “What happened?” Dave said.

  Jim looked up, tears in his eyes.

  “Wind, lights, noise…it all happened so fast. I never even saw what I hit.”

  June 11th

  The cop interrupted Dave again.

  “Wait a minute. You’re saying it was all the fault of some noise and wind?”

  Dave nodded wearily.

  “I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”

  “You were right. You’re going to need more than just a good lawyer, son,” the cop said. “You’re going to need a miracle. And as for all of this noise and wind…where is it now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “And that’s going to be your defense, is it?” the cop asked, putting on a sing-song, childish voice. “It wasn’t me. A big invisible thing did it and ran away.”

  An engine revved up nearby, and a shadow ran around the walls of the interview room. Dave flinched, but the noise wasn’t repeated. He sat back in the too-small chair and sighed.

  “If you liked that, then you’ll love the rest of it.”

  June 10th

  Jane bled from a head wound. Jim was bent over her, trying to coax her into opening her eyes.

  “Is she OK?” Dave asked.

  Jim looked up, his own eyes full of tears.

  “We need to get her to a doctor, Dave. She won’t talk to me.”

  Dave turned to Maggie. She was about to answer when the wind blew through the room. All the lights in the house came on at once. They brightened, casting harsh shadows as the light got more and more intense, until, finally the bulbs blew in a series of small explosions. Electric sparks ran across the light switches. Something hissed, and suddenly there was smoke in the air and an acrid taste in Dave’s mouth as all the cabling in the walls burned.

  The room went dark. Smoke from the burnt cabling drifted, like fog, across the ceiling above. An engine revved, almost deafening in the small room.

  “What the fuck is happening here?” Jim said.

  Silence fell. Dave heard his heart beat in his ears, three thumps before the engine revved again, accelerating through the gears. The wind blew a gale, so strong that Dave felt it tug at him, threatening to lift him off his feet. Maggie grabbed him by the arm, and they braced themselves against each other.

  Headlight glare filled the room, then just as quickly switched off.

  Everything fell silent again.

  It’s playing with us.

  Maggie and Dave stared at each other. He saw his own fear in her eyes.

  “We have to get out of here,” Dave said. Maggie shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. Look what it did to Jane.”

  Dave looked down, just in time to see Jane’s eyes flutter and roll up to show the whites. She went limp in Jim’s arms.

  Jim shook her, shouting.

  “Jane. Stay with me. Jane!”

  Maggie bent next to him and gently tried to move him aside.

  “Let me see her, Jim.”

  Jim looked up at Dave.

  “What can I do? What can I do?”

  “Let Maggie have a look. Come on…”

  Dave put out a hand. Jim laid Jane down gently and took the offered hand. Dave lifted him to a standing position as Maggie bent down and checked Jane. After what seemed like an age, she looked up.

  “She’s alive, but out cold.”

  Jim tried to pull away from Dave.

  “I’ll get a doctor.”

  Around them, the room fell deathly quiet as if waiting, expectant as Jim’s foot raised to step out of the circles. Dave pulled him back.

  “No, Jim. Don’t break the circle.”

  “Don’t break the circle? I don’t give a flying fuck about any circle. That’s Jane lying there. She needs a doctor.”

  He pulled free from Dave…and stepped beyond the outer circle of crystals. In his haste, he kicked a section of the crystals. They scattered, some shattering against the skirting board, others rolling off into dark corners.

  A wind rode up, howling, as if in triumph.

  Frost crawled across Jim’s body.

  The engine screamed as it revved up to top throttle.

  Headlights spun around the room, faster, almost strobe-like.

  Dave moved to help, but Maggie was already bent over, repairing the circle of crystals with those she could reach. She put a hand on his thigh, holding him back.

  “No, Dave. It’s too late.”

  Dave tried anyway. He started to leave the circle…just as Jim was struck by a force so strong that he flew across the room as if hit by a lorry. His body hit the far wall with a sickening crash and fell to the floor, contorted and broken. He didn’t make another sound, didn’t move.

  The wind dropped. A cooling engine ticked over and then was cut off. The wash of light dimmed and faded until they were left in darkness. The room fell completely silent.

  Maggie and Dave stared at each other again, dumbstruck.

  Jim Barr’s body lay lifeless
on the floor, staring straight at Dave.

  * * *

  It was a long night.

  When dawn finally came, Dave was sitting on the floor with Jane cradled in his arms. Maggie stood over them. The frost melted away from the main windows and sun streamed in. An engine started up, revved once, then faded away into the distance. A cool breeze seemed to pass over the defensive circles then everything was once again still.

  Jane’s eyes fluttered. When she spoke, blood bubbled at her lips.

  “Jim? Put the light on, Jim. It’s too dark.”

  “It’s me, Jane. It’s Dave.”

  “Jim? Is that you? Turn the heating up. I’m cold. Jim? Did you hear me?”

  Dave looked up at Maggie, tears in his eyes.

  “What do I do?”

  “Just hold her. That’s all you can do.”

  “Jim was right. She needs a doctor.”

  “We can’t risk leaving the circle.”

  Jim’s body remained against the wall, staring at them, a reminder of that fact.

  “Jim? Where are you?” Jane said. She sounded weak, barely able to speak above a whisper.

  “I’m here,” Dave said.

  “I love you, Jim,” she said, her eyes fluttering, breath coming in hot gasps.

  “I love you too, sweetheart,” Dave said, tears blinding him

  Jane stopped breathing, dead eyes staring.

  * * *

  It was some time later before Dave laid Jane’s body down and stood beside Maggie. His eyes were hard and cold as he took her hand.

  “OK. I’m a believer. How do we beat this thing?”

  “I don’t know. But I think I know where to find out.”

  “Come on then. Let’s end this.”

  He stepped out of the circle. Maggie followed, still holding his hand as they stood, waiting. Nothing happened.

  “I guess the cosmos is busy elsewhere,” Dave said bitterly.

  He led Maggie out of the room. As he closed the door behind them, he turned for one last look at the bodies. They both had an arm outstretched. It looked as though they were reaching for each other.

  Dave closed the door gently behind him.

  June 11th

  The cop snorted.

  “So you admit it then. You fled the scene?”

  Dave laughed.

  “Yes. We fled. We were fugitives from justice. Running all the way to the nearest library. Was it really just this morning?”

  June 11th

  Maggie got a battered VW Beetle out of her garage and drove them to the University library, an old Colonial building that Dave hadn’t been in since his own student days many years earlier. And back then, he certainly hadn’t been perusing the stacks for books like the ones Maggie piled on the desk.

  The Mysteries of the Wurm, On Ye Philosophie of Life and A Treastise on Death.

  He picked up the latest one she’d fetched and read the inside cover.

  Ye Twelve Concordances of ye Red Serpent. In which is succinctly and methodically handled, the stone of ye philosophers, his excellent effectes and admirable vertues; and, the better to attaine to the originall and true meanes of perfection, inriched with Figures representing the proper colors to lyfe as they successively appere in the practice.

  “Some light reading then?” Dave said, but Maggie had her serious, no-nonsense look working for her. She sat down opposite him and started taking notes, switching often between several of the books in front of her. Dave sat quietly and watched her work.

  At some point he fell into a fitful sleep filled with dark dreams of revving engines, whistling wind, blind panic and fear.

  He woke with a start to find Maggie shaking him. On looking around, he saw that everybody else in the library had turned to look at him.

  “You screamed,” Maggie said.

  “Are you surprised?”

  She didn’t answer, just helped him out of the chair.

  “I think I’ve got what we came for,” she said.

  “OK. What now?”

  “Now you take me home…your home.”

  “Best offer I’ve had all year,” he said, but neither of them was much in the mood for jollity. They drove to Dave’s apartment in silence.

  * * *

  Maggie didn’t give him time to settle once they got inside.

  “We’ve got a spell to prepare,” she said.

  “You see, this is where we have a problem. Normally, I don’t hear that said very often.”

  Maggie had already sat down at the kitchen table and was again scribbling furiously in a notebook. Dave started making coffee. When he went for the cups, he found a nearly full whisky bottle in the cupboard beside them. He took it down and unscrewed the top. He looked over at Maggie, her head down in the notebook. He screwed the top back on and put the bottle back in the cupboard.

  Maggie smiled when he handed her the coffee.

  “You didn’t put any stiffener in it then?”

  “Maybe later,” Dave said. “After we get the Cosmos sorted out.”

  Maggie sat upright, stretched and flexed her neck.

  “I think I’ve got it now,” she said.

  “So can it be done?”

  “If this is right, yes, we can.”

  Dave sat down opposite her.

  “Tell me.”

  She ran a hand through her hair.

  “I told you about focusing of the will?”

  “Yep. But…”

  “No buts, Dave. Not now. That night, when we sent the Cosmos our messages, you were angry.”

  “I had every right to be, I…”

  “Dave. Shut the fuck up.”

  Dave thought about arguing, but part of him already knew he had lost the fight. He let her talk.

  “You were so angry, and had so much focus, that you’ve bent reality to your own will, created something out of your subconscious to fulfill your purpose. And you have to be the one to get rid of it.

  Dave put down his coffee.

  “Then let’s have at it. What do we do?”

  “What, no argument about what a load of crap it all is?”

  “Not any more.”

  Maggie finished off her coffee.

  “We can’t do it here. It has to be back at the Barr’s house…back where it started.”

  Dave went pale.

  “I’m not sure I can go back there yet. Not after Jane. After she…”

  He couldn’t finish the sentence, and struggled to hold back fresh tears. Maggie stood, came around the table and hugged him from behind.

  “It’s the only way,” she said. “Otherwise it won’t stop until the original intent is fulfilled. My guess is that you’ll be left till last…and that means I’m next.”

  * * *

  It was approaching dusk again by the time they arrived at the Barr’s place. Dave opened the door, slowly, carefully, as if afraid what might be behind it. The hallway was dimly lit by streetlights outside, but dark shadows sat like pools in the corners. Dave eyed them warily. He tried a light switch in the hall. Nothing happened. Maggie joined him in the hallway, and shut the front door behind them.

  “Jane had plenty of candles that night at the dinner party,” she said. “Let’s try the kitchen.”

  The kitchen, being at the back of the house, lay deeper in darkness than the other rooms, and it took what little courage Dave could muster to make him walk inside. He rummaged, half-blind, in the cabinet drawers and finally came up with some candles and a box of matches

  “Found them!”

  He lit a candle. It flickered and sputtered alarmingly, casting dancing shadows across the walls that only served to remind him of the manifestations they had seen the night before.

  “That’s much better,” he said sarcastically.

  Maggie gave him a thin smile. She held up a small pile of white envelopes and patted him on the shoulder as she walked past him. She picked up the candle and headed for the dining room.

  “Let’s get this done.”


  They sat down on opposite side of the candlelit table.

  “What now?” Dave said.

  Maggie took out the pocketful of scraps she had collected in the alleyway outside Dave’s apartment. Seeing what she was doing, Dave did the same. When they were done, a small pile of rubbish sat on the table between them.

  “We need to find as much as we can of the original message,” Maggie said. She lifted up some small scraps of paper and let them fall. “How are you with jigsaws?”

  * * *

  It took over an hour, but finally Dave was able to look down on a patchwork piece of paper held together by tape. There were some pieces missing, but the gist of it could be read.

  Dear Cosmos. Please take us away from all of this crap.

  Maggie read it from over his shoulder. “Yep. That sounds like you all right.”

  “That was all it took?” Dave said, whispering.

  “That, and the right circumstances, in the right place and time.”

  Dave read the note again, then looked at Maggie.

  “What do I have to do.”

  “Let’s see if we can confuse the Cosmos and get it to change its mind.”

  Maggie handed Dave an envelope, paper and pen.

  “Reverse the spell. Just don’t let me know what you’re writing. And while we’re at it, I’ll do one too…let’s call it some insurance.”

  Dave wrote.

  Dear Cosmos, OK, I get the message. Please leave me alone now.

  He looked up to see Maggie staring across the table at him.

  “Finished?” she said.

  Dave nodded.

  “What did you ask for this time?” he said.

  Maggie shook her head.

  “I can’t tell you that,” she said. She put the messages in the white envelopes and sealed them. “Now, we wait.”