Dark Winter

by John Hennessy

  * * *

  Of course, it couldn’t last. Things were just going too well, and once I had revealed to the girls the marks I had got, and also how I had gotten them, the friendship melted away.

  The two girls seemed to have convinced Beth that I was self-harming, and Toril, who should have been more open-minded because of her Wiccan beliefs, simply wasn’t, and whilst the three of them gelled together even more, I was frozen out.

  I had been told by Father Brannigan, the school chaplain and Beth’s family priest, to always be honest. A fat lot of good that had done me.

  With my every waking moment I found myself wishing that Nan had never given me the Mirror.

  * * *

  I awaken with a start. There’s shouting all around me. Some voices are out there in the distance.

  “It’s a green bottle blue, Alix, I’m sure of it. Look at these markings!” said one voice.

  “Be quiet and stay back!” said another. “That spider’s got bigger problems. That’s a tarantula hawk spider wasp, if I’m not mistaken. Saw it on the box the other night.”

  “Shut up, will you, and help me with the girl. And get those things away from here. That’s not even funny.”

  “Troy, have a sense of humour. Just, help me get her up.”

  The second boy was even bigger and broader than Troy, hooked his hands under my arms and dragged me away with ease me away from the spider, which is now being attacked by a horrid looking wasp with a black body and rust-red wings. It’s one of the most horrific things I have ever seen in my life, and I thought after the tarantula, I would never say that.

  The wasp was dragging the tarantula away. I lay there, absolutely petrified, the wasp’s deathly buzz ringing in my ears. I never thought I would feel sorry for spiders, until now.

  A girl appeared in the clearing, and looked straight at me. I knew who it was – Jacinta, but I was still dizzy, and heavily disorientated.

  “Jay, come over here,” said Troy. “She’s bleeding, and needs help.”

  I hadn’t even told my friends where I was staying. Where had they come from anyway?

  Had Beth led them here?

  I staggered to my feet. “Easy now,” said Troy. “It’s fine, Rom, it’s us.”

  I wasn’t coherent enough to answer properly, I just knew had to find my way back to Rosewinter.

  Troy wasn’t prepared to leave it at that, and motioned the others to follow him, and catch me up. I was good at few things at school, but running was one of them, playing music was another. Once I got back to Rosewinter and cleaned myself up, I planned to spend a long time with my violin. Back then, that’s how Troy, of course, knew me. He could play the piano, I could play the violin, and well, that was it. He showed no interest in me, and I failed to show the right kind of interest in him, and here I was, stuck in shame-on-you-land.

  I ran as fast as I could. All the same, the group were not far behind me as I threw myself into my sanctuary. Rosewinter may have some evil there, but I preferred it to staying outside, where the group continued to give chase.

  That was when I heard the familiar authoritative tone of Toril Withers, who was screaming out to Troy to go no further.

  I picked up one of the beams and secured the door as best I could.

  A boy as big as Troy or Alix could burst through with a well placed kick. With all my heart, I hoped they wouldn’t try.

  I needn’t have worried though. Even though it had been damaged the night before, I locked the door as best as I could, and wedged a chair against the handle.

  In Rosewinter, I was alone but not lonely. If the ghosts of mental patients who were burned to death roamed by Rosewinter, I didn’t see them, or feel their presence. I knew I could deal with it. I would be safe for now.

  (i)

  Rosewinter

  The Ouijia Board

  Toril, gasping for breath, having tried to keep pace with the boys, said to Troy, who had a bemused look on his face, “We can’t go in there, Troy. We just can’t.”

  “Why ever not?” said Troy, almost sneering.

  “Because she’s not alone,” said Toril. “That place, in fact, all around here, is haunted. That’s why I brought us out here tonight.”

  “Ridiculous!” said Alix. “I ain’t ‘fraid o’no ghosts…!” he sang.

  Everyone knew that Toril was heavily into all things paranormal and supernatural, but she believed entirely what she was saying, and couldn’t believe she could not convince them.

  “Yeah, well, okay Alix, you go on there, mess with what you don’t know, and you’ll end up getting burned,” said Toril. “Or worse.”

  Alix was pig-headed perhaps, but he was not stupid. He couldn’t deny that Toril might just be right. After all, it was because of Toril that a boy had been found safe and alive in the school, late one night, after she had received a message via her oujia board.

  Of course, the school’s official position was that the boy in question had wandered into part of the school building he didn’t know, had gotten lost, and locked himself in one of the cubicles in the girls toilets.

  It had been speculated that old man Curie, the school caretaker, had found him wandering the corridors and punished the boy by locking him in the girls toilets overnight.

  Of course the school would have none of that. To all the teachers, Mr Curie was a hero, the one who had the good sense to check every area of the building before locking up for the night. No one really knows for sure, the boy himself has been mute since coming out of there, and would only communicate with Jacinta via sign language. Prior to that, their paths had never crossed, even though they lived next door to each other. He soon left for one of those special schools.

  Toril, Jacinta and Beth had been using the ouija board, just for fun, one night. Raven haired, chocolate brown eyed Toril, whose interest in the paranormal, occult and anything ghostly bordered on the obsessive, had often asked the girls to join her in a ouija session, but they’d always refused in the past.

  “No, Toril!” shrieked Beth. “I don’t like it, you can’t make me do it. You won’t make me do it.”

  “Oh come on, Beth,” said Toril, with more than a hint of exasperation. “It will be fun, honest. Alix is coming, and he might not be alone.”

  “No,” said Beth. “I’m really not interested.”

  “Come on, seriously! I can’t do this alone. Please?”

  “Is Alix really coming along?”

  “Well, no. Maybe. I did ask him to. You’ll come anyway, won’t you?”

  Beth stamped at the swirling Autumn leaves with her feet. She was desperate to think of an excuse, any reason at all, not to have any part of this sordid game. Then it came to her in a flash.

  “I can’t go Toril, because…I’m Catholic.”

  “What???” You can’t go because you’re Catholic.”

  “That’s right. Religious reasons. Mum wouldn’t approve.”

  “Since when do you care what your folks say?”

  Beth’s Irish heritage wasn’t working here. As well as being very interested in the occult, Toril was a Sherlock Holmes fan, taking great pride in having been the first in her class to have read all of Conan Doyle’s detective stories. It gave her a real edge in debates, and her powers of reasoning and deduction were second to none. Beth felt she was being skewered. She simply could not come up with any reason not to go, that Toril would accept.

  “Yes, well, you’re right. I did say that.”

  Beaten, Beth O’Neill agreed to go. She hid a sigh before she spoke.

  “I’ll come along, Toril Withers. But at the first sign of any weird stuff, I’m out of there, I promise you.”

  Trying not to look too pleased with herself, Toril clapped her hands together. “Oh Beth, it will be brilliant! You’ll be glad you came!”

  Secretly, Toril was thinking the whole evening would be a waste of time unless there was some weird stuff.

  It was expected of Jacinta Crow to be there at Toril’s house, but she to
o was having second thoughts about this particular night. She didn’t much care for the theme, and Toril’s ability to un-nerve the girls with ‘yet another ghost story’ did little for her spirit.

  Toril had always been though of as rather bookish, nerdy, and ‘just plain weird’ at school, but Jacinta liked the ‘outsiders’, and didn’t worry about popularity at school. Cliques were not for her, and it suited her to choose her own friends, rather than have some forced upon her. So she and Toril became friends. When Beth came in the third year, she linked seamlessly with the two girls. Jacinta felt safety in numbers, and commented that ‘three was good, because two girls walking home together one night were attacked by some old man’. Some even though the two girls were attacked by old man Curie, but, given the description of the attacker by witnesses, it could be almost anyone in the city.

  The girls recounted that the man did have an axe, and so did Curie, but that in itself meant nothing. Who in the town didn’t have an axe in their shed somewhere? It was a non-starter.

  Meanwhile, Curie just went about his business.

  Toril had readied some drinks and things to eat for the girls. Outside, the weather had taken a considerable turn for the worse, and the rain beat incessantly at the window.

  Beth wasn’t as close to Jacinta as she was to Toril, and Jacinta had a way of staying aloof in any case. Still, she was impressed that Jacinta made a lot of small talk with her, as it made her feel more comfortable.

  “Ouija board. Ever played before, Beth?” inquired Jacinta.

  “No, never,” said Beth. “This sort of thing would go down very badly in my home.”

  Beth meant every word. “You?”

  “Dabbled,” said Jacinta, cryptically. Beth was unsure if she wanted to know more, but as Toril seemed all too excited to be having this ouija session, Beth pressed a little further.

  “I’m….more than a little nervous about all this, Jay.”

  “Oh,” said Jacinta, almost sounding disinterested. “I’m sure it will be fine. Toril knows what she’s doing.”

  Oh really? thought Beth. Still, she had no real reason to discount Toril, who, despite her bookish reputation, was pretty sure of herself, and not in an arrogant, cocky way either.

  “Why don’t we sit down?” said Jacinta.

  Beth was sure Jacinta was trying to put her at ease, but her words came across as a bit false, and Beth felt more comfortable standing anyway.

  “I’m fine where I am, Jay, really.”

  “I doubt Toril will have us standing up for this sort of thing, Beth, why don’t you sit down?”

  Beth was annoyed. She really didn’t want to be here in the first place. She didn’t mind visting Toril, but this whole ouija board thing had really shook her up. And every time Jacinta spoke, it had the opposite of effect of what she was trying to do. Beth felt annoyed, and nervous to the point of being frightened. All this, and Toril hadn’t even brought out the cursed ouija board yet.

  “Oh, for God’s sake, alright!!” Beth pulled the chair back, which screeched along the wooden floor, and sat down. As if I needed confirmation that I don’t ever want a wooden floor in my house, thought Beth.

  Immediately, she apologised to Jacinta, thinking she would be taken aback by her outburst. She wasn’t upset, even in the slightest.

  “That’s alright Beth, it’s your first time using a Ouija. I’d probably be nervous too.”

  I really rather doubt that, thought Beth. She’s way too cool for this.

  Beth wished she could be like Jacinta too. But Jacinta Crow was as ‘cool as cucumber soup’, something which had been attributed to her by her teacher, when she had been told that both her parents had died in a house fire, taking her three younger siblings with it.

  Jacinta wasn’t like this at all, she just had a fatalistic approach to life, and when anything untoward happened, she would just accept it, adapt, and move on. To others, she was seen as cold and heartless. But the truth was very different. She could be very warm with those she trusted, but kept her true feelings private from everyone else. Hence why, the teacher regarded her as ‘cool’, but not necessarily in a good way.

  Beth really wanted Jacinta to say something to her so that she would argue with her, and have a really good, cast-iron reason for leaving. But no such event was going to occur.

  Smiling broadly, Toril appeared. She’d even removed her glasses and looked rather attractive. “Here it is, then.”

  She unfurled the oujia board onto the table. Toril had even placed a candle stand at the far end of the table. Jacinta pointed to it, then laughed. “None of us here are Jewish, Toril. Whatever were you thinking?”

  “Well, it’s not just right to have the board, is it girls? You’ve got to have the atmosphere. And tonight, we do have the atmosphere. The weather’s just perfect!”

  It was hard not to feel more at ease with Toril’s infectious enthusiasm. What could go wrong, really? It was just a bit of fun, after all, nothing serious would happen to anyone, would it?

  The three friends all sat down, and Toril explained that they would have to place their hands on the boards, and concentrate heavily. No other thoughts would be entertained, explained Toril. Their minds would have to be completely clear for the task at hand.

  Outside, the rain seemed to have changed its pattern. It had gone from being a very wet, fine rain, to the pat-pat-pat sound against the window and the guttering. Beth started to feel un-nerved again. As if sensing this, Toril squeezed her hand. Beth clearly wasn’t expecting this, as she nearly jumped out of her seat.

  “Oh. Oh God. Really sorry,” said Beth. “I’m really not the right person for this.”

  “You’re perfect for this,” said Toril. “You know Jacinta, cool as ice. You’re needed, O’Neill. I have more chocolate for you if you’ll stay.”

  Chocolate was sure to work on Beth, so she relented.

  “Let’s do it,” she said.

  Holding aloft a what looked like a giant guitar pick, Toril announced “This – is a planchette.” It was a heart-shaped piece of wood. Toril explained how it was very important that we keep our fingers from both hands on it. When Beth asked why this was important, the answer unsettled her so much that the effects of the chocolate wore off.

  “Because it will move when we summon the spirits.”

  Resisting every sensible urge to run out of the door, even into the rain, Beth murmured weakly, “Okay.”

  The girls set about getting themselves in position. Jacinta was on the left of Toril, who was in the middle. Beth completed the trio on the right.

  Toril was just using candlelight in the room. It flickered angrily, like it was about to burn out, but then it would come back into life again, casting strange shapes on the walls. Demonic looking shapes, to Beth’s eyes.

  Beth could hear her heart starting to beat really loudly. She tried to steady herself with rational thoughts, telling herself that it was just a bit of fun. No spirit of any sense would try and communicate here. At least, that was Beth’s hope.

  With all hands on the planchette, Toril said to the room, ‘Is anyone there?”

  Silence. Nothing. Then more silence.

  Feeling ignored, and not enjoying the experience, Toril repeated her question. “Is anyone there? If so, please, say so. We mean you no harm, we would just like to speak with you.”

  More silence.

  Then, as Toril was about to speak for the third time, Jacinta interrupted her.

  “Is any-”

  “Toril. Leave it. I hear that if no spirit comes on the second time of asking, then no good spirit will come on the third time of asking.”

  Toril was having none of it. “Jacinta Crow, you should be ashamed of yourself. Who around this table knows more about the occult than I do? I never heard of any such third rule. Come on silly, keep your fingers on the planchette.”

  Smiling broadly, Toril said aloud “Is anyone there? Yes or No?”

  The girls shrieked as the planchette flew towards th
e YES on the ouija board.

  “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod,” said Beth, over and over again.

  “Knock it off, Beth,” said Toril. “Be cool. It’s still cool, alright?”

  Beth nodded her head, but none too convincingly.

  “Next question,” said Jacinta. “I think we got an answer to the first.”

  “Can you tell us your name?” asked Toril.