Dark Winter

by John Hennessy

  I tried to shake it off, and recall quickly – positively, how I might just be able to counter all this.

  So, firstly, I could use the Mirror, I had the ability to trap demonic entities. Second, I was able to predict the future, of sorts. Third, I knew I could kill those same entities with a touch of my bare hands. My Nan had said that my abilities would become realised after my sixteen birthday. I hope I knew what they were, once that day arrived.

  But saving my friends….did I possess the ability to do that? What if all the supposed gifts I had, were to come to nothing? I just couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling of what I had seen in the premonition. There were muddled images, all involving me, Toril, Beth, Jacinta, my parents, and even Curie.

  The strongest images were of Curie and Beth. I couldn’t be totally sure, but I believed she was in trouble. More uncomfortable was the feeling of dread of what I might have to do to free her. I would find out what it was like to kill someone, soon enough.

  * * *

  I set the Mirror down on the bed and sat myself down next to it. I held my head in my hands. The sun streaked brightly through the curtains, and I violently drew them closed, because my mood was dark. This was not a happy time. It’s like when you’ve had an argument with someone you love, you are just left in a foul mood, and nothing makes you smile.

  I wanted to shake the feelings off, but was unable to. Lifting my head from my hands, I cast a sidewards glance at the Mirror.

  I had trapped one Zeryth, but so what? If I used the Mirror again, would it release the demon, or maybe other entities? Could I trap Dana? I did not know. I just wasn’t learning quickly enough. The worst actions of humans are often caused by misinformation. But there was no way to research what I needed to. Toril knew all about the Dana doll, but nothing about the Mirror.

  My experience with the zombie nearly killed me and Beth. If that demon happened to be the weakest of its kind, I rather doubted I could trap anything ever again.

  The last phone conversation with Beth hadn’t gone too well. I only hoped that the next time I picked up the phone, she would answer, and not be in the demonic clutches of Curie, as the events in the premonition foretold.

  Something made me open the curtains again. There was a full moon rising. I had heard Toril mention it before, something to do with the Wiccan stuff she was into.

  It was a strange feeling, experiencing Toril’s views on moons. I could somehow recall exactly what she was saying – word for word.

  “The new moon, or crescent moon, always rises several hours after sunrise, but we cannot see it in daylight because of the brightness of the sun, which is close by.”

  “The first glimpse we see of this moon is as a thin crescent, the two points facing up and to the left, low on the western horizon, just after the sun has set. When the crescent moon is first beheld, you can sometimes see the rest of the moon in shadow, nestled within that bright curve.”

  “The first signs of the new crescent arising from the body of the old dark moon provide a lovely reminder of how all things contain within them the seed of the future.”

  Okay, I could accept that. But Toril had a way of going way off into her own personal dimension.

  “The new moon is traditionally associated with maiden goddesses, and if you choose to work with the God as well, look at son-lover figures, youthful gods, or gods associated with new beginnings. This is a time to focus on your magical work on goals associated with new projects, children and animals.”

  What? Animals? What the hell could I do with this information?

  Toril was totally into her Wiccan religion, as she called it. It was at odds with me and Beth - we didn’t get it at all. It was hard to discount the effect of the grayish planet that I could see everytime I looked out of my window at night.

  Toril was right of course, the moon had a say in all of our actions and the sooner we took notice of it the better. But I wasn’t Toril. I didn’t really have a belief, except in the existence of evil. I tried, oh how I tried, to see the light side in things but the truth was that the darkness, the dark side, would envelop me.

  Another flashback.

  This time to the occasion when I held the mirror for the first time, and I thought I could see myself in the Mirror. I was reminded of Nan’s comments that the Mirror catches souls. I remember how ludicrous it sounded at the time, but the feeling was so intense, I now start to understand the Mirror in a different way.

  There are souls in there. I have no idea how many, but I do know they cannot be unleashed. The world would be destroyed. Hold that thought for a second. Could the Mirror, broken, unleash such power? I suppose if it had the ability to trap demons, it could only perhaps hold them in a zone, some sort of ethereal prison, for a time.

  Toril’s lunar talk had gotten me going. Would it be possible to enter such a zone, and destroy the demons forever? Nan told me that my skills were about to be realised – is this what she meant?

  The thought troubled me greatly. Dana – she was a whole other conundrum. I hated the idea of a demon that could be summonsed to kill someone of the user’s choosing, even if there was a price for doing so. I doubted I could ever trap her, or use her properly. Curie escaping the clutches of the police, and more perplexingly – Dana, made me wonder how I could stop him. I was a sixteen year old girl – almost, armed with a Mirror that could be the saving of me, or the end of everyone else. How the hell was I supposed to achieve anything?

  Nan had told me that the Mirror must never be broken, but I needed to use it, and so, with that, came the risk that it really could be broken. I had heard my Mum say ‘Well, that’s seven years bad luck’, back one time when a mirror had gotten broken in our home.

  Dad had been doing some routine maintenance in the bathroom, when he knocked the mirror that had been on the wall, onto the ground. The shards of glass were everywhere, and took forever to pick up.

  My Nan was heard saying, “Be glad it will only be seven years.”

  Toril again. ‘This is a time to focus on your magical work on goals associated with new projects, children and animals’.

  A new project. This was exactly what I needed. Structure. Some damned discipline. I had none of it. I was all over the place, and yet, through all Toril’s Wiccan babble, some of it was making sense to me.

  I was feeling so strange. I felt like I was having an out of body experience, and I swear could see myself as I appeared to float above me. Did my hair really look like that from the back? Damn.

  I kept pinching myself to get back to my body, and I managed it. Feeling whole once more, I was having a moment of real clarity.

  It was all starting to make sense now, and Curie was the key to it. If Beth, me, Toril and Jacinta were broken apart, Curie would be able to do whatever he liked. It would be open season. After all, he had survived dealing with Dana. He must, simply must have made a pact with the Devil.

  What was it that Toril had said? “The new moon is traditionally associated with maiden goddesses, and if you choose to work with the Gods -”

  It could work that way for Curie too. We had our Gods, and They – those that would serve evil, had their Gods to guide them.

  I didn’t believe Curie would go after Toril, she was far too clever for that. Jacinta had had little to do with him. So that left me and Beth. Right now, Beth was the most vulnerable.

  I become more unsettled as time passes. I try to convince myself that I am not having a premonition, and that Beth is okay. After all we’ve been through, she just has to be okay.

  I grabbed my bag, and reluctantly decided to bring the Mirror with me. I couldn’t allow him to get to Beth. If he went after her, Toril and I would be next. Jacinta was out of action for the moment, but that didn’t mean that the demons didn’t have plans for her.

  I wiped the stream of watery tears from my face, and my jumper cuff goes comfortably damp. I wasn’t crying, it was just a reaction from all the pressure I felt.

  I had gone through school pr
etty much not caring about anyone else, and now Beth and the others meant something to me. Friends? Maybe. I had trouble using that word. The Mirror had changed something in me, and I knew what it was now.

  It had captured my soul, or part of it anyway. That’s why I was having an out of body experience. I was barely here. I was holding the Mirror, and my bag, and feeling like someone else was carrying it.

  Beth needed me. I could not be distracted any longer.

  * * *

  As I raced towards Curie’s residence, I wondered what would happen if I arrived and Beth was nowhere to be seen. Maybe the out of body experience had affected my reasoning, and yet I couldn’t be sure even that was real.

  Beth, however, was real, and if she was in danger, I had to help her, even though I didn’t really know what to do. I had no idea when the events of the premonition would take place, only that they would happen.

  There was time to take a detour to Beth’s place, but if Curie had her, it would delay me in trying to prevent the inevitable. I heard that in my head, and wondered if it was all hopeless. As if sensing my brain’s thoughts, my body responding by tripping me up, and I grazed my right knee on the unforgiving tarmac.

  My jeans were torn, and I had blood trickling down my legs. Damned stupidity. I shouldn’t be running, thinking and planning all at the same time. I was one of the girls who could not multi-task.

  No matter. The main thing was to keep the main thing, the main thing, and that was to save Beth.

  On the approach to Curie’s house, there were no lights on. This worried me more than if the place was fully lit up. Whatever could he be doing to Beth? No, mustn’t think about that. I saw how emotionally distraught Beth became, the last time we faced Curie. If I allowed myself to get emotional, I would fail for sure. I could not let that happen.

  I wasn’t in the best shape for a battle. Curie had lifted all sorts of heavy things in his time at the school. It was easy to see him with some huge box, or in one of the school cupboards moving boxes, bags…maybe even bodybags, around. One on one, he’d be more than a match for me.

  Beth was certainly convinced that Curie was up to no good, and I was getting that feeling too. But I was trying to look at this objectively, reasonably. Beth simply wouldn’t do that, and it’s those sort of emotions that can get you tripped up. Beth would be the easiest to catch, and her rather diminutive frame would mean –

  Would mean she would be easy to conceal, even in a place like this.

  Premonitions. Could I be sure that the premonition I had would keep me safe, and also Beth, if she was here? If I had interpreted it incorrectly, could I get out of here, and slip away un-noticed? Right now, I wasn’t sure.

  Approaching the side entry door, I was surprised when it clicked open in my hand. Curie, a man with so many secrets, happy to leave the door unlocked. The nerve of it would take my breath away, only for the fact that I had to keep my breathing regular and quiet. It was so dark. How could anyone live like this?

  I stretched my arms out to the side, trying to find the edges of brickwork that would steady me. I could not see my legs, such was the blackness that encircled me.

  The blood continued to seep through my thick stockings. I wanted to take them off, but I would make too much noise so I left it. Treading as softly in my trainers as I could, the wooden floors creaked below me, threatening to give me away.

  My knee reacted angrily, wanting me to stop moving forward. Then, something made me stop moving forward. I let out a scream. Something hideous, something unseen, something smelling like death, was right beside me.

  * * *

  Curie caressed Beth’s hair, but perspiration from her skin matted her auburn locks. She was dazed, confused, hungry, bleeding.

  “How long do we have to keep this up for Beth?” he purred. “You know what I want. Why don’t you tell me where they are?”

  Beth could hardly lift her head up, so Curie yanked her head back, exposing her neck.

  “The Lord said Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not so nice, is it Beth? Now speak up. Cat got your tongue?”

  “No……” Beth could hardly muster a word.

  “What then?”

  “I’ll never tell you where they are. Never.”

  “Never. Well there’s a word to use when you’re confident. Six goddamn hours of this and you still fight me. Okay then! Stay your words.”

  Beth would have laughed at the absurdity of Curie’s statement. She could do nothing but stay there. Her hands were tied, her legs bound. She tried to kick out, but could get no movement.

  She knew Curie would make her suffer to her last breath. And just like that boy before her, she wouldn’t be found, police would look the other way, because nothing could be proved.

  She would never be able to bring him to justice for the death of her parents, and this jarred at her. She could accept her own death, even if it meant she could take Curie to hell with her.

  Curie was looking for his favourite hunting knife. He had misplaced it when that infernal Dana had come last time. She had spared his life in return for two lives. He was going to offer Beth and one other girl to Dana as payment.

  Curie had security cameras all over the place, and something stopped him looking for the knife, and made him sit down to look at the screen.

  “Oh man, this is too easy.” He stared at the figure in the side entry. “Silly girl. So many rats in there.”

  A new plan hatched in his mind. He wouldn’t have to do the killing at all. Curie ran back into the room where he held Beth captive.

  Placing the knife at her neck, he said, “It’s time to go, Beth. I’ve got a little job for you to do.”

  Beth broke free of her restraints as the demon from Curie’s body, went into hers.

  * * *

  Rats. Mice. Godknowswhat. I could feel them scurrying around my ankles, and clinging onto my jeans. I tried to brush one away, but it wouldn’t let go, and, scenting blood, sank its teeth into the cut below my knee.

  I screamed – really loud this time. The pain was unbearable. My legs gave way and as I put my hands out to steady myself, one of the rats buried its teeth into my finger.

  I swung hard at the wall on the opposite side, trying to get it to let go, but it would not.

  What sort of vermin were these?

  I swung again, hard, at the wall. This time, I heard a satisfying crack as the little bleeder let go. Maybe there were only less than a dozen rats surrounding me, but it felt like hundreds. I had to regain control. This was just the sort of thing that could get me and Beth killed.

  I waded through the rats, looking for some sign of light.

  Just then, I got what I wanted – some light, but not what I expected.

  Standing in front of me was Beth, bedraggled, exhausted, but seemingly unhurt. She opened her arms and I ran to hug her, but whilst her hands extended towards me, it was not to return the gesture. I had no time to back off as she clasped her hands around my throat, and began to squeeze.

  * * *

  If anyone else was looking on at this, they would determine that Beth was deranged, exhausted, maybe a bit crazy even. But she was not a killer.

  Even so, her grip on me was like a man’s strength. You know how you read about vampires in those stories of having the strength of ten men? Well, Beth’s strength had just multiplied considerably, and I could not get free.

  “Beth,” I croaked. “Beth, please…we’re friends…..”

  But it was all to no avail. Beth looked completely cold and dead behind her eyes, all kindness gone from her pupils.

  As I fell to the floor in the darkened side-entry, the rats multiplied too, and crawled all over my body, biting and scratching at my skin.

  * * *

  Toril woke with a start. “Something’s…wrong….something’s different, somehow…” she murmured to no-one in particular.

  It wasn’t unusual for Toril to have an early evening nap. She had done her circle casting, practised
some crafting rituals, as this was routine for her, and was something she did, every single day. She was a solitary Wiccan, and she liked it that way.

  But her peace, her calmness, was disturbed. It had been a whole day since she had heard from Beth, and that was unusual.

  Toril checked her watch. A quarter to six. Looking out of her window, she could see a full moon.

  She looked in her wardrobe, and changed into her favourite outfit, a purple jumper dress.

  She changed her red pentacle chain to a dark blue one, and brushed her raven coloured hair.