“Do you see this, Miss Crow?”
From his back pocket, he produced a crucifix, but like those ones used in a Black Mass.
“Jay, stay away from that!” screamed Toril.
“Oh. Are you still here, witch?” sneered Curie. “You’ll have to leave your Circle if you want to save your friend from this. But you won’t, will you? You only want to save yourself. But that’s you all over, isn’t it Toril? Selfish. Deluded. Pathetic.”
Jacinta was still reeling from the pain around her throat and her stomach, and she coughed up some blood into Curie’s face. It was accidental, a reflex from being kicked so hard in the stomach, but Curie took it as an act of defiance.
Curie turned the cross towards Jacinta and placed it over her heart. “You won’t get the chance to try that again.”
Toril could hardly bear to look. She had to leave the Circle to save her. Curie smiled. “You can add weak to your list of inadequacies.”
Turning back to Jacinta, Curie smiled in the sickening way that riles and disgusted Toril. “Logic dictates that I win.” he said simply.
“I don’t think so,” said Toril, with renewed confidence. “Your logic is flawed.”
Curie felt a dull pain, lightness filled his head, and he collapsed to the floor.
Troy had emerged from the room at the back.
“Well, hey-lo Troy. Way to make an entrance,” smiled Toril.
She was still pointing the wand in a manner that unsettled Troy.
“Care to put that down, Withers? Just in case Curie has got you all wrong.”
“Oh,” said Toril, “Sorry about that.” She put it back in her bag.
Troy crouched his huge frame over Curie. He was out cold. Satisfied, he moved on to Jacinta.
“Jay-Jay, are you alright? Don’t try to move just yet.”
Jacinta was on the floor in a foetal position. The blood had only been a little, but it suggested she was injured quite badly. Troy placed his hands on her rib cage, and parts of it didn’t feel as it should. As if confirming this, Jacinta whimpered in a way which unsettled Toril and Troy.
“Oh my God…Jay!” Toril left the Circle and huddled on the floor next to her friend.
Jacinta nodded, confirming she understood. She knew Toril would never let Curie hurt her – not fatally anyway. Still, Toril calling Curie’s bluff had its consequences.
Looking around, Troy saw my body and Beth’s in the chairs.
“This…this is so screwed,” said Troy. “Isn’t there anything you can do, Toril?”
The Mirror, Toril. You’ve got to use the bloody Mirror. Come. On!
But would Toril hear me? Was this even my problem anymore?
I had my own problems, and my Nan was being as elusive and vague in the after-life as she was when she lived with us. I actually didn’t mind so much that I was dead, but Beth – she deserved better. Come on Toril, figure it out.
Nan looked pretty much the same in the after-life, if this is what it was, as she did when she was alive, except she was much healthier looking.
“You must have a million questions, but oh my, it is good to see you again, Milly.”
“Nan, something very weird is going on down there. You’ve got to help me - help them, figure out what to do. Am I really dead?”
I could hardly believe I was asking the question, but here I was.
“This is one ghost story you didn’t foresee, did you, little one?”
“No….no I did not.”
“Walk with me a little, Romilly.”
“Nan, I want to, I really do, but Beth, Toril, Jacinta, Troy…they’re my friends. They need my help. I don’t have time for this.”
“You don’t have time? What nonsense!” laughed Nan. “Time has no meaning here.”
“I need to go back.”
“What you need to do, is calm down, and walk with me. Come on now.”
Alright. I didn’t have much choice in this. I was, however, happy to see Nan again. For all the ghost stories she had told me, she had never came back to visit me once. Did dreams count?
“Of course they do, Milly. Now you want to know why you are here, don’t you?”
I knew why I was here. I was dead. Barely sixteen years old, and I had perished at the hands of Curie. Or Beth, more accurately. Either way, Curie was involved, and he had killed her too. Poor Beth.
“Nan, it doesn’t really matter. I failed. I failed you. The Mirror is lost. I bequeathed it to no-one. I didn’t think I would have to, though Toril held it once. I’m sorry.”
I broke down in tears. This was unusual for me, as I didn’t cry easily.
“Is that what you are worried about? The Mirror? It’s in safe hands, Milly.”
I could not understand what Nan was saying.
“The imprint-“
“-will happen again, but there will be a cost. A very heavy price to pay, but I am confident you will deal with it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have to go back, Milly. This place….it’s not your final destination.”
“Nan! You don’t understand! I died at the hands of Beth over an hour ago!”
“Time has no meaning here, I told you that.”
Maybe not here, but there, on Earth it does. Surely my body was decomposing by now.
“Milly, you will fail in the same way Toril failed when she was up against the one true evil. You simply don’t believe, so nothing you truly want, can ever be. Don’t you understand?”
What was she saying? That I could go back, and that everything would be okay?
“Okay, I wish that Beth and I were not dead, and that Curie was.”
“No. No. Not that simple. You can go back, if that is what you really wish, but to wish Curie dead would make you as bad as he is.”
“What about Beth?”
“What about her?”
Tears welled up in me again.
“She’s dead.”
“Begging your pardon, but you’re wrong. You think so corporeal, Milly. Open your eyes. Open your mind. Believe.”
Okay, I will believe. I need to know Beth will be okay. But that axe, buried into her back, her last breath blowing onto my neck, that nightmarish death rattle as she died. It was more than I could take.
“You’re sure you want to return? To stay here, would be easier.”
So many questions, so little time.
“Can I visit you again?”
“Probably not, if you decide to go. But I will try and visit you.”
“Like a ghost in one of your stories.”
“Yes. Remember what I said about them?”
Of course I did. “They are always true, that’s what you said.”
“Except you won’t be scared.”
I was scared though. Scared of failing. Again.
Nan leaned forward, and kissed my forehead. In that moment, I found the blood coursing through my veins, and warmth return to my cheeks. I found myself back in my body, strapped to the chair in that hellish Carving Room.
My neck was working too. I turned to Beth, who was looking like her old self with every passing second.
Then I realised what was happening. Toril had the Mirror of Souls in her hands. She had imprinted herself on it in a bid to return our souls to our bodies. Maybe the heavy price to pay that Nan referred to, was that two zombies would be released from that netherworld. Curie would have a small victory at least.
In the haze of being stuck between two worlds, I was unclear about whether or not I had to be dead in order for the Mirror to imprint itself on someone else. If it had to be someone, I’d put my money on Toril. In her hands, the Mirror would be safe.
* * *
Troy tied Curie up. He explained to Toril, who was working her magic on Jacinta, that he managed to escape from the bag because he simply woke up. The chloroform used on him mustn’t have been enough to keep him sedated for say, as long as Beth was, so when he realised what was going on, he managed to unzip himself from the bag
and attack Curie.
Of course, it would not have been so easy, had the bodybag had its zipper fully closed.
Toril’s mind was having to work fast. Pointing her wand at Jacinta’s abdomen, she said,
“No pain or suffering or hurt shall you feel, I command your every wound to heal.”
“Now what?” said Troy.
“We wait,” said Toril.
“What about Rom and Beth?”
Toril had accepted, albeit with sickening reluctance, that her friends were dead. But looking once at us, she could still see our auras. There was still hope.
Troy saw the perplexed look in her eyes. “Withers, do you think you can do something?”
A groan from Jacinta. She writhed on the floor, and then was still, but was okay.
Toril was grateful to the deity. Looking back at Troy, she was resigned to defeat.
“There is maybe something I can do, but I’m not sure I have the power.”
Looking at Curie, it seemed Troy had secured him properly.
“I hope you’ve done a better job on him than he did with you.”
“I think so,” said Troy. “He isn’t going anywhere for a while. Now – you said that maybe there was something you could do. Well, if you can, shouldn’t you try?”
The problem was that Toril’s confidence in her Wiccan abilities was small. Curie was right about one thing - she wasn’t a good witch. She practised the big spells, not the small ones, like when Jacinta wanted her to move the gate. When it came to be tested against evil, hadn’t she failed, and failed miserably?
“I just don’t think I can magic anything up with this,” said Toril, placing her wand back in her bag. But Romilly has something that might just work.”
“What is it?
“A Mirror. The Mirror. I think it’s why Curie wanted to bring us here. Romilly called it the Mirror of Souls.”
Reaching into my bag, Toril held the Mirror in her hands.
“Looks like an ordinary old mirror to me,” said Troy. “Curie went to all this trouble – for this?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?”
Toril bore a pained expression on her face. “Yes, I have. It didn’t seem to work then, either. I don’t know how to make it work, Troy, and in fact, even if I could, I’m afraid to use it.”
I did want to come back, and more than that, I wanted Beth to come back. She deserved life. Did I really care about mine? But I realised if Toril used the Mirror to trade my soul for another, it could mean the release of the zombie girl I trapped at Beth’s house. All the danger we had gone through, would be for nothing.
The decision was all down to Toril.
“Given time, do you think it can work?” asked Troy.
“I don’t know,” said Toril. “Maybe.”
“Well then, I say do it.”
“The consequences-“
“-are something we will deal with at that time. Right now, you have a chance to bring our friends back. Now I don’t know much about any Mirror, or this Witch stuff you practise, but I think Rom would prefer to face the demons than be stuck in this…whatever they are stuck in. Their bodies can’t stay whole forever Toril, and by then, it really will be too late.”
Good work, Troy. I’ve have to agree with him if our positions were reversed. I’d do it, and damn the consequences.
“Logically-“
“Toril, come on, will you? Forget logic, what we need here is action, and now!” said Troy.
He grabbed the Mirror from Toril, but it shot a bolt of energy into his chest. The force of the beam landed the Mirror into Toril’s hands once more, and she was knocked to the floor, but the Mirror was safe.
A little dazed, Toril got up slowly to check on Troy.
“Are you alright? Troy!”
His eyes flickered into life. “I’m okay, Withers.”
Slowly, he got to his feet and looked at Toril. “So, you can hold the Mirror, but I can’t? What gives?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe only women can hold it. That’s why Curie got us here. He couldn’t use it directly, but indirectly, through one of us girls. It’s quite logical when you think about it.”
Troy liked Toril for her good looks, but there was no doubt she was smart too. ‘If only Rom had showed any interest in me,’ he thought, ‘I wouldn’t be looking at Toril the way I am now.’
“Troy? You haven’t said anything for ages. Are you okay?”
“Uh…yeah, sure, Withers. You were saying?”
“Well, I don’t really know how to use this Mirror, but I think if I stay close to the girls, maybe something will happen.”
“You usually say…something Wiccan…..in these kind of circumstances, don’t you?”
“Yes. But I don’t think this Mirror works on verbal commands.”
“What, then?”
“I don’t know, just shut up and let me think for a minute.”
Troy was pretty ashamed of himself. He found Toril’s directness very appealing, and found himself wondering why he hadn’t asked her out before. He knew why, of course. He liked someone else.
Me.
* * *
Toril sat down in and crossed her legs in front of me and Beth. We must have looked terrible, and if this didn’t work, our looks would only get worse.
What if the worse scenario happened? That in the attempt to bring us back, the zombie girl and her hellish kin were released?
No. Mustn’t think like that. Must think positive. Must believe.
Come on, Toril. That’s the key. Believe you can do this.
Toril held the Mirror up in front of her face. She pointed the reflective side towards myself and Beth, and waited. It seemed like she was meditating, as she seemed to go into some kind of trance.
I felt a warmth right at the pit of my stomach, and strength returned to my hands. The swelling on my neck reduced, and I could feel the colour return to my face.
I had a feeling in my legs, but it was like pins and needles. I wanted to stamp my feet until the tingling stopped.
The last thing to function was my eyesight, but my ears must have started to work just before them as I could hear almost audible sounds around me. Then I realised it was Toril speaking to me.
“Romilly? Can you hear me? Are you alright?”
Toril’s voice was becoming a crescendo. Then I realised I could hear her thoughts in my head, but it didn’t seem to work both ways. Her thoughts were blocked to me. I didn’t know Wiccans were telepaths. There was a lot I was learning today.
I wanted to speak, but my mouth felt very dry. I could lift my hands though, and slowly, I pointed to my mouth.
“Wa…..ter…” I said, sounding like I had swallowed the coarsest of sand paper.
Excitedly, Toril motioned to Troy. “You heard her! Get water!! It worked! Bloody hell!”
Beth was coming to as well. I wasn’t fully aware of this until Toril was crying her name out loud, in happiness.
Both Toril and Troy seemed to have forgotten about Jacinta, but she spoke up. “Well, that was a trip! Good job, Toril, you’re a pretty good witch after all. It’s not every day you run into someone who can bring the dead back to life.”
I turned to look at Beth, who was looking at me. She must have been thinking the same thing as me. The last time our eyes had met, she was full of fury.
“Milly…I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“Say you are okay then.”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
Jacinta and Toril hugged me and Beth tightly.
Our happiness was short-lived though. Toril broke off and looked around the room.
“What is it?” asked Jacinta.
“Something. Maybe nothing,” said Toril. “I don’t see any zombies here, do you? Maybe Curie was full of it. He just wanted to kill us.”
“We have a much bigger problem than that,” said Troy.
The ties that had bound Curie were on the floor. The old devil had es
caped once again.
Redwood
Running as fast as his fifty-two year old legs would carry him, Curie headed far away from his abode to the deepest part of the woods.
Dark Winter Page 21