Mathieu

by Irene Ferris

  Mathieu looked up and then back down at his mug, studiously ignoring the hand next to his. “You owe me nothing. What happened had nothing to do with you. I was so…” He struggled for a moment and then looked up again. “I was dead. I hid so far within myself that creature couldn’t touch me. There was nothing left of me that it could hurt.”

  “Not all dead.” Jenn said with a grim smile.

  “No. I suppose not.” Mathieu sighed into his mug as he took another drink. “Not all dead, just mostly.”

  Jenn hesitated and then asked quietly, “Do you think that Amanda is mostly dead by now?”

  Mathieu never lifted his eyes from the contents of his mug. “If she’s lucky, she is. I hope she’s learned how to hide herself from that thing. If not…”

  “If not, she’s likely to be even crazier when she comes back.” Dwayne’s plate rattled as he pushed it away. “Not like crazy isn’t crazy, but it comes in degrees. At this rate, us crazy fucks will outnumber the rest of you before you know it.”

  “And the rest of us will follow you out of peer pressure.” Eddie sighed and sat back in his chair. “Normalcy is overrated, anyway.”

  “Boy, you’re already playing on our team. You’re just too fucked up to realize it.” Dwayne cocked his head and listened intently to something that no one else heard and then muttered under his breath in response.

  “You know, from anyone else I’d be upset. From you, that’s almost a compliment.” Eddie smiled grimly as he started rubbing Susan’s back in small circles.

  “And none of this clever banter gets my daughter back. Focus, people.” Hugh growled from the head of the table.

  “Focus?” Susan laughed. “Focus? If we focus too much, we’ll come back to the part where you basically sold your daughter into eternal slavery. That’s a real buzzkill. It’s kind of hard to focus around that.”

  “He’s right.” Marcus said. “None of this is getting us any closer to an answer.”

  Carol shifted slightly in her chair. “I think we’re all overlooking the real question here: Is there an answer? Is there a way to bring that little girl home without killing all of us in the process?”

  The room was silent.

  Mathieu drew his empty hand into his lap and made a tight fist. Because it is the right thing to do. “I think so.”

  “Let’s hear it then.” Marcus’ chair legs screeched on the floor as he leaned back from the table.

  Mathieu tightened his free hand on the coffee mug, and studied the depths of the murky brown liquid it contained. “If I can somehow get hold of the chain that binds her to that creature, I might be able to use that bond to overpower it and destroy it in a like manner to what I did to Gadreel.”

  “I’m hearing a lot of mights and somehows right now.” Hugh leaned forward and placed his hand flat on the table.

  “It’s more than you had before.” Mathieu still studied his coffee, refusing to look up at the people around him.

  “There is that, but what if you can’t do it? What if something goes wrong?”

  Mathieu took a deep breath and looked at his ever whitening knuckles. “You would need to set up a series of concentric protective circles. I’d say three would work best. That way you protect yourselves and still contain that thing.”

  “Gaap. The thing’s name is Gaap.” Hugh groused. “If you won’t even say its name, how on earth do you think you can defeat it?”

  Finally lifting his eyes, Mathieu said quietly, “I will say the name when I am ready to say the name. I have no desire to attract its—or any other like it—attention before I am ready. But when I am ready, I will speak the name loudly and clearly. You may rest assured of that.”

  Marcus held his hand up to Hugh, cutting of the older man’s answer. “None of us doubt that, Mathieu. What do we do?”

  Mathieu looked back down at his mug. “The room downstairs needs to be cleansed. Nothing of that spell should remain, not one word or drop of blood.”

  “We can do that easily enough.” Carol said. “And then?”

  “Like I said before, there should be three circles of protection laid on, one inside the other. You’ll want enough space in between them so that you can stand without stepping on the one behind.” Mathieu tightened the fist in his lap, felt nails cut into his palm. “You all need to summon it into the innermost circle. While you distract it, I’ll work my way around to Amanda. When I get close you go behind the second circle. I’ll raise that one and collapse the first one at the same time. I’ll be able to use her binding to get to it and destroy it.”

  “And the third circle?” Eddie asked. “Why that one?”

  “In case anything goes wrong. Raise that one and get out.” Mathieu felt the slow trickle of blood trace its way down the lines of his palm. “Get to the woods and use that spell.”

  “That’s unacceptable.” Marcus’ voice was flat. “If we’re not assured that this is going to work, we’re not going to do it.”

  “It’s all you have, Marcus.” Mathieu looked up again, meeting the man’s eyes. “If you can think of something better, let’s hear it. Otherwise this is what we have to do.”

  “Are you sure we can’t use some variation of the spell that originally bound that thing? The one on the side of the house?”

  Mathieu shrugged and then gave Hugh a strange look before looking back at Marcus. “I’m sure you could. Without knowing what happened to its original Familiar, I wouldn’t suggest it since your main goal is to get your friend back alive.”

  They stared at each other across the table. Marcus looked away first. “Fine. Let’s get busy then. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  Chairs shifted and slid across the floor tiles as everyone except Mathieu stood. Dwayne began piling dishes and waved Carol off. “It’s my turn to do them and you’re better suited to all that metaphysical shit down there anyway.”

  She fixed first Dwayne and then Mathieu with a long, searching look. After a silent moment, she nodded and followed the others to the basement.

  Dwayne started scraping the uneaten food into the trash. There was quite a bit of it, Hugh being the only one who had fully eaten his meal.

  The fork made the only noise in the room, screeching across the ceramic. Mathieu still intently studied his coffee, occasionally swirling the mug to watch the liquid slosh against the sides.

  “You know, you’re right.” Dwayne started stacking the plates in the sink. “You’re a fucking awful liar.”

  Mathieu snorted at that. He brought his hand up from beneath the table and flexed it gingerly, watching as flakes of dried blood fell to the tabletop. There was no sign of the wounds he’d just inflicted on himself.

  “Little Bro’, I’m dead serious here. What are you up to?” Dwayne leaned on the table and met Mathieu’s eyes dead on.

  Mathieu smiled. “You already know how this ends, Dwayne. I don’t need to tell you anything.”

  Dwayne frowned. “Fuck you. You don’t know what I know. And all I know is possibilities. And there’s a metric fuckton of them coming off of this move of yours.”

  “Fuckton?” Mathieu echoed the word wonderingly. “Just when I think you can’t be any more obscene, you shatter all my expectations.”

  “Stop changing the subject. I may be crazy but I’m not stupid. You’re up to something and I need to know what it is.”

  “Dwayne.” Mathieu spoke concisely, biting off each word. “I trust you to do the right thing, no matter what happens. I trust you. I cannot have a coherent plan in my mind or that thing will know it all the moment it touches me. It’ll be hard enough keeping the most important knowledge from it.”

  “Wait a minute. You didn’t say anything about that fucker touching you. That is most assuredly not part of what you said.”

  Mathieu flinched and then looked away.

  “God damn it, you’re going to tell me or…”

  “Or what, Dwayne?” Mathieu stood up and walked to the sink, pouring the remainder of his coffee
down the drain. “Will you beat it out of me?” He looked over his shoulder and cocked his head. “I must warn you, I’ve been tortured by an expert. Anything you could do would only pale in comparison.”

  “I would never hurt you. Ever.” Dwayne half-wailed the words. “Damn you. You’re the only one who looked at me and knew what it was like to be me. You’re the only one who understood. You’re the only one who never questioned it but just accepted me for what I am.”

  “Then accept me for what I am, Dwayne.”

  “And what are you, then? Do you even know?”

  Mathieu swallowed hard. “I am just as Hugh named me. Power tied to an almost forgotten form. There is nothing human left to me. There is nothing worthy of your loyalty left in this shell.”

  Dwayne narrowed his eyes and looked through Mathieu. “Bullshit,” he pronounced after a long moment. “You are without a doubt the worst liar I have ever met, and I’ve met some doozies in my day.”

  Mathieu shook his head. “Something else I didn’t inherit from my father. He was as silver-tongued as could be. Every word that came from his mouth was a lie, and you would be glad to hear it, even knowing the truth of it all in your heart.”

  “Yeah, that sucks. We all have our burdens to bear, our families sucked, yadda yadda yadda. Start talking.” Dwayne turned on the water and started filling the sink.

  “No.” Mathieu shook his head. “Know this, though. I trust you above all these others to do the right thing when the time comes. Because you of all of them know what will truly be happening. You’ve already seen it.”

  Dwayne sighed and lowered his head to rest on the countertop. “You’re going to drive me even crazier. Which I didn’t think was possible.”

  Mathieu lowered his head and rested it next to Dwayne’s. “I’m sorry. I truly am.”

  “I know, Little Bro’. I know.” Dwayne straightened and poured soap into the sink. “Helping me do the dishes won’t make me forgive you, either. But you’re welcome to try your best to convince me otherwise.”

  Mathieu raised an eyebrow and picked up a towel. “I don’t expect or deserve forgiveness.”

  “And that’s where you’re most in error.” Dwayne’s voice took on a hollow tone. “Forgiveness is there for the asking.”

  Straightening, Mathieu cocked his head and looked into the eternity that had taken over Dwayne’s eyes. “I’ve been begging for it since I came to life again.”

  “What? You think that what you’ve been doing is begging? I thought it was wallowing.”

  Mathieu narrowed his eyes. “I would crawl from Damascus to Jerusalem on my hands and knees if I thought it would make a difference.”

  “It wouldn’t.”

  “I know that.” Mathieu gingerly reached over and turned off the water before the sink overflowed. “Which is why I’m currently not on my knees in the middle of the desert.”

  “Aren’t you?” The hollow voice took on a tone of amusement. “Your desert is where you make it. So is your redemption.”

  “Very wise words that mean absolutely nothing.” Mathieu swirled his fingers through the bubbles in the water, watching as they broke apart and reformed.

  “Nothing and everything. Choose your path wisely.” Dwayne swayed, blinked and then looked around. “What? What happened?”

  “Nothing.” Mathieu said quietly. “Absolutely nothing. Pass me that plate.”

  Chapter Thirty - Four

  The room in the basement had been thoroughly scrubbed. Mathieu wrinkled his nose at the strong scent of bleach when he walked in.

  Carol was concentrating her efforts on the far corner of the room with a toothbrush. Eddie was on a ladder wiping down the ceiling. Hugh stood in the middle, supervising it all.

  Marcus squeezed the last bits of red-brown water from a mop and wiped his forehead. He looked over to Mathieu and gestured about the room. “Well?”

  Mathieu looked around the room, searching for any glimmer of power from the previous obscenity worked there. He shook his head. “The spell is gone.”

  “Good. I hate housework.” Jenn panted from behind him.

  Mathieu smirked and held back his response, merely nodding instead.

  “Yeah, yeah. I know. I always hated it, didn’t I? That doesn’t surprise me one bit since housework sucks no matter what century it is.” Jenn waved away his answer and moved to drag the cleaning supplies out of the room.

  “Now what?” Marcus gestured towards the center of the room.

  “I’ll take care of the first circle. The rest of you build your strongest protective circles around that.” Mathieu marked the center of the room and an area three paces wide on each side. He dropped to his knees and with a piece of chalk that had been left there, inscribed a perfect circle.

  He then closed his eyes and marked the cardinals, one after the other. Glyphs followed that, written in a language that Mathieu would have never learned except from Gadreel’s knowledge. The world faded as his focus narrowed to the circle and the components that would make it strong.

  The characters flowed, inscribing a spell of summoning and containment, a binding and a compulsion. The last thing he wrote was the creature’s name in the middle of the circle.

  He leaned back on his heels and surveyed his work. His lips moved silently as he read each symbol, double and triple checking his work before finally nodding. The circle was the strongest he’d ever built and would hold almost everything.

  He silently hoped Gaap wouldn’t fall under the ‘almost’ part of that.

  “Pretty.” A voice drawled in his ear.

  Mathieu jumped and fell sideways, shielded his face with his arms and cringed away from the source of the voice. He could hear his panicked breathing rasping in his ears as he slowly opened one eye and saw Dwayne standing there, mouth open in shock. “Do not do that,” Mathieu gasped. He then took several deep breaths to calm his racing heart and to make the hair on the back of his neck lie down again.

  “Dude, I’m sorry. I figured you heard me. I’ve been watching you work for a while.” Dwayne held his hand out, offering to help him up.

  Eying the hand for a long moment, Mathieu shook his head and rolled onto his knees. “I didn’t hear you.” He wrapped his arms around himself and shuddered. “I was rather involved.”

  “Obviously.” Dwayne looked at his outstretched hand before shrugging and putting it into his pocket. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “I know.” Mathieu held himself tighter. “I know,” he repeated as he closed his eyes and slumped back to the cold earth.

  “I was just saying that the circle was pretty.” Dwayne’s expression suddenly sharpened as Mathieu almost imperceptibly winced at the word. “Not that you were. Even if you are, which you aren’t, you’re not my type. Not enough up here,” Dwayne gestured to his chest, “and too much down there.” Another gesture, this time towards his crotch.

  “You have no clue how relieved I am to know that.” Mathieu took another deep breath before allowing his arms to relax. He automatically checked the circle to be sure no damage had befallen it.

  Dwayne’s expression was still sharp. “I think I have a clue. I don’t know if I wanted to, but I’m pretty sure I have one now. Do you really think you’re going to be able to pull off whatever the hell it is you’re going to do without freaking the fuck out?”

  Mathieu looked away. “Do I have a choice? Really?”

  After a long moment Dwayne spoke again, avoiding the question. “So, where do you need the other circles?”

  Straightening, Mathieu indicated a space four feet from the one he had just made. “There should be one here. And then one around the perimeter of the room.” He paused and then spoke again. “That one should be the strongest you can make, something that won’t come undone or mar if you have to run over it to get out of the room quickly.”

  Dwayne narrowed his eyes. “If we come out of this alive, I am so going to kick your ass for doing this to me. Kick your ass in a complet
ely non-physical and symbolic manner, of course. I’m not into that kinky shit.”

  “Of course,” Mathieu echoed, his lips turning upwards in a wry smile despite his best efforts to hold them down. “I understand completely.”

  “As for the rest of it, I’m your man. In a totally platonic way.” Dwayne grinned at Mathieu’s raised eyebrow. Wandering over to an old tackle box in the corner, he pulled out three items: a roll of dull silver tape, a pen and a razor knife. “Duct tape and Sharpie. Once it dries, a nuclear explosion couldn’t take a circle made with these puppies down.”

  “Duct tape and Sharpie,” Mathieu echoed, shaking his head.

  “Duct tape and Sharpie. It may be all kinds of Redneck but it works.” Dwayne gestured towards the wall as he brandished his roll of tape and the knife. “Help me draw the circle and I’ll cut the tape to make it go around.”

  Mathieu shook his head again before moving to help the man he might have called ‘friend’ in a previous life protect those whom he might have called ‘dear’ in that same time.

  Chapter Thirty - Five

  It was deathly still in the room. Mathieu stood in between the first and second circle and looked at those in the room with him.

  They were all tired, worn thin with the lack of sleep and stress. His suggestion that they rest before attempting this had been met with a derisive hand gesture from Marcus.

  “Another hour is how many more years for her? I don’t think so. We can sleep when she’s home,” he’d said.

  Mathieu had had no choice but to shrug. “So be it,” he’d said as the others took their place. “Better for me so I don’t lose my nerve in the interim,” he continued under his breath.

  Marcus stood at the north Cardinal of the first circle, a pillar of brute strength. Jenn, she of the subtle power, was at the south. Eddie and Susan were east and west, shining opposites of hot and cold. Dwayne and Carol waited outside the second circle, supporting the framework with skill and power.

  Hugh waited beside the door, the circle to enslave his daughter scratched into the hall floor.