by HMC
I fell to the floor. As I stood, Sacmis laughed.
‘What have you done, Little Mouse? I see nothing here. You disappoint. You silly, silly little girl. Catalina Castro? Your dead aunty? She’s nothing to me. Cat and Mouse? Cat and Mouse? This game is old.’ Sacmis rushed forward.
The stones and protective walls no longer worked, and she grabbed my arm and dug her nails in again. Nothing had happened! Trent and Anna seemed frozen.
I’m wanted. Dead or alive.
The tongue. The tongue came out of her mouth and darted toward me. The slithering in my ear, wet and cold. A burning sensation ran through my body.
I was burning!
My plan hadn’t worked.
Sacmis drew and pulled.
‘Sirenita,’ said Cat in my ear. ‘I’m here. I’m ready.’ I exhaled. She was here. It was going to be okay. ‘Watch how it’s done, little mermaid.’
Cat’s soul was wrenched right out of me and into Sacmis’ body.
Sacmis stopped – her eyes large and her mouth agape. ‘What… what…’
‘What’s the matter?’ I said, smiling. ‘Cat got your tongue?’
There was a sizzling sound followed by a piercing whistle. ‘Get back!’ I called. The sound of a giant kettle boiling on the stove filled the room as the three of us moved away. We barrelled around the doorways and flung ourselves into the hall.
Sacmis shrieked. An ear-splitting explosion followed. I could hear water splatter onto the walls. I imagined blood and pieces of flesh flying about the room. A fizzling sound could be heard, and then steam surrounded me as I lay on the tiles.
Then there was silence. I waited.
I don’t know how long I waited, but I didn’t want to get up off that hallway floor for fear of what I’d find. I couldn’t bear to see Anna or Trent hurt. Were they beside me? Or maybe even Sacmis was inside one of them somehow. I wanted to stay here on the white tiles with my eyes closed and my false sense of security intact.
I forced myself up, anyway.
The ankh around my neck were so heavy. The chains felt like they were cutting into my neck. I took them off and placed them on the floor beside me.
They disappeared.
Trent and Anna were huddled in the hall, both breathing, thank the Gods. Aidah’s body, no longer controlled by Sacmis, was heaped on the floor like a skeleton waiting to be displayed in biology class. There were no pieces of her painting the walls.
I bent down to touch Aidah. She fell to ashes in a pile on the floor.
‘Mouse?’ Cat was speaking to me. ‘Mouse.’ Her voice wasn’t in my head, it was coming from behind me. I turned to see her, standing right there, as if flesh and bone. I ran to embrace her.
‘I’ve not got long, Sirenita. Trent and Anna are fine. Look after them both. I’ll look after Hamish. His soul is a long time coming.’ Cat smiled.
I held her. ‘I love you, Cat. I miss you so much.’
‘I love you, too. And I’m proud of you, Modesta. Don’t be afraid of the gift you have. Sonny is special. But together, you will be unstoppable. Listen now. You must go into Sacmis’ room, and open her wooden chest. You have the key.’
I looked into my palm. There was a key there. ‘What’s it…’ When I looked up, she was gone. ‘You always were pretty terrible at saying goodbye before you hung up the phone.’
Trent and Anna got up.
‘It’s almost over,’ I said. ‘Go to Hamish’s room. Megan will be scared. Hamish has likely … he’s gone, and she’ll be afraid.’ Trent and Anna dashed off down the hall.
I found the master bedroom again easily enough. On the surface, it was like the bedroom of a mother who shopped at thrift stores, not a woman who was possessed for centuries by a demon. We’d found nothing the last time, but this time a chest sat by the end of the bed. It was engraved with Enteroctopus dofleini. A North Pacific giant octopus looked at me from the engraved ocean as I turned the key and opened the mysterious box. Inside was a black bag, and as I lifted it, I heard metal clinking. I peered inside. Black metal greeted my inquiring eyes. There were hundreds of ankh, all shapes and sizes and made from all sorts of materials jumbled together in the bag. Before I could reach in, I was startled by laughter. Wind whistled in and opened the window shutters. It danced around me, lifting my hair. I smelled the ocean. The laughter grew louder, and the bag in my hand opened wider. A light poured out of it. Gold, white, turquoise, jade, amber, and crimson swirled out and filled the air above me.
‘Thank you,’ someone whispered, and there were chuckles. More voices echoed, thank you, and I could hear all of them both individually and as a harmonised group at the same time. Cool fingers caressed my shoulders and I shivered.
I waited for Hamish, but he didn’t come. I supposed he’d already gone, as I remembered Cat’s words, his soul is a long time coming. I wondered how he felt now – the relief of sweet release at last.
It was a long time before the lights went away, and after they did, I was left standing there with nothing more exotic than a bag of jewellery in an empty, normal house.
I ran to Hamish’s room. He had disappeared. Anna was holding onto a tearful Megan.
‘They’re free,’ I breathed. Trent hugged me.
Anna nodded in understanding. ‘You did it.’
‘Hamish is gone.’ My stomach tightened.
‘I’m sorry you didn’t get to be friends,’ said Anna.
‘He was … exceptional.’ I studied my fingers. ‘An exceptional person with everything he’d been through. I wouldn’t have lasted.’
‘I believe you would have, Mouse. But yes, despite everything, his kindness prevailed,’ said Anna.
Trent’s hair was all over the place, and he looked like he’d been out all night partying. ‘Well, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck that then backed up and hit me again.’
I put an arm around his shoulder. ‘I’m sorry about your parents,’ I whispered. ‘We were so focussed on protecting Sonny.’
Trent nodded. ‘We can talk about it later. Right now, we need to get Megan home. Again.’
Mum, Trent, Anna, and I sat on the grass looking out to the ocean at Burleigh Headland. Sonny laughed and ran around with Bruno, who snorted, huffed, and drooled on him. Sonny had cried most of the morning, but a child can only mourn on and off, and the dog was good for taking his mind off things. It was terrible to think of Sonny growing up without Rick and Carey, especially with his abilities. The entire Gold Coast would feel the loss. Nanna Albright was devastated.
‘I’ll keep running the vans this week until I can find someone to take over,’ said Trent.
‘I’ll go with you,’ I said.
‘We’ll all pitch in,’ said Anna.
‘You and Sonny will stay with Nanna Albright?’ Mum asked Trent.
‘Yes,’ he smiled. ‘And Bruno.’
The wind was fresh and cool. Megan was home now with her parents, with little memory as to what happened, thanks to Anna. Her parents were confused as to why she kept ‘running away,’ but it was best they never know the alternative.
Trent stood and went to join Sonny and Bruno on the grass.
‘Hamish is finally free, Mouse. You did that for him,’ said Anna.
‘It was something he couldn’t do for himself, Modesta,’ Mum said. ‘You set free his true mother, as well. They’ll be together as we speak. Remember them like that, and you soon see the silver lining.’
‘Thanks, Mum. That helps. I would assume you do that with Cat?’ I asked.
Anna looked up at us. Mum nodded. ‘Sí. It helps to think that way.’
‘I might need you to remind me every now and then.’
‘That, I can do.’ Mum put her arm around my shoulders. ‘I knows you do not believe this, Modesta. But God has a plan. You are sometimes asked to intervene. Sometimes you are not. Sometimes, people must go to him, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
‘You really believe that, don’t you, Mum?’
She squeeze
d my hand. ‘I do, my angel. Most the definitely … I do.’
About the Author
Hayley Merelle Clearihan (HMC) is a freelance writer, teacher, and artist who resides on the Gold Coast, Australia. She has a degree in psychology, writes a column for an online magazine, and blogs about global issues like the beauty myth, asylum seekers, and gay rights. Hayley also believes in magic.
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