by Maaja Wentz
Holding it to her chest, Aunt Helen began to chant Jack Waldock’s name.
Priya arrived and Tonya waved her in. She and Drake stared slack-jawed at the emaciated woman in the bed, clutching the hand and mumbling to it. Was she summoning Waldock?
Aunt Helen answered her thought. “I’m drawing him back into his own body.”
The gray outline of a man flickered in and out of existence on top of the covers. It looked like a hologram of Waldock, as he must have been just before he died—middle-aged but muscular, with a self-satisfied smile.
And then she felt It start to materialize; the Entity in her head; the being who had blinded her and controlled her and poisoned her mind with visions of death.
“Stop! You can’t bring him back.”
“I am back.”
Tonya recognized Roberto’s voice. She turned her head to see Roberto/Waldock blocking the doorway, shoulder to shoulder with the pearl-wearing Doctor.
Aunt Helen gasped. “Jack!”
Tonya could feel her aunt’s energy spiking into the hand, the phantom Jack flickering a bit more into existence each time the energy peaked. If she kept going, would they end up fighting against two Waldocks?
One that we can kill, her aunt replied in Tonya’s head.
Roberto/ Waldock strode into the room and tried to snatch the hand from her but Aunt Helen rolled away from him and slipped it under the covers.
“It’s mine.” Waldock shook his head. “Poor Helen, I thought you’d turned your back on necromancy.”
“You’d be surprised what a desperate woman will do.”
“My associate tells me you’re about to have surgery.” He clasped his hands and bowed his head in mock concern.
“You implanted this cancer seed.” Aunt Helen tried to sit up.
“It was merely insurance. You made me use it.”
“Oh Jack. Since we were kids, every nasty thing you ever did was always somebody else’s fault.”
“You aren’t blameless.” He put an arm around the Pearl Doctor’s waist. “You tried to kill this lovely lady.”
“My friend was already dead before you raised her. She deserved to rest in peace.”
“She hurt me.” The Pearl Doctor pouted at Waldock and hung off his arm.
Waldock kissed the top of her head. “Never again, I promise.”
“What about Roberto?” Drake pointed at Waldock. “You killed him and took his body.”
“Don’t worry,” Waldock touched the side of his head. “Your friend is still in here, along with all the others absorbed into the Entity.”
“Let them free!” Tonya cried.
“I need their knowledge. When your aunt put me in the ground, she stole years of my life that can never be regained. It’s not my fault I require many lesser minds to return me to the cutting edge, where I belong.”
“And when you’re done using them, will you toss them away? I presume you’ve fed their bodies to that Entity of yours.” Aunt Helen sighed, her voice fading to a whisper. “All those innocent lives, just to reanimate one devil.”
“But what a handsome devil.” Roberto/ Waldock flexed his muscles.
Tonya had heard enough. She picked up a chair and smashed it over Waldock’s head, but it bounced off a protection ward.
“Careful. Don’t hurt yourself.” Roberto/Waldock and the Doctor beamed at each other. “Besides, you can’t kill me. I own you.” He edged toward her.
Tonya stood her ground, fists clenched. Drake and Priya stepped up to join her on either side. “Release Roberto or we will kill you.”
“Really, is that wise? Did Helen mention I can cure her cancer? Jack giveth and Jack taketh away.” He laughed. “Hurt me, and you lose the only chance to save your auntie.”
“Don’t listen,” said Aunt Helen. “Kill him.”
“Your noble sacrifice is misplaced.” Waldock sneered down at Aunt Helen. “It isn’t just Helen who will die if I am murdered,” said Waldock. “Do you think the Old Families will choose to age and wither when I can heal them?”
“My miracle worker.” The Pearl Doctor gave Waldock a squeeze.
“You raised a monster of dirt and bone,” said Tonya, “not a miracle.”
“That was when I was still trapped underground. Now that I’m back I can restore bodies. You’ve met Donna. As a youth, she had such bad arthritis she could barely walk. I made her whole again.”
Tonya objected, “To make her a slave who does what you say!”
“She chooses to support me because I’m right. Her mother died of Alzheimer’s, but I can promise she never will.
Waldock closed his eyes and Tonya felt his voice in her head, ordering her to punch Aunt Helen. Fighting the urge to obey, she walked toward the bed.
Waldock laughed. “Your mother would cheer if you hit her. Helen made her sell her house and leave town.”
“In jail, I spent a few hours with some of the people you’ve helped,” said Drake. “They were animals.”
Tonya was released from compulsion when Waldock responded. “Criminals are violent. You can’t hold me responsible for how they deal with frustration.”
“Like rabid animals!” said Drake.
“But better now. Now that I am embodied, I no longer need people’s energy. My gravedigger fungus will settle back into its natural state.
Drake looked puzzled. “What about its victims?”
“Lynette’s mind is gone,” said Tonya.
“Unless I absorbed her into here,” he tapped his temple, “she’s free to go. I’m not the villain your aunt says I am. She’s just old and bitter, a woman scorned. “He stepped around the bed to the wall side and caressed Aunt Helen’s head. “Isn’t that right, my Love?”
Helen flinched but when Tonya moved to intervene, she raised a trembling hand to stay her.
“You once had hair like a raven’s wing.” Waldock gently propped her head on a pillow.
“Is that why you’ve cursed me?”
“Oh Darling, it feels like you buried me only yesterday.”
“How nostalgic,” her aunt scoffed.
“I’m more interested in the future. Roberto’s madre and padre will be so proud!”
“Jack is legendary.” The Pearl Doctor nodded.
“What about the firefighters?” said Priya. “When they come to, they’ll be so ashamed of what they did to us.”
“They’ll have a memory blackout, that’s all. You burned down the cemetery, not me.”
“You were making people eat themselves to death,” said Tonya.
Waldock dismissed her with a flick of the wrist. “You destroyed the Three-Century Ash. Both sides will oppose you when my acolytes take charge.”
“The only sides are good and evil, and you are evil.” Tonya raised a finger.
“Wrong.” He turned his attention to Aunt Helen. “I offer power and knowledge and adventure, good things,” he crooned to Aunt Helen. “Why else would you have come so willingly?”
Helen looked to Tonya. “It was a mistake.”
“You enjoyed every minute until you betrayed me.”
Aunt Helen turned away.
A wave of melancholy washed through Tonya, except it wasn’t Waldock’s manipulations or visions of Pompeii. He was right. Aunt Helen had betrayed her family, but she didn’t deserve to die. “Cure her cancer and I’ll help you.”
“No!” said Priya.
Drake caught her eye. “Are you sure?”
“You won’t regret this.” Waldock leaned on the bed. “I can perform miracles. The Trads want us to stand idle, waiting for death.” He reached for the hand unerringly, as if he could sense it beneath the bedsheets.
“Don’t do this.” Aunt Helen gave Tonya the hand. “Keep it for me. Now go!”
“With the hand, he can come back in his own body. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Her aunt didn’t deny it.
“If he’s in his body, it will free Roberto.”
“Yes, give me the hand. W
e want the same thing.” Waldock edged toward her.
Her friends tried to hold her back, but Tonya closed the gap, holding the hand out to him. Waldock clamped a Roberto-sized hand around hers, so she couldn’t let go of the slimy member, at the same time pulling her to him and wrapping his free arm around her. She was trapped, looking up at Roberto’s square chin as the stench of chemicals gave way to rancid meat burning as he drained her power through the dead limb into himself. Tonya struggled to get away, but Roberto’s athletic arms wouldn’t budge.
“You have even more ability than your aunt.” Waldock crushed her to him with one arm and used the other hand to fling the necklace out of her pocket. “Time to let loose.”
Power rushed through her. Tonya wanted to resist, wanted to stop him from draining her but didn’t know how.
“Feel that!” He laughed.
“Let go!” Aunt Helen reached for Tonya. “He isn’t trying to save me. He wants revenge and he’ll kill you just to hurt me.”
“How can you say that?” Waldock’s jaw dropped in mock dismay. Tonya felt him extract a big rush of energy. He started to giggle. Tonya remembered the same pleasure reaction as life force rushed into her under the Ash Tree.
Something expanded between them, pushing her back. His body was regrowing from wrist to arm, to shoulder and beyond until Waldock was complete, a blonde, smooth-faced version of the Waldock her aunt had tried to conjure. This young Waldock grabbed hold of her and Tonya saw stars as the energy drain increased two-fold. She felt herself blacking out. Roberto’s body fell to the floor. She was helpless to resist or even slow him down. If she didn’t break the connection soon, it would kill her.
Or she could replenish her energy. Closing her eyes, she sought out plant sources of life energy, but she was in a cement tower, stories above a concrete city. In her craving, the visible world disappeared, and Tonya saw only dark space around her, populated by points of light pulsing with energy. People, each a glowing point in her mind’s eye.
The hospital around her transformed into a three-dimensional map in her head, a space composed of energy, and darkness. She reached out to these light points, drawing power from glowing sources in every room on every floor of the hospital. Go gentle, she told herself; these weren’t trees.
She forced herself to sense the busy rush of doctors and nurses in the halls, the straining of orderlies lifting patients, the impatience of coffee drinkers lined up in the basement cafeteria. All that pulsing energy belonged to human beings. Take too much, and she would kill them.
As their power rushed through her into Waldock, his voice grew deeper and stronger. “You have the gift. No going back now. Take what you need.”
Through gritted teeth, unable to hold back the energy he drew through her, Tonya said, “You’re back in your body. Let me go.”
“Sure kid, in a little while.”
Tonya knew he didn’t need to keep draining her. He shone brightest among all the points in her mental array. Some of the people were starting to fade. They would blink out soon but the harder he drained her, the more she was forced to drain them.
“Stop!”
“Whatever you say.” He started draining her twice as fast.
Tonya saw fireworks. Unless she replaced the energy he was taking, she would die in seconds. Could she reach out even farther, to people in the streets, to trees planted in the nearby park? How far could she extend her reach and just how far would he force her to go?
She opened her eyes and caught Waldock smiling. He didn’t care how far she could reach. He would keep draining until it killed her, or she killed every person in this hospital to stay alive. She had to end it, but how? He’d brought himself back from the dead. Even if she had a gun and she shot him, it wouldn’t stop him. She had to use magic.
Waldock’s example had taught Tonya to draw life force from people. She decided to let go the fading sparks of life around her and concentrate on the biggest source.
At first, Waldock was so ebullient he didn’t notice Tonya drawing energy back out of him. Once he did, he tried to let go but she held him in a supernatural bond physical struggles couldn’t break.
Now that she focused on a single source, the energy passed into her faster than before. She could sense she had enough to survive now, more than enough, more than she’d ever felt. She became lightheaded and giggly, and powerful and fierce. She really should stop!
She let the excess float her and Waldock off the ground until their heads grazed the ceiling like balloons. She made them turn a somersault in the air, laughing at Waldock’s threats and curses. The universe was buoyant, ebullient—ecstatic. Her chest expanded until it felt about to burst.
Waldock felt heavy again, dragging her down until they settled to the floor. The chill of hospital tiles under her feet shocked her back to reality. Waldock had passed out.
“Is he dead?” her aunt asked.
“Not quite,” said Tonya.
“Bring him here.”
“No.” Her newly awakened senses told her she would soon reach the dregs of Jack Waldock’s life force, and a greedy new part of her wanted it all.
Drake and Priya carried Waldock’s limp body and she came with them. Automatically she started drawing energy from Drake too. He jumped back as if stung.
“You must let go now,” said Aunt Helen. “Leave Waldock to me.”
Tonya tried—she really tried—but it wasn’t just the pleasure of energy rushing in that made it impossible to stop. She had turned into a collapsing star and all life force sought her center of gravity. She wasn’t Tonya anymore, she was a creature of energy.
“Stop now!” her aunt ordered.
It was dreamy, swimming in this excited sea, roiling with power. It bubbled in her brain and made her toes tingle. She floated up and turned a cartwheel in the air as little lightning bolts escaped her fingers and toes, lighting the room in pinks and blues.
The lights went out. Tonya dropped as something about Waldock’s energy changed. It started to hurt going in, as if she were drawing tar into her veins and sand into her lungs. As she reached the bottom of Waldock’s reserves, her head exploded with pain. This tarry force was not from life. Quite the opposite. This must be what Waldock gleaned from the dead.
Tonya reeled back, throwing her hands out as she fell, blind. She didn’t want his wretched power anymore, but she couldn’t break the connection. From across the room death force rushed from Waldock’s body into hers until she was brimming with it.
“Bring her to me!” Aunt Helen’s voice was strong again.
Drake picked her up and set her onto her aunt’s bed. She opened her eyes and found herself eyeball-to-eyeball with Jack Waldock’s desiccated face. Ugh!
Her energy draining had mummified him. Yet she still couldn’t stop. She was Hunger, existing only to fill a never-ending void.
Aunt Helen took a deep breath and gathered Tonya’s and the corpse’s hands together. Tonya struggled to break free, but her aunt held firm and started to chant. As Tonya felt the black tar energy start to flow out of her, Aunt Helen began screaming, so loud and so long that screaming was the last thing Tonya remembered.
A NEW KIND OF MAGIC
Tonya awoke in a strange room. Through faded curtains, early morning light revealed a cheap white dresser. She was lying in an iron bed, layered with chipped paint. She slipped her legs over the side of the bed and sat up. On the floor sat a backpack, overflowing with her clothes. Where was she?
Tonya went to the tiny window and slid it open. Cool, pine-scented air filled her lungs and chickadees trilled in the trees. Could she be living in a forest?
“Give me a few more days!” An angry voice penetrated the flimsy wall.
Tonya opened her door and peeked out. The modest bedroom opened into a narrow kitchen-living room where Aunt Helen was arguing into the phone.
“I couldn’t do it without her.” Her aunt sighed. “Let me worry about blame.”
“Hello?” Tonya’s voice ca
me out soft and phlegmy.
“I’ll call you back.” Helen hung up. “You’re awake!” Helen came and embraced her. “Are you hungry?”
“Not really.”
Her Aunt beamed. “I knew you’d pull through. You’re a powerful young woman.” She cupped Tonya’s face in her hands. “There’s color in your cheeks again.”
“Your face is smooth again and your hair . . .” Platinum white, her aunt’s hair looked thick and shiny, tied up in its usual ponytail. “Did you have the operation?”
“No need. When we overcame Waldock, I sent all his poison back into him.”
“Where are Priya and Drake? Where are my parents?”
“Everybody’s fine but we have something to discuss.”
“Where are we?”
“Eat something first. You’ve been lying in bed for three weeks. All you’ve had is soup.”
“Why?”
“Channeling energy is hard on you. Don’t worry, recovery time gets shorter with training.”
“Why aren’t my parents taking care of me?”
“Your parents are fine. I can break the enchantment and bring them back any time, but first I wanted to talk to you.”
“How can you use magic against your own sister, to suit your schedule? You’re a . . .” Tonya felt her face flush. Her heart pounded. “You’re a psychopath!”
“No, I feel plenty of guilt. Let me come clean?”
“What else have you done?”
“We’re both guilty of using death magic.”
“So, keep it a secret. We had no choice.”
It leaves an indelible trace.” She held out her white ponytail to illustrate the point. “Have you seen yourself in a mirror?”
Tonya let her hair fall forward over her face. It was silver blonde.
“What did you do to my hair!” She leapt to her feet.
“I tried to spare you. You must know that.”
Helen tried to take Tonya’s hands.
“Don’t touch me!”
“The leaf necklace was supposed to stop you.”
“I thought you were helping me!”
“I tried to.”
“You should have taught me how to use magic safely, years ago.” Tonya felt like slapping her.