by Dana Davis
Daisy didn’t dare tell anyone what really happened for fear of what Mother would do in retaliation, and she always kept her gaze on the woman’s shoes, dark brown shoes with laces, pointy toes, and thick heels.
Wait. Mom never wore those clothes. Daisy tried to separate herself from the memories but the darkness drew her back.
On her sixteenth birthday, Mother tried to beat her again. This time with a broomstick. But Daisy was bigger now, stronger. She took the broomstick away and swung at the woman’s head. Over and over and over again. Until that mouth no longer spouted hateful words. Until those arms no longer reached out and smacked her, punched her, or burned her. Until those thick legs no longer kicked her. Until Mother no longer moved. At all.
With a new sense of calmness, Daisy put the body in a burlap sack, waited until dark, then dragged it out into the nearby field. She rolled Mother’s body into an old well that had gone dry, shoveled dirt in, then replaced the boards that covered the well, sealing it so no unsuspecting child might fall in.
Her hatred was satiated. For a while. Until the day a woman headed into the local mercantile scolded her for not looking where she was going. That woman had the same disdainful look as Mother. Daisy waited for the woman by the side of the road and killed her, making it look like a robbery gone bad. She took a few coins for herself and threw the rest in the lake so no one would suspect anything. Again, that calmness came over her.
The next kill was a man who looked like Father. Father, who had abandoned her, left her at the mercy of Mother’s twisted discipline. Again, she was satiated. Until the next one.
Wait! Stop! Daisy struggled with the darkness, pressing it back. This isn’t my life. These aren’t my memories. These are his memories. He had entered her body. She’d lost the fight against him. I’m the vessel.
His childhood memories surfaced again causing empathy and sorrow to wash over her. No child should have to go through that. Ever. That made the hitchhiker pause, let his guard down, enough that she could move and see through her own eyes again. Noah. The sight of her husband lying on the ground gave her the strength to fight again.
With effort, she managed to turn her head back to the mirror. Punk girl Lisa peered at her from behind the glass, along with Gerty, the woman who always dressed in white. They were waiting to help, waiting for a necromancer’s orders to take this soul back into the afterlife.
But they can’t because he’s connected to me. And I’m still in the living world. Daisy knew what she had to do. I’m so sorry, Noah. I can’t let him loose again. Please forgive me but I can’t let him kill again. A volcano of grief boiled up and she shoved it down, reminding herself that she would see her husband, her lover, her best friend again. Someday.
Like a vacuum in reverse, Daisy willed her aura to grab power from Kali, from Scarlet, and pull it toward her. She drank the power through the link like a thirsty baby to a bottle and wrapped her consciousness around the inky intruder, binding him with her will, forcing him under her control. He struggled, trying to wrench free. But before he could break from her hold, she plunged them both toward the waiting souls in the mirror.
* * * *
“Daisy!” Bridgette cried as Daisy toppled into the mirror, knocking it over. She raced to her unconscious cousin, not caring that she crossed the circle now, and relief flooded her when she felt a pulse. Noah squealed, unable to anything else under a trussing spell. “Let him go, Brendon! Let him go!”
Brendon countered the trussing spell and Noah scurried to his wife, cursing, and cradled her unconscious body against himself.
Zoey cried out and Bridgette barely made it to the girl before she collapsed. “Scarlet, what’s—” When she looked over, Scarlet and Kali were lying on the ground. Both unconscious. Fay rushed over to the two women. What the fuck is happening! “Zoey? Can you hear me?”
Simon, still bound but not trussed, began to buck and scoot toward the circle barrier. Marge cast a trussing spell before Bridgette could and the siren froze, unable to move now. With Scarlet and Kali down, they couldn’t use him as a vessel now anyway.
Bridgette gave Zoey a gentle shake but got no reaction. The girl somehow held onto the Dream Catcher box, as though her hands were glued to it. The box lid was open and, as usual, Bridgette saw nothing inside. She felt the girl’s pulse at her slender neck. Rapid but strong. “Noah? How’s Daisy?”
“She’s out but she’s breathing. Her pulse is racing and I can feel her twitch once in a while, but I can’t see anything else wrong with her. What do you hear? Is he still with her?”
Bridgette was already opening her senses. She caught barely controlled panic, mixed with anger, coming from Noah. She got no more than sporadic whispers from Daisy, Zoey, Scarlet and Kali. “Her thoughts aren’t clear to me right now. None of them are. Keep calm, Noah. The hitchhiker won’t hurt her, remember.” Yet. “He needs her.” Take your own advice and don’t panic.
A tiny look of relief found Noah’s face and he nodded. “How’s Zoey?”
Bridgette glanced at the head she now cradled on her lap. “Out of it. Like the rest of them.” I wish I knew what the fuck was going on here. Scarlet didn’t mention anything like this.
Fay’s short blonde hair caught the lantern light as she moved to Bridgette. “I got an impression – a psychic one – when I touched Scarlet.”
Bridgette studied the psychic witch in the dim light. “What did you see?”
“I didn’t see a vision like I usually do. Just got an impression that Scarlet was, I don’t know, with Daisy somehow. I can’t really explain it but I think the two of them are together on some level.”
“Telepathy?” A cool breeze lifted Bridgette’s long hair into her face and she brushed it back.
“Maybe. I don’t really know.”
“Fay?” Noah’s voice sounded strained, on the verge of panic again. “Can you get anything from Daisy?”
Fay reached out a hand and touched Daisy’s foot. After a moment, she shook her head. “Sorry, Noah. I didn’t get anything from Kali, either. But that’s normal with necros, especially when they’re working.”
Kali! Can you hear me? Bridgette received no response from the telepathic necro. Not that she expected to, since Kali rarely used those powers, but she had to try something. They had run out of options.
She gave a pointed look to Simon and Cleo, as Jay stood over the trussed siblings like a sentry. She dropped her voice in the current stillness of the cemetery. “If anything happens to any one of these women, if I even see a single fucking hangnail when they come to, you sirens will wish you’d never been born.” The hitchhiker wasn’t here because of anything the sirens had done but she felt better threatening someone. And these two had caused more than enough trouble as far as she was concerned.
Cleo’s eyes grew fearful for a moment, realizing the seriousness of Bridgette’s threat. About time the bitch took me serious. And I mean it. I’ll do whatever I need to keep Daisy and the rest safe.
Her mother tapped Cleo on the leg with one of her crutches. “You had better listen to my daughter. We’ve got a large family and many friends who’ll gladly help us rid the world of a couple of sirens. Permanently. All I have to do is give the word.”
Marge turned and caught Bridgette’s gaze in the dim light, and Bridgette was glad she wasn’t on the other end of that threat. Though the woman might be exaggerating about the ease of carrying out a death threat, Margaret McDougal never bluffed. Bridgette suddenly got a new respect for her mother.
“What do we do now?” Noah said in a small voice. “Do we call the hospital?”
How the fuck should I know? Bridgette glanced at Zoey, Kali, Scarlet, and finally Daisy. Don’t you dare die on me again. I mean it, Cousin. I’ll cross over and kick your sorry ass if you do.
She swallowed back a sob and forced herself to stay quiet, so that she could hear nearby crickets and the hum of an occasional car. With that quiet came something else. Something she’d learned long ago, one of t
he first lessons her mother had ever taught her. Trust my instincts.
With her mother’s gaze on her, she stilled her thoughts and let those instincts come through.
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* * * *
Chapter 33
Come Back and Stay
Daisy stood on a walkway surrounded by mist. The slimy, dark figure in her grasp struggled to get free and she wrapped her arms tighter around it, making certain it wouldn’t get away from her. Electricity shot through her body with every movement but she held on. Had she been in the living world, she would be the slave, not the captor. Like last time she was here, death made her stronger.
A large figure moved toward her from the mist and she smiled at the familiar face. “Gerty.”
The large woman in the white dress and apron said nothing. She simply turned and started to walk away, pausing until Daisy followed.
The hitchhiker writhed and whined, sending waves of pain through Daisy’s body. She grit her teeth, and tightened her grip, exhaling in short spurts, like a woman in labor, to release some of the pain. Every step jolted electricity through her but she refused to cry out as she followed Gerty through the mist. The path wound this way and that, draining her with every step. Just when she thought she might give in to the pain and release her captive, she saw the familiar house. Gerty’s house. The place where she’d first met the woman at a Halloween party on Samhain night.
The large woman stepped to one side of the path and motioned her past. She looked afraid to get close to the inky spirit in Daisy’s grasp. Daisy followed Gerty’s gaze, until she saw the shed behind the woman’s house. The one where she’d been trapped the last time she’d come here. Unlike last time, a rainbow arched upward from the building and disappeared into the purple darkness above. The pastel colors rippled and waved as though made of water.
Like a light bulb suddenly going off above her head, Daisy knew exactly what she needed to do. Pain shot through her with every movement but she held on with determination and managed to drag the dark spirit forward. Just before she reached the shed, something pulled at her from behind and she turned.
The words came to her in a soft whisper but she recognized the voice. Bridgette. The woman was trying to bring her back, healing spells giving a gentle tug toward life.
A pang of sorrow filled Daisy and a tear fled down her cheek. Not this time, dear cousin. I can’t. I’m sorry.
She opened the shed door, yanked the hitchhiker inside with her, and closed the door behind them, cutting off Bridgette’s whispers. Everything looked just the same as the last time she’d been here. The bare bulb still hung from the ceiling. The gardener’s workbench stood to one side, tools and flowered gloves lying on it. She glanced behind her. The door where she had entered the shed was now gone. Unlike last time, no other door appeared on the far wall. No way to escape. The hitchhiker grew frantic, trying to break free of her grasp.
She yanked it close, swallowing a cry of pain as electricity shot through her again. When she finally got her voice, she said, “That won’t do you any good.”
It quivered with anger and let out a piteous cry that sent another shockwave through her body. White sparks lit up around her as she held onto it. She cried out but refused to let it run free. Reaching deep within herself, she tapped into the rainbow of colors that swelled in her mind’s eye, the rainbow that extended upward from this very shed. She concentrated on the spider web strand that connected her to it and, like water dripping down a rope, she drew strength down from the rainbow, letting it fill her with power.
The hideous spirit bucked and screamed with terror as it tried to get out of her grasp.
“Enough!” With much more ease than before, she dragged it across the room to where the next door should’ve appeared but hadn’t. The spirit renewed its struggle but her strength had grown and she now held it to her with a single arm, like a naughty toddler. She placed her other hand on the bare wall. “Open.” Nothing happened so she banged on the wall, ignoring the pain against her palm. “Open! I command you!”
The wall in front of her waved like summer heat on asphalt. First, a small hole appeared, no larger than her finger. As she watched, it cut through the wall in a dizzying swirl pattern, expanding with each revolution to reveal the darkness behind, until it created a doorway as tall as a person. Hot air lifted Daisy’s hair as she peered into the darkened area, careful not to cross into it.
“Where are you?” She waited a moment, breathing deeply as she struggled to hold onto the rainbow of light in her mind and keep the inky spirit under control. “I know you’re there. Show yourself.”
A figure walked toward her from the darkness. As he grew closer, boils on his face howled in agony and he gave off a stench of death. “What do you want?” The Anguisher’s voice aggravated her ears. “Have you come to give my Dream Catcher back to me?”
“No. You can never have Zoey. She’s protected. You will never get her.” Daisy didn’t question how she knew that. Some things simply became clear once a person died.
The Anguisher frowned and his facial boils howled all the more. “Then go away!” He turned away from her.
“Not yet. I brought you something else.”
He stopped and his head slowly moved back to her, drawing the rest of him around. A smile grew on his cracked lips, baring yellow teeth that matched his jaundice eyes. “Oh? What did you bring me?”
“This.” The hitchhiker bucked, trying to get away, but it was no match for her strength now and Daisy shoved it through the doorway.
The Anguisher, landlord of the underworld, keeper of the darkness, unhinged his jaw and sucked the screaming spirit into his gaping mouth. Then, without so much as a thank you, he turned and walked away from her.
The doorway between the worlds collapsed in on itself. The rainbow colors from her mind’s eye slipped away and she fell to her knees. It’s done. Finished. My family is safe now. Images of her family and friends moved across her mental vision and she wept for those she left behind.
After a moment, or maybe a lifetime, she stood and wiped away her tears. She felt stronger now, whole. Death did that to a person. She crossed to the other side of the shed, where she had entered, and knocked on the wall. The door appeared and she opened it.
Gerty stood on the other side, a huge grin on her face. The ample woman took Daisy in her arms. “Oh, look atcha, darlin’,” she said in the southern drawl that she could easily break out of when she chose. “Just look atcha. You’re amazin’! Surprised us all, you did.”
“I missed you, Gerty.” Tears spilled from her eyes again as she hugged the woman.
“Well, you won’t be missin’ me no more. I’ll always be with you now, darlin’.” After a moment, those large, strong hands forced Daisy from the hug and thumbs swiped at her tears. “No more cryin’. There’s someone who’s been waitin’ to see you.” Gerty took Daisy by the shoulders and turned her around.
Kali stood on the pathway, not quite solid, since she was in the living world. Two spirits stood next to her.
“Mom! Dad!” Daisy ran into their embrace.
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* * * *
Chapter 34
No More Tears
“Daisy? Not again. Daisy!” Noah sounded like he was just a thought away from total panic now. “She’s not coming out of it, Bridgette. We need to get her to a hospital. Damnit!”
Bridgette’s heart hammered against her ribs as her own panic threatened to shut down her thought process. The fucking healing spells didn’t work. I thought for sure they’d work. “I don’t—” Zoey gave a sudden gasp and a hard spasm. “Shit! Zoey?” The girl’s eyes fluttered open. She coughed. Bridgette let out a sob of relief and helped her sit, the Dream Catcher box still clasped in the girl’s hands. “What the fuck happened?”
Despite Bridgette’s efforts to keep her still, Zoey scooted to Daisy and shook her arm. “Daisy? Daisy, come back. Daisy! Get your ass back here now, woman!”
To B
ridgette’s utter shock, Daisy suddenly gasped to life.
Noah grabbed onto his wife as though he were a drowning man and she a life preserver. “Oh, Daisy. Thank the universe. Oh, honey.” He rocked her, sniffing back tears.
As Bridgette reached over to touch her cousin, partly to convince herself that Daisy was really back, Scarlet and Kali coughed and groaned their way to consciousness. She opened her telepathic senses and got incomplete thoughts from them, but there was no trace of the hitchhiker’s presence that she could detect. From any of them. Whatever they’d done had worked. The bastard was gone.
Noah eyed Bridgette. “Is she okay? Is that thing still in her?”
“I’m okay, Noah.” Daisy’s voice sounded a bit raspy and she took in a deep breath, followed by a cough. One hand reached up to her husband’s face. “The hitchhiker’s gone. I’m okay. I promise.”
Noah planted several kisses on Daisy’s lips and face. “Damn you, Daisy. You scared the hell out of me. I thought I lost you.” He pulled his wife close and the two held each other for a moment.
Bridgette simply watched as Jay helped her and Zoey to their feet, relief and waning adrenaline making her tired.
Zoey leaned her butt against a headstone, the jeweled box cradled in her arms like an infant. “What the hell was that, Daisy? How did you know what to do?”
“I didn’t. Not until I got there anyway.” She stood with Noah’s help and faced Scarlet and Kali, who were also on their feet now as Fay fussed over them. “I just trusted my instincts.”
Bridgette, no longer content to remain still, crossed to Daisy and took her into a hug. “Great fucking instincts, if you ask me.” Better than mine, evidently. She felt her mother embrace the two of them, a metal crutch clicking against the headstone.