“No,” Eric said, ignoring the yelling. “Like my parents and my grandparents before them, I am a sorcerer.”
The room was suddenly filled with thick silence. No one said a word. The only sounds were the ticking of an old grandfather clock in the corner of the room and the crackling of the fire.
Eric sat back awkwardly, awaiting his friends’ reactions.
Autumn was surprised, but she wasn’t frightened. If anything, she was relieved. This explained so much about Eric. His actions, his reputation and his need to distance himself from others.
“So you are a wizard,” Autumn said, smiling.
“Like in the movies!” Nathaniel added.
Eric couldn’t help but smile wryly at the comparison he most likely saw coming.
“Not exactly. Many of my spells require rituals to be performed although some of them are instantaneous. Oh, and I don’t have a wand to shoot them out of, though that would come in handy at times.”
“Eric, I knew you were … different,” Autumn began, carefully choosing her words. “But I definitely didn’t see this coming.”
“Ever since last night, we haven’t seen much coming,” Mandy said dryly.
“Now you understand why I keep my distance from people at school,” Eric said pensively. “Harbouring a secret like this, it’s difficult and lonely. I have to keep people at arm’s length.”
He looked at Autumn. “But you changed that Autumn. When we first met, I knew I couldn’t push you away. I wanted to trust you.”
Autumn smiled, feeling a rush of affection for Eric. She had a sudden urge to hug him and never let go.
Now everything made sense. Why people feared Eric, why he was so peculiar. She felt special knowing she was the catalyst for him finally sharing his secret.
“I just approached you because I thought you were hot,” Autumn teased.
Eric went on to explain that witchcraft was the King family legacy.
“The Kings have been sorcerers for generations,” he clarified. “Both the men and women throughout our bloodline practiced magics. Kings have the innate ability to conjure magics. It’s like a gift and a curse all at once.”
“So you are like a man witch,” Nathaniel reasoned.
“I prefer, warlock. Women are enchantresses,” Eric said. “I guess you could call me a man witch, if you really wanted, but I wouldn’t like it.”
“Then man witch it is,” Nathaniel said gleefully.
“So your mother and father must be sorcerers too,” Autumn said. She was both baffled and intrigued by Eric’s lineage.
“Yes, they were,” Eric said. He hung his head for a second and when he looked back up, he wore an expression of sorrow.
Were as in the past tense?
Autumn got a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Again, the room was thick with familiar silence and tension as Eric looked from his clasped hands, to the anxious faces surrounding him.
“My parents died,” he said finally.
Nathaniel exhaled loudly. “So are dead parents like a must for people doing magic or what?” he asked crudely.
Autumn didn’t hesitate. She shot Nathaniel a deadly glare before she elbowed him generously in the side.
“Ow Autumn!” he said then he looked at Eric apologetically. “Sorry man.”
“Here’s a tip Nate. Before you saying anything, double check if it’s stupid or not,” Mandy snapped.
“It’s alright,” Eric said graciously. “Everyone reacts differently when I tell them. It happened when I was young. Of course, it’s not something you ever really get over, but I have learned to live with it.”
“I’m sorry Eric,” Autumn said gravely. She wanted so badly to comfort him, though she wasn’t sure how.
“Me too Eric,” Mandy said quietly.
Rick looked at Eric pityingly. Rick was close to his parents like no teenage guy Autumn had ever known. He of all people could understand how hard it would be without them. In fact, they all could.
“That’s rough man. What happened?” Rick asked.
Eric didn’t respond and Rick flushed, looking sheepish.
“Sorry. I mean, if you want to tell us …” he trailed off.
Eric nodded. “It’s fine. I can talk about it now.” He took a long, deep breath. “Simply put, my mother and father went to the caves, and they never came back.”
“I knew very little of what happened when I was a boy. Everyone around me tried their best to protect me from the truth. It wasn’t until I got older that Arabella told me. They were going to perform a ritual to permanently cleanse and seal the caves.
“After practicing the magics for months and preparing every small detail, they went to perform the ritual. My parents and my uncle went. His job was to hold off anything that attacked, while mom and dad completed the ritual.
They were all set up inside the caves and ready to go. About halfway into the ritual, the caves began to rumble and shake. The rocks began falling, the walls quaking, and my sister swore she saw thick, black ooze dripping from the cave walls.”
As Eric spoke, everyone watched him, on the edge of their seats. He was definitely a natural storyteller, very eloquent and expressive. What made it all the more chilling was the tale wasn’t fictitious. The story was true.
“Your sister was with them?” Autumn asked, surprised.
“No. She wasn’t there, literally. She was what we call scrying, though she wasn’t even supposed to be doing that,” Eric said, shaking his head. “She was essentially watching what was happening through magics. Kind of like a crystal ball.”
“Arabella said, at first, my uncle was having no issues. He was shooting off spells with no problems. He was a well-trained warlock and knew many instantaneous spells to fight off evil. Soon, the black ooze began spawning creatures.
My uncle was fending them off but ultimately the monsters began coming in droves. Creatures of all shapes and sizes attacked, trying their best to stop the ritual. He was overwhelmed. My sister was using the scrying bowl to try to heal people, but she couldn’t keep up. Her magic wasn’t powerful enough. She was far too young and inexperienced.
As soon as she healed someone they were injured again and in the end, the injuries were too serious for her magics to fix. So instead, she continued to watch on helplessly. My uncle died first. A monster bit into his throat. He bled out on the cave floor while listening to my parents struggling to survive.
With their guard down, my parents tried to abandon the ritual and escape, but it was too late. The exits were blocked with throngs of monsters.
Eric paused, obviously struggling to continue. Autumn couldn’t resist anymore. She shot up out of her seat and rushed over to Eric. She leaned over and hugged him where he was sitting, and he held her back, tightly embracing her.
“Thanks Autumn,” he murmured. “I needed that.”
“I bet you did,” Nathaniel muttered.
“If you can’t go on, we would understand,” Autumn said gently.
Eric touched her hand, squeezing it in his own.
“I want to keep going,” he said firmly. “This is why you are all here, to learn about me and the caves. I need to tell you guys the whole story.”
“Okay then. When you’re ready, we’re all ears,” Autumn said as she took a seat in the recliner next to his. She looked around at her friends. They were all waiting for him to continue.
Eric cleared his throat.
“With no escape, and my sister unable to do anything but watch, my parents died in the caves. They fought until their last, gasping breath, but it was futile. Even the three of them, all-powerful and knowledgeable sorcerers, could not take on all that evil.”
Autumn felt her heart wrench as tears escaped from her eyes. She couldn’t imagine losing her parents, especially so young. She knew it
then. Hunting and killing the cave monsters would be dangerous, but it was the right thing to do. The evil had to be contained. Someone had to finish what Eric’s parents had started, or more innocent people would die.
“My parent’s bodies were never found,” Eric went on, his fists clenched into tight balls. “Arabella had stopped watching. After they were gone, she couldn’t watch anymore.”
“The terrible thing is, the caves were not always dark and evil. At some point, they were probably just ordinary, boring, caves. However, someone or something summoned the evil that thrives there.”
“My parents were always convinced it was an evil sorcerer who awoke the darkness. They thought it was someone who had an ancient vendetta, or someone that loved chaos and death.”
“If you look into the history, it just gets worse. It started out as little things, sightings and strange noises, and eventually it escalated into missing people and deaths.” Eric said as he stood up and went over to the fireplace to tend to it.
“And now people are too terrified to do anything about it. They ease their fear by saying the stories aren’t real, but most people know someone that can attest otherwise.
They think ignorance is the safest bet, but the problem is, people don’t ignore those caves. Curiosity draws people there, and they keep dying and going missing. Like Renee and Caleb.”
“So they knew about your family and still insisted on going there?” Mandy asked, eyebrows arched in confusion.
“They wanted to be the ones to gain the family acclaim. I told them vengeance would come in due time, but Caleb was never one for patience. Unfortunately, he dragged Renee down with him.”
“We should go look for them,” Autumn said finally. “If we can get them out alive …”
“It’s too dangerous Aut. I went there last night in hopes of tracking them,” Eric said as he prodded the fire with a steel poker. “I think they went there Friday night after our big blow out. We would probably never find them. Best-case scenario, they are alive but not themselves anymore. Either way, they are beyond our help now.”
Eric went on, telling them the creatures never ventured too far from the caves. It was assumed they needed the caves dark energy to flourish and with so many people visiting the caves, they had a constant stream of easy prey.
“What about the police?” Nathaniel asked hopefully. “Are they any help?”
“Some have tried,” Eric said as he watched the fire. The flames flickered and began rising higher, licking the wood furiously. Autumn stared at Eric, one arm resting on the mantle, watching the flames as he spoke. This would be an image forever burned into her mind.
“They were foolish in the beginning. They let arrogance blind them, assumed the stories were folktales. They died and then more died, and eventually they avoided the caves at all costs. They gave their fair warning to the townspeople. The ‘Please stay away from the caves’ and when people didn’t heed their warnings, it was hear no evil, see no evil …”
“Speak no evil,” Mandy added wryly.
“Oh no! They speak of it,” Eric said bitterly. “When they are safe, behind their desks at the precinct or in the comfort and warmth of their homes.”
Autumn looked around. Mandy, Nathaniel and even Rick shared the same troubled expression. If trained police officers with loaded guns couldn’t take out the creatures, how could they? When push came to shove, they were just teenagers.
Maybe they were being foolish. Maybe when they spoke this morning about being vigilantes and fighting the good fight, maybe they were still high on last night’s adrenaline.
Now reality and logic, in all its ugliness, was setting in.
Still, there was that nagging thought in Autumn’s mind. It tugged at her, pawed for her attention, washed away all reason and replaced her doubt with certainty.
We aren’t them. We are different. She thought to herself.
She couldn’t ignore it.
We were born for this.
Was this the arrogance Eric spoke of? The same arrogance that caused Renee and Caleb to go missing in the caves abyss?
Everything Eric had told them was still sinking in when Autumn finally spoke up.
“Eric, we want to help.”
Eric, who had returned from the fireplace and was sitting back in his chair, looked at Autumn, perplexed.
“You want to help with what Autumn? I told you, the caves are too dangerous. I wouldn’t ever put you at risk.”
“We want to train and start kicking some monster ass!” Rick said. He didn’t appear the least bit apprehensive now. He was moving full speed ahead.
The color drained from Eric’s face. “Can you run that by me again?”
“This morning we discussed undergoing training and fighting the monsters ourselves,” Autumn clarified.
Eric nodded slowly. “And what makes you think you guys are capable of fighting those things? My own parents, my uncle, couldn’t handle what is inside those caves.”
Rick threw his shoulders back proudly. “To be honest, I beat that lizard thing up without much effort,” he said smugly. “And most of us are trained to fight in some form. Nathaniel hunts so he’d be our sniper. Mandy studied martial arts like me, and I can use a sword.”
“And Autumn would be …” Rick turned to Autumn, his brow furrowed in thought.
“ …the bait,” Autumn offered.
“You would definitely play the part of the beautiful damsel in distress well Autumn,” Eric said, giving her a half smile.
Then he turned to Rick. “You may have been victorious against one lizard man, as you call them, but as my family demonstrated, being faced with an onslaught is totally different. And if you went into the actual caves themselves, that would be a death sentence for everyone involved.”
Rick, ever the optimist, was not the least bit deterred by Eric.
“Well I understand that,” Rick went on. “Every good warrior knows his limits. That’s why we aren’t going back until we are all well-prepared.”
“Dude, I think we would start on the outskirts of the caves and work our way towards the oozy monster infested centre,” Nathaniel added.
“And if you are never ready Rick?” Eric prompted. “How will you know for sure?”
“I don’t think we will ever know for sure. Does a police officer know when he gets a call over his radio to stop a robbery that he is going to get shot?” Rick said. “No matter how hard he has trained and prepared, he could end up dead. That is the risk he takes every day.”
Eric sighed, rubbing his forehead. “That really didn’t help your case.”
Autumn knew Eric was hesitant, but she also knew how tempting having their help might be. His thirst for revenge would be palpable after what happened to his family. What better way to quench it than with a gang of friends at his side? He sat down, quietly pondering the idea.
“Truthfully, this town could use all the help it can get with the caves,” he admitted.
“And I can’t deny that I have been working on magic to banish the evil from the caves, for selfish reasons as well.” He paused. “Revenge can be a powerful motivator.”
“And have you come up with anything?” Autumn asked hopefully.
“There is a purification spell I have been working on, but I need more time,” Eric admitted. “I can’t take the risk my parents took. I am researching the spell, collecting the proper items and biding my time. The problem is, the longer I bide time, the more people disappear or die.”
Everyone seemed to be weighing Eric’s hefty words. Death was the end game for everyone. Autumn accepted that, but she didn’t want her number to be up before she made it to thirty.
“So our vigilante idea is pretty outrageous?” Rick looked to Eric, shuffling his feet against the carpet. Autumn never thought she would live to see the day when Rick was seeking Eric King’s app
roval.
“I think you guys are more courageous then most folks in this town are. I also think it’s completely dangerous.” Eric’s lips formed his familiar mischievous grin. “But I am more than willing to help you guys if you’d let me. We can fight the evil together and save this town.”
“Right on!” Rick said, throwing his fist into the air. “I didn’t think you could fight Eric.”
“He makes deals with demons,” Nathaniel said, rolling his eyes. “He just gets them to fight his battles for him.”
“I don’t usually fight per say, but I can hold my own. I can cast spells, create barriers of protection and give you all healing potions.”
“That would be awesome,” Rick admitted. “Every team needs a medic.”
Eric raised a hand in protest. “Now since we are being completely honest, I need to tell you guys something. If any of you get seriously injured, like say, a lizard man claws shank your heart, I can’t help you. I can only heal minor injuries, nothing dire. Pulling you back from the brink of death is all dependent on how close you are to his doorstep.”
Nathaniel’s face was grim. “So if we die …” he trailed off.
“Dead is dead,” Eric said simply. “I’m sorry to be so blunt about it, but what we plan on doing is risky. Life is precious, and we are gambling with it out there. You need to understand that. We all do. Even with safety nets in place, you don’t always land in them.”
“I don’t have any potions or know of any spells that bring people back to life without serious repercussions. Otherwise,” Eric trailed off. Autumn filled in the blanks for him.
Otherwise, he would’ve brought his family back.
Much to Rick’s delight, the sandwiches arrived. An assortment of deli-style beef and cheese, ham, and salmon sandwiches were placed on the coffee table along with tea, soda and coffee. Eric and the others thanked Simon, and everyone grabbed a sandwich or two except Rick, who took a half a dozen to start.
As they ate, surrounded by the glow from the fire, Eric discussed his magic with them, specifically the spell he was working on to seal the caves. He said it would ideally banish the creatures, and cleanse the evil aura of the caves.
A Night without Stars Page 16