by Martha Woods
He opened the door without unlocking it and walked inside. She understood why he wanted her to be careful. Many of the floorboards had long since decayed. There were holes in the floor where they had collapsed, and it looks like some were starting to fall in. Sara didn't focus on that very long. The inside of the house was a treasure trove of early American and ancient European artifacts. There were paintings, mostly portraits, and landscapes covering every square inch of the walls. Below they were console tables holding strange oddities like old metallic devices, music boxes and figurines. It was tasteful, but not in the refined way that that Sara would've expected from somebody in that time.
The foyer gave way to a marble staircase lined with a crumbling banister that branched off in both directions halfway up. Sitting on the center wall above the landing was a single picture of a blonde woman wearing a green dress with an emerald necklace. She reminded Sara of a supermodel, because she was tall with a straight neck.
She must've been somebody important, Sarah thought because there weren't any other portraits surrounding it. “Who's that?” She pointed at the painting.
“That's an old friend of my brother's.”
“She seems to have had a central place in your life as well if you're looking at her every time you walk in the door.”
“She did, but things changed over time. She was a witch.” He took her hand to lead her up the stairs. “I loved her dearly, but she betrayed me for my brother. She hated herself for doing it, but I couldn't take her back for that, not after what she'd done so she was forced to stay with him.”
“Is she alive still? I mean, can witches...”
“There're rumors of witches living beyond their natural years, but I've never seen it and I'm not sure I believe in it.” He turned to Sara. “We want to die at some point. We get tired. After centuries of living, your life and your ambitions begin to decay, and you forget about the future. After that, vampires long for death like an addict needs their fix. It's all they think of.”
“Witches can provide that.”
“They don't like to.” They reached the second floor. “It's a dangerous energy.”
The second floor was slippery. As they moved past the landing and into the hall, Sarah had to keep a close watch. There were holes in the floor everywhere. She stopped halfway down the corridor, and stared down a hole three times as large as she was. “This is terrible.”
“Here.” Caleb hopped over the hole and picked her up so he could carry her the rest of the way through decaying double doors that had fallen off their rusted hinges.
“Oh, wow.”
He set her down in the middle of a traditional English library, like the kind she'd see in Sherlock Holmes renditions where the walls were made of bookshelves that reached the bottom of the domed ceiling. In the center of the room was a circular object sitting on a golden pedestal that had been covered with an old gray cloth.
“What is that?”
He removed the cloth revealing a disk, nearly three feet in diameter, that was so black it looked like a hole had been cut in space. “During the spiritualist movement, a medium named Francesca Langdon had this black mirror carved and polished from a black obsidian stone. She was a con artist.” Caleb laughed to himself, “The worst I had ever seen. She was one of my last victims.”
“What's it for?”
“Divination.” He said while he went to grab an armchair next to one of the shelves.
“What's that?”
“It's like fortune telling only not a gypsy trying to con you out of your money. Black mirrors are meant to fill your vision with darkness so you can tap into your natural psychic abilities and see images in the mirror. It's like you're standing right there, or so I've been told. Vampires can't do it. Some humans and all witches can.”
“Really?” Sara sat down in front of it, admiring the eerie red reflections on its surface. “So how does it work?”
“The darkness is a reminder of the energy you need to grasp. Your impression of it is the right thought form for you to hold onto. You do it just like magic, focusing on what you need to know.”
“This is so cool!” She hugged him around the waist. Then she turned back to the mirror. Lines of red light curved along the right side of the mirror where Caleb was standing. Lily looked back, and he moved aside so she could stare at the perfectly black surface.
The mirror represented the emptiness beyond the veil between the worlds. It was more than just a divination tool. This was a powerful object that could be used to summon the spiritual energy. She would have to be extremely careful what she thought about. The blue fire could easily manifest itself and burn her to death.
“Anything?”
“Not yet,” Sara said. She turned back to him. He was sweating, staring down at the ground and tapping one foot. “You have a question?”
“Yes.”
“Well go ahead. I can use it.”
“Why is he hunting you?”
“Your brother?”
“Yes.”
“OK. Go away. Let me do it.” He was too much of a distraction.
“Alright.” He turned around and left the room.
Sara closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift down through the floor, into the ground where they could be laid to rest. When she opened her eyes and stared into the black mirror, all that was left was her question.
Why is Caleb's brother trying to kill me?
Sara repeated the question over and over again in her head, each time giving it a jolt of personal energy. She clenched her body muscles then let the question pour out of her mouth. It came out in a hiss at first. Then it started getting louder and louder as the silhouette got clearer.
It formed in tiny wisps of light over the mirror, like cobwebs growing thicker. They moved around in inexplicable waves. Then space in between them started to fill, and the images began to form, and the rest of the room began to fade away. One more burst of energy and Sara felt like she was jumping into the mirror.
She was standing in a room built entirely out of bare wood planks. A thick mat made of thick canvas had been set atop wooden crates to form a bed where the woman from Caleb's painting was sitting holding an old glass hypodermic needle with a belt around her arm.
She filled it with thick amber colored liquid, shoved the tip into her arm and pressed the plunger. Sara recognized immediately the warm, opiate glow that fell over her face when she laid back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Then she pulled out her hand, looked back at the open window and shut the shutters with a flip so her wrist.
She was an opium addict.
She drifted off for a while and curled up under the blue and white checkered quilt. She didn't seem to notice when the door opened, and a young slave girl walked in holding a candle stand. The shutters flew open, and Sara started to panic. She had never felt so cold in her entire life.
The girl started whispering, sending black dots over Sara's eyes. The world rippled like Sara was swimming under water, and with every pulsating movement the room grew colder. The girl's whispering grew faster, her shadow grew behind her, taking up more and more space on the wall until it stretched into a scythe, rearing up to decapitate the witch nodding out on the bed.
The slave girl looked directly at Sara and said, “Watch that you don't get caught in it.” She motioned for Sara to move behind her.
“Show me how,” Sara whispered to her.
“It's frighteningly cold, so cold it's killing you and it's quick. Malleus, Malleus, Malleus.” Her voice grew deeper and softer.
Sara watched the girl shivering underneath the covers while the Scythe of Hades began to take shape over the ceiling above. Then the tip, a single shadow took shape on the back wall. The slave girl's voice started to move faster and softer. Then the power burst out, drove itself back so that it covered the bed. Death's shadow descended down upon the girl who grew pale and cold.
Sara screamed bloody murder and space started fading. The last thing she saw wer
e the fresh, bloody whip marks on the slave's back.
Chapter 15
Sara knew that she was screaming and that her echoes were resounding through the room, but she didn't know where she was. Just that Caleb was pulling her up while she sobbed frantically.
“It's the scythe. They scythe. I came so close. I—I saw...”
“Shh.” Caleb sat her down on the porch in the rocking chair.
“How can I be quiet? I saw death, real death. The slave girl told me to move. She said it would...”
“OK.” Caleb paced around while running his hand through the hair on the back of his head. “It was Emily.”
“Emily? That's her name? She was shooting up.”
“She was?” He sounded petrified.
“Yes and then one of her slaves came in and summoned the Scythe of Hades.”
“Jesus. So you asked why he was hunting you? Are you sure you had the question clear?”
“I stated it aloud. I don't have focus issues. He's hunting me because of something that happened more than a century ago.”
“He's hunting witches.”
“It was so cold. As soon as the scythe is passed over her, her body froze solid, and she was dead. It's quiet and efficient and it has a wide berth. It's gray, not black and I know the incantation. I can use it, but I can't control it. It scares me to shit. No witch could possibly control an energy that subtle. That girl knew what she was doing.”
“Just forget about it.”
“I need to kill him, Caleb. I can't just stay locked up in my house, afraid that your brother will kill me every time I leave.”
“If you're in danger, have your grandmother do it. That energy can't be controlled by a new witch.”
“We can kill him? Are you sure?”
“No!” He howled. “Of course I'm not fucking sure. What am I supposed to say to that? I want you to leave him alone is what I want you to do. I want to talk to him.” He stopped, threw back his head and yelled, “Stuart! They will kill you! You're out there I know you are! Stop!”
There was no answer, but he was out there. Sara was sure of it. A creature like that would watch her every second of every day looking for the opportunity to drain her. He always seemed to know when to do it and where she would.
“And so help me god, I'll make sure it happens if she gets hurt!” Caleb's face was flushed, an unusual look considering the white skin surrounding the red splotches.
“He's going to get my grandmother and me and you will end up hunting him for centuries. It's got to be done as soon as possible, Caleb.”
“If it means saving you.” He strode up to her and knelt down in front of her. Then he sighed and took her hands. “You won't die.”
“What about what my grandmother told me about you being a predator?”
“She's a black and white thinker like my brother. She thinks that because she had a bad experience with a vampire that she's figured us out. Yes, we are attracted to witches, and yes, many of us hunt witches. But we don't all spend years trying to find the perfect moment to kill you, at least I don't.”
“But it's possible?”
“I'm sure it's happened. Vampires are common, and even though witches are not, we can feel their presence when they use magic.”
“What's that like?” He sat up and kissed her. Then he pulled back and said, “Heroin.”
“I want you to be able to come to my house. I don't want my grandmother to feel this way about you any longer.”
“You have to talk to her. She's not going to come around, but I want you to anyway. I've wanted to talk to her for decades. It might upset you, but with time I'm sure you'll accept it.”
She didn't ask what he meant. “That mirror is very dangerous, Caleb.”
“I know.”
“You shouldn't have put me near it. Just thinking about a power would've summoned it. You have no idea how much self-discipline it took me to keep from burning your house down.”
He nodded his head. “I know.”
“Why did you it, then? Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I need to find a way to stop Stuart and I need to know why he's doing this. It's been going for a long time now. You're the first I've encountered in years that would talk to me. I figured that if I told you about the mirror's power you would wouldn't want to do it.”
“I wouldn't have. But the scythe could've come out. I can't sit in front of that thing forever.”
“If you focus your mind correctly, you can try without it. It's the same thing. You just have to reach below the veil. You can channel that way. It's also how you summon up spiritual energy.”
“It scares the shit out of me.”
“As it should. Consider it reaching into hell.”
“That's exactly what it is, isn't it?”
“Yes.”
Sara took out her phone. “Shit.”
“What?” Caleb asked.
“When I left today, I told her I was going to school. She's going to lose her mind if I don't come home on time and it's already getting late.”
“Do you have to go now?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright.”
The trip back wasn't anywhere near as eerie as the journey to the house. Sara saw the essence of death. The Scythe of Hades was the power that brought on death. Every time something or somebody died, Sara knew that just a small amount of that power was present. It was everywhere.
Caleb stopped just out of sight of the property in a field not far from the road. “I have to walk you all the way. Stuart is probably here. If he's not, he will be here soon.”
“No. Caleb, my grandmother's going to go crazy if I do that. She thinks you're trying to kill me. I can't allow you to come close to the house. “
“I'm not taking the risk. I'll follow you no matter what.”
“She's going to lose her shit. What if she tries to kill you?”
“She won't.”
“How do you know she won't?”
“Because she's deathly afraid of the scythe. She won't use it.” He started walking up the hill. “Come on.”
She ran after him. “She said that her nephew died when he got in the way of it. Is that why?”
“It's part of it. She blames me for it.”
“Why?” They were reaching the top of the hill.
“She's going to see me, Sara.”
“Alright.”
He kissed her on the cheek and left, leaving her with a soft whisper that seemed to dissipate along with his presence. “Ask her about Priscilla.”
“Who's Priscilla?” Sara turned around to see her grandmother motioning her to come inside. She sat back down at the table and summoned up a lit cigarette. This was the first time that Sara had seen her grandmother smoke. She was surprised. “Sit down.”
“Who is she?” Sara took her seat.
“That little shit is going to really piss me off. I've wanted him dead for years. I can't believe he came back here. Now he's toying with your head.” She shot up out of her chair, pointed the finger at the hutch to sweep it to the side and reveal a hidden compartment in the back wall, just a square. Inside it was sitting an ancient book, so old that the ends of the pages were black with wear.
“What is that?”
“It's a Grimoire, a witch's spell book.” It flew across the room and landed in front of her.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“I'm going to kill the bastard.”
“Wait, what?” She tried to take the book, but it moved away of its own accord. “Why?”
“Because the son of a bitch is begging for it.”
“What did he do, grandma?”
She started pacing around, shaded by a thick cloud of smoke that smelled like burning piss. “He killed my sister.”
“He did? I thought you said that she tried to kill him with the scythe.”
“She did and when it backfired it killed her and her daughter. That innocent little girl—she...”
Margaret collapsed on the ground and started pounding on the floor, sending purple sparks flying out with her fists. Sara was up before she knew it, wrenching her grandmother up off the ground, holding her soft form close, while Margaret cried like a little girl. Margaret was a pillar of strength, so powerful that Sara had always considered being a deified archetype. Even when Sara first got there and she hated the woman, she still recognized that nothing could break her. She thought her grandmother would stand up to anything.
Now she was lying in a pile of tears on Sara's shoulder, and Sara was starting to realize just how weak the woman was. Just her sister's name could send her flying off the handle. She helped her grandmother sit back down at the table and waited silently while she finished her cigarette. When she was done, she looked up at Sara.
“What happened?”
“Caleb stalked her since high school. He had us all fooled with his talk about living without blood. He saved her life several times too. He said he was watching over the house and in return we let him go past our boundaries and come inside to see Priscilla. When she got older, she left home to travel and wound up falling in love. When she came back with the child, he found her and got upset. He wouldn't stop coming, trying to talk to her. He told her that he loved her. Then he turned and threw her to the ground right out there in the living room near the fireplace. He was screaming at her, telling her that he loved her and she betrayed him.
That's when she used the scythe. Her toddler, Isabella, ran out of my arms when the air went cold and flew directly into the scythe's path. Then it backfired and flung back at her. He refused to leave after that. I had to kick him out myself. I would've used the scythe had it not been for what had just happened.”
It sounded more like a lover's quarrel to Sara. If he had wanted her dead, he would've killed her. Maybe her grandmother didn't know that. Maybe she was still too caught up in what happened to her sister to be able to think straight about it. What Sara learned from her grandmother's story was that Caleb was more of a touchy subject than a killer. Maybe she was just prejudiced.