Any Witch Way You Can

by Amanda Lee[murder]

  “Yeah, that was a nice touch,” Emily smiled.

  “Why did you risk going to the maze that morning?” I felt the need to stall – although I didn’t know what benefit that would bring us.

  “We just couldn’t stay away,” Emily said. “Ron didn’t want to come at first, but he can never resist seeing how the public reacts to his work.”

  His work? Did this guy think he was an artist or something?

  “Didn’t you think it was risky to actually be one of the people who discovered the body?”

  “Not really,” Emily shrugged. “Especially since I wasn’t alone. I was actually just waiting around to see if someone else would discover it. When I saw you looking, I just couldn’t resist.”

  “Glad to be of assistance,” I said wryly.

  Emily regarded me seriously for a second, her green eyes were speculative. “I knew that we should have checked out of the inn when I realized you were investigating the case with the police. We didn’t want to act suspiciously, though. So, instead, we just kept watching you. All of you.”

  “Did you enjoy the show?” Thistle was looking at Emily with genuine distaste.

  “You’re all very amusing, I’ll give you that. Of course, I’m betting now that you wish you would have stayed out of this.”

  “On the contrary,” Thistle shot back. “We like to know when we’re living amongst monsters.”

  I was surprised that Aunt Tillie hadn’t started spouting off yet. She just seemed to be taking in the scene, though. She didn’t look particularly worried. I didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad sign. My mom, Twila and Marnie had moved subtly closer to one another, but they weren’t saying anything either.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  Emily seemed surprised by the request. I noticed that Ron seemed content to just let her run the show. I didn’t know what he had planned, but I doubted it would be pleasant. “By all means, ask away. You might as well have your curiosity sated – while you still can.”

  I ignored the veiled threat and plowed on. “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why did you kill Shane and Sophie?”

  The ghosts, for their part, had remained silent. They seemed enthralled by what was happening, but helpless to affect it in any way.

  “Oh, that,” Emily waved Shane and Sophie’s deaths off like I’d told her that her shoes were untied. “We didn’t have anything against them specifically. They were just a means to an end.”

  “What end?”

  “Rebirth, of course,” Emily answered simply, but there was a malevolent glint in her eye.

  “Rebirth?”

  “They were a sacrifice to Osiris,” Emily explained.

  “The god of life and death? You were making a sacrifice to him? Why?” All practicing Wicca – and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans -- were familiar with Osiris, the Egyptian god that was usually referred to as the lord of the dead, or the afterlife.

  “To regenerate themselves,” Aunt Tillie said. I was surprised that she had finally spoken. She seemed to be grasping the situation fairly easily – despite the danger we were obviously in.

  “Very good,” Emily seemed pleased.

  “I don’t understand,” Thistle said honestly.

  “You were right,” Aunt Tillie said. “The murders thirty years ago were done by the same people. These people.”

  I looked at Ron and Emily – who both looked to be in their mid-twenties, early-thirties at the most – and felt doubt wash over me. “I don’t see how that’s possible,” I said finally.

  “It’s dark magic,” Aunt Tillie said simply. “Every thirty years they sacrifice two teenagers – one male, one female – and they absorb their life force. It’s pretty advanced black magic. Most people today haven’t even heard about this type of magic, let alone tried to harness it.”

  “She’s smarter than she looks,” Emily laughed. “She’s also spot on. Tell me, how did you figure that out?”

  “I’ve been around for a very long time. Though not as long as the two of you, I would imagine.”

  “Probably not,” Emily giggled. “It’s too bad, really,” she lamented. “We could probably learn a lot from you. We just don’t have the time to stick around. We’ve already stayed too long. We just have to finish the rituals tonight, they have to be done under the full moon, and we’re out of here.”

  “Well, have a nice trip,” I offered brightly.

  “They’re going to kill you,” Shane said sadly.

  I know. Oh, boy, did I know.

  Ron reached into his coat and pulled out a gun. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but seeing it pointed directly at my head caused the breath to hitch in my chest.

  “How do you think you’ll get away with this?” I managed to keep my voice even. Now was definitely not the time to panic. From the sound of Clove hyperventilating behind me, I didn’t think we could afford for us all to fall apart.

  “We won’t be here,” Ron said. “We’ll be gone long before you’re discovered. And why would anyone suspect the nice newlyweds from the inn? What would our motive be?”

  He had a point.

  “Do you really think you can get us all?” I had hope that everyone else would be able to at least try to make a run for it through the maze. There were too many of us for Ron and Emily to get all at once.

  “That’s why I’m going to kill you and your cousins first,” Ron said smoothly. “I figure it won’t be too hard to track four old ladies down once you three are gone.”

  “Who are you calling old?” Marnie asked indignantly.

  Now was so not the time.

  I was still running possible scenarios of survival through my head – none actually involved mine – when the situation even got more complicated.

  “What the fuck is this?” The voice was deep. The voice was male. Oh, and the voice was pissed.

  Now what?

  Twenty-Eight

  No matter how many times I thought about how this night would end, this is the one scenario that never managed to enter my mind.

  The new voice belonged to Russ. Yeah, biker Russ -- who knew heroes had beer guts and wore motorcycle chaps? And he wasn’t alone. He had at least three of his cohorts with him – including Landon.

  I met Landon’s gaze. I felt a surge of hope. They couldn’t kill us in front of witnesses – and there was no way that Ron could take out all of the bikers. Landon seemed calm – ridiculously calm given the situation. He stepped into the clearing and looked around. If he was surprised to see all of us, he didn’t acknowledge it.

  “Who are you guys?” I noticed a certain tone of worry creep into Ron’s voice. He obviously wasn’t expecting this either.

  “Who are you?” Landon challenged Ron and Emily. He seemed oblivious to us, at this point.

  Emily seemed genuinely perplexed. “Why are you guys here?”

  “Why are you here?” It was nice to see that it just wasn’t my questions that Landon refused to answer.

  “We asked you first,” Emily said.

  Landon turned to me. “What are you doing here?”

  “Oh, just taking a walk,” I said with faux breeziness.

  “They’re witches,” Emily scoffed. “They were doing witchy things. They’re the killers. We came upon them in the maze and we decided to take them in to the police.”

  She was a much better liar that we were. Landon looked doubtful, though. “They’re the killers? An old lady in a combat helmet and three women in track suits are killers?”

  Emily shrugged. “It takes all types.”

  Ron was busy looking the bikers up and down. I think he was wondering if they were armed. I was kind of curious about that, too, truth be told.

  Landon looked at me again. “Why are you here?”

  I honestly didn’t know what to tell him. “We were trying to figure out who the killers were when, well, the killers kind of stumbled upon us.”

  “And why do they think you’re witches?
”

  Because we are. “They’re crazy. Who knows?”

  “Oh, please,” Emily muttered. “You were the ones who brought candles and were casting a spell to see the past.”

  “It wasn’t technically a spell,” my mom corrected her. “We don’t like the term spell. We were doing a ritual.”

  Now she opened her mouth?

  Landon looked at the seven of us in disbelief. “You’re witches?”

  “Hey,” Thistle barked. “Witches are people, too.”

  Could this situation get any more surreal? “Is that really the important thing right now?”

  Landon shifted his gaze to Ron’s gun, which was now pointed at Russ. “I guess not,” he acquiesced.

  “You haven’t answered the question: Why are you guys here?” Ron was speaking to Russ. Even though Landon had been the one to do most of the talking so far, he obviously saw Russ as the leader.

  “We were conducting business,” Russ said. His voice had a harsh quality to it. He was clearly annoyed.

  “What kind of business?”

  “The kind that doesn’t concern you,” Russ said.

  “Meth,” Thistle said. I shot her a dark look. Did she really think that was going to help us?”

  “Who told you that?” Russ was eying Thistle with his own brand of malice at this point.

  Thistle regarded him haughtily. “It’s common knowledge. Everyone in town knows.” That was a slight exaggeration.

  Landon regarded me for a second. “Chief Terry told you that, didn’t he?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.

  Russ turned to Landon and whispered something to him. Landon nodded grimly. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “All of them?”

  “All of them,” Landon agreed in a low voice.

  Uh-oh.

  “All of them what?” Ron was understandably nervous. He knew he couldn’t get everyone in the clearing.

  Russ regarded Ron with a truly evil smile. “We’re going to have to take care of all of you.”

  “Take care of us?” Emily’s voice had risen an octave.

  “We can’t afford for our interests to be disrupted.”

  “We don’t care about your stupid drugs,” Emily promised. “We’ll just leave you with the witches and go on our way and you’ll never see us again. You’ll actually be doing us a favor.”

  “I don’t do favors,” Russ said.

  “How are you going to hide all of our bodies?” Ron was starting to visibly panic now. “They’re all family. It’s not as suspicious if they disappear. If we disappear with them, that’s going to raise a lot of questions.”

  “Not if the police believe you’re the ones that got rid of them,” Russ tilted his head towards us.

  I noticed that Landon was slowly moving closer to me as the conversation went on. His body was rigid with concentration – and his right hand had disappeared inside of his leather jacket. Was he really going to kill us? I can’t believe I ever thought he was hot.

  “Why would the police believe we killed them?” Ron was grasping at straws now.

  “You were going to kill them.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “What is the point?” Russ was becoming increasingly bored with Ron’s questions.

  “Look, there’s got to be a way to make this beneficial for all of us,” Ron wasn’t done trying to wrangle for his life. Emily had moved to his side.

  Russ and Ron were so focused on each other they hadn’t noticed Landon move up to my side. “You have to run into the maze,” he said in a low voice.

  “You don’t think they’ll notice?”

  “I’ll do what I can to cover for you. Just get out of here as fast as you can – and don’t go back for the car. They’ll expect that.”

  “How do you think we’re going to be able to get Aunt Tillie through this maze without them catching up?”

  Landon glanced at Aunt Tillie and smiled grimly. “Something tells me she’s stronger than she looks.”

  I glanced over at my mom. She seemed to understand what was about to happen. She was herding Marnie and Twila towards one of the pathways that led into the maze. Thistle and Clove were edging over, too.

  “Why are you helping?”

  “Maybe I like witches,” Landon winked with as much bravado as he could muster. I knew he was scared shitless, though.

  I saw that Marnie, Twila, Aunt Tillie and my mom had disappeared into the maze. Clove was going now. Thistle was giving me a hard look. She wasn’t going to leave without me.

  “Go,” Landon whispered. He pushed me towards them.

  I didn’t hesitate. I broke into a run. I didn’t look back, even when I heard Russ yell. Thistle and I caught up to the others. “Take them ahead,” I ordered Clove.

  “What about you two?”

  “We’re going to slow them down,” Thistle said resignedly.

  Clove looked uncertain. “We should stick together.”

  “We have to buy them time,” I insisted.

  Thistle shoved Clove hard. “Go!”

  Thistle and I looked at each other. We only had one shot at this. We raced a few passageways down and waited until Clove had managed to get everyone else through it. We climbed up on the hay bales that were placed there and pushed hard, toppling them over. They cascaded down and blocked the pathway. It would take our pursuers a few minutes to get through there – which was a good thing. We were now cut off from the rest of our family, though.

  Thistle and I both jumped when we heard a gun go off. The sound of a woman’s shriek followed it. Emily.

  “They must have killed Ron,” Thistle said.

  We heard another gun shot. Emily had gone eerily silent.

  Thistle shrugged. “It’s not like they didn’t have it coming.”

  I kneeled down and motioned for Thistle to climb over me. “I’m not leaving you alone here,” she argued.

  “You have to help Clove,” I ordered. “I’ll be able to hide easier if it’s just me. I’ll be fine.”

  Sophie and Shane had appeared at my side. “The ghosts will be able to help,” I said. I was relieved to see them.

  Thistle still looked dubious, but she did as I ordered. She looked back at me over the tower of hay bales, pausing for a second before racing off into the dark. “Good luck,” I murmured.

  “They’re coming,” Shane warned.

  I skidded off into a corner and pressed myself into the wall trying to hide. I could hear footsteps closing in. I kept backing down the passageway, trying to be as quiet as I possibly could. I was stunned when I felt a warm body move in behind me. I involuntarily opened my mouth to scream, but it was cut short when a hand clamped over my mouth.

  “It’s me,” Landon breathed in my ear. “Do not scream.”

  I turned to him in surprise “You’re alive.”

  “That surprises you?” His eyes twinkled in the moonlight.

  “Do you think now is the right time to flirt?”

  “If we die in the next few minutes you’re going to be glad to have one final good memory,” Landon whispered, pulling me closer to him and pinching my butt. “Shh,” he cut me off when I started to protest.

  “Be quiet,” Sophie whispered. They’re coming.

  I heard a variety of different epithets as Russ and his other cronies apparently happened on the toppled hay bales. “They can’t get back through this way,” he ordered. “Go back around front. We’ll catch them when they try to go back to the car.”

  The car. I mentally smacked myself. I had forgotten to warn them away from the car.

  When he was sure they were gone, Landon relaxed his grip on me. He didn’t entirely release me, though. “They won’t go back to the car, right?”

  I looked at Landon helplessly.

  “Crap,” Landon swore. He scanned the immediate area quickly. “Why does a corn maze have walls made out of bales of hay?”

  “Ambiance?”

  “
Don’t be cute.”

  It was hard to be cute when I was terrified for my family. Landon grabbed my hand and started moving in the opposite direction from Russ.

  “Where are we going?”

  “There’s an emergency exit somewhere over here,” Landon muttered. “I saw it when I was here the other day.”

  “You were scoping out emergency exits in a corn maze?”

  “I look for emergency exits everywhere.”

  I watched Landon search the far wall for the hidden exit for a few minutes. When he found it, he pushed it open and raced through it. I followed soundlessly. I had no idea what his plan was, but it had to be better than the mind-numbing fear that was clouding my brain.

  When we stumbled out into the open air, Landon paused to get his bearings. “They’ll exit at the back, right?”

  I nodded.

  Landon took off in the direction of the rear of the maze. I wordlessly followed him, struggling to keep up. I didn’t want him to slow down, though. Not if it meant that he could save my family – even Aunt Tillie.

  I pushed the lingering pain in my ankle out of my mind. Landon now had a decent lead on me. I saw him disappear around the corner of the maze. A few moments later I followed – coming up short when I saw the scene in front of me.

  Russ had a grip on Aunt Tillie’s arm. Landon had stopped a few feet in front of me. No one else was in sight.

  For her part, Aunt Tillie was having none of this. “You let me go right now you piece of shit!”

  “Shut up, old lady.”

  Russ was glaring at Landon. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.”

  “You should always follow your instincts,” Landon said smoothly.

  “It’s all ruined now,” Russ screamed.

  “The others got away?” Landon asked.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty pathetic when the only one you can catch is the old one in a combat helmet.”

  “Where are Gunner and Diesel?”

  “I sent them after the others.”

  Fear was knotted in the pit of my stomach. I moved to Landon’s side, eying Aunt Tillie warily. “Leave her alone. She’s just an old woman.”

  Aunt Tillie glared at me. “You shut your mouth. I’m so sick of your mouth.”