by Harper Lin
I felt as if I were on the sidelines and Bea was getting all the fun of playing on the field. Still, with the dampness of the air and the cold temperature, my ankle throbbed. It was a little better than yesterday, but it wasn’t good enough for me to be much help. Not until the chant. I was needed for that. But up until then, I was just a weirdo limping along through the bushes.
So as Bea started off and began barricading the Gazzo and his henchmen in with salt around the perimeter of the property, I watched the house. I saw shadows moving inside. These were the real shadows of people moving around.
I didn’t like the fact that Fern and Gail’s luxury cars were parked in the driveway. They didn’t live here and had houses in Sarkis Estates or some other sickeningly wealthy neighborhood. It really was hard to believe they were related to Evelyn, who was a sweet girl despite her rather ghoulish appearance.
Finally, I saw Bea turn up across the lawn in the other neighbor’s yard. She pulled a tiny scrap of paper out of her pocket and waved it at me. I reached into my pocket, pulled out a similar piece of paper, and did the same. It was time to read the chant Aunt Astrid had provided:
Catch this darkness.
Keep it in detention.
Within the salt.
Within the stone.
We were to say this quietly and continually until Aunt Astrid arrived. Things were proceeding as planned, and I was sure that I saw a couple of the shadow people unable to resist the black-onyx stones being sucked into the thick, shiny blackness.
Then I heard the voices, and it changed everything.
“I want you out of my house!” It was Mr. Elderflower. His voice croaked as if he had been talking all night without a drink of water and was now trying to raise his voice. “This is my house! My house!”
“Shut up!” I heard a female reply. I couldn’t tell immediately who it was, but I was sure it wasn’t Evelyn. The voice was too mature. Too deep. “We’re not going anywhere. You’ll be the one leaving soon enough, old man.”
It was obvious from the reply that it was either Fern or Gail. I tried to focus on the words, but I was having trouble.
“I know what you are!” Mr. Elderflower shouted. “You’re evil! And I want you to leave my home and never come back!” It broke my heart to hear him saying those words. Fern and Gail were still his daughters. How hard this must have been. But what I heard next was even worse.
Something broke, like a heavy picture or maybe a small shelf. Something crashed to the ground. Gail and Fern laughed. There was no other way to describe that sound than diabolical.
“What are you doing to him?” It was Evelyn. I was sure of it. “Leave him alone! You’re going to kill him!”
“You shut up!” Fern screamed. Really screamed. The only time I’d ever heard a scream as desperate as this one was when I saw a five-year-old having a tantrum at Walmart. That little girl had screamed at her mother with her eyes squeezed shut, her face red, and her mouth stretched as wide as it would go. Her little hands were clenched into fists, and her whole body was rigid with rage.
“This is all your fault! You’re the one who is going to kill him! You worthless piece of garbage! We hate you! We hate you!”
“Stop her!”
“You’re not leaving!” Another crash.
I looked around me, wondering if any of the neighbors heard this domestic disturbance. To me, it was as loud as a plane taking off, but nothing seemed to stir around the neighborhood.
I hadn’t realized that I had stopped chanting. I looked at Bea, who was also hearing the commotion from inside. I could tell she was thinking the same thing as me. We couldn’t just sit by and listen to this.
“Get off me! No! Leave him alone!” Evelyn screamed.
I stood up and walked out of my hiding spot. Surprisingly, Bea did the same thing. Clumsily, I hurried my walker toward her.
“Bea, we can’t let Evelyn fight them alone.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
We heard more laughter and the pathetic whimpers of Evelyn begging her sisters to leave their father alone.
“I’ll do it! I’ll do what you want! Just don’t hurt him anymore! Don’t hurt him!”
“What are they doing to that man?” Bea clutched my arm. I felt the strength of her character rush through the palm of her hand and into my arm.
“I don’t know, but I’ve heard enough. Let’s—” Just as we were about to stomp like gangbusters into the Elderflower house we froze in our tracks.
From several oddly angled shards of darkness, half a dozen shadows came to life. They clawed and pulled themselves out of the darkness that they, themselves, were made of and began to approach us. The one with the top hat stood behind the rest. Its arms were dangling at its sides, and I was sure that was the same fiend that had come to my room. It just watched as its crew closed in on us.
“Any idea what we should do?” I looked at Bea, who had grown pale.
“No. But the element of surprise has been compromised.”
“You think so?”
Bea scooped up the onyxes and quickly stuffed them in her jacket pocket. They were not going to free their evil brethren that easily.
“Call him an ambulance!” Evelyn cried from inside the house.
“Call him an ambulance. Call him an ambulance,” the sisters said mockingly.
That was when Bea slipped her hand in mine and squeezed tightly. The look on her face was not of fear or regret but determination. I couldn’t say the same for myself. I thought I looked rather foolish, but I squeezed her hand back.
“I couldn’t live with myself,” she whispered.
“Me neither.”
We turned to step onto the Elderflower property to somehow beat our way through the shadow people to Mr. Elderflower’s rescue. Hissing and horrible fighting filled my ears. Like the pitiful cries I’d heard in my ears the other night.
The shadow people stretched their arms and fingers, trying to reach us just beyond the circle of salt. Once we stepped over that line, we were in their territory.
The rules would no longer apply.
“To heck with this,” I growled and tossed aside my walker. “I’m going down swinging. Evelyn needs us.” I took one step over the salt, and my ankle shrieked in pain. But before I could change my mind and scramble back Marshmallow, Peanut Butter and Treacle darted from every direction into the Elderflower yard and dove into action.
“Come on!” Bea grabbed my hand and pulled me along the grass. I limped and ground my teeth, but finally, we made it across the grass and to the front door. She let go of my hand long enough to take hold of the doorknob and nearly tear the door from its hinges.
I wasn’t sure if she had seen Opacum Diabulus or the Gazzo in the top hat ease backward, stepping into a shadow and disappearing. It couldn’t be that easy, right? Treacle did scare him away before. Was this weird fear of cats all it took? Aunt Astrid didn’t say anything about it or point anything out in her book. Why was it scared of the cats?
At this point, who was I to question a little good luck for our team? Our felines were holding the shadow people so we could get inside. To waste any more time would be ungrateful. So in we went. Trespassing. Unlawful entry. Breaking and entering. I wasn’t sure what law we’d just broken, but I was sure we’d broken at least one of these.
But when we saw what was happening inside the house, I didn’t care what laws we broken. If there was ever a time for vigilante justice, this was it.
22
Poisonous Venom
I had heard stories of people dying of a broken heart—a husband and wife had been together for over sixty years, one of them died, and it was only a matter of days before the remaining spouse did the same.
Seeing Mr. Elderflower’s face, I knew I was looking at the face of a broken man. Whatever these girls had done to their father, I could not forgive.
“Cath.” Evelyn sighed with relief as if she had been waiting for us or knew we’d eventually show up.
<
br /> Bea stomped into the house with enough rage to set a high-rise ablaze.
“That is enough!” she shouted at Fern and Gail.
The grown women stood there in shock like two girls who had been caught with their hands in a cookie jar. For a second, I felt embarrassed for them. Here they were, two ladies in their early thirties with successful careers and material wealth, standing in front of my cousin with wide eyes and trembling lips as they tried to think up a lie to cover themselves.
“What have you done to him?” Bea demanded as she dropped her backpack to the floor.
“We didn’t do anything,” Fern scoffed, even though her voice trembled.
“It wasn’t us. It was Evelyn. She can’t be trusted to do something so simple as to help her father down the stairs,” Gail added. “He probably fell again.”
Bea was so enraged her body shook.
“Evelyn, did you do what we told you to do yesterday?” Bea asked loudly.
“Yes.”
“Mr. Elderflower, can you hear me?” Bea never turned around to look at Evelyn or her father. She didn’t take her eyes off Fern and Gail. “I need you to get to Evelyn’s room. Right now.”
“What did you do, Evelyn?” Gail demanded.
“Don’t you raise your voice at her,” I growled. My adrenaline was pumping so fast that I didn’t feel my sore ankle anymore. Plus, I didn’t want them to smell out that weakness. These were the kinds of sisters that would exploit my injury without hesitation.
Evelyn helped her father to his feet. He had a goose egg on his head, and his eyes looked nervous. He’d be okay. I was sure of it. Bea had him now.
As I watched Mr. Elderflower cling to Evelyn, I felt a terrible tug in my chest. All they had was each other. What kind of torture had these two spoiled brats caused?
“Dad, let’s go.” Evelyn helped him. He was an average-size man. That was a lot for a seventeen-year-old girl to lift all by herself. How sad it was to see this man whose pride was in pieces. He was embarrassed and humiliated. A person didn’t have to be an empath to see that.
“Don’t you take him anywhere,” Gail ordered. “Leave him right where he is.”
Bea stepped closer to the sisters. Had she had the chance to put her hands on them, I was afraid she would have crippled them with her anger. They recoiled from her.
“You will not harm them again,” Bea hissed.
Both sisters started to laugh nervously.
“We haven’t done anything to them!” Fern whined like a child. “They’ve done all this to themselves. And who are you people barging in our house? You better get out of here before I call the police!”
“Please,” I replied calmly. “Call the police. Call and tell them the Greenstones broke into your house. There will be twenty squad cars out front in two minutes. You want that?”
“Yes,” Gail snapped. Only after she spoke did she realize how pitiful she looked. She looked at her sister, who wasn’t looking at her but was focusing on Evelyn and Mr. Elderflower as they started to go upstairs.
“Good!” Evelyn cried as she pulled her father’s arm around her shoulder and helped move him upstairs. “Then I’ll tell them what you’ve been doing.”
“Sure!” Fern stepped in. “Like they’ll believe you. You are a troubled teen, responsible for your mother’s death. If you’ve got any marbles left in your head, they are rolling around, ready to fall out any second. They’ll know you hurt Dad. Gail and I both saw it.”
Evelyn’s eyes were filled with tears. Without her Goth makeup and clothes, she looked helpless against these two bullies.
“I didn’t kill Mom,” she whimpered.
“Yes, you did. You and Dad wouldn’t listen to us and have her committed. Now she’s dead,” Fern said.
“Don’t talk to her like that.” Mr. Elderflower managed to speak, but his words were more like a suggestion and not a command from their father.
“I’ve heard enough from you two,” I said and walked as if the pain in my ankle weren’t there.
“Hurry, Evelyn,” Bea urged. She sensed something, and it didn’t take long for me to figure out what it was. “We have to hurry, Mr. Elderflower. Please. Hurry.”
We had given Evelyn so much sage to burn in her room that it was the only safe place in the entire house. Bea took hold of Mr. Elderflower so Evelyn could get to the top of the stairs and hold her door open. I saw her legs buckle for just a second before regaining their strength. That was her energy leaving her body and going into Mr. Elderflower.
“Cath!” Bea yelled to me. “Hurry up!”
“You go on, Bea.” I scowled. “I can handle things down here.”
For a second, I was sure I could take these two women. They didn’t look like as if cross-trained on the weekends or were especially toned or muscular. In fact, they looked rather doughy and soft around the edges.
“You have everything,” I said. “You are both successful. You have money. Your own medical offices. What is wrong with you?”
“It’s all fake!” Evelyn yelled. “Go ahead. Ask them where they got their diplomas. Ask them. They sold their souls for a bunch of fool’s gold. I know it. They aren’t smart enough to make it through junior college, but we’re all supposed to believe they finished med school? Ha! It’s all fake!”
Fern and Gail looked mortified. What had Evelyn meant, ‘all fake’?
“Shut up, Morticia!” Fern screamed up the stairs. “Like anyone would believe you. I’ve got a calendar filled with names of people coming to see me. How is that fake?”
“Yeah!” was Gail’s witty reply. These women became stranger and stranger every time they opened their mouths. If I hadn’t been so incensed at what I heard them saying when I got here, I would be laughing at them.
I stepped up to face the Elderflower sisters and, for a moment, thought I was going to pull this off. My anger was so intense it was palpable, and they knew better than to take a step. But that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all.
From behind them rose a cloud of pitch-black smoke. It twisted and turned like a thick bubbling liquid that finally formed into the Gazzo with the top hat. It towered between the two women, whose nervous faces suddenly transformed into sinister grimacing masks.
“So, is this your pet? Or should I say you guys are its pets.” I swallowed, but there was no saliva in my mouth. The blackness was bottomless. Even the onyxes that hopefully held some of this demon’s minions in it weren’t as dark as this dark.
Pure blackness and devoid of even the slightest speck of light, the thing became a solid form.
Fern and Gail watched with glee as I stepped back cautiously, wincing as the pain in my ankle nearly tripped me up. It was no good that I had to steady myself against the staircase banister. It was obvious I was injured. To them and the Gazzo, I was like a bird with an injured wing. I was easy prey for a skulking feral cat or hungry raccoon.
It was bad enough to have a black, demonic entity slowly approaching, but it was worse when it flicked open its eyes.
As if I could ever forget the red slits that glared at me in my bedroom. I found myself staring into those same smoldering coals. Slowly, it peeled back a layer of darkness to reveal razor-sharp teeth. Its grimace had a shocking resemblance to the Elderflower sisters, who were watching with sadistic fascination as the thing came closer to me.
“You’re not so tough now, are you?” Gail sneered. “Look at you. You’re pathetic.”
“Yeah, pathetic,” Fern joined in. Maybe this wasn’t the time to take notice of such a small detail, but I couldn’t help but think these two women suffered an arrested development. Their comments and actions and replies were not the thoughtful words of grown-ups. How did they interact with their clients at work? Did they make snarky remarks at them too?
Obviously, I couldn’t focus on that for too long when I had the paranormal equivalent of a kneecap breaker approaching me.
“She’s going to go just like Mom,” Fern said.
I held my
breath.
“Yeah.” Gail giggled. “Too bad we won’t get to watch this one go a little crazier by the day. Running back and forth, turning lights on in all the rooms. Not sleeping for days at a time. That would be funny.”
“It’s going to squeeze your heart until it pops.” Fern laughed. “Like a tick.”
Their laughter echoed in my ears as the blackness began to overwhelm me. My heart was racing. I felt the heaviness I had in my bed. My strength was running out of my body as though someone had turned on a faucet and just let the water run. Invisible weights had been attached to my legs, my shoulders, and my arms, and I was sinking to the ground. No matter how hard I tried to crawl up just one step, I couldn’t do it. I was on my knees. My back was against the banister, and I tried to call for Bea, but nothing would come out. But my eyes remained open, and my brain was alert. It wasn’t sleep falling over me. I was stuck in a spider’s web and had been pierced with the poisonous venom that paralyzed my body but allowed me to see and understand what was happening. The sounds of many voices screaming and arguing came from its open, grinning mouth.
“Once it’s done with you, it’s going to get your partner in crime,” Fern said, jerking her thumb upstairs. “I wonder if there is a way we can take over that coffee shop they own.”
“We’ll have to get the old lady that works there to sign it over to us,” Gail suggested. “Then we’ll keep her working there while our friends watch her twenty-four hours a day. She’ll lose her mind after she signs over the deed. It will be easy.”
“The real fun will be watching Evelyn go,” Gail hissed.
“Yes. She’ll be convicted of murdering our father and sent away for a long time. Our friends will follow her to the prison. She’ll ramble and scream for them to leave the lights on. The other inmates will grow to hate her because she’s crazy. Her good looks will be gone in no time. They’ll find her hanging by her bed sheet or a pair of shoelaces or something.”
They laughed. It made me sick to my stomach to hear it. But I was fading. There was nothing I could do except keep this thing occupied long enough for Bea to help Mr. Elderflower. Then maybe Evelyn could have them all shimmy down the tree outside her window to get away.