by M. J. Caan
“Hey, Torie, I am so sorry about your mama,” Taylor said, hugging her close. “What can I do to help?”
“Well, did you pick up on anything in here?” asked Fionna.
Taylor shook her head. “Nothing out of the ordinary. It’s weird. The workroom smells almost too clean; like it’s been disinfected.”
“Did your mother clean before you arrived, or since you’ve been here?” asked Jasmin.
Torie shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I told her I was coming so she may have.”
“No,” said Taylor, “this is recent. The crime scene has been cleaned.”
“Maybe by the killer,” said Fionna. “Maybe they cleaned it right after—” She stopped herself, not wanting to finish that sentence. “That would explain why I didn’t smell anything at all when we found her.”
“Have you been out back yet?” asked Jasmin. “To the site where they found Ellie?”
“No, I was waiting for you guys to get here. You know I’m not fond of the woods,” Taylor said.
Jasmin rolled her eyes. “Who ever heard of a fox afraid of the woods?”
She didn’t wait for an answer, and instead, placed a large bag with a rope tie that was cinched closed onto the center island in the kitchen.
“What’s that?” asked Torie.
“My tools of the trade,” Jasmin replied. She opened the bag and began removing the contents and placing them one by one on the granite island. A jar with a cork stopper in place. Two large feathers, one white the other black; several crystals that she then scattered about the island; a long wooden root, and a large crystal ball that she then placed in the midst of all the other items.
“Nice crystal ball,” said Torie, immediately drawn to it.
“Thanks,” she replied. “We’ll get you one soon. Every witch should have her own. Just be careful with it. Don’t leave it lying around the house without a cloth covering it.”
“Oh. Because of the spirits it might call?” asked Fionna, gazing over Jasmin’s shoulder.
“What? No, not because of spirits. Because it will reflect any sunlight streaming through the windows and burn your house down.”
“Oh,” said Fionna, almost sounding disappointed. She preferred the thought of spirits rather than plain old combustion via carelessness.
“So, what are you going to do?” Torie said, “and can I help?”
“You know, you just might be able to.” She picked up the two feathers and handed them to Torie. “The blood bond between witches is powerful, it is almost impossible to break. I may be able to use you to help anchor the emotions in this house, to clear away all the negativity created by an unnatural death, to help see what really happened here.”
She gave the feathers to Torie and told her to stand in the center of the kitchen. “No matter what you see or hear…or think you’re hearing, do not let go of these feathers,” she said.
She asked Glen and the shifters to step aside, and then she lifted one of the blue crystals she had cast over the island, turning it over and over in her hand. She picked up the wooden root in her other hand and closed her eyes. Holding the crystal aloft, she began to chant, her voice low and powerful as she called upon ancient spirits to aide her.
“Oh lady of the evening and servant of the night,
show us what was done in dark can be brought to light.
I beseech your wisdom, so great and vast,
to show me now, the images of the past.”
With that, she cast the crystal onto the floor, along with the wooden root. Then, she picked up the jar, undid the stopper and poured a gray powder into her hand. With great reverence, she bowed to the powder, and then cast it into the air, spreading it into an arch around the kitchen.
The powder hung in place, not sinking or spreading out; rather it stayed where she threw it and then began to glow blue. Slowly, it stretched outward, settling in place as it sought to recreate what had just happened only hours before in the space.
Torie heard a low moan in the air, it came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and it reverberated in her being, like the vibrations of a song filled with bass when played too long. She could feel the vibrations in her teeth.
The powder created an image in the center of the room. It was vague at first, but slowly it coalesced into the ghostly form of a figure.
It was her mother, and Torie gasped at the sight.
Alva was cleaning the kitchen, placing the empty whiskey bottle into the recycling bin and then the tumblers into the sink. Suddenly, she turned and faced someone who was outside of the field of view of the powder.
Her lips moved silently as she spoke with someone. To Torie, it was like watching an old silent film from the twenties. There was movement, but no sound.
She watched as the transparent form of her mother stiffened and then waved her arm before her, casting a wave of power that disrupted the vision the powder was creating. Everything wavered, disappearing in the way Torie envisioned a desert mirage would.
“No! What happened?” Torie asked.
“Your mother activated a pre-set spell. One that was meant to block the kind of viewing I just attempted,” said Jasmin. “Whatever happened to her, she didn’t want us seeing it.”
“Why? Why would she do that?” said Torie, her voice raw with emotion.
“Why, to protect you of course.”
They turned just in time to see the visage of Alva shimmer into view before them.
“Oh, come now. You ladies act like you’ve never seen a ghost before.”
11
“Mom?” said Torie, staring at the apparition. “Is that really you? How are you here?”
“Oh, my time on this plane isn’t over just yet.”
Jasmin moved quickly, placing herself between the ghostly figure and the other women. “Stand back. This could be a trick.” She reached out and picked up one of the crystals, holding it in her fist menacingly.
“Jasmin, really? A conjuring stone…what, are you going to reverse the spell and use it to entrap me? I taught you that spell, remember? Do you really think I don’t know how to counter it?”
“If you are truly Alva, tell us something that only she would know,” said Jasmin.
“Alright.” The ghost turned to address the group of friends. “Ladies, do you remember a couple of years ago when Jasmin caught that mysterious flu and was out of commission for three days? She was so sick that none of us were allowed to visit her for fear she would infect us? Well, in truth, she had tried to create her own version of female Viagra via magics; and it caused her to grow a—”
“That’s enough,” interrupted Jasmin. “It is truly you.” She dropped her guard and the crystal she was holding.
“Wait, let her finish,” said Taylor. “What did you grow?” The others looked at her, their combined sigh telling her to figure it out for herself. “Oh…Oh! Wow…what did you do with it?”
“Taylor, not now,” said Fionna, turning to the ghostly witch floating in the center of the room. “Alva…why are you still here? And don’t say your time isn’t up. That’s not how ghostly incarnation works.”
“I don’t think I was supposed to die just yet. I can’t cross over. I feel trapped.”
“It’s because a great injustice happened here,” said Jasmin. “I’ve heard about this before. Witches can be tied to the place of their death if that death was one of great violence or…was an accident. If it happens before the witch’s time, then the other side was not prepared to receive her.”
Torie stepped forward slowly. She reached out, her hand passing through her mother’s form as easily as it would smoke from a blown-out candle.
“Oh, my daughter,” said Alva, reaching out to lay an ephemeral palm against her daughter’s cheek. “I think I held on because, as my body lay dying, I thought of you and how my only regret was that we were only just getting reacquainted…and I needed more time with you.”
“Great longing and sadness,” said Jasmin. “Yes,
that could do it. That would have anchored you to this world.”
“How long are you here for?” asked Torie. Part of her mind was telling her that she should be freaking out; but after everything else she had seen, this was just one more weird occurrence to add to the list of weird occurrences she was experiencing. None of that mattered to her now; her mother was standing—or rather floating—before her now. And that was enough.
“I’ve no idea. I wasn’t sure I would ever find my way back. I didn’t think it was possible to come back like this. I mean, sure, ghosts are real; but no one really knows how they are created. No matter how smart they think they are.” She gave Jasmin a knowing stare and then an infectious smile.
“What was it like, Alva?” said Jasmin.
“Being dead? It sucked. It was scary as all get out. I mean, one minute I knew I was alive, then it was like someone just flicked a switch and turned everything off. You know how there are times when you’re so tired that you get into bed and suddenly it’s the next morning, you wake up and you don’t even remember falling asleep? It was like that. Only this right now is the next morning. I don’t remember dreaming or anything. Just bits of aches and restlessness until suddenly I saw the light from your spell, and it was like an alarm clock. Only I woke up and realized I was dead…yet here I am.”
Fionna started to cry and was quickly joined by Taylor.
“Hey, what is this? What’s going on?” said Alva, floating over to stand next to her friends.
“It’s just so sad,” said Fionna. “I mean, you’re…gone. I miss you so much.” Taylor nodded furiously, echoing her friend’s sentiments.
“Well, think of me not so much as being gone; just different.”
“I feel like I just got you back,” said Torie, “and now you’re…” She choked up, feeling the tears begin to flow. “I never got to say goodbye to you.”
“Well, we have time now. Maybe I’m here a day, a week…who knows. But we will have our time. There are still things we need to talk about.”
“Like who did this to you,” said Jasmin. “Can you tell us that?”
Alva looked perplexed. Her translucent features grew distant as she stared at the group of women.
“I…I don’t know. Isn’t that strange? I can remember everything up until the point just before the lights went out, but I don’t know what happened or who did it.”
“What exactly do you remember?” said Torie.
“I had just finished washing out the tumblers and had put on a kettle for tea. I thought I heard Eddie cry out, so I rushed into the workroom…and then…that’s it. I don’t remember anything beyond that.”
“You obviously put up a fight, judging from the state of the kitchen,” said Jasmin. “And you activated a spell that kept me from seeing what happened. Why would you cast a spell like that?”
Alva grew quiet, once again lost in contemplation. “I have no idea, Jasmin. It’s like there’s a big black spot in my memories. I don’t know what happened. How is Eddie, is he okay?”
Jasmin took a deep breath. “He’s missing, Alva.”
“He was gone when we arrived,” said Fionna.
“Oh,” said Alva. “Wait, did you…did you find me? You and—” She turned in the air, facing Torie. “Oh, my baby…”
Torie began to cry again, the memories were too fresh, and she recoiled from them, blocking out the pain as much as possible.
“I’m so sorry you had to see me like that,” she whispered.
“It was so awful,” said Fionna. “Well, much more so for you and Ellie than for us, but—”
“Ellie? What do you mean for Ellie?”
Fionna stumbled over her words, the look of shock on her face told them she had not considered that Alva did not know.
“Alva, honey, do you remember Ellie coming over?” asked Jasmin.
Alva shook her head. “No. She was supposed to at some point to check in on Eddie and let us know what she found out from the lab in Trinity. But she hadn’t arrived before…you know.”
“Did she call you?”
“Sure. She said she had some surprising news from the blood sample she had taken from Eddie. But she never arrived. Why? What aren’t you telling me?”
Jasmin swallowed hard. “Alva, Ellie was killed as well.”
Then, just when Torie thought her heart could not possibly hurt any more, her mother, her dead mother, began to cry. It was a long, sorrowful wail that raised the hair on the back of her neck. She had never wanted to throw her arms around anyone more than she did at that moment.
“I’m sorry,” said Fionna, stepping back, “I really just assumed you knew. That you were, I don’t know, together in the afterlife.”
Jasmin gave her a look that told her to stop speaking.
“So, wait,” said Taylor, “if she wasn’t here before you…passed, then maybe she walked in on whoever did it. Maybe that’s what all of this—” she waved at the wreckage of the kitchen, “is from.”
Jasmin nodded. “Could be. Ellie isn’t a supernatural. She would have put up a fight if she surprised the killer. She was pretty spry, and she practiced judo as well.”
“And all those Pilates classes would have come in handy too,” said Fionna. “She was a lot stronger than she looked.”
“Where was she?” said Alva, turning her attention back to the ladies.
“Outside,” said Torie. “She was…in pretty bad shape.”
“Yeah,” said Jasmin, “like, wolf bad shape.”
“That’s why we asked Taylor to meet us here,” said Fionna. “To see if she can sniff out something that I might have missed.”
“A wolf,” said Alva. “As in the two that have been prowling around town lately?”
“We don’t know,” said Torie. “But I promise you, I’m going to find out who did this to you, Mom.”
“No, you’re not, Torie,” said Alva, turning to face Jasmin. “I forbid it, Jasmin. I wanted you to teach her, help bring her into her power; but I don’t want her put in harm’s way like this.”
Torie was touched that even though her mortal shell had been lost, her mother still wanted to protect her, even from the beyond.
“I’m going to watch over her,” said Jasmin, “don’t you worry about that. But we have to stop this killer, Alva. You. Ellie. Eddie. Everyone else we’ve lost to this psychopath. I can’t take it anymore. It has to end.”
“But that’s what we have the police for,” said Taylor. “Let them do their job.”
“Yeah, cos they’ve done it so well up to this point,” said Jasmin. “No, this is supernatural crime. It’s time we handled it our way.”
“Are the police here not part of the community?” asked Torie.
“They are,” replied Alva, “but they have a different code they have to follow.”
Torie didn’t say anything. She had never been a believer in vigilante justice, but she had also never been touched by crime in such a personal way.
“Torie, there isn’t really anything I can do to stop you, but just think about this before you embark,” said Alva. “You have a child now. Ward is out of the picture; if anything happens to you, Shawn will be all alone.”
This hit Torie like the proverbial train. She felt like her chest had just caved in and there suddenly wasn’t enough oxygen in the room to sustain her. She sat on the couch, her world spinning.
“That was a low blow,” Jasmin said, frowning at her dead friend.
“I…I’m sorry,” said Alva, slightly confused. “I don’t know why I would have said something like that.”
“Look, we aren’t talking about taking on the wolves ourselves. If they did this,” said Fionna. “We just need to get some proof that we can turn over to the authorities. Right?”
“Yeah. Right,” said Jasmin.
“Fine. But I don’t want you doing this just for me,” said Alva. She floated near her daughter and again held a ghostly hand up to her head. “I have lived a long, happy life. I died in a place I
loved, after having reconnected with the daughter I love. I am at peace with this.”
“Thank you, Mom,” said Torie. “But I agree with Jasmin…this isn’t just to avenge you. It is to make this place safer for everyone who lives here.” She forced a smile, as much for everyone in the room as it was for herself. Her mother’s words about Shawn had already wormed their way deep into her mind and were beginning to haunt her.
“Taylor,” said Fionna, looking at her friend. “What is it?”
Taylor’s body was ramrod stiff and she was staring out the back of the house. Then, in the blink of an eye, she dropped her human form and became a fox. She hurried through the house and out the back sliding door that was open. She began sniffing around the patio and then launched full speed for the tree line behind the house.
The other’s ran after her out the door. All except Alva. She stopped at the open slider, unable to exit.
“Mom, what is it?” Torie asked, turning to face her.
“I don’t know. I can’t leave,” she replied. “Torie…I can’t leave the house. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. Go, see what Taylor has found.”
Torie hesitated for a moment, but then made her way to the woods where she could see her friends. She was huffing when she got there. All those yoga and aerobics classes she had spent hours in and for what? Jumping around on an exercise mat was not the same thing as running up a grass hill.
“What…what is it?” she asked.
“There’s a wolf prowling around out here,” said Taylor after shifting back to her human form. “I saw him from the house, and then caught his scent. But by the time I got up here he was gone.”
“He couldn’t have just disappeared,” said Jasmin.
“Oh, he didn’t,” came a voice from behind us. They turned, and deeper into the woods, a shape separated from the shadows of the trees, and Elric the werewolf stepped forward.
12
This time Jasmin did step forward, placing her body between the wolf and the other women.
“Easy there,” said Elric, raising both hands, “I’m not here to hurt anyone.”