Normally, I would have waved away his help. But I felt slightly light-headed and clumsy, which was probably the result of being horribly over-tired. I didn’t want to mention my tiredness just in case he insisted we postpone this seance.
Nimue and Zel walked ahead of us, heads together, discussing the best ways to cover the clearing so they could rein in Hannah’s soul if it got too violent.
“This is a good idea,” I said to myself quietly. “I know it is.”
Nate gave me a knowing smile. “Are you trying to convince us, or yourself?”
Dawn had broken while we were at Zel’s bungalow. The jungle around us seemed to be exhaling. A fine mist covered every surface. I could even see the tiny droplets suspended in the air in front of me. Crystal-clear dew gathered in the grooves of the palms and trembled on the lips of the leaves. The light was weak and watery; the sun not yet high enough to burn away all the vapor left by the night.
The effect was eerie. I gave a little shiver when I thought about what we were about to do.
We reached the clearing. The little circle of grass within the jungle was deserted; the only sign that any human had been there was two worn grooves in the grass, right in front of the enormous log that we often sat on. It looked like a couple of Revelations staff had snuggled down there, maybe shared a joint. For now, there was no one here.
Nate disappeared in a puff of air and came back almost as soon as he was gone. “There’s no sign of human life anywhere around us,” he said. “We should be safe to do this uninterrupted.”
“It’s changeover time anyway,” I said. “All the night staff will be scurrying indoors so they can avoid the sunrise. It messes with our circadian rhythms too much, and makes it hard to adjust our sleep cycles.”
“And all of the guests are still unconscious,” Alex said, tilting an ear towards the resort. “Even the night-owl types.” He cocked his head again, listening, and grinned to himself. “The three guests that I would have put money on staying up all night are all snoring like the dead.” He winked at me. “They’re the three that Met just beat in his little squash tournament. He must have worn them out.”
The thought made me smile. “I honestly wonder if Met really does know what is going on,” I said out loud. “There are so many things he does, seemingly just by accident, that end up saving the day. Like taking a dip in your lube-pool, Zel.” I said, nodding at the demon on the edge of the clearing. “None of those crazy monks could get a grip on me after he drenched me with it. Or when he threw that eighty-proof rum all over my shirt when I was running from that other assassin, and I used it to light up the sigil to call you, Nimue, when we were in the caves.”
Both Zel and Nimue looked at me blankly for a moment.
“Knowing Metatron as I do,” Nimue drawled, “I have no doubt that he has no idea what he’s doing.”
“That’s what everyone says,” I muttered. “I, on the other hand, think there’s more to Met than just a series of hilarious and fortunate accidents.”
“Maybe. We will probably never know,” Nimue said. After a beat, she waved us all forward, and we gathered in a loose circle in the middle of the clearing. “Okay, here’s the plan,” she said, and she hitched up her glittering black gown so she could squat down like a baseball player in a huddle. Nate, Zel, and Alex all took a knee. I stayed standing, because I was the same height as them now that they were all kneeling.
“Zel and I will take north and south. I’ll be fire, and you, Zel, take earth. That will set up a good boundary. You, Nate, will probably be best with water, so take west. That leaves air to you, darling,” she smiled at Alex. “Cover your corners, and project your barrier as far as you can, so she can’t escape the boundary.”
They all nodded.
“You, Eve,” Nimue continued, “Will stay just outside the barrier between Alex and myself. You can speak to her and see if you can get her to recognize you. That’s half the battle.”
“Is this not like drawing a regular circle?” I asked, confused. “You know, to call an angel or demon?”
“It’s nothing like it,” Nimue said. “For starters, the mechanics are different. Tormented souls do not respond like rational entities; they don’t decide whether or not they will answer a summons.”
“They can be attracted to energy that’s just like their own,” Alex explained. “So to call them, we need to crack open a portal a little bit, then try and manifest a memory specific to that person. It has to be painful, because they’ll be attracted to energy that they understand.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” I said, biting my lip.
“Like attracts like,” Nimue explained. “We open a portal, think of the soul we want to call, think of a painful memory of theirs, and see if that energy will draw them in. It’s a bit like bait on a hook. They’re addicted to their pain, you see. They’ll be drawn to more of it. Hopefully, they take the bait, and appear in this circle.”
“Will this hurt her?”
Zel shook his head. “Think of it like this: Hannah has broken both her arms and her legs. We’re just going to pierce her ears.”
I shuddered at the visceral image. “That’s horrendous.”
“It is,” Alex said. “Yet it’s the only way to call her.”
“Shouldn’t we be putting out a salt circle, or something?”
“We could, but it wouldn’t hold her,” Nimue explained. “It might work for a moment, but her energy is different from all of the otherworldly beings. It’s too chaotic, and has less matter. We’re creating a higher-vibration energy barrier between the four of us,” she said, gesturing to the others. “She’ll be repelled by the boundary that we create, so she’ll be compelled to stay within it. Like an electric fence.”
“This is going to hurt her,” I muttered.
Nate put his hand on my shoulder. His palm was cool on my skin, and it felt reassuring. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
I took a moment to think about it seriously. After running through every single one of the pros and cons of calling her, I bit my lip and nodded. “Yes. Even though it might be a bad idea on paper, I just… feel like it’s the right thing to do.”
Alex turned to face me and wrapped me in a quick hug. He pulled back, his eyes focused onto mine. “You’ll be right behind me. If anything goes wrong, I’ll take you away from here. Nimue and Zel will take Hannah back to Hell. Nate will cover the rest of the resort. Okay?”
I nodded.
Alex stood up and squared his shoulders. “Okay everyone, take your corners.”
Nimue and Zel moved in opposite directions to the edges of the clearing, tall and imposing, their heads held high. I wished I felt as confident as they looked. Nate gave me one last reassuring smile before he moved to his corner.
“We’re giving her a lot of room,” I muttered to Alex. He took my hand, running his thumb over my palm. My skin tingled where his touch trailed on my skin.
“We need to leave her lots of room,” he explained. “She’ll be worse if she’s boxed in too much.”
I sighed out a pained breath. “I wish we didn’t have to do this.”
Alex moved his hand on my cheek and gently lifted my chin, so I wasn’t looking at the ground anymore. His eyes were gentle. “If you feel it in your heart that we have to do this, then we should,” he told me.
I gave a choked laugh. “It’s not my heart I feel it in,” I said. “It’s my gut.”
“Well, they say your gut is your second brain.”
“I wish I felt like I could trust my first brain as much.”
“Go with your gut,” he said, stroking my cheek one last time. “It’s never let you down.”
I shrugged. “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”
“Eve,” he said, chuckling softly. “You’ll be fine. Just let us hold the barrier. I’ll talk you through what you need to do to call her.”
“Wait, what? I’m calling her?”
“You’re the one who wants to tal
k to her. We’ll be too busy trying to hold the barrier.”
“What do you mean trying?”
He ignored my panic and smiled at me again. “You’ll need to summon up a dark memory of Hannah,” he said. “That shouldn’t be too hard. I can come up with a few dark memories of her, and I barely know her.”
“Okay, Mr. Bitchypants,” I narrowed my eyes at him. Despite how awful Hannah had been to both of us, I still felt too guilty about what happened to her to completely trash her. “Let’s just do this.”
“That’s the spirit.” Alex squeezed my hand one last time, then led me back to the edge of the clearing. Once he found his position, completing the circle, he moved me just behind and a few steps to the right of him. “Stay just there,” he told me. “You’ll be close enough for me to be able to help you call her. I can expend a little energy bringing up some dark memories of her myself.”
I nodded, suddenly unsure if I could speak, my mouth was so dry. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ever been so nervous.
“Ready?” Nimue’s call washed over me from the other side of the clearing. She looked cool and breezily confident. It took away a little of my nerves, before I remembered that she literally lived in Hell. She dealt with the screams every day.
“We’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” Alex called back. I bit my lip for a second, but nodded, and steadied myself.
Nimue held her arms out, loose and low, palms up, and began a chant in a soft whisper. Her voice echoed over to me, carried by the resonance and power of the words that she spoke. I didn’t know the language; all I could tell was that it sounded ancient and powerful. The wind around me picked up, tossing a strand of hair in my face. I tucked it away with a shaking hand.
Nimue’s voice grew louder, and louder again, but somehow, she was still only whispering. The volume was all in my head. Suddenly, I realized that I could hear the magic behind the words. It was what gave them their strength and made her voice seem loud when she still whispered softly. The earth beneath my feet began to tremble. I felt, rather than saw, the connection between Nimue, Zel, Nate, and Alex - an invisible line that shot out from their palms.
The barrier was complete. With her eyes shut, deep in concentration, Nimue called out to me. “A tiny portal is open. You can call her now.”
“I’ll help you,” Alex said in a low growl. He had his back to me, so I couldn’t see how hard he was concentrating. It was unsettling. Sensing my apprehension, he spoke again, softer this time. “It’s okay, Eve. Just think of her. Think of an experience that she might be deeply ashamed of. I’ll help.”
I swallowed roughly, trying to bury my guilt deeper. I had so many examples of Hannah behaving badly, but I brought to mind the most recent: When she tried to have me fired by planting cocaine in my room.
The wind whipped my hair around my face; I stopped trying to hold it back. Through the strands of darkness, I saw Zel brace himself; flinching back from the power that shot out of his palms. I could tell he was scared; perhaps from the anticipation of having to deal with a tortured, screaming entity. Not wanting to look, I shut my eyes and focused hard on the visions in my head.
A picture of Hannah came to my mind. She was leaning over the reception desk, her fake green eyes flashing. Her ruby red lips were spitting venom at me, as she swore she was going to get me fired. Or killed. Her hatred was so palpable, she loathed me with such passion and anger, I’d never felt anything like it. I brought those feelings to the forefront of my mind - the hurt that she’d caused me, the pain and anxiety that followed me around once I knew she was trying to get her revenge on me.
A tremor spiked through the air. The electricity in the atmosphere was suddenly palpable; I could feel it in every stilted breath I took.
She was coming.
I could sense her before I saw anything. It was as if a cloud of anger and pain had formed in the middle of the clearing, right in between the barrier. I opened my eyes to watch, while still holding in my mind a vision of Hannah spewing insults at me.
The air in the center of the clearing turned the color of an angry bruise, darker in the middle, muddy and blurred on the outside. There was a crack, a fissure opening up in reality, revealing the blackest void, but it was gone in the same instant. Through the opening, a tormented energy emerged, crawling slowly through the dimensions, and screaming in agonizing pain.
My whole body froze; pins and needles raced up my fingers.
“Keep going,” Alex said through gritted teeth. I couldn’t think about how much this was hurting him. “Keep focusing on her,” he panted. “See if she will come to you. See if you can get her to recognize you.”
I swallowed a cry, gritted my teeth, and forced myself to focus on the tortured soul that appeared in the clearing. It had no visual form; just dirty, smog-like air, condensed and pulsing in pure agony.
“Hannah.”
My voice was croaky. The entity did not focus on me.
“Hannah.” I tried again, and at the same time, I brought to my mind a vision of Alex telling her how awful she was. Somehow, I could tell that he was visualizing the same thing.
The entity moved. The grey smog whirled around, emitting a silent screech that I could only hear in my head. I flinched, trying to mentally block out the sounds. Her form condensed further, darkening into a hazy slate color, and within the fog, I could make out a writhing torso and flailing arms.
“Hannah,” I whispered again. The fog shaped around her head to emulate her snake-like dark hair, whipping around in the wind. Her ghost form blurred out, becoming just bruise-colored mist in the center of the clearing. The tension strung out, electric, almost at breaking point.
As if from far away, I heard Alex grunt beside me. “She’s here. You have to get her to see you, Eve. Get her to focus on you. We’ll hold her back. If she can’t focus on something, she’ll destroy this clearing.”
My heart thumped. There was a deafening crack as Hannah's energy hit out, suddenly solid, and struck the ground, rocking it under my feet. I stumbled. The rust-red dirt exploded upwards, blinding me, mixing with her hazy grey form. A scream ripped through the air, slicing through my brain, so high and tormented that I saw stars.
And it didn’t stop. It was so high-pitched, so full of agony and heartbreak I thought it would rip me apart. Overwhelmed, feeling momentarily defeated, I crouched to the ground with my hands over my ears.
Right then, a whistling of wind soared over my head, at the same time, Alex shouted. Terrified, I prised my eyes open and looked around. The massive log that had rested in the middle of the clearing went sailing off into the jungle. There was an almighty crack when it hit another tree thirty meters away. I realized all at once that Hannah had picked up the only thing in the clearing and thrown it as if it were a piece of balled-up paper.
“I’m okay,” I stammered. Alex’s back straightened; he was relieved. If I hadn’t been crouching at that moment, the log would have smashed me to pieces.
I glanced up at the others. Nate’s mouth was open in shock; he strained against the force of the energy that streamed from his palms, unable to move to help me. I shook my head at him, trying to comfort him, but I knew that terror still showed on my face. Nimue’s eyes were shut, her beautiful face showed the strain she was under. It was costing them all a lot of energy. Maybe too much.
With his back to me and unable to see my expression, Alex rallied as he realized I wasn’t hurt. Flexing, his broad shoulders took the brunt of the force of the energy boundary, letting the others have some breathing space. At the same time, Hannah’s spirit whirled like a devastating tornado inside the ring. She circled once, erratic, then smashed into the gap between Zel and Nate. Zel gave a shout, panic on his face, but Hannah was forced back, screeching in rage and pain.
The sound cut through my ears like a blade. Like a raven in a too-small cage, Hannah’s spirit whirled back, frantically bashing and screaming bloody agony, trying to escape from the pain she could never run from. It was
inside of her; it was her.
A crack opened in the ground; the rumbling threw me off balance, and I fell onto one knee.
She was going to break the ground we stood on.
I felt a hot trickle run from my ear. Touching my hand to it, I saw it was wet with blood. Hannah's screams had pierced through my head and burst my eardrums.
My chest felt too tight; I couldn’t breathe. With each ragged breath I took my spirits sunk lower. Hannah was too volatile; she was going to get out, she was going to destroy the resort, she’d kill me, kill everyone.
My eyes frantically tore around the circle. Zel’s face was distraught.
I shouldn’t have let him do this. He was too fragile. I was too fragile. I was just a stupid little girl. Why would I think I could possibly tame a tormented spirit?
Through the roar of the wind that whipped around us, and over the piercing screams of the agonized soul within the circle, Alex’s voice reached me from far away, so far away.
“Eve,” he shouted. “Call her! You know what to do!”
And suddenly, I did know. I knew exactly what to do.
Although, it probably wasn’t what Alex was expecting.
I curled my fingers into fists, bracing myself against the wind. Slowly, I walked forward. Straight into the circle.
I felt the point in which I passed through the barrier; it felt like ice running through my core. I felt the cold tingle of magic spike through me, shocking me. I kept walking.
The others felt it too. Nimue realized first. I heard her shout over the rush of wind.
“Eve, no!”
I didn’t want to see the horror on the boys' faces, so I squeezed my eyes shut, and kept walking until they were out of my line of sight. I opened my eyes again, immediately wishing I had kept them closed.
Hannah’s spirit noticed me. Her form condensed again, the fog became dense and formed the shape of her body, as much as it looked like in life. A great gray floating ghost, she whirled around the circle, screaming and tearing at her skin with her clawed hands, pulling her smoke-like hair, finding no purchase, and wailing like a banshee.
Revelations: The Fallen Page 12