Black Hollow: One Man's Curse

by Jennifer Wedmore

  “And I you. I was already on my way back when Alizon called. What did she find?” Raven shook her head and gestured to the couch where Alizon sat.

  “She keeps mumbling but hasn’t said anything to me yet.”

  “That’s because I was waiting to tell you both. You might want to sit down.” Raven took Derrick’s hand and walked over to the couch. Raven squeezed in next to Alizon and made sure Derrick had room to sit also. She didn’t let go of his hand, she had a feeling they both would need the connection.

  “Malachi was interested in what magic could do for him, how he could use it to his advantage. I haven’t read much yet but all he talks about is curses, how to cast them, how to use them to get what he wants and how to get revenge on those who he perceived as wronged him. He mentioned his wife but barely so far. He called her unfaithful, so far all he said was he wanted her to pay and her family for protecting her. I need you to be prepared, this isn’t going to be pretty. If I do find something about breaking the curse, we will need Horace close. Could you bring him to the library?”

  Raven realized she was squeezing Derrick’s hand tightly. She pried her fingers open and flexed them. Derrick appeared lost. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I guess, I’m shocked is all.” Raven understood that feeling. It was hard to imagine one man would be so vengeful to curse an entire family because his wife might have cheated. The devastation caused by two people reached so far. If the wife was cheating, she may have been completely innocent in the whole thing. “I’ll get some help to bring Horace to the library when you call.” Derrick turned to look at Raven, “I’m going to go look at Horace’s house again, maybe in daylight I can find something. I need to know more about Malachi’s wife, who she was, what her name was, did she cheat? I just have to know more.”

  Raven leaned forward and kissed him, “Go, I’ll be here if you need me.” Derrick got up and walked out of the apartment. “Alizon, I hate to see him go but I do like to see him walk away.”

  Alizon snorted and kept on reading the book.

  Nineteen

  Derrick walked out of the apartment building and ran into Adam and Sarah. “Something tells me we may be seeing a lot more of you in this building Derrick.”

  “Morning Adam, Ma’am. You may for a while for sure.” Derrick turned to Sarah, ‘hello I’m Derrick Ainsworth, I own The Rotten Meatball restaurant. I apologize on not making your acquaintance before now. My family has been a bit preoccupied with Uncle Horace and the curse.”

  Sarah smiled and glanced up at Adam who chuckled, “I promise the food is better than the name of the place and I will explain later.” Adam glanced up at the second floor, ‘Maybe we could all have dinner one night?”

  Derrick patted Adam’s shoulder, “I would love that, give me a couple days to get some things sorted out and we will make that happen.” Derrick nodded at Sarah and stepped around them pulling his phone out of his pocket. He hit autodial number one and waited while it rang.

  “Hey dad, I have some news. Want to meet me at Uncle Horace’s house?” Derrick’s dad agreed and hung up. Derrick’s head was filled what if’s, what if they never find the curse, what if they never find the way to reverse it or end it, what if Raven moved in with him. Whoa, where did that come from? It was too soon to think about that, right? But Raven was right with their lifespan, they had more than enough time to know when something was right. Time only mattered when you were at the end.

  Derrick walked up to his uncle’s house with a smile on his face, one he didn’t want to let go. “Someone had a good morning, I noticed you didn’t come from your place. Were you at the library already this morning?”

  “Dad there comes a point in a man’s life when they don’t have to share their whereabouts the night before.” Derrick’s grin got a bit bigger. He was sure his dad figured out where he was, and he could handle a bit of joking if it made his news easier to give.

  “All I am going to say is I am proud of you for taking the leap. She’s a good lady and you deserve the best. Now what brought me here and away from your mother’s bed so early today?”

  “Really dad. That’s just TMI.” Derrick shook those thoughts away before he thought about them too closely. “Alizon can read the book Raven’s cousin sent to her. It is a journal, Malachi’s journal. He goes on about expanding his magic, getting revenge, and his wife cheating on him. He blamed the whole family for protecting her. Alizon said she would keep reading and if she found a counter curse or anything, she wanted us ready to bring Horace to the library. I’m going to need help getting him there Dad.”

  “Okay, anything you need you know that. Now, why are we at Horace’s house?” They walked into the house together and looked around.

  “I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy but I wanted some answers. Who was Malachi’s wife, did she really cheat, how did the family protect her and from what? Maybe they were protecting her from him, he sounded maniacal. I mean who curses a whole family!” Derrick was yelling by the end of his rant, but he didn’t bother apologizing for it.

  “I hear you son, I will start in the guest room. I remember there being boxes in there. You start in his office. We will work our way through this house until we find something.”

  Derrick nodded and headed into the office, he purposely shoved the memories away today. There would be time later to remember, but today was not it.

  ***

  After about an hour of searching, Derrick’s Dad walked into the office holding a computer printout. “Did you know Horace was into genealogy? He was mapping our family back as far as he could.” Derrick closed the desk drawer he was sifting through and walked over to his dad.

  “Would it show Malachi on there? I mean if he was married to our ancestor?” Derrick looked over his dad’s shoulder trying to scan the document himself.

  “Maybe, some tracked marriages, some didn’t. It appears Horace did a combination, if children were the result of a union, he included the parent info, if not he didn’t but marked a number next to the person’s name. The notes indicate that meant how many times they married. He even tracked at what age each descendant was affected by the curse.”

  Derrick sucked in a deep breath “Why didn’t he ever mention this to anyone?”

  “I don’t know but it appears he knew it was coming for him soon. Look at the ages of the older family members. He marked the pattern before the rest of us were even aware it was happening. Next to his name, he marked his age the year before it hit. He expected it.”

  Derrick watched his dad walk over to a chair across from the desk and drop into it. “I can’t believe he knew and didn’t tell us. Dad as the next oldest, he should have told you at least.”

  His dad rubbed his hands down his face, “He left me a letter, but I couldn’t bring myself to open it while he was still alive. I was afraid to see what he wanted to tell me.”

  Derrick leaned back against the wall and slid to the floor. Silent tears ran down his face. “I just need a moment to process. We all know the curse is coming for us, but Horace knew to the year when he would be affected. That last year, waiting each day to see if it was the one that ruined you. Can you imagine, the relief he felt each day and the dread each night as he went to bed?”

  “Derrick I found Malachi’s name, at least I think it’s his. It’s been scratched off so it’s hard to see for sure, but the time frame is right. He was connected to Annamarie Ainsworth, it doesn’t denote they were married though. Linked to her is one child, Adeline Ainsworth. She wasn’t given his last name, I don’t think they were married. I think he was infatuated with her and tried to force her hand in marriage. The family must have protected her from that, hence his anger at the whole line.”

  Twenty

  Raven waited a few minutes after Derrick left before getting off the couch and pacing the room. She couldn’t sit still, she felt useless. She wanted to help, but how? Her gaze caught on the book of ‘A Grand History’. Why did Jessup want her to find this book? Raven picke
d it up and walked back to the couch to look through it. She opened the first page and groaned, “I can’t read this book either. Why would Jessup lead me to it?”

  Alizon looked over at the book, “Hold on, I can do a quick spell to translate it for you. That’s just ancient Greek, takes no time and little power for that.” Alizon mumbled a few words and waved her hand at Raven.

  Raven looked back down at the book and the words were all now in English. “Holy crap that’s awesome, what did you do with your hand?”

  Alizon smiled, “Nothing, it just makes magic look cooler.” Raven shook her head at Alizon and started to read.

  Suddenly Alizon grabbed Raven’s arm, “Call Derrick tell him to bring Horace to the library, I think I found the counter curse.”

  Raven blinked, she wasn’t sure how much time had passed but her stomach rumbled so it had to have been a couple hours. She had gotten so caught up in her book she hadn’t realized it. “I’ll tell him to meet us at the library right now.”

  Raven pulled out her cell phone and realized she didn’t have his number, “Alizon can I use your phone… We haven’t exchanged numbers yet.” Raven tried not to blush, but she felt her cheeks get hot. Thankfully Alizon was to lost in the journal to pay much attention, she just held out her phone and kept reading.

  Raven scrolled the contacts until she found Derrick’s number. “Hey, Alizon found what she thinks is the counter curse, meet us at the library with Horace please.” Raven quickly hung up and jumped to grab her bag. She shoved her book into it and headed for the door. “Alizon let’s go, you have to close the book long enough to walk across the street.”

  They rushed across the street and into the library. Waiting was torture, but they would need a few minutes to get Horace there safely. “Alizon do we need to do anything special for this counter curse?”

  Alizon had sat back down at one of the tables and was reading again. “MMM, no. It appears to just be an incantation. Simple enough.”

  “Have you found any reason why the curse backfired on Malachi or the rest of my family? I mean it’s not important, but I am curious, I would have expected him to be more careful.” For a man so obsessed with curses and magic, she thought he would have all kinds of protections placed on himself to safeguard his well-being.

  Alizon sighed, “not yet, but a lot of this is jumbled and vague. I don’t really understand what he was trying to say some of the time.”

  Raven pulled the other book out of her bag and sat down across from Alizon to read more. This book was about magic users, who held magic, what types of magic there were out there and ways to lose it. Well that's what she had surmised so far. With her family so far removed from magic it was all an education and she was fascinated by what she learned. Not that any of it could help them right now, but still fascinating.

  “Alizon, Raven, I heard you found a counter curse. I hope you don’t mind if I watch with you? “Both girls snapped their heads up, apparently neither had heard Seraphine come into the library.

  “Of course not, I had been looking for you. Alizon was able to help me though.” Raven tried to keep the frustration out of her voice. She had thought Seraphine would be around more to help her get adjusted to town. As it was, she hadn’t done anything with the library other than work on the curse.

  “I apologize for my absence, there was something I needed to look into that drew me away.” Seraphine was being vague and Raven thought it odd, but she really didn’t know her well enough to say for sure. Seraphine glanced over her shoulder and turned back to Raven, “Here comes Derrick with Horace, are you ready for this?”

  Suddenly Raven was nauseated, nerves or something more she wasn’t sure. There was a lot riding on this and she wanted to help. Seeing Horace for the first time, scared her a little bit, it was the evidence of her ancestors’ misdeeds. Derrick and the family had silver skin because of the curse but they didn’t have any obvious problems, so it was easy to forget they were affected too.

  The door opened behind Seraphine and Derrick walked in first with Horace behind him. Then came Stephen and Derrick’s father. Horace moaned, and his eyes rolled in the back of his head but there was no other indication of anything wrong yet. Well if you looked beyond his hands being wrapped in ropes and the others watching him very closely.

  “Alizon where do you want us to stand at?” Derrick stared at Horace, never taking his eyes off him. It made Raven wonder what they had seen from other family members as they became zombified.

  “You are fine in the library entryway. This should be a simple spell and not require anyone to move.” Raven watched as Alizon took a deep breath and started chanting. “Ligabis ad te voco, ista maledictio, verbis meis, per me factis, in quas maledicta congessi posuit super te. Bis facti estis quibus voco te, et non dubitant.” Horace’s body started to shake, and Alizon repeated it again. His groans became louder and Alizon did it one more time.

  The third time she repeated it Horace jerked his hands apart and started moving towards Derrick. His groaning got even louder, and he was focused for the first time in a long time.

  “Alizon I think it made it worse!” Raven screamed at her.

  Twenty-One

  Derrick watched as his favorite Uncle shuffled closer to him, he was acting like the zombies Hollywood portrayed them as. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Alizon thumbing through the book trying to figure out what went wrong.

  “Stephen help me grab him, we can tie him to a chair until we figure out what went wrong.” Derrick’s dad yelled as he approached Horace. Seraphine grabbed a chair and brought it closer to them. With a yell Stephen wrapped his arms around Horace from behind and held him. His dad pushed the chair closer and waited until Stephen got him sitting, then he quickly wrapped the rope around his chest and stomach area. Tying it in back behind the chair.

  “Keep him still and I will hold him in place.” Derrick gaped at Seraphine, “Why didn’t you do that while he was coming at me?”

  Seraphine turned to the door and didn’t reply. Standing there was a young woman, Derrick have never seen her before. She didn’t say anything but the smirk on her face was out of place. Raven stepped forward, “I’m sorry the library is closed right now. Would you mind coming back tomorrow?”

  The woman laughed and walked farther inside “Well cousin, it’s about time we met in person, I see you got my gift.” Raven gasped and looked at Derrick in shock.

  “What do you mean? Are you Addie? I don’t understand what’s going on.” Derrick could feel Raven’s heartache from across the room.

  “Raven I think Addie gave us the journal not to help but to hurt us. I don’t know why though.” Derrick was just as confused as everyone else in the room. Seraphine stared at Addie but said nothing.

  “You want to know why? My full name is Adeline Burroughs Ainsworth. My family took away the Ainsworth part when I was born. They didn’t want any memory of the family who caused so much pain for my parents.” Derek’s head whipped around to look at his father. Was she saying she was the daughter of Malachi and Annamarie?

  “Raven, I didn’t get the chance to tell you, but we found records showing Malachi Burroughs and Annamarie Ainsworth had a child together. Her name was Adeline Ainsworth according to Uncle Horace’s records. We saw no record they were married though, we think Malachi took what he wanted, and the Ainsworth family was just trying to protect their daughter, Annamarie. I’m not sure how Addie here came to be a Burroughs and not an Ainsworth though.”

  Raven gaped at him, then looked over to Addie. “Is this all true? How are you alive? I don’t understand any of this.”

  Addie walked around the entryway, eyeing Stephen and stopping in front of Derrick’s dad. “Pity, you were close to the curse getting you weren’t you.” She ran her hand across his chest and walked over to Horace. “I admit seeing what the curse did firsthand is kinda exciting. Maintaining it all these years was not easy.”

  Raven sputtered, “Maintaining it? How, we don’t hav
e magic, we lost it when Malachi created the curse.”

  Addie smiled again “That’s what I wanted you to think, so I made sure everyone shared that memory. Over time it became fact. Should I start at the beginning then?”

  Derrick was afraid for Raven; her face was pale, and she looked ready to pass out. He imagined it wasn’t easy finding out everything you had known was wrong. But if that woman touched his dad again, he would do his best to take her out.

  “Yes, I was born to Malachi and Annamarie, no matter what the Ainsworth family says. My parents loved each other very much. They were planning to run away together and get married but her family thought the Burroughs were evil. Witches weren’t always treated well if you recall. They hid my mother from my father, and he searched for years to find her. He eventually gave up the search and decided they should all pay for crimes against him and his love. He created the curse, it was supposed to make all the Ainsworth family once they reached the age of sixty to rapidly age, wrinkle and die. What he didn’t know, and I learned later was a powerful witch, a Burroughs actually betrayed the family and put a protection on Annamarie. It caused her to be hidden from his eyes forever. When Malachi cast his curse, it interacted with the spell on her and mutated into something new. The Ainsworth family was cursed but it was with a long life, and slowly going mad. Malachi was badly injured, but he was able to surmise my mother’s location. He rescued me from the Ainsworth family when I was two years old, my mom had not survived the curse, probably due to the protection spell.” Derrick couldn’t believe the words that came out of Addie’s mouth. She was as crazy as her father.

  “How are you alive Addie?” Raven asked with conviction, the information she was just given made her stronger. Derrick could see the determination in her eyes.