Resting Witch Face

by Constance Barker

  Harvest nodded, and so did Echo. “They’re cutting us off from our lives, our jobs.”

  Echo’s eyes went wide. “I was thinking the same thing—they don’t want to hurt us, only make us full time witches instead of constables or social workers. But why?”

  “As I said, magic is suppressed in this realm, difficult to release. They create believers in the impossible, and that belief is the grease. The more the people who believe, the more this local, bound magic is undone. This increases your abilities, you and your foes grow more powerful as one.”

  “But shamans? Medicine men? I don’t get it. I know the sacred grounds were flooded by the Kinzua Dam, but I haven’t seen any Indians around,” Echo said.

  “As in traditional times, it’s still true nowadays, a shaman is born to this world, not made or trained or raised. They will do anything to make you prisoners of your own abilities; to separate you from this realm’s...”

  Harvest moved close as Mom’s features went blank. “We’re losing her. Give her more juice, Echo.”

  Echo shook the survival canteen, eyes big. “Empty.”

  With a gasp, Mom came around again. Pain creased her face. Baring her teeth, she gestured, turning both palms up. Quinn grunted as the grimoire appeared in her hands.

  “Remember,” Mom’s breathing became heavy. “That hate and fear springs from belief, although the believers cower. That kind of faith is energy, this credence brings us power.”

  “She’s hurting, Quinn, recite the spell,” Harvest put a steadying hand on her mother’s shoulder.

  Tears fell from Trinity Hutchinson’s eyes. She sobbed, “To stay with you is certain death, though I would til my final breath, yet I know in a short time we’ll find the remedy that makes me more than image, dreams and...”

  “Memory,” Echo finished. “I don’t want you to go, Mom!”

  “She’ll die, Echo. C’mon, we have to get her home,” Harvest reached over to grip Echo’s arm. She nodded at Quinn.

  “Through our blood connection to the Twih,

  Nicholas O’Broin, we summon thee

  Throw open the Arcadian portal

  We bid you reclaim this lost immortal.”

  Chapter 17

  “Please, just a few more minutes!” Echo begged.

  Harvest recited the spell with Quinn. Both turned expectant eyes on her.

  Echo sank to her knees, gripping her mother’s leg. “No. I don’t want you to go! I want to know you, Mom. Please. Just a little while?” Sobbing, she buried her face in Mom’s hospital gown. Rain pattered down from a blue sky.

  She felt a hand in her hair and looked up. Mom had an expression, a little sad, but stern. For a moment, Echo felt that she had longed for such a look her whole life. “All right. All right. Fine!”

  As she said the spell with her sisters, light slanted the wrong way through the trees in the yard. With a shimmering, shaking of the air, second-growth trees were replaced by a moss-covered, ferny forest primeval. A tall man in a black goatee sporting high fashion, ’80s-style, stepped from the shadows, hand extended.

  With jerky motions, Mom reached back. Her hospital gown bloomed into a multi-colored denim jacket with shoulder pads. Straight hair growing big, she cast a smile over her shoulder. She was just like she was in the newspaper photo, Echo realized. Stuck in the ’80s.

  Echo whirled as an engine roared up the driveway, an ugly yellow VW station wagon.

  “That’s Nora Albright’s—” Harvest started, but the car shuddered to a stop.

  The coroner’s assistant leapt out. “You’re ruining everything!” Nora reached into her coat pockets and flung something into the air. It crackled and blazed like a fireworks display.

  “Form the chain and drag them both out,” she called out to the car.

  Harvest clapped her hands to her head. “Of course, Nora Albright. Why didn’t I see it? Quinn, you’ve got the grimoire, zap her!”

  “This isn’t Harry Potter, Harvest, I can’t just wave a wand. I’ve got spots in front of my eyes.”

  Echo felt only fury that this woman would interrupt their farewell. Shouting, she raised her hands to the sky. The light sprinkle became a deluge, the sound of the rain a roar. Thunder clapped. Yet the floating red sparkles in the air sheltered Nora and the car from the sudden weather.

  Coyotes and raccoons spilled from the station wagon, foaming muzzles snarling as they charged the sisters.

  “Forget it, Echo, get in the car.” Quinn half dragged her into a run. The driveway was only a few feet away. In seconds, all three of them slammed the doors. Immediately, they heard claws on the roof. A coyote jumped on the hood, growling with bared fangs.

  “It won’t start!” Quinn frantically turned the key.

  Echo jumped back as a coyote’s paws slammed into the window. The animals weren’t that big, but their ferocity made Echo want to stay in the vehicle. Three coyotes has so easily knocked her down and stolen her laptop. She was afraid.

  “SCREW THIS.” HARVEST pulled her gun. The moment she flung open her door and drew a bead, the animals vanished. With a whine of tires on wet gravel, the station wagon swayed and bobbed down the driveway.

  “Damn, I should’ve known it was Nora. All the stuff she knew!” Harvest shut the door again. “Let’s get her.”

  Quinn shook her head. “Car still won’t start. Must be the crackly stuff in the air.”

  Harvest eyed the strange magic stuff. It swirled around like embers from a campfire. “We’re stuck. Whatevs. At least we know who’s after us.”

  “Maybe.” Quinn stopped turning the key.

  Both Harvest and Echo gave her the evil eye. “Maybe?”

  “I’m just thinking. There was Nora, and raccoons, and coyotes. No bobcats or otters.”

  “Otters?” Echo piped up. “Who’d be afraid of otters? They’re adorbs.”

  “But a lot more dangerous than raccoons or coyotes. Otters take on alligators,” Harvest said. “They’ve been known to attack people, too.”

  “What I’m getting at is this: there were bobcats in Mom’s hospital room. Who else was there? Piper Zimmerman.”

  “Yeah, but Piper’s—” Harvest’s words were interrupted by a thought. “Oh.”

  “Oh, what?” Echo asked.

  “She’s dead,” Quinn said. “Murdered.”

  “That’s sad. She was so nice to Mom.”

  Harvest couldn’t argue. “You’re thinking that it’s more than one person. Maybe each person has their own animal thing?”

  Quinn nodded. “Since otters, adorbs as they are, can’t drive, I’m guessing Nora and the otters are connected. Piper and the bobcats were connected.”

  “Well who are the raccoons and the coyotes?” Echo frowned.

  “That’s what we need to find out.”

  The youngest sister sighed and sank into the back seat. “I know we’re in danger and all, but with Mom...”

  “I get it,” Harvest said.

  “We still struck a blow.” Quinn tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “I don’t think Nora and company wanted us to send Mom home. Her presence here had to be part of their plan, even if I don’t understand what their plan is.”

  “Part of it was getting close to us. Nora got in on the murder investigation from the start. Piper was at the hospital, waiting for us.” Harvest gazed out the window at the place where Uncle Nick pulled Mom into the Twih. “But sending Mom back—it kinda took the wind out of my sails, too.”

  “Mom said that these shamans, witch doctors, medicine men, whatever, stirred up people’s belief in order to free up magic. Given Echo’s thunderstorm, your reading Sgt. Shafer’s mind, and my sudden ability to write new spells, I’d say we’re working at full power,” Quinn said to Harvest.

  Echo jumped in. “Back in the day, the nation-wide Satanic Panic pulled Mom and Uncle Nick out of the Twih. I lost the photo of them, but it’s obvious the same thing is going on here.”

  “Except it’s not national,” Harvest sa
id. “It’s all about Steve Bender and his alleged cult of satanic followers.”

  “Holy moly.” Echo pulled out her phone and texted like crazy.

  “Who are you texting?” Harvest asked.

  “Remember in August, when the coven was staking us out?” Echo kept her eyes on her phone.

  “What about it? This isn’t the Jade Coven, Echo.”

  “No, that’s not it. But how did they know when I would show up at the Chandlery? It’s like, I’d get there, and a couple minutes later, there’d be a sedan parked across the street.”

  Harvest looked at Quinn. Quinn held up her hands. “Maybe they were tracking us by magic. Our former dentist might have been able to.”

  “Oh, eew, yeah, with pieces of our teeth. Gross. But if they used magic, why bother with the stakeouts? If they knew where we were, they could just find the best place to ambush us. But they didn’t. They got Harvest at the State Police barracks, they got me at home, and you at the office.”

  Harvest raised her brows. “I don’t follow.”

  “Me neither.”

  “Don’t you get it? They were watching us all the time. They knew when we left the house, when I went to work. It had to be a camera.”

  “A camera where?”

  “The PDF’s right across from the Chandlery. Deb Arnold, the former president of the PDF, was part of the Jade Coven.”

  “Okay, lots of businesses have security cameras, so I’ll go along with that. But Deb’s...” Quinn stopped talking and faced out the window.

  Echo let it go. Quinn had cast a spell that took out Deb, her boss, and two other coven members. She doubted her older sister would ever get over it. “No, but there’s somebody else. She works at the PDF now. She told me Steve Bender is dark and violent, capable of murder, even. And she’s close to me. Not real close, but closer than some nurse, or coroner’s investigator. Let’s go talk to her.”

  “Who, Echo?”

  She looked up from her phone. “Katie Barnes. She’s not returning my texts.”

  “Barnes? Isn’t that the farmer whose name is on the parathion order?” Quinn sat up straighter and turned the key. Finally, the engine started.

  “Whoa, hold your horses. I have a better idea.”

  Quinn’s hand was poised over the gear shift. “What?”

  Chapter 18

  Harvest led the way down the driveway. The Pennsylvania Dairy Farmers’ Co-Op was next door, although a good distance away. She gazed up at a parking lot light and spied it. “There’s one camera, and I’m guessing it can see our driveway.”

  “And there’s no need for a security camera to be pointed that way,” Quinn said.

  Since the PDF was pretty much an ice cream shop, it was closed for the season. No cars sat in the gravel lot. Harvest crossed, and pointed up under the eaves. “There’s one, might be pointed at the lot, but certainly pointed at the Chandlery.”

  As one, they turned, looking at the Grams’ business across the road. No cars in that parking lot either, Harvest thought.

  ‘You proved Echo’s point—there are cameras,” Quinn said.

  “I want to do more than that.” She continued to the building, trying the front doors. They were locked.

  “We’re breaking in?” Quinn asked.

  “We’re being framed for murder. One little B&E won’t make it any worse,” Harvest said.

  Without referring to the grimoire, Quinn raised her voice in an incantation.

  “There are no doors barred to me

  for my words serve as a key

  Bolt and bar and clasp and latch

  By my voice, unlock—detach!”

  Not only did the door lock click as loud as a gunshot, the doors flew open. Harvest made an impressed face. “I guess we are humming at full power. Nice one, Quinn.”

  “Where would the security equipment be? Any idea, Echo?”

  Echo walked in. “Last time I was here, I was told about an office. I don’t think employees were allowed inside. They were afraid of Deb.”

  Outside picnic tables now stood, stacked, in the corners. Chairs were upturned on tables. A pass through separated the dining from the serving area. Stainless steel machines loomed, silent, some covered in tarps. Around one side, a hallway led to the restrooms. Facing them was a door marked PRIVATE.

  “Gotta be the one.”

  They found a desk with a monitor on top, several CPUs on steel shelves. It was otherwise featureless. Harvest sat and pushed the power button on the monitor. After a moment, a split screen revealed the Hutchinsons’ driveway on one side, the Chandlery on the other. “How can I go back in time on this?”

  “It’s an all-in-one,” Echo said, reaching out to press a big square button. “Touch screen.”

  After a few moments’ fiddling, Harvest brought up a dark image. “This is the night of the sheriff’s murder,” she said. Harvest saw the retail part in front dark, with shadows moving in the workshop beyond. She and Quinn, working on candles.

  Soon, a familiar yellow VW station wagon backed into the parking lot. “Nora Albright,” Harvest said.

  Nora hurried out of the car, opening the hatchback. Two others followed her from the vehicle. “There’s Piper,” Quinn pointed. “Who’s that?”

  “That’s Katie Barnes,” Echo said, “Steve Bender’s ex.”

  A fourth figure slid out of the car, but the angle between the camera and open door blocked the view. Just moments later, the four of them jumped back in the car. When it pulled out, a body was left behind. Harvest could see the pentagram on the back of the man’s shirt. Only seconds passed before she saw herself opening the door of the Chandlery.

  “Katie, Nora, Piper, and who’s the fourth?” Echo asked.

  “Not our job to figure out.” Harvest studied the screen. “Does this thing have e-mail?”

  “What do you mean, not our job.” Echo pressed a few buttons. E-mail popped up.

  “Thanks.” Harvest typed an address. “How do I attach that footage?”

  “Get up, Luddite. I’ll do it.” Echo checked the e-mail address. “Ah. Sgt. Shafer—”

  The lights went out, the computer hard drives moaning to a stop. With no windows, the office was pitch black. “That’s probably not a coincidence,” Harvest said, switching on her flashlight.

  ECHO PUSHED OUT OF the office, hurrying past the rest rooms. That weird, ember-like magic stuff hung in the air. Through the big glass front windows, she saw a yellow station wagon move slowly down the street. “Holy moly, I think Nora’s headed for the farm—yeeeee!”

  Snarling coyotes darted at her from under the tables. She counted three before scurrying back. Growls and bites at her sweats followed her as she ran into the office and slammed the door on them. In the dim, Harvest pulled her gun and reached for the knob.

  “Ow-wa!” a human voice shouted.

  Echo stopped cold. She knew that voice. It couldn’t be. But, coyotes?

  “Bunny?”

  “Who the hell is Bunny?” Harvest whispered.

  “You slammed the door on my noses!”

  Echo whispered back. “My dorm-mate.”

  “What is wrong with you?” Bunny shouted through the door. “We’re trying to bring you guys up to your full potential, and you just fight it. Are you morons? Why do you want to work at jobs where people yell at you? Why do you want to run a lame candle store, or go to, for crying out loud, SUNY Fredonia? We just wanna help you!”

  “Who’s we?” Harvest shouted.

  “We’re the Medicine Chicks.”

  Quinn squinted at the door. “The what?”

  “Medicine Chicks. Because shaman has the word man at the end and Medicine Women sounds like a lame old TV show. Medicine Chicks, like the Dixie Chicks. Only magic. We protect you, you dorks!”

  “Protect us how? By killing the sheriff and hanging it on us? By killing Piper and framing Steve Bender?” Echo demanded.

  “Duh! People around here get the Satanist bug faster than hookers get VD. They b
elieve in that nonsense. But it doesn’t matter.”

  “Because belief makes magic accessible,” Echo remembered her mother’s words.

  Silence followed.

  “If you get it,” Bunny finally spoke, “why are you fighting it? I’ve only been awake since August, but, it’s so freakin awesome sauce. Why would you want to be anything other than witches? We can make people do whatever we want. Get admitted to SUNY Fredonia, even though the only requirement is having a pulse.”

  “Hey!” Echo said.

  “Or keep a patient in a hospital for free. Or be whatever you want to be, a coroner’s assistant, although yuck, or a nursing student. Also yuck. But you guys can do such amazing things. Why are you holding back? We had it all set up for you, but you’re blowing it.”

  “Why did you kill Piper? She was one of you,” Echo asked.

  “She got too close, both to you and the vegetable you call Mom. All we needed was to stick your mother here. She would’ve been okay. After the panic spread, there would be so much freakin magic in the air, Mom would’ve felt right at home. You could’ve had it all, more power than you can imagine, any life you wanted to lead, and your Mom, too. Argh, you’re so dumb!”

  Echo let it sink in, seeing it in her sister’s faces as well. “Are we dumb?” she whispered.

  Harvest walked to the door, leaning on it. “Look, kid, if you’re willing to kill people, you must get more out of this than we do. You’re magic junkies.”

  “J-U-N-K-I-E-S, we think magic is the best!

  Will you finally come around

  When we burn your old lives down?”

  “She’s crazy,” Harvest whispered. “They all are.”

  “You made us do this. We never wanted to hurt the bees. We all need to eat, right?” They heard footsteps in the hall. “See you when you figure it out, losers.”

  In the near blackness of the office, the ember-like sparks blazed brightly as they slipped through the door, the walls. Harvest tried the knob. “Locked.”

  “These floaty things block our spells,” Quinn gazed up at them.