Cauldrons & Cake

by Sara Bourgeois

  I got up to see if any of the potion I’d made earlier was left. I needed something to take the edge off the anxiety that had crept up on me.

  While I was filling a glass, Jenny and Byran came rushing over to me. They both looked panicked and Byran looked as though he was about to come unglued. I handed him the glass of potion instead of drinking it myself.

  “What’s this?” he asked, momentarily distracted from whatever was causing his dismay.

  “Potion to calm you down. It looks like you need it more than me,” I said.

  “We were just about to go to the bar, but Byran said he needed to go check on Garnet,” Jenny said.

  “Okay,” I responded.

  “She’s gone,” Byran said and took a huge gulp of the potion. “She went up to her room to take a nap. Jenny wanted to go grab a drink at the bar, but I said I had to go check on Garnet first. I was worried she wasn’t feeling well. But when I got there, she was gone.”

  “Maybe she decided not to take a nap,” I said, not really caring as much as Jenny and Byran clearly wanted me to care.

  “I can’t find her anywhere,” Byran said. “I checked our floor. I checked the top floor, and I looked everywhere down here. Where else could she be? She’s missing.”

  “Or she’s on another floor talking to some guest she met. She’s a grown woman, and a witch, I’m sure she’s fine,” I said hoping they would accept it and walk away.

  “We should help him find her,” Jenny said. “If Byran thinks something is wrong, I trust him.”

  I tried to stifle a huge sigh, but I was unsuccessful. The only reason I would help find Garnet is because Byran was distressed. I liked him a great deal more than I liked his boss.

  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll help you find her. Have you tried a locator spell?”

  “It won’t work,” Byran said. “She has a sigil tattooed on her back that protects her from locator spells.”

  “We could scry to see where she’s going to go next and meet her. Although, that would probably take a lot more energy than it would to just go look,” I said with another huge sigh. “None of us really specialize in scrying or locator spells anyway. Bunch of kitchen witches and one with a touch of elemental magic… Okay, what’s the plan?”

  Chapter Eleven

  “We should split up,” Jenny said. “We can meet back down here in an hour.”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said. “It’s possible that you just kept missing her, Byran. Why don’t you go back and check her room again?”

  “I can do that, and then I’ll check the other guest floors if I don’t find her.”

  “I’ll search this floor and then the top floor,” Jenny said.

  “Wait, what does that leave me?” I said.

  “You can search the basement,” Jenny said with an overly chipper smile.

  “What? The basement? There’s no basement. Praline Manor is built on bedrock,” I said. “That’s why the storm can’t sweep it out to sea.”

  “Yeah, but there’s a lot of dirt and sand on top of that bedrock. There’s actually another floor under this one. It’s just not open for guests.”

  “You want me to go down into the secret basement, alone in the dark, to look for someone I don’t even want to look for?” I asked incredulously.

  “You’re right,” Jenny said. “It was a jerk move for me to assume you’d do the creepiest part. I’ll go.”

  “No, I shouldn’t let a woman go down there alone,” Byran said. “I’ll go.”

  “Excuse me?” I said as my head whipped around. “Not let a woman go? Son, I could outwitch you any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I am the scariest thing in the dark. I’ll go. Let’s just stick to the plan we’ve already made.”

  And just like that, I volunteered to go down into the dark basement to look for my nemesis alone. The look of relief on Jenny’s and Byran’s faces told me that I probably shouldn’t have been so quick to run my mouth.

  My phone was still at half battery, but just to be safe, I found a pile of candles and stuffed my purse. The candles were supposed to be to replace the ones in the dining room when they burned down, but everyone was leaving. So, I figured the manor wouldn’t miss a few. Even though the candles I took probably only cost two dollars at most, I left a twenty-dollar bill under the candle pile so that I technically wasn’t stealing.

  Jenny and Byran told me where I could find the door to the basement. They’d come across it while initially looking for Garnet.

  The door was at the end of a narrow corridor just past the doors that went into the bar. There wasn’t a sign that said “Staff Only” but I got the feeling that was because no one would willingly go in there anyway. They didn’t need a sign. A normal person who accidently went past the bar and turned into that creepy little hallway would have done an about face and gone back.

  I wasn’t a normal person, though. I was a sucker who was trying hard to convince herself she wasn’t afraid of the dark.

  The door to the basement was practically medieval, and I said a little prayer to the Goddess that it be locked. If it was locked, then Garnet couldn’t be down there, and I didn’t need to go looking for her there. I could join Jenny in searching the first and top floors.

  It was unlocked.

  “Great,” I muttered to myself. “You’d think this would be something they’d keep locked.”

  A damp chill rose up from the depths of the basement and surrounded me like tentacles. I wished I had Gumbo with me to keep me company, protect me, and tell me how dumb I was for going into that basement alone in the dark.

  But something pulled at my gut. I didn’t like Garnet, but if she was down there all alone and scared, I had to help her. Not because of who she was, but because that’s the kind of person I wanted to be.

  So, I steeled myself and started down the stone steps into the dark. As I got closer to the bottom, I could hear a familiar sound.

  It was the sound of water trickling. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I understood. The basement was flooding. There was an inch of standing water already. Enough that my shoes and socks would be soaked.

  “Great,” I grumbled as I reached the bottom step.

  And then my phone light went out. I almost said: Even better. But I heard something move off in the darkness.

  I turned my phone over and tried to get it to come back on. I still should have had half a battery, but the thing just stayed dark. No matter how many times I pushed the power button and willed it to come back to life, it just sat there like a lump of useless plastic in my hand.

  My fingers dug into my purse as fast as possible to pull out a candle. I wrapped my hand around one and brought it out while pushing my dead phone into a separate pocket in my purse with my other hand. I quickly found my lighter, not for smoking, and lit the candle.

  If the basement had been creepy in the light of my phone, it was taken to the next level as the dim illumination from the candle danced across the damp stone walls and standing water on the floor.

  Whatever was off deeper in the basement moved again. Ripples of water came from that direction and splashed softly against the bottom of the last step.

  Something was definitely out there. The only question was whether it was Garnet or something far worse.

  “Garnet?” I called out hoping she’d call back, Yeah, hey, Fern. I’m just down here grabbing a bottle of wine. Be right there.

  That did not happen.

  What I heard next was something like a growl, but it did not sound like an animal. Not only that, but it seemed to come from all around me.

  “You’re the scariest thing in the dark,” I told myself.

  Some witches probably did have scary powers. I was a kitchen witch that knew exactly zero dark magic. Still, I took that first step into the basement.

  Immediately my shoe filled with cold water. My sock sucked it up until my entire foot and ankle felt as though they were being stabbed with icy needles.

  One of the har
dest things I’d ever had to do was to take that second step. “Whatever you are, you better just leave me alone. I’m a witch and I have salt and iron,” I called out.

  I took a few more steps into the basement and held the candle out in front of me. I’d walked far enough in to get a better idea of how large the basement was, and it was huge.

  “Garnet, if you’re down here, please say something,” I called out again.

  I heard another splash and then the sound of something moving quickly toward me. It sounded like feet clomping through the water.

  “Garnet!” I yelled. “Is that you? If it’s you, say something, please!”

  Unfortunately, I was holding the candle too close to my face, and when I yelled the second time, I put it out. There I was standing in the dark too far away from the stairs to just back out of the basement with whatever it was still running at me.

  I grabbed my lighter and tried to relight the candle while walking backwards toward the steps. The only problem was that when I’d walked back enough that I should have been at the steps, they weren’t there.

  My hands shook and I could barely get my thumb to obey as I tried to flick the lighter’s flint. “Yes,” I said as I got the lighter to work and lit the candle again.

  Somehow, I’d gotten turned slightly to the side and had backed further into the basement past the stairs. I could see them up ahead of me.

  I could also see what was coming out of the dark for me. It was the ghost of the old woman again. She smiled and bared her razor teeth at me.

  If she could splash in the water, it meant that she could affect me physically too. Those teeth of hers were more than scary. They were dangerous. At least down in that basement, anyway. She’d been just a ghost upstairs, but there was something down here giving her more power. It was probably why the basement was empty. The manor didn’t even use it for storage.

  They should have kept the door locked.

  “I still have salt and iron.” I tried to sound more confident than I felt.

  She stopped running at me and smiled wider. That inhuman growl erupted from her again and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

  I found my protection bag and untied it. As best I could with one hand, I tipped it over and poured out a handful of salt. It was most of what I had left, and I couldn’t miss.

  “Salt and iron make me strong,” I said. I didn’t know a better spell to get rid of a stronger ghost, so I figured I’d try a chant. “Salt and iron make me strong.” Sometimes the simplest of things were the most powerful. “Salt and iron make me strong.”

  The old woman let out a horrific barking growl sound and began to charge me again. I willed my eyes to stay open, though my instinct was to close them and curl into a ball.

  As soon as she was close enough that I could feel the hate radiating off of her, I threw the salt. She hissed and stepped back but did not disappear.

  I took the candle into my other hand and made a fist. If the iron on my bracelet wasn’t enough, I’d probably lose the hand to those razor-sharp teeth, but what other choice did I have?

  “You messed with the wrong witch,” I said as my foot swept back through the cold water and I took a fighting stance.

  I brought my fist up to my chin and threw the punch. It was a jab right to her decaying, gray chin. The blessed talisman on my bracelet was enough, and my hand went through her face. When the iron actually made contact with her, she disappeared.

  I breathed a sigh of relief… and blew my candle out again.

  “Gosh darn it,” I said. “I am out of here.”

  Just then, I felt my phone vibrate in my purse. I could have cried with joy. There was no signal, but the vibration had come from it turning back on.

  I chucked the half-burnt candle into the water and turned my phone’s flashlight back on. Garnet was not in that basement, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out what else was.

  Using my flashlight, I rushed back up the stairs and burst back into the main floor of the manor. I wished I had the kind of magic that could seal the door as it closed behind me, but I would have to settle for telling Mr. Pope that he needed to put a padlock on that portal to H-E double hockey sticks as soon as possible.

  I decided just to check all of the floors before I went back to meet up with Jenny and Byran. When I didn’t find anything, I headed back down to the main floor and wandered around.

  While I was walking past the glass walled business center, I thought I heard crying. Since all of the lights were off, you couldn’t see inside very well. I contemplated moving on. What if whoever it was just wanted to be left alone? Who was I to bother them?

  That wasn’t me, though. I couldn’t just leave someone crying alone in the dark. I was too empathetic to just walk away. It would have eaten me up for at least the rest of the day.

  When I shined my phone light into the darkened room, I saw that it was Skyla.

  Chapter Twelve

  I surprised her, and Skyla quickly turned away and started to rub her eyes with the backs of her hands. I walked into the business center but kept the light off Skyla.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “Skyla, should I get Elizabeth?”

  “No, I’m fine,” she said and tried to stifle a sniffle.

  “I heard you crying from out in the hallway,” I said.

  “I’m really okay,” Skyla said.

  “Well, okay,” I said. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it, and whatever it was probably wasn’t any of my business anyway. I’d tried, and that was the best I could do. “I’ll just go then and leave you alone.”

  “Wait,” Skyla said as I turned to leave. “Please stay.”

  Skyla was seated at a small wood table in the middle of the hotel’s business center. I took the chair across from her and pulled out one of the candles so I could stop using my phone’s battery.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I’m a mess,” Skyla said with a slightly hysterical laugh.

  “You know what, why I don’t I run to the bar and get us each a Coke? I can get you some tissues too,” I said.

  “That would probably be good,” she said. “My throat feels raw from crying.”

  “Okay. Promise me you’ll wait here, and I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. I don’t have anywhere to go,” she said.

  That was a topic we could explore when I got back. I stood up and turned my phone light back on. The bar wasn’t far, but it felt like it took forever for me to get there since I was worried Skyla would leave.

  I bought us two cans from the bartender and swiped a box of tissues and a small trash bag from one of the housekeeper’s carts on my way back. The housekeeper came out of the bathroom she was cleaning seconds after I swiped the goods, so I took off walking fast down the hall.

  “Can I help you?” she asked as I scooted away.

  “Nope. Just needed an extra box of tissues. Thanks.” I held up the box but kept walking.

  I rounded the corner and was relieved to find Skyla still sitting in the business center. She was staring at the candle intently and needed some tissues for her nose.

  “Here you go,” I said and handed her the box.

  The Coke cans had been in my pants pockets so I could use my hands to hold the light and swipe the tissues. I took them out and put one on the table in front of Skyla.

  “So, tell me what’s going on,” I said as I sat down and popped the tab on my Coke.

  Skyla did the same and then took a long draw from the can. She took another huge drink before setting it down and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “I didn’t want you to get Elizabeth because she is furious with me,” Skyla said. “I should have given her an expensive shower gift like the maid of honor, Veronica, or one of the other guests. They all gave her better gifts than me.”

  “That’s just not true,” I said. “The locket was a very thoughtful gift. Especially since you spent so much time and
effort searching for the perfect present for your sister. It really is the thought that counts.”

  “That was all a lie,” Skyla said before she started to cry again.

  I had to wait a couple of minutes while she collected herself again. Whatever I’d gotten in the middle of, I was starting to think that perhaps I should have just walked by when I heard the crying…

  Skyla took a deep, shuddering breath, but she was finally able to collect herself. “Elizabeth is upset because I lied about the locket.”

  “What do you mean? Why would she be mad about the locket?” I asked.

  “It’s not really the locket that’s the problem. I had planned on asking Elizabeth for money this weekend. You see, I’m broke. I don’t even have a place to live anymore. If Elizabeth doesn’t let me stay with her after this weekend, I don’t know where I’m going to go. You see, I had no gift. I got lucky and found that locket on the beach on my way to the bridal shower this morning. I cleaned it the best I could and pretended that I’d bought it for her at a vintage shop. But it was all a lie.”

  “So she’s not really mad about the locket,” I said.

  “No, she’s mad at me because of the way I’ve handled my finances. I’ve been really irresponsible. You know that my family has money, so I’ve done this to myself,” Skyla said and began weeping again. “That’s the worst part. I’ve had every opportunity to build my own empire the way Elizabeth has, and I’ve squandered it all. The way my life is going, I wouldn’t care if the killer chose me as their next victim.” She sobbed harder.

  For a while, I just sat there and handed her tissues. When her Coke ran out, I went and got her another. Skyla’s head began to ache from all her crying, so I fished a bottle of Tylenol out of my purse and gave her two.

  “You shouldn’t be so down on yourself,” I finally said. “Everyone has bad luck, and everyone makes mistakes. You’re a lot younger than Elizabeth, so maybe you just weren’t ready to build an empire yet. It doesn’t mean you’re never going to be successful, and all of this hardship, it builds character. You’ll have true grit.”