The Spirits of Six Minstrel Run

by Matthew S. Cox

  “What? Where’d that come from?”

  She resumed stuffing dead weeds and leaf bits into the bag. “Had another dream this morning. Wilhelmina thinks Evelyn imprinted a lot of energy in the house when she found Robin. Somehow, I’m picking up on it and dreaming scenes from her past. Saw her shoot him this time.”

  “Ack.”

  “He just sat there and let her. Honestly, I can’t tell if he’d been so stunned she had a gun he couldn’t move, or if he wanted her to kill him. The bastard taunted her on the way in, gloating about how he’d hurt her.”

  “Hmm. I doubt he had any reason to suspect she’d been armed, so it’s unlikely he tried to goad her into attacking him.”

  Mia scooted to her left every couple handfuls, keeping in reach of the shrinking pile she gathered from. “He wanted to hurt her. But he didn’t know he couldn’t do any more damage. That man had already put her in a dark, dark place. Nothing he could’ve done after that would’ve made it worse. And who the hell let this yard deteriorate so badly?”

  “The people we bought it from, the Weirs. They listed it in 2009 and dropped the price four times. I kinda feel bad for them in a way, but they didn’t take too much of a beating on it since they’d gotten it cheap. Place sat empty for three years and I think Joe was keeping the front and sides clean himself.”

  “Joe?”

  “The realtor.”

  “Oh, right.” She shrugged. “Nice of him.”

  “Ehh, he wanted to sell the place. Bad enough it had a reputation, but if it looked like they filmed The Jungle Book here, he’d never get rid of it.”

  She laughed.

  The rest of Saturday afternoon passed in a haze of grueling yardwork. If they hadn’t been planning on adding to the family, she’d have suggested hiring a landscaper. Between saving money and wanting the work to occupy her mind, she abandoned that idea.

  Once the light began to weaken, they headed inside. Mia took a nice, long bath to wash off the sweat and soil of nine hours’ work. She gazed up at the ceiling while relaxing in warm water, sensing a change in the energy of the house. More than ever, it felt like home… even more so than the house she’d grown up in.

  I need to call Timothy and see how he’s doing in LA.

  Considering the planned activity later that night, Mia put on one of her old college sleep shirts, a Bugs Bunny one in red that hung down to her knees. Adam took over the bathroom as soon as she left to go downstairs and turn the soup on.

  Wilhelmina and Lisa arrived together a little after six, carrying four large cloth bags. Lisa still didn’t have shoes on. Rebecca rang the doorbell at 6:14, and Cheryl pulled into the driveway a minute after. Mia waited by the door for her to get out, smiling as the woman jogged up the stone path to the porch.

  “Hey,” said Cheryl. “Wow, someone’s ready.”

  Mia blushed at her super casual outfit. “Yeah. I guess I am.”

  Wilhelmina entered the area she’d referred to as the ‘balcony,’ the room with the bay windows to the left of the living room. They still hadn’t done anything with it, resulting in a large, open space.

  “It’s so empty in here.” Wilhelmina set her bags down gently.

  “Yeah.” Mia leaned on the archway between the rooms. “Our last place was a little apartment. This house is quite a bit bigger than we expected for our budget.”

  “Ghosts are the ultimate real estate scam,” said Linda, giggling. “Or would be if it didn’t take forty years to drop the price of a house.”

  Everyone chuckled.

  Rebecca looked around. “Wow, so this is the infamous house on Minstrel Run, huh? Yeah, I feel it in the air. Something is here.”

  “You drank the tea, I presume?” asked Wilhelmina.

  “Yeah. Not sure if it’s related, but I’ve had some odd twinges in the plumbing all day.”

  “Good.” Wilhelmina grinned. “That means I didn’t accidentally whip up a batch of rat killer. It’s one ingredient different.”

  Mia blinked.

  “Hah!” The elder laughed and unpacked small wooden boxes, bags, and jars from the bags, setting each on the carpet. “The look on your face. I’m joking by the way.”

  “Thankfully.”

  Wilhelmina glanced up at her. “Rat killer is two ingredients different.”

  “Umm…”

  “You’re too easy, dear. Relax. The rat killer is only two ingredients, and neither one of them is involved in what I gave you.”

  “Maybe she could relax if you stopped teasing her with doom.” Lisa playfully elbowed Wilhelmina in the side.

  “I’d say the place looks totally different from what I remember,” said Linda, turning in a circle, “but I was so little then and only visited once… and I think we spent most of the time out in the yard.”

  Mia scratched her left shin with her right foot, biting her lip in worry. Tonight could end with her suffering an excruciating death… or delighted beyond belief. That she still wanted to roll those dice worried her. No… I trust her. She’s an innocent.

  Adam came downstairs after his shower, wearing jeans with a T-shirt, no shoes. He got into an easy conversation with the women about parapsychology and witchcraft, which filled the time until they all relocated to the dining room to eat.

  “This is the first official use of this table for a reasonably large gathering of friends.” Mia raised her water glass in toast. “Here’s hoping it’s not the last.”

  The women raised their glasses—some with wine, some water, some tea.

  Adam gave her a ‘why would it be the last?’ look, but didn’t say anything.

  They ate soup with some ‘from-a-tube’ rolls she’d baked. Over dinner, she mentioned the dream of shooting Vic, then Adam brought up Pastor Parker hitting the tree. Word had already reached the women about it. Most of Spring Falls blamed the dark energies here for the accident, at least anyone over thirty did. The younger residents tended toward a medical explanation. As far as anyone knew, he remained in the hospital.

  After dinner, everyone gathered in the balcony room. Wilhelmina discussed her idea of the Pool of Life with Adam while she unrolled a plain white sheet over the carpet.

  “What’s with the sheet?” asked Mia.

  “Would you prefer we draw on your rug?” asked Rebecca.

  Mia shook her head.

  “That’s what the sheet’s for.” Rebecca grinned.

  Wilhelmina peered up at the ceiling, moved the sheet a little to the left, then nodded in satisfaction. She opened a glass jar full of black liquid, dipped a large, round paintbrush in it, and traced a three-foot wide circle upon the sheet. A pungent berry smell filled the air. When she finished the circle, she switched to a smaller brush similar to the kind used to write Japanese kanji and added complex markings and symbols around the outside of the circle.

  Cheryl and Linda set up five ceramic bowls around the sheet, each with incense that they didn’t light yet. An arrangement of candles followed at varying distances from the circle. Evidently, precision placement mattered as well as color, as Wilhelmina kept asking them to make tiny adjustments, moving the candle holders an inch or two here and there.

  Mia retreated to the living room and paced, too nervous and anxious to tolerate watching the laborious process. A few minutes later, Adam came up behind her and pulled her into an embrace.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Fine. Just on edge. I don’t know why I feel like this.”

  “Like what?”

  Mia leaned against him, staring down at her toes. “So impatient, worried… I want this too much. Whenever I start worrying about how deep Robin got under my skin so fast and how I just wanna do whatever I can for her, I see that face she made when I told her about this plan. A bad spirit wouldn’t be able to simulate such an innocent reaction of joy, would it?”

  “I’m not sure. Bear in mind that most of the people who have documented demonic entities pretending to be child spirits are affiliated with organized religion or at
least strong believers. Maybe they only say that because it’s less depressing to consider them fake than actual children. Or, maybe it’s because evil spirits know most humans are going to want to pick up and hug that stray kitten on the side of the road. I sincerely doubt that any of them have seen full body apparitions or carried on actual conversations like you have. It’s a lot easier to fake a child presence when all people have to go on is distant giggling or high-pitched voices.”

  “Yeah.” Mia closed her eyes. “She’s real.”

  A little after nine, Wilhelmina emerged from the balcony room. “All right. We’re as prepared as we can be in there. I’m sure you’re eager to continue?”

  “Yes.” Mia faced her and held up her hands. “I’m literally shaking with my need to do this.”

  “Try to keep your thoughts calm and open.” Wilhelmina brushed Mia’s hair off her face. “Now, we need to do two things. First, please go locate Robin and ask her to come down here and stand in the middle of the circle. It’s important that she remain there no matter what she sees or hears. If she’s not in that circle at the right moment, all of this is a waste of time.”

  Mia nodded. “Okay.”

  “Second, paint. That won’t take too long. When that’s done, we’ll come back downstairs here to the circle. You stay in bed. I’ll open the circle and start the ritual. Adam, you’ll be somewhere down here where you can see me so I can give you a nod when it’s time. Then, you go up to your wife and I’m sure you don’t need me to explain what you two should do.”

  He laughed.

  “Okay. Give me a moment.”

  “Rebecca, dear, will you put on some water for tea?” asked Wilhelmina.

  “On it.”

  Mia ran up the stairs, cornered to the left, and jogged to Robin’s room. The girl sat on the rug at the foot of the bed, arms wrapped around her legs, head down.

  “Hey, sweetie.”

  “I’m scared,” whispered Robin. “Daddy knows what you’re doing. He doesn’t like it.”

  Mia took a knee beside her. “Listen… That man isn’t your father. He gave that up a long time ago when he hurt you. Even before that… no father would have been so cruel to your mother.”

  Robin tried to leap into a hug, but passed through, leaving Mia shivering. She collapsed on her knees behind Mia, sobbing.

  “Hey, sweetie. It’s okay.” Mia brushed her hand down the vaporous girl’s back. “I know you want a hug more than anything. If this works, you won’t have to be lonely anymore.”

  She sniffled. “Okay.”

  “I need you to play a game tonight. Downstairs by the big window, there’s a circle on the floor. Can you stand inside that circle and stay there? No matter what happens?”

  Robin lowered her hands from her face, looking up at her with a note of suspicion. “You aren’t trying to make me go away, are you?”

  “Absolutely not.” Mia wiped tears from her face, nearly overcome by emotion at the memory of Evelyn finding the body in here. “It’s a bridge.”

  A loud bang went off downstairs along with two women screaming.

  Mia jumped.

  “Daddy’s angry,” said Robin. “He made a light blow up to scare them.”

  “Honey, listen to me. The thing they’re doing tonight… if a bad spirit gets into that circle, I could die. Only you can be in that circle, or it’s gonna hurt me.”

  “But you said you didn’t wanna be a ghost.” Robin ground her toe into the rug.

  “I don’t. I want you to be with me, here, alive, and warm. So I can hold you and keep you safe and let you have all the happy moments you should never have had stolen from you.”

  Robin sniffled, nodding. “You don’t really want kids.”

  “It’s not that I didn’t want kids. I never gave it much thought before. But, after coming here, it’s all so different. This feels right somehow. After seeing you… Wilhelmina telling me that something like this is even possible. I’ve never wanted to do anything so much in my life.”

  Robin smiled. “’Kay. I’ll go to the circle. You promise it’s not bad?”

  “I promise. It might not work, but it definitely won’t hurt you.”

  The girl faded away.

  Mia glanced over at the bad spot. Something told her the boards under the rug still had blood soaked into them. She found Robin there so often it had to be akin to an anchor point or energy source. Perhaps if this worked, she’d have those boards replaced. Or maybe it wouldn’t matter then, since she’d no longer be a spirit.

  With a grunt, she stood and walked out into the hall. For no particular reason, she called for Adam, then rushed to the stairs to make sure Robin made it to the circle.

  Icy sliminess grabbed at her ankle the instant she reached the top of the stairs. She stumbled over it and fell forward, thrusting her hands out, screaming. Adam blurred into view at the bottom of the stairs. She landed on her chest, tumbling for a disorienting instant before crashing into him and knocking him against the wall in the corner.

  “Shit, Mia!” Adam sat up and checked on her.

  “Ow.” She clutched her chest, which bore the brunt of her impact on the stairs. “I’m okay. Damn that hurt.”

  “What happened?” Lisa ran over, wide-eyed.

  The others in the coven filled in behind her.

  “Something cold and icky tried to grab my ankle.” She looked past Adam at the wall, then rubbed her shoulder where it hit his shin. “Vic.”

  “Good thing you called for him.” Wilhelmina patted Adam on the arm. “If he hadn’t been in the way…”

  “Yeah. I know. Tonight’s going to be interesting. We should get this over with before Vic does something even worse.” Mia limped to her feet. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

  “Is she in the circle?” asked Wilhelmina.

  Mia looked around, spotting Robin standing in the corner of the dining room, her back pressed to the wall. “C’mon, sweetie. It’s in here.” She pointed toward the balcony.

  Robin eyed the women warily, seeming afraid.

  “Are you shy around people or is there something about them that frightens you?”

  The girl whispered something too quiet to hear.

  Mia walked over to her.

  “I’m scared of people.”

  “They’re not going to hurt you.” Mia crouched to eye level. “Hey, you don’t have to even let them see you, okay? All you have to do is stand in that circle. Why be scared of people who don’t even know you’re there? You’re the best at hiding, right?”

  Robin grinned. “Yeah.”

  Mia held out a hand.

  The girl grasped it—somewhat. Faint pressure squeezed at Mia’s fingers. She walked her into the balcony and over to the sheet. Robin gazed around at all the candles, symbols, incense bowls, and squiggly marks.

  “It’s like Halloween,” whispered Robin, as if afraid the others might hear her.

  “Yeah, a bit.”

  The girl paused at the edge of the sheet. She lingered a moment, then looked up with a teary expression. “Do you really wanna be my mommy?”

  “Yes.” Mia smiled. “I do.”

  Wilhelmina and the other women gathered around, observing curiously. None appeared able to see the girl, though Lisa and Rebecca whispered about feeling a presence nearby. Robin gazed into Mia’s eyes a while more, then smiled despite crying. She stepped onto the sheet, which drew awestruck gasps from the coven, except for Wilhelmina.

  “The sheet’s moving,” whispered Cheryl. “Look, there’s little footprints in the circle…”

  Robin looked down at her feet, then at Mia as if to ask if she stood in the right place.

  Mia nodded. “Just stay there, okay? No matter what you see or feel, stay in the circle.”

  “Unless you feel something tugging you straight up.” Wilhelmina winked. “Then you should go up.”

  “’Kay,” said Robin.

  Oh, I hope this works… “Be careful on the stairs.” Mia brushed past Adam with a bri
ef hug, and made her way up the stairs on all fours to avoid another fall.

  Wilhelmina, Lisa, and Rebecca—who carried two small cups of steaming tea—followed her to the bedroom. Once inside, Mia gathered all her nerve and removed her shirt. Naked, she reclined on the bed and stared at the ceiling, trying not to blush too hard.

  The women gathered around her, each with a small jar of berry ink and a paintbrush.

  “Try not to squirm too much, dear,” said Wilhelmina. “This will tickle a bit, but we’re not trying to make it uncomfortable.”

  Mia focused on the ceiling, trying to keep herself as blasé as a trip to the gynecologist while she sat there with all her secrets open to the world—or at least the doctor and an assistant. Fortunately, the women had no interest in anything more than preparing her for the spell. Lisa and Rebecca spent the next half hour or so tracing sigils and marks on her body, most of which wound up on her abdomen as Wilhelmina arranged more candles and incense bowls around the bed. They made marks on her forehead, each wrist, and each ankle, which Lisa explained as the ‘points of the star’ that essentially turned her body into a pentacle.

  “So I need to keep my arms out to the side like this?” asked Mia.

  “Only until I’ve opened the circle. Once Adam walks in, it won’t matter. Our circle downstairs will extend through the floor and also protect you.” Wilhelmina looked over the markings. “Everything appears in order. Time to begin. Try to relax and let nature take its course.”

  “Easier said than done.” Mia smiled, despite feeling completely mortified at laying spread eagle on her bed like some kind of pagan sacrifice. Crap. Why did I think that? Sacrifice is not the sort of thing I need to have on my mind while doing something that can kill me.

  “One more thing.” Wilhelmina gestured at the little teacups on the end table. “Before you start, you should both drink these.”

  “What is it?”

  “Just some tea.” She smiled. “Should help ease your nerves, and help the magic work. Please don’t forget, it’s important.”

  “All right.”

  The women left, shutting the door behind them.

  Mia lifted her head, blinking in astonishment at the complexity of the circles, triangles, squiggles, and everything else painted on her stomach and upper thighs. She let her head drop back and sighed, doing her best impression of the Vitruvian Man pose, picturing her head, hands, and feet as the points of a pentagram star.