Anna Darling

by Angela Hall-Averre

  “I do hope you add a section for the kitchen witch in you,” stated Hanna.

  “Of course, Mom. I have seen you with all the herbs and potions that you make, all my life. I do plan to have a section just for the magical recipes you share with me.” Anna exclaimed as she stood up and walked over to give her mom a hug.

  Hanna said, “I would be happy to share some great herbal recipes with you for your Book of Shadows. I think you should title this section ‘Herbal Medicine Chest’.

  “Yes, that’s perfect,” Anna, giggled.

  “Home remedies and herbal cures are as ancient as mankind itself. And goes all the way back to the ancient Sumerian times,” stated Hanna.

  “Mom, you are so smart. I love that about you!”

  Overjoyed and excited Hanna said, “Did you know that Alexander the Great believed aloe juice had healing properties, and always kept a nearby stock for his soldiers after battle to apply directly to their wounds.”

  “No, I didn’t. I’m ready to learn more, though.” Anna replied.

  “I’ll be happy to teach you sweetheart. Today, people rely on pharmaceutical companies to heal them of their sickness. They just want to go to the pharmacy and get a box of this or a bottle of that. TV slogans get stuck in their heads. Like jingles such as ‘Acid, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea’ and the famous, ‘The nighttime, sneezing, coughing, fever, so-you-can-rest medicine, It’s a shame because there are so many natural remedies that are much safer and often just as effective. Like Aloe Vera, Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Turmeric, Cannabis, Sassafras and Willow Bark. When you get time Anna dear, just come on over and you can copy my recipes for your book.”

  “I’m so busy right now with college, work and the Haunted Mansion. I’ll have some time after Halloween, maybe the first week of November.”

  “I’ll mark it on my calendar. I love some mom and daughter time.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  She Devil

  “A nna, I want to warn you about talking to the dead. It is very dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. I want to tell you about when I met Lee Ann in 2004. She was a demon from hell,” explained Mark. “Someone I came across at the beginning of my freshman year at Salem State University. Like many colleges, such as Princeton and MIT, this school has tunnels running underneath for passage during bad weather and running pipes from the boiler. Lee Ann and I became close friends fast after first meeting. Everything was so intense back then, and our friendship was solid as a rock within a couple weeks.”

  “Is she the one who caused the animosity between you and your Dad? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Yes, she was responsible. How did you know?”

  “I guess I must be psychic or something,” she said, half-joking.

  “Anyway, Lee Ann wasn't like anybody else at our school. She was a Goth and only wore dresses that were black. In itself, that was no big thing. Once in a while she would add a splash of color. You know, I bet even her bra and panties were black. The college girls wore slacks and short skirts mostly.”

  “And your point being?” asked Anna, showing a bit of jealousy at Mark’s reminiscing about another girl.

  “I’m getting to that,” he smiled, sensing her jealousy, “as I was saying, she only wore black from head to toe. Including her lips, eyes and nails. We were in class one day, and she was called to the Dean’s office and she was informed that her makeup was a distraction to the school. He informed her that he had received many calls and complaints about it scaring other students. He also told her she couldn’t make herself look that pale anymore.”

  “So, she was into vampires?”

  “Yes, she was. She was into a lot of freaky stuff. Getting the lecture from the Dean just made her indifferent until the night she met my dad. He had on acid washed jeans and wore a black leather jacket. He was a professor and trying to fit in. Everyone used to think he was the tough guy and all the university girls wanted him. He reveled in their attention….well, that was until he met Lee Ann.”

  “What happened?” asked Anna as her curiosity rose.

  “She was being taunted one day about her makeup. She would never say anything. Just continue on her way. I kept telling her she needed to wipe the darkness out of her life. But I never did see her in anything that wasn't a black dress. She did tell me at one time the only time she would wore jeans was when she washed her car. She had a little cherry red MGB convertible. One day when she was being taunted she got upset and ran from the university cafeteria. She hopped into her car and sped out of the parking lot. I’ll never forget that day for as long as I live. She plowed her little MGB into a concrete barrier.”

  “Oh my God, that’s awful. Did she survive?”

  “Yes, she survived but was out of school for a long time. When she came back she still wore her black dresses. She especially favored long vintage dresses with black lace up boots; not the cute knee high skirts the other girls wore, and definitely not with cute sandals or dress shoes. I think she must have spent all her money in vintage thrift shops looking for her old dresses. She would tell me that all witches know that wearing all black is not only a fashion statement but also it should be worn for protection. I must admit, even with all the darkness and black wardrobe, she looked fantastic. I always thought she was born in the wrong time.”

  “So she is a witch too?” Anna inquired.

  “No, she was a demon. Well, not in the beginning, but she was in the end. My dad met her at the physical therapy facility. He took a liking to her right away. She was unusual, but not just in what she wore. Part of it was her speech. She spoke a little bit slowly, a little more carefully than the rest of us, like she had to sound it all out in her head before the words would come. Sometimes she sounded like she was searching for the right word. She was compelling to listen to; her voice was husky and melancholy. Beautiful isn’t even the right word to describe her. Her voice sounded like some of the best blues and jazz singers in our history. She had a girlish voice and would sing with all the passion and sorrow she could summon.”

  “Like some of the blues singers from the 1920’s and thirties?”

  “Yes, you are right, and when she sang that is all you could hear.” He paused, as if in deep thought or searching for how to continue. “So, moving forward, my dad’s infatuation with her caused my parents to separate for a while. Then, my dad took to almost stalking Lee Ann. He would show up at every bar or lounge she was singing at on the weekends. It was strange, I mean, she wasn’t really anything special, and my dad was there almost throwing his entire family away. She wasn't ugly, but neither was she beautiful.”

  “Really, you’ve got to be kidding me. But, surely your dad acting like a typical guy doesn’t make her a demon?”

  “I’m not yanking your chain, Anna. Lee Ann was a demon. And men couldn't look away from her. Maybe it was her voice. Maybe it was the way that when you talked to her, she would listen like you were the only other person in the world. And when she sang it was as if you were the only one in the room with her. Like all her words were for you and no one else.”

  “I would think Mark, that most talented singers are that way. They just mesmerize people, especially the opposite sex.” She said as she tilted her head to one side while listening.

  “She didn't take the kind of classes other freshmen took to satisfy requirements, though we all had to take a P.E. She was a lover of literature. She was composing poetry in a creative writing class, and she learned to play the cello in private lessons. While I had to bear boring lectures every week, Lee Ann was throwing pottery on a wheel or making jewelry in the tiny studio on the edge of campus.”

  “That doesn’t make her a demon Mark,” said Anna, “That makes her an artist.”

  “Let me finish telling you the story. There was the other side of her, the spiritual side to Lee Ann. She was into New Age mysticism. Her bookshelves were lined with books about the occult, gods and demons, crystals and tarot. She had an antique
Ouija board, hand-lettered. The planchette was a smooth, flat glass, a slightly translucent grey. I think it was more than glass actually, maybe made of Smokey quartz.”

  “Does this story have anything to do with why you told me to be careful talking to the dead? When we were at the old hippie commune? And again today?”

  “Yes, it does,” he gazed into her eyes. “My friends went through an Ouija craze that was at its height by winter term of the university that year. Lee Ann was the only one with a board, so we all flocked to her dorm. Mostly it was just questions about everyone’s private lives, crushes or stuff more aligned for a spin-the-bottle game than conjuring of magic. The Ouija was just providing cheap thrills when the answers actually made sense.”

  “My sister Nadine and I had an Ouija board. I think we still do. The only time we used it was when we had slumber parties in High School.”

  “Well, when Lee Ann was present and we used her board, some spooky stuff seemed to happen when we used it.”

  “Like what? Did a dead person’s spirit come out of the board?” asked Anna, recalling childhood stories about ghosts and Ouija boards.

  “No, this story isn't really about Ouija. There's no ghost that comes out of the Ouija board and attacks me at the end. But Ouija was an enduring part of that year with Lee Ann, and our frequent use of the board made the year an eerie one at times. It was creepy. And sometimes I was actually pretty convinced it was real,” he said.

  “I always thought there were some kind of spirits or ghosts, but I never really gave much credence to an Ouija board from a toy store,” said Anna.

  “The thing with Lee Ann was that she could place her fingers lightly on the glass planchette with no partner across the board from her, and that quartz would start zooming around the board spelling words so fast it was hard to keep track of what it said. And sometimes she could lift her hands off the quartz crystal and it would keep spelling words.”

  “By itself?”

  “Yes! She could look away, close her eyes, and the plachette would still spell full coherent messages. And the messages were not always good. My last experience with an Ouija board was with Lee Ann. The glass plachette flew across the room, smashing against the wall, all by itself, of its own power. Ouija do provide doorways, and unless you know how to integrate with the spirit world, you have no idea what, or who, you are communicating with.” He forked his fingers through his hair for the third time since he started telling he his story, looking somewhat anxious.

  “Even though we were just playing on the old board game version, I remember getting freaked out once when me and Nadine were using the board. I felt as if someone was standing next to me just staring. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck and I got goose bumps all down my arms.” She shivered, just noticeably, at the memory.

  “As I was saying about the tunnels at my University, there's was one that ran along the buildings, connecting each building to the ones on either side. It's a shortcut from the classroom buildings, cafeteria and even to some of the dorms and Greek housing. The tunnels are mostly forgotten and unused, at least when I was attending there. But, a few students found their way into them on rainy days instead of walking from building to building in the weather.”

  “Sounds creepy,” said Anna.

  “I understand that now the tunnel system is one of Salem’s best walking tours. Apparently, lots of students walk the tunnels rather than climbing five flights of stairs in the library and then walking several blocks in the rain or the snow in winter, and through a residential neighborhood, at that. But at night, the library is the more frequently used option.”

  “Still sounds creepy.”

  “The popular rumor, at least when I was a student, was that the tunnel was haunted. The tunnel was dim at night and the lights were that antique yellow. Most of the students were afraid of the tunnel, especially at night, but not my Ouija-loving friends. We weren't afraid of anything, or at least we wouldn't have admitted to any fear. We walked it at night all the time. Though you couldn't have paid me to go there alone after dark. It was definitely a route for a group.”

  “Did you see a real ghost in the tunnel?”

  He touched her arm several times while explaining. “Lee Ann never said the tunnel path was haunted, exactly – her words were, ‘something lives inside the tunnel. And you don't want to mess around with it.’"

  “She sounds like a weird person. Or maybe just freaky.”

  “She was different from anyone I have ever met. She maintained that if you were careful and respectful, it was no big deal to walk the path at any hour. One night, Lee Ann and I were walking the tunnel to the library with our friend, Sheila. As we rounded the first bend, taking us away from the lights, Lee Ann stopped and took a few steps backward and said, ‘its pretty strong tonight. The thing that lives here, I can feel it. Do you guys feel it? Stay close to me.’”

  Anna’s eyes widened as she rubbed her arms. “Did you feel anything that night?”

  “As if I would have wandered off! Sheila and I drew in close to Lee Ann and we huddled together as we walked, trying not to give in to the impulse to go at top speed. As soon as she said it, the creepy feeling started growing stronger than ever. I don't know if it was just a reaction to Lee Ann's warning, but I felt like eyes were on us as I walked the tunnel path. I'd never felt anything like this before.”

  “Well, did you see it?”

  “Halfway through the tunnel, Lee Ann stopped next to an air vent. Sheila and I followed suit. ‘This is where it lives,’ she said, looking into the slated darkness of the vent.

  We all stood there for a minute, gazing into the vent. And I started to see something as I focused upward. What I saw didn't make any sense, and I wasn't entirely sure my eyes weren't just playing tricks on me. I wasn’t terrified but it was unsettling. I couldn’t make it out but I could hear something. It was too big to be a mouse or even a rat. Then I saw what looked like an orb with a big snake eye surrounded in flames. The eye disappeared but not the flames. Then, from the flames a dark hooded man with red flaming eyes appeared and he burned himself into the recesses of my mind.”

  “Oh my God,” Anna shivered listening to him.

  “Lee Ann asked if we had seen anything. Sheila and I both jolted, as if we'd been in a mild daze. I guess I really had been in a state of confusion, focusing on what I was seeing inside the vent. Sheila nodded yes.”

  “So Sheila saw it too? I probably would have run all the way back to my dorm if something like that ever happened to me,” exclaimed Anna.

  “We started walking down the tunnel and quickly followed her, but we didn't run. Finally, outside of the tunnel the rest of our walk up to the dorms was uneventful, and the creepy feeling started to fade away the further we got from the tunnel.”

  “I bet you were glad. Did it ever happen again?”

  Mark was trying to finish his story, but he never seemed the least bit annoyed when Anna interrupted. He just smiled and continued, “Once we reached Lee Ann's room and closed the door behind us, she sat down and asked me what I saw.”

  Anna was on the edge of her seat, her eyes wide as she listened to Mark’s story.

  “I told Lee Ann and Sheila what I had seen. I didn't get why I had seen it, but I was sure of what I saw. It was definitely the outline of an orb, in electric red pulsing light floating on its own volition. I could barely see the light coming from the orb but the more I focused, the clearer it got. There was just one big snake eye surrounded in flames. I also explained to them that after a short while, the eye disappeared but not the flames, and then from the flames, a dark hooded man with red flaming eyes appeared. Then the orb vanished around the corner. I remember Lee Ann nodded and asked Sheila what she saw. She said it was the same light I had described. Only she didn’t see a serpent surrounded in flames or a man. She just saw a red pulsing orb.”

  He stopped and rested his hand on Anna’s shoulder. “I remember Lee Ann turned to her bookcase and pulled out a hardcover b
ook. It was a thin volume, bound in red leather, cracked and dry with age. The pages within were brittle and what remained of the book’s original stitching was barely holding it together. She was careful when she opened the book. It smelled warm and dusty, like the inside of an attic. She riffled through a few pages before she found what she was looking for. She stopped, and held the book up, and was opened to a full-page illustration of a big snake eye surrounded in flames. I remember Sheila’s eyes grew wide and Lee Ann slammed the book shut. She shelved it again, and as she took her hand off it, I saw its title for the first time A Creed of Demons.”

  Anna shivered and repeated, “A Creed of Demons?”

  Mark leaned forward just a bit and grabbed Anna’s hand. Then he continued with his story. “So, I asked her what happened, and then if she felt the demon attacked her. Lee Ann said, after she put the book away ‘that's who's living in the tunnel.’ She had been seeing a snake surrounded by flames for months, every time she walked though the tunnel.

  "I remember I asked her who it was, or rather WHAT it was. My heart was pounding so hard I though my chest was going to explode. ‘A demon, obviously’, she said and then she added, ‘I'm not going to say its name out loud. You don't need to know it, at least not just yet.’ Sheila and I both just stared at her with terror in our eyes”

  “Wow, that is some story, Mark.”

  His forehead furrowed, "Saying its name would get its attention, she clarified that we needed to trust her on this. She said soon we would know the reason she showed this demon to us. She believed that it was mostly dormant, and that the demon didn’t know we could see it. She added that she wanted to keep it that way."

  "Uh, yeah, I would too,” stated Anna as a shiver went down her spine.

  "She told us that she would write down its name when we were off campus sometime. When we were far away, maybe over spring break."

  “Did she? What was its name?”