Mona Livelong

by Valjeanne Jeffers

  He locked eyes with a glowering Junebug. “I’ve heard a great deal about you, ghost. The infamous Larry ‘Junebug’ Walker. We’re gonna have a grand old time, you and me, oh yes.”

  ——

  Across the street, Mona stood immobile—barely able to breathe. Their ambush had failed, and she was helpless. The sorceress had whispered every spell she could think off. None of them had any effect. Where the hell is William?

  With growing terror Mona realized that they’d been lured into an elaborate trap.

  ——

  D.A. Joe McIntyre stepped into the bedroom. He smiled down at Isis, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s time to go home, Isis,” he said softly. Inside his mind he willed her to sleep. “Take a nap. When you wake, you’ll find yourself in your own bed.”

  Isis glared up at him. “You lying— I know you lying! You gonna kill me!”

  In that moment, McIntyre could feel the power radiating from her in waves. If she were full grown— if unleashed—she could have killed him where he stood. He nearly backed away. His own fear angered him. Little bitch! How dare she defy him? “Sleep, damn you!”

  Isis closed her eyes and fell back on the bed. Joe McIntyre bent and lifted her in his arms. He left the bedroom and walked down the stairs to the lowest level of the house.

  ____

  Chapter 28: Sacrifice

  Curtis and Richard sat with their hands tied behind their backs. Both men’s faces and clothing were bloody. The room only had one door and was without windows. A small table beside them held a variety of knives. They eyed the table, and looked down at the bloodstains beneath the chair, their hearts beating a drum. McIntyre was right. Under torture everybody talked. Eventually.

  Above them, the ceiling turned blood red.

  ——

  D.A. Joe McIntyre stood over Isis, clothed only in a pair of voluminous trousers. He held a knife in each hand, his chanting slow and measured. Ripples of blood ran down the walls, and the symbol beneath Isis’ body glowed, red luminescence covering her body, and the signet appeared on the ceiling. Adrenaline surged through McIntyre, and he felt his loins harden. He wanted to hurry.

  No. This has to be done just right.

  “I’m sorry,” a voice said from behind him, “but I must interrupt.”

  Joe McIntyre whirled on his heel to face William. “What the hell are you doing here?” he snarled. “I called for you earlier!”

  William’s eyes were obsidian. “I came to kill you.”

  McIntyre’s eyes widened in shock. “Kill me? What—?” In the next breath he was inundated with the Guardian’s power. He was drowning in it. This entity had hidden from him. Until now.

  He’s ain’t human. This darkie ain’t human!

  McIntyre glared at William with incoherent rage. All this time and I never knew—I never knew! “You black bastard! My family took care of you! I trusted you! I loved you!

  “Love?” William spat. “You, whose ancestors enslaved and tortured men, women and children! You are a murderer—a defiler of innocents! There is not one drop of love in your vile spirit!”

  The walls of the house rippled and howled in answer. With a cry of rage, Joe McIntyre dropped the knives. Two fiery spheres appeared in his cupped hands. He threw one, then the other. William morphed left, caught one and—wincing in pain—launched it back. The other sphere hit the wall and splattered, sizzling into the brick.

  McIntyre dodged his own deadly circlet, and two more appeared in his hands. “This house is the center of my power!” he shrilled. “You cannot defeat me here!”

  He threw them and William punted left, then right, catching one in his already burned hand and launching it back. The other splattered against the bricks. McIntyre threw two more deadly spheres—then two more. William bent backward his body forming an inhuman bow. One barely clearing his shoulder. He caught a circlet and dodged left, throwing it at McIntyre, who morphed right to avoid it. The next one struck William’s shoulder and the last, his heart. He fell to the floor, the spheres sizzling into his flesh, blood pouring from the wounds.

  And was still.

  McIntyre laughed manically and turned back to Isis.

  A shape blurred from William. Junebug appeared before him, a curved knife in his hand.

  ——

  William had come to Junebug, while McIntyre was upstairs. The chamber was unlocked and there was no guard inside. Why would there be? There was no way for Junebug to escape. McIntyre had become overconfident and sloppy, which was just what William had counted on.

  He met two guards standing before the room that held Richard and Curtis. He could hear others beating the men inside. They smirked at him. “The DA was looking for you,” one of them said. “Where were you?”

  “I heard all that noise and I got scared,” William replied. He stretched his eyes wide to imitate fear, and the men chuckled contemptuously. “Mr. McIntyre told me to check this room,” he pointed next door. “I need make sure everything is alright.”

  “Yeah, go on.”

  William walked inside and shut the door behind him. He stood before Junebug’s cage, his eyes dark and solemn. “I need your help,” he whispered. “It is the only way to defeat McIntyre. And we may not survive.”

  After a moment’s hesitation the ghost nodded. “Alright,” he rumbled. “You know what to do?”

  “Yes.”

  The Guardian extended his hand through the gossamer cage. The ghost took his hand. And they merged. William/Junebug walked back out past the guards, who barely spared them a glance.

  _____

  In one sweeping motion, Junebug sliced the curved knife across Joe McIntyre’s throat. McIntyre’s head rolled to the floor. His body collapsing beside it. The house howled in rage— a synergy of a wounded beast’s cry and a human scream.

  “Shut up!” Junebug rumbled.

  “Hey Junebug.” The child’s eyes were open, and she was watching him intently.

  It was startling. I thought she was knocked out? “Uh, hey sugar, how’d you know my name?” A moment later he knew. Energy was coming off her in waves.

  Isis smiled. “I dreamed about you.”

  Boy, she’s gon’ be something else. “I’m gon’ get you outta here.” He untied her bonds, lifted her in his arms and set her on the floor. They made their way upstairs.

  ——

  Mona’s bonds loosened and fell away. The catacomb of wards vanished. McIntyre is dead! Mona race across the grass. The moment she reached the windows they slammed shut. What the hell—?! Then she felt it: the malevolent energy of the house, enraged that McIntyre was dead.

  Mona extended both hands and whispered. The window before her shattered, and she climbed inside. She crept through the archway leading to the hallway. She nearly tripped over a body. More bodies lay on floor across the hall. The house shrieked.

  ——

  The guards jumped at the sound, looking about uneasily. “Mr. McIntyre should have been here by now,” Carl said, scowling. “Where is he?”

  He turned his back on Curtis and Richard, grumbling with two other guards. The prisoners cut their eyes at each other. They had been twisting their hands trying to get free. Now that the guards were distracted, Curtis and Richard redoubled their efforts.

  ——

  Mona peered at their faces. Even in the darkness she could tell Curtis and Richard weren’t among the dead. Where are they?

  She heard someone coming up the stairs and whirled about, a spell ready on her lips. It was Junebug. He was holding a Isis’ hand. He held a finger to his lips.

  “Are Richard and Curtis alright?” she whispered.

  “I think they downstairs.”

  “Thank God! Where’s William?”

  “Dead. He helped me kill McIntyre.” Mona looked down at Isis, and Junebug shrugged. “She saw everything.”

  “We gotta get them outta here!” Mona said.

  Junebug nodded grimly. Suddenly he hissed a warning and pushed her
to the floor. An oil lamp had detached itself from the wall and was speeding through the air toward her head. It hit the wall behind them and shattered. Paintings rattled on the wall.

  Mona looked up to see a bodyguard with gleaming red eyes climbing through the window. Others were banging at the door. Junebug rushed over—

  “Don’t possess him!” Mona cried. “It’s the house!”

  She fell to her knees and shut her eyes, using her terror and rage to gather energy, while Junebug grappled with the possessed guards. More were running up the steps toward her. All faded to the backdrop of her mind.

  She whispered her most dangerous spell. The Ombeni Wafu. The Plea for the Dead.

  _____

  Suddenly the guards stiffened, and turned as one, their eyes gleaming with a red luminescence. The other two pushed the door open.

  “Shit!”

  “NOW!” Curtis shouted.

  They pulled their hands free. Curtis dived for the table with the knives and turned it over. The guards drew their muskets as one. They aimed. Suddenly they froze, gazing up at the ceiling. Richard and Curtis cut their eyes at each other—

  ——

  The moment the words left her lips, Mona’s eyes turned black, waves of myriad- colored smoke streaming upward from them. The house fell silent—she could feel it tremble. The sound of drums, palms upon stretched skin echoed throughout the house, and a song in a language Mona could not understand. Yet she did.

  “Mpendwa tunakuja ...” Beloved, we are coming ... An undulating cry shook the walls. Shadows swirled about Mona, in a slow vortex, taking shape … Her face and body barely visible beneath them.

  The spirits of the dead.

  Mona stood. “Take Isis upstairs—!” she shouted. Junebug scooped up the child and raced up the stairs.

  Mona spread her arms. And let them take her. The spirits of murdered men and women, swirled about her, pulling away from her, attacking the guards. Simone, light-brown and slender like her brother, emerged. She looked back at Mona and smiled tenderly ... then ripped a guard’s head off.

  Guards rushed up the stairs and into the room. Richard and Curtis, armed with knives, ran behind them. They pulled up short, staring open-mouthed at Mona. Spirits fell upon the screaming guards, biting chunks from their flesh … severing heads from necks. Tears of joy rolled down Mona’s cheeks. She fainted.

  ——

  She awoke laying in Curtis’ arms. He was cradling her body on the floor. “We did it,” she said weakly.

  “Yeah, we did.”

  “I’m so hungry!”

  He grinned down at her. “Well, at least I know it’s you. There must be something to eat in this house of horrors.”

  _____

  Richard broke the knob to the DA’s office and pushed the door open. A gust of wind swept pass them. The last of Joe McIntyre’s sorcery. They fumbled about and found matches on a low table and lit the oil lamps affixed to the wall, revealing a carpeted room with bookshelves on either side. A cherry-wood desk with a cushioned chair centered the room and, behind this, a round window encircled in brass. Minutes later, Curtis and Mona joined them.

  Richard searched about and pulled a scroll from the top drawer. He spread it over the top of the desk. Seven names were written on the scroll. The governor’s name was written at the top.

  “This is it!” he said. “When the torch is lit,” he read, “the bearer of the torch will carry it to the next house. At the end of the slaughter, Governor Mekins will be murdered. This will start a civil war in Monterrey. All colored will be cleansed from North America … Councilman Henry Burr, WMU’s candidate, will take the governor’s office.”

  “Here’s the names of Constables on his payroll … and more folks on his hit list.”

  “McIntyre is dead,” Curtis said.

  “Cut off the head and the snake dies,” Junebug rumbled.

  Mona looked grim. “But Henry Burr is still alive.”

  “He’s different now,” Isis interrupted. The four adults looked down at her. They’d forgotten she was in room.

  “How you know that, sugar?” Junebug asked.

  “He came to get me.”

  “Henry Burr was here?” Mona said.

  Isis nodded. “But he left. He’s in the other place now.”

  Junebug stared at her for long moment. “She knows what she’s talking about, too.” She got power, baby. Mona heard his voice in her mind, power like you.

  “The other place. That’s got to be the doorway,” Curtis said.

  Mona nodded. “Uh-huh.” And we still have no clue how to shut it.

  “What now?” Richard asked.

  “We send the governor a post,” Curtis said, “let her know her life is in danger. We get this evidence to The Monterrey Press.”

  “Richard, you got anybody on the paper you trust? Mona asked.

  “Matter of fact, I do.

  “Them is all good ideas,” Junebug interrupted. “Now let’s get the hell outta here before the Constables show up. We left bodies everywhere.” The ghost looked down at Isis, “Scuse me, baby.”

  She gazed up at him. “When I can I go home? I miss my mama.”

  _____

  Epilogue

  Mona and Isis were riding the train back to Clearwater. She’d sent a post to Isis’ mother, telling her that Isis had been found. Curtis had stayed over to finish up Dr. Dearborn’s case and Junebug to finish his weekend with Julia. Richard had met with his newspaper contact that morning. The Monterrey Press had stopped the printer to include his story in the afternoon news. It was a strange combination of affairs and anyone’s guess how it would end.

  Mona looked down at Isis, engrossed in a book she’d brought for her. She’s so calm. I know children are tough, but I hope she’s not in shock.

  Suddenly she noticed the man sitting across the aisle from her, his dark face vaguely familiar.

  He looked up and smiled, extending a copy of The Monterrey Press. “Would you like this? I’ve finished reading it.

  His voice! “Yes, thank you,” she managed, taking the proffered newspaper. On the front page the headline read:

  Assassination Attempt Foiled A plot to assassinate Governor Shirley Mekins has been revealed by an anonymous source.

  There were names, and dates of the planned coup. Mona scrolled down to find the second headline:

  DA Joe McIntyre Found Murdered

  DA Joe McIntyre was found dead in his mansion last night, along with fifteen of his personal guards. His valet, William Carver, is missing. A citywide manhunt is underway for Carver, as he is suspected to be the last person to see the DA alive.

  Reading the last story, Mona chuckled. Isis looked up and put her hand on Mona’s arm, peering over at the paper. “What’s so funny?”

  Mona smiled down at Isis, her new protégée. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.” She looked over at the seat across from her to find that the man had vanished.