by Keith Keffer
Just the thought of taking a bite out of the chocolate made her mouth drool. Morgan kept her eyes focused ahead, trying not to look at the candy. She finally reached the door and got a closer look at the flickering light. The first thing that she noticed was that the porch light wasn't made of candy. The second thing was that it didn't hold a light bulb.
It was a wide mason jar. Inside little insects fluttered back and forth, banging into the glass and the lid as they tried to escape. Each one gave off a golden glow that was so bright that Morgan had to turn away. Even then she still saw tiny dots dancing before her eyes. First a candy house and now a jar full of super-bright lightning bugs. What was she going to find inside?
The doorknob was some sort of cherry gumdrop. Her hand stuck to it a little, but it turned just like any other doorknob. There was a click and the door swung inward.
The sweltering heat hit her as soon as she crossed the threshold. A huge, black cauldron hung suspended over a glowing bed of coals. Outside the house was all sugar and spice and everything nice, but inside it was doom and gloom, rot and mold. The reek of decay filled the air.
None of that mattered to Morgan. For there, laying on the floor of a wooden cage at the back of the house, was her cousin.
"Henry." The word came out as a low hiss that even she could barely hear.
"Henry," she said louder as she ran to his side. The boy didn't move. In a panic Morgan grabbed the door to the cage and jerked it back and forth. A heavy combination lock held it in place.
"You found him?" Bob's voice came through her earpiece.
Morgan ignored him. All of her attention was on Henry. She dropped to her knees and shook her cousin through the bars. His eyes popped open.
"Morgan?" He crawled to the side of the cage as it was too small for Henry to stand in, and he reached for her. The cousins hugged each other tightly through the bars.
"I want to go home," said Henry through tears. His small body shook as he cried.
"Don't worry, I'll get you out." She reluctantly pulled away from her cousin and looked around the room for some way to open the cage.
"Moda. Do you have him?" Bob's voice was a little louder in her ear, more insistent on an answer.
"Bob! We did it, Bob. We found him. He's locked in a cage," she said. "That ax really would have come in useful now."
"Hurry," he said. "Someone's coming."
"Shit." Morgan spotted a heavy poker sitting next to the hot coals beneath the cauldron. She grabbed it and wedged the iron rod between the cage door and the closest bar. The wooden bar bowed slightly.
"Henry, get to the other side of the cage. As far as you can." The little boy hadn't moved from where Morgan had left him. He was clinging to the bars, watching his older cousin's every move. To his credit, he wiped his tears and moved away until his back was against the far side of the cage, not that it was very far. The cage was only five feet wide and three feet tall. Henry had been trapped in it for over a week.
The witch who did this was going to pay.
Morgan sat on the floor. She balanced the poker across the top of the padlock and kicked it as hard as she could. There was a loud pop like a firecracker going off, and a crack appeared in the wooden bar in the cage. Morgan reset the poker and kicked it again. The poker popped free, clattering across the floor.
But, the bar was broken.
It took only a few seconds to pull the locked chain through the gap. Without the chain, the cage door swung open on its own. Henry shot out of the cage and grabbed Morgan in a bear hug.
He was crying and trying to talk at the same time. Morgan couldn't understand a word that he was saying, but the hug told her all she needed. They were together, and he was safe.
"Moda. Get out of the house. Now." Bob's voice was a hiss in her ear, and she remembered that they weren't safe yet. They still had to get home. Prying herself out of Henry's embrace, she grabbed his hand in one hand and snatched her bag off the floor with the other.
"Come on, Henry." She pulled open the door and rushed out of the house. Henry stumbled after her. His legs unsteady from his time in the cage.
The light from the porch only reached to the fence, beyond that it was pitch black. She couldn't see Bob or the trail or anything. Her eyes would adjust. At least that it what she told herself as she ran toward the clearing. Even if she couldn't see, Bob probably could. He'd guide them back.
Her earpiece made a squealing sound in the middle of a burst of static, then it died. Morgan made out a single word from the noise before everything went quiet. "Hide!"
"Bob. Bob, are you there." There was nothing but silence in her earpiece. The same wasn't true for the darkness beneath the trees. Something crashed like a tree falling. A chittering sound followed, then more crashing and crunching as something battled its way through the forest. Whatever it was, it sounded big. It also sounded like it was coming from where Morgan thought the trail would be.
Tugging on Henry's hand, she made a sharp right turn and sprinted as fast as she could with her cousin trailing after her. The bag of tools banged against her leg. She would have dropped it, except for the fear that the witch would be able to use what was inside to track her, or to make a voodoo doll, or something else evil and nasty with magic that Morgan couldn't even think of. Besides, it had her notebook and a flashlight in it. She didn't want to lose either of those items. They'd probably need both before the night was over.
They reached the tree line without tripping and falling. The trees and brush were too thick to run through without making a racket or running face first into a low branch. There were still noises coming from the direction of the trail, but the sound was fading. Whatever it was seemed to be moving away.
She hoped Bob was alright. Even if a bear ate him, he'd probably be fine once it pooped him out, but she didn't want to think about the little demon suffering. And, what if it wasn't a bear. Bob had seen something. Morgan assumed it was the witch, but what if it wasn't or what if she summoned some sort of nasty thing and even now it was hunting Bob. She needed to find him.
Henry and Morgan moved further into the forest away from the trail. She wanted to help Bob, but her first priority was Henry. Bob understood that too. Hell, his binding to her was tied to it. As much as she wanted to rescue the little demon, he was on his own.
"It's cold," said Henry. Morgan had pulled him out of the cage without looking for a jacket, but that was alright. Finally, she had something in her bag that would be useful. They stopped beneath the boughs of a pine tree, and she dug into the bag by feel. Fortunately, what she was looking for was easy to find. It took only a few seconds before she pulled out Henry's jacket. It was the light blue one that she had carried around the house last night. She helped Henry slip it on and then zipped it up for him.
"Thanks," he said, stuttering from the cold. Even with the jacket, he wasn't dressed for this. Morgan hadn't planned for the temperature to drop so much, and it was only going to get colder as night settled in.
"Listen," she said. "Do you hear anything."
Henry shook his head and said, "Nothing."
The forest had gone quiet. Whatever had run through the trees was gone, or it was waiting for them to come out in the open, so it could pounce on them.
"Henry, we’re going to wait here for a minute or two," said Morgan. "Then, we'll head home."
"Let's go now," said Henry. "I don't want to wait." He shivered and wrapped his arms around his body. "Morgan, she looked just like mom. She looked like mom and took me to that house, then she changed." Henry started to cry. His shoulders shaking with his sobs. Morgan pulled him close and hugged him. He was so small in her arms. How could anything have done this to him.
"What took you so long," he asked between hiccups. "She said you didn't care. That no one cared."
"Henry," said Morgan. "Your mom and I never gave up. We never stopped searching. We love you."
"I love you too."
Morgan promised herself that once Henry was safe, she'd find a way
to stop the witch. There was no way that she was going to let her get away with this. She was going to pay no matter what it took. Before Morgan could plot her revenge, which involved a baseball bat and a kneecap, her phone buzzed.
She freed her arm from around Henry and tapped the earpiece. Immediately, she heard Bob's voice through the tiny speaker. "Come on, Moda. Answer the damn phone."
"Bob! What happened? Are you alright? Where are you?"
"I'm fine. Stay where you are," he said. "You're safe for now and I'll be there soon. I can use the binding between us to locate you. It's too dangerous to go back to the trail with the witch here. You'll need to draw another portal circle."
"I'll be ready when you get here."
"Great. I'm on my way."
Morgan ran her fingers through Henry's hair. He had stopped crying while she talked to Bob, and now he was looking up, into her face. "Who's that," he asked.
"A friend. He helped me find you, and as soon as he gets here we're leaving." She patted her cousin once more on the back before getting to her knees and pulling her flashlight out. It was too dark for her to try this without some sort of light. They would just need to be careful. Holding the flashlight a few inches above the ground, pointing down, she clicked it on. Hopefully that wouldn't be enough to give away their location, but it wasn't like she had a choice. She needed the light to work.
"Henry, I need you to hold the light just like this, pointed at the ground. If you wave it in the air, someone might see it."
Henry took the light with both hands, keeping the beam pointed down. "You mean the bad person, don't you."
Morgan didn't want to scare him any more than he already was, but she didn't want to lie to him either. They were still in danger, and he knew that. "Yes. She might be looking for us."
To Henry's credit, he nodded and only said, "alright." He lowered the flashlight another inch closer to the ground, but it still gave off enough light for Morgan to see. She picked up a stick and started scratching the spell circle into the dirt.
Bob's voice came from her earpiece. "You need to hurry. I can see that light from over here. If the witch is outside or looking out a window, she'll have seen it too."
"You hurry," snapped Morgan. "I got this." That's what she kept telling herself as she scratched the circle in the dirt and then started drawing the symbols around the edge. They were a far cry from the carefully measured and precise circle she used to summon Bob. This looked like something a toddler might have drawn with a crayon when no one was looking, but it would do. She was pretty sure it would work. The circle was symbolic, a way to focus the spell. It didn't need to be perfect. That's what her book said, and so far, that seems to be true. Each circle that's she drew after that first one had been more rushed, more sloppy, and so far they've still worked.
"What are you doing?" asked Henry, scooting closer to watch her draw. "That's a magic circle, isn't it? Are you going to cast a spell like the bad person did? How did you learn how to do that? Wait! How long have you been able to do that." His words got louder and faster as he spoke, and he would have kept going if Morgan didn't interrupt his flow.
"Hold on, champ," said Morgan. "Calm down. Yes. It's a magic circle. We're going to use it to go home as soon as my friend Bob gets here. Now, Bob doesn't exactly look like you and me, so don't freak out when you see him. He's only about two feet tall and he's wearing the lifeguard t-shirt from that bear you got for me last year."
"Oh," said Henry. "Like a little person? That's cool. I've never met a little person before."
"Well, not exactly," said Morgan. "Now, hush. Let me finish so we can go home. And keep your eyes open. Let me know if you see or hear anything odd."
Another minute later and Morgan placed the last symbol around the circle. She had drawn it completely from memory, in the dark, with a twig. Yeah, this was going to be awesome.
"Morgan, I hear something." Henry's voice was a whisper. He pointed into the darkness. "It's over there."
"Don't worry, kid," said Bob. His voice came through Morgan's earpiece. At the same time, it came from behind the bush that Henry was pointing at. "I was just waiting for your cousin to finish up before popping in. I didn't want her to accidentally kick me across the forest. Moda, let me know when you're ready, and then I'll come out."
Morgan tossed the twig to the side and stood up, taking Henry's hand in hers. She grabbed her bag in the other. "Keep the light on the ground," she said and waited for Henry to nod his head. He didn't look at her. He stared at the bush waiting for Bob to reveal himself.
"Don't be afraid, Henry. Bob is a friend." She squeezed his hand a little tighter to reassure him.
When Bob stepped out from behind the bush, she wasn't exactly sure of what she was expecting from Henry. Fear and panic were probably high on the list. It certainly wasn't what she got.
"Hi Henry," said the demon. "I'm Bob."
"Wow," whispered Henry. His head swiveled from Bob to Morgan and back again. "Wow. Are you... Are you a goblin?"
Bob smiled, showing off all of his crooked, yellowed teeth, and did a slight bow toward Henry. "I guess I do sort of look like one, especially in the dark, but no, Henry, I'm not a goblin. I'm just someone who was sent to help your cousin find you, and I'm glad that we did."
"Wow." That seemed to be the primary extent of Henry's vocabulary at the sight of Bob, but Morgan knew that wouldn't last. It would only be a couple of minutes before he started asking all sorts of questions that she wasn't sure how to answer.
"Come on guys," she said. "Time to go."
Henry leaned closer to Morgan and asked. "Is he your boyfriend?"
Bob choked and laughed at the same time. Had he been drinking anything, it definitely would have been spewed across the ground in front of him. Morgan shivered, and her mouth dropped open. So much for waiting a few minutes before embarrassing questions. Wait, she thought, is that the type of guy Henry thinks I would date. She shivered again.
"No," she finally said. "He is not my boyfriend." She glared at Bob until he finally stopped laughing. "We just work together."
"Oh," said Henry. "Like police detectives? Is that what you are Bob? Are you some sort of detective?"
"Yeah," answered Morgan before Bob could say anything. "Bob is a specialist in these types of things."
"And my specialist skills are telling me, we need to go," said Bob.
Apparently satisfied for the moment, Henry didn't ask any more questions. Morgan let go of his hand and turned toward the circle she had drawn in the dirt. It wasn't exactly pretty, but it would work. Stepping forward, she began to chant the words to the spell. A blue haze rose from the ground. The spell was working.
"That's what the bad person did," said Henry. "She used it to bring me here. How did you learn to do that?"
"And, we are going to use it to bring you home," said Bob moving to stand beside the young boy. "Your cousin is a very special person with amazing gifts. I've been helping her to learn to use those gifts, so she could find you."
"Magic," said Henry. "She can really do magic."
"Yes," said Morgan after she finished the spell. The blue haze formed into a portal and she could see the library on the other side. "Thanks to that book I found in your room, I can. I'll explain it all later, when we are safely home."
She took Henry's hand, and Henry took Bob's. Together the three of them stepped through the portal.
CH 12 - Not Robin
It was dark. Except for a flashing traffic signal a few blocks down the road, there were no lights on near the laundromat. Morgan breathed a sigh of relief. Bob and Henry were walking beside here, and they'd been fortunate so far. They had stayed away from the roads and sidewalks, cutting through yards and alleys to get back to her car. The only thing that had seen them was a dog who was still barking even though it's been a few hundred yards since they violated his territory.
Morgan had been worried about getting into the car without being seen. Sure, she still wore the backpack t
hat Bob could ride in, but forcing him inside of it didn't seem right. Not with Henry watching. Her cousin was fascinated with the little demon, not that he knew Bob was a demon. As far as Henry knew, Bob was just a special looking person who went around helping people, like Morgan. Henry peppered him with questions as they walked, and Bob did his best to answer them. The little demon never lied but did steer the truth in a manner that left Henry with the impression he worked for some big, secret agency and that his job required total secrecy.
The only time the demon stumbled was when Henry asked him about his tail. Morgan jumped in on that one by asking Henry to not embarrass their friend with personal questions. Henry apologized and added that he thought it was cool. Fortunately, they were almost to the Explorer and Henry seemed to be running out of steam.
Morgan dug out her car keys and pressed the button to unlock the doors. The lights flashed, and she heard the click. There were only six other cars in the parking lot, and none of them were near her SUV.
"Come on, guys," she said. "Let's get moving." She picked up the pace and they quickly followed.
"That's far enough, Miss Star." A hooded figure stepped out from behind her car before they were halfway to it. In his right hand, he held a staff. He planted one end on the ground, and for a second, he looked like Gandalf preparing to square off against the Balrog. Four more hooded figures appeared from the shadows around the other cars. Unlike the first one, they all appeared to be unarmed.
"Oh, shit," muttered Morgan and Bob at the same time.
"Language," said Henry without a moment's pause. Henry loved quoting superheroes and once he heard Captain America say that to Iron Man, he'd been doing the same thing to Morgan every time she said something inappropriate. Plus, she now owed a dollar to the swear jar. Henry was halfway to buying a new video game thanks to her.
Morgan stepped protectively in front of Henry and Bob. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she was pretty sure this wasn't going to be a simple mugging where they asked for her cash or her car keys. When did her life become so crazy that a mugging was the better option. Nope, these guys weren't wearing hoodies. They had full length, black robes on. They weren't gangsters. They were members of some sort of secret society. She just didn't have a clue as to which one. For that matter, she didn't have a clue as to what her options were when it came to picking a secret society. She figured good guys probably didn't need to hide their faces.
