The Aching Darkness_A Dark Fantasy Anthology

by Parker Sinclair

  So, what did the greatest witch of all time achieve to become so famous? Artemis created a spell that relinquished a part of her very own soul, sacrificing it to boost her magic to pull off the unthinkable. This allowed her to produce the most powerful cloaking spell in the world, successfully hiding the entire town in the process. Edelweiss Pines literally disappeared to the naked eye, where no mention of it could be found on maps of any kind. If a non-magical neared the town’s borders, they would instantly be directed to leave with persuasive mind control stemming from her power. Because of her selflessness, Artemis and those she loved would all be safe from the evil that lurked outside of the growing village. Non-magicals and their distasteful Trials, would not be allowed to seep into their world of good witchcraft. This began a tradition of sacrifice with each new Matron that took Artemis’s place. The outcome of such a powerful spell certainly had its repercussions, though.

  For any Matron that sacrificed a piece of her soul as a selfless act, would also give away part of their lifespan and would forever be trapped within the town’s walls as a spirit after their death. Even white magic had its drawbacks. Fey’s grandmother made sure she understood the sacrifice involved when dealing with super-massive spells like the age-old cloaking spell protecting their town. “You cannot create powerful spells without first sacrificing something of equal worth. There is a great balance set in place dealing with black and white magic, and for one, you must have the other.” Aris repeated the words daily, so that the girl may never forget its deep meaning.

  Fey was born during the Winter Solstice, believed to be the most powerful season of the witches. She could amplify her magic during this time and was working diligently to prepare her body for such an event. Aris had no doubt that her granddaughter would ace her exams, as she was too intelligent to let something so fragile slip through her fingers. The old woman decided that once her exams were completed successfully, she would make her move to tell Fey the truth. The lie that she carried would finally come to light, and no longer burden her heavy heart. One fact remained, Fey would never be the same once she found out her true destiny.

  CHAPTER 4

  Darkness This Way Comes

  Running on fumes, Fey listlessly gathered a few more of the crystal plants lining the illuminated pond and frowned as she noticed how the supply seemed to be lacking its usual fullness. Maybe it’s going to be harder to harvest them. The world is changing, even if we aren’t. “Finally,” she whispered happily. “I’m exhausted,” she muffled under her breath as she pushed the handle of the basket further up her arm, so as not to dump out her hard work. Without delay, she traveled up the path, anxious to get inside and rest her sluggish feet. Tiny bumps covered her arms as she shivered from the unfriendly bite of the night’s air. The girl quickened her stride, not wanting to torture herself out in the cold longer than she had to.

  The creaking boards of the front porch alerted Hex, who was sitting in one of the large paned windows. He was busily cleaning his thick black fur when he heard his master nearing the house. The cat jumped up, running the length of his stomach across the glass and pawed at the window, trying to flirt with the drowsy girl outside. Fey reached for the door handle and immediately jerked away as the knob nearly froze her fingers to the core. Frost traveled up to her dainty wrist, forcing incredible pain to shoot through her cursed appendage. She called out into the night wildly as the unsettling pain set in. Ripping her wounded hand away, she cradled her offended fingers before shaking them vigorously to affirm their feeling was still present. “What is this?” she bellowed when she examined her tender extremities.

  Was Hex trying to warn me? A bit of flesh had torn away, exposing the fatty tissue beneath the surface. The girl was lucky to still have any feeling left, as her nerves were going haywire. During inspection, a moving cloud brought Fey’s attention to the exterior of the house near her grandmother’s room. A threatening opaque shadow crept through the window with ease as bouts of green lightning flashed within its fogginess. Fey’s worried eyes shot back to the door. Without hesitation, she rushed inside calling out to her gran desperately, craning an ear to listen for signs of the old woman. The door no longer held the curse that froze her fingers to the bone.

  “Grandmother Aris?” she yelled carelessly, loud enough to rock the old house’s walls. She shook her pained fingers and shouted her name again. No reply. “Gran, you there?” she asked redundantly.

  The silence pierced her nerves and she didn’t know how much more she could take of the house’s stillness. “Answer me!” Fey thought brashly as she swiftly ran past the dark kitchen and up the long staircase. The girl almost tripped as her foot hit the landing. Like a cat in the night, she rebalanced herself, planting in front of her gran’s room. She rapped on the door with intense fervor to make sure that her grandmother wasn’t just sleeping heavier than usual. No matter how hard she knocked though, nothing seemed to rouse the old witch from her slumber. I better go in, she decided after giving herself some time to deliberate.

  Normally, she wasn’t so forceful with other’s privacy, but seeing the strange black cloud forced her hand. Fey twisted the knob and stepped through, at once taking in the cold air that kissed her timid skin. Creak… The door fabricated an ominous croak from its rusty hinges when Fey pushed her feet to carry her further into the opaque room’s threshold. The fear she felt pummeled her resolve, never had she experienced something so unnerving. She almost had the urge to turn back, but the Westfall blood in her veins wouldn’t allow it.

  Dropping the crystal plants beside the doorway, the girl freed up her hands and pressed forward. Inside, Fey heard a soft humming noise originate from the center of the room. The pale moon’s light glistened from the window pane to her left, casting off the surface of the hardwood floor. She sighed as she saw that the light’s reach stunted just before resting on her grandmother’s bed. A massive headache dropped deeply into the muscles of her sinuses as she moved toward the sound. It was a warning to stay put, to ward away whatever didn’t want her near her grandmother’s bed. The pitch-black obscurity she had caught outside gran’s window stealthily surrounded the witch in a suffocating cocoon of midnight, as she squinted her watering eyes to picture what they fell short of revealing. The gassy substance reached her nostrils, unbearably affronting her senses.

  Backing away from the oscillating hum she asked, “Gran, you okay?”

  She spoke cautiously as she crept backward toward the side of the bed frame on the opposite end of the room. Far away from the dangerous clatter that threatened to explode her brain if she got too close. An eruption of uncontrollable coughing spewed from her grandmother’s lips, causing Fey to light a candle with her magic on the nightstand as fast as her hands would allow. She swiveled around to see that the cloud hovered over Aris’s chest with the demon’s transparent body gaining opacity the closer it got to her. Fey reduced her eyes to slits and focused through the aphotic darkness of the being, and just before she lost sight as the creature grew to full strength; she spied a dazzling light escaping from her gran’s mouth. The Witch let out an apprehensive cry, for she knew what was happening to her helpless grandmother.

  “It’s consuming her soul,” she concluded when the rage inside powered her legs and she darted across the room. Instinct drove her to spread her arms wide and involuntarily speak the ancient word for banishing. The girl maneuvered her fingers so that the invocation was bound to the creature’s life force. She’d only ever skimmed the enchantment she was using at best, yet somehow, she could remember every detail about the spell. It was as if another part of her psyche had taken over and she was a full-on Matron, though she had never properly practiced anything she as reciting.

  “Expellere,” she shrieked as scarlet sparks fizzled from her fingertips toward the dark spirit and prolific red flames engulfed the shadow, burning up the demon in mere seconds.

  The sound of what could only be described as an agitated shrill jammed her ears and she quickly covered th
em to muff out the squawking. The torched cloud caved in on itself and as if a supermassive black hole had appeared, the vile creature sucked itself into an unknown, vast void. The intruder was defeated, and she finally felt like she could breath. Fey allowed her arms to drop back to her hips at the sight of her triumph, knowing there was no way that anything on Earth could survive an encounter with magic as powerful as she possessed.

  “That was a little too easy. How did I––?” Fey mumbled, but her words were cut short when she heard a whisper flow from Aris’ breath a few feet away. A glimmer of hope could be seen in the girl’s tear streaked eyes as she walked upon the bed. She soon realized that the foul creature had left behind a partial shell of her beloved grandmother, who laid motionless across the bed with her hands bracing her sides. The whole scene gave off the odd guise of someone who’d died in a great state of fear with no way out. Hesitating, she leaned forward and whispered, “Gran?” As no response was answered, Fey wept, running a gentle touch up her grandmother’s side as she heard her own tender heart breaking into a thousand pieces.

  It took strength that she didn’t have left, but after a few tries she pulled up on the old woman’s limp arms in an effort to wake her. She placed fingers over her neck to feel for a pulse and anticipation spread throughout Fey as she held her breath and listened for any noise at all. By some miracle, she found a weak heartbeat, barely enough to register and leaned in to listen to her grandmother’s shallow breathing.

  “Look at me, are you okay?” she asked repeatedly, taking the woman’s face into her palms and slowly rocking it from side to side. Aris let out a blood-tinged cough, splattering red crimson across her own chest.

  “Oh, Gran … What do I do?” The frantic girl questioned miserably as she looked up into the sky. She felt the trepidation in her gut gather as the tears pooled in her soft-green eyes, dropping them down onto her dear grandmother and watched as her the old woman spread her lips to speak.

  “There’s nothing you can do, child,” Aris conveyed to her heartbroken granddaughter.

  “The spirits have come for me. It’s just my time,” she croaked, reaching for Fey’s arm to grab it gently with her weathered, feeble hands. “But, I do have something I need to tell you before—” Aris’s voice trailed off and her eyes switched between rolling to the back of her head and desperately focusing on Fey’s hands as she held them close.

  Her once vibrant-blue eyes clouded over and the air in her lungs gave out what little they had mustered and the grip she held on Fey’s arm wilted as she fell still. Death had taken her, whisking her away with one fell swoop, leaving her granddaughter with a world of questions that would likely go unanswered.

  “Gran? Oh, Gran—not now. I need you,” she sobbed as she leaned in and buried her face into her soft night dress, taking in the familiar aroma of mint leaves from one of her grandmother’s pain salves. It always reminded Fey of safety, and right now she needed to feel safe more than anything else. When she thought she couldn’t cry anymore, she leaned up, noticing her blood covered hands that had gripped the front of Aris’ dress. She ran to the bathroom and with a shaky grasp, turned the faucet on and did her best to wash it away under the stream of water. Even when they were cleaned It did very little for the stains the blood had left on her mind, for she could never unsee such a thing. She watched as the blood combined with the water in the sink as more tears relentlessly fell from her eyes. She could not stop herself from somehow feeling responsible for it all.

  “I can’t go back in there. I just can’t,” she whispered at the image of herself in the bathroom mirror, once she was done riding her hands of her grandmother’s murder. It took all she had not to hurl her nerves into a corner and stay there forever. The leader of Edelweiss Pines had died right in the next room and that realization is what planted her feet in place. The woman that had guided her through every up and down in life had been viciously taken away from her. She left the bathroom feeling lost, avoiding all eye contact with the lifeless shell of Aris, and stood right outside her Gran’s room. Nothing could make her want to set a foot back inside. Years of coveted memories flashed before her soaked eyes as she recounted her life with her amazing grandmother.

  Nothing could replace her mother, but her gran came in as a close second. The sweet old woman had taught her everything about life and even how to wield her powers for the sake of their world’s future. Precious moments she would never get back, because life was cruel no matter what way a witch wandered. As Fey drifted down memory lane, she fell off into a deep trance that left her conscience self still standing just outside her dead grandmother’s bedroom door. Call it what you will, shock or fainting… Fey had left the normal reality of existence and had entered the astral plane.

  This was something she had often used as a means to contact her mother, but never found a connection with her spirit. Wherever her mother was, she wasn’t dead, but in a state of perpetual in between. She couldn’t tell her grandmother that she knew this detail, because doing so would mean admitting she had gone behind her back to learn about dark magic. Entering the realm of the dead had no bounds, and a girl could easily be swept up against anything that decided to haunt the inexperienced mage roaming the land of the lost.

  Inside the astral plane, a fog filled the hall, turning her home into that of a dream-like state. Below, Fey could see herself still standing immobile while her spirit freely floated above. A dim light glimmered downstairs and the girl followed it instinctively. Her ghostly body hovered down the stairs and into the foyer where Hex had stationed himself in his favorite spot. Cats, having many distinct features that make them perfect familiars, sensed his master drifting overhead and meowed a toothy greeting as she passed. She smiled at him half-heartedly, remembering what had brought her to this place. The teen was searching for her Gran Aris, who Fey knew for a fact would be close by.

  A faint trail of her essence traveled outside the kitchen opening and with languid strides she followed it back to where her grandmother had been standing only an hour before, concocting remedies. If only she could turn back time and make the moment last forever. Knowing hanging around any longer than she needed to be was a significant danger to not only herself, but to the towns folk as well. The girl quickened her pace and sharpened her eyes to make sure she didn’t let anything out of run into anything unwanted in the realm of the dead. She stealthily searched every room in the house with no luck of finding her spirit, including the place of her dear loved one’s death. Fey had stuck her head in the door long enough to search. She could not be found and in a world where all former Matron’s had to stay in Edelweiss Pines forever, where could her gran be?

  The lurid darkness of the astral plane casted shadows that lazily fell over the hall as frightening images of hands with razor-sharp claws reached out to grab the girl. The Witch knew she couldn’t stay in this reality for long and that the shadow people could not harm her as long as she was alive. The unknown entity always forced her to take her leave before she could find any real evidence of her mother’s existence. The spirit world had a way of compelling those that did not belong to leave prematurely. This time, Fey fought back the urge to listen to the ancient power allowing her to visit the celestial reality and traveled further into the dreary house.

  As she followed the steps down into the old cellar, a great force pushed her spirit back up as if she were about to see something she wasn’t supposed to see. The rickety cellar door slammed, sending shards of wood flying passed Fey’s face. As she closed her eyes, her spirit flew backward as it was being sucked back to her body. The powers over the lost dominion had had enough of her prying. Clearly, there was more to what had happened to Aris and the underworld was doing its best to take care of the loose ends.

  Feeling less than successful, Fey jolted as she rejoined her body and awful depressing thoughts hit her once again. In the astral plane, she could let go of the heavy burden of sadness and pain. Something allowed her to cover it all, or stow it away. She ha
d a feeling she wouldn’t be able to visit again for quite some time for her disregard of the shadow people. She just thought she might be able to say goodbye and find out what her grandmother wanted her to know. It seemed rather important and so many questions proposed themselves as she tried to give an answer for what had happened. One of the scariest thoughts she had was that she would be the one to have to explain how she knew her grandmother wasn’t in the lost plane of existence. The committee would not be happy with her once they found out she had used dark magic, but what could they do?

  While the town never changed, the people that resided in it did, and with that change came new ideas on how the lost city and its people should govern themselves. She would be Matron no matter what happened, and It was time she remembered that she is the most powerful Witch in her people’s dimension. She had the right to make decisions on her own. Right?

  I need to call someone. I can’t handle this alone. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do, Fey decided as the cognitive reasoning part of her brain kicked in. She ran downstairs, remembering that her legs were still aching from her hike earlier that day, and slowed a bit as she felt her calves burn like white hot coals on an already hot, summer day. She observed her home in the midst of the moonlight. Having lived there for many years, she always felt comfortable inside it's warded walls. Now, she couldn’t say the same. Whatever she saw was something that had never been. You see, dark magic didn’t exist in the land of Edelweiss Pines and Fey was beginning to think she had unleashed something malevolent when she searched for her mother and grandmother.

  The only mention of dark magic was in her grandmother’s grimoire. Since Fey had existed, she was the only one amongst her people to use dark magic. The facts were unsettling even to the girl. The whole thing left her at a loss for words, for seeing something like this meant trouble was ahead of her reign as Queen. It just doesn’t make sense, she thought, reaching out with the palm of her right hand pointing it upward. Her bosky eyes lit up like glowing orbs as her magic flowed to the ends of her fingers and formed a hefty-sized, electric-blue flame. The warmth instantly thawed her frigid, stinging face of the salty tears that had continued to flow and in between sobs, she chanted the words: “Dissero, Ignis Vivens (Speak, Living Flame).”