by John Booth
This has given me the chance to read the whole journal up to this point and I think I’ll spend a few minutes correcting some of the false impressions and downright lies he’s been putting down here. (Yes, Andrew, you read that right. Lies)
For a start, I am not a glutton. I do not spend every minute of the day with a piece of food in my mouth. It’s just that I have a fast metabolism and Aunt Jen has a really slow one. So she lives on slivers of cheese and I have to hunt around for real food whenever I can get it.
Andrew gets served massive meals each evening by Kathy (that’s his mother’s name, by the way) so he tends to eat salads and other low calorie food at lunchtime. So, to be clear, I am not stealing the food from his starving body whenever I borrow a few of his chips.
The other thing I’ve noticed is the way he’s turned the usual suspects into a group of real villains, which they aren’t. He’s hardly described them at all, and he hasn’t even given you all of their names. Bart gets a mention once, but the youngest, Zac hasn’t ever been named, let alone described.
When I first met the kids that the village calls the usual suspects they were really nice to me. The first thing I noticed was how physically attractive they are. I felt a bit like an ugly swan meeting eight gorgeous ducklings.
Sally is a natural blonde with sky blue eyes and a model’s figure despite her only being fourteen. She has the kind of face that makes you either want to cuddle her, or smack her for being so darned cute. Jane has raven black hair, a complexion like milk, and gorgeous green eyes that I’d kill for. She’s tall and has a size zero body and one of those slightly long faces that reminds me of beautiful princesses in fairy stories.
It was like I was on a film set for one of those American television series where nobody is fat or has spots and all the girls have legs that seem to go up forever.
When I first met them, Sally, Jane and Brian had already performed the magic spell that let the spirits back into our world. Despite that, they are basically good kids who have gone a little astray. Jane and Sally told me on that first day how much they fancied Andrew and how he’s always totally ignored them and treated them as nuisances. They would do almost anything to get him to notice them as real people.
The next oldest person after Andrew in the village is twenty five years old and the oldest below him is Sally. It’s no surprise that when Sally and Jane hit puberty they were attracted to the only available young man in the village. I expect they went from annoying little kids to lusty young women overnight and began trying to get his attention. Of course, he blanked them out. Given my own experiences I can’t really blame him for doing that, but to the girls it was so frustrating I suspect they went home and screamed at the wall after every time they met him.
They started teasing him to get any reaction out of him. If he’d only treated them like young women the spirits would never have been able to use them. So it’s all Andrew’s fault from their point of view.
Sally told me she had sex for the first time a month before we met, and it felt like something had forced her into it. When she told me, I said ‘yeah, right,’ in my head, but that was before we found out the spirits were grooming them.
I’m not saying she’s an innocent or anything like that. These days the internet has put an end to that sort of thing and I know she’s manipulated some of the older boys in her school. She’s probably manipulated them in more ways than one, if you know what I mean, but she wasn’t and isn’t a tart.
Jane copies everything Sally does and she joined the ‘virgins-aren’t-us’ club a few days after Sally. When Peter brought them the book, the girls saw a chance to use the promised powers to ensnare Andrew. In their minds, he was only being a gentleman with them until they were sixteen anyway, and they were getting tired of waiting.
They both have a crush on him like nothing I’ve ever seen. Even with that prize in their heads, they weren’t sure they could go through with the ceremony, but Brian was really keen on doing it for typical boy reasons and never gave up on trying to persuade them.
In the end, the girls said to him ‘You get the cat and knife, strip naked and strangle the cat in front of us and then we’ll do the other things’ believing he would never actually do any of them. But it was fun in a scary way to pretend he might and they liked the idea of going to the oak tree at midnight on the night of a full moon. Silly fools.
When he brought the cat struggling in the bag the girls became frightened, but they stripped down to their underwear and said to him ‘you do it naked and we’ll get naked too’ still believing even then that Brian would chicken out at the last moment. They just didn’t get the power the promise of sex can exert in the mind of a hormonal teenage boy.
They had Peter with them because he wouldn’t let them use the book if he wasn’t there when they did it. The whole thing happened out of bravado and the stupid belief they couldn’t go back on their word to Brian.
They only thing about them that has cheesed me off is the way they lie so casually. You have to catch them alone or frighten them to get the whole truth out of them on anything.
Getting back to what happened in the village hall. I was standing at the back with Jan when Lady Suttor and Bron appeared. I saw Mrs. Kelly give some instructions to Kathy Hawks and then Kathy slipped off the stage while Lady Suttor leered at the rest of us.
Kathy came over to us through the crowd.
“You have to join the Association, Jen,” Kathy whispered. “Normally we’d give you a chance to think about it and decide before we…”
“I’ve been waiting for this my whole life,” Jen interrupted. “I just didn’t know it until I came here.”
“You’re sure?” Kathy asked, staring into Jen’s eyes.
“Certain.”
“The ceremony normally takes place over a weekend, starting the first Friday morning after the full moon, but I don’t think Anne can keep them busy for more than a few minutes. We’ll have to rush it through and hope for the best.”
I glanced back at the stage and found that some of the women were blocking our view by standing between us and the stage. They stood close together so there was no chance to see anything or be seen. The Association were amazing. I wish I’d got to know them all better before the end of the world.
Kathy put a silk scarf over Jen’s shoulders and kissed her warmly on the cheek. Jen smiled at her and Kathy began to chant in a whisper. I had never heard a language like that before. It sounded like a summer breeze with a scent of jasmine. I don’t know how I could smell a language but it was there nonetheless.
A woman I didn’t know came up to them and handed Kathy and Jen a candle. Kathy intoned what sounded like a prayer while the woman lit them with a long match. I glanced towards the stage, frightened the spirits might see the light from the candles, but while I could hear Lady Suttor ranting on, I could see nothing.
I noticed Andrew was looking at us. He was near the stage at one corner after getting off it pretty quickly when the spirits first arrived. The women were sheilding us from the center of the stage, but I could see him out at the edge.
I didn’t see Mrs. Kelly die, but the wave of shock that ran through the hall was almost physical. Some of the women sagged as though they were close to fainting. I saw the aftermath later, but I’m glad I was spared the sight of her death. I have enough memories that wake me screaming as it is.
When Mrs. Kelly died, Kathy’s voice faltered. She looked dazed, and near to collapse. Jen reached out to her and squeezed her hand. Though tears ran down Kathy’s cheeks she restarted the chanting a few moments later. She intoned some final worlds and I swear a flash of light passed between her hands and Jen’s.
“Take the candles, Kylie. You can blow them out now,” Kathy told me.
I took them and then gave them to the woman who brought them while Lady Suttor was demanding the usual suspects come up on the stage. The women in front of us had spread out as soon as the ceremony finished and I saw Mrs. Kelly’s remains drippi
ng from the stage. It was all I could do not to vomit.
I know my boyfriend fairly well by now, and it was certain he would try and stop Lady Suttor if she tried to hurt any of the kids. The fool would get himself killed for sure. I had to find a way to help him.
The problem was that apart from a bunch of keys I didn’t have any weapons on me. The keys were for the many locks Jen has fitted to her house. My aunt is a bit demented when it comes to home security. I didn’t think that threatening Lady Suttor with a good ‘keying’ would do me much good. As far as I knew at that time, Andrew had no weapons at all.
When Lady Suttor began choking Sally, I’d already maneuver myself through the crowd to stand closer to Andrew. I was getting ready to risk my life going for Lady Suttor when Andrew made his move. Andrew turned and stopped me with a look. I was annoyed that he wanted us to die one at a time rather than together. However, it was his call and if that was how he wanted it, I would live with it for the few minutes longer it might buy me.
You could have knocked me down with a feather when he stretched out his arm and a beam of energy flowed from his hand and knocked Lady Suttor off her feet He hadn’t told me that we could use the snakes as a weapon.
Just another tiny detail Andrew failed to mention, like the fact Jan was the heir to the fiftieth place in the Sisterhood. I thought we had to cut our wrists or something to let the snakes out, and I knew I couldn’t do that as I have never been able to cut myself. Boyfriends are so good at keeping vital information to themselves. I made a mental note to have this out with him, assuming we survived.
I had suffered nightmares about what might happen at my next time of the month after seeing snakes form from Andrew’s blood. Not that he would think about things like that as he’s a typical boy. The idea of my knickers filling with poisonous snakes or, worse still, snakes forming earlier in the process, had been driving me insane with worry since Andrew’s fight with my brothers.
Meanwhile the verbal jousting between Andrew and Lady Suttor was in full flow. When Andrew conned Lady Suttor into healing Sally I felt so proud of him. I was making my way round to the other side of the stage looking for an opportunity to try that clenched fist energy thing. It would be nice to cut the murderous creature down in some well-aimed crossfire.
It was at that point that Andrew’s Dad arrived in the Hall and then there was a moment of pure farce as Andrew’s dog dragged the little old man towards the stage. Just as they reached me, Shep broke free and bounded off towards Andrew. This still sounds weird even to me, but I swear I saw that demon dog as an outline before it became visible and I knew that it was what Shep was aiming at all along. His head was pointing straight at that outline as he ran.
The fight was horrible. I held out my arm with the snake in their general direction, but knew I had no chance of hitting Dar so I never clenched my fist. I was prodded in the back and turned to find Andrew’s dad poking me.
“What on Earth is going on? What is everybody doing here?”
How could I explain? I mumbled some stuff about black magic and spirits, but knew I wasn’t being the slightest bit coherent. Then I heard a horrible scream and turned to find Shep on the floor, blood squirting from his neck. Andrew ran towards his dog and that bastard Dar was laughing. I swear that black dog creature was laughing at Andrew for caring about his dog.
Rage filled me to the point where my whole body trembled. I took careful aim at Dar and clenched my fist. But nothing happened, beyond me feeling like a complete idiot. I looked at my arm in horror, why did magic turn up without detailed instructions? I had no idea how to make it work.
Lord Dar disappeared as he jumped at Andrew and Lady Suttor screamed in rage. I haven’t heard a scream like that since my brother Dave wiped an episode of Eastenders before my Mum had a chance to watch it.
Andrew was completely out of it. He knelt in front of his dog with his dog’s head on his lap and as far as he was concerned the rest of the world could go hang. I know Shep meant everything to him, but the boy has got to sort out his priorities. We were in the middle of a battle.
Lady Suttor turned her attention to the kids on the stage. I looked around to see what Bron was doing and found him standing at the far side of the stage watching Andrew. He appeared to be crying, which struck me as completely weird.
Lady Suttor grabbed Brian by his newly restored dangly bits and dragged him close to her.
“Yes, naked is good. You should all be naked as befits slaves.” She did some weird motion with her hand and the other children’s clothes vanished.
I reached for my keys and unclipped them from my belt. As I stood there in indecision about what to do next, I saw Andrew’s father mount the steps to the stage. The old fool was actually going to try and argue with Lady Suttor. I wondered if she had a chariot outside, because all I could think of was to go and scratch her paintwork. I was so out of sensible ideas.
“How dare you threaten these children? You evil hag. I’ll have you know we have laws against that sort of thing.” Andrew’s Dad spoke in a lawyer voice. It was as if he thought he was in court addressing somebody who had dared to park their car on a double yellow line.
I ran up the steps and flung my keys at Lady Suttor’s face while she was in the middle of a set of the hand gestures directed at Mr. Hawks. She didn’t see the keys coming and they smashed into her cheek. She reacted instinctively and put her hands to her face, saving Mr. Hawks’ life. While she was momentarily distracted I tried to drag him back to the steps, encouraging the children with a wave to follow us. Which they did without further encouragement, as they’re not stupid.
Even Sally, who could barely walk, hurried down the steps and into the crowd where the Sisterhood closed ranks around us so not one of us could be seen.
“Bron!” Lady Suttor commanded and Bron came out of his reverie and went to stand by his Mother’s side. The keys had cut deep into her cheek and her eye. The side they hit had turned bright red while blood poured from the cut. It appeared these spirits had taken on some of the weaknesses of humanity when they took human form.
Bron lifted her hands from her face and slowly waved a hand over her injuries. Her faced healed until there was nothing to show she’d been injured. His treatment hadn’t done anything for her temper; because she was so furious the veins on her forehead stuck out and throbbed.
“Who dared to throw this at me,” she said, holding out my keys. “I will blast every one of you to dust if the one who did this doesn’t show themselves.”
The women in front of me didn’t move an inch, but I knew I couldn’t let them die for me.
“Make way,” I said loudly and undoubtable stupidly. The women parted around me like a wave so I stood alone in a V of empty floor. I stepped closer to the stage.
Lady Suttor looked almost impressed.
“You are a brave and foolish girl. I shall make your death slow and painful and your screams will make the air dance.” Lady Suttor began to make one of those gesture spell things at me.
All of its own accord my left arm lifted and my hand made a complicated waving gesture all its own. Then a lot of nothing happened. I waited to die, but apart from my big toe itching, nothing happened.
“Is this going to take all day because I have other thing to do?” I asked with a calmness I didn’t feel. Lady Suttor looked stunned and she turned to Bron, who shook his head in equal puzzlement.
Lady Suttor started the hand gesturing again so I decided to try the stiff arm and clenched fist maneuver again. After all it was worth a try and was better than just standing there looking like a lemon. This time, a beam of yellow light shot from my fist and hit her in the stomach, flinging her into the wall at the back of the stage. There was a stunned silence in the hall, not the least of it coming from me. Who knew?
I commanding female voice shouted from the back of the hall.
“Everyone who isn’t one of the fifty get out of the hall. Get out now.”
I hardly recognized the voice as
that of Kathy Hawks. She sounded possessed. I would have liked to leave, but my feet were stuck to the floor and I was shaking like a leaf. Andrew should have told me how much those blasts of power take out of a girl. Right after he had explained how to do them. Andrew had failed me in lots of ways when I thought about it.
Bron helped his mother to her feet. I hoped I’d done her more damage than just knocking her down, but apparently not. The word ‘shit’ came to the front of my mind as I still couldn’t move. Bron and Suttor had almost reached the front of the stage. I had a feeling they could have come over and pushed me over with a feather, so killing me was going to be pretty easy.
I couldn’t turn, but I was sure the hall had emptied of a lot of people. You can tell things like that without looking, can’t you? You can sense other people in the same way you can feel a storm coming. I could feel a hell of a storm coming on right at that moment.
The room crackled with power and the lights were flickering again. Lady Suttor, still holding onto Bron for support started to make the gesture that would end my life.
Then a line of women stepped forward from behind me and their ranks closed so all I could see was their backs. They held hands and chanted. Suttor and Bron lifted their arms and I saw energies overhead bouncing between the two groups. Windows shattered and a sudden wind threatened to knock me over. Lightning flashed and struck the stage and I could smell smoke. I guessed that the stage must be on fire.
Without any warning the women in front of me were flung back, parting around me before hitting hard against the far wall. The chanting stopped and Lady Suttor straightened up, letting go of Bron and staring at me. I was the last women standing. I thought I might be the only one left alive.
“Now where were we child? Oh yes, I remember. You were about to die, weren’t you?”
20. Knights and Deaths
