by J. Thorn
She walked over branches sprawled on the ground and onto a rough path that wound itself farther into the forest. The sun hung at an odd angle, tossing a bland shaft of light ahead, with most of the rays never reaching the ground. Mary looked to the right and saw tattered articles of clothing dangling from the trunks of ancient oaks.
What is this?
Mary looked up into the canopy of branches, which hovered overhead like a worried mother. As far as she could see, ropes and nooses hung empty and cold. Humps lay beneath some.
She continued down the path, knocking aside a shoe, a coat, a satchel. Eventually she stopped and bent down, the aching in her neck causing her to wince. The satchel contained a worn copy of the good book along with a candle and a silver spoon. Mary put them back inside and shook her head back and forth.
Mary threw the strap over one shoulder and shuffled farther down the path. The creek moved closer with each step, and she was happy to hear its meanderings. The natural noise brought a brief sense of normalcy, a memory from childhood: long summer days with her parents on the Maine frontier. She winced as the memory came back like a shock of cold water. Gaki, the red devils, the violent warfare, and finally the witchcraft accusations. Reality crashed on to her shoulders and she fell to the ground under its weight.
She saw more items strewn across the path and kicked a pair of shoes to the side. So many shoes. She wondered why the shoes remained and the bodies did not.
The path curved as it approached the stream, turning right into a grove of high pines, their needles covering the ground. Mary drew a deep breath through her nose, catching the faintest odor of pine, and that made her smile. She savored the distant aroma for as long as she could. It did not last.
She sat on the ground and tried to rally against the mental fog clouding her head. Constable Herrick led her to the platform, the deputy had put the noose around her neck, and… Gaki. The Black Man was there and had pushed her off the platform.
Am I dead? What is this place?
The questions swirled in her mind like autumn.
She looked up and noticed that the sun had dropped closer to the horizon, as if touching the tops of the trees to ignite them. Darkness crept closer, surrounding the far edges of her vision. A chill shook her body, so Mary gathered leaves in her arms. As with the pine needles, she caught a faint whiff of the earthy, organic scent of decomposition. She realized her exposure could mean death, if she was not already dead. Along with the thought came the resurgence of instinct and the will to live.
“Gaki,” she said, unsure whether she was voicing her deepest fear or calling him forth from this new, strange place.
***
Mary sat beneath the oak trees, staring upward at the platform above her head. She knew it existed beneath her feet, in Salem, in 1692. And yet it existed here too. She held her hands over the paltry fire that didn’t seem to rage on the dry twigs the way it should have. The flames felt warm but not hot. Tituba’s words filled her ears and she thought of the slave woman in the cell. Was she alive or dead? Imprisoned or hanged? Mary didn’t know and she thought that she may never find out. Gaki pushed her from the gallows and yet she was not dead, at least she didn’t think so. She was here, in another place. It looked like the King’s colony and yet it didn’t. The trees belonged to Salem and yet they did not. Mary stood and placed her palms over the fire, pushing them down closer to the flame until the top edges licked her fingertips bringing nothing but a mild warming sensation. She held them there, waiting for the searing pain that did not come.
The sun set and Mary looked up at a starless, moonless sky. It appeared more as a gaping hole to an eternal void rather than the celestial home of the heavenly gods. She turned her head sideways and listened for the night sounds. As it had been since she arrived, the forest was as silent as the dead. Mary spread the satchel down on the ground and laid her head upon it. She would sleep and see where or when the morning took her. Her fingers caressed the bruises on her neck as Mary drifted into a shallow, fitful sleep.
***
The morning came, as did her necessary bodily functions. Mary sought some relief in the fact that her body still had needs, a hunger pang tugging at her stomach. She saw the sun rising up from behind the eastern hills as if wrapped in a ball of cotton. It distributed light across the empty forest with a diminished, sullen glare. Mary picked up the satchel and kicked dirt onto the fire that extinguished itself. Her neck throbbed and her back ached without a straw mattress beneath it. There were no birds, insects, or other creatures stirring in the woods. None but Mary.
She walked several paces into the forest and out from beneath the shadow of the gallows. Mary stood there, staring and wondering if another would drop from the air and to the ground as she did. If it happened once, she thought, it could certainly happen again. After several minutes, Mary decided that even if the mysterious gallows dropped another to the ground, she may not want to be around to greet that person. They could be dead, violent, or both. She turned and walked in the opposite direction and heard the slight murmur of running water. Mary followed the sound through the trees until she stumbled upon a creek nestled beneath the trees. She bent down and scooped up a handful of water. When she saw Gaki’s reflection standing behind her, Mary screamed and spun to face the demon.
“First in a vision, and now on this plane. You have come through the Portal as I thought you would.”
Mary stepped backward trying to escape the stench emanating from the creature. She splashed the water upon her face and shook her head.
“Where am I? Where have you taken me?”
“It is disorienting at first, I know. You will adjust.”
Gaki sat on a rock facing her, his bluish-gray skin glowing from the evil within. He had not bothered with the black clothing.
“Adjust to what? Where are the people of Salem, and why is the gallows in those trees?”
Gaki waved a hand at her and shook his head. He chuckled before speaking.
“The platform on Gallows Hill is located near a Portal. The energy oozes out and affects the land. So, it would be most natural for you to come through the Portal from there, with a hanging, and my touch of course. You may think I pushed you from the platform, which I did. But I also pushed you through the Portal. Had the lunkheaded deputy done so, you’d still be swinging and dead in your mortal form.”
“What is wrong with this place? Tis not natural.”
“No, it is not. This plane is in Reversion. But you won’t be here long, my dear. I’ve come for your decision.”
“I will not sign your book.”
“Ah,” Gaki said. “The superstitions of the 17th century have always amused me. The ones of the colonists are much more virile than those in Europe. It must be the red devils that spark your collective imagination.”
Mary waited, unsure of what to say to Gaki.
“The ‘signing of the book’ or the ‘wearing of the mark’—nothing but superstition and stupidity. I take whom I want.”
“But you can’t take me or you would have. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, Mary Walcott. That is right. I must bargain for you, as your energy is marked with light that distinguishes you from most of your brethren. You have an ability others do not, even though you have not discovered it yet. You can slip, Mary. You can step through Portals under your own power.”
Mary shifted her weight to one foot and for a moment almost forgot the rank odors wafting from Gaki’s slimy skin. She shook her head and looked at him.
“And you will show me how if I help you.”
“To an extent, yes. Your energy opens and closes gateways. I need you to open one. I could wait another three hundred years, but I’d rather open it now.”
“Is this what happens when a Portal opens and your filthy demons attack it, this ‘Reversion’?”
“Oh, no. Not at all,” he replied. “This plane is doomed. It will grind down to nonexistence. The Portal I wish to open in Salem, in 1692, that is
completely different. That is a plane I wish to destroy and rule for many, many years.”
“I don’t want to see that place destroyed. Why should I help you?”
“You get to sit at my left hand, Mary. You can have all of the spoils your heart desires. You can live in a safety and security your parents did not.”
Mary whimpered and hated him even more for using that against her.
“I don’t want to.”
“You don’t want to now, but you will. This place,” Gaki said pointing to the trees and silence that felt suffocating, “this place is degenerating, folding in upon itself. This is the best you can hope for if you do not align with me.”
“Then my fate will lie with the Reversion. I cannot sell my soul to Lucifer.”
“But you’re not, my dear, because he doesn’t exist. Your holy men are fools and they fear the ridiculous. Lucifer, Satan—They are not real. I, however, am real. I am the evil you shall respect because I feed on the greed of men and that is an everlasting fuel.”
Mary watched as Gaki stood and his eyes hardened. His skin darkened and hair grew from his scalp. She watched war paint appear on his face, and a stone club grew from his fingers. In a matter of moments, Gaki transformed into a red devil, the very one that murdered her parents.
“No,” Mary mumbled as the visions of her parents’ massacre flooded her head. She saw their skulls split and the vacant, empty look in their eyes. “No, you are not real.”
“I’m as real as you are on this plane,” the red devil responded through Gaki’s mouth.
“Then you shall perish as such,” she said.
Mary grabbed a rock near the stream and lunged at the ghoulish transformation. She screamed and swung her arm, but the native ducked and came up into her belly with a solid fist. Mary’s blonde hair fell over her face as she tumbled to the dirt, her long skirt spread out behind her. She gasped for air and got back to her feet. The red devil’s apparition created by Gaki let loose with a deep, horrendous bellow and rested the stone club on his shoulder.
“More,” he said.
Mary stood and this time swung her foot out to kick at his genitals but her long skirt stole the velocity from her leg and her toes did nothing but skim the red devil’s thigh. He brought the club down on her knee and Mary heard the bone break beneath it. She fell to the ground and rolled over, grasping her leg as if her knee was on fire. He walked over to her and looked into her face.
“Join me or suffer at the hands of the one that slaughtered your mother and father.”
Mary heard Gaki’s voice but could not look up at the creature. She writhed in pain, forcing the tears from her eyes.
“And I shall lie with you, Mary Walcott, in ways that are beyond what your Reverend Parris could imagine in his worst nightmares. I will take you to satiate my own desires.”
Mary felt a hand grip her ankle and she spun her uninjured leg around and drove her foot into his wrist. The red devil released his grip and Mary felt a moment of hope, a sliver of a chance in thwarting his attack. But a second later she felt the club strike her knee again and a bolt of fire raced through her leg. Mary screamed into the deathly silence of the Reversion.
“This is your last chance. If I must wait, I will wait. But we could have it all, Mary. If you would only join me, you would see this.”
Gaki in the form of the native stepped back and let the club fall to the ground. He watched as Mary struggled to get to her feet. Tears streaked her face and her leg bent at an unnatural angle. She limped forward and nodded.
“I will join.”
A smile cracked his face and the facade dropped away, Gaki’s true form now standing before her.
“I knew you would make the right choice.”
“Tis not you I’m joining, you godless creature.”
Gaki stopped and his eyes narrowed. He clenched both fists that hung to his sides.
“It was the Arawak, wasn’t it? I should have cut out that woman’s tongue.”
“Tituba,” replied Mary. “Aye. She told me of the Hunters. I will join them and destroy you.”
Gaki laughed again, his face morphing between the slick skin covered in feces and the darkened face wearing war paint. He put both hands in the air.
“You will perish forever because you’re nothing but a childish fool.”
“Of the Hunters. That is not all she spoke of in the cell.”
Gaki stopped laughing and he stepped toward Mary.
“She spoke of other spells, other ways of witchcraft.”
“You know nothing of which you dally. You do not know the power of the black arts. There are things that once unleashed can never be captured.”
Mary hobbled toward Gaki and smiled, her lip quivering from the smashed bone and cartilage in her knee.
“Tituba taught me the spell to slip, to rid myself of you and your wretched soul. So you see, Gaki, that Portal will not open. I will find the Hunters and I will lead them against you whether that be on this plane or the next. I will track you like the animal that you are and I will not show you mercy as a woman of the Lord. No, you will receive no quarter.”
Gaki saw the string in Mary’s hands and knew that the entire time he was using the form of the red devil to batter her, she had been casting the spell. And now, she was poised to slip into the void of time and space where he would not be able to follow. The true Hunters left no trace and this is what he feared the most.
“Please consider. The Hunters, they will all die. They have all died. I have spread my demon seed across the multiverse and you shall never, ever escape them. And when the demons have identified you, they will call out to me,” said Gaki.
“No, that will not happen. I will be hunting you. As soon as I recover and begin my training, you will not need to search the Portals as I will be hounding you. Forever.”
Gaki leapt forward in hopes of catching her arm or a piece of clothing before she could finish but he knew it was hopeless. Mary spoke the final syllable of the spell and Gaki’s fingers moved through her form as if she was nothing but a specter of herself. He cursed as Mary’s form wavered and dissipated like black smoke. The energy moved from her feet to her head and the last thing he saw was Mary’s eyes, open and determined.
“You will feel retribution for what you did to my parents,” the voice said through the ether and echoing throughout the deadness of the Reversion. “You will pay for the pain you have inflicted upon this world.”
Gaki screamed and flung himself to the dirt where Mary stood moments before.
***
Mary knew she’d have to live with that guttural call the rest of her life. Gaki’s shriek tore through her head like a bolt of electricity but it faded just as fast. She saw the blank sky spin and drop beneath her, the vortex pulling the tops of the trees with it. Mary caught a glimpse of Gaki by the water, thrashing in the dirt and cursing at the space where she was standing. The sound echoed as if underwater and then dissipated completely. She felt as though she were hanging in midair or in the microsecond after he pushed her from the gallows. Mary could not determine which way was up and a pressure built in her ears that began to thrum inside her skull.
“Help,” she cried but the word was swallowed by the nothingness.
A pinpoint of light appeared beneath her feet and began to grow. It stretched out and the dark edges of the Portal turned the black to gray, and then to white. Mary saw the clouds in the sky and a shining sun, which immediately brought relief. She smiled and put her hand over her mouth as her body descended from above at the same time the Portal opened around her.
When Mary landed and her feet touched the ground she knew she was in another forest. But this one was different. It was not tainted by the Reversion. And more importantly, it was not tainted by Gaki.
***
“Honey! Where are you? It’s time to pack up the tent.”
Mary rubbed her eyes and looked in the direction of the voice. She looked down at her hands and grabbed a strand of her
hair. It was her, for sure, but it wasn’t. She held her right hand in front of her face and noticed a pink band around her wrist. It was colorful and delightful, like nothing she saw in Salem.
“There you are. Go ahead and finish up if that’s what you’re doing. Dad is waiting for us. You know him, he’s got the cooler emptied and the truck packed.”
Mary saw the shape of a woman turn and walk back through the trees. Although she could not tell for certain, Mary thought the woman wore man’s trousers. She thought of the cries of witchcraft and how any aberration from the norm would make one vulnerable to such an accusation. She took a closer look at herself and then wondered what she was seeing.
She had on a white shirt with a devilish character on it. The monster wore a smile and was pink and purple, a frock like none she knew. Mary wore men’s trousers as well, pants made of a deep indigo, and boots on her feet that were bright pink. She felt tight in her own body, and it was then that Mary realized the body she was inside was years younger than the one that entered the Portal. It was her own body, but it wasn’t. This was not Salem, 1692, and she was not Mary. But at the same time it was her.
“Coming,” she called. The woman retreated through the trees. Her own voice came as a shock to her ears, the identifiable timbre but higher pitched.
Mary stood and looked at her own, diminutive body one more time. She looked up at the sky, the bright sun coming over the eastern horizon, and the first tinges of color on the trees that meant September was coming. She took a step and almost tumbled to the ground until her equilibrium returned and she stabilized. Mary looked around and the forest appeared as it always had, although she surmised that they were not on the frontier and that the red devils were far away. The thought of them brought thoughts of Gaki. Mary spun around several times, waiting to see his hideous face covered in human feces. When she did not, her breath slowed and she took more steps toward the path the woman followed.
In the distance and through the trees Mary could see people moving about. She ducked behind the trunk of a large oak tree and waited, watching them from afar. The people moved about quickly and with purpose, but not the way she was accustomed to seeing folks in the fields. Mary saw no tools, no beasts of burden, and no slaves. In fact, the people seemed to be at play, loading items into a carriage of sorts. She saw the woman and the man come together near the blue shelter and they embraced. When they moved closer to kiss, Mary turned away.
