Conjuring Darkness

by Melanie James

  Lexi offered a timid wave in Ryan’s direction once she found her spot. On the opposite side, she could see Abraham had found a place not far from her location. If Abraham saw anything he could wave to Lexi, and she could relay the message by waving to Ryan. She had to assume Kate was on the opposite side of the hill from her on Ryan’s other side. She clutched the little owl that hung around her neck and hoped Ryan was right about Ben coming early. The mere thought of having to face the monsters again made her skin tingle with goose bumps, and her stomach queasy.

  The guards in the central complex were sitting next to a lantern. They listened to a radio that blared out typical Turkish pop music. She figured these men had spent so many quiet, uneventful nights on the hill that complacency had completely taken away their ability to be effective guards.

  In the dim glow of the moonlight she noticed the silhouette of a lone figure a couple of hundred yards straight ahead. The figure moved swiftly, getting closer with each step. She waved for Ryan, who acknowledged her movements and drew his pistol. He crept up out of his little foxhole and held the pistol in front of him with both hands as he made a crouching walk to get closer to the intruder. Lexi saw him take cover behind a pile of large boulders about ten feet from the figure. As the person walked past the rocks she saw Ryan spring out like a predator ready to take down its quarry. “Stop!” Lexi heard him shout. She was relieved when the shadowy figure did indeed stop. She saw it standing there with its hands outstretched toward Ryan, who walked slowly closer. Ryan reached out and touched the stranger’s hand. Yes! He must have gotten the amulet back. Thank God!

  She noticed that something didn’t seem quite right. Ryan appeared to be frozen in time with his arms down at his side. It looked as if he were one of Gobekli Tepe’s ancient monuments. The stranger moved in the direction of Lexi’s position. She hoped that she could remain unseen. Lexi crouched as low as she could while still being able to see ahead of her. Her heartbeat sped as the figure approached. It wasn’t the figure of Ben. It was someone or something else. Lexi could hear the rhythmic sound of deliberate footsteps treading over the gravelly surface. Her breath caught in her throat.

  The moonlight illuminated the light colored ground in front of her and when the figure moved closer, she could see the features of a face drenched in dark blue light. Closer it came until she recognized who had frozen Ryan into a helpless monolith.

  “Marcie?” Lexi was completely flabbergasted. “What the hell are you doing here?” Just as Lexi finished shouting her question a large owl swooped through the ethereal moonlit night sky above Marcie. Lexi climbed out of her hiding spot and stood upright. Marcie stopped about ten feet away from her. “What the hell is going on? What did you do to Ryan?”

  Marcie stopped and gave Lexi a condescending look and spoke with a tone to match it. “Get out of the way.” She held up the amulet for Lexi to see. “You’ve done your job by finding this, and bringing it to Shandor.”

  “Shandor?” Lexi said incredulously, gaping at Marcie in disbelief. “Shandor is the man that Jakub mentioned. He would have to be dead by now!”

  “Shandor come here!” Marcie commanded. Ben’s body possessed by the spirit of Shandor ran up the hill. He stopped where Ryan was standing and leaned close to him. From the distance, it was impossible for Lexi to tell what he was doing. He continued to run up the hill until he reached Marcie. “Meet Shandor. You can leave here safely as your reward for finding the amulet, but you must leave now or I will feed you to Lilitu.” Marcie looked up and pointed to the ghostly shadow of the great owl that was circling above them.”

  “Fuck you, Marcie! I’ve got another idea.” Lexi pulled the pistol out that she had tucked into the waistband on the small of her back.

  “How about you set the amulet down on the ground. Then you and Ben...or Shandor, or whoever it is can turn around and leave before I shoot both of you. By the way, who the hell is watching my cat?” Marcie continued to hold the amulet in front of her and began to utter strange words that Lexi could not understand. The pistol became red hot, and with a scream of pain Lexi involuntarily dropped it on the ground. She shouted to Ryan’s stone effigy, but there was no movement and no sound from him. Abraham came jogging over to Lexi and soon after, Kate arrived.

  They saw Marcie standing before them holding the amulet. “What the hell is going on here? Who the fuck are you?” Kate asked.

  Ben walked closer to where Lexi was standing.

  Abraham and Kate both saw that Marcie held something that glimmered in the moonlight. Abraham shouted. “The amulet! She has the amulet!” He rushed headlong at Marcie as fast as his stout frame could move. “Get it!” Kate immediately bolted toward her as well. Marcie just smiled at them and mumbled in her strange language. As their hands touched Marcie’s arms, their bodies became as frozen as Ryan’s had.

  Marcie spoke again. “Shandor, grab that girl and throw her and her friends down the hill. They have served their purpose.” He walked up to Lexi and leaned closer. He noticed the owl pendant hanging from her neck. Then he looked at her hand. He put his fingers on the small gold ring that Lexi received from her mother so many years ago. The expression on his face rapidly went from astonished to excited. He whispered to Lexi. “It’ll be okay. We’re going to help each other.”

  Lexi asked him in an equally subdued voice. “Are you really Shandor? Or are you Ben?”

  “I’m Shandor. Ben is inside here, but he is sleeping. Now I am going to hold you somewhat forcefully. We must convince Marcella to come closer.” Shandor grabbed both of Lexi’s arms and made a feigned attempt to drag her. He then called to Marcie. “Marcella! Come! We must feed this one to Lilitu!”

  Marcella slowly walked toward them. She smiled with wicked pleasure as she stretched her arms outward. “Marcella, come and smell her. Smell her blood! She will be a fitting offering to Lilitu for tonight!” While he held her arm, Shandor pulled a folding knife from his pocket. The knife snapped open with a sudden flick of his wrist. He quickly trapped Lexi in his iron grip as he tilted her head back and placed the tip of the blade against the soft tissue under her jaw.

  Lexi’s heart pounded so hard and loud she was certain anyone within a hundred feet could easily hear it. “You bastard! You lied!” Lexi struggled with all her might, but couldn’t free herself from his grip. Ben’s muscular body was no match for her, and the blade against her neck made it impossible to move. Her body gave up any resistance and she suddenly went limp. Oh my God! This is really it. This is it. They are going to kill me. She waited for the knife to slice into her.

  Shandor made a tiny hole in her skin, barely pressing on the tip of the blade. He only went deep enough for a small drop of blood to appear. “Here Marcella. Smell it. Taste it.” Marcella leaned her face closer to Lexi’s neck and saw the drop of blood. She extended the tip of her tongue out, sensually licking the droplet from Lexi’s skin. Just as she had closed her mouth to savor Lexi’s blood, Shandor let go of Lexi’s head and held the owl pendant up to Marcie’s face. She screamed in terror. “It is forbidden for me to taste the blood of those that bear the likeness of Lilitu!” Shandor quickly grabbed Lexi’s hand that bore the little gold ring and pressed it against Marcella’s forehead.

  Marcella dropped to her knees as if someone had knocked her feet out from under her. She clenched her eyes shut and held her head in her hands. Then she calmly looked at them.

  “I—I remember! I remember my name. I am Annah, the daughter of Belash. I am a servant at the temple of Inana.” She looked bewildered and sat silently.

  Ryan and the others were released from the spell that Marcella had cast as soon as Annah’s memories flooded through her. They rushed to Lexi’s aid. When they arrived Shandor took the amulet and handed it to Ryan. “I mean you no harm.”

  Annah spoke from the body of Marcie. “You have an owl on your neck. It is the same one I cast away when the witches were about to kill me. It was given to me by my love to protect me from evil demons. I removed it so
that I could call on Lilitu to come and take my spirit. I said the spell that would allow her to use me as her servant until the time came for me to exact my revenge on those witches. Lilitu came and swept me away. That is the last thing I remember.” She noticed the ring on Lexi’s hand. “The ring. That is the ring of betrothal to my shepherd boy, An-Shandor!” She looked at her body and jumped up. “This is not my body! What has happened to me?”

  Shandor knelt down by her and looked in her eyes. “Look inside me Annah. It is me. An-Shandor. I saw the demon Lilitu take your spirit before the witches killed your body. The priests and soldiers arrived right after your body died. The witches were taken out to the desert where they were chained down, allowing the sun to burn them. The vultures would pick away their flesh, and all of the unclean wild beasts would feed on their corpses. When I told the priests what had happened they took me back to the temple and helped me. We found out the witches had great magic that allowed them to live on as spirits in the desert, until the time of the next alignment. We knew they were planning to wait until that time to restore the doorway to the time of darkness.”

  “How? How did you get here?” Annah asked.

  The priests trained me to be a magician in the old magic. Finally when I was ready the priests found a way to send my spirit forth. I traveled through time so that I could possess a body. It had to be forward to a time before the alignment would occur. My spirit would only be called into the body of someone who practiced the old magic to conjure spirits. That is how I came to be in the body of the old Roma magician. My tasks were to find the witches’ amulet and to find your spirit. I hoped at the time of alignment I would be able to free you from the bonds of Lilitu, and destroy the witches.”

  Annah wept. “My memory is just as if it were minutes ago that I saw my parents’ dead bodies and you were barely alive.”

  “Listen to me. The witches are close. The alignment they have been waiting for is upon us tonight. I have learned much of the magic that we will need to stop them. I need you to be strong because we are all in danger. I plan to open the portal myself before they come. We will cast them through it into the Dark Age, and then we will seal the door.”

  “What will become of us?”

  “That...I cannot know.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The group gathered at the central sacrificial altar stone. Shandor knew the alignment would occur from midnight until dawn, but the witches would arrive within an hour—at their most powerful hour. Lexi asked Shandor about Jakub. “Shandor, so tell me about Jakub. Did you work with him to help him, like he said you did?”

  “Yes, when we met I was in the body of the old Roma magician and everything he told you was true. I was able to work with the magician and guide him in finding both the amulet and Annah’s spirit. It was difficult, because Annah was the servant of the demon Lilitu. The magician was dying, and that is why I had to go into a younger body. Jakub was in need of help in those bad days. Years later he couldn’t live with the power that he had gained, and so he got rid of the amulet. I couldn’t stop him. I stayed hidden in Jakub’s body, and I would have had to remain there until his death. But I was stripped from Jakub and placed into this body, by her.” Shandor pointed to Annah.

  “Why did you call her Marcella? She came to me as Marcie? Why didn’t she just call herself Annah?” Lexi asked.

  Shandor explained Annah’s history to them. “Remember what she told us? She couldn’t remember her true name until now. The first body she took was that of a very evil woman who practiced magic. A witch by the name of Carmella who used to conjure different spirits of the dead. They were the ghosts that wandered the earth because they were too evil in life to be born again. She would become possessed by their spirits in the hope of finding an evil spirit with great power.

  Lilitu put Annah’s spirit into Carmella’s body where she carried out Lilitu’s bloody work. Carmella the witch was captured and burned, so Annah’s spirit had to find another body. Lilitu transferred Annah’s spirit into many different people over time. She continued to call herself Marcella with each new body. The humans she invaded would become the most vile, evil killers. Legends were born from the people she possessed. They called her vampire, succubus, demon, and witch.”

  Lexi remembered the Marcie that had befriended her in Montana. It didn’t make sense that her sweet and funny Marcie could be this slave of an ancient bloodthirsty demon. “She never once tried to harm me. She was my best friend. I loved her.”

  “Yes, I think she was drawn to you and she didn’t know why. Perhaps because of that ring. It must have woken a little part of Annah’s memory. I am sure when you go back to your home, you will be find many different unexplained deaths, unsolved murders, and strange reports of attacks that sound like legendary vampire attacks. Those were her work.”

  Lexi looked at Annah and then back at Shandor. “What about Ben? What about the girl that Annah’s spirit took over? I don’t even know who she is now. What will happen to them and to the both of you, when these witches are gone?”

  Shandor looked at Annah and stared at her quietly. He looked up to the moon and then after a few minutes, he answered her. “I don’t know for sure.”

  “You said that like you weren’t sure if you WANTED to tell me, not that you didn’t know.”

  Lexi looked at Annah, who was sitting on the ground. “Annah? Is there anything that you know that could help us? We found out those witches were absolutely terrified of Lilitu. Do you know if she’s still trying to control you?”

  Annah jumped to her feet. “No! I can’t! Don’t ask me to call her back! Imagine yourself being swallowed into the heart of that demon. Imagine your spirit in that hell. You can’t even hope for death, because she is eternal as is your captured spirit. I don’t even know for sure how I am free now, but please do not make me ever see her again. Find a way to kill my spirit, Shandor! Please, you must!”

  Annah noticed the pistol that Lexi had dropped earlier was lying only a foot away from her. Lexi and Ryan saw her looking at the pistol, Lexi shouted. “I forgot to pick it back up!” Annah knelt back down and reached for the gun. Ryan dove headfirst toward the gun and skidded through the dirt over the top of Annah’s hand. He knew that if he couldn’t stop her from grabbing the gun he could at least stop her from picking it up. The gun went off with a muffled blast.

  Ryan laid perfectly still with his face in the ground. His arms were stretched out ahead of him, he didn’t move an inch. “Ryan!” Lexi screamed. “Ryan! Get up. Please get up.” Her voice had tapered off to a wavering whisper. She fell to her knees at his side and as soon as she put her hands on him, he rolled over. He grabbed at his shirt and pulled it away from his chest. The shirt was burnt from the muzzle blast of the pistol. The bullet had barely grazed Ryan’s skin, leaving an angry red streak across one side of his chest. He smiled at Lexi before grabbing the pistol and tossing it away from everyone. “Holy Cats!” Ryan exclaimed.

  Lexi was both laughing and crying as she bent down to his outstretched arms. They held each other for a couple of minutes without saying a word. She sat up and wiped at her tears. A thunderous clap startled the group, cutting off all conversations. Something seemed to fly out of Lexi’s chest. Bright, red blood sprayed out in frothy spurts. Ryan saw Lexi’s blank open-mouthed expression as she fell forward and landed on his chest.

  Shandor saw the two guards who had been wakened from their slumber by the accidental discharge of Annah’s attempt to grab the pistol. Nervous and afraid, the younger guard fired a shot directly toward the little group gathered around Ryan’s body. The bullet had hit Lexi in the back. It sliced a path right through the left side of her chest. Shandor pulled out the pistol that Ben carried in a concealed holster strapped to his lower leg. With two quick shots he killed both guards.

  Ryan didn’t hesitate when Lexi fell on him. He quickly positioned her so that with her wounded side faced the ground. “Abraham, quick, hold your hand flat and tight against the bullet hole
in her back. You want to seal it. She’s been hit in the lung. You have to keep air from going through.”

  Abraham held his hand over the little hole just above her bottom rib. Air and blood from her lungs made a hellish bubbling mass that flowed from the front of her chest down to the earth. A sickening sucking sound emanated from the wound, until Ryan closed it with his hand. “Ben-er-Shandor, get our vehicle. I have everything I need in there. Kate! Run up to the guard station. Look for a phone or radio. Anything! Call for help! Go!”

  Shandor ran to the four wheel drive vehicle and found the keys on the seat. He started it and gunned the engine as he ran it right up the hill to the scene. The back hatch popped open and he quickly pulled out the large first aid case. Ryan barked out commands. “I need two field dressing packs. They’re marked. Open them.” Shandor found them and ripped them open. “Take one and seal it in place over the wound that Abraham is covering.” Ryan looked at Lexi who breathed in the short and shallow pants of a frightened rabbit.

  “Lex, you’re going to be okay just listen to me. When I take my hand off your chest, I’m going to tell you to exhale as best as you can. It will be really hard to do, but you have to get the air out so I can seal the wound. Ready?” Lexi slightly nodded. Ryan pulled away his hand and yelled “Exhale! Now!” Lexi did her best to force the air from her lungs while Ryan rapidly applied the field dressing and sealed off the wound.

  Lexi’s lips began to turn blue from the loss of oxygen. “Shandor there is a small oxygen bottle with a breathing mask. Bring it!” Shandor handed the bottle to Ryan, allowing him to replenish her oxygen. He went to the kit and took out an auto-injector full of morphine. Without warning, he slammed it against her thigh. “That will help you. It’s okay if you get sleepy. This will lower your blood pressure so you don’t go into shock.”