by Harper Lin
The thing began to fidget and writhe as we recited our words.
“No!” Aunt Astrid ordered.
The mud monster was speaking to her. There was a low hum in the back of my head that was like an echo traveling down a tunnel. Then I heard it. A voice I had heard before.
“Kill her! You must do as I say!” It was screaming. The female voice was screaming for the thing to kill Aunt Astrid! Suddenly, I remembered where I’d heard it before. My heart pounded as it had when I was running with Bea. I looked straight ahead of me as the dimensions waved as if I were looking through a fish tank.
“Dolores Eversol! You did this!”
The creature screamed as lightning flashed madly.
It wasn’t Niles. Niles didn’t botch up The Sequence of Ursaken! Dolores Eversol did it! She summoned the demon!
And right now she was at Niles’s house, with those crystal balls that were in the garden on the altar we had discovered. The rain was pouring down in sheets. Flashes of lightning revealed the creature writhing even more as it struggled to find a way over the threshold in order to do its master’s bidding.
Bea was awash in sweat. Her body trembled as she recited the words that would help keep this thing on the edge without crossing.
It was beginning to feel as if the thing’s energy was depleting. Aunt Astrid, Bea, and I continued the chant. The rain pounded. Thunder shook the whole house. Still, the thing stayed where it was, screaming in frustration and rage.
“You will return to where you’ve come from, you foul beast!” Aunt Astrid screamed.
Before I knew what she was doing, she lifted an ax, swung with all her might, and took the head clear off the creature. It slapped against the wall then slid to the floor with a sickening thud.
The body remained standing for several seconds before it fell with a loud, wet thump. The rain continued to pour down, washing the thing away as it would any pile of dirt.
Aunt Astrid pulled a scarf from around her shoulders then scooped up the grotesque head. The eyes still blinked and rolled madly. Its mouth continued to form its hateful words and screams, but nothing but a gurgling, drowning sound could be heard from it.
I reached down to scoop up the crystals Aunt Astrid had placed in our circle. They had changed from perfect shards of white and pink crystal to sickly-looking black opaque stones.
Quickly I transferred them over to my aunt. Without flinching she shoved the black rocks into the open maw of the mud monster. The sounds it made were enough to make my stomach crinkle in disgust.
“Open the back door,” she instructed. I ran ahead of her, snapped the lock, and slid the sliding back door wide open.
“Now, you will go back to the worms and the dirt and the darkness!” Aunt Astrid yelled at the head still clinging to its earthly form.
Its eyes still stared at us with so much hatred as Bea took the gardening shovel and began to dig a hole. I used my hands to help clear away the mud. Aunt Astrid placed the thing in the ground facedown. We covered it up with the mud we’d dug up and listened.
“Are we done?” I asked. I looked up into the rain and let the downpour wash as much of the dirt off as I could. “Can we please have something to eat now?”
“Yes. It’s done.” Aunt Astrid walked into the house. Bea and I followed. It took several seconds for us to realize there was a person standing in the open front door.
“I hate you!” Dolores Eversol screamed. She literally screamed at us like a spoiled teenager responding to a parent who wouldn’t buy her a car. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Had she not had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other, I would have had some seriously sarcastic things to say to her. But as it was, I kept my mouth shut.
“I was sure the police were going to take care of you. You had more of a motive to kill Niles than me,” Dolores babbled.
“I had no reason to kill Niles. Who are you, and what are you talking about?”
We all had our hands up. I felt like a dope and looked at the cats, who were still in their trance. It might take a few minutes, or it might take an hour for them to completely snap out of it. I looked around for something to throw at Dolores, but nothing was within reach.
“That’s Dolores Eversol,” I hissed. “She’s the one who botched up The Sequence of Ursaken.” I raised my voice over the sound of the rain coming in from both open doors.
“You’re the one who did this?” Bea chuckled. “I don’t think you could have screwed it up any more if you had tried on purpose.”
Dolores grimaced. “Oh, you think I’m funny. Just a joke compared to you three? You think I don’t know what you are? What your family is? You think you are so special, seeing into the future and doing your little healing things.” She waved the knife at Bea, scowling at her. “Oh no. I know all about the Greenstones. Niles always said you were the real deal. A psychic. A healer. I guess they just kept you around because they needed a good dishwasher at the café.” She hissed at me.
“Are you off your meds?” I scoffed.
“Cath, I don’t know if that is helpful.” Aunt Astrid cleared her throat.
“What, Aunt Astrid? Did you see what she did with The Sequence of Ursaken?” I rolled my eyes so Dolores would continue staring at me. “I’m going to believe she can shoot straight or has the stomach to slice me up after seeing what she did with that spell? A kindergartener with a blue crayon could do a better job conjuring.”
“Cath? You might want to be quiet.” Bea looked nervous, but I ignored her.
“Tell me, Dolores.” I took a step closer. “When you aren’t out making a joke of centuries-old protection spells, are you in your house, trying to get your broom to fly? You know that is just an old wives’ tale. We don’t actually fly on brooms.”
I was afraid that I might have guessed correctly. The look on Dolores’s face was pure rage. Without saying a word she raised her gun, took aim, and then…
Pop!
The bullet whizzed right past me, imbedding itself in the wooden frame just above the door. It would have been a direct hit had Treacle, Marshmallow, and Peanut Butter remained in their trance too much longer.
The cats jumped at Dolores with their claws extended and their mouths wide open. I loved how it took these magnificent creatures mere seconds to revert to their wild heritage.
They scratched and clawed, hissing and screeching as they attacked our assailant, knocking her off balance. She crashed to the hard wooden floor, giving Bea and me just enough time to kick the gun away and pin her down. She screamed and cried and fought like a woman possessed. I thought she was.
“My gift?” I said to her confused and angry face. “I can talk to animals.”
I will admit that the look on her face was priceless. She didn’t see that coming, and as I kneeled on her right arm and Bea kneeled on her left, Aunt Astrid stepped up to bind her until we could get the police here.
“I bind you, Dolores Eversol, from doing harm to anyone or especially harm to yourself.”
“You can’t bind me. I’m the greatest psychic since Rasputin. I’ve got greater powers than Merlin. You’ll pay for this. I’ll make sure you and your whole family suffer. You’ll remember my name every day when you wake each morning with agony and fear. In your future, I see…”
“I bind your tongue, that you may not speak ill of anyone. I bind your power, that you may be helpless. I bind you now, from feet to brow,” I said as I leaned on her arm. Treacle came and sat on her chest, staring down at her face.
She looked up at my big black cat and finally stopped. She tried to open her mouth, but nothing came but a silent scream.
“What are you doing?”
All of us, including Treacle, turned to look. Tom had regained consciousness.
“Um…” was all I could say. So much for thinking under pressure.
“This woman is sick, Tom. But the power is out because of the storm. We can’t call for an ambulance or the police. We have to keep her her
e.”
“Well, get off her,” Tom insisted.
“She had a gun.” I pointed to the pistol that was just out of reach in the foyer. “She took a shot at us. The bullet is in the wall.” I pointed to the back door, which was still open, the sheer curtains flapping wildly in the wind as though we were in some gothic horror story.
The candles that were in our circle managed to stay lit, but one good gust of wind, and we’d be back in complete darkness.
“How could I have slept through this?” Tom glared at me. “We were talking and…”
“Tom, I know you’re confused, but you have to understand that we had a job to do. It was important and—”
My aunt tried to be nice. She did. Tom wasn’t having any of it.
“With all due respect, Astrid, this is between Cath and me.” He looked at me with anger behind his eyes. “You knocked me out, didn’t you? You put some kind of spell on me to get me out of the way.”
“Tom, this isn’t really the right time for this,” I pleaded.
“She didn’t do any such thing.”
Bea stood up. Dolores wasn’t going anywhere. She was bound up tighter than a Regency romance corset.
“I did it. You were not speaking to Cath the way a man should speak to the woman he cares about. We needed her help, and we needed her focused. If I let you keep on the way you were going, the way you are going now, it could have gotten her killed.”
“So you’ve got your whole family in our business?”
“That’s what family is for, Tom. You know what I am. You said it was okay. That you accepted it.” I didn’t want to cry, but I felt the tears rushing over my eyeballs. This was embarrassing. “Sometimes that calls for me to make some harsh decisions. Snap judgments. I’m not perfect.”
“Yeah, I know what you are.” Tom sighed. He reached behind him and pulled out his handcuffs, which he always wore in addition to his gun. He walked over to Dolores, rolled her on her back, and slipped the cuffs on her. She didn’t resist. She couldn’t.
With her up and out of the way, we were able to close the doors and light a few more candles. After about ten more minutes, the lights came back on. Bea dialed Jake, who had been stuck with Blake in the lab at the station when the power went out.
“Are you all right?” Jake asked.
“We’re fine. But if you guys could get over here and get this lunatic out of my mom’s house, that would be good.”
“We’ll be right there.”
“Jake and Blake are on their way,” Bea announced as she started to pull some things out of the fridge to make us all something to eat.
“I’d like meat.” I pointed to all the salad fixings Bea had in her arms. “Bacon. Maybe salami. Something with substance.”
Aunt Astrid was tired and sat next to Dolores. It was kind of creepy, seeing such opposites so close to each other. From the look of it, Dolores had gone off the deep end. Her eyes watched something that none of us could see. She fidgeted as if she was hoping there was a chink in the binding spell. Not if I put it on her. I wasn’t as good a witch as Aunt Astrid, but there were a few things I knew I could do. Keeping this woman bound was one of them.
“Do you want something to eat?” I looked at Tom, who was rubbing his head.
“I could eat,” he replied but didn’t smile.
Bea walked up to him and put her hand on his arm.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you, Tom.”
“I don’t know what you expect me to say, Bea. This isn’t normal.” He shook his head as he looked at my cousin. This was not good.
The strange thing was that I was starting to know exactly how Dolores was feeling. I wanted to speak. There were a thousand things I wanted to say, and not a single word would form in my mouth.
Seeing Bea’s reaction made me sad. If Tom didn’t want anyone to mess with him, he shouldn’t have gotten so out of control. This was no different from his mother making it clear that I wasn’t good enough for him.
“She didn’t drug you, though,” Treacle whispered.
“What do I do? I don’t think sorry is good enough. I don’t even know if I am sorry. What’s wrong with me?”
“You have to do what your heart says, Cath. There is no other way.”
Treacle rubbed against my leg then trotted off to join the other cats, who were all getting treats for a job well done.
“Are you going to tell me what I missed?” He looked at me with very little expression on his face.
I shook my head.
“Figures.” He twisted his jaw and looked up to where the bullet hole was in Aunt Astrid’s back door frame. “I’m going to make this easy for you, Cath. This isn’t working. I think we need some time apart.”
He pushed himself away from the counter and headed toward the front door.
“Tom, wait. Don’t you want to talk about this?”
“Yeah. I did,” he snapped. “But you had a million other things and other people you were more interested in talking to. It’s too late for that now, Cath. You’re too late. My mother is leaving to visit my sister tomorrow. I’ve got to say goodbye to her.” He looked down for a moment as if he were waiting for me to say something or stop him.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything, Cath. Just don’t.”
He yanked open the front door and stomped out. The rain was still coming down but not as hard as it had been. Off in the distance, I could see more lightning coming. The storm wasn’t over.
The engine of his truck roared to life, and within seconds, Tom was peeling out of the driveway. There was nothing left but the smell of diesel. I closed the door and looked at my family. I couldn’t help but notice Dolores seemed very pleased with the drama unfolding in front of her.
“What are you looking at, Glinda?” I barked. The Wizard of Oz witch reference wasn’t lost on her, and she frowned in anger. It made me feel a little better.
“I’m so sorry, Cath.” Bea came rushing over. “I shouldn’t have done what I did. I should have… just told Tom to leave.”
I shrugged. I wanted to cry. Really, I did. But it felt as if I was beyond crying. The mourning had already taken place somewhere between the death of Niles Freudenfur and meeting Tom’s mother. I’d already said goodbye and cried. Maybe they weren’t literal tears, but they were no less heartfelt.
26
A Ripple in the Universe
It was amazing the difference a day could make. Aunt Astrid often said that. After Jake sent a squad car with two uniformed officers to the house to pick up the trash that was Dolores Eversol, we each retired to one of the bedrooms to get some rest.
Aunt Astrid, as usual, fell asleep with Marshmallow in her study on the chaise lounge. Bea slept in her mom’s bed with Peanut Butter, who was so exhausted the kitty had to be carried like a wet sandbag. After the main event with the mud monster, Peanut Butter’s tail was still on the loose, and she had spent another half hour chasing it around the legs of chairs, through the railing of the staircase, and on the rug in front of the fireplace.
Treacle and I took the upstairs bedroom. I was tired, but I wasn’t as exhausted as I thought I’d be after doing battle. It was scary. But for some reason, I had no doubt we were going to pull through this one. No one got hurt. The magic hangover was almost nonexistent. It was almost as though the universe had already decided that there was no room for mud monsters and loonies like Dolores Eversol in this realm.
Not that we didn’t work hard. Everything just fell into place perfectly.
But then I had a weird thought. So much of the angst I was feeling over the past couple of weeks was due to my indecision about Tom. Don’t get me wrong—the idea that we had broken up made me feel a twinge in my heart that pushed tears to my eyes. I was sorry it had come to this end. Who wouldn’t prefer a mutual breakup in which we could tell each other our good qualities and wish each other well with at least the thought that maybe we’d share a coffee some time in the future?
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br /> But that wasn’t what had happened with Tom. Our breakup was a rip that left a jagged edge and an exposed, tender area that was painful to touch.
However, how clear was the sky now that the breakup had become official? I wouldn’t say that I didn’t feel better about it. A weight had been lifted.
“Do you think that my clinging to my relationship with Tom might have caused a ripple in the universe that contributed to Dolores making a mess of The Sequence of Ursaken?” I asked as I stroked Treacle, who had snuggled against my side on the bed.
“That is a very deep thought. Where did it come from?”
I explained my thought process and waited for my cat’s sage response.
“You’re overtired. Get some rest, and you’ll be making sense again in no time.”
“I’m being serious. Now that we’ve broken up, my senses seem to be back in line. Like I had a visit from a celestial chiropractor. Could the universe have been telling me that it was time for me to let go? Then when I did, peace returned to the land?” I scratched him behind the ears.
“Either that, or you were under a spell that is now removed.”
“What?” This was an avenue I hadn’t explored.
“Tom’s mother. Aunt Astrid picked up on it. So did I. She has been using her sophomoric witching skills to manipulate the people around her for years. You don’t think there was a possibility she was doing that with you and Tom?”
I gasped.
“I’m not saying that’s it. But your family would never put a spell on you. I don’t think Dolores had the skills, either. Not without giving herself away. Everything was all about her, you know.”
I nodded.
“But the whole history of her other children marrying into wealth or privilege and Tom being sort of the black sheep in her eyes sort of makes me think she might have had a hand in it.”
