“Well, the charms seem to be working,” Sara nodded to Nicole with appreciation.
“Speak for yourself,” Ash said, rubbing the goosebumps that ran down her arms.
“Where is the door?” Greg asked. They all turned towards the wall and watched for any signs of change since they couldn’t see Samuel without the reflectors.
“Do you think we should bring the bedroom mirror down here?” Sara asked him.
Greg shook his head. “I don’t want to risk it getting broken.” As they watched, a small piece of mortar fell from an area of the brick wall to their right. They walked towards it, keeping an eye on the spot, and more fell.
Sara looked around the room and found a small rock. She picked it up and placed it in front of where a small pile of dust was developing. “There?” She asked the air, unsure of where Samuel was. The stone moved to the right about a foot before settling in place.
Greg left to get the sledgehammer out of the car while Nicole, who claimed she was far too sober for what they were about to do, went to get a new bottle of wine from the kitchen.
Ash turned to Sara and asked in a low voice, “Are you sure about this? I mean, this is really fucked up if you think about it. A few months ago, we didn’t even know any of this stuff existed.”
“Well,” Sara replied, contemplating, “We know Jeremy is looking for me, and he has the right city. We also know if he finds me again he’ll kill me. So even if… whatever is down there kills me, at least it will probably be quick about it.”
“And the rest of us?” Ash asked, glancing up the stairs to make sure they were still alone. “You’ve lived with this thing for months, what do you think?”
“I think at first he wanted me to leave. He never, during all the creepy tricks he played, tried to hurt me though. I don’t think his intentions are cruel.” They heard thumping on the stairs as Greg returned with a sledgehammer and crowbar. Ash gave her a quick nod before they stepped back to provide him with enough room to demolish the wall.
His girlfriend came back, carrying two opened bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, and handed one to Sara before taking a swig straight from the other. Sara offered the bottle to Ash, who copied Nicole’s movements.
The sun had almost set, and Greg was sweating from exertion, by the time he finished pounding away at the wall. A door, crafted from old and rotting oak planks, was hidden behind the bricks and a thick layer of dirt. Sara helped him clear away more of the muck, using a shovel she found to move it from the doorway. Luck was on their side when they realized the door swung inwards instead of towards the basement, so they only had to clear enough to unlatch it.
Once they opened the old door, Greg picked up an LED camping lantern he carried down earlier with the tools and shined it through the opening. There were stairs leading down, but the light didn’t touch the bottom landing. The walls were made of packed dirt, and the steps were crafted from old and uneven stone blocks. There was no handrail for them to hold on to as they descended into the cellar.
Greg looked back at them, the expression on his face masking the fear Sara could see in his eyes. Upon opening the outer door, the aversion spell hit them with its full effect, and the feelings washing over them were daunting.
“I’ll go first.” He held the lantern higher and took the first shaky steps onto the stone stairs, the crowbar gripped firmly in his other hand. Sara followed close behind him, holding onto Ash’s hand after her friend slipped it into hers.
Ash leaned into her and whispered, “I really hate you right now.”
“I know.” Sara squeezed her friend’s hand lightly as they made their way down the treacherous stairs. Nicole came down behind them with one hand on Ash’s shoulder for balance and the other gripping a half-empty wine bottle. They had left the other one upstairs.
Almost two flights of stairs and an eternity later, the bottom landing appeared. It was a square area several feet in width, with another closed door opposite the stairs. Cobwebs filled the corners of the room, drifting on the slight stirring of air they created as they moved into the small area. Greg walked over to the door, holding the lantern higher, and studied the markings carved into it.
“Nicole?”
Nicole stumbled over to him, blinking at the symbols, and frowned. “I think these symbols are acting as an anchor for the aversion spell.” She squinted harder at the coppery powder that stained the markings. “I think that’s blood.”
“Oh God, there’s going to be a desiccated corpse on the other side of this door, I know it!” Ash cried, and Sara could tell she was shaking by the way she gripped onto her arm.
“Stop,” Sara told her friend, her voice firm. At this point, with Ash, it was best to act like she had everything under control. “It’s just the spell.” But she let Ash cling to her, feeling bad for her. “Can you break it?”
“Don’t need to. It should dissipate when we open the door.” Nicole moved away from it. Greg peered closer at the lock that held the latch on the door and handed the lantern to Sara to keep for him as she was the steadiest, and least intoxicated, of the others present. Raising the crowbar above his head, he brought it down in a swift, sharp movement, breaking the rusted lock. He removed the remnants and unlatched the door, looking back at them before cracking it open.
As the first air hissed into the closed room, the aversion spell suddenly disappeared, and the fear that kept them clinging to one another left with it. Ash stood straighter, filled with curiosity rather than fear, and dropped her friend’s hand.
Sara watched in anticipation as Greg opened the door, not knowing what to expect on the other side. Nothing prepared them for the sight that met them when they walked through the portal.
On the other side was a large workroom, at least as large as her living room and kitchen combined, with tables scattered with all manner of magical paraphernalia and herbs hanging from the rafters. If the layer of dust wasn’t so thick on everything in the room, Sara could’ve expected someone to walk through the door and start working at any moment.
The back corner opened into another area, and Sara gasped as the new section came into view. “Greg, bring the lantern over here,” Sara waved frantically for him to come closer.
Greg rushed over, lighting the area before them. “Samuel!” Sara exclaimed, recognizing him immediately. He looked just as he did in the mirror, though a layer of grime covered him like everything else in the room.
Samuel was kneeling in the middle of a large white circle. His hands, tied in front of him with a woven vine-like rope, lay limp in his lap. That wasn’t the worst part. Three coils of thick chain wrapped around his neck were secured on either side of the alcove with hooks in the walls. The taunt chains kept him from falling over or being able to move, his head hung down as if in prayer, and Sara thought the chains must be choking him.
“He’s dead.” Ash looked on in horror at the sight before them. A cold breeze brush past Sara, and a second later the body jerked and coughed. Ash and Nicole screamed while Greg jumped back, causing the light to waver and send erratic patterns across the area.
“Samuel?” Sara asked.
“Sara, help me.” Samuel’s voice was rough from disuse and the damage from the chains.
“Ash, unhook the other side.” Sara hurried to his left, trying to lift the chain off the hook without choking him further, not wanting to cause him more pain. As she and Ash struggled to remove the chains from the wall, Nicole walked around the circle counter-clockwise holding the lamp she retrieved from Greg and studied the symbols on the ground.
They got the chains off the walls, and Samuel fell forward catching himself on his forearms before his head hit the floor. He remained like that, breathing hard before reaching up and unwinding the chain from around his neck.
Nicole, having reached her starting point, looked up at them. “Are you sure about letting it go? The salt and chalk lines, and these symbols, this is a serious containment circle. This thing is meant to contain something really p
owerful. The chains holding him in place were forged from iron. Whatever it is, they wanted it to stay put.”
“Probably because he would kill them if he got out,” Sara mumbled.
“My point exactly. What makes you think it won’t kill us as soon as it gets out?”
Sara looked at Samuel and said, “Promise you won’t kill any of us.”
“I promise,” he croaked, not looking up at them.
“Good enough for you? And stop calling him it,” Sara said to Nicole.
The younger woman glared at her, crossing her arms and tapping her fingers against her bicep. “I guess so,” she replied, watching Samuel. “He can’t lie while he’s in there anyhow. I don’t know if he can break a promise or not.”
Sara shrugged and picked up a broom leaning against the wall next to her. She swiped it across the chalk and salt line as both Nicole and Samuel screamed for her to stop. There was a bang, then a bright flash of light, as the spell dissipated in a blast of glory. Everyone covered their eyes, stumbling from the backlash. When the spots cleared from their eyes, Nicole turned to her furious.
“Never do something like that again!” She yelled at Sara, so furious she was shaking. “You have no idea what could have happened.”
“I’m sorry.” Sara cast her eyes down and grimaced. Greg walked over to his girlfriend and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, hugging her tight and whispering into her ear. Whatever he said seemed to calm her down.
Samuel was sitting back up, looking at his hands, and with one tug he snapped the vines that were holding his wrists together.
19. SAMUEL
He was free. After over three hundred years of captivity, he was finally free. Samuel laughed, not even recognizing his own voice. The laugh started low but rose in tone until it sounded almost maniacal.
“Samuel?” Sara asked, reaching a tentative hand towards him, and he stopped laughing, looking up at her through the shaggy bangs falling over his eyes. She was halfway into a kneel by his side, and he reached out to her, his hand shaking and still weak.
Taking his hand in hers, she came the rest of the way down, peering at him. She squinted as her eyes sought his and she didn’t find what she expected. Catching himself, Samuel's eyes snapped shut and made sure before opening them again, that the human version looked out instead of his natural ones. He had learned long ago to hide what he was.
Sara placed her hand on his cheek, cradling his face. He turned into her soft and delicate palm, reveling in the feeling of being touched by another, and looked up at her.
“Thank you,” he whispered, his voice soft and raspy. She smiled at him, and he thought it was brighter than any sun. Samuel drank in the warmth she radiated until she turned back towards the others.
“Greg, help me get him upstairs. I would rather not stay down here. This place still gives me the creeps even without the spell to keep us away,” she said to the other man across the room. He came over and threw one of Samuel’s arms over his shoulder, slowly standing as Samuel leaned on Sara with the other.
Greg was several inches taller than he was and the pain from unbending his knees was excruciating. Samuel ground his teeth against the pain but said nothing as they got him onto his feet. They walked towards the door to the upper levels, and the ache in his legs lessened with every step as he recovered circulation in his extremities.
Something was wrong, and the feeling kept nagging at the back of his mind until they got to the door and Samuel realized what it was. Able to stand on his own he removed his arm from around Sara and adjusted his grip around the neck of the other man until he had Greg in a headlock. Even at his weakest, he was still far stronger than the mortal.
Nicole screamed behind him as Greg brought up his hands, beating at Samuel’s arm, trying to get him to release him. “You said you wouldn’t kill us,” the girl screeched as she pounded on his back with her fists.
“Hush,” he said over his shoulder, putting some of his willpower behind the command. Nicole fell silent. “And you,” he turned his attention back to Greg, “Empty your pockets of everything you took from this room.”
Sara gasped, “What is Samuel talking about, Greg?” Ash joined Sara, crossing her arms, and both women watched the guy with critical expressions.
“While you were helping me, Greg was helping himself. All of it, on that table, now,” he commanded him, letting go. Greg looked like he was ready to fight but something in Samuel’s stance stopped him. Huffing, he turned around and placed objects on the surface indicated.
Samuel picked up a box with a flint and steel in it, shaking the item gently. “You berate Sara for handling magic above her knowledge when you do the same thing. The objects in this workroom are dangerous, very dangerous. This tinderbox, for example,” he shook the little box again and then placed it onto the table with the other things Greg emptied from his pockets before continuing, “will cause a fire that cannot be put out by normal means. The fire it causes only extinguishes when it runs out of fuel. A tinderbox like this is rumored to have caused the Great London Fire of sixteen sixty-six.”
He rummaged through the other things Greg and picked up, focusing on a silver ring with a large amber and black tigers-eye in the middle. “This one,” he said, holding it up to the light of the lantern, “will turn you invisible but makes you crave wearing it until one day you don’t take it off. You will become invisible forever, standing on the outskirts of humanity, watching life pass you by.” He gave both Greg and Nicole a serious look, frowning slightly, and added, “Trust me, I’ve spent the last few centuries in such an existence. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
Samuel’s gaze focused on Nicole and he nodded to the table. “You too.”
Closing her eyes briefly, she unloaded her pockets onto the table as well. Samuel sorted through the things she left there, picking up a black linen bag. He emptied part of the contents of the bag into his hand revealing beautiful brownstones flecked with green and white.
“These runes should be safe.” Samuel rolled them on his palm before placing them back in the bag and handing it to Nicole. “Divine their history before you use them. The rest of the items down here I’ll go through and give you whatever I find isn’t dangerous.” He pointed to the door, dismissing them.
Greg and Nicole went upstairs first with the white witch admiring her new runes. Ash, then Sara, came next with Samuel bringing up the rear. He relied heavily on the walls for balance. Sara kept looking back at him, worry written across her face, and he couldn’t help but smile. It had been a very long time since anyone worried about him, if ever.
Once they reached the top, he pulled the door closed behind them, and threw the bolt latching the door shut. “I don’t want anyone going down there.” He looked pointedly towards Greg and Nicole. “I’ll bring things to you as I have time to sort them out.”
They agreed while everyone moved up the stairs, Samuel going last again until they reached the utility room where he closed and locked the door to the basement behind him. He would have to speak with Sara about getting better locks. Now that the aversion spell was no more, it would be easy for someone to break in through the basement. Of course, he would know as soon as anyone stepped foot on the property, but it didn’t make sense to risk her safety.
Samuel shivered as the cool air of the main house hit his skin. Sara liked it cold in the house if her usual sweatpants and long-sleeved shirts were any indications. He wasn’t as affected by the cold as others were, but it would take time to grow used to feeling things across his skin again.
Sara took him by the arm and told the others to wait by the front door while she dragged him into the master bedroom. For a moment he got excited thinking she would have her way with him this quickly, but she dashed his hopes when she walked straight past the bed and into the bathroom.
“You need a shower before anything else,” she told him. Samuel could take that one of two ways; he could either be offended or strip and do as she commanded. Deciding
to do the latter, he watched her face as he untied and slipped his thumbs into the waistband of his pants, tugging them down over his hips.
Blushing, she looked away quickly though he could see her wide eyes darting back to watch him. She tried unsuccessfully to act like she wasn’t looking, almost tripping over the threshold of the glass and tile box as she turned the water on. Throwing covert glances over her shoulder at his nakedness, she motioned for him to step into the spray. He was surprised at the delightful warmth of the water as she stepped away, though he had no interest in being in there alone.
“I’ll be right back. I have to go say goodbye to Greg and Nicole. And get them to promise not to tell a soul what happened here tonight.”
Sara stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her, and he sat on the bench. Samuel looked at his hands, holding them in front of him as he braced his elbows on his knees and the water ran over his head and back.
It had been so long, so many miserable centuries floating on the outsides of humanity, that he had no idea what to do next. So many thoughts crossed his mind, but they kept coming back to the delicious little crumpet with whom he shared the house. Vaguely, he wondered if she would make him leave now he had recovered his physical form. Samuel hoped not.
A knock sounded on the door before it opened again, admitting the woman of his thoughts, who carried a fluffy towel over one arm and a washcloth in the other hand. He sat up and watched her as she placed the linens on a rack outside the box.
“Do you need anything?” She asked.
“What does all of this do?” Samuel motioned to all the different bottles on the shelf inside the box then gestured to the knobs on the wall she turned to make the water come out. “What are all these things called?”
Cocking her head to the side, she frowned then smiled. “This is a shower, you turn the knobs, and either hot or cold water comes out.” Sara pointed to the different levers. “The bottles are soap, shampoo, and conditioner.”
Demon in Salem Page 8
