by S. H. Kolee
I glanced back at Ryan who was close behind me. His face was serious and he nodded at me like he wanted to reassure me. I just prayed that he was able to keep his demonic sister under control because the last thing I needed was to face both her and my father.
We hunkered down when we reached the barn, moving close to the ground. I indicated to Ryan with a motion of my hand that I was going to approach one of the windows. He nodded in understanding and followed my actions. I expected my father to fling the door of the barn open at any minute, to be discovered and dragged in kicking and screaming. My heart was in my throat as I got closer, and it was with more than a little relief that I reached the side of the barn.
I sidled up next to the window and then crouched down below the sill. Ryan was right beside me and I put a finger to my lips to indicate that we had to be quiet. I was paranoid that his sister would take over his body at any minute and call attention to us. He just nodded.
I carefully looked over the sill of the window, raising my head slowly and hoping that no one would notice the movement. I first felt relief when I saw that my father was turned away from me, but the relief quickly vanished when I saw the rest of the scene.
Horror couldn’t describe the emotion that ran through me when I saw Simon. A thick rope had been flung over one of the rafters in the ceiling of the barn, and it ended in a noose that was around his neck. The tips of his toes were barely able to rest on a precarious stool beneath him and with his hands tied behind his back, his balance was unstable.
But the worst part was that Philip had the other end of the rope. He seemed to take glee in pulling on his end of the rope so that Simon was suspended in the air, his legs flailing wildly as the noose tightened around his neck, strangling him. Philip would pull tight for a few moments and then slacken the rope as Simon desperately tried to find purchase on the stool again. He would only get a few moments of relief to rest his weight on the stool and get in a few gasps of air before Philip would pull on the rope again, watching in amusement as Simon struggled to stay alive.
I didn’t know how long this had been going on, but Simon’s face was bulging red and I didn’t know how much more he could take. Pure rage took over and I raised the gun. I would feel no guilt in killing my father. He deserved to die and then I would force Philip to free my mother of the vardoger and then kill him too.
My finger on the trigger was steady but I froze when my father turned around. He was still using my mother as a human shield with a gun pointed to her head. He grinned mockingly at me, seeming to relish in my fear and frustration.
There was no point in hiding anymore so I stood and ran to the barn door, flinging it open and walking inside. I heard Ryan behind me but my focus was on my father. A white cloth was wrapped around his thigh where he had been shot and it was already crimson with blood, but he seemed unaffected by it. I heard a gurgling sound and my attention was jerked to Simon. Philip was torturing him again by pulling the rope taut.
“Make him stop,” I said, trying to sound firm but I was unable to suppress the quaver in my voice.
“I thought you’d never get here,” my father said smoothly, ignoring my entreaty. “I wondered how long you’d stay crouched outside that window before coming in.”
Philip loosened the rope again and Simon scrambled to find the stool with his feet and rest his weight on it.
“I’ll take you up on your earlier offer,” I said. “Release Simon and my mother and I’ll go willingly with you.”
My father would never stop until he got what he wanted. And what he wanted was to use my powers. I desperately wanted to use my energy to destroy him but I was afraid that he would be able to shoot both my mother and Simon before I was able to gather my powers. And I had no idea at this point whether the palladium and iridium disk burning a hole in my pocket would help me or hinder me. Once the others were safe, I would find a way to defeat him. But with Simon and my mother’s life in danger, I felt immobilized by my desperation to keep them alive.
“No.” Simon’s voice sounded broken and was barely audible but I saw the intensity of his eyes, begging me not to do it. I remembered the first time I had seen those startling blue eyes when he had come over for dinner; the slight smile as he introduced himself and my surprise when I felt myself being drawn to him despite having seen him in a vision. I wondered if I would ever see him smile at me again. His face was contorted in an expression of pain right now, but I didn’t know whether it was from the torture he was enduring or his fear of what I was about to do.
My father smiled widely. “Wise decision.”
“You need to get rid of the vardoger inside my mother first. And get Simon down from there.”
“Put your gun on the floor and kick it towards me,” my father commanded. “Then we’ll continue.”
I followed his order and then waited for him to release my mother and Simon. I knew I was taking a huge risk in making a deal with my father. I had no illusions about his trustworthiness but at this point I had no other options.
My father pulled something out of his pocket and threw it towards me. The piece of palladium on a chain landed at my feet and I stared at it.
“Take your iridium off and put on the palladium,” my father ordered. I hesitated. Putting on the piece of palladium would make me powerless and completely vulnerable to my father.
“Don’t do it!” Simon’s voice was hoarse but fierce and I looked up at him. I silently pleaded with my eyes for him to understand. I had no other choice because there was no way I could watch him and my mother die.
My father nodded to Philip, who pulled on the rope again, making it impossible for Simon to say anything else. His gaze returned to me. “Until you put it on, he’s going to suffer.”
I quickly took off my iridium necklace and threw it on the ground. I reached down and picked up the palladium. I was about to put it around my neck when Ryan grabbed my hand.
“Don’t do it,” he said urgently. “It’s your death sentence.”
“I don’t have a choice.” I shook his hand off and put on the necklace. I turned to my father. “Is it too much to expect you to keep your end of the bargain?”
He shrugged. “Why not.” He turned to speak to Philip as he lowered the gun from my mother’s temple. “Get rid of her vardoger.”
My mother had been silent the whole time but she had been glaring at me, letting me know who was in control of her body. But at my father’s words, she started screaming and fighting against his grip.
“No!” she screeched. “This is my body, not hers! You’re not getting rid of me!”
Philip tied the end of the rope to a beam of wood on the side of the barn so that Simon couldn’t escape and walked over to my mother. Simon was barely conscious enough to keep his balance on the stool and I prayed that he wouldn’t black out and end up hanging himself.
My mother continued to scream and yell obscenities but my father ignored her as he restrained her. Philip stopped a few feet in front of her and clutched his palladium necklace, closing his eyes and tensing his face in concentration. His power was almost palpable. I could feel it filling the room and then it shot out of him like a dagger of lightning, striking my mother in the chest. She collapsed onto the floor, her body writhing until a darkness exploded out of her and dissipated into the air.
I had never seen anything like it, had never seen such a showing of raw power that was so visible. It was then that I realized what I was up against. My hand went up to my chest instinctively and I was about to pull off the palladium necklace when my father trained his gun on my mother again.
“Backing out of the agreement so soon?” he asked with a raised brow. I shook my head and lowered my hand, trying to take in deep breaths to calm my racing pulse. My mother’s eyes fluttered open and her gaze focused on me. She looked confused and scared and I wondered if she would ever fully regain her senses.
“Now release Simon,” I said.
My father raised his eyebrows at my autocrati
c tone. “Getting awfully bossy, aren’t you. Do you really think you have the upper hand?”
I shook my head, my fear increasing rapidly even though he lowered the gun. “No, I just want you to keep your part of the deal.”
He laughed like I had said something hilarious and shook his head. “I’ll never understand humans. So many messy emotions that get in the way of clear thinking.” His smile was inhuman. “Maybe I just wanted the satisfaction of you seeing me kill your mother for real this time. I want you to see her suffer, not her vardoger. She’ll experience every part of the agony of death. There’ll be no vardoger to take any of the pain.”
He raised the gun and pointed it at my mother. I reacted without thinking, running towards him, desperate to get between the gun and my mother. But Ryan was faster and he rushed passed me straight towards my father. He had almost reached him when my father swung the gun towards Ryan and shot him point blank in the head. I watched in horror as he fell to the ground, blood spurting from the wound in his head. My dreams rushed into reality as I watched a pool of blood spread quickly beneath his head, but this time I wasn’t asleep. I was actually watching him die.
I made a choked sound as I ran to him, not caring what my father would do. I kneeled at his side, tears running down my cheeks as I watched helplessly as his life seeped out of him. I gripped his hand, desperate for him to not feel alone. His eyes were glazed with pain but they looked straight into mine.
“Trust yourself,” he whispered so softly I had to lean closer to hear him. “Trust your instincts. You’re strong enough to get through this. Live the life you were meant to. I’m sorry for everything. It’s for the best that my sister and I can finally find peace.”
His eyes fluttered closed and his body started to shake. His hand gripped mine so hard that I was afraid he would break it. His body bowed violently and his eyes shot open as an animalistic scream ripped from his throat. I frantically pulled my hand out of his grip and scrambled back away from him. I knew it wasn’t Ryan making those sounds. His head turned towards me and his eyes burned through me with such hatred that a chill went down my spine. His body them slumped back onto the ground and his eyes turned lifeless, still staring at me.
“What the hell?” my father said with a frown. His frown deepened as he surveyed the scene. “Enough of this playing around shit.” He nodded towards my mother who was still lying on the ground, frozen in shock. “Tie her up,” he told Philip. “I’ll figure out what to do with her once I get my answers.” He turned back to me. “Try anything else and I’ll make sure you get to watch both your mother and boyfriend be tortured on your behalf.”
I felt defeated as I watched Philip tie my mother up to a wooden plank on the side of the barn. Simon’s eyes were open and watchful as he kept his gaze trained on me. It was hard not to panic every time he lost his balance a little and fought to regain it.
“Get the others in here,” my father told Philip once he was done tying up my mother. I stood shakily as Philip exited the barn, only to return shortly with two other people.
I had never given a moment’s thought to Cecelia, the other seer from my aunt’s inner circle that had betrayed her. I had always thought of her as weak and nothing more than Lenore’s follower but she looked anything but weak as she strode in with two other women. The other women looked deathly scared but Cecelia was smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world.
My father handed Philip the gun when he came back in. “Stand guard over her mother. If I say the word, shoot her.”
Philip nodded and walked over to her, training the gun to her head with a steady hand. My mother still looked terrified and her eyes moved from me to the gun pointed at her.
“Hi, Caitlin,” Cecelia said as if we were old friends. “Remember me?”
“Why are you helping him?” I asked, confused by her demeanor. “Lenore’s dead.” Cecelia had been under Lenore’s thumb and I thought she had only been helping my father because she was afraid to disobey her. But Lenore was gone and Cecelia was seemingly still helping my father. And she didn’t look afraid. In fact, she looked cheerful.
“Everyone thought Lenore was the powerful one.” Cecelia shook her head like we were all idiots. “What people didn’t realize was that she wasn’t the powerful one; I was. I was just too stupid to put her in her place. Instead, I let her use my powers and claim them as her own.” Cecelia smiled widely at me. “She wasn’t the one who manipulated your visions before. It was me. Just like I changed your visions of Jenny.”
I clenched my fists at the mention of Jenny, wanting to throw myself at this cowardly woman and scratch her eyes out. “What did you have to do with Jenny’s death?” I asked through gritted teeth.
Cecelia shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothing besides changing your first vision so that you saw someone else besides Jenny. Philip was the one that charged her vardoger with some of his power.” She glanced at him in admiration before turning back to me. “It was amazing to see. He was able to transfer some of his energy into her vardoger, making it unbelievably strong.” She giggled like a child. “It even affected Jenny since she was connected to her vardoger. When those two boys tried to help her, they were electrocuted by the combination of the charge and the water in the pool. It was amazing!”
I wanted to slap the look of amusement off her face. Lenore had been power hungry but Cecelia was straight out insane. You couldn’t reason with insanity so I just ignored her, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of a response.
“Shut up.” My father seemed irritated by Cecelia. “We’re not here to talk. Hurry up and put her under hypnosis.”
My father grabbed my arms and pulled them painfully behind my back. He spoke close to my ear. “Fight it and I won’t hesitate to kill your mother. Your boyfriend will be close behind.”
I nodded my assent but I was afraid that my panic would prevent me from being able to go under. Cecelia and the other two women surrounded me and started chanting. I glanced up at Simon and he looked furious but I could also see his frustration due to his inability to help me. I mouthed the words “I’m okay” to reassure him, but that seemed to pain him even more.
My eyes fluttered closed as I felt a heaviness in my limbs. I was sinking lower and lower until I felt weightless, like I was floating in the air. The women’s chanting sounded farther and farther away until their voices disappeared completely. I opened my eyes and strained to see in the darkness.
“Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone there?”
“Caitlin.” The voice was barely a whisper across my subconscious, but I recognized it immediately.
“Jenny?” I strained my eyes, trying to find her, but there was nothing but blackness.
“You won’t be able to see me. I’m too far away. I’m almost to the other side but I had to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m not okay,” I said, desperation making my voice raise. “My father is holding Simon and my mother hostage, and he’s going to try to use my powers to make himself immortal. I melted down palladium and iridium together like you told me to, but what can I do with it?”
“In your hands you can use it to destroy even the strongest vardoger, including the ones that took over their humans a long time ago and have a strong hold on them. It can also save the humans that are trapped inside their bodies along with their vardogers. You can destroy the vardoger without destroying the human soul.” Jenny’s voice dropped. “But in your father’s hands, it can be used to realize everything you’re trying to prevent. Don’t let him have it.”
I was grateful for her explanation but I was desperate for more information. “Does that mean my father can use it to enter the bodies of other humans and get rid of their souls?”
“Shh!” Jenny’s voice sounded scared. “Don’t talk! They can hear us!”
“Jenny!” I called out, but she was gone. There was nothing except the emptiness of my own mind.
I gasped when I surfaced. My shoulders were aching and I realized my father
still had my arms pinned behind my back. I struggled to free myself, but that only caused him to wrench my arms further back until they felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets.
“What did you see?” Before I could open my mouth to answer my father’s question, Cecelia spoke.
“It was her friend Jenny. They talked about mixing palladium and iridium together. It’s how you’ll be able to overtake any human body you choose. But be careful because Caitlin can use it to destroy you too.” Cecelia continued to direct her comments to my father but she swung her gaze to me with a satisfied smile. “She said that she’s already melted some down together. She must have it on her.”
I was horrified by the realization that Cecelia had been able to see and hear everything I had experienced while under hypnosis. I moaned in pain when my father shook me, causing my arms to bend back even more.
“Where is it? Give it to me!” He sounded unhinged and didn’t wait for me to answer. He started searching through my pockets and my heart sank when he pulled out the palladium and iridium disk. He threw me to the ground and I tried to brace myself with my hands as I hit the floor. I scrambled to stand up and backed away from my father, but he stepped closer to me, his eyes looking unnaturally bright.
“I’ve finally found the answer.” He advanced on me slowly, a feral expression on his face like he was stalking his prey. “And my first test will be on you. I’m hoping some remnants of your powers will remain once your soul is expelled. It’ll make me even stronger.”
“Caitlin! Use your powers! You’re stronger than him!” I focused on my father but Simon’s words renewed my courage and I swore to myself that I would never give up until the last breath left my body. I reached up and ripped the palladium necklace off my neck. Even though I no longer had any iridium on me, I would try as hard as I could to ward off my father’s attack.
I started gathering my powers but I was slammed to the ground by a force that knocked the breath out of me. My father’s energy was oppressive and felt nothing like when other vardogers had tried to possess me. Pain wasn’t the right word for what I felt. It was a lack of being. Instead of my soul being pushed out, I felt as if it were evaporating right inside my body.
