The 45th Parallel

by Maureen Hands

  Kat could feel the boat rocking against the dock as the halyards clanged against the mast outside. The first drops of rain began to hammer against the cabin. The storm had arrived.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  They boarded the boat as the rain began to fall, and Helene went back to one of the staterooms, sat cross-legged on John’s bed, and closed her eyes.

  “If they have taken her to another island, we will have to get underway,” John whispered, “before the storm gets much worse.”

  “Why don’t we call the Coast Guard or the police?” Patrick asked John.

  “What do you think they would say if we told them we have had psychic visions of our friend being kidnapped and they need to take a boat out in a storm in Lake Michigan to find her? They won’t do anything until she has been missing for at least twenty-four hours. By then, it will be too late.”

  “I see your point,” Patrick said. He looked over toward Helene who was sitting like a statue. “Do you think she was able to project?”

  “We will find out in a few minutes,” John answered. He stood up and lifted the salon cushion he had been sitting on and reached into the compartment underneath to pull out the life jackets. “Let’s start getting ready” He tossed the jackets to Anna and Patrick. “If she has been taken to another island, it will be safer to motor over in this weather.”

  Helene’s eyes suddenly popped open.

  “What did you see, Helene?” Anna asked.

  “She is tied up and sitting in Traversity’s cabin. I can see four of the witches in the cabin with her. They are docked in the harbor at High Island.”

  “What are they going to do to her?” Patrick asked.

  Helene’s eyes filled with tears. “They are going to kill her.”

  The blood drained from John’s face as the realization of what had happened hit him. “I brought her right to them. They have been playing us all along,” he said. “The whole summer, they have been leading us here.”

   •●• 

  Kat was trying her hardest not to get sick. The boat was getting tossed against the bumpers on the dock in the rising storm. She tried to remain calm, but that was becoming increasingly difficult.

  The witch who had posed as Dora had been sitting very still with her eyes closed. “They will come,” she said.

  “Good,” said the silver haired witch. “We need them.”

  “Who is coming?” Kat asked.

  “Your cousins and your friend,” the silver haired witch said.

  “You see, although you are a very powerful witch, your power alone is nothing compared to the power of all five. To ensure the sacrifice is sufficient, we will need all five of you,” the dark, male witch said. The creature’s face contorted into a horrible smile.

  “No…please,” was all Kat could manage.

  “Your mother was not strong enough. We had to kill her in case anyone would listen to her stories and come looking for us,” the dark, male witch said.

  “You killed my mother,” Kat said. She could feel her rage building. She looked over at the red haired witch. She had a little smile on her face as though she were reliving a fond memory. “Why did you kill John’s parents?”

  “We had to. They were Guardians. They were hunting us.”

  “You know,” the Dora witch said sweetly, “John Warren knew it would end this way. He has known all along. He used you as bait. What he doesn’t know is we are using you as bait too. We need to sacrifice all of you to break the curse and you will bring John and your cousins to High Island for us.”

  Kat could feel the last threads of binding break open. The thing in the box, that part of herself she tried to bury, was free.

   •●• 

  “We don’t have time to go around the south end of the island. We are going to have to go around the north end of the island, through the narrow channel between Garden and Beaver, and sail directly into the storm,” John said as he started up the engine. “Let’s hope we can get to High Island Bay before the storm reaches its full fury.”

  John and Patrick went up to start the boat and untie the lines from the dock. The man in the boat next to them was just returning from town with his beer.

  “You’re not going out in this?” the man called over the sound of the motor and the howling wind.

  “Yes we are,” Patrick said. “If we are not back here in two hours, send the Coast Guard out to High Island.”

  “Are you out of your minds?” the sailor asked.

  “Yes,” Patrick answered, as he untied the last line, pushed the boat away from the dock, and hopped back on.

  As they motored out of the safety of the marina, the storm began to pick up steam. The winds were now blowing at forty knots—gusting to fifty knots, a whole gale churning up white seas. As Legalease passed the St. James Lighthouse, the rain was whipping in sideways making it difficult to see twenty feet past the bow of the boat. Anna and Helene scrambled below, Patrick tethered himself to a lifeline, and John stood behind the wheel.

  The bow of the boat rose up the crest of the approaching waves then crashed down into the trough. To stay on course, John tried to head southwest, riding the swells at an angle instead of taking them head on. As the seas grew larger, it quickly became apparent hitting the waves at an angle could run the risk of capsizing the boat.

  “We may need to raise the main!” John yelled over the roaring storm. “I’m afraid these waves are going to stir up some gunk in the fuel tanks and foul the engine.”

  “You don’t need much sail in this wind,” Patrick hollered. As John was raising the main, the bow of the boat hit the trough of a wave and drenched the front half of the boat, including Patrick, with cold water. When the bow pulled up again, Patrick was clinging to the lifelines.

   •●• 

  “This storm should add some drama to our little gathering,” the dark male witch said as he tossed something black to the Dora witch. “Put that on her,” he demanded.

  The Dora witch walked toward Kat and put a black hood over her head. Kat felt a hand on either arm lifting her up and pushing her up the steps through the companionway then off the boat onto the dock. The combination of the rocking waves, the heavy winds, and the inability to see anything made walking down the wooden dock extremely difficult. Kat’s rain-soaked clothes offered little protection against the raw winds. She found herself shivering uncontrollably from the cold and fear.

  When they reached the end of the dock, Kat could feel bony, frigid hands on either side of her grabbing hold of her arms and leading her forward. Kat guessed they were walking into the woods because the wind and rain died down slightly blocked by the cover of the trees. After walking another few minutes, they suddenly stopped and Kat was shoved against a tree. Her ankles and wrists tied. Kat felt a rope being pulled across her chest and tightened around the trunk of the tree.

  “Kat,” she heard the dark male witch say. She could barely hear over the raging storm whipping through the trees. “This place might look familiar to you,” he said as he pulled the black hood off her head. Despite the dark and the storm, Kat could see that she was tied to a tree on the edge of a small clearing in the woods. She had seen this place in her nightmares and visions. The five witches were standing in front of her. Their clothes hung loosely on their emaciated frames. Even through the dark, their skin and eyes gave off an unnatural glow.

  “Let’s have some light,” the dark, male witch commanded.

  The witches moved into a circle facing one another and began to chant. Suddenly blue and red flames appeared in the center of the circle unaffected by the pounding rain. Once the fire appeared, they dropped hands and formed a line behind the supernatural flames. The dark, male witch moved over to Kat to stand in front of her. He was holding a large hunting knife and a bowl.

   •●• 

  “Damn it!” John swore as the engine sputtered and died. He tried several times to start it up again with no luck.

  “This is
going to be impossible trying to dock or anchor with no engine in this storm!” Patrick yelled. Helene and Anna had moved out of the cabin into the cockpit.

  “I don’t even think I can find the dock with this visibility,” John shouted.

  “I can see High Island Bay,” Anna called. They all looked out past the bow of the boat, they were getting close.

   •●• 

  “Please, no.” Kat begged. Two others came over and untied one of her wrists and held it out. Kat tried to struggle but she could not move. They are really going to kill me. I will die on this deserted island and no one will know what happened to me.

  The dark male witch sliced a deep gash in her wrist and held the bowl underneath to catch the spurting blood.

   •●• 

  “We are going to have to find a place to anchor,” John called trying to see past the driving rain and spray from the lake water.

  “I could almost swim in from here,” Patrick said. Helene began to yell and point off the port side of the boat, but her voice was drowned out by roar of the storm. Everyone turned to see a ten-foot wave barreling down on top of the boat. The force of the wave and the sixty-knot winds overpowered the boat and rolled it completely over on its side. The passengers were dumped into the cold, angry water of Lake Michigan. Patrick, who was still tethered to the lifeline was dragged under the water as the boat rolled.

  Legalease continued to roll until only the keel of the boat was showing. That too vanished under the weight of the crashing waves. The large swells quickly separated the small crew. Anna and Helene managed to find each other in the chaos, and yelled for Patrick and John to no avail. Their voices were swallowed up in the waves and the roar of the storm.

  “Start swimming for shore!” Anna shouted to Helene. The two women had a hard time staying together as the swells would obscure their view. After twenty minutes of fighting the waves, they reached shore and collapsed on the beach.

   •●• 

  “Tie up the wound, we don’t want her to bleed out too quickly,” the dark, male witch commanded.

  Kat was starting to feel like she was going to pass out. She closed her eyes and prayed this would be fast. The red haired witch tied a cloth around Kat’s wrist to slow the bleeding. When Kat opened her eyes again, she could see the witches chanting around the fire again but was unable to hear them over the wind and rain. She saw the dark male witch raise the bowl of blood above his head, and then pour it into the fire.

  At first Kat thought the fire had gone out. Then she realized the flames had turned black. They turned back to Kat and the dark male witch approached her.

  “They have arrived in time to complete our ceremony,” he said. He then turned toward the others and said, “Go and retrieve them.”

  The storm was starting to subside somewhat. The howling winds and rain began to slow. The dark male witch knelt in front of Kat and leaned in close. His thin white skin was stretched tight across his bones making him look like a dehydrated corpse. His sunken yellow eyes stared into her face as his parchment lips pulled back to reveal two rows of sharp pointed teeth.

   •●• 

  Helene and Anna dragged themselves up on the beach, coughing and shivering. They turned to look out at the lake for Patrick and John but could not see them in the crashing waves.

  “Anna! Helene! Please help me,” they heard Kat cry out. They turned toward the trees and they could see Kat sitting up against a tree hugging her knees into her chest.

  “She’s hurt,” Helene said as she stood up on her shaky legs and stumbled over to Kat. Anna followed close behind. When Helene reached Kat, she knelt beside her and put her hands on her shoulders.

  “Kat, are you okay?” she asked. Before she could say anymore, Kat grabbed her by the wrist and held a knife to her throat. Kat’s features contorted and changed. Her hair turned red and silver and tumbled down her back. Her eyes glowed yellow.

  “You will come with me or I will slit your throat,” the red haired witch hissed. They both stood slowly and Helene turned to see Anna with a brown haired witch standing behind her, a knife to Anna’s throat.

  The witches tied the girls’ hands, stood in the trees, and waited for Patrick and John to make it to shore. The silver haired male witch walked to the water and dove in.

   •●• 

  The dark male witch leaned close to Kat, its yellow sunken eyes probing her face. Kat pulled back as far as she could and tried not to breathe the smell of death that emanated from him.

  “We will wait for the others to begin,” the witch said. Then, he tilted his head and listened for something. The witch stood straight and stepped back from Kat. The rain was beginning to slow further. Kat closed her eyes and prayed Patrick, Helene, Anna, and John would get away. After a few more minutes, she could hear the sound of people approaching from the woods. When they entered the clearing, Kat felt sick to her stomach. It was Anna, Helene, and John. The female witches held knives against their backs and herded them over toward Kat where they made them kneel down.

  “Where is the other man? Did he drown in the lake?” The dark male witch asked.

  “Patrick…” Kat heard Anna moan.

  “Almost,” the silver haired witch said as he stepped out from the trees with Patrick slung over his shoulder. “I found him in the water under the boat.” He dropped Patrick roughly on the ground in front of Kat. At first Kat thought he was dead, but then he began to cough and spit up water. The female witches bound his ankles and wrists and put him up against the tree next to Kat. Kat’s eyes filled with tears as she saw their beautiful faces in the eerie glow from the fire.

  “Who would like to volunteer to go first? How about Mr. Warren?” The dark, male witch hissed.

  When John started to speak, his voice was strangely calm. “You aren’t supposed to kill us,” he said. “The key to lifting the curse is a powerful witch descended from the Beaver Island Irish. If you kill us, you will not be able to utilize our power.”

  “The only way we can take your power is to kill you,” the silver haired witch said.

  “You don’t understand. Kat is a key. With her, we can open a portal to other worlds. We have done it before.” Kat looked over at John in shock. Why would he have told them that?

  John’s eyes were black. “All these many years, you have misunderstood the curse. The key to your freedom does not depend on sacrificing one more powerful than you, it depends on finding and using her to attain greater power. You would no longer be bound to just this world.” The blackness in his eyes was spreading into the white until his eyes looked like two large black holes in his face. Two of the witches moved over to John with hunting knives.

  “When can we slit his throat?” one of them asked.

  “We need all five of us to open the gate. John stared fiercely into their white skeletal faces. His black eyes moving from one to the other. “If we try it with less, we don’t have enough power.”

  Kat wondered in a panic whose side he was on. That’s all we need is more creatures from hell at our little party. Kat saw the two witches with knives hesitate.

  “Once we open the door for you, you will be able to pass back and forth anytime you want,” John said.

  “What harm can it do to let them try?” Kat heard the Dora witch ask. “If they fail, we can kill them after.”

  “Can you untie our hands? We need to be touching,” John asked.

  The dark, male witch laughed and said, “You can move closer to one another, but the hands remained tied. That way, when you fail, it will be easier to kill you.”

  John moved over to Kat and leaned his shoulder into her side. Anna leaned on John, and Patrick and Helene leaned in on her other side.

  “Open the gate, Kat,” John whispered. Kat looked into his black eyes and all she could think about was the dream she had the night before. “We don’t have a choice,” he said under his breath. Kat closed her eyes and tried to calm her pounding heart. She felt fear an
d a surge of power from John and her cousins coursing through her body. Kat searched her mind for a vision that would give her comfort, but all she could hear was the sound of Indian drums. Kat felt the ball of energy pushing forth from her body and she opened her eyes. She could see a bright white streak of light hanging above the black fire. The witches all turned toward the light. The gate began to open with a loud metallic scraping sound.

  “We need a protection circle, Patrick,” John said.

  One of the large hunting knives lifted off the ground where it had been dropped, and floated over to where they were huddled. Its blade dug into the wet earth and began to trace a circle around them.

  As the portal opened wider, Kat could make out the figure of a man in the bright white light. His legs were bare and his shoulders were draped in wolf skin. His yellow eyes glowed bright against his black face.

  “They did it,” the dark male witch said, amazed. No sooner had the words left his mouth than the figure in the portal raised a bow and arrow and shot a bolt of light through the witch. He screamed in pain and fell to his knees. Then another bolt of light hit the other male witch. He let out a horrible sound as the light wrapped around him and started dragging him toward the portal. Kat watched in terror as the witches tried to escape the white light. Once they were completely enveloped in the light, the witches were all dragged into the portal. Their inhuman screams were deafening.

  The figure in the wolf skin turned and focused its yellow eyes on Kat and began to laugh, a low, frightening sound.

  “Close it,” John yelled. “Close the gate now!”

  Kat closed her eyes and pulled the power back into herself. It slammed into her chest and knocked her back against the tree. The portal closed with a loud crash. Now the only sound was the rain falling and the distant rumble of thunder as the storm front moved farther east.