Hell's Belles

by Alison Claire

  The couple glared at us, completely offended to have been challenged.

  “You act as if you were one of them. Or like any of your kin was one of them,” the man scoffed.

  “Right? How dare I act like they were fellow human beings,” my mother retorted. “What happens to the least of us, happens to all of us. That was Jesus Christ who said that, by the way.”

  They turned away from us, muttering and cursing as they quickly walked past the tour guide, who had the hint of a genuine smile on his face.

  “Well, that was awesome,” I said.

  Mom shook her head, “It was anything but that. Remember this, girls; if we can inherit land and money, we also inherit what brought it to our families. And how we get to the places we get is as important as the gettin’ itself. In other words, and excuse my crassness, but always stand up to imperious assholes.”

  Aleta and I climbed down from the trees and headed back to Dr. Ibis’s house. The sky had darkened a bit and it was clear a storm was coming. As soon as we reached the front porch, the rain came crashing down.

  We sat on the futon and listened to the drops beat against the tin roof. We were quiet for a while, just listening to the rain. Aleta’s story still sat heavy on my mind and heart.

  “What I don’t understand,” I finally said. “Is how the trees gave you your power. It just suddenly happened?”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that. Really, it’s hard to share that part without Calista. She’s a major part of their story too. And I know she’d want to share that herself,” Aleta said. “Virginia really wants us all to share our own stories with you so you can see how we all connect. But part of the connection will happen tonight with the doctor. That is, if it stops raining.”

  Between our full bellies and the sound of the rain, we both fell asleep for a little bit. It was the perfect kind of weather for a nap, and I was still exhausted from the events of the previous few days.

  Dr. Ibis showed up an hour later, after the rain had finally stopped and the sun began to shine again. He whistled a jolly little tune as he entered the house. Upon seeing the both of us he smiled.

  “Good afternoon, sweet girls.” He placed a bag on the kitchen table.

  “Good afternoon.” We both said in unison.

  Dr. Ibis hummed as he put things away in the numerous cupboards and cabinets that lined the wall of the kitchen. (All were painted blue, of course.)

  “What’s with all the blue?” I asked. Sumter the cat purred on the counter next to me.

  Dr. Ibis looked at me. “You don’t know? It’s haint blue. Keeps the haints away. They think its water and since they can’t cross it, they leave it be.”

  “Haint?” I asked. “What’s a haint?”

  Dr. Ibis chuckled. “Boo hags. Ghosts. Lost souls that are stuck here. They creep around causing trouble. Can’t have none of that in my castle.”

  “You don’t really believe in that kind of stuff?” I asked.

  Dr. Ibis looked at me, his smile gone. “I definitely do, Miss Emma. As should you.” He turned back to his cabinets. “Besides, it’s a pretty color anyway. Soothes me.”

  Aleta caught my eye. I expected her to say something or send some mind voice my way, but she did neither.

  We watched another movie for a bit. The rain had finally stopped. Dr. Ibis was working on something in the kitchen for a while until finally calling Aleta over.

  “Is she ready?” he asked, I assumed in reference to me.

  “Are they ever ready?” Aleta retorted. I was suddenly nervous.

  “Ready for what?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

  Aleta walked over to me. “We were going to go after dinner but in case it rains again, we best go now. It’s time to take the trip we told you about this morning.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow? Or next week? I feel safer here in the blue house. Away from boo hags and haints and whatever the hell else wants to get me.”

  Dr. Ibis shook his head. “There is no place in the world that you’re safer than Frogmore Island. Especially with Aleta and I. We would never let any harm come to you. I promise. But if you want to fulfill your destiny, this is just a small part of what has to be done.”

  I looked back and forth between them. “I’m not interested in fulfilling any sort of destiny. Up until about a month ago all I wanted was to make it through my SATs and somehow get asked to prom. That was the kind of thing I would have considered a miracle. I’m not the girl who changes the world or fulfills destines and prophecies or jumps off of bridges. I’m the girl that watches it from the comfort of her bedroom. Sometimes I wonder if you guys are mistaking me for my sister.”

  Aleta gently took my hand. “There is no mistaking it, Emma. You are the only girl who can do this. You are the only one who was meant to.”

  As I stood outside, waiting for Dr. Ibis, I silently prayed it would begin to rain again. But the clouds had parted and there was no sign of precipitation happening any time soon. Charleston weather was fickle and it wasn’t working in my favor that day.

  The three of us piled into a Nissan XTerra (If you guessed it was blue, you’d be right) and before I knew it, we were on our way to a mysterious destination.

  Christian hymns sang out from the radio as we drove. Aleta sent her voice to my mind; “You don’t have any reason to be nervous. This is an adventure. Josephine had to do it too. Think of it as your initiation.”

  It all just made me more anxious.

  We only drove for about five minutes before parking in a small lot near a heavily wooded area. A narrow path snaked through the trees.

  “This looks like something off Dateline,” I observed.

  “You watch too much television,” Aleta responded.

  Dr. Ibis pulled a backpack out of the back of the XTerra. He smiled at us.

  “Follow me, ladies.”

  We set off on the path. Birds sang in the trees above us, Spanish moss brushing our shoulders. A creek appeared next to us, the trail following its meandering path. (“This is Rabbit Creek,” Aleta said) It began to get wider after a while and we continued to walk. We were probably about half a mile from the car when the Cypress trees began appearing, beautiful trees with exposed roots sprouting out of the creek and marshes surrounding it.

  “Wow.” I said. I had never seen anything like them.

  “Those roots are called Cypress knees,” Aleta informed me. “Because, well, they look like knees, right?”

  “Tree’s knees,” I laughed. “You learn something new every day. Or, around here, approximately every thirty seconds.” Dr. Ibis and Aleta exchanged knowing glances and joined my laughter.

  We walked a few minutes more until we came to a small canoe that was pulled up on the bank of the creek. I had a feeling it was waiting for us.

  I was proven correct when Dr. Ibis threw his backpack into it.

  “We’re taking that?” I asked. “Aren’t there alligators in these creeks? Or snakes? Or some mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a Loch Ness monster?”

  Aleta laughed. “You’re pretty funny. I won’t lie, gators are definitely at home out here. But the doctor can take care of that. Trust us. We told you, you’re safe.”

  Dr. Ibis climbed in first and held out his hands to help me in. The canoe was wobbly under my legs. I slowly sat down and Aleta climbed in quickly after me.

  Under the Spanish moss and canopy of trees, the creek was dark. Every sound made me jump a little. Frogs croaked and the cicadas had started their dusk song. Dr. Ibis slowly paddled the canoe across the creek, around the large cypress.

  I knew it was important for me to be quiet. No one had told me to be. I just somehow knew this was a mission that would only work if we were silent.

  Besides, with someone like Aleta, you could have a full conversation without opening your mouth at all.

  After paddling for about ten minutes, Aleta’s voice crept into my mind.

 
Are you okay? she asked.

  No. I’m creeped the hell out. I thought.

  Well, we’re not trying to purposely creep you out, she said. We’re looking for a stork’s nest.

  I’m not even going to ask, I thought. You guys just keep raising the weird bar.

  Finally, Dr. Ibis stopped paddling. He put his finger to his mouth as we slowly let the canoe coast toward a tree.

  We lightly hit the base of the tree with the front of the canoe. I looked around, wondering why we were in the middle of a swamp, bumped against a cypress tree. Aleta offered me no thoughts on the matter.

  Before I could say anything, Dr. Ibis had left the boat and was slowly and deliberately starting to climb. Watching someone that looked approximately three hundred years old climb a tall tree jutting out of the water was something I never counted on witnessing in my lifetime. But Dr. Ibis was as limber and agile as a teenage boy, taking his time but quickly moving up.

  “What’s he doing?” I whispered.

  Aleta shook her head, “Keep quiet. You’ll see, soon enough.”

  We sat in the canoe for a good long while, waiting for the doctor to come back. Aleta had told me to be quiet but we continued to have a conversation through our minds.

  Are you sure we’re safe here? I asked.

  Yes. You’re safer in this boat and on this island than you would be anywhere else in the world, Aleta replied.

  What’s in this tree? I asked.

  A stork’s nest, she replied, without further elaboration.

  Yes, but what’s so important about it?

  It’s going to help you have the kind of safety you have here, but anywhere you go off this island.

  How?

  Before she could answer, we both heard him coming back down the tree, clearly holding something.

  “Get it?” Aleta whispered.

  Dr. Ibis smiled, opening his hand. We both leaned towards him to see.

  “A rock?” I asked. “You climbed up there for a rock you could have picked up off the trail we just walked down?”

  Dr. Ibis placed it in my hand. “It’s not just any rock, Emma Ayers. It’s a stork’s rock.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh. Why didn’t you say so? Totally makes sense now.”

  Dr. Ibis said nothing else, just started paddling back toward where we had just come from.

  Aleta grinned.

  “Emma, after all that’s happened, you still doubt what’s possible,” Aleta stretched her arms out toward the hanging branches and Spanish moss.

  “I don’t doubt anything. I just can’t imagine what’s going to happen next,” I replied.

  Chapter 26

  On the ride back to the house, Dr. Ibis explained the significance of the stork’s rock.

  “When you first arrived here,” he said, “I knew that besides making sure you healed, we also had to make sure you couldn’t be touched again.”

  “Okay…” I said.

  “With each Belle I have done what I did today. Because Zillah can find you through her shadowverse, it’s imperative that you have a way to hide. She only needs a few seconds to get you alone. We can’t have that. Fortunately, about a week ago, I came out to Rabbit Creek to find a stork’s egg.” He made a left turn and waved at an older woman who drove by us in a pick-up truck.

  “I hardboiled it and then brought it back to the nest, tied with a single strand of Zillah’s hair, before the stork even knew it was gone. Earlier, while you ladies were at the trees, I went back to spy on the stork who laid it. Sure enough, she was impatient that it hadn’t hatched yet. You see, her other two eggs had hatched. So she took a rock and started hitting it, to wake up the baby stork and free it, or to find out if it was a dud. And that rock in your hand is the rock she used.”

  I turned it over in my hand, “So what?”

  “So it now holds power it didn’t before,” Aleta interrupted, clearly impatient with me. “It’s a protection root now. It wards off evil and more importantly, it makes you invisible to it.”

  I stared at them both, my mouth agape. “So I have something that makes me invisible? A rock? Are you nuts?”

  Aleta shook her head. “Nope. Back in the day a stork-rock or a buzzard-rock was a prized possession. Whether you believe it or not, fortunately, is inconsequential.”

  “But why do I need it? I’m not leaving this island any time soon.”

  Aleta and the doctor exchanged looks.

  “Actually, that’s precisely what you’re going to have to do,” Aleta said slowly. “You’re needed back home, and more importantly you’re needed at Angel Oak. Tomorrow, if possible.”

  I shook my head. “I barely made it out alive. I’m not ready to be back yet.” My heart pounded at the thought.

  “With that rock, you’re now protected. At least from Zillah. And until we know who she’s working with and why the Sirens were calling you, you won’t be alone. We’ll protect you. But all Belles have stork-rocks. So now you know.”

  “How did Zillah see Calista and Josephine at school?” I asked.

  “When Zillah moves from place to place through her shadowverse, she can look out into our world and see what, and who, is waiting for her, should she choose to manifest herself via that particular shadow,” Aleta said. “Somehow, she can process all the options almost instantly. It’s what makes her different, and so much more powerful, than the others with her gift who don’t have the shadow-sight she has. They can only pop up again in a shadow they could see before leaving the physical plane. I know it’s confusing, I’m sorry. Just know that while you possess this rock, she’ll never be able to sneak up on you through her shadows again. She’ll never know where you are. The root isn’t effective in our world, but it completely blocks her from seeing you through her shadow-sight.

  “Why do you keep calling it a root?”

  Aleta sighed. “Sorry. It’s what Geechee refer to as a spell. Dr. Ibis is a root doctor. So anything he makes is considered a root. Like your night water the other night and the ginger under your pillow.”

  “Did I hear Dr. Ibis right; did he say he wrapped the egg in Zillah’s hair?” I had so many questions they seemed to be tumbling over themselves on my tongue.

  Aleta gazed out the window, lost in a memory. “Yes, when Marie Dixon’s body was found, she had a clump of Zillah’s hair in her hand. They’d clearly fought. My uncle acquired that hair. It gives him power we wouldn’t otherwise have against her. Maybe Marie gets the last laugh, after all.”

  The XTerra was at the house now. Dr. Ibis was out and opening the door. Aleta and I were alone for a moment.

  “I trust you,” I said. “But I’m still terrified. Can you understand that?”

  “Anyone would understand that, Emma. This isn’t a joke. But just know, you are much more powerful in many ways than any of us. Otherwise, Zillah wouldn’t have any interest in you.”

  As we walked into the house I rubbed the stork-rock that sat safely in my pocket. I had to admit, just having it made me feel slightly invincible. Was this how Wonder Woman felt? I was both relieved and empowered by this thing that would keep me from being victimized yet again by Zillah March.

  I still didn’t fully understand my purpose. The power I had within me still felt dormant. In many ways, I still felt like the girl who sat content in the shadow of her sister. But knowing what I was capable of and what I was capable of overcoming had emboldened me. For the first time since being here, I felt like maybe I had a little bit of control of what would ultimately be my fate. If Aleta could live through what she had, I could live through whatever else was in store for me. There was nothing left to lose. With that sort of freedom, it meant there was everything to gain.

  “So what happens now?” I asked as Dr. Ibis set tea in front of us at his table. The rain had started again and the beating of it on the roof gave me ease.

  “Tomorrow, we head to Angel Oak,” Aleta said, sipping. “We need to introduce you to her. Virginia will be there. So will Calista. Josephine is
depressed over not seeing Palmer. She gets like that sometimes. But she doesn’t need to be there.”

  “Another tree?” I said. “Are you guys Wiccan or something?”

  Aleta smiled at me over the rim of her mug, considering my question a moment before replying, “Or something, Emma. Definitely ‘or something’.”

  “Trees just seem to be a common theme the last day or so.”

  Aleta nodded. “Fair enough.”

  As usual, she didn’t give me any other explanation. The cryptic stuff was getting really old. But after this week, I was done with asking so many questions. The answers never seemed to be far away anyway.

  For now, I was just grateful to be a witness to it at all.

  ZILLAH MARCH

  Zillah March detested loose ends.

  This was a common theme in the timeline of her very long life. Loose ends were what made everything unravel. Zillah could not have that. Especially now, when she was so close to getting what she wanted, after all this time.

  Her Christian Louboutins clicked and clacked up the cobblestone path to the Walker mansion on East Bay Street. The home was formidable; a Greek revival with columns thick as oaks, it loomed over the harbor, facing the great Ravenel Bridge. Tourists often stopped to take photos in front of it, all of them imagining what it must be like to live in such a place.

  Zillah couldn’t help but laugh at them. If they only knew.

  As she approached the front entrance, her phone buzzed in the pocket of her Givenchy romper. Zillah glanced at the screen of her iPhone. The text was one word:

  WELL?

  She rolled her eyes and texted back furiously with one thumb.

  I JUST ARRIVED. SEE YOU IN 15 SECONDS.

  Zillah marched up the steps, defiantly, not bothering to knock as she pushed open the large, varnished, raised panel door. It was technically her home, after all. Even if she no longer lived there, she still saw it as hers.