Chasing the Witch (Boston Witches)

by Jessica Gibson

  “Do things?” Jilly asked, wanting him to explain.

  “He can visit your dreams as you saw for yourself, tonight. He creates nightmares you can never escape. I watched him drive a man to madness merely because he could. That’s just the start of it.” William stopped there for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. “I told you he can create visions and make a reality of his choosing for you to live.” Jilly nodded, motioning for him to continue. “The reason he was institutionalized was not because of the man he drove to madness because no one knew about that. He kept it as his own secret. It was because he caused our neighbor Charles to murder his entire family. Patrick made him believe that there were demons inside of each of his family members. He butchered them in their sleep. My parents found Charles covered in blood and screaming about demons in his head. Patrick just smiled, and that’s when I knew he was evil. I convinced my parents to put him away. It wasn’t hard. They had seen the signs leading up to that. I had to find a coven of witches to help me put a spell on the institution to strip him of his powers, while he was inside. I was thankful he was young enough for the spell to work.” Jilly hugged him close to her, wanting to erase the pain he was feeling. She was afraid of what this would mean. Afraid of what would happen if Patrick got out.

  “I’m so sorry, Will. That’s awful for you to have to go through. Thank you for telling me though, it makes it clearer to me why he needs to stay in there. What should we do? Maybe add some wards around his tomb until we figure out our plan?”

  William smiled at her, happy that he had her in his corner. “Yeah, I was thinking that, too, something to keep him from using his power outside of the tomb. I don’t want him to influence anyone who might happen upon him. I think we should do it tonight, while he’s tired from entering your dream. Go get dressed; I’m going to grab some flashlights from the garage.”

  Jilly ran upstairs quickly, stopped at Caroline’s door, and knocked. “Hey Car, are you up?” she asked. She heard a muffled response and went into her sister’s room.

  “Jill?” Caroline said sleepily, “What’s going on?”

  “I met William’s brother tonight in a dream. You should probably come with us. Get dressed and meet us downstairs in five.” Jilly went into her own room, quickly changed back into the jeans she had been wearing, grabbed a shirt from her dresser and threw it on. Caroline was coming out of her room at the same time and they descended the steps together.

  “So what exactly is it that we’re doing tonight?” she asked Jilly.

  “We need to put up some wards around Patrick’s tomb to stop him from sending his powers out. It’s only a quick fix that probably won’t last very long; so we’ll have to redo them every few days to keep them strong.”

  Caroline nodded. “Ok, I guess that makes sense. Do we have a bigger plan, yet?”

  “No, we haven’t figured out any long-term solution yet, we just need to contain his power first and we’ll figure out the rest.” William was just coming back in from the garage when they got downstairs. He cocked his head at Caroline when he saw her.

  “I don’t feel comfortable with Caroline being alone in the house with what’s going on,” Jilly said. He nodded and they headed out to his car.

  They drove as far as they could toward the cemetery and went the rest of the way on foot. Each of them had a flashlight and three circles of light shone on the ground in front of them as they walked.

  “Do you think he’ll know we’re here?” Caroline asked.

  “Yes, he probably already knows we’re here. He’s a lot stronger than he used to be,” William replied. “Try not to get separated; he’ll use that to his advantage.” They walked for another ten minutes before they finally saw the ancient gates to the old cemetery. The air was cold and damp, causing them to turn up their collars as they walked through the gates.

  “His tomb is all the way in the back. Follow behind me.” They went single file straight back to where Patrick was.

  “Ah dear brother, this is a pleasant surprise. And you’ve brought the lovely Proctor sisters as well, how wonderful. I so rarely get visitors; to what do I owe this impromptu nocturnal visit?”

  “Don’t speak to him,” William whispered to the girls. “That’s what he wants, he pulled his little stunt so we would come talk to him, and I’m not going to.” They all quickly joined hands in a line with Jilly in the middle. Jilly began chanting and the others followed along. Soon a greenish fog began forming around the tomb and Patrick’s voice became muffled as he spoke to them. They said a few more spells for good measure; one to block noise from entering the tomb and one to block noise from exiting. Once he was sufficiently cut off from communicating, they trudged back to the car.

  “I can see why he’s in there,” Caroline said as they walked. “Are you and Jill like the exception to the rule with the amaranthine? It seems to me that the rest of them are all a bit nuts--at least the ones I’ve met.”

  “Jilly and I are in the minority when it comes to being humane; most amaranthine have lived so long that they’ve forgotten how to behave like a normal person. Only their baser instincts are left, so you end up with people like Patrick and Mary. I’m not saying it’s right by any means, but that’s the way it is.” They were quiet for the rest of the walk, each of them lost in their own thoughts. They reached the car ten minutes later and got in quickly.

  “Is it still ok for me to go to New York with all of this happening?” Caroline asked, feeling concerned.

  “Of course. I’ll feel better knowing you’re out of harm’s way. Just call me if anything weird happens while you’re there,” Jilly answered. She reached over and grabbed William’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze, not sure if she was reassuring herself or him. When they got home, William decided to stay over and followed the girls upstairs. Everyone said their good nights, went into their rooms and slept soundly until morning.

  Caroline was nervous about going back to New York. She didn’t really want to face Jack, again. Collecting her things from their apartment had been terrible. A huge fight had ensued and she had been emotionally drained by the time her last bag was packed. She did not want a repeat of that to happen this time. Caroline was pacing around in front of her bed when Jilly came in.

  “Hey, I’m going over to Em’s. I most likely won’t be back before you leave, so have a safe trip and call me when you land.” She hugged her tightly.

  “I’m nervous about seeing him again; it was so awful last time.”

  “You’ll be fine. Just remember why you’re going. Put on your stern face and force him to give you what you want.”

  Caroline laughed. “Thanks for the pep talk, Jill, I needed it. I’ll walk you down, I’m going to make some lunch, anyway.” Jilly led the way and waved goodbye as she opened the door and slipped out. The warm sun felt nice against her cheeks. She hopped in her car and drove over to Emily’s. It only took about five minutes to get there and she was out of the car in a flash. She knocked once and walked in, calling out to announce that she was there.

  “We’re back here,” Emily’s voice called out from the direction of her room. Jilly wandered back and found her and Adam sitting on the bed watching TV with the baby sleeping between them. Emily beamed at her when she walked in.

  “Get over here and show me that ring! I want to hear everything, don’t leave anything out.” Jilly ran over and sat down next to her, holding out her hand so Emily could inspect the ring. “Yowza! That’s a serious rock you’ve got there, Jill! It’s so pretty and it really suits you well.”

  Jilly smiled broadly. “I know, Caroline went with him to pick it out”

  “Caroline knew? How did she keep it a secret?” They both laughed.

  “Right? She said she had the worst time.” Jilly settled in and told Emily the details of the proposal. Adam excused himself so they could talk.

  “Oh, Jill, that’s so romantic. I always knew he was the one for you. You guys just fit together so well.”

  “I know.
It’s so weird; I just feel this pull whenever he’s around. I guess that’s the whole match thing, though.”

  “I don’t think that’s all it is, Jill; I think it’s just you guys and your chemistry. Anyway, enough gushy stuff. What else has been going on since I’ve been homebound?”

  “Patrick has made himself known. He was somehow able to enter my dreams, but we fixed that last night. We put some extra wards on his tomb.”

  “Wow, is that going to be a permanent fix?”

  “No, we have to figure out something lasting; but until then, we have to redo the wards every few days so he can’t break them. He was scary, Em. I thought Mary was bad, but she was nothing compared to him. He was calm on the outside, but I could see the rage simmering underneath, just waiting to come out.”

  “Yikes, that’s tricky. What does Will say? How does he feel about his brother after all these years?”

  “He doesn’t say much, but I know it scares him that Patrick was able to control my dream. He still feels guilty about what happened to Patrick when they were kids, but I keep telling him he could not possibly be blamed, when he was just a kid himself. He doesn’t really talk about it a lot. He had been going to talk to Patrick for a while though, he told me last night. I think he was trying to assess the situation before looking for a solution, but I’m not sure there is a good solution for Patrick. I used to hope that we could maybe rehabilitate him somehow with a spell, but I don’t think that’s an option now.”

  “That must be rough on him, living with that guilt for hundreds of years. Maybe there is a permanent solution for Patrick. Have you really even looked?”

  “No, I haven’t really looked; I guess I just figured it was hopeless. I also didn’t want to get Will’s hopes up if it was a lost cause.”

  “I can start looking if you want. I have tons of time when Camille’s sleeping and when I’m up in the middle of the night.”

  “Yeah, I guess you can start looking. It wouldn’t hurt anything. I just wish we didn’t have to deal with it at all, but I know we have to. This should be the happiest time of my life, but I’m so worried about the whole Patrick situation that I have not even had a chance to really think about how excited I am to be getting married, finally. I don’t know, I guess I’m just being melodramatic. I hate that we always seem to be dealing with some sort of crisis these days. I wish we could just go back to being normal again.”

  “I know, sweetie, it does seem like we’ve been stepping in it a lot the past few months, doesn’t it? You should be happy regardless of what is going on. You’re engaged to a man who you love and that’s all that matters. Now, when are we going to go looking for a dress for you?” They settled in on the bed and discussed all things wedding for the next hour.

  William was sitting on the couch when Jilly walked in.

  “Hey, how long have you been here?”

  “Just a little while. How was your time with Emily and the baby?”

  “It was nice; we discussed wedding stuff and looked at dresses online.” She smiled brightly at him. “Have I told you just how excited I am to be marrying you?” He grinned back and pulled her into his lap.

  “I think you may have mentioned it, but why don’t you remind me?” He tilted her chin down so he could kiss her. Jilly smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “What’s on your mind Jill?” William asked.

  She shifted and slid off his legs and onto the couch next to him. “What are we going to do about your brother? We need to figure out something permanent. He is obviously stronger than he was when you put him in there. I will back you up with whatever you decide, but it needs to be done somewhat soon. Em and I are going to start looking into some rehabilitation spells, on the slim chance that we could maybe help him instead of imprison him, forever.”

  He stood up and paced in front of the fireplace, visibly saddened.

  “I know. I’ve been thinking all day about what we should do. The truth is there isn’t a simple fix. He is too powerful, now, to stay where he is and releasing him is completely out of the question. He’s a complete psychopath. As for rehabilitation, I’m not sure if that’s even possible after so much time; but I love you two for even thinking about it. I don’t know what our options are, really; I need to do some more research. We’ll probably need help with this, too. Are there any witches in the area that you can trust with besides Emily?”

  “There are a few people I could ask. I’ll start making calls, tomorrow.” She got up and walked to him, putting her hand on his cheek.

  “I’m sorry that we have to deal with this. I know it isn’t easy for you.” He pulled her close to him, burying his face in her hair.

  “It’s worse than you can imagine, but I’ll deal with it if it means keeping you and Caroline safe.”

  Caroline’s flight landed at 7:45 pm. She got her luggage and a cab in record time. She gave the driver the name of her hotel and leaned back in her seat, watching the city stream by through her window. Twenty minutes later, they pulled up in front of the Carlton and the driver unloaded her bag from the trunk. She paid him and wheeled her bag to check-in. She was always amazed at how grand the lobby was, and she stood looking around for a minute before going to the front desk. She gave the woman her name and credit card. Soon the bellhop grabbed her suitcase and led the way to her room. After he opened the door to her spacious suite, Caroline tipped him and shut the door on his departing back. Caroline called Jilly with news of her safe arrival and gave her the room number. She took a shower in the huge bathroom, got into her pajamas and steeled herself for the phone call she had to make. He answered after two rings.

  “Hi, Jack, it’s Caroline.”

  “I know who it is, I recognize your voice after six years of marriage,” there was a hint of irritation in his voice.

  “Look, I don’t want to fight with you right now. I’m tired. I just wanted to tell you that I’m here in New York for a few days and we should get lunch tomorrow, so we can talk.” He was silent for a few seconds.

  “Jack, are you still there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. Where are you staying? Do you want me to pick you up ?”

  “I’ll meet you in Central Park, tomorrow, around noon and we can talk.”

  He sighed, “So you’re not going to tell me where you’re staying then?”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Caroline hung up and laid back on the pillows, dreading talking to him. She ordered room service and a movie then settled in for a relaxing night.

  Caroline woke up early the next morning. She had not slept well the night before and she was filled with apprehension. She dressed quickly and called her friend Allison Talbot; so they could grab breakfast. Allison had been her best friend for five years; they had both worked for the same PR management firm and instantly hit it off. Alli was tall and willowy with long black hair and hazel eyes. Twenty minutes later, Caroline was walking down Madison Avenue to her friend’s apartment for breakfast. She walked up to the chic tower and pressed the buzzer.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Alli, it’s me.” She heard the click of the lock, walked in and pressed the up button for the elevator. Twenty floors later, she was standing in front of Alli’s door, knocking. The response from inside made her laugh.

  “Get your butt in here, Caroline, my hands are dirty.” She walked in and found her friend in the kitchen making breakfast.

  “You didn’t have to go to any trouble for me. You know I would have been happy with bagels,” she said when she saw the spread Alli was setting out.

  “Oh, be quiet and set the table. I’ll be done in a few minutes.”

  Caroline did what she was told and soon they were both seated at the table eating.

  “So, what time do you meet Jack, today?”

  “Ugh, don’t remind me. We’re meeting at noon. He was mad that I wouldn’t tell him where I was staying; but I couldn’t risk him showing up last night. I don’t know what to say to get through to him, Al. He was the o
ne who gave up first, not me.”

  “I think he realizes what he’s done. Now he’s freaked out because he knows he’s really lost you; but he doesn’t want to believe it. I think if you tell him it’s really and truly over, and tell him you’ve built a life for yourself in Boston with your sister, he might just have to believe you.” They were both silent for a few minutes while they ate.

  “It’s sad that it’s ending, I get that. I loved him more than anything; but it’s time for me to get on with my life.”

  “Tell him that, tell him exactly those words, Car,” Alli said.

  “Enough about him, do you want to go out tonight? I feel like getting all dressed up and hitting the town.”

  “Yeah, I’m totally up for that. I’ll call the girls after you leave and set it up.” Caroline left after a few hours of laughter with her best friend, with just enough time to make it to the park by noon.

  Jack was already there when Caroline walked up. He jumped to his feet when he saw her.

  “Hey, Jack.”

  “Hey Car, it’s good to see you,” he said, smiling.

  “Here, let’s sit down on this bench and talk.” She gestured to where he’d been sitting and sat on the other side. He started to speak, but she raised her hand to stop him.

  “I’m not interested in any more of your excuses. We need to end this, Jack.”

  “How can you say that? We’ve been married for almost seven years. We can’t just throw that away.”

  “I’m not throwing anything away. You did that over a year ago when you started seeing little Miss Slutty behind my back. And don’t bother telling me that nothing happened between you, because I know that something did.”

  He sat in stunned silence for a moment, trying to regain his footing. “Ok, I won’t lie to you, but it shouldn’t make a difference anymore. That was in the past. I ended it with her months ago. We should just move past it and get on with our lives, together.”