Dark Winter: Trilogy

by Hennessy, John

  Another image. It was me, but an elderly version. I was still at Rosewinter, and I was still in possession of the Mirror. I couldn’t see anything beyond the Forest.

  A final image misted in, then out. Gorswood Forest was in flames, Dana encircled the sky like some kind of uber-demon. Legions of Diabhal’s zombies were everywhere, killing everyone in sight.

  Bodies were dumped unceremoniously on top of one another, and I could recognise certain things formed from my memories.

  A charred and bloody hand, wearing a Celtic ring made from tungsten. A Wiccan pentacle, bleeding the blackest of blood onto its wearer. White hair turned black through burnt ash.

  A red haired girl’s body lay twisted, seemingly every bone in her body broken, her eyes gouged out, and her face slashed from ear to ear. She was impaled into the ground by a bloodied crucifix.

  Was this the future my Nan spoke of? If so, the future rolled like this:-

  My friends and my parents were dead.

  Everyone else from the town were going to be executed in a similar bloody manner.

  The Mirror and Rosewinter would somehow stay safe with me.

  All I know is, the final battle would be drawn here. I don’t know if I could change anything of what was to come. I set about to change it nonetheless.

  The Darkest Side of Me

  I would have no time to mourn the loss of my parents. I would want to know how they died, of course, but that would have to wait.

  Toril continued her chanting until my head went dizzy. I was having another premonition, and in this one, our old adversary Curie was alive and well.

  More than that, he was at the fabled house of Diabhal, at the most eastern point of Gorswood Forest.

  "Redwood," I said feebly, clutching my forehead.

  Curie, now fully recovered thanks to the effects of the evil house, was doing a chant of his own, and was determined to outdo Toril.

  Alix was a pawn in the game. He was being controlled by Curie, himself a puppet of Diabhal. That’s why Alix tried to steal the Mirror from me. He’d been under the influence of Diabhal this whole time.

  Yet I seemingly hadn’t killed him with my touch. Perhaps that’s another thing I’ve realised this night. I could kill that zombie because I meant to do it. When I pushed her jaw and it came away, I hadn’t meant in my heart to kill her, just get her away from me.

  However, this time, with Alix, I didn’t want to kill him, so my lightest touch must have been sufficient to render him unconscious.

  The vision cleared from my head, but the searing pain remained.

  Amidst the haze, I felt compelled to press ‘play’ on the machine again. I couldn’t accept a future where everyone I know dies, and yet I live, somehow.

  The shadow that had knocked me down the stairs three years ago had returned, and this time, it passed through my back, and into my body.

  ***

  From outside of the house, Toril could see Alix stagger to his feet. He was unsteady, and perhaps a bit unsure of himself, but he looked ready to resume his mission.

  Toril screamed again in my direction.

  "Damn it, Romilly, you’ve got to come out of there now!"

  Boy, does she love giving the commands. While I was inside, and I had the Mirror, I could trap zombies, and keep Alix at bay. I did not need Toril barking orders in my ears.

  Outside, Toril looked exasperated. "What’s going on?" said Beth.

  "What’s going on is, that I’m trying to keep Romilly and the Mirror out of Diabhal’s hands."

  "Why don’t you just go in there?" said Jacinta.

  "I can’t. I cast a Surround Spell," said Toril.

  "Un-cast it then!" said Jacinta.

  "If I do that, the Zerythra, Dana and any evil spirit out here will be able to claim the Mirror. Romilly can’t trap them all, not all at once anyway. It needs to be done out here, in the open." Toril’s shrill calmed as she spoke. It seemed a relief to get it off her chest.

  Beth had seem this confused look on Toril’s face before, and it amazed her that Jacinta didn’t seem to get it.

  "You’re not telling us everything, are you Toril?" said Beth.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, you are leaving Romilly to deal with Alix on her own. That’s not fair."

  Toril grabbed Beth by her shoulders.

  "Not fair? Not fair?" The shrill in Toril’s voice had returned. "I’ve just struck down my boyfriend to protect Romilly. It’s better she deals with Alix than the legions of zombies, believe me."

  "They are coming, aren’t they?" said Jacinta. "The zombies. Right?"

  "Yeah," said Toril. "It’s pretty hopeless, to be honest."

  "She can kill them for us," said Jacinta confidently.

  "Who?" Toril and Beth said together, but not in the cute way you would expect.

  "Dana," said Jacinta. "She can do it. Let her. Let her do it. We can get Romilly, get all of us, away from here safely."

  Without saying a further word, Jacinta plucked a white rose from a nearby bush, and used a thorn to draw blood from her finger.

  "No, Jacinta. I would not summon Dana," said Toril. "That’s not a good idea." But it was too late. Jacinta’s blood had already began to turn the white rose a sickly shade of crimson.

  The ghost of Dana was being summoned to kill once again.

  ***

  Toril was furious with Jacinta for summoning Dana. She was furious with me for not coming out of the house. But most of all she was furious with herself. She knew that there was a way to keep the Surround Spell in place, but also do a Freeze Spell on Alix.

  The problem was she just didn’t know what the best way was. She had been doing well with her learning, at least until Troy Jackson had came on the scene. Why she had gotten involved with him, only she knew. Boys and solitary Wiccans do not usually go together.

  For as long as I knew her, she maintained that she didn’t want to complicate her life, and boys would only add to doing just that.

  I can’t say I sympathised with her. At least she had some method of learning, a coven – isn’t that what they call it in Wiccan circles?

  Me? I had to learn all this Mirror stuff on my own, mainly because I had to. I couldn’t trust anyone else. Yet, of all people, I should trust Toril, because she used the Mirror to set myself and Beth free.

  At least, I would like to think it’s like that. The romantic in me says it was Nan who sent us back from the brink of whatever we were on. For all intents and purposes, Beth and I had died in Curie’s house, and now we were back, fighting the devils again. When would it ever end?

  At that moment, the CD player jarred into life. It should have scared me, but whatever was possessing me, was keeping me calm. Through the shadow’s eyes, I started to see things differently. I could see the ghosts from the mental hospital walking around the wood-cabin.

  All this time I thought I was safe. They never left the Forest, because they could not leave.

  Ever.

  Through the speakers, and in my Nan’s voice, the CD player said calmly, "It ends when you break free of the Circle."

  Just as quickly as it came, the voice died out. I was alone in the dark once more. What Circle was Nan on about anyway?

  No time to work that out. Whatever was possessing my body threw me against the wall, and knocked my false tooth out. I tasted blood in my mouth once again.

  I could hear scratching on the other side of the door. Alix, or whatever it was that was driving him to attack me, was trying to come through. My earlier thought came back into my head, that I would perhaps have no alternative but to use the Mirror on him.

  Nan’s voice was no longer on the CD player, but loud, inside my head.

  "You know what the consequences of that will be, Milly," she said. "You will release more of Them. Some are already on their way. You cannot fight them all, and your parents aren’t there to save you. Get rid of it."

  The demon inside me threw me against the wall again, and its screams
were terrible inside my head.

  Nan had come through at my lowest ebb. She was right. I shouldn’t be a host for this demon. It would have to go.

  Those last words about my parents affected me more than anything else. I know it shouldn’t, and that dealing with the threat of zombies over running the place should be the priority, but I found myself in the same position as Beth and Jacinta. We were orphans, and alone in fighting the horrors about to lay siege to us.

  Sentimentality was going to be the death of me.

  ***

  Alix burst through the door, a deranged look on his face.

  "The Mirror, Romilly. Give it to me."

  I stood up slowly, very slowly. "You’re not yourself, Alix. Right now, neither am I. We’re friends, acquaintances, remember?"

  "The Mirror."

  "I’m sorry, I can’t do that, Alix. It’s not mine to give to you. It’s a family heirloom. My Nan gave it to me."

  "All she gave you is some dumb-ass Mirror? Poor inheritance, pumpkin."

  I would not have him – anybody – say bad things about my Nan. Although the demon was hurting me inside, I had to face off Alix. As I grabbed the Mirror, the demon made slashing cuts on my arms.

  Keeping my nerve, I held the Mirror up in front of him.

  "Atta girl."

  "Come closer Alix, and you’ll get what you deserve."

  I didn’t mean a word of it. I just hoped he would just not get any closer to me.

  "Oh! You wanna trap me, do you? Bad news, pumpkin, that thing only works on the dead, which you’re soon going to be."

  "Stay back!"

  "Or what?" sneered Alix. "Frightened I’ll touch you?"

  "You should be frightened if I touch you. Pumpkin."

  "Oh yeah," said Alix, rubbing one hand on his lower back. "You did do that, didn’t you? Well, I forgive you. Now give me the bleeding mirror."

  I hid behind the Mirror as he rushed me. Either he was going to be banished or the Mirror was going to shatter, with legions of zombies released into our world.

  In my head, I prayed for Alix and the demon within to disappear.

  ***

  Toril suddenly stopped chanting and fell backwards. Beth reacted first, and grabbed her from behind.

  "Toril? Toril? Are you okay? Toril!"

  Toril’s eyes rolled back in her head, but after a few seconds, she started to get herself together.

  "Toril, stop freaking us out here. Say something if you can," said Jacinta, her usual calm replaced with abject worry.

  "Something…if you can," said Toril, wearily.

  "What ever happened?" asked Beth.

  "Something – something is wrong," said Toril. "I can’t explain it to you, but it is, just - wrong."

  "Maybe there is our answer," said Jacinta, pointing to the wood-cabin.

  Inside Rosewinter, the lights had been switched on again.

  ***

  But also, off again. In fact, the lights kept going off and coming back on again like car indicators.

  "What do we do?" said Jacinta. "I mean, we should go check, shouldn’t we? Find out what happened? Toril? What do you think?"

  "We don’t know what’s happened in there," said Beth. "We should wait for whoever it is, to come back out."

  "Why do you assume someone will come out?" asked Toril, groggily. "I’m with Jay on this. We need to go in. I…I need to do some kind of protection spell to get us over the threshold."

  "It figures," said Beth under her breath. Whatever Jacinta did, Toril followed, and vice-versa.

  "You two are joined at the hip. Can’t you see Milly needs our help? Will you not help her?"

  Walking ahead of the girls, Toril suddenly turned around. "You two have to stay here. I may have to kill off whatever is in there."

  "What? Are you crazy?" screamed Beth. "That’s our friend you’re talking about."

  "Friends," said Toril, enunciating the ‘s’. "I expect one of them is already gone. Maybe both. I have to see for myself. Romilly herself might be possessed by Diabhal. At least, I can’t shake that feeling."

  "Toril, stay right where you are," Beth screamed.

  "I can’t do that," said Toril. "Look at these markings on my hands."

  "They’re getting deeper," said Jacinta. "It’s like you are getting branded or something."

  "Like Romilly at school, remember?" said Toril.

  "So, is Romilly…is Milly dead?" asked Beth, tears streamed down her face, replacing the anger from a few moments ago.

  "That’s why I’m going in," said Toril, "to find out. It’s awfully quiet in there. I’m taking the deepening of these marks, as not a good sign."

  "Alix. Is he alive then?" asked Jacinta.

  "I suppose so," said Toril. "But I can’t live on suppositions. I need facts."

  "I’m going with you," said Jacinta.

  "No way," said Toril. "You’re staying here."

  "It’s not like my hair can get any whiter," said Jacinta.

  Toril smiled, but Jacinta understood that she would not be allowed to come along.

  As Toril walked calmly towards Rosewinter, the two girls looked at each other.

  "Jacinta, did Holmes ever die in those Conan Doyle stories?"

  "I don’t know," said Jacinta. "But I wish I had read every one now."

  The police and ambulance service said that Jacinta Crow had not shed one tear the day she was found next to her parents, who were stone cold dead, and had been so for at least a week.

  As Toril approached the wood-cabin, a single tear plucked itself off Jacinta’s cheekbone and splatted into the snowy ground.

  She didn’t believe she would see Toril Withers alive again.

  ***

  "Can you see anything?" asked Beth, straining her neck.

  "No, nothing," said Jacinta, in an almost disinterested kind of way.

  Beth quickly picked up on this. "Jacinta, don’t worry, Toril wouldn’t have gone inside unless she thought she was safe. She can handle Alix."

  "It’s not him I’m worried about."

  "What? Are you crazy? Romilly would never-"

  "-never what, exactly? Never hurt anyone? Of course she would, and she can. A possessed girl in charge of the Mirror of Souls?" Jacinta shook her head at Beth. "Toril is in mortal danger."

  ***

  Toril pressed her Wiccan pentacle to provide some consistent light. Whatever was going on in the wood-cabin, she would find out soon enough.

  The place was eerily quiet. She didn’t want to call out, but she didn’t want anyone jumping out at her either.

  She surveyed the first room she entered. The lights flickered on and off, then fizzled out of existence. It was completely dark, save for the light around Toril’s neck. It wasn’t a good place for the light source, so she took the chain from around her neck, and held it in her hand, directly in front of her.

  She moved it from the left side of the room to the right. She couldn’t see anyone in here. The room was clear, and save for the door, which had sustained some sort of damage, and a bust up CD player on the floor, the room looked normal.

  Squelch.

  "Oh, disgusting," said Toril. Checking her boots, she knew she’d walked into something horrible. Closer inspection revealed it to be skin, but looked like it had parted with its owner a long time ago.

  This sort of situation though, was what Toril longed for. In the Sherlock Holmes story The House of Fear, seven wealthy men had retired to live in a remote Scottish castle.

  One by one, they would die in a most violent way, and preceding their death was the delivery

  of some orange pips.

  "No pips around here," said Toril under her breath.

  Still quiet.

  Another squelch. Toril pointed the light towards her boots again, and as she walked on the floorboards, blood seeped around her boots.

  Unlike the girl she had came for, Toril was not squeamish, though these were her best boots, and it pissed her off that they were spoiled.
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  Given that Dana and possibly several zombies were on the way, Toril decided she could wait no longer. She pulled the door open that lay right in front of her.