by AJ Salem
“What now?” I called to Sam. “The book doesn’t say how to close it.”
“Now it’s your turn.” He gave me a hideous smile and pushed.
I fell backwards, knocking my legs against the sides before falling into the hole, catching myself a few times as I reached out for anything to grab onto, only to lose my grip. My fingers finally hooked on to a thick root exposed in the dirt.
“Ian!” I yelled as I fastened myself to my only lifeline and dangled like a fish on a line. “Help!”
Below, I imagined Thom’s body, a tiny speck caught in an endless fall, but there was only darkness. The sky turned from a cool gray and then to blue as the Dybbuk torpedoed passed me on its way down the dreary depths.
My arms weren’t strong enough to carry my weight up to the surface. “Ian!” I screamed once more.
When I saw his face pop over the side, I was relieved.
“Hurry. I don’t think I can hold on much longer.”
He looked to his left and then to his right. Then past me. I waited for him to flash me his classic impish smile. Instead, he straightened his back and started talking to Sam.
“Please. I can’t.” I leaned my head against my arm. There was still more energy pulsing beneath the sigils. In theory, it would be enough to catapult me out of here if I trusted the power enough to do as I imagined.
I kept watching for signs that Ian was in the middle of bargaining for my life. It looked more like two buddies catching up, complete with shoulder bumping and knowing laughs. His eyes met mine once again and they were devoid of all emotion. The relationship we had shared these last few weeks meant nothing. That is when I saw the red glow in his eyes and the comprehension was crippling. Large skeletal wings unfurled from his back. It had been a lie all along.
All I wanted to do was let the anguish wash over me until it forced me down into the pit. Maybe I could catch Thom on my way down the rabbit hole and apologize about not trusting him.
“Goodbye, Gem,” Ian said without a hint of concern. Part of me was devising complex fantasies in which Ian created an elaborate subterfuge in front of Sam in order to ultimately save me.
“Ian, please.” I poured every emotion I had into that plea.
“It’s been nice.” His voice was cold and sounded older than the seventeen-year-old angst-ridden slacker he portrayed. He flicked something at me, raising my hopes, only to get nicked by the tail of a fading cigarette butt. He looked right past me and then laughed at something Sam said. Before my mind could even catch up to my heart and grasp what had actually just happened, Ian was gone.
That was when the rumbling began from beneath. The tremors struck with the force of an earthquake, their power increasing with every ripple until the walls of the chamber threatened to collapse. The pit belched sulfur. Steam hit me with a face full of clay. Rocks clouded my vision and filled my mouth with the organic taste of earth.
“I don’t think so,” I said as I began to clamber up the length of the root.
There is no way I’m letting them get away with this.
The muscles in my triceps quivered from the stress of pulling my weight and my palms were being rubbed raw from the friction. Sweat dripped down my back as I struggled to get out of there.
Tarzan made this look a lot easier.
The air now was choking and visibility was nil. The chittering sounds were growing louder with each blast of pressure and the sounds of clawing filled me with visions of the monkey-like creatures of the Dybbuk on the other side of the veil.
Something clipped my shoulder as it flew passed and I lost my grip, sending me right back down to where I had started. The sounds of bees swarming was followed by hundreds of things flying passed me and out into the dusk-colored sky. I looked up and caught sight of a humanoid creature with slick red skin and oversized avian eyes like black pools. It was hanging upside down, its clawed feet gripping the side of the wall.
I tried to think of my next step. There was still an unexpended kernel of power resting within me.
I could use it to summon help.
The moment to try anything had passed when the grotesque creature with its shiny black beak pounced on top of me and began pecking at my head. I thrashed around, trying to hold on as it yanked out chunks of hair and tapped at my skull. My scalp burned and I began to scream. I threw a stray punch and the creature unleashed more of its power at me as it beat its thorned wings against my body. Tears ran down my cheeks as I realized that my life was going to end this horribly. Betrayed by the one person I had trusted enough to sleep with. Pecked to death by some beast as the rest of the world was subjected to a worse fate.
My eyes searched the heavens.
Now would be a good time for the powers that be to intervene.
The monster grabbed my arms and began poking at the flesh. It ran the tip of its beak up and down my forearm and gave me a questioning look as if all of sudden he recognized me from somewhere. It tilted its bird head in surprise.
That was when a shadow bulleted straight into the creature, slamming it up against the far side of the pit. The sound of crunching bone echoed all around us. The Dybbuk released the creature to the depths of the chasm and flew back towards me into an embrace. Wispy black tendrils curled around my limbs and began lifting me up.
“Ghosty?” I asked.
It kept me steady and safe until resting me at Charlotte’s side before reforming into its familiar pillar-like stature. It stayed there while I pleaded to my best friend’s unconscious form to wake up. I checked for a pulse and found one but it was weak. Around us the woods were empty. Ian and Sam were long gone. The pit was no longer rumbling but still spewed the egg- filled stench.
“What should I do?” I didn’t know who I was asking.
Ghosty just stood there, as expected. I ran to the pit and picked up the amulet, expecting it to close without the magical device. It didn’t.
Instead, a colossal horse, white as a dove, galloped out. Its rider reigned it into a stop before me. He wore a suit of polished armor, his helmet was tucked beneath his arm and a thin gold circlet adorned his head. He would have been beautiful had terror not oozed from every pore. I shivered when he smiled, put the helmet on and grabbed his bow in the other hand. He held up one finger, kicked the side of the horse and then he was off.
“That probably wasn’t a good thing.” I looked to Ghosty.
It morphed a human head and nodded in agreement. It was the first time he had really communicated with me and I would have smiled if things hadn’t turned to such shit. I hunkered down next to Charlotte’s motionless body, her breathing had changed and appeared stronger.
Could I get her home?
I couldn’t be sure that my dad was back to normal. Ghosty’s presence indicated that it was still possible for some Dybbuk to stay. So I waited.
When Charlotte woke up, she screamed. “My dress.” She began to wipe away the dirt but the fabric was streaked with mud and grass stains.
“Charlotte, you’re okay!” I threw my arms around her and squeezed.
“Wow.” She rubbed the back of her head. “What an asshole. That like hurt. A lot.”
“Tell me you’re alright.”
“I’m fine.”
“Can you walk?”
“Yeah.”
When we got closer to my back yard, I saw two forms standing just beyond the reach of the security lamps. Even cloaked in darkness, I knew it was Sam and Ian watching the chaos in the streets, illuminated by the surrounding inferno. I squashed the urge to vomit.
“Wait,” I whispered, holding Charlotte back behind one of the larger maple trees.
“Is that him?” Charlotte asked. “Cuz if it is, wow, I am totally going to kick him in the balls.”
I saw one of them turn their heads in our direction.
“Quiet. We’re gonna get even. I promise.” I drew us down further to the ground and out of their line of sight. “There’s just one thing.”
“If you’re going to hi
t me on the head, no way.”
We watched as demons of every shape and size molested humans in the street, tearing at their clothing and skin as they cackled and hooted into the night air. The sound of glass breaking and alarms blaring was the added chorus to the misery.
“I don’t think I’ll need to. I’m asking your permission. Sam said something, that you’re the lamb. But you’re not dead. So I’m assuming it means that you just have a certain kind of supped-up power I can use. It’s your essence,” I said, recalling how the tattoos always sprung to life in her presence.
“Are you sure?” she asked. Our faces were close and I could see the uncertainty in her eyes.
“No. I’m not. I don’t know about half the things going on around here. But shouldn’t we at least try to stop it? I don’t think it can get much more fucked up than this.”
“Okay. Go for it. Make sure you really hit Sam. Punk.”
“Just tell me if it becomes too much.”
We sat back-to-back and locked hands. I stirred the small ball of energy that had lodged itself within my Third Eye. Charlotte relaxed into my body as the flow of power began to pour through me.
“You okay?” I asked. It was killer, trying to hold the power and talk to Charlotte at the same time, but I needed to know how she was handling it before I could go on.
“Yeah.” Her voice sounded dreamy. “Give them hell.”
I looked down at the sigils on my arm. They were cold and empty. The power I was using now was like the power I drew from the club. Human essence. Bit by bit, I was sucking down Charlotte’s soul.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
My heart had chilled down to its core. I spun Charlotte’s power through me as I watched Ian and Sam, with pure hatred bleeding out from every fiber of my being. I gathered all the animosity into the pure clean energy from Charlotte and wove them together into a tapestry of destruction.
Overhead, the dome the Dybbuk had erected was gone. In its place was thousands of demons, spreading off into the distance, searching for greener pastures than the broken town of Harrisport.
When the power threatened to suffocate me, I stood up and let Charlotte’s tranquil form slide down. Electricity buzzed through me and I could smell the distinct ionic smell surrounding me. I took one deep breath. Here there were no more incantations or demons. This was pure power, and all I knew was that I had to let go of it soon or else it would consume me like the sun had Icarus.
What happened next was pure and quick. I let the power focus through the necklace. It compounded into a force beyond nature, ripping through the tree trunk until it whipped both Sam and Ian to the ground.
I took one step. Then another. Before I knew it, I was standing above them. My two worst enemies.
“You played me. This whole time.” My voice boomed with the force of electricity trying to escape the conduit.
The two of them lay there at the mercy of my hold. I hammered the beams of light further into them. I knew what I had to do next. I peeled back each layer of the veil until I was directly in the Otherworld. I began to push Sam’s contorted body through it. He twisted in pain and screamed. “Don’t do this. We can work together,” he pleaded.
“It must really hurt if you’re bargaining with me now. Sorry. I’m through with you.” With one last burst, he disappeared.
With only Ian left, I was able to pour everything I had into just him. “Don’t you know that saying about a woman scorned?” I said.
His eyes flashed from blue to red and then back again. I pinned his arms and legs out to his sides.
“You’re going to regret this.” He gave me that knowing smirk. The kind a guy gives when he’s trying to tell you he knows what you look like naked.
“I doubt it,” I said and thrust the last of the power into him. I wanted to obliterate him. No Otherworld or endless Drifts for Ian. I was going to blast him into oblivion.
My body grew weak and I infused myself with more power. The urge to see this through was foremost in my mind. Ian’s body convulsed beneath the power. Smoke rose from his hands in an ironic display of stigmata.
There was a blip in the line. I felt it once. Then again. Then a third time. Something was jarring my connection to Charlotte. I chanced a glimpse behind me and saw Ghosty’s form flying back and forth between the power that was tethering me to my friend.
“Stop it,” I yelled. “You’re going to ruin everything.” I tried to keep pushing at Ian but he was strong. His decay was slow and I didn’t know how much power I needed or how long it would take.
Just then, the Dybbuk jumped in the path of the electricity. It absorbed more and more until it unraveled what was in me, leaving me an empty shell. I collapsed to the ground next to Ian and watched as Ghosty imploded in an inferno of blue flames.
I crawled on my hands and knees until I found her. I wrapped my arms under her shoulders and dragged her as far as I could towards the porch. Ian’s body was gone, leaving an imprint in the grass where he had lain. The smoke began to clear away. I sat on the grass in the comforting light of the yard, resting Charlotte’s head on my lap. I began to stroke the hair away from her eyes and was nearly broken at what I saw.
All along her neck and around her face, dark red veins pulsated above her skin. Her lips were pale white and her eyes were clouded in ash.
“Charlotte?” I whispered.
I ran my hands over her skin in silent prayer, caressing each line, pleading for them to disappear. In my tearful haze, I caught sight of two bare feet in the grass out of the corner of my eye. Still alight in the glow of magic was Brian’s ghost, standing above us.
“I’m finally losing my mind,” I said.
“Gem, do you think I’d let that happen?” He was wearing the same Zoso shirt. The aura of blue light that surrounded him began to dissipate, leaving a translucent glow to his phantom form. He looked down like the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. “I tried to warn you. About Ian. It’s just hard when you’re stuck like that.”
He crouched down beside and examined Charlotte.
“This is all my fault,” I cried.
“I could tell you it’s not just to make you feel better.”
“It was you. This whole time you were right here and I didn’t even know. You saved me from Sam and now you saved me from myself.”
“It wouldn’t have happened at all if I had gotten you away from Ian.”
“I didn’t know who you were talking about. There was Ian and Thom. I kept thinking it was Thom. Ian kept-”
“He kept planting seeds of doubt about him. It was part of the plan. To get you to use your powers to open the chamber. Make it seem like that would be the only way to get rid of the Dybbuk.” His voice croaked when he uttered the last word.
“So how are you here now?”
“Unfinished business. I was stuck here because I thought it was my fault. That the accident was a heinous mistake that could have been avoided if I wasn’t such a self-centered jerk.”
“It was the truck.”
“Yeah but I was stupid, and texting. And then you took the blame for everything. It was too much. I had to stay here and help you.”
Charlotte began to stir in my lap. “Gem? Is it over?” she asked but her voice echoed through my head.
“Sam’s gone.” I rubbed the worry lines from her forehead.
She opened her eyes. “I can’t see. And I can hear you. In my brain.” There was fear in her voice. Her eyes were coated in a milky white film.
“Shh. Just rest. I’ll figure it out.”
“Gemma?” My dad’s voice rang across the lawn. He hustled down the wooden stairs. “What happened?”
I turned to Brian, expecting him to help me out. My dad placed his hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright? Let’s get Charlotte in the house.”
“Yeah. You’re right.” I waited for him to say something about Brian’s presence but I doubted he could see him at all. Just like he hadn’t seen any of the Dybbuk. He scooped Charlotte
into his arms and took her inside.
“You coming?” I asked Brian. “Or is this it?”
My heart was prepared for anything right now. When everything was said and done, I would be the one left crying. Sparing me from one last grief wouldn’t have changed who I was becoming.
“I’m not going anywhere. We still need to close the gate. Put back everything that came out.”
The two of us followed our father into the house side by side to find Charlotte already on the couch, tucked beneath a mountain of blankets. The sound of rushing water and clanking pots told me that Dad was already fidgeting in the kitchen.
“Dad, we need to talk,” I called out to him from across the house.
There was no answer, only the continuous busy-ness of the clicking gas range pilot and the slamming of cabinet doors. I settled down on the stool of the breakfast bar, Brian took his usual spot beside me. The small gesture filled me with a paradox of emotions. It was comforting to have him there and, at the same time, it cut through me like a knife.
“Dad. Please stop.”
He turned away from the boiling pot of water and stood opposite me. I looked for any hints of lingering evil. There was none. None of the manic behavior that I had attributed to post- accident insomnia. He was back to his silence, his judgmental looks that only hinted at his true feelings.
“What is it?” He wrung the water out of a dishrag and into the sink before smacking it against the stainless steel basin.
“I’m not sure you know what’s going on. It’s bad and I need your help.”
“And Charlotte?”
I pulled my sleeve up, bearing not only the tattoos but also a piece of my soul that I would have rather kept hidden. The sigils, although inert, shone an iridescent blue black beneath the high intensity light of the halogen bulb hanging above us. The look of recognition was hard for my dad to cover up.
