Tyler scanned the perimeter along with the others when Father Demetrius went over and placed a palm on his shoulder. “What do you say we go look for her?”
His brother nodded but didn’t say a word, so the priest went off to the right and used the flashlight to guide them.
“We’ll go in the other direction,” said Eloise, nodding to Jocelyn and switching on her flashlight.
Both teams carried their shovels with them. In case they encountered Lucretia, they’d need to knock her down and keep her stable until they lit her bones on fire.
Ashleigh quaked against Logan. He couldn’t blame her for being nervous. Since learning that Lucretia had escaped, a fright had leapt into his psyche. He’d originally hoped they would arrive before she climbed out of her grave, but now they would need to find her and light her on fire. He wondered how Lucretia’s body looked after spending a century underground. Just imagining the decay made him quiver.
Ashleigh hugged him harder. After about ten seconds, she cleared her throat. “What do we do now?”
“Well,” he said, “she’s not really alive. Whatever we encounter out there, Lucretia already died, so we can’t actually ‘kill’ her because she’s already dead. It’s very important that you remember that.” Because that’s what he’d been telling himself on the way over here. Logan didn’t want to deal with her, but it was his responsibility, so if anyone had to handle the witch, he needed to do it.
“Can you do that?” she asked. “Kill it?”
“I’ll have to whether I’m ready or not. The same goes for you. Lucretia is prepared to kill us, so we have to be ready to do the same thing.”
“I’m scared, Logan. Like really, really scared.”
“I know. Me too.” He looked her way. “But we’ve got each other, and I won’t let anything happen to you.” Seeing her eyes tear up, Logan felt it was important for them to break their embrace. Otherwise, Ashleigh might not feel strong enough to separate.
The notion that Lucretia might be watching them right now behind a tree somewhere nearby made him crowd out his emotions. He concentrated on the environment around them, watching, listening.
A high-pitched scream split the air.
“Was that Tyler?” asked Ashleigh, jumping at the disturbance. She gasped for air, waving her flashlight in all directions.
Logan’s pulse beat at his temples and he scanned the area. It was Tyler. He prayed that he’d yelled out of fright but not imminent contact with Lucretia. He scanned the area, trying to determine which direction the noise had come from.
“This way,” Ashleigh said, already darting off to the left.
He was surprised but glad that she’d acted instead of frozen up. He sprang into action until he ran beside her, his heart hammering inside his chest, his breath coming quick. The wind pushed against them as they passed trees. Up ahead, he spotted a couple of flashlights lying on the ground. Neither Tyler nor Father Demetrius was anywhere in the vicinity.
Frantic at that sight, Logan veered around in every direction, squinting to spot movement. Not another sound came from that area.
One more yelp carried through the night air.
Up ahead, a dark-haired woman in a white nightdress and black loafers kneeled on the ground on all fours. To her left, Father Demetrius lay on the ground, unconscious. It meant Tyler was still somewhere, possibly nearby and hopefully unhurt.
The scene boosted Logan’s adrenaline to spike. He picked up speed, leaving Ashleigh behind. He didn’t see Tyler to the left or right of the priest or Lucretia on the ground. Then his gaze went back to the witch, and he didn’t need to question why she’d knelt on the grass.
She was strangling Tyler beneath her.
Logan’s breath caught, but he didn’t have a second to waste. He darted in their direction.
Thankfully, his little brother had released a couple more squeals. It meant that he was still breathing. It also alerted Eloise and Jocelyn to potential danger, which would hopefully persuade them to check on the disturbance.
As Logan closed in, he flung his flashlight to the ground, slowed down, and grasped the shovel’s wooden handle with both hands. He came to a stop beside the same woman who’d straddled him this morning, wearing the same nightgown. What little flesh he saw was deteriorated alongside patches of white bone, but he couldn’t see beyond the straggly hair covering her face.
Below her, Tyler squirmed left and right, his shoes kicking against the grass below him. His face was red and scrunched up in pain. Tight gasps left his open mouth every second.
Seeing his little brother fighting for life sent a fresh dose of fear and rage through Logan. He drew the shovel behind him to put as much force into the upcoming blow as possible. He aimed for the back of her head.
Just as he began to swing, Lucretia swung around his way, revealing that she had only her right arm available. Pockets of flesh were missing from her face, leaving fragments of bone spotting her chin, nose, and forehead.
The grotesque sight stunned him, and he slowed the momentum of the blow he intended to deliver.
The witch reached out, grabbed his foot, and yanked him toward her.
Thrown off balance, Logan twisted his body backward and dropped the shovel to throw his hands out to break his fall. He didn’t have enough time for the maneuver to take effect. His left hip and elbow crashed into the earth. Despite that, he pulled his hand out for the weapon laying a couple of feet from his fingertips.
The pressure on his ankle increased. He felt his body being pulled in the opposite direction, so he kicked his leg once, twice, a third time until the tension broke free from his leg and his heel bashed into something solid.
He pulled his body forward with both elbows and knees until he clutched the shovel with his right hand, but once more he felt Lucretia squeeze his left ankle. He pulled the shovel inward, pivoted his torso, and got his free hand on the handle. He cranked back once again.
Lucretia dragged him toward her. The motion forced her bangs to part. Her pock-riddled face was mangled in a feral growl as her eyes bulged. All the while, not a sound escaped her.
The sight put a fright through him, and he hesitated for a moment. Once more denied the opportunity to put all of his strength into the blow, Logan swung the shovel.
The metal clanged as it slammed against Lucretia’s left ear. It ripped from her head, flew through the air, and got lost in the darkness. The witch tilted over to the side and hit the grass.
To the right, Tyler placed both hands to his throat as he cast a pained expression and fell to his knees, nearly falling onto his shovel.
Now that his brother was safe, Logan thought only of destroying Lucretia’s broken body. No person had the right to return from beyond the grave, and he would see to it that he made this her last physical visit to this realm.
Logan righted his balance, pushed off the ground as the Lucretia placed a hand to her head as though she suffered from a splitting headache, and jumped to his feet. He ran over, wound back the shovel, targeted the top of her head, and brought down the shovel with all his might.
A clank upon impact forced Lucretia to fall to the ground.
Logan hurried over and kicked the woman in the right shoulder.
She toppled to the grass once more, lay on her back, and growled. The witch stuck her lone elbow into the ground to prop up her body.
Behind her, Tyler approached with his shovel. He swung the head of the shovel into her left shoulder, forcing her back to the ground again. More growls erupted from a mouth with a few teeth missing and a jaw that shifted from side to side in a mechanical manner.
Now that Lucretia once more stretched out, Logan hurried over beside her head, lifted the shovel over his head with both hands, angled the head toward her throat, and struck down in the exact spot he’d hoped to connect with.
Lucretia’s neck separated from her body. Her face went slack. So did the lower portion of her body.
Logan didn’t want to catch sight of tha
t disgusting creature any longer than necessary. He ran over to Tyler and spun him around at the same time Eloise and Jocelyn arrived behind him. He surveyed the area for Ashleigh and found her with both hands on the flashlight to sling a beam of light a few feet away from the dismembered corpse, as though only willing to look at the outline the luminescence supplied and not her entire decapitated body.
“Logan?” she asked, looking his way now. “Is Lucretia finally dead?”
“Yes,” he said, winded. “No matter what, don’t look at her.”
Ashleigh hustled over to them. “That’s it.” Once she came up beside him, Eloise took her into her embrace while Jocelyn attended to Father Demetrius, who now sat up and shook his head, looking around in a dazed manner.
It occurred to Logan that he’d done it. A smile flickered across his face, but he only allowed for a brief moment of relief because this wasn’t over. Now he just needed to keep Lucretia’s spirit from haunting.
Tyler watched Jocelyn help the priest to his feet. “What happened to him was my fault,” he said, his voice cracking a little. “He told me to be ready for anything, and just then I felt the shovel being taken from me. I turned around, and Lucretia was already swinging it at Father Demetrius. He could’ve died.”
“But he didn’t,” Logan said. “Thank God.”
“That’s when she turned around and threw me to the ground. She could’ve bashed my head in. I could be dead right now. Why didn’t she kill me?”
Logan didn’t need to think before answering. “She only had one arm. It made things tough for her.” If anything, he appreciated that Lucretia broke her arm while busting her way out of the casket. If not, she might have killed his brother. He grasped Tyler and pulled him into an embrace. “Thanks for the help, sergeant!” He saluted his brother.
Tyler stepped away, straightened, and returned the gesture. “It was an honor, master sergeant.”
Jocelyn carried the canister of gasoline and walked alongside Father Demetrius, who cringed while rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, as they walked up to them. She turned her attention to Eloise.
Jocelyn went over to the remains, uncapped the jug, and doused the corpse.
When she finished, Father Demetrius pulled a book of matches from his pants pocket, lit one, and tossed it on Lucretia’s body.
Logan went over to Ashleigh and pulled her into a hug.
Yellow flames kicked up immediately and spread along the witch’s body. Soft popping sounds ensued.
Father Demetrius lit another match and flipped it onto Lucretia’s head.
The fire ravaged her cranium.
Earlier, Logan had done an internet search and discovered that the process of burning the entire body could take between two to three hours. Of course, they couldn’t stay there that long. He just hoped that they’d be able to burn enough of the body before leaving that Lucretia couldn’t return to life. But then, he doubted that could happen since he’d decapitated her.
The disgusting scent of burning flesh filled his nostrils and made his eyes water. Logan pulled his siblings further away from the remains.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Jocelyn said, scanning the perimeter.
Upon hearing those words, Logan released his family members from his embrace and spun back towards her. Concern gripped him. He couldn’t remember anything that would prevent this portion of the curse to ruin along with Lucretia’s body. “What do you mean?”
“Lucretia’s body may be done with,” Eloise said, “but as we expected, her spirit still lingers.”
Logan glanced around, but after a moment he realized he wouldn’t be able to see her, so he set his gaze on Eloise. “Where is she?”
“Right in front of you. She’s laughing.”
A chill passed over Logan. He couldn’t tell if it was a frigid gust of wind or if the witch’s proximity had affected him. It didn’t get much creepier than learning that a ghost stood in front of your face…and you didn’t even notice.
Logan stepped backward and put his hands up to protect himself. Then he lowered them since he couldn’t stop an attack by using physical force. “Lucretia,” he said, unable to keep his voice from shaking a little. “My great-grandfather is at my house. He’s waiting for you.”
“Lucretia knows,” Eloise said. “She’s tethered to your family. It’s like a GPS tracking device but based on your soul signature.” She looked off to the left. “Lucretia just left.” Eloise’s gaze drifted back to Logan. “She’s heading to your house to deal with Abner.”
28
Logan turned in the direction they’d come, toward the ladder he’d leaned against the fence. “Then we have to get back home.”
“What about the body?” Jocelyn asked. “Someone is bound to see it.”
Father Demetrius pointed at the corpse. “We can’t just leave her body like this. It’s sacrilege.”
“Feel free to douse the flames,” Logan said, “and put her back in the casket.” Those words felt cold and unfeeling, and he felt guilty for treating Lucretia’s remains with so little dignity. She may have suffered unknown cruelty in life on this earth, but the woman had cursed his family in perpetuity and tried to kill him and Tyler. “It might also give you a chance to make sure Gregory gets home safely.”
Father Demetrius nodded, a grim expression lining his face. “I’ll take care of it.”
Jocelyn went over to the priest. “I’ll be back once we figure things out at the house.”
“I’m sorry you got hurt, Father,” Logan told the holy man. “But thank you for looking out for my brother. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
Father Demetrius didn’t lift his gaze. He nodded again. “You’re welcome.”
“Let’s get going.” Logan led the others toward the ladder.
The group quickly left the graveyard and soon enough clambered into Eloise’s vehicle for the ride home. As Eloise drove, everyone remained silent.
Now alone with his thoughts and unable to take action, Logan was plagued with despair. Other than meeting Eloise, the entire week had been draining. It had tried his fears, patience, and resourcefulness. He’d trespassed in the graveyard, stood by as a priest broke his vows to help him, and then followed that up by destroying human remains. Each of those tasks were necessary, but he didn’t feel good about any of it.
He felt just as bad asking Eloise to dredge Abner’s soul up from Hell. Someone like that shouldn’t get a reprieve from the horrors they’ve committed on Earth. Yet he’d done just that. And he now hoped that Lucretia would forgive the man who ruined her life on this plane. Logan had no idea how to convince her to listen to him and remove the curse, but he would need to think of something. It added more strain to an already stressful predicament. One look at the frowns and grimaces around the interior of the vehicle told him the others weren’t in much better moods.
If Lucretia couldn’t forgive Abner and end the curse, Logan just hatched an interesting idea that could potentially work, but it was also completely terrifying. What if he convinced Abner to enter his body while Lucretia did the same with Eloise? That way, Logan and Eloise could control the spirits inside them, if that was even possible, while letting those ghosts speak peacefully, after which Lucretia would hopefully end the curse.
The idea of letting a monster that had spent the past century in Hell…into his body shook Logan to the core. And he had no idea if Eloise would even consider such an outlandish notion. He didn’t like the idea of that psychotic witch inside Eloise’s body, controlling her words and movements. It seemed reckless and insane. Assuming Eloise agreed to the proposal, what if Eloise couldn’t restrain the witch and Lucretia took control forever? Logan shivered at the thought. It meant Eloise would vanish from the earth, and that possibility crushed him. The world was a better place with Eloise in it. In the end, he would have effectively killed her. And now that he found Eloise, he didn’t want to live without her.
Now wondering if he should abandon the idea,
Logan decided not to let such negativity enter his head. It would only twist him up inside and make it difficult to handle things as they came rather than trying to set plans in motion that might not even work. But short of suicide, he couldn’t imagine another arrangement that might work. All told, if he and Eloise could curb the murderous tendencies of the spirits currently in his home, they might convince Lucretia to unbind the hex.
The plan seemed incredibly dangerous with the potential for an irreversible outcome that could place him in an even worse position than now. He looked at the prospect from a different perspective and wasn’t sure if setting that scheme in motion was even possible. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to mention it in the car so Ashleigh and Tyler could listen in. They might get hysterical with worry and try to dissuade him from convincing Eloise to give it a try.
Twenty minutes later, when Eloise parked in Logan’s driveway, Logan opened the passenger door and shot out of the car. He’d left on a few lights in the house, and seeing it abandoned but potentially with two spirits inside made the hair on the back of his neck rise.
He’d asked Jocelyn to keep an eye on his siblings outside because he didn’t want them near Abner or Lucretia, and neither Ashleigh nor Tyler put up a fight this time. Perhaps seeing a corpse getting decapitated before watching the body burn convinced them not to question their older brother.
Regardless, Logan ran up to the porch and placed an ear against the front door. He didn’t plan on rushing into the house because he’d need to rely on Eloise for guidance when it came to the spirits inside.
Eloise arrived a few seconds later. “I can banish Abner back to Hell, but I can’t make Lucretia move on from this dimension unless she wants to. And we both know she wants to stay. Why did you tell her about Abner’s spirit being out of Hell?”
“Lucretia wants revenge. Maybe she’ll get it.”
“But they’re spirits,” Eloise said. “They can communicate, but they’re consumed with thoughts and emotions, nothing else. It’s one thing for Abner to speak so eloquently while under no stress, but Lucretia is incredibly volatile. Do you think he’ll be calm when he sees her? Do you think she’ll listen to anything Abner says?”
The Descendants Page 21
