by David Falchi
Said from someone who had spent most of his time in abandoned hovels this might sound weird but I’ve always been a little claustrophobic. When I realized that I couldn’t move, my heart beat accelerated. Lucky for me, I had other things to think about, like pronouncing properly the formula.
I opened the book and I tilted it downwards, so that the light produced by the mirror could help me identify the letters.
I was under the impression that Priscilla was watching me through the darkness, and that she was following my every move. This was going to be the last time that I hurt her, even though I knew that wasn’t really my sister. My sister had never truly been there. It is weird though how some thoughts reach the mind of man in danger.
«Now you’re about to learn something that your kind will never be able to do», I announced, hoping to sound intimidating. It’s not that I wasn’t worried about the danger, but I thought that hurt, even slightly, my enemy’s will, would have been helpful.
A grotesque laughter resounded in the room, and Priscilla’s face emerged from the darkness outside the defense barrier. Her face was blurry now. The wound caused by the blade was probably still burning inside that soulless being.
«Do you really think that you can do it? » it asked with the whistling voice of a snake. «After all, this would be like hunting a part of you. You won’t be able to do it. Just like you could never cut your leg and then continue to live».
I smiled. «We’ll see. You’re just trying to do what I’d do: undermining my self-control. But this isn’t going to work. You’re just a shadow of me. A sunray will be more than enough to wipe you out».
I didn’t wait for its reply. With the firmest voice that I could find, I started to recite the incipit of the exorcism.
* * *
In the blink of an eye the entity realized what I was doing and decided to react. Suddenly, a strong wind pounced on me with a ravaging fury. I had to hold the volume with both my hands if I didn’t want it to be torn off my grasp.
I went on with the ritual, with the awareness that it was just the beginning. Until that moment I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I intended to continue that way. I was able to ignore Lerner’s complaint and the presence anger that was raging against me, whispering unspeakable vulgarities in the darkness. Finally, the enemy was starting to behave like its kind. Maybe I was on the right track.
My heart stopped beating when the outer circle shined for a moment and then its light suddenly faded. The first defense line had been destroyed. I raised the tone of my voice, which now seemed deeper. I was almost done with the second page of the formula, and I had just requested the intervention of the celestial spirits. The outcome of the ritual was in their hands now. All they had to do was listen and be strong, and as for me, when I pronounced this part of the ritual I just had to remain focused and determined.
The wind raged against me, and this time it seemed even more intense. It was as if the entity was pushing the words backward, first down the stairs and then outside the entrance door, where they were harmless. The fear of failing was strong but I didn’t hesitate. I pushed it back in a corner of my mind, and I kept it under control. If I had survived that fight I would have had plenty of time to be scared.
The second phase of the ritual was the hardest because it was directly addressed at the being that was threatening me. Only once I was done reciting the first sentence I realized that I had been shouting, while Priscilla’s deformed face sneered in the surrounding darkness.
«I like this song of yours», she chuckled. «You’ve gotten better during this years, little brother».
And when I was almost done with the second phase another protection circle vanished. The darkness had no intention to back away; on the contrary, it was breathing down my neck.
There was only one barrier now between me and the enemy, and it was the one built by Lerner. I had no control over it. I knew that the other two had been wiped out too quickly: there was no way for me to complete the exorcism. But there was something even worse than that: the ritual wasn’t working at all.
It was too late now to back down. Since I started working on this case I’ve made nothing but mistakes. I continued to recite the spell, even though I realized that I had lost my initial determination. I was losing ground by the minute. Now I was supposed to hear the evil spirit’s screams of pain but the truth was a whole different thing. That wasn’t the ghost of a human being, but it wasn’t either a real demon. I had no idea of what was standing in front of me. The only thing that I knew was that I was going to be killed by it, and that as it announced before, it was going to devour my soul.
«It’s not working», screamed my assistant, managing to go over the wind blow and my voice. «It’s too strong. I don’t know how this is could be possible but I’ve never seen anything like that. I’m about to let the outer defense go».
The ritual was useless. When I closed the volume I had almost gotten to the end of the second passage. I put it back in the jacket, and I had to resist the temptation to throw it on the floor with all the strength that I had. But maybe somebody else would have found a way to use the book.
Somebody less naïve than me.
I lifted the mirror instead, for I was determined to free my assistant. Since he was a non-corporeal soul, maybe he would have been able to get out of there before being swallowed by that vortex of darkness.
«What the hell are you doing? Do you think now is the right time to surrender? »
«I’m breaking the spell that’s keeping you tied to the mirror. You’ve been a loyal friend in many adventures. I’d appreciate if you had a chance to save yourself».
«Enough with this bullshit, Kiesel. Don’t give up now. We might have another chance. Do you still have the guts to try to sleep? »
I didn’t understand what he meant. Even if I had fallen asleep, I would have still been inside a haunted house. And in this way, feeding off my spirit would have been a lot easier for my enemy.
«You need to get inside the mirror, for god’s sake. It’s another world, and if we are lucky, to the enemy’s eyes it’ll look just like the area outside the house. It won’t be that easy for it to find us here, and before he does find us it’s going to have to struggle».
Lerner’s defense wall was starting to disappear, and that was an undeniable fact. My assistant’s plan was crazy and I had already found several leaks in that lifeboat of his own. But at the same time I really had no other options unless I had decided to stay still and succumb.
I sat cross-legged, and for one last time I was determined to risk my life, ignoring my conscience that was yelling me not to fall for such a silly idea. I couldn’t tell whether there was a chance that I’d come back in the real world, and most certainly I would have had to stay inside the brass frame with Lerner, until my body, now in a vegetative state, would have taken its last breath.
«Damn it, hurry up. You can’t possibly be afraid of jumping inside the mirror. I’ve been here for a century and I’ve never had any trouble».
I closed my eyes and I started to do the usual breathing exercises. There was no reason for me to keep an eye on Lerner’s defense barrier because it was going to be destroyed in any minute now. Soon, my human remains would have gone beyond the circle. I just had to hope that they were of no use to the creature that we’ve been escaping from.
The creature that I was escaping from.
My assistant’s purpose was different than mine, and locking myself in his same cage meant testing his loyalty. Maybe I was the last soul the he needed to earn his freedom for good. And maybe he didn’t want to lose it and leave it to the entity that was threatening me.
I was making these considerations when I realized that I had been floating on the floor. I looked down and I watched my asleep body slipping backward. The darkness didn’t even look at it, and that made me feel relieved, at least for a quick moment. Then, my soul got sucked inside the mirror that was laying on the floor. Before I could change my mind, I
was hit by a vortex of lights that brought me to the entrance of that weird world.
I had just moved from one prison to another.
10
If I didn’t know already that it wasn’t a real place, I would have thought that I had ended up in a world that I had already visited. I no longer felt like a spiritual being, in fact I felt like I had retrieved all of my senses. I’d come to that conclusion a musty and rotten smell had welcomed me inside Lerner’s interpretation of the attic. Even though it looked run-down and in a very bad-state, it didn’t seem so threatening now. The sun light seeped through the crumbling shutters, even though this seemed the sick light of a dying star.
For the first time, my assistant was standing before me, and he was smiling as if he were about to hug a brother that he hadn’t seen in a long time. He was still wearing his suit and for the first time I saw him as a regular living creature. But I knew that this was just my point of view. After all, what really changed there were my human features and my perceptions of the world, and not the other way around.
«I know that you are not a sentimental guy but seeing you here it’s a real pleasure, Kiesel».
Lerner raised an arm before his body and his face showed the snigger that I remembered. «A hand-shake? »
I barely squeezed his fingers, and I made sure that the contact didn’t last for long. I was surprised when I noticed that my reflected version still had the gloves. I wondered what would have changed if I had decided to take them off. This wasn’t the first time that I had visited the astral dimension but I always had my own reasons to do it. In that moment instead, a meticulous analysis of the entire phenomenon would have would have been helpful. I wasn’t just wearing the same clothes that I had in the real world, I also had a copy of all the objects that I had inside my pockets. I could have even tried to do another exorcism if I wanted to. Provided that it would have worked.
At least I still had the knife. If Lerner had tried any reckless act I would have had something to defend myself.
«Can you see what’s happening outside? » I asked.
My assistant burst into laughter. «It depends on what you mean by outside. If you mean the area around the house you can just go down the stairs and see for yourself. But if you meant the world outside the mirror, well, it’s still behind your back».
I turned, taking my eyes off the man that was standing before me. Suddenly, I was staring at a vortex of darkness. It was making a faint buzzing and for a moment in that ocean of darkness I thought I saw some huge fingers, and farther away, I recognized Priscilla’s mad face.
That was Lerner’s perspective. But then my assistant snapped his fingers and the vortex disappeared. I turned back towards him. «Maybe I should step in and do my best to stop the bastard from its chase. And let me be frank, that thing will go after us anyway, but I have a foolproof plan. I didn’t have the chance to tell you about it before because we were in quite a hurry».
«And what would that be? » I was still feeling a bit skeptical about this new situation. The spirits tend to be whimsical and nasty, especially when they have been caged in an object for such a long time. I couldn’t have blamed Lerner if he had decided to devour my soul and earn his freedom.
«Right now the barrier is still up. But as soon as it collapses I bet that our friend would like to keep playing with us. Your body would be of no use to the creature, because by then it would have already found out that its owner is no longer there». He widened his arms, as if he were proud of the area that he was showing me.
«What the creature ignores – and maybe even you, Master – is that we’re not just living inside a reflection of the real world. The mirror contains all the places that I’ve visited, all skillfully reinterpreted by me». He stressed his last sentence with a bow, and he pretended to remove an invisible hat from his head.
«So, for the demon the outside of this house», I continued, «would look exactly like the outside of the country house. But this time it’s not strong enough to condition the area around the building. Is that your plan? »
«Yep. But I also have some other tricks that I intend to use in case the creature should go over its epicenter».
Epicenter. My assistant instinct was right, our enemy was like a natural phenomenon, just like an earthquake or a flood.
The walls started to tremble, and this was a sign that the enemy must have broken Lerner’s defense system, and it was now getting closer to the mirror. But there was a huge flaw in my assistant plan. «What if the creature had decided to break the mirror? Until now it had devoured every object».
«You’re right, but none of those objects had an entire world to explore. It might manage to damage the frame, throw the glass against the wall and shatter it into a million pieces. But even inside one of those fragments we’d still be protected. It might turn it to dust, of course, but then we could hide ourselves in the tiniest grain, and we’d be far away from it. No, if the creature wants bring home the dinner it’s going to have to come here and find us».
The walls’ shaking was getting louder, as if the house was about to collapse. Lerner pointed at the stairs and he suggested that I followed him. It was time to be the baits.
We rushed down the metallic flight of stairs, which here was clean and stable, and then we reached the main floor. A resounding thud revealed us that the entity had entered Lerner’s universe.
My assistant let out a coarse laugh while he reached the entrance door and he opened it wide. He kept the door open for me, until I had reached the backyard and until I had stepped on the barren land. I ran toward the gate, without even daring to look at the scenery, or at least what was left of it. As soon as I got there I realized that even the wood wasn’t where I had left it; it was as if it had been destroyed by the most violent fire of all times.
Now there was just an immense field of dried and charred trees, with sharp and dark branches that pointed upwards. Lerner quickly joined me and pulled my sleeve, suggesting that I looked again toward the house.
I know that this might seem odd, coming from me, but I couldn’t believe to what my eyes were seeing. A bundle of giant smoky tentacles were getting out from each window, protruding themselves a few feet over, and then they disappeared, maybe because of the sunlight. Despite this, they continued to grow and gain ground.
«We pissed it off, Kiesel. Are you happy? »
«I’m not sure about it», I replied. I felt weird. It was like being inside a material body even though deep down I knew that was the opposite of the truth.
The contours of the objects were still blurred images, and I was under the impression that they took a real shape only when I laid my eyes on them. This world was adapting to me, and not the other way around. «And now what do we do? »
«We do the baits» replied Lerner. «We wait until it sees us, we make sure that we get its attention and then we force it to distance itself from the house. Then you’ll have the chance to recite all your prayers and see if they work. Even though, I’d try a full-contact assault». He didn’t even give me the time to reply that he grabbed on to what was left of the rusty gate and he started shaking it like a caged monkey; then, he yelled: «Hey, asshole. We’re here .You’re not that fast when you’re outside of your world, uh? Well, let’s see if you can keep up now».
I thought that provoking the enemy was a ridiculous move but it actually worked. The smoky tentacles stretched toward our direction. And suddenly the pressure on the walls was so intense that the whole building blew up. The deflagration was deafening and I had the impulse to bend down in order to avoid being hit by the pieces of plaster, glass fragments and any other possible source of destruction. Amid all those noises I could hear my assistant laughing coarsely.
Nothing hit us, and when I had the courage to raise my head I understood why. The mass of darkness was still tearing the building to pieces but everything it threw in the air after a few feet started to lose consistency, vanishing before touching the property borders.
«You’re in my house, you idiot, and you cannot play your games here», screamed Lerner. «And you’re too stupid to see that rules have changed. You are going to have a hard time trying to catch us».
I stood up and my assistant patted me on the shoulder.
«Now, get ready to run. I think it bought it».
I turned toward the wood and I noticed that the dark roots of those dried branches had invaded the path.
Everything looked the same now, and you could hardly find your bearings here. Without Lerner I would have been lost. Maybe that was the strangest thing: the awareness of not being able to defend myself. In the world inside the mirror there were no spirits, except the ones devoured by the entity that lived inside the reflecting surface. I was a stranger in a foreign land, and while I was leaving the main road behind my back I realized that I could have never go back on my own. All the weapons that I had with me had never seem so useless.
«Don’t be scared, Master. For years you’ve fed me and you’ve kept my mind alive. I have no intention to betray you now ».
That was just a vague declaration of intents, and I couldn’t base my survival on that.
In the meantime the presence had stopped venting its anger on the phantom building and now it was slithering toward us, like a gigantic unicellular organism. However, I knew that that bizarre entity possessed a determined will and an evil intellect. It had learnt from me, and I was sure that even though its look had changed, the same hadn’t happened to what it had learnt.
Lerner stepped back, still pretty amused. Since the creature had arrived here I’d felt more insecure than I’d ever been, while my assistant, on the contrary, had never been more excited. On the one hand I could understand that: he had spent years and years alone, watching a world that he couldn’t touch from a mirror, but now things had changed and he had managed to bring a piece of reality in his own house. Besides, I kept repeating myself that this was a chance for him to gain his freedom.
