by Candis Vargo
“And you are?” The woman’s voice wasn’t nearly as pleasant as it was only a moment ago.
“My name is Hailey. Hailey Richards.” She paused as the cashier looked at the photo. “He was a friend of my mother’s.”
The woman looked at Hailey, clearly unimpressed. With a raised eyebrow, she looked Hailey over from head to toe before she nodded her head toward the back wall.
“Back there?”
The woman didn’t say anything else; she just nodded again. Her face didn’t hide her annoyance.
Hailey grabbed her picture and walked through the bright breaded curtain that hung in the doorway.
Though the front of the store was lit brightly by fluorescent bulbs, the back was only lit by candles that flickered as she walked by. Several tables stood out in the room, all of which were covered in bowls and herbs.
“Hello?”
She walked farther back in the room as she second guessed herself.
“Hello…is someone back here?”
“I knew you’d find me,” an old man’s voice said from behind her.
She spun on her heels to see a faint outline of a man sitting in a darkened corner. A red glow appeared as he sucked on his cigar. He flicked on the light switch next to him, and the room brightened.
Maximum had aged quite significantly. He appeared to be in his early seventies now, but the depth of wisdom in his eyes was still there. He wasn’t wearing the red she had come accustomed to seeing him in. Instead, he wore a simple brown t-shirt.
He flicked his cigar in the ashtray that sat on the table in front of him. He said, “I haven’t seen you since you were just a little girl.”
Hailey walked over and sat down across from him. She noticed something else in his eyes too—something she hadn’t seen before. It looked like he was proud…yet worried.
“You’re Maximum,” she said.
“Just Max, please.” He smiled.
“How’d you know I’d be coming?”
Max took another puff of his cigar. When he blew out the smoke, he said, “Because the house was torn down.”
“How’d you—”
“The women are quite pissed with me, and they haven’t stopped letting me know that,” Max cut her off.
“Women?”
“The Dark Ladies, as you used to call them. No doubt they’ve started visiting you as well.”
She’d assumed that he knew about the Dark Ladies, but hearing him speak of them relieved her. So she wasn’t losing her mind, but at the same time she was overwhelmed. She had wanted answers when she went there, she just didn’t expect him to dig right in.
“Wait, so you’ve been seeing them too? What does the house being torn down have to do with any of this? Do you know what they want?”
“Oh, yes.” Max sighed. “With me, they don’t technically want anything. As scary as they can be, they can’t really harm anyone. They just want to let me know how pissed off they are.”
Hailey sat, confused. If the women couldn’t hurt anyone, then what the hell did they want with her? She was pretty sure she hadn’t done anything to piss anyone off that bad, especially ghosts, if that’s what they were. She couldn’t understand why they were so angry, so she asked.
“No, Hailey,” he said, “they’re not angry with you. Just me…because I’m the one who had them trapped for years. Trapped in your old house.”
Chapter 10
Images of the Dark Ladies swarmed through her mind. She thought about what they wanted; if they weren’t angry with her, why were they following her? And what the hell were they counting down to her birthday for?
Shit, maybe she really was going crazy. Who talks about ghosts, especially ghosts wanting things, like its second nature?
Max must have realized her confusion. Before he continued explaining everything, he told her he would start at the beginning.
“It’s the only way for you to understand what they want,” he said.
The story was long, but he didn’t hold anything back.
“In the fourteenth century, Europe was struck with a plague. People were sick with fever, consumed with pain, and vomiting. They were also covered in strange, black boils that oozed both blood and pus. That’s where the name ‘The Black Plague’ came from. But, as everyone who came down with the illness began to die, it became known as ‘The Black Death’.”
“As the plague spread, people began doing everything they could to avoid becoming sick. Doctors wouldn’t treat the ill, and nearly everyone locked themselves inside. Your ancestors were among those dealing with the plague. They were a small family with only one child. Their little girl was less than two years old. When their child came down with the plague, they decided to find their own way to treat her. The methods used back then were brutal—from draining blood to cutting the boil and releasing the puss—and they knew no child could handle that. The boils were painful enough.”
“The mother was a part of a secret coven of witches, so she used that to her advantage. She tried to do magic and call upon the spirits for help, but the plague was a punishment on mankind, so they couldn’t.”
“Furious that her fragile, innocent child was put through such torture, she turned dark. Any mother would. She called upon much darker forces, and proceeded to make a deal with a demon instead.” Max paused to take a drag of his cigar.
“For her child to be saved, she had to place a curse on her bloodline. One that wouldn’t go into effect for one hundred and fifty years, but once it did…it couldn’t be reversed. With her concern for her child foremost in her mind, she agreed without even knowing what the curse would be. She sealed the deal with her blood so it couldn’t be undone,”
“Her child was instantly healed, and the three of them were made immune, so she kept her word and placed the curse.”
“Exactly one hundred and fifty years from that day, a female child of every three generations would be marked for the demon to take. The mark was simply their birthdate…Friday the Thirteenth.”
“Every girl would look exactly as the last—pale complexion, with hair as black as night. Come their twenty-fifth birthday, they would be taken and damned to live out eternity as what you refer to as ‘the Dark Lady.’”
“The story was passed down for generations, and most of the time it was just a scary story parents would tell their children to get them to behave. But every third generation, families learned that it was no mere story.” He took another puff of his cigar and blew out the smoke.”
“The Dark Ladies stalked the children that were marked, stalked them from birth…waiting until their twenty-fifth birthday, when they would take them.”
“The first time your mother saw you with the Dark Ladies, she realized it was no myth and sought out my help. We figured that since it was a witch’s curse that had started it, there might be a way to undo it. We performed countless rituals, and tried several things. From spirit bottles to try and trap them, to spells that have managed to break millions of curses—none of them worked.”
“With the Dark Ladies coming around more often, your mother was desperate, and we turned from what one would consider ‘white magic’ to black. Just as the mother that started the curse, your mother called upon the demon. I had tried and tried to convince her not to, but she was desperate to protect her baby…to protect you. But the demon had too much to gain from the future generations. He wouldn’t allow a way to undo it.”
Max continued to explain that with most entities, one could simply find the bones and burn them…but the Dark Ladies weren’t exactly a spirit. They didn’t leave behind a body. When a woman is taken to join them, they are taken whole in their human form. They become a soul trapped in a body, damned to wander through the darkness and continue taking women in their bloodline as they slowly decayed.
They are neither living nor dead.
Finally, Max had found something that would work to trap them, making them unable to conjure their full form. That way, they couldn’t take Hailey.
He had painted a seven-pointed star inside of a circle—called the Key of Solomon—in their basement, since it was large enough to cover the entirety of the house. The star alone wasn’t enough, and the spell required a great sacrifice. It was a mother’s love that began it, so it had to be a mothers love to trap them.
The sacrifice was her mother’s soul.
Her mother had willingly agreed and gave her soul to the darkness to ensure it would work. She was relieved when the Dark Ladies had vanished. They were trapped inside the Key of Solomon, and were only able to gain strength enough just to make their presence known. The ghostly encounters her and her brother had as children were the Dark Ladies trying to get out.
Eventually, since her soul had been taken, it became too much for her mother, and she started losing herself. The woman she once was disappeared and was left as an empty shell, ultimately leading to her suicide.
Once the house was destroyed, the seal which held the Dark Ladies was broken—releasing them back into the world.
And they were hell bent on coming for her.
Chapter 11
Hailey sat, unable to speak.
For as long as she could remember, she had hated her mother for being the way she was, and for killing herself.
But her mother had done it all for her…to save her.
To give her a life.
A life that she was apparently about to lose.
How could she go from having such a bright future ahead of her, to no future at all?
“So, you’re telling me that I’m going to turn into one of these things tomorrow.” Her voice came out a fearful squeak.
“They never leave you. They’re always there. Where there is darkness, they are there. The shadow is part of their being. They can use it to travel through and to gloom. It’s like a portal to them.” His eyes turned from her as he looked around the room. “They’re always there.” He inclined his head to her left, and she looked behind her.
Her heart turned to ice as she jumped out of her seat, desperate to be deeper within the light. The shadows that danced across the other end of the room were filled with faces. The Dark Ladies were crouched on their arms, staring at her. Hailey looked at them. and they all looked exactly the same. Each one had the greasy black hair that lined the sides of their face, their pale skin nearly illuminated within the dark.
Her eyes were wide, her breath coming rapid and heavy.
She looked around the room, and a twinge of compassion hit her. They were all like her once. They never asked for what was done to them.
She shook her head as she whispered, “I don’t want to be one of them.” She turned and looked at Max with determination in her eyes. “I’ll kill myself before I become one of them.”
Max pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to her. The cold metal burned her hand as she looked at it.
“Your mother had that made as a backup plan. She had feared your father would run away from his problems. She feared this day would come. He also lost who he was after the trap was set…but only because he couldn’t handle it all. Anyway, part of our soul will always remain in our hearts, so before your mother had completely lost herself, she made me promise that I would take her heart from her dead body and seal this pendant with its ashes.”
Hailey looked down at the necklace in her hands. She recognized the seven-pointed star as the Key of Solomon that Max had mentioned. There were two circles on the outside that were attached to the points, and a small circle in the center of the star that had a latch on it.
“The ashes of her heart are inside of that center circle.” Max’s voice was soft.
She had always loved her mother, even through all of the hate. But nothing compared to the love she felt for her at this moment. Everything her mother had done for her, even after her death…
“Thank you, Mom,” she whispered as she held the necklace up to her heart.
“That will do the same as the house. Every one of them that touches you,” he said as he looked back at the women, “will be trapped within that, just as they were the house.”
Hailey put the necklace on and looked over at Max. “Thank you.” Her voice was weak, and tears filled her eyes.
Max looked at her and smiled. “She always loved you, Hailey. Now, walk through that darkness, and hold your head up high. I swear to you, they can’t take you now.”
“What about you?”
“I told you, they can’t hurt me. They just want to try and scare me. But I’ve battled things more frightening than them.”
Hailey gave a short nod, and placed her hand on the pendant that dangled around her neck. She lifted her head up and tried to ignore the pounding of her heart. She walked back toward the door through the darkness.
She slowed her speed as she stepped into the shadow, waiting for one of them to touch her. She tried not to look at them, because even though they couldn’t take her, the sight of them still shook her to the core.
Somehow they knew what her necklace was.
They would twitch their heads, and even though their eyes were solid white, she could tell they were looking at her necklace. Once they saw it, they slowly backed away, making room for her to walk through. They were careful not to get too close to her.
Hailey smiled and sent up a silent “thank you” to her mother.
Chapter 12
A tremor on her bed rattled her from her sleep and she instinctively sat up, fearing the worst.
Pat flopped himself down on the bed beside her.
“This is the best Friday the Thirteenth, ever.” Enthusiasm filled his voice.
“Ugh, what the hell, Pat?” She groaned as she threw herself back on the bed and covered her face with a blanket.
“Seriously.” He yanked the blanket away. “Get this, we received three…that’s right, three calls from some of Sasha’s friends. So now, we have officially taken on three new big time jobs.”
Hailey sat back up on the bed, her eyes wide as she grinned from ear to ear.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Oh my God,” she screeched as she hopped out of bed. She started pacing. “This is it. This is what we’ve waited for. I knew working with Sasha would open everything up for us. Wait.” She stopped pacing. “We haven’t finished yet. Why are they calling?”
“Ha. Get this, they’re all divorced and want to get rid of their exes’ crap and replace it with new stuff. But, naturally, they don’t want to do the work themselves. So, my dear,” Pat said as he gently placed his hand on his chest, “that’s where we come in.”
Hailey squealed delightedly. She ran to her dresser and pulled out some clothes. “Oh, this so calls for a celebration after work tonight. Who knew a divorce could be such a beautiful thing?”
“Please, sweetie.” Pat walked to her bedroom door and leanedon the frame. “I’m ahead of you on that. We’re going straight to Long Tails after work, so bring a change of clothes.”
“Seriously? Long Tails?”
“It’s Drag Night, babe. There’s nothing more fun than that.” He winked and turned to walk out of her room before spinning back around. “Oh, how’d it go with the voodoo guy yesterday?”
She grabbed a t-shirt and slid it on. “Well, let’s just say we don’t have to worry about a thing. I’m not crazy, but it’s nothing to worry about anymore.”
His eyes slid down to the pendant that hung on her necklace. “Is that where your weird necklace came from?”
Hailey reached up and grabbed the pendant. She held it out, glanced down at it, and smiled. “Consider it a good luck charm.”
“Well, honey, it’s working…but you should keep it hidden under your shirt. That’s not really a good accessory.” Pat strutted out of her room.
She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. For the first time in days, she felt relief. Her life going exactly the way it should be. Her career was about to take off, and she had come to peace with her past. Most importantl
y, she didn’t have to worry about dying today.
***
Hailey leaned on the bar, and ordered her virgin strawberry daiquiri and got Pat a martini. Pat was giving her shit for not drinking on her birthday, but she managed to shut him up with the fact that she was actually out celebrating instead of inside reading a book. She never cared for alcohol, and only drank it on rare occasions. This wasn’t one of them.
She sat on a stool listening to Halestorm blaring through the speakers. She tucked the back of her high heels behind a rod that connected the legs of the stool. Her skinny jeans were overly tight, but that was a small price to pay for looking good. Even when she went gay bar, she still wanted to look presentable. Hailey had learned that most gay men cared more about their appearance than the women she knew. She was just happy that she wore a loose blouse that fell down to her thighs, just in case her pants started to slide down and her ass showed.
The bar was filled with men and women, or at least she thought some were women. On Drag Night, it was hard to tell the difference.
Pat paid for their drinks and started a tab, earning him a wink from the bartender.
She thought she heard Pat say something, so she yelled, “What?”
“Your two o’clock,” he said. “Isn’t that Chad?”
“Chad?” Hailey turned to look and sure enough, there sat Chad—he was her old college crush, but he’d always insisted that they were too good of friends to be anything more.
“Well.” She raised her eyebrows. “That explains why we never hooked up, I guess.”
Pat sat his drink down beside her. “In that case, I’m so all over this. Dibs!”
She watched as he walked over to Chad and placed a hand on his shoulder. Hailey sighed and took a sip of her drink. She watched the two men talk. Chad being gay sure would explain a lot. It seemed like all the nice, hot guys were, in fact, gay. And Chad was both. They had gone to college together for a little while before he transferred, changing his major so he could become a doctor…a pediatrician at that. And as far as hot went, well, they didn’t get much more attractive than him. His muscles were always toned, and his emerald green eyes shone bright.
