Candlemas Eve

by Sackett, Jeffrey

  I wish you weren't so cute, she thought glumly. "Okay. But I still don't like it."

  "Let's get going, hey?" Lucas asked. "It's getting close to midnight."

  "Okay, okay, go on," Jeremy said.

  "So, we got the cross upside down. We got candles lit, and we got enough people—"

  "I'm not—" Rowena began.

  "Yeah, yeah, I know, I know!" Lucas snapped. "Will you just shut up, for Christ's sake?" Rowena tightened her lips and was silent. Lucas continued. "Now, what we have to do is all take off our clothes—"

  "That's it! That's all!" Rowena leapt to her feet and began to walk toward the door of the church.

  "Wait a minute, Row, that's locked," Jeremy said quickly as he followed after her,

  "How the hell did I ever end up with a sister like this?" Lucas asked. "What an asshole!"

  Rowena spun back upon him. "Listen, Lucas, I'm the one who has had to suffer because of you, you know!"

  "Oh, bullshit!" he spat. "Just because you're a prudey little goodie-two-shoes—"

  "I am not a goodie-two-shoes," she shouted, stamping her foot and looking adorable in her wrath. "I'm just not a jerk like you!"

  "What have you got to hide, anyway?" Lucas asked maliciously. "You ashamed of your body?"

  "Don't try to be clever, Lucas!" Rowena said angrily. "You aren't smart enough."

  "Well, damn it, either go home or join in or at least sit down and shut up, will you?"

  "I am not taking off my clothes!" she said emphatically. "And neither is Karyn. Right, Karyn?" She looked to the other girl.

  "Welllll," Karyn said with an evil twinkle in her bloodshot eyes, "I don't know about that . . . ," and she began to giggle uncontrollably.

  "Oh, jeeze!" Rowena said, her voice filled with irritation.

  "Look," Jeremy said, "how about we compromise?"

  "I've already compromised just by being here!" Rowena answered.

  "Listen, Row, you've worn bikinis on the beach down in Portsmouth, right? Well, just undress down to your underwear. That's just like a bikini." To Lucas, "And it'd still be okay for the ritual. I mean, you don't have to be totally naked, right?"

  Lucas sniffed. "I don't know. I guess it'd still work."

  "Still work!" Rowena's eyes went wide. "Still work! Don't tell me you honestly believe you're going to accomplish something here!"

  Lucas shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe. Worth a try, isn't it?"

  She turned to Jeremy. "This is nuts! This is crazy!"

  He shook his head. "No, it's a game, that's all. Come on, Row, play along, okay? Please?"

  She sat back down in the pew and folded her hands across her chest. "Absolutely not!" Then, as if on an impulse, she kicked off her shoes. "There. I've taken off some clothes. And that is it!" She glared at Jeremy and Lucas defiantly.

  "Life of the party, Row," Lucas muttered, "a real shit load of fun. At least just shut up and don't bother me, okay?" He did not wait for an answer. "Well, then, after most of us get undressed, we read the invocation. Then offer the sacrifice—"

  "What sacrifice?" Rowena asked. "You're not going to kill some poor little animal—!"

  "No, no, nothing like that. Just shut up and listen, will you?" Lucas snarled. "Then we say the spell to raise the dead. And then we wait and see."

  "Wait and see what, honey?" Karyn asked thickly.

  "Wait and see if we've raised any dead people, what else?"

  Rowena shook her head. "Lucas, you are the stupidest person I've ever met in my entire life!"

  He refused to be insulted. "Yeah, but I'm fun." Karyn giggled. "Okay," Lucas said, "let's get going. Ready, set, strip!" He began gleefully to disrobe Karyn. She continued to giggle.

  Jeremy and Rowena averted their eyes from each other as he began to disrobe. Now that he was actually undressing in Rowena's presence, Jeremy found himself a bit less enthusiastic about the situation. She looked at the walls, the ceiling, the floor, anywhere and everywhere but at him. She was red with embarrassment. It figures, she thought glumly. Other girls' boyfriends take them skiing, take them to dances. Mine takes me to an old church to conjure up ghosts. Great, just great.

  Jeremy finished undressing and he uttered a silent prayer that he would not get an erection. He need not have worried. He was so tense and so cold, the heat in the building notwithstanding, that his penis had shriveled. When he noticed this fact he became beset by a new worry: that Rowena would look at him and think him inadequate. It did not occur to him that she would not have cared, would not look, and had no basis for comparison anyway.

  As it was, they both became so fascinated at the spectacle of Lucas and Karyn that they paid no attention to .each other. Lucas was eagerly tossing his own clothes in all directions as Karyn, already naked, leaned against the lectern and watched with drunken amusement. Her long reddish-brown hair fell loosely down around her shoulders and chest, and she swept it behind her with her hands to reveal her swollen belly and pendulous breasts. Lucas grinned at her as he removed his last remaining sock.

  "Okay," Lucas said. "Come here, Jeremy. We have to stand in a circle to begin." Jeremy coughed nervously as he rose to his feet and walked forward, awkwardly trying to shield the front of his body from Rowena's line of sight. She was not looking at him anyway. She was staring at Karyn, astounded by the other girl's boldness and lack of modesty. Lucas positioned Jeremy to his right and Karyn on his left, saying, "You both have to read along with me. Hold it. Get a couple of candles." They did as they were bidden. "Okay. You hold the candles and I'll hold the book."

  Karyn squinted her eyes as she looked over the page. "I can't understand a word of this," she said.

  "It ain't English," Lucas explained. "It's some magic language or something."

  "Its Latin," Jeremy pointed out tactfully.

  "Yeah, yeah, that's it. It's Latin. It don't matter if we know what we're sayin' or not, so long as we say the right words."

  Karyn shrugged. "Okay by me, babe."

  Lucas looked back and forth from Jeremy to Karyn. "We ready?" he asked.

  "Sure," Jeremy replied. Karyn nodded, giggling again.

  "Okay. There's some English stuff in here too, but that don't mean we can skip the Latin shit. We gotta do the whole thing and do it right." He shot a glance at Rowena. "And just be quiet, Sis, okay?" No response. "Okay?!"

  "Yes, okay," she said morosely. "Just get it over with."

  Lucas took a deep breath. "Okay. Here we go." He cleared his throat. The flickering candles and the howling wind outside sent chills up his spine. This is so goddamn creepy, he thought. This is mint! "Ave Satanas!" he intoned darkly.

  "Ave Satanas!" Jeremy and Karyn responded.

  "Diabolus vobiscum."

  "Et cum spiritu tuo."

  He looked up. "We read this part together." He and Jeremy began to read the reversed Lord’s Prayer. Karyn struggled to keep up with them.

  "Malo a nos libera sed tentationem in inducas nos ne et nostris debitoribus dimittimus nos et sicut nostra debita nobis dimitte et hodie nobis da quotidianum nostrum panem terra in et caelo in sicut tua voluntas fiat tuum regnum adveniat tuum nomen sanctificetur caelis in es qui noster pater."

  "Ave Satanas!" Lucas repeated.

  "Ave Satanas!" Jeremy and Karyn responded again.

  "Diabolus vobiscum."

  "Et cum spiritu tuo."

  Lucas took Karyn by the hand. "Come on. We gotta debauch the altar."

  "We gotta do what?" she asked. Her tongue seemed to be sticking to her mouth and the room was spinning slightly. She was very, very drunk.

  "Debauch the altar. We gotta make out the altar." Lucas heard the mutter of disgust from the pew, but he ignored it. "Come on, Karyn." He pulled her forward to the communion table (this being a Congregationalist church, there was no altar per se) and said, "Let’s both sit on the altar and start making out.”

  "Uh, Lucas," Jeremy said, "I don't think that old table will hold your weight." This is so embarrassing] he thought.

/>   "Don't worry about it," Lucas replied. "Seems sturdy enough." Karyn climbed carefully up onto the communion table, Lucas hopped up after her, and the left front leg of the communion table snapped, sending them both sprawling onto the floor beside the lectern.

  "Shit!" Lucas said. "Goddamn it!"

  "Oh, great, that's just great!" Jeremy said angrily. "How the hell am I supposed to explain this to my uncle?"

  "Serves you all right," Rowena muttered, her eyes still averted from the scene before her.

  "Well," Lucas began slowly as he surveyed the damage. "I guess the ritual's still good. I guess we did enough on the table."

  "The ritual!" Jeremy exclaimed. "The hell with the ritual! How am I supposed to explain this to my uncle?"

  Lucas ambled over to the table leg and picked it up to examine it. "No big deal. It just popped out of its socket. We can glue it back in later. See? Nothin's snapped or broken. Your uncle'll never know."

  This seemed to calm Jeremy down a bit. "I guess not," he said as he too examined the table leg. "But, wait. What if it comes loose again and falls off?"

  "Then nobody'll know it was your fault, right? Besides, how often do you think people make out on this table, anyway?" Lucas dismissed Jeremy's worries with a wave of his hand. "Come on, let's get back to it." He picked the book up from off the floor and ran his eyes down the page. "Let's see . . . let's see . . . okay, yeah, here we are. Now we offer some prayers. Get back in the circle. Come on, Karyn."

  "Yes, thank you very much, Lucas, no I didn't get hurt, yes I'm fine, thank you very much!" Karyn snapped.

  Lucas grinned at her sheepishly. "I'm sorry, babe. Are you all right?"

  She sniffed, wounded by his indifference. "Fine," she muttered.

  "Good. Okay, back in the circle." He held the book open, waiting for them to position the candles so that they could read along. "Everybody ready?"

  Jeremy and Karyn muttered their assent. They both seemed to have lost the mood.

  "Come on, you two, loosen up! You gotta get into the spirit of this, you know?" He thought for a moment and then walked over to the spot where he had tossed his jacket a few minutes before. Reaching into the pocket, he pulled out the hashish pipe. "There's still some dope in here. Let's do a bowl, okay0 Then we can get on with the prayers, okay?"

  This suggestion seemed to brighten Karyn immediately "Yeah, yeah, good idea."

  "Terrific," Lucas said. "Jeremy, gimme that candle for a minute. You take the book." Lucas tilted the candle to the left and after placing the pipe between his teeth tilted it to the right. He drew on the pipe and the candle flame dipped into the bowl, lighting the powdery lump of hashish. Lucas drew some smoke into his lungs and then passed the pipe to Karyn, who followed suit. She handed it to Jeremy, who took a perfunctory drag and exhaled it almost immediately. He was aware of Rowena glowering at him. This isn't working out at all like I thought it would, he thought unhappily.

  "Ahhh, that's better," Lucas said contentedly. "Ain't it, babe?" Karyn purred an assent. "Okay. I’ll read the prayers. You two read the parts with an 'R' next to them. Ready?"

  Jeremy and Karyn nodded. "Ready," Jeremy said quietly.

  Lucas cleared his throat and began reading. "Hail Satan, father of lies, fountainhead of evil, master of this world. We come before you in supplication, we come before you in worship and in awe."

  "Hail Satan, father of lies," Jeremy and Karyn responded.

  "Hail Satan, ruler of hell, giver of power, lord of the flesh. We come before you in supplication, we come before you in worship and in awe."

  "Hail Satan, ruler of hell."

  "All that I am, I offer to you."

  "All that I am, I offer to you."

  "Strike down mine enemies and confound their desires."

  "Shouldn't it be 'my enemies'?" Karyn asked.

  "Damn it, Karyn, read the goddamn line, will you?" Lucas said.

  She shrugged. "Okay, okay." Jeremy joined her in the response. "All that I am, I offer to you."

  "Reduce them to ashes and torment their flesh."

  "All that I am, I offer to you."

  "Burn them with sulfur and rend them with knives."

  "All that I am, I offer to you."

  "Grant thou my boon, thou master of hell."

  "Ave Satanas, gratia vacuus."

  "What does 'gratia—?" Karyn began.

  "Shhh," Jeremy said.

  "Inflame thou my lusts, thou lord of the flies."

  "Ave Satanas, gratia vacuus"

  "Praise to thee, Lucifer, praise to thee, Lucifer."

  "Ave Satanas, gratia vacuus."

  "All hail Beelzebub, Mephistopheles hail."

  "Ave Satanas, gratia vacuus."

  "Ave Satanas!"

  "Ave Satanas!"

  "This is so fuckin' weird!" Lucas cackled gleefully. "Isn't this great?"

  "Really great," Rowena muttered from her place in the pew. "Worshiping the Devil. Really great."

  "Oh, shut up, Row," he said. "Don't mess up the mood." He turned to Jeremy and Karyn. "Okay, now for the sacrifice. We need some blood."

  "Oh, my God, Lucas!" Rowena said. "That's disgusting!"

  "Hey," he said innocently, "I didn't make up this shit. It's all right here in the book."

  "She's right, babe," Karyn added. "It is disgusting."

  "Oh, shit, Karyn! Don't fag off on me!"

  "I didn't say it bothered me," she shrugged. "I just said that it's disgusting."

  "Well, we gotta do it," he said, the irritation clear in his voice. "Jeremy, you give the blood."

  "What do you mean, I'll give the blood?" Jeremy asked. "Why don't you give the blood!"

  "That's it! I've had enough of this!" Rowena said, jumping to her feet and reaching for her shoes. She pulled them on hurriedly tying the laces, and was putting on her jacket when Jeremy took her arm.

  "Wait, Row, please."

  "Wait for what?" she demanded. "God, Jeremy, look at you! Look at what you're doing!" She wiped away a tear as Jeremy, made aware of his nudity, covered his pubic region with his hands. "I thought you were a nice boy, but you're just as big a jerk as Lucas!" She finished pulling on her parka and then ran weeping toward the exit beside the lectern.

  "Rowena, wait a minute, wait a minute," Jeremy said desperately. "Let me get dressed. I'll walk you home."

  "Don't bother!" she spat, and slammed the door behind her.

  Jeremy stood there, his eyes fixed on the closed door, waves of depression washing over him. Lucas walked over to him and slapped him on the back. "Good riddance, I say. Come on, Jeremy, don't let it get you down. You'll be friends again tomorrow. She's just like real sheltered, you know?"

  "Yeah," he sighed. "I guess so. But why'd you have to say what you said? She was sitting there quiet, not interfering. Why'd you have to go out of your way to get her upset?"

  He shrugged. "Sorry. Let’s get back to the ritual. I wanna see if we can call up some ghosts or something. Where's that cup?"

  "What cup?" Jeremy asked.

  "I brought a coffee cup with us for this part of-—ah, there it is," he said, walking to the end of the pew. "I couldn't see it in the candlelight." He picked it up and handed it to Karyn. "We'll catch the blood in this."

  She examined it. "'World's Greatest Grandfather,'" she read. "Real demonic, Lukie."

  "Hey, a cup's a cup. Okay, Sloan. Do it.”

  "Thanks a lot," Jeremy mumbled. "How do I do this?"

  "Just prick your finger—you got a penknife, right? On your key chain, right?—and put a few drops of blood into the cup."

  Sighing, Jeremy went over to the place on the pew where he had deposited his clothes earlier, and rummaged around for his keys. Finding them, he opened the small penknife and walked back over to Lucas and Karyn. "Okay," he said. "Here goes."

  Karyn held the cup out, and he reached his left hand out over it. Wincing in advance against the coming discomfort, he stabbed his left thumb with the knife, and drops of blood began to ooze from th
e small wound. He allowed the blood to drip into the cup and then put his thumb into his mouth. "Shit," he muttered. "Lots of fun, Lucas."

  "Look on the bright side, Sloan. If we were gonna do this right, we woulda had to kill you." He looked into the cup. "There ain't much in here."

  "That's tough," Jeremy said, still sucking on his thumb. "That's all the blood you get."

  "It'll have to do, I guess. Okay, now we all drink from it and say—"

  "No way, man," Karyn said emphatically. "I ain't drinking blood."

  "Me neither,” Jeremy added with equal conviction.

  "Oh, for Christ's sake!" Lucas whined. "What's with you two? This is the ritual, damn it!"

  "Well, do it yourself," Karyn said. "And hurry up. I'm getting sleepy."

  Sighing with exasperation, Lucas returned to his position before the broken communion table and looked for the proper place in the book. "Karyn, will you at least hold the fuckin' cup for me for a minute?"

  "Okay, okay," she said wearily, moving to his side. She took the cup from him and stood there as he leafed through the book.

  "Ah, here it is. Okay." He cleared his throat and began to read. "I offer this sacrifice to you, lord of the dark powers. I offer you the blood. I offer you my soul in the next world and my services in this world, if you will but grant my boon."

  "What's a b—" Karyn began.

  "Shhh!" Lucas silenced her. He ran his finger along the inside of the cup and then licked it clean. "I partake of the unholy sacrifice, O master of the infernal regions, and present you with my supplication. Upon my soul's damnation do I beg it."

  The last few words seemed to sober the three young people. There was a frightening solemnity to the words which caused Karyn's heart to beat a bit faster and caused Jeremy to feel himself perspiring. Lucas cleared his throat. "Release to me the souls of the dead which are in your keeping. Release to me the souls of your servants which are in your keeping. Release to me the souls of the damned which are in your keeping. This I beg you, master of hell. Give their souls to me now, and my soul is yours for eternity. Ave Satanas! Ave Satanas!

  He fell silent. They waited. The only sound was that of the howling wind and their own agitated breathing. A few minutes passed.