by Harper Lin
“They may not be there now, but they will be there later,” she said. “Where everything started. In the cemetery.”
“Are you sure?” Bea asked, a shiver visibly running up her spine.
“Tonight is the full moon. If the Unfamiliar is going to take another shot at raising a corpse with Mr. Park’s life force as the trade, he’ll try to do that tonight.”
“But we’re ready for it, right?” I asked.
For some reason, I felt as if I might be the weakest link in this chain, and I had never felt that way before. Some of this unrest was my fault. If I hadn’t interfered with Mr. Park’s personal business, he might still be home or at the shop, without any idea Topher was harboring in his head a fugitive from another dimension that was encouraging acts of violence.
When Aunt Astrid didn’t reply immediately, I shook where I stood.
“So how prepared are we?” Bea asked, placing her hand gently over mine.
“We need to unite our strength,” Aunt Astrid said. “This is no ordinary Unfamiliar. In fact, it is a little too familiar for my liking.”
“What does that mean?” Bea’s eyes bounced back and forth between Aunt Astrid and me, and it was obvious that she had been left out of something. “You can’t keep a secret from me. Not now. Not when so much is going on.”
“The Unfamiliar knows about my mom,” I said. “It knows about the monster under my bed, and it seemed to be kind of happy about the whole situation.”
Bea gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Cath, what are we going to do? Maybe you shouldn’t come tonight. Mom, does she have to come? Can we do this ourselves?”
“That’s what I was thinking. Cath, you may have to sit this one out. Maybe you could continue a vigil to help keep the spell of protection over us. You could perform a cleansing ritual for the house to make sure nothing tries to sneak in the back door. You could—”
“Oh, no. I’m not sitting this out on the sidelines. You’re both off your rockers if you think I’ll do that. Even if you insisted I stay home, I’d just follow you without you noticing.” I put my hands on my hips. “I’ve got to come. You can’t shut me out. I feel like this one is partially my fault.”
I understood where they were coming from, I really did, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe they were right. But like the idea of letting the Parks know they were in danger, I just had it set in my head that I had to go with them. I had to help shut this door and get Topher some peace while making sure he wasn’t charged for the murder of Lei Park. The idea that I might be the cause of someone else losing their life was too much to ignore. It was bad enough my own parents had died trying to protect me. It was all my fault, my fault, my fault.
Wait. Where had that thought come from? I’d never felt like that before. Something was going on inside my head, and the only way I would get to the bottom of it was to go to the cemetery tonight.
“Please,” I begged. “I think… I think something is wrong with me. I can’t put my finger on it, but I can feel it. Aunt Astrid, I think something is trying to break through your protection spell. I can’t tell you how or why. It’s just a hunch. But I’m afraid it will stay around, picking at my brain, if I don’t go with you tonight. Please don’t leave me behind.”
“Protection spell? Why do you have a protection spell?” Bea looked at me as if I had just informed her I had a slight case of the plague.
I shrugged and smiled awkwardly.
“The Unfamiliar. It’s stronger than you thought. Could it be trying to wear Cath down?” Bea asked Aunt Astrid.
The older woman nodded.
We discussed what we were going to do, and the staff relieved us in the afternoon so we could get some rest. When it was finally eight o’clock, we closed the coffee shop for the night. Aunt Astrid and Bea had decided to meet at the cemetery entrance at eleven thirty. Neither of them had given me a solid affirmative that I was to go with them, so I was left alone at my apartment with instructions to start a vigil and wait for their phone call. Darkness was coming. And it knew my face.
Shadows
Being told to stay home when my “sisters” were going out to fight a battle on a spiritual level made me feel like I had gotten stood up for prom. I tried to keep the vigil. I had lit the candles in the order Aunt Astrid had instructed. I knew the words to say and at what time to say them. But my heart wasn’t in it. Why couldn’t I just recite them at the graveyard? Why couldn’t I be there?
The minutes seemed to tick by five at a time, and before I knew it, it was already ten thirty. If I left now, I could make it to the meeting place just in time to meet Aunt Astrid and Bea. They wouldn’t have any choice but to let me tag along. I decided to leave. Sure, my judgment hadn’t been the best for the past two days, but unlike my experience with the Parks, I didn’t feel this was the wrong thing to do. I felt it was exactly what I needed to do.
If I left right then and there, I’d make it to the cemetery just in time. Without another thought, I blew out the candles, stepped into my shoes, threw a shawl around my shoulders, and left.
The street was quiet, amazingly quiet, as if it were in a bubble. No one in Wonder Falls was outside at that hour. Usually there were some kids strolling around past curfew or couples walking hand-in-hand along the dark streets, giggling and stealing kisses when the shadows made a quick pocket of discretion. But there was no one out tonight.
A couple of homes were illuminated by the flicker of their television sets. Others had quiet music coming through open windows. It was as if they all had been told, on a subconscious level, to stay inside. So for all intents and purposes, I was alone on the street.
Or maybe I wasn’t.
As I neared the cemetery entrance, the streetlights flickered. Sometimes they surged as I passed; other times they winked out completely until I had made it a couple yards away, then they’d pop back on.
The shadows appeared to be taking on life of their own. Even my own shadow, which stretched out long and lean from my feet each time I passed under a lamp, seemed to have turned on me, pulling other shadows to it and getting darker and darker. I felt that if I stared at it, I might just fall into that darkness. But I kept moving. I recited the words Aunt Astrid had told me to. I couldn’t tell if they were doing any good, but I didn’t want to stop chanting them for fear things might just get worse if I did. For a second, I wondered what other girls did on their Thursday nights. How many enjoyed a stroll down ever-darkening sidewalks with shadows creeping up on them? Did they welcome the occasional demon expulsion, or was it just routine to them? My internal attempts at humor weren’t working.
I felt my footsteps become quicker and clap softly along the pavement with each step. Finally, I was within view of the cemetery entrance, and I saw Bea and Aunt Astrid there. They were talking, probably making a plan before they went in. As I broke into a run, I tripped and tumbled over myself, scraping my knee.
“What in the world?” I mumbled, turning around to see nothing on the ground except shadows.
At least, I thought they were shadows. But they began to writhe around my ankle like snakes. When I tried to push myself up, I felt them tighten like rubber bands, digging into my skin. Something didn’t want me getting to the cemetery.
Everything inside me jumped into panic mode. All I wanted was to scream for my family and see them come running. But I couldn’t yell for help without the risk of drawing attention to us. How would we explain traipsing through the cemetery at this hour? The shadows were writhing and pulling me back into a bigger pool of darkness. My knees and hands were getting terribly scratched up. I thought of my mother. This wasn’t much different from the way she got dragged under my bed, except I had seen the hands, or should I say claws, that held her.
Like a bolt of lightning, the words she had been saying that day shot out of my mouth. “Plestipacidus cum leviora.”
In an instant, the shadowy snakes recoiled, wriggling and thrashing all over themselves until they becam
e plain, flat shadows on the pavement again.
Needless to say, I was sort of struck dumb. I hadn’t thought of those words in years. The memory of my mother’s voice was like an old music box wrapped up in sheets of tissue paper and stuffed into a hope chest. It was a treasure that I couldn’t bear to listen to. But as I pushed myself up off the sidewalk and hurried toward my family, I felt renewed.
Everything around me appeared to become sharper and more focused, but one nagging thought remained. Why hadn’t the Unfamiliar pounced on me when it had the chance at the orphanage? Aunt Astrid had already slid out of the window when it appeared at the door, yet it made no attempt to enter. It would have gotten to me before I could shimmy out the window, but it didn’t even try.
And when it was speaking through Topher at the animal shelter, it had a perfect opportunity to take me out or at least give me a jolt so strong, I’d be afraid to set foot outside my home for years. Instead, it just threw out a couple of insults and low blows and scurried away. Was it weak? Had it drained its strength? Was it just waiting for the full moon?
There was an answer there. The clarity I had felt was slipping away again. Cotton was filling my head, making it hard to think. This wasn’t Aunt Astrid’s protection spell. Something was trying to break through it.
I gritted my teeth and ran as fast as I could to the cemetery entrance just as Bea and Aunt Astrid disappeared among the trees and tombstones.
Normally the stone structures with names and dates of loved ones from Wonder Falls never caused me any apprehension. But as I slipped between them, trying to see in what direction the other two Greenstones had gone, I felt as if I was getting lost. Things started to swim and tilt a little around me. My legs felt as if they were weighted with cement blocks, and I just wanted to sit down and rest. The headstones became large and menacing and seemed to muscle me in the opposite direction of my family. When I opened my mouth to call out to them, nothing happened.
Before I fell to the ground, I stopped and tried to steady myself. I saw a small black shadow slinking up to me. It had brilliant green eyes that looked as if they were lit from behind. I recognized those eyes.
The Three Witches
“Treacle,” I whispered.
The black alley cat jumped into my arms and purred and rubbed his head on my chin. As I stroked his black fur, I felt my head clearing. With a deep breath, I looked into his eyes as his thick black paw tapped my chin.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t hear you. Aunt Astrid’s spell. It should be over soon.”
He gave a quiet meow, his jowls vibrating with excitement. He pushed out of my arms with his front and back legs, and landed in the thick grass. Looking over his shoulder, he obviously wanted me to follow him.
“Where are they, Treacle? Show me,” I whispered.
With that, he trotted toward the southeastern part of the cemetery.
The cemetery had about four acres of pristine land. It was a good distance away from the street, and a visitor would require a map to locate any particular grave. The tombstones that had been erected in the southeastern section, where the ground was softer and the grass was still visible in the sections of sod that were rolled out like carpet, seemed brand new and polished compared to some. My parents were between the really old section, where the stones were simple rectangles with worn, barely legible names, and these new, elegant eternal resting markers.
Thankfully, there weren’t many new tombstones in these four acres. But one, flanked on both sides by two of the beautiful old oaks that grew majestically throughout the property, had been recently tended to. The dirt had barely had a chance to settle when it had been so disrespectfully disturbed.
I saw Aunt Astrid and Bea crouching behind a large tombstone with the name Smith chiseled across its face. They were watching with disgust as the man who used to be harmless Topher laughed and taunted the gravesite of Thomas Thompson while kicking and poking Lei Park’s unconscious body.
I ran up to them and felt their positive energy start to chase away my vertigo. But they didn’t seem all that happy to see me.
“Cath, what are you doing here?” Bea whispered angrily, grabbing my wrist and yanking me down into the shadow behind the tombstone. “You were supposed to stay home and continue the vigil.”
“Yes, I know. But I couldn’t—”
“Catherine, I am telling you right now to leave. Your cousin and I can handle this.”
Aunt Astrid was either furious with me or the shadows made her look more angry than she actually was. I preferred to think it was the latter.
“I know you can. But I think this thing wants me to stay away. I think it might be scared of something about me. It had two perfectly good chances to get me out of the picture, yet it didn’t. Why?” I held each of their hands. “You can’t tell me you don’t feel a little stronger now that we are all together. Right?”
Topher stopped what he was doing and glared in our direction. His lips peeled back from his teeth, and he looked nothing like the gentle hermit we knew. We were looking at a devil.
Aunt Astrid looked at Topher then back at me. Squeezing my hand, she nodded. With a fearlessness I had never seen, she marched up to Topher until she stood only about ten feet in front of him.
“You will cease your actions here, monster of the darkest dimension. Leave this place of peace and slither back down the hole you dared creep out of!” she said.
Topher’s body convulsed, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Words came out of his gaping mouth in a voice that was not his. “Get back, old woman. Witch! While you still have a chance to live out your next few years in ignorant bliss. This host has summoned me. He has allowed me in. You slither back.”
“The Maid of the Mist and the Creator of the universe condemn you back to the darkness you came from!” Bea stood and joined Aunt Astrid. Her voice was confident and strong, but her body shook as the thing inside Topher sneered and laughed at her.
Whatever it was residing inside Topher was wreaking havoc on his body. His hands were dirty and looked to be bleeding. I assumed he had used his hands to dig up poor Tommy’s grave. His face was contorted into a painfully unnatural grimace, and I heard the Unfamiliar grinding and gnashing Topher’s teeth, which were already in pretty bad shape after years of avoiding the dentist chair. His skin was scratched as if he had tried to get relief from hives or mosquito bites, and in some places, his skin was scratched open and bleeding a little.
It continued to laugh then spoke quickly. “You can’t stop me, witch!” It leered and pointed dirty, bloody hands at them. “Don’t you know what he’s done? Don’t you know he’s invited me in?” It laughed in a freakish, almost childlike tone. “This creature summoned me. I’ll do his bidding, and in return, I get his soul.”
Just as I was about to join Aunt Astrid and Bea in the expulsion ceremony, with one wave of his mangled and dirty hand, the spirit in Topher brought down a huge branch from one of the thick old oaks. The branch didn’t land right on them, but as she lunged out of the way, Bea’s foot got pinned beneath it. She let out a cry of pain, and the Unfamiliar cried out in a mocking sort of way.
As I sat there watching, I was paralyzed with fear. What if I had been wrong? What if I should have stayed home and done what my family wanted me to? I could have totally screwed everything up by coming to the cemetery. And what did I do when the tree branch fell and Aunt Astrid lost her balance and Bea cried out in pain? I stayed right where I was. I was frozen in place. Tears filled my eyes as I thought that this was exactly how I had reacted when my mother was in trouble. I was so scared.
The Unfamiliar chanted in weird languages that I was sure were a lot older than me and Wonder Falls and maybe even the earth itself. Mr. Park wailed. His eyes were still closed, but he cried out in anguish as the words the Unfamiliar was saying began to separate Mr. Park’s life force from his body.
Revenge
Treacle jumped onto the tombstone I was crouching behind, and he hissed at me. Never i
n his life had he done that. The protection spell Aunt Astrid had slapped on me must have been extra-strength, because I was still unable to communicate with any of the cats. I didn’t know what Treacle was saying, but he looked at me then at the Unfamiliar. It was clear if I wasn’t going to do something, he would. My pet cat, which had gotten into scrapes with the alley cats, was braver than me at that moment. He turned away from me and made himself known to the horrible spirit inside Topher just as I stood from my hiding place.
For a second, everything fell silent. Bea and Aunt Astrid didn’t make a sound. The demon in Topher stopped and stared. The wind ceased to blow, and I swore even the crickets held their breath. My pulse was pounding in my ears. The thing was ugly, yet I stared at it.
Finally Topher let out a cry, stretching his human mouth long and wide. It wasn’t the demon making that noise; it was Topher. He was still in there and in terrible pain. I could feel it. I looked at Bea, who was crying. She felt it too. She felt the suffering that the Unfamiliar was inflicting on this harmless old man more than any of us could.
Then it laughed. “So you didn’t listen to your instinct and decided to come. I knew you would. Your mother said you would. She said you would.” The Unfamiliar stared at me.
Aunt Astrid helped Bea pull her foot free and get to her feet.
It was trying to rattle me by talking about my mother, but I took a deep breath, held it, and walked up to the girls. I tried to look brave, but something told me I wouldn’t be winning any Oscars for my performance.
Aunt Astrid and Bea took turns commanding the demon. They shouted spells and demands, but nothing was getting through. It was as if it had its own protection spell that we couldn’t break through.
“It’s Topher,” I mumbled, my eyes widening with surprise.
