Broom and Gloom
by
Sara Bourgeois
Chapter One
“You know we have to do this if there is any hope of you going forward with this dreadful idea,” Meri said. “I mean, we could have done it a long time ago like I suggested, but you were always too busy.”
“I know,” I said. “I know. I didn’t listen, and I should have. In my defense, I did have a lot going on. There were zombies and vampires to deal with.”
What he was talking about when he said we had to deal with this was venturing into the basement tunnels, finding the source of the demonic energy that flowed down there sometimes, and blowing it up. Whatever that meant. Only Meri knew.
What we had to do was stop all of the demons from trying to creep upstairs before I could open the house for guests. Meri was excellent at keeping them away, actually destroying the heck out of them, but it was too big of a risk to take with bed and breakfast customers.
The last thing I needed was for someone to get possessed and the video to end up on the internet. Even footage of just a demon being demony would be terrible. Well, it probably would have been good for business, but it would have been devastating for Coventry. And for me. Amelda would have a fit.
We’d neglected it for so long because I always had Meri to deal with whatever popped up. But, with my plans for turning Hangman’s House into an inn, we had to deal with the house’s demons. Literally.
“You said you’d found the source or their doorway, right?” I said. “So let’s just go down there and close it. No big deal, right?”
“If it was that easy, I’d have just done it myself,” Meri said.
“Hey, are you trying to say I have no powers?” I asked. “You’re the one always saying I’m one of the most powerful witches to ever live.”
“You’re going to be,” Meri said. “Someday. When you can cast a spell without knocking yourself out or sucking up a zombie curse.”
“That was uncalled for,” I said.
“No, it was definitely called for.”
“If you don’t want to go it alone, we can call Remy and Annika.”
“Never mind, let’s go,” Meri said with a sigh. “I think the two of us can handle this.”
"What should I bring?" I asked him.
"Dude," Meri said. "You've really got to study more. Get your friend and the king of the dorks to teach you more about witchcraft."
"Thanks for the tip," I said and rolled my eyes. "But you fight demons more than anyone, so I'd rather have your advice on this matter. I would never assume to know better than you."
"You're right. I don't know much about witches fighting demons, though. Usually, I do this alone, and I don't need stuff to do it."
"Now who needs to study more."' I said.
"Whatever."
"But seriously, what do you think?"
"I'd say salt at the very least. Maybe a chunk of tourmaline or onyx, and you should wear that amulet Amelda gave you," Meri said.
"I've got the amulet on," I said and pulled the chain so that the pendant popped out of the top of my black t-shirt. "I'll get the rest."
"Grab me a couple of slices of that precooked bacon too. If you would be so kind?" Meri said. “Maybe heat it up for fifteen seconds in the microwave. I’m in the mood to have it warmed up.”
"Let me guess... You need your strength for demon hunting."
"You are catching on," Meri said.
I grabbed my little velvet pouch of blessed salt and tied the strings to one of my belt loops. After that, I stuffed a piece of black tourmaline in each front pocket of my jeans and slipped an onyx bracelet around my wrist. It was probably overkill given that I had Amelda’s necklace, but better safe than sorry. When I was ready to go, I joined Meri at the top of the basement steps.
"I'm ready," I said.
"Let's do this," Meri responded. "Just stay behind me, okay?"
"Got it."
We descended down the basement stairs and into the thick darkness. I tried to flip on the light switch, but nothing happened. I didn’t think the light bulb had burned out.
"Great, they know we're coming," Meri groused. "No matter. We might be walking into a trap, but don’t worry about it. I’ve got the light."
An orb of light appeared above Meri's head, and it was enough to penetrate the darkness a few feet ahead of us. No more than that, though. At the edge of his light was a dark abyss.
"I can do that too," I said.
I whispered the incantation for a witch orb, and my sphere of light joined with Meri's. The radius of our illumination increased a little, but it wasn't as significant as I'd hoped.
"I need to work on that," I said.
"At least you didn't blow us up," he offered.
“You think I might blow us up with just lighting a witch light?”
“Let’s just keep going,” Meri said.
We made our way to the tunnel entrance. It was still boarded up, but all it took was a little magic to remove the nails. Meri had been getting in by squeezing under a gap between the bottom board and the basement floor. At least, that's how I assumed he got in. It was entirely possible he teleported. I didn't know if he could or not, I'd never seen him do it, but it wouldn't have surprised me.
Meri guided our way through the tunnels, and I just followed. I had no idea where we were going, but whenever we got to another boarded-up doorway, I just yanked the nails out magically again.
"I didn't remember so many of these tunnels being boarded up," I said. "I thought we'd opened them up."
"People came down here and resealed them after the zombie thing," Meri said.
"Oh, right."
We went deeper and deeper in until I wasn't sure if we were even under Coventry anymore. I kept expecting something nasty to pop out at every turn, but we were left alone as we walked to Meri's destination.
After we'd been walking for what felt like an hour, Meri came to an abrupt stop. Fortunately, I was paying attention and didn't trip over him. If I had, I would have fallen into a dark hole. How anything could be darker than what was around us, I didn't know, but it was. There was also an oppressive heat and the smell of sulfur emanating from the cavity.
"What is that?" I asked, but I already knew I didn't want to know the answer.
"Tunnel to hell," Meri said nonchalantly.
"What?" But my voice came out as nothing more than a strangled whisper.
"Don't spaz, Brighton," he said. "It only goes to the first level."
"Oh, the tunnel to hell only goes to the first level. Whew, that's reassuring."
"Are you going to freak?" Meri asked. "‘Cause if you are, maybe we should just scrap the idea of turning Hangman's House into a bed and breakfast."
"I don't want to scrap the idea," I said and swallowed hard. "I know you're not eager, but you'll see. It will be okay."
"You're going to invite strangers to stay in our magical house,” he said dryly. "All because you can't hold down a job."
"Oh, that was a low blow," I said.
"Sorry, the whole hell thing is getting to me,” he said.
"It's fine," I said. "Okay, so what are we doing here at this lovely hell mouth?"
"We're going to stop the demons from coming out," Meri said.
"Yeah, I get that, but how?"
"I suppose we should plug the hole,” he said.
"With what?"
"We could just cave it in."
"And then what? Won't they just open it back up again? I feel like they've got a very large workforce down there."
"Duh, we'll use magic to seal it. Together we can come up with something to keep them from coming through. I've got my demon-busting powers, and you can do... something. Just don't knock yourself out
."
"Are you ever going to let that go?" I asked.
"Not a chance."
"All right, let's start with caving it in. Then you can do your demon whatever, and I'll call down the goddess's blessing."
"Cool," Meri said.
I wasn't quite sure how to cave the tunnel in, but I had a vague idea. I knelt down and put my hands on either side of the opening. I used what little control I had over the elements to make the ground below me shake, but I directed all of the magic down so that I didn't cause an earthquake above.
As you could probably imagine, earth magic is not my strong suit. Instead of caving the tunnel in, I opened it up further. Naturally, Meri and I tumbled down into the new crevice.
At first, I thought we were going to die, but instead, we gently floated to the bottom. The heat was insane. Ten seconds standing on the rocky ground of the first level of hell, and my clothes were soaked through with sweat. What started as a tickle in the back of my throat became desperation for water.
"We have to get out of here," I said.
"You think so?" Meri snarked.
"Hey, this was your idea."
"Actually, it was your idea. You're the one..."
"I know. I know,” I cut him off. "We're here because I want to open a bed and breakfast. I get that, but you've been bugging me to come down here and fix this. I thought you'd have a better plan."
"Well, it was never very hard to get rid of the demons,” he said. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. We wouldn't be in this position if I was better at magic,” I said. "So, how do we get out of here? I don't suppose you can make me fly?"
"No."
"Then I guess we have to climb." I pointed to the rocks that had piled up under the opening.
"I think we'd better hurry," Meri said.
I was about to ask him why, but then I saw it. We'd attracted the attention of some very large demons off in the distance. They were massive gray beasts with wings and claws, and they were headed right for us.
"I hope your protection magic works down here," I said and scooped him up.
I tucked my shirt into my jeans and stuffed Meri down the neck hole. I'm sure I looked ridiculous with a cat inside of my shirt, but at the time, it didn't matter. I just hoped it held while I climbed out.
"Did you seriously just stuff me inside of your shirt?" he protested.
"Do you have a better idea? I didn't bring my backpack, and you can't climb up the crevice, so settle down. I'll get us out of here."
I scrambled up the rocks, and once I got to the crevice, I wedged my back against one side and my feet against the other. There weren't any hand- or footholds, so I had to shimmy up like that.
The climb felt like it took hours, and the same force that had allowed us to drift down to the bottom was pulling at me the entire time. While I didn't dare look down, I could hear at least one of the demons that had been coming for us scratching its way up the tunnel below.
When I finally reached the top and pulled myself out, I saw that the demon was right behind us. I jumped away from the opening in the floor and yanked my shirt out of the waist of my jeans so Meri came tumbling out.
"Meri, he's right there!" I yelled.
"Run," Meri said.
"Where?"
"Doesn't matter, just away from here. I'll find you. I swear."
I trusted him enough that I relit my witch light and sprinted away. It was only a few seconds later that I heard the boom followed by an unearthly growl. A shockwave ricocheted through the tunnel and knocked me off my feet. I stayed kneeling on the ground, trying to slow my thundering heartbeat. A minute later, I saw Meri's orb coming toward me in the dark.
"Well, I caved the tunnel in,” he said proudly. "Turns out all we needed was a demon to blow up."
"Oh, good," I said.
"So, would you like to help me seal the thing magically?"
"Sure," I said. "Why not?"
Chapter Two
I wish I could've said that banishing the demon hole was all we needed to do to get the house ready to be a bed and breakfast. The problem was that Hangman's House had another idea.
At first, I didn't realize what was going on. It started with the plumbing breaking every time we used a faucet or I tried to take a shower. Eventually, it moved to random power outages.
The last straw when I had to figure out what was going on was that the house would make all of my food disappear. I'd buy groceries, put them in the fridge or pantry, and they'd be gone.
Poof.
The house didn't want to be a bed and breakfast. It completely sabotaged my efforts. Thankfully, Remy came up with an idea.
"You have all of that land in the back. Why don't we build some bungalows?"
"Bungalows?"
"Like little cabins. We can set them back away from the house. It would give the guests and us more privacy."
"That's a really good idea," I said. "Put the bungalow things out back near the haunted forest."
It really was a good idea, but I couldn't hide my disappointment.
"What is it, sweetie?" Remy picked up on it.
"It's a great idea, and if I can pay for it, we should totally do it," I said.
"But?"
"Well, I was going to have a huge Halloween party for the grand opening," I said. "Construction like that will take months. It's okay, though."
"Oh, Brighton. You can still have your Halloween bash for the grand opening."
"How?"
"We're not going to hire contractors to build the bungalows. You, me, and Annika will build them with magic,” he said and waved his hands through the air.
"Really?" I felt my excitement coming back. "Wait, if you could do that, why didn't we just do that to finish my garage?"
"People can see your garage from the street. No one can really see back there behind the house. If we're careful, we can build the bungalows in a day with magic, and no one will ever know."
"People are going to know that there weren't cabins behind this house," I said.
"The witches will know, but that's not an issue," Remy said. "As far as the humans, the magic over this town will make them look the other way. They'll accept that the bungalows have always been there. No one from out of town will know the difference."
"Great, when do we start?" I asked.
"Are you up for a trip to the hardware store?" Remy asked.
"Nailed it?"
"No, they don't have much lumber, and besides, if we buy our supplies in town, people will know. We're going to have to go to the big box store in the next town."
"Home Improvement Plus?"
"That's the one," Remy said.
"I'm going," Meri announced.
"To the home improvement store?" I asked.
"Why not? People take their dogs. I'll behave. I promise."
"All right. Let's go."
I think the thing I found most interesting about Home Improvement Plus was that they had a cereal aisle and a book section. I'd been in Home Depot a few times, and they didn't have a cereal aisle and a book section.
Home Improvement Plus must have wanted to capitalize on the shopper that needed breakfast, something to read, and a new shower surround. Since we were there, I did grab a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Perhaps Home Improvement Plus was onto something.
While Remy and I were walking through the bathroom fixture aisle trying to decide on sink faucets for the bungalows, we came across a couple arguing near the commodes. As we moved past them in the aisle, Remy whispered a blessing. I know that I'd wanted to use a calming spell on them, but I was afraid that would have repercussions. It might have been going against their will, but I was happy that Remy thought of doing a blessing.
No sooner had we gotten past them, and the woman stormed out of the aisle. I assume she left the store too because a few minutes later, she hadn't come back.
The man waited a while, and then with a deep sigh, he left too. I watched him walk away and noticed he ha
d a fascinating dragon tattoo on the back of his right arm.
"They're not having a good day," I said.
"Did you catch what they were arguing about?" Remy asked.
"No, why?" I asked. "It seems strange to be arguing over the toilets."
"I think she wanted a more expensive one, but he said they couldn't afford it," Remy said. "She was mad because he'd spent the money on something stupid. I don't know what."
"That's too bad," I said.
"Yeah."
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Couples argue. Especially over money."
I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Was that couple's quarrel making Remy have second thoughts?
"I don't know,” he said. "For some reason, their little spat is affecting me more than I would have expected."
Uh oh.
"Because we're getting married? I can't ever see us fighting over commodes or money. You said you had plenty, and I mean, I've got a house that gives me cash when I need it."
He stared off down the aisle for a few seconds before responding. That only served to make me more uneasy.
"No, honey. It's not that. I don't know what it is."
I wanted to believe his words, but it had taken him so long to answer me. Before I could say anything else, though, he kissed me and turned back to the faucets.
"I like this one. I think these will look great with the other stuff you've picked."
It was like he'd been in a trance and snapped out of it. The smile on his face was so genuine that I quickly convinced myself that my fears had just been my imagination.
"I think this one is my favorite," I said.
It was afternoon by the time we made it to the lumber section of the store. I stood back and watched as Remy placed the order for everything we needed. He paid extra for next-day delivery too.
"Wow, this is moving fast," I said as we headed out to the parking lot.
"Is it too fast?" he asked. "Are you having second thoughts about the project?"
"No, I think it's a brilliant idea. I love that I can run the bed and breakfast, and we can still have privacy too. Are you sure you're okay with this, though? I mean, you wanted to marry me. You didn't agree to live in the middle of my business."
"I wouldn't be doing all of this if I didn't want to be involved, Brighton. Don't forget, we can take breaks too. If it gets to be too much sometimes, we can just stop taking reservations for a while. Shut the place down for a week or whatever."
Broom and Gloom Page 1
