“The protection spell that Jessica needs to do will protect you and Jessica from being spiritually possessed and used as…” Ellen got out before giving Jessica a thoughtful look. “As puppets for some spirits.”
“You can say it,” Jessica told her. “To protect us from being used as my grandfather’s puppet.”
When Ellen politely grinned Harris said, “We should start this incantation. And Simon can get his proof of what we say is true.”
“I’ve never cast an incantation before,” Jessica informed. “I read through a few simple ones—that my grandfather had allowed me to see—but I’ve never cast any.”
“Okay, well, I’ll walk you through what you need to do,” Harris told her.
“Can’t you perform it?” Jessica asked.
“I can only perform it once within seven to ten years for either myself or for a small group along with myself and I had performed it earlier for a small group,” Harris said.
“I performed it too, so… I can’t perform it again either,” Ellen said.
“Great,” Jessica said sarcastically. “So I guess I’m ready for you to walk me through the incantation.”
Harris nodded before saying, “Follow me.”
Jessica followed Harris into the dining room. Ellen followed behind Jessica, and Simon followed behind Ellen. Allyson remained in the living room with Sonya.
When Jessica saw the Legacy volumes, she stepped up to them while saying, “I’ve seen books like these before. I was seven. I was with my grandfather. I can’t remember where we were though… or what happened to the books.”
“It sounds as if he’s hiding them from you and Karla,” Ellen suggested.
“Why would he hide these from us?” Jessica questioned in a manner as if she was verbalizing her thoughts.
“I have a theory, but I don’t want to plant thoughts in your head,” Ellen said.
Jessica sighed before saying, “I have a couple of theories of my own. He wants to keep Karla and me in the dark. He wants us to remain weak.”
Ellen politely grinned before saying, “Those are my thoughts as well.”
“Okay, well, forgetting about these Legacy volumes for right now, let me run through this incantation with you,” Harris said as he picked up a sheet of paper that was lying near the Legacy volumes. “We’ll run through it as many times as you would like and once you’re comfortable at doing it, we’ll go to the basement so you can cast it.”
“The circle and the symbols are already set,” Ellen added. “All you have to do is place the candles for you and Simon and then cast the incantation.”
“Okay,” Jessica said in a ‘ready-or-not’ tone. “Show me what to do.”
“Take a seat,” Harris said while gesturing towards a dining room chair. Jessica complied, and once Jessica was seated, Harris placed the sheet of paper that the incantation was written on down in front of her. “Silently read through the incantation.”
After Jessica began reading, Ellen, Harris and Simon took a seat at the table.
Within a short time of Jessica’s reading, she began to ask questions to things that didn’t make sense to her.
Harris made sure that Jessica’s questions were thoroughly answered and that she understood what was stumping her.
After Jessica had silently read through the incantation for the third time, she announced, “I’m ready to do this.”
“Are you sure?” Harris questioned.
“I’m positive,” Jessica said while standing. Ellen, Harris and Simon stood as well. Before Jessica followed Harris out, she noticed the red tinted mirror that was hanging on the wall.
At Leon Stone’s mansion, Karla was scanning pages of something that were written in a foreign language for Leon to see.
Leon—while dressed in pajamas—glanced at the clock on the computer screen and saw that it was 8:50 P.M. He then concentrated before struggling to say, “Jess. Jess is… n’t home yet.”
“She called before leaving the retirement home,” Karla began. “She didn’t say what, but she and Simon had something to do. She said that she should be home by ten.”
Karla saw Leon pondering a thought before saying, “You scanned… enough… for… for now. Take… a break.”
“Yes, Grandfather,” Karla said before putting down what she had in her hand and walking out.
When Leon heard the door shutting behind Karla, he closed his eyes and began to silently chant the words that would put him into a light state of self-hypnosis.
At Harris’s house, Ellen, Jessica and Simon were sitting at the dining room table. They each had a Legacy volume while reading it when a quick flash of light that originated from Jessica had caught their focus.
“You have a camera?” Ellen quickly asked Jessica.
“No,” Jessica replied as she flashed again.
Ellen stood quickly and suddenly saw a man’s ghostly image in the red tinted mirror. The ghostly image was attempting to enter Jessica’s body.
Jessica and Simon had also stood quickly as Jessica continued with, “I’m flashing! What the hell!”
“Leon Stone!” Ellen quickly uttered. “No one here will become your puppet!”
Harris and Allyson dashed into the room to see what the commotion was about. Jessica and Simon quickly moved to where they could also see Leon’s reflection.
“That’s your grandfather, Jess,” Simon pointed out. “And, boy, does he look pissed.”
No one could hear Leon’s words, but everyone could see him rattling out something. Within seconds, Leon stretched his arms out wide at shoulder level and immediately following, everything in the dining room that was made of glass exploded. Everyone quickly ducked for cover to avoid the shards of flying pieces.
Glass—from dust size to inch long fragments—showered everyone in the room. Groans and yelps were heard when a piece of glass pierced the skin.
Once the shower of glass ended, everyone stood and examined the wounds that he or she had received.
Sonya was asleep in her playpen in the living room and the loud disturbance in the dining room had awakened her with a start. Allyson didn’t check her wounds as she rushed to calm down Sonya.
“Damn, my arms look as if I’ve been standing out in a sandstorm,” Jessica grumbled.
“I second that,” Ellen announced as she examined her own wounds.
Before Simon had a chance to say anything, Harris supplied, “There’s a healing incantation in one of my family’s books on incantations. I’ll heal you, Jessica, to show you how it’s done and then you can heal everyone else.”
“Why can’t you heal everyone?” Jessica asked.
“Magic follows the rules that you can’t make something from nothing,” Harris began. “Properties of something or someone are either transferred or transformed, so when I heal you, it’s going to reduce my health, resilience and retard my ability to heal. And since you are more magically powerful than me…”
“My health, resilience and my ability to heal won’t be as affected from healing others,” Jessica finished his sentence.
Harris grinned before saying, “Exactly.”
“Alright,” Jessica agreed as the sound of Sonya’s fussing had subsided. “Heal me and I’ll heal everyone else. Then I’m going home.”
“No; you’re not,” Harris countered in a stern tone as he moved towards the books on incantations.
“Why not?!” Jessica demanded.
“Your grandfather had attacked us,” Harris informed. “He had attacked you and there’s no doubt that he’ll attack you again if you go home.”
“Well… I can’t leave Karla with our grandfather,” Jessica retorted. “It’s not safe for her.”
Harris was about to respond when Ellen said, “It’s not safe for your dad either.”
“My dad?” Jessica echoed in a confused tone. “My dad works in Alaska and I see him once or twice a month. So Karla is the only one who is in danger, and I will go get her.”
“Jessica, Kar
la is the only wizard or sorceress in the area who your grandfather can spiritually possess, and if he’s not possessing her as we speak to defend himself from us, I’ll be surprised,” Harris told her.
“You’ll be walking into a trap if you go home right now,” Ellen concluded aloud.
“Well, I’m not abandoning my sister,” Jessica said as if to take a stand.
“No one is abandoning anyone,” Harris assured her. “But currently you’re no match for your grandfather even when he’s possessing your sister.”
“Currently?” Jessica questioned while taking note of Harris’s chosen word.
“Tonight you’re going to cast a few defensive incantations on yourself that will prepare you to deal with your grandfather,” Harris began. “And you will learn as many offensive incantations as you can remember in one night. And tomorrow, you and I will go to your place and do what we can to get your sister back.”
“And me,” Ellen informed. When Harris shot her a skeptical look, she continued with, “There is no way that I’m going to allow you to bench me on this, so you had better include me in on your plans.”
Harris sighed before saying, “Fine.” He then searched through the book on incantations for the healing incantation.
“Jess, I hope your memory is as good as your grand-father’s,” Ellen said.
“I think my and even Karla’s memories are better than most, but our memories still don’t compare to our grandfather’s memory,” Jessica said.
“Well, I hope your memory is good enough to learn the spells that we need,” Ellen said as Allyson was returning with a broom. “How’s Sonya?”
“She was really upset,” Allyson said. “A bottle and her mom’s music CD had quieted her down though.”
“That’s good,” Ellen said.
“Okay, here’s that healing incantation,” Harris announced as Allyson began to sweep the broken glass on the floor into one pile.
“Is there a hand-held broom?” Ellen asked. “Or something that I can use to get the glass off the furniture?”
“Get the vacuum cleaner from the closet,” Allyson told Ellen. Ellen nodded before walking away.
“Jess, let’s go into the kitchen while they clean up in here,” Harris suggested.
“Okay,” Jessica agreed before following Harris into the next room.
Simon stayed in the dining room to help clean up.
As the minutes slowly passed, Harris cast the healing incantation on Jessica. The healing incantation’s only prop consisted of an herb being consumed midway through the recited words. Once Harris finished the final half of the recited words, Jessica’s scratches healed without a trace of being splattered by shards of glass.
After Jessica had reexamined her arms, she looked at Harris’s face and saw that he looked extremely exhausted.
“Are you okay?” Jessica asked.
“I had never done that incantation before,” Harris began. “It took more out of me than I expected.”
“Okay, well, it’s my turn to heal you and the others,” Jessica said.
Jessica tried to match what Harris had done as best as she could, and once she was through, Harris looked more vibrant.
As the minutes continued to pass, Jessica healed Ellen, Allyson and then Simon. Once everyone was healed and the dining room was cleaned up, Ellen, Harris and Jessica moved onto the defensive incantations. Allyson and Simon helped where they could, but mainly they had stayed back and watched.
As the minutes turned into hours, Ellen, Harris and Jessica had cast the incantation that allowed massive currents of electricity to pass through their body without harm and nine other vivacious defensive incantations.
Once the last available defensive incantation was cast on themselves they began to memorize offensive incantations.
Sunday, at midnight, Allyson put Sonya to bed and went to bed herself. Simon lay down on the couch and drifted off to sleep.
Ellen, Harris and Jessica stayed up until 4:00 A.M., while studying offensive incantations before going to bed.
As the hours continued to pass, Allyson woke up Harris at 10:00 A.M., and thirty minutes later, Harris woke up Ellen and Jessica.
Everyone ate brunch once they were up, and once the dining room table was cleared of the dirty dishes, Ellen, Harris and Jessica began studying incantations again.
The three had barely gotten started studying when the phone rang. Allyson answered the phone with the traditional, “Hello.”
“Allyson, it’s me—Martha.”
“Hi, Martha,” Allyson greeted cheerfully. “So how are things in Saint Louis?”
“Everything’s good,” Martha said. “I’m calling because I had a dream about Ellen.”
“Oh? What was your dream?” Allyson asked.
“I dreamed that Ellen was the female version of Dr. Doolittle, and Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny… well, all the cartoon animal characters had sworn their allegiance to her, and the last dream I had like that was when Vincentia was using mice as spies to spy on Ellen’s great-grandmother.”
“So what do you think that your dream means?” Allyson asked.
“Well, my dream continued with Ellen leading them all against a ruthless sovereign,” Martha began. “So I’m thinking that Ellen will either cast an incantation to make it happen or she needs to, especially if she’s planning to go up against a sovereign of some sort.”
“I guess in a broad definition of the word he can be considered a sovereign,” Allyson said.
“So Ellen is going up against somebody?” Martha questioned.
“She befriended a sorceress who is around her age,” Allyson began. “Her name’s Jessica, and it turns out that Jessica’s grandfather is hurting people. So Ellen, Jessica and Harris are going to go up against him.”
“Jessica is going up against her own grandfather?” Martha questioned incredulously.
“Tony’s dream was right on the money,” Allyson supplied. “Jessica’s grandfather had a stroke more than a year ago that left him bedridden; however, he’s capable of astral projecting and possessing people at will, and we believe that Jessica’s grandfather is currently possessing Jessica’s twin sister. Jessica wasn’t happy to learn that fact about her grandfather, so Jessica wants to rescue Karla… her sister.”
“Okay, well, tell Ellen good luck for me and I’ll keep her success in my prayers,” Martha said.
“Okay… I’ll talk to you later,” Allyson said. “Bye.”
“Bye,” Martha said before the two hung up.
As Allyson stepped into the dining room, she said, “Martha called. Ellen, she had a dream about you.”
“What was it about?” Ellen quickly asked.
“All the cartoon animal characters had sworn their allegiance to you, and that you had led them against a ruthless sovereign,” Allyson supplied.
“Does she dream of fairy tales often?” Jessica asked.
“Martha’s a psychic,” Ellen quickly said. “Her psychic dreams may come out symbolically, but they’re usually accurate. However, I don’t have the incantation that would give me command over the beasts.”
“You have a natural command over the beasts actually,” Harris supplied.
“I don’t control them, I attract them,” Ellen corrected. “There’s a difference.”
“The only thing missing of your command over the animals is your ability to communicate with them, and there’s a mind linking incantation in one of my family’s books on incantations,” Harris informed. “It’s actually meant to link human minds together and it has a duration of six hours; however, I believe it can be used to link human minds to animal minds.”
Ellen shrugged before saying, “Sure, I’m game.”
“What about you, Jessica?” Harris questioned.
“What about me?” Jessica asked in a confused tone.
“When I cast the incantation on Ellen, I’m going to include myself,” Harris said. “For six hours I will know what Ellen is thinking, seeing and hearing and she
will know what I’m thinking, seeing and hearing.”
“An insight into Ellen’s mind,” Allyson said playfully. “Now that’s scary.”
“Hey!” Ellen uttered defensively.
Allyson just amusingly grinned as Jessica chuckled slightly.
Harris was amusingly grinning as well while saying, “Jessica, it might be beneficial to us all that your mind would be linked with ours.”
Jessica looked at Ellen while saying playfully, “Sure, I can use a little scare.”
“Okay, everyone,” Ellen shot back defensively.
“I’m just kidding,” Jessica said with a grin.
“Mmm,” Ellen uttered with a smirk.
“Anyway,” Allyson uttered to regain their focus. “Would hamsters or gerbils be the animals that you’ll need?”
“Uh… sure,” Harris said. “Either one.”
“And small birds,” Ellen added.
Allyson nodded before saying, “Okay, well, Sonya and I will go to the pet store and get a few of each.”
“You’re going to take Sonya while knowing what could happen with Sonya inside a pet store?” Ellen quickly questioned.
“You three don’t need to be splitting your focus between Sonya and your studies,” Allyson began. “And I’ll be careful. I won’t get too close to the animal cages with Sonya.”
“Okay,” Ellen said skeptically.
“You won’t be able to carry small pets and Sonya, so see if Simon will go with you,” Harris suggested. “In fact, Simon could go in and get the pets while you and Sonya wait in the car.”
“Alright,” Allyson said before giving Harris a short ‘goodbye’ kiss.
As Allyson was leaving the room, Harris flipped through one of his family’s books on incantations for the mind linking incantation.
Allyson, Sonya and Simon were gone for an hour, and when they returned, Simon brought in a large box. Inside the box were eight individual boxes that each carried either one of the four gerbils or one of the four finches.
By 6:30 P.M., Ellen, Harris and Jessica agreed that it was time to confront Jessica’s grandfather whether it would be in his own body or in Karla’s body.
Harris cast the incantation that linked his, Ellen’s and Jessica’s minds with the gerbils’ and the finches’ minds, and as Harris suspected, Ellen had full command over the gerbils and the finches.
Legacy Page 41
