Potion of the Hound

by Alicia Scarborough

  Helga flinches as she stands back up and hobbles over to where Jay is standing. “I don’t know how far we’ll get with me hobbling instead of running. Besides, isn’t your wand almost out of power?”

  “Just keep moving. I’ll take care of the hounds if they show up,” Jay snarls.

  The two are on the move again, running along the hill’s cliff line looking down at the road. Helga does her best limping alongside Jay who is regularly firing off blasts at the hounds that pursue them. His wand sparkles a few times shooting weak flames.

  The hounds are relentless when it comes to their prey. It seems that every time that Jay takes one out, two more show up in its place. Helga only wishes that she wasn’t on probation and that she carried her wand around like her sister Agnes does and, perhaps, that she was not in this mess.

  Suddenly, the hounds stop. Their ears perk up. They then all turn around, running in the other direction. A few hounds that are closer to Helga and Jay narrow their red eyes, growl, and then take off. Helga and Jay watch them run off as they stand there, catching their breath. Jay shakes his wand a few times with little to no sparks flying.

  “Great, it’s dead,” Jay mumbles.

  The phone in Helga’s pocket vibrates, making her jump and almost fall off the cliff. Jay catches her in time before she tumbles down into the traffic running below.

  She steadies herself as she pulls the phone from her pocket and answers it. “Yes?” she says between wheezes.

  “Where are you?” Ursa asks with urgency in her voice.

  “I had to run,” Helga explains, “The hounds—”

  The phone clicks and goes dead.

  “Ursa? Ursa? URSA!” Panic fills Helga as she screams with ragged breath into the phone not knowing what happened to her sister or why the phone went dead.

  Jay darts his eyes at her and asks, “What happened?”

  Helga stops and stares back to where they last saw his car. “We have to go back.”

  Jay’s eyes bug out of his head as he smacks his forehead. “Are you bloody nuts?”

  She purses her lips, demanding, “We have to go back.”

  “The hounds are back that way,” he reminds her, pacing a few feet away.

  “My sister was trying to help us.” Helga starts to walk back from where they came. “She needs us.”

  “This is loony,” he says between his teeth, “You wouldn’t do anything for Ruby, but you’re willing to go back for your sister?”

  “Yes,” she says glaring back at him, “she’s family.”

  In the distance the hounds howl again but a lot more distant than before. The two nod at each other and begin to make their way back to his car.

  Along the way Helga continues to look down at the road below them, scanning for anything that might indicate Higgins’s car. She has no idea what to look for. She only assumes that it is a big and bulky thing that could take down any of today’s modern vehicles, for most Order of Magic Officials drive vehicles that were built in the ‘70s.

  Jay continues to urge Helga to hurry, but she can only run so fast without her side threatening to make her pass out from the pain. Jay hurries forward stopping every now and then to wait for Helga to catch up.

  The wind picks up, but luckily it is no longer raining. The moon shines down its light, helping the two pick their way along the hill, so they do not trip and fall as they hurry along the path.

  Helga stops when she spies another vehicle on the side of the road with its lights still on and its doors left open. She makes her way down the hill when Jay appears at her side to assist her. They approach the vehicle with caution.

  Jay’s knuckles whiten as he firmly grasps his wand between his fingers. The sound of several dings emit from the running car, indicating the doors are open. Helga takes another step forward but jumps back when a toad croaks at her because she’s trod on it.

  She looks at the ground where the light from the car doors and moonlight shine to reveal several toads and frogs littered around the car. Turning, she casts a glance at Jay who then gives a knowing nod.

  Helga whispers, “This is Mr. Higgins’s car. They were here.”

  She walks a few more paces around the car when Jay exclaims, “Hey! Look at this!”

  He bends down and picks up something. As he raises it up, the object comes into focus, and Helga knows what he found. In his fingers he holds the remains of a cell phone. That’s why the line between her and Ursa suddenly went dead.

  Jay drops the phone dashing past Helga. She turns to see something orange flash by up on the hill. Jay climbs up the hill to chase after it.

  Helga goes and pulls on Jay’s coat. “Jay, don’t go. It’s not her . . .” she pleads with him.

  “It’s Ruby, I know it is,” Jay says, swiping Helga’s hands off of his coat, “Let me go!”

  Jay climbs up over the hill and looks back down at Helga. “Stay there! I’ll come back for you,” he promises and then disappears over the hill.

  Helga grinds her teeth knowing full well that Jay is being led into a trap. She also knows that she cannot make the climb again without assistance. Her side hurts when she breathes or tries to move too fast.

  She takes another glance back towards the highway to watch the cars and trucks drive dangerously fast past the car that was barely on the road. She hears the hounds howling again, but this time they are closer. Not wanting to wait for them to find her, she decides to get moving.

  Looking both ways, Helga makes a mad dash across the highway the whole time humming the song of an ancient video game that she used to play in arcades called Frogger. She clenches her teeth with each twinge of pain and then stops humming that song, thinking that it might not be the best of ideas.

  She passes Jay’s car and leans up against it before moving again. She has no idea of where to go, but the only thing that she can think is to keep moving. She makes a right turn and heads for the forest. She has a gut feeling that the forest is the place to be and that her sister Ursa and Higgins have thought the same thing.

  Her breathing becomes harder as she continues to run, but she cannot shake the idea that there is something mimicking her movements. Off to her right she hears labored breathing and heavy footsteps trampling through the leaves and to her left she hears the same.

  She comes to a stop and leans against the trunk of a sturdy sweet gum tree. She turns, leaning her back hard against the tree so that she can see her stalkers head-on.

  From the bushes emerge two hounds resembling large dark mastiffs with red glowing eyes. Their jowls drip long lines of drool. Their heads hang low as they slowly take one step after another, closing in on Helga. Her heartbeat picks up, beating faster and making her chest squeeze from fear.

  She feels the warmth drain from her face as her limbs become colder. Frost covers the ground where the hounds trod. The air is getting cooler. When the hounds approach within a foot of attacking distance, they stop and sit down, looking back at the center bush.

  Helga continues to breathe raggedly as she watches the leaves curl away, blacken, and die when a lady in white steps forward.

  A silver-like laughter fills the air as Lady Ava places her hands on both hounds. “Just lovely, darling, lovely. Now, go get the other one,” she coos to the beasts at her side.

  The dogs take one last look at their master before they run off into the woods. Lady Ava clasps her hands together, declaring, “So loyal,” and then turns her attention back to Helga.

  “Don’t think of running dear,” she begins, gesturing about the area as more red eyes peer out from the surrounding bushes.

  Helga mumbles, “Wouldn’t think of it.”

  Lady Ava’s purple eyes harden as she curls her upper lip, warning, “You’re forgetting your place, Helga.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, my lady,” Helga sneers back, “Long night, my lady.”

  Smiling a toothy grin at Helga, she affirms, “Indeed, it is a long night,” and crouches down in front of the girl. She props Helga’
s chin up with her finger to inform the teenager, “You’ve lost, you know that, right?”

  Helga yanks her chin out of Lady Ava’s grasp, wheezes, and then declares, “No, I’ve only just begun.”

  “Hmm, it sounds like you’ve just begun fading out,” she replies with a frown, adding, “Pity—”

  Shock fills Lady Ava’s eyes. Helga holds her foot in the air for a moment before bringing it back down on the ground.

  Lady Ava stumbles backwards holding her stomach that Helga so ferociously kicked. Her hounds begin emerging from the bushes ready to attack but stop when Lady Ava waves her hand in the air.

  Helga’s eyes widen with fear as she stares at the twenty hounds that surround them. Lady Ava glares at Helga with fire in her eyes, her mouth pressed into a thin line as her cheekbones become sharper while she clenches her teeth.

  She raises one hand as some of her hounds ready themselves to attack their master’s enemy. Helga gulps audibly thinking that maybe kicking Lady Ava wasn’t the best of plans after all. She slides down the trunk of the tree landing on her bottom and the wet ground. The hounds growl louder as they wait for their master’s command.

  Sweat starts to form and bead down Helga’s back and neck while her heart continues beating rapidly. Breathing becomes increasingly difficult as each breath sends fire through her injured right rib. Her right arm buzzes angry threats of impending stings as Helga does her best not to cast the spell she is holding back. Her throat becomes dry as she waits for Lady Ava to make a move.

  Helga curses Jay and his need to go save his stupid friend and wishes that he were here to help her instead.

  Lady Ava moves her arm back as she readies herself to blast off a spell. Helga squeezes her eyes shut and turns her head sideways trying to shield herself from the oncoming curse. The hounds howl around her as Lady Ava begins to laugh a wicked laugh.

  Curious, Helga peeks open an eye to see what the heck is going on. There the lady in white stands with a globe hovering above her hand, the wind whipping her fur-trimmed coat around her slender legs. She continues to laugh demonically while her hounds hold their position pointed at Helga.

  “I’ve had fun at this little game of ours, Helga,” she remarks with a wry smile while bouncing the ball up and down in her hand.

  “Good, you can let me go now,” Helga suggests with a sheepish grin leaning hard on her left arm as she wheezes a heavy breath, “right?”

  “No,” Lady Ava retorts as her smile fades away into a harsh line. Her arm pulls back as she launches the globe at Helga and shouts, “Torpor!”

  Helga flinches downward as the globe slams into the tree above her shattering into dust that rains down upon her like a gentle snowfall. Helga’s eyelids become heavy as the dust lands on her, and she cannot keep them open. She lowers herself onto the forest floor as the dust continues to rain down upon her.

  Soon, she falls into a deep slumber. The last thing she remembers is Lady Ava’s silvery laugh before everything goes dark.

  14

  Sacrifice

  The brightness becomes unbearable as Helga tosses and turns, trying to shield her eyes with her arms over her face. She grumbles some more as she takes note that the floor is not the soggy wet leaves that litter the ground in the forest. Reaching with one hand to one side, she carefully touches the smooth cool surface of the floor beneath her.

  She snorts while flinging her arms off of her face and then rubs her eyes before opening them. Helga blinks a few times to see the room that she’s in; it’s completely white. Standing up, Helga takes a few steps around the area while gawking at the walls and ceilings decorated with gold filigree.

  She did not expect her captor, Lady Ava, to have such a fancy dungeon, but this is over the top. Talk about being taken prisoner in style.

  “Hey, genius,” a small girl beckons from somewhere in the room, “over here.”

  Helga turns slowly around, still squinting her eyes because the room is so bright, and peers across the room.

  Sitting in a chair backwards while resting her arms on the chair’s back sits a girl rather like Helga herself but dressed in white and a lot younger. She muses that the little girl is probably around six years of age.

  “Heh,” Helga laughs, “good one, Lady Ava.”

  The girl glowers back at Helga, remarking, “No, try again, dummy.”

  “Nah,” mutters Helga, squinting harder and looking at the young and frail being. Finally, she implores, “It couldn’t be . . . could it? Are you my conscience?”

  “Ding, ding, ding!” the girl chimes, sarcastically clapping her small hands together in several exaggerated slow claps. “And the prize goes to the dimwit with the frumpy hair.”

  “HEY! Take that back,” Helga yells.

  The girl shows her palms, entreating, “Sorry, can’t.”

  “Huh?” Helga answers with a confused look.

  The little girl sighs and scoots out of the chair, taking measured steps over to where Helga is standing and does a full circle around her.

  “Hmm, I can see that my council has certainly been ignored as of late,” the child notes, reaching out and poking Helga in the side.

  “Stop that,” Helga implores, pawing Lil’ Helga’s hand away from her injured side. “If you’re my conscience, then where are your wings and how come you don’t have a halo?”

  Lil’ Helga stops her circling and stares up at Helga to share, “You know that’s stereotyping and really rude.” She sticks her tongue out at her and leaps out of Helga’s reach.

  Helga sighs, rolling her eyes. “Sorry. Look, why am I even here? What is going on?”

  “Ah, yes,” says Lil’ Helga, bouncing a few steps as though playing hopscotch. “That . . .”

  “Yeah—that,” Helga mimics, urging Lil’ Helga to continue.

  She throws Helga a few nasty looks but continues playing a game of hopscotch. After a few jumps, she divulges, “I’ve been meaning to get you alone for a while. It just so happens that the mean Lady Ava provided the perfect setting for us to finally meet.”

  “So?” demands Helga, tapping her foot.

  “Sooo, it means that I can talk to you about your previous and current behavior.” Lil’ Helga skips a stone that she got somewhere onto the ground and takes a few more jumps across imaginary squares.

  Helga spits, “Pffft, as if that’s gonna help me now.”

  “One, two, three, four,” Lil’ Helga counts, bends down, and picks up her stone. Before starting to hop back, she discloses, “You’d be surprised as to how much it truly WILL help.”

  “Bah,” spits Helga, tossing her hand at the girl and turning away from her. “No use.”

  Bap.

  Helga rubs the back of her head to soothe the sudden sharp pain from the rock that was thrown at her. She whirls around on the child who is no longer playing hopscotch. The little girl stands there, staring at Helga with love and compassion in her eyes.

  “Helga, I wish we did not fight.” She continues, “All I’m saying is IF you listen to me more often, then maybe you would not get into trouble so much. That little girl ghost Becky has you right. You are mean. Makes sense that you were secretly working with the bad guys.”

  “I had no choice. The Order of Magic wasn’t going to help and the TRUE society gave me an offer I could not refuse. What’s the point of being ‘good’ anyway?” Helga argues with herself, “There’s no fun in it. No reward. No laughs.”

  “You know your magic would be a lot stronger if you used it for good.” The girl points at Helga and then at her heart, explaining, “Cause the stronger magic comes from love . . . not hate.”

  “P’ah,” Helga spits, “enough with the ‘love is all powerful’ talk. Are you trying to make me into a hippy?”

  Lil’ Helga rolls her eyes. “Again with the stereotyping. That’s rude, you know.”

  “Whatever,” Helga retorts.

  “Anyway, I need to point out at least these things to you,” Lil’ Helga says, “This mornin
g if you did not cause that old lady any harm, then you and your sisters would not be in the mess you are in now. Think about it.”

  Helga crosses her arms and bows her head, listening as Lil’ Helga continues. “You would have been able to resolve the issue with Jay’s friend Ruby if you were not so busy tormenting the Magic Official—who, I should point out, gave you many chances to redeem yourself for your poor choices, but whom you refused to give a single chance to.”

  Lil’ Helga continues, “Finally, if you did not involve yourself in the shady business with the TRUE society, Lady Ava and Brimstone—”

  “Hold on, you can’t blame that entirely on me,” Helga interrupts.

  Lil’ Helga holds her index finger up towards Helga. “Let me finish,” she asserts, “If you did not get involved with Brimstone’s requests, then maybe Jay would never have needed your help with Ruby’s problem.”

  Helga grumbles, “Small little brat telling me who I should and should not do business with . . .”

  Lil’ Helga places her hands on her hips, leans forward, and maintains, “I AM your conscience, you know.”

  “I only started to do those jobs to bring in extra money,” Helga protests, “The shop was falling behind on its payments, and we needed the dough so that we would not lose our home and lose each other.”

  Helga stops grumbling when she sees Lil’ Helga giving her a disappointed stare.

  Surrendering, lifting her hands up, Helga apologizes, “Fine, fine. You win. I’ll do my best to do less bad and do more good. Be less selfish and more selfless . . . Happy now?”

  The child grins a large toothy smile with gaps in it. “Yep!”

  The smile fades away as her eyes become wide. Her cute cupid’s bow-like lips fall open as she utters, “Uh-oh.”

  Helga herself stops grinning. “What?”

  “I believe that we’re out of time.”

  Heavy gongs start ringing around them, vibrating the room. The lights start to flicker as large gusts of wind pick up, blowing the white away like dust and glitter. The floor shakes and cracks open between the two, separating to make a larger and larger chasm. They reach for one another, but their fingers barely brush the other’s outreached fingers across the ever-expanding pit.