Precious Anathema

by T. L. Manning

  “Come on Delilah, just do it before the fucking spiders come back it can’t be worse than that.” I picked up my left hand and placed it in the opening on the right; I could always come back in the morning if I hadn’t gotten out by then. Making my way into the manmade hall I noticed dim light ahead, I started to run, I could get out of this hell. I rounded a small corner to find a lit torch, but no one had been down here in decades, how could a torch be lit. I turned around in a circle suddenly fearful I was not alone in this maze. I took the torch from the wall and held it in my hand, I could see so much better now and somehow wished I could go back to the dark. The rocks I had been kicking as I made my way through the hall were not rocks at all. Bones, all sizes and shapes littered the hall floor. Some I recognized from crime shows as human, but others seemed much too small to be close to human, what the hell lived down here? I closed my eyes again chanting that it was all in my head to make them go away, but as I opened my eyes they were still there and I had to move them out of the way to keep walking. I knew the trick was keeping track of what my fears and insecurities were so I could stay ahead of the curse, the list was long though and I knew any one of them could seem real in a second. Everything from spiders that had already given a splendid performance, to the size of my thighs, my flaming red hair, heights, blood and death just to name a few. Some of these things make me twitch at the thought of them, not just sight or feeling but I kept them in my head to try avoiding the element of surprise. I wouldn’t look down at my feet, I knew that was a skull I had kicked but as long as I told myself it was a rock I could keep moving forward without passing out. I walked for what seemed like an hour in the same direction, noticing piles of rocks throughout. Wondering if Cora made these halls or the men she sent in here, I had to fight not to imagine what she put them through, all these men died at the hands of my family and a cold chill shot up my back as I was spooked by a shadow, I waved the torch and pun around. Nothing around me, my imagination was really getting away from me, then I saw it again and stopped cold, this time there was no denying that I saw the figure of a man’s shadow pass in front of me. A cold blast of air crept up my back and I spun around in time to see a shadow once more, then another. I was letting the curse get to me again, there were no shadows lurking around me, I closed my eyes took a deep breath and turned to keep walking, only when I turned I was face to face with a wall that had not been here before, the hall now went right instead of straight. I jumped back as I came face to face with the reality that this was much more than a simple spell, I looked to the right and the hall seemed to branch off into three different directions, I began to make my way down the new hall with one hand holding my torch and the other holding my knife.

  The smell was really getting to me too; it was unlike anything I had ever smelled. Not a musty smell, but more like rich iron mixed with rotten eggs and ammonia. At times it seemed thicker in the air than others, but it was always there as I breathed in. The walls seemed to leak liquid from between the rocks, it might have been that, but the liquid seemed much thicker than water so I hadn’t dared to touch it or check it out, the trickling sound just followed my steps. I felt the cold rush through me again and stopped walking, waiting to see an image but nothing past in front of me, then I heard it creeping up from behind me.

  “Have you come to finish?” I whipped around and the wind was suddenly knocked out of my like someone punched me in the gut. I fell to my knees, unable to respond. I saw no one, no shadow near me but heard him as clear as any man.

  “You are too late, we took care of it and now it’s your turn sweet Cora.” I coughed and shook my head, catching my breath I screamed into the darkness.

  “I am not Cora, my name is Delilah, and I didn’t do this to you!” The fear of what could happen to me made my hands start to shake and my lips quivered as I held back tears.

  “We have all been waiting for you Cora; it’s our turn to play.” I picked up the torch and ran as fast as I could, clumsily slipping on skeletal remains, crying and screaming in fear as I ran, I took a left turn and didn’t look back. This hall was wider, and a strange light made it very easy to see where I walked. I couldn’t see the end but something made me feel safer here, I walked faster to find out where this came out, as I walked I couldn’t help but keep looking behind me afraid that I was still being followed, and from the bones scattered through the hall floors I had no idea just how many were looking for me either and knew one thing, I didn’t want to find out. The hall turned a corner and I stood in shock at what was before me. I stood on the doorway to an old room, littered with mismatched furniture and a fireplace in the middle that still had some wood inside it. On the walls I saw markings where someone or many someone’s had made calendars to mark their day’s here. The markings were on everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of marks. Above the fireplace they had written dates, going back to 1804 all the way up to 1944, I leaned against the side of the hall realizing two things, this basement was not part of the family curse, it was more of the family secret going back a hundred years before the curse, and that women in the family as close as my great grandmother had still used this as a torture device. Realizing that’s why Freya knew so much about it, she didn’t hear about it she lived it as a child, watching her mother torture men in this very house.

  THIRTEEN

  Walking into the room I could almost feel the pain and hell these men had endured while in this game of cat and mouse women in my family had played with them. They were always the mouse, until now. They were the cat and as I picked up an old torn shirt I realized that I was the mouse, and the mouse never really wins. A voice took me out of the daze, it wasn’t the same voice I had heard before but still a man’s eerie voice spoke from the hall.

  “Feeling guilty are you? I know who you are, I know why you are here but I don’t know how long the others will let you stay.” I dropped the shirt and ran to the hall.

  “Please, I am begging you to help me I am sorry they did this to you but I am not them, I have come to help you, please!” I fell to the floor crying and screamed as loud as my body would allow. “Please help me!” The hall was silent over the sounds of my sobbing; I looked back into the room realizing that not one of these men ever made it out, knowing that I probably would suffer the same fate. Taking a deep breath a looked at my surroundings once more, nothing added up, the dates were decades before the curse and it seemed as though this was used decades after as well. Till this point I thought I had just been inside an elaborate spell put on the basement, but looking through this room it became very clear that I was no longer in the basement of the family home. Where I had been transported too was a mystery but I had to keep a clear head and not lose sight of what I knew I had to do. Getting out of here was my first thought, my second was something that the legend spoke of, and I wasn’t sure how to free souls that wanted me dead. I stood up and picked up a piece of charred wood from the fire place, on the mantel I wrote –DG 2013, and walked back into the hall. I decided not to turn back and continued down the hall, doorways appearing before my very eyes, some rooms looking familiar to me but I wouldn’t walk in, just stood in the hall looking through the doorways in fear, until one room froze my feet from moving. A beautifully lit room, big fluffy pillows across the bed a down comforter and a gorgeous blue dress on the end of the bed. It was my Mothers room, the blue dress she wore to my High School Graduation looked like it had been perfectly ironed, and every picture frame was in its right place, every trinket set just as my memories thought they should be. My feet began to move into the room and as I passed the threshold it even smelled like her beautiful perfume. I closed my eyes and made myself take a deep breath, tears welt up and began to stream across my face, I sat on the bed and fell back looking at the ceiling. I let myself get lost in the incredible feeling of going back to that day, the day my mother was still with me, proud and loving. I threw my hands on my face and howled as my cries turned into pure shrieks of anger.

  “I need you and you left m
e when the aunts could have saved you! You left me! How could you leave me?” I punched the pillows, threw the comforter and began taking down pictures as I screamed, all the smiles and happy faces seemed like a lie, she left me and I didn’t want to see her fake love anymore.

  “You lied to me, you said you would always be here and you left me, you just left and lied, it was all a lie!” I walked by the broken glass on the floor, the feathers from the pillows and sat back on the bed. I took a deep breath and felt better, the room was supposed to break me, but I felt better. I didn’t hate my mother, I was angry at death not her. I looked around the room one last time and stood up when I felt a chill blast through me, I spun around and was face to face with a gorgeous man staring back at me.

  “Are you Delilah?” I took a step back realizing he was no man I had ever seen before but his eyes were so familiar to me.

  “Yes, I am Delilah who are you?” The spirit smiled and looked around the room.

  “I always knew she would be ok, I always knew you would be amazing.” I was curious and afraid to ask but he answered my question before I had time to reply. “When your Great Grandmother sent me away I knew she was pregnant with you Delilah, no one knew she had told me yet. I knew you were coming before I was cast away.” I thought I would throw up a little as he spoke, was he saying that he was my Father, and that my Great Grandmother sent him down here to die? I had so many questions, the first was more obvious.

  “What is your name?” He walked to the front of the bed, closer to me and I felt afraid at first, then he smiled and I relaxed, he smiled like I did.

  “My name is Justin, and I am your father.” I started shaking, this was another trick it had to be, I watched as he made his way to my side of the bed and sat down, I couldn’t move and found myself staring at him without as much as a blink.

  “Are you, I mean are you a ghost?” He put his head down and nodded.

  “I am a ghost honey, I died down here and now I am trapped. I am stuck here with all the other men that died, all the other men but one man who happened to be in here when the curse was put on the family, he is still here.” Another man was down here with me, and he knew about the curse?

  “I don’t understand, first of all how could you know about the curse it’s such a secret I didn’t know about it for eighteen years, and secondly how in the hell is anyone supposed to survive down here without food or water?” He laughed and shook his head.

  “Delilah, you have not been down here very long have you?” I shrugged my shoulders and looked around the trashed room feeling a bit embarrassed by my reaction to seeing it. “You will be fine down here once you learn to overcome the somewhat creepy images and tricks because that’s all they are. The souls are a different story, and it really is a little unsettling how much you look like the pictures of Cora and Emma honey so you have to watch your back with them, most of these men were put here by women who looked like you and not like your mother, the man that is still alive down here for example, I wouldn’t try looking for him.” I knew in my heart that this was just another way for the curse to mess with me, he kept talking without giving me very much information, and the longer he talked the more I noticed his mannerisms matched my own, but I couldn’t figure out how he could know so much about the curse if my mother had nothing to do with witchcraft or her gifts.

  “Tell me how to get out of here please I am begging you, tell me what to do and I will do it.” I heard a crash in the hall outside and jumped while screaming, I looked back to the bed and he had vanished; guess he wasn’t as brave as he made himself out to be. I turned back around and slowly made my way to the door, I held my breath as I placed one hand on the door case, and the other on my knife as I leaned my head out into the hallway, the shadowy figure of a human being dashed around a corner. I forgot the warning from my cursed father and started yelling as I ran after him, every turn he seemed to get a little farther away from me, I kept running and begging him to stop but with each word he ran faster, and so did I.

  “Please, I need help. Please stop running!” I was severely out of shape compared to the Olympic athlete I was chasing, and I couldn’t stop tripping over every bit of debris that littered the dark halls. I couldn’t help but feel distracted by each door I passed as I ran as well, one looked strangely like my high school home room, one even looked like a soup kitchen I once volunteered at, and I almost stopped just to get some food, but I kept my eye on the shadow and ran until my legs almost gave out. We had been running so long, and taken so many turns I knew I was lost, not that I ever thought I really knew where I was but I stopped and screamed in defeat.

  “This is Bullshit! Do you hear me you freaky ass shadow of a cowardly man! Show yourself to me!” I had found my breaking point as I let my body fall to the floor and sobbed, the tears ran down my face as I began to howl, and the smell in the hall became a weird mix of melting wires and hair all at once. My eyes began to burn to the point of almost not being able to open them, and then I felt it a hot, tingly sensation on my scalp. I put my hand on my head and quickly pulled it away screaming, my hair had caught on fire! I jumped from the floor waving my hands frantically through the rats nest. I ran, I wasn’t thinking because I was on fire, I just continued to hit myself in the head and scream, it was so hot and my scalp was screaming as loudly as I was. I passed a door that looked like a boys locker room and ran inside to find the nearest toilet, just as I had hoped I ran into the stall and gave myself the first swirly of my life, I could actually hear the fire go out and sizzle in the cold water. I picked my head up looking at the clumps of burned hair in the toilet and threw up, not a little bit either the combination of running too much, swallowing to much mucus from crying and anxiety made me heave like never before, strange sounds echoed from the dirty toilet every time my mouth opened letting stomach acid and mucus fly out. Dirty, old toilet water ran down my back, dripping from my hair. It was dripping from my hair? I threw my hands up and realized my scalp was burning at all as my hands found themselves immersed in a giant rat’s nest of fire red hair. I sat on the cold floor and yelled into the ceiling trying not to laugh at myself.

  “Flaming red hair, are you kidding me right now?” One of my biggest hiccups about myself had always been the flaming red mop of hair I carried, and the curse got into my head again and used it against me. I started looking at my spaghetti legs, and giant thighs shaking my head. As long as I knew what was coming I could stay ahead of it. I stood up seeing a towel hanging on a locker, it was really quite remarkable how precise each of these rooms were right down to the sweaty jock strap on a bench, I laughed in spite of myself and my situation, it didn’t have to be a nightmare if I didn’t let it. I took the white towel and began drying my hair as I walked to the old mirror glued to the wall. I looked like death, pale skin, dark grey circles had turned into my face and my swollen red eyes and nose from all this crying made it seem that I had died from a coke overdose at that. I turned a faucet on and cupped some water to drink, it tasted like something I once smelled in New Jersey, but it was cold and wet so I drank as much as my stomach could handle, went back to the stall to pee and then began rummaging through lockers for something more comfortable to wear, a white wife beater type tank top and some basketball shorts made me feel better about the running I anticipated coming in my near future, an inside pocket fit my knife as I stepped back out in the hall and kept on my path. Each hall looked like the one I had just left, each turn was a twin to another, even rock formations began to look familiar to me, but I knew it was just to confuse me into thinking I was heading back to the beginning, and to a point it worked too. I started thinking about time, I knew it had been more than a few hours since I went down the stairs, but I had no way of knowing how time worked here for all I knew I had been gone for an hour, a day, or a month and that thought almost sent me into a full on panic attack as I kept moving forward. I knew that I couldn’t use my magic in here after the spider incident, but there had to be a way out, a loophole, every spell
had one and I just needed to put my thoughts together and crack this one. Freya had mentioned that the souls had to be released, but I had to know how to get out releasing anything, and I also had to convince them I was not the evil bitch that sent them here before they figured out a way to kill me, I certainly had my work cut out for me.

  FOURTEEN

  Exhaustion and mental fatigue set in just as I came across a room I recognized, walking inside I took a deep breath and made my way to my old bed, flopping across my favorite comforter and smelling the only laundry soap my mother ever used made my face tingle with heat and blood as I took my first real breath in hours. I rolled over and grabbed a pillow; this seemed to be as good a place as any to take a nap. I would be safe in here, as safe as I could be since my brain said too bad to the fear and my eyes began to close. There was no drifting off to sleep, it was quick and almost violent that I fell asleep so fast, I saw Eris, pacing through the dining room, she looked so scared. Selene was sitting at the table and looked like she had been crying, the Aunts were talking quietly with Freya, and then I saw Xander. Fists clenched, glaring at Selene. I could hear every word like I was in the room, and I thought for a moment I was in the room. Kali slammed a fist on the table and Selene began to howl.

  “Selene tell us exactly why you thought this would be funny to send her into the labyrinth, a spell no one has ever cracked, a place none of us would ever step foot because we have no idea just how bad it is, tell me right now what part of that seemed funny!” Selene put her head down on the table and kept crying as she answered her mother, I stepped closer to the table to make sure I could hear everything.

  “If I had known that the stories were true and not just some creepy ass bedtime story to keep us in line I never would have sent her down the stairs I swear, we don’t like each other but I never would have sent her to her death.” She put her head back down and howled as everyone took a seat around the table. Freya captured the room as she began to admit to her involvement and knowledge of the spell.