“That idea is completely mental.”
“Have you got a better idea?”
“Well, no, not really.”
“Alright then, let’s get going.”
Night had fallen by the time we made it to the front entrance of Highgate Cemetery. A strange mist began to waft through the chilly air and I was forced to turn on my handheld torch. The entire area was cloaked in darkness as the street lights in the city had finally given out and the only other illumination was the faint light of the full moon above us. Ray’s form was slightly more visible now, and I could just make out a shadowy outline; although I couldn’t see his full features at least I could tell where he was at present.
I let out a deep breath and I could see the steam coming out of my mouth. I was trembling, and it wasn’t just due to the cold air. “Are you sure about this, Ray?”
I could see Ray’s shadowy head move as he nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I can sense a passage deep within the catacombs that could connect with the cellars in the old wizard’s mansion. If we want to get in there we have to get on with it.”
“Bloody hell, let’s get this over with then,” I said softly as I walked up to the entrance of the ornate gatehouse. I twisted the latch, which was curiously unlocked, so I swung the right gate open with a loud creak and then stepped through.
Highgate Cemetery was one of the oldest cemeteries in the entire country and lots of famous people were buried there. Split into two by a narrow lane in between, there was the west cemetery and the eastern part; I was heading into the former since that was where the entrance to the catacombs was. It was one of the major landmarks of the city and a huge tourist attraction. When we visited it a few years back, Dad and Mum took me along when they decided to participate in a guided walking tour of the place. Even though I wasn’t superstitious back then the spookiness of the tombs filled my imagination with so much terror that I slept in my parents’ bed for the next two days after we had made the trip. As I started moving into its grounds for the second time, the inner fear that I had thought I had grown out of soon began to manifest itself as an even more powerful force that kept me jumpy all night long.
While one could still get buried in the eastern part, the western area of Highgate Cemetery was overgrown with wild weeds and snakelike vines. As we started moving from the entrance and along the concrete lanes that circled the grounds, I couldn’t help but fear what had happened to this dreary place now that the old gods had returned; it had been a morbid experience the last time I was here and now with everything else that was happening, this could be the one place in which hell could truly open its doors to the world.
I was already feeling a bit terrified as shadows loomed over me from countless Catholic and Celtic crosses that marked the nearby graves along the lane. The stone angels that stood over some of the tomb markers gave me scant reassurance as I had a feeling that they were pretty much telling me that I was all alone, and they would not help at all if I ever got into trouble here. I remembered that the whole place was teeming with the reassuring noises of chirping birds the last time I was here; now it was deathly quiet—not even the crickets were chirping.
Ray’s voice seemed to be just behind my shoulder when he spoke. “Seems rather spookier at night without any lights on, doesn’t it?”
I was so startled by his sudden words that I must have leapt ten feet up in the air and I nearly dropped my torch. “You bloody git! Don’t surprise me like that!”
“Sorry, I forgot you still have a material body. Well, don’t be scared. I’m a ghost and you’re under my protection so if we do encounter any spirits, I can fight them off for you,” he said.
I kept on moving as quickly as I could. The entrance to the catacombs was somewhere in the northern part, just above the cemetery’s most famous landmark, the Lebanon circle. “If you are of any use in a fight I’ll be bloody well surprised since you don’t even have a physical body and all.”
“Well, if I’m a spirit then we can assume that I can fight off other immaterial spirits if they dare attack my best friend. If we encounter the vampire of Highgate on the other hand, well, I can’t help you there, mate. Sorry.”
My outrage overtook my fear as I turned and swung my left fist at him. It didn’t connect, of course. “Will you shut up about all that, you bloody arsewipe!”
His chuckling was quite annoying. “Sorry, just being a bit cheeky is all.”
“Well, it’s not your bloody arse on the line so shut it!”
It felt like a long time to me since I expected a ghost or something far worse to be lurking behind every grave marker that we passed but we soon made it to the front entrance of the catacombs without incident. There was a knee-high wooden barrier that partially blocked off the dark passageway that faced us up ahead.
Even though the night was quite cold my whole body was covered in a nervous sweat. “I’m quite glad we made it this far without anything happening yet,” I said softly.
“I agree,” Ray said. “There seems to be a stillness in the air. It’s almost as if the cemetery is the one peaceful place in this whole city.”
“Why do you think that’s so?”
“Perhaps the dead in the tombs all around us made a pact with the Fomorians and the others so as not to disturb this place? That’s the only thing that’s come up in my mind.”
“Well, let’s hope our luck continues then,” I said as I pulled at the barrier and moved it sideways until it no longer blocked the tunnel.
With the light of my torch leading the way, I stepped into the catacombs and began to advance slowly. The passageway had an arched overhang that was mostly made of old brick. All along the walls were squared recesses for entombing the dead in their coffins. What disturbed me the most was that while quite a few of the stone slabs that sealed the many coffins were still in place, other slabs had been taken out or damaged and I could see the edges of some of the old caskets sticking out. My fears began to bubble up to the surface again and I cursed myself for watching too many horror movies.
I kept on moving and hoped that we were close. “Ray, are you with me?”
His voice seemed to be coming from ahead of me this time. “Yes, mate. I think we need to make a turn at the next set of corridors and then we—”
Ray’s voice suddenly stopped.
I quickly began to shine the light around but since he was invisible in this world I couldn’t see what had happened. “Ray? What’s going on? Ray?”
And then I heard him crying. I could recognize his voice and it was definitely his weeping. “I miss my mummy,” he said in between sobs.
I was turning my head all around in confusion. “What?”
“Can’t you see them?”
“See who, Ray?”
“T-turn off your torch.”
The butterflies in my stomach had me gutted but I decided to trust him as I flipped off the power switch on the torch with my thumb. The darkness instantly enveloped me and I started to sweat heavily again. Seconds passed as my eyes slowly adjusted to the faint moonlight coming from the oculi set in the ceilings of the passageway.
I could see Ray as a faint shadow just ahead of me at an intersection. He was kneeling down and his head was bent over. I slowly moved forward until I was just beside him and turned to look at the corridor to his right.
Standing in the middle of the corridor just a few feet ahead of us were a pair of faint lights. They looked like orbs and they glowed very dimly with a soft white illumination. As I narrowed my eyes to get a better look I could see the faces of Ray’s parents within the boundaries of the ghost-like spheres. Their eyes were smiling and they seemed to have focused their attention at Ray.
My best friend’s voice seemed hollow. “They’re calling out to me. They tell me it’s time to go now.”
My mouth fell wide open. “No, Ray! Not yet! I need you, mate! Don’t go!”
Ray shook his head from side to side. “It’s all useless, they’re all dead. We might as well giv
e it up.”
“Ray, please,” I said softly. “You can’t leave. Please, not yet. We’re almost there.”
“But the world that we know of is gone, Steve. What’s the use? Everyone’s dead and everything’s ruined. What’s the use?”
I took in a deep breath. I had never given a motivating speech before but I needed to give one now. “We will survive, Ray. Remember at school when our teacher talked about what happened in the Blitz? We didn’t give up, we kept on fighting! That was the whole bloody point! We kept our hopes up in our darkest hour and in the end we pulled through and we won. This is the same thing all over again, Ray! This will be our finest hour! Just hang on!”
Right as I said those words, the floating orbs began to shimmer as if taken aback by the force of hope. It was at that moment that I knew I could still get my best friend over to my side once more.
“Hey,” I said to the ghostly spheres. “You’re not really Ray’s parents, are you? You’re just a couple of bloody will-o’-wisps, aren’t you? Get the bloody hell out of here, you pair of gits! Go on!”
As I said those words, the orbs seemed to shimmer for a bit before exploding in a shower of sparks that blinded me for a second; I saw nothing but white flashes in my eyes for the next minute or two. After my eyes readjusted back to the darkness I could still see Ray’s shadow standing beside me.
“Thank you, Steve,” he said. “I admit I got a bit affected there by those creatures but your words were able to break the spell.”
I wanted to hug him but for obvious reasons that was pointless so I just smiled. “It’s great to have you back with me, Ray,” I said as I turned on my torch once more.
“And the same to you, Steve.”
“Right then, let’s get this over with!”
We rounded the next corridor in the catacombs and kept on going until we reached a dead end. I just stood there as I directed the light of the torch at a solid wall of brown brick in front of me.
I frowned. “Now what?”
“I can feel something beyond. There must be a hidden trigger along that wall,” Ray said. “See if you can find it.”
I used my free hand to start feeling the brown bricks along the wall to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. The light of my torch began to dim as I had kept it going for too long without a change of batteries so I hurried up a bit. Soon enough I clasped my fingers around a particular brick that seemed slightly unhinged. I tried pushing and pulling it but nothing happened. Then I tried shifting it sideways and I soon heard a loud click as the wall in front of me suddenly parted, revealing a previously hidden passageway beyond.
We both quickly moved into the new tunnel; I had a distinct feeling that we were running out of time. Within a few minutes I noticed that Ray’s shadowy form had stopped at the end of the second corridor that branched off into two other tunnels.
“There, the corridor to your left is right beside Amicus Tarr’s cellars,” Ray said. “We’re already inside—past his protective warding.”
“So this means I can use the silver branch now?”
“Duh!”
“Right then,” I said as I pulled out the silver branch from my pullover and waved it in front of me as I started walking along the left corridor. Soon enough the tunnel in front of us began to shimmer and I could see the dimly lit corridor inside the interior of the old wizard’s house.
Without hesitation, I kept on walking as I prepared myself for the final confrontation with Amicus Tarr.
Chapter 10
As we finally got inside the mansion, I noticed that we were in the corridor leading to the mirror room along with the great hall that was just ahead. There was an old wooden armchair that served as a decoration for the passageway so I crouched down behind it just in case that old wizard was walking around and looking for me.
I sensed that Ray was right beside me, so I turned my head and started to whisper. “Do you have a plan as to how we’re supposed to take him on?”
Ray’s voice was as soft as a distant breeze in my ear. “No, I thought you had a plan.”
I started to grind my teeth a little. “This is just wonderful. We’re about to take on a very powerful wizard and we don’t bloody know how to do that.”
“Alright then, let’s think about this for a minute.”
“A minute is just about all we have before he finds out we’re here.”
“Shut it,” Ray said softly. “Now think, what makes him so powerful?”
I rolled my eyes. “Because he’s a wizard?”
“Try using that brain of yours for once in your life, you numpty. Wizards have things that make them powerful.”
“You mean the black mirror?”
“Yes, the scrying mirror is what sent you over to the dead lands. It’s a very powerful artifact.”
“Yeah, it’s like a bloody level-eighty magic item like in that videogame, Dragon Onslaught,” I whispered.
“Right, so we need to get that mirror away from him. That’s the first step.”
“Assuming we can somehow do that, what’s the second step?”
“I guess without the mirror he’d just be like any other old geezer. You could probably have a go at him, Steve. You’re pretty good at fighting at school since you took a boxing class.”
“Are you sure? What if he’s got another magic item on him, like a staff of lightning or something?”
“I don’t recall him carrying anything other than that mirror.”
“He could have all sorts of stuff underneath that bloody poufy robe of his. He might even have a gun.”
“Wizards don’t use guns.”
“Well whatever. You just expect me to go toe to toe with him as soon as we nick his mirror? That’s a pretty stupid plan,” I said softly.
“Have you got another plan then?”
“Well…no.”
“Right, you bloody knob. Let’s get the mirror first and play it by ear after that.”
“Okay.”
I crouched down and started to sneak forward, using the shadows in the corridor as cover. Making my way to the edge of the door to the mirror room, I braced myself for action before having a peep inside. There was no one there so I moved right on past it. When I got close to the doors of the great hall, I noticed that they were wide open. Since I had the feeling that Amicus was close I went ahead and pulled out the silver branch and kept a firm grasp on it with my right hand as I took a quick look inside.
The old wizard was there alright. He had moved the large table that had once been in the center and it was now over at the opposite end, like a stage. As I kept observing I noticed that he was facing the table and had his back turned; he was doing some sort of ritual chant. There were stacks of old books in front of him so it looked like he was in the midst of some very serious research. As I cast my eyes around I soon saw that he had absentmindedly placed the black mirror on top of one of the smaller stacks. That was my chance!
Keeping my head low, I slowly made my way into the great hall, moving directly behind him. Each step I made was deliberate and I placed my foot down slowly on the wooden floorboards lest he hear a creaking noise. Within a few minutes I was only a few feet away from him. I shifted the silver branch to my left hand and prepared to make a grab for the mirror with my right.
At that moment he sensed somebody was behind him and so he began to turn to his left. It was now or never so I quickly lunged forward and tried to make a grab for the looking glass. But just as I wrapped my fingers around that circular piece of obsidian, my hand passed right through it. The bloody mirror was an illusion!
I had a desperate thought and I thrust the tip of the silver branch between his shoulder blades but my whole arm went right through him as well. Both Amicus and the mirror that had been lying on the table were nothing more than decoys.
“Bravo,” Amicus said as he walked in through the double doors of the hall entrance. “For a minute there I thought you had me, lad. How did you get out from the land of the dead
? I was able to observe you using the black scrying mirror but I lost sight of you once you made it into the faerie realm.”
I said nothing as I faced him while holding the silver branch in front of me as a sort of shield.
The old wizard started to chuckle. “Ah, you’re wielding the silver branch. So that’s it then! You somehow got a piece of the silver tree from the faeries and that explains how you were able to transport yourself back to Earth. I must congratulate you, for you are the cleverest boy I have ever known. It seems I did choose well when I asked you to be my apprentice.”
“I don’t want to be your apprentice, you slimy old git,” I said. “I just want you to release my sister and her boyfriend so that we can get out of here.”
Amicus waved a crooked finger at me. “Is that really all? I think you’ve come back here to steal my mirror away from me. Yes, you want to steal my power, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “You’re mad. I don’t want your power. I just want my sister back!”
“You will not take the one precious possession that I have, demon child,” Amicus said as he pulled out the black mirror from beneath his robes and held it in front of me. “The mirror of Tezcatlipoca is mine and mine alone!”
I leveled the branch so that it was in front of his mirror. “You’re a loony old man, you are!”
Amicus snarled as he concentrated and a black cloud began to emanate from the mirror once more, floating in my direction. I cried out and started waving the silver branch as the dark mist began to envelop me but the silver limb began to glow red and it quickly absorbed the cloud until there were only a few puffs left floating on the ground.
The old wizard was taken aback. “You were able to resist the black cloud? Impossible!”
“I may not wear glasses like a certain boy wizard that you know,” I said smugly. “But I can say that my magic is as strong as his.”
Amicus looked confused. “What boy wizard are you talking about?”
I frowned. “You’ve never heard of—oh, forget it! You need to surrender my sister safe and sound or you’ll get what’s coming to you,” I said as I pointed the silver branch directly at him.
Pagan Apocalypse Page 11
