Dark Winter (21 page)

I grinned as best as I could. I still wasn’t over the day’s events. I wonder how Toril would react if either Beth or myself could get a word in edgeways, and tell her how something in her image was near the death of us today?

“Hang on, Beth. I’m not finished. The police interviewed Curie, and well, no arrest was made, no charges brought. He’s free.”

“What?!” screamed Beth. “That’s impossible. We know what he did, we know what happened, don’t we? Don’t we, Milly?”

I nodded, because that’s all I felt capable of doing.

“
No
, Toril,” continued Beth. “You have to tell the police, you have to tell them what he did, what I saw. The boy in the body bag, the ouijia board…everything!”

I could feel the exasperation in her voice, but nothing was going to work. Curie had not only survived the Dana experience, he was getting away with murder again. Bloody hell.

“Perhaps he’s in league with the devil, Beth. You know?”

It was a lame response. Worse still, now Curie would know how to summon Dana, and that spelt trouble for all of us. Toril told Beth on the phone that she needn’t have taken the doll after all. Dana could be summoned by dripping some of your own blood onto a white rose. Whatever Curie had been before, he would be even worse now. Just what was he turning into? He’s not even human.

Beth was beside herself, and I struggled to console her. She had dropped the phone to the floor, and I told Toril we would catch up later and fill her in with what happened at the house.

“A fat lot of good this has done me!” said Beth, who yanked the cross and chain from her neck, hurling it into the bin.

I was really hurting for Beth. Her faith means –
meant
so much to her. Faith was a funny thing, for me. I’ve never really prayed to God that much, except maybe when Nan was old and I wanted her to live forever, and the other time was when I was on an aeroplane. You find religion when you are most desperate, or at 35,000 feet above the ground. Back in the real world though, I really didn’t think that this was the time for Beth or myself to lose it.

Looki
ng
E
vi
l
In The Eye

Two days had passed, but Beth and I had no further discussion about what had happened at the house. I knew she was feeling vulnerable, but I couldn’t afford to think like that. After all, I had just trapped my first demon. One-nil to me.

No Romilly, you lost one demon too, remember? It’s 1-1. You don’t ever want it to be 2-1, okay?

I still had so many questions about the Mirror.

I didn’t want to think bad thoughts about Nan, but I think she left me very unprepared for all this.

You just have to ask the right questions, Milly.

But Nan was gone. There was no-one to ask, and worse than that, no-one I could trust. I’d tried with Toril, and for whatever reason, the Mirror would not give up its secrets. With Beth, it was so different. She’d been there with me, and experienced so much, and yet she was left unhinged by the Curie – Dana episode.

Beth simply didn’t want to talk about it, and I didn’t want to be the reason she ended up back at St Margaret’s. I called her today, and she sounded bright enough, until I tried to direct the conversation around what happened. She praised me for the clean up operation, which she said was military style in its effectiveness. Her grandparents didn’t notice anything – at least, Beth saw it that way. But if I knew anything about these older folks, they didn’t miss a trick. It was the ones they didn’t, or couldn’t share with you, that’s the sort of thing I would need to know.

I needed to reach Beth somehow. We had experienced something unique, and I couldn’t bear this stonewalling by her, even if she had come close to death herself.

Beth had other problems though. Her grand-parents were taking an extended holiday, and that gave her nemesis the chance he needed. Unbeknownst to any of us, Curie had been conducting a stakeout at Beth’s house out for well, only he knows for how long.

He was able to give police, teachers, in fact
anyone
in authority, the slip. I just didn’t know how he did it. I know now that I should have kept a closer eye on Beth, because once I gave her space, Curie took his chance.

He had a beat up truck, reddened with rust, which rolled into the school every day, and looked as much out of place there on the parking lot as he did. It was hardly discreet. Everyone could hear it coming from miles off, and in the five years that I had been there, three students had disappeared without trace. Beth was certain Curie was behind the disappearances, but nothing could be proved. As per usual.

I remember Beth saying something back then when I didn’t really know her. Referring to Curie, she said, “Watch him, Romilly. Lucifer is a Girl Guide compared to
him
.”

Of course, no-one, if anyone, took any notice of
Sister Beth,
a rather unkind, if sometimes a pretty accurate description of her. It wasn’t the case that Curie was popular with the students, because he wasn’t. It was just easier to poke fun at other students like Beth.

I still remember the fury in her eyes, when she ripped the cross and chain from her neck.

I wasn’t sure how, but he had gotten to her, and waited until her grand-parents had gone on holiday. He had waited for the perfect moment to strike. How many times had he circled the block, watching Beth’s every move, and along with that, me, Toril, Jacinta, and God knows how many others. How many more children was he going to kill?

It had been the day before last, when Curie had let himself into Beth’s house, and waited for her. Getting in was easy, because the demon within gave him the power to unlock the door. It was just so easy to cover his tracks.

Curie was either becoming the Devil himself, or something very close. He had taken his time to get everything right for the abduction.

He had prepared some chloroform, and grabbing hold of Beth, smothered the soaked cloth over her mouth. She kicked out wildly, but couldn’t get free of him. Her body soon went limp, and he waited several more hours until it was dark, and let himself out through the back garden, with Beth in a body bag, being dragged unceremoniously through the garden grass. Her limp body bumped along the rocks, stones and uneven grass.

He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with her, but it was clear that she had to pay. After all, one of the Zeryths had been taken by the Mirror, because of Beth. She wasn’t directly to blame, Curie knew that. Such details did not matter because in any event, Beth and her friends would end up dead, or worse. Anyway, that was how Curie saw it.

But that was something else. Beth had made it her mission in life to get others to see Curie in the same way that she did. She couldn’t just let it go when she had finished with school. Now Curie was going to make her pay for her insolence.

The chloroform wouldn’t wear off whilst he bound her to the chair. He had fixed the chair to the floor, and used real corded, heavy duty rope, the kind that dug in and cut you quickly and deeply, if you tried to wriggle free.

He had put a hood over Beth as well, and sat, just two feet away from her, playing with the blade in his hand. He didn’t have to use the knife. The power drill would be just as effective too. Or maybe the samurai sword, the claw hammer, or maybe, the corkscrew for the wine bottles he kept in the cellar.

Maybe he could just leave her to rot in the cold, dank, cellar. Future victims would see her skeletal remains, with a few wisps of her hair covering her skinless skull. But to do that, would be too easy. No. He wanted to have some fun with her. She wouldn’t be getting away this time.

Those images of the future were so unsettling to me. The final image in my head served as a warning for anyone who would cross Curie. I could see Beth’s lifeless body, rotting away on a chair in some dingy hole. Her head had been ripped from her shoulders and put on a spike, for all to see. On her back, he had carved the image of a cross into it, but it pointed downwards, as in a Black Mass. He had positioned the body in the chair opposite the head, which had been jabbed into the spike.

Beth would now wear a crucifix forever.

                                          *                            *                            *

When I first experienced this, I thought it was all a nightmare. But in the cold light of day I knew I was really having a premonition. All these frightening images, so discomforting to me, were playing in my head like some kind of snuff movie.

I tried to shake it off, and recall quickly – positively, how I might just be able to counter all this.

So, firstly, I could use the Mirror, I had the ability to trap demonic entities. Second, I was able to predict the future, of sorts. Third, I knew I could kill those same entities with a touch of my bare hands. My Nan had said that my abilities would become realised after my sixteen birthday. I hope I knew what they were, once that day arrived.

But saving my friends….did I possess the ability to do that? What if all the supposed gifts I had, were to come to nothing? I just couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling of what I had seen in the premonition. There were muddled images, all involving me, Toril, Beth, Jacinta, my parents, and even Curie.

The strongest images were of Curie and Beth. I couldn’t be totally sure, but I believed she was in trouble. More uncomfortable was the feeling of dread of what I might have to do to free her. I would find out what it was like to kill someone, soon enough.

                                          *                            *                            *

I set the Mirror down on the bed and sat myself down next to it. I held my head in my hands. The sun streaked brightly through the curtains, and I violently drew them closed, because my mood was dark. This was not a happy time. It’s like when you’ve had an argument with someone you love, you are just left in a foul mood, and nothing makes you smile.

I wanted to shake the feelings off, but was unable to. Lifting my head from my hands, I cast a sidewards glance at the Mirror.

I had trapped one Zeryth, but so what? If I used the Mirror again, would it release the demon, or maybe other entities? Could I trap Dana? I did not know. I just wasn’t learning quickly enough. The worst actions of humans are often caused by misinformation. But there was no way to research what I needed to. Toril knew all about the Dana doll, but nothing about the Mirror.

My experience with the zombie nearly killed me and Beth. If that demon happened to be the weakest of its kind, I rather doubted I could trap anything ever again.

The last phone conversation with Beth hadn’t gone too well. I only hoped that the next time I picked up the phone, she would answer, and not be in the demonic clutches of Curie, as the events in the premonition foretold.

Something made me open the curtains again. There was a full moon rising. I had heard Toril mention it before, something to do with the Wiccan stuff she was into.

It was a strange feeling, experiencing Toril’s views on moons. I could somehow recall exactly what she was saying – word for word.

“The new moon, or crescent moon, always rises several hours after sunrise, but we cannot see it in daylight because of the brightness of the sun, which is close by.”

“The first glimpse we see of this moon is as a thin crescent, the two points facing up and to the left, low on the western horizon, just after the sun has set. When the crescent moon is first beheld, you can sometimes see the rest of the moon in shadow, nestled within that bright curve.”

“The first signs of the new crescent arising from the body of the old dark moon provide a lovely reminder of how all things contain within them the seed of the future.”

Okay, I could accept that. But Toril had a way of going way off into her own personal dimension.

“The new moon is traditionally associated with maiden goddesses, and if you choose to work with the God as well, look at son-lover figures, youthful gods, or gods associated with new beginnings. This is a time to focus on your magical work on goals associated with new projects, children and animals.”

What? Animals? What the hell could I do with this information?

Toril was totally into her Wiccan religion, as she called it. It was at odds with me and Beth - we didn’t get it at all. It was hard to discount the effect of the grayish planet that I could see everytime I looked out of my window at night.

Toril was right of course, the moon had a say in all of our actions and the sooner we took notice of it the better. But I wasn’t Toril. I didn’t really have a belief, except in the existence of evil. I tried,
oh how I tried
, to see the light side in things but the truth was that the darkness, the dark side, would envelop me.

Another flashback.

This time to the occasion when I held the mirror for the first time, and I thought I could see myself in the Mirror. I was reminded of Nan’s comments that the Mirror catches souls. I remember how ludicrous it sounded at the time, but the feeling was so intense, I now start to understand the Mirror in a different way.

There are souls in there. I have no idea how many, but I do know they cannot be unleashed. The world would be destroyed. Hold that thought for a second. Could the Mirror, broken, unleash such power? I suppose if it had the ability to trap demons, it could only perhaps hold them in a zone, some sort of ethereal prison, for a time.

Toril’s lunar talk had gotten me going. Would it be possible to enter such a zone, and destroy the demons forever? Nan told me that my skills were about to be realised – is this what she meant?

The thought troubled me greatly. Dana – she was a whole other conundrum. I hated the idea of a demon that could be summonsed to kill someone of the user’s choosing, even if there was a price for doing so. I doubted I could ever trap her, or use her properly. Curie escaping the clutches of the police, and more perplexingly – Dana, made me wonder how I could stop him. I was a sixteen year old girl – almost, armed with a Mirror that could be the saving of me, or the end of everyone else. How the hell was I supposed to achieve anything?