"A sabbath? Are you serious?" Reid scoffed as he crossed his arms. Sybil's glare made a chill crawl down Caleb's shirt. Small and hidden within the pleats of her dark dress, she almost reminded Caleb of a trapped hare, a prey weak and desperate for an escape but willing and ready to fight. Tyler, Pogue, and Caleb shared a concerned look.
"Yes, a Sabbath. It's a celebration of our connection to the Power, a ceremony to renew our strength. We witches have done for centuries but… as our numbers decreased and fear of being outed grew, the custom fell into oblivion."
"Witches have done it… but what about warlocks?" Pogue's question reflected Caleb's worries as well. Being closer to the Power was the last thing he wanted.
Sybil looked around the room, lost in thoughts. She finally sighed and looked at Pogue. "I don't know. Maybe it'll do nothing, maybe it'll make you more powerful." Her gaze lingered on Caleb and he suddenly felt scrutinized. "You have the Power inside you all. Maybe you'll just introspect profoundly for the duration of the Sabbath." Her voice was light and pointed towards a joke, but her eyes were cold and hinted at a warning. She looked at the sons of Ipswich surrounding her. She could read them, like whispers on the wind. Snippets of sentences floated in the air and, if she concentrated, she could make out their thoughts. The Sabbath scared them. She couldn't blame them; it scared her to. But she had to be brave. She had to do it and renew her strength; she felt weak and frightened, as if all her strength had been drained, sucked away. But she had to survive, she had to protect Helene and their legacy. She couldn't afford being a coward when so much rested on her shoulders.
"The Sabbath will forever bind us together, like covens of old. Witches mixing with warlocks is unheard of, but times are hard and we need to do what we must to survive." She paused and looked at each of the men in front of her. "If you do not want to do it, I won't force you. But I truly believe we need to do this, united." The sparks in her eyes flared up when she spoke and when they did, the voices inside Caleb's head stopped. The abrupt change was dizzying, and Caleb rested a hand on the counter. He felt light, free of his mental shackles. It didn't take long for it to start up again but for a brief instant Caleb had tasted freedom.
"I'm in." Caleb's voice was strong and assured, despite Pogue's worried look. The Silence could only be a sign. Maybe the Sabbath was what he needed.
"I'm in too." Pogue said as he took a step forward, getting closer to Caleb. Tyler and Reid echoed him, trusting once more Caleb's judgement. Sybil nodded and ran her fingers slowly over the open book in front of her. "Let's do it."
Thought they would have usually argued about being squeezed in the back of Reid's car, their trepidation for what was to come held their peace. Sybil was sitting in the passenger's seat, eyes lost in the surrounding scenery. She didn't not give clear direction for what direction to take and Caleb simply lost himself deeper and deeper in the wooded countryside, occasionally obeying Sybil when she told him to take a right or a left. On her laps, a bottle containing a thick and dark substance sloshed and gurgled whenever it was disturbed. The silence was eventually broken when Sybil cleared her throat. "You must do everything I ask of you. You cannot question or defy me or else the ritual might fail." Before agreeing, Reid spoke up. "What are you going to have us do?" Sybil turned to look at him then the other two in the back. "Nothing I wouldn't do."
Her cryptic answer spurred Pogue's unease and he shifted in his seat. "I'm not sure about this… I have a bad feeling." His voice was low and his eyes darted away from Sybil. "Caleb stop the car." Sybil's voice was cold. Caleb opened his mouth to protest but before he could talk Sybil slammed her open hand on the dashboard. "I said stop the car." The car screeched to a halt even though Caleb's feet hadn't left the accelerator pedal. "If you don't want to do it, it's fine but you'll have to leave. You attitude could ruin the ceremony." Pogue swallowed with difficulty but shook his head. "No it's fine. I just had a second doubt but I'm fine now." It was more important for him to keep an eye on Caleb than it was to follow his gut. Sybil nodded and seemed to deflate slightly, her skin turning another shade whiter. She hastily wiped her nose with the back of her hand and in his peripheral vision Caleb saw a trail of dark blood streak her pale skin.
Sybil kept quiet for the rest of the drive, only motioning weakly with her hand where to go. Caleb eventually stopped the car as he pulled to a dead-end. Sybil nodded and left the vehicle. The forest surrounding them was dense, thick with old pine trees. Sybil looked around, as if trying to find her bearings. Pogue inched forward in his seat and leaned close to Caleb.
"What is going on?" His hushed whisper was filled with concern.
"I don't know… But…" Caleb didn't finish his sentence, catching himself before more words were blurted out.
"What? What is it?"
"I think Sybil's life is at stake and if the Sabbath fails she'll become too weak…" He didn't have to finish his thought, they all knew too well what he meant. Although their powers worked differently, the same logic bound them. Whereas the sons of Ipswich could only tap into their own life force to use The Power, Sybil and Helene had to offer sacrifices to complete their spells. Caleb didn't want to tell the others what he thought had happened to Sybil in the kitchen. He didn't want to tell them Helene had probably sacrificed a portion of Sybil's life force in order to do the prophecy. The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth; was the crone so ruthless as to use her own niece as a sacrifice? He shook the thought away before he dwelled on it for too long.
Sybil turned to look at them and Caleb shivered. Her eyes were sunken, with dark purple bags hanging on her cheeks. She seemed to fade away by the minute. "We should get out." Tyler's voice was soft, as always, and they all exited the vehicle. She started walking into the woods, the dark bottle tucked under her arm.
The dead needles crunched under their feet and occasionally the wind howled in the distance. A chill steeped the breeze and when Caleb looked at the sky, all he saw were grey clouds. They all walked in silence, Pogue staying near his friend, sometimes looking at him concernedly. Caleb was surprised at how decisively Sybil walked ahead of them, as if she was following a hidden trail she had known all her life. Around them, the trees grew bigger and older, and a soft mist enveloped them. The song of the wind died down and soon, they were alone in the forest's silence.
Sibyl stopped and rested her forearm against a tree. Her breath was short, and she placed a hand on her lower stomach. "We're close…." Her voice was soft and had lost all it's icy sharpness. Caleb could almost see a dark shadow hanging above her, weighing her down. She was weak. She turned to look at the boys and waved her hand in their direction. "Take your clothes off."
The boys looked at each other but didn't move, slightly stunned. Sybil grabbed the neck of her dress and started pulling. Slowly, the dark garment lifted and revealed the ivory skin beneath. Caleb looked on, unable to look away. Her skin was hollow and ashen, and it clung to her bones, outlining each rib, each joint with saddening precision. Running her fingers along her face to brush away her hair, Sybil looked at the boys. "I told you it wouldn't be anything I wouldn't do." Caleb looked at his friends and unzipped his pants. "You got to be kidding me." Reid breathed as he took off his shirt. The cool evening breeze brushed against them and, once they were bare to their skin, Sybil started walking again.
"What the hell is going on?" Pogue hissed in Caleb's ear, arms crossed over his bare chest trying to ward off the chill of the oncoming night. Caleb gently shook his head "I don't know. But I don't believe we can back down now." He started following Sybil, the cold ground chilling his feet. "She looks terrible." Reid had joined their conversation. Caleb and Pogue agreed silently. Their muscular bodies were the antithesis of hers. "Come on... we have to follow her."
He looked ahead at the sliver of white skin weaving around the trees, both arms undulating at her sides hypnotizingly, a forgotten dance. Caleb felt a weight on his chest, making harder and harder to breath. "We're here." Her voice was clear like a ringing bell and echoed all around them.
They stepped into the small clearing. The ground was covered in dewy grass and the tall trees surrounded the glade proudly like guards. The sun was setting quickly and swirls of oranges, reds and purple, stained the thick blanket of clouds. Sybil produced her jar of dark substance and opened it. She dipped her fingers tentatively, a motion that reminded Caleb of some of his nights with Sarah. She brought her fingers, now a dark shade of purple, to her chest and smeared the paste generously between her breast. She motioned for the boys to come closer. She approached Caleb and, dipping her hand in her jar a second time, rubbed some paste on his chest in a dark stripe. The substance had an acrid smell that was not particularly pleasant and his skin tingled under it.
Sybil did the same for Pogue, Reid, and Tyler before setting her jar on the ground out of the way. Above them, a few crows cried loudly. The sound almost made Caleb's ear ring. It felt as if the crows were inside his head, screaming at him. But what were they saying? He could almost make out words in their shrieks. Sybil raised both of her hands heavenwards and, like a clap of thunder, the crows that were flying above them dove into the center of the clearing. As they collided with the ground, Caleb heard their necks break from the impact. From their corpses, a massive fire erupted with a thunderous sound, burning almost as high as them. Caleb looked, wide-eyed. Sybil turned to face them and, eyes closed as if straining to hear something in the distance, started swaying. Caleb felt his body relax, as if the chill had stopped bothering him. Was the fire warming him? He felt the heat rising inside of his body, flames licking his guts. Sybil swayed more and more and Caleb realised she had started dancing.
Her arms, like snakes, slithered on her naked frame, caressing and stroking her body as her hips rocked back in forth rhythmically. A strange smile took her lips and, in the flickering light of the fire Caleb believed he saw more than one pair of arms on her.
"Can you not hear the music? Can you not hear the drums?" Her voice echoed inside his head and as she spoke, Caleb did start to hear a strange melody on the wind. It was a primal song, filled with goat-skin drums and ululating voices shrieking in the dark of night. Was it already night? It seemed seconds ago that the sun was still filling the skies with colors. He felt the song inside him, inside his bones. The vibrations overtook him, and he felt his body start to sway too. He looked around and saw his friends were all entranced by the wild melody.
Caleb wanted to look at his surroundings, but his vision was blurry, like tears had swelled up in his eyes. Sybil's dance became more agitated and her feet were pounding on the forest floor in rhythm with the drums he heard. He tried to blink the tears away, to clear his vision but he was unable. Around him, he could hear the thumping of his friends feet as they too started to dance more wildly.
"Let go… Let go." He could see Sybil mouthing the words, but he didn't recognize the voice. It was deep and dark, a man's voice. Not a man… Something else, Caleb thought, disoriented. Pogue, Tyler, and Reid were behind him and he wanted to call out to them. He felt the words leave his mouth, but they fell on deaf ears. Shaking, fervently following the beating of the goat-skin drums, his friends were lost to him. Beneath their trembling lids, their eyes were dark as polished obsidian. No, no, no… Caleb thought, panicked. "Let go… Let go." This time he recognized Sybil voice as it echoed in his mind. She was in front of him, dancing slowly and languidly, her wild energy dimmed but her eyes glowing like embers. She placed a hand on his chest and he felt her flesh sear into him.
"Let go… Let go…"
Sybil was lost in a sea of serpents, writhing and slithering all over her body. Their shiny scales glistened in the fire light as they slowly moved over her body, engulfing her. He looked down and saw a golden snake wrapped around his own throat make its way slowly down towards Sybil's arm, leaving him. It was only then he realized the snake had been squeezing his throat, suffocating him. As the snake coiled itself on Sybil's limb, he turned and looked at Caleb with ruby eyes. The words from his dreams echoed in his mind, like a shout from another country, another plane. Beware, beware… It has begun.
"Let go… Let go…"
Caleb breathed in and the cold night air burned his lungs. The snakes on Sybil shifted and blurred, like a mirage, and, within the blink of an eye, disappeared. He felt the music start to take hold of him, resonating in his bones, but he didn't fight it this time.
"Let go… let go…"
The throbbing of the drums echoed in his mind and silenced all his thoughts.
"Let go… let go..."
His vision faded in and out and he could only see Sybil dancing in front of him, naked, pale, and skeletal. He could feel his body moving, twisting and turning with the screams and drums. He was moving, but he wasn't in control. It should have frightened him, he should have panicked but losing his mind to the feverish rhythm gave him a profound feeling of peace. He had surrendered himself completely to the night and its melody. His vision faded to black and he heard a voice calling him from the abyss.
"Let go… Let go…"
His vision returned and he turned to look at the forest surrounding them. Between the thin branches covered in needles, Caleb saw a shadowy figure, tall and cloaked in darkness.
"Let go… Let go…"
The figure turned to look at him and, for a brief moment, Caleb's sight became clear and untainted by the haze of the ceremony. The figure was tall, frighteningly tall. Its head was covered in glistening black fur and its eyes glowed like infernal fires beneath its twisted horns. It opened its mouth and it felt as if the whole world trembled and shifted as a deep otherworldly hum filled the air.
"Let go… let go…"
And everything faded out of time, existence and comprehension.
Hello readers! I hope you enjoy this chapter... it's has more mature imagery. I think it fits well with the aesthetics and how I perceive witches. I just hope you guys liked it :)
Reviews are always welcome, so please feel free to leave one (even in guest mode, I'd rather have anonymous feedback than none at all :P )