Snowflake's Passage

First Story (Scary Things)

Author's note: Ahh, the fourth Act. I'm actually done writing the story. Now I'm doing editing (sighhhhh...) and polish. Everything Anita is doing is consistent with everything she knows about demons. But... to quote the Bard:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

Part 21a: Payback's a bitch

We reappeared back in my living room. Magik fell to her knees and cried out from the exertion of the teleportation. Apparently she was running on empty, or so I hoped. Everybody scattered when we reappeared, leaving just Magik in the center of the room.

Behind Magik was a crystal ball lying on a sofa; it had been placed there by the coven after we had left. And I don't mean glass; it was polished flawless quartz sphere, the kind you always see in the movies where the fortune telling is looking into the future. Magik was on her knees and bent over gasping for air. Yea, she was acting as if the teleport had exhausted her, but who really knew? She had already shown the ability to hide power and play pretend with the best.

Everybody was clear. Half had fled to the back of the house and the rear patio doors, the others went out via the kitchen or the front door. It was just Micah, Damien and I. I invoked the circle of protection that the coven had cast after we had left for Egypt.

A reddish sphere flickered into existence and now enclosed Magik, the crystal sphere, and half of my living room. I saw Magik start at the invocation and give a gasping response.

"What pant pant... what just pant happened pant"? She raised her head and looked around. Then she sprawled backwards and sat on the floor and gave me an exasperated stare while still breathing heavily. Then she spoke.

"I was planning on ordering pizza Miss Blake, not... consuming you or yours. I did promise after all and... I prefer pizza".

Well, sounded nice but no way was I falling for it. I should be running for it considering what was about to happen but I just had to briefly linger. Not sure why. Maybe I wanted to see the real her.

Magik stood up, she was still unsteady, and approached the edge of the circle, then she poked it with a finger. It crackled and zapped. She jerked her finger back like it had just gotten burned. Guess that answered my unspoken question about the GOD machine. If she'd eaten that kind of power then this circle should not have been able to hold her. We were safe, for the moment that is.

She eyed the barrier with a look of... hmm a look of uncertainty. She then spoke again.

"Potent. This... this is not your work Miss Blake".

As I stared at her the subdued screaming returned. Children in agony, God I hated that sound from her. That sound only I could hear for some reason. She gave me a piercing stare and glanced around the room. Hmm, I noticed her little gift was still on the fireplace.

"This is not wise Miss Blake. Release me and I will... forget this occurred".

She turned around examining the room and froze when she saw the crystal sphere. She turned quickly back around. Girl looked... concerned, suddenly worried.

"It will not work Miss Blake. You lack the proper... ingredients. Yes it will hurt but then... Then I will hurt you back for this. And I'm very good at it. I was taught well".

"Ingredients"? I asked. Damn, never thought of myself as a gloater. But for some reason I wanted to show her that she'd made a mistake. That what goes round comes round.

"My name. You lack my name. It won't work without it".

I pulled the chunk of stone out of my jacket and waved it at her. She first looked at me like I was unhinged, then her eyes got big. Ahh, knew it. Gotcha! We had her name all right. Right in this little piece of rock.

She bit her lip and glanced around again, then sighed. "Release me and I shall depart. I will leave this world, I was planning on departing anyway. I swear to leave you and yours unharmed".

I waved the rock a little. "No dice girlie. Time to answer for what you've done".

She gave me a blank look like she had no idea what I was talking about. Yea, she was playing pretend. No way was I going to release her. I started to back away towards the front door. Micah and Damien were already outside waiting for me.

Magik shifted from side to side and turned to follow me. She didn't look happy. She surprised me in that she begged. She didn't strike me as the begging kind.

"Please don't do this to me Miss Blake. I was kind. I did not harm you or yours. If you release me I swore that I would depart and leave you unpunished. You don't need to do this".

I reached the front door. Time to go. I gave my living room, and I guess my house, a last look around. A kind of goodbye I guess.

Magik was agitated. She hammered at the sphere and was repulsed. She started to panic.

I... I will not be bound again". Her tone got hysterical. "No, not that again! Never THAT again"!

Smoke, black as pitch, began to emit from her. I could feel the circle of confinement containing whatever it was the demon was doing, but I could feel that the circle would not hold for long. God, I could feel the power we had confined in that circle. It wanted out and it wanted out now!

She kept screaming about that, whatever that was, as I slammed the door and we fled from the house and ran to where Edwards and my Wiccan friends were supposed to be.

Shit, I really hope this works.

Part 21b: The binding

My Wiccan friends were in a little gap just beyond the tree line, they had formed an inward facing circle and were holding hands and chanting. Edwards was standing next to them. Melisa was in the center of the circle standing before a flaming brazier. There were several pages of parchment on the ground next to her.

Melisa hurried to the edge of the circle and we exchanged hurried words and the stone that contained Magik's name. Melisa went back to the brazier and picked up the parchment pages. Two pages already had writing on them, in red ink. The word Childe was on one and INR was written on another.

Melisa quickly wrote on two more pages. DarkChilde and Magik. She then wrapped the rock with a blank page of parchment.

I grabbed two joined hands, so as not to break the circle and joined with the circle. From my position in the circle I could see my house. I didn't know what to say, never took chanting 101, but I joined my power to theirs. I/we could feel the demon fighting our circle of confinement. It was going to break soon and the caged beast would be free. It had to be now.

Melisa started the binding. She dropped the parchment with the word Childe into the flames and cried out in Latin "Per naturam examinatur!" (By your nature discerned). We all echoed what Melisa said. I had the mental impression of Magik being forced back from the edge of the circle and into its center, right by the crystal ball.

Melisa tossed the parchment with INR on it. "Per pectus ostensum!" (By your beast shown). We poured our power into the enchantment. We could hear her screaming now, via the spell and our ears, wow she could scream. I got ready to unleash my necromancy.

Melisa tossed the parchment with DarkChilde on it into the fire. "Venerandum tuum verum per sui revelavit!" (By your true self reveled). I added the power of my necromancy to what we were doing. We could hear and see Magik screaming in our minds eye. She screamed and begged "I promised! Don't do this! I swore"! It was way too late to stop, even if we had believed her.

I could sense that all the coven could now hear the screaming of the children that before only I could hear. My power was joined with theirs, they could sense what I sensed. I could feel then recoil from the sense of evil that flowed from her. It stiffened their resolve, they/we were doing the right thing.

Melisa tossed the parchment with Magik on it into the fire. "Depellendum formam tulisti!" (Be expelled from the form you have taken).

Edwards triggered his little concoction, the mass of thermite that he had brewed up and hidden in the basement while we were in Egypt. Hidden in the basement right beneath the living room were the demon was now confined.

To say my house went whoosh would not do it justice. A hundred foot roman candle like flame burned through roof of my house and erupted. Kind of like a space shuttle solid rocket engine in reverse. The gout of fire lit up the night sky and chunks of roof and such fell like a burning rain. We were outside of the blast and debris zone but man it was impressive.

If this didn't do it then nothing we were packing stood a chance. Maybe the government could drop a tactical nuke blessed by the Pope or something but we'd rather reached our limits of civilian mayhem and destruction abilities shy of a fertilizer truck bomb. Still, very impressive limits if you ask me.

Yet she was still screaming. How was that possible?

Melisa tossed the parchment with the rock that held her true name into the flames. "Teneri nomina vestra!" (Be bound by your names). All of our power stabbed inwards. I also tossed in the little residual bits of her power that were still flickering within me.

The screaming abruptly stopped, how on earth was she still been able to scream? How we been able to hear those screams over all the other noise I'll never know. Gives me chills to this day.

Shit, everything I owned was burning. As the flames roared high I couldn't help but think that Nathaniel was going to enjoy shopping for new tile and furniture.

Please let this work I prayed. Please let this work. I'll be brief, it did.

Author's note: Ouch that's got to hurt. Well that's that. Demon bound. Story over. Time for Anita to do her usual end of story summary and closing comments about what had just happened and complete any little details.

That's all folks... or is it?