Chapter 7
Haku's spirit went back to his body in the spirit world, thankful that he was able to still perform the spell that would allow his spirit to travel to the human world long enough to warn Chahiro of the danger she was in... Ubaba summoned him shortly after he got back, and he dreaded what she was about to ask him to do... Abducting innocent young girls for Ubaba to force to work for her, was wrong, and he would do his best to put up a fight... He refused to let her continue to control him for too much longer, Chahiro had saved him once, now it was up to him to free himself from her grasp...
" Haku..." Ubaba said, " It's been far too long since the last time I had any new employees... I need you to go see what you can find... Women, men, children... I want them all to work for me... Understand?"
" Yes..." Haku said, seething with cold rage in his heart, " Your wish is my command..."
" Be gone then... And make sure you capture some extra young ladies for my personal servants..." Ubaba said as an afterthought, " I'm afraid the last young ladies you squired for me had an unfortunate fate befall them..."
Haku paled visibly, but said no more as he left to carry out Ubaba's orders... Once Haku left, Ubaba went to her secret room, hidden behind a wall tapestry made of the finest silk, embroidered with genuine gold and silver thread and real gemstone beads, it had a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and onyx eyes with white irises... There was also a black beaded dragon on it, with blood diamonds for eyes... It was a picture of her and Zeneba's mother and father... Both were very much alive, her father lived in the underworld, he loved the darkness and he loved being around the lost souls, both human and demon... Their mother, Callista, lived in her own castle in the sky, made of every gemstone you can think of, and covered in glittering diamonds... Her castle was located over the Bermuda triangle in the human world, where her husband was known to turn into a hideous monster and dragged innocent people into the ocean... She would often use her light magic to disguise herself as a spirit to hide her identity and would save as many of her husband's victims as she could... Unfortunately though, she wasn't able to save them all...
Ubaba did love her mother, although she was not close to her sister, but she feared and respected their father... And she feared for her son, Boe... He was half human, and had Kale discovered her secret about giving birth to a mortals child, her precious Boe most definitely would have suffered the same fate as her sister, Zeneba's child had... Ubaba sighed as she looked into her mirror and willed her appearance to shift to her real image, wrinkles and crows feet melted away to reveal flawless smooth alabaster skin and sparkling onyx eyes... Her ugly dull grey hair lightened to a beautiful silver blond... Her sister, Zeneba, had hair that was a few shades lighter, what she often heard the humans refer to as platinum blond... Ubaba had always secretly been jealous of Zeneba ever since they'd been small children...
Back then, thier father was a kinder, gentler spirit, unknowing of the power and darkness that was out there just waiting to engulf someone of his godlike strength and power... The darkness took hold of him the day he and their mother discovered how gifted their daughters were... Both showed incredible power and skill as their mother began teaching them to use white magic... Their father, on the other hand, wanted to rule the realm of humans as well as the spirit realm and all realms in between... So he began teaching them how to curse and kill with magic, hoping that they would turn to his side... He taught them how to possess people, how to create sicknesses and plagues and cursed humans for the fun of it... It didn't take long for him to realize that the more humans he killed, the more powerful he became...
Ubaba was now on the same dark path as her father, and she loved every minute of it... No one ever saw Ubaba in her true form, she continuously stayed an old woman to hide her beauty from people who would most likely name her as weak and defenseless... Her latest plans to become immortal now involved stealing the souls of handsome young men who were foolish enough to be ensnared in her enticing trap... She taken to using her dark magic to alter the dark woods and had added a large crystal clear lake with a waterfall, as well as a nice size hot springs to bathe in... Several nights a week, she would go out to the hot springs during the chilly months and bathe at night, lacing her dark hypnotic powers into her voice, she would call the young men out of their homes and trick them to get into the hot springs, where she would suck the lives out of them...
Her lover would hate what she's become, but power was the only way to survive... She needed to get enough power to destroy her father so that her darling child need never worry about any harm ever coming to him...
Meanwhile, in the human world, Haku took a deep breath and began his summoning spell to lure young men and women into the woods, so that Ubaba could have her precious workers, his heart clenching as he thought about Chahiro, and prayed that she wouldn't one day suffer the same fate...