Chapter 9
"Ugh, how much farther does this tunnel go?" Dusk groaned. They'd been walking down a dark tunnel for at least ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Dusk noticed that they were descending downward, suggesting that they were heading underground.
"Quiet," the guard behind her ordered.
"I'm just asking a simple question," Dusk retorted.
"Quiet!"
Dusk stumbled forward with a grunt as the guard hit her back with the stock of the rifle.
"Oh screw you asshole!" the blonde shouted as her hands clenched into fists and she was ready to punch the guard in the face.
Whack!
The second strike nearly sent Dusk crashing into Luna, but the blonde managed to keep her balance and regain her footing.
"Jane, please stop," Luna whimpered.
Dusk sighed. If it was just her, she would've made those guards drag her kicking and screaming all the way to processing. But it wasn't just her being escorted by armed cultists down an underground tunnel to whatever processing was. Luna was shaking and struggling to hold back tears and Dusk knew she was near the breaking point. Dusk gritted her teeth and said nothing as she turned her back to the guard.
After an extended period of time, the tunnel ended at a door and the girls were ordered to stop. One of the front guards punched a code into a keypad and the door opened with a loud mechanical buzz. Once the door had opened, the guard ordered the two girls to enter the room.
Un-fucking-believable Dusk thought as she looked at her new surroundings in disappointment.
Rather than a macabre ceremonial chamber covered in ancient symbols or some sacrificial room with a bloody alter in the center, what lay before them was a much mundane scene: Two masked cultists stood behind a small counter that was adjacent to a walkthrough metal detector in a dull, whitewashed room. They gestured for an unmasked cultist to place a bin containing his mask and a few other belongings onto the counter before going through the metal detector himself. His items were searched before being returned the cultist. The guards then gestured for the girls to approach the security checkpoint.
"Please remove any jewelry, electronics and metal objects and place them in the trays," a masked woman said from behind the counter.
Luna and Dusk each grabbed a tray.
"This is stupid," Dusk muttered to herself as she emptied her pockets and placed what little miscellaneous items she had into the tray.
"Can you please not do anything to get us killed," Luna begged.
Dusk said nothing as she shuffled toward the metal detector. She glanced back to Luna; the redhead was still shaking from their current predicament and she was nervously eyeing the armed guards surrounding them. Dusk sighed and turned to the metal detector. Fuck the blonde thought as she begrudgingly knelt down and rolled up her pant leg revealing a strap and sheath just above her ankle. She undid a small clip and pulled out a small fixed blade knife. She looked at the knife for a moment then turned to Luna before finally placing the knife in the tray.
"Do you have any other weapons on you?" a guard asked while raising his firearm.
Dusk shook her head. She didn't have any weapons, but she did have a few smoke pellets up her sleeve. She didn't want to scare Luna any further or have them confiscated so she kept quiet about them.
The guard motioned for her to step through the metal detector and she went through without incident. Dusk turned around and Luna too made it through without any problems. The two girls were ordered to wait outside a door that was just past the counter.
"Why do you even have that?" Luna anxiously whispered as she gestured over to the knife the cultists were looking over.
"Cause I was expecting killer cultists, not the fucking TSA," Dusk whispered back.
"So what, were you going to fight them or something?" the redhead replied.
"If I needed to," Dusk confessed.
Luna shook her head and turned away from Dusk. The blonde sighed and leaned up against the wall adjacent to the door. Fortunately for Dusk, she didn't have to wait very long in the awkward silence between her and Luna as the door opened and they were ordered inside.
The room was small with the only furniture being a desk, chair, a photocopier and a few assorted filing cabinets. A cultists sat behind the desk working on a computer.
"Stand on the 'X', face forward and keep a straight face," the cultist behind the desk said without looking away from computer.
Dusk looked at the ground and noticed a white 'X' painted by the wall. She walked over to the spot and stood facing the desk.
"So what are going to do now, shoot u…"a sudden bright flash of light interrupted Dusk; she blinked several times before being told to step aside.
She stepped away from the 'X' and Luna took her spot. Dusk watched as Luna had her photograph taken. The redhead was still shaking and sniffling, though she not as badly as before. At least she's calming down Dusk thought. But as this was happening, Dusk heard the door open and a second cultist walked in carrying the trays containing the girls' belongings. Ah shit Dusk thought as she noticed that the second cultist handed over their drivers licenses to the cultist on the computer; the notion of remaining anonymous quickly evaporated as the cultist photocopied the licenses.
After a minute or so, the cultist finished with the licenses and tossed them into the trays.
"You may retrieve your belongs," the second cultist said.
The two girls grabbed the contents of the trays. Dusk immediately noticed that her knife was missing.
"Hey, where's my knife?" Dusk demanded.
"No unauthorized weapons are permitted beyond this point," the cultist from behind the computer said.
Dusk grimaced. "Oh come on! What am I going to do with it against those armed guards and whatever magic shit you guys have!?" she shouted.
The two cultists turned to each and shrugged after a few moments.
"Fine. But draw it and you'll be shot on sight," the second cultist said as he handed the knife back to Dusk.
Dusk smirked as she retrieved her knife. While it was true she probably couldn't do much with it against a witch or one of the armed guards, but having it made her feel safer. She briefly twirled the knife with her fingers like it was one of her drum sticks before returning it to its sheath. She turned to Luna and noticed her frowning. Dusk quickly mouthed sorry but Luna paid her no attention and just walked past her as the cultists told them to exit the room. Dusk sighed and followed Luna out of the room.
"Ah, there you two are," a familiar voice said from down the hall. "Luna and Dusk if I recall correctly."
Dusk turned to the voice and saw Matella approaching them. The witch quickly reached the two musicians and removed her mask.
"I'm sorry your arrival here was… unpleasant," Matella said.
"That's one way of putting it," Dusk said. "Your guards are a bunch of assholes."
"We have to take security very seriously as there are many magical and non-magical threats we'd rather not let in here," Matella responded.
"Doesn't mean they have to be dicks all the time," the drummer countered.
Matella chuckled. "Anyhoo, Thorn should be out in a bit; processing witches takes a little longer."
What exactly was involved in the processing of witches, Dusk didn't know but she hoped it was more interesting than what she and Luna went through.
Even as she was lead down the dark corridor to depths unknown by the two warlocks, Thorn still struggled to free herself from her magical restraints. She strained herself against the coil with all her strength yet it wouldn't budge. Grunting, she made one last attempt at breaking the coil before she was stopped at a large door. The lead warlock waved his hand across the door and it opened. The warlock stepped aside and motioned for Thorn to step through.
Thorn hesitated for moment before stepping through the doorway. Taking up the brunt of the room was a large elevated counter separated from the main floor by a large railing. Various symbols and sigils were inscribed along the counter and walls of the room, though Thorn didn't recognize any of them. Some of them bore resemblance to various Wiccan and Thelemic inscriptions while others were completely alien to anything she'd ever seen.
But amongst the display of esotericism, one symbol stood out to Thorn: overlaid upon a black circle and a forked, crimson saltire was golden oval. In the center of the oval, was a black, crimson and gold sun. The sun was divided into two parts—a black outline with black flames radiating from it and a gold and crimson core that seemed to glow. Looking at the symbol, Thorn shuddered as she realized that it resembled an eye gazing upon the world from the abyss. The room around her seemed to evaporate as all the Wiccan could focus on was the symbol.
"Witch, state your purpose for being here," a female voice shouted.
Thorn flinched and for a moment she thought the eye-like symbol was speaking to her. She blinked and a second shout brought her back to reality. She looked to the source of the voice and saw three masked individuals sitting behind the counter. They were dressed like the warlocks from the entrance.
"I'm here because a witch promised me answers to questions I have about myself," Thorn answered.
"And who exactly promised you answers?" the witch inquired.
"Matella," Thorn replied.
There was some commotion from the three individuals. As the three cultists talked amongst themselves, Thorn glanced around the room. She noted the two warlocks from before were still behind her blocking the door. She also saw several armed guards strategically positioned around the room. The commotion ended and Thorn turned back to the cultists behind the counter
"So you're Thorn then, correct?" a warlock asked.
Thorn nodded.
The warlock who spoke motioned for Thorn to be released. Thorn turned to the see the warlock who trapped her wave his hand and the coil around her torso disappeared. Thorn sighed with relief and stretched her arms.
"Are you in possession of any enchanted, cursed, blessed or otherwise magical objects?" the witch asked.
"Umm, yeah," Thorn answered as she tried to reach into her purse to get the inscribed object. But before she could, the witch raised her hand and Thorn's purse was violently snatched away from her by an unseen force. Thorn gasped as her purse flew through the air and into the witch's hand. There, the witch emptied the contents of Thorn's purse onto the counter and the three cultists began examining the items.
"So your legal name is Sally McKnight and you're from Oakhaven, Massachusetts," one of the warlocks said as he looked over her driver's license.
"It's Thorn," the Wiccan corrected as she crossed her arms.
The warlock ignored Thorn and clapped his hands. Thorn's eyes widened in shock as a ghastly white, disembodied hand floated through the air to the warlock who summoned it.
"Get this photocopied," the warlock said as he raised Thorn's ID to the spectral hand.
The hand briefly lowered itself as if it were bowing to its master and snatched the license. Then just as quickly as it arrived, the phantom hand flew off toward a hallway, rounded the corner and was gone. What the hell was that? Thorn thought as she tried to peer around the corner to get another glimpse of the floating hand. But with nothing there, Thorn turned her attention back to the cultists and what she saw made her heart stop.
"Stop looking through that!" Thorn yelled as the lead witch went through her journal.
"Is this a spell book?" the witch asked.
"No! It's my journal," Thorn retorted as she took a few steps closer to the counter. "I…I use it for songwriting and for recording herbal remedies."
The witch ignored Thorn and kept flipping through the journal. But after a minute, the witch paused and snickered. Thorn's face turned red and she clenched her fists. The damned bitch was reading something she shouldn't be reading and Thorn wasn't going to let her get away with that.
"Stop reading that!" Thorn shouted. The journal suddenly closed and was yanked out of the witch's grasp. The journal darted through the air and landed in Thorn's hands. She clutched her journal tightly against her chest; nobody was going to get a chance to read her most inner thoughts.
But the relief Thorn felt from retrieving her journal disappeared as the guards aimed their rifles at her and the cultists looked down upon her with annoyance and frustration; one of the warlock's hands erupted into flames.
"Umm…nobody…looks through my…um journal" Thorn stammered before closing her eyes. Her heart was racing as at any moment, she thought, the guards would open fire or the warlock to burn her to a crisp. But after several seconds of fear, she opened a single eye and saw the witch whispering something to the warlock with flaming hands. The warlock chuckled and the flames died down. Puzzled, Thorn watched as the warlock ordered the guards to stand down.
"Okay, we won't read your little diary anymore, but only if you grab the railing," the witch said.
"Uh sure," Thorn said in bewilderment. It was certainly an unexpected request and it seemed like an easy price to pay. She walked over to the railing and paused as she could see the cultists eagerly watching her from above. There had to be something more to this. Thorn looked over the railing but found nothing out of place. No sigils, symbols, inscriptions or marks. She even whispered revēlō, but nothing happened. There was nothing to suggest that it was anything more than an ordinary railing.
Yet Thorn was reluctant to grab the railing as she didn't trust the cultists. But the thought of having them read her journal and laugh at her private thoughts was too much. With a stern look, Thorn grabbed the railing.
"OW!" she screamed as she felt an intense heat scorch her hand, causing her to instinctively recoil from the railing. Still reeling from the pain, she raised her trembling hand to assess the damage. The palm of her hand was completely was red from a first degree burn. Thorn bit her lip and scowled at the cultists as they burst into a fit of laughter.
"What the hell is wrong you people!" Thorn snapped, still enduring the pain from the burn.
"Oh relax, it's a silver coated railing. You barely touched it so you'll be fine in a minute," the witch explained as she and her associates calmed down.
Thorn shook her head in disbelief. A burn of this intensity could take anywhere from three to twenty days to heal properly even with treatment. But almost on cue, the pain suddenly subsided and Thorn watched in awe as the redness faded away. All traces of the burn were gone and it was if she was never burnt in the first place.
"That's impossible," Thorn muttered as she opened and closed her hand fully expecting to feel pain but there was nothing. She then remembered the incident on the bus with the silver necklace. Somehow, silver was burning her.
"No wonder you need to find Matella," the masked witch belittled. "You're completely clueless about magic."
Thorn waited for an explanation for what just happened but nobody said anything.
"Since you're naïve enough to touch silver and your only magical possession is the talisman Matella gave you, no further questioning is needed," the witch explained.
"You will step through the metal detector and have your photograph taken. The rest of your items, bar the talisman, will be returned to you after that," one of the warlocks added.
Thorn wasn't sure if she should feel grateful or humiliated, but she didn't get a chance to dwell on it for too long as one of the guards motioned for her to go to the connecting hallway the floating hand had gone down. She walked to the metal detector and went through without complications. Thorn was then brought into a smaller side room where she had her photograph taken. After a few minutes, Thorn's purse was returned to her. A quick check showed that everything minus the talisman was accounted for. The floating hand even reappeared and returned her license. With her belongings in hand, the Wiccan was escorted by a pair of guards down the hall to where Matella, Dusk and Luna were waiting.
"Thorn!"
Thorn paused as she rounded the corner and heard Dusk call her name. She saw her bandmates and ran to them.
"Are you two alright? They didn't hurt you or anything?" Thorn asked.
"Nah, we're fine. They just took our pictures and looked through our stuff," Dusk replied matter-of-factly. "Though the guards were a bunch of assholes."
Thorn smiled. Dusk seemed to be taking this whole situation well and Thorn was thankful for that. But turning to Luna told a much different story. With her arms crossed, the redhead said nothing to Thorn and simply looked at her with an expression of both frustration and fear. Thorn sighed. She tried to say something to Luna but stopped. Instead, she turned away from the redhead. But looking past Luna, she noticed a third figure standing behind her bandmates.
"You," Thorn said as she pointed to Matella. "You owe me answers."
"I suppose I do," Matella said with a shrug. "Why don't we all go for a short walk?"
"What? No!" Thorn said. "I want my questions answered now!"
"And I will answer them, but not here. There is a better place to discuss these topics just down the hall," Matella explained as she started walking down the hallway.
Thorn grunted and clenched her fists but the witch ignored her and continued down the hall.
"Looks like everyone here is a prick," Dusk joked.
"Tell me about it…" Thorn groaned as she, Dusk and Luna followed the witch.