Chapter16: No Turning Back
In a dark chamber
Grace was forced to walk through the dark passageway with strange writings on the walls inked red. The floor was made of dried dirt. She still couldn't move her mouth due to the fact that Callie did not want to hear another word out of her about sending her back home. She sounded true to her word; at this point there would be no turning back even if she tried to make a run for it. They would still catch up to her.
"This is my cauldron," They arrived at the end of the passageway where a crooked and battered black cauldron stood in the center. Its sides were dented and scarred with flecks not rusted. A long thick handle was braced by a heavy bar. To Grace, it seemed like another one of those stone statues that came to life out in the cemetery. Only this one seemed grim and brooding with an ancient evil. Inside, there was a slimy oozing liquid swirling about like a whirlpool. The sight of it was terrifying enough to have Grace shivering pitifully while clutching her pounding heart.
"Move along!" Mildred pushed Grace further closer to the cauldron. The liquid was still swirling at a fast pace.
"This is where I am able to see all that goes on in other realms to search for my next victims. For you see my dear, in order to enhance my dark powers, I must feed on the fear found in every mortal's heart; without fear, I am powerless. And as long as fear exists out there, I am immortal!" She flapped her black cape around her shoulder, covering half her face. "And now you'll be my next victim for tonight's ceremony."
Grace mumbled in her throat when trying to ask what it is, but forgot about her zipped up mouth. She tried to take a step backward, but her legs wouldn't move since she was already scared stiff. Callie gazed at her steely and walked over to stare down at her face. Grace stared back at her with a frown of hurt and anger. But Callie didn't seem to mind, knowing how defenseless she was at the moment.
"When I unzip your mouth, you will not speak another word about home or I WILL turn you into a PUMPKIN, you hear me?" Grace could only nod slightly.
Good, now hold still my dear," she made a zipping motion with her hoof, and Grace found she could talk again, but she did not speak unless she was spoken to as commanded. She still felt that this witch was much too powerful to negotiate with. The shackle around her neck had also vanished.
Callie spoke in a different kind of tongue twist which Grace did not understand as she watched the Mistress wave her left hoof over the boiling cauldron. In it, Grace could see two rotting pumpkins sitting beside her as she shivered in the wooden shed and found herself wandering around the pumpkin patch confronting the demonic pumpkins; sending them away with her singing. During this part, Callie had explained to her how she had been casting a spell of deep slumber over the place with her dark singing. Grace did not say anything about that, knowing what might happen if she said that it didn't compare to her singing. Next she saw herself entering the old farmhouse and soon running out of it. The images continued to show her traveling through the midst of Deadwood Forest, Misty Mine, the spider caves, Dead Man's Swamp, Phantom Valley, the Indian Burial Ground, the catacombs in Shadow Cemetery, and her trip from the stagecoach to Ghost Town. So this was how Callie knew she was coming, but what did she mean by the word ceremony? The images suddenly faded away, leaving only the boiling green ooze to be seen.
"That's right my dear, I'm afraid you went through all those perils for two simple pumpkins; in other words, all for NOTHING!!" she burst into fits of evil laughter echoing all the way from the stone passageway. Grace just stood there completely distraught. Didn't Minerva the fortune teller warn her about something like this? Then again, what if she knew about those two pumpkins from the beginning and didn't even tell her about it at first? Unless she was somehow…wait a minute that was it!
"But that fortune teller out in the woods told me everything about you; but then why send me here if she might have known what was happening all along?" Just then, a gypsy woman dressed in coloring clothes appeared in a puff of smoke next to Callie. Her hands were placed firmly on her hips whilst smiling wickedly.
"So you've finally figure it out young one…" she clutched her shawl with her left hand and flung it over herself to reveal an ugly warty old hag in black robes, a crooked pointed hat, black shoes, green aging skin, and long fingernails. "…or should I say, my pretty." She clapped her bony hands together.
"Minerva?" Grace had gasped at her transformation. She felt as if vines had ensnared her legs, unable to move a muscle. She watched as the transformed witch moved closer to her.
"There is no Minerva, it was all a lie, and my real name is Millicent!" She grinned, showing her crooked teeth. "When I saw you out in the pumpkin patch without falling under the spell, you were shaking like a leaf out in the cold. So I decided to test your knowledge of survival to see how well you would handle with being trapped in the land of the dead. I was never helping you or anyone else; I only lure victims here to my Mistress, just like I lured you. Most mortals have died before reaching this domain." Grace continued to listen as Millicent went on boasting about how stupid and weak mortals are to ever trust fortune tellers out in the woods and how Grace should have just accepted her fate in whatever peril she got herself into, instead of being trapped in the situation she was in now.
"You horrid deceiving TOAD!" Grace stepped back slowly.
"Watch that hostile smart mouth, fool! We're witches; and we can get away with anything! So why don't you be a good girl and join the ceremony." Callie began to stalk toward Grace unaware of her about ready to kick a pile of dirt straight in her face.
"Never!" Grace threw the dirt in Callie's eyes causing her to scream. Next she started kicking more dirt in each of the witches' faces and creating a thick dust cloud. The witches coughed and hacked uncontrollably. This was now a chance for Grace to get away and hide. She darted for the opening in the fireplace and out of the mansion door. It was stuck! She was still trapped inside the place. Even the windows were sealed. She couldn't risk cutting herself from glass pieces; but maybe that was better than becoming a victim of a dark ceremony.
"AFTER HER!" Callie's voice could be heard in the dark chamber, meaning Grace had to think fast.
Outside the mansion
She made a quick jump and broke through the window onto the ground outside. Luckily she didn't have a single scratch on her. Grace almost felt a rush of happiness when she made it and sat up to run for the hill, but skidded to a halt when she barely missed the edge. She had almost forgotten that Callie's mansion was sitting atop a steep hilltop. It was high and dark at the bottom as it was misty. She couldn't escape through here; too risky and too high for her to jump off.
"I have to get out of here!" she cried in a panic whilst pacing left and right. Turning to same trail leading up to the mansion, she started to run down it doing her best to avoid certain death at the misty pit below the hilltop. Ahead of her, she saw the gate covered in vines and started to pound on them. But the gate only creaked while still shut tight.
"Let me out, let me out!" she begged, hoping the gates would obey her. As she continued pounding, she saw the vines move slowly like snakes. But instead of opening the gate, they hissed and lashed out at her. The vines turned out to be enormous Venus fly traps with razor sharp fangs drooling with an intense appetite for meat like her possibly. Grace stepped back in astonishment to avoid their bites and snaps. It was no use; there was no way out of this world or to escape Callie's wrath.
"Meow, meow!" Grace whirled around and found five mysterious black cats with glowing yellow eyes standing in a straight line with their tales wagging. What were they doing here? She looked back to see that the fly traps were still waiting for her to get closer to them.
"Going somewhere my pretty?" A cackle voice caused Grace to shriek when the five black cats transformed into the same witches blocking her path. It was Millicent who spoke and moved closer to her. "No one ever escapes this domain alive!" Her bony hands reached out to grab her. Grace tried to barge past them, but instead froze in midair when some powerful force struck her in the forehead.
"Insolent fool!" Grace watched as Callie stepped out from behind the witches. Her face was now covered in dirt, but she shook it off in an instant. "Do you really think you can get away from me that easy? What comes in here, never goes out!" She made a drop down motion with her right hoof. In a moment, Grace fell to the ground in a drop that caused an intense pain in her body. While cringing on the ground with her eyes shut tight, she could hear Callie command her minions. "Bind her, while I prepare for the ritual!" She flapped her black cape around her, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
The five hags made a dart at her and shrieked with triumph when she was in no condition to resist or fight back at all. Her whole strength and spirit was devoured by fear. They rolled the dairy cow over on her back and tied all her four legs together whilst still shrieking with victory. Still she made no attempt to scream or resist, even when the hags tied the ropes so tight that she felt them cut into her flesh.
And they surged around Grace jeering and taunting her, saying things like "Weakling! Pathetic little bovine! Can't even protect her own hide! Don't forget about her mouth!" She could feel one of the witches work about her face wrapping her snout in more ropes to create a tight muzzle. Still, she did not move even as the hags continued jeering and spitting, dragging the bound bovine back to the mansion.
Back inside the chamber
"Bring her to me!" Callie commanded, standing beside a hard, massive concrete solid table with a huge star symbol written in red on the top. Four other pillars with the same markings on them surrounded the concrete. There were eight torches hung on the stone walls and a small opening barred crevice above. On the walls lined skeletal remains of possibly past victims in other dark ceremonies which Grace would soon be added to.
Grace did not start resisting again until she saw where the hags were dragging her over to. It was still no use struggling in her bonds, even when all five of them hoisted her on top of the concrete with the marking symbol. They had to tie her down with another rope around her neck, over the stomach, and her back legs to prevent her from falling. After she was finished with being restrained and secured, Callie moved closer to Grace and clapped her pointed hooves together, smiling cruelly. She stood by her head and said in a quivering dark tone.
"The prisoner here has been found guilty of heroism, meddling, causing a ruckus in Ghost Town, and speaking words of dishonor to the Mistress in an ill-mannered tone. The sentence; death by ritual!" She moved to the center of the table adjusting her hooves as the witches gathered around the table. To Grace, it almost seemed as if Callie was sharpening a butcher knife of some sorts. Then her face twitched with a wicked desire. Instantly, the Mistress had cut off the victim's bell around her neck and handed it to the fourth witch, Gilda to hang it on the wall next to the skeletal remains. Grace figured that would be her deathbed at any minute now. "Then when you die, your soul will be transferred inside of me, making me more powerful than you can ever imagine. And after that, you will be skinned and cooked for all of us; we'll even leave your skeletal body hanging on the wall in honor of this ceremony. So what more can you do about it?"
Callie turned away from her to gaze up at the crevice. She bared her arms and spoke in another one of those incantations in a different language. Bolts of lightening thundered down on the four pillars making the carved symbols glow bright. She turned to walk back to Grace in the center of the table and placed her right hoof on her stomach.
Next thing that happened was extreme pain. Grace whimpered, shook, and winced when she felt something sharp and oozy trickling down her stomach. She could hear the drip of something echoing in the dark chamber. But because her neck was tied down, she was unable to see her own blood trickle slowly from her cut and drop repeatedly on the star symbol she laid upon where it began to glow. There was no hope and no escape; nothing more she could do but to accept her horrible fate at the hands of these wicked witches and the evil imposter standing before her. At this rate, her heart began pounding madly as if it were crying out to escape. Sweat ran down her face and tears of fear and hopelessness slid from her eyes. She looked up at the barred crevice with a frightened expression and even deeper feelings of terror. Her soul would never be at peace, ever. If only she had never listened to Lucky Jack's campfire tales in the first place. Then she wouldn't have been fearful enough to be here now, as a sacrifice to a dark ritual.
"Raise your hands!" she heard Callie commanded. Soon all the witches raised their hands in midair speaking in an incantation of a different language. As they did so, Grace watched as bolts of electricity surged in their palms like thunder in the sky. The carved symbols on the four pillars glowed even brighter as more lightening cracked through the crevice raining down on them. Callie gazed down on her with a wicked smirk across her lips and walked slowly around the concrete. "Poor pitiful creature, did you honestly believe that you could resist overcoming my dark powers to save your fake friends and make a fool out of me?" she chuckled drawing her hoof under the victim's blond hair to lift it lightly. "Well you were wrong. You should have listened when someone told you to stay away. Now it's too late. And soon, your soul will mine, FOREVER!" She turned away and walked back to join the circle.
Grace still laid there breathing heavily in pain from the deep scratch over her stomach. This was it, she was done for.
"Prepare for the unexpected!" Callie hollered, as her eyes flashed red while her body glimmered in a flash of red mist. The five witches still had their hands raised in midair when Callie moved closer to Grace who laid there soaked with sweat and her face tearstained. She raised her right hoof above her bound body. Soon Grace's body began to glow red all over her. She began to feel her heavy breathing and her heart rate grow softer as Callie began sucking in her life essence with her mouth.
Although her life essence was being drained, she still had enough left to see the pillars glowing more brightly and the witches gazing down at her with their hands in midair. Grace grew more and more scared knowing that her friends were not here to save her. She didn't even have them to give her words of comfort, and she was bound to a concrete table with Callie staring down at her while still sucking her life essence, with a maniacal glint in her eyes. She was now terrified of becoming a fate worse than death. Never before in her life did she have to face something like this.
"TIME TO DIE!" Cackling, Callie moved closer as did the other five witches. Grace thrashed against the concrete table as bolts of static lightening shot out of the witches fingers and into her open cut causing a searing path throughout her body. Grace was nearly sobbing when she became engulfed in electricity thrashing madly and twisting violently. She was unable to see the actual moment of Callie still sucking out her life essence. Of course, she couldn't bear to see how else she was continuing on with the ritual of sacrifice and shut her eyes tight.
Then suddenly, it all happened. Before her vision faded and her strength left, she witnessed the past events in her memories of how this journey through the land of the dead all began. She still knew that she was a true hero, even if she was facing this untimely death at the hands of witches. No matter how much Callie and her minions had power and control of this world; they were still considered "cowards." That was when she heard other past voices in her head: "Care for some rattlesnake stew? Come to me my little fly! Better watch yerself in these swamps. You have disturbed our sacred grounds and shall be punished by flame. Join us for some zombie juice. Don't be a hero! There is no escape from Callie's wrath!"
"WHAT IS THIS LIGHT? AAAAWWWWWW!!"