There was this growing sense of alarm in Zatanna. Ever since she noticed the inconsistencies with Anita, her inner, more logical self was getting more and more louder in her head. An experienced mage who discovered the first bodies on this case and she was the one to freak out? Claiming Cain died of a heart attack when his body clearly showed he was little more than a shriveled husk? Yeah, you didn't have to be the World's Greatest Detective to know something was off about that.
Faintly, she was beginning to wonder if that friend of hers would have picked up on that if he had been there.
Yeah, she knew Constantine had called Detective Chimp the World's Greatest, but he at least had an excuse for not picking up on that detail. He had just found that friend of his in such a state, so he was lost in grief. For a moment, Zatanna wondered if that was the point of the whole scene. To get their top investigator off of his game.
The magician wasn't certain who she wanted to find first. Yeah, finding Anita and confronting her would be the surest way to get to the bottom of things; yet, finding the others would ensure they had greater numbers, if not ensuring that everyone was safe before that confrontation in the event there was something sinister with the Soulfeeda heir.
There was just one tiny problem: the House of Mystery was massive. Like, you knew the place was big looking at it from the outside, but Zatanna got the feeling that it was even larger inside, you know, because magic. Hell, it could have been an ever-changing labyrinth on the inside and she wouldn't know.
There had to be an easier way going about this.
"There has to be an easier way of just looking for everyone," the dark-haired woman groused out loud. She did that on purpose because maybe the two men in her company would actually put their brains to use and come up with a good idea.
"We could ask the House to take us to them directly," Jason suggested as he kept up with her pace. It could have been an unconscious thing, but all three of them were power walking down the halls of this haunted mansion. Zatanna had taken the lead at some point, but the men were keeping up with her.
"And why haven't we done that already?" she questioned.
"Not gonna lie, I was just following you two, love," Constantine replied. "I figured ya knew where you were going.
Well, that was helpful—not. Constantine's contribution to their little conversation, not Jason's. She honestly hadn't thought of using the House to just transport them to wherever they needed to go. She was willing to blame that on the stress of the situation. See? She knew asking would get some kind of genius idea out of these two, or rather one of these two.
However, as she looked over her shoulder at the Brit, she noticed a frown on his face. "Any of you feel the House lately?" he asked.
"I did when we were in Cain's room, but that was the last time," Zatanna responded. Now that it was brought up, she wasn't feeling the House's presence in her head. That was odd considering how it seemed to intrude at any and every moment she had been in the house.
"I haven't felt it for some time," Jason added, "not since we first arrived."
"That ain't too surprising, Blood," Constantine quipped. "Not a lot of things want to mess with you."
"Alright, so how do we want to do this?" Zatanna interjected. She was willing to chalk up what Constantine was getting at with Jason to him being incredibly powerful, but it hardly mattered at the moment. "Do we want to go find the others first, or do we go right for Anita?"
Suddenly, there was a visible shudder throughout the hallway they were in, causing all three of them to slow to a stop. When she meant shudder, she meant the wood panels that made up the walls individually shook, revealing the smallest of crevices between them. It was the walls, the ceiling, the floor, just about everything shook, including the picture frames.
Then the corridor began to change. At the end of the hallway, wooden panels sunk inward and out of sight, one by one, beginning to widen the area there. The ceiling above them removed itself, revealing a void above their heads, one that only lasted until a new ceiling formed high, high above them. Behind them, a wall was created, save for an opening about the size of a door. An actual door swung into place once the frame was completed, slamming shut with quite a bit of force.
It then became apparent that the House of Mystery was changing itself, turning the hallway they were in into an actual room. They found themselves in a very large room, one that was still putting itself together. Once the room had positioned its walls, it began to fill itself up with decor. To the right, the wall opened up in one long strip, just before stones emerged from the darkness beyond it. Right before her eyes, Zatanna watched a fireplace get put together, starting from the ground up. The stones would slide into view, one on top of the other until they reached the ceiling. Then, a long strip in the floor dropped downward, reaching from one side of the room to the other. A large red roll of carpet was spat out, landing with a thud on the intact floor. Without urging, the roll began to roll forward, covering the floor. Zatanna and the others had to leap over it as it moved underneath them, coming to a stop at the other end of the room.
Because of this, they didn't see holes appear beneath the carpet in a few different places. They were alerted to them as the carpet tore itself apart, columns of stone rising upwards until they reached the ceiling. As for the damaged carpet, it seemed to fix itself, burning its torn strands into the base of the columns.
The walls then began to open themselves again, pushing out towering shelves loaded with books. On the wall opposite them, windows were made, then immediately covered up with drapes and curtains, the decor rolling itself down from the top of the newly formed windows to the floor beneath them.
Then the ceiling opened up at various points. Falling out of the holes came furniture. A large desk with corresponding chairs landed with hardly a sound directly opposite of the door. Potted plants were set down at even intervals around the room to give it that splash of life and green color. A sitting area was made as a couple of lavish couches were set down, along with a little coffee table. The set up was right in front of the fireplace, which suddenly lit up as a roaring fire burst to life within it.
As the room furnished itself, Zatanna found herself drawing closer to Constantine and Jason. "Uhh, which one of you two is doing this?" she asked.
Unfortunately, neither one took credit. "Not me," Constantine grunted as Jason responded with, "Nor I."
"I was afraid of that."
And then the room was complete. They appeared to be in some sort of lavish library, office area. It was kinda like the library in Shadowcrest, but not nearly as large and definitely more inviting. Yet, Zatanna felt as if she wanted to be anywhere but here.
As if to confirm this, something flew right by the magician, her hair whipping up into the air from the wind created by it. Zatanna jumped when she heard a loud crash, her eyes darting to the desk. She found the desk askew as one side of it had been pushed backwards, a small body lying on—
—wait, was that Detective Chimp?!
The monkey was lying there on his side in a crumpled heap. He didn't look worse for wear despite being thrown into that giant desk, hitting it hard enough to shove it out of position. The dark-haired woman didn't have much more time to take in the sight as she heard a dull thud behind her.
Whipping herself around, she found that somehow she and the two gents she was with weren't even close to the door to this library. That surprised her, but it was a mild feeling as she saw June lying on the floor just inside of the room. She had one arm pinned underneath her, the other stretched out in front of her as if she were reaching for them. The young woman slowly raised her head weakly, looking up at them. "Run," she gasped. "You have to—"
"They're not going anywhere."
Again, Zatanna was spinning around, this time finding Anita in the room on the opposite side of the desk. How did that happen? When had she gotten there? And why was it Zatanna had a sinking feeling in her stomach?
She watched as the older woman walked around the desk, her profile showing. Her white hair was down, which was a rather odd sight, but it hid her face from view. That was until she turned the corner and the magician knew she was no longer looking at Anita.
It was the Enchantress.
It was a strange sight, surely. That was Anita's dress she was wearing; that was her white hair, though it wasn't in its normal arrangement. It was just her face that was of the hag, a very mortifying look to be certain.
Had the Enchantress gotten Anita too?
The hag licked her dry lips as she stared at the three with her green, sunken eyes. "In fact, none of you are leaving this house alive."
That was when Constantine shoved himself by Zatanna, one hand raised up. He didn't utter a word, just firing a fireball right at the Anita monster. The Enchantress watched the incoming fireball with amusement before she puffed out her cheeks and then blew air out between her lips. The wind came into contact with the fireball and snuffed it out like the flame on a candle.
"Wasn't expecting that," Constantine remarked.
"You are mistaken, Enchantress," Jason then proclaimed as he held both of his hands up. Purple magical energy began to crackle into life, forming large orbs in each of his hands. "It is you that will not leave here!"
As if that were some cue, Constantine held his other hand up to join with his other, forming his orange seals before them. Seeing that, Zatanna stepped away from the blond man as she began to summon her own powers. She had a feeling the two guys here could pack a punch, so she was going to give them their best shot. "Ezeerf ni—" she began to chant.
And then the Enchantress' eyes turned solid black.
Instantly, Zatanna lost hold of her power. She could feel it drain right out of her. Constantine's seals vanished as well, leaving him standing there like an idiot. Even Jason's magical orbs were taken.
"Oh, I am loving this power," Enchantress crowed.
Zatanna had encountered this hag a couple times prior to this. The way she was talking now did not match either of those times. In fact, it sounded more like something Alice would have said. And with those black eyes and the sudden removal of her powers…
Oh no…
The Enchantress had gotten to Alice!
A cackle rang out from the hag as she raised both of her hands up, revealing them to be just as old and leathery as her face. An incredible force slammed into the three magic users, sending them flying backwards through the air. Zatanna cried out until she felt herself crash into a bookcase along the wall. This knocked the air right out of her lungs, leaving her dazed and breathless.
Before she could even catch her breath, her arms and legs were spread apart against the tall shelf. Shackles emerged from the bookshelves, locking themselves around her wrists and ankles. One even wrapped itself around her neck, clamping together just in front of her throat. As she took a deep breath, she could feel the cool metal against her skin.
"How do you like it?" the Enchantress asked them, sauntering towards them until she stood front and center. "I call it the Bonds of Suffering."
The dark-haired woman turned her head as far as she could, you know, since she had a shackle around her neck. From what she could see, Jason and Constantine were in the same situation as she was. That was certainly not promising.
"I don't think you made them tight enough," Constantine responded as he made a show of twisting his hands beneath the restraints, moving his head back and forth. "I've had tighter."
"Is that so?"
Suddenly, the restraints around Constantine contracted, so much so the blond man began to choke and gag. "Is that tight enough?" the hag questioned coyly, a vicious smirk appearing on her face.
Yeah, that guy should have known better than to taunt his captor like that. He kinda asked for that.
The Enchantress then loosened the restraints, allowing Constantine to cough and suck in air again. Eventually, he sputtered out, "Not…bad…"
"Shall I make it tighter still?" the hag taunted.
"What do you want, demon?" Jason Blood suddenly demanded. He immediately drew the hag's attention to him.
"Isn't that obvious by now?" she responded in a coy tone. "I desire power, mortal, and a lot of it. I know you'll make for a tasty morsel, and that will help me further my designs."
"Is that what you want the Sworn Book of Honorius for as well?" he pressed. "To give you more power?"
"What being wouldn't want that book?" she countered. "The knowledge it possesses would give any entity its greatest desires. If it wasn't for that museum worker I devoured, I never would have found it."
"Wait, so you didn't target Eric Gordon for access to it?" Zatanna questioned.
This earned her the hag's attention. "I only found him due to his latent magical powers. He didn't offer much since he barely used it, but through him I discovered the tome's location. It was more of a detour for me, if you will, and a worthy one at that."
Which meant the Sworn Book of Honorius wasn't the hag's target at all. All of this time they had been focused on it, they hadn't seen what the Enchantress was really up to. Damn, it was like she was playing chess while the rest of them were stuck on checkers. They were being played the entire time!
"So it's power that you desire. To what ends?" Jason inquired.
"Why else would anything want power? To dominate all, of course! This world is a smorgasbord of souls I could devour for centuries on end! Enough so that I could even challenge Fate himself!"
Jason's head perked up, a serious look appearing on his face. "You wouldn't."
"I would," she returned, a nasty grin on her face.
"Then you will fail, just as all of those who have tried before you," he warned.
"All whom tried before me were weak and overconfident. I know I need a great deal more power," the hag countered. "Which is where you three come in."
Zatanna really didn't like where this was going. "When did you get Anita?" she demanded.
"From the very beginning. There I was, trapped in that Bulgarian swamp until some foolish mortal gave me an opening. This allowed me to venture out and find the heir to the most famous demon hunter family in the realm! Due to her reclusivity, no one knew I had devoured her soul. From there, it was just finding more until I came to an idea that instead of luring one prey at a time, I could gather several. It's how I gathered all of you after all."
The magician couldn't help but grimace. A few things made sense now. Like the overabundance of perfume Anita used. She used it to hide the rotten egg smell that followed the hag around like a bad penny. That was the first thing to come to mind.
"Like fishing with a net," Constantine grumbled.
"You made it so easy too," the Enchantress gloated. "Never would you expect one of your own to betray you. No one would ever expect someone like me to hide myself as a Soulfeeda."
Zatanna turned her head as much as she could so that she could glare at her male acquaintances. "Aha! What have I been saying?" she demanded with full vindication. "What have I been saying? Oh, there's no way someone with the name Soulsucker can't suck out souls! Suck it, Magic Boys!"
This entire time, she had been told over and over how it was just happenstance that someone with the name Soulfeeda just happened to be around a bunch of bodies with their souls sucked out of them. It was so on the nose a blind man could have seen it! And what had she been told? It was just some name of some famous family and blah, blah, blah.
Constantine glanced towards Jason, who shared the same look. "Well, she ain't wrong," the blond man shrugged.
Damn right, she wasn't wrong!
"Oh? Did the little girl think I was the one responsible this whole time?" the Enchantress taunted, returning their collective attention back to her. "Good for her. Though, me taking Soulfeeda gave me quite an additional benefit."
A gnarled hand disappeared behind her back, then a moment later re-emerged, a piece of paper in hand, one that seemed to have a golden glow to it. "It also gave me the deed to the House of Mystery. This was what you were searching for, wasn't it, mortal?"
Constantine grimaced as his eyes focused on the deed. "This plan of mine has given me such a boon!" the hag crowed. "The House of Mystery is mine; the Sworn Book of Honorius will soon be in my grasp; and I will have all of your powers at my disposal. I won't even have to hunt my prey anymore. The House of Mystery will lure in more saps like you, delivering them right to my doorstep so that I can suck their souls out of them. Even I can hardly believe how well this has gone."
"You haven't taken our powers yet," Zatanna couldn't help but retort. "You just have Alice's crazy power copying them. How long can you hold that up? A few minutes? A few hours? A couple of days? Sooner or later, you'll run out of power to keep it up and you'll lose it all."
"Oh, you misunderstand the use of this power. It's not to just copy you, but leave you as helpless as a newborn babe," the hag countered. She drew herself closer to the magician, looking up at her. "It's so much easier to eat a helpless animal than it is one that can fight back." She then leered. "And once I'm done with all of you, I'll find that friend of yours in that rundown fortune parlor. She'll be my next course."
"You can try, but you'll fail," Zatanna spat back.
"No, I won't."
A spastic twitch jerked the hag's body. It was sudden and strange. Then it was followed by another and another, making it appear as if her body was trying to move in a few different directions at the same time.
Then she began to swell. Anita's dress stretched out as far as it could go, ultimately ripping right down its back. The dress slid off of the Enchantress, revealing a bloated abdomen, sagging breasts, and flabby arms. Her legs looked like swollen tree trunks, slowly being hidden by the gut still expanding out.
Enchantress let out a groan, one that became louder and enraged as it went on. Her neck began to stretch out, as if adding vertebrae one at a time. It made it look as if her head would pop up, then pause, then pop up again. The next grew and stretched, beginning to coil around once as the head moved further and further from its body.
The hag's face began to change then. Her face began to sink inward, revealing all of the prominent skull features. The eye sockets widened, causing the right eyeball to roll back and disappear into the hole. The left eye just grew larger, glazing over with a sickly yellow film to hide its iris. Her teeth grew bigger and wider, though thankfully not sharper. Still, Zatanna didn't want to get bitten by them as each tooth looked as if it were as big as her fist.
The head grew wider and taller as well, even as its elongated neck thickened. Anita's long white hair began to fall out until there were only thin wisps of it covering the Enchantress' head.
Then, as if to add to the horror of the scene, slimy tentacles began to grow out of the hag's bag. They wiggled and writhed as they appeared over her shoulders and around her sides.
And for a brief moment, Zatanna couldn't help but stare at what was most assuredly a deadite. Who knew an evil hag would be a fan of Evil Dead, right?
The Enchantress cackled then, her voice raspier than ever. "I'll devour your souls!" she screeched. "Devour your souls! Devour your souls!"
Oh yeah, she had definitely seen Evil Dead.
"Constantine!" Jason shouted with alarm. "I need you to listen to me very carefully!"
"I'm all ears!" the blond man responded.
Whatever Jason wanted to tell Constantine didn't reach Zatanna. The reason for this was because one of Deadite Enchantress' tentacles reached out towards Zatanna and pressed its slimy tip against her cheek. The dark-haired woman grimaced as she turned her head to lean back as far as she could, the bookshelf and the restraint around her neck making that nigh impossible. So she had to suffer the tentacle worming against her face, slime sticking to her cheek and leaving strands of it connecting her skin to the tentacle.
"You'll be the first," Enchantress declared as she took a heavy step towards her. The tentacle against the magician's face then moved towards her left arm, wrapping around it. The other tentacles then reached out, each one taking over a limb, and giving Zatanna a really bad feeling.
That was when the restraints from the hag's spell opened, each with an audible click. Suddenly, Zatanna was pulled through the air, the tentacles keeping her restrained even as she began to twist and turn in a sad attempt to free herself. Soon, she found herself being held right in front of Deadite Enchantress, seeing leathery skin dripping with ooze. Saliva dripped out of her gaping maw.
This is so ewwww.
Deadite Enchantress sucked in some air through her nose, which pulled at the magician's hair. "I can smell it," she throatily hissed. "You have such untapped power. What a delicious treat you'll be."
"Could you not?" Zatanna responded. "Being this close to you is making me gag."
"Don't worry, you won't have to worry about that for very long."
The Enchantress began to suck in air. Instantly, Zatanna's voice got caught in her throat. She could feel herself getting pulled, but not in the physical sense. No, it felt like her magic was getting sucked in, ney, her lifeforce. Before her eyes, what looked like wisps of smoke began to flow from her towards the hag's mouth, but it was readily apparent that it wasn't smoke. No, it was her magical aura and it was being stolen from her.
She wanted to scream; she wanted to beg; she wanted to fight. None of these she did, nor could do. Starting at her fingertips and toes, she could feel them go numb with a dreadful coldness, which began to creep up her arms and legs.
She was getting drained of her life, her soul, and she was completely helpless to stop it.
Constantine wasn't certain what was worse: seeing someone get their soul sucked right out of them, or knowing that was the fate that awaited him next.
Self-preservation was really making it difficult to be empathic.
Now, don't get him wrong, he didn't like seeing someone get drained of their lifeforce. It was a nasty way to go, albeit cleaner than straight up stabbing someone. The only mess was usually a shriveled body devoid of bodily fluids. No need to clean up any blood conventional methods created.
And he really didn't like seeing such a pretty dame end up like a mummy.
"Did you get it all, Constantine?!" Blood shouted at him, tearing his attention away from the Zatara girl. The red-haired man was staring intently at him, his head turned as much as it could be because of the blasted metal shackle around his neck.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it!" he yelled back.
"Are you certain? It's very important you don't forget the incantation. It's the only thing that stands between us and unholy damnation!"
"I got it! Now do what ya gotta do before our trio of Beauty and the Beasts becomes just the Beasts!"
Blood tried to nod, but his chin bumped against his neck restraints. Then his body relaxed as he seemed to give into whatever mad plan he had. Constantine wasn't certain what the play was, but he just hoped whatever Blood was going to do would deal with the disgusting hag. It was far past time they put a stake in her.
The man then took in a deep breath and then bellowed in a thunderous tone at the top of his lungs, "Gone! Gone! O' form of man! Give rise the demon, Etrigan!"
Suddenly, Constantine could feel the shelf begin to shake behind him. Books were trembling as they shifted around on their shelves, shifting back and forth until a few fell right out and landed on the floor. By now, the tremors were stronger, which stopped the Enchantress from her soul sucking.
Her ugly face snapped to stare at the two men, primarily Blood. "What have you done?!" she shrieked.
As if in answer, fire erupted out of the fireplace, spewing flames as they reached out and then up towards the ceiling, hiding the fireplace from sight. The sound of a raging inferno damn near deafened Constantine as he winced from the noise.
That was when the flames bursting out of the fireplace suddenly made a turn. They raced through the air until they crashed down on Blood, smothering him, causing him to vanish from sight. The heat was intense and Constantine wished he could move away, but yeah, these blasted restraints kept him right next to the cooking Jason Blood.
He then smelled something. Taking a couple more whiffs, he couldn't help but grimace. That was bleedin' brimstone he was smelling.
Then something large burst out of the flames. It landed with a heavy thud on the floor, leaving behind burning books from where it had emerged.
"Bloody hell," Constantine swore.
There had been whispers for as long as he could remember. Jason Blood was not a man to cross. The blond man's magical senses had told him that the first time he actually saw the man. Now…now he knew why.
A towering hulk stood on the floor, hunched over. Muscles upon muscles pulled at the red material that clothed its torso. A blue cape fell down its back, but clearly it was just for show.
Yellow skin emerged from where the hulk's red tunic didn't cover. There were beefy hands, muscular legs, and then the head. A couple of horns emerged from the bald head, leathering ears growing out the sides. A malevolent red light glowed from its eyes.
That…that was a bloomin' demon, and not just any demon. It was the Prince of Hell itself!
Now, Constantine was no demonologist. His knowledge was cursory at best, but he had seen tableaus of the hierarchy of Hell. Etrigan was one of the more prominent images if he remembered correctly. But that meant this wasn't some run-of-the-mill demon. Those were bad enough on their own, but to get one of the top guys?
What the hell did Blood promise them to be able to summon Etrigan?
"Hag!" Etrigan snarled as he took a threatening step towards it. His voice was deep, raspy, and filled with rage; so entwined they were it was hard to tell when one aspect of the voice ended and another began. "I can smell your rotten corpse! It befouls the air! I will purge you from this realm and sentence you to eternal damnation!"
Talk about leaping out of the frying pan and into the fires of Hell.
A couple notes: I did take Enchantress' deadite form right from Evil Dead 2, specifically Henrietta's monster deadite form. Too bad Ash isn't around to deal with her lol.
And since there was a strong suspicion amongst you reviewers—looking right at you Protocol115—allow me to reveal Anita's origin for this story. Anita Soulfeeda is an alias for Enchantress in the comics, which I used to make an actual character from. Obviously, Enchantress consumed her at this point and took her place. Also, the card she gave Zatanna in the beginning of this story is the sigil for Enchantress, another hint at her real identity.
And lastly, for you detail-oriented readers, Enchantress' Bonds of Suffering spell has been used before in Fallen Olympus. She used it on Dr. Fate in that story, who was merely bored by it. I couldn't help but reuse it here, though making it more challenging this time.