Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?
October 29
Trixie glanced around as she slid to one side to make room for Di to sit next to her on the low stone wall. As far as she could tell, no one was paying them much attention and thankfully, there wasn’t a single roaming spirit in sight. “Mart stayed home today,” she told her friends. “Convinced Moms he was sick with a stomach virus. He plans to spend all day reading both of Sarah’s journals. The book he found when we first went to Lisgard House and the photos we took of the pages on the wall. I don’t know if he’ll find anything, but we’re pretty desperate.”
“So, basically, we’re… doing nothing right now?” Honey asked doubtfully.
“Until school’s out, yeah,” Trixie replied with a grimace. “We didn’t think Moms would believe we were both ill. Dan’s just flat-out skipping. He says he’ll take the unexcused absence and deal with the repercussions later.”
“Has he even talked to Regan?”
“And said what? ‘Hey, we’ve been hanging with the witch’s ghost and she thinks your new Hot and Heavy is evil?’ Melanie hasn’t done anything yet. That we know of. After Regan ended up climbing through a window to get out of the house, they left and then Dan and Mart had no trouble opening the door. Dan’s plan for today is to find out everything he can about her. All we know right now is that Regan met her the day after we found the original journal and amulet and that he… Regan, I mean… has been spending pretty much all his free time with her.”
“Geeze, Trix,” Di muttered. “This whole situation is so hard to wrap my head around.” She lifted one hand and waved it in an encompassing gesture, taking in the milling students gathered in small groups, waiting for the morning bell to ring. “Look at everyone. They’re all still running around claiming to see dead people, thinking it’s some big joke. And then there’s the séance tomorrow night.”
Trixie’s head snapped up. “What? Séance?”
“Yeah. It’s still on. What was I supposed to do? I’d already made such a big deal about it before you guys got around to telling me the truth. Tomorrow evening I have ten boys and girls coming over to my place to have a special ‘pre-party party’ where we hold a séance to rid Sleepyside of Sarah Sligo for good. Obviously, I originally thought you guys would be there, too, but even though you won’t, I’ve still got to go through with this thing.”
“Why can’t you just cancel?” Honey asked with a frown. “I don’t think a séance at this point would be very wise.”
“I thought about it. Believe me, I was more than ready to call the whole thing off. But then I realized that if I did, no matter what excuse I gave, probably a few of the students would’ve decided to hold one anyway, at a different location. And then I realized they might even get the idea of doing it at Lisgard House. I figured, if I stick with the plan, we know they’ll come to my house and well, I can do all sorts of crazy things to keep this séance from being remotely real. I have no interest whatsoever in summoning any spirit, not even one friendlier than Casper.”
Trixie smiled weakly at her friend. “That was actually pretty good thinking, Di. Thanks. The last thing we need right now is a bunch of kids showing up at Lisgard House trying to communicate with the dead.”
“It seems like the very least I can do. What about today, though? Is there some way I can help? Something else I can do?”
“I can’t think of anything right now,” Trixie said as the clanging bell signaled the official start of the school day. “If something comes up, I’ll text you or talk to you at lunch.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One more period. Trixie had only one more period to get through and she’d be free for the day. Of course it was Algebra 2 and another Suck Day, so every minute seemed to drag on for hours. It didn’t help that they had a substitute teacher who’d informed them their regular teacher was out with the flu. She seemed nice enough, but she’d begun the class with an apologetic smile, explaining that math wasn’t her strong suit and that ordinarily she only worked in the elementary school. She’d agreed to take the job for the day because apparently no one else was available, but the end result was that she was there to provide “adult supervision” while the students were assigned to quietly complete a worksheet of review problems.
At some point, Trixie put her head down. At some point after that, she fell asleep. When she awoke with a jerk several minutes later, she heard a soft giggle from behind her and realized at least one of her classmates was amused by her unplanned slumbering. She didn’t care. She almost groaned out loud when she saw there was still a quarter of an hour left before the final bell would ring. She wanted desperately to talk to Dan and Mart. She’d had another dream and now she knew what they needed to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Thanks for driving me over here,” Trixie said, glancing at Lester as he carefully navigated his way around a bend in the narrow drive. “I appreciate it.”
“No prob.” His lips twisted into a crooked grin as he spoke. “I know we’re supposed to be great enemies or something, but it seems to me? We’re a lot better off fighting on the same side instead of fighting each other.”
“Agreed.”
He pulled over onto a flat patch of grass and cut the engine. “Something wrong?” he asked, noticing her sudden frown.
“Yeah. There’s no one here.”
He pointed to the van parked a few feet away. “It looks like Dan at least is here.”
“No. Sorry. That’s not what I meant. There aren’t any ghosts here. There should be several. For office hours. This… doesn’t make sense.” She popped open her door and climbed out from her seat. “C’mon.”
Dan met them in the foyer. He silently pulled Trixie into a tight embrace, saying nothing for several long moments. Finally, he released her and stepped back. “Your brother just called me. He’s on his way. He convinced your mom that he’s feeling much better and now he’s supposedly going to a friend’s house to get some make-up work.”
“Good.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “There’s no one out there.”
“I know. I haven’t seen a ghost all day, with the possible exception of what I think might have been one crossing a road while I was trying to locate Melanie. He was too far away to be sure.”
“Do you think someone warned them off again?”
“Maybe? It could be a number of things, I guess. What I do know is I feel like we’re standing in that eerie calm before a storm, right before all hell breaks loose. Maybe they sense it too and are staying away?”
“Yeah. What did you find out about Melanie?”
“Not much. First of all, she doesn’t work for the DMV. When Uncle Bill said he met her there, I just jumped to that conclusion and never really thought much about it. I asked him this morning how long she’d been there and he said she’s actually new in town. She supposedly moved here from Seattle. He said right now she’s working at some antique shop near the hospital. I went over there but didn’t see her anywhere, and I have no idea where she’s living or staying. I did a lot of driving around hoping I’d somehow simply spot her somewhere before I gave up and went to see the professor.”
“What did he have to say about her?”
“’Be very careful.’ He’s on his way into the city this afternoon. He’s going to see some guy he contacted about dealing with evil spirits.”
“You mean… like a psychic?”
Dan blew out a small breath. “No. I mean like a Catholic priest.” He studied her closely. “So you had another dream?”
She nodded and walked over to stand in front of the large mirror. “Sarah hasn’t been vague and difficult because she’s trying to make things harder for us or anything. It’s because she has to fight very hard to reach us at all. She’s not here because she wants to be. She’s here because she’s trapped. A binding spell was used on her and she can’t escape.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. And I know how to break it.” She turned and looked at him, eyes shadowed. “But I don’t know what will happen after that. I don’t know if releasing her means she’ll simply fade away - move on after all this time - or if it means she’ll stay and be able to fully answer our questions and help us. We may be releasing her and losing what could be our biggest ally at the same time. It’s definitely a risk, but one I do think we should take.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mart bounded up the porch steps and into the house. “Trixie! Dan!” he called. “Listen-“
“Mart!” Trixie hurried out of the library to greet him, Dan and Lester on her heels. “We need to-“
“Hang on, Sis. I found something-“
“Wait! This is important.” Trixie waved her hands impatiently.
Dan reached out and gently touched Trixie’s arm, shaking his head. “One of you needs to let the other finish a sentence.”
“We need to free Sarah,” Trixie and Mart said together. “What?” Mart added in surprise. “How do you know-“
“You know about the binding spell? Did you-“
“I figured out how Sarah was hiding messages in her journal. What did you-“
“I had a dream. In algebra. I saw her-“
“Stop!” Dan said loudly and firmly. “This is getting ridiculous.”
Mart blinked and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. And did you guys finish office hours already? Good job with that.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mart set the journal down in his lap. “Sarah knew her husband was bad. Trix, you were right. She was extremely scared of him. She wanted to use her abilities to help people. Treat injuries and illnesses. Things like that. Luke Sligo was a warlock in his own right and he was only after power and control.”
Trixie nodded. “She married him because he threatened to kill her entire family if she didn’t.”
“Luke was messing with things way beyond his control, though, and Sarah knew it was going to end badly. She tried to stop him and he cursed her. His spell bound her to this house in life and even after that, in death. She couldn’t leave, not even when the villagers showed up and set it on fire. The only thing she managed was to make sure her children were taken away. She gave them up to her parents almost immediately after Luke’s death.”
“All right. So she’s… stuck,” Dan said slowly. “But apparently you know what to do?”
“How did Luke die?” Lester asked suddenly, breaking in to the conversation.
Trixie regarded him blankly. “Huh?”
“Do we know? Did either of you find out?”
She shook her head, her eyes cutting over to her brother. “Did her journal say?”
“No. Or at least, not that I found. I haven’t had time to read all of it. Her coded messages use a numeric pattern to indicate which words to read in what order. It takes awhile to sort it all out.”
“It’s just…” Lester paused, scowling as he glanced around the room. “You’re basically saying Luke was a bad guy and Sarah knew things were going to ‘end bad’ and well… what if you do whatever it is to release her, but you end up releasing something else as well? It seems to me like this could end bad for us, too.”
“I don’t think that will happen,” Trixie told him quietly. “But I can’t promise it, so if you want to leave now, no one will fault you or blame you for it.”
He studied her searchingly, his expression full of uncertainty. “What makes you think it won’t happen?”
“It’s the mirror.”
“The really ugly one in the hall?”
“Yeah. We have to break it. And unless there’s more than one spirit trapped by it, Sarah should be the only thing freed.”
It was Dan’s turn to look puzzled. “Are you sure, Freckles? I mean, that mirror certainly looks old, but it doesn’t look that old. Hundreds of years?”
“It’s enchanted,” she said. “Protected by a powerful spell beyond the one that’s bound Sarah here. We have to break that spell before we can break the mirror itself.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The mirror was even heavier than it appeared. It took all three boys to remove it from the wall and carry it to the library. They set it down inside a large ring of chalk Mart had carefully drawn on the floor. He sprinkled crushed herbs across it, murmuring under his breath as he worked, while Trixie lit the three white candles he’d brought from home and set them in a triangle near the top of the mirror’s wide, ornate frame.
“We need to hold hands,” Mart said, beckoning the others closer. “Lester, you, too.”
“I keep telling you guys… I can’t really do any magic.”
“But your presence helps. It provides more power to draw on.”
Although it was clear he remained unconvinced, Lester joined the others in a circle around the mirror.
Mart drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and spoke. “Ne solvatur quod tuetur. Et hoc quod continet solutum. Et hoc esse factum. Hanc simul et omnem miscet.”
A sharp wind whipped through the room. The candles flickered and several loose pages on the table blew up into the air before falling to the floor.
“Ne solvatur quod tuetur. Et hoc quod continet solutum. Et hoc esse factum. Hanc simul et omnem miscet,” Mart chanted again.
The windows and door rattled and Trixie barely contained a shriek as a book flew off the shelf behind her.
“Hunc dimittis speculum! Hunc dimittis speculum! Hunc dimittis speculum!”
An unseen force knocked them all backward, breaking their hold on each other. Mart rolled to his knees, shaking his head. “Trixie! Now! You need to break the mirror now!”
She scrambled up, grabbing the metal fireplace poker at her side. She held it high over her head and then swung it down with all her strength. With an explosive noise much louder than anything naturally produced, the mirror shattered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trixie wasn’t sure how long she’d been unconscious. When she woke, it was to find Dan and Mart peering down at her anxiously. She winced as she struggled to sit up. “Oh… my head.”
“It will clear in a moment,” a soft voice said. “You absorbed quite a bit of energy, but it is already dissipating.”
She turned slightly to see the woman standing a few feet away. “Sarah.”
The witch smiled kindly and nodded. “Yes. It is I.”
“So… it worked.”
“Indeed. Thank you. After all these many, many years. To finally be free…” Her smile faded. “But now we have much work to do and so very little time in which to do it.”
“I – I have so many questions.”
“I know, child. And I will answer what I may, but our primary focus must be on facing the challenge before us.”
“The evil. What is it? Really? A spirit?”
“Yes. Of sorts. The man I took as my husband was a terrible and terrifying man. He professed to love me. He claimed his was a love eternal and undying, but his obsession was merely a foul and profane corruption of all that which is good. He was ruled by baser instincts. Lust and jealousy and the need to control. He once beat a servant for the high crime of brushing against me as we passed in the kitchen. He knew that I cared nothing for him - that I despised and loathed him - and he sought through craft to change my very feelings and thoughts, to mold me into the adoring and submissive wife he desired. He did not succeed, but he swore that he would never give up. The harder he tried, the greater the evil he let grow inside him. Eventually, what little humanity he had was destroyed and nothing but a monster remained. He was able to bind me to this location with a spell I could not undo, but I countered that with one of my own, banishing him from this place even in death. I could not leave and he could not enter.”
“But he’s tried?”
“Yes. He has tried. He has been able, on occasion, to reach out to certain of our descendants. To use them. Always, it has been his plan to break the charm that blocks him from me, and he does not care who he may hurt or destroy in the process. This is the grave danger you now face.”
“Like Bart Macy.”
“One of many,” Sarah confirmed sadly. She straightened and a resolute expression came over her. She turned her attention to Lester. “You look very much like my John,” she told him. “The enmity between our families has always been nothing but foolish pettiness born from the madness of grief over the unfortunate deaths of two young children. I am pleased to see that your generation has succeeded in finally setting that to rest. Do not let the divide return. Luke rekindled it in our time through his devious lies, but you can refuse to submit to it. Remain united, and you can fight the true evil that has lurked so long in our midst.”
“Uh… yeah… but, just so you know… me and Trixie. We’re not… you know. Together or anything like you and John.”
Sarah’s smile was faint but genuine, her amusement clear. “Yes. I do know. Her heart, it seems, has been claimed by another.”
"You can see her? You can see Sarah?" Trixie looked back and forth between the two, wide-eyed.
Lester nodded. "Yeah. Somehow..."
"Not all spirits are capable of appearing to those whom they wish, but it is not a matter beyond my own skill," Sarah explained. She looked at Dan with assessing eyes. “You are something new.”
“Uh… yes?”
“Hmm. No, that is not quite right. You are new to me, but I sense something very, very old in you. Ancient, I think. Perhaps even more so than what works within my own line. Your family has long been possessed of great power?”
“I… uh… I don’t know. I don’t know a whole lot about my family. My parents are dead and the only relative I have is an uncle who was orphaned young himself.”
“I see. Children, we must ready ourselves. Luke Sligo has returned, working through a woman who openly invited him in. She is stronger than any other I have seen through the years. He knows this. He knows this is his best chance yet to break my spell.”
“Then what can we do?” Trixie demanded fearfully. “My aunt said last time our grandfather and Lester’s great-grandfather only barely defeated him. And they probably knew a whole lot more than we do.”
“Yes. These things are true. But you must remember, dearest one, we have some advantages now that they did not.”
“We do?”
“Oh, yes. For one, Luke will not yet be aware that you have freed me. He will believe I am still trapped and limited in what I can do. He will also not know we have one amongst us with abilities beyond those which have been passed through our family. Both of these things are very good. Also, it was not mere chance that brought you here at the hour of need. Just as Luke rose again, the power of our family awoke from its long sleep. And what is even better than these things, he does not yet understand you, my girl.”
“Me?” Trixie muttered, frowning in confusion.
“You are very strong, dear, but not in a way that he will see or comprehend, I think, and that may very well be his downfall at last. You have power, yes. Abilities. But that is not at all your greatest strength.”
“It’s not?”
“No. You have love. Real love. The kind Luke cannot know and recognize as he is incapable of feeling it himself and always has been incapable of it. Yours is a love given freely and received without question. You have the pure, loyal love of your brother and the deep, steady love of a young man who will stand with you, no matter what the cost. You must hold fast to this, come what may.” Sarah looked at each of them as she spoke. “We have little time left. We must get ready. Where is the other? The young man you have brought here on occasion.”
“The professor?” Trixie asked. “He went to talk with a priest. I guess to find out about an exorcism? We’ve been looking at this from every angle we can think of.”
“Take care with that one. Be wary.”
“What? Why? Are you saying we can’t trust him?”
“His motives are not entirely clear to me. I feel that he is genuine in his desire to help you, but then he sought his grandfather’s trunk…”
Trixie stared at her uncomprehendingly. “Huh?”
“Wait,” Mart said at the same time. “Grandfather’s trunk?”
“There is Sligo blood in him,” Sarah said simply. “He may have the wish to do good, but the taint is there. In the line of my daughter, it is there. I stopped him. The night he came seeking the trunk. But without knowing for certain what is in his heart, we must have a care. His connection to Luke makes him vulnerable, if nothing else. We must bear this in mind. Now. There is much you must learn, so that you may be ready. Come, children, and I will instruct you.”
Trixie glanced around as she slid to one side to make room for Di to sit next to her on the low stone wall. As far as she could tell, no one was paying them much attention and thankfully, there wasn’t a single roaming spirit in sight. “Mart stayed home today,” she told her friends. “Convinced Moms he was sick with a stomach virus. He plans to spend all day reading both of Sarah’s journals. The book he found when we first went to Lisgard House and the photos we took of the pages on the wall. I don’t know if he’ll find anything, but we’re pretty desperate.”
“So, basically, we’re… doing nothing right now?” Honey asked doubtfully.
“Until school’s out, yeah,” Trixie replied with a grimace. “We didn’t think Moms would believe we were both ill. Dan’s just flat-out skipping. He says he’ll take the unexcused absence and deal with the repercussions later.”
“Has he even talked to Regan?”
“And said what? ‘Hey, we’ve been hanging with the witch’s ghost and she thinks your new Hot and Heavy is evil?’ Melanie hasn’t done anything yet. That we know of. After Regan ended up climbing through a window to get out of the house, they left and then Dan and Mart had no trouble opening the door. Dan’s plan for today is to find out everything he can about her. All we know right now is that Regan met her the day after we found the original journal and amulet and that he… Regan, I mean… has been spending pretty much all his free time with her.”
“Geeze, Trix,” Di muttered. “This whole situation is so hard to wrap my head around.” She lifted one hand and waved it in an encompassing gesture, taking in the milling students gathered in small groups, waiting for the morning bell to ring. “Look at everyone. They’re all still running around claiming to see dead people, thinking it’s some big joke. And then there’s the séance tomorrow night.”
Trixie’s head snapped up. “What? Séance?”
“Yeah. It’s still on. What was I supposed to do? I’d already made such a big deal about it before you guys got around to telling me the truth. Tomorrow evening I have ten boys and girls coming over to my place to have a special ‘pre-party party’ where we hold a séance to rid Sleepyside of Sarah Sligo for good. Obviously, I originally thought you guys would be there, too, but even though you won’t, I’ve still got to go through with this thing.”
“Why can’t you just cancel?” Honey asked with a frown. “I don’t think a séance at this point would be very wise.”
“I thought about it. Believe me, I was more than ready to call the whole thing off. But then I realized that if I did, no matter what excuse I gave, probably a few of the students would’ve decided to hold one anyway, at a different location. And then I realized they might even get the idea of doing it at Lisgard House. I figured, if I stick with the plan, we know they’ll come to my house and well, I can do all sorts of crazy things to keep this séance from being remotely real. I have no interest whatsoever in summoning any spirit, not even one friendlier than Casper.”
Trixie smiled weakly at her friend. “That was actually pretty good thinking, Di. Thanks. The last thing we need right now is a bunch of kids showing up at Lisgard House trying to communicate with the dead.”
“It seems like the very least I can do. What about today, though? Is there some way I can help? Something else I can do?”
“I can’t think of anything right now,” Trixie said as the clanging bell signaled the official start of the school day. “If something comes up, I’ll text you or talk to you at lunch.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One more period. Trixie had only one more period to get through and she’d be free for the day. Of course it was Algebra 2 and another Suck Day, so every minute seemed to drag on for hours. It didn’t help that they had a substitute teacher who’d informed them their regular teacher was out with the flu. She seemed nice enough, but she’d begun the class with an apologetic smile, explaining that math wasn’t her strong suit and that ordinarily she only worked in the elementary school. She’d agreed to take the job for the day because apparently no one else was available, but the end result was that she was there to provide “adult supervision” while the students were assigned to quietly complete a worksheet of review problems.
At some point, Trixie put her head down. At some point after that, she fell asleep. When she awoke with a jerk several minutes later, she heard a soft giggle from behind her and realized at least one of her classmates was amused by her unplanned slumbering. She didn’t care. She almost groaned out loud when she saw there was still a quarter of an hour left before the final bell would ring. She wanted desperately to talk to Dan and Mart. She’d had another dream and now she knew what they needed to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Thanks for driving me over here,” Trixie said, glancing at Lester as he carefully navigated his way around a bend in the narrow drive. “I appreciate it.”
“No prob.” His lips twisted into a crooked grin as he spoke. “I know we’re supposed to be great enemies or something, but it seems to me? We’re a lot better off fighting on the same side instead of fighting each other.”
“Agreed.”
He pulled over onto a flat patch of grass and cut the engine. “Something wrong?” he asked, noticing her sudden frown.
“Yeah. There’s no one here.”
He pointed to the van parked a few feet away. “It looks like Dan at least is here.”
“No. Sorry. That’s not what I meant. There aren’t any ghosts here. There should be several. For office hours. This… doesn’t make sense.” She popped open her door and climbed out from her seat. “C’mon.”
Dan met them in the foyer. He silently pulled Trixie into a tight embrace, saying nothing for several long moments. Finally, he released her and stepped back. “Your brother just called me. He’s on his way. He convinced your mom that he’s feeling much better and now he’s supposedly going to a friend’s house to get some make-up work.”
“Good.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “There’s no one out there.”
“I know. I haven’t seen a ghost all day, with the possible exception of what I think might have been one crossing a road while I was trying to locate Melanie. He was too far away to be sure.”
“Do you think someone warned them off again?”
“Maybe? It could be a number of things, I guess. What I do know is I feel like we’re standing in that eerie calm before a storm, right before all hell breaks loose. Maybe they sense it too and are staying away?”
“Yeah. What did you find out about Melanie?”
“Not much. First of all, she doesn’t work for the DMV. When Uncle Bill said he met her there, I just jumped to that conclusion and never really thought much about it. I asked him this morning how long she’d been there and he said she’s actually new in town. She supposedly moved here from Seattle. He said right now she’s working at some antique shop near the hospital. I went over there but didn’t see her anywhere, and I have no idea where she’s living or staying. I did a lot of driving around hoping I’d somehow simply spot her somewhere before I gave up and went to see the professor.”
“What did he have to say about her?”
“’Be very careful.’ He’s on his way into the city this afternoon. He’s going to see some guy he contacted about dealing with evil spirits.”
“You mean… like a psychic?”
Dan blew out a small breath. “No. I mean like a Catholic priest.” He studied her closely. “So you had another dream?”
She nodded and walked over to stand in front of the large mirror. “Sarah hasn’t been vague and difficult because she’s trying to make things harder for us or anything. It’s because she has to fight very hard to reach us at all. She’s not here because she wants to be. She’s here because she’s trapped. A binding spell was used on her and she can’t escape.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. And I know how to break it.” She turned and looked at him, eyes shadowed. “But I don’t know what will happen after that. I don’t know if releasing her means she’ll simply fade away - move on after all this time - or if it means she’ll stay and be able to fully answer our questions and help us. We may be releasing her and losing what could be our biggest ally at the same time. It’s definitely a risk, but one I do think we should take.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mart bounded up the porch steps and into the house. “Trixie! Dan!” he called. “Listen-“
“Mart!” Trixie hurried out of the library to greet him, Dan and Lester on her heels. “We need to-“
“Hang on, Sis. I found something-“
“Wait! This is important.” Trixie waved her hands impatiently.
Dan reached out and gently touched Trixie’s arm, shaking his head. “One of you needs to let the other finish a sentence.”
“We need to free Sarah,” Trixie and Mart said together. “What?” Mart added in surprise. “How do you know-“
“You know about the binding spell? Did you-“
“I figured out how Sarah was hiding messages in her journal. What did you-“
“I had a dream. In algebra. I saw her-“
“Stop!” Dan said loudly and firmly. “This is getting ridiculous.”
Mart blinked and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. And did you guys finish office hours already? Good job with that.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mart set the journal down in his lap. “Sarah knew her husband was bad. Trix, you were right. She was extremely scared of him. She wanted to use her abilities to help people. Treat injuries and illnesses. Things like that. Luke Sligo was a warlock in his own right and he was only after power and control.”
Trixie nodded. “She married him because he threatened to kill her entire family if she didn’t.”
“Luke was messing with things way beyond his control, though, and Sarah knew it was going to end badly. She tried to stop him and he cursed her. His spell bound her to this house in life and even after that, in death. She couldn’t leave, not even when the villagers showed up and set it on fire. The only thing she managed was to make sure her children were taken away. She gave them up to her parents almost immediately after Luke’s death.”
“All right. So she’s… stuck,” Dan said slowly. “But apparently you know what to do?”
“How did Luke die?” Lester asked suddenly, breaking in to the conversation.
Trixie regarded him blankly. “Huh?”
“Do we know? Did either of you find out?”
She shook her head, her eyes cutting over to her brother. “Did her journal say?”
“No. Or at least, not that I found. I haven’t had time to read all of it. Her coded messages use a numeric pattern to indicate which words to read in what order. It takes awhile to sort it all out.”
“It’s just…” Lester paused, scowling as he glanced around the room. “You’re basically saying Luke was a bad guy and Sarah knew things were going to ‘end bad’ and well… what if you do whatever it is to release her, but you end up releasing something else as well? It seems to me like this could end bad for us, too.”
“I don’t think that will happen,” Trixie told him quietly. “But I can’t promise it, so if you want to leave now, no one will fault you or blame you for it.”
He studied her searchingly, his expression full of uncertainty. “What makes you think it won’t happen?”
“It’s the mirror.”
“The really ugly one in the hall?”
“Yeah. We have to break it. And unless there’s more than one spirit trapped by it, Sarah should be the only thing freed.”
It was Dan’s turn to look puzzled. “Are you sure, Freckles? I mean, that mirror certainly looks old, but it doesn’t look that old. Hundreds of years?”
“It’s enchanted,” she said. “Protected by a powerful spell beyond the one that’s bound Sarah here. We have to break that spell before we can break the mirror itself.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The mirror was even heavier than it appeared. It took all three boys to remove it from the wall and carry it to the library. They set it down inside a large ring of chalk Mart had carefully drawn on the floor. He sprinkled crushed herbs across it, murmuring under his breath as he worked, while Trixie lit the three white candles he’d brought from home and set them in a triangle near the top of the mirror’s wide, ornate frame.
“We need to hold hands,” Mart said, beckoning the others closer. “Lester, you, too.”
“I keep telling you guys… I can’t really do any magic.”
“But your presence helps. It provides more power to draw on.”
Although it was clear he remained unconvinced, Lester joined the others in a circle around the mirror.
Mart drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and spoke. “Ne solvatur quod tuetur. Et hoc quod continet solutum. Et hoc esse factum. Hanc simul et omnem miscet.”
A sharp wind whipped through the room. The candles flickered and several loose pages on the table blew up into the air before falling to the floor.
“Ne solvatur quod tuetur. Et hoc quod continet solutum. Et hoc esse factum. Hanc simul et omnem miscet,” Mart chanted again.
The windows and door rattled and Trixie barely contained a shriek as a book flew off the shelf behind her.
“Hunc dimittis speculum! Hunc dimittis speculum! Hunc dimittis speculum!”
An unseen force knocked them all backward, breaking their hold on each other. Mart rolled to his knees, shaking his head. “Trixie! Now! You need to break the mirror now!”
She scrambled up, grabbing the metal fireplace poker at her side. She held it high over her head and then swung it down with all her strength. With an explosive noise much louder than anything naturally produced, the mirror shattered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trixie wasn’t sure how long she’d been unconscious. When she woke, it was to find Dan and Mart peering down at her anxiously. She winced as she struggled to sit up. “Oh… my head.”
“It will clear in a moment,” a soft voice said. “You absorbed quite a bit of energy, but it is already dissipating.”
She turned slightly to see the woman standing a few feet away. “Sarah.”
The witch smiled kindly and nodded. “Yes. It is I.”
“So… it worked.”
“Indeed. Thank you. After all these many, many years. To finally be free…” Her smile faded. “But now we have much work to do and so very little time in which to do it.”
“I – I have so many questions.”
“I know, child. And I will answer what I may, but our primary focus must be on facing the challenge before us.”
“The evil. What is it? Really? A spirit?”
“Yes. Of sorts. The man I took as my husband was a terrible and terrifying man. He professed to love me. He claimed his was a love eternal and undying, but his obsession was merely a foul and profane corruption of all that which is good. He was ruled by baser instincts. Lust and jealousy and the need to control. He once beat a servant for the high crime of brushing against me as we passed in the kitchen. He knew that I cared nothing for him - that I despised and loathed him - and he sought through craft to change my very feelings and thoughts, to mold me into the adoring and submissive wife he desired. He did not succeed, but he swore that he would never give up. The harder he tried, the greater the evil he let grow inside him. Eventually, what little humanity he had was destroyed and nothing but a monster remained. He was able to bind me to this location with a spell I could not undo, but I countered that with one of my own, banishing him from this place even in death. I could not leave and he could not enter.”
“But he’s tried?”
“Yes. He has tried. He has been able, on occasion, to reach out to certain of our descendants. To use them. Always, it has been his plan to break the charm that blocks him from me, and he does not care who he may hurt or destroy in the process. This is the grave danger you now face.”
“Like Bart Macy.”
“One of many,” Sarah confirmed sadly. She straightened and a resolute expression came over her. She turned her attention to Lester. “You look very much like my John,” she told him. “The enmity between our families has always been nothing but foolish pettiness born from the madness of grief over the unfortunate deaths of two young children. I am pleased to see that your generation has succeeded in finally setting that to rest. Do not let the divide return. Luke rekindled it in our time through his devious lies, but you can refuse to submit to it. Remain united, and you can fight the true evil that has lurked so long in our midst.”
“Uh… yeah… but, just so you know… me and Trixie. We’re not… you know. Together or anything like you and John.”
Sarah’s smile was faint but genuine, her amusement clear. “Yes. I do know. Her heart, it seems, has been claimed by another.”
"You can see her? You can see Sarah?" Trixie looked back and forth between the two, wide-eyed.
Lester nodded. "Yeah. Somehow..."
"Not all spirits are capable of appearing to those whom they wish, but it is not a matter beyond my own skill," Sarah explained. She looked at Dan with assessing eyes. “You are something new.”
“Uh… yes?”
“Hmm. No, that is not quite right. You are new to me, but I sense something very, very old in you. Ancient, I think. Perhaps even more so than what works within my own line. Your family has long been possessed of great power?”
“I… uh… I don’t know. I don’t know a whole lot about my family. My parents are dead and the only relative I have is an uncle who was orphaned young himself.”
“I see. Children, we must ready ourselves. Luke Sligo has returned, working through a woman who openly invited him in. She is stronger than any other I have seen through the years. He knows this. He knows this is his best chance yet to break my spell.”
“Then what can we do?” Trixie demanded fearfully. “My aunt said last time our grandfather and Lester’s great-grandfather only barely defeated him. And they probably knew a whole lot more than we do.”
“Yes. These things are true. But you must remember, dearest one, we have some advantages now that they did not.”
“We do?”
“Oh, yes. For one, Luke will not yet be aware that you have freed me. He will believe I am still trapped and limited in what I can do. He will also not know we have one amongst us with abilities beyond those which have been passed through our family. Both of these things are very good. Also, it was not mere chance that brought you here at the hour of need. Just as Luke rose again, the power of our family awoke from its long sleep. And what is even better than these things, he does not yet understand you, my girl.”
“Me?” Trixie muttered, frowning in confusion.
“You are very strong, dear, but not in a way that he will see or comprehend, I think, and that may very well be his downfall at last. You have power, yes. Abilities. But that is not at all your greatest strength.”
“It’s not?”
“No. You have love. Real love. The kind Luke cannot know and recognize as he is incapable of feeling it himself and always has been incapable of it. Yours is a love given freely and received without question. You have the pure, loyal love of your brother and the deep, steady love of a young man who will stand with you, no matter what the cost. You must hold fast to this, come what may.” Sarah looked at each of them as she spoke. “We have little time left. We must get ready. Where is the other? The young man you have brought here on occasion.”
“The professor?” Trixie asked. “He went to talk with a priest. I guess to find out about an exorcism? We’ve been looking at this from every angle we can think of.”
“Take care with that one. Be wary.”
“What? Why? Are you saying we can’t trust him?”
“His motives are not entirely clear to me. I feel that he is genuine in his desire to help you, but then he sought his grandfather’s trunk…”
Trixie stared at her uncomprehendingly. “Huh?”
“Wait,” Mart said at the same time. “Grandfather’s trunk?”
“There is Sligo blood in him,” Sarah said simply. “He may have the wish to do good, but the taint is there. In the line of my daughter, it is there. I stopped him. The night he came seeking the trunk. But without knowing for certain what is in his heart, we must have a care. His connection to Luke makes him vulnerable, if nothing else. We must bear this in mind. Now. There is much you must learn, so that you may be ready. Come, children, and I will instruct you.”