Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Joleen hesitated, her hand
hovering over the Ouija board. “I don’t know,” she said, pulling away from the
pointer, “maybe I should just let this go.”
“If that’s what you want to do,” Karen said, “but I really
think this will help bring you some closure.”
“I know what you think,” Joleen snapped, then immediately
regretted it. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I’m not as comfortable with this thing
as you are. My mother always said Ouijas were a portal to hell.”
Karen laughed. “Tell me about it. Do you know she came to see
me once?”
“You? Was it a bit nippy in hell that day?”
Karen, known to her clients as Madam Kara shook her head. “No
and she didn’t want a reading. She told me she was praying for me and that even
though I had strayed from the good Lord, she still loved me.” Karen teared up,
then swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Your mother was always decent
to me, even after I took up the ‘devil’s work’ as she called it. I really
missed coming over here.” Looking around the living room, she smiled at old
memories, frowning when she saw something she didn’t recognize. “Hey, that’s
new.”
“I bought it when mother got sick. It’s Aceso, the goddess of
healing. Mother was too sick to notice, thank God, or she would have insisted I
get rid of her.”
Curious, Karen picked up the statue and examined it. The
sculpture depicted a naked woman, bent down on her knees, wings furled out
behind her. “Where did you get this?”
“That new store downtown.” Joleen laughed, then put her hands
up when she saw the dark look in her friends eyes. “I know, she’s your
competitor, but I don’t know ... I was thinking about mother and worrying,
and then I just found myself there asking if they had anything that could help
my mother.”
“That store is full of dark magic, Joleen. I wish you had not
gone in there. “
“Well you sound awfully self-righteous for someone who
handles Ouija boards. Maybe you haven’t strayed as far as my mother thought.”
“The Ouija is just a tool to help connect to the spirit
world. It is what the user makes of it. This statue though—” Karen paused, not
sure if she should continue. “It is not the figure of Aceso, it is one of the
Keres.”
“The Keres?”
“Goddesses of death ... violent death.”
Joleen’s face grew pale, remembering her mother’s final
moments. ‘They’re coming for me,’ she
had screamed, holding her arms out, warding off invisible attackers. Joleen
thought her mother’s actions were a result of the dementia that had fallen over
her the last year of her life. Her nights, often plagued by dreams of demons
and monsters, left her listless during the day. Joleen had hoped the statue
would help bring her mother peace, but her dreams had grown worse, even after
the addition of the talisman.
“Oh my God,” Joleen called out.
“I’m sure her death had nothing to do with the statue.” Karen
put her arm around her friend. “Just get rid of it so it doesn’t give you nightmares.”
Troubled, Joleen looked at the Ouija board. “I need to talk
to her now more than ever. I need to know she is at peace.”
“Then let’s begin.”
Doing as Karen instructed, Joleen hovered her hands over the
planchette. “Mother, are you there?” The pointer sat still so she asked again,
“Mother, are you there? Are you at peace?”
At first nothing happened but then the planchette moved.
N-O
“No? You aren’t at peace?”
C-U-N-T
Gasping, Joleen pulled her hand back. “My mother would never
use that word.”
“It could be we haven’t summoned your mother. It could be
another spirit. One associated with your house ... a vulgar one. Has anyone
else died here?”
“Not as far as I know, but it is possible. The house has been
in my mom’s family for generations. She inherited it when my grandmother died.”
“Well, let’s find out who we have contacted so we can move
on.” Karen hovered her hand over the Ouija. “Are you Helen Bailey?”
N-O
“Who are you?”
B-I-L-L
“Who’s Bill?” Karen asked.
“My mom’s uncle. She never talked about him much, but I
remember him. He was old then . . . I was maybe five. He had this cough that
rattled in his chest. Emphysema ... I remember he scared me and I hated
being in the same room with him. He made my skin crawl, and I don’t think
mother cared much for him. I remember her asking grandma why she didn’t send
him away. ‘He deserves to suffer,’ is
what she said and I remember asking her why.”
“What did she say?”
“She never answered and we didn’t go back for the longest
time. Mother told Grandma that as long as he was in the house she wouldn’t set
foot inside.”
“He must have really done something to make her mad then. She
wasn’t happy with me, but she still came to see me . . . even if it was to tell
me I was wrong,” Karen waved the planchette across the board. “You know, this
probably isn’t going to work, I really
didn’t think it would, since your mother shunned anything she deemed the
devil’s instrument, but I wanted to at least give you some peace. Since she
didn’t answer, can we at least agree she must have found it too?”
“What about Bill?” Joleen asked, chewing her lip nervously
while Karen put the board away.
Karen shrugged. “Ignore him. He’s probably been wandering
around this house for awhile. Without the Ouija, he has no way to contact you.
Now, didn’t you say you still needed to buy candy for tonight? Hey, this is
your first year celebrating Halloween, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, you know mother, ‘It’s the Devil’s Holiday’.”
* * *
“This is so much fun,” Joleen said, shutting the door on the
last trick-or-treater of the night and turning off the porch light.
“I told you.” Karen stuffed the remnants of a chocolate bar
into her mouth.
“Remember third grade, when I tried to sneak out so I could
go trick-or-treating with you and Janie Anderson?”
“Do I ever. I thought your mother was going to perform an
exorcism when she caught up to you.”
“I think maybe we went a little overboard on the blood. She
actually burned the clothes I was wearing.”
“Yeah, well she had the best of intentions. There was always
an aura around her ... something bad happened to her at one time. It changed
who she was.”
Joleen turned on the couch, looking at her friend. “Why
didn’t you ever tell me this?”
“So you could grill your mother about her past? I know you,
Joleen, once you get an idea in your head you don’t let it go, which is why you
sometimes act without thinking, like going into the Occult Store. I wish you
had come to me first.”
“I just wanted to find something to relieve mom’s pain.”
Joleen stared absent-mindedly at the Keres. “It didn’t work.”
“Well, certainly not with that thing.” Karen looked at the
clock and sighed. “I have to go, but call me in the morning and we’ll set up a
night out. Maybe get hold of Janie Anderson.”
“Will do,” Joleen said, walking her friend to the door. On
the way past the mantel, Karen snatched the Keres off the shelf. “Let me get
rid of this thing for you.”
“Fine with me.” Joleen shrugged.
That night her dreams were troubled. She was a little girl
again, standing next to her uncle’s bed. He was saying something to her, but
she couldn’t understand what it was. He reached his hand out and grabbed her
arm. She tried to pull away, his hands dug into her flesh ... he pulled her
toward him. A small whimper escaped her lips. His tongue slipped out of his
mouth, fetid breath reached her nostrils and she gagged. Where was her
mommy? She screamed, or tried to, but
her voice froze in her throat. His breath rattled in his lungs from the effort
of holding onto her. He pulled her forward, his other arm reaching for her ... reaching for her dress. Fingers fumbling, he lifted the hem, his hand
slipping under the fabric and pushing at her legs ...
Sitting up, Joleen looked around her room, a scream dying on
her throat. She sat there a few minutes,
trying to shake the dream, but it didn’t fade, like so many other dreams did.
Maybe a drink of water.
Passing the fireplace on her way to the kitchen, Joleen
stopped. Something on the mantle caught her eye. The Keres sat on the shelf,
the face of the goddess turned, looking at her. Frozen, Joleen stared back at
it ... from her bedroom a cough rattled in a throat scarred from years of
smoking.
Her phone on the table rang. Fingers trembling, she picked up
the receiver. “Hello?”
“Joleen ...” Karen’s voice was weak. Joleen had to strain
to hear her over the sound of sirens in the background.
“Karen, are you okay?”
“Joleen, we should have made him go away. We let him out . .
. with the Ouija. We didn’t make him say goodbye. I was wrong. He doesn’t need
the Ouija now.”
“Karen ...”
“It’s the Kera’s. They give him strength. Joleen ... Get
out of the house.”
“Karen? Karen?”
The phone had gone dead. The coughing in the bedroom grew
closer as feet unaccustomed to moving shuffled across the carpet.
“Girlie, come here, your mama ain’t here to protect you now.”
“No.” Joleen sobbed, remembering that day. Her uncle, his
hands ripping at her underwear; she finally managed a scream. Her mother had
run in, pulling her away.
“How can you keep him here?” Joleen’s mother said, holding
her daughter close to her. She was staring angrily at her own mother.
“He’s sick, Lois. He’s my brother, what am I supposed to do?”
“Let him rot in a home somewhere. You know what he did to me ... he just tried ... he deserves to suffer. And so do you, for harboring a
monster. I’m not coming back, mother. I won’t let him hurt Joleen.”
“Lois, please, she’s my granddaughter, you can’t keep her
from me.”
“Yes I can. If you want to see her, you’ll choose ... it’s
either him or us?”
“He’s my brother ...”
“Good bye mother.”
And they had left. But they’d come back, after Bill had died.
He was gone and could never hurt them again.
“Not gone,” Joleen breathed while backing up toward the front
door, Karen’s words echoing in her head, ‘Get
out of the house.’
A shadow stretched across the floor, reaching out from the
bedroom, moving toward the living room and Joleen. The persistent cough
rattled, sending tendrils of fear through her abdomen. Joleen nearly let loose
of her bladder, a small trickle of urine seeping into her panties.
‘Get out of the house.’
Turning, Joleen ran for the front door. The deadbolt was
locked. Twisting it, she tried to move it, but somehow the knob refused to
turn.
“Can’t get away from me that easy.”
Joleen turned. Behind her was a man, his face sunken,
yellowed from illness. His lips were cracked and dried, a tongue, shriveled,
tried to moisten them. He grinned, showing blackened teeth.
“I told your mama I’d have you some day.”
No comments:
Post a Comment