Ancestral

The Other Side

By the time we arrived at the dining room everyone else was there and waiting for us.  Andi looked at us and asked, “So, Are you boys...umm...ready?”

Helmut Smirked and said, “If what I could hear down in the living room was any indication, I'd say that they 'got ready' at least twice.”

Miss McFiercesen slapped him on the shoulder and admonished, “Be nice.”

Andi ignored them and continued, “Good. Now, does everyone have everything they need?”  A number of heads nodded and she took a deep breath.  “Then let's begin.”  Miss M. lead team one to the basement stairs as Andi and her group disappeared through the front door.  I hesitated at the top of the stairs, but decided I needed to trust my friends.  I looked at the four people who surrounded me as we stood in the middle of the main room of the basement and realized they weren't just friends, but over the last few weeks had become my family, especially Ben.  I even held an affection for Helmut, asshole that he was.  Despite his failings, he was always there when someone needed him.  

Miss M. took charge immediately.  Two of the kitchen chairs were sitting beside each other facing the shelves under the stairs.  She had Ben and I each take a seat, and moved to a small table that had been set a short distance beside the chairs.  It was covered with various small objects.  Miss M. also had a box full of things I couldn't quite see sitting beside the table.  She began by lighting a candle on the table.  As she lit it she chanted, “Illumina nos, defendat, veritatem.”  She looked a little self-conscious and it was clear she wasn't sure of the pronunciation of all the words in the spell, but she gave it all she had.  She then took a small pile of tea lights and lit them from the first candle, and as each one caught she muttered, “ita quoque hic.”  She handed them to Heather and Helmut, who proceeded to place them on the floor in a large circle surrounding the chairs.  Once they were all in place she handed them each a collection of small sculptures or pictures, which they distributed between the candles.  She walked around the circle three times, repeating the first incantation and then lit some incense and walked around us again. I noticed that the door to the back of the cellar was open and candles had been placed on either side of that as well. Andi moved to the open door and sprinkled a line of white powder across the threshold.  I think it was salt, but couldn't be sure.

The scene was set.  She waited a moment and seemed to expect something to happen, but nothing did.  We watched as she pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket and checked it.  Evidently these were Andi's instructions.  She looked at us and apologized, “I think she expected the harpy to just sort of appear at this point.  She didn't give me any more instructions for this part of the ritual, only after she shows up.”  

While she was speaking I felt Ben stiffen.  We had been holding hands.  As he squeezed my hand, he whispered, “Behind us.”

I turned and saw Emma standing in the open door.  Just then the others caught sight of her too and the mood became much more serious.  She seemed to glide along the floor with no indication of footsteps, following the outline of the candles until she was directly in front of us with her back to the shelves. She raised a hand toward me and I could hear her wordless call, beckoning me to follow her.  I looked for guidance from Miss M. but she just shrugged.  Ben leaned over and whispered, “Do you trust her?”  I calmed myself and listened to her.  I sensed no malevolence, only great strength and love.

“Yes,” I said, and stood up to move towards her.  As I broke the circle of light we all heard it, the distant cry of a bird.  Emma led me to the shelves and I could tell she wanted me to start removing things from them.  I looked at the others in doubt but did as she asked.  The cries grew louder and the sound of giant wings filled the room.  A sudden rush of wind made the candles flicker and I stepped back just as the wall before me began to shake.  Emma suddenly disappeared and a dense shadow started to force its way through the wall and around the objects on the shelf. I stepped back again and was almost at the circle of candles, when a large talon emerged from the shadow and reached for me.  I felt Ben grabbing my waist from behind as the talon wrapped itself around my shoulder and dug in painfully.  I felt like I was being torn in two, like I was being stretched between them and neither would let go.  I felt myself moving into the shadow, even though I could still see Ben holding tightly to my frame.  I felt myself growing more and more distant but I could still clearly see what was going on in the cellar.  

I saw all of the cellar, even the hidden room.  When Emma had disappeared she had entered that room.  I saw her lifting the bar that bolted it from the inside.  I saw Andi entering the room through the door we had discovered under the stables.  Sammy, Jo Jo, and Sylvia followed.  I saw their horror as they faced what they found.  In one corner, the withered frame of a woman in late Victorian garb was sitting in the chair beside the bed.  As they entered she stirred.  Slowly at first, but with increasing vigor, she turned her head toward them and scowled.  

Andi quickly began chanting something I couldn't make out.  Emma placed herself between Andi and the ghoul they had found.  I realized this must be Mariah.  But how?  She disappeared over a hundred years ago.  How could she still be alive? Emma assumed the angry pose I had seen a few nights ago, using all her strength to keep Mariah from reaching Andi.  It seemed she was slowing her down, but could not stop her completely.  Andi reached into her bag and pulled out a small box, opened it and approached the figure.  She carefully reached past Emma and sprinkled a line of white powder between them reaching from one wall to the other.  

Mariah stopped and let out a screech that was echoed and amplified by the creature that had me in her grasp.  I realized that, while the grasp of the talon on my shoulder was excruciatingly painful, I could no longer feel my lower extremities.  I turned my attention to Ben and could see him cradling my body within the circle of light.  I wasn't moving as he held me, but we were surrounded by activity.  Helmut, Heather and Miss M, were frantically dismantling the shelves and tearing at the wallboard behind them. Helmut had produced a sledge hammer and was bashing at the brick wall they had found behind it.  I was right.  I knew I had seen it.  But that was little comfort to me now.  

I was drawn back to the secret room and could feel the creature holding me turn that way also.  With a great flap of her wings she sent a strong wind to Mariah, blowing away the white powder.  Mariah smiled fiendishly at Andi and began to move forward again.  Andi turned to the boys and gave them some sort of instruction.  They immediately fell into each others' arms and began kissing passionately.  Both she and Sylvia pulled small pouches from their pockets and began chanting in unison.  Mariah abruptly stopped moving toward them.  Turning to her right, she pushed against a wooden panel in the wall and it swung open.  There was a second door to the secret room.  I must not have noticed it in the visions.  The room was always dark and I was always focused on something else.  The creature that held me turned back to her original course and I began to see a dim red glow in the distant darkness.  I couldn't make out anything specific, but I knew I didn't want to go there.  

The thing that once was Mariah passed through the door and headed for the main room.  By now Helmut had broken through one layer of bricks and was beginning to bash through a second layer.  Mariah reached the door and saw what they were doing.  She let out an unearthly scream that stopped everyone for an instant, but Emma immediately appeared in front of her and stood her ground.  Helmut resumed his work as Emily moved debris out of his way.  I saw Andi and Sylvia approach Mariah from behind unnoticed, and draw a semi-circle of salt behind her, trapping her in the doorway.  

The flame towards which we were heading had grown more intense.  It had became progressively harder to see what was going on in the basement as we drew closer to this glow.  I could feel the tension in my being as if I were an elastic that had reached its limit.  I could feel the place we were approaching.  It was a desert, a place of desolation and unending despair.  I could hear the cries of those trapped there, a vast multitude, yet every one of them utterly alone.  There was no hope that if she came back for Ben we would be together here.  No hope of anything.  I couldn't bear the thought of him being trapped here.  He was so kind and gentle.  He had done nothing to deserve such a fate.  I turned and strained to see him one last time.  I longed to be able to feel the embrace with which I knew he held my body.  I felt I could be content with an eternity of emptiness if I could once again wrap my arms around him and tell him how much I loved him, but I couldn't.  I thought I felt the grip of the beast falter for a moment, but as the flames grew closer I could only hear faint echoes from the basement.

At that point the faint sound of the sledgehammer hitting the bricks changed.  I heard the cracking of wood and the sound of rubble echoing as it hit a stone floor.  I dimly heard Miss M. shout, “We're through!  Oh my god!  There are...bodies.”

The last thing I heard as we began to enter the realm of flames was Andi's voice shouting, “Ben, Now!”