The Witches of Dark Root: Daughters of Dark Root: Book One (The Daughters of Dark Root) (41 page)

“We need to keep the lights off,” Merry said, as we moved single-file through the ground floor of the house. Merry braved the front of the line, waving the smoke from the sage stick before us. Eve held the middle, plunging her candle into the shadows around us.

I lingered behind, clutching Mother’s book and glancing over my shoulder to ensure that we were alone.

“Spirit of Sister House,” we called out. “We demand that you to make your presence known!”
 

We repeated the phrase in each of the lower rooms: the living room, the dining room, the kitchen.

“It’s not really a spirit,” I reminded Merry when we had cleared the floor.

“I don’t have a word for what it is,” she said. “Spirit will have to do.”

“What about that room?” Eve nodded towards a door that had always been locked––Mother’s secret room. It had been forbidden for so long I had almost forgotten it was there.

Merry nodded and I gave her a quizzical look. Unless she had a key, that door was not going to open. We stood before it. Merry said something under her breath, then tried the handle.

“Crap!” she said, stamping her foot. “I thought it would work.”

“Thought what would work?” I asked.

“The incantation,
Door of steel, door that’s locked, let me in with just a knock.”

“Where did you learn that?” Eve and I asked.

“Well,” Merry admitted. “When I was a kid and couldn’t sleep, I’d sneak out here and hide on the staircase watching Mama and her friends. Twice I saw her go into this room after reciting the incantation but I never tried it myself.”

“Maybe we should hold hands,” I suggested, feeling foolish as I put the book down on the floor. Merry reached for one of my hands and I grabbed Eve by the wrist so that she could still hold onto the candle.

“Let’s say it together,” Merry said.

“Door of steel, door that’s locked, let us in with just a knock.”

We said the incantation, our voices one. The candle in Eve’s hand flickered.

Merry tried the door again, but it wouldn’t budge.

“We forgot to knock,” Eve reminded us, rapping on the door. We heard the soft click of the lock and Eve twisted the knob.

We were in.

Eve pushed the candle inside and our heads followed. The space was the size of a small bedroom and was just as crammed with stuff as the rest of the house. But instead of boxes and bins, there were chests and picture frames and books and things that sparkled––a tiny dragon’s lair. Something in the far corner glimmered and if I hadn’t had to climb a small mountain to get there, I would have retrieved it.

“Mother’s hoarding. The early years,” Eve said.

Merry passed the sage stick inside as we asked the spirit once again to show itself, with no luck.

“We will come back,” Merry promised, shutting the door. “There are secrets in there, I’m sure. But we have other things to deal with now.”

She glided towards the staircase and we obediently followed.

“This floor is clean. Now let’s go upstairs.”

We ascended the staircase with only a candle to light the way, listening to the wooden boards splinter and groan, as if warning us to turn back.

“Spirit of Sister House,” we repeated when we reached the top of the stairs. “We demand that you show yourself!”

The hall was long and dark, but we knew every inch of it by heart. We moved through the guest room, Mother’s room, the sewing room and the bathroom. When every room had been cleansed, we made our way to the nursery.

“I can’t,” I said. My legs begin to tremble as I recalled my last visit.

Merry ignored me and opened the door. Eve and I moved in behind her.

“It feels empty,” I whispered, hugging Mother’s book to my chest.

Eve held out the candle and we scanned the room. Toys and books littered the floor, evidence of the last encounter. But other than the mess, it appeared perfectly normal.

“Maybe it went away?” I said hopefully.

This had all seemed like a good idea earlier, but now, as I stood sober and in the dark, I wasn’t so sure.

“Maybe,” Merry agreed. “...But I doubt it. It’s been here too long to call it quits without a real fight.”

“Remember,” Eve reminded us. “Maggie says it’s an entity from another plane. And this room...” She extended her free arm. “...Is where it ports in and out, just above us. I can feel it.”

Eve lifted her candle and we gazed at the ceiling.

“Maybe it’s hiding in its home plane then.” Merry gritted her teeth in frustration. “Which means we may never catch it.”

I removed my cell phone from my skirt pocket and looked at the time. “If it does choose to show itself, we may have the advantage. In fifteen minutes, the ‘thing’ will be weaker, once the witching hour is over.”

“Yes,” Merry said, scooting a porcelain doll head out of her way with her foot. “But so will we.”

I clicked a button on my phone to create a beam of light, pointing it into every corner, letting the beam elucidate the darkest edges of the nursery. The light caught dolls and books and bedding thrown haphazardly across the room, but nothing more. I was about to put it away when I saw something––a small dark blob hunkered near the ceiling, sitting on a shelf like a child’s toy. Its red eyes flashed and it scurried across the wall, slinking back into the shadows.

I screamed, dropping the phone.

“What!? What did you see, Maggie?” Merry took the candle from Eve and aimed it at the shelf. We caught its shadow just before it disappeared again.

“What the hell?” Eve said, almost tripping over me as I frantically searched for my lost phone on the floor.

“You fucker!” Merry called out into the blackness. “Come show yourself, you motherfucker!”

“Merry,” I said, shocked. I had never heard her curse before. “We want to get rid of it, not antagonize it.”

“The hell we don’t.” Merry lifted the candle and we caught a blur as it scampered across a wall, unhindered by gravity. The room suddenly dropped in temperature, so much so that I could now see my breath.

“Don’t mind messing with little kids, huh? But you can’t stand up to us?” Merry’s face contorted, steam rolling from her lips as she struggled to keep the ‘thing’ in view. “You’re not so scary. Show yourself, you bastard!”

A strong gust of wind hurled itself across the room and our candle went out. The nursery door slammed shut, leaving us shivering in the dark.

I redoubled my efforts to find the phone, my fingers groping at the cold floor. At last, I recognized its shape.

“Found it!” I said, tapping the ‘on’ button without success.

Its power had been sucked dry.

“Let’s get out of here,” Eve said, scrambling for the door.

I expected it to be locked, but it opened easily. Eve and I launched ourselves into the hall.

“Merry!” Realizing she was still inside, I ran back in, grabbing her arm. “We need to fight it downstairs.”

My sister didn’t move. Whatever was in here had a hold on her.

“It’s me you want!” I called out. “I’m your power source. Come and get me!”

The room warmed for a moment, as if considering. Then Merry was free.

I yanked her out of the nursery as she yelled over her shoulder, “You don’t have the balls to fight us!”

We ran blindly down the hall, tripping down the stairs, barreling for our safe spot in the pentagram.

“Stay here,” I said, pushing my sisters into the center of the star. I rushed to the pantry, removing five of the small brooms that Mother kept for spells and incantations. I laid them out around the star.
 

“Added protection,” I informed my sisters, but I wasn’t sure. I was running on cracked memories and instinct now. Once the brooms were in place, I joined Eve and Merry in the center of the circle.

“Do you think it followed us?” I whispered.

“Yes,” Merry whispered back. “But it knows we mean to send it away.”

“We need to call it out by naming it,” I said, flipping through Mother’s book and pointing to the passage on returning an entity to its plane. “There are multitudes of these
implings,
all with names, but we have no power over it until we know who it is.”

The chandelier in the dining room began to rock.

“It’s listening,” I said, shoving the book at Eve. “Find its name.” I turned my eyes towards the chandelier, holding out my wrists like I was offering up my veins to have blood drawn. “I’m here,” I said again. “You want my energy. Now’s your chance. Feed on me.”

The chandelier’s tremors quickened, violently swinging left then right until it came unhinged from the ceiling. It erupted and crashed to the floor.

“Girls, I think we’re in trouble.” Merry turned, pointing behind us. One of the brooms around our circle hovered several inches above the ground, then fell back to the earth. “It’s trying to get in.”

“Any luck on the names?” I asked, as the other brooms joined in, flopping around us like dying fish.

“There are so many of them,” Eve said, running her finger down the pages.

“Just say them all, but quietly, so we don’t accidentally call in the others. Maybe we will get lucky.”

Eve read through the list, asking each particular entity to show itself, as Merry swung the sage stick around in a wild circle, like she was holding back a pack of dogs with a torch.
 

“It’s useless,” Eve said.

“No. We have to find it. Keep going.” I picked up the owl from the floor and wrapped my fingers around its cool glass body. Aunt Dora had said that the owl was my totem and now it was time to put it to the test.

“Here!” Eve pointed to a picture on the next page. An image of a small, goblin-esque creature stared out at us with two red eyes. “Its name is Gahabrien. He’s a small entity, not very powerful. Limited abilities in telekinesis and possessions. He feeds off sensitives and the residual energies of fear, especially in older homes. His own plane is dying...that’s why he wants to stay here.”

“He picked the wrong house!” Merry’s eyes sparkled menacingly. “Gahabrien! We know who you are. I command you to return to the plane from where you came!”

“There’s an incantation,” Eve said, her fingers sliding down to the words at the bottom of the page. “It’s most effective when said by a coven of seven, but...” She shrugged and we read the words together.

“Through the portal, you have come...”

As we spoke the first line of the spell, the brooms on the floor quickened their fluttering.

“To take that which does not belong to you...”

The closet door opened and shut and we could hear the cupboards in the kitchen banging. Cups and saucers poured out, crashing onto the counters and floor below. We had gotten its attention.

“We send you back, Gahabrien. Into the blackness you will go!”

The room around erupted into chaos. The dining room chairs flew backwards, spiraling into the walls behind them. Knick-knacks toppled from their shelves, and a crack formed at the base of the living room window, working its way up the glass until it reached the top––at which point, the window exploded. The explosion sent shards of glass in all directions, landing just outside of the perimeter of the circle.