Chapter 16: Day of the Dead

Dana was upstairs when she heard the front door explode. Quetzalli emerged from her bedroom with a concerned look on her face, and the two of them rushed to the top of the stairs to look below.

There was a flash of light, followed by a scream from Beth. Quetzalli was already heading for the stairs when a man in a hoodie pointed his wand up at her and hissed something under his breath. Dana shoved Quetzalli out of the way in time to catch the brunt of the magic, and the shockwave carried both of them into the wall, showering them with the shattered balusters of the railing.

“Urgh,” Dana moaned as she got to her feet. When she took a breath, she could tell that something had punctured a lung, so she looked over her shoulder to see a large wooden splinter sticking out of her back. She pulled it free and then yanked a few extra pieces out of her thigh and arm.

“Hey, you okay?” She shook Quetzalli by the shoulder, but the dragon was motionless. “I need some help,” she called to the rats down the corridor, which shook them out of their stupor, and they came running. Together, they dragged Quetzalli into Mike’s bedroom.

“Naia,” she called, and was most of the way into the bathroom when the nymph appeared with a terrified look on her face. “I need your help!”

“We’re under attack,” Naia told her, then saw that Dana was dragging Quetzalli and helped pull her into the mostly empty tub. “My fountain has been frozen by angry spirits, and some man is running around with a wand.”

Out back, Cerberus roared, and then the whole house shook. Down below, furniture sounded like it was being tossed around, and then the Jabberwock let out a shriek.

“Sounds like the end of the world,” Dana muttered. “Guess I’d better go do my part.”

“Dana, be careful,” Naia warned her.

“Yes, Mother,” she replied sarcastically. She walked into Mike’s room and frowned. There wasn’t anything she could use as a weapon in here, and the rats that had followed her were watching her as if waiting for instructions. She held a finger to her lips and cracked the door open. She used the selfie cam on her cellphone as a makeshift periscope, grateful that it was still functional, though the screen was cracked.

Out in the hall, a group of shadows were dragging their hands along the walls, shredding the wallpaper and gouging the plaster. The man in the hoodie made it to the top of the stairs and turned away from Dana, striding down the hall with purpose. When he made it to the mysterious door, he went to work right away spinning the gears, and then pulled the lever to the door. The door let out a hiss, and instead of swinging open, sections of it rolled out of the way, revealing that it was a series of moving circles that overlapped.

Dana moved down the hall, staying low and in the middle. The shadows spun to face her, their distorted features flickering in and out of existence.

She held up her fists, not sure what she was going to do with them, when she heard someone laughing downstairs, followed by the flickering of lights. The power went out briefly, and when it came back on, the spirits were grouped at the top of the stairs, as if curious what was happening down below.

“Come play with me!” It was the voice of a child’s toy, and then Jenny was there. She tore through the spirits like they were paper, her fingers ripping ghastly holes in their bodies. The spirits fled, vanishing through the walls and floorboards. Jenny’s wild eyes briefly met Dana’s, and then she stuck out her tongue and dove into the floor like it was a swimming pool. The rats, having enough of this nonsense, scattered.

Dana smirked, then moved down the hall until she was at the door. She picked up Tick Tock and held the mimic to her chest.

“Quetzalli is in Mike’s room. She needs protection,” she said, and the mimic sprouted legs and raced down the hall.

She moved toward the door, curious at how its mechanisms worked, but froze in amazement at the interior.

The room itself was a giant conservatory made of several round windows, each one looking at a different patch of starry sky. Up above hung the remnants of an ancient telescope that looked as if it was in the middle of being repaired. All around the room were shattered mechanical parts, as if something complex had exploded and never been cleaned up. In the middle of the room was a small table, and the dark figure pored over a set of volumes that sat in the middle of the table before choosing one and picking it up.

“The Grimoire! You lose, Emily.” The man let out a laugh and then hugged the book to his chest. “All you bought was time, and it still cost you your life.” When he turned around, he went still when he saw Dana.

Dana noticed two things. The first was that his eyes were black, like Sulyvahn’s. The other was that the tome he held was very large, intricately bound in thick leather. Embossed in the middle of the cover was a very large apple.

“Goodbye, dead girl.” He pointed his wand at her and she dove out of the way. The ensuing blast ripped apart the floor between them, and she scrambled for cover behind a cog the size of her body. Wave after wave of force struck the cog, causing it to resonate and shift as she circled around it, using it as a shield. He finally walked out the door, the book held tightly against his side.

She had no idea what was actually inside the book, but she did know one thing: she had been killed for it. The Grimoire had been one of the possible treasures Daryl had sent her to find, and there was no way she was going to let this asshole leave the house with it.

When she looked down the hallway, she saw that he had gone into Beth’s bedroom. Outside the house, there was a loud shriek and something smashed into the roof, showering her with dust. At Beth’s room, she opened the door to see that the closet door was open, revealing the mouth of the magical cave.

A hand touched her and she jumped, then turned to see Beth and Kisa standing behind her.

“He’s got the Grimoire,” Dana said. “And he’s headed into the Labyrinth. Who the fuck is this guy?”

“Mike’s shadow friend, wearing my former coworker Marco as a meat suit.” Beth looked at Kisa, then back at Dana. “Any ideas what he wants with Ratu?”

“None, but that wand of his is nasty. I feel very outgunned here.” The house shook again. “What the hell is going on outside?”

“As far as we can tell, the spirits have possessed the Jabberwock and it keeps attacking the house. They’ve also flooded this place and are tearing it apart from the inside. We need to get word to Ratu, but I can’t find any of the faeries, and Sofia’s book is missing, so we can’t get her help either.” Beth wiped some blood off her forehead. “Damn, won’t stop bleeding.”

“There’s got to be something we can—” Dana stopped talking, her eyes on the dark figures in the door of the room. They were flickering in and out of existence, and spread out to trap them in the middle.

“They can touch you when they want to,” Kisa warned, then hissed at the one closest to her. The three moved back to back as the spirits encircled them.

“Jenny! We need your help!” Beth yelled, but the ghost didn’t appear. The house rumbled again, and Kisa launched herself at the nearest spirit, only to be scooped up and tossed across the room.

Quetzalli appeared in the doorway, carrying a large piece of wood. She swung it frantically at the spirits, only to trip over her own feet and stumble forward through the shadows. As she passed through one of the spirits, the room filled with the smell of ozone as she discharged electricity.

The shadow became motionless, then color filled in its features, as if a dam had broke and allowed paint to fill in all the color. It was a man wearing leather armor from centuries past, and he held up his hands in wonderment, as if surprised to see himself standing there. His features rippled as if he was being projected on water, glowing cracks now appearing along his body.

The other spirits recoiled when he exploded into motes of light, all of which immediately flew out the window. Their attackers evacuated, and Dana ran to the window to watch as the motes of lights shot through the gate to the Underworld. The shadow castle loomed larger than ever, and the phantom militia continued to march toward the house.

Out in the darkness, Cerberus whimpered.

The faerie queen’s face was fixed into a scowl as she walked past Mike to sit on her throne. She crossed her legs and looked down at him, then glanced over at the broken throne by her side.

“Well?” Mike asked. “We had an agreement. You said if I came back to you through the Underworld, you would let me take her. I believe you have an agreement to honor.”

She held out her hand and a scroll appeared, identical to the one she had given him. “Should you find a way to enter my court via the Underworld itself, I will allow you to leave here with your dear Cecilia. Per your addendum, the two of you will leave unharmed, as well as intact. Hmm.” She rolled up the scroll and tucked it away in mid-air, clearly using some sort of extra dimensional magic. “I’m curious, Caretaker. On your way in, did you happen to ... meet anybody?”

That was an odd question to ask, and he thought briefly of the cave he had seen. “No. Was I supposed to?”

The queen frowned, then pulled out another scroll and opened it. “Let’s just say that I had an agreement with someone else to stop you. It was more of a favor than an agreement, really. Did you have help getting here?”

He thought of what had happened to Quetzalli. “Does it matter? I do believe there was nothing in the rules about getting help from others.”

“You are right. I am curious is all. When a deity’s claim to fame is keeping others from breaking oaths, one really must expect better of them.” She was near the bottom of the scroll now, and her features pinched. “Ah, there it is, the free-will clause. I’m not sure how you got away from her, but no matter. This is what I get for relying on others to do the work for me.” She tucked this scroll away in midair as well and then sat in her chair, a glare fixed on her face.

“So ... we can go?” He looked around, fairly certain that an ambush was about to occur at any moment.

“I’m certainly not going to stop you.” She clapped her hands and a pair of tiny attendants flew from behind her throne and brought her a small bowl with fruit in it. She picked a pear that practically glittered and took a bite out of it, juice running down her chin.

“Ooookay, then.” Mike turned his attention back to the cage. Seeing no discernible door, he looked over at the queen. “I don’t suppose you would just let her out, would you?”

“I’m not keeping her here. The cage is your problem, not mine.” She now had a fresh goblet full of wine, which she sipped. “If you can’t get it open, you might have to come back later.”

“There’s no reason for you to be nasty,” he said, then turned his attention to the cage.

“We could come to an agreement, if you like.” She sipped her wine coyly. “Though I doubt you will enjoy the terms.”

He smirked. “No need.” He set his backpack down and opened the main pocket, then dug down past the sandwiches. He pulled out the hacksaw, then lifted out a blade, still wrapped in cardstock. “Figured you may try something like this.”

“And you really think that will cut through those bars?” asked the queen.

“This is a top of the line blade. I had Tink test the top five for me and give me her opinion on which would be strongest.” He unwrapped the blade, revealing a black surface that absorbed the light. “Once we narrowed it down, I had Ratu enchant it for durability.”

“How ... ingenious of you.” The queen sat and watched as Mike picked a couple of junctures on the cage and started sawing. It was slow progress. The blade stuck on more than one occasion, but when he finally got through the first bar, he looked up to see a huge smile on Cecilia’s face.

“Keep going,” she encouraged him, then touched his face through the bars.

By the time he got the blade through a second time, he was covered in sweat. The queen said nothing to him, content to watch. On the third cut, he was about halfway through when the blade snapped.

The queen chuckled. “Looks like your magic failed, Caretaker.”

“It’s a good thing they come in two packs.” He stuck his hand in the bag and felt around, but the second blade was missing. “Hey, did you take it?”

“Me, personally? No. And I’ve been here the whole time, it must have been an independent agent, acting entirely on their own.”

“Man, of all the luck.” He looked at Cecilia and winked, then dug to the bottom of his bag and pulled out a sandwich from the bottom. He opened the wrapper to reveal a tuna salad sandwich dripping with mayonnaise.

When he opened it, he heard the queen gag, and he dug his fingers in and pulled out another wrapped blade. “It was tough trying to figure out which you’d hate more, this or the meatball sub. It’s actually quite good, and perfect for hiding a blade in. Figured someone would search my bag on the way in and a cake would have aroused too much suspicion.”

“You expected treachery?” The queen’s voice was ominous now, and had an edge to it that could bleed a rock.

“Nope. I expected you to meet the terms of our agreement. Nothing more, nothing less. The cage bit is getting old though, I must admit.” He slotted the blade into the hacksaw and started cutting.

“You know, it will likely take you some time to finish getting her out.”

“Uh huh.” He ignored the queen, his sole focus on the bars in front of him.

“Could be an hour or two, easy. I wonder if you are aware of what is happening at your home right now?”

He paused and looked at the queen, his lip twitching. “What did you do?”

“Me? Nothing. I have had no hand in the events of today, Caretaker, this act of villainy was perpetrated by the one who informed me that you were coming.” She reached behind the throne and pulled out a mirror decorated in silver and gold embellishments. She handed this to an attendant, who flew it over to Mike.

When he took the mirror, he could see his house, besieged by a spectral army. In the front yard, Abella was busy ripping off part of the Jabberwock’s wing while Yuki froze its feet to the ground as it bounced around the yard, destroying everything. An ice wall had been built between the lions, and Mike couldn’t figure out if it was there to keep something in or out.

“They are failing,” the queen said. “The shadow has made his move, and when he is done—”

“My world will burn, I get it.” He licked his lips nervously and watched as the mirror flipped between the occupants of the house. It bounced from face to face, showing fear and anger everywhere he looked. Sulyvahn was busy whipping souls into shreds in the front yard, and the rats were fleeing the home in a panic as the spirits tore it apart. The faeries were flying high above the home, safe from the melee below. Asterion was lying unconscious somewhere in the Labyrinth, one of his horns broken off.

“I could send you home right now if you wish.” She pointed over his shoulder and he looked to see that an archway had formed behind him. “All you have to do is agree to the terms and you can be home right now.”

“I...” He looked at the queen, then back at the door. His home was being torn apart, but even worse, the others were in danger. “What terms?”

“Leave Cecilia here.” The queen was standing next to him now, her voice like honey. “I will allow her to leave in time, Caretaker, but walk away from her and never look back. Is one woman really worth the potential loss of your family?”

He let out the breath he had been holding, then looked at the mirror again. It flitted between everyone’s face, then stopped on Beth’s.

“She is eternal, Caretaker. You can have no true life with her. But this woman, Beth? She is one of your own kind, you could grow old and have a family with her.” The words were low and borderline hypnotic, and she was leaning over him now, her scent overpowering him. He closed his eyes and sucked her in, his head filling with images of distant fields covered in honeysuckle flowers.

The mirror was in his hands now, Beth’s face filling the frame. Her hair was blowing dramatically across her face, and her lips were plump and full. The image backed away, revealing that she wore a costume of some sort that hugged her body, and he felt his cock twitch.

“Your life will never be normal, but with her? It could be close.”

He sighed, and looked up from the mirror. “Do you really think I could be happy with her?”

The queen nodded. “I do.”

The incident with Zel and possibly knocking up Kisa came to mind. He wasn’t ready for children yet, and maybe he never would be. Fatherhood wasn’t something he had ever considered, but if it were ever going to happen, Beth made the most logical sense. It would be such an easy decision to just go, to save them. Nobody would blame him for coming back.

“I’m not saying the thought hasn’t crossed my mind. There really is a lot of potential there. She’s smart. And brave. She faced down a demon on more than one occasion, and she’s definitely one of the strongest people I know.” He looked into the queen’s saccharine smile. “If I had to pick the one thing I admired most about her, do you know what that would be?”

“Tell me,” she whispered, her eyes glinting.

“That I can trust her.” He handed the mirror back to the queen and held up his saw once more. “There will always be a disaster waiting to fall on my head. If I can’t trust her and the others to handle it, then I don’t deserve them.”

He turned his attention back to the cage, a smile breaking across his face when he heard the mirror shatter on the ground behind him. Cecilia’s lips trembled and he reached through the bars.

“I came for you. I am not leaving without you.” And with that, he resumed cutting.

Beth stared at the door to her closet, her hand nearly on the knob. If she opened it, she could run to the Labyrinth, maybe even stop Marco from reaching his destination. It was highly likely that Ratu would know he was coming, and she felt like her presence alone wouldn’t be enough to affect any sort of change.

She put her hand on the door and sighed. Even if she caught him, she had no way to fight him, especially now that he had his hands on the mysterious Grimoire. Would Mike be amused to know that the damned thing actually existed? If the shadow really was in control, then there was no way to use words to settle this, and words were her strength.

The Jabberwock roared and collided with the house once more, causing plaster to rain down on all of them. Dana looked at Quetzalli, who in turn looked at Beth.

Her eyes slid right over Kisa as if she wasn’t there, and it was only because she was trying to find her that Kisa came into focus. It was almost like the room had been hesitant to separate from her. This is how it always was with the cat girl. She was a presence in the room that was hard to detect, unnoticeable in the best of circumstances, and it had to be more than just her diminutive appearance. It was certainly a kind of magic.

Beth looked over at Quetzalli, then Dana. The ghost that Quetzalli had touched had looked different after being zapped, much like Jenny did when she manifested. Why were these ghosts different from Jenny? How come they didn’t drain the energy from the room? And lastly, how the hell were they able to come into the house?

These thoughts danced around in her mind as she took in the room and considered the situation. There was a shadow castle out back, a possessed Jabberwock out front, and a whole lot of confusion going on. What would Mike do?

“Fuck his way out or get lucky,” she muttered with a grin. She wasn’t certain how to accomplish the former, and was definitely keeping her fingers crossed for the latter. Still, it wasn’t enough to wonder what Mike would do, because right now, this was her problem.

“Kisa.” She spoke to the cat girl as she manipulated the knob of the closet. “I need you to follow Marco to the Labyrinth, he may already be there. If you get a chance to stop him, take it, otherwise stay back.”

“You just want me to follow him? Why?”

“When he leaves the Labyrinth, he will probably jump in the reflecting pool at the entrance, it’s a shortcut to the front closet. I’m guessing he won’t expect anyone to follow him, so you’ll be our secret weapon. He cannot leave here with that book, or God knows what else he may be taking. Now hurry.”

“But—”

“Go!” Beth pointed into the cave, and Kisa scowled before entering the tunnel. She may have hurt Kisa’s feelings, but now wasn’t the time for pleasantries. “We need to figure out how to get the ghosts out of the house. Zapping them seems to work, and I have a theory. Did you ever see that map that Death and Mike drew, the one with the overlapping circles?”

Dana nodded.

“Well, I think that’s what’s happening. They came out of the gate, but they aren’t fully here, it’s why they pass through everything. The house can’t properly kick them out because they aren’t fully inside it. When Quetzalli zapped that one, it was forced to absorb all that energy, which made it manifest like Jenny did. Once it was fully here, the geas booted it out!”

“I didn’t see Jenny manifest, but I’ll take your word for it.” Dana looked at Quetzalli. “Do you think you could do that again, but on a bigger level?”

Quetzalli shook her head. “Not with my horn busted. I can do short bursts like before, but only one at a time. Oh, I know! We could do that thing you did, from that time you had me get naked.”

Beth had no idea how to process that statement, but Dana’s face lit up.

“Yes, that’s right! If we can wire you into the house itself, you’d have plenty of juice to manifest an EM field, I bet that would work! We’ll have to bypass the breaker outside, so—”

“Just go do it. I’ll see what I can do about the Jabberwock. Go!” Beth followed the others out of her room and down the stairs, and they split at the bottom. Beth swallowed the lump in her throat as she ran into the office and saw that the bookshelf had been ransacked. It might take her too long to bring in Sofia from the Library, so she decided to strike out on her own.

On her way out the ruined door, Jenny manifested momentarily to take down a rogue spirit, then vanished with a giggle. Out front, the fight with the Jabberwock appeared to be at a stalemate. Even though the thing had been blinded and crippled, it continued to move about, and currently had Abella pinned under one of its clawed feet. The whole front yard was full of snow and ice, and Yuki stood by the ruined front porch, moving her arms about as if performing a dance while giant icicles lifted from the snow and launched themselves into the Jabberwock’s body.

“How is that thing still alive?” Beth asked.

“That’s just it, it isn’t alive,” Yuki responded. “It can’t think for itself, and all the souls inside are determined to keep piloting it until there’s nothing left.” She sent another volley of ice at the Jabberwock, knocking it off of Abella. “Even if we destroy the head, the spirits can move the body. We need to take them out.”

“Any ideas how to do it?”

Yuki spun about, her cheeks dark with frustration. “Yes, of course. I’m just doing all this other shit first because it’s been a slow day.”

Beth held up her hands in surrender. “Where’s Tink?”

“No idea. Abella found me, so I came right away, and—” Yuki’s eyes widened, and she summoned an icy barrier over her head that shattered when the Jabberwock’s tail struck it. “I’m kind of busy!” she shouted, then turned her attention back toward the beast.

On the other side of the yard, Suly was tearing his way through a group of souls that had him cornered. It was almost like the phantom army knew that he was the only thing that could hurt them right now, and the sheer volume of them kept him occupied. Beth ducked back into the house to avoid the battle out front, her mind whirring with ideas.

She stepped back out front and put her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. “We need to get the Jabberwock out back,” she called.

“Why?” Yuki asked.

“Just do it!” Beth disappeared back into the house and then ran out back. Dana was unspooling the wire from the giant cable that Tink had left outside, and Quetzalli stood just in the doorway, her nervous eyes locked on the gate at the back of the yard.

“Are you done?” asked Beth.

“Almost.” Dana had ripped the cover off the fuse box and was carefully pulling out one of the wires. “This is the 220 line, so if I can just—”

There was a pop, a flash of light, and then Dana was on the ground, huddled up in a ball, her fingers curled up. Her body spasmed a couple of times and then she got back up and shivered.

“I’m not exactly following safety guidelines,” she stated, then stepped on top of a rock and used a wire nut to attach the wire to the line she had just exposed. “Ugh, my teeth still feel like they’re wiggling in my head. Quetzalli, I think you’re up.”

“Okay.” Quetzalli grabbed the other end of the line which had been stripped, and then touched it with her finger. There was a zap, and the air was briefly electrified. “I think you’ve got it.”

“Good, we’ll go to the second floor and then I’ll plug you in.” Dana looked back at Beth. “If this works, we’ll clean house, but they still might come swarming back in.” When Beth looked down the hill, she could see an ominous mass of shadows milling about by the door, as if waiting.

“Good. You’ll want to be inside, because—” Beth was cut off by the sound of tiles being shredded from the roof, and then the Jabberwock’s tail flipped over the side, dangling over their heads for a moment. The tail vanished again, then reappeared, this time with Abella dangling from the edge of it. The gargoyle yelled and pulled, but only succeeded in ripping a chunk of tail off before she tumbled to the ground. The Jabberwock roared up above, and then scrambled away.

Abella stood, wiped the Jabberwock’s ichor off of herself, then glared at Beth. “I hate this,” she said in her thick, French accent. She tossed the chunk of tail in her hands away and then took to the sky once more.

“Because that,” Beth said, watching the gargoyle disappear over the roof. “We need the Jabberwock out here.”

Dana shrugged. “You’re the boss.” She helped carry the coiled up wire and the two of them went into the house.

Beth looked down the hill at the shadowy mass around the gate. If she went down there, would the spirits be able to hurt her? If she passed through the gate, they would definitely be able to, and she worried that they may grab her and drag her through. She had no way to lock the gate if she closed it, and she needed to find a way to bring Cerberus onto this side of the gate. Suly would be her best bet, but he was surrounded by angry souls.

“Shit, shit, shit,” she cursed, moving down the hill. Could the centaurs help? She might be able to bring them here, but then what? And they were cut off from Ratu whose magic might help. Jenny was running interference inside, so would be of very little help.

Who was she forgetting?

Behind her, the lights in the house flickered, and then the air was filled with the shrieking of tormented souls. The windows exploded as hundreds of balls of light burst out of the house and drifted toward the ground like bits of ash, only to vanish into the dirt. Bits of glass tinkled against the cobblestones of the back yard and she covered her head to protect herself. The flickering lights went out, and the smell of burning plastic filled her nostrils. There seemed to be no movement inside, which meant that the ghosts had been purged from the home, at least temporarily.

Up above, the Jabberwock had wrapped itself around one of the turrets, caving in part of the roof over Mike’s bedroom. Abella had her tail caught in the Jabberwock’s mouth and was being shaken like a cat that had caught a mouse, her stony body taking yet more chunks out of the roof. Yuki was up there as well, freezing the roof, trying to get the Jabberwock to slip and fall into the backyard.

She hoped Mike was faring better than she was.

The saw slid through the last piece of metal, and the bar fell to the ground with a metallic clang. Looking up, he saw that the gap was now wide enough for Cecilia to squeeze through, so he stuck his hand out for her and she accepted.

When he pulled, steam rose from her flesh, but she said nothing. Once free, she threw herself onto him and let out a cry of joy. Tears flowed freely down her face as she peppered him with kisses and spoke rapidly in Gaelic, then held him once more.

Mike glanced at the faerie queen, who watched as if bored. Certain she was up to something, he pushed Cecilia away, then tilted her head up by her chin. “Let’s get you home.”

She nodded, and he packed up the saw and put the backpack on. They walked a few feet away before Mike paused, then looked at the banshee.

“How do we get home from here anyway?” he asked.

“I can get us there.” Cecilia closed her eyes and opened her mouth to sing. The sound of her voice penetrated straight through him, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. He took her hand in his and watched as a golden circle formed in front of them, featuring a sandy beach with an ocean of stars on the other side.