Dark Corner

Chapter 28

Fahrenheit 451

It was suppertime, and Mrs. Twiggs had once again made honey-baked ham, Pixel’s favorite. He was on his second, no, third helping. Charlotte and Abigail chattered throughout dinner while Mrs. Twiggs sat in contemplation. I also pondered the recent events and maintained my own counsel.

“So, Mrs. Twiggs, Abigail told me about Albert. Is it true that he’s a ghost?” Charlotte asked.

Mrs. Twiggs picked up the serving platter with the remaining ham. Without saying a word, she carried it into the kitchen.

“Terra, what’s wrong?” Abigail asked.

“Albert’s missing.”

“What do you mean missing?”

“He was taken.”

“Taken by whom, Terra?”

“By the same apparitions that tried to kill Mrs. Lund.”

“What do you mean tried to kill? She had a saber plunged through her heart,” Abigail said.

“Mrs. Twiggs and I went to examine her body at the morgue, and it was gone.”

“What happened to it?”

“Mrs. Lund was neither a witch nor a human.”

“What does that leave, Terra?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out tonight. Don’t speak of Albert. Mrs. Twiggs is very worried about him as am I.”

Abigail sat back in her chair. She put her iPhone down on the table. In a matter of a few minutes I saw her turn from a carefree teenager into the adult witch. The gravity of my words settled hard upon her. She had been avoiding the inevitable. She was the leader of us all; only she could protect us from what was coming. She had been running from that responsibility. “Terra, what can I do?”

“You can get back to studying your spell books and concentrate on sharpening your powers.”

“Yes of course. What about Albert? What can we do for him?”

“Help Mrs. Twiggs make the premonition potion and be careful with the hogweed. I don’t trust the dependability of Mrs. Owen’s wares. They are more powerful than she lets on,” I cautioned her.

“Yes of course.”

“Abigail what’s going on? It sounds serious,” Charlotte said. It was then I realized that she had been listening to half the conversation. I had forgotten she couldn’t understand me.

“Charlotte, maybe you should go stay at the estate,” Abigail said.

“I’m not going back there.”

“I can’t keep you safe here.” Sensing Abigail’s frustration, Tracker came and lay down on her feet.

“You said you would protect me.”

I looked at the beautiful Abigail just the age that Elizabeth was when she led our coven. Her shoulders drooped as did Elizabeth’s as though the weight of the world was truly upon them. The price of leadership is the loss of innocence.

Abigail went into the kitchen to help Mrs. Twiggs make the potion. We adjourned to the sitting room by the fire. Mrs. Twiggs sat in Emma Tangledwood’s chair. Abigail walked behind her and placed both her hands on Mrs. Twiggs’s shoulders, who held the potion in her most expensive teacup, Meissen. It bubbled in the teacup. Mrs. Twiggs glanced down. A plume of green smoke rose from the teacup and momentarily took the form of the face of Karen Owen and then dissipated into the ceiling. Mrs. Twiggs drank the potion.

Pixel whispered, “Me no like” and then covered his eyes with his paws.

Tracker howled and then lay across Abigail’s feet. Mrs. Twiggs’s head slumped to her chest. She dropped the teacup. It shattered on the hardwood floor. The fire went out with a whoosh of cold air. Frost framed the windows. I could see my breath in front of me. My cat heart was beating twice as fast as a cat heart should. I smelled the electricity in the air. EMT. Electromagnetic. They were here watching. Mrs. Twiggs leaped from her chair. Her arms extended. Her eyes were milky white. Her hair blew back as though she were in a windstorm. She turned her head and stared directly at me. The voice that came out of her was not her own.

“You know the path you must take, Terra Rowan. The hunters are here. They’ve taken the ghost Albert. The creature that you call Mrs. Lund, she comes for the same purpose as they. You are the key, Terra Rowan. They will not stop until you lead them to it. No one is safe. Head south.” Mrs. Twiggs collapsed to the floor.

Abigail ran to her side. The fire burst to uncontrollable flames licking at the mantle. Emma Tangledwood’s chair caught on fire and then the reading lamp. Abigail tried to wake Mrs. Twiggs. In a matter of minutes, the entire sitting room was ablaze. Thick smoke filled our lungs. Charlotte and Abigail grabbed Mrs. Twiggs by the arms and dragged her into the dining room. They ran for a fire extinguisher, but before they could reach it, a fiery whip cracked and snatched it from the wall. The whip cracked again, knocking over shelves of old books that took to flames. The roar was deafening.

“Charlotte, we have to get everyone out,” Abigail screamed.

Abigail raised her hand. Mrs. Twiggs floated off the floor. The girls ran out the front door with Pixel, Tracker, and me behind. Mrs. Twiggs floating all the way out. We all collapsed to the ground, coughing. In the distance we could hear the sirens coming close. Mrs. Twiggs came to. She saw her beloved Leaf & Page burning to the ground and tried to run back in. Abigail and Charlotte grabbed her, holding her back. Abigail tried every incantation she knew, but none could quench the thirst of the flames.

We watched all night as the Asheville Fire Department worked to control the blaze and protect the adjacent buildings. It was daybreak. All that was left was brick walls and smoldering timbers. Mrs. Twiggs’s entire life had gone up in smoke in front of her. She sat on the bench across the street. She was wearing the blanket that the EMTs had wrapped around her after she refused any medical treatment. A handsome young fireman came up to her, carrying a clucking Henrietta under his arm.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Twiggs said, holding out her arms for the chicken. I sat on her lap, trying to console her. “Terra, I saw them. I saw the ghosts that took Albert. They were wearing Confederate uniforms. There were two privates and a lieutenant. I couldn’t make out their faces, but I could feel their hatred. I could feel their evil, Terra, except for one of the privates. He was scared, I believe, and sorry for what he was doing. They said they would spare our lives in exchange for you. They said they would give me back Albert if I gave them you. What do they want from you, Terra?”

“Those were the men that came for Agatha Hollows. They said they were coming to requisition supplies from area farms. Agatha told me they were witch hunters. They wanted to use her powers against their enemies. The lieutenant wasn’t like the others. He had a different purpose.”

“Terra, what are we going to do?”

“They want me to take them to the last place on earth that Agatha Hollows walked in her human form. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because the magic that lays waiting there can destroy all of humankind. That’s the lieutenant’s purpose.”