Dark Corner

Chapter 36

The Road to Dark Corner

Abigail finished cleaning the blood off Tracker. She picked up Flutter, who was laying on a rock by the water. I paced back and forth along the shore, remembering how Agatha put one foot in front of the other, causing the stepping-stones to rise out of the water. With the morning sun I could see what was swimming under the surface. Like the hellhounds that roamed the woods on the trail to Poinsett Bridge, the water held other demons. Razor-sharp teeth and black soulless-eyed eels unseen to humans, harmless to all but those who walked the trail to the portal. I hadn’t told Abigail that for every piece of white magic we picked up along the way a piece of black magic followed us. Newton was right when he said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Time and space are a rubber band, as you stretch it into the future from the present it snaps back into the past the same as magic. The guardians of the trail were waiting to devour not just our flesh but our true light. Tracker growled at them.

“Settle,” Abigail said. “You don’t want to fight them.”

“Step onto the water, Abigail,” I told her.

She looked down as one of the creatures raised its head above the water, snapping at us. She glanced at me.

“Believe, Abigail, you have to believe.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and before she could stop herself she stepped out into the water. As she did the first stone rose up to greet her foot. She opened her eyes, balancing herself on the rock as the creatures swam around her, snapping and hissing. She took another step; the next stone rose. I leaped into her arms. Each step she took another stone rose out of the water. Tracker hopped from rock to rock behind us until we reached the far shore. Then the rocks and the creatures disappeared into the deep, cold water.

Abigail took Flutter out of her pocket and raised her hand to the sky. She floated to a bright red hibiscus. And then crisscrossed to an orange one. It was the path from the painting. We followed behind her, marking her way exactly. I could feel the gathering magic around us. We wound our way through the narrow trail, avoiding rocks, holes. We walked this way for miles, following Flutter, swatting at the bees that buzzed around our heads, passing by the North Saluda reservoir until we reached Callahan Mountain Road. The last time I had walked this road it was part of the dirt path of the Asheville Highway. Now it was paved with the occasional car speeding past us. We reached Poinsett Bridge at twilight; all the visitors had left. Or at least the human visitors. I could feel the presence of the others, the ghosts who lingered at the bridge attracted by the energy of the portal, moths to the light.

The humans never ventured here after dark. To them Poinsett Bridge was the most haunted bridge in all of the Carolinas, maybe even the south. We stopped and stared at the bridge, a light fog rising off the stream running through it as the night air cooled off the ground. And then the voices began, some of them crying, others yelling. Apparitions came out of the woods, walking endlessly back and forth over the bridge, their misery dragging behind them like Marley’s ghost. At the top of the bridge stood the lieutenant. In his hand he held the head of the young private who tried to warn me at the Biltmore. He tossed the head into the stream. He lifted his sword, and an army of lost souls marched from all sides, surrounding us. Deserters, turncoats, the unforgiven of the war. Abigail clutched her grandmother’s amulet around her neck. As she twirled around, a bright light spun in a circle until it became a twister, lifting the undead army into it. Tracker leaped and bit at them, lunging at the ground, twisting and turning trying to grasp flesh that wasn’t there. The lieutenant cracked his whip at Tracker, who screamed in pain and fell into the water. I ran to the bridge and clawed my way to the top. I stood on the edge.

“Stop,” I cried out.

“Take me into the portal,” the lieutenant said. His sword glistened in the moonlight. It was neither a man when I first met him or a ghost when I had seen him last. He was the darkness that had taken the fairies. He smiled his rotting smile. “You understand that I can end you, don’t you? Not just this body you’re trapped in but your witch’s light forever?”

“Take me but spare the girl.”

He raised his whip over my head. “Take me to the portal.”

I turned as I heard Abigail scream. The soldiers were tearing at her clothes, ripping at her flesh.

A voice called out from under the bridge. “Me save Terra.” Pixel charged out from under the arch of the bridge, tearing through the soldiers, swiping his claws, sending them into the mist. He rose up on his hind legs, waving his paws, causing a great explosion. Thousands of pins of light floated down from the trees. I shook my head in disbelief. The fairies flew into battle, waving their wands shooting fairy dust and enclosing the hordes in a great net. Flutter flapped her wings and transformed into a beautiful fairy of the woods, the last fairy of Lullymore. She climbed on top of the dragonfly, and they rode low to the ground as the dragonfly scorched the earth with fire. The lieutenant fell back, holding his arms in front of him as Pixel leaped on top of him, tearing at him. The fairies flew around Pixel. The lieutenant raised his whip once. A lightning bolt crashed across the sky, striking his hand. Mrs. Stickman stood on a hill on the bank of the stream, raising her lightning rod, shooting lightning across the battlefield. Dressed in Viking horns and armor, Mrs. Loblolly sliced through the dead with her broadsword. All the Wiccans battled alongside the fairies.

The lieutenant reached for his whip. Pixel bit his arm. The lieutenant knocked Pixel to the ground. The lieutenant lifted his head off his neck. He raised it in the air. The bridge shook, and black horses pulling a black wagon thundered up the bridge. He climbed up on the wagon. “I call the name Abigail Oakhaven.” As he spoke her name, Abigail’s body contorted. She lifted off the ground and flew into the wagon, heavy chains wrapped around her.

“Abigail,” I shouted over the clash of swords. “Speak it. Speak it now.”

Abigail said, “Tied by knots of thread, held by hands of dead, bound by earth, covered by dirt, lie eternal by woods.” The horses kicked and reared up, the lieutenant cracked his whip, but it had no power. Its fire was extinguished. The chains broke as Abigail leaped from the wagon. The dead turned to mist and went back into the earth. The lieutenant pulled back on the reins and rode off into the dark.

Pixel stood, shaking himself off. I stared in wonder at him. “Pixel, do good?” he asked.

I tackled him, checking his body, which was healed and strong. “Pixel how?”

“Me friends come. Pixel’s army.”

Flutter flew down and stood on the stone rim of the bridge. I jumped up next to her, staring into her eyes, such a tiny creature with such a brave heart. She smiled back up at me then looking past me she knelt down. All the fairies joined her, kneeling down next to her. I turned to see who they were bowing to. Behind me stood a young woman with fire red hair, a glimpse of a young Emma Tangledwood. She clasped the ash, oak, and thorn amulet around her neck.

“Charlotte come. Make me better,” Pixel said. “Charlotte queen of fairies.”

Abigail curtsied to the young girl. Charlotte placed her hands over Abigail’s wounds. They healed instantly. Tracker limped up to the bridge. Charlotte knelt down and kissed his head. “Good as new,” she said. Tracker ran off, chasing Pixel.

“How did you find us?” Abigail asked.

“My great-aunt came to me in a dream. I’ve not seen her since I was a little girl. I didn’t know she died,” Charlotte said. “The dream was so real. I had to come see for myself. She told me to come to the animal hospital where I found Pixel and the ladies of the Biltmore Society. They embraced me in their circle as we prayed for Pixel. I felt a surge of electricity run through them and into me. I felt alive for the first time. All my life I had felt different. At that moment, I knew who I was. I held Pixel in my arms, and he was healed.”

Pixel jumped next to Flutter, rubbing his head against her. “Me friend.” He giggled.

I glanced down as the bridge shook underneath us. We ran down to the stream. At the end of the tunnel a small vortex of white lights appeared. Instinctively Charlotte walked toward the light, her fairy subjects following her. “Fairies stay,” she commanded. She stopped to look back at us with a smile and then she was gone.

Abigail began walking toward the light. “No,” I screamed. “Abigail, don’t.”

“I have to see what’s on the other side, Terra.” Abigail kept walking.

Elizabeth appeared in the swirl, her arms outstretched, reaching for her great-granddaughter.

“No,” I cried, “Abigail, don’t.”

Pixel wrapped his paws around her leg. She dragged him along the ground. “Abigail, no go.”

She reached the portal. Her fingertips touched Elizabeth’s. Elizabeth smiled at me, her mouth moving, but no words came out. The roar of the vortex was too loud.

“I can’t hear,” I screamed above the noise. “Elizabeth, what are you saying?”

Abigail knelt down and hugged me. “I love you, Terra Rowan. I always will.” Then she jumped into the portal and it closed after her. Pixel cried. Tracker howled, pacing back and forth where we had last seen her.