The Black Heart Crypt

Her son had grown so much.

“Zachary?” She tried to smile. It wasn’t easy. She hadn’t done much smiling when she was alive, something she sorely regretted now that she was dead.

“Why did you possess your sister?” asked the woman she recognized as George’s aunt Hannah.

“To reach Zack.”

“Why?”

“I’m his mother. I know things other spirits cannot!”

“Such as?”

“Grave dangers lie ahead.”

“Very well,” said Hannah. “Zachary has heard your warning. You may now depart.”

Aunt Hannah and her two sisters lit some sort of white torches.

Sage!

Susan Potter froze. She couldn’t budge. Could barely speak.

“No … the … Icklebys,” she said, choking.

“Zack knows of the Icklebys,” said George’s aunt Hannah. “You may now depart.”

“Zack?” she pleaded. “I’m … different. I … made … mistakes. Need … to … make … amends!”

Her son hid behind the woman who had taken her place. The stepmother.

“It is time for you to leave here, Susan Potter,” George’s three aunts chanted. “All is well. There is nothing here for you now.”

“Zack …”

“All is well. There is nothing here for you now.”

“Wait. Zack? Nine-fifty-two.”

Thunder cracked. She wasn’t allowed to tell him that. It was against the rules.

“Nine-fifty-two!”

Another explosion of heavenly anger. She didn’t care.

The stench of the burning sage grew stronger. She could feel herself starting to slip away.

“It is time for you to leave,” the aunts chanted again. “All is well. There is nothing here for you now.”

“No. Please.”

“Go!” she heard Zack shout. “You heard them: There is nothing here for you. Nothing at all! Go and never come back!”

“Zack?” she railed against the coming darkness. “I’m sorry! Nine-fifty-two!”

She had no way of knowing if Zack heard her.

She was alone in the blackness again, doomed to drift once more in the bottomless abyss of her own creation.

Because in death there was no way for Susan Potter Jennings to make right all that in life she had done wrong.