Grounded for All Eternity, page 13
Was that something humans were supposed to know?
“Do things often cross over here?” Crowley asked with a troubled expression. “From the great hereafters?”
“Great here what now?” Charity asked. “Like from an afterlife? No. Every Samhain we have some issues with spirits awakening and others drifting through Limbo. The ones who wake up usually aren’t an issue, but sometimes you have to help the ones from Limbo cross over, or at least trap them if they’re angry. But an actual afterlife? I mean, who knows what that even looks like? Or if the soul even stays intact? Lots of Wiccans think the soul fragments and rejoins the universe, so I don’t think there’s any coming back from that.”
She suddenly paled. “B-but, I mean, you can believe whatever you want. I would never disrespect someone else’s belief. I mean, no one really knows, right?”
“Right,” I said, exchanging significant looks with Lilith and Crowley. No one knew except, you know, us.
“So,” started Sean, “I’m not sure how to do this. Do you guys need the ghosts-are-real talk, or are we good? Because I get the impression you know more than you’re supposed to.”
And wasn’t that the question? What did humans know? We weren’t passing as “normal” humans, but then again, apparently Sean and Charity weren’t normal either. So far Halloween had seemed a cheap imitation of our holiday, but Charity had just called it Samhain, which I hadn’t heard any other humans do. I started to worry that Lilith was right, but just because something seemed up with them, did that really make them untrustworthy?
“Let’s move to step two,” Crowley suggested.
“Anyway, like I was telling you, Charity,” Sean continued. “What appeared next to them didn’t look like our normal Limbo escapee, and unless you guys are carrying around a possessed object, it’s not a wake-up call of someone who’s been long dead.”
“Recently deceased and not passed over yet?” asked Charity.
“Not unless it died at a costume party,” Sean continued, popping a grape from a nearby bowl of fruit into his mouth. “Which, I acknowledge, is possible.”
“Why do you say that?” Charity asked. “Was it dressed like a T. rex? One of those inflatable costumes with tiny little arms? They’re so funny. I laugh every time!”
“It’s Samuel Parris,” I said. Charity’s smile fell from her face so fast, it would have been comical if the room hadn’t gone deadly silent.
“What?” asked Sean. “How do you know that?”
“Wait,” said Charity. “That name is just a coincidence, right? Not—not the one who was a really horrible human being a really long time ago.”
“It was dressed as a Puritan,” Sean said to Charity, who paled even further.
“I don’t understand,” said Charity. “How do you know that?”
“The same way you guys know about ghosts,” I said. “We know stuff too.”
“Oh my goddess!” Charity said. “I hate that guy! As a Wiccan, I find that man so offensive. He didn’t even try to go after any real witches. Just people who were different. It’s so easy to convince people to go after others who aren’t like them. Ugh!”
“The guy from the Salem witch trials?” Sean asked.
“Yeah, all that mass hysteria was seriously profitable for him. It was like he fed off the chaos he unleashed,” Charity huffed. “Seriously, Sean, your mom hasn’t talked about that guy?”
“Of course she has, but uh, ixnay on the ovencay.”
Sean looked shifty, and I had no idea what that meant. Must have been human words, though I could have sworn we were speaking the same language.
A siren wailed. Red and blue lights flashed on the walls as it screamed past.
Lilith gasped. “Oh, my unholy darkness. Eighth circle.”
“Manipulation,” I murmured. And there it was. That niggling idea in the back of my mind exploded into full vision. Guilt decided to flare right along with it. Brimstone. Parris was already affecting this world, and it was all our fault.
Crowley let out a soft, “Ah.”
“You said it’s not normally like this, right? So just how unusual do you think this chaos is?” demanded Lilith. “Twice as much?”
“Like, ten times as much. Easily. We come here every year, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sean said.
“You can’t think Parris is doing this,” Crowley said to Lilith and me, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. “It’s just a soul. He may have been a manipulator once upon a time, but he can’t influence anything now.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. Everyone was freaking out at home. We had—supervision,” I said, more to my friends than the humans, who were staring at us with confused frowns. “The parental units were worried for a reason, right? Maybe it’s just residual energy from his circle, but it’s something. This can’t be a coincidence.”
“Whoa, what now?” Sean asked, holding up a hand.
I looked at Lilith and Crowley. If they were going to disagree, now was the time, but they both nodded. I took a deep breath.
“We believe the soul of Samuel Parris is causing all the trouble in Salem,” I said. “We need to find an object to trap it, something that would have a spiritual connection to him, and that should stop the madness.”
“I don’t see how a ghost can do that,” Sean said. “The only way they can make people do stuff is through possession, and this is only one soul we’re talking about.”
“Let me tell you right now,” Charity said. “The adults are talking about everything from curses to demons. Eve was even talking about Mercury being in retrograde, but everyone knows that’s just crap. How that woman is a wit—” She turned to Sean with a scowl. “Stop kicking me!”
“I should call my dad,” Sean said. “If I know something, I need to tell him.”
“Do you, though?” Charity asked. Sean’s face was a twisted mix of anger and irritation, like this was a conversation they had argued to death. “He can be a little—”
“Please don’t tell any adults,” I interrupted, before either of them could start talking again. “Not yet.”
“Seriously,” said Crowley. “Adults ruin everything.”
“It is known,” agreed Charity. “Especially bullheaded… Well, you know.”
“I’m not sure.” Sean sounded wary. “They should know what I know. If my dad knew I held something back…”
“Just wait,” I pleaded. I gave him a look I referred to as puppy-dog eyes number four. Lilith gave me a betrayed look for only a second before turning back to the humans. I felt guilty and elated all at once.
That was weird. Was Lilith jealous? Did I want her to be jealous? Yes, I did. But no, she couldn’t actually be jealous, because to be jealous she’d have to actually like-like me. Right? I’d have to analyze that later.
“Besides,” put in Lilith, “we might be wrong. If your parents are already looking at something, it would be best for us to be going in different directions. To cover more ground.”
“That’s an excellent point,” I said. “Maybe it’s something else entirely. All we know is that we need to capture Parris, whether he’s causing this or not.”
“But you need something with personal significance, right?” asked Charity, like she already knew the answer. She nodded to herself and started pulling out books. “This is so cool. Instead of destroying a cursed object, we get to make one.”
Lilith and Crowley looked my way with worried glances.
“Cursed?” I asked. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“Okay, maybe ‘cursed’ is the wrong word,” Charity corrected herself. “It’s just an object imbued with a soul. In this case, a prison.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “How do we start?”
“First we get more snacks!” Charity said, skipping into the kitchen. “Then we talk about souls and research possession and then maybe—”
But whatever she said after that point was lost, thanks to her head being inside her refrigerator.
“Maybe I should call my mom,” said Sean.
“No, no, no!” I said, placing my uninjured hand on his shoulder. “Trust me. We got this.” Our eyes met for only a moment before we both seemed to look away simultaneously. I dropped my hand. It tingled slightly.
When I looked up, Crowley had an eyebrow raised and Lilith was scowling.
“Help!” Charity called. Her arms were filled with mounds of food. She tried to kick the refrigerator door closed with her foot, but I gladly took the opportunity to escape and jumped to help.
By the time we had the feast laid out on the table—Charity with a disclaimer of “This isn’t our normal Samhain stuff. My moms are just busy!”—it was decided that Charity and Crowley would research the effects Parris seemed to be having on the town and how to find a way to combat them. Lilith would research any possible other way to capture a rogue soul, though Charity seemed to agree with Cassandra that the best way to do so would be to find an object with a spiritual memory of Parris.
Sean and I would focus on researching Parris himself to find something that would have been significant to Parris, to use as a soul trap. Even more important, that object still had to exist, hundreds of years after Parris had died.
We weren’t thrilled with our chances.
We spread out in the house as well as we could and still be within easy reach of food because, priorities. We had piles of books scattered around that Charity had yanked from various hiding spots. Apparently only some of the good ones were out in the open. We were alternating between old handwritten journals and glowing screens, though I wasn’t a fan of the not-mirrors. Completely counterintuitive. I was in the middle of reading about Tituba’s migration to Salem when Crowley swore and stood up so fast, he knocked his chair back.
Everyone else jumped to their feet, immediately scanning for danger.
“I’m cursed,” Crowley muttered.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Look at my face!” he growled.
We all looked at his face.
“I’m not seeing the problem,” I said.
“Look!” he yelled, pointing at his face, as if that would somehow help. He looked down and very nearly snarled. This was bad. I had no idea why he was so upset, and his eyes were going to glow at any moment. I wasn’t sure that was going to go over well.
“It’s just an app,” Charity said, leaning over his shoulder. “You must have opened it accidentally.”
“Oh my goddess,” said Sean, throwing himself back down onto the couch where he’d been researching.
Charity twisted the not-mirror so Lilith and I could see our faces. I jumped when I saw mine, now featuring whiskers and cat ears. I felt my head, but there was nothing there. Thank Hades! I could do without swivel ears. Lilith, on the other hand, looked adorable, which really shouldn’t have been surprising.
Charity laughed and looked at us with a puzzled expression. “It’s just a filter. You don’t really look like that.”
“You haven’t messed with my face?” asked Crowley warily. He looked at us for confirmation, and Lilith and I shook our heads.
“No. You seriously don’t know what this is?” asked Charity. “Do you guys live in a commune?”
I looked over her shoulder to Lilith, who just shrugged.
“Yes?” I chanced.
“Huh,” she said, frowning, before brightening. “I knew your clothes were weird! And you haven’t said anything about my cool Chilling Adventures of Sabrina collectibles! Not what I picture when I think commune kids, but well… what do I know?”
I wasn’t sure whether to be insulted that Charity thought our clothes were weird but decided not to worry about it. We shrugged and went back to poking at the not-mirror.
“I think I found something,” Sean said. “Apparently, when Parris was made reverend, there were a bunch of disputes over his pay.”
“Money’s not very personal,” Charity said.
“Yeah, I know, but listen,” Sean said. “ ‘This was significantly worsened when he bought gold candlesticks for the meetinghouse.’ I’ve got to believe they wouldn’t have thrown them away, right? It seems the candlesticks were important. At least a turning point, and someone deemed it significant enough to write it down.”
“That sounds promising,” I said.
“Maybe we can do a locator spell,” suggested Sean. For a second he looked panicked, like he had said something he shouldn’t have, but I wasn’t sure why.
“Ehhhh,” said Charity, cringing. She stood in front of a purple bookcase, scanning book titles. “When’s the last time anyone saw them? I mean, without some focal point, a locator spell would point to every golden candlestick ever made. We don’t even have a picture. To use a locator spell or summoning, we would need something to focus the call to the right candlesticks.”
“We have to find them,” said Lilith. “Assuming they still exist. We already looked for the meetinghouse, and they let it rot into the ground. Who’s to say they didn’t melt the candlesticks down?”
“We can’t be sure, but it’s not like all the artifacts from the trials were destroyed,” Charity said.
She stepped onto the bottom shelf of the bookcase, then stretched on tiptoes for a book far above her head. I raced forward to steady her as her fingers brushed the spine of a book and pulled. She didn’t have a firm grip and it fell, bringing a box down with it. I managed to keep us on our feet, but we slammed into the wall, and I earned an elbow to the ribs in the process. The book and the box fell to the ground, and both opened on impact.
I wasn’t sure which one the glow came from, but before I figured it out, I found I had an even bigger concern.
Sean held a very pointy dagger pressed up under my chin.
“What are you?” he snarled.
TWENTY-FOUR
The point of Sean’s dagger forced my chin up, which coincidentally gave me a perfect view of Charity’s glowing hands. Huh, Charity was a magic user. Which made a lot of sense now that I thought about it. The things I should have found in the Witch House were in Sean’s and Charity’s houses instead.
A sharp pinch underneath my chin reminded me that I still hadn’t answered Sean’s question. Charity’s magic was making the room smell like ozone.
Lilith had already shifted her weight like she was going to pounce. I knew if we still had our wings, hers would have been arched high over her head. In fact, I could almost see the shadow they would cast. Crowley was desperately trying to kick-start his magic, if the sparks around his palms were any indication.
My friends’ eyes were just about to glow, and I didn’t think that was going to help matters.
“Wait, wait!” I said. “When I said we weren’t locals, I didn’t just mean from Salem.”
“Yeah, me neither,” said Sean. “But that’s not what I asked you. What are you?”
Lilith bit her lip in that way I always liked. Not the time, brain, not the time. Crowley laughed wickedly. But despite their reactions, they stayed at the ready, and my heart warmed. If things went bad, I knew I could count on them, wings and magic or not.
“We’re from a different dimension,” I said slowly.
“Okay…,” Sean said. The dagger didn’t move, but he did turn his head to look at Charity. Her hands stopped glowing, and she shrugged.
“The amulet could react to something like that,” Charity said, picking up a brightly glowing talisman that had fallen out of the box. “It’s really keyed to ‘other’ more than anything else. That normally means vampire, werewolf, and all that jazz, but I suppose if someone was from another dimension, that would be ‘other’ enough to trigger it to glow too.”
Sean didn’t look completely convinced. His eyes narrowed as they swept my face. Please, eyes, stay boring.
“You’re not monsters?” he asked.
“Define ‘monsters,’ ” I said, bristling at the implication, but Sean pressed the dagger a little harder. “No, definitely not.”
“Why are you here?” Sean continued. He lowered the dagger, but he didn’t put it away.
“We’re on vacation?” I said, which was technically true.
“You decided on a vacation to Earth?” asked Charity. “Do they make brochures? What do they say about us?”
“It was kind of an accident,” said Lilith. “We didn’t actually choose Earth.”
“Then why don’t you go home?” snapped Sean. “Why get involved in all this Parris nonsense, if this isn’t even your dimension?”
My feelings probably shouldn’t have been as hurt as they were.
“Parris is causing problems here,” I said, before smirking and throwing back Sean’s own words: “Helping is kinda what we do.”
He didn’t smile, but his face smoothed out a little, and he hadn’t stabbed me yet, so yay for charm!
“Besides, the opening isn’t there anymore,” Crowley said.
I didn’t face-palm, but it was a close thing.
“Which really has very little to do with anything,” I said, with a glare at Crowley.
“No ulterior motives?” Sean asked. “You’re just helping, out of the goodness of your hearts?”
“If you’re from another dimension, how do you know who Samuel Parris is?” Charity asked.
“He came through the same opening we did,” said Crowley.
“Really?” I snarled. I turned, fully expecting my eyes to start burning, but when I looked at Crowley, he looked shocked, like he couldn’t believe he had said that either. He shook his head, and when his eyes met mine, they were apologetic. I frowned. What was going on?
“He did,” I said, as I changed tactics. “But we can’t tell you all the details. Rules, you know? Just trust that we have to capture him and bring him back to where he belongs.”
“Okay,” Sean scoffed. “Let me see if I’m getting this right. You came through here on ‘vacation.’ But when you came here, you brought along Samuel Parris, who for some reason was in your dimension. I’m betting that’s something you would be in trouble for. All this ‘helping people’ stuff is really helping yourself. Did I get that right?”
