Evil Unearthed: Chapter 39

Chapter thirty-nine

Julia could hardly credit what she was seeing, for there, suddenly appearing like a ray of the slowly-westering sun made incarnate, was the woman she remembered from the dream she had experienced on her first day in this house. Then, this woman had spoken words of warning and of comfort, but she had seemed an ordinary woman enough, except, Julia recalled now, for her eyes. They had seemed unbelievably calm and unfathomably deep, and despite the fact that she herself had fallen prey to Jacques' seductive promises, this woman had still done everything both in the dream and afterwards to help her. She had delivered her spirit from the horrible prison into which the demon Erica had cast it, and with her coming, the cold of death no longer threatened to consume her. She had nothing but implicit trust for the woman, if woman this was and no mere apparition of course, standing here before her. If anyone could help Kathleen and the priest, surely it was the one named Vangie, the one they called the Conjure Woman.

"Julia Suzanne Desmond," said the Conjure Woman now, her voice as clear as ringing Chrystal, "do you renounce the follies which led you into this madness?"

"I do," she said, tears now falling freely. "Oh God, I do with all my heart and soul!"

"Good! Now, will you trust me and do exactly as I tell you? It is the only way that we can help Kathleen and Fr. Dawson."

"I will!"

"Alright then. Tell me what has happened! How were you freed?"

"Kat did it, I think. I saw her drink something. I mean, no. First, she seemed to invite the demon to come to her, and then when it had and I could truly see again, I saw her drink something. The demon fought to gain control over her, but soon, her body was too weak, and well, now she's unconscious!"

"We must search her," said the Conjure Woman. "We must find out what she took!"

Julia did so without delay and soon found the now half-empty vial of cyanide which Kathleen had taken from the laboratory and gave it to the Conjure Woman. She felt a strange tingling in her fingers as that woman's radiant hand took the deadly container and turned it thoughtfully before setting it down.

"I see what she has done," she said slowly and sadly.

"Yes," said Julia, becoming angry. "She's killed herself! She's killed herself to save me!"

"She is not dead yet, though she is near to dying. I can help her, but it will take great strength and concentration, and it will take something more. You are her friend. She loves you, Julia, and you must be the one to call her back. I will do what I can, but you must recall her spirit to the joys and the agonies of this life. Where she is now seems sweet to her, but it is a delusion dreamed up by the demon inside of her. When her body dies, then will her soul awaken to the bitterness of eternal malice which the demon will try to inflict upon it. For now, however, she is resting in an almost narcotic haze which she finds very difficult to resist. Are you ready?"

"I--I suppose I am," said Julia uncertainly.

"Then take her hand and give me your other hand. Do you fear to touch me as I am now? I will not harm you. You have been weakened. If anything, my touch will give you strength." So Julia took her friend's lifeless hand and chafed it lovingly, while the Conjure Woman's hand slipped into her free one. For an instant, she felt as though she were grasping raw electrical current. However, after a time, this feeling subsided and she felt only warmth and vitality flowing through her and into her friend's still form.

"Kat," she said into the stillness that surrounded them, "I need you to come back! You've always been my conscience, Kat, and my north star. I can't find my way through life without that confounded Ulster stubbornness and common sense of yours. I know we haven't always seen eye to eye, Kat, but I want you to know that I'm glad you're with me and I know what you did for me and what you've been doing for me for so many years!

"You've sacrificed your own happiness for me time and again, and while I thought I was repaying you in kind, I see now that I was just using you. That's what I do, Kat! I use people until they're all used up or until they walk away. Why on earth haven't you walked away before? God knows I've given you plenty of reasons to do so!"

As she was speaking, Julia felt something stirring in a dark corner of her mind. It was as though Kathleen were trying to let her know that she was still there. She found memories of the two of them at Cambridge which she hadn't thought about for years coming willy-nilly to the surface, and before long, she found herself laughing as she used to do before the burden of her family's fortune had become hers.

"You're doing well, Julia," said the Conjure Woman. "I can reach her now. She's responding to me."

"But what about the demon?"

"Kathleen has the power to cast it out if she will but claim it. Come now, Kat," and Julia heard a deep love in the Conjure Woman's voice as she pronounced her friend's name. "It is not your time to pass beyond the veil just yet! The effects of the poison have been reversed, so now you must come back to us and banish the evil from your mind and body!"

"Come on, Kat," said Julia! "You've always been the strong one of the two of us. I know that now, so come on! Prove it to me again!"

"I want," said Kathleen in a weak but determined voice, "no part of this evil. I cast you out, you who call yourself Erica Desmond! You may never harm me or any of my friends again!"

"Yes," said the Conjure Woman. "Let go now, Julia!" And as Julia did so, moving a little aside, she saw the Conjure Woman's face brighten even more as she took both Kathleen's hands in her own and said clearly:

"Take what strength you need, Kat O'Dell! Take it and use it as only you can! Do not fear if you see me weakening! I am here for you now!"

"Oh Vangie," said Kathleen, and as Julia watched, she too became like a blazing star and, standing tall and commanding there in that high place, she allowed Vangie's power to become hers and soon, no trace of weakness remained in her and the maleficent force which had called itself Erica Desmond's spirit soon went whining away on the winds to westward, all its plans for this place now thwarted and all its attendant terrors now dwarfed by the power against which it could no longer stand.

"Alright now," said Vangie, coming over to Kathleen. "We must help Stephen now. For this, both of us must be involved. He is spirit-lost even as I was on that night when you found me outside the hotel, and he has no touchstone such as I had in my tarot cards to recall him."

"He has one thing, Vangie," said Kathleen softly. "He has you."

"Yet I, alas, may not be enough. You carry some of my power within you for now, so we both must aid him."

Julia found all this utterly incomprehensible. Who was this person calling herself Kat O'Dell? How had she become so otherworldly and strange? Was she still her old friend? She was not so sure as she had been scarce moments before that the answer to this question was yes. Watching in silent awe, she saw the two women set to work upon the fallen man who lay, eyes fixed heavenward in a stare of total blankness. First, Kat knelt beside him and took his wrist in her hand, feeling for a pulse. Seeming satisfied with it, she turned a questioning gaze upon the Conjure Woman.

"I must seek for him, Kat," she said, "where you cannot follow, but you must be my anchor. You must be a beacon for me. You must do as you did when you helped me to guide the boat across the channel."

"Alright," said Kathleen, and Julia saw her suddenly sit down, cross her legs, and become utterly still. The Conjure Woman, on the other hand, went to the prostrate priest and touched his forehead.

"Stephen Matthew Dawson," she said with an authority in her voice which Julia envied, "I am calling you! I command you by the bond we share and by the battles we two have fought to come to me! Be no longer lost, for the war has been won! Come home to the light and the darkness, to the changing times and seasons of this mortal world! It is not yours to transcend it as yet! Come, Stephen! Come!" And as she raised her face an instant from his unmoving features, Julia saw tears in the Conjure Woman's eyes. Suddenly, she heard Kathleen's voice, low and rhythmical, repeating the Hail Mary to herself while Vangie continued to stroke Stephen's hair and to plead with him with her eyes.

"Kat?" She wanted desperately for Kathleen to speak to her.

"Hush, Jules," her friend said and continued praying.

"There is still much work for us to do, Miss Desmond," said Vangie, standing up to ease her limbs, the unearthly glow still enveloping her.

"Are you--are you real? Are you here?"

"I am flesh and blood as you are," said Vangie, "but I carry in me and am able to manifest at this time the powers of those I serve."

"I think, Julia," said Kat, her prayers finished for the moment, "that if Vangie were to falter now, the evil would rise up again and take vengeance on all of us."

"You perceive well, Kat O'Dell. Right now, my connection with this island and with the ancient beliefs of my ancestors is what's keeping the evil at bay, but something caused it to drop its defenses. You could have died, Kat!" Julia was astonished to hear the deep love in the Conjure Woman's voice as she said this last.

"I would have," said Kat. "I would have! You were all being tormented and hurt, and I couldn't stand it anymore!"

"I'm only glad I got to you in time!"

"And what about me?" The voice sounded sleepy and slurred, but as Julia turned to see who had spoken, she saw the priest sitting up and fingering a strange pendent he had around his neck.

"You're alright! Oh Stephen!" Kat was at his side in a moment, but all hopes of a happy reunion were dashed in a few moments by a sudden cry from Vangie who crumpled to her knees at Julia's feet and appeared to be unconscious.

"The temple," Kat said. "Take her, Stephen!"

"Will you both be alright?"

"I think we both need our beds," said Kat. "Come on, Jules! Let's go!"

Julia did not know what was happening. Why had all the radiance suddenly vanished from the face of the strange priestess? Why were Stephen and Kathleen so insistent on keeping her out of things?

"I could help," she said.

"No," said Kathleen. "You and I don't belong where they're going."

"But he can't carry her all by himself!"

"He won't need to," said a slow voice. "I'll walk," and Vangie now got shakily to her feet and took up the serpent staff. "Where were you thinking of carrying me, Fr. Dawson?"

"The temple, Vangie."

"Good thinking," she said, "though I hope the house will not prevent our getting there. There was quite a spell of psychokinetic manifestation as my professor of parapsychology would have called it going on in the great hall."

"Well," said Stephen, "all we can do is try."

"Indeed," said the Conjure Woman, and leaned on his offered arm as he guided her to the trapdoor and helped her through it.

"What's happening?" Julia was utterly bewildered. "Is the evil still here? I thought that--that demon was driven away when you, when you and--that woman--Kat! How did you do it?"

"I don't know, Jules," was Kathleen's answer. "I really don't know, and yes, I think the evil is still here in some form. Perhaps it will never truly be conquered, but one thing I do know. It's taken its toll on that woman as you call her."

"What if I've killed her? What if I had killed you?"

"It's true that you were the doorway by which the evil entered our lives, Julia, but it was only a matter of time until someone dug it up again. I don't think that evil like this can truly rest quietly for long. Now, can you come with me to bed? We'll camp out in my room."

Julia allowed her friend to take her hand and soon, having both climbed through the trap and secured it, they were in Kathleen's little room. She looked around at the desk and the various things which spelled Kathleen O'Dell to her and smiled.

"I'm glad you're here, Kat," she said simply.

"And I'm glad you're yourself again! Are you in pain, Julia?"

"I am," she said, feeling a deep throbbing throughout her whole body, "but that proves I'm alive. I'll hold off on the meds for a little while I think."

"Alright," said Kathleen. "You can have the bed. I'll just sit here at the desk."

"Thanks, Kat! Thank you for everything!"

"Go to sleep," was all Kat's reply, and soon, without further conversation, Julia managed to do just that, and this time, no dreams came to disturb her.