Chasing the Witch (Boston Witches) (4 page)

“You are so sneaky.” The waiter came back up with their desserts and they sat back down. “I don’t think this day could get any more perfect, Will.”

“That was the idea, love,” William said and kissed her lips.

After William dropped her off, Jilly flew up the steps and went straight up to Caroline’s room.

“I’m engaged!” she screamed as she burst through the door. Caroline jumped up from her bed and screamed. They did an odd dance, hopping in a circle for a few seconds.

“Jill, I’m so excited for you guys! How great is that ring, by the way? I knew you would totally love it.”

“I know. I can’t stop looking at it and my face hurts from smiling.”

“Did you tell Em, yet?”

“Yeah, I called her on the ride home. My ear is still ringing from her screams,” she said with a laugh. “She made me promise to come over tomorrow and show her the ring. I can’t believe you knew about this and didn’t spill the beans. I’m very impressed. You were always terrible at keeping secrets.”

“Believe me, it was really hard. I almost told you so many times. Will was cute when we picked out the ring; he was very excited. He’s going to be an amazing brother-in-law, unlike Jack.”

“I know, he’s pretty great,” Jilly said. “We all thought Jack was a good guy, Car, sometimes we’re wrong about people. What time is your flight?”

“It leaves at 6:30 P.M. I’m going to try and get there around 4:30-ish.”

“Do you need help packing?”

“No, I’m almost done here. You go on to bed.”

Jilly hugged her sister and left. She felt like she was floating as she walked down the hall to her room. She flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a bit, thinking how much her life had changed in the past four months. Her eyes felt heavy and she drifted off to sleep still wearing her clothes.

Jilly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. She was standing outside somewhere she had never been. Burnt-looking grass and bare trees surrounded her. Jilly turned slowly in a circle trying to get her bearings. Hearing a noise behind her, she whirled around. A man began walking out of the trees towards her. She thought he looked vaguely familiar, but she could not place him. He had dark wavy hair and brilliant blue eyes.

“Hello, Jillian,” he said as he stopped in front of her. “Thank you for coming to see me, I’ve been so longing to meet you.”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” she asked as she took an involuntary step back. He smiled at her. It almost seemed genuine but she noticed that it never reached his eyes.

“No, we’ve never met, my dear. I’m surprised that you don’t recognize me though, my brother and I really do look quite similar.”

She shivered. “Patrick?” Jilly had only heard bits and pieces about him from William; but she knew enough to be nervous that he had hijacked her dream.

“Very good,” he said, clapping his hands together. “I thought since we’re going to be related soon, we should have a meeting. And I know my brother would never bring you with him to see me, so here we are.”

A look of surprise crossed Jilly’s face. Patrick smiled, “Ah, I see William has kept our little meetings a secret.”

 He walked in a circle around her, studying her closely. “You really do look just like her, you know; but I bet he’s told you that. I should hate you for that reason, alone; but I’m willing to overlook that little detail.”

“What is it you want from me, exactly?” Her tone was wary.

“Want from you? I want nothing. I simply desired to meet you, since William is enamored.

Jilly was skeptical and she was beginning to feel uneasy being alone with Patrick. “How is it exactly you are able to come to me in a dream? William never mentioned you could do that.”

He laughed a horrible toneless sound. “There is a lot about me that my brother doesn’t know.” He stepped closer and grabbed her hand. “What a pretty little bauble he’s put on your finger. He must really love you,” he said sarcastically.

Jilly pulled her hand away. “I don’t need to justify my relationship with William to you. Now tell me what you want and let me leave.” She rubbed her palms together quickly but nothing happened.

He laughed at her. “Do you honestly think I would allow you to come here with your powers? How stupid do I look, Jillian? Now, tell me about my Mary. William says she is near, but I cannot find her.”

She stuck her chin out defiantly. “I’ll never tell you, Patrick. Do what you want, but I’ll never tell. I promised myself when we imprisoned her that I would die with that secret.”

His eyes darkened and his hands shook with suppressed rage. “I think you should be going now, Jillian, before I do something that William will regret.” He walked over and touched her face and she was sucked backwards into nothingness.

 Jilly opened her eyes and was relieved to see that she was in her own room. Her shirt was plastered to her body with sweat, her heart pounding. With shaky hands reached over and grabbed the phone off the nightstand.

“Will, can you come over? Something’s happened.” Her words were a frenzied jumble.

“What’s happened?” he asked, his voice laced with worry.

“I met your brother, tonight,” she answered.

William let out a breath. “I’m coming right now.”

Jilly got up. Her legs felt like jello. She splashed some water on her face, changed into sweats and went downstairs to wait for William to come. He knocked on the door ten minutes later. Jilly let him in and he swept her in his arms, hugging her tightly to his body.

“What happened?” he asked as he took off his coat, his eyes full of concern.

“I met your brother. He apparently can enter my dreams, or more appropriately, he can control them. I had zero power when I was with him. He is mad, too, he says you told him about Mary. Why didn’t you tell me you’ve been going to see him?”

William sighed and raked his hands through his hair, not really wanting to have this conversation. “I wanted to see what he was like, I guess. I was curious. It’s been a few hundred years since I’ve spoken to him. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you; maybe I didn’t want to worry you. I’m sorry you had to meet him like that. We’ll have to do something about him sooner rather than later. I know he can’t get out, but he obviously has enough power to come to you in a dream. It’s only a matter of time before something worse happens.”

Jilly flopped down on the couch, pulling him down next to her. “Why do I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me about him? I know you said he’s evil, Will; but you’ve never really elaborated on that.”

William glanced at her and put his head in his hands. “He thrives on pain, Jilly. When we were younger and his powers were first manifesting, he would do things to people.”

“Do things?” Jilly asked, wanting him to explain.

“He can visit your dreams as you saw for yourself, tonight. He creates nightmares you can never escape. I watched him drive a man to madness merely because he could. That’s just the start of it.” William stopped there for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. “I told you he can create visions and make a reality of his choosing for you to live.” Jilly nodded, motioning for him to continue. “The reason he was institutionalized was not because of the man he drove to madness because no one knew about that. He kept it as his own secret. It was because he caused our neighbor Charles to murder his entire family. Patrick made him believe that there were demons inside of each of his family members. He butchered them in their sleep. My parents found Charles covered in blood and screaming about demons in his head. Patrick just smiled, and that’s when I knew he was evil. I convinced my parents to put him away. It wasn’t hard. They had seen the signs leading up to that. I had to find a coven of witches to help me put a spell on the institution to strip him of his powers, while he was inside. I was thankful he was young enough for the spell to work.” Jilly hugged him close to her, wanting to erase the pain he was feeling. She was afraid of what this would mean. Afraid of what would happen if Patrick got out.

“I’m so sorry, Will. That’s awful for you to have to go through. Thank you for telling me though, it makes it clearer to me why he needs to stay in there. What should we do? Maybe add some wards around his tomb until we figure out our plan?”

William smiled at her, happy that he had her in his corner. “Yeah, I was thinking that, too, something to keep him from using his power outside of the tomb. I don’t want him to influence anyone who might happen upon him. I think we should do it tonight, while he’s tired from entering your dream. Go get dressed; I’m going to grab some flashlights from the garage.”

 Jilly ran upstairs quickly, stopped at Caroline’s door, and knocked. “Hey Car, are you up?” she asked. She heard a muffled response and went into her sister’s room.

“Jill?” Caroline said sleepily, “What’s going on?”

“I met William’s brother tonight in a dream. You should probably come with us. Get dressed and meet us downstairs in five.” Jilly went into her own room, quickly changed back into the jeans she had been wearing, grabbed a shirt from her dresser and threw it on. Caroline was coming out of her room at the same time and they descended the steps together.

“So what exactly is it that we’re doing tonight?” she asked Jilly.

“We need to put up some wards around Patrick’s tomb to stop him from sending his powers out. It’s only a quick fix that probably won’t last very long; so we’ll have to redo them every few days to keep them strong.”

Caroline nodded. “Ok, I guess that makes sense. Do we have a bigger plan, yet?”

“No, we haven’t figured out any long-term solution yet, we just need to contain his power first and we’ll figure out the rest.” William was just coming back in from the garage when they got downstairs. He cocked his head at Caroline when he saw her.

“I don’t feel comfortable with Caroline being alone in the house with what’s going on,” Jilly said. He nodded and they headed out to his car.

They drove as far as they could toward the cemetery and went the rest of the way on foot. Each of them had a flashlight and three circles of light shone on the ground in front of them as they walked.

“Do you think he’ll know we’re here?” Caroline asked.