Maleficarum: Hunger of the Witch (2 page)

The text
was the ranting of a deranged German monk who was commissioned by the church to study the occult, but his mind was too weak not to be sucked into its darkest side. He claimed to have had numerous experiences with demons and otherworldly creatures, and he admitted to giving his soul to them for knowledge. Deep in the ragged mountains of Spain, he was informed of one of the seven Black Schools where demons gave lessons on forbidden things. It was these lessons that were said to be contained within the work. The hierarchy of hell and the demons’ enumerated powers were listed in excruciating detail. If the owner of the store knew Nick was even touching the book, much less reading it, Nick would probably be fired. The book was far too valuable and perhaps even dangerous.

A sinking feeling washed over
Beverly as she watched him carefully turning the book’s brittle pages. It felt as if something was watching him with hateful eyes. When he went to lay the book down, she hoped the feeling would go away, but it didn’t. It was still there, hovering around him like death. She had never been unnerved by Nick or the store itself. She knew it was the book, or something the book brought with it.

Beverly
saw Ann vanish down the aisles of the store trying to find something that she could entertain herself with. Beverly slowly made her way to the counter.

“H
ey,” she said as she came up and rested her elbows on the counter, trying to show just a bit of her meager cleavage. If she were just a little older, she would be coming off as desperate. But being as young as she was, she had been flirting with only teenage boys, and they were never known for their ability to understand subtlety.

“What
's up?” Nick said, trying to pretend that he was disinterested. Beverly was smart enough to know what he was doing, but it still drove her crazy.

“How
’s the book?” she said with a smile.

Still not lifting his eyes
, he said, “Creepy.”

“Cool
. What is it?”

“It’s about demons.”

“That is creepy. You believe in demons?”

“I don’t know
. You?”

“Can’t say I do. I feel like
they're just something people blame so they don’t have to think.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. I have no problem with the idea of disembodied minds. There’s no logical contradiction inherent in the idea.”

“Well, they’re not made of matter. That’s a contradiction.”

“That’s not a contradiction. A
contradiction is when you affirm ‘A’ and ‘not A’ at the same time and in the same way. A lot of people use the term wrong. For example, I could love and hate someone, but I can’t love and not love someone at the same time and in the same way. That’s a contradiction. Also, a lot of stuff is not made of matter—numbers, sets, the laws of physics, and the laws of nature. If platonic forms exist, then they’re not made of matter. Truths in general aren’t made of matter, yet they’re real.”

Beverly
rolled her emerald eyes as Nick finished his monologue. “Wow, you’re boring. Seen my brother?”

“Yep
, he went to go snag some grub for me and Chuck. We’ve been slow over here, so Chuck nobly offered to give him a hand over at the porn shop, so we could get some food. You know Chuck; he’ll come up with any reason to go hang out with a bunch of porn.”

“Gross
.”

“
If you want something to eat, too, I could probably get ahold of Mike.”

“Ah
, I don’t have any money, and Mike holds on to a debt like crazy.”

“I'll cover
you and your friend, if you need,” he said, locking eyes with her.

“Groovy
. Where did he go?”

“Happy Burger
, I think,” he said, picking up the musty book and placing it under the counter. He locked it back in its case.

“Right on. I
’ll take a chicken burger, if that’s cool.” Beverly turned, trying to locate Ann, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Ann!”
she yelled.

“What?” Ann yelled back as she peeked around a large stack of books. On her head was a makeshift turban that she had concocted from a replica
of a thirteenth-century Mandela used for meditation. She tried her best to not acknowledge that anything was different, but as she crept closer, a smile began to roll over her lips.

Beverly
rolled her eyes yet again. “Nice.”

“So what do y’all need?” Ann giggled as she sauntered up to the counter.

“Cool threads. Now all you need is a ’stache to go with it,” Nick said with a grin.

“I know
, right?”

“You want anything
from Happy Burger?” Beverly asked.

Ann scrunched her face
until she looked like a pug as she thought about what she wanted. “I don’t have the cash,” she muttered.

“It
’s cool. Nick said he would take care of it.” Ann smiled as Beverly finished her sentence.

“Well, aren
’t you just my knight in shining armor? In that case, I think I’ll have a double-bacon cheeseburger, some nuggets, and an order of onion rings. Ohhhh and some fried cheese with marinara.” Nick looked at Ann’s slender frame with astonishment.

“I
’ve got to carbo-load for track,” Ann quipped.

“You don
’t do track,” Beverly said.

“No
, but I was thinking about it. So what have y’all been talking about?”

“Nothing,
” Nick replied.

“Sounds engaging, maybe even life
-affirming.” Ann hopped on the counter as she finished her thought. Her feet swung as if she was splashing water at the edge of a pool. “So, you know Beverly’s only sixteen, right? If you bang her, you go to jail.”

“Shut up!”
Beverly barked, slamming a fist into Ann’s thigh.

“Oh, you punch like a girl,” Ann snickered. Nick just gave a half grin and started to walk off.

“First off, I’m not sixteen.”

“You guys want anything to drink
?” Nick asked, clearly trying to distance himself from the situation.

“I
’m sorry, but we are still teenagers, and giving alcohol to teenagers can result in a fifteen-year prison term. When you add that on top of the statutory rape charge that you would be getting, if I left y’all alone for more than five minutes, you might never see the light of day again,” Ann said in as stern a voice as she could playfully muster.

Another one of
Beverly’s fists came down on Ann’s thigh, making a deep thud.

“Ahhh
, you hit the bone!” Ann shouted.

“I was ta
lking about a Coke or something,” Nick said.

“Ah
, so no screwdrivers then. Why not?”

J
umping on the counter next to Ann, Beverly said “Since when do you drink?”

“Since he don
’t got any.”

“Well, right on
,” Nick said as he turned his back and walked into the stockroom.

Thirty or so
minutes passed, and the small group chatted until Beverly’s brother Mike arrived with the food. He burst through the door with several grease-stained paper bags. He was looking as clueless as ever as he plopped the sacks onto the counter.

“What
's up?” Beverly said as she grabbed one of the bags and started rummaging for her burger.

Mike snatched one, saying,
“Not much. Just spent half my life trying to find out what kinds of oils were in the salad dressing at a fast-food joint, so Nick could still say he’s a vegan.” He glared at Nick. “You’re a fag. You know that, right?” He tossed Nick’s plastic-sealed salad over to him.

“You got the right order?” Nick said.

“Yep, fag.”

“Thanks,
” Nick said as he popped the top on the salad and inspected the contents as if he were panning for gold.

“No prob
lem. Just don’t ever ask me to do it again.” He finally located his burger and took a bite that was several times too big. Mike was about five nine and just on the portly side. However, he was in deceptively good shape for how he looked. He had been on the high school wrestling team and the football team, and since both his job and his love life were sad, he had taken to weight lifting to cure his frustrations. This endeavor could work only so well with a job at a porno shop, but he tried.

“Good Lord
, these fries are salty,” he said as he continued to shovel more into his mouth. He had always dealt with his food with the passion of two long-lost lovers finally being reunited; however, the result of these encounters was less than attractive.

Chuckling
Ann said, “Yeh, they need to teach the fry guy some restraint.”

“Did you give Chuck his food yet?” Nick said between bites.

Mike set his burger down. “Not yet, but I’ll get on it here in a sec. Hey, you got the money for the grub, man?” He looked at Nick.

“Yes
, sir, I do,” he said as the cash register chimed open. Nick fanned out some money and slid it over to Mike.

“Your boss buys you dinner?”

“Yeh, he just doesn’t know it.”

“That’s kind of low,
” Mike said with a smile.

Ann nervously reached in
to her front pocket and pulled out around five dollars. “Take it,” she said, handing the money to Nick. “I’ll pay for the rest soon.” Beverly could see Ann was unnerved by the idea of participating in theft.

Ann and Beverly hung around for a bit after they had eaten, but Ann
’s curfew was gaining ground with every moment that Mike talked about why he believed that human beings were a feeder race for extraterrestrials. So with little fanfare, they excused themselves and began the walk home. It was almost a mile to Ann’s house, and in the dark everything always seemed so much more sinister. However, with Beverly at her side, Ann knew she was going to be fine. Ann’s feet shuffled on the loose gravel that was scattered on the road, even as the two of them managed to stay in lockstep. The night felt oppressive, and the scraggly pines all seemed to pull to a far-off place in the woods.

Ann blurted out
, “Stay over tonight.”

“Why?”

“'Cause it would beee fuuun.” She reached out and grabbed Beverly’s petite hand and brought it in close.

“I might
, but first you have to apologize.”

“Golly, whatever do
you mean?” Ann said knowingly. “OK, I’m sorry Nick’s a pedophile. I know, it was a shock to me, too, but facts is facts, and he likes the young'uns.”

Beverly
yanked on her shoulder while simultaneously digging her thumbnail into Ann’s finger.

“
Ahhh, OK. Jebuss! OK, I’m sorry I embarrassed you in front of Nick. I will do it slightly less often from now on.”

“Well, that
’s probably as good as I’m going to get, so I might consider it.”

“Y
eh, we can tell ghost stories,” Ann said.

“Does your mom still keep the liquor cabinet unlocked?”

“Yeeeeep, but you can have only a little, ’cause I’m not cleaning up your throw-up this time.”

“That remains to be seen,”
Beverly said with a smile. As much as Ann’s childishness bothered Beverly, she was still always won over by it. She couldn’t help it. It was hard to find a person in this life who didn’t have a drop of malice in their heart, and she knew that Ann would always be there. It just pained her that Ann forced her to watch the
Wizard of Oz
every time Beverly spent the night at her house, but after a few shots of stolen rum and a little vodka from Ann’s parents' liquor cabinet, she could stand hearing that wretched cowardly lion’s voice one more time.

The snap of a twig echoed through the night. Both girls stopped and warily
surveyed their surroundings, but about all that could be seen was the soft moonlight reflecting off the yellow lines of the road. Ann’s free hand slid into her jacket, and she grasped a small pocketknife that her grandfather had given her. Beverly’s arm went rigid, and her grip on Ann’s hand tightened.

Beverly
whispered. “Did you hear that?”

“Shhh,
” Ann said as she peered into the darkness. There was another small crackling. It sounded softer than before, but it was distinctly closer than the last.

“Slowly turn around,
” Ann whispered, and with that, both girls made a creeping turn and started to walk back the way they had come. The crackling underbrush seemed to follow them, and a strange malevolence seemed to bruise the air. So far, it stayed in the woods, but it wasn’t guaranteed that this would remain the case. Fantastic things began to flow through the girls' minds, and they were calling up terrible thoughts.

“Do you think it
’s a mountain lion, or a bear, or something?” Beverly said. “I heard they will stalk you like this.”

“Don
’t think about it; just go.” The sound crashed out of the woods.

“No
—it’s more than that,” Ann said as their pace began to quicken. The sound came with them, increasing its speed. It was behind them on the road now, clacking on the pavement like someone quickly tapping long fingernails on a table. Nether dared to look behind as an even more frightful form crept in front of them. Ann clicked her small pocketknife open. Her hands shook as the shadow boldly took its spot in the center of the street. It seemed to be a person, but it still had a hateful aura about it. The girls halted, not knowing which way to turn. Should they face the shadowy form in front of them or the unknown sound behind them?

“Do you have your nail fil
e?” Ann said softly.

“Yes.”

“Then get it,” Ann ordered. Beverly reached into her purse and pulled out the file. The black figure put its fingers to its mouth and whistled. Soft padded steps could be heard behind them, and as they spun around to confront the horror, they saw it. A perfectly white bunny rabbit hopped in between them. Its big floppy feet slapped the pavement as it hustled to reach its destination. There was no way that was what was following them, Ann thought.

“Heavenly
, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” the dark figure said in a female voice. Halfway to the figure, the fluffy bunny paused and gave a solemn look back at the girls before proceeding. It seemed like a calculated thing to do, and with heavy thought behind its eyes, it turned back to the figure and kept hopping. The beast didn’t stop until it reached the shadow’s feet, where it waited patiently. The form bent down and picked up the furry critter and cradled it as if it was a child.

“Nice night for a walk
, isn’t it, girls?” the figure said in a soft, feminine voice. The form started to walk in their direction before they could reply. The sound of a female voice was oddly reassuring to the girls. They could most likely cross rape off the list of the things that might happen, but assumptions are sometimes mistaken.

“Uhhh,
yes,” Beverly said as the figure finally came close enough to see. It was a tall, aging woman in a thick black wool coat. She moved with confidence as she continued to approach. Her face was thin, and her long gray hair was pulled haphazardly into a bun.

“Hello, my name is Beth Hegel.”

Tentatively Beverly said, “Hey.”

“So, what finds you two out on a night like this?” Hegel said
, coming within a few feet of them before stopping. Everything about her seemed old, from her square-toed black leather shoes, her frilly, cream-colored blouse, and most certainly her harsh, expressionless face that looked like weather-beaten leather. Neither of the girls said a word.

“You have others about?” Hegel
’s speech had a distinctly European accent. However, the exact country could not be placed. It sounded like a strange mix from so many places that it might drive even a linguist mad. A guttural German mixed with Spanish and French; however, that only seemed to be the tip of it.

“Why?” Ann said
, still clenching Beverly’s hand.

As the old woman looked down at
Beverly’s fist, she saw her still gripping the nail file. “You aren’t going to rob me, are you?” Hegel’s eyes locked on the shining knife-like object.

Beverly looked down at the file, and realizing how it appeared, she said, “No, it’s just a nail file…You…You scared us.”

“Well, I never meant to. Say
, can you tell me how to get to Black Shear from here?”

“
I don’t think I know that place,” Ann said as the lady came closer.

Hearing a slight
wind, Hegel looked into the tangled woods. “See the trees. Tonight’s a special night. Things can happen on this night that can’t happen at any other time. All your wishes can come true. You want a boy, don’t you?” she said, locking eyes with Beverly. Beverly’s eyes widened, and a sense of guilt washed over her.

“I can see to it that he loves you
, and only you, forever.” Fear rushed into the hearts of the girls.

“I think we need to be going,
” Ann said as she tugged on Beverly’s arm. The two of them started to walk around Hegel, who stood curiously straight and still. When they passed her, they began to march, almost run, back to the Black Crystal. The time for politeness had ended, and they looked only to distance themselves from the penetrating gaze of the strange woman.

“Tell the
others that I have found dinner,” they heard the old hag say. With that, the stark sound of leathery wings could be heard rising into the air. Ann swung her head around to see the vile woman glaring at them with hateful eyes. The rabbit was gone.

“Go!” screamed Ann as she pulled
Beverly into a flat-out run. But before they could get too far, a set of bony fingers pierced Ann’s shoulders and dragged her to the ground. She hit hard, scraping along the pavement; Beverly screamed as she spun. Ann was now being straddled by Hegel, who was raining down blows. Still clenching the nail file, Beverly lunged. The old hag’s reflexes were sharp, and with little effort, she snatched Beverly’s arm as she swung. In one quick motion, Hegel ripped the nail file from Beverly’s grip and plunged it deeply into Beverly’s forearm. She screamed as Hegel ripped it out and went for another stab, but before the blow could land, Ann flung her fist, smacking the old hag in the eye with her pocketknife. The witch screamed in an unknown language and released her grasp on Beverly. Ann yanked her inch-long pocketknife out of the diabolical woman’s eye. Beverly, with all the force she could muster, shoved the screaming attacker off her friend, leaving the witch writhing on the pavement. Unholy wails like the sounds of many voices burst from the gaping maw of the injured witch. Beverly reached down and pulled Ann to her feet.