The Devil's Serenade (15 page)

Maddie

Chapter
Six
teen

“What’s that tune, Auntie?”

“It’s called ‘Serenade in Blue’, Maddie. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra used to play it a lot during the war. It was one of my favorites. I’ll sing it for you…”

Another barrier began to disintegrate in my mind. I clapped my hands to my ears, and squeezed my eyes tight, but I couldn’t shut it out. The piano, my aunt singing, the sound drifting up from downstairs.

The song.
That
song. A sentimental forties love ballad. But not on
that
day. On that day, the sunny memories of my childhood summers ended. And it had all started when Aunt Charlotte played “Serenade in Blue” and the birds stopped singing. Now I remembered. I knew why the sound of it chilled me to the core. The song ended. The phantom piano gave one final flourish and was silent. I opened my eyes. Veronica was gone. Behind me, the creaking began.

The rocking horse, still impossibly standing amid all this devastation. Still moving back and forth on broken rockers.

The door slammed shut.

I screamed.

A fierce cold froze the blood in my veins, as a swirling black mist formed on the far side of the room. A figure began to take shape. I backed away, terrified. I couldn’t reach the door. To do so, I would have to go right past that mist.

The mist began to settle and take form. The figure of a man emerged. A tall man in a long black coat, carrying a walking stick with a lion on a silver top. I screamed again. The door flew open.

A familiar figure. Aunt Charlotte looked first at me and then at the man. His face began to dissolve, to change from the figure I recognized as Nathaniel Hargest. I shrank back still farther, until I almost touched the rocking horse. It stopped moving.

Hargest’s face lengthened, lost definition. The eyes became blazing fires of red and yellow, the nose disappeared and the mouth opened, to reveal massive, vicious fangs. The gaping maw grew. I screamed and shrank from it.

Aunt Charlotte stepped forward. She pointed at the demon. It bared fangs at her. A loud wheezing, like an orchestra of bellows, echoed around the room.

More figures entered the room. They clustered around Aunt Charlotte. I knew them all. Veronica, Sonia, Thelma, and Tom in his gray pullover. They said nothing, just formed a silent, defiant group as the creature morphed. It reared its head and I saw it was covered in tree roots. Its eyes had sunk into a bark-like trunk, behind masses of writhing, snake-like tendrils.

A scarecrow, Neil had said. This thing would scare a lot more than crows.

Every nerve in my body tensed.

Aunt Charlotte gathered her group of my imaginary siblings closer. As one, they pointed at the beast. It began to fade.

Once it had gone, they turned and, without a glance at me, walked quietly out of the room. Only Aunt Charlotte remained. I opened my mouth to speak, but she silenced me with a finger to her lips.

“Now you will remember,” she said, and left me alone.

I have no idea how long I stayed there, trying to understand what had happened. Above all, wondering when those memories would come flooding back to me. And fearing what those recollections would reveal. I didn’t have to wait long.

* * * * *

“The child isn’t yours.”

The voice drifted into my dream. It didn’t belong there. I was dreaming of sunshine and a picnic with people I didn’t recognize, but in this dream they were my friends. The sun shone, a few puffy clouds drifted across the sky. Birds sang. Champagne glasses clinked. Laughter rang out across the field where we sat on checkered cloths. I reached behind me for more wine. That’s when it all changed. Everything stopped. The sky grew black. The people had vanished. My hand held empty space where the bottle should have been.

The familiar woman’s voice echoed around me. “The child isn’t yours.”

I peered through the gloom. I could see nothing.

Some unconscious part of me wrenched myself from my dream. It took me a moment to realize where I was—lying, fully clothed, on my bed at Hargest House with no recollection of leaving the junk room or how much time had passed. Pale moonlight cast shadows in the room. I listened, not daring to move. The voice had sounded so close, so real. Aunt Charlotte’s voice. In the distance I heard music and put my hand to my mouth.

“Serenade in Blue”.

It drifted up from downstairs. Someone was playing the piano.

I moistened my dry lips and padded barefoot to the door. Out in the corridor the sound of the music was louder. The melody played on. I grasped the banister and began my descent.

I reached the bottom of the stairs. Still the music played.

The door of the living room was slightly ajar. Behind it, the piano played on. I hesitated. Should I throw it open, or try and creep around it? I took a deep breath and pushed.

The door swung back. The room was full of a swirling gray smoke. The piano played on. No one was seated at it. Someone grasped my hand from behind. The familiar voice spoke.

“The child is not yours.”

Suddenly I was on the other side of the room, standing next to the piano. It was daylight outside.

The sun streamed through the window as Aunt Charlotte played first “Spanish Eyes” and “Misty”. The windows were wide open and birdsong filtered through. An enthusiastic blackbird kept up a constant refrain, so that whenever Aunt Charlotte stopped playing, his pure trill sang his summer song.

The first few notes of “Serenade in Blue”
changed everything. She cried out. “No, I won’t play that. Why can’t I stop?” Her eyes were wide, terrified. “Maddie. I can’t stop playing this and I mustn’t. Not today. Not anymore. Ever.”

“But you told me it’s your favorite song.”

Aunt Charlotte shook her head. Her face muscles tensed as if she was battling for control. “
No
. It was all right before. When you were younger. But tomorrow is your birthday and it becomes
his
song. It becomes the devil’s serenade. I must never play it again. Never. It will bring him here. I thought I’d be able to stop, but I’m playing it. I don’t know how…it’s not my doing. Please believe me, Maddie. I never wanted any of this. I was so scared.”

“But, I don’t understand.”

Aunt Charlotte’s lips were set in a thin line, as she fought to stop playing. I tried to pry her fingers off the keyboard but they refused to move. Her stiff fingers somehow managed to play the melody as beautifully as the composer could ever have wished.

I heard a noise behind me, gagged at the reek of sulfur, and stared at Aunt Charlotte as her fingers finished playing the song and the piano lid crashed down, narrowly missing them.

“Today’s the day he comes back.”

I spun around. A scream sliced through the air and I realized it was mine. The blackbird stopped singing. All the birds stopped. When the echo of my scream died away, only the wheezing of the thing that had once been Nathaniel Hargest punctuated the unnatural stillness. I looked down at my feet and realized. I recognized the black platform sandals I had saved up for weeks to buy. I was sixteen years old again. Back in
that
summer. Or remembering it. But I had perfect recall of being my adult self, as if I was possessing my body as a young girl on the day everything changed.

The swirling smoke parted and I gasped. A tall man in a black morning coat and top hat emerged. My adult self knew him instantly. Nathaniel Hargest had returned from his evil underworld.

Aunt Charlotte’s voice was strong. “The child is not yours. You shall not take her.”

The man’s expression turned angry. His eyes flashed red. I shrank closer to my aunt, feeling all the emotions of a teenage girl in danger.

“Why does he want to take me?” My voice didn’t sound like it came from me. More like that of a little girl.

He pointed at me and I flinched still farther.

“It is time, Charlotte. You bargained with the master. Your son for her.”

“I revoke the bargain,” my aunt said and reached under the sheet music on the piano next to her. She brandished the willow wand.

Hargest laughed. “Do you think that will protect her? That trinket?”

He raised his hand and the wand flew out of my aunt’s hand. It ignited, and hovered in mid-air. Hargest’s laugh rasped and turned to a cry as the burning wand arrowed toward him, piercing his chest. He stumbled and fell to his knees, staring at my aunt in disbelief.

“Never underestimate the forces of the light,” Aunt Charlotte said.

A few feet away, Hargest appeared to be recovering. He staggered to his feet. “And you should never underestimate the forces of darkness. They saved you once, from your miserable life. You knew there was a price to pay.”

“And I paid it. I have never seen my son. The son you made me bear and took away from me.”

Hargest shook his head. “Not I, Charlotte. The master.”

Behind Hargest, the smoke swirled again.

My aunt’s hand pushed me. “Get behind me, Maddie. Don’t look in its eyes. Don’t let it see you.”

Something was tugging at my mind. Some force pulled me, tried to drag me out of the body of my sixteen-year-old self. The swirling black smoke pulsated and throbbed. A roar shook the house. I crouched down behind Aunt Charlotte and turned my face to the wall.

“The master has come to reclaim his own.”

“She does not belong to him.” I had never heard Aunt Charlotte speak so forcefully.

“The bargain was clear. On the girl’s sixteenth birthday, her life and soul would be forfeit to the master. You were happy for it then.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Aunt Charlotte had traded my life and soul for her son. I was too shocked to cry, but despair and terrible loneliness gripped me. The pounding and roaring grew. I crammed my hands against my ears. This couldn’t be happening. I would wake soon and find I had dreamed it all.

But I didn’t wake up. The stench of sulfur was overpowering and I started to cough.

Hargest laughed.

“He will take her. Tomorrow at the appointed time. He will return.”

“She will not be here. She is going away and will never return.”

“But, dear Charlotte, that cannot be. She
will
return.”

“I have the forces of light to help me.”

“They can only hold off the inevitable. If they can even do that.”

“No, they are strong and will grow stronger. I will stay here in this house. I will help them grow.”

A massive roar silenced my aunt. A sudden rush of heat shot into the room. Instinctively, I looked. A hideous pair of clawed, scaly feet stood a yard or so away. A tail with a snake’s head coiled, uncoiled, pounded the ground. I cowered farther back and put my head in my hands. I peered between my fingers. The demon moved forward.

Aunt Charlotte cried out, “Lord and Lady, protect us!”

A strong smell of peaty earth mingled with the stench of sulfur.

Others had joined us. They were chanting in some language I didn’t understand. The chanting grew louder. They were moving toward us. The creature roared again.

The house trembled.

My aunt spoke. Despite everything, her voice remained even, controlled. “The tree spirits have shown you what they are prepared to do. It must be enough.”

Hargest paused. “The master is pleased. A sacrifice
will
be made, but he will be generous. You must bring the girl to the place of assembly tomorrow at midnight, but he will not take her. Not this time.”

Aunt Charlotte’s voice wavered for the first time. “How do I…how do we know that it…he will keep his word?”

“He is the lord and master. Do not doubt him.”

* * * * *

The scene melted in front of me and I was outside. The night was chilly. Black. My sixteen-year-old self held my aunt’s hand. We stood near the river, a few yards from the tentacle tree. Alone.

“What’s happening?” I asked, shivering, though not from cold.

“We must wait, Maddie. You must be very brave.”

“But, Aunt, I don’t understand. That man said you had a son and that you chose to save him and give me to him instead. I thought you loved me.” Tears coursed down my cheeks.

In the gloom I caught the glistening of tears on my aunt’s cheek. Her voice quivered. “I do, Maddie. When I made that stupid bargain, I’d never met you. I was so scared. Desperate. I would have done anything to save my son. I offered myself, but I was not pure enough. You came here that first summer and I began to love you as the daughter I had never had. Would never have. I knew I couldn’t give you up, so I asked the spirits for help.”

“And will they help? What will happen to me if they don’t?”

Aunt Charlotte clasped me tight, so I could barely breathe. “They
will
help us, darling. And you mustn’t be frightened when you see them. They…well, they don’t look like us. They…”

In the distance, a dog barked. Then it whimpered. Yelps of pain. Silence.

“Good evening, Charlotte.”

I jumped. Hargest tipped his hat to us. He seemed as solid and human as my aunt and me. Hard to believe he wasn’t a living, breathing soul with a beating heart and blood running through his veins.

“Ah, you have brought company, I see.”

For a second, I thought he meant me, until I realized he was looking over my shoulder. A strong smell of peaty earth wafted under my nose. A sound like branches dragging across the ground made me turn. Too late, my aunt tried to stop me. I screamed as three figures like small trees moved. Their faces were elongated, woody. Protruding from their backs, intertwined twigs were woven into wings that could surely never fly. Where their eyes should be, clusters of fireflies danced in almond formations. I could make out no mouths and realized the earthy smell came from these dark green, alien creatures.

Aunt Charlotte held me tightly to her. I couldn’t stop whimpering. “Hush. Don’t be afraid, my child.”

Hargest’s voice rasped. “Put her aside, Charlotte.”

She released her hold on me and motioned me to stand next to the willow. The tree-like figures parted for me to get through. One stroked my arm with a green tendril. I gave a little cry of fear and crept into the tree’s hollow, where I cowered and watched.