The Witch (15 page)

“Can you blame her?” asked the snake
.

The dwarf rose to his feet and whirled on the black snake
.

“You ate more than the rest of us.”

“I’d been free longer and without sustenance. Of course I would have a greater hunger.”

“I think you desire to be stronger than the rest of us.” The dwarf squinted down at the snake. “I think you would do us in if it benefitted you. Your skin is wet and shiny. Even in the dark I can make out where you are.”

“All of us have perfect night vision, Master Dwarf. It is part of being a creature of the night.” The snake looked to the other demons for agreement, but the others only stood and stared at him. “I can’t help that you don’t like me. Perhaps it should be you that we worry about deceiving us.”

“I need no one else. In battles I bloodied a goodly share of the enemies but never sought protection from others on my side.”

“Did you have any allies, Master Dwarf, or did you kill and maim indiscriminately?” The dwarf’s brow furrowed
.

“What right do you have to question my actions? Have you fought at all in battles, or have you hidden behind trees and bushes, voyeuristically feeding on the pain?”

The black snake did not reply
.

“I know you from somewhere, but not in battle. I sense the battlefield is not your domain. Your treachery seeks dark crevices where you cannot be seen employing your brand of misery.”

“I can’t think of any more miserable position to be in than here listening to you brag on about your victories.” “Not all my battles were victorious, but they were bloody,” said the dwarf, bringing his ax dangerously close to the black snake
.

“Cut me, Master Dwarf, and you had better have a good answer for the witch and her progeny.” “I certainly don’t fear the child.”

“Maybe we all should take extra care when around the young one. I fear that our existence is in his hands.”

Stephen found that he didn’t have to worry about his father noticing his injured hand the next morning because his father slept late and didn’t have time to notice.

“I can’t believe I slept so late. I must have been more tired than I thought,” said Jacob trying to whip some breakfast together for his son.

Stunned, Stephen sat in the kitchen, examining the hand the uglies had tortured the night before. Most of the wounds had healed perfectly without any scars. Some damage was still visible but little enough that he managed to keep his hand inside his pocket through the hurried breakfast of cereal.

“I’m going to do without and have a big lunch instead. The only reason I woke up this morning is because your grandmother couldn’t get to her school. Boy, did she yell. She’s late once in thirty years, and you would think the school board was about to fire her. Maybe she’s afraid they’ll make her take forced retirement. I don’t think she’d be able to sit home and relax for more than a month or two. Even now she teaches summer school.”

Stephen’s wide eyes followed his father around the kitchen. He himself had awakened early but hesitated to disturb his father, hoping the hand would heal more and more with each passing minute.

“Mrs. Rosen will pick you up from school. I might have to work an extra hour or two. I certainly don’t have to worry about her stuffing your face. If she keeps babysitting, you’ll weigh at least twenty pounds more by the end of the year.

“Hey, you don’t mind Mrs. Rosen, do you?”

“Grannie Smith, Dad. She’s not Molly but she’s kind. I don’t think she’ll be making me a Halloween costume.”

“Damn, I forgot all about that. Do you want me to pick up something on my way home?”

“Naw, I’m going to school as me tomorrow. That’s probably scary enough,” Stephen said.

Jacob brushed his son’s hair.

“I’ll let you borrow some of my old work clothes, and you can be a tramp.”

“Really, Dad, I’m not worried about Halloween.”

“Don’t you want to go door to door and mooch off the local neighbors?”

“Grannie Smith will feed me enough candy.” Stephen had a difficult time eating since he had to use his left hand to spoon the cereal into his mouth. He hoped Dad wouldn’t notice. But Dad hardly looked at him.

The doorbell rang, and Jacob rushed out of the kitchen to answer it.

Stephen slid his hand out of his pocket to check his right hand. Only a few bruises and scratches were left; the open wounds had all disappeared. Momma must have been right. The uglies must have some magic healing power in their saliva. Stephen quickly sat on his hand when he heard his father’s footsteps returning to the kitchen.

“That was Mrs. Rosen. Grannie Smith to you. She noticed my car and worried that something may have been wrong over here. I told her not to worry because her assistant chef would still be keeping her company today.”

Stephen watched his father walk out of the kitchen in search of his briefcase. Stephen slid off the chair and followed, remembering to slide his hand back into his pant pocket. His father stopped at the basement door, put his hand on the doorknob, shook his head, and released the knob before going on to the living room.

Stephen knew the uglies would again be glued onto the wood box unable to cause any problem. The uglies could use their magic only at night. Wherever they were, at dawn the uglies would be swept up in a chill breeze and returned to the box. During the day they would also be unable to defend themselves.

The boy wondered whether his allegiance to his mother or to his father should take priority. Momma couldn’t touch things in her son’s world. She needed Stephen’s help. Dad was fine but seemed at times to be working at odds with his mother’s wishes. And why was Momma so angry? She’d never talk about it. But she didn’t like his dad anymore, and that made Stephen sad.

“Let’s go,” shouted Jacob, halting at the door to see his son standing in the hall without shoes or socks. “Didn’t you bring all yours clothes down into the kitchen like I asked?”

Stephen nodded.

“Then where are your shoes and socks?”

“In the kitchen with my jacket.”

Jacob swept the boy off his feet and into the kitchen.

“I can’t let you go to school half naked.”

“Dad, I’m only missing my shoes and socks. During the summer you always let me walk around barefoot.”

“The teachers wouldn’t approve. Think about what your grandmother says when you’re barefoot.”

Stephen giggled.

“She calls me Lil’ Abner. You still haven’t found that cartoon strip so’s I can know what I look like.”

“Look in the mirror and you’ll know what you look like.”

“Nah, I want to see the way Grandma sees me.”

Jacob finished tying the laces of Stephen’s shoes and lifted the boy off the kitchen chair.

“Do I really look like a cartoon, Dad?”

“You look like your mom. And that’s good. That makes you …”

“Pretty?” Stephen made a face.

“Handsome.” Jacob stood back to view Stephen and lifted a brow. “Very handsome. All the hearts you’ll break.”

“I don’t want to break anyone’s heart, honest.”

“Then you won’t. Let’s go.”

“The boy is very stupid,” said the giant bird
.

“Innocent, not stupid,” corrected the gargoyle
.

“Stupid. Innocent. They are both the same,” said the bird
.

“He’s but a child,” hissed the snake, wishing he were still inside the wooden box instead of stuck to the outside of the box. He could move even during the day when he lived inside the box
.

“A stupid, innocent child,” murmured the dwarf. “And all of you have been quite cruel to him.”

“What? You were the first to break his flesh.” The gargoyle hated hypocrisy
.

“I only helped. Someone had to do something. We couldn’t all stare at him and wait ‘til he stabbed his own hand. He wasn’t about to do that. Oh, no, not he. Momma’s boy he is.”

The uglies facing the window were uncomfortable. The sun rose strong that morning and would grow warmer and brighter as the day wore on. Already several uglies squinted. A quiet bird with two heads had tucked each head under a wing. The uglies away from the window remained bored
.

“I scented the father this morning at the door of the basement.” The dog with the head of a man sniffed the air again. “But he’s gone now. The little one must have stopped Father from coming down to destroy us. I worried just before the sun came up as I was drawn back to the box that we might be destroyed before we did our mistress’ bidding. We are here for her.”

“Who is she?” said the dwarf. “A third rate witch. I’ve worked for better. I worked with witches who had a true passion for blood and killed or maimed entire families. Entire countries even.”

“Don’t lie,” hissed the black snake. Indignantly the dwarf tried to raise his ax, but it was firmly glued to the box. The black snake managed to stretch up to the dwarf’s ear
.

“Entire countries, comrade? Your ax can barely bloody a little boy.”

“If I were free you’d be in tiny bits.” The dwarf snarled
.

“The fire. We must stoke the fire tonight before Father comes home.” The gargoyle had been sitting, planning the task that would be theirs tonight
.

“Better than this idiot’s ax.” The snake flicked out its tongue to tease the ear of the dwarf
.

“We are one tonight,” the gargoyle reminded the other uglies. “We work together. No one can say he did more or less. The work is divided equally.”

“And who will keep the boy out of trouble?” asked the bird with the large beak
.

“His mother will care for her progeny. We need not ask her to. She’ll keep the boy close to her so he doesn’t hear the screams. She will pull him into her own world.”

“She will take her son to the world of the dead?”

“Only briefly.”

“Death is not brief,” the bird with the large beak said. “Death is forever.”

“Do you care whether he comes back?” asked the gargoyle
.

The uglies chuckled with delight except for the dwarf
.

“We need the boy more than the witch now. I care where the boy is and will protect him for my own sake.”

“Even against his mother?”

“Especially against the woman who rules us.”

“How? We owe our existence in this world to her.”

“I owe her only revenge. Then I am free to rule my own conjuror.”

“The boy’s soul is not black enough to listen to you,” said the gargoyle
.

“We’ll see. Yes, when the night comes the boy’s soul is frail. Already the mother has confused his world with her petty pleas. Her revenge is but a token. We are capable of much more.” The dwarf’s eyes flashed briefly
.

“We’ll not follow you,” the snake said, and hissed softly in the quiet of the basement
.

“Who would you follow?” The dwarf’s head dipped slightly toward the black snake
.

“The gargoyle leads us this night,” said the dog with the head of a man. “There’ll be no arguing. You two should work out what problems you have separate from us. You both drain our energy, leaving us frailer than we should be.”

“You’re a mystery to me,” the dwarf said to the dog with the man’s head. “What were you before coming here?”

“A god,” answered the dog
.

Gasps flooded from the mouths of the demons
.

“I’ve heard of the Anubis having the body of a man and the head of a jackal, but never have heard of a god looking like you.” The dwarf used his ax to gently scratch his head
.

“I didn’t look like this, fool.”

The dwarf puffed up and blustered out several curses. If a snake could shake with laughter, then the black snake quivered his skin in that same manner
.

The gargoyle dragged its body over to the fracas
.

“Be still. It doesn’t matter what any of us were in a former life. Now we are spirits residing in the shape our mistress chose for us.”

“Do you think she gave much thought to what she was doing?” asked the snake
.

“She gave us a way to exist. I’m sure none of us want to return to nothingness.”

“Not me,” said the dog
.

“Certainly not you,” said the dwarf. “A god turned into nothingness. Whoever heard of that? After all the sacrifices and gifts which were laid at your feet, you had to be very lonely in the limbo from which we came. Were the virgins truly virgin? Did the hearts taste as sweet as they’re supposed to? Or were you a minor god satisfied with chickens and sheep?”

“Quiet!” The gargoyle’s voice stayed low but hard-edged
.

The demons settled back into their own private thoughts and slept the day away
.

“Don’t worry; the boy can sleep over if you’re going to be really late,” said Grannie Smith over the telephone.

Stephen rushed over to the woman and begged to speak to his father. She handed him the receiver immediately.

“I can’t stay over. I gotta be back with you tonight.”

“Wow! You must have been standing right next to Mrs. Rosen. You eavesdropping on our telephone calls?” Jacob asked.

“No, Dad. Grannie Smith doesn’t mind my listening to her calls. At least she never said she did.”

Mrs. Rosen chucked the boy under the chin.

“Yeah, well, some things you don’t have to be told. It’s just polite to give people some privacy.”

Stephen hunkered close to the phone to whisper.

“Do I have to apologize?”

“I’m sure Grannie Smith knows you didn’t mean any harm. I should be able to pick you up just about at bedtime. That okay with you?”

“Sure. I can’t stay over here. I want to be with you.”

“Don’t worry, son, I’m not going to leave you.”

Stephen spent the rest of the afternoon worrying. The uglies could now peel themselves off the box when the sun went down. The wax from his candle had melted their bond to the box, and his blood and flesh had given them the incentive to seek out more nourishment. He didn’t trust his dad not to go into the cellar to remove the box from the table. What if the box were thrown into the garbage can at the curb? The uglies would be able to rampage the neighborhood. Pets and small children would be their favorite victims.