This choice: Get Rosalie to make the call • Go Back...Chapter #96Giving a Witch What She Wants by: Seuzz   You glance over your shoulder: the crowds are thinner around the back of the bandstand. You slip your hand into Rosalie's--she jumps a tiny bit--and throw your cloak over Grandmother. Rick has had you practice smuggling lots of things under your cloak, and you're pretty sure you can get Rosalie out. As long as she's quiet. "Don't talk," you whisper in her ear, and squeeze her hand. She shifts a little in apparent surprise, but follows.
Slowly you sidle backwards out the bandstand, winding your way through the open spaces in the crowd. When you're clear of the crowd, you and Rosalie vanish into the dark.
"What is it, Aunt Sarah," Rosalie asks when you stop just around the corner of the bank.
"I'm not your Aunt Sarah, Rosalie," you reply in a low voice. "It's me. Nick Martin. Or Will Prescott, whichever name you prefer." Rosalie looks back at you dumbly. "You know, the shapeshifting Stellae you met in Saratoga Falls."
"How did you get out of the church?" she asks in a quiet voice.
"I didn't. That's Joe in there. He told you he was me, but it's Joe. I've been sneaking around all day trying to find you. Making a total clusterfuck of things, too. Your grandmother has a lot of nasty surprises in this town. Now listen, I need your help."
"Help?" she says faintly.
"Yes, help!" You remind yourself she's very new at this, and utterly terrified of her grandmother. "Can you run the phone exchange? Make a call out?"
"Molly showed me once," she stammers. "She's very sweet."
"Good. Call this number." You give her Rick's cell. "Tell the man who answers that you have a message from the squirt. The squirt, okay? Tell him I need Godzilla and a rickshaw, and I need them yesterday."
"Godzilla and a rickshaw?"
"Exactly. Squirt needs Godzilla and a rickshaw, inside the church." You squeeze her forearm. "Will you do that for me? I'm counting on you."
"I don't know, Mr. Martin," she stammers.
"Will," you correct her. "My real name is Will Prescott. I'm actually a cousin of yours. I really want to get you out of this, Rosalie, safely away from your grandmother."
"I won't ever be able to get away from her," she says sadly.
"Of course you will. I got away from someone nasty myself. Please, Rosalie. All you have to do is make that phone call. I'll keep your grandmother distracted."
She hesitates, then nods. You touch her shoulder and send her along.
Your little code should tell Rick the message is on the level. And "Godzilla" should really piss Miko off. You think you'll want her mad.
* * * * *
Someone has fetched a chair in the meantime, and Grandmother is sitting in it, leaning forward against her canes, staring ahead at nothingness. You wonder what's passing through her head. Anger? Naturally. Malicious plots? Certainly. Fear? You can hope.
Ten minutes she'd given you to come forward. You've likely got two minutes left. Do you surrender? What will she do if do? You know what she'll do to Joe if you don't. She only has to say the word--
But what if she doesn't say the word? What if she fell asleep, and couldn't be woken up?
Perfect. And as Aunt Sarah, you can get close.
No one stops you as you approach the great, bloated witch. If you could just touch her at the neck or shoulder, as though laying a supplicating hand there. But she's bundled up against the cold, with a rough cloth and shawl. Her fat but gnarled hands are resting her lap, however. You only have to lay your palm there.
You come up to her shoulder. She doesn't respond. You lean over to whisper in her ear. You put your hand out, and bring up the sigil.
Her other hand strikes like a viper, seizing your wrist in a vise-like grip. Her head shifts. "Got you!" she hisses. She wrenches your hand over, revealing the dimly glowing sigil. "Grab her!" she cries. "Grab Sarah!"
You wriggle, and bring your other hand up, but she is strong, far stronger than you would ever have guessed, and you can't get a palm onto her. Strong hands seize you at the shoulders and waist. You twist and shut your eyes, lunging for Phil Dawes's imago again. Briefly, you feel hands falling off you. But then they are over you again, and someone kicks your feet away, and you fall with many bodies crushing you beneath.
* * * * *
They bind you and carry you over their heads into the church, whose sanctuary is now dimly lighted. They push the pulpit aside and drop you through the trapdoor like a sack. You discover that hitting the floor like a big guy hurts a lot more than hitting it like a small girl. It's another minute or so before three more join you: Oliver Gibson, and Neddie and Adam Shabbleman; strong but misshapen youths. You do a little double take at Neddie: He has a volcanic sprout of hair spurting out his bullet-shaped skull. Jesus, he turned out ugly. They push you along, down the steps. The set-up is the same, though the participants are different. Nate and the skin-wearer, still unconscious, have been shoved into a corner; Alvin Shabbleman is standing guard in the middle of the room; and a very bemused-looking Joe is inside that little jail cell.
"Howdy, Joe," you say with a little nod of your head. "Turns out Rick had some different travel plans for me."
"Howdy, Will," he replies. "I kinda figured he might. Nice dress," he adds, for you're still in Aunt Sarah's one piece.
"You two shut yer yaps," Oliver says. He looks around. "Granny said Nate'd have it on him," he mutters.
"It's the ring on his right hand," you say. "It's like a broadcast tower. Grandmother can see and hear everything that goes on down here. If you put it on, she'll be able to talk to you." Oliver frowns at you. "You'll be able to hear her, too. I think. I couldn't hear her when she was talking to Nate earlier."
Oliver stares at you, then gives a curt nod. "Much obliged." He looks at the others, and they break into guffaws as he slips the ring from Nate's finger. You give Joe a poker-faced look. He returns you a poker-faced look of his own.
Oliver is frowning again, and he twiddles the ring on his finger. "What's that, Grandmother? I can't--" He twiddles some more. "Okay." He turns to the others. "Grandmother says to put that one--" He jerks his chin at you. "--inna't chair."
You try not to show fear as they press you rudely into it. This looks like it for you, but you're not going to show any fear in front of Joe. If Rick and Miko get here too late to save you, you want Joe to be able to tell them that you died as a Stellae should.
You assume they don't scream for mercy.
They cut your cords and strap you in. That done, they stop. Oliver frowns some more. "Are you sure?" he says, then winces and shrugs. "Okay, boys," he says. "Open her up." He nods at the cell. The others stare back blankly for a moment, then shuffle over to let Joe out. Then they step inside the cell and pass Joe the key and the ring. He locks them in, then steps over to you.
"Joe?" you ask, and now there is a quaver in your voice.
"Don't shit yourself, Prescott," he says as he undoes the straps. "You did perfect. That time with Rick's done you good. Speaking of whom--" He taps you on shoulder. "Come on. Him and Miko are upstairs."
You blink, but follow at a trot up the steps. "What the fuck's going on," you ask. "Grandmother's gonna--"
"Viritrilbia and Arbol, Prescott," he sighs. "Light and illusion and ventriloquism. Soon as you told me about the ring I knew what to do. I know how such things work. Witch Hazel's seeing what I want her to see, and that fella heard what I wanted him to hear." You reach the ladder, and he pats you on the ass. "Up you go."
The first thing you see as your head pops out the trapdoor is Rick's hand; he grabs you and pulls you up. You do a double take, for Joe's here too, standing next to Miko. But as you watch, he vanishes. But only briefly, for Rick pulls him out of the basement next.
"How'd you get here so fast, Rick?" you ask.
"We snuck in after dark," he says. "Been watching from the roof of the bank for the last hour. We can get out through that window there. With the whole town in the square it shouldn't be a problem."
"What about Rosalie?" you ask.
"Is that the girl who called me Godzilla?" Miko hisses.
"I just told her what to say. We have to get her out."
"She's one of them, Prescott," Joe says in a stony voice. "She's picked her side."
"Yeah, she picked ours," you retort. "She's the one that called Rick. And I promised we'd take her with us."
"I gotta stay here and run the projector," Joe says truculently. "You have any idea what that thing down there is supposed to be doing to you?"
You describe it; Joe and Rick don't react, but Miko sucks in a sharp, hissing breath.
"You're the only one that can get her out," Rick says. "We can come back later with reinforcements, and I'd rather do it that way. But it's your call."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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