Precious Anathema (16 page)

“
This is
Bullshit
! Do you hear me
you
freaky
ass
shadow of a
cowardly
man!
Show
yourself
to
me
!” I
had found my breaking point as I let my body fall to the floor and
sobbed, the tears ran down my face as I began to howl, and the
smell in the hall became a weird mix of melting wires and hair all
at once. My eyes began to burn to the point of almost not being
able to open them, and then I felt it a hot, tingly sensation on my
scalp. I put my hand on my head and quickly pulled it away
screaming, my hair had caught on fire! I jumped from the floor
waving my hands frantically through the rats nest. I ran, I wasn’t
thinking because I was on fire, I just continued to hit myself in
the head and scream, it was so hot and my scalp was screaming as
loudly as I was. I passed a door that looked like a boys locker
room and ran inside to find the nearest toilet, just as I had hoped
I ran into the stall and gave myself the first swirly of my life, I
could actually hear the fire go out and sizzle in the cold water. I
picked my head up looking at the clumps of burned hair in the
toilet and threw up, not a little bit either the combination of
running too much, swallowing to much mucus from crying and anxiety
made me heave like never before, strange sounds echoed from the
dirty toilet every time my mouth opened letting stomach acid and
mucus fly out. Dirty, old toilet water ran down my back, dripping
from my hair. It was dripping from my hair? I threw my hands up and
realized my scalp was burning at all as my hands found themselves
immersed in a giant rat’s nest of fire red hair. I sat on the cold
floor and yelled into the ceiling trying not to laugh at
myself.

“
Flaming red hair, are you
kidding me right now?” One of my biggest hiccups about myself had
always been the flaming red mop of hair I carried, and the curse
got into my head again and used it against me. I started looking at
my spaghetti legs, and giant thighs shaking my head. As long as I
knew what was coming I could stay ahead of it. I stood up seeing a
towel hanging on a locker, it was really quite remarkable how
precise each of these rooms were right down to the sweaty jock
strap on a bench, I laughed in spite of myself and my situation, it
didn’t have to be a nightmare if I didn’t let it. I took the white
towel and began drying my hair as I walked to the old mirror glued
to the wall. I looked like death, pale skin, dark grey circles had
turned into my face and my swollen red eyes and nose from all this
crying made it seem that I had died from a coke overdose at that. I
turned a faucet on and cupped some water to drink, it tasted like
something I once smelled in New Jersey, but it was cold and wet so
I drank as much as my stomach could handle, went back to the stall
to pee and then began rummaging through lockers for something more
comfortable to wear, a white wife beater type tank top and some
basketball shorts made me feel better about the running I
anticipated coming in my near future, an inside pocket fit my knife
as I stepped back out in the hall and kept on my path. Each hall
looked like the one I had just left, each turn was a twin to
another, even rock formations began to look familiar to me, but I
knew it was just to confuse me into thinking I was heading back to
the beginning, and to a point it worked too. I started thinking
about time, I knew it had been more than a few hours since I went
down the stairs, but I had no way of knowing how time worked here
for all I knew I had been gone for an hour, a day, or a month and
that thought almost sent me into a full on panic attack as I kept
moving forward. I knew that I couldn’t use my magic in here after
the spider incident, but there had to be a way out, a loophole,
every spell had one and I just needed to put my thoughts together
and crack this one. Freya had mentioned that the souls had to be
released, but I had to know how to get out releasing anything, and
I also had to convince them I was not the evil bitch that sent them
here before they figured out a way to kill me, I certainly had my
work cut out for me.

FOURTEEN

Exhaustion and mental
fatigue set in just as I came across a room I recognized, walking
inside I took a deep breath and made my way to my old bed, flopping
across my favorite comforter and smelling the only laundry soap my
mother ever used made my face tingle with heat and blood as I took
my first real breath in hours. I rolled over and grabbed a pillow;
this seemed to be as good a place as any to take a nap. I would be
safe in here, as safe as I could be since my brain said too bad to
the fear and my eyes began to close. There was no drifting off to
sleep, it was quick and almost violent that I fell asleep so fast,
I saw Eris, pacing through the dining room, she looked so scared.
Selene was sitting at the table and looked like she had been
crying, the Aunts were talking quietly with Freya, and then I saw
Xander. Fists clenched, glaring at Selene. I could hear every word
like I was in the room, and I thought for a moment I
was
in the room. Kali
slammed a fist on the table and Selene began to howl.

“
Selene tell us
exactly
why you
thought
this would
be
funny
to send
her
into
the
labyrinth, a
spell
no one has
ever
cracked, a place
none
of us would
ever
step foot because we have no
idea
just how
bad
it is, tell me right
now
what part of
that
seemed
funny!” Selene put her head down on the table and kept crying
as she answered her mother, I stepped closer to the table to make
sure I could hear everything.

“
If I had known that the
stories were true and not just some creepy ass bedtime story to
keep us in line I never would have sent her down the stairs I
swear, we don’t like each other but I never would have sent her to
her death.” She put her head back down and howled as everyone took
a seat around the table. Freya captured the room as she began to
admit to her involvement and knowledge of the spell.

“
My mother was the last
woman to send a man into the labyrinth, Grace Women used it as a
form of torture, revenge, a means to an end for much longer than
any of us could imagine. The last man she sent to his death was
Delilah’s father when she found out that there was not only a baby
coming, but that he knew too much about our family. I didn’t know
until he had been sent down for a bottle of wine and I couldn’t go
after him or I wouldn’t be here today. As a child I had witnessed
her send many men into the hell and never come out. No one has ever
come out.” Eris stood up with tears running over her
face.

“
You have always told us
that you never really spent much time here though, Mom were you
lying to us all these years, have you ever sent a man to hell?”
Carna shook her head but wouldn’t look at Eris.

“
We spent many years in
this house, until your great grandmother crossed a line, well we
thought she crossed a line until we knew the truth but it was too
late and I lost a daughter. We left this house and swore we would
never come back, but my mother vanished, some of us believe she
walked into the basement herself unable to handle her grief, but no
one really knows what happened to her.” Eris sat back down but
wouldn’t look at anyone. Freya stood up and walked to the window,
not looking back as she spoke.

“
I thought that by leaving
this house, leaving my mother and taking my daughters side would
show her how much I loved her and she wouldn’t run, but then we
found out the bigger reason why my mother did what she did.” Kali
stood up to walk away, and Freya quickly put a hand out to her,
throwing her back into her seat.

“
Freya, don’t please don’t
do this Mom, I’m begging you.” She was pleading, but Freya kept
talking as Carna took her sisters hand.

“
He had been sneaking
around this house with for years waiting for the girls to be old
enough, and one by one he would use a different name and shape that
he knew they couldn’t resist. He would only come around at night,
saying he would meet everyone else in time, knock up my girls and
run. He tricked both Carna and Kali, and only came back a few years
later because his plan was to have a baby with each of my
daughters, he came from a very powerful family with dark powers and
when he knocked up the last of my girls she felt that his kind of
evil had to be banished, so she waited until the right moment to
catch him sneaking out of the house, and tricked him into the
basement.” Even I gasped at the anvil that Freya had just tossed on
all of us. Eris and Selene looked at one another and I put my hands
to my face, they were not my cousins at all, we were all sisters
and the man that I met was evil. Freya looked at the girls and sat
back down. “Your Aunt, Delilah’s mother believed that your mothers
had known and kept it from her, that’s why she left us. She wasn’t
against magic before this happened, she was a very powerful witch
and she knew it. She would not believe any of us, she thought she
was in love with him and nothing we said made it any easier for
her. The truth is that none of your mothers knew they were under a
spell, none of them knew what he was or what he was trying to do
until it was too late.” The room was silent, even Selene couldn’t
play it cool with this news. The girls looked at their mothers,
crying and refusing eye contact. I couldn’t take much more of this
wicked right now, this was the worst dream I had ever had. I walked
over to my Aunts, I wished I could hug them right now I had barely
bent down when my hand brushed Kali’s shoulder and she jumped out
of her chair screaming.

“
Ella is
here
! I just
felt
her; she found a
way to
us
!” Kali
turned and I thought she was looking at me; she smiled and closed
her eyes. I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, I jumped and she
stood behind me smiling.

“
Oh Kali, it’s horrible!” I
threw my arms around her and began sobbing and babbling. “It is so
much worse than anything that we were told, and
he
is down there too,
he
told me he was my Dad
and
he
knew about
the curse.
He
also said there is a real man still alive down there, caught
in some time rip from the curse. I am so scared; we have to find a
way to get me out.” Kali held me and rubbed a hand over my hair
before pushing my shoulders away to get a look at me, she took a
deep breath and a tear fell down her cheek as her hands begin to
shake holding my shoulders.

“
Ella, honey I need to find
a way in. The only way we can get you out is if we know what we are
up against. If you can get out I should be able to get in, even if
it’s only for a minute or two at a time.” She looked scared, and I
didn’t blame her, she didn’t want to go to hell as much as I wanted
out. She wrapped her arms around me. “Go back now honey, I will be
with you soon and I am sorry but try to stay away from your father,
he is pure evil and he will try to manipulate you to get his way
and it could mean your death.” She let go of me and I jumped out of
the bed I was laying on. I knew now that I had to stop thinking of
things as real down here in hell. This was not my bed, not my room
and he was not my Dad. I thought that staying put was the best for
now; I had gone over the events in the house a million times unable
to process the level of disgust and hatred I felt toward a man that
I shared DNA with. What made it worse as I cried was knowing that
my whole life I had imagined a great Dad, a man that would have
taken me to Father, Daughter dances and scared boys before a date.
Truth was a little much to swallow right now. I put my hair up in a
messy bun and looked at the doorway, I had to stop being Delilah
for a while, I started thinking, ‘what would Selene do’ and I
walked out into the hall. Standing in the abandoned
hell
-
way
I screamed to let everyone know
I was coming.

“
FUCK
YOU
HELL,
I
WIN!” I started running with the
spirit of a stallion and the courage of a lion; unfortunately I
still had the grace of Ella and tripped over something landing
directly onto my face. Thanked the heavens no one watching and
picked myself up off the ground.

“
Nice
one,
where
did you learn
that
move?” I stopped moving, the voice behind me was
too young to be my Dad, and was male leaving only one possibility.
I couldn’t turn around as I slowly swallowed some vomit and stood
up, back to him.

“
To
whom
do I owe the honor?” I asked
before I could stop myself.

“
My name is Lukin,
but
you
already
knew
that didn’t
you
?” My bloody knees were shaking under me, as my heart
screamed not to move, my brain yelled back were not scared and
against my hearts advice my feet began to move. I turned to reveal
a half-naked, beautiful man before me. Dark hair, lots of hair and
beautiful dark eyes peering at me like I was his lunch. I stopped
breathing for a moment when I saw his face change and become
sinister when he saw my face for the first time, suddenly realizing
that maybe he didn’t want to nibble on me, but cut me up and eat me
raw. I screamed and ran away having no idea where I was headed,
knowing perfectly well he knew every inch of this hell we were both
trapped in which explained why he never budged as I rounded the
corner, and also why I heard laughter as my body collided with a
dead end rock wall before me. My eyes got dark, and I felt like I
was in a tunnel for a moment, I had really run into that wall, as I
started to get my head clear I could hear slow smart-ass clapping
coming closer to me, having nowhere to go I panicked and picked up
a rock, arming myself and praying that my double vision corrected
before he caught up to me. He started talking to me as he
walked.