Mother's Voice

  ****

  On Halloween morning, Katie was called to a house in a rougher section of the city; not allowing her to stay home and relax as she had planned. Katie’s friend Merrily, the owner of a new-age bookshop, often referred people to Katie and that was where most of her work came from. Merrily told her that the woman who had come into the shop earlier that morning was too scared to go home, but would meet Katie in front of her house. Katie passed several boarded up shops and more than a few abandoned houses on the way to the house on Borbeck Avenue. When she arrived, a frail older woman met her in the driveway.

  “Something bad is in there,” the woman told her. “Something real bad. I can’t go back in there. Not till it’s gone.”

  “Do you know what it is? Someone you knew?” Katie asked her.

  “Can’t rightly tell, but whatever it is wants me dead. Last night, I woke up and this thing was hovering at the side of my bed, its face as close to mine as it could get without actually touching me. I woke up and saw its eyes, and I knew at that moment what hell is like.”

  Katie didn’t like this at all. This was going to be a bad one. She pulled out the small satchel of salt that she kept in her patchwork bag, and hoisted the rest of the contents over her shoulder.

  “Stay here,” Katie told the woman.

  “I’ll pray for you,” the woman called after her.

  The smell of human feces assaulted Katie’s nose the minute she opened the door. The hair on her arms stood on end, and she had a terrible, empty feeling deep inside her. She entered the kitchen and an awful, deep laugh filled the room. Katie grabbed a handful of salt and said out loud, “Your time has come. You have hurt enough people in life and in death. Your time is now. By all that is good in this world, I command you to show yourself.” The smell of feces grew stronger and Katie gagged, trying very hard not to vomit. She saw a black, shapeless substance floating toward her from the living room. She quickly made a circle out of the salt and stepped inside. The black shape stopped where the salt circle began, and it started to take shape. A rough outline of a man began to form. Hate filled eyes formed and bore into Katie’s skull, and she was sent images of a child being molested, of the woman outside being burned with cigarettes, and of a man in a dark alley being beaten. Katie shut the images out and fought back with her own good memories. She remembered her sister taking her to the first day of kindergarten, her mother knitting dolls out of yarn for her to play with, and of times spent at her grandparents’ farm in Kentucky with her uncle Charlie, who liked pretending he was afraid of Katie and who would run away from her up the mountain paths whenever she tried to get near him. These thoughts made her smile, and the awful images in her head receded. She took a satchel of herbs from her bag and held them in her hand. She reached for the black shape, distracting it with the herbs, which it was afraid of for the briefest of moments until realizing there was nothing in the bag that could hold it. Before it could focus its attentions back on Katie, she threw salt on the spirit and willed the horsemen to come. The thing writhed in her grasp, but could not get away. It tried to cut Katie with its claws, but could only reach her arms because it was the only part of her outside the circle. She heard the gates of hell opening up around her, and heard her mother screaming again. Wails of pain and of people being tortured grew louder and louder. The air grew very hot around her.

  “This one is for you,” she said to the lone red horseman who appeared. “Take it as my offering and leave me be. I have called you, but I have something for you in return.”

  The horseman was dripping with blood and pieces of jagged flesh. His horribly deformed face studied Katie’s own. He looked from the spirit to Katie, as if contemplating which one he would take. He had large horns and long, black fingernails, and his breath on Katie was absolutely foul.

  “You can’t take me,” Katie said. “I haven’t done anything to warrant it.”

  The horseman laughed, baring fangs and dripping drool upon the floor.

  “I can call the others,” Katie told him. “I know they would protect me.”

  The red horseman drew a spear from the saddle of his steed. The thing in Katie’s grasp struggled even more and began biting at Katie’s arms, drawing blood.

  “He offers me blood,” the horseman said. “Innocent blood. A sacrifice to let him go. A promise of more blood to be shed.”

  Katie closed her eyes and called the golden horsemen.

  “I am an innocent,” she said aloud, “I’ve done your service and implore protection. The red ones seek to break their bond.”

  A flash of white light was followed by a rumbling. The sound of hooves running feverishly was heard and a Golden Horseman appeared behind Katie. He drew no weapon, but simply looked at the red horseman.

  “You golden bastards think you rank above us,” the red horseman said. “You think serving Him will protect you. You forget He once knew us as well. You forget we were once favored. Bah! You aren’t even worth fighting. I will take the offered spirit.”

  At that, the red horseman dismounted his horse and grabbed the black creature out of Katie’s grasp, tearing it in half. Black ectoplasm spilled upon the floor. The creature cried out in pain. The Red Horseman took out five spikes, and nailed the two halves of the creature to his horse. He mounted the horse and was gone.

  Katie turned to the golden horseman, about to thank him, but he was gone. She heard the front door open and the woman came running in.

  “Is it gone?” She asked Katie. “I heard a terrible ruckus. You okay young lady?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. The spirit is gone,” Katie said, slumping to the floor.

  “Thank you,” the woman said, kneeling and handing Katie a cloth. “You’ve got something on your face.”

  “Thanks.”

  After resting on the woman’s couch for a while, Katie felt well enough to drive.

  “Please, at least let me cook you dinner,” the woman said.

  “No, thank you,” Katie said. “I’d like to go see my sister now.”

  “You’ve done a wonderful thing tonight.”

  “It’s what I was meant to do.”