Dark Moon - Michael Langdon

Part 37 - Aging

"What's going on with Moira?" Michael asks from his position of casually leaning against the barrier as I walk out to meet him. "All the ghosts seem to be saying goodbye to her or something."

I lean against the barrier to mirror him. "They are. A special rule applies to her bones where her soul can leave the property if the bones do. Madison is taking her to be buried by her mother."

Michael watches in interest as Moira hugs Vivien. From what I can see from both of their minds, they grew very close through the five years that Vivien spent here as a ghost. They share a few emotional words, but I tune out because I don't want to invade their privacy.

Moira leans her head against Vivien's shoulder as she begins to disappear. Within a few seconds, her body dissolves in the air, leaving Vivien alone in the middle of the yard.

I turn back to Michael as Vivien begins to tear up. "Madison should be back soon. I'll go find Marie."

He nods and I turn back to the house. As I'm walking back towards the house, I catch a glimpse of Vivien walking towards Michael. Hopefully she can talk to him for a little bit before Madison gets back.

As soon as I walk into the house, I sense Marie's presence in the basement. I transmutate down to the bottom of the basement stairs to see Marie performing a ritual in one of the side rooms. "Marie, what the hell are you doing?" I roll my eyes as I walk towards her.

She turns to me, her eyes white, but they shift back to their normal color once she catches sight of me. "Come, Esmeray. This is the perfect place to perform the spell to slow your aging."

"Are you really choosing now of all times?" I ask.

"This house is built over the portal to hell; it's the perfect opportunity for performing complicated spells that involve a great deal of dark magic."

I sigh and step towards her. I notice the circle of blood around her and carefully step into it, making sure to follow the procedure she taught me back when we practiced voodoo together. She holds out her hand and motions for me to hold out mine.

I sigh as I place my hand palm-up in hers, knowing what she needs to do. She pulls out her knife and drags it across my hand cleanly, having much practice from doing this before. She performs the rest of the ritual while I'm holding out my bloody hand.

She reaches a point where she begins repeating an incantation, and the blood flows from my hand more rapidly. She quickly flips my hand over so that my palm is facing the ground, and my blood catches on fire as soon as it contacts the ground. The fire begins to grow, but it stays under control.

I wince as I feel a searing pain in my hand from the fire beginning to reach it. I look over to Marie to see her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her arms at her sides.

Suddenly, her eyes return to normal and the fire dies out. My hand heals itself, and the only sign left of our ritual is the blood on the floor.

She sighs as she cleans the blood off of her knife. "Well?" I ask. "Did it work?"

She scoffs. "Did it work? Did you not feel that burst of energy from the fire?"

I roll my eyes. "It was hard to pay attention over the pain of my hand being burned off."

"Stop being overdramatic," she scoffs. "That fire was barely at your hand."

We transmutate up to the front walkway to meet the curious gaze of Michael. "What were you two doing in the house?" he asks. "I felt the energy from whatever spell you were performing."