Let It Slip

Part IV

Bone weary and exhausted, Hilda Spellman stumbled up the front stairs of the Mortuary and was caught by Dr. Cee's strong grasp around her waist. Smiling lovingly over her shoulder at him, she squinted into the sun of the next morning, having worked all night in the bowels of The Archives to upload and catalog the new shipment of Truth. Ready for a cup of tea and her bed, Hilda quickly swept into the foyer of the house and moved directly into the kitchen, tossing her coat over a nearby stool and flicking the kettle on.

Pushing off the kitchen counter with a large yawn, Hilda started preparing a quick breakfast to bring to Zelda on her way to bed. Putting some bread in the toaster, Hilda placed Zelda's favourite marmalade on a tray along with a thick slice of butter, a knife, and a small bowl of blackberry yoghurt. The kettle screamed and she poured steaming hot water into two teacups, hers full of sugar and milk, and Zelda's black with two tea bags. Grabbing the handles of the tray, she made her way upstairs.

"Zelds?" Hilda toed the half-open door the rest of the way and gasped loud enough for Dr. Cee to poke his head out of the bathroom, toothbrush between his teeth.

Surveying the mess on her sister's carpet, Hilda rushed to put the tray down, her head turning wildly between the stained family portrait and the water and ash stain on the floor, "Zelda?!"

Dr. Cerberus rushed into the room in his boxers and nightshirt, "What is it Hilda? ...where's Zelda?"

Hilda rushed past him and down the hall yelling for her sister, popping her head into the bathroom, the guest room, her knitting room, Cerberus' small library, and finally into Sabrina's old room. Hilda felt her heart tighten, she had avoided this room ever since Sabrina's death and by the thick dust coating everything it seemed that Zelda had as well. The worry for her sister superseded any other emotion she might have felt about seeing Sabrina's room and Hilda quickly moved back into the hall and slammed the door shut.

Rushing down the stairs, Hilda stopped short and felt Dr. Cee, who had been close behind, bump into her, "What is it my love?"

Hilda frowned and held her hand up as if silencing her beloved would help her process what she was seeing at the bottom of the stairs. A small blood stain hid itself in the red Persian carpet but Hilda could see it from that angle and right beside it was a small metal cylinder. Walking down the stairs, the younger Spellman picked up the metal cylinder and gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

"The implant?" Dr. Cerberus' question was rhetorical, the confusion and shock of seeing something that had been a part of his sister-in-law's body for so long just laying on the floor. "What in the demon's name is going on??"

Hilda held the implant in her hand and closed her eyes, murmuring an ancient revealing spell and suddenly she saw Zelda, tripping on the runner, plunging down the stairs, and crumpling at the bottom. Tears shimmered at her closed lids as she watched her broken sister calling for Baron Samedi, begging for Sabrina's life, then giving up her own. Her eyes flying open, Hilda ran out the front door and down the stairs, her bewildered husband lumbering after her. In the cemetery, Hilda fell to her knees at the fresh mound of soil nestled between the graves of Sabrina Spellman and Sabrina Morningstar.

"NO. No, no, no, no!" The implant fell into the dirt as Hilda clawed at the soil, digging deep, pulling it up and over her lap, tossing it onto her nieces' graves.

"Hilda...what-?" Dr. Cee grimaced to see his wife in pain.

"Zelda's here! Help me." Hilda continued to dig frantically, remembering all of the times she'd been killed and buried in the Cain pit - how awful and suffocating it had been, deep down in the Earth.

Dr. Cee jogged over to the tool shed at the corner of the cemetery and retrieved two shovels, returning to hand one to Hilda. The pair started digging carefully, spearing the earth and dumping the soil on the side. After some time, the former demon-possessed Dr. Cee, whose possession had left behind the benefit of also being mostly immortal, reached out to stop Hilda; "That's six feet my love, she wouldn't be buried any deeper than that."