Do As I Say

Chapter Nine

The three followed him to the closet. He opened the door and the rotten smell intensified. Thimble grabbed his nose and groaned. Eton showed Cree the crawlspace, seemingly dug into the closet. There were books scattered about the floor around the entrance. She and Thimble were gangly enough to slip inside, Jules had to hang back. The Spellcaster took out his wand and with a clumsy flick, an orb of light emanated from the tip. The glow spilled onto the ground. Cree felt vomit rise into her throat.

A bird lay before them, dead. Its body was horribly disturbed, long gashes ripped down its chest; crusted blood spilled everywhere, maggots crawling in its eye sockets, and the stench. The entire body was crushed, probably from Eton falling on it.

"Oh god," Cree covered her mouth with her hand.

"I did not do this," Eton whimpered.

"We know. You're just a filthy rat. You're not...this." Jules wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"You may leave now," Cree glimpsed over her shoulder at Eton. He hovered for a second in the closet, apparently surprised that the group didn't want him hanging around.

"He must have been in here the whole time," Thimble noted absentmindedly as Cree inspected the bird.

"Huh," Cree thought as she motioned for Thimble to shine the light closer to the poor bird's breast.

"What?" Jules asked.

"The heart's gone." She murmured.

No one spoke. This wasn't some freak accident anymore. Did Nix murder his pet for its heart? Why?

"Look at this," Jules passed Cree a book without a title. Its cover was in rich purple with a silver border.

"We don't have time to be reading." She sighed and held it up for him to take it.

"Just read it."

Cree rolled her eyes and stood, knees cracking. She got out of the closet, along with the two boys and flipped open the text. The first page was blank. Miffed and feeling that reading old volumes was useless, Cree skipped to the middle of the book. She gasped.

"What...What is this?" The page was decorated with black and white drawings of mortals bowing to a humanoid monstrosity. It had the tongue of a snake and giant bat wings that seemed to be dripping blood. Its eyes were those of insects and its legs were those of a goat. The rest of its body was shaped like a man. The creature was wielding a staff with the head of a child at the top. Cree slammed the book shut. The image of that demon burned into her retinas and she felt more bile swarm in her throat.

What was this book? She flipped it open again, this time to a page that contained mostly writing, but also a few small illustrations. The writing talked about controlling your enemies or friends with magic. Its drawings were of a young girl stabbing a bleeding doll of who was supposed to be her friend.

Cree turned to the next page, and then the next. Now she was at a section about love potions and their benefits. Cree noticed the writing inked into the margins, from past owners perhaps? Some were written in bold, red letters, while most were written in elegant black script. She started paying more attention to the notes taken by readers of the book. Some made little sense, saying things like "Less is more" and "Every second moon will cause boils". But others left Cree feeling disturbed, "Inject lover after seven days have passed. Don't let them catch you." or "Brain deterioration starts after a full year under the potion, mind this when planning."

The three bunkered down in the room. Thimble looked through piles of clothes for any kind of clue while Jules checked out the rest of the closet along with a few odd looking books. None, however, compared to the maddening text Cree was studying. She sat with her back up against the bed post, pouring over the dark yet strangely addicting book. Cree flew through page after page of deadly spells and wicked concoctions, all the while reading every insane word printed by readers. She'd found a new set of notes in navy blue ink. The writing was clumsy and usually smudged, thus she had a hard time understanding what the words were.

"'Human rest'? No...'Human flesh'" Cree read under her breath. "'Can be taken from caster' and 'Blue blood: a...lizies'?"

"I think it says 'pixie's'. 'Lizie' isn't exactly a real thing." Jules smiled as he sat down next to her. "So what is this?" He asked.

Cree wrinkled her nose, "A book on black magic, I imagine. There's some seriously dark spells in here."

Jules scratched the back of his head, "I don't know much about magic stuff; all of my classes are on transformations and lupine things. Maybe Thimble would know something about black magic."

"You like being a werewolf?"

He shrugged, "I guess, but I haven't gone through the shift fully yet."

"Why not?"

"My instructor says I'd...better not." Jules sighed, "He thinks that because of my size, I'd be a danger to the pack."

"That's not fair; he hasn't given you a chance."

"I know! And I don't even want to be in a pack with those dumb jocks."

"Have you guys found anything yet? Or are you too busy braiding each other's hair?" Thimble grinned and walked over to where they sat. He took the book from Cree and started flipping through it.

"We were wondering if you knew anything about that." Cree said.

Thimble grimaced, "This is definitely black magic, and powerful magic to say the least. The Spellcaster teachers lecture us every once in a while about the dangers of this kind of magic. Once in a blue moon, some kid would be stupid enough to make a joke about how they should try it and we'd be doing essays on the awfulness of black magic for weeks."

"So why would somebody cast a spell or make a potion like the ones in the book?"

"The usual reasons, I guess. Lust for power, fear, self-conflict, revenge..." Thimble stopped scanning and pursed his lips.

"What is it?" Cree stood up.

"This is Nix's writing. I'd recognize it anywhere." He motioned to the words written in blue ink. Cree felt her stomach drop.

"Let me see that," She snatched the book out of his hands and flipped back to the pages she was trying to decode. She hadn't even bothered to see what the pages were actually about.

"Summoning the devil," She whispered.

The room went still.

"Or more specifically, a powerful entity skilled in demon magic," Cree shuddered as she read the subtitle.

"No," Thimble mumbled. He grabbed the book from Cree and stumbled backward, "No! This isn't Nix's! He would never do...want something like this. I know Nix, and this isn't him!"

"Thimble, give it back." Cree commanded, heart speeding up.

"No!" He cried.

Cree shouted at him, repeating the words "Hand it over! Hand it over!" until he did. Thimble began shaking violently.

"You used your powers on him!" Jules shook his head, shocked.

"I had to!" Cree cried, "He was being stupid,"

"Stupider than you?" He snapped back.

A loud thump in the hall caught their attention and Cree and Jules ran to the door. A muffled cry was heard and Cree opened the door a crack. Down the hall Eton was lying on the floor, his skin a grotesque shade of gray. Cree slammed the door and pressed her back to it.

"Did you see that?" Jules hissed.

"Where is he now?" Cree whispered back.

"What's going on, you guys?" Thimble moaned.

"Shut up!" Cree barked and drew the book close to her chest.

A shuffle sounded. The trio froze. A torn piece of paper floated slowly to the ground from a stack of books. The wind whistled in their ears. Cree's palms grew slippery.

"Miss me?"