Of the Occult

The Niece

"I should head back home now." the lady of the lake said that to Jeremy. The clouds hadn't gathered up yet, so she couldn't tell whether it would rain. Or could she? Such a mysterious girl, Jeremy thought.
"But you are lost. How will you find home?"
"I will use my power." she declared so confidently. Her smile was the prettiest after all, Jeremy thought, and he was glad he hadn't dreamt it earlier.
"Your powers of being able to see pain? How will that help you find your home?" Jeremy's face was so full of wonder, Ana couldn't help but smile some more.
But then she stood up from the floor laden with the remains of trees, brushed her pink kimono and swept her short jet black hair behind her ears. And she was off.
"Can I see you again?" Jeremy called after her.
She looked back only once, turning her head just enough for Jeremy to make out her smile.
"Depends on you, I think".
***
The rain seemed like an old lover tonight, halting on and off after every few showers. As such, the city had attained a dismal grey tone to it, the roads covered in a wet sheen and all the neon signs of shops had become as bright as a hallucination. John Daye's head shone the same way the roads did; Rebecca White's face shone bright the way the signs did. Neither had bothered to speak the first word when they were sitting beside each other in the car, and both seemed reluctant to talk even now, when they sat across each other, separated by a massive round pizza dripping cheese.
Daye silently took a sip of his coke, but inside he was apprehensive. He was worried more than he let on about the resurfacing of the old name. The Lambs. John wondered whether that family had been, after all, his greatest case and decided more than anything, not. There was nothing great about it; it had been a filthy, dirty, disgusting case and John couldn't help himself to the pizza with his thoughts haunted by the Lamb family.
Rebecca, on the other hand, despite having some connection of some kind to the Lambs, felt no aversion to eat. Pushing the wet brown tresses of hers back, she dug in, pulling a slice off the pizza and leaving a locus of cheese behind.
"What do you know about the Lambs?" John asked softly.
Rebecca, who was busy chewing now, looked at him with very round black eyes, but her mouth was too full and all she could manage was a squeaky sound. Then, she swallowed the entire thing in one go, amidst John's raising eyebrows, and replied,
"Oh, aren't they what you based your book on? Of the occult? Bloody brilliant work, if you ask me, sir."
"John is fine and thank you, but I didn't mention the Lambs by name anywhere in my book. The case is almost three years old."
"You are wondering how I know the name Lamb? Dude, John, I know all their names. Patrick Lamb and Alicia Lamb. Of course I don't know the daughter's name, I mean..."
"That’s enough"
Rebecca looked up from the task of putting peppers on her slice long enough to see John Daye gripping the table firmly. The effect only names could produce in John was surprising to Ms. White. But she didn't say anything and carried on with sprinkling oregano.
"So," asked John, "what's your age?"
"That matters how?"
"I am guessing you are nineteen?" Daye said, gravely.
Rebecca knew that hadn't really been a question, but she answered anyway.
"A couple of months shy, actually." cheese dripped from the corner of her mouth.
"So you were, what, 16 when the case got closed?"
"fifteen." she corrected him again, covering her mouth lest she sprinkle all her edibles on him.
"Okay. The only possible way you could have known their names was when it came on the newspapers three years from now. The case was only mentioned once, and I remember only one news channel ever talking about it. It wasn't well advertised. Why would a fifteen year old girl fixate on a criminal cult?"
The slurping noise that came from Rebecca's coke was so loud, Daye actually frowned from annoyance.
"Fixate? I don't understand."
"Either you knew about the cults existence from before or you recently developed an interest in it. Which is it?"
"Dude! I just like your books. I am a fan." Rebecca grinned widely.
"My book is fiction. I have mentioned that, I think. I don't see any reason someone would check the public records for a work of fiction, however big a fan you might be." so skeptical, John Daye, so humble.
Rebecca apparently had her fill now. Two slices were lying in the box, askew to each other. Daye showed no interest in them, and neither did Rebecca, who was silently dabbing a tissue to her mouth.
"Okay, I have a confession to make."
Go on," said Daye.
“I am not actually a student of Gilman's institute."
"What?"
"Hehe, yeah, I kinda just slipped in. I wanted to meet you."
"Why?"
"How did you find out about the Lambs? Three years back, I mean." Even as she ignored his question, Rebecca's eyes were looking dead center. Daye had nowhere else to look, and to be honest, he felt cramped.
"I research these things. I had been working on my book for the better half of a year, and most of my work involved learning as much as I could about those pyros. I even attended a few meetings, got to know some of them. Never got close to Alicia Lamb, she was, so to speak, at the top of the food chain."
"Cool, I am Alicia Lamb's niece."
John Daye visibly shook. But this made sense to him now, yes, of course it did. No wonder the fifteen year old Rebecca had been fixated by her Aunt's insanity. But it still wasn't enough. John needed more explanation. Luckily, Rebecca seemed to comply.
"Honestly, my name is Claudia Lamb. But my uncle and aunt ruined my family name, so I guess I wanted to not associate myself with them. You know what the worst part was though? I could never tell. I used to come over to my Aunt's all the time, and be completely oblivious to the kind of people they were. Worshipping fire at night is one thing, but to be so insane as to believe that burning their own daughter would... "
John gripped the table again and Rebecca looked down.
"I am Rebecca White now. And, honestly, I am depressed. M fucking depressed. Who can you trust in this world, John? My uncle and aunt were always nice to me, but they were animals inside. Savages."
John wondered how much hate had the "a few months shy of nineteen" year old girl had in herself and how much more she needed to vent.
"So yeah, I had to meet you." Rebecca continued, "You are sort of my hero, you see? You ripped their mask off and showed the world who they really were. And yet, you didn't do enough. Not nearly enough. You might have gotten all information about the fire cult, but you know nothing of the Lambs."
"What do you mean?" John asked sharply.
"About five years back, Alicia and Patrick Lamb were trying. But they couldn't conceive; for some reason they couldn’t have a baby. And even I knew they were trying so hard, because my mother would sometimes talk about it over the phone and I would overhear. Every time I would go over to my Aunt's, she would tell me she wished she had a daughter like me. And I researched okay, I found out from my mom, from their doctors, from their friends. At one point, their case was so hopeless; it was impossible for them to have a baby."
John was looking steadily more horrified by every word.
"And yet, in a year, my aunt was pregnant."
"No. What are you saying exactly?"
"I am saying you didn't research properly, Mr. Daye. I am saying my Aunt and Uncle aren't the only evil in this world."
And Rebecca dove to her bag, bringing out her laptop in an instant. As the laptop booted, she looked at the wrinkles on Daye's face and said,
"Do you know about the deep web?"
What kind of question was that? Yes he knew, but why was she even asking him that? John nodded, but he felt very very uncomfortable now. He could feel him descending back to the days when he was writing his book, and that scared him. That scared him so. Moreover, wasn't it illegal to access the deep web? In the one hour he had spent with Rebecca, he had already been part of a crime. In truth, two, for hadn't she said she had sneaked into the university? John was sweating and was glad his head was already cool from the rain.
Presently, Rebecca spun the laptop to face him. Looking at the darkest most secretive part of the Internet, Daye felt a knot in his stomach.
"If you can look past the child porn, assassins for hire and what not, there are other services available in the deep web. Services of the more, shall we say, mystical sort. There are people in today's world who still believe in magic. I mean, why wouldn't they, when every movie and every book and every religion humans make is to objectify the belief in miracles. People want to believe in magic, John, and so they do. And here on the deep web, there are people who offer magic to the believers. Look at this."
And she opens a link. A page instantly appears.
John squinted at the page, and his eyes grew wide. Apparently there existed someone who could "heal" you. Whatever the disease, whatever the problem. Apparently this person could fix "unfixable" things.
"Okay, so I am going to bite. What has this - " John looked over at the title of the page " - 'lady of the lake' got to do with the fire cult and the Lambs?"
"I would think you would be able to make the connection."
"I want to hear it from you", Daye said.
"Fine. So when the doctors couldn't help Alicia to conceive, nor prayers, where do you think my Aunt went?"
Of course, John knew. And suddenly he wondered how many facts had his book not covered. Of course, Alicia Lamb, desperate to have a child, sunk to levels as low as this. The person who could fix "unfixable" things. The person who could "heal" you. The lady of the lake.
John finally helped himself to a now cold piece of pizza. He had work to do.