Commander Henderson entered his new home, after two days of reorganizing the USCG Watch Station. He expected to find his daughter and her friend awake and exploring, but now he heard nothing. “Vicki?” he cried out. “Cindy, where are you two?”
He looked in the den; the TV was off, but setup. Next he looked in the kitchen, and found no one. He left there and climbed the stairs to the second floor. As he neared the nursery, the smell of heavily laden diapers struck him. “What were they eating,” he said to himself.
Pushing the door open he found the two girls huddled together a sleep. Both they needed a bath, badly. The bed, the bedding, the girls’ nighties, diapers and anything else was covered in their mess. He put his hand on Vicki she awoke with a scream, awakening her bed companion Cindy.
“It’s okay it’s just me.”
Vicki looked at her dad as if he was a stranger. “Vicki are you okay?”
“No, Yes, I don’t know?”
“Well could you pick one,” her dad responded. “You two go and take a bath, I’ll put the sheets in the laundry. See you at breakfast.”
With that he left the two girls got out of bed, Vicki’s father took the sheet and headed down stairs.
Vicki and Cindy looked at each other.
“Maybe a bubble bath will make up feel better,” Cindy suggested?
“It will take more than that to clean us up,” Vicki replied. They were soiled from their stomachs to their knees, the two messes mixed together to make it look worse.
The two girls slowly walked into the bathroom each taking turn stood in the tub and removed their messy clothes and then diapers. After a final rinse, the poured a nice hot bath for themselves. Vicki was adding a generous portion of Mister Bubble. As they spent time in the bath the two of them discussed what they had dreamed.
“One more experience like that and I’m leaving this place,” Vicki commented.
“I know, but what’s causing these nightmares,” Cindy questioned?
“What ever it is it’s sure scaring the shit out for us, in a literal sense.” The two girls laughed. Joking made them feel a little better, but they had no idea what might lay in store for them tonight.
Cindy asked, “Do you think your father would allow you to stay at my place?”
“We won’t know unless we ask,” Vicki said.
The girls were soon climbing down the stair where they picked up Dust Bunny.
“You have been two very messy girls these last two night, do you have the flu or something like that?”
“No we’ve just been having strange nightmares, and I think it’s giving me the runs,” Vicki said.
“Dad, Vicki asked if I could stay at Cindy’s to night?”
“If it’s okay with her parents you can, I am again working night watch and I’ll pick you up on my way home.”
“Thanks Dad, we’ll ask this morning and call you,” Vicki said.
“Okay, I’ll be putting the rest of the house together, but I we’ll keep the cordless phone near by.” “Oh, before you young ladies do anything this morning, sort out that junk in the main hall into what you want to keep, and toss, or I’ll do it for you.”
The two wanted and kept the nursery box, the steamer chest, and climbing tackle, the rest they left for Vicki’s dad to look at.
They then made their way to the Hardware store.
“Uncle Buzz,” Cindy cried over the warning bell when they entered.
“Well if it isn’t Cindy, and a friend. What can I do for you two ladies today.”
Placing the tack on the counter Cindy asked, “Can you fix these so we can use them to explore around Witch Island.”
“I suppose so, but what area are you exploring?”
“Down by the old boat landing.”
“Well Cindy does your friend know how to repel?”
Vicki broke in, “Since I was 12.”
“Okay,” Buzz responded, “I’ll have them ready by noon, along with some rope.”
“Thanks Buzz,” Cindy told her uncle.
“Buzz is you uncle,” Vicki asked?
“Yea, he’s my mother brother,” Cindy replied.
“So where do we go now?”
“Well let’s talk to my dad,” Cindy replied.
Entering the dinner Cindy’s mom said, “Well howdy strangers, where have you two been?”
“Just talking to Uncle Buzz,” Cindy replied.
“Mom can Vicki stay the night with us tonight?”
“I don’t see why not, but let me ask your father.” “Dave!” her mom shouted.
Her husband appeared from the kitchen, “What? You don’t have to shout.”
“Can Vicki stay over tonight?”
“Yea sure, whatever.”
“Excellent,” said Cindy, “thanks mom, dad.”
Heading back out Cindy got a sliver in her hand by running it along the wood railing. Cindy’s pulled her hand back and muttered, “Ouch!”
“Let me see it,” said Vicki.
Cindy showed Vicki the sliver; “Oh I can get that out.” With that Vicki pulled out a tweezers and pulled out the sliver.
They had walked along for about five minutes until Cindy thought she felt something wet on her hand. “I’m bleeding!” Cindy said.
“I have a Band-Aid,” responded Vicki.
Cindy the said, “Nurse Vicki to the rescue.”
Looking at the wound and looking at how the blood was smeared on Cindy’s jeans, Vicki had a revelation.
“It’s blood!” Vicki said and started walking faster.
“What’s blood?” Cindy inquired.
“On the baby things at the bottom of the box.”
“Are you sure?”
Vicki said, “As sure as we had found a skeleton in the first trunk.”
Quickly, the two girls ran back to Vicki’s house. They plowed through the door almost knocking over Vicki Dad.
“Why the hurry,” her dad asked?
Dumping the box, Vicki found the items.
“Dad, how can we tell if this is blood?” Vicki shouted in excitement.
“I don’t know, let me make a call to the sheriff and I’ll find out.” Picking up the phone he dialed then spoke “Sheriff Davis Please,” “This is Commander Henderson, USCG.”
“Chuck, its Will, If some one found marks on old material that they believed to be blood what would be and easy test.” “Okay, thanks Chuck.”
Vicki’s father turned to the girls. “Bleach.”
“Common house hold bleach, should turn it red, for a quick field test.” Vicki dad told her.
Vicki picked up the soiled clothes and album, and ran to the laundry room, Cindy and her dad followed.
Vicki laid the garments down, sticking a corner of a diaper in the bleach; she applied a drop to the garment. It turned red.
“It’s blood,” she wiped further, “it’s all blood.” “That wasn’t dream it was a vision of what happened over seventy years ago.” Cindy’s face went white as she listened to her friend’s conclusion.
“Okay girls it’s time to tell me what going on.”
“The last two night after exploring the house the two of us have had the same dream.”
Cindy broke in; “They were not dreams they were nightmares.”
Vicki continued, “each one has been more disturbing that the first. And in each when we compare dreams in they morning they have the same disturbing images.”
“The common points are a grizzled old hag, a disheveled many with wispy gray hair, a pot in which they are preparing a cannibalistic feast.”
“Okay girls I understand that these dreams seem real but they’re not. It looks to me that two little girls have spent far too much time wandering around a creepy old house. Now go explore someplace else, while I put the rest of the house hold things away.”
“That didn’t go well,” Cindy said.
“It could have been worse, do you think your parent would believe us,” Vicki asked?
“Probably not, they only take my brother seriously, and that’s only when he’s on leave,” Cindy stated.
“Your didn’t tell me you had a brother?”
“I’m sorry. He’s never around much,” Cindy replied. “Cory joined the Navy at the age of 18 he then went to submariners school and is at sea. It will be another year before he we’ll return.”
“That’s gotta suck, I don’t have any other family,” Vicki added.
“It’s about noon you wanna go see if your uncle Buzz has finished with the climbing gear,” Vicki asked?
“Why not,” said Cindy. With that the both walked back into town and headed for the hardware store. “Hi Buzz the two girls said.”
“Oh children I’m glad your here, I just finished with them and I was going to call to find out where you two had wandered off to.”
“Here you go, no charge, to my favorite niece.”
“Buzz, I’m you only niece,” Cindy replied.
“That’s why you’re my favorite.”
The two girls headed back to the island house, and walked over the where the stairs used to be. Setting down their equipment Vicki asked, “do you want anything before we do this? A change perhaps, some adventuring tools, and a backpack of supplies just in case?”
“Okay, I am more than a little squishy.”
With that the two girls headed back to the nursery. Cindy got on the table first.
Vicki stood over her friend; “A disposable diaper would be the preferred for this trip.” Vicki quickly changed her friend’s diapers, then Cindy, did hers.
Taking Vicki’s back pack the filled it with diapers, the gun belt, map, dagger and each took their short swords they had found the day before.
Vicki cried out before they left, “Bye Dad, were going out to explore.”
The heard a muffled, “Okay” from the den.
Vicki found two large iron fitting driven into the ground near the shattered stairs.
Vicki tied the main decent rope to the fittings. Cindy lowered the assent rope and tied into the decent rope. “The old climbing tackle is quite well designed, but I took the liberty of grabbing a pair of ascenders for each of use from home. Don’t worry my dad won’t miss them.”
Slowly and tediously the made their way down the slope. Stopping to avoid other iron fitting and remains of the stairs. About a half-hour later the reached the boat landing. The landing itself was nothing more than a large concrete slab, one side of it attached to the island the other to the sea. As they looked it over Vicki discovered a small hole in the cliff side with a metal piece in the center.
“Is that a keyhole,” she asked Cindy?
Cindy shined her flashlight into the hole and said, “Sure as shit it is.”
Vicki pulled open the back of Cindy’s pants looked down saying, “Yea their shitty, for sure.”
Vicki removed her climbing equipment and took out the two key rings. There was only one key that could fit. The key slid into the hole, but it took both of them to turn it. Soon they heard a low rumbling and the sound of a pulley lowering a weight. The rock wall right in front of them soon slid open. The two stared at it in amazement. Pensively they shined their flashlight through the doorway. Before them stood a dark damp corridor, reeking with the stench of mold and mildew. They stepped through the doorway and advanced. A curving passageway confronted them. Then it suddenly came to a wall. The two girls fumbled in the darkness groping along the wall. When it suddenly moved dumping both them into a dark dusty room. Many tracks littered the floor telling them that they were not the first to find this place.
“Who the hell are you?” They heard a voice from a dark side passage. An unkempt old hermit stalked forward, with an ax in one hand. “Tell me damn it!”
Vicki reached into the holster and drew the pistol on the advancing man. He stopped. “Put down the ax and your hands on . . . your head or… I’ll… Fire.”
The man quickly complied. Feeling not as threatened, she asked “Who are you and what are you doing under my house?”
“I’m Lazarus Cudahy and I was here first,” the old hermit said.
“How did you find this place,” she asked?
“Well I lived in the main house for a spell, but people kept coming by, one day I was searching by the kitchen fire place and I dropped into this room.”
Cindy looked around the room, Vicki, the trunk. Over in the corner they saw the trunk that they had found their first night.
“How did you get that?”
“I took it from the main bedroom, the bones are that of my brother, Richard. He was buried on William’s bluff and I removed them before the bluff and cemetery fell into the sea.”
“How did you retrieve them?”
“There a ladder that travels along the back of the master bedrooms fire place.”
“That also how I had been leaving to fish and gather food, but now you’re probably gonna have the police arrest me.”
“Lazarus come with me and well see if my dad will let you stay.”
Cindy went up the fire place first, followed Lazarus and then Vicki. When all three of them climbed out the fireplace it was a bit of a start for Vicki father.
“Dad we found this man living under the house!” Vicki exclaimed. “He’s the one who took the trunk of bones.”
“Who is this man? Why does he live under our house? And what chest of bones?”
He picked up the phone and called the Sheriff, “Chuck you will not believe this, but the girls have found a vagrant living under our house. Yea we’ll talk then.”
“The Sheriff, is coming out hopefully he can help settle this mess. Until then every one have a seat.”
“Victoria Elizabeth Henderson, where did you get that gun?”
“I found it dad!” Vicki exclaimed.
“Well give it to me now.” Vicki handed her father the 38 she had found.
About 5 minutes later a black Crown Victoria rolled into the driveway. Out came a stocky build gentlemen. He walked in through the kitchen door, and said, “Okay Bill what’s going on?”
“The girls found this man living under the house,” Vicki’s father told the Sheriff
“Yea in the secret passages,” Cindy added.
The Sheriff turned to the man. “Do you have any identification?”
The scruffy man reached into his pocket and gave the sheriff a beaten and battered USN (retired) ID card. Lazarus Cudahy, rank CPO 6th class.
“Okay Chief,” the Sheriff said, “let’s run the card and see what comes up.” A few minutes later he said, “No warrants, no arrests, he was reported missing about five years ago, when he trying to save the graves at William s Bay cemetery.”
“Okay, I’ll take care of this.” Vicki’s father stood up and turned to the Lazarus.
“Lazarus, what as your MOS.,” Commander Henderson asked.
“I was a cook.”
“How you’d like to be a cook again, for the watch station. I’d make sure you had a place to stay, and arrange civilian pay. Were a small group of just 24, does this sound good.”
“Best offer I’ve ever heard,” Lazarus smiled.
“Oh by the way when was the last time you were repaid your pension?”
“Almost six years now.”
“Well Lazarus, the government owes you a shit load of back pay,” Vicki’s father concluded. “If you would like you could stay here in the house tonight, or at the Coast Guard station?”
Lazarus thought for a second. “Take me to the station, my new home.”
“Oh let’s get rid of the bones, or at least take them to a place where nothing will damage them.”
“Good idea sir,” Lazarus remarked.
“Thanks again for coming out Chuck,” Vicki’s Dad said to the sheriff. “Now can I leave you two here without any further problems,” he looked back at the two girls?
“Yes Dad.” Was their response?
After her dad left and when he left she again found the old army 38 she had found in the up stairs. Opening it up she spun the cylinder, “Emptiest gun in the west.” The two girls laughed. Vicki replaced it in the holster. She next grabbed several candles and a few books for matches. Together they went down the passage that led to the secret basement. When they got there they lit a few of the candles. Then they noticed that there were more passages and doors in and out of this place. Walking over to one of the doors, they could tell hadn’t been used in years they examined it. Clearing away spider webs and assorted dirt they found a badly corroded lock. Vicki removed the two key rings and started trying keys. While she was try to open the lock Cindy tapped her on the shoulder.
“Vicki,” she said.
Vicki kept working.
“Vicki,” she said louder.
With that Vicki turned taking the door’s locking mechanism out of the rotted wood. Cindy smiled, “I was trying to tell you that.”
“Don’t I feel like an idiot,” Vicki said.
When the two girls pushed on the door they fell through the rotted wood.
Taking their flashlight out they surveyed the room. It was roughly circular, with a domed ceiling. In the middle of the room sat a rusted caldron, upon the ashes of some ancient long dead fire. The two peer around in fear and disbelief. They saw the chopping block, the manacles, and a table of dried herds, now molded and rotting. Slowly they approached the caldron, looking inside they saw tiny bones, all appeared human. This was the baby that was killed. They quickly backpedaled, both tripping over their feet on the uneven floor. Struggling to get up, they saw two skeleton locked into manacles upon the wall. “We found the spot,” Vicki hissed. “The vision…”
“Let’s go,” Cindy said.
“I already did,” Vicki replied, “and it’s running down my legs.”
Cindy got up and ran Vicki was close behind her.
Quickly the climbed the stairs through the kitchen’s fire place.
They didn’t stop until the made it to the ballroom. Vicki’s father was returning home as he found the two running terrified.
“What wrong? Whoa, I can see and smell what’s wrong.”
“No dad we found more bodies, the caldron, and the witches lab.”
“Come, we’ll show you.” Taking her fathers hand, they lead him to the room they had just seen.
“Well ladies if you wouldn’t have showed me I probable wouldn’t believe you.” Using his cell phone, he again called the sheriff. The sheriff arrived with two deputies, the corner, and a hearse. People started gathering around as the body parts were carried out under sheets.
The corner and a psychologist came and talked to the girls.
The corner spoke, “We are both sorry you had to see this, but these people died most likely over 70 years ago.”
“You had nothing to do with it. If you need to talk here is my number. I am Debbie,” said the psychologist.
“I think right now you should change. We can talk later,” said Vicki’s father.
The two girls went upstairs to the nursery, like two zombies. Changing was a relief but only a short one. Cindy helped Vicki get her things ready for sleeping at her house. Vicki packed with in her stuff two baby bottles for the both of them. “I hope your parents don’t mind, I find that having a bottle after a long day is very relaxing.” She said to Cindy.
“I don’t know what they we’ll say, but I like to try one too,” Cindy remarked.
Vicki’s father drove Vicki and Cindy to Cindy’s parents.
Vicki and Cindy took out their backpacks, headed up the walkway to Cindy’s house a two-story colonial. Opening the door Cindy announced, “We’re home.” No answer, Cindy with Vicki walked into the kitchen. On the table was a note, food is in the refrigerator, your videotapes are where you left them in the family room. The diner has been really busy we we’ll be back by midnight. Cindy looked at the microwave, 7:30. “Well we have about five hours to do whatever we want, but first I we’ll show you my room.”
The two girls hurried up the back stairway. The hallway leading to Cindy’s room was painted light blue with white clouds. In her room there was no crib but she did have Whinny the Pooh and friend on the wall. She had a queen size bed, a changing area, consisting of a mat on the floor covered with a flannelized plastic sheet of white material with little pink bunnies, a diaper pail, wipes and desitin. “I’m not used to having people over the sleep with me but I see no harm in the two of us sharing a bed, do you?”
Vicki smiled and jumped on the bed and said, “No.”
Cindy joined her and the two were soon involved in a pillow fight. After about thirty minutes they heard a cry from the first floor. “Cindy, Vicki, where are you too,” her mother asked?
“Upstairs in my room,” Cindy replied.
“Have you two eaten,” she asked?
“No mom,” Cindy shouted.
“Well change your diapers and come down and eat.”
“How did she guess we need changing?” Cindy giggled.
Vicki was changed first, next came Cindy. The two girls then decided to put on an over sized T-shirt, instead of normal clothes. Shortly they came wandering down the stairs. “I brought spaghetti from the restaurant, I hope you like it Vicki, it’s one of Cindy’s favorites. Parmesan cheese is in the door of the fridge.”
Vicki and Cindy sat down and start to eat the food was excellent. “So what do my girls have in mind for this evening,” Cindy s mom asked?
“I don’t know, we’ve made no plans so far. Maybe just watch a couple of videos,” Cindy commented.
“Well don’t stay up too late, or make too much noise, as your father and I need to get up early for the breakfast crowd”
“Okay Mom,” Cindy said.
After they finished, the two girls adjured to the family room. “So what are you in the mood to watch? I have a big selection, from dramas, comedy, action, even some cartoons.” Looking over the collection the two decided on Conspiracy Theory. About half way through Cindy leaned over saying, “After my parents go to sleep my dad has a large selection of adult movies I’m not supposed to know about.”
During the chase scene on the Brooklyn Bridge they paused the tape, and wandered into the kitchen to get something to drink. Before they went back to the video, Vicki said, “Wait here.”
Running up the stairs she soon returned back down carrying two baby bottles with toddler sized nuk nipples. The bottles were decorated with Loony Toons Luvables. Vicki took Sylvester; Cindy took Bugs, Bunny. Filling them with chocolate milk from the fridge the returned to watching their movie.
Cindy’s father came home right before the movie ended. Peeking into the room he saw his daughter, and her friend lounging on the couch, drinking out of baby bottles. This made him take a double take. He walked into the Living room where his wife was figuring the books for the day. Going to the closet he grabbed his camera. Suspicious, of what her husband was doing she followed him back to the family room.
The camera’s flash made the two looks up; neither dropped their bottles. “Dear why don’t you just leave the girls alone.”
“I’m sorry they looked so cute just sitting there drinking their bottles like babies, the rumba panties peeking out from under their shirt I had to take a picture. I hope you girls don’t mind?” “If you do I we’ll get remove the picture, this is a digital camera you know.”
“No Dad, I don’t mind,” replied Cindy, “How about you?” she asked Vicki.
“No I don’t mind, can I get a copy?”
“Sure you can Vicki, sure.”
The two then started debating what they wanted to see next. “Since we’re both dressed like babies, Cindy said, how about something Disney?”
“That sound good, do you have Beauty and the Beast,” Vicki inquired?
“Sure, but first I need a refill,” Cindy said pointing to her empty bottle.
“I need a refill as well but I also need a diaper change,” Vicki concluded.
The two girls headed up stair as they did they heard Cindy s father shout, “Good night girls, we’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night Mom and Dad,” Cindy shouted back.
After a quick change they headed back to the family room to continue watching movie and acting like preschoolers. The watched Beauty and The Beast, then out of curiosity the watched one of Cindy’s father’s adult movies. They weren’t too excited about it. Vicki asked Cindy if she had ever had a boyfriend.
“No,” was Cindy’s reply. “Once they smell my dirty diapers most boys want nothing to do with me.”
“I’ve never had one either and I wander if I’ll ever find someone,” Vicki replied?
Feeling tired, they headed up to Cindy’s room to go to bed. After a final change the climbed into bed. Cindy fell asleep first, that when Vicki noticed that she had something in her mouth. She looked closer and realized that Cindy was sucking on a pacifier. Vicki put her thumb in her mouth where it’s been pretty much most of her life. With that they went to sleep, but what followed them to this house was what drove them out of the other.
9/15/1999
Vicki saw a man dressed in motley rages, walking thought the local cemetery, with a bag over his shoulder. He stopped at a Mausoleum, and pushed it open, and closed it behind him. There he started dismembering the corpse placing the heart and head back into the sack. He then opened up a small hole and out poured a horde of rats, which devoured the corpse leaving only the larger bones.
The man left the mausoleum clutching the bag to his chest, as if it were his life’s savings. He walked farther back into the woods that surrounded this quite town of Burnt Cove. He came to a dense grove of trees, he pushed his way through the thorns and vines tore the rages he wore even more. There stood a dark figure, dressed in a 17th century garb torn to shreds, its head covered by a cowl. The figure motion to the mad man to place the body parts on a low stone alter. The figure threw back the cowl to reveille the face of the hag form the earlier dream. The two embraced and from the two embraced figures sprang a hideous beast. It s face was covered in matted black hair, it looked like that of a dog but with longer fangs and horn projecting from it s head. It slashed the couple with razor like claws from its twisted deformed hands. It drank the vile ichor that oozed from the wounds. Satisfied it jumped upon the altar and swallowed the head and heart. The embraced couple then let go and the beast burned upon their foreheads its mark. It reminded Vicki of the Crystal they had found. “Now destroy the young, before the Avatar arrives.”
The two startled awake. Vickie and Cindy clung to each other in terror. Cindy’s Mom was about to leave for the morning at the restaurant, where she heard the screams. She raced up the stair to see what was wrong.
“Okay girls it all right,” she hugged the girls. “Just relax and tell Mom what’s wrong.”
“They… she… it…. Are coming to destroy us,” the two stammered.
“What is coming to destroy you?”
“The witch, Great Great Uncle Daniel, and the demon,” Cindy quickly stated.
“No they’re not dear, it was just a dream, you’re safe.” “None of them are even alive, and they haven’t been for ages.”
“But they are Mrs. MacBeth, they are trying to and will kill us in our dreams, unless we find the Avatar.”
“You to are both talking nonsense, how can Cologne help you?”
“Now you two get up, clean up, change the bed you soaked and we can talk about this at the restaurant later. Okay?”
“Okay,” the two said.
The got up and dressed and while they were changing the bed Vicki commented to Cindy, “I didn’t know you used a pacifier. If I did I would have told you to bring it to my house as well.”
“Well I don’t use it all the time just when I can’t sleep,” Cindy replied.
With that the two walked down to the Dinner.
Cindy’s mom met them at the door, “Vicki’s your father is waiting for you at a table. Well I must say you two look better than I left you. Are you two okay?”
“Mom we’re okay, we’ve just been having bad dreams,” Cindy remarked.
Vicki added, “Yea real bad.”
“Hi girls,” Vicki’s Dad motioned for them to sit, “did you have a good time last night?”
“Great until we went to sleep,” Vicki said.
“Now what does that mean,” Her father asked?
Edna came over to the table and said that the girls had some kind of nightmare last night. “The two woke up screaming, then babbled about some one being after them, and they need to find some Avatar.”
Cindy’s dad walked out when he heard about the Avatar being mentioned.
“Who told you too out about the Avatar?” Cindy’s father asked the two girls.
“Did Grandma tell you two that old story?”
“No Dad, we heard the name in out dreams, and read it when we were looking for information at the library,” Cindy told him.
“I haven’t anything about that for years, since I was about five,” he sat down at the table.
“When I was small my Mother and her sister your Great Aunt Rebecca used to visit a farm that belonged to the MacLeod’s. On that farm was a rock, with in this rock was said to live the spirit of a Hag named Black Anise. If the rock was given offering of milk and whiskey, prosperity reigned. When the MacLeod’s and MacBeth allied the practice was forgotten and she was said to have struck both sides with madness. No one is really sure where the legend began, but I digress. The rock was stolen by the McDermott’s and taken to the New World. By chance the MacBeth chose to settle in around the same place, that when the old witch showed herself again. She possessed Anise McDermott and she again started afflicting the family with the madness as before.”
“Well our ancestor,” her father continued, “Squire Matthew MacBeth was the governor and he convened the trial and convicted her of witchcraft. She was hanged and they say her body was left for the crows. Her soul it was believed was imprisoned in the rock.”
“About 100 years later, your great, great uncle Daniel Angus MacBeth, was a sailor with a merchant steam liner, he had a lust for power and had learned of the black art in his travels. He came back form France, Germany, and the Far East with three book of magic. He used them and call some form of demon, to help him bind the soul of the old witch of the stone.”
“He went mad, killed one of his siblings then went on a spree of death, killing several other in his search for the Avatar.”
“But who is this Avatar,” Cindy asked?
“The Avatar it was said to be a man of good borne upon darkness. He would be the one with the power and wisdom far beyond his age. He with two maids fair would vanquish the evil.”
“But that still tells us nothing,” Cindy cried.
“But it does,” spoke Vicki, “we’ll see you later.”
The two had finished their breakfast during the story, go up and headed out the door. Vicki led, with Cindy, trying to keep up with her. “Slow down Vicki, I can’t walk that fast, not after eating,” Cindy chided.
Vicki stopped, “I’ll wait for you.”
“Where are we headed,” Cindy asked catching up to her friend.
“To the house and the books, the crystal, and the lockets. I remember where I saw the picture before. Once in your Grandma’s store, and once again at your house. Don’t you see? The girls in the pictures are your Great Aunt and Grandmother, maybe they can tell us something.”
“You want to take them and show them to my Grandma,” Cindy asked?
“Yes,” Vicki began walking again.
The two entered the house and were met by Dust Bunny who was very happy to see them. “I’ll get the books,” Vicki said, “you get the lockets. We we’ll meet back here.”
They went up the stairs, one to the attic one to the ladies bedroom, and then the maid’s room. They met on the landing. “Well,” Cindy said, “let’s do it.”
Walking back into town the quickly walked into Cindy s Grandmother s shop. “Grandma, we need your help with a problem,” Cindy asked.
“What’s the problem little ones?”
“The demon is back and we need to find the Avatar,” Vicki said.
“I feared this might happen some day.” She closed up the shop, “Come with me children.” She led them back into her home to a room in the basement. The room was full of boxed and assorted antiques, and memories. She picked up a box, in it was a painting, framed in gold. The painting showed two 2 older boys, two younger girls and an infant being held by the two young ladies. Under, and above the portrait was the names of the children, Duncan, Daniel, Susan, Rebecca, and Andrew. Vicki and Cindy opened the lockets, the pictures were exact, and the initials in the bottom were CWSM.
“My grand father painted this,” Cindy’s grandmother said. “I was only five, Rebecca was four, Andrew was 10 months,” she said with a tear. “Grandfather tough only one of the boys to paint and that was Daniel. His works were all in poor taste and should have hinted us to his unsound mind. Then there was the night he killed poor Andrew. Father pleaded with the state to commit him so they did.”
“After they thought he was stable the let him out, that’s when the madness returned. He started using those damn books and casting spells to find the Avatar and kill so his lover, Anise McDermott would return in the flesh. They locked him in the tower. One night he escaped and was found hanged the next morning. What the kept out of the news was the fact that he was disemboweled, by some unimaginable beast.”
Vicki quietly whispered “Meltoroth.”
“Yes, that was the Demons name,” Grandma confirmed.
“I later I was engaged to a Steven Wallace, but he died before our first child, your father,” she said looking at Cindy, “was born. I know for the time I was looked on with distaste, but I never would have given up my first borne. I gave him my last name, because I did not want to be reminded of my lover. I thought Steven was to be the Avatar, the one who would break the curse, but I was wrong. Your great aunt Rebecca was married to a Collin MacLeod, but he never proved to be the one either.”
“I never thought that the house would ever be used again, with the legend of the curse and all. You know the demons name so you are the chosen ones to find the Avatar. Look to the north of town beyond the cemetery you will find in a tangles brambles.”
“The stone,” Cindy interrupted.
“Yes,” Grand mother confirmed.
“Place the crystal on the stone, it shall point the direction. Follow it, the Avatar will not be far. Remember he is the good walking in darkness, and will not know he is what he is meant to be.”
The two girls ran up the stairs, Cindy asked her to call her Mom and tell them know that they are adventuring in the woods.
Grandma smiled and said, “Go children, and may God keep you safe.”
They went to Vicki’s house and gathered their supplies, backpacks, diapers, plastic pants, wipes, the pistol, holster, and the short swords. From there the set out to find the cemetery. Cindy then remembered that there are two cemeteries, one by each church. “Which church tried Anise, Vicki asked?”
“The old Anglican Church,” Cindy replied.
“Then that’s the place we should head from,” Vicki said.
They walked for most of the day until the came to the grove and the stone. Pushing and hacking their way through the underbrush, they entered the grove. There it stood before them the stone.
“Who want’s to do it,” Vicki asked?
Cindy looked at Vicki, “You can.”
Carefully Vicki approached the stone and set the crystals in the center of the stone. The crystals suddenly sprung to life and began to turn, until it pointed N by NW.
Following the lead they walked until they came to a weather beaten and battered house surrounded by a collapsing wood and fieldstone fence. “Is this it,” asked Cindy, “is this where the Avatar is to be found?”
“There s only one way to be sure,” Vicki said opening the gate.
She slowly walked up to the door, and knocked. They heard nothing.
Vicki tried to peer in through one of the muddied glass windows. She saw nothing. Suddenly she heard Cindy scream behind her.
There stood a man armed with a shotgun, dressed in black. His face was young but his hair was already going gray. “Why have you come here,” he demanded.
“We, we…are looking for someone,” Cindy stammered.
Vicki reached down for the pistol he shouted, “don t try it child!”
Vicki stopped, and then she noticed a smile cross his face and realized he was looking between her legs. Now Vicki felt the stream of wetness traveling down her leg.
He lowered his gun. “Okay Little girls open the door and inside.”
The three entered. Inside they saw a couch a table with a television, three modest chairs, and a small kitchen area. Once they were all inside he turned on the lights. On the table sat two of the same books that were now carried in Vicki’s backpack.
“What do you want a beer, wine, soda pop, juice, or what,” he asked the girls?
The two had no idea what to say to this man. He wore black riding boots, pants, and a black middle age’s poets-style blouse. On the wall were assortments of weapons, behind a claymore, and basket hilt broadsword was a targa with a crest on tartan that Cindy recognized.
“You’re a MacLeod,” Cindy asked?
“Yes I am, Zachary Aaron Michael MacLeod, of clan MacLeod, at your service ladies.” “First let me apologize for scaring you two, but I never know who comes around anymore. The world is such a terrible place. May I ask who I serve?”
“I am Victoria Elizabeth Henderson,” Said Vicki with a curtsey that only intensified her wet state.
“Victoria, you should be wearing diapers if you re going to wet like that,” he commented.
“And who are you?”
“I am Cynthia Marie MacBeth.”
He looked at her and cocked his head a bit. “Are you related to Susan MacBeth, by any chance?”
“Yes I am,” she shot back.
“Then were kin, Rebecca was my Grandmother,” he said giving her a big bear hug. “Woo, you need a change too.”
“Why have you come to me? I am a relative to you Cindy, but I do not know of any reason for you to seek me out?”
“What do you do here,” Vicki asked?
“I am a Historian, I focus on the darker areas or history. I try to bring them out not as legend carries them but I look for the facts. What really happened, you could say. I have a two degrees one in Anthropology and the other in Parapsychology, I spend much of my time researching.”
“Before we go any further, it seem to me that you both need to change,” he picked up Vicki’s backpack, out fell several disposable diapers, wipes, and powder. “Well I see you have things to change, but do either one of you have any clean, dry jeans?”
Both girls shook their heads no.
Zachary looked at them, “Okay, you two go change your diapers, I’ll make us some refreshment, and we can talk. If you would like to call your parents and let them know you’re alright the phone is next to the computer.”
Cindy picked up the phone as Vicki went to change. She removed her diapers and pants; she was going to put them in the wash when she noticed something she didn’t expect. Hanging in the laundry room was a wash line full of diapers and plastic pants.
“Yes they’re mine,” she heard and jumped with a start. “I need diapers too but only at night. You look kind of cold in just your shirt and diapers, wait here.”
He walked back to his room and gave her one of his shirt, to wear as a cover-up.
Cindy walked down the hall and he met her and gave her as shirt as well. “Would you care for some tea,” he asked? The two agreed and joined him.
He went to the kitchen and made them three of them tea, and shortbread cookies, he met them in the living room.
So do you feel better now that you’re clean and dry? “Yes I do,” said Vicki.
Cindy agreed with a nod. She then told Vicki that she called her dad and they know where they were and that it was okay with them.
“I didn’t think it be a problem,” Zachary said, “even though I am referred to a the backward cousin.”
“Why is that,” asked Vicki?
“Well look at my house, it’s small hand crafted, wood heated, it only has electricity in the main rooms. I do not own a car; I travel every where on horseback. I have two through-breads, Apocalypse, and Nightmare. The only time the family sees me is births, weddings and funerals.”
“Enough about me why have you come here, of all places.”
“Are you the Avatar,” Cindy blurted out?
Vicki looked at her friend in shocked that she would be so blatant.
“Am I the Avatar?”
“I don’t know. But I see you re heard the legend.”
“Many have tried to find the Avatar, Steven Wallace,” he said looking at Cindy “he tried, the copy of the Necronomicon and Clavicule de Salomon, were his.” “My Grandmother your great Aunt found his mangled body. If he had not been tattooed none would have recognized him.”
“What do you need to try,” Cindy asked. “This beast has been haunting both our families for over 500 years. And recently its been haunting our dreams. The demon Meltoroth, is already seeking to destroy us before we reach the Avatar.”
Vicki reached into the separated section of her backpack. “Is this what you need?” She handed him the three books that had been locked in the attic. He picked up one of the books almost in disbelief. He looked it over and then opened it “Le Dragon Rouge” he said. “I have it!” “Follow me ladies.”
He took his two books and the new one given him by Vicki. They followed him trough the kitchen. He opened a broom closet, and removed a black cloak, concealed with in it was a staff, with silver writing embedded to the wood. Putting on the cloak, and carrying the staff he walked out to the patio. Built into the patio was a ring of stones, forming a pentacle; in the center was an altar. Placing the staff by the altar it stood with no support. He then reached under the altar and with drew an arthame, and embedded in into the stone. Within the circle symbols that once stood black now glowed. From under the cloak he grabbed a sword and drove it into the ground. The two girls stood behind him with in the circle. His lips moved in a silent incantation, for the book before him.
A bright flash appeared before the three and quickly formed into and entity, a woman dressed in white. She kissed Zachary on the forehead, and touched the two girls and they blacked out.
Vicki awoke in a king-sized bed with Cindy sleeping besides her. Slowly she got up as not to awaken her friend. In doing so her shirt rode up and she noticed that she was not in the disposable diaper she was in before, but now she was in a cloth diaper with blue plastic pants. She walked out into the living room.
There she saw Zachary sitting on the couch reading Le Dragon Rouge, beside him was a large black cat. “You didn’t have to wake up the bad dreams won’t disturb you here.” She moved closer and the cat stretched out on its side to be caressed.
“The cat is Agamemnon. I’m sorry I couldn’t introduce you sooner, but he has free run of my land, and comes and goes as he pleases.”
“Hi Agamemnon,” she said as she stroked him.
“What happened out there,” Vicki asked? “Who was that women?”
“The women was Mary MacLeod, she was killed by Black Anise in the 1600 before the witches stone came to the New World. I first met her spirit, about 18 years ago. When I spoke of her no one in my family believed me, except for Grandma Rebecca.”
“So why did she kiss you and touch us, Vicki asked?”
“I’m not sure,” he commented.
“I know why,” the two turned to see Cindy standing by the end of the doorway. “We are the chosen ones.”
“Well my cousin, you have guessed the journey’s end, but what you have yet to see is the dangers, we must pass.”
“What dangers?” Vicki asked.
“Meltoroth,” Cindy answered.
“You are very smart my cousin, but stopping him may leave us all dead, if we succeed or fail. Death is a very real possibility. To die at the hands or Meltoroth, may God have mercy on your soul.” “But if you wish to continue this fight you have the map, and I have the needed equipment. We will ride at first ligh