“LET ME IN!” Jado said, his voice laden with pathos and sorrow and yet fully commanding. It boomed through the hovel drowning out all sounds of the storm. “It is I, Jado. Your one time friend. Let me in!!!” he moaned.
The Grand High Witch stood stock still as snowflakes blew into hovel and through the spectre before her. Yes. He was not only transparent but hollow too. Her heart was frozen with fear and although her hard mind was sharper and colder than the breeze that ushered inside. She reached out to close the door leaving Jado outside. “Be gone with you foul fiend! You are no friend of mine,” she spat through her brown teeth.
Jado did not move. “I am neither foul nor a fiend. You curse failed.”
The Grand High Witch flustered. Her arm moved to close the door. Only it did not move. Her hand held tight on the edge of the door and her arm was unable to move. She could neither open nor close the door. “What have you done to me?” she screeched.
“Nothing. I bring you nothing. It is that narrow voice you neglect. The voice of your conscience. You are torn, Grand High Witch. You want rid of me yet you want to know why I am here. You do not know which way to turn.” He said with a slight, very slight, chuckle. He bandages on his face loosened slightly and a very slight droop to his fleshless jaw could be seen.
She struggled to move for a moment to move and gave up. Her shoulder ached from the effort. “You had better come inside then,” she said resignedly, never one to waste time when she had no choice.
The tall spectre of flowing rags floated inside. She gazed at it. So unlike the Jado she knew. He seemed more assured, more confident than the broken wizard she had evicted from the group. “Death agrees with you,” she muttered. The Grand High Witch stumbled forward as the door was released and suddenly shut closed.
Dusting the cobwebs from her cardigan she turned to face him.
Jado hovered above the ground. His long robes, probably the robes he was buried in, hung below his feet that they could not be seen. “You died?” she uttered.
“Of a broken heart. You remember the circumstances?” he said with pathos.
“You certainly weren’t well.” She said.
“For months I was driven to distraction by your lies.” He seemed to grow in his rage and his anger filled the room. “I am sure you remember.”
The Grand High Witch hid her head under her arm as she cowered.
“Do you seek my forgiveness?” she offered in a broken voice. “Do you need closure before you can move on?”
“I am not here for myself. I come for you.” Jado said mournfully.
The Grand High Witch straightened her back. “That’s very kind of you. There is no need. I am in a good place. A better place for you not being here. No need for you to linger any more. Go and be happy,” she uttered breathlessly. “I release you,”
Jado was quiet. Very quiet. And then he laughed. He laughed so heartily and loud that his lungs would surely have burst, had he owned any that worked. The whole raggedy being rocked.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, her uncertainty was returning.
“You!” he roared. Menace crept into his voice and the Grand High Witch cowered once more. “I am not here to haunt you. I am here to collect you.”
The Grand High Witch for the first time turned pale. Every line of her square face deepened and every long year she had lived showed all at once. She asked feebly. “Where are you taking me?”
“Wherever you may wish to go. Anywhere in the Ether or the solid world. Any place where you cannot perform your magic. You have made a name for yourself on this side of the Ether. The Demons of Silth have asked me to close you down,”
She spluttered. “I am the best demon summoner this side of the Ether Cloud. Why would they want to close me down?”
“Your magic is tainted. You have been cursed and are too proud or stupid to know it.”
“Now you stop right there. My magic is the purest of darkness.” she said regaining her composure. “You may have come here with some idea of saving me, well I don’t need saving. In case you have not noticed there is no one with the magical power to curse me. I am the Grand High Witch,”
The bandage surrounding Jado’s face fell onto his chest. His fleshless bony skeleton gazed out at her with red burning eyes in his skull. His jaw plunged open. Jamieson hissed and retreated to the kitchen.
With a bony hand he held his jaw as he tightened the cloth. “Demelza Goodchild. Ring any bells? A couple of months ago you evicted this talented young witch from the group in a most ignominious manner. You were jealous of her powers and you knew she posed more of a threat to you than those two dimwits you keep in tow.”
“It’s called protecting your interests. You were as guilty of as much in your lifetime.”
“You ran circles around her with your magic and your callous lies. You drove her out in tears. I am surprised at you. You a wasted an opportunity. With her at your side you could have accomplished what I had never fully realized. You could have brought union with this world and the Ether. You would have made history.”
“I didn’t know. She can have a second chance, if she likes.” Grand High Witch said sulkily. She could never share the power. Although she could use some extra magic to help her climb the slippery path to the Ether but once there she had no need of anyone else.
“No bother. There is no chance of her returning. Demelza cursed you. She cursed you to have this very night, to speak with me and others whom you have treated disgracefully and worse. To live out your worst nightmares.”
“A curse? I’m sure I would have noticed.”
“You chose not to.”
“I’ve been cursed before by better witches. Nothing much came of them.”
“Far from it, Esmerelda. Yes. I know your name. The name you abandoned. The name given to you when you were born. The name you chose to forget. Esmerelda.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“It is your name.”
“ Truth is I never liked it.” She chewed her lower lip.
“So you changed it for something more in keeping with the role you would like yourself to play. Grand High Witch. A title, not a name. A job description. Think on, Esmerelda. You have lost this game. You have been found,”
“Let it begin.” She said proudly. “I am ready,”
“It has begun already. I am your curse. I am to be the voice of our conscience. I am to haunt your every decision. I am to be the voice in your ear that raises doubt. You will not have a thought without which I cannot pass judgement. Not a single thought.”
The Grand High Witch paled. She raised a shaking hand to her mouth. “For how long?” she uttered.
“Indefinitely!”
“And if I change my ways?”
“Indefinitely!”
The wail that tore through the fabric of time was heard by all who had the capacity to hear. The sound of some poor demented creature caught in a snare.
©️2016 Lorraine Poulter
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