“Is that screamingsupposed to happen?” said Arthur.
“I'm not sure.”
“I didn’t like the sound of it.”
“I guess it was shock.”
“Is she burnt?”
“She's being transformed.”
“Transformed. Sounds very... scary. Sowhat do we do now?”
“Wait a few minutes.”
“This is tense.”
“And hope and pray that it works.”
“It’s got to work...” saidArthur, becoming agitated. “I wonder where mum and dad are. I miss Davy, Jimmy,our little Rosie. It's got to work!”
Bill looked at Arthur’s sad expressionand his heart sank. “We’ll get them cured. I promise.”
The cabinet made muffled fiery soundsand rocked slightly. The blood and chemicals sloshed in the feeder jars as theywere pumped down the pipes.
Lilith moved out fromher hiding place, silent on padded feet. Bill and Arthur were a few yards awaywith their backs to her. She held up the sword and prepared herself to strikethem down.
She ran forward andscreamed at Bill, “Die you freak for stealing my best friend!” But her wordsdidn’t come out as expected. Instead, she made a guttural squeaking sound. Thiswas such a shock she stopped and almost dropped her sword.
Arthur spun round andshrieked, “What the hell’s that?”
Lilith was a fearsomesight, a giant half human rat on two legs with a long hairy snout and a lethalpair of long yellow incisors.
“It’s armed! Run forit!” said Bill.
Arthur and Bill ranaround the tables, closely chased by a sword waving Lilith. When she got nextto the cabinet she remembered Ophelia was inside. A voice inside her mouse-likebrain said:
That wench is in yon box– off with her head!
She swung the sword andhit the brass door, so hard it was dented. She saw the jar of sloshing bloodand felt very excited – she decided to smash the jar and force the enticingliquid onto the floor where she could lap it up. She took careful aim with hersword.
Bill could see what thecreature had in mind. If the jar was smashed he’d never see Ophelia again. Hequickly picked up a glass phial off the table and threw its contents at thecreature. It screamed as its right arm began to smoke. Bill had thrownsulphuric acid and it was burning into the creature’s flesh. It dropped thesword and staggered.
“Is it Arddhu?” saidArthur, who was holding up a scalpel.
Lilith tried to ignorethe searing pain in her arm. She noticed her reflection in the polished brassof the cabinet and was shocked. A long snout! Fur! Pointed ears! What was shelooking at? How was this possible?
Arthur stabbed thescalpel into Lilith’s chest, piercing her heart. Her fur instantly became blackand brittle, like burnt straw. Her pink skin turned dark and began to flakeaway. A few moments later she was nothing but a pile of ceare on the floor.
“What was thatthing?” said Arthur.
Bill looked him in theeye. “There’s only one explanation – Lilith.”
“What?”
“I discovered theproperties of transformation using animal blood in this very room.”
The cabinet stoppedmoving and grew silent. They both turned to look at it.
“Is it done?” saidArthur.
Bill nodded and got towork. He switched off the gas supply and closed the taps under the now emptyjars. His mind was in turmoil and his hands were trembling badly. What if he’dfailed? What if the mixture was still wrong? What if Ophelia rememberednothing? What if the girl he loved no longer knew him? What if the cabinet wasempty? What if... anything could be waiting for him. He was sweatingprofusely and his stomach was churning as he slowly opened the door and peeredinside.
The cabinet was very hotand full of hissing steam, which made his glasses quickly mist up. At first, hecouldn’t see a thing, but then the steam escaped into the room and he saw agirl crouched at the bottom of the cabinet with her legs tucked up against herchest. She gazed up at Bill with a blank expression and he smiled at herhopefully. Ophelia didn’t look any younger, or older, in fact she lookedexactly as she did on the first day he’d met her – soft brown skin and longslightly frizzy dark hair. The wound on her forehead had vanished. There was noglowing halo around her head and her eyes were soft and brown, not fieryyellow. As he gazed at her solemnly her mouth slowly split into a wide grin.
“Bill I love you, youlittle genius!” she said.
“You can talk! Are youokay?”
“It worked! I’m free ofit.”
“You’re cured? You’rereally cured!”
Bill could hardlybelieve what he’d done. His head full of arcane knowledge was not some imaginedfancy, but was proven to be true. He had to resist the urge not to dance aroundthe room in celebration.
“Cool,” said Arthurpopping his head around the door and looking at Ophelia.
“Do you mind?” she said,“I’m naked in here.”
Arthur and Bill turnedtheir backs.
“This is amazing,” saidArthur. “We’ve got to go and get my family. We’ve got the get them inside thatthing.”
Bill smiled and noddedslowly. His realised that future life had opened up before him. He was here inthis strange future world that he knew very little about but at least his lifenow had purpose – he was going to use his knowledge to rid the world of theterrible curse of Og.
He was going to find away to cure everyone.
Epilogue
In which the talons of Tainn stretch out from the liminal world
ChapterTwenty One - Escape by Moonlight
One Halloween night abrother and sister went out ghost hunting. The scariest place around wasBarleybrook, so that’s where they went. It was ruined and tumble-down but folkssay warlocks come out at night. They met a tall and crooked one who introducedhimself as Victor Tainn, who scared them so much their hair turned white. Theboy ran home but the girl stood rooted to the spot.
Over the years, the boy grew up but missed his sister andregretted leaving her with a warlock. So each Hallows night he rode hiscarriage out to rescue her. She was always dressed in white with long whitehair, stood hand in hand with Victor Tainn. He beat his horse, rode fast andhard,
