Original Sin

Coming into the building.

She was at the center of an energy vortex. Someone was drawing in the energy. This didn’t happen spontaneously.

But no one was here.

She listened, then discerned the voice chanting. Downstairs? There was a basement?

Moira searched for another door, but there wasn’t one inside the building. She pictured the alley next to the church. And there had been another door to the right of the church’s rear entrance. She should have checked it out, but she hadn’t planned on being here this long.

She ran outside. The door was closed but not locked. She said a prayer, along the lines of I hope you’re in a helpful mood, Big Guy, because this feels very bad right now.

Moira pulled open the door. Incense swirled around her as she silently stepped inside. Candlelight flickered down below.

From the top of the stairs, she recognized that this was a permanent ritual spot. Many spells had been cast here, most so black that fear nearly made Moira run. How could she, one person, fight such dark magic?

She hesitated, listened to the voices. Felt the magic around her. Most of the spells were old. Lingering, but harmless. She focused on the spell being cast now. The energy being drawn into this room, the energy she saw upstairs. The vortex.

Ari Blair.

Was Jared still with her? Among the shadows and candle flames Moira couldn’t clearly see what was happening down below. Then she heard a male voice chanting along with Ari. Jared. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or pissed off or worried. Probably all three.

Ari was calling on a variety of names to aid her, using a mixture of Latin and English, common among amateur Wiccans. Moira listened to the words, and only a moment later realized what Ari was doing.

It was a reversal spell. Relatively simple and easy if a witch wanted to reverse a curse or illness, but trying to recall the Seven Deadly Sins? Ari was not only going to get herself killed, she was risking the release of more demons.

Moira rushed down the stairs. Ari and Jared knelt in a pentagram surrounded by a double circle, candles all around them.

“Stop!” she shouted.

Ari looked up from the chalice she was incanting over. Fear, then irritation, crossed the girl’s face. Jared saw Moira and sighed in relief.

Ari scowled. “You need to leave.” She tried to sound tough, but Moira heard the hesitation in her tone.

“You need to stop right now. Turn over the chalice and tell me exactly where those three altars are so I can destroy them.”

“No!” She glared at Moira. “They killed Chris!”

“One of the Seven Deadly Sins killed Chris, and one or more of them are going to kill or possess you if you don’t stop playing around with black magic.”

“I’m a white witch.”

Moira shook her head. “That’s what I used to think. Until a demon used me to kill my boyfriend.”

Ari sucked in a sob. “I didn’t kill Chris!”

“You might as well have. It was a demon from the cliffs who touched him.”

“But Chris wasn’t there.”

“You were, though you were safe in the protective circle. Everyone else in the world is in jeopardy.”

Ari was listening, and Moira was relieved. The magic was stagnant now, without the continuing ritual to build it up.

But Ari was unconvinced. “That’s why what I’m doing here is so important! I’m sending the demons back so they can’t hurt anyone else. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I never wanted anyone to get hurt.”

Moira continued to walk forward. She stood on the outside of the circle. “I believe you. You don’t want to harm anyone.”

“Do no harm. That’s what we believe.”

“That’s what you believe. It’s noble. You didn’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t think you planned on releasing demons.”

Ari nodded. “I want to do good. I created the energy vortex. I researched it, plotted it out, and it’s working! Don’t you feel it?” She put her arms up. The crystals on her wrists drew in the energy, practically drugging the teenage witch.

Moira was losing the argument. “I feel it. And you need to stop it right now.”

“No,” she snapped petulantly.

Moira said to Jared. “Follow me.”

“Please don’t go, Moira,” Jared pleaded. “They have Lily! They’re going to hurt her just like they did Abby.”

Moira said, “Jared, Lily is with Anthony. Safe. No one can get to her.” I hope. “Ari is playing with fire, and she doesn’t want to listen to the truth.”

“Lily’s okay?” Jared asked, rising from the floor and walking over to Moira.

“Jared, no!” cried Ari. “Don’t go. None of you understand the power that I have!”

Moira lost her temper. “You don’t think so? I understand it better than anyone, even better than Fiona. I know what the power does to people. To people I love and care about. I also know what it does to you. You feel invincible. You believe you can do anything. You’ve probably left your body, floated among the clouds, watched people. That was my favorite part of being a magician. Flying. And I still miss it.”

“Then help me if you can!”

“I’m trying.”

“You’re trying to stop me, not help me!”

“That’s the only way I can help you. I have to stop this now.” For the last several minutes Moira had been feeling the energy turn from neutral to black. Something was coming. She had to convince Ari to break the circle and destroy the chalice. If Moira walked into the circle, the energy would be drawn to her, because of her blood. “The energy is changing. Don’t you feel it, Ari?”

But Ari was already drunk with the power, and said, “I’m getting stronger.”

“You’re losing control!”

Ari put her arms up and chanted the end of the ritual.

“Under the stairs!” Moira commanded Jared. She didn’t have to tell him twice.

A tornado of dark gray smoke rotated along the perimeter of the circle in which Ari stood. Ari held her hands up and commanded the spirit to go back where it came from.

The whirlpool of evil rotated faster. Every candle went out except those within the circle. Moira’s hair blew all around her; she could barely stand upright against the pressure. She had her flashlight in hand, but it was all she could do to hold on to it.

The entity didn’t obey Ari’s commands, just as Moira feared. She had no idea whether the demon was one of the Seven or a completely different devil. But with all the energy being directed into the center of Ari’s circle, the demon either didn’t know Moira and Jared were there or didn’t care.

Moira’s arsenal of weapons wouldn’t work until the demon took a physical form. She knew the exorcism prayer by heart, but the demon wasn’t trapped. As soon as she began it, it would turn on her. She wouldn’t be able to help Ari, or Jared, or save Rafe, if she were dead.

Ari held up a crystal.

“Smash it!” Moira screamed at her. “Break the crystal and you’ll break the spell!”

Whether Ari couldn’t hear her over the demonic winds or whether she ignored her, Moira couldn’t say, but Ari said, “I command thee, as it is above, it is below. I command thee to come-”

“No!” Moira shouted helplessly. “Don’t!”

It was too late. Ari had invited the demon into her circle. The girl screamed silently as the demon invaded her body. The resulting silence as all the air seemed to be sucked out of the room terrified Moira.

The possessed Ari stared at Moira, her eyes a red-tinged opaque.