8 Gone is the Witch (7 page)

And we did.
We saw what he saw. I suddenly realized we were standing in an alleyway overlooking a typical nineteenth century cow town. I spun about to look behind me. The mountains, volcanoes and the craters that scarred the landscape were gone. In its place, just a dusty trail, flanked by cactus and desert scrub, thinning to an uneventful horizon.

“Amazing,
” I said, shaking my head. “I must have imagined it.”

Tony had turned around as well. I saw him shaking his head
similarly as he mumbled, “Where’d it go?”

We looked at each other, equally confused.
We had gone through the portal and materialized in a vacuum, our eventual surroundings supported by the strongest imagination among us.

“Be it ever so humble,” Ursula remarked.

“It ain’t home,” said Tony. He cast his gaze back out into the street. “But I guess it ain’t so bad.”

For what it was worth, we had arrived in the ES all in one piece. And thanks to Carlos, in a better place than
it could have been.

The portal had dumped us out
behind a single-story building made of stone and mud. Before us lay more shabbily built structures, some like the one behind us, others made with rustic plank and board, void of paint, trim and windows.

The streets were dirt
, narrow, and scored by wagon wheel ruts crisscrossing one another and merging into a single line, fading in the distance. Everything looked grey, washed out, and appeared only as a shadow of reality.

T
rees, for the most part, seemed dead, but for a scattered few leaves clinging to branches here and there, as if proclaiming their state of existence valid and worthwhile. Any bushes there might have been before our arrival were now just tumbleweeds, blowing in the scattered winds that felt hot against our skin.

I looked down and saw the witch’s key lying on the ground a
few feet away. I bent over to pick it up. Just as my fingers neared the chain, the key flew into my hand. As I stood looking at it, I heard Tony say, “How did you do that?”

I shook my head.
“I didn’t. It just came to me.”

The others had seen it
, too. Carlos appeared most amused by the phenomenon. He walked up to me, placed his hand over mine and let it hover over the key.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Seeing if I can do it.”

I slipped the chain around my neck and tucked the key down the front of my blouse. “Forget it. We have work to do.
Let’s find Leona.”

We started
out of the alley, but managed only a few steps towards the street when eight grotesque-looking Neanderthals blocked our path. It looked like five men and three women, although the females were every bit as large as their male counterparts, so it was difficult to say for sure.

Tony and Carlos coaxed Ursula and me behind them to shield us from their approach.
They continued toward us, circling like wolves.

“I’ll handle this,” Tony said. “Everyone just keep your cool.”

I saw Carlos slip has hand under his jacket to unsnap his holster. Tony had already unsnapped his. For my benefit, he reached behind his back and tapped the conspicuous bulge in his waistband. I lifted his shirttail to reveal the butt end of his backup piece. I tucked his shirt in behind it for easy access.

“
Can we help you?” Tony asked.

The
largest of the gang members pulled his hand out from behind his back and brandished an eighteen-inch long machete. On that cue, the others produced a similar array of knives, sickles and swords. They began waving them above their heads as if ready to lop ours off.

Tony yelled,
“NOW!” Ursula ducked. I drew the pistol from Tony’s beltline and the three of us unleashed a serious barrage of whoopass on those homely bastards.

It
seemed to work at first. All eight of them fell back. A few, if only through involuntary reflex, clutched their stomachs and chests where the bullets passed through their bodies.

But
our luck was short-lived. The moment we ran out of bullets, the mob regrouped and began closing ranks on us again.

“They won’t die!” Carlos
yelled. He dropped his gun and reached for his backup.

“Save it,” I said. “They’
re already dead, the stinking spectersoma bastards. You can’t kill them twice.”

“What
, you mean they’re zombies?”

“
No, they’re ghosts in human form. You have to remember where we are. Every human here is dead. They just don’t all know it.”

“We’re not dead.”

“No, not yet.”

“So what do we do?” asked
Tony.

I put my hand out and spun up a
zip ball as quickly as I could. “See if you can make one of these. I’ll take the big one. You get the one with the droopy––”

“Drop it, witch!”

I turned on my heels and saw that the three females had taken Ursula. Two of them held her by her arms while the other stood behind her, holding a twelve-inch blade to her throat.

“
I said drop it or I’ll take her head off.”

I felt Tony
’s hand on my arm, pushing it gently downwards. The zip ball rolled off my hand and discharged harmlessly into the ground, leaving a small depression in the dirt.

“Don’t hurt her,” he said. “We’ll do as you ask. Just tell us what you want.”

A punk ass spook with only one eye and an empty socket where the other had been, pointed at Tony’s shoes. “Take`em off.” He made a sweeping gesture along the ground with his sword. “All of you. Take off your shoes.”

We took
them off and kicked them out towards the filthy bastards. The biggest one ambled up to Carlos, ran his crusty fingers along his coat sleeve and said, “I want.”

Carlos looked at Tony, who gestured
yes before diverting his eyes to me. Perhaps he thought I would protest on Carlos’ behalf. I didn’t. We watched in silence as the jacket traded hands.

“This, too,”
the thug insisted, tugging on his pant leg.

“
Hell, no!” said Carlos, stepping back and nearly tripping over the hole left by the zip ball. Tony caught his fall and helped steady him on his feet again.

Ursula let out a mousy squeal as the bitch with the blade sliced a small nick in
her skin, drawing blood along the line where the ropes of Salem had scared her some three hundred years earlier.

“All right! I’ll do it,” said Carlos
, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’ll do it. Just leave the girl alone. Don’t hurt her.”

“You bastards! I’ll kill you
!” I said, wanting so much to rip the heads off every stinking one of them. “If you hurt her, so help me I’ll––”

“Lilith!”

I looked at Tony. He crowded his brows at me. Then he nudged my attention back toward Ursula with a nod. The bitch with the knife was still holding it tightly against her neck, maybe even harder than before. I wasn’t helping her. I could see that, so I zipped my trap and cast my gaze to the ground.

Carlos took his pants off and handed them
over. He was now standing in just his socks, shirt and underwear, his empty holster still strapped to his shoulder and chest.

“
Shirt, too,” the greedy one grunted.

Carlos dropped his holster
and started unbuttoning his shirt.

“You
,” the big one said, stabbing his finger against Tony’s chest. “Let’s have it.”

Tony
didn’t hesitate.

The
males didn’t fight over the clothes. The big one got first dibs. The apparent second in command got leftovers.

One
of the females pointed her sickle at Ursula and me. “Your turn ladies.”

Tony cut in, “Now wait just a minute!”

I put my hand out to shut him up. “It’s okay. We’ll do it.” I looked to Ursula, knowing how violated she would feel. “It’s all right. Do as they say, Urs, and they won’t hurt you.”

I know I sounded convincing. Hell, I almost believed it myself. The truth was
that I had no idea what those simpletons would do with us once we’d given them everything they wanted.

I watched the bitch
-soma lower the knife from Ursula’s neck, which seemed to convince her further that everything would be okay.

“
`Tis all right, sister,” she said, unbuttoning her top. “For truth be told, methinks this heat is too harsh. I fear my skin too dry and shall flake to the bone, for these parasites what hath taken up in our clothes.”

“
I agree,” I said, “They are hungry little fuckers, aren’t they?”

“
Indeed. Besides, what fun hath we but to watch ye heifers squeeze into thy britches and mine?”

She laughed at that, and then I laughed. “
Good point.” I started unbuttoning my jeans.

“Wait!” said the bitch
-soma with the blade. “We don’t want your stinking clothes. Keep them and whatever bloodsucking parasites you picked up in your travels.” She sheathed her blade and motioned for the others to move out.

We
watched as the maundering band of thieves slithered back into the shadows. I turned to Ursula and gave her a pat on the back.

“Nice work,
kiddo. That was quick thinking.”

“Not quick enough,” Carlos complained. “Why didn’t you think of that before they stole my pants?”

Ursula stepped back and eyed Carlos from head to toe. “Methinks earlier I would not have seen thy legs in such quaint light.”

“Forget the pants,” said Tony, which was easy for him
to say since his legs look great in any light. “We need to figure out what just happened.”

“What do
you mean, what just happened? They took our clothes.”

“That’s not important.”

“Sure, not important for you. You’re wearing boxers. They don’t even look like underwear.”

“
I meant what’s important is that we understand what just happened with those...”

“Spectersoma,” I said.

“What?”

“Th
at’s what they were. Specter means ghost. Soma means human. Spectersoma are ghosts in human form. They’re non-physical entities.”

“They seemed physical enough to me,” said Carlos.

Ursula reached for her neck and wiped away a bead of dripping blood. “Aye, not human mayhaps, but every inch the beast when thy neck and blade doth meet by their hand.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, Urs,” I said. “Tony
. Give me your T-shirt.”

“What?”

“Give me your shirt! The poor girl’s bleeding over here.”

Tony removed his shirt
and handed it to me. I tore off a thin strip and wrapped it around Ursula’s neck. “There. That should help.”

She tucked the loose end into her collar. “Many thanks,
sister.”

Tony
said, “Can we get back to the subject at hand?”

“
Ha!” said Carlos, pointing, “Look at Tony. He’s got a redneck tan. Bet you’re feeling pretty silly now, aren’t ya?”

Tony ignored him. “
Lilith, if everyone here is dead, why did those thugs threaten us with knives and machetes? Wouldn’t they think we were dead and that knives couldn’t kill us?”

“It’s not death they were threatening us with.”

“I was scared to death,” said Carlos.

I shook my head. “
That’s not it. New arrivals might not know they can’t die, and maybe sometimes those thugs get what they want by shaking victims down with intimidation.”

“I was intimidated
.”

“
Yes, and the fact all of them had knives and blades tells me something.”

“Tells you what?” asked
Tony.

“
That even though you can’t kill someone here, you can incapacitate them.”

“By
decapitation.”

“
Exactly. That’s why they threatened to cut Ursula’s head off.”

“
Gives a whole new meaning to cut throats, doesn’t it?”

“You got it.
”

“
So, where to now?”

I
surveyed our environment more keenly, noticing that there were no electric lights anywhere, only lanterns lit in sporadic locations and oil-burning lamp posts on larger street corners. The buildings seemed simple, one and two-story structures with few windows, most of which had no glass.

A
flatbed wagon sat idle in the street, no horses or mules to pull it. What little industrial machinery I could see appeared mostly fashioned of wood and hammered metalwork, crude instruments reminiscent of the Renaissance Age. For better or worse, the Eighth Sphere was a truly primitive place.