Dead Souls (9 page)

The wind gusted, blowing across the mouth of the barn and sending in rolling pillows of fog. It crawled along the hard soil ground, seeping toward the bales of hay piled beneath the fifteen-foot loft. He could hear a high-pitched whistling sound, the result of a warm breeze whipping in through gaps in the wooden beams; apparently, the strange vacuum appeared not to exist in here.

Benjamin hunkered down and picked up the horsefly, which he gingerly placed into his pocket.
For Bryan, a special gift from the messenger
. He then crossed the threshold into the barn, leaving just enough room behind for Faith, Elizabeth, and Daniel to settle in behind him. He looked at the gloom-filled store, the hay-bales stacked high beneath the loft, blocking the way to the rear of the barn; straw was spread out amidst hunks of wood and pieces of rusted tractor parts. Flattened tires leaned drunkenly against the right wall. Clutter existed nearly everywhere, except at the very center of the barn where Benjamin had put in order all preliminary measures for the ritual.

The first thing he noticed was the heat: dense and oppressive, hitting him like a tangible force. It could've been a hundred degrees in here, maybe more. Sweat poured down his back in quick rivulets, and a warning voice inside his head told him that he would need to commence with the ritual quickly and efficiently—that the infant would not be able to withstand the extreme temperature for too long.

Slowly and soberly, he stepped toward the center of the barn where two four-by-eight slabs of black-primed wood were lodged flatly into the soil. Painted in white on the wood was the magic circle, its circumference measured out at exactly eight feet. Benjamin stepped into the circle, the hairs on the back of his neck immediately shifting from the loaded conditions of the air. On the ground outside of the circle were the four pentagrams, plus the north-facing triangle of the gift; each held white candles at their points. He removed a box of wooden matches from his pocket, then kneeled down before each figure and lit the candles, first at the pentagrams, and then the triangle. Scrawled in white paint along the edges of the triangle was the Seal of Osiris, the inch-high words now aglow beneath the bask of motionless candlelight. Once the candles were lit, Benjamin nodded to Elizabeth, who as directed, closed the doors to the barn.

He immediately paced to the rear of the barn, to a point near the bales of hay, where a black silk sheet had been draped. He removed the sheet to reveal the consecrated mirror, frameless, supported only by black-painted plywood wedged between the bales. About six feet tall and two feet wide, various symbols adorned the edges of the mirror's surface: six triangles, running along the top with the name of OSIRIS split up, one letter at each of their peaks; down the sides ran the symbolic representations of air, earth, fire, water, and spirit.

Benjamin returned to the center of the eight-foot circle. He nodded to the others, who slowly walked over and stood just beyond the circle's circumference, alongside the pentagrams. He then closed his eyes, and pledged: "Here I stand at the center of the magic circle, where I shall act with the authority of the divine spirits of Jesus Christ and Osiris. I respect you both, my Gods, and shall act in accordance to your divine rule. We pray to the Lords."

And the family replied in unison: "Lords, hear our prayer."

He opened his eyes and gazed at his family. Their eyes were closed, but their lids still reflected the candle light, giving off the impression of magical sight. Their faces were a sheen of golden sweat, wet and glistening. Benjamin listened intently to the environment: the wind…it had stopped gusting outside, the high whistling sound once blowing through the barn's cracks now gone. For a stretch of twenty seconds, only silence existed...a silence that had an unnerving anticipatory quality to it. Then, a sudden rumble of far-off thunder pervaded the air, hanging in the distance like an ominous charm. Odd yellow light seeped in through the clouded window at the peak of the barn, carrying with it a thick tangy aroma that smelled like battery acid. Outside, Pilate began to bark.

Benjamin kneeled down and retrieved the magician's wand that he'd placed in the triangle days earlier. As if trying to attract lightning, he stood and aimed the wand up over his head, using the molded end to trace an ankh in the air. He visualized the shape in his head in the color of gold, saying, "The time has come for Bryan Conroy to pledge his allegiance to the Lord Osiris, as we already have, so that we may as a family remain in togetherness for all of eternity. I thereby consecrate thee, implement of the afterlife, by celestial power, that thou may be used as the divining tool in our quest to beseech the all-empowering Osiris."

Elizabeth kneeled down and picked up the black silk cloth from the center of the pentagram before her, which contained the Sigil of Osiris; like the others, this too was drawn out on a leather parchment. She removed the parchment, unfolded it, then stepped forward through the circle and placed it in the center of the triangle. Benjamin lowered the wand, plucked the horsefly from his pocket, which he placed on top of the parchment. Removing the candle from the outermost point of the painted triangle, he said the prayer to Osiris:
I summon and beseech thee, O Spirit Osiris from the vast astral plane, by the supreme majesty of God, to allow the child Bryan Conroy an association to our purpose, so that he too may benefit from your empowering gift
…

He then struck a match and placed it to the parchment. Both the scrawled prayer, and the horsefly, disintegrated beneath the mounting flame.

Benjamin stepped back and watched the flames rise, his eyes following the pillar of smoke winding its way up toward the vaulted ceiling of the barn. While doing this, he imagined himself as a soaring figure, with the earth a tiny sphere below him spinning on its axis. He felt a sudden flood of all-powerfulness, as though he were standing at the center of the universe, surrounded by the galaxies and stars. At the very top of the pillar of smoke, a glowing sphere of white brilliance formed. The sphere expanded, and soon began to descend, forcing down the smoke and emitting a loud wind-like sound that nearly deafened him. Using the wand, he reached up and pulled the white light down into his body, vibrating the word "
Matah
" from his lips as he did so.

He moved the wand over his torso, focusing it upon his heart. The light thinned into a beam and connected into him, first at his heart, and then as he moved the wand over his body, his groin. He uttered, "
Alkuth
", his voice a monotone of prayerful song. He touched each shoulder, the beam of light following the end of the wand, igniting it slightly. Now, he could see its formed contour in the gloom: an ankh, softly aglow with the Lord Osiris's light. He held his hands together, keeping the wand tightly secured between his palms. The ankh at the end of the wand grew brighter. Benjamin uttered in monotone, "And here I am, standing at the cross of light that reaches deep into the astral plane where the Lord Osiris resides. Within me shines the five-point star, and with it I beseech Osiris to give the gift of eternal afterlife to the child Bryan Conroy on this, the first year of his birth."

The smoky fire burned brightly, despite a lack of kindling. Benjamin took small, shallow breaths, keeping his gaze upon the glowing beam of light, now wholly absorbed by the ankh at the end of the wand. He realized quite suddenly that he possessed no sense of any time passing, feeling only the stifling heat and thick, hazy smoke. His eyes began to burn, tears sprouting rapidly from his eyes.

The light from the wand fanned out like a spill of water, traveling slowly through the air, over the triangle where the fire still burned.
It is time!

"Osiris is coming to bring his gift of afterlife!" he shouted. "Place the baby in the circle. Now." Holding the wand over the fire, Benjamin quickly stepped around to the pointed tip of the triangle and faced his family. Faith removed the blanket from around Bryan and moved forward into the circle. Her face, still framed in the black hood, was a deadly pale, nose running, eyes puffed-out and tearing. Both Elizabeth and Daniel were hunched forward, chests wrenching up and down in quick, shallow spasms. The baby, closer to the biting smoke, began to cough uncontrollably.

Faith placed baby Bryan down into the circle, then staggered back to her position outside its perimeter.

Using the wand, its die-cast end aglow with the heat of the fire, Benjamin stepped back to the forefront of the circle, and traced an ankh shape in the air over Bryan, all the while staring into the mirror.

Through the heaving cries and gags of baby Bryan, Benjamin stated the Conjuration of God, as memorized from the
Grimoire
of
Honorious
:

"I, Benjamin Conroy, do evoke thee, O Spirit of the God Osiris, by the living God, by the true God, by the holy and all-ruling God, who created from nothingness the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are therein, in virtue of the most holy sacrament of Jesus Christ, and by the power of this Almighty Son of God, who for us, and our redemption, was crucified, suffered death, and was buried; who rose again on the third day by the power of the spirit of the God Osiris, and is now seated on the right hand of the creator of the world, from whence he will bear consent for Osiris to judge the living and the dead."

Faith, Elizabeth, and Daniel all responded weakly: "Amen."

Benjamin placed the end of the wand back into the fire, then repeated thirteen times, "Before me, Osiris. Before me, Osiris. Before me…"

Upon completion of the summons, the surface of the mirror grew fluid in nature, moving inwardly in a spiral fashion and quickly forming a silver vortex. The vortex grew as large as the entire surface of the mirror, moving vigorously, generating a sound like that of a roaring ocean. Benjamin stared at it for a minute, maybe more. Watching. Listening. As the seconds escalated, it grew darker in nature, the outermost edges turning nearly black, glowing like onyx. In the center, a focal point of golden light formed, growing gradually larger as the vortex became more turbulent.

In Benjamin's mind:
Before me, Osiris. Before me, Osiris
. He felt his body begin to rise in the air, and yet, when he looked down, he could see that his feet were still touching the ground. He could no longer feel the wand in his hand, but its handle was still tightly clenched in his fist, the steel end glowing
redly
beneath the sparking flames.
The energy of the Divine Providence is with me…I am floating
…

He gazed back at the mirror, his eyes immediately glued to the widening pinpoint of light. From within the light, the sound of a ticking grandfather clock surfaced, seemingly muting all the existing sounds in the room: Bryan's persistent wails and coughs, the gags and nervous shuffling of feet behind him.

Benjamin shouted, "
Before me, Osiris!
"

The expanding pinpoint of golden light at once swallowed up the silver and black vortex, consuming the entire surface of the mirror. Benjamin was immediately blinded. He looked around wildly, then diverted his gaze downward, where he could see baby Bryan shutting his tear-filled eyes against the invasive glow.

Thunder struck harshly overhead, shaking the beams and prevailing over the loud ticking
of
the clock. Dust and straw blew off the rafters and rained down on the miraculous scene. Pilate was now howling outside.

From within the powerful golden glow, the spirit of the Lord Osiris appeared.

At first the spirit's form was just a shadow, distant but moving forward quickly until it ultimately obstructed much of the light. Once the spirit gathered its true form, it stepped forward, out of the light—out of the astral plane—into the barn, where it stood before the Conroy family in all its spiritual grandeur, framed by a golden aura.

Benjamin let out a sharp, sudden breath, and had to tighten his throat because of the gasp that wanted to come out. He felt terrified—such a menacing figure had never appeared during the four other summoning rituals, those pledging familial afterlife for himself, Faith, Elizabeth, and Daniel.
No, in the past Osiris always appeared as a shimmer of light, and a voice! Why is he showing himself now?

Benjamin noticed that the spirit's entrance onto the physical plane had caused all the common environmental elements to be restored: the wind, whistling through the gaps, grabbing the smoke and spreading it throughout the barn; baby Bryan's panic-stricken gags; the hacking coughs of Faith, Elizabeth, and Daniel.

Plus, the heavy pounding of his own heart.

"It is you," Benjamin finally uttered, lips trembling with awe, all the nerves and pathways in his body frozen with fear.

Osiris's emergence was indeed wholly intimidating: he appeared as a tall bearded man, wearing a long black robe of watered silk that nearly touched the ground. He wore a black Egyptian
nemyss
on his head, with long drifts of dark hair pouring down over his shoulders. Around his neck was a chain that held an ankh-shaped amulet made of gold. He carried a dark rod in his right hand, this too fitted with a golden ankh upon its end. In his left hand was a glowing chalice, a portrait of a bull with a ring through its nose etched onto its surface. Without moving his body, the spirit at once spread out a pair of black feathered wings that appeared almost metallic in nature, their span perhaps ten feet from tip to tip.

The spirit pinned Benjamin with ringed eyes as black as fresh, hot tar, and Benjamin could see his own frightened face reflecting in them. "Perform your deed," the spirit of Osiris said, its voice many octaves lower than any human could possibly utter—to Benjamin, it sounded robotic.