Girls of the Unknown (14)

Chapter 14 : The Spirit




Several residents of Pottsfield had recently dug up bones which did not belong there.
They were hidden in the corn fields instead of the burial site and not even attached together. They did not move. They did not belong to any citizen of the town.
At least that’s what the talking black cat told Beatrice and Clover as they were seeking some supplies for the latter.
“Probably the remains of some lost travellers who met a terrible fate”, the cat continued.
Beatrice had recognised his voice right away. She wondered how on earth he could move that giant costume he had the first time she visited, but they had more pressing matter to deal with right now.
“Do you think the evil spirit did all that?” the girl in blue asked her girlfriend.
“I wouldn’t be surprised”, the latter replied. “We’re gonna need Whisper’s help to get rid of it for good.”
“Now, now, children…” Enoch intervened, “you do not have to destroy every single murderous spirit roaming the Unknown. You could meet a fate worse than death.”
“I thought you were frustrated to find ‘unusable’ skeletons in the middle of your corn fields?” Beatrice reminded him.
“I cannot stop you”, the black cat replied, jumping down from the barrel he was sitting on and onto the floor of the barn, “but if you get yourselves devoured by this spirit we might not be able to reanimate you. Unless we manage to put all your bones back together somehow.”
“Don’t worry about us, Enoch”, Clover said, adjusting the strap of her leather bag on her shoulder. “It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve dealt with evil spirits.”
“I see… So, you got everything you need?”
The brunette checked the inside of her bag one last time and nodded.
The girls said goodbye to the cat before leaving Pottsfield.

Clover and Beatrice went back to the former’s vegetable garden, planted some of the seeds they got in Pottsfield, washed their hands with the water from the well and finally entered the cabin proper.
Tomorrow would be Clover’s weekly lesson with Auntie Whispers.
“I’ll go with you this time” Beatrice decided. “If we’re going to talk to them about the evil spirit, I want to be there. That thing traumatised my brother and maybe almost killed Wirt and Greg ; I’ll do anything I can to destroy it.”
“Your brother and friends aren’t the only victims here”, the witch’s apprentice reminded her.
“I know, I know…”
“Anyway, it’s a bit late for you to go back home so…”
“So I’ll stay the night and prove my parents right about me spending more time here than in my own home”, the girl in blue finished.
“Is that really a problem?” Clover asked.
Her girlfriend wrapped her arms around her and started gently playing with a strand of her long brown hair.
“It’s all worth it”, Beatrice stated before slightly leaning down to touch Clover’s lips with her own.
When the Woodsman entered the cabin, he found the two teenagers kissing in the living room. They instinctively parted and the old man promptly mumbled an apology before going into the next room to give them some privacy.
“Well that was a bit awkward” Clover laughed, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend’s waist.
“Could be worse”, Beatrice replied, playing with the other girl’s hair again. “Had it been my parents interrupting us I would never hear the end of it.”
“What do you think they’d do if they found out?”
“I’m not sure actually.”

“At first I even thought it was you, Lorna”, Clover said as she was explaining the situation to her hosts, “but… it wasn’t. It was like a twisted version of your soul.”
“So we thought maybe it could be the evil spirit that used to possess you”, Beatrice added, tapping her fingers on the wooden table the three teenagers and the old woman were sitting around. “Wirt made it leave but he didn’t destroy it, right?”
Lorna nodded and looked away.
“We need the bell”, the redhead continued.
“We do not have it anymore”, Auntie Whispers explained. “The frog swallowed it.”
Beatrice facepalmed.
“So the boys brought the bell home with them”, Clover concluded. “Anyone has any idea where they are now?”
“Out of the Unknown, most likely”, the witch replied. “They came from the other world, just like you children did.”
The room fell silent. The three teenagers had been in the Unknown for so long their memories of their former lives before ending up there were a bit fuzzy, and those concerning how they arrived in this world in the first place were most likely lost forever.
“Wait”, Lorna finally spoke, standing up and going straight to her room.
She got back to the living room with the Tome of the Unknown in her hands.
“There is something in here about a way to go to the other world”, she told the others as she laid the book on the table and flipped its pages. “But only one of us can go, and it doesn’t say for how long.”
“Can I go?” the Woodsman’s daughter asked. “I’d like to meet Wirt and Greg too. Everyone else has!”
“And how are you going to recognise them if you’ve never seen them?” her girlfriend pointed out.
“Besides, I cannot cast the spell alone”, Whispers stated. “You’ll have to help me, Clover my dear.”
The witch’s apprentice reluctantly agreed. However, they had yet to decide who would go look for the boys : Beatrice or Lorna.
Before they started debating about it, Clover took a coin from the leather bag resting on her lap and suggested the other teenage girls pick head or tails.
Then they tossed the coin and Beatrice won.