Page 292 of Sigils & Spells

That got him moving. He cautiously stepped forward into the moonlight. “You’re sure this is going to work?”

“Yes.” I wasn’t, but what choice did we have. This was the way it looked in her grimoire. I wasn’t using them to keep me young. In fact, the short time I had been in this town probably aged me considerably. One week on the job, I had ten students in my class. I had more homework to do than to grade and I found that lucky rather than sad. “I’m exhausted. Come on. I just need to find you and then I can save you a–”

I fell backward onto the dirt. The deep vines began wrapping around me, pulling me under, “Andy! Help!”

He ran forward and reached for my hand. I could hear her cursing me in my ear, “You will not take them from me!”

“Andy!” I screamed for him as my head went under the surface. Immediately, panic began to set in. I could not breathe. I could not see. The taste of earth was filling my mouth, the scent and the substance my nose.

At my back, a push began against the pull. I felt as though I was going to tear in half if something didn’t give and soon.

Finley’s voice and the request came through again, “You know what we need.”

My heart. My heart was what they needed. Not my soul. Not my life. Just my heart. I could not speak, nod, move as the darkness began to smother me and the vines continued to push and pull my body.

What did I have to lose? My life? I was about to die anyway. My mind cleared and I relaxed, submitted to my circumstances, and said, “It’s yours. I give you my heart.”

With what felt like a complete punch to that organ, I could have sworn I saw three men standing over me before I could see nothing at all.

Andy said, “You’re filthy. You know that?”

My eyes blinked open and I looked up to find him reaching toward me.

“What happened?” I asked and put my hand at my chest. I still felt like a whole person. Dirt fell as I stood with his help.

“You saved us.” Andy smiled. “And I saved you.”

Finely said, “All by yourself. I’m the one who told her on day one what we needed. If she gave it to us then, she might not have come close to joining us.”

“Joining you?” I asked, and looked down at my feet. I was still in the garden, but I didn’t feel the same darkness lurking there.

“This is where our…bodies reside. She…buried us here.” Finley looked at the dirt. “I only wanted to be a mortal man again. To die. To forget what I had done to get home to my wife, my life then. I…became something when I was over there. We…had to eat.”

I nodded. I had read his file. He had returned with a bloodlust that his young wife could not live with. The doctor had promised him peace. She made him her servant.

Tex moved in next to me and said, “Well, it could be worse, Darlin’. I’ve spent more than one lifetime charming my way through feedings. I won’t have to sink so low anymore.”

She had used his charm to bring those girls to the house so he and Finley could feed once she had him under her spell. When he was no longer human, capable of moving about as a typical being, she murdered him and put him in the garden with Finley.

“Then me.” Andy smiled. “I was her prized possession for a long time.”

“You are no one’s possession, Andrew.” I reached for his hand. “But I am grateful to be yours.” I looked at Finley and then Tex and said, “And yours. All three of you. All my life I had imaginary friends. I cared about them, missed them when I had to move and they couldn’t go with me. And now. Here I am.” I stepped toward the house and then spun around to face them as I said, “Living with monsters.”

I knew there was a lingering spirit that had to be given peace, but tonight, in the small, gloomy town of Winter, a new garden was about to grow. I gave them my heart, and now, I would give them my body.

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