Pale Emperor (Maniggy)

Chapter 20~

"So...What brings you boys up to literally, my neck of the woods?"

Brian said "Well the spell you used on the charm, worked."

She smiled and said "Well that's good...Do you still have the charm?"

Brian nodded and he pulled the necklace out of his pocket. He handed it to her, and she carefully inspected it.

She smiled and said "Wow...Good job on not breaking the charm. Case if that had happened, that would've been reeeeaaallly bad."

I raised an eyebrow and asked "How so?"

She said "If the charm had broken, the projected image would've become trapped inside the mirror, and if you looked into any mirror at all, it would've either killed you, driven you to suicide, pulled you into the mirror, or gouge or burn your eyes out of your skull."

Our eyes widened and I said "Oh."

She nodded and said "Yeah. But if the short and sweet and to the point answer is better, she would've been like Bloody Mary." 

We nodded and Brian said "Well I'm glad that didn't happen."

I nodded too and I looked around the space. Lit candles were everywhere, symbols, statues, pentagrams, books, dreamcatchers, charms, it's like a Witches dream.

All of the sudden, something grey shoots past me, and scares the shit out of me. I back up and realize it's a great cat. The cat had gorgeous light blue eyes, and a straight black vertical line in the center if it's forehead.

Sheri laughed and said "Ruby, don't scare the poor thing." The furry creature I now know as Ruby meowed, and rubbed it's forehead on my hand. I smiled and scratched her head, and she purred in happiness.

"Aww Ruby?" I heard Brian ask. He came over and asked "You cheating on me, Rube?" She meowed and leaped into his arms. He chuckled and scratched behind her ears, and she rubbed her head all over his chest, and I thought it was the cutest thing ever.

He smiled and said "Yeah, I miss you too, Ruby."

I smiled and leaned down to face my new furry friend. "Hi Ruby, I'm Jeordie. It's nice to meet you. And it's nice to see you love Brian too."

She extended her neck towards me, and started sniffing my face..It felt weird and we were trying not to laugh.

"Does he smell good, Ruby?"

She meowed in reply, and rubbed her forehead against mine. They 'awed' and Sheri asked "You know what that means, Jeordie?"

I looked up at her and asked "What?"

She came over to us, and started scratching Ruby's head. "When a cat rubs it's body against something, it's marking it as their territory. But when a cat rubs it's forehead against the forehead of it's owner or whomever else, that means they made that person an honorary member of it's family." 

"Looks like you're apart of the fam now, baby." Brian said, smiling.

I smiled and said "Well then, it's good to be home."

Sheri smiled and all of the sudden, her smile faded, and she held her palm to her head. Brian noticed it too and asked "Sheri? You okay?"

She shook her head and said "I-I don't know..." She stumbled a little, but steadied herself, and sat down in a nearby chair.

Ruby jumped out of Brian's arms, and Brian hurried over to her.

"Sheri, are you having a vision?"

"I don't know....I can't make out what's going on..."

Brian looked up at me worried, and I was the same way. 

"Wait....I see...I see..."

"Sheri, what can you see?"

"Give me...Give me pen and paper...Pen and paper, now!"

I quickly grabbed a notepad and a pen, and handed it to her. She clicked the pen open, and started drawing something.

"Sheri, what do you see?" 

"It's dark...It's very dark...Wait. I see light..."

"What kind of light?"

"Sunlight...I see sunlight shining down...I see someone burning..."

"Sheri, who's burning?"

"I-I don't know...They're burning too fast for me to see."

"Are they inside or outside?"

"Inside...They're inside some kind of tomb.....I see your father."

"What's my father doing?"

"Nothing...He's just standing there. He's standing there, looking straight ahead....I can hear screaming."

"Who's screaming?"

"The person being burnt...And someone else, but I don't know who it is."

The drawing is detailed but I can't tell what she's drawing.

"Sheri, is there anything else you can see or hear?"

"I see your father....He's standing over something....Wait...No, no, it's going dark."

"Try Sheri, what can you see?"

"It's...It's gone.....It's gone, I can't see it anymore."

Brian and I looked at each other, then at the drawing on the notepad. It looked like a tomb of some kind. There was a large beam of light, shining down on a burnt body. We didn't know who it was......But by what she saw, we knew it couldn't mean anything good.