The Diablo Ouija (A Haward Mysteries Short Story)

Part 6: Beyond Magic?

All the strands came together in Remy's head at once and he was absolutely sure when he met the hidden gaze.

"You and Swanson met at Felix's funeral, didn't you?" he revealed some of his hand. "Did you intend to go this far, or did you just want to know what happened at first?"

He paused, trying to hide any disquiet he felt at the ropes around his body and waited for a response. Slowly, Chloe reached up and pulled off the mask, wild red hair falling around an expression that was far darker than the mask.

"Very good, Detective, you get a gold star, but being a smart arse won't save you," the young woman sneered, her eyes blazing. "You will all pay for failing my poor Felix."

Remy knew better than to challenge his captor's logic right out, instead, he kept a steady eye on her and asked, "Felix was your boyfriend, you met at university?"

Chloe nodded and, as Remy had hoped, she began to talk.

"He was the best guy I ever met, shy, kind and happy, we were so happy. Then you idiots let that Ouija get into him and he just started to fade away right in front of us. When he finally killed himself, there was nothing of him left, just a shell, and all he could talk about was that bloody board. All he could think of was that night, he was even wearing this," she pulled at the costume, "when he killed himself."

"Why did you come to the shop?" Swanson joined the conversation, his tone gentle and measured.

"I wanted to find out about the board, I wanted to know why my lover had committed suicide," Chloe snarled, showing her teeth and her eyes blazing. "When I finally got you drunk enough to tell me what had happened, that you'd let that board start on him, that's when I decided that you'd pay the same way he had."

The doll cackled at that and observed, "Quite something, isn't she? I despaired of ever getting out of that damnable vault and then, one day, my dear Chloe rescued me."

Remy really wanted to kick the doll and board into orbit, but he held onto his desire just as the ropes held onto him.

"Chloe, you killed three innocent people last night," Theo's tone was flat as he made the observation.

The look of hatred flickered out at that and the girl glanced down at the little demon that was looking up at her.

"I," she began, confusion flashing across her features.

"You what?" Remy pushed and regretted it as soon as he saw the anger flare again.

"I had to see if it worked," the girl growled, but it was obvious to Remy from the look in her eyes that she was no more in control than he was.

Remy could feel magic now, it was coming from the board and it felt nasty. He hadn't seen the thing in real life, only in pictures, but he knew how it had earned its name. The black lettering was old, broken where the leather surface had worn over the years and he could feel the evil in them. The board had control of Chloe just as it had obsessed Holiday.

"Surely you'd learnt enough not to have to try it out?" he tried to reason with whatever sanity was left to the young woman.

"Oh, I'd learnt so much," Chloe snapped back, grinning uncontrollably. "You know that board is four hundred years old? He told me that," she pointed sharply at Swanson, "but what he didn't tell me, what he wouldn't tell anyone, I had to sneak through his books to find it out myself, is that it was made by Jules Van Der Hoff, a necromancer. He wound it with magic that can tear a man's soul from his body and that is what is going to happen to you all."

Swanson sighed, shaking his head and drawing everyone's attention.

"It was me who failed Felix, not these two," he appealed to Chloe. "Why hurt them?"