Walking the Ley Lines

Roads through the Mist

"Where's the book, Janine?"

"I think you better leave," she said, folding her arms.

"What exactly do you think Kelly did to deserve this?" I asked. "Have you been by to see what those curses you've been chanting have done to her?" I waved a hand to her worn features and thinning hair. "Have you seen what messing around with that book is doing to you?"

"Leave now," she said, tightly. "Or I'm calling the police."

"Alright," I said, starting to round the desk. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way."

She backed away, reaching into her pocket and holding her phone up like a talisman, pressing buttons with her thumb.

"Leave now!" she said. "I've dialed nine-one-one, all I have to do is hit call!" She had backed all the way up against the wall. Her bony frame shook.

"Oh, I don't think you'll do that," I said, dropping the receipt with the scrawled symbols to the floor and raising the gifted pen wrapped in her hair. The receipt floated gently for a moment, but the instant it hit the floor, Janine's eyes widened, likely already feeling something happening to her. The receipt burst into flames and disentigrated to nothing.  Janine froze, her body stopped shaking, her only motions were shallow, almost imperceptible, breaths.

"Now, Janine," I said, keeping the pen raised in my left hand and taking her phone with my right. "I was pretty sure you didn't know much about this kind of stuff. You just giving me something of yours while leaving strands of your hair lying around kind of clenches it, though." I waved the pen and her arms dropped to her sides. Her shallow breaths shuddered like suppressed sobs.

I leaned against the desk. "Plus, you didn't bother covering your tracks at all. I'm guessing you came across this book, it probably started whispering to you or appearing in your dreams or some such. Right?"

Janine blinked.

"Well, cursing people with demon books has consequences, Janine." I said, leaning forward a little. "And believe me, I'm the absolute best ending to your little experimentation with the dark arts." The pen was growing warm in my hand, I kept a loose grip on it and the hair wrapped around it.

She stared at the pen, managing to look incredulous and betrayed despite minimal control over her facial muscles.

"Look at me, Janine," I said.

She blinked and looked at my face with her wide, frightened eyes.

"Now," I said. "Since I figured you didn't know much about stuff, I was just going to steal the book and give you the chance to quietly walk back to the real world, but circumstances have changed and I need to move this along." I lowered the pen a little.

Janine sucked in a breath and almost collapsed against the wall. She tried to scream but her voice came out has a whisper.

"I know the book is in this room," I said, still catching whiffs of it as if through a revolving door. "Tell me where it is, and I'll be on my way."

She tried screaming again, but when it, once again, came out as a soft whispering breath, she started crying. Her face contorted and darkened and tears slid down her cheeks.

I felt kind of bad then.

"Where is the book, Janine?' I asked, keeping my tone even. I had seen what Janine's curses were doing to her neighbor, Kelly Swinton's house and life were decaying around her, but I also knew what something infused with dark power could do to the person who found it. Janine wasn't entirely at fault here.