"Were you responsible for this, you miserable wretch?" I hissed as Larry floated down the staircase with an amused grin. "I thought I made it exceedingly clear that you were to stay in your quarters until Sabra departed."
"And now she has, so here I am." Larry made a rather obnoxious twirl in the air and leaned himself against the ceiling, so that I had to crane my neck to see him properly. "For the record, cuz, I didn't leave my room. She's the one that found me."
I crossed my arms, not even remotely believing his words. Larry had always been a trickster, a devious and insatiable little-
"He speaks true, sister," Aurora spoke, appearing at the very top of the stairs. A dark green cream, made from hornet guts and cockroach droppings, had been applied thickly to her face. "The cunning vixen was snooping around the castle. Looking for bodies, no doubt."
"Until I scared her off, that is," Larry added.
Aurora's ghoulishly green face broke into a grin. "You did? Oh, that is wonderful!"
"No, it is not wonderful!" I yelled for the first time in what must have been years because both Aurora and Larry were knocked back a few paces in shock. My family didn't raise our voices in anger often. Truthfully, there was never any need to, but I was so incredibly frustrated that it could not be helped. "Mortals do not enjoy being frightened! Why would you do that to her?!"
"Geez, calm down a little. A scare's good for the heart." Larry was trying to hold back his laughter, as if there were a steady flow of steam shooting from my ears.
"What has become of you, sister? You used to adore scaring people away..." Aurora took a few steps down the staircase so she could scowl at me properly.
"Not her."
"Not to worry, she will soon realise that it was all in good fun."
"You do not understand. I have been researching this and-"
Aurora gasped so harshly, she could have inhaled the entire castle straight into her lungs like a giant vacuum.
Larry may have done the same if he had any lungs left, but instead he simply made a face of mild disgust. "Why would you actually want to read about these people? That's just...yuck."
"You worked with them, cousin, and you dare judge me?"
"That's different, I was getting paid to like them."
"Oh, so you liked them now?"
Larry's eyes narrowed, and a thick aura of ectoplasm quivered around his ghostly form in irritation. I could tell that any second now, he was going to shoot right through my chest, take possession of my body, and throw me out the window - just like great grandfather Slash did to Auntie Pen (short for Pentagram). Not a bad way to die, certainly more exciting than anything I could have planned for my Death Day...but there was something horribly wrong. Suddenly, I found that I did not want to die. At least not yet. The thought of leaving this plane of existence, moving forward without seeing Sabra for just one more moment, was strangely unnerving.
I readied myself to resist his attempt at possession when there came a slow rapping at the front door. No one even had the chance to answer before a powerful gust of wind blew through the doors, smashing them open and almost ripping them from their hinges. Aunty Jude stood in the entranceway, grey eyes glistening against her sullen face.
"Oh, Aunty!" Aurora chimed. "You look ghastly!"
"No time for niceties," Aunty Jude hobbled inside on her walking stick - a twisted thing, almost as lopsided as she was, made from the bark of a hangman's tree. "I came to see Elvira."
"Me?" I asked curiously. "Whatever for?"
"Well, when I was conducting my weekly seance, I met a rather glum spirit. He refused to recount how he died, trauma and all that rubbish, but he did mention a woman carrying his body off her lawn."
I immediately perked up at the mention of my recent acquaintance. "Oh! You met him? He made such a lovely corpse. A shame, really, that I had to move him but with all the recent murders...well, it seemed a little self-incriminating to use him as an ornament."
"Yes, well, it didn't take long for me to figure out that it was you. He said you'd spoken to him about...love," she said the word like it was a mouthful of custard - sickeningly sweet to the point of nausea. "I thought you'd killed the little harpy, so imagine my surprise to learn that she still lives. She must be quite difficult to kill if you've failed up until now."
"Oh, Aunty...I am not trying to kill her," I sighed, distraught by my own inaction. I knew how horribly sane it sounded, and in my family that was the worst sin of all. Sanity.
Aunty Jude suddenly looked like a fish reeled out of the ocean. Unblinking eyes and a mouth that couldn't decide between being closed or opened. Her gaze lifted away from me and found Aurora who was dabbing away a few stray tears.
"It is true," Aurora said with a shaky breathe. "She is not acting like herself at all."
The old woman nodded gravely to herself and hobbled closer to me, placing a wrinkled hand on my shoulder. Her nails were long, yellow, and so thick that it remained a small mystery how she managed to file them into sharp points. "Should've poisoned her while you had the chance. No matter. We'll do it ourselves, won't we Aurora? Save you the trouble."
I felt a small, foreign panic rise within me at the thought. "N-No! I do not want her killed!"
"But it will be so easy-"
I grabbed her hand in mine and brought it to my cheek, leaning against the ice cold that radiated from her. "I have no doubt about your skill. You are Judas the Summoner, Queen of all things dark and nefarious...but you are also my lovely aunty. You mustn't hurt her. Please. I beg it of you."
Jude pursed her lips, but that could not hide the prideful smile that had ghosted across them.
"You see?" Aurora cried. "There is something very wrong with her. What shall we do?"
The old crone stood a little straighter, which was hard with a natural hunchback, and gave a little shrug. "I suppose we must find other ways of helping our dear Elvira."
I averted my eyes from her withered figure and gloomily shuffled towards the staircase. I sat on the last stone step which was cracked in at least a dozen different places. "I appreciate it, Aunty, but I fear your support is wasted. Sabra is not comfortable around me, even more so now that she has seen Larry skulking about."
"Oh, a love potion will take care of that quickly enough."
I shook my head, a little annoyed that I found that idea so reprehensible now. "No love potions."
Aunty Jude clutched at her chest as if my words had triggered a fatal heart attack. "B-But...not even a little one?"
"No."
Silence caught the air like a suffocating mist. Aunt Jude's paralysing gaze locked onto me and refused to let go. She scrutinised every inch of my face, my stance, my aura. Then she hobbled backwards with uncertainty flickering in her eyes. She looked at me then as if I were a stranger. An outsider. It brought an uncomfortable ache to my chest. Despite what the rest of the world thought about our family, we always had each other. We belonged within our own little corner of the universe...and now I was an outsider there too.
"Very well," Jude said, shaking away any previous apprehensions. She did it so suddenly that I had to wonder if she had noticed how I was feeling. Maybe she had read my mind...it wouldn't be the first time. "A memory altering potion then."
"Wonderful idea!" Aurora cheered.
I tried to push away that vile flavour that had been swirling in my mouth since Sabra ran away. It tasted like guilt, but I couldn't be too sure. I had never felt it before. "You could make her forget what she saw here?"
"Of course," Aunty Jude nodded. "It's an easy enough potion to brew. I can make her forget the entire ordeal if that's what you want...though I still think a love potion would be more effective-"
"I will hear no more talk of love potions!" I heard my voice burst out in a throng of irritation.
Larry grimaced, any desire to attack me seeming to disappear. "Jeez, cuz... You're really losing the plot, and not in the good 'straight-jacket' kind of way."
I tried not to look at Aurora or Jude because I knew that I would only find shock or concern; more proof that I had betrayed some small part of our shared world...and all for a girl. Part of me knew it wasn't worth it, and yet it seemed impossible to just forget about her. In that moment I hoped with all my rotten soul that she would simply reject me and get it over with. If she somehow realised how desperately in love with her I was and turned me away, then I could cut the ties that bound me to her and return to the person I had once been. Maybe, now that she had seen a sliver of my reality, she would push me away and it would be over...and yet I couldn't forget the fear in her eyes as she ran away from the castle. It looked lovely on her, that fear, but somehow it shattered something in me to see it.
"Brew the potion," I finally said. "She should never have seen Larry in the first place."