Last Trip down Memrie Lane

Chapter 9
Chapter 9

9

Harley had never seen so much fury in someone’s eyes before. But why wasn’t the man they were so furiously fixed on writhing around in pain?

“How dare you. You weak and insolent fool.” Her father was saying. “How dare you attack my wife and disrespect my house and name by your mere presence!”

“Oh I’m sorry Mr. Memrie,” the man was saying clumsily through half-hiccupped words. “It was just the wine. You know I wouldn’t have touched your wife if I wasn’t this way.”

Harley saw her father spit fire from his eyes. “You are a disgrace to men you vile creature. Go from my sight and I hope you are locked behind bars for the rest of your days. Mark my words, Cornelius, the authorities will hear about your actions.”

“The authorities. The police don’t give a damn about you or your family. You’re a pig in a fine suit, Memrie, everyone knows it.”

Harley’s fury was raging inside of her. Her doll was dead and now her family was being insulted. Why wasn’t her father destroying this man from the inside out? He could make this man feel misery and torture. Yet still her father stood there, looking into the half-opened eyes with malice.

“You will burn for your crimes. Leave now before I make you rue the day you came into this world.”

The man chuckled. “Rue this, you swine,” he belched. He reached into his jacket and drew forth a pistol. He aimed it at Randolph and pulled the trigger.

The bang was enormous and though Harley had heard the blasts of pistols before, this seemed ever louder as it echoed through the house. She screamed and suddenly there was a blinding flash of light. She forced herself to look up and she saw that the small bullet was hanging in midair, a foot in front of her father. Her father’s face showed every trace of a lion about to strike. But still he didn’t. He simply let the bullet fall to the ground.

Cornelius gasped, half knowing if he was simply too drunk to see reality.

It was too much. Gasps spread through the room. Calls from people started as they pointed at Randolph and called, “Sorcerer! Evil demon! Burn him!”

Then Harley screamed a long and loud scream that seemed to overtake all of them.

Indeed when she stopped screaming everyone else had fallen silent.

Harley opened her eyes and she saw that the occupancy of the room was different. Her father, mother, and sister were standing in the room, but in the place of all the others, there were small dolls lying in various positions on the floor. Each one was wearing a small, doll-version of the costume worn by the person they once were.

It was a long time before Harley could comprehend what was happening. Her father was shouting. People were being rushed from the house. Her mother was crying.

“Why did you do such a thing, Bella?” her mother said through tears.

“I don’t know. I didn’t mean to.” She said

“Change them back now, Bella” her father demanded.

She tried. Soon there were six people lying still on the floor with blank expressions on their faces. No trace of life hid behind any of their eyes.

“Bring them back!” said Goodwin, her brother in panic.

“I… I tried!” said Harley through tears. “Why aren’t they alive?!”

Her father answered. His voice was pained and tight. “Because…” he said slowly, “because you didn’t just change their bodies did you?”

Harley gulped and gasped but finally she shook her head slowly. “I… I think… I think I changed their minds too.”

Her mother broke out into fits of hysterical sobs and Harley knew what she had done wrong. It was certainly possible to turn a living creature into an object and back again. She had done so with small animals for training. But that was very precise and required a tremendous amount of concentration. Instead she had simply lost control and tried to make everyone stop being loud and angry. She wanted the fighting to stop. She wanted to punish everyone. She did only what she could think of in her distress. And their minds had gone. They were no longer human in any way.

There was a long silence in the room to follow. Then her father broke the silence. “Nobody must know.”

“What?” gasped Madeline.

“Nobody must know what has happened here. They are no longer human. They are as good as dead. Bella, take them. Hide them with the rest of your toys. Our power has betrayed us.”

Ellya gasped. “No! Father, there has to be a way to fix this!”

“There is,” her father said. “It was me.”

“What?” said Madeline slowly. “Randolph you can’t do that!”

Harley’s father looked directly into her mother’s eyes. “Yes I can. It was me. He assaulted you. I pulled his pistol from him and shot him out of anger. Harley, leave him human.” Dully, Harley felt herself change the crowd of humans back into dolls with the exception of Cornelius. Her father picked up the bullet and sent it whizzing through the air, burying itself in the man’s chest. Blood dripped from the wound. “The honor and strength of the Memrie line must never wane. The Halloween will mark a lapse in our strength but not its death.”

Harley was crying. Hot tears stung her face. “But… father… you can’t! I’m sorry!” she heard herself say, and she buried her face in her hands to cry loudly.

Her father walked across the room and knelt before her. He took her hands. “Bella, this is not your fault. You were scared. You are still learning your craft. Mistakes happen. But I will be sure that nobody in my family suffers needlessly. Go into hiding. All of you. Protect your strengths and your lives. If I have to take the blame for this crime then so be it. I would gladly make that choice to save my family.” Her father hugged her tightly and she returned it, wanted to fit in an eternity of embraces into this one.

And Harley could not bear it any longer. She ran to her room, flung herself onto the bed, and wept loudly.

Then a voice… a pale and colorless voice sounded through the room. It was familiar, distant, and cold. “That… is… enough…”

And Harley felt a hand grasp the back of her head and yank hard. The world fell away. Her bed sank deep, the room stretched upwards miles into the sky. She lost all feeling of gravity and was again spinning in all directions through darkness and light, until finally the world slowed around her and she came crashing to the floor with a solid THUNK!