Chapter 6

Milady

Fuck, why does Lucy need to be so dumb? Thinking they are friends and the basement is her home. They're not friends, they've never been, and it’s not like they gonna be either. Milady looks over to her right before crossing the street. And cleaning? Who told her to clean? She’s only staying with her to… No, she’s working for her. She has given her a job. She even gives Lucy money for tasks she could have done herself. Lucy should be grateful she's not thrown out. She would have been if it wasn't for... Never mind, doesn’t matter; Lucy shouldn’t have started to treat the basement as her home. Simple as that. Stupid girl..

She crosses the street; she’s almost at Gullvi’s. At least they are proceeding according to plan; everything is going smoother than she thought. As long as the Guardians accept Lucy, the crossing shouldn’t be difficult. She knows the spell for closing the portal; she’s practised it over the last few days. Then it’s just hoping they won’t meet anything on the other side. But they should be able to deal with it if they do. She hopes, at least. There’s only so much you can prepare for a mission with scant instructions, but it’s not like the ShadowMan gave them any choice, did he?

She steps into Gullvi’s front yard and knocks on the door. She can’t believe Lucy really cleaned the basement, thinking they are friends…

“Come in", Gullvi says as she opens the door.

Milady follows her inside. The order is restored once again, she sees, because on the table in the living room stands a steaming kettle of tea and two cups. Gullvi gestures for her to sit down and hands her one.

“How’s the week been? I’ve…”

“We have the price.”

Gullvi’s eyes widen.

“Really? So fast?”

“Yes, I found this girl.”

She tells her about Rat and the runaway girl he’d struck up in the park. Gullvi nods and hums as she talks, and when she’s finished, Gullvi turns to gaze out the window.

“And you think she’ll work?”

“My intuition tells me it’s the right deal.”

Gullvi nods, fidgeting with the cup in her hand. Why can’t the old grump just be happy?

“And..", Gullvi sighs. "Do you think it’s advisable to use her?”

“What else?”

Don’t you start too; it’s enough having Lucy at home.

“She’s just a girl..”

“If you have any other payment that will keep us alive, I’m all ears.”

Gullvi doesn’t answer, and Milady says,

“So what do you suggest? That we just leave it and let the ShadowMan roam free? Or shall we meet the Guardians with a freaking chicken and hope for the best?”

“No, but still…”

Milady leans forward and takes Gullvi’s hands.

“It’s too late to stop it. And anyway..”

She glances down before looking up again,

“Do you really know what will happen to her? No, no one knows. They might just shed her blood and nothing else. Do you want to be the one responsible for letting the Shadow Man and god knows what else to escape and mill about?”

“Of course not.”

“So there you have it. We can’t back out now. The girl will work, I feel it, and we don’t have time to look for any other payment. “

Gullvi sighs.

“I know, I just… She’s just a girl. We don’t do human sacrifice.”

Milady jolts from the sofa.

“We don’t know if it will be a sacrifice! We simply know that she’s the payment. No one knows what will happen because the freaking books won’t tell us, will they?”

“Calm down..”

Milady slumps down on the sofa.

“I know you’re worried, too, Gullvi says.”

“Of course I am! I don’t want the freaking Shadow Man to prowl the nights.”

“Not him, about the girl.”

Milady looks away.

“But I don’t see any other way", Gullvi sighs. "But it would be better if it wasn’t the case.”

They sit quietly, Milady scratching a scab that starts to bleed. After a long while, Gullvi says,

“I’ve cast the spells; it’s all ready.”

“Good.”

“And you'll need to prepare Lucy.”

“I know; I already have a plan.”

She tells Gullvi about the idea she has, and Gullvi nods.

“That should work. “

Milady leaves after that. Stupid shit... Why the heck was she tasked with all of this?

She hurries home. Lucy sits on the sofa as she arrives. She looks so small, her hands in her lap, staring at the floor. Milady throws her backpack in the corner. Stupid girl... Milady has done her a favour, and she doesn’t even have the wit to be grateful. She would have probably unlivened herself by now if she had been left on the street.

“I might have a job for us, she says as she walks over to the kitchen.”

At least she can initiate the excuse for going to Gullvi. Lucy looks up.

“A job?”

“Yes, and a well-paid one at that. We’re running low on cash.”

“Oh… I have money.”

“Enough to last us for a month?”

“No..”

“So then this job it is.”

She waits for Lucy to ask more about it, she thought she would be at least excited to do a job together, but she sits quietly, watching the floor. Damn, why does she need to be like this?

“It’s this crazy lady that I know. She believes in magic.”

“Magic?”

“Yes. You know, black candles and silver crosses and cats.”

Lucy moves a bit closer, and Milady’s voice softens.

“We’ll do a kind of theatre for her.”

“But I'm not an actor?”

“Me neither, but she pays well.”

“But do I need to perform on the stage?”

“No, no, it’s just a small ritual in her home.”

“Oh.. What do I need to do?”

“It's kind of boring. You need to memorize some text; it’s not much, and then you stand there and simply repeat it when she tells you to. She will burn some incense, and she’ll sing. She has a horrible voice", she adds. "And she’ll give us 100 bucks for it.”

“Oh.. I think I can do that..”

“Yes, we can do it. It will give us enough money for another month.”

Lucy smiles and when she suggests that she can cook for the night, Milady agrees and heads to the other room. Stupid girl. How can she even be so naive? You can simply tell her anything, and she’ll believe it. In any case, she will have lived longer staying with her, and she might still live after the ritual.

The next weeks pass by too quickly. Milady lays the final hand on the brews and notes down the last spells. She has Lucy running errands, simple packages to deliver, and each evening, Lucy reverts more and more to her old, annoying self of asking stupid questions. She keeps the basement out of the conversation this time but has an incessant stream of questions about street life and how it is to live there. Milady chokes down her carefully crafted responses and instead opts to answer Lucy with as much pleasantness as she can. She needs her to trust her again.

Then happens the thing that mustn’t be. The ritual is just a couple of days away, and Milady sits on the sofa, another book open next to her, when Lucy clambers through the window. She’s refined her entry technique over the last weeks, but this time, she tumbles through the window and rolls off the sofa with her hair askew. As she stands up, she glances up behind her, out the window.

“Is everything okay?", Milady asks.

“I… think I was followed.”

“Followed?”

Who follows a street kid around in the night?

“Yeah, I saw this man.”

“Man?”

“Yeah, it was strange. I saw him and then suddenly he disappeared, and then he turned up again suddenly from nowhere.”

“How.. did he look like?”

“He was dressed in black. Like a cape. I’ve never seen him before.”

Fuck… Fuck, fuck fuck… The freaking ShadowMan.

“And you’re sure it wasn’t just a cat? Sometimes, the mind can play tricks on you.”

“I don’t know…”

“I’m sure it was just a cat and its shadow in the street light. It can look strange sometimes. And no man can disappear just like that.”

Lucy doesn’t seem convinced, but she stays quiet, and Milady gets up.

“Let’s eat and go to sleep; we need to be well-rested for the job in a couple of days.”

She pours the contents of a tin into a bowl and hands Lucy. She takes it without a word.

“I’ll be right back; I just need to check something.”

Milady heads to the other room and closes the door behind her.

Fuck, fuck fuck. The freaking ShadowMan has shown himself to Lucy. What the fuck does this mean? Does it mean she can’t be used, and they can’t do the ritual? But it’s too late now; Gullvi has already cast the spells. Fuck…

She paces back and forth in the small room. She needs to talk to Gullvi. They can’t stop it; it’s too late. But fuck, what if the Guardians won’t accept her? What then? She hears Lucy putting the bowl in the sink and climbing into bed. The ritual is only a couple of days away.. There’s no way they can find another price in that time.

She picks out a book from the shelf, one of the best there is about the ShadowMan. All adepts worth their name know about him, of course, just like crossing the worlds. But who he is, and what he wants, no one seems to be able to answer. She skims through the pages. The one he shows himself to has a part to play; seeing him is not a random act; he returns every century or so. She knows all of that. But they won’t tell her if seeing him means you can’t be the payment. All they give her is the phrase “has a role to play”, but what the heck does that mean? She’s always thought it meant that you can’t be the price. It’s a passive role, being the payment. But of course, the books are so freaking vague you can’t be sure. But if they get it wrong, they are screwed.

She flicks through the pages. She already knows they don’t mention a suitable price; she’s gone through the book several times, and nothing else worthy of interest catches her attention, and she closes the book. Will they risk Lucy not being suitable? That would be a potential death sentence. But there is no way they would be able to find another price now. She needs to talk to Gullvi tomorrow.

She’s up before Lucy for once, and as Lucy stirs in bed Milady has already slung her backpack over her shoulder and says,

“I need to go and visit the old lady. She always has some extra requests at the last minute, I better get them now”.

“Can I come with you and see it?”

Lucy scrambles up.

“No, just stay here. I’ll tell you if anything new has come. “

Milady climbs out the window and hurries through the streets. She’s breathing hard as she knocks on Gullvi’s door.

“Oh, I didn’t expect you", Gullvi says as she opens. "Come inside.”

Milady follows her, and before Gullvi has time to ask what’s the matter, Milady blurts out,

“Lucy saw the Shadow Man.”

Gullvi sinks down onto the sofa, her face pale.

“The Shadow Man? Are you sure?”

Milady nods.

“Yesterday, he showed himself to her.”

“So she can’t be the price?", Gullvi says after a while.

“I don’t know, I don’t think so.”

Gullvi sighs and shakes her head.

“What are we gonna do?" Milady asks." We don’t have time to find another price. The ritual is just in a couple of days.”

“Can we offer something else?”

“Like what?”

“Chicken?", Gullvi suggests.

“Not enough, I’m sure.”

“Goat?”

“Where will we get that from? It’s not like the voodoo priests give them away freely. And anyway, I don’t think it’s enough. “

They go quiet.

“Are we sure she won’t be able to be the price?", Gullvi asks.

“I don’t know; it’s not like you get any clear answer from the freaking books. But you know that seeing the ShadowMan means you have a role to play, and I’ve never heard of the price being anything else than passive.”

Gullvi hums.

“We can’t stop it; I can’t undo the spells I’ve cast.”

“So we just go with it?”

Gullvi sighs.

“I don’t see any other option. I don’t like it, but I don’t know what else.”

Milady gets up.

“Fuck…”

They might as well sign their own death sentence. How the fuck will they get out of this? She leaves without another word. Two days from now and they will thin the veil. With a half-assed price. Fuck…

You can listen to the Audiobook version on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@maratellsstories