Tracy took the piece of rope and began to rub each end on the pavement driveway. When each end was well frayed she brushed the ends off and dug a lighter out of her pocket. She turned to Grant. “Here hold these two ends together.”
Grant took the rope and pressed the two ends together.
Once Tracy was satisfied on the way it looked she lit the lighter and slowly began to run the flame around the rope successfully fusing the two sides together to make a solid piece of rope. She walked to the car she and Grant drove and reached in a brown cloth sack and pulled out a small paper package. “Ok follow me.” They all followed Tracy who made her way to the large side yard and found the clearest, fenced in area she could. “Make a large circle out of the rope.” She undid the brown paper package that was in her hand while the three stretched out the rope making it into as near a perfect circle as they could. “Ok everyone in the center.” Everyone made their way silently into the center of the circle and Tracy began to slowly walk around the inside edge sprinkling the contents of the package on the rope as she walked. No one spoke as she made her way around the circle. Once she was done she joined them in the middle. “This will keep out spirits so none can enter and if I’m right they won’t even be able to see inside.”
“We can test that can’t we?” Jen asked. “I mean if we find Emily?”
“I can go see if I can get her.” Mike said. “Think we should let her in on the plan anyway.”
“Ok that’s a good idea but before you go.” Tracy ran to the car and dug out her large book of spells then came running back. “Ok everyone stand together please.” She opened the book and began to flip through the pages till she came upon the page she was looking for. “Ok let me get in the middle of you three.” She lined them all up so they surrounded her. “By the dragon’s light, on this January night I call to thee to give me your might. By the power of three I conjure thee to protect all that surrounds me. So mote it be, so mote it be.”
They stood there in silence unsure of what to do now.
Tracy closed her book and smiled. “That was a protection spell it should keep you safe when you’re in the house. Just a warning though… Warren is a powerful entity so it will only hold up to so much before it fades so still be careful.” She turned to face Mike who was standing to her right. “Find Emily and bring her out so we can see if she can see into the circle then I can cast a spell that will let her and only her in.”
“Ok I’ll try and find her.” Mike made his way towards the house while everyone else began unloading the items per Tracy’s instructions.
Mike made his way into the house and headed straight upstairs. He figured if she was anywhere she would be in the room with the wardrobe or the one with the drawings. He tried the drawings first but she wasn’t there. Maybe she doesn’t want to be seen right now. He thought to himself. Set on finding her though he made his way to the wardrobe and sure enough there she was standing at the back of the room watching out the window. “Hi.” He whispered as he slowly walked to her.
“Hello.” There was sadness in her voice. “I have been watching you all going in and out of the side yard.”
“Oh?” Mike was now standing beside her looking out the window down into the side yard. “What all have you seen?”
“Well I saw a lot and then nothing at all.”
“That’s great.” He shot her a smile. “Follow me.” He led the way out the back door and into the side yard. He could see the three hard at work. They had already set up the fire pit in the middle of the circle and Tracy had the turkey fryer just about set up. “Stay here for a sec.” He walked into the circle. “Trace!”
Tracy turned around to see Mike as he pointed to Emily. She waved not thinking about how she wasn’t supposed to be able to see her. She noticed though that she didn’t wave back. “It’s working?”
Mike nodded. “She was watching us from the upstairs window. She said she saw everything one second and then nothing.”
“That’s amazing! Can you finish hooking this up I’m not sure I have it right.” She walked over to her book that she had sat down next to the fire pit, picked it up and began flipping through the pages, stopping on the one she wanted. She skimmed down the page then sat it back down. “Be right back.” She quickly walked out of the circle. “Hey Em be right back.” She said as she walked by her and went straight to Grant’s car. She dug through the brown cloth bag pulling out a few of the little brown wrapped packages and made her way back to the circle once again disappearing from Emily’s sight. She unwrapped the little packages and dumped the contents of each one into the middle of the fire pit and began to toss them together. She pulled the lighter back out of her pocket and lit them. The smoke began to rise into the air. “Guardians of the spirit realm hear and guide my plea. Let my words ring true and bring our beloved Emily to me. Other souls who hear my call are not welcome in this place. Only the one in which I called may enter this sacred place.” It was obvious it had instantly worked because she could see Emily looking around at all the stuff that was now in the circle. Smiling, Tracy waved for her to come in the circle.
“What is all this?” Emily asked as she stood next to Tracy looking around at all the different items spread out on the ground.
“We are going to rescue Wes and get rid of Warren.”
“How?”
Mike who had just hooked up the propane to the now ready to use turkey fryer saw that Emily was now in the middle of the circle. He made his way to the middle where they stood. “You tell her?” He asked Tracy who nodded her head in response.
“Not the details.” Emily said. “How are you planning on doing this?”
“You two talk I have some stuff to do.” Tracy not wanting to be the one to tell Emily about the risky plan walked over to where Jen and Grant were stacking the mirrors. She said a few words to them and they all started walking towards the vehicles to get some more supplies.
“We came up with a plan. It’s pretty solid so don’t be worried.” Mike began to explain about Tracy being related to Stella and then began telling her how they planned to rid the house of Warren and free Wes. “So as you can see we’ll need your help for some of it.”
“It’s too risky. If something were to happen to you I…” She stopped midsentence. “I couldn’t bare it, not again.”
“Tracy knows what she is doing. She has done this already.” He pointed to the rope that was on the ground around them. “It’s working so I have every bit of faith in her abilities.”
Emily looked over towards Tracy who was instructing Grant to pour the water into the giant pot that came with the turkey fryer. “Still what you plan to do is...”
Jen who had dropped off the last of the bags she had gotten from the grocery store next to Tracy was now walking towards Emily and Mike.
“Are you ok with all this?” She asked Jen as she now stood next to Mike.
“It scares me to no end.” Jen said as she took Mike’s hand. “But I trust Tracy and we can’t just sit by and not do anything. Wes is his best friend and you’re.” She paused
“My mother.” Mike finished it. “That aside, he needs to be dealt with. I’m not going to stand by and let him have the opportunity to kill again.”
Emily stood in silence taking in all that Mike had said.
“It’s a good plan, it really is.” Jen said. “It allows you to help but still keeps you out of harm’s way at the end. You stopped him from taking me so it’s obvious you’re strong so you should be able to keep Mike safe enough.”
“You can’t talk us out of it so there is no use in trying.” He said as he noticed a look of concern cross Emily’s face.
“Then what can I do to help?”
“Well, let’s ask the boss lady.” He said with a smile then he turned and started walking with Jen and Emily in tow. “What is this for?” He asked Tracy as he reached her just in time to see her dump in the contents of another one of
the little brown packages.
“Well…” She turned the knob on the propane tank, pulled out her lighter, and lit the burner underneath the giant pot. “Once I add my eye of newt and a few toad legs it’ll be ready for you to drink.”
“Oh.” Mike said in a disgusted tone. He had no idea what all was going into it but the idea of drinking it wasn’t pleasant. “Emily wants to know what she can do to help.” He finally said as he tore himself away from the image of Tracy adding bits of toad to the water.
“Right now not much but when we actually start, a lot.” It was easy for Tracy to tell that Emily was disappointed with this. “If you could let us know what is happening in the house that would be amazing. If he starts to expect something is going on it could make things worse. You are the only one who can keep good tabs on him.”
Emily nodded and her disappointment lightened some. It wasn’t much but it was better than nothing.
“Oh I had an idea with the mirrors.” Mike was happy to change the conversation. “As you can see I got extra mirrors. I thought if we could connect two of them together to make one side it would make our trap a bit bigger.” He kneeled down and began to draw a small replica of the upstairs of the house. “So the way the bedroom right at the top of the stairs is laid out we could actually put the entrance to our trap in line with the doorway.”
“What about the bed?” Emily asked.
“I thought about that and with the new size of the tridecagon the bed should fit right in the middle. That’s where you will be waiting and also that’s where I can be too, lying comfortably behind you.”
“Sounds good.” Tracy said.
“Once we have Warren in the trap Jen can slide the last piece in place as she leaves. Then you can do your thing and bam game over.”
“I thought I was going to be in there with you two?” Jen asked.
“We agreed to let you lure him in there.” He answered back.
“Listen I am going to be in there. If I am in there then it will make it that much easier for Trace to do what she has to do.”
Mike opened his mouth to respond but she cut him off.
“End of it Michael. I am not letting you two take all the risk the more things going on in there the more of an overload it’ll be for him.”
“She’s right.” Emily said with a smile.
“See.” Jen smiled at her and then turned to walk towards Grant who had one too many mirrors in his hands.
“I like her.” Emily said in a whisper.
“Yeah me too.” Mike smiled. “I am going to go work on the mirrors and get them all ready. I want to try and get them so we just have to carry them up and fan them open.”
“Ok Just be smart about everything and don’t take anything in the house till the last minute. It needs to be a surprise in order to give you better odds.” Emily smiled and waved before she turned and vanished into the house.
“Oh Mike!” Tracy shouted as he had begun to walk towards Jen and Grant. “Here.” Tracy grabbed her book and opened it up and began flipping through it. “Take this and on every mirror somewhere around the middle draw this symbol.”
“How big and with what?”
“Ask Grant for the tool we got and make it pretty big. There aren’t any specifications on size but no harm in making it as big as you can.” She stopped turning the pages when she finally found what she was looking for. “Make it as exact as you can though.”
He took the book. “I can do that.”
“I will come over and help when I can let this simmer.”
“Yeah about that.” He leaned over and examined the boiling contents of the giant pot. “Two things, first why are you making so much and second how sick is that going to make me?”
“It’s the recipe. It’s so you can have a store of it and I honestly didn’t feel like messing with the ingredients. It has to be exact for it to work.” Tracy opened up another package and began to empty the contents into the boiling concoction. “It shouldn’t make you sick it’s just herbs and a few other things nothing harmful.” She looked up at Mike with a smile. “I can’t guarantee anything about the taste though. My guess is it’s going to go down kinda rough.”
“Right.” He took one last glance in the pot and shook his head before he walked off to join Jen and Grant by the mirrors.
The four worked diligently through the day only breaking once when they sent Jen off for some food and drinks. As the sun slowly vanished and the bright sky gave way to darkness the four finished off their last bit of work they could do in such low light. One by one they gathered around the middle of the circle where there was a small fire burning in the metal fire pit.
Tracy was the last one to join the middle as she was ladling a small portion of the contents of the giant pot she had been tending for most of the day into a small glass container. “I think we are just about set for tomorrow.”
Mike who was eyeing the glass container in Tracy’s hand began to nod in agreement. “Just have a couple more mirrors to fit together. We should give it a test unfolding and then it’s all set.” He made his way behind Jen and wrapped his arms around her. “When are we doing this?”
“Think we should start right around dusk. We need him active and we have a better shot of that around that time.” Tracy let out a smile as Grant imitated Mike and wrapped his arms around her.
Mike nodded as they stood there watching the small fire slowly fade into smoldering coals readying themselves for the trials to come the next night.