Chapter Seven

 As they stood on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, without a vehicle in sight, next to the driveway with a bright blue peacock letter box, Mary wondered what this was going to be like - to use her powers to their full extent, without apologising for blowing up something.

Oh! She was going to blow up something and really get the full meaning of doing it! This was going to be… wait a minute!

“Why are we blowing up gargoyles? They’re meant to protect building, people, and Humans. And you’re not Human.” she said as the thunder from the lightning storms grumbled behind them.

“What difference does that make?” he shouted as the wind picked up.

“A lot!” she replied, “I’m not killing them - even if I can harness lightning. I’d rather throw it at Balthazar, then those creatures.” she pointed in the direction of the flying gargoyles, which were really getting bigger by the second.

He took her by the shoulders and shook her gently, “Listen, I haven’t made a single phone call since Sandgate to Balthazar; so I haven’t talked to him. He has no idea where I am… and if anyone’s tipped him off, well, he’s toasted them into the middle of their next life.” Thomas glanced over at the creatures which all landed in the field about a kilometer away to watch and wait to see what Mary would do.

Lightning spat across the purplish-green clouded skies behind Thomas, as doubt clouded her mind as thickly, “I don’t know what to do!” she shouted, “You’re Thomas from university and high school, but then you’re not but you’ve never hurt me… and I’m right outside my mother’s house and you haven’t put her in danger either.” tears pricked her eyes as rain began to fall from the sky in large droplets, ‘My god! I don’t know what to do.’ she thought. Looking at the peacock letter box, she realised how garish it was, sitting on the side of the road - how outlandishly weird it looked and how, very…

“Obvious.” she sniffed and the air smelled like tin as the rain poured from the sky. Mary looked back at Thomas, “She’s not here. This isn’t the type of letter box she’s put out here… it’s too…”

He looked at it, staring at it, “Yeah, too bright and if she was hiding, she’d have something to mix in with everyone else’s letter boxes.”

They exchanged the same expression of realisation: that her mother was further out, that she wasn’t here, had never been here and the scent she had smelled was also a decoy. Then, she walked over to the half-sized post with the marking on it, and knelt down next to it, “Thomas, get the car.”

“Okay.” he uncloaked the Kombi, climbed in and turned it around, driving it into the driveway. He looked down at her kneeling next to the post, “What are you doing?”

“She’s further out, but not on the road here… she’s created something and we have to follow it.” she said, “Let me drive. Slide over.” he slid over as she placed her hand on the marking and the whole piece of land shimmered in front of them and a huge greenhouse faded into view. The scent of Sweetpeas grew stronger. The letter box vanished, as did the post she touched and Mary jumped into the driver’s side of the Kombi and she drove it down the driveway, which turned from a dirt road into a sealed one.

“Woah, how did you do that?” Thomas stared around the surrounding field, which was a lovely green, so bright it hurt his eyes, “Mary…”

“Yes?”

“What’s going on?”

She glanced over at him, “You know? I’m not sure. But I’m sure of one thing.”

He looked over at her, “What?”

“Huh?”

“You’re sure of one thing… which is?”

“Oh… we’ve just gone down a rabbit’s hole.”

Thomas turned around and looked out the back window. He watched the letter box shimmer back into place as they turned the corner, “Crap.”

“I don’t know where I’m going… whether it’s good or bad.”

He pulled his phone from his shirt pocket, and found it said, ‘No Service.’ sighing, he put it back in, “Good in some aspects - bad in others.”

“How so?”

“Well, Balthazar can’t find us here; but then, neither can anyone else.” he said.

“Crap.”

 

Balthazar pulled up alongside the fence where the weirdest-looking letter box was sitting. He exited his black Chrysler, which was speckled with dried rain dust and looked at its garishness. He glanced over at the gargoyles sitting in the fields watching him - which had long since turned to stone and looked like anything but what they really were.

The demon snorted as he looked next to the letter box and noticed a post half the size of the letter box. It looked like it was old and rotted. Squatting down, he ran a hand over the top of it whispering, “Renew.”

As though it heard him, the timber creaked and moaned and turned back into what it was - a witch’s marker - for a few seconds, then it turned back to how he had found it. Sighing, he looked down dirt driveway, which had a large, iron gate across it now, with barbed wire. It appeared as though it had been there for years. But there was one thing he noticed: the air smelled of Sweetpeas.

“It’s all an illusion.” he muttered, “She’s here. Mary’s here. Thomas is here; and it’s all an illusion.”

 

The Kombi bumped over a lovely covered bridge and emerged from the other side to a flurry of migrating butterflies. They looked like petals of lovely multi-coloured flowers dancing on the breeze as the sun illuminated their brilliant colours against the lushness of what should have been dusty fields of drought-filled properties.

“This is stunning.” Thomas mumbled, “I can’t believe we’re out west, and yet it feels like we’re…”

“In a scene from ‘Pleasantville’. Right?” she finished.

“Yeah.”

“How weird is this that we just jumped dimensions and yet we’re still on the same planet?”

He looked at his phone again, “I still don’t have any service.”

“Relax, we’ll get it again soon.” she smiled, “Besides, what are you afraid of? Balthazar catching us, or that you can’t get in contact with him?”

He gave her a filthy look, “I told you that I haven’t called him since Sandgate.”

“So, you’re expecting him to call you?” They came to a crossroads and she stopped the Kombi, then turned and looked at him, “Well? Which way?”

“What feels right for you?”

“Left. It’s a driveway, we drive on the left side of the road and it’s the way to go.” she put on her indicator - and immediately felt like an idiot, seeing they hadn’t come across any traffic since arriving at this idyllic place - and turned left, taking them up a small hill and around to the right, around a huge oak tree in the centre of where the road would have gone otherwise.

“You know, I think you were right about the gargoyles.” he said, “If they were going to hurt you or me, they would have flown faster to do it.”

She turned the vehicle along the road and down around another corner and they came upon a lovely house nestled on a piece of land. Crossing another bridge, she pulled the Kombi into a parking spot near the front gate, pushed it into Park, pulled the hand brake and turned off the engine, “Well!”

“Look, if your mother’s not here, what do we do?”

Mary looked over at Thomas, “We stay overnight.”

“But, Mary!”

“Listen, I’m tired, hungry and haven’t slept more than five hours for the past few days… and if we’re off the radar here, I’ll be happy to stay here for the rest of my days!” she grabbed her bag and grabbed the door handle. But as she looked up, she saw a rifle leveled at her from in front of their vehicle, “Oh well, somebody doesn’t like us being here.”

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” the woman demanded.

“Seeing you have the upper hand. I’m Mary Wilson, and I’ve been looking for my mother, Diane.” she called out the window.

The woman lowered her weapon: “Mary?”

“Yeah, can I get out of the car?”

She disengaged the rifle and nodded, “Yes, yes! Come on, get out, you and… who is this?” she sniffed his clothes, screwing his nose up at him, then glared at Mary, “You brought a demon here?”

Mary didn’t recognise the woman: “A name would be great from you. People seem to ignore the fact that I have no idea who they are.”

“Oh… I’m Diane.”

“Mother?”

She smiled sheepishly: “I suppose I am. I have been hiding here for … well, let’s see. I don’t remember how long.” she turned and walked away from them and they followed, “How did you get here again?”

“The gargoyles led me here.”

“Aren’t they wonderful?” she half-turned smiling at them, “Yes, they would have recognised you from when you were a baby. But you don’t remember them, unfortunately.” she sighed, “They’re such great creatures.”

Thomas and Mary exchanged: ‘What-the-Hell’ looks and nodded in agreement when she looked at them again.

“Are you two hungry? Tired? Need a shower?” she laughed, “All three?”

“Oh, all three!” Mary said, “And how long have you been here? Because I’ve been looking for you for just a few days - and yet you’re acting as though you haven’t seen me in years; decades.”

“Well, Mary, I’m not the Diane you know. I’m a different Diane. But your mother, Diane is around here.” she smiled.

Thomas touched the woman’s shoulder, as which she pulled back, glaring at him, and he pulled his hand back to his side, “Okay, then, where is Mary’s mother?”

“Around here.”

“And who are you in relation to my mother?” Mary asked.

“I’m her mother.”

“Add a strong drink to that list of things I’ll need.” Thomas grumbled.

 

The day passed slowly. Thomas and Mary had their very cleansing shower and changed their clothes and ate the most delicious meal of their lives with Diane. Then it occurred to Mary, that both her Grandmother and her mother were called Diane, but she was named Mary.

“Why isn’t my name Diane?”

The older Diane looked up from her work table filled with bottles of seeds, bowls of seeds and a large book with ancient writings in it, smiling, “Well, it’s all to do with your mother. She didn’t want to carry on tradition.”

“Like the Gods used. Some of them named their daughters after themselves.”

“Yes. But we just name our daughters Diane.” she sighed, “Your mother wanted to get out of the family business.” pointing to the now very battered book bag, “You’ve got something very heavy in that.”

“It’s a strong box - led-lined - and it’s got a book of great magicks in it.” she said, “I don’t know what to do with it. But Thomas is scared of it, and in a little way, I am as well.”

“I think we better wait for your mother to show up before you open the box.” she said.

Thomas tapped Mary on the shoulder, signaling her outside. Mary grabbed her book bag and went outside with him, “Are you okay?” she asked, “Since lunch you’ve been sitting out here.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket, “You said we’d have service when we found this place… look.”

She looked at his phone to find it still said, ‘No Service.’ then looked up at him, “That is creepy.” she pulled out her phone and found she had service, “But, my phone is fine.”

“I’ve restarted it and still won’t show up; and I don’t know why.”

“It’s because this is a place of good and you’re a demon, and it won’t let you out, or anyone from your company in.” Diane said from the door, “And now you’re here, this other-worldly place is having an affect on you in such a way, you’re not sure how to react to it. Will you stay? Will you go? Are you going to die, or are you going to live?”

“Diane, stop it… you’re making it harder for him.” Mary snapped.

Her eyes shifted over to her granddaughter, “Really? Oh, I am so very sorry about that. But you brought him here.”

“He promised to protect me until I found my mother.”

“Yes. Until he helped you find her.” the older woman said, “Then what? What did Balthazar say would happen to you?”

His eyes darted around the place, to his feet, his hands, out across the yard of the dying day and long shadows, then back to Mary’s face, “I don’t know. He didn’t say anything would happen. He didn’t tell me anything about what would happen, did he?”

“No, he didn’t. he didn’t say you’d live or die. He said you’d protect me and help me.” Mary took his hands, “And don’t listen to this woman. I don’t know her, she’d playing tricks on you and making you doubt yourself.”

Taking a deep breath, Thomas looked into Mary’s eyes, “Yes, I’m fine. You’re here with me and we’re both fine.” he glared at the older Diane, “Nice try. Leave us alone.”

A curt smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as the woman turned and walked back to her work table. She’s have to make the spell stronger - that’s all - and get Mary to not be in the same space. She broke the spell: ‘That kid has some real juice.’