“Yeah?”
Amelie hurried after Delia as she hastily walked back toward the mausoleum. The door was still shut, and the pair could see movement from within the crypt. So confident the zombie was still quarantined, they made their way to the entrance.
Delia looked down at the steps, where semi-dried droplets of blood dotted the stone, and started following the trail off in the direction the zombie had come from.
It didn’t take very long for Amelie and Delia to find the grave that the creature had dug its way up from.
Dirt displaced alongside the grave itself, along with pools of blood and pieces of flesh lining a hole in the ground, made it pretty apparent.
“Oh, ugh…” Amelie placed her hand up to her face, covering her nose. The smell of rot was pungent and all-consuming. Delia, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered, but instead got even closer. Dropping to her knees, Delia scooped up some of the dirt in her hands and watched it fall.
Shaking her head, Delia looked around. “No… this doesn’t make any sense.”
“What doesn’t?” Amelie responded through her hand.
“There’s nothing here that indicates a spell took place. This level of resurrection requires preparation, magic circles… but there’s nothing here but dirt.”
Amelie swept her gaze across the area surrounding the empty grave until it settled on a, larger-than-average tombstone.
“Delia?” Amelie called out, making her way across the empty grave and over to the headstone.
“Yeah?”
“Didn’t you say something about blood magic earlier?” Getting closer to the tombstone, Amelie noticed a distinct spot of red smeared across the headstone itself.
Instead of responding, Amelie heard Delia get up and walk over to where she was now standing.
“Fuck.” Delia swore, passing Amelie to get a closer look at the stain. “Dammit, Roz.”
Running her finger across the stone, Delia clicked her tongue when it came away flaky.
“Is that…” Amelie let her hand drop from her nose.
“Yes.” Delia took a deep breath and kept scanning the area. “But it doesn’t look intentional… it looks like… shit.”
Amelie followed Delia’s gaze as she paused at her feet. A slightly darker-than-average patch of cemetery dirt sat right at the base of the tombstone.
“Dammit.” Delia cursed, stomping over to a nearby tree where a bucket and trowel sat.
Picking them up, she hurried back to the tombstone, and started digging, carefully placing the blood soaked dirt into the bucket.
But as she went, it became more and more apparent that the blood had already seeped deeper and deeper into the earth.
“Fuck.” Delia threw the trowel onto the ground and sat back on her heels, crouched over the hole, hands winding through her hair in stress.
“Delia, what’s…” Amelie started but was cut off by the sound of dirt shifting in a grave across the way.
“Shh.” Delia held up a hand, watching the dirt with wide eyes as it slowly shifted bit by bit until a ghastly hand clawed its way out. “Fuck, we have to get inside, Amelie.”
Nodding in agreement, Amelie did not remove her gaze from the grave until Delia stood, took her by the wrist, and dragged her inside.
“I have to call Roz.” Delia shook her head, her face panic-stricken. “I have to call my mother, gods… one of them has to know what to do.”
As Delia reached into her pocket to grab her phone, the pair jumped as a loud cracking noise filled the sky.
“What was that?” Delia muttered, pausing only momentarily to check out the window before turning her attention back to her phone and beginning to dial.
Amelie rushed over to the window as well, breath pulled from her as she watched a blue canopy of light fall over the cathedral property, coating everything in an ethereal glow.
“No, no, no, no, no!” Delia threw her phone onto the counter, hands moving up into her hair again. “I have no signal!”
Amelie stepped away from the window, making her way back over to Delia.
“It has to be the barrier spell,” Amelie replied, glancing back toward the window. “It’s meant to keep things in and other things out, so it would make sense.”
Delia simply sank to the ground, muttering to herself. However, just as Amelie was about to suggest they move to the table to figure out next steps, the sound of two pairs of footsteps started making their way down the hallway.
“We figured it out.” Regina’s voice called from down the way, getting closer as she approached the entrance to the kitchen.
“It was a bitch and a half to cast.” Hestia followed up, sounding slightly out of breath. “But we got it. Please tell me that no zombies got out before we could finish the spell.”
Amelie looked over at Regina and Hestia, who were now watching Amelie with hopeful eyes, waiting for news.
“No zombies got out,” Amelie confirmed. “But unfortunately… we also can’t reach out to anyone for help.”
Regina pursed her lips as she finally noticed Delia on the floor. “What happened?”
“We figured out what probably caused the resurrections to start happening.” Amelie started, leaning onto the counter. “But unfortunately, before we could get any additional information, the barrier spell shut down communication to the outside world.”
“What do we need communication to the outside world for?” Hestia huffed, sounding a little hysterical. “That’s what we have her for. Right Delia?”
The question hung in the air, and for a moment the only thing Amelie could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat, but then Delia began to laugh. It started off slow and quiet but eventually built into a cacophony of desperate sound.
“Yes.” Delia got out between gasping breaths. “You have me. And I have no idea what to do.”
“Delia…” Regina started, but was cut off by Hestia.
“What do you mean you don’t know what to do?” Hestia stormed over to the side of the kitchen where Delia was crouching. “You are the death witch. Make them dead.”
“They are dead!” Delia replied desperately. “The reanimation didn’t take, not fully. Probably because Roz did it by accident!”
“Roz?” Hestia threw her hands up in the air. “Who the hell is Roz?”
Amelie opened her mouth to respond, but Regina beat her to it.
“Delia’s sister.”
Hestia turned to stare at the raven-haired woman just as Delia lifted her head and spoke. “You know about Roz? How do you know about Roz? I’ve never…”
Then mid-sentence, Delia stopped and rolled her eyes before dropping her head back down. “Right, Seer. I forgot.”
“Is that really what’s important right now?” Amelie interjected just as she saw Hestia gassing up to start freaking out again. “The important thing is that we need to figure out a plan that we can enact, the four of us.”
Amelie walked over to where Delia was crouched and extended her hand. “Come on. Let’s go sit at the table.”
She almost wasn’t sure that the woman had heard her the first time, but after a couple of seconds, Delia, without lifting her head, reached up and took Amelie’s hand.
“Alright.” Amelie tugged gently, helping the death witch to her feet. Glancing to the side, Regina had wrapped an arm around Hestia’s waist and was leading her over as well. Throwing a grateful look toward the dark-haired woman, Amelie helped Delia into her chair before sitting down herself.
Once everyone was seated, Amelie folded her hands on the table in front of her. “Okay. I think the best course of action is for everyone to take a sip of their tea and then let Delia explain what she thinks is going on.”
Regina raised her brows but reached out for the cup, wrapping her fingers around it and laughing softly in surprise.
“It’s still hot.”
Amelie smiled as the other two witches tentatively reached out and took their own cups in their hands as well. Regina’s gaze was entrancing and comforting all at once; Amelie wanted to stare into her blank eyes forever… but for now, they had work to do.
“Kitchen Witch. Remember?” Amelie grinned. “Now, Delia? If you would.” Amelie picked up her own cup, took a sip, and gestured to the death witch.
Delia took a drink of her tea and then began with a nod.
“My best guess as to why the zombies are being created is because they’re feeding off the magic in Roz’s blood, which I guess spilled when she was on the property a couple of days ago.
But resurrection… true resurrection magic requires a lot more than just the spilling of blood.
It requires spellwork, ceremony, and a whole hell of a lot of intention; part of it has to do with physically calling the being’s spirit back from the other side.
Roz didn’t do that when she spilled her blood on the grounds, so there aren’t any souls to inhabit the bodies that are being reanimated, leaving us with empty, blood-thirsty vessels.”
“Okay.” Hestia nodded. “That makes sense. But why can’t you just send them back into the ground?”
Delia pursed her lips and sighed. “I’ve never dealt with anything undead before.
I used to use my powers to take the life force of beings that were close to death and suffering, or even speed up the rotting process of other organic materials, but with these creatures… there’s nothing for me to grab onto.”
Looking down at her hands, Delia’s jaw tightened. “I looked into that creature’s being when it came at us in the crypt, and all I could feel was cold. It was as cold as me… there was nothing to take.”
“And there are more coming,” Regina concluded, placing her cup back on the table.
“Delia and I saw some awakening when we were investigating the cause.” Amelie piped up.
“Oh, great,” Hestia murmured, slumping back in her chair slightly.
“Do you have a tome on blood magic that you could reference?” Regina suggested, tilting her head slightly to the side.
“No.” Delia shook her head. “The only reason I know what I do is because I read some pieces of a book that my Great Aunt had hidden under her bed when I was younger. Honestly, I may have read the whole thing, but I can’t remember all of it… it was so long ago.”
“How about another book? Something about putting spirits to rest or binding them back to the earth?” Amelie suggested, leaning forward slightly.
Delia considered her words for a moment. “It’s… possible… but I would need to check my library, and that could take a while.”
“Okay.” Amelie set her teacup down. “Here’s what we are going to do.
It seems that the reanimation isn’t happening very quickly, so I will make us all some dinner while Delia searches for solutions in her books.
In the meantime, Regina, try to reach out to the Council to see if that communication bypasses the barrier. ”
“What do I do?” The three turned their attention back to Hestia as she interjected.
Amelie sighed and smiled at the Illusion Witch. “You can help me prepare dinner.”