Carno's Successer
Part 7/7
By Selenite
Midnight on the Day of the Show
Marie Hortencia Gordon did not hear her mother's desperate cries in the collectibles room only a few hours earlier. She had been busy practicing her acts for her magic show, just as her father Don had told her to do. As she carefully rehearsed her routine, Marie's heart felt light, but not giddy; overjoyed, but not insanely so.
"I can't believe it," she whispered to herself as she sat on the Throne of Terror, having just completed her escape from its iron cuffs and deadly axe-blade pendulum. "Tomorrow I'm going to raise my brother from the dead." She sighed and stood up, her eyes aglow with wonder.
"No one's ever done that before," Marie mused, "no matter how good of a 'magician' anyone claims to be. I've read a lot of horror novels about people, like mad scientists, who try to resurrect corpses, but it never works. I wonder if it'll work this time. I hope it will, but somehow--" She put her finger to her lips. "Somehow I really don't trust my dad. He says he knows what real magic is and how to get it, but does he know how to CONTROL it? Even fake magic can be dangerous if the magician doesn't know what he or she is doing. How much more so with true magic?" she wondered.
Marie took a deep breath and wiped her hands on her navy pleated skirt. "All I know is, I will DO it," she declared. Then, she began to play around with this phrase, seeing the different meanings it could have if a different word was emphasized each time. The first way she said it made her feel determined to perform the show. "I WILL do it," she said next, and this made Marie confident in the abilities she had--and, perhaps, the abilities she would have.
Finally, Marie declared, "I will do it," with extra emphasis on the "I." This time, a change came over her. "I will do it," she said again, and her voice was haughty. "No one's ever done it in human history, but tomorrow night, I, Marie Gordon, will bring my brother back to life. All eyes will be on me, and I'll finally have power. Power not only to hold my audience's attention, but power over them. Power over nature, even. Power over DEATH."
Marie smirked arrogantly. "Move over, nature. I am here!" she cried, and laughed triumphantly.
Suddenly, she stumbled backwards and fell into the metal chair on the Throne of Terror again. Immediately, the iron cuffs closed themselves tightly around her ankles and wrists, clamped down upon her by some invisible force which she could not control.
"Hey!" she cried, breathing hard and squirming violently to escape the manacles attached to the chair. "What the--Let me go!" Marie gritted her teeth in panic and fury, and her hair fell into her eyes, a few tendrils slipping into her mouth. "Let me GO!" she screamed, and she heard a tiny creak above her head--a creak from the pendulum.
"HA HA HA HA HA," growled a deep, inhuman voice that made Marie's blood run cold and her ears ring. "DON'T YOU KNOW THAT PRIDE COMETH--BEFORE A FALL?"
The pendulum groaned a heavy, rusty groan, and Marie heard a sound she knew all too well--the sound of the Throne's mechanism springing into action. This time, though, instead of slow clanking sounds signaling the slow descent of the axe-blade, the clanks sounded all at once, rapidly.
Marie's heart leapt into her throat. She knew now that the blade was set to operate on the FAST setting, which, thank God, she had never used in practicing for her magic show.
The pendulum fell from its place near the top of the Throne of Terror, swung once, and sailed straight for Marie's waiting head.
Her eyes flew wide open, and her face went white. There was nothing she could do to escape from the Throne if the blade was swinging down in one single stroke. Marie would not even have a fraction of enough time to do so.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" she shrieked as if someone were disemboweling her alive. Marie closed her eyes and waited for the pain that would only last a fraction of a moment, and then she would be in another, more beautiful place.
At the last minute, however, just before the axe-blade's sharp edge put an end to the wretched girl's life, something--or someone--jerked her head all the way forward, just centimeters from breaking her neck. It worked, though. The pendulum came within a fraction of an inch from hitting Marie, but it missed her nonetheless.
When Marie weakly lifted her head back into normal position, she found herself face-to-face with the same man who had murdered the mysterious Hortencia in the greenhouse. However, he was the one who was unfastening the iron cuffs from around her limbs, a look of terrified concern in his deep eyes.
Marie's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she quickly passed out.
******************************
When she came to, Marie found she was lying on a soft, comfortable bed, her head propped up with luxurious satin pillows. The man who had freed her was sitting in an ornate chair beside her, waiting for his young charge to awaken. When she realized who this man was, Marie started to scream, but he gently stifled her cry by putting his ghostly hand over her mouth.
"Shh," he comforted quickly. "Please don't scream. I'm not going to hurt you in any way." He bowed his silver-gray head. "I'm past hurting anyone now. My name is Zoltan Carnovasch, but you may call me Carno. I owned this house before your father did, and I still remain here, watching over it." He delicately removed his hand from Marie's mouth.
"Are--are you a ghost?" Marie whispered, barely squeaking out the words past the dryness in her throat.
"Yes," Carno replied. "I died in 1898, along with my stagehand Gaston Warwick and my wife, Marie O'Dourd." He raised his hand to stroke the hair of the living Marie. "My word," he remarked, smiling. "You look just like her, only younger."
Marie sat up slowly. "What happened to them?" she asked, very gradually becoming less afraid of this apparition who had apparently saved her life.
Carno sighed. "I shall tell you the truth, Marie. I killed them both. In fact--," he choked, trying so hard not to weep and let his tears of blood drip onto the satin covers of his unfaithful wife's bed--"I killed all of my wives, and also my two-year-old daughter, Sofia, Gaston, and the night nurse who attended me at the hospital after my--accident."
Chills made Marie convulse as dawning horror swept over her. "Why?" she asked coldly. "Why, Carno? Every killer has to have a motive for committing his crimes. What was yours?"
Carno took the shivering girl into his arms for a brief moment and then held her at arm's length. "Ultimately, my pride. My inexhaustible arrogance. You see, back when I was a younger man, I was kind, loving, and humble. I was an excellent stage magician in those days, and audiences from miles around enjoyed my illusions. I respected my colleagues, dearly loved my wife and child, and was a servant of God first, then those I loved, and then my audiences."
Marie's brow furrowed in a puzzled expression. "Then what happened?" she asked, not knowing if she really wanted to know the answer.
"Then," Carno began sadly, "like you, I began to crave and yearn for real magic instead of the illusions I had been performing. Deep in my heart, what I truly desired was power over all things, including nature and death. Through one of my mutual friends, I acquired an authentic spellbook, and its contents showed me the way to obtain true magic."
Marie took Carno's hand. "Oh, no," she whispered, biting her lip. "Is that what caused you to kill?"
He shook his head. "No. Along with the magic I received from the spellbook, I carelessly released an obscenity, an entity, a demon--which possessed me. This entity was one of pure evil. I dare not even speak its name. It was this entity who meshed itself with my personality and molded me into the monster I became, with the help of my selfish pride and greed. The longer the entity had its hold on my soul, the more powerful I became, and the more my arrogance and anger increased.
It was not long before my wives began to bore me, then annoy me, and finally infuriate me. They were all undeserving victims of my rage. Hortencia preferred gardening to my company, eventually, and so I murdered her by shoveling soil down he tender throat. Victoria was a drunkard, so I slammed the neck of a wine bottle into her eye. Leonora was a babbler, so I gagged her and snapped her neck. Regina ate far too much, so I force-fed her bloody entrails until she choked. And, at last, Marie was unfaithful to me with Gaston Warwick and tried to kill me by rigging the Throne of Terror so I could not escape. As I said, I killed them both, Marie by the Throne, and Gaston by torture."
"And how did you die?" Marie asked.
"The last thing Gaston did--before he fell to the floor and died--was impale me on an iron rod," Carno replied. "As soon as that happened, the Entity belched out of my body, and I fell, dying also, but I had a few moments more left in me." He went on to tell Marie of how the Entity was finally contained in a box in a secret chapel, and how he had made the Sign of the Cross before he died for repentance.
"I was trying to make my peace with God," the magician explained, bowing his head. "I knew I had committed the most heinous of sins and was the vilest wretch that God had ever created, but, at the last, with the tiniest shred of sanity I had, I humbled myself before Him and crossed myself. It was a cry for help from the depths of my soul, or at least from the soul I had left."
"Were you saved, Carno?" whispered Marie, her hands trembling now.
Carno sighed, his eyes deep. "That is for you to decide," he whispered sadly. "Marie--you and your family are in peril. The Entity has been released again from its containment box and has possessed your own father, Donald Gordon. He is well on his way to becoming completely insane. Your mother will not do anything to help Don--she hates him and will not have anything to do with his redemption. Your brother is dead, and even if you foolishly decide to acquire real magic, you will never resurrect him. Marie, you are the only one who can do anything to help your father--for deep down in your soul, I know you love him."
Marie was crying now. "I do. I may say I hate him, but I do love him. He's my daddy!" She looked up. "How will I go about saving his life and getting the Entity back to where it came from?"
Carno carefully told her all the steps that she would follow and the items she would need in order to banish the demon. He also promised to show her the secret passages in the house and the way to the summoning chamber. When he was done, he brushed his hand over Marie's eyes, closing them and making the poor girl fall into a gentle sleep.
He kissed her tenderly on the forehead. "My child," he whispered. "Don't be afraid. Tomorrow, at that show of yours, God and I will be with you. We won't let you die. You're the only one that can save us all--even me. Good night."
Marie smiled as she drifted off to sleep. For the first time in almost fourteen years, she truly felt at peace.
The Day of Marie's Performance
"Marie." Donald Gordon's raspy voice whispered gently to his sleeping daughter. "Wake up, Marie." He nudged her a little. He wondered why she had not been sleeping up in the Tower Room like she usually did.
"Hmm?" Marie mumbled groggily, opening her eyes millimeter by millimeter. However, when she saw her father, with his greasy hair, gaunt face, and his breath reeking of cigarettes, she sat bolt upright, throwing the satin covers of of her tired form.
"Dad!" she whispered, a startled look in her eyes. "What are you doing here?" Marie glanced around the room and saw that no one else was there.
Don smiled. "Don't you remember? I promised to give you real magic today. Get up and I'll show you the chapel, and the spellbook as well. Your mom isn't up yet; I haven't heard one peep out of her all morning. The coast is clear, so come on."
Marie smiled, still in a sleepy half-stupor. She had temporarily forgotten all that Zoltan Carnovasch had told her, including the revelation about Don being possessed by the Entity and needing immediate redemption before she or her mother were killed. All she could think of now was spending some time with her daddy and obtaining magic, and not just the David Copperfield variety either.
The two quickly made their way to the dimly lit, dusty chapel hidden in Carno's private library. On the altar lay a wooden box with a broken clasp; within this box lay the spellbook, waiting for its pages to be reread and its secrets to be revealed.
Don bounded up the few steps to the altar and giggled happily. "Come here, Marie," he cried. "Up here! To the altar!" He beckoned excitedly with his hands, and to Marie, it looked as if her father were almost begging her to approach the wooden box.
Slowly, while the eerie organ music in the chapel lulled Marie into a peaceful sort of half-trance, she walked to the altar, placed her hands on either side of the box, and carefully opened the lid, being careful of the broken clasp.
There it lay. Bound in leather, bound by evil. The spellbook's symbol winked at Marie, daring her to open it, which she did with trembling fingers. Don walked down to the altar and stood beside his daughter, placing his hands around her shoulders tenderly again.
"Now, my dear," he asked, "are you ready to know what I know? Will you do what I tell you? Are you prepared to receive true magic, Marie?" Don smiled, and he tried very hard not to make his grin look insane, desperate, like an insane serial killer asking his victim if she wanted to be killed.
Marie was so tired. So exhausted. Her limbs felt like they were made of cement. Her mind was clouded by thoughts of sleep and unconsciousness; it was all she could do to murmur, "Yes." This was exactly what Don wanted: to have the demon possess his drained Marie before all of her faculties returned.
Don flipped a few pages in the spellbook until he came to a certain place. He pointed with his bony finger to a certain spell. "You know Latin and can pronounce its words, don't you?" he asked his daughter, and she nodded tiredly. "Then," Don directed, "say this incantation."
Marie cleared her throat. She loved to sing, and as she gazed at the fateful words, she thought she knew just how to make the incantation live. She picked up the spellbook, smiled at Don, and then began her spell.
"Consumite! Fu-ro-re!" she trilled out, her voice filling the chapel with lusty bravado. "Consumite! Fu-ro-re!" Marie tossed her head back. "Consu'! Fu-ro-re!"
Don felt a stirring inside him, and he felt relieved, redeemed, and safe. The Entity was hearing Marie sing. Her words were letting it know that she wanted true magic, and in turn wanted IT. In a few moments, as soon as Marie sang out 'Iubeo te!', then the process would be complete. She would be possessed as soon as her head were injured, and then the rest would be history.
Suddenly, though, a terrible thing happened. Marie remembered...everything. Cold sweat poured down her body. Her hands dropped the spellbook to the chapel floor with a dull thud, and its pages fluttered. "No," she said dully, finally comprehending the words she had sung.
Don also knew that something was wrong. The Entity had halted the slow process of leaving his body. "Marie?" he asked. "What's the matter? You're not finished with the incantation yet. Please continue." He waited tensely.
The girl clutched the spellbook to her chest and met Don's eyes firmly. "NO!" she shouted. "I don't want to continue! I want no part, NO PART, I tell you, of this demonic magic! It's already got you, and it had Zoltan Carnovasch, but it will NEVER conquer me! Even if I do continue and become possessed by the Entity, even IT cannot help me raise Jason from the dead! He's DEAD, Daddy, and nothing can change that! Leave me alone! I'm taking this spellbook with me to use for good purposes instead of evil!" With that, she bolted from the chapel, tears of triumph and sadness trickling their way down her cheeks.
Don, stunned by Marie's statement, stood at the altar for twenty minutes. He did not want to run after his disobedient daughter; he thought that would take too much effort. He was weeping also, just like Marie. Don realized he would never be sane now, that the Entity would never leave him unless he died, and that there was no hope for him. SHE had ruined the only hope left in his life.
He left the chapel, walked to the theater, and, with a screwdriver he found in a drawer in the backstage makeup room dresser, methodically tightened a few crucial bolts from the Throne of Terror. This time, there would be no chance of escape for Marie, either on the slow or fast setting.
****************************
Marie spent the rest of the afternoon searching for the objects that she would need to banish the Entity forever. She wore a durable backpack which contained the spellbook, and she had found a glass shard behind the door of the third-floor nursery, which she kept in her pocket. Now, all she needed was a holy item and something called the Stone of Hammurabi. Unfortunately, she did not know where to look for either object, so she went to the theater to see if the Throne was ready for her performance that evening.
What she saw when she arrived there made her gasp in shock. A blonde, buxom woman was loosening certain bolts on the Throne.
"Stop!" Marie cried desperately. "You don't know what that thing is! If you mess with it more than you have, I could die! I'm performing on it tonight!"
The woman stood up after reloosening the last bolt, walked over to Marie, and gently gave her a hug. "I know," she said gently. "I'm Marie O'Dourd Carnovasch, and I died in that chair by its pendulum. My child, I watched your father as he tightened five crucial bolts on the Throne. Those five bolts are the loose ones that allow you to escape. If they are tightened, then the Throne is fixed, and no amount of squirming and wiggling will set you free. Death is certain."
The living Marie's face went white. "Wh-wh-why did he fix it?" she asked her predecessor.
"Because you ruined his chance to be sane and alive at the same time," Marie Carnovasch explained. "You wouldn't let the Entity possess you, which is the only way that could happen. Now, the only way that your father can be free of the demon is if he dies. He knows that now, and the demon knows that. Donald Gordon wants you dead, Marie, even though you're his little girl."
Marie Gordon began to cry again. She had certainly done an awful lot of it all these years. "You mean--I'll have to kill him?" she sobbed. "I don't want to kill him. Please don't say I have to, Marie!" she begged, kneeling before the kind, beautiful ghost.
"Don't worry," Marie Carnovasch replied, stroking her living descendant's hair gently. "Someone else is even fuller of hatred and rage than your father. She will be the one to pull the blade release lever and kill Don. Her demeanor will be anger, her motive revenge. I'm sorry, but I know."
The young girl's heart fluttered. "Mom?" she asked, and the ghostly maid nodded. Marie Gordon buried her head in her hands, but then Carno's last wife slipped a chain of ornate rosary beads around her thumb.
"You'll need these to banish the Entity," she explained. "Good luck. I must go now. If you ever feel afraid, just hold these tightly in your palm and think of me." Without another word, Marie Carnovasch vanished.
****************************
"Abite, tu male!" Marie sang out at the top of her lungs, her powerful voice shattering the still air of the summoning chamber and commanding the monster the Entity had become to return to the spellbook where he belonged. With a whirl of green fire, the evil plaguing the Carnovasch Estate had vanished forever.
But at what price? Marie knew all too well what it was.
Her brother Jason was dead, and only God knew where he resided. So was her father, Donald David Gordon, brutally murdered and redeemed at the same time by a pendulum's blade. Her mother had been arrested on charges of first-degree murder, taken away to a maximum-security prison to await trial and possibly death.
And as for Marie herself?
She, out of the four who lived there, was the only one to emerge from the Carnovasch Estate alive, free, and sane. Her sanity would always be guarded by a magician who had learned humility, a dark-haired woman who planted the seeds of knowlegde and love in her heart, and a mechanically-inclined magician's assistant who had learned from her mistakes, generously saving another life in the process.
And, just for a fleeting moment, her mother's arms and her father's sane smile, saying "I love you."
THE END
