• The Demon's Curse •

8: In Which Lily Encounters Spirits

        "What are you doing now?" The fire hissed as Lily rummaged through some shelves. 
She was digging around every nook and cranny to find a spell book that would help her out of this curse.
"Looking for a Gilmore to break this curse."
This amused the demon greatly, "What a Clever girl you are Lily, but I'm afraid you won't find anything."
"I don't need a spell to know how to put a fire out either, I'll have you know." Though the threat was empty her mark tingled, threatening to burn if she went any farther than just a thought.
        "Then you would be rid of your only hope to returning to your boring home." The fire spat back.
"You say it's boring yet you've never even seen it."
"Yes! Do tell Lily, What is it like where you come from? Rolling hills, and purple meadows? Do women rule the world under an iron reign?" Shouted the Wizard, coming down from his bath. Sarcasm all incuded.
        She was surprised by his outburst and was fully expecting him to yell at her for touching his things once again but he never did. So she refrained from voicing her feministic thoughts. She paused and thought about her home.
"Well, I live in a small town where there is a lot of rain and forests. We have machines that build everything for us and other machines that give us the ability to travel to far places."
"And these are done by Magic?" Asked the curious wizard. 
        Lily shook her head, "No. Magic doesn't exist in my world. These machines are made by people. It's easy for them to see how mechanics work together to make movement. There's also mass pollution and people aren't as friendly as they used to be."
Howl was horrified at the image for her world. "There is no way we're letting you go back! You're staying in this castle with me- er us. And that is that."
        Lily let off a giggle. "It isn't all bad. Life just runs much faster than it does here. Not many people even believe in magic. They grow up too fast and go to school and then become adults."
"How boring." Calcifer interrupted.
"And there most certainly isn't any Fire Demons." Lily said in his direction.
        Both let out a gasp of horror. 
"I have to go back. I really want to go home."
"I can't allow that! And that is final!"
        The Magician stormed upstairs, running off to God knows where. This left a pang in Lily's heart. Howl however felt unusual as he made his way to where he was meant to go. He thought a lot about Lily in the past few days. She was annoying and asked a lot of bothersome questions, not to mention she had a tricky curse stuck to her as well. 
        He thought often on her black hair. Hair that was very fine as if spun from silk. Like straw into gold. Her eyes were that of a hazel color, sometimes green and other times, a stormy grey. But always filled with more questions than answers. He never seemed to pay attention to her but he would always try to keep an eye on her. For whatever reason, stringing her along just seemed wrong. That and Calcifer had warned him not to, which Howl found extremely odd since the Demon had a distaste for everyone.
        "What's his problem?" Lily asked, more to the Fire demon than the boy working on his spells in the corner.
"Who knows this time." The demon said. "All I know is, I better run the hot water before he comes back down."
Michael was quite as he worked on his spells, Lily joining him. She had a few book needles and found some thread among the shelves and set to work on the poor book. 
         It was truly a shame she had not seen the poor book sooner. It was made with real leather and had real glittering jewels encrusted in the spine and covers. It had a large brass latch that could only be opened with magic. Michael didn't mind opening it for her. The inside looked much prettier. The pages were all lined with gold paint, indicating the book was made in the middle-east a long time ago. She began her mending and the thick book began to look much healthier. As she worked, she skimmed through the spells and pictures. Some were gruesome and dark and others had flowers or fairies, dancing off the page. Some spells she couldn't read and others seemed silly. 
        "Now why would anyone want to know, 'How to charm an otter?' 
"Someone who is afraid of snakes."
Before Michael could get out his laughter a screaming erupted from the upstairs.
Wrapped in a towel, Howl came tumbling down to Lily with full force. "Look at what this one-woman hurricane of chaos as done to me!"
        Calcifer watched curiously. Lily looked at the wizard but couldn't find anything different about him. 
"What's wrong?"
"LOOK! You organized my potions in the washroom, didn't you?!" His hand fistfuls of his hair and looked completely distraught. His hair, instead of it's usual flaxen color, it was red. Lily didn't think it was too bad and even enjoyed the color, until it began to change again. It got darker, and darker until it was completely black. 
She gasped. Which was a mistake.
        Howl sat on a stool near the hearth, one Lily found herself in a lot of the time to watch Calcifer sing. He hung his head in his hands and sighed.
"I'm sorry, I was only curious. I didn't mean to move your potions and bottles." Said Lily honestly.
She tried to pat him on the back for reassurance when suddenly a shriek cracked through the air.
        The room was no longer bright with dust and sunlight but steadily growing dimmer. The brown skull on the work desk even seemed more malicious in the gloomy lighting. In the four corners of the room a human-like shadows advanced her, shrieking louder in her direction. She only moved closer to Howl, becoming more frightened with every step. She covered her ears but the voices only got louder. Calcifer shrank as far back as he could, snuffing out any decent light from the room.
        Michael thought light on his feet and dove in to yank Lily by the arm and away from the spirits. They hissed at the sight of her mark but only grew larger in size. He opened the door, with the blue drop of paint down, into Portheaven. 
Both gasped but Lily, tried running back in, until Michael yanked her back once more. 
"But what about Howl?" She asked, still struggling to get away.
His iron grip only tightened, "He can handle himself but right now, your safety is the one I'm considered bout. Now run!"
The screams began to follow them, terrorizing any passersby that were unlucky enough to be caught by them. Many caught in the rain sought shelter by in the fog by the sea. Sea fog is said to ward off spirits which seemed to hold true. The screaming was bearable by then until it died down to a loud sobbing. It broke Lily's heart to hear such distress and to be completely alone in the process. The sobbing lasted for the better half of the hour until Lily felt the sobbing die down. The vastness of the fog settled and Lily felt her feet shuffle back through the way she came. 
        She looked back at Michael, who nodded approvingly. "I'll make sure the town folk get home safe. I'm sure it's safe to go back now."
Lily made her way along the harbor until she reached a row of shabby buildings standing on their last beams. She wouldn't have recognized it, had it not been for the shabby lettering 'Jenkins' on the wall. 
        She made her way inside, half expecting shadows to chase her away but none came. Instead, there sat Howl, with his hair covering his face, still leaning against the hearth. He was covered in thick green slime. it seeped from his skin in dollops and covered the floorboards in slickness. 
        She gasped seeing Calcifer nearly drowned, thought she could argue he deserved it. His  blue flames had dimmed to desperate embers as she pushed the grate farther into the chimney, away from the slime. Though the fire was low and the demon was too weak to speak, she threw another dried log onto the pit of ash with burned hands.
        The splintering wood against her fingers pained her even more so but she still tried sliding the slime off of the Wizard. 
"Howl?" She asked, straining her voice. She was scared, she didn't want him to die. Could he even breathe?
The wizard said nothing and didn't move a muscle. 
"Howl!" She desperately shoved slime off of him but it only came back, filling in the empty spots she had cleared.
"Calcifer, what do I do?" She looked at the fire but it seemed too dim to respond and she only hoped they were both still alive.

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