The Bewitching Hour

✧ chapter five: the terms

The village hall has quite possibly never been more full or more angry. Word spreads fast in a town so small.

There are so many attendees that many do not have room to sit down, and this despite the fact that most everyone has forbidden their children from attending. No reasonable parent in Plaht would have their beloved little ones anywhere near Yorak. And he is going to appear here, in the flesh, tonight.

Morbid curiosity surely drives much of the crowd. Most of the villagers, still, have never seen him. Takashi hears one or two of them admit that they thought him to be fictional. He hears many descriptions of Yorak like Lance's once was— guesses weaving together and forming strange approximations that resemble the unholy monsters in children's books.

Coran is not happy to see Takashi there when he enters the building. Takashi is not happy to see the mark on his hand. He legitimately does not know why Yorak did that, and he hopes that the blood oath bit isn't true. He hadn't pegged Yorak as the type to snap like that. To actually, properly curse a man. What IS a blood oath, anyway? It sounds scary enough.

Lance McClain is not in attendance. Neither is his sister Rachel. But the rest of the family is there. If he wasn't stuck with his sister, Takashi is sure that Lance would be eavesdropping from a window right about now. He knows because he has already spotted Hunk Garrett and Katie Holt. They think that they're sneaky, but Takashi knows how to find them. He was that sort of nosy teenager once.

The rest of the McClain clan is here, and so are the Holts. Sam Holt pats Takashi's shoulder reassuringly as he passes. Takashi isn't quite sure why. Maybe it's because he can sense that this is hard on him. Adam can certainly sense as much, and he's been glued to his side ever since Takashi heard about what allegedly transpired on that hilltop.

To stand by one's conscience— to refuse to bend with the rest to hysteria and antiquated ideals— is often lonely.

Takashi and Adam join the gathering at what they assume is roughly ten PM. Two full hours pass before the anticipated moment arrives, but they somehow feel more like minutes. There was never a pause in conversation and speculation as they waited.

Yorak, of course, cannot simply walk through the front door. Oh, no. That would not be befitting of a warlock. Of Yorak the Great and Terrible. At precisely midnight, just when Adam begins to wonder aloud if he is coming at all, a black miasma spreads out from the floor of the hall, forming a smoke that envelops the wooden boards. There are screams, pointing fingers. Those standing close to it scurry away, pushing over the others in their paths.

Crackles of electric purple light. A figure rises like the fabled Phoenix from the ashes, at first a sharp black shape that expands. And then it is a hooded young man standing in a cloud of smoke that quickly evaporates. One that Takashi recognizes. Mostly. These eyes are spiteful and not the ones he knows.

"...Nice place," he says rather anticlimactically as he looks around, seemingly unaware of the absolute terror that has gripped the onlookers. Takashi watches families cling to one another for protection. Grandmothers begin to pray. There is a chorus of hisses and boos and other voices that hush them, warning that the hecklers will lose their immortal souls if they displease Yorak. "Though I was expecting something a bit more... ostentatious. I could have mistaken this for a standard church." He turns, too slowly, to face Coran at the podium. Two glares meet with equal force. Yorak's lips are curled into something ugly. "I never was allowed inside, you see," he spits.

"We don't allow wickedness within these walls," a raspy voice challenges. Yorak's scowl is redirected at Hieronymus, who he stares at for a long and confused moment.

"Is that you?" Yorak's head tilts. "The previous chieftain? It's been quite a while. I'm afraid the years have been unkind to you." Takashi suddenly remembers that Yorak is somewhere in the range of sixty years old. He doesn't look or act a day over twenty and he hasn't changed in the slightest since Takashi met him seven years ago.