Quincy’s smile lit up the night

as he walked along Primrose Street, counting his cash. “Oh yeah,” he said while grinning widely, “I got her again.” Quincy Rayes has always been known as a ladies’ man. One look into those gray eyes and the women would always swoon. He realized the effect he had on females while in high school and has used it to his advantage ever since. Even now, at 30, he is still with the same old shenanigans—love them, feed them a sob story about needing money, take their cash, and leave—that’s his M.O. But the 6’2”, honey-complexioned, gray-eyed scammer's luck just may be about to run out.

As Quincy walked two blocks over to where he'd parked his silver BMW—the same BMW he'd told his latest conquest was in the shop and that, therefore, he needed $1200 for its repairs—he saw a tall, thin figure standing in front of his car. What the hell? he whispered to himself while approaching his vehicle. As he got closer, and the figure came more into view, he realized it was a woman. Not just any woman, but a goddess, he thought to himself. Oh my word, he whispered again. Who in the hell is this?

Clearing his throat, he asked, “Hey beautiful, are you okay? Is everything all right?” No answer. “Hey!” He stated once more, “Are you okay?” Still, no answer. The mystery woman stood still as a boulder, staring at him. Quincy slowed his pace, feeling an uneasiness he hadn’t felt in a long time. Even though every fiber of his being told him to get the hell out of there, he could not help but take in her beauty. Her smooth, mahogany skin literally glowed. The long, lustrous curls on her head framed the most beautiful oval-shaped face he’d ever seen, and her slanted, startling amber eyes bore into his gray ones. To his thinking, he had never seen anyone as beautiful as this jewel.

After coming out of what he knew was a trance, Quincy took a step back, finally realizing something wasn’t right. No one could stand as stock-still as she was and not blink an eye. Before he could turn around, his jaw dropped and his eyes bulged from what he’d just seen.

In the span of a second, she snapped straight up as if she was standing at attention. Her head started to shake back and forth so fast that he thought it was going to roll right off of her shoulders. The front of his pants grew wet as he watched her limbs contort, her bones making the most awful cracking sounds. It sounded as if a hundred sticks were being broken into pieces. Before Quincy could make one sound, she leaped and was standing before him, face to face. She ran what looked like a five-inch fingernail down the right side of his face, as a trail of blood followed.

When she spoke, her voice echoed as if she was in a deep cave. It was low and menacing as she declared, “What you have used to your advantage to take from and hurt others, you will have no more.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, two long finger nails slit across his face, marking a huge “X”. She then reached inside his mouth, pulled out his tongue, and sliced it off. While dangling his tongue in front of his wailing face, she added, “You will deceive no more. My name is Meiser, and your Karma has called.”

“It’s crazy what he’s describing. It sounds like something out of a horror movie! This is ludicrous,” the officer stated incredulously. Four days after Quincy’s attack, there was back and forth traffic in and out of his hospital room. He had been heavily sedated for the first couple of days after surgery. By the third day, he was finally able to see his face. After the nurse showed him his reflection, he shrieked back, threw the mirror across the room and let out a desperate scream. The next day, once he was calmed from his hysteria, he wrote out, in detail, what had happened to him. The officers believed it was the effect of the pain medication that was making him hallucinate because what he described, to their belief, was impossible. It just did not make sense.

When he was finally alone, Quincy had no choice but to think about how he had treated women in the past. He didn’t give a damn about anyone but himself and now, he had paid the price dearly. You will deceive no more. The words reverberated in his head over and over again. He couldn’t talk now, and his face was mangled beyond repair. Life as Quincy knew it was over. But who was Meiser, and how had she found him?

“Wow, that was so nice of them,”

Sophie stated as she got into the passenger side of her best friend Cissy’s car.

“Yeah, they seemed a little too nice...” Cissy declared. Always suspicious of others, Cissy wasn’t as trusting as her everybody has some good in them best friend, Sophie.

Sophie and Cissy have known each other since they were ten years old. While at recess in the fifth grade, Sophie intervened on Cissy’s behalf when she was being bullied by another classmate. Neither girls had sisters of their own, but on that day on the playground, they decided that they would become each other’s sisters. They’ve been inseparable ever since.

Somewhere within the 15 years they’ve known each other, Cissy became more of a “badass” than Sophie. Ill-intent doesn’t get past her as easily as it does her bestie. She’d learned her lessons throughout the years. Sophie? Not so much.

“Okay, Cis, what is it that has you so paranoid?” Sophie asked.

Cissy sighed. “Look, I know we just happened to stop and eat in this little country town, but why all of a sudden the car isn’t running right? And the mechanic, the only mechanic in town, mind you, just happens to be out of town until tomorrow,” Cissy stated pointedly. “Now, to sum it up, the sweet little owner of the restaurant just happens to have room in her home for us to stay the night? Come on, Sophie, you can’t be that naïve.”

“I’m not being naïve, Cis, I’m just trying to make the best of a bad situation. We only have a little money between the both of us, and instead of spending the night in that crusty, creepy motel over there, we can stay at Ms. Ella’s and pay the mechanic in the morning.”

Too tired to argue, Cissy just threw up her hands and gave a sharp smack of her mouth. “Whatever, Sophie. Let’s just go.” She started her car and cringed. She didn’t know why all of a sudden her Nissan Sentra suddenly sounded like a monster truck. She looked over at Sophie. “I still say something’s not right about this.” She then slowly pulled away from the curb following the directions that Ms. Ella had given them.

Back at the restaurant, Ms. Ella and her three employees were all huddled in her small office. “Are we gonna do this again, Ella?” One of them asked. “I swear, I’m tired of this.”

“Listen, Otis…” Ella started.

“No, you listen!” Otis snapped back. “I’ve been doing this for ten years now, and I can’t do it anymore. I feel that I’ve paid my debt to you. There’s been a lot of innocent blood shed, and I’m damn sick of it.”

Ella stepped from behind her small, wooden desk. The other two employees just dropped their heads and moved back. She came to stand directly in front of Otis. She was so close that he felt the heat of her breath brush against his face. “So now we get a conscience, huh? Well, that shed blood is what’s been feedin' yo’ ass for the past ten years, keepin' your bank account fat.” She moved in closer and spat, “You don’t wanna mess with me. You know there’s only one way out, and I don’t think you want to take it yet.”

“How long do you think we can keep doing this before others catch on?”

“Well, I’ve got news for you, son. They’re probably already on to us. But here’s the thing, I don’t give a damn. Sacrificing souls is what we do for our own good, if you know what I mean, and we ain’t stopping now. Look at what we got because of what we do!” Ella yelled. Otis pushed past her and headed for the door. “Where do you think you’re going?” She asked to his retreating back.

“I’m getting the hell outta here. I’m not doing this anymore. Everything else be damned.”

“You already are my boy,” she stated, ominous and calm. "You already are.”

“I don’t know, Sophie. This house looks like it was pulled straight out of The Conjuring,” Cissy stated as they drove up the long driveway. The two-story, white, wood-paneled house looked as if it was built in the 1800s. The peeling facade indicated that it was in desperate need of a paint job.

“I gotta agree with you,” Sophie replied as she sat up in the passenger seat to get a better look at the place. “Could you please just park and shut off that obnoxious noise? We don’t wanna wake the dead.”

“You’re damn sure right about that,” Cissy agreed as she put the car in park and shut off the motor. Unbuckling their seat belts, they both got out of the car and walked around to the front of the house to get a better look. It was a very still night. The trees were swaying softly, yet, there was no wind blowing. The only light was from the little lamp post on the right side of the house. There was also a huge cornfield on that same side. “I guess she wants to make sure she can see if somebody’s trying to steal her corn,” Cissy joked.

“Hi ladies!”

They both jumped at the sound of Ms. Ella’s voice calling out to them. They turned toward the porch where she was standing just outside the screen door. “Come on in!” She called out again as she beckoned them with her hand.

Neither of them moved.

“Come on, come on,” she continued.

Cissy and Sophie walked slowly towards the porch. Every radar in their systems were blaring. They both quickly looked to their left as they saw something pass in their peripheral vision. Nothing was there.

“Hold up, Sophie,” Cissy whispered as she grabbed her friend’s wrist. “I think we need to get out of here."

Sophie looked deeply into her best friend’s eyes as she spoke. She would usually challenge her, but this time was different. They needed to leave.

“Are y’all comin'?” Ms. Ella called out again.

“Uh, we want to thank you for the invitation that you’ve extended to us, Ms. Ella, but we’ve decided to go ahead and take a chance on the road,” Sophie answered.

Ms. Ella’s friendly smile quickly dropped and was replaced with a cold, dead stare that sent chills down their spines. “I’m afraid I can’t let y’all do that.”

“Come again?” Cissy remarked.

“I said, I’m afraid I can’t let y’all do that," she repeated, louder this time.

“And just how in the hell are you gonna stop us?” Sophie spat.

Just then, they were both struck in the back of the head with a cold, hard object. Everything went black.

“That’s how.” Ella laughed maniacally as her employees picked the girls up and transported them into the house.

Ella and her cronies dropped to their knees in front of a homemade, fire-bound altar and bowed down to pray to an unseen force. There was a fire surrounding the altar and a huge skull sat in the middle. As they bowed, they kept chanting over and over, in an unknown language. Ella let out a piercing scream as she raised her arms and started swaying back and forth. The others followed suit and started swaying, but they didn’t make a sound. This went on for several minutes, then stopped. After a while, the bowing and chanting started up again.

In a semi-dark room, Cissy and Sophie were slowly regaining consciousness. Bound and gagged on two separate steel tables, Sophie was the first to wake up. As her eyelids fluttered open and closed, she slowly shook her head. Once everything came into focus and she realized that she couldn’t move, she lost it.

The noise of the table shaking and the muffled screams must have aided Cissy in her recovery because her eyes flew wide open. When she saw Sophie trying to shake herself loose while bound to a table, she realized that she was in the same predicament. Both ladies were in full panic mode. What the hell happened? They both thought while staring wide-eyed at each other.

After several minutes they, somewhat, calmed down, realizing that they were not getting anywhere. They just looked at each other, defeated. How were they going to get out of there?

The shaking of the doorknob snapped them out of their musings. They quickly closed their eyes, pretending they were still unconscious. The door opened and closed silently. They heard footsteps moving further into the room. The steps neared Cissy. Sophie peeped her eyes open to see what was going on. It was a man. He just stood there, gazing down on her, shaking his head sadly. He must have felt Sophie’s gaze on him because he quickly turned around and saw as she closed her eyes. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’m here to help you.”

Cissy then popped her eyes open after she heard the man’s response. She stared at him, trying to register the familiarity. She’d seen him somewhere. After a few seconds, it dawned on her that he was a server at the restaurant they’d stopped at earlier that day.

“My name is Otis. I served you at the restaurant earlier today.” He shook his head again. “You shouldn’t have come here.” He went and peeped out the door to make sure it was still clear. Once he was satisfied, he turned back to the girls. “Listen, I’m gonna untie you, and when I do, you have to promise me that you won’t scream. Understood?”

They both nodded, feeling a sense of relief.

He started with Cissy first, untying her hands that were bound above her head. “Now, untie your feet,” he instructed as he moved over to Sophie. Once they were free, they just stood in the middle of the room staring at Otis with questions in their eyes. He answered them.

“Ella is a witch.” He wasn’t surprised to see incredulous looks on their faces. "She has been sacrificing souls for God knows how long. For every soul she sacrifices, the more years she gains. She's over 150 years old and doesn’t look a day over 35. I don’t know who she prays or sacrifices to, but you better believe that dark being is strong.” He took a deep breath and started again. “Ten years ago, I was in really deep financial trouble. The kind of trouble that would’ve put me and my family out on the streets. Someone told me about her, but at the time, I thought she was just some kind of psychic. Someone who would offer me guidance. Long story short, she helped me, alright. She helped me out tremendously. The downside was that I had to pay her back, not with money, but with blood. She’s had me in her grip ever since.”

“What about now?” Sophie asked. “Why are you helping us? Not that I’m complaining,” she quickly added.

“Because I’m tired. My conscience won’t allow me to do this anymore. Now, let me get you ladies out of here.”

They slowly moved to the hallway. After Otis confirmed that it was clear, he moved them toward the back of the house to a hidden side door. To his horror, when he opened the door, Ella was standing right there with an ax in her hands. As soon as he tried to push past her, she brought the ax down across his neck. His head dropped to the floor and rolled towards Cissy and Sophie’s feet as they let out blood curdling screams. Quickly thinking, they rushed Ella, knocking her to the floor and burst out the door, sprinting towards the cornfield. Tears poured down their faces and blurred their vision as they ran as fast as they could.

Still running, a little slower now because they were exhausted, they both stopped short when they saw something standing in the middle of the cornfield. Huffing and puffing, Cissy was the first to speak. “What…is that?” She coughed.

“I don’t know. A scarecrow?” Sophie answered, heaving.

“Isn’t a scarecrow supposed to be up on a cross or something?” Cissy shot back.

“Well, I don’t know what it is. Let’s just go.”

They tried to run past it, but gasped when the figure moved to block their way. They tried again on the other side, but it moved simultaneously with them in the same direction. “Oh my God, what is that?!” Sophie cried.

They heard Ella and the others getting closer. They were literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. “What do we do, Cis?”

The figure started moving slowly towards them. They froze, paralyzed by fear. As it got closer, they realized it was a woman. An absolutely beautiful woman. She stopped directly in front of them and smiled. “Do not be afraid,” she spoke. Her voice echoed, expansive and low, but it was soothing to their spirits.

“Wh…who are you?” Cissy asked.

She did not answer. Instead she stated, “Go. You are safe now. Go, and do not look back. Go!” She bellowed as Cissy and Sophie just stood there like mannequins with their mouths hanging open.

They fled.

“I know you’re out here and I'm gonna find you, you tramps,” Ella spat as she maneuvered through the corn stalks. With her two henchmen right on her heels, they continued to sweep the field for several more minutes until she came to a complete stop. Her followers bumped hard against her, almost knocking her down.

“Get the hell off me,” she hissed, pushing them back. “I saw something move. I think it’s them. Quick, squat down.” She made a few more steps before coming up on a long pair of shapely legs. Being that it was the middle of the night, she thought it was one of the young ladies. But little did she know, they were long gone.

She wrapped her arms around the legs and tried to pull her down, but this—this individual was immovable. She looked up, but before her eyes could meet the face looking down at her, she was knocked back 20 feet the way she had come.

The woman in the field stepped purposefully towards her target, her eyes laser-focused. She could smell the fear that encased Ella. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she ominously echoed.

“You!” Ella sneered. “We finally meet. You cannot touch me,” she said nervously.

The woman kept walking towards her as Ella’s two henchman tried to rush her on either side. Without even looking their way, eyes still focused on Ella, she raised her arms and pointed at each of them. The henchman split in two. Their parts hit the ground.

Ella got up and tried to make a run towards the house, but before she could take five steps, the mystery woman was quickly upon her. The woman grabbed Ella by the throat. “You think you’re a match for me?” Her voice went even deeper. “I eat witches like you for lunch.”

Before Ella knew what was happening, the woman picked her up by the throat and they both went full speed towards the house. They crashed against the house like a bulldozer as they burst through the wall. Ella was knocked out cold.

Waking up from her unconscious state, she looked around and realized that she was in her altar room. “What…what's going on?” She shook her head trying to clear the fog. As she stood up to walk towards the door, she realized that she couldn’t move. Ella looked up as she heard laughter. She looked around, but didn’t see anyone. “What…what is this? What’s going on?”

“Well,” the woman appeared out of nowhere. “Looks like you’re caught in your own trap.” 

Fire burst in a ring surrounding Ella. She stared, horrified. “You lost two souls tonight. Looks like yours will have to do.”

“What are you doing?” Ella asked apprehensively. “I’ll get you for this!”

The woman walked up to the ring of fire, her eyes blazing red. She raised her arms and started speaking in Latin. She focused those blazing red eyes on Ella and declared, “You won’t be getting anybody, anymore. My name is Meiser. Your Karma has called.”

Just as Meiser turned and walked away, a dark, demonic figure burst through the floor, directly in front of Ella. Her screams lit the room as the demon gave a horrendous growl, wrapped its huge wings around her, and they both descended in a cloud of black smoke.