Chapter Seven

The realization hit Zachariah like a two by four to the forehead! He sat down, white as a sheet!

The demon wasn’t after him, it was after Wilma and Delfina! Somehow he’d subliminally known that it wasn’t Delfina saying “Save their souls”, it was his own mind crying out for help to save his children!

He knew he had to act before nightfall, the demon was already showing itself, in some form, to the girls. He understood that from Wilma’s “maybe the man wants to come to breakfast” comment. He didn’t have much time.

Zachariah told Hezekiah, “I’ll be back before supper!” Kissed her and the girls, grabbed Becky, and left the cabin.

He’d never been to the witch before, he’d been too afraid of her.  He only knew that now, he had no choice. He had to stop the demon and save his girls.

The trek to Bertha Mae the Witch’s cabin took him deep into the hills. It was only 8:30 in the morning, yet the closer he got to the witch, the darker the sky and the colder the air.

When Zachariah got to the witch’s cabin, he stopped at the foot of the stairs to the porch. His skin crawled at the sight of the eerie assortment of carcasses of stuffed forest animals that lay on the porch, some suspended from the ceiling, some propped up against the cabin wall. The most disturbing was a mummified carcass of an old woman who’d been displayed sitting in an old rocking chair.

Zachariah stood there in the cold air, sweat running down  his back, trying to summon the nerve to mount the stairs and knock on the cabin door.

“What you want, boy?” the mummy croaked.

Zachariah jolted visibly and jumped back a step, steadied himself, bowed his head and whispered, “Bertha Mae, me and Hezekiah need your help!”

The mummy slowly rose from her chair and motioned for Zachariah to follow her into the cabin.

“Talk!” The witch said.

Zachariah related the last few days, leaving nothing out, from the first time they heard the noise in the closet, including shooting the tree and seeing the horrible darknesss in the closet that no one else saw. He ended by telling about the girls asking to “invite the man to breakfast” and hearing in his mind the cry to save their souls.

The witch spoke, “This be the work of a devil’s imp. It missed it’s chance for the souls of the twins that died so now it wants Wilma and Delfina!’

‘Here what you gone do now”, she opened an old wooden box with a cross crudely carved into the lid.

From the box she pulled two small leather pouches on leather thongs, “This be Jonachondra root, it confuse the demon imp and he cain’t see Wilma and Delfina souls. You got make sure them chillen wear these to bed, imp most active in the dark”.

“How’m I gone pay you, Bertha Mae?” Zachariah asked.

“We work that out, after we get rid ‘o the imp!” the witch replied.