Serial Novel: Salem Chapter 9

A glimpse into Raven's past - Warning, chapter contains SA scenes

Raven turned over in her bunk and stared out through the bars. It felt strange to be in prison again so soon after escaping one, but at least here, she was free to leave whenever she wanted.

Sitting up, she combed her fingers through her hair, pulling the bright red strands away from her face. The Rake, who stood guard outside her cell, dropped to all fours and turned to face her when he sensed movement. His chalk-white skin was dotted with red splotches, no doubt from the men he had hunted down the night before.

Across the way, the Aswang lay on her back, her arms dangling off either side of the bunk. Her chest rose and fell slowly, but Raven could tell that she was not asleep.

Trying to stand, Raven felt her legs give out again. She dropped to the bed with a groan and laid back down, placing her arm across her eyes. Weakness was not something she’d had to deal with very often in her long life, but using her powers after they had been dormant so long was taking a toll. She toyed with the idea of letting the fog roll away, but she also knew that it was necessary to keep it in place. As long as the island lay under a blanket of fog, Raven was sure that no others would come.

Patience was a virtue that she needed to learn if she hoped to reconnect with her daughter, especially now that Silas was gone. The vision of his death enraged Raven, but she was aware that Rebecca did not know his true nature until after killing the imp. The girl was protecting the one she loved, which Raven would also do to protect her new flock.

Leaving her arm over her eyes, she drifted away and thought back to the time when her life had changed forever.

***

Throughout her lifetime, which was centuries longer than she could remember, Raven had moved from place to place, never setting down roots and never making friends. Having friends would have meant explaining why she looked the same while everyone else withered and died.

It had been an interesting life, but also one that was fraught with danger at times. On more than one occasion, she had suffered accusations of witchcraft and had a death sentence by fire that she managed to evade by putting on a brutal display of her powers. That had come at a time when moving to the next town was not quite so simple as it was today. Raven had spent years in self-isolation, honing her powers to ensure that she would be able to fight off anyone that came for her.

It had all gone according to plan until she settled in San Francisco, setting up a small fortune teller shop on Pier 39. She quickly gained a reputation there, given that her readings and predictions were so accurate. Still, she also knew well enough to throw out some false statements so that clients would have enough junk information to believe that she might be just another charlatan.

Raven had gone unnoticed and had lived an ordinary life for so long that she let her guard down. She still practiced her form of magic daily in her readings, but the protective powers were set aside for so long that she couldn’t call on them when the time came.

The day started as always, the vacation crowd wandering into her shop for a reading or to purchase other magic-related knick-knacks that she offered there. It was during a lull in the busy day that Thorn walked in. To Raven, he looked different than her usual clientele, which immediately made her a little nervous. Instead of the T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops that were the standard uniform of holiday goers, the man looked like he had just stepped out of a business meeting.

He browsed the shelves for a moment and then sat at the small table set up in the middle of the room, on which sat a large crystal ball.

“Welcome to my lair, good sir. How might Madame Raven and her spirit guides serve you today?” Raven asked, laying on a thick Eastern European accent.

The man flipped a twenty-dollar bill on the table and flashed a smile that revealed blinding white teeth. “Well, I have been trying to locate something for quite some time, but it eludes me.”

Raven waved her hands over the crystal ball, using a simple charm to make smoke billow inside. “I am being given clues to your name by my spirits. Please, do not tell me.” Raven swayed from side to side, gazing into the crystal ball. “They are showing me a rose bush, but the flowers are wilted and dead. It is jagged and dangerous, just like you, Mister Thorn.”

The man applauded and dropped another bill on the table. “That is very impressive. Now, what can you tell about the thing that I seek?”

Raven lowered her head and felt the skin on the back of her neck begin to prickle as another man walked into the shop. He closed the door behind him and flipped the sign from open to closed. “I sense that you are looking for a lost article of jewelry. A wedding ring perhaps,” she said, feeding him nonsense.

“Are you trying to tell me that you do not sense that what I seek is sitting directly in front of me or that you are in immediate danger?”

Raven moved quickly, jumping up and pushing the table aside without ever laying a hand on it. The fast-moving piece of furniture knocked Thorn out of his chair and sent him to the ground, but it also opened a clear path for the other man in the shop. Before Raven could do anything else, she felt two sharp objects hit her in the chest. Stumbling backward, she fell into a book display and went down under the weight of it all coming down on her. Raven tried to stand, but the world around her spun until she blacked out.

She awoke to find herself naked and strapped to a metal table, unable to move or rid herself of the waves of cold washing over her body. One of the leather straps was pulled tight across her forehead, making it impossible to see around the room. Moving her eyes as far as possible to the left, she saw a metal IV pole beside her, a tube extending out and into her arm. Looking in the other direction, she saw Thorn lying on a table, nude but not held in place.

“You are awake, Raven. How splendid.”

She tried to speak, but it felt as though there were cotton balls stuffed in her mouth. Tears of frustration spilled down her face as she tried to break free of the bonds. Numb and powerless, she wanted to scream, but nothing came.

Raven felt panic rise inside as a man in scrubs and a face mask appeared at her side, inserting a needle attached to a tube into the crook of her arm. The insertion was little more than a feeling of slight pressure on her skin, but it felt like an invasion. She watched as the man moved over to Thorn and pushed a needle into his arm.

“You look frightened, dear. Don’t be. This will all be over soon enough, and then you can go to the beautiful room that we have prepared for you.”

Feeling some of the wooziness begin to melt away, Raven gritted her teeth and tried to summon her strength. The man in scrubs seemed to notice her efforts as he moved over to the IV pole and upped the dosage, sending fresh waves of icy cold through her body.

“We have some time to kill here while we perform this procedure. Would you like me to share what is happening with you?” Thorn asked.

Raven clenched her fists and tried to scream again.

Ignoring her apparent anger, Thorn began. “I have had my eye on you since before you landed in San Francisco. I knew of you when you were Clarissa in New Orleans and Beatrix in Savannah. You have done a fine job of covering your path through the ages, but when you have the money and means that I do, those covered tracks can very easily come to light.”

Licking her lips, Raven managed to whisper, “You know nothing of my power. If you did, you would let me go now.”

“I know everything there is to know about you, Raven, or should I call you by your given name? Baba Yaga?”

“Let me loose, and I shall spare you.”

Thorn shook his head and tutted. “You are not going anywhere. You are about to become the best exhibit in my collection to date. You will also help make me all-powerful by donating a little of your blood to my cause. All of my guests make this donation so that soon I may become the most powerful being the world has ever seen.”

Raven closed her eyes and blocked out the sound of Thorn’s voice. She listened to the rush of blood pounding in her ears and imagined it warming her body from top to bottom. It took a moment, but the cold waves began to recede, replaced by a comfortable warmth that felt like a cozy blanket. The world around her slipped away until all that remained was the sound of the blood whooshing through her veins, growing warmer as it sped up. Sweat broke out all over her body as the blood grew warmer. “Boil,” she whispered.

A blood-curdling scream snapped her out of the fugue state. Her skin, which was lobster red, began to return to its natural state, but on the other table, Thorn was burning from the inside out down one side.

“Get it out of me,” he screamed. “Sweet Jesus, it burns.”

The doctors removed the tube and clamped it, but not before a pool of blood gathered on the floor. Thorn went down into it face first, screaming again as the red-hot liquid seared the flesh off the side of his face and leaked into his eye socket, causing the eyeball to burst with a loud pop.

“Sedate that fucking bitch and spread her legs. DO IT NOW.”

The coldness returned as the medicine coursed through her veins. Her eyelids drooped, but the doctors use spreaders to hold them open. Her eyes stung, the overhead light burning into her retinas. Thorn provided some relief as he stood over her and blocked out the light.

“Look at me, you cunt. Look at what you have done.”

“So handsome,” Raven slurred.

“You will never see the light of day again. I will banish you to a prison that I will make into a living hell. Your little plaything is already down there waiting for you. He is so very scared, as he should be.”

“Silas,” she gasped.

“It’s an ugly child you have. How about we try to give you a pretty one? Would you like that?”

Raven tried to squirm, but the bonds and the sedatives removed all the fight. She stared into space as Thorn climbed on top of her, thinking of the ways she would kill him when she got the chance. The image of his being torn piece by piece calmed her as he grunted and moaned and had his way.

When he finished, Thorn removed the eyelid spreaders and leaned in close. “How did that feel? Did you like that, you fucking whore?”

Raven blinked furiously, trying to combat the feeling of sand spilled in her eyes. When she got the feeling back, she saw Thorn still on top of her and could feel him going limp inside her. “I can guarantee that your suffering will last a good deal longer than your pathetic fumblings.”

Slapping her across the face with his good hand, Thorn climbed off and hissed as his burned foot made contact with the floor. With his anger now subsiding, the pain began to take him in its grip. “Help me,” he said as the doctors lifted him onto a gurney and rushed him out of the room.

***

Dropping her arm to her side, Raven turned and looked out the cell, where the Rake sat, obedient as ever. She felt invigorated after her rest, although not yet strong enough to make a move. Raven thought about trying her magic with something small but feared that doing so would deplete her already tapped reserves.

One more day should do it. For now, it was all about building strength and thinking about how to repay Thorn for all the bad that he had done.