Page 111 - The Westerner Magazine Halloween 2018
P. 111
the only issue was how to do it in a I prayed more feverishly, shivering in
hotel bedroom? what was now a very cold room.
The answer came to me pretty quickly Those eyes grew in intensity, staring at
—I’m fairly bright—bar soap! I took the me out of their malevolent redness. I
bar of soap and began my task. As a I knew for sure that whatever this was, it
drew the circle I made the invocations could not pass the boundary of my soap
and made sure to stay inside it as I circle, but that didn’t stop my fear.
closed it. My work was invisible to the
Fear is a strange thing. It has cold
eye but I was pretty sure it would be
fingers that grasp at your neck icily.
effective, as magic is all about intent. My
Breathing becomes labored and
intent was clear… protection.
extraordinarily loud - especially in a
In my bed inside my soap drawn circle, quiet hotel room in the dead of night. It
I finally did fall asleep, but had very is difficult to quell as it rises in icy
strange dreams and I awoke in the later waves and seems to put the mind into a
hours of the morning covered in sweat. state of anticipation of the worst. The
It was very dark. slightest rustle or crack of the heating
system jumps out at you like a
In the corner of the room, I could swear
boogeyman in that state, and rational
there were two bright red eyes. I shut
explanations become totally irrational.
mine tightly and willed it to go away,
But fear is a weakness and it is an
but when I opened my eyes again, there
energy that occult and psychic forces
they were. Shaking, I reached for the
can use and, whatever the thing was
bedside light, however, it did not work!
staring at me across the room, it was
There I was in sheer darkness with a
gaining in strength, sucking at my fear
pair of red eyes staring at me from the
energy.
corner of the room and a growing air of
malevolence. I tried to focus. Tried to chant protection
spells, prayers, anything I could recall. I
I was terrified. Who wouldn’t be?
was shivering and shaking in the icy
I began to pray silently. I invoked the cold of the room and from fear. I could
forces of good to defend and protect me well imagine the skeletal death riding
and more besides. The feeling of gloom his white horse looking for a weakness
and despair deepened. The eyes grew in in MY circle. In these circumstances
intensity. sometimes, something happens and in
