Poison Orchid

Chapter 12

Sleep claimed Isis very fast, almost too fast, as if someone wanted her to sleep too soon. She was already tired, because along with the concentrating exercises that Grandma Brassia had made her do, she herself had also made quite a strenuous job by bonding herself with Gruffy and Fluffy but that was all fine because finally she could some rest, so Isis had thought.

Not even a few minutes had passed when Isis had slept, Fluffy who was sleeping at the end of the bed on the floor mat started whining loudly, so that Isis could wake up from her sleep because something sinister was going to happen . But to no avail, could she wake Isis. Fluffy jumped on her bed and started licking her face but Isis was lying there as if laying like a dead log. Fluffy having no more idea what to do, cocooned and wrapped herself closely to Isis’s body so as to kill the chill if anything close to death touches her body.

In her sleep, suddenly Isis found herself transported to a beautiful room, glorious and decandent. Dark and every thing was in shades of black and red. When Isis opened her eyes and tried to get up from the bed, she found that her hands were shackled to the bedpost and she could not move it a bit.

“Oh dear!!! I wouldn’t want to do that if I were you.. I wouldn’t want to hurt myself, will I?” a silky breezy voice from the darkness that swirled around the room like dark Swarovski crystals.

“Who are you?” asked Isis still jerking her hands against the restraints.

“I am who you want me to be darling. I can be greatest fear and the darkest depths of your personal horrors. I can be your brightest dream and the greatest powers can be absolutely yours if you want them to be. I am Life, some even call me Death.”

“Why don’t you come to the front and let me decide that what are you?” asked Isis in her cockiest voice she could muster.

Before she could even blink a dark breeze flowed over her eyes making her snap her eyes shut. It was a disgusting and creepy feeling as if something dark and foreign was trying to ooze into her pores and suck something out of her. She could feel that Fluffy was whining calling her out to wake up from this sleep but she was trapped and she couldn’t wake up. And she also felt that Fluffy was licking her face, imploring her to wake up but Isis was helpless. But she knew now, that someone was there for her trying to help her. Isis opened her mind and gave out a full blast of her psychic power so as the black thing that was trying to get inside her would move away.

Suddenly she was free of any kind of force over her and a split second later on she heard a loud thud on the floor as if something dropped down.

“Mmmmmmmmm, young and very very impressive I must say. Really impressive. Your mother never had this strength I must say. A lot of spirit yes but too weak to be harnessed for something greater. But you my darling have so much of potential, oh dear, I can’t even imagine how much you can grow….”

“I’m sorry, but I must cut in to your lunatic ravings. Look, whoever you are, I am not really interested ain knowing and I don’t give a s**t about your bloody schemes. Well I must say that you need to work on your salesmanship skills because I am really really not convinced,” as Isis was speaking she was trying to call upon her memory about the charms of unlocking the locks which she had memorized earlier this evening. But she very well knew that she could not attract attention towards herself that she was unlocking her so she kept on talking to the strange creature. The voice had a beautiful hypnotizing lilt to it, if you kept listening to it you would be caught unaware in it’s charms but Isis was too focused on distracting it to concentrate on the voice. The worst part was that she could not identify the gender from the voice.

“Such a brave heart, such pure soul, always thinking about others like your mother. At what happened to her in the end?” asked the voice as if smirking.

“ If you think that you can rile me up saying this useless s**t, then you’re highly mistaken,” Isis said this while she had already unlocked one wrist of hers and felt her body slipping away from this dream.

“Oh language, my sorceress, language. You are forbidden to speak in this language in front of beings higher than yours,” said the voice.

Isis started laughing out loud and said, “ And you need to work on your ego and esteem. My Grandma Brassia is much higher being than you, stupid imbecile!” Isis had unlocked her right wrist and quickly willed herself back to her bedroom. She woke up on her bed with a start and Fluffy who was curling round her body jumped up into her lap and started licking her and asking her as if she was alright or not. Isis’s eyes welled up with tears, never before she had felt this level of attachment with any creature. Fluffy was so concerned with her well being, as a tear dropped on her cheek Fluffy started whining as if calling out for help. She was sure that Fluffy was calling out Gruffy thinking that she would need assistance somehow. Fluffy started sniffing her all over thinking as if she was hurt somewhere and trying to find that out.

Gruffy was on her bed a few seconds later and growling in a low voice trying to threaten away any kind of dark presence that might be in the room, and a loud noise started erupting from the basement, it was the sound of one of the records of Bach. Grandma Brassia was trying to wake her up feeling her distress. Aunt Rossetta came running to her room putting on all the lights in her floral housecoat and found Isis sitting up on her bed hugging herself and sometimes patting something invisible by her side, crying.

“Who was it this time?” she asked Isis gently.

“I don’t know Aunty. That is the worst part. I couldn’t even recognize whether the creature was male or female.. And…. And Aunty it had shackled up me to the bedpost so that I couldn’t break free and I couldn’t wake up Aunty. Fluffy tried waking me up so much but it had me locked up…” Isis kept on blabbering because she was in a shock.

Rossetta softly interrupted her and said,” How did you break free then darling?”

At that exact moment the gramophone from the basement was again blaring at a loud noise and Rossetta sighed, ”Let’s go down, I shall also listen to the incident there itself. No need to repeat then. And Grandma won’t let you be in peace until she knows you’re fine.”

Isis slowly nodded and then Gruffy got down the bed and let her follow him while Fluffy remained at her heels, both of them protecting her from any more harm. She was not even safe in her own home, Isis did not know how to cope with it anymore.

As they reached the basement, Brassia screeched like a harpy, ”How long does it take for you two to get your lazy asses down here?Don’t you understand that she was in imminent danger? Well, if not for these two animals I don’t know what would have happened to the girl? What were you thinking when all this happened? “

Suddenly Gruffy and Fluffy started barking at Brassia at the same time rebuking her for scolding their mistress. Brassia was taken aback for a moment and then fell silent.

“I did not know something like this would happen to me Grandma. How can you expect me to be prepared for a dream attack?” asked Isis in a low voice patting Gruffy and Fluffy’s head asking them to calm down.

“I never thought that they would start hunting for you so fast dear girl. You have no idea what a coveted treasure you are. They do this with every Necromancer born on this earth when they start coming to the power,” stated Brassia very calmly.

“But that means that she needs to be even more equipped to deal with what is coming up against her,” said Rossetta.

“I would say that you are right Rosa, but there is a problem. And the problem lies in that if you know who is your assailant then only you can fight but….”

Isis interrupted their conversation by saying,” This is not even groping in the dark but this was in reality groping in dark. And not me, I couldn’t do anything when he groped me in dark. And Grandma it was sick and sinister and terrifying at the same time. I think I know what to do.”

“So why don’t you enlighten us Girlie??” asked Brassia.

“I have to learn to become a spirit assassin. Can I get hold of a teacher like that? I know it sounds weird but I could not have come up with a better term.”

“In reality, what you are saying does not happen at all. In fact it is not possible because your whole psyche is psyched up to become a witch and not an assassin but from what you have said I can tweak that thing a bit and then we can gear you up to become a mental assailant. You are going to have to train to fight with your mental powers and make it stronger to use your spiritual body to fight for you while you are in subconscious.”

“I didn’t get your point at all. Please explain Grandma.”

“Actually what ever I say at this point of time would seem Greek to you. Because until and unless you know how to face it you have to be always afraid that someone is going to attack you mentally. And you, Isis are so damn powerful that I hate to say that you are like a beacon to all those who are in the dark and a dark distinct figure to all those who are light. For that reason it becomes too easy to track you. So you need to be a Siren on that count Darling. You have to be the elusive one,” said Brassia.

“But what I read showed that the witches who were mermaids or had the power to grow tails and become human once more and stayed close to water are the only ones who are Sirens,” said Isis.

“It is good to see that I have such a disciple who takes my advice and commands so seriously. But Girlie you also need to remember this also that little knowledge is more dangerous than having no knowledge. Witches are natural Sirens and Necromancers like us are even more because we have the dark power in us which makes men fly towards us like moth to a flame but now you have to learn how to play. It is not tough at all Girlie. So perk up. It is just a mental Hide and Seek which you need to learn how to play.”

“I really wish Grandma that what you are saying can be so easy but unfortunately that freaking bastard had locked my hands in a goddamned cuff and shackled me up with the posters of the bed. Do you understand how it feels like to be helpless?” seethed Isis.

“Being females and that too witches trust me, every single woman has faced some kind of helplessness sometime or other in their life and it has been life-threatening as well but they only they themselves could come out of it. So this is also a situation, of not your making, but you also need to learn how to control the situation and you need to turn the game at your prerogative.

Now now, Rosa, although I am not very much in favour of giving her the sleeping draught but she needs to take a swig every night before going to sleep so that all her senses and systems are absolutely dulled. This will ensure that no one can take her away any where without her permission. And change the charm above her bed. It needs to be of the darkest powers of stones but not of rosemary and whittle. Am I clear?”asked Brassia

“Absolutely and like crystal,” answered Rossetta.

“I just wish to sleep peacefully,” said Isis in a desperately tired voice.

“You will darling, let’s go…”said Rossetta and guided Isis out of the basement locking it behind her and instinctively she knew that Fluffy and Gruffy were still guarding their Mistress. Rossetta smiled at the irony of the situation going upstairs.