Prologue – Black Pages

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October 31st, 1948

Celeste had walked this path more times than she could recall. The dead tree, gnarled and twisted, was her landmark. When she passed it, she knew she was close. The disappearing daylight made things difficult. Shadows she’d never seen before danced around her, making her journey that much more treacherous. One wrong turn and they’d be lost in the matted wilderness for who knew how long. The three girls she was leading weren’t helping matters.

“We’re going to get caught!” Nell said, receiving a sharp poke in the back from Holly.

“We will if you keep shouting that. The Dawkins’ cottage is close, they’ll be out in a heartbeat if they hear us.”

“The Dawkins’ cottage was all the way back there,” Jinny corrected from the tail of the group. “I saw the dirt path myself.”

“You’re both wrong,” Celeste said, a smile evident in her voice. “We were never anywhere near the cottage. I couldn’t risk it. If they knew how often I came up here they would run and tell my parents within seconds.”

“How often are you up here, Celeste?” Jinny asked.

“Whenever I need to think. It’s so beautiful – you’ll see.”

“If all we’re coming up here for is beauty then I’m turning around now,” Holly joked.

“I think you’ll be impressed,” Celeste teased.

They continued for a few moments in silence, the sound of their shoes cutting through mud and undergrowth filling the void. From the rapidly falling darkness a shape materialised as if by magic. Celeste had to stare hard into the twilight to identify it.

“Ah,” she exhaled when she realised what it was, a hand straying to trace the bumps of the blackened bark. “We’re close.”

“Close to what?” Nell asked.

“You’ll see. Be patient.”

Patience was not Nell’s strong suit. They all knew it and found her incessant complaining quite entertaining.

The clearing opened up so suddenly it reminded Nell of a lion, widening its jaws expectantly – they were just going to walk right in, like prey. She lingered back, Jinny and Holly moving around her and into the space.

Trees ringed them on all sides, forming a rough, impenetrable circle. Exposed sky was beginning to gleam with a smattering of stars as the day eroded to make room for night. The transition left a hazy fusion of black and aqua in its wake.

Holly took it all in at once, moving in dizzied loops.

“Just look at this place!” She exclaimed. “It’s like the night can’t stray here.”

“Or it won’t,” Nell said, eyeing the darkness being held at bay by the dense expanse of forest. “Something’s not right.”

“Nothing is ever right with you,” Holly chided, lowering herself to the ground alongside Celeste, who was busy emptying the contents of the bag she’d brought on the trek with her.

Jinny didn’t brush Nell’s comments off as easily. She knelt, scooping a handful of caked mud into her fingers and letting it fall in clumps.

“Nell’s right,” she declared, “look at this. Nothing’s grown here for years – if ever.”

It was more than the dead earth, she knew. There was an air of oppressiveness about this clearing. It bore down on her chest and shoulders, making her suck in more air than necessary. This feeling bested the natural beauty of the spot.

Beside Holly, Celeste was examining the items she’d packed for the occasion. Four black candles – one for each of them – matches and a thick book, the spine broken and creased.

“What’s that?” Holly questioned as Celeste flipped past a large chunk of the pages.

It was all hand written in blue ink, like a journal, only every now and again a colourful but indecipherable sketch or pressed flower would catch Holly’s eye. Suddenly, the blue ink stopped and the black began.

“I found it with some of my mum’s things when we were clearing the attic. She doesn’t know I took it.”

“But what is it?” Holly asked again, phrasing her question more clearly. Celeste smiled down at the black inked pages.

“A Book of Shadows.”

This seemed to enrage Nell.

“You made us walk all the way up here for some parlour trick!”

“It’s not a trick,” Celeste said defensively. “It’s a spell.”

“And there’s a difference?” Nell sniped. Jinny eyed her with a silencing look.

“I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Oh it will when our parents get wind of this.”

“And how are they going to Nell?” Holly fired back from beside Celeste, who was studying the page closely. “Are you going to tell them?”

Haughtily, Nell folded her arms across her chest, and Holly smiled.

“I thought not.”

“It’s harmless,” Celeste said. “Just a game. I thought, with it being Halloween, we could try something new. Something extraordinary.”

“I’m perfectly happy with the ordinary, thank you. Jinny, are you coming?”

Jinny stood between her three friends, looking instantly torn.

“Sorry Nell. I’m curious.”

“Stay,” Celeste begged, “it needs four.”

“If she’s too scared to let her go,” Holly said, knowing how much this would irritate Nell.

“I am not scared!”

“Then come and sit with us.”

She looked hesitant as Jinny moved and sank down into the dried mud.

“It won’t even work!” She was certain. “Magic doesn’t exist.”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s common sense, Jinny. Spells. Curses. It’s all daft.”

“Then all tonight will do is prove you right,” Celeste pointed out, stumping Nell for a moment.

Handing out the candles, Celeste came to the last one and offered it out to Nell, who still lingered at the edge of the clearing, completely unsure, completely sceptical… yet desperate not to be branded a coward.

“Oh, alright,” she huffed, joining them to snatch the candle up. “Ready?” Celeste asked, taking a match out.

Holly and Jinny nodded simultaneously. Nell kept her eyes on the ground.

“Nell?” Jinny called.

“If you don’t want to you don’t have to.”

At Celeste’s words, Nell looked up.

“I’m ready,” she said, her pride flaring just as the match crackled into brilliant life.

“With these flames I call to you,” Celeste read aloud, pressing the match to the wick of her candle. It embraced it willingly. “Guardians of earth, water, air and fire.”

“This is childish,” Nell muttered.

“Shh!” Jinny and Holly hissed in quick succession of one another, holding their candles out to Celeste, who lit them quickly. When her turn came, Nell grudgingly held the pillar candle out, and it was lit. No turning back.

Moving shadows of light were scattered about the girls’ faces as they set their candles down on the uneven earth, Celeste signalling for them to join hands.

“I invite you in,” she declared.

“I invite you in,” Jinny sang in agreement, as did Holly:

“I invite you in.”

Three expectant gazes were then trained on Nell, who rolled her eyes and said with an uninspiring monotone.

“I invite you in.”

Celeste nodded her head, being the first to whisper over and over:

“Come to us. Come to us.”

Soon, all three were chanting it, the hum of their words creating a rhythmic din amidst woodland usually filled only with the sounds of nature.

After a few moments, Nell fell silent and broke the chain their linked hands formed, rising to tower above them.

“Nell! What are you doing?”

“Going home,” Nell barked back at Jinny. “It’s quite obvious nothing is going to happen tonight.”

“Well it won’t now. You broke the circle!” Celeste whined.

“Circle? My god Celeste, you sound like you actually believe this nonsense. We could all get in trouble for dabbling in this… this-” She motioned to the black candles, still burning.

“This darkness! Did you ever think that perhaps those pages are written in black for a reason? Say this is real – and I’m not saying it is – but say we finished it, what kind of hell could we have unleashed?”

“It’s just a bit of fun,” Holly said quietly.

A sudden gust whipped around them, taking each of them by surprise with its coldness and extinguishing the candles - as if purposely trying to contradict Holly. Every face grew ashen with unspoken dread in the space of a heartbeat, the curls of smoke rising from the snuffed out wicks suddenly a thing of terror.

“It was just the wind,” Nell said unconvincingly. “Nothing more.”

“Yes,” Jinny agreed shakily as she, Holly and Celeste got up to gather close, the darkness beginning to whisper at them.

“Just the wind.” She repeated.

“Do you hear it?” Celeste asked, her voice so choked by fear it was almost inaudible.

“Stop it Celeste!” Holly demanded.

“That whispering. It’s everywhere.”

“Stop it!” Holly was screaming now, shouting the command. It did nothing. They could each hear it. The whispering.

“The Beacon.”

From within the circle they’d formed moments ago shot a beam of intense blue light, racing into the heavens. The girls were blown backwards with its force, falling down the incline they’d worked so hard to conquer. Their screams did nothing to quash the sound it made - a geyser of neon light, screaming into the sky.

Where her body came to rest alongside her friends’, Celeste looked up from the mud, the blue glow visible even from where she lay. Weakly, she uttered:

“What have we done?”

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Thanks for reading - any comments appreciated.