Free Blood and Bone: A Smattering of Unease by Shannon Rae Noble Page A

what she means. I don’t have any powder. I had baby powder when I was a baby, but I don’t have any anymore ‘cause I’m grew, and I’m not a baby now.”
    Carol set her cup on the table and said quietly, “Do you mean the power of nine? ”
    Becky clapped her hands. “ Yes!” Her eyes widened and her mouth opened into an “O”. “She’s right! Darce’s right, isn’t she? You did find something! This means we can help her, right?”
    Carol shot Darce a warning glance. “I don’t really know, yet. I haven’t read enough. I’ll have to look at the instructions more thoroughly before I will know for sure.”
    But she thought, I’m sorry. This is witchcraft. I’m Catholic. I know nothing about witchcraft. And there has to be a sacrifice. I don’t think I can sacrifice anyone.
    Darce sat beside Carol on the sofa that night after Becky had fallen asleep. Carol read the instructions for the “magic spell” out loud.
    “. . . the Vessel is impenetrable and unbreakable, so whosoever’s soul is held captive within cannot die or be destroyed, with one exception. If the Sacrificial Soul is already compromised and ready to pass on, and takes the place of the soul in the Vessel before it has separated from its physical body, this enchantment can be broken permanently, and the Vessel will be rendered ineffective.”
    Darce could feel her last seeds of hope drift away into nothingness as she listened. She would never be able to escape her prison without imprisoning another soul. She didn’t want to do that; she wouldn’t do that. And she knew that Carol wouldn’t either.
    She felt the sensation of Carol’s life-sized hand on her small doll-shoulder. “Don’t give up just yet, Darce. This may not be easy, but not impossible.”
    It sounds impossible to me, unless we’re willing to kill someone to break the spell, thought Darce. I don’t know which sin would be worse.
    She might as well face the fact that she was going to remain imprisoned in this doll-form forever. Because she couldn’t die as long as she was inside it.
    She felt her mind drifting away to the shadows where it had spent the past two years.
    “We will figure it out, Darce,” Carol promised. “But look. At least you aren’t outside in the dark, alone. You’re with me and Becky. At least you’ll have things you can do. Maybe not physically, except when we bring you places. But you can watch television and movies. You can listen to music. We can take you for walks, we can take you places, like shopping and mini-golf. You have a warm, comfortable place to sleep. For now, you’re . . . you’re paralyzed. You’re still alive, and you can’t move. But you can communicate. So don’t give up yet.”
    Darce heard what Carol said. And she had to admit: at least with Becky and Carol, she would have kind of a life, even if it was a half-life.
     
    * * *
    The half-life continued for several months. They tried to break the spell a few times, in various ways.
    Becky brought them an injured butterfly, but by the time they got the ritual space set up with the circle of salt, the candles, water, and soil, the insect had died, and what soul it had, if any, was well on its way to the other side.
    After that, they decided to just keep the items set up. Carol had cleared a place in the attic, and would periodically replace the old spell components with fresh ones. They would be ready if they ever received an opportunity.
    Their hopes were raised when Carol found a wounded bird in the backyard. Unwilling to simply let the creature die, Carol took care of it as best she could, and they all waited. The bird recovered within a few days, and Carol set it free.
    She researched witchcraft and Wicca, trying to educate herself on a subject she had never believed in. It was all stuff of fairytales, not real. Or at least, that’s what she had been taught to believe. And now, she questioned her entire belief system.
    The more she researched, the more she learned that