Fall redemption

 A crawling sensation skittering across her skin as the breeze, drenched in the scents of autumn, moved the few remaining leaves. They whispered accusing words into the darkness that encircled her, pushing in on the fires' illuminated ring. The light gave a false sense of security in these woods haunted by the memories of those that she had wronged.

Shelly pulled her coal-colored cardigan tighter; it was colder than it had any right to be. Her chill had little to do with temperature, she knew that it was mostly trepidation but that didn't stop her movements. The cave would be warmer, but she wasn't ready to confront that nightmare yet. 

It had been almost twenty years since she had visited these woods last. Time seemed to have passed this area by, touching it only gently as nothing seemed to have changed. The clearing was still the same, a lumpy oval with a pit of fire-blackened stones in the center, protected on three sides by logs worn smooth from the parade of people that sat on them. The cave was a small one just a little farther back, barely within sight of the fire. A screen of bushes protected it from prying eyes. She couldn't tell for sure, but that little grotto was probably still decorated with crude spray-paint and random blankets.

Chanlers' Cross could attribute more than half of the teen pregnancies indirectly to that cave. No matter how many 'do not enter' signs the adults posted in front of the mouth the kids kept finding their way in, and their clothes kept find themselves on the ground. Proudly, Shelly could say that she never used the cave for that purpose. The clearing, the cave, and the trails around here were where Shelly's sweetest memories were born, and where her nightmares started.

School starts on the Tuesday after Labour Day, and on that Friday all the popular High school seniors go to the clearing and party. It was a town tradition, unavoidable. The kids drink, they'd get high and they tell ghost stories. They never missed a year. Almost twenty years ago, Shelly had just become a High school senior. It had been her time to enjoy the spoils as the Queen of the world.

It was only supposed to be a prank. A way to establish herself as different. She had hidden in the woods and waited while the crowd enjoyed themselves. Patiently she waited for someone to tell the tale of Chainsaw Mike.

Chainsaw Mike was an urban legend around the town, a local Michael Myers with a chainsaw. A year never passed without that story being told. There was no one alive that could remember the actual details so they changed from year to year but the titular chainsaw and the manic laughter were staples in every version. When the time came, and the story was almost at its climax Shelly played the laugh track through the speakers and brought the chainsaw roaring to life.

The kids screamed and scattered. She chased some of them through the woods, changing targets whenever she got close to someone new. It wasn't until she saw the smoke that she stopped chasing her peers and bolted for the clearing. Some of the teens were already there when she got back, but they were too late. Four of her classmates had been in the cave. They died that night. The details were unclear on why they hadn't gone to safety. The police report called it a tragic accident and no blame was placed, but the circumstances haunted Shelly in a way no therapy could help.

She moved away from Chanlers' Cross. Away from the whispers, the accusations, and the looks she got. Moving didn't help. No matter where she went if she could see a mirror someone was shooting her accusing looks.

Shelly shook her head, clearing away the wool and stopping the thoughts of hours lost in the darkness of the bottle. She had found the determination to make the most of her life and to try to set things right. The millstone of four dead souls dragged at her as she pushed herself through school and into a respectable profession. Guilt hobbled her social life and exhausted her.

Eventually, she forced herself to stop running and to face the consequences of what she had done. That was why she was here tonight.

The tea sloshed as she took a drink from the canister, it was tepid but the herbs were like a balm to her over-keyed nerves. She was starting to doubt that coming here was such a good idea. “Time to get to work Shelly-girl,” she said wanting to hear something real in the whispers around her. Closure or not, this place was a raw wound to her.

She pushed herself up. The stage was already set. She'd spent laborious hours while the sun was up arranging everything correctly. All she had needed now was the calm, the focus, and the desire. 

“Mors custodem, possessor est niger clavis. Veniunt ad me.” She started the ritual, “ad auxilium quæ facere ius.” her usual mousy tones growing stronger, more compelling, and then commanding the longer she spoke. With deft accuracy, she lit the candles, poured viscous liquids, and trailed a tail of powders that created eye-searing patterns all around the clearing. Hazy smoke filled the air staying within the protective circle.

“You have summoned me, mortal, what do you seek?” A figure in a voluminous dark cloak asked. His voice was deceptively mild and his question curious. The civility of his demeanor was unsettling after being forced to her summons.

“Peace,” Shelly said simply.

“You summon the spirit of the dead, for peace?” He asked her.

There were no eyes that she could see in the cavernous hood but she felt that there was compassion in him. “You have no wish to die.”

Shelly said nothing in reply, she simply cast her thoughts full of coalescing emotions at him.

The cloaked figure drank the emotions like ambrosia, “Five human minutes I will give you.” He said after a weighty pause, “no more, no less.” Then like a dream, he was gone, and the world changed.

The ever-moving air was frozen. The smoke hung like a brides' dark veil with tiny ember rubies affixed to it. The small flames around her stood tall and motionless. Bold and defiant. Shelly's chest hurt; her heart had stilled. They were in a moment outside of time, outside of life.

For the first time in twenty years the chains of bonding forged from guilt and her own necromancers' abilities lessened and the four spirits sloughed off her. She felt young again, like she had before her 'gifts' had awoken. “Hurry,” Shelly instructed as the eternally damned teenagers formed and fizzled in the opaque air, “get to the bodies.”

The quartet asked no question, they flowed around the clearing and each sank into a cadaver of their choosing. Larry took the quarterback that had died of pneumonia three days prior. Sandra took the older woman that was close to the age she would have been had she lived, a woman of slack features and calloused hands who had left this world when her heart had stopped. Tommy and Joanne each took one of the seven-year-old twins that had drowned just 27 hours ago. Shelly knew the bodies would be noticed missing from the morgue by now and that her job was forfeit, but she didn't care. She also knew that there would be questions asked when they turned up hundreds of miles away, living and breathing again but those mundane worries were only flea bites at the back of her mind.

The twins had barely started to rise when the promised window of time closed. The magic that had loosened them from her was gone, and the binding snapped back, securing the spirits into their new vassal.

“I'm so sorry.” Shelly sobbed, all of her heart in the words.

“You are absolved.” Larry rasped through mortal lips; the others nodded silently.

The necromancer's knees turned to water as she sank to the ground.

“Thank you,” she blubbered. Guilt had eaten at her for so long that it had become a coat of thorns that kept everyone away. With their forgiveness, the coat fell like an iron weight to the ground and she cried harder, soul redeeming tears flowed freely down her face as the closure no one living could give her washed over her.

Water-blurred eyes watched as the four figures now clothed again in human flesh turned and easily walking through the spirit ward on their way to the town that had once been, and would once again be their home. She knew they were hungry, but she was free. Redeemed.