Resumo Mortuis

The whine of the graveyard gates breaks the silence of the night. Glisanda pushes them open and strides in like she owns the place. The Coven Prep Book of Spells Volume 4 rests under her arm.

“Aren’t you coming?” she asks.

My heart races in my chest. This is such a bad idea. Even though my sister’s a good witch, this will be her first time trying out the reanimation spell.

“What if something goes wrong?” I ask. “You just learned this spell.”

“Come on, sis. It’ll be fine. That’s why I brought this along.” She holds up the spellbook in her hand. I can barely see the front cover through her doodling. “Let’s go.”

Why do I always let her drag me around? Aren’t older sisters supposed to set a good example? She’s always getting me into trouble.

I stand at the entrance to the graveyard. Glisanda raises her eyebrows at me.

“Ellie, if you back out now, I’ll tell everybody at Coven Prep that you’ve got a crush on that warlock at Helwood Academy, Hector.”

My cheeks betray me. Just hearing his name makes the jelly in my legs wobble. 

“I do not have a crush on him.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. Because I heard from a reliable source that he’s got the hots for you, too. Might be up for a ride on your broom sometime.”

God, I hope she’s right. I think of all the things that I like about him. His groomed beard. His massive biceps. The way his Helwood cloak brings out his perfect butt. The thought of him riding along with me on my broom makes my cheeks burn even hotter.

“Really?” I ask.

“Really really,” she says. “You help me with this, and I’ll help you nab him.”

Glisanda’s smile is so infectious. I try to force the corners of my mouth down and fail.

“Okay,” I say. “Just… promise you won’t tell anybody about… you know.”

“My lips are sealed,” she says.

We set off into the graveyard. Moonlight bathes the place in an eerie twilight. My eyes flit around as if the tombstones are going to come alive and attack us. I stay close to Glisanda.

“Where exactly are we going?” I ask.

“We need to find a space big enough for the ritual,” she says. “Like an empty plot of grass or something.”

We walk along the rows of tombstones. I almost trip over a grave that’s been freshly dug up.

“There,” she says. “That should do.”

She points to a field across the street that runs through the graveyard. The rows of tombstones don’t come all the way across, as if there are more to be added. We walk over and sit on the ground. She sets her spellbook down and flips through it. Her brow furrows as she reads the loopy, Latin letters.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” she says.

She stands up, pulls her ebony wand out of her pocket, and gives it a flick. A red light shines from the tip of the wand. She bends over and traces a circle on the ground about ten feet in diameter. It glows with a reddish hue that brightens and then fades, almost like it’s breathing. Glisanda then draws a five-pointed star inside of the circle. Before long, the pentacle is complete.

“And now,” Glisanda says, “the pièce de résistance.”

She steps inside the pentacle. The red light turns into a dazzling white. Her hair billows around even though I don’t feel any wind. She points her wand at a tombstone and mutters an incantation under her breath.

Every single hair on my body shoots up.  I can feel the pulse in my neck thump. This is unlike any spell I’ve done myself. The craziest thing I can do is make a pumpkin sprout legs and dance a polka. Nothing as serious as raising the freaking dead.

Adrenaline gushes through my veins. I stare at the tombstone in anticipation…

A hand shoots up out of the ground. It’s all bone. The flesh has long since decayed. Specks of dirt cover it.

I scream as loud as I can.

“Holy shit!” Glisanda says. “It worked!”

Another hand emerges and pushes the earth aside. A skull peeks out of the hole in the ground. Its jaw hangs off of the left side of its mouth. It pushes itself up and out of the hole. I stumble backwards in fright.

The skeleton is covered in earth. It looks like it belongs in a health science classroom or something. None of its flesh or organs remain. It turns its skull and glances at us. I feel a canyon form in my stomach. My eyes almost pop out of my head and onto the grass.

“That’s insane,” I say. “Can you make it do anything?”

“Watch this,” Glisanda says. She points her wand at the skeleton’s feet and swings it counterclockwise. The skeleton jumps up and does a backflip. The sound of its bones jiggling reminds me of a maraca rattling.

My palms start to sweat. Excitement overwhelms me.

“Come on, Glisanda! Raise a few more!”

“Not a problem,” she says. She casts the spell on six different tombstones in rapid succession. Six sets of hands break free of the earth. I gasp in delight.

The skeletons are in various states of decay. One of them must have been buried recently. It’s wearing a navy suit, albeit one covered in dirt and grime. Another doesn’t even have a skull. Its spine ends where the head should be. I wonder if that person was guillotined.

“Have them run a race down that row,” I say.

Glisanda points her wand at the skeletons and then swishes it down the row. At once, they sprint across the field. The skeleton with the loose jaw surges ahead of the rest and makes it to the end of the field first.

“That’s amazing!” I say. Glisanda does a mock curtsy. Maybe I worried for nothing. She is a really good witch after all.

The skeletons walk back to the starting line. I notice a twinge of annoyance on their faces, as if they don’t like taking orders from a teenage witch.

“Want to give it a try, sis?” Glisanda asks.

My heart skips a beat. I’m just a freshman at Coven Prep. This is such an advanced spell.

“I’m sure Hector will be impressed,” Glisanda says. “You can show off to him the next time you see him.”

“Uh… I guess I can.”

Moisture from my hand coats my wand. I flick my wrist. The tip of my wand lights up. Just like Glisanda did, I draw the pentacle on the ground.

“Then you point your wand at a tombstone and say the words resumo mortuis,” Glisanda says.

My entire arm vibrates as I aim my wand at a tombstone. I say the incantation. At first, nothing happens. I’m probably doing it wrong. I try the spell again.

The tip of my wand erupts. It sounds like a cannon going off. My feet lift off the ground. I fly backwards and smack into the street next to the field. Stars twinkle in my eyes. A wisp of smoke flutters off the tip of my wand.

No way did I cast the spell correctly.

“Ugh… shit,” I mutter. “That hurt. Glisanda, are you okay?”

I feel a searing pain in my back as I push myself off the ground. I limp back to the field.

“Fuck, Ellie… what happened?” Glisanda asks.

“I’m not sure. I must have botched the incantation.” I help Glisanda back to her feet.

“Do you know what happened to my… my wand?”

Glisanda’s voice catches in her throat. She stares transfixed at the ground. I see a slender piece of wood that’s been snapped in two. The color vanishes from my face. Thanks to me, Glisanda fell on top of her wand and broke it in half. Her mouth parts. She bends over and picks up the pieces.

“Son of a bitch,” she says.

“Glisanda, I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I hope you’re-”

She puts her hand up. “No, I’m the one that told you to come with me. Don’t worry about it.” She stuffs the pieces into her jacket pocket.

I can’t find the pentacle that Glisanda drew on the ground. It must have disappeared when her wand broke. But how are the skeletons still standing?

“Um… Glisanda, is this supposed to be happening?” I ask.

“I don’t know. They shouldn’t be able to move anymore.”

The skeletons approach us. Bile churns in my stomach. Glisanda’s lost control of them. We back away towards the street. The skeletons break into a trot.

“Why are they following us?” I ask.

“I don’t know! Run!” Glisanda shouts.

We sprint away. The skeletons follow us. We dart in and out of the rows of tombstones. My lungs burn. I don’t know any spells to defend myself. I chance a look back at the skeletons. Each one has a look of menace on its face. It’s as if they never wanted to be reanimated in the first place and now they want to make us pay for disturbing their rest. We race along the rows of tombstones.

“We have to get out of the graveyard!” Glisanda says. “Maybe we can lose them-”

Her foot slips on a plaque embedded in the ground. Gravity takes over. She falls backwards. The skeletons surround her. There’s nothing I can do.

“GLISANDA!”

The skeleton in the suit grabs her arm and sinks its teeth into it. Glisanda shrieks in pain. The others grab any part of her that they can. One of them bites off her ear. They make a meal of her. Blood drips from their mouths.

“ELLIE! HELP ME!”

A pungent smell fills the air as my bladder throws in the towel. Warm liquid trickles down my legs. For a moment, I just stand and stare at the skeletons as they devour my sister. They don’t go after me. I didn’t cast the spell.

Glisanda’s shrieks grow louder and louder. The skeletons gnaw away at her. The pool of blood in the grass is the same reddish color as the pentacle she drew.

Suddenly, there’s silence. She’s not screaming anymore. My heart sinks to the bottom of my chest. A heat subsumes my entire body. The skeletons stay hunched over Glisanda’s corpse. They continue to feast on her flesh.

I turn around and barrel through the gates of the graveyard. I fumble my wand in my hands as I conjure up my broomstick. With a pop, it appears in front of me, levitating in midair. I throw my feet over it and kick myself off the ground. My knuckles turn white as I clench the handle. I shoot through the air like a rocket. Drool trails off my mouth as I leave the graveyard behind me.

I can’t tell anybody what happened tonight. Not my parents, not Hector, not the teachers at Coven Prep. I’m going to have to keep this secret with me until I’m buried in the ground myself.

Unless some young witch decides to reanimate me and force me to tell…