Curselock

Chapter 192: Curses

Chapter 192: Curses

Drifting in from a haze, Leland stepped into the shabby shack with a grin on his face. It was time to eat cake, chocolate, his favorite. His friends were there, his parents too. He grinned at each of them, happy as a clam to—

A crow landed on the back of the chair he was about to sit on. Obsidian black with deepened shadows where feathers ran and ended, the bird was the size of a large dog, far larger than any crow he had ever seen. But that wasn’t what made Leland pause. No, that was its piercing violet eyes.

Two orbs of purple fire and haunted sight stared at him, each bulbous and reflective. He watched himself watch the crow in its eyes, his thinning body looking far worse for wear. When was the last time he had a proper meal? One from a restaurant or—

The crow cawed.

“Caw to yourself, bird,” Leland muttered.

The bird looked at him like he was stupid. He didn’t much appreciate that look. It reminded him of when he first met Isobel, sitting before her answering questions he didn’t want asked. He stood up to her back then, and he would do so again now.

“Go on, get,” he said, shooing it away.

It pecked him. And then cawed for good measure.

But then, it spoke, its voice cold and ancient, “This seat is taken.”

Leland blinked a few times. Of course! That seat wasn’t his, he moved right over to the other empty seat. He sat down and his eyes fell on the cake. Knife in hand, he moved to cut a slice.

The crow stopped him. “A bit premature, huh? We are still waiting for someone.”

Leland’s brows crossed. “Are we? Who is missing?”

He looked around. His parents, Jude and Glenny, their parents, Sybil, even Floe and Gelo were here. Who was missing? The question echoed in his mind.

“Grandmother,” the crow said just in time for the door to the shabby shack to swing open.

Leland turned, finding the doorway glowing with iridescent violet flames. A silhouette of a hunchbacked old woman cast the flames apart, her each step rocking the shack like she weighed as much as a leviathan. Her eyes glowed like the crow’s, but they also whispered and sang. Sorrow, age, heartbreak. The song was horrid, it was eternity coming to an end. A dying tune for a life spent fighting.

“Ah, of course. Grandmother, how did I forrrrrrrrrrrr—”

Leland kept the syllable going, although his mind came to a halt. He blinked, silencing himself. He blinked again, the walls of the shabby shack falling away. He blinked a third time, his family and friends leaving him. One last blink forced the table, cake, and even the crow away.

He was alone with grandmother, the Calamity herself.

“Ah,” Leland scoffed. “I’m dreaming.”

The Lord of Curses smiled softly. “And it is time to wake up.”

He recoiled. “You come to me in a dream only to tell me to wake up? Can’t you offer some advice or answer some questions? Here, I’ll start. I’m your Champion!? What’s up with that? Couldn’t find anyone better?”

The family was silent for a moment, the real Leland groaned. “Is that what I actually sound like?”

His dad laughed and his mom grumbled something. She said, “No. The mirages try to be annoying, I swear.”

“Oh, that’s good at least.”

Leland Two then stumbled back, his hand on his heart. “Mother! That hurts! How could you say that to your son!”

Real Leland sat up, opening his eyes because he just had to watch this. His mom had increasingly become more and more restless with Leland Two’s excessive declarations about him being her son. The first few times had been cute, then awkward, then irritating, then downright gross. When Leland Two started to mention private family things, Lucia had struck him down with a lightning bolt, killing him.

The mirage, of course, reappeared like nothing had happened because the real Leland was alive and well.

This time was no different. Lucia’s head went stiff and she thrust her pointer finger at the illusion with the speed of a viper. A spray of white-hot electricity released from her finger like a sling releasing a bundle of rocks. The electricity shredded through Leland Two’s sleeveless tunic, flayed his chest open, and burnt holes into his ribs and internal organs.

Leland Two stumbled around the sand, each step invisible adding a set of steel weights around his ankles. Blood pooled at his mouth as he tried to cry out to his attacker, but no sound came out. He crashed to his knees, then gave a hellish look around, threw his hands up into the air, and then fell over dead.

Lucia sighed. “Mirage Leland is one of the dramatic types.”

“It would seem so,” Spencer said, not even batting an eye at the corpse of his son.

Leland didn’t either. He did not like the idea of his mom killing his clone the first time, nor the second really. But once the mirage ate his dinner while he went off to pee, he felt all was fair in this place.

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder, a new Leland Two’s. “Well. I think Mother has some anger issues, don’t you think?.”

Real Leland flinched, shuffling away from his mirage. “Don’t touch me.”

Leland Two feigned being hurt. “Now, now. We’ve got to work together—”

“Dad,” Leland interrupted, looking at his father. “At what approximant power level do I need to be for the desert to be unable to create one of these for me?”

Spencer frowned and scratched the back of his head. “Uh...” He didn’t know but of course he couldn’t exactly come out and say that. It was a fatherly thing. “You have to be powerful enough to be able to dodge a boulder.”

Leland made a weird sound. “It was six!”

Spencer then made a mock baby-crying sound.

Laughing at that, Leland got back to his feet. “Where’d those mephits go?”

A portal opened up beside him and as he stepped through, he hoped Jude and Glenny’s training was going better than his.

“Oh boy! Off to finish what we started!” Leland Two announced, skipping through the portal before Spencer could close it.