Book of Spells Ch. 03 - Fire and Blood

They sat silently and sullenly drinking in a dark corner of the bar. No one had said a word in over ten minutes. Chris had a deep scowl on his face, and he was staring dejectedly at the table. He was clearly thinking hard, but not sharing his thoughts with the others. Maggie was waiting for one of the boys to speak up. She didn't know what to say, or do, and she wanted Chris to take the lead again. Jason looked like he was going to be sick. His awesome day had turned incredibly sour. He still wasn't totally convinced that they were to blame for the random deaths that had been happening, but just the thought of it made him uncomfortable.

None of them knew if what had happened at the hotel was really their fault, but they were all thinking it. When the accident outside happened, it still seemed like it could have been a coincidence. After all, car crashes do happen all the time. But murder suicides are a lot more rare. There was no way to truly be sure, but it seemed obvious enough that it had happened as a result of the spells. But that didn't lead to any answers. In fact, it led to a whole slew of new questions.

"Ok, come on, someone say something," Maggie said nervously, unable to stay silent any longer.

"What are we supposed to say Maggie?" Jason asked grimly. He was still trying to deal with the guilt of possibly causing people to die, all so he could have a bigger dick and shoot a big load. If he had known that was the trade off, he never would have done it. He never would have even taken the book out of the dark cavern where they had found it. But it was too late for that. Now they had to figure out what to do next.

"I don't know," Maggie sighed in frustration. "We have to say something. People are dead," Maggie lowered her voice so no one else in the bar would hear.

"We still don't even know if it's our fault," Jason said, wishing it were true, but not really believing it. "It may have been a terrible coincidence. I mean, have you ever heard of a book that kills people?"

"No," Maggie said. "But I also haven't heard of a book that can do this to people." She nodded her head down to her giant bosom. Jason glanced down at her tits, and his eyes lingered there for a moment, before returning to her face. "It's obviously some sort of ancient spell book," Maggie said. "So we don't know what it can do."

"Why would it have killed people," Jason asked, sounding more sad than angry. "They weren't even people we knew. They were just random people nearby when we said the spells."

"Because that book is evil," Maggie said. She turned to Chris, hoping he would contribute something, but he just continued to stare dolefully at the table, the scowl still resting on his face.

"We don't know that its evil," Jason said.

"We do if its killing people," Maggie pointed out, and Jason didn't say anything. He knew she was right.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now," Jason sighed. "Unless the book can bring people back, then what's done is done."

"We have to tell someone," Maggie urged. "We can't just pretend nothing happened."

"Who are we supposed to tell?" Jason asked, his voice rising a little. Maggie shot him a look, and he quieted down as he continued. "And what are we supposed to say," Jason said more quietly. "We can't just go to the French authorities and tell them we found an ancient spell book under a church we weren't supposed to be under, and then used the spells to make us better at sex, but it just happened to kill a few people on accident. They'll throw us in a French prison until we rot."

"Well we can't do nothing," Maggie reiterated.

"Ok, well we definitely can't tell anyone," Jason shot back. "At least not until we know more."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Maggie asked again. "I'm not ok with just going on like we didn't do anything. We have to take some kind of responsibility."

"For what," Jason said angrily. "We didn't know what would happen. We just said some words out of an old book. And we don't even know if those people died because of us."

"Yes we do," Chris finally spoke up. He was still frowning down at the table, and Maggie and Jason both turned to him, hoping he had something more to offer than they did.

"How?" Jason said, still trying to maintain some slim hope that he hadn't killed two people.

"Do I really need to spell it out for you?" Chris asked, finally looking up and giving Jason a dire expression. Jason looked down at the table, slowly shaking his head. "We know what happened," Chris said, sounding more convinced than before. "What we don't know is how or why. We need to find out if that happens every time a spell is spoken, or if it's just certain spells."

"What do you mean?" Maggie asked.

"I mean, it may be that we used the wrong spells," Chris said seriously. "Every spell we've used so far has been vain superficial bullshit. We didn't need any of it, we were just fucking around."

"So what, you think that there are good and bad spells in the book," Jason asked, looking rather intrigued. "And we just used the bad ones?"

"I don't know," Chris shrugged. "I think it's possible. There are dozens of spells in that book, maybe even a hundred or more. We've only done three of them, and they're all stupid. I seriously doubt that all of the spells are as dumb as the ones we've done so far."

"But we can't do any more spells," Maggie said, sounding alarmed. "Even if we can translate them, we can't do anything more than we already have."

"We may have to," Chris said, frowning deeply again.

"Why," Maggie shouted, several people looked over, and she quieted down. "We don't ever need to use that book again. In fact, I think we should bring it back to where we found it."

"I don't think it works like that Maggie," Chris said. "And besides, if there's any chance that we can undo what we've done, we have to take that risk."

"How could we undo it?" Maggie asked. "Do you actually think that book can bring people back to life?"

"I have no idea what that book can do," Chris said, and everyone fell silent again. They all sat there, trying to work it out in their heads, and failing.

"We should really check on Alex," Jason said, finally breaking the tense silence. "He's probably freaking out."

"Ya," Chris nodded. "It's probably been long enough. They aren't going to keep the hotel closed off all day."

"Ok, let's go then," Maggie said, sounding like she just wanted to move. She didn't like the dark dingy bar they were in. Chris nodded, and they all got up. Chris paid on their way out, and then they walked down the street together, no one saying anything as they made their way back to the hotel. There was still a cop car out front, but the cop that had been standing in the doorway was gone, and they walked into the hotel without a problem. They headed up to the third floor, and walked down to Alex's door. Chris knocked, and they waited, but no one answered. He knocked again, a little louder, but still no answer. They all looked at each other with slowly growing nervousness.

"Hey, Alex! Open up!" Jason shouted, pounding on the door. There was no sound at all coming from inside.

"Here," Chris said, reaching into his wallet, and pulling out the extra key to Alex's room. He had a key to everyone's room, just in case. He put the key in, and turned the lock, and the door opened. They all walked in, with Chris leading the way. It was totally dark inside, and there was no sign of Alex anywhere. Jason flipped the light switch on the wall, but the lights didn't come on.

"Uh, Alex," Chris said softly to the dark room. "You in here?" There was still no answer. Chris walked over to the bed, and flipped the switch on the bedside lamp. That didn't turn on either.

"What the fuck man," Jason said, sounding more scared than either of them had ever heard him. "Why aren't any of the lights working? And where the fuck is he?"

"I don't know," Chris said distractedly. He had spotted something in the corner of the room. He walked over to the table, and pulled his lighter out of his pocket. He flipped it open, and a faint light finally lit up the room. The ancient black spell book was sitting open on the table, surrounded by other open books. Chris bent over, and started looking around.

"Oh Jesus," Jason said. "You don't think he tried more spells do you?"

"Or even just the ones we already did," Maggie said, sounding just as scared as Jason.

"I don't know," Chris said. "It's open to a different page though. I don't know what this spell is. It looks like Alex may have translated more than I did." Chris frowned again as he said this. He didn't like the idea that Alex could have done a better job than him, but he knew it was possible. Alex wasn't good at the outdoors stuff like Chris, but he was certainly good with books and studying.

"Do you have any idea what it might be?" Maggie asked. She was standing in the corner, hugging her body tight. Chris looked over at her, and saw that she was squeezing herself in a way that pushed her giant tits out even further. He blinked twice and then went back to looking at the book.

"I'm not exactly sure," Chris said, bending over the book and shining his light onto it. Somehow the black writing looked even more sinister by firelight. "The picture is a little bit like the others. Only there's a bunch of people in this one."

"Oh god," Jason said. "What do you think that means?"

"I don't know," Chris said, beginning to get frustrated with everyone looking to him for answers. Normally he didn't mind. But he didn't have any answers, and that made him feel weak. "Honestly," he went on, "the picture sort of looks like a bunch of people worshiping a god."

"Oh man," Jason said, "what the hell did we get ourselves into?"

"What do you mean worshipping a god?" Maggie asked, still hugging her body in fear.

"Here, come look," Chris said, moving over to give them room to look at the picture he was looking at. Neither Jason nor Maggie moved for a moment. They were both afraid to look at the book. But Jason went over first, and then Maggie followed. They all three stood around the book, and bent down to look at the picture. It was another crude drawing, like the others, almost like an ancient cave drawing. There was a ring of stick figure people, all on their knees, surrounding a tall figure holding up its arms.

"Oh man, I don't like this Chris," Jason said nervously. "I don't like this at all."

"Me neither," Maggie agreed. "Do you really think Alex used that spell. Does that mean he's some kind of god now?"

"Or maybe he awakened some kind of ancient god, or demon," Jason said. His face had gone as white as a sheet, even in the faint flickering light from the lighter.

"Do you think it, like, possessed him," Maggie said, "like in the exorcist or something?"

"Or maybe he was the sacrifice this time," Jason said.

"Guys, come on," Chris said. "We don't know anything yet. We don't even know if Alex used this spell. We don't know if he used any spells. First let's just worry about finding him, and then we can ask him."

"Ok, where do you think we should look?" Jason asked.

"Maybe he went to the library," Maggie suggested. "It looks like he was making some progress on the translations."

"Ya, but the library is closed," Chris pointed out.

"Maybe he went to the club looking for us," Jason said.

"Ya, maybe," Chris nodded, standing up and walking away from the book. He still had his lighter out, vaguely shining light around the dim room. "I guess we should start there. And I'll ask the guy at the front desk if he saw him leave."

"Um, Chris," Maggie said slowly. They both turned to look at her, and saw her staring at the bed, looking as scared as ever. They followed her eyes to the bed, and saw clothes spread out on the bed. "Why does Alex have my sweatshirt?" Maggie asked, looking at her clothes laid out on the bed.

"I gave him the bag of your clothes when we ran into him earlier," Chris said, walking over to the bed. "When we bought you the new dress we put your old clothes in the bag, and I gave it to Alex. I don't know why they're laid out on the bed though."

"I bet we can all guess," Jason said.

"You don't think he did anything weird do you?" Maggie asked, sounding more disgusted than scared now, but still very scared.

"I mean he laid your clothes out on the bed, that's already pretty weird," Jason pointed out.

"Hey guys." They all flinched badly at the unexpected sound of Alex's voice. Maggie even let out a scream. The lights in the room came on, and they all turned to see Alex standing there, looking normal, but confused. "What's going on?" he asked. "Why are you all in my room? And what's with the lighter?"

"The lights in here didn't work?" Jason said, staring at Alex like he thought he might bite. Alex frowned, and flipped the switch again. The lights went back off, and then he flipped them back on.

"Seem to be working fine to me," Alex said.

"Well they weren't earlier," Jason said, "when you were gone."

"Where have you been Alex?" Chris asked. "We were worried about you."

"I went out to get a sandwich," Alex said, and they all noticed that he had a brown bag in his hand. Jason was looking at it like Alex might pull a gun out of it. Alex opened the bag, and pulled out a half-eaten sandwich.

"Ok, good," Chris sighed, feeling relieved, even if the others weren't. "It looks like you've been having some success with the book."

"I wouldn't call anything involving that book a success," Alex said, walking over to the table and putting his sandwich down. "I think I may have managed to translate a bit more though."

"You didn't use any spells did you?" Chris asked, and they all held their breath in anticipation.

"Of course not," Alex said, and they all sighed in relief. "That book is evil. Whatever you did to Maggie killed those two people outside. And now two more people died inside. I'm guessing you heard about that?"

"Ya, we heard," Chris nodded.

"I don't know how the book works," Alex said, sitting down at the table. "But I know it's bad. I mean we only used one spell, and already four people are dead. It doesn't seem to make any sense."

"Um, we used more than one spell," Jason said sheepishly, not meeting Alex's eye.

"What," Alex said flatly, glaring at Jason. "What do you mean?" How many spells have you used? And which ones?"

"Um, I think we've used four spells so far," Chris said, frowning again. He no longer had any question that they were responsible for the deaths that had been going on around them.

"Jesus, guys, why," Alex said in clear exasperation. "Which spells did you use?"

"Well, technically we've only done three spells," Chris said. "But me and Jason both did the same one."

"Which one," Alex said, glaring his disapproval at Chris.

"It, I mean," Chris began and then stopped. It seemed incredibly stupid now that they knew what the consequences were, but they hadn't at the time. "Well, me and Jason both used a spell that makes, um, it, uh, well. It's sort of similar to the one I used on Maggie," he finished, unable to even look in Alex's direction.

"Do you mean the spell that gives you a big dick?" Alex asked angrily.

"Ya," Chris nodded. "We didn't know what would happen. We were just fucking around."

"This isn't the kind of shit you just fuck around with Chris," Alex shouted. "Do you remember where we found this book? Do you remember how we got it out? This is not the kind of shit you take lightly. You should know that."

"I know, I'm sorry," Chris said, feeling ashamed and embarrassed.

"Have you seen this picture?" Alex said, and pointed down at the drawing of the people worshiping the tall figure.

"I hadn't before," Chris said sheepishly. "But ya, that looks pretty bad."

"Ya no shit," Alex said. "It doesn't just look bad Chris, it looks evil. Like the kind of shit that was buried for a reason, you know what I mean?"

"Ya," Chris nodded, staring at his feet.

"Well, so," Alex started and then stopped, looking uncomfortable. "Did, um, did the spells work?" He couldn't help glancing over at Maggie as he asked. She met his eye for a moment, and then turned away, blushing profusely.

"Ya," Jason nodded, "they worked." He didn't even like thinking about his awesome sex with Colette anymore, even though it had been so great.

"Oh good," Alex said sarcastically. "Now you two have big dicks and Maggie has giant tits, congratulations."

"We're not happy about this Alex," Chris shot back. "We didn't know what would happen."

"Then you shouldn't have done it," Alex said angrily. "You shouldn't even have taken the book in the first place. We should have left when I said, before anything bad had happened."

"Ya, well, we didn't," Chris said. "What happened happened. So what do we do now?"

"We have to destroy the book," Alex said, as if it were obvious.

"Destroy it," Jason said, sounding surprised by that.

"Ya," Alex nodded. "We can't put it back where we found it. We won't know how to redo the weird lock that opened with your blood. And if we just bury it I bet it'll get found."

"What, like Jumanji?" Jason laughed. It was a rather dry shrill laugh without any real humor in it.

"Ya, I guess," Alex nodded. "I don't think we can just hide it. I think we need to destroy it."

"I don't know," Chris sighed. "That sounds like it could be dangerous too. I mean if the book kills people when we use the spells, what do you think it will do if we try to kill it?"

"Kill us first," Jason said before anyone else could speak.

"Well I think we should burn it," Alex said, folding his arms indignantly.

"That sounds like a terrible idea," Maggie spoke up.

"Why?" Alex asked. "It's better than letting someone else find it. If we don't destroy it then more people will end up dying."

"You don't know that," Chris said.

"Four spells, four dead people Chris," Alex said aggressively. "Hold on," he said, "what was the fourth spell?"

"More of the same dumb shit," Jason said, hiding his head in shame. He didn't want to tell Alex what he had traded someone's life for.

"Oh, good," Alex huffed.

"How would you destroy it?" Chris asked. He was frowning down at the book again, and they could all tell he was really considering it.

"I would burn it," Alex said. "It's still made of paper."

"I don't want any part of that," Jason said, actually taking a step away from the book, as if he thought it could hear them plotting against it.

"That's great," Alex glared at Jason. "You got your big dick, and whatever the hell else you got from the book. But don't try to take any accountability. No, let Alex do the dirty work, while you go enjoy your new treats."

"I didn't know Alex," Jason said. "But now that I do, I don't think we should burn that book. I think it would kill us if we do that."

"Maybe you're just afraid that your dick will go back to being small if we burn it," Alex said.

"It was never small asshole," Jason said.

"Then why the fuck did you use the spell?" Alex shouted.

"Because I didn't know anything bad would happen," Jason shouted back. "Who doesn't want a bigger dick?"

"If it comes from an evil ancient spell book, I don't," Alex said. "I'm all good on the evil dick magic."

"Alex, we didn't know," Chris sighed. He just wanted to be rid of the damned thing.

"Ok, well, now you do," Alex said. "So what are we going to do Chris?"

"I don't know," Chris said. "I think you're right that we can't put it back where we found it. But I also think Jason might be right. If we burn that thing we have no idea what might happen. I mean shit, we might burn the whole fucking country down."

"So what are you suggesting," Alex asked, looking at Chris. Chris didn't say anything. He didn't know what to do. He felt totally out of his depths, which was an unusual feeling for him. He wished he just knew how to handle this situation, but he didn't.