Pink Gold - Ch.58 - Edge of Darkness (Patreon)

** content warning: mind control (non-mc), violence, injury, death **

The four of us eventually got dressed and left the hotel room, but not until around dinner time. Not that any of us were very hungry after that big lunch followed by the quiet lazy afternoon.

Instead we headed over to Midtown Plaza, a big downtown shopping venue. We spent some time just wandering around, window shopping and people watching. And we spent some money too, when we found a little boutique that specialized in bikinis and other cute swimwear. Or at least, three of us did. They didn't carry anything suitable for Harper, but he found himself a pair of swimming trunks in another shop that catered to guys. So there was a good chance the four of us might wind up in the hotel's hot tub at some point after all.

After we'd had our fill of window shopping we decided to grab dinner at the Plaza since we were already there. The place had a food court with plenty of options, so we all grabbed something light then sat down and enjoyed a very casual relaxed meal. We did a little more people watching while we ate, then after dinner we just wandered around looking at the shops again until the place closed at eight PM.

That left us with two more hours to kill, but we couldn't think of anything else to do with ourselves so we headed back to the hotel. Before going up to our room Fiona stopped at a wine and beer store on the main level, where she bought a half dozen bottles of fancy imported beer. That joined the cola and spring water in the mini-fridge in our room, then we all just chilled with something on the TV until it finally got dark outside.

At about five minutes to ten Ellie activated her ring then summoned her staff, while Fiona sent Peri a message over the group chat. Then the rest of us activated our rings while Onyx went by herself to San Francisco to get the green magical girl. Ruby also summoned her sceptre, and by the time the three of us were all ready to go our girlfriend was back with the team's archer.

"So what's the plan?" Peri asked.

Violet replied, "No lethal weapons, we don't want to kill any humans. We might be dealing with prisoners or hostages, in addition to whoever's behind the dark magic."

"I'll take us right to the front door of Judith's house," Onyx added. "Then I'll check for dark magic or Outsiders, while Ruby figures out where the people inside are located."

The purple magical girl summed it up, "We kick in the front door, subdue the bad guys, and free any hostages or prisoners."

"Let's hope it's that easy," the green magical girl said with a wry smile. "Let's go!"

Onyx raised up her staff and spun it over our heads, and a moment later the hotel room vanished into darkness. When the shadows receded the five of us were standing on the front porch of my grandmother's house, right next to the door. Like the previous night the house looked dark and quiet, we couldn't see any lights on or any other sign there might be someone inside.

"There's only four people in there tonight," Ruby whispered. "Three in the basement, one on the main floor."

"There were five here last night," Violet told Peri.

I frowned, "I wonder what happened to the fifth? I hope they're ok. I hope we're not too late -"

"Dark magic in the cellar!" Onyx hissed. "It's active and it's getting stronger!"

That was all we needed to hear. Rather than kick our way in Violet grasped the handle then pressed her shoulder against the door, and using her magical girl strength she forced it open as quietly as she could.

"Peri and Rosa with me, Onyx and Ruby in the rear," she whispered as she stepped inside.

We found ourselves in a front hall, with more doors on either side further in. There was a staircase leading up to the second floor, but I couldn't see any obvious way to get downstairs to the basement. It didn't help that the place was just as dark on the inside as it looked from out front.

"Which way?" Violet asked quietly. "Where do we go?"

Ruby gestured, "The nearest person is ahead of us on the left. Second doorway I think?"

All five of us started moving, but the hallway was only wide enough for Violet and Peri to stay side by side. I followed two paces behind them, while Onyx and Ruby kept about that far behind me. And a moment later we stepped through the doorway my boyfriend indicated, and found ourselves in a fancy-looking dining room.

A large sturdy wood table filled the centre of the room. It was big enough to seat ten people, and that many large heavy leather-padded wood chairs were positioned around it. There was also a matching sideboard along the opposite wall, with a fancy silver tea service set up on one end. On the other end a crystal decanter half full of some dark liquid was surrounded by an arrangement of crystal goblets. A hutch stood against the wall to our left, with some posh china plates and things like that on display on its shelves. And finally, a doorway that probably led to the kitchen was in the middle of the wall on the right.

"Oh shit," Violet muttered when she finally noticed the solitary person in the room. At the same time my eyes widened and my stomach lurched.

My aunt Leslie was standing motionless in shadows in the corner to our right, as if she was at attention. Even weirder was the way she was dressed. My middle-aged aunt was wearing a proper French maid outfit. She had the high heels, dark stockings, short black skirt and blouse, frilly white apron, even the funny little hat thing. It wasn't like a sexy parody outfit or anything like that, it looked like the real deal. Like she was actually supposed to be a maid for some reason.

The creepiest thing though was her eyes. They were open, but she wasn't looking at us. In fact as near as I could tell she was looking at nothing at all. Her expression was completely neutral, and if I hadn't already noticed her breathing I might have thought she was dead. Or a life-like statue or something.

"Ms. Williams?" Onyx asked quietly. "Hello?"

Leslie didn't move or respond. She remained completely motionless, even when Peri waved her hand in front of the woman's eyes. Even when Violet lightly poked my aunt's upper arm, there was no reaction at all.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked softly. "Ruby can you do something?"

My boyfriend shook her head, "I can't detect any injuries or damage, there's nothing to heal."

"She's being controlled by dark magic," my girlfriend stated as she pointed her staff down at my aunt's right ankle.

I crouched for a closer look then frowned, "It's a little chain, like an ankle bracelet. Should I just take it off her?"

"No," Violet decided. "We don't know what that'll do to her. She seems ok for now, and we've already wasted enough time here. We need to get to the cellar."

"Right," my girlfriend grimaced. "The dark magic is still happening downstairs, and it's still getting stronger."

I couldn't help feeling bad for my aunt, especially as the five of us turned and left her behind like a mannequin or something. And it somehow felt even more creepy, the fact that she still didn't react or move or anything when we all walked away.

Fortunately it only took another half minute or so to find the door to the basement stairs, and when Violet opened it we could tell there were candles burning down there. We could also hear the murmuring of a deep masculine voice, reciting what sounded like some kind of magical or ritual words.

"Show time," the purple magical girl hissed, before charging down the stairs.

Peri was right behind her, and I raced down after the two of them. At the bottom of the stairs was an open doorway, and when I stepped through that my gut lurched again as I immediately took in the scene.

The basement was unfinished, with a bare poured concrete floor and grey cinder block walls. It was big too, but then the house itself was like a small mansion. As far as I could tell there weren't any windows, not even those ground-level well windows a lot of modern basements had. Despite the size of the house there weren't any support columns in the middle of the basement. Instead it looked like the weight of the building was held up by a couple big steel I-beams that ran horizontally across the basement ceiling. In between those were all the usual wooden joists.

The basement was dominated by a large wide-open area, but there were some doorways in the cinder block walls on the sides. At least some of them probably led to standard household stuff, like a laundry or utility room, or storage areas.

On the other hand there were a few rooms built into the wall across from us that were very much not standard household stuff. They were set up like cages or cells, with actual iron bars and everything. And one of them was occupied. Even in the dim candlelight I recognized Tina standing just inside the barred doorway. And like when we first encountered her up north, the coed was dressed in another long white robe.

A second white-robed figure lay motionless in the middle of the basement floor. The body appeared feminine, and I realized it had to be Sasha, the other missing coed. She was surrounded by a large ring of runes and sigils that were marked out in what looked a lot like blood. And from the way her robes were also stained red it was clear we'd waited too long, we were too late to save her.

Standing next to that circle was a middle-aged man in brown robes, I figured he was that Oleksiy guy. He was holding what looked like a short ceremonial sword in his right hand, and a sheaf of papers in his left. He was the source of the chanting, and he either hadn't noticed us or didn't care we were there. Instead his eyes remained fixed on the papers in his hand, while he held the sword outwards so the blade pointed at the motionless body that lay before him. And from his tone and intonation it sounded a lot like whatever he was doing was nearing its crescendo.

Whether or not Oleksiy was aware of us, Tina definitely saw us. And in her desperation she cried out, spoiling whatever element of surprise we might have had.

"Magical girls!" she cried out.

Violet swore under her breath but before any of us could react another student stepped into view from somewhere just to our left. I immediately recognized Glen from up north, but instead of being in a white robe like Tina he'd been stripped down to his boxers. He was clutching a rusty old machete in his right hand, and he swung it at Peri's head.

"Shit!" the green magical girl gasped as she ducked.

At the same time Violet caught the young man's outstretched arm and gave it a twist, snapping his wrist and forcing him to drop the weapon. Glen didn't shout or cry out or anything though, in fact he didn't react at all to the injury. And while his right arm was still being held firm, he swung a punch at Violet with his left fist.

Then Ruby shouted, "Don't hurt him!"

"Look!" she added as she pointed towards his right foot. "He's being controlled!"

Sure enough there was a little chain on Glen's ankle, just like the one we'd seen on my aunt Leslie.

The purple magical girl swore again then sort of shoved him towards Ruby and Onyx as she said, "Keep him out of our way. Rosa, get Tina out of there! C'mon Peri, let's shut this guy up!"

I dashed across the basement towards the occupied cell, but I was careful to go around the ritual circle rather than just running straight through it. At the same time both Violet and Peri charged at Oleksiy, and while I was went left of the circle they dashed around to the right. Meanwhile behind us Ruby grabbed Glen and pinned him with his arms behind his back.

Tina stared wide-eyed at me as I reached the door of her cell. At the same time, the green and purple magical girls surrounded the guy in the brown robes. Violet didn't waste any time with words, she just punched the guy in the gut. His ritual ended abruptly as he doubled over with a gasping groan, then dropped to the floor.

"Don't worry," I told the grad student as I grabbed the door of her cell. "You're safe now."

I thought I was going to have to pry the bars open or break a lock, but to my surprise the door easily swung aside like it wasn't even latched. Before I could react to that, Tina stepped out and wrapped her left arm around my shoulders as she embraced me in a surprise hug.

"Thank you Blake," she smiled as she leaned closer, as if she was going to try and kiss me.

That's when I felt the sharp pain in my side. I looked down and saw her right hand clutching my grandmother's ceremonial dagger. The dagger I'd last seen Judith holding right before the Outsiders killed her. The dagger that she dropped near the two surviving students. The dagger that disappeared during the fighting. The dagger my aunt said carried some very powerful enchantments.

That dagger was now buried up to its hilt in the left side of my abdomen, in the gap between my bustier and the top of my skirt. I tried to talk, I tried to call out to my friends, but all I could do was stare. And as I watched, a rivulet of bright red blood emerged from next to the blade then ran down over my pleated pink skirt. A few drops fell from there to the floor next to my pink ankle-boots.

Tina gave the blade a twist and the small trail of blood grew to a wider stream. It soaked through my blouse and ran down my leggings to form a small puddle on the cement floor by my sneakers. It took me another second or two to realize I'd shifted back to normal, as if the dagger somehow sucked the magic out of me.

I wasn't Rosa anymore, I was just Blake. And as my vision started going dark around the edges I couldn't help wondering if this was how the original Rosa died too.

Then the coed whispered in my ear, "Now you and I can finally finish what Jacob started."

With her left arm still around my shoulders she turned the two of us so I could see the rest of the basement, and everyone else could see what she was doing to me. Then Tina yanked the blade from my body, which somehow hurt even worse than being tossed through the air by an Outsider's claws.

I let out a scream of pain while she flicked the blood-soaked blade, and a dozen drops of my magical girl blood scattered across the circle of runes and the body laying within. In that moment reality began to warp and twist directly over Sasha's remains, then it seemed like the air itself split open.

With a sickening crunch Sasha's corpse collapsed in on itself, as if it was pulled inside-out through the hole in reality. It reminded me of what happened to my grandmother when she was killed. Then they appeared, a pair of Outsiders emerged through the portal and immediately lashed out at the two closest magical girls, Violet and Peri.