Sarah Came Home

Early December 1988

"Avete omnes tenebras nostras domine! Serva nos, ut tibi servire pergamus!" Tzarinah prayed over a kettle on a small fire she had built.

"What does that mean?" Jarrel interrupted.

"It means 'All hail our dark lord! Protect us so that we may continue to serve you', you idiot." Tzarinah sneered.

"It's almost the 90s. Don't you think the Dark Lord speaks English now?" Jarrel had found himself growing more and more bored of Tzarinah and her supposed "plans".

"Listen, you little shit. I am the one the Dark Lord speaks to. I always have been. He has chosen me. Ever since I was a little girl, running around my granddaddy's property here in the woods, not far from where all those bums got snuffed in the prohibition days, He has spoken to me! He is my one true love and I will do everything he has commanded of me! I suggest you do the same!" The flames eerily danced with every word.

"Why did you marry me then, if the Dark Lord is your one true love?" He rolled his eyes.

"Because He chose YOU to be his earthly vessel! You are young and virile and can carry out the task at hand!" She dropped a small pinch of herbs into the flames.

"Aren't you going to be jealous seeing me, you know, with someone else like that?"

"Of course not! The Dark Lord has commanded it and I will serve him faithfully! When my time here is done, he will greet me in the bowels of Hell where we will make passionate love for all eternity. You are the one who should be jealous!" She waved her finger at Jarrel.

"What am I going to be doing in Hell while you are getting railed by the Devil?" Jarrel sat down on one of the bunks in the room.

"Don't call him The Devil! He's so much more than that! And at that point, I won't give any fucks what you're doing or who you're doing it with. But for now you are a good looking young man. You have good genes. Nice teeth. And the Dark Lord demands beautiful offspring! I am too old to carry them and besides, I can't think of anything worse! Motherhood has never appealed to me." She added another pinch of something to the fire.

"You'd make a terrible mother, anyway. You were a rotten step-mother." Jarrel reached into his pocket and pulled out a flask. "You were hot back then though, I'll give you that." He took a sip.

"I'll show you hot, smartass!" Tzarinah placed her hands closer to the flames and closed her eyes.

"Ignis et sulphur, murus est. Ab indignis nos defende!" She spoke softly. At first.

"Ignis et sulphur, murus est. Ab indignis nos defende!" Her voice grew louder. She repeated it several more times before throwing her hands in the direction of the back wall, as if she was hurtling something over there.

Just then, the back wall went completely up in flames.

Jarrel's jaw dropped while Tzarinah tossed her head back and cackled maniacally.

"What the? Why did you set us on fire, Rinah? Aren't you going to put it out?" Jarrel was on his feet and headed for the door.

Tzarinah threw her hands in Jarrel's direction, stopping short right in front of him. A line of flame appeared, blocking Jarrel from reaching the door.

She laughed for a moment more, then snapped her fingers. "Exstingue flammas" she said mirthfully, and both sets of fires went out.

Jarrel looked around. Nothing appeared as if it had just been on fire. No lingering smoke either; only the faintest scent of sulphur remained.

"How did you do that?" Jarrel was shaking.

"All this time you haven't believed me when I've told you that I can do whatever I want? And what I want is what the Dark Lord wants? You haven't heard me? I have been telling you all of this for the last two years now! Since before people started following us. And since before the Dark Lord even came to me and told me of his plan! I told you that we are going to do something big! Haven't you been listening?" She smacked Jarrel on top of his head.

"I don't know. I knew you were into all that witchy shit, but I didn't know what to think before! I still don't." Jarrel grabbed the back of his head. "I think your rings gave me a goose-egg." He winced.

"I'll give you more than a goose-egg if you don't get yourself together! Now let's go over this again." She turned to look at her kettle of flames and snapped her fingers in its direction, immediately extinguishing it.

"Listen closely. I'm only going to go over this one more time..."

Tzarinah then proceeded to remind him of their plan to find a pretty young girl who would carry and birth children for the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord would supply her - they were not to worry. She would come to them. The infants were to then be sold to other followers - for a steep price. After all, who wouldn't want one of the Dark Lord's actual offspring? Offspring designed to do the Dark Lord's bidding! There would also be plenty of pure, innocent blood for sacrifices, as the Dark Lord demanded. As the followers grew, more young girls would be brought in. This would all be carried out on the land that had been in Tzarinah's family for over fifty years.

"And the Dark Lord's magic will keep us safe and protected from anyone who might be poking their noses in where they don't belong!" She snapped her fingers and the kettle flames ignited again.

"Besides, you are to be thinking of me the entire time you are...with her, whomever she turns out to be," she walked closer to Jarrel, stopping only when she was mere inches away from his face. "Maybe I am a little jealous," she reached up and carressed his cheek.

"So it will be entirely too easy to cut her throat and be done with her, when she has given us all the children that she possibly can." Tzarinah tilted her head up toward Jarrel's face and gently kissed him. "We will drink her blood together." She smiled.

Jarrel smiled back and began kissing her feverishly. He never could resist an opportunity to get laid, no matter who it was before him.