text: [Themes: horror, horror]
  
  I went to the graveyard. What did I bring?
  
  > A Bell
  That's right. The light came filtering through the branches of the old willow tree as I walked past it. It painted the leaves. I remember... What color was it?
  
  > Silver
  Silver on black. The leaves picked up the moonlight and held it against the dark sky behind. I steadied myself beneath the stretching, sweeping branches as if the silver light could protect me just as well as the cross in my pocket. In an hour it would be midnight. I already had the circle drawn, the compass points staked. I needed everything else prepared by the darkest hour.
  
  I set to work putting up the small altar beneath the branches of the willow, behind their living curtain. Only one small grave sat at the base of the tree, some unknown child's resting place from ages past. When I stepped back onto the path outside, my construction was hidden- there was nothing to be seen of the white linen cloth all spread out with spellbook, censor, bell, and holy water. From the grave of Amelia Albright, the altar was only a few steps away.
  
  Now it was only a matter of waiting. I sat cross-legged at the base of the grave, my heavy bag beside me.
  
  The church bells did not ring at midnight. The pastor lived in the cottage nearby, but did not stir to ring the bell throughout the time when reasonable souls were sleeping. Perhaps that's why Amelia and others of her kind felt so comfortable stirring in those hidden hours between light's death and resurrection.
  
  No man-made sound marked the passage of man-made time. Even so, a loud stirring of sudden wind pushed it's way between the graves. It tossed aside the willow branches and for the briefest moment I thought I saw a figure between the parted branches. My head turned that direction but there was nothing there.
  
  "Well you don't leave a lady waiting or wanting. Mmmm. I can smell the wormwood from here." The voice came from deep within a throat and instantly set my spine to tingling.
  
  I turned back to the grave and met the sight of Amelia Albright in her newest body lounging against her own headstone. Though the moon was blocked by a sudden spat of clouds, Amelia shone with some internal light that left no corners or planes of her scantly clothed flesh to linger too deeply in the imagination. She was a beautiful a woman. The image of her was like a steady pressure against all my senses. Whatever the poor bitch she rode had looked like before, all the pleasantness of her features had been magnified.
  
  Some part of me wanted to let my eyes endlessly trail those long strands of hair from crown, past full, smiling lips, down past the neck where her shirt parted... But she wasn't really here. This was only a disattached mind rattling a shell. The woman I had fallen for was a construct.
  
  Even worse. She was some dull remnant that would happily kill others. Who had deceived me so I could make her stronger. What stood before me was a tragic, bloodthirsty shard.
  
  Her grin grew as if around the thought of a laugh and I saw a tinge of curiosity and hurt touch her eyes. I realized I hadn't responded to what she had said.
  
  "Ye- yes. I brought wormwood, myrhh, and a bundle of chervil. Just as you asked."
  
  "Lovely. Of course that only does me good if I can bind to the body."
  
  "Of course."
  
  She leaned forward in a hungry sinuous way, her grin growing further than it should have been able to. "You've found a spell then? One that will let me stay in this body?"
  
  I had to gamble here. Some spirits could sense lies. "I- I have."
  
  She inhaled and I could see her body relax as if she had just taken a nosefull of a pleasant bouquet. " She leaned forward and dragged a hand across my face in a way that forced my eyes to meet hers. They were endless and glimmering in the dark. They each had two pupils. "I knew I could rely on you, my little spellworker."
  
  She was only an arm's length away. I felt my pulse quicken for several reasons.
  
  Her smile faltered. "Do I smell silver on you, my dear?"
  
  My stomach fluttered. "Yes, I'm sorry. My ring. I didn't even think about it."
  
  She shuddered. "Ugh. Take it off."
  
  I slid my ring off and set it on a tombstone behind me. This wasn't ideal, but I had other ways to defend myself should it come to that.
  
  "I will be glad mean things such as that no longer affect me. Now then," she continued, "let us begin. When this done I will thank you in the most wonderful way."
  
  "Alright. I- I set up over there though. I was worried someone would see us from the road. It isn't too far or anything I just wanted to be out of the way-"
  
  "-that will do. Show me."
  
  She stood and her hair fluttered pleasantly against her hips she walked next to me. I led her around the skirt of the willow branches so we would not stumble directly into my makeshift altar. I parted the branches, allowing her to walk ahead of me. She knew she was beautiful and attempted to flaunt the smooth curves od her waist, the lines of her back, the roundness of her ass as she walked forward. Walked ahead of me. Walked into the circle I had carved.
  
  Pride comes before the fall and all that shit.
  
  When she was ahead of me I grimly nudged aside the leaves I had used to break the edge of the circle.
  
  "Spirit of adversity, I bind you." I started.
  
  Immediately she turned to me with a shriek and threw herself against the edge of the circle. I braced myself, but she couldn't reach out.
  
  I circle held.
  
  "From the North, I call upon thee. Bind this spirit-" all sound was drowned out in her shrieks of anger. She threw herself again and again.
  
  I did not flinch. I could not leave the spirit to ride this poor woman's body any longer.
  
  I went to the altar where I picked up the censor and shook the censor gently causing ripples of the scented air to billow out. Sage was in it rather than promised Wormwood, though I had put a sprig within my coat. As the smoke rippled across the boundary, her screeches diminished into hisses. The area flooded almost unnaturally making her outline blurry
  
  "From the South I call upon thee. Witness and serve..."
  
  I reached down to where the holy water was and when I turned back she was gone.
  
  I continued the incantation. She could be hidden in the smoke.
  
  "-that which is darkness and of darkness bred-"
  
  Where was she? I flicked the holy water into the circle. No hisses returned. No sound at all actually...
  
  If she was playing games it wouldn't matter. There was only one verse left in the incantation.
  
  "Spirits all, in faith I worship. Come to me and restore balance. Bind-"
  
  With a howl she rushed through the circle straight at me, and this time she was not caught. I was thrown to the ground and she landed heavily on top, her forearm pressed to my throat. I holy water fell uselessly from my hand spilling into the eager dirt below. I tried reaching into my pocket but her free hand found mine.
  
  The world was growing black.
  
  "Die. You LIttle. Bitch," I heard her say as the thumping in my ears seemed to slow. The heat of the violent blood in my neck seemed to prickle into absence. The jerking of my body, stilled....
  
  A soft chiming sound came from nearby and I sucked in air as she pushed back. My vision was still dark.
  
  A gruff voice said, "Finish your blasted spell."
  
  I gasped and tried twice to make my voice work. As my vision flooded back I saw her slinking back. The old pastor was holding the bell from my altar.
  
  "B-bind this spirit's evil and let mortal soul depart in peace. Return to what is right. So mote it be."
  
  There were no fireworks or scampering dark clouds like there were in movies. Her body just dropped.
  
  I wheezed. Air was still not coming easy and my voice had come out weak.
  
  "Is she... alright?" I managed.
  
  The pastor threw the bell aside with a look of disgust. "Had enough of fucking bells around here."
  
  He walked to the girl and felt for a pulse. "Dead," he said matter of factly. "But you aren't. Let's get you to the hospital."
  
  "How.. do we explain...?"
  
  The pastor shrugged. "Strange things happen here. She doesn't have any since of a struggle or nothing. Police know well enough not to question dead in a graveyard."
  
  That's right. I went to the graveyard with a bell and I left having removed an evil spirit.