3s

Wham! Wham! Wham! Three loud bangs against the heavy wood of her front door jerked Evonie Robinson out of her sleep. “What the hell?” Evonie groaned as she squinted at the red display of the Alexa on her bedside table. It was 3 a.m. Wham! Wham! Wham! Three more heavy knocks rolled through the older shotgun home. The knocks were so heavy that the walls of the old house shook.

"I swear to God, if Marco is drunk again, I'll kick his ass," she yawned. She slid from her bed and pulled her heavy robe around her. Out of habit, she grabbed her cell from the bedside table and slipped it into a pocket. She yawned widely and wiped her face. Then, she trudged to her room's doorway and turned to the front door. Her younger brother was the only person with the balls to knock on her door at this time of the morning. And it was usually after a party, and he’d gotten fucked up. After a night of clubbing, her home was closer than the campus. So, it was his unofficial hangover recovery spot.

Three more knocks rang out when she was three feet from her destination. Her aggravation at being pulled out of her sleep turned to anger as she reached for the deadbolt. “What the fuck, bruh?!” She yelled as she undid the last lock. “Are you so drunk that you can’t remember how to put a key―” Evonie’s voice failed her when she flung open the door. Instead of finding a drunk sibling, she was face-to-face with brown fingers holding the badge and shield of one of Charlotte, North Carolina’s finest.

All the aggravation and anger at being woken up in the middle of the night disappeared. They were replaced with varying emotions that Evonie had to bite her lip to contain. Evonie's chest heaved. Her expression was blank. She shifted her gaze between the badge and its owner. It took a few seconds for Evonie to find her calm and focus. When she did, she saw a hand waving back and forth.

“Are you all right, Ms. Robinson?” the officer asked.

Evonie blinked and took a step back. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I asked if you were all right,” the officer stated as he slipped his credentials into a pocket. “You look a bit out of it if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“It’s three in the morning,” Evonie frowned. “How am I supposed to look when I get woken up in the middle of the night?”

“Fair enough,” the detective nodded. “My name is Detective Kirkland,” he said and offered a hand.

“I remember,” Evonie said as she glanced at the outstretched hand but didn’t take it. Instead, she leaned past him and scanned the street. Everything looked quiet, but she had her fair share of nosey neighbors. She didn’t need eyes on her house. She pushed open the door and took a few steps back. “Do come in. Close the door behind you.”

“Alexa, turn on the living room lights,” she called out as she rounded a small wall and headed for a couch. “You can have a seat there.” She pointed at a leather recliner.

Detective Kirkland looked at the chair and frowned. “You don’t seem all that surprised to see me,” he said as he sat down.

“You’re here about Jessica,” she sighed as she sat down. “She was kidnapped two, no, three days ago. I’m her nanny. I spoke with you and your partner the day she was taken and four other officers since then. Why would I be surprised? I’ve been waiting for an update.”

She paused a moment and let go of a heavy sigh. “Although I’ll be honest, I thought her parents would be the first to contact me with any news. We’ve spoken numerous times since…” Evonie’s voice cracked and faded to nothing. She frowned at the detective and let go of a shaky breath. “If you’re here, it can’t be good.”

Evonie sounded drained. Her voice tone was monotone and almost void of emotion. Almost. Detective Kirkland’s face softened. “Well, Ms. Robinson, I do have news, and it is good. Jessica was found almost three hours ago.”

Both hands flew to Evonie’s mouth as she tried to hold back a loud sob. Large tears slipped down the slopes of her ebony cheeks, and she began to rock back and forth.

Detective Kirkland lowered his eyes, giving her the illusion of privacy as she dealt with her emotions.

After moments of tears, whispered thanks, and rocking, Evonie righted herself and looked at the detective. “Thank God,” she managed to say after she collected herself.

Detective Kirkland nodded solemnly, his gaze fixed on Evonie as she composed herself. “Thank God indeed," he echoed quietly, sensing the weight of the moment. “Jessica is safe now. A night guard found her wandering around a storage facility. She was…well, she’s with her parents at CMC now, getting checked out.”

“Okay. Okay,” Evonie muttered as her mind raced. She stood up, sat back down, and stood again as if she were unsure of what to do next. “I need to go,” she muttered again and stood up. Evonie looked at the detective and sighed. “I need to get to the hospital,” she said again. This time her voice was firm and sure.

Detective Kirkland held up a hand and shook his head. “I’m not quite done yet, Miss Robinson,” he said. The compassion from earlier was gone, replaced with a coldness that made Evonie pause.

“With all due respect, whatever else you have to say can wait until after I’ve seen Jessica,” she frowned. She began to walk to the front door.

“The guard also found the men that took her,” Detective Kirkland offered. “We couldn’t take them into custody because two of them are dead.”

Evonie froze. “Two?” She slid her hand into her pocket and pressed her thumb to unlock the screen. As she turned back to the detective, she glanced down at her phone before letting go of a shaky breath. “There were three of them.”

“You don’t sound surprised, Ms. Robinson,” Detective Kirkland frowned. “Why is that?”

Evonie glanced at the door and then nodded. “I think I’ll sit back down,” she said. But before she did, she stopped at a small desk and pulled a thick journal from a drawer.

“You look like we’re about the same age,” she said as she walked by the detective. “We grew up in a different time. I mean, we had the internet, but there was still so much information that wasn’t as available as it is now.”

She dropped the book onto the coffee table, and it hit with a loud thud. Detective Kirkland narrowed his eyes at Evonie and sighed. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see―”

“Nowadays a kid can dig up all kinds of things,” she continued, cutting him off, “things that weren’t meant to be dug up. Or maybe things that they thought were made up but turned out to be real.” Evonie waved a hand through the air and shook her head. “Either way, the damage is done.”

“Now exactly what damage are you talking about, Ms. Robinson?” Detective Kirkland held up his phone and enlarged a picture. A grainy traffic cam photo showed her. One kidnapper's shoulder was in her hand. The other two were walking Jessica to a waiting car. “The damage done to Jessica from the kidnapping you arranged? Or maybe the two men you killed to try and cover it up? This is you patting one of the kidnappers on the back?”

“What happened to the third man?” Evonie sighed. The sigh was a bone-weary thing that hung in the air between them.

Detective Kirkland gasped as if the sigh had stolen his breath. “Why don’t you tell me?” he said after a moment.

“I know that he was attacked,” Evonie spat. “What condition is he in? Is he going to make it?”

“He is,” the detective admitted, “but he’s got a long road to recovery ahead of him.” He frowned at Evonie as he opened a recording app on his phone. “My partner thought that I was crazy when I suggested you as a suspect. He―”

“Do you know that three is a sacred number in almost every religion known to man, both past and present?” Evonie asked, cutting him off again. “The Holy Trinity, The Trimurti, The Norns, The Fates…Hecate.”

“What does that―”

“Those are just a few,” Evonie continued, ignoring the detective’s interruption. “There are so many more, much older, vengeful things that we once worshipped but were lost to time.” She picked up the discarded journal and tossed it to the detective.

“But what is lost can, unfortunately, be found,” Evonie said. The sadness from earlier was back.

Detective Kirkland caught the book and narrowed his eyes at Evonie. “Ms. Robinson, I have no idea where you’re going with this, but I do know that I’m about to call this in and place you under arrest.”

“Your partner saw the same picture you showed me, right?” she asked. “And he still thought you were crazy. Maybe that’s because what looks like cooperation to you looks like I’m trying to keep him from walking away to someone else.”

She pointed at the journal in the detective’s hands and frowned. “I’ll give you the confession you want, but first you need to why…the truth.”

“And what is that truth, Ms. Robinson?” Detective Kirkland spat. “What could make a woman who claims to love a child, whom she's cared for for three years, arrange for her kidnapping and torture, then tear apart her accomplices like a rabid animal?”

“I love Jessica as if she were my own,” Evonie said. Her voice cracked, and tears began to pool in her eyes. “Any part I played in this I did for her," she said with a shake of her head. “She’d been acting off for so long. It wasn’t until I found her journal and the strange pictures that she’d written inside that I began to think outside of the box. Her parents thought I was crazy for suggesting it. But, I know that there are many things in this world that challenge rational minds. My great-grandmother was a root doctor, and her daughter after her. I don’t practice, but I honor my ancestors in my own small ways.”

Detective Kirkland's expression shifted from skepticism to guarded curiosity. He looked at the journal in his hands. Its worn cover and pages held the desperate scribbles of an unstable child. His fingers traced the edge of the book, and he began to flip through it. He glanced at the strange drawings and symbols that filled each page.

“What am I looking at here?” he asked, his voice tinged with impatience.

“A type of cuneiform," Evonie sighed. “It took three months to find someone to translate those pages. A professor at the University of Cairo. I spent three weeks making constant phone calls and sending emails to get him to pay attention to us. He thought that we were pulling a scam, but when we sent him videos of Jessica, he agreed to help.”

Kirkland turned the journal's pages, his face falling with each entry. “Is this written in blood?” Brown, rust-colored scribbles filled the white lines. They barely passed for a written language.

“Her nails had gotten so long that she could cut herself and use them like twisted little fountain pens.”

Kirkland sucked his teeth and clamped the journal closed. “What are you trying to say, Ms. Robinson?”

"I'm saying that Jessica found an infernal summoning ritual online. Her friends dared her to carry it out, and she did.”

“No,” Detective Kirkland shook his head and tossed the book back on the table. “You’re not going to sit there and use some mumbo jumbo bullshit as a cover for crimes you committed.”

“Something answered, Detective Kirkland,” Evonie said. Tears were flowing over her cheeks and dotting her clothes. “Something so old that there are no names for it. Something hungry, and it began to use Jessica to get what it wanted.”

“Stop! Just stop talking,” Detective Kirkland barked as he stood and pulled a pair of handcuffs from his side. There was a shakiness to his voice that he couldn’t hide. Evonie couldn’t tell if it was fear or anger, but she noted it nonetheless.

“I’ve seen what she does to cats and dogs,” she said with a slow shake of her head. “I can only imagine what those two men looked like when the guards found them.” She tilted her head to one side and wiped the tears from her face. “Did they lose their stomachs? I know I did each time. Nothing can prepare you to see something like that, even if you’ve seen it before.”

Detective Kirkland’s hand began to shake ever so slightly.

Evonie clocked the small tremble and nodded her head. He was listening, so she continued.

“The professor told us the thing inside Jessica was older than the Ogdoad of ancient Kemet. He couldn't find a name for it. It would only call itself Before. It was a thing of three faces. Each one hungrier than the next.”

“Hungry for what?” The detective’s voice was little more than a whisper.

“Souls, detective. Animals can’t sustain it any longer. It needs souls.”

"Enough of this shit," Detective Kirkland said. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Then, he crossed the room and grabbed Evonie by the arm. “Evonie Robinson, you are under arrest for kidnapping and murder.”

Evonie didn’t resist. She kept talking as the detective slipped the cold metal cuffs around her wrists. “I never wanted any part of what my grandmother did. I was raised in a Baptist house. As far as my other grandmother is concerned, practicing witchcraft is a one-way ticket to hell. But for this, I needed protection.”

“You have the right to remain silent―”

“When I called my grandma and told her what was going on, she begged me to let it go,” Evonie continued, cutting him off again. “When I told her I meant to see it through, she called in some favors to make sure that I would have what I needed to be okay. Three of them.”

“Shut up!” Detective Kirkland barked as he pulled Evonie towards her front door. “Anything you say can and will be used against you―”

“One was a way to make sure that I couldn’t be taken from this house against my will,” Evonie said calmly. “I know you’re only trying to do your job, but I won't be going anywhere.”

Detective Kirkland ignored her as he opened the door and stepped across the threshold. “You have the right to an―” He stopped on the covered porch. All of his body except for the hand that was holding Evonie’s arm was outside. The hand holding her was suspended in midair, unable to move past the doorway as if there was an invisible barrier preventing it.

“What the fuck?” He whispered as he pulled again. His arm wouldn’t budge. He reached inside, grabbed her with both hands and tried again. Still nothing.

“Red brick dust,” Evonie sighed with a touch of sadness.

The detective looked down and for the first time took note of the thin red line that crossed the open door.

“Got it charged with my blood and a few secret things from grandma,” Evonie explained. “Until I break the seal, I won't be going anywhere.”

Evonie took a few steps back, away from the open door. “No,” Detective Kirkland barked as he watched Evonie move away from him. He pulled the corner of his shirt free, reached under, and drew his service weapon. “Whatever you did, undo it now,” he ordered her as he stepped back inside.

"The second was a way to ensure, once the barrier was activated, no one could get in or out...except by my choosing," Evonie sighed.

The detective looked outside, then back at Evonie, and lifted his gun higher. “Whatever magic you think you have isn’t working. I went out and came back in fine.”

"For what it's worth, Detective, I am so very sorry." Evonie shook her head, unable to stop the tears. “Now that you’ve crossed back over, you won't be able to leave. You can’t call for help. The barrier blocks any connections you have to the outside world.”

“You’re lying,” the detective said through clenched teeth. He walked backward to the door, never taking his eyes or his gun off Evonie. At the open doorway, he tried to step outside. But the same barrier that prevented him from removing Evonie blocked his escape. “No,” he said to himself. He punched at the opening, but it refused to give.

“Take it down!” he yelled and raised the gun with a shaky grip. “I swear to God I will put a bullet in your head if you don’t let me out of this house right now!”

“Now why would she do that when she went to all the trouble to keep you here?” someone asked from behind him. The unnerving voice had an accent that no one had heard in thousands of years. It was a deep, guttural thing. It rolled through both Evonie and Detective Kirkland, making them wince. But underneath the otherness, there was the echo of a small, higher-pitched voice. The sad, pleading voice of a scared child.

A startled Kirkland jumped. The gun in his hands fired, sending a deadly bullet right at Evonie. The small bit of metal struck her in the chest. But, instead of boring into her skin, the bullet burst into thousands of metal shavings.

Evonie didn’t look surprised at her miraculous escape from death. Instead, she looked down at her chest and then pulled one side of her robe aside. There, on her chest, was a fresh tattoo made up of symbols that Kirkland didn’t recognize.

"The third was this tattoo. It's a strong veve. It protects against physical and spiritual harm.”

“Smart,” the voice said again from the doorway. “With that, I won’t be able to take you after I leave the girl.”

Detective Kirkland spun around. A slight creature, once young Jessica, smiled at him. The thing that wore the body of the twelve-year-old left no mistake of the imagination that it was anything other than something ancient. Ancient and malevolent. The darkness of the being poured off of the thin body like a pliable thing that filled the room, stealing all the oxygen and making both of them gasp.

“What the hell?!” Detective Kirkland croaked as he took in Jessica’s state. He backpeddled away from the open door where she stood on the porch and bumped into Evonie.

Evonie tilted her head to look past the scared man and frowned at Jessica. Evonie uttered each word deliberately, "The agreement was to abandon her body. We never discussed your new…habitat, so to speak. Which is why her parents are already gone. I’ll call them back to collect her once she’s free and you are far away from here.”

“Her freedom comes when I finish my dinner,” the thing that wore Jessica frowned. “Now let me in.”

Detective Kirkland balked at Jessica. He stumbled away, waving his gun between the child's body and Evonie.

“Don’t move!” Kirkland yelled, raising the gun even higher at Evonie.

“I don’t have a choice.” Evonie wiped away a tear as she took her first, slow step towards the door.

“I’ll blow your fucking head off!”

“You can’t hurt me.”

“Then I’ll blow hers off!”

The thing that wore Jessica’s body laughed. “If you can’t hurt her, what makes you think you’ll do any better with me?”

Evonie reached the door and grabbed her keys from the hook beside it. There among the collection of eclectic keychains was a small vial with a tiny cork topper. Viscous red fluid filled the vial. “Jessica’s mixed with mine,” Evonie mumbled as she removed the vial from her keyrings.

“With this blood, I bind yours to mine and let you cross into this space,” Evonie said as she pulled the cork free. “With this blood, I bind you to your word and concentrate the agreement between the two of us.” Evonie dropped to one knee and tipped the vial. “With this blood, I rebind this home. Nothing may enter or leave without my will…not even sound.”

The instant the liquid dripped onto the thin line of brick dust, a rush of air passed through the room. The thing that wore Jessica’s body lifted a hand and slowly passed it through the barrier. When it saw that the force field was gone, the thing began to laugh.

“Please don’t do this,” Detective Kirkland pleaded to deaf ears.

Evonie turned away from the thing that wore Jessica’s body and dropped her head.

“Again,” she whispered as she headed for her room. “I am sorry, but I didn’t have a choice. She needs a third.”

When Evonie reached her bedroom, she glanced at Alexa as she walked inside. It was three thirty-three a.m. Everything in 3s. She closed her door as the screams started.