Tied

I trembled ever so slightly as we all cautiously lowered ourselves into Lady Tatiana’s overly-extravagant seats. There was something about the room, the air, the woman herself- it suddenly felt very, very real. Raven sat to my right, her perfume drifting over even under the heavy incense.
We sat there for a moment, a bit too stunned to speak, my heart beating wildly. Finally, Aurore broke the silence.

"Lady Tatiana, something strange had been happening, and we were hoping you could help..."
A sudden wave of fear and pain washed over me, the words burning angrily. I reached over and grabbed Raven's hand, needing her touch, needing her assurance that everything was going to be okay. I half expected her to freak out, to pull away, but instead she smiled and laced our fingers together.

My heart skipped a beat as she nudged my foot with hers.

Newfound courage washed over me and I squared my jaw, ready for whatever crazy shit Lady Tatiana and the world could throw at me. I watched her sit down, her wide skirts sweeping over the edge of the large upholstered chair and cascading onto the floor. She arranged herself properly on the chair and regarded us cooly, eyes strangely bright.

"Before we can determine what is wrong, and how we may fix it, I need to see your words."
We worked our way around the table, each nervously tampering with hemlines to expose the dark writing scrawled on our skin. Lady Tatiana shot up, grabbing various limbs and leaning so close we could feel her hot breath ghosting over us. She mumbled hissing words in a language I couldn’t quite recognize.

“What?” Aurore questioned, purely curious, all fear gone. “What is it?”

Lady Tatiana returned to her seat, clicking disapprovingly. “Children, this is not good. Not good at all.” Raven’s hand tightened its grip. “You are connected very strongly to these other souls. Something has bonded you. It shall not be easy to break.”

“Why?” Zhenia’s frustration bled into his voice. “Why us?”

She shook her head. "I do not know why you have been chosen by these souls, or even if these souls were the ones doing the choosing. There may be a darker force behind this."

The room was silent, trembling with our collective dread. Naturally, Aurore was the first to speak.
"What does that mean for us?" She questioned. A shiver made its way up my spine, unease coiling in my gut. Lady Tatiana merely shook her head and clicked her tongue.

"I have seen nothing like this in all my years. There is, however, a chance that the souls tied to yours are present in this room. With your collective permission, we may conduct a séance to contact the spirits and learn what they want with you..."

“Will it hurt?” Raven interrupted. There was a flash of something in her eyes- fear perhaps- unfamiliar and frightening.

“I do not know. Not usually.” Lady Tatiana stood and began to close the curtains, the room dimming with every movement.

“Stop this.” My voice came out sharper than expected. “Stop all of this smoke and mirrors. We want a straight answer. You are going to give it to us, or we are going to leave.”

She turned abruptly, silhouetted against the growing shadows.“The seance should not hurt. This should not be happening to you. This should not be happening at all. Is that good enough for you? Because that is all I have.”

Raven’s shoulder leaned into mine, Aurore copying the motion on my other side, but even with their steadiness I couldn’t keep my voice from shaking. “Okay.”

Aurore nodded once, jerkily, as she gave her assent. Zhenia followed, face carefully blank, with a yes. And last, Raven, her voice tight: “Fine.”

“Hold hands and close your eyes. Free your minds of all distractions.” Lady Tatiana commanded. “Focus only on the words, on your dreams. We shall begin.”

There was a soft rustling as she returned to the head of the table, then the smell of lightly perfumed smoke. “Spirits, hear my voice.” She repeated herself in a different language, grinding and utterly foreign. “Tell me what you want with these souls. I ask you, I plead with you, answer me. Tell me why you have chosen them.”

There was the overwhelming sense of feeling everything all at once, a buzzing filling my ears- my head- my thoughts- my very being, and then- darkness.

“Où suis-je?” It was a voice, my voice, but not me at all-

“Che cosa sta accadendo?” Aurore’s voice curled around the unfamiliar syllables-

“Was ist dieser Ort?” Zhenia-

“Am I not dead?” Raven’s voice, but deeper, older somehow-

“Silence.” Lady Tatiana’s words filled the room, and then everything was quiet. “Do you know why you are here?”

“Dear lady, what is here, exactly?” Raven asked.

“Je ne comprends pas.”

“Children, are you in there?” Lady Tatiana was blissfully calm.

“Yes.” I choked out, struggling to form the letters, my tongue suddenly not my own. Aurore, Zhenia, and Raven replied in a similar manner.

“Good. That is good. Hold on and do not be afraid. Mademoiselle Joan, Signorina Gentileschi, Herr Einstein, Mr. Poe, can you all understand me?

It was like a switch had been flipped. The languages running through my head became understandable, beautifully clear. There was a chorus of accented “yes”s, and I could almost feel Lady Tatiana smile.

“Excellent. Now tell me, who called you to these children and this time?”

“It was dark.” The voice filtered through my lips, tainted slightly with French. “It was dark, and there was a hand, a pressure. I could not see. And then I was here.”

“It was but a shadow.” Raven spoke, the heavy feeling of her fingers interlaced with mine still permeating through the numb fog of my mind. “A dark, cold thing, a vile thing. I did not see a face. It grasped my shoulder, and then I found myself here, in this strange circus of a world.”

“It was there, but there was no physical being. It stole me right out of paradise. I do not understand it, but now I am here.” Zhenia sounded older with Einstein borrowing his voice, strangely sad.

“It touched me, but I could not see it. It was so dark, so… colorless, it sucked out all light.” Gentileschi was almost bitter. “I felt like I was falling. And then I saw through new eyes. Young eyes.”

“Did it say anything to you? Anything at all?” Lady Tatiana’s calm slipped for a mere second.

“It is time.” Joan whispered, and the others echoed her- me- her. “The past will rise again, the shadows and the darkness and the blood. It is time.”

“Go.” It was a mumble at first, Lady Tatiana’s fear palpable, but then she all but screamed it. “Go! Leave them alone! Go!”

The connection broke.

I found myself on my knees, kneeling in the dusty light of a warm afternoon, feeling like I would never know the sunshine again.