Chapter 17

“Alive?” Surely Paula had misunderstood. “But that’s impossible.”

Lena shook her head. “For most people, yes. For him, no. Achillas, my spirit guide, tells me. He is not like other men. He has walked in the darkness and shadows for many years. One life ends and another begins. He is alive but not as you or I. Someone helps him. Always there is someone who helps him. For a price.”

“You’ve lost me again,” Paula said. Dee still said nothing. Probably as baffled as she was.

“He has help from one who is to walk the earth. Without end. She searches for revenge. She thinks she gets it, and it slips through her fingers.”

“Who is she?”

“The sister of Cleopatra. Arsinoe.”

“And your spirit guide…Achillas? He’s told you all this?” Paula asked.

Lena nodded, looked up and spread her arms wide. “It is in this house. In the walls. Achillas is warning me to go now. I am not protected. No one is protected in this house. Tomorrow I will come back and I will bring what I can to help me. Until I can—if I can—remove this evil, you must not stay here. It is all I can do to protect you for now. I have great fear that it will not be enough. His evil is so strong and her power is great. She can leave this house. Perhaps he can, too. They can travel. I don’t know. I can only see what is in this house, and what I see is pure evil.”

“What is this price you said Arsinoe demands? Can Achillas tell you that?”

Lena closed her eyes. She seemed to be listening. A slight nod, and she opened her eyes again. “She seeks revenge against the sister who killed her. Cleopatra’s spirit lies, with her lover, Mark Antony, near her. Close enough so she can feel his presence. It brings her peace. Arsinoe hates that. She wants her sister to suffer as she suffers. To walk endlessly through eternity, alone. Arsinoe… I don’t know the word…trösten.”

“Trust?”

Lena shook her head. “No, no. She feels bad and wants…” Lena mimicked hugging, stroking her face and patting.

“Console. She wants to console herself.”

“I think…maybe…yes. Console herself. Arsinoe takes a human… Goes into someone.”

Dee spoke for the first time. “Possesses? She possesses another person. Another woman’s body.” She looked meaningfully at Paula.

Paula flinched. The evil spirit of a vengeful Arsinoe in her? Wouldn’t she be aware of it?

Lena nodded and fixed Dee with a stare. “Genau. Exactly.” A sudden frown, a moment’s confusion perhaps, creased her forehead. “I must go now. Please also leave with me.”

Paula did not need urging. She locked the door behind them. On the doorstep, Lena took her hand. Ignoring Dee, she said, “Be very careful. I come back tomorrow at the same time.”

Paula nodded and the woman scurried away.

“What do you make of that?” Paula asked Dee.

“Seemed a bit farfetched, but then everything about this house stretches credibility to its outer limits.”

“You’re right there. Come on, let’s get back to the hotel. A glass of wine beckons.”

* * * *

Yet again, Phil’s phone went to voicemail. Paula checked her watch. One a.m. Seven p.m. in New York. Surely he had arrived home by now. This was the third day in a row she hadn’t spoken to him. It hurt all the more because the last time she had, they had parted so acrimoniously. She rang again. Voicemail.

She had given up leaving messages after her fifth. If he didn’t know she was worried by now, he never would. She threw the cell onto the bed. Tears filled her eyes. If only they hadn’t come to Vienna. Everything had been fine before.

* * * *

Paula’s dreams were tortured. Each one brought her back to the Villa Dürnstein. In one she floated there on a night such as the one she now slept through. Clear, chilly with a light breeze that ruffled her hair and nightdress. She tripped on the front step and lost her slipper. She retrieved it and found she had stepped in some mud. It clung to the toweling fabric and she rubbed it off her hands.

The front door stood open. The man she felt sure was Quintillus waited for her in the hallway. Fear coiled through every nerve and sinew in her body. She had to get away from him. She must run. With a crash, the door slammed behind her. The man came closer. But not alone.

A giant figure, part man, part animal towered above her. His head appeared almost to be a dog, but the ears were tall and stood erect on top of its head. He carried a staff in one hand and an ankh in the other. She recognized him immediately. The god Set. He raised his staff and the house shook to its foundations. A screaming wind tore through the building, knocking Paula off her feet and propelling her into the kitchen. The basement door had vanished and the wind flung her through the entrance. Here, complete stillness. In front of her, the steps led down into darkness. Around her, the sickly stench of lilies and death made her retch.

She couldn’t escape. Set barred the entrance. She would have to go down.

Paula took hold of the handrail and felt her way from one step to the next into the unrelieved blackness. At the foot of the stairs, she listened. Nothing. A pinprick of light struck the floor ahead of her, illuminating it enough to enable her to see her way forward. She made her way toward it, straining to hear any sound, but heard none. She crept along, the light maintaining an even distance ahead of her. The wall that had marked the end of the corridor had vanished and, in its place, an old doorway led to a room. The scene rippled in front of her.

She didn’t anticipate the sudden light that scythed through the blackness. She shielded her eyes. Candles flickered, casting eerie shadows on the wall, illuminating the hieroglyphics. A large cat stood proudly, its unblinking stare appearing to weigh Paula up. It stood so still she wasn’t sure it was real until it blinked its astonishing eyes.

Quintillus had made it there ahead of her. He directed whatever sight he was capable of at her. A woman joined him. She stood, bathed in shadow so that Paula could not distinguish her features.

Paula’s bare feet felt numb with cold as she stood on the dirty stone floor. The sickening stench invaded every pore of her body and her stomach heaved.

“What am I doing here?” she asked.

No one answered.

“I have a right to know why you are doing this to me. To my sister.”

The woman slowly moved out of the shadows and toward Paula. When she saw her, Paula let out a gasp.

“Dee.”

Paula awoke, bathed in sweat. Like the others, this nightmare felt so real. She grabbed a tissue from the box by the bed and mopped her brow. When she had finished, she caught sight of her slippers on the floor and let out a gasp.

They were caked in mud. And her hand was streaked with it.

* * * *

Dee looked up from her coffee and frowned. “You look pale. Didn’t you sleep well?”

“Nightmare. But it was so strange. I dreamed I walked through mud, and this morning my slippers and my hand were caked with it.”

“What? How did that happen?”

Paula shook her head. “You were there. In my nightmare.”

“I don’t know whether I should be flattered or insulted.” Dee let out a light laugh. “I hope I wasn’t the villain of the piece.”

Paula didn’t reply. Her head throbbed and she left Dee to get some fresh orange juice and strong coffee from the buffet. The thought of eating anything turned her stomach. None of her thoughts made sense today. Maybe they would after they met up with Lena at the house, but the thought of going back there filled her with dread. She rejoined Dee, who was finishing off a croissant.

“Is that all you’re having? You’ll be starved later.”

“I’ll be fine. Maybe when I’ve drunk this coffee I’ll feel like something more substantial.”

But she didn’t.

Lena had already arrived and stood on the doorstep. This time she carried a small suitcase. She greeted Paula with a half smile that failed to include Dee. “I hope I have everything I need. I spend all night praying we shall succeed today.”

Paula let them in. The house smelled different than yesterday. She wrinkled her nose. “It’s like rotting vegetables.”

“The flowers,” Dee exclaimed. “They’ve all died. How is that possible since yesterday?”

Lena addressed her reply to Paula. “It is the evil in this house,” she said, hugging herself. “It wants nothing to live. Only itself.”

Paula wanted nothing more than to run as far away as she could from this house. “I’ll clear the mess up later,” she said, eyeing the withered leaves, the fallen blooms and scattered brown petals. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

Lena nodded. “We go to the kitchen.”

She motioned Paula and Dee to sit with her around the small kitchen table. From her suitcase, she produced a small bottle. “Holy water,” she said. Then she reached in and took out a Bible, small black book, sagebrush, matches and a pentacle on a gold chain. “Now we hold hands, please.”

“Isn’t this a bit Hollywood?” Dee asked.

Lena glared at her.

“It’s only that yesterday you said you mustn’t touch anyone until your work was done and today you’re holding our hands.”

“I know more today than yesterday.” Her tone had turned snappy. She closed her eyes.

Dee raised her eyebrows at Paula, who motioned her to keep quiet.

Paula winced as Lena’s grip tightened. She saw Dee do the same. Once again, her skin began to prickle.

Lena mouthed something inaudible.

A hollow groan echoed through the house. Timbers creaked.

Lena dropped their hands and opened her eyes. Paula massaged some life back into her cramped fingers.

“Do not speak,” Lena said to Dee, who looked as if she might. “It is near to us.”

A loud ripping sound came from beyond the hall.

A crash.

The foul smell of excrement swept into the kitchen. Paula and Lena retched, but Dee seemed oblivious.

To Paula’s horror, a shape formed in the doorway. The more it manifested itself, the darker the kitchen became.

“Dr. Quintillus,” Lena said.

Paula gasped as the figure moved. He seemed to be walking, but his boots made no sound on the tiled floor. Paula recognized him instantly. Emeryk Quintillus, his expressionless face gray and withered, stood in front of them. So the nightmares had been real. Somehow. She flinched from his sightless gaze.

Lena stood, picked up her Bible, opened it and began to read in rapid German.

Quintillus laughed. His mouth, full of rotten teeth, opened as he roared with joyless, echoing laughter that chilled Paula.

The Bible flew out of Lena’s hands and thumped against the wall.

Lena picked up the sagebrush and reached for the matches. They skittered across the table and landed on the floor. The box opened and scattered the contents far and wide.

Lena hadn’t finished yet. She picked up the holy water but she had to fight for control of it. The black holes in Quintillus’s face blazed with red fire. The water began to bubble. With a cry of pain, Lena dropped it. It smashed on the table and boiling water spread in a pool.

Dee moaned and pointed to the door into the hallway.

A tall young woman in a flowing red gown held a gold dagger in her hand. Arsinoe. Horrified, Paula cried out as she raised her arm and pointed the weapon at Dee.

Dee cried out. “No, I won’t.”

The dagger flew end over end into Dee’s hand, so that her sister now brandished it.

Dee stared helplessly at her sister. “I’m so sorry, Paula.” Her hand tightened around the hilt of the dagger. “I can’t control this. I couldn’t control any of it once they took over. All that stuff I told you…”

In an instant, everything fell into place. The inconsistent way her sister had been behaving. The stories from their childhood… “All that stuff about an imaginary friend. It didn’t happen, did it?”

Dee shook her head, tears coursing down her face. “They put the words there. I almost believed it myself. And there’s more…so much more. I shouldn’t have…” The humanity faded from her eyes, replaced by a flashing white light as Arsinoe stepped forward to claim her prize.

The girl vanished and an unfamiliar light shone through Dee’s eyes.

Quintillus stepped aside.

Paula knew what she had to do. She threw herself at Arsinoe, now fully in her sister’s body, taking her by surprise. She knocked the dagger out of her hand and it clattered away across the floor.

“You will not have her,” Paula cried as she grappled with her.

Lena opened her black book and screamed incantations in German.

Paula yelled at her, “Make it go away.”

Arsinoe flung Paula away from her and she collapsed against the wall, pain screaming up her back. She struggled to right herself as Arsinoe joined Quintillus.

He raised his hand and clenched his fist.

Lena dropped the book. She collapsed on the floor. Arsinoe and Quintillus bent over her, appearing to inhale her last breath. They had turned away from Paula.

Paula saw her chance and took it. With strength she summoned from somewhere, she grabbed the dagger and staggered out of the kitchen toward the library. She shut the door and locked it. With no idea of what to do next, she glanced upward at the painting. The girl in the scarlet gown had gone.

A noise behind her made her turn. Quintillus and Arsinoe stood side by side. Paula froze at the woman’s words as she spoke to her companion.

“Now I live, you shall have your reward as I promised.”

Quintillus moved closer to Paula. His voice dry and brittle, he said, “You are sure?”

“I am sure.”

Arsinoe waved her arm and a large black cat appeared. It sat beside her, its face taking on the semblance of a lion, while its fur changed from jet black to gleaming golden. It stood on two legs. Its paws morphed and, from the neck down, robes of green, scarlet, and gold replaced the fur. The goddess Sekhmet stood silently. Waiting. As Paula continued to be rooted to the spot, a shadow appeared on the wall. It took mere seconds for the god Set to emerge. He, too, stood silently.

“Now it begins,” Arsinoe said.

A sound of crackling, snapping and a loud sigh came from the portrait on the wall.

Paula could do nothing. She could neither move nor think clearly. Her thoughts muddied themselves. Visions of an Egypt where men and women walked dusty streets looking as if they had stepped out of a museum. And she had become one of them. No, not one of them.

She ruled them. She wanted to stay there. In the great temple that soared above her. She wanted to remain where her lover lay nearby—somewhere just out of reach.

But something dragged her from there. Against her will. It must not happen. They could not take her. Not again.

Sekhmet’s hypnotic eyes drew her ever further. She fought and it pulled harder.

She cried out. “I am the queen. I shall always be the queen.” Had she really spoken those words? No, not her. Someone else. And now she floated, drifted. A beautiful goddess in a golden chariot awaited her. But Paula felt another presence. A far more sinister entity. It lurked just out of sight, biding its time.

From somewhere far away, Arsinoe laughed. “You can do nothing. I am your queen now, and you will obey me.”

Paula heard another voice. It came from her body.

“Isis protect me. Set protect me.”

“The gods have deserted you, treacherous sister,” Arsinoe said. “I have the power of Set and Sekhmet. You shall remain trapped here, inside this body, far from the man you love, bound to a man obsessed with you.”

Paula willed herself back into her body, but a new force barred her way. On the edge of her vision, out of reach, the beautiful goddess beckoned to her. She felt a strong sense of peace emanating from the deity she recognized as Isis. It wrapped itself around her. She wanted only to give herself up to it, to allow herself to be swept away into the afterlife.

But darkness swept in from the outer edge of time. It came as a shadow so black she couldn’t penetrate it. However hard she tried, Paula could no longer see the goddess.

A hideous beast threw off its cloak of shadow. It reared up in front of her—charcoal colored, scaly, its long fangs protruding from a lipless mouth. The atmosphere around her froze.

Despair filled her spirit and washed away hope.

Paula’s world went black.