The Dead Travel Fast

Chapter 1

1

It was a grim place. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made of something shiny and metallic, which, in the faint glow from the torches on the walls, seemed to be speckled with little flecks of gold. I walked down a long corridor, passing door after door. Beneath the distant yet omnipresent sounds of the ocean that came from somewhere outside the building, I thought I could hear faint scratching or sniffling noises from behind them. Curious, I spotted a little window in one of the doors and peered through its thick iron bars. Inside I saw a small cell, illuminated only by the moonlight that streamed through a tiny opening in the wall. A hairy, wild-eyed creature was chained to a chair right in the center of the cell. As soon as it saw me with its red eyes, it started to thrash and scream. I jumped back, horrified, and ran down the hallway as fast as I could, sloshing through cold, slimy puddles.

On my way I passed several people wearing full suits of armor, carrying swords and spears. Their red and yellow eyes glowed malevolently from inside their helmets, but they showed no sign of being able to see me. I wondered if I was invisible. Even as I ran by, they kept staring straight forward and did not even glance in my direction.

Why was I here? I could not remember how I’d gotten here. I thought maybe I was dreaming, but it certainly didn’t feel like a dream. I felt alert and fully conscious.

I rounded a corner and, swinging open a gold door, found myself in the largest room that I had ever seen. I felt like I’d stepped outside, because above me instead of a ceiling there was just one huge iron grate. Bright moonlight streamed down through the grate into the room, making it a bit easier for me to see. But something about this place was very wrong. The whole room was filled with a thick, hazy, purple mist. It filled my nose with a terrible, sickening smell that made me nauseous. I suddenly felt woozy, my thoughts clouded, and my knees weak.

Come…

The voice was like a whisper in my mind—a sound that I couldn’t exactly sense with my ears but could hear all the same.

Over here. You’re almost there. Come to me.

There it was again!

Must I spell it out for you? Come here. Now.

My legs moved by themselves, taking me deeper into the room. Clouds of violet fog rolled away, and I found myself facing a giant cage in which a woman sat crossed-legged. She was an old woman, her back bent, her long hair straggly and gray, her hands gnarled and shaking. She wore a frayed black cloak that cast most of her face in shadow, so that I could only see the end of a large, crooked nose and the glow of her vibrant eyes. Those eyes…they sent a shiver down my spine. They were a vivid shade of purple, and they glowed and flickered like fire. They were not human eyes. I was sure of it.

“Ah, that’s more like it!” the woman said. She had a unique voice, as hot as burning embers and as smooth as oil, yet also as sharp as the edge of a knife. It somehow sounded both young and old at the same time. When she spoke, I couldn’t think clearly. The sound of her voice made me feel like my brain was melting.

“I have been waiting for you,” she said. “I have tried the others, and they have all failed me. But it doesn’t matter now, because I believe you are the one, Abigail Matsuda-Walsh.”

With considerable effort, I made myself speak. “Who are you?”

The woman c****d her head. “I suppose you want my name. I have had many names over the years, and I don’t prefer any one of them over the others. If you are asking for my birth name, the name that my parents gave me, I don’t remember it. And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Speaking a birth name is the only way to truly strip a dark sorceress like myself of her power.”

I remained silent.

She sighed, rolling her fiery eyes. “Call me Celeste. It is what they have called me since I became the queen of the witches, because they say that I am older—and more beautiful—than the sky and the stars themselves.”

I shivered. “But who are you?”

“Like I said, I am the queen of the witches. The last witch queen ever, in fact. Hopefully, though, that will change. With your help.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what I said! I hope to bring the witches back to their former glory. And you will be the first step. You will be the first person to join me in thousands of years.”

“J-join you?”

“Yes. You have great power, Abbie. Power that I could use to defeat my enemy and bring the great witches back to life.”

I stood there, dumbfounded. I had no idea what she was talking about.

“All you have to do is come east, to the Pit in the sea. Come east and use your powers to free me from this prison. I know you can do it. As a reward, you will become the most powerful witch in all of history—except myself, of course—and together we will defeat Goldie.”

“Why…why are you in prison?”

Celeste snorted. “He caught me. He used the strongest enchantments he had to capture me and put me in this cage. Even now, my powers are trying to escape.” She gestured at the purple fog. “Only an elemental would have the power to break these enchantments. That’s why you must come east, and you must set me free.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I don’t even know where you are.”

She let out a loud, bone-chilling cackle. “You can’t? Tell me that you can’t tomorrow night, when your family is dead and the world has forgotten you.”

“What?” I cried, stepping back. “You’re lying. This is all a dream! You’re not even real!”

“Oh, of course this is a dream. But I’m real and I need you to cooperate. Trust me, this is as much about you as it is about me. In exactly twenty-four hours, Goldie will come for you and your family. You will escape, but they will not. If you don’t hide your family immediately, they will die. He will murder them in cold blood, exactly the way that he murdered my family.”

“What are you even talking about? What does this have to do with me?”

“This dream is a warning for you and also an offer. After you hide your family, you can come join me. I can make you powerful enough to protect them, and they will never suffer the way my family did. Think of it as a bargain. I am warning you ahead of time so that you can save your family. In return for my help, you will set me free.”

I backed away from the cage, refusing to meet those terrible eyes. “This isn’t real,” I said to myself. “This isn’t real.”

“So, do you accept my offer?”

“No. You aren’t real.”

“You will know that this is all real,” cried Celeste, “when you meet him tomorrow. He will be in the form of a woman. She will be exactly five feet and ten inches, with dark hair and cold hands. You will look into those eyes—golden eyes—and remember me. You will know then that everything in your dream was real. You will still have time, Abbie, to reconsider your decision.”

“Not real, not real, not real—”

Celeste rose to her feet with surprising swiftness and pointed a long finger at me. “Just remember the price that you will pay if you don’t listen to me. The price will be your family.”

And that was the last thing that I heard before the entire scene—the prison, the cage, the woman—faded from view. And suddenly I was awake. I was in my bed, sweating and shivering.

I was right. It had all been a dream.