Modern Holes Ch 11

"So you've got this magic book." Francis started out with.

"A koob cigam, actually." Maddie corrected.

"That's just what's on the cover, it's still a magic book." He said with only the tiniest amount of annoyance in his voice. "And we've got the spell you want to try out on Eve."

"Esare yromem." She corrected for a second time.

"The S P E L L." Francis pushed on, the word enunciated with emphasis. "That will make her forget everything about this whole business."

"Yes, fine. I've got a 'magic book' and the 'spell' that'll solve this problem." Maddie did the air quotes, and wasn't happy about needing to do them.

He leaned back into the chair he was sitting in. The two of them had gone through another round of school and were currently having a relaxing afternoon hanging out, or perhaps plotting, in Maddie's basement room.

"So you going to tell me more about this book?"

"Magic book." Maddie gave a nodding point back towards Francis.

With a confused look and a shrug, Francis broke the thread of conversation. "Why you gotta do this?"

"You're the one being all pedantic."

"Fine!" Francis threw his hands up into the air. "Please tell me more about the 'magic book'! You've had this thing for god knows how long, it helps you do actual magic, and it'll soon be our saviour. Please tell me about the book!" He jabbed his finger towards the book in question.

This thick, old, book sat, heavy and dense on the desk in front of them. The leather cover wrapping around it's pages in a singular piece with leather corded braids at the edges. It was worn, as if from being dragged onto and off of shelves, along the bottom. It's pages not exactly paper, but some kind of thick parchment. The words 'koob cigam' were embossed onto the cover, burnt or seared in place with large blunt letters.

As fun as it would have been to say 'no' in Maddie's head, this wasn't the time. She leaned back in her own chair, laid a hand on the book, and took a deep breath. "I would say that I found this book mostly through luck rather than anything." She tapped her fingers on it's leather cover. "You remember when I got into all this right?"

"Yeah, a few months ago." Francis nodded along, arms crossed in thought. "You were just coming off that phase with the musicals, for which I am eternally grateful."

"Is that really how you mark time? Whenever a go through a 'phase'?"

"Phases of the Maddie, as regular and precise as phases of the moon."

Maddie raised her pointer finger to refute that, but slowly let it drop. "OK, got me there. Anyways, yes, I was finishing up my illustrious singing career." She flourished her hands, one in the air, the other on her chest. "And I was browsing the book store for inspiration."

"Wait-a-minute." Francis leaned forward. "You found this at Carnes and Oble?"

"God no! I was at the second hand shop, Books 2 Good, 4 U." She emphasized that pause in the middle of the name.

"Much more acceptable." He returned to his relaxed posture. "So why at the book store and not like online?"

"Couple reasons." Maddie thought out loud. "Reduce, reuse, recycle. Seeing a bunch of options instead of just what the search engine says, and I'm poor as you are."

"Yeah I hear that."

"Distractions!" Maddie thumped the book. "So I found the book, and there wasn't a tag on it for price. So I got it for a dollar, along with a few other books."

"What othe..."

"No!" She snapped her fingers a few times. "Stay on topic. Magic book acquired, got it home and looked up the language. Looked like old Irish, found it was Gaelic, and well you know my name."

Francis had to violently hold himself back from making another off topic comment. "Callahan."

"That, and a look at my skin and hair, would have gotten you a best of three guesses that my family is Irish in origin. With the first two not counting."

Unable to stop himself. "Noooooo. Really? Would never have guessed."

"Shut it you!" Maddie narrowed her eyes. "Anyways, with some help from Soogle, I got down to learning my heritage and the book. From there it took me a couple of months of work to get my language skills up enough to read it. Beyond that, you've been there for some of the witch rituals."

Francis was nodding along fully now. "Yeah those solstice ones were kinda odd." He threw his head back and stared at the ceiling for a moment. "So that's neat and all, but what's the spell do specifically, and what does it need?"

"Wrote it down actually." Maddie pulled a slip of modern paper out of the magic book. "Had some time since yesterday. Had to make sure and all that."

She held out the paper and Francis plucked it. Holding it out, he read. "OK, so..." His eyes scanned over the page. "This is just a shopping list?"

"Ah right!" Maddie slapped her forehead. "Right right right. Didn't want why we needed those things to get out." She straightened up. "OK so the intended purpose of the spell is to have a person 'forget the things that ought to be forgot, to heal with a scar.' Which is basically a way to cause partial and focused amnesia."

"Jesus Maddie." Francis looked uneasy. "Like, I know this is rough, but do we really need to go that far?"

She rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively. "She'll lose like two, three weeks tops. Don't worry about it. I have it all thought out already." She reached out and plucked the shopping list from Francis' fingers. "We get these ingredients, set things up, have the ritual go off, She forgets, we move on with our lives, get married, white picket fence, two and a half children, the whole nine yards."

"Hope it's the right half of the kid." Francis mumbled as he thought through what this spell would actually do.

"It's going to be fiiiiinnnnneeeeeeee." Maddie reached over and patted Francis on his knee. "You'll see. We'll go do some shopping, a little practice, and then bish bash bosh, we'll be free of all this."

"I hope so Maddie. I really hope so."

-------------

The first thing on the list was chamomile and rosemary. So Maddie and Francis were walking through the supermarket and sharing a cart.

Francis was pushing the cart, as was his god given man right and responsibility. "So why do we need these flowers?"

Maddie had her hand on the front of the cart, subtly directing it as they walked. "So a lot of the magic is sorta sympathetic and relational in nature." She turned down the coffee and tea aisle. "Therefore the ingredients we need have to reflect things like that."

"And chamomile tea were here for will do what exactly?"

"If I was reading it correctly, the chamomile is to make the subject 'accepting of the new reality' mostly by making them sleepy." She stopped in front of the tea section.

Together, Francis and Maddie made a search of the multitude of bright colourful boxes of various teas. There were the regular teas, caffeinated, decaffeinated, extra caffeinated, the herbals, Assam, Earl gray, Oolong, green, and of course the desired chamomile.

Maddie held two options in front of her. "So we got this one with individual tea bags, but we also got this one with sorta larger pot sized bags. Which one should we get?"

Francis looked up from the bulk sized loose leaf orange pekoe box he was considering. "Eh? I think the small ones would be best. I don't think you'll be able to convince Eve to drink an entire pot of this 'witches brew' you're going to make."

"Good point." She dropped the small box into the cart. "You're still on that tea thing huh?"

Francis, very deliberately, placed the bulk box into the cart. "If you recall, I made a very clear declaration about when I would consider drinking coffee."

"Wha...?" Maddie paused as that particular memory came back and very quickly checked behind her to make sure no one was nearby. She then moved around the cart to get in close to Francis. "You have been inside me more than once. I think that counts."

"Oh you sweet summer child." Francis gave her a pitying smile. "That was just us playing. One of these days, when we have some actual privacy." His hand reached out and around Maddie, drawing her in close. "I am going to do it with you, properly. None of this hole nonsense." He planted a kiss on her forehead. "Then you can make me a coffee drinker."

Maddie allowed a chuckle to escape her smiling lips. "Fair. After all of this." She patted his chest and pushed off. "Now lets get that rosemary. To the spices!"

She tugged on the cart and Francis took up his solemn duty to push once more.

The rosemary came in a tiny little glass bottle. Francis had to ask. "So why this stuff?"

"This ones much much simpler." Maddie checked it off of her list. "Rosemary has long been used as a memory enhancer. So we add some rosemary, it affects memory, the thing we want to mess with, simple as that."

"That does sound simple." Francis narrowed his eyes. "Too simple. How are these things meant to be used?"

She ignored the question for the moment. "Anything else you want to get while we're here?" The entire supermarket beckoned.

"Protein powder, strawberry." He stated. "But again, how were we using this stuff?"

"Fine, Mr. Impatient." Maddie started leading the way over to the pharmacy and supplements section. "So this ritual is meant to be voluntary." They continued to move past all the various aisles of food. "You got someone with a trauma they need to forget, so they can move on and all that." She cocked her head to the side for a moment. "Very forward thinking, knowing about PTSD these witches."

"Ancient wisdom indeed."

"Yes, so the idea is that the person needing to forget drinks the special tea. It makes them susceptible to the spell, which then works it's magic." She let Francis push the cart a bit forward so they were walking side by side.

"And how, pray tell, will you get Eve to drink this tea?" Francis looked over at Maddie with a questioning gaze.

"That parts easy." Maddie pointed at the teas they had in the cart. "She does a fair amount of singing, and we got the senior chem project coming up soon. So I'm going to offer her a relaxing herbal beverage to soothe her tired throat."

"That's actually pretty clever." Francis was impressed. "I knew you had it in you, no matter what everyone else said."

"Yeah yeah." Maddie waved off the pseudo insult as they arrived at the protein powders.

Francis gave a single look at the prices. "My god, these are like fifty dollars each!"

"Yeah but think of the huge biceps you'll have." Maddie pinched his arm, and was surprised to feel a certain amount of steel there.

"I don't know if huge biceps are worth fifty bucks." He scanned the shelves for a less expensive option.

"Could be... could be..." She took a step back from Francis and overlaid a mental image of him with an additional twenty or so pounds of muscle. "Yeah... it'll be worth it. Here, let me cover some of it!"

-------------

"How ya holding up?" Maddie asked Francis through the mirror hole.

"Uggggghhghghghghghghhhhhhhh." Francis' soul had left his body a while ago.

"Uh huh. Yeah." Maddie shared a similar sentiment. "Been a rough couple of days I know."

They had not had much more time lately to work on the memory spell. School work, exercise, applying to universities, and certain other interruptions had taken up a large amount of their time as of late.

"So what'd ya want to do today?" She asked, drumming her fingers on her own desk. "There's some more things we need to do for the spell. We could go out for a walk. Maybe do a little something?"

She heard a muffled response of some kind. Francis had rolled over and was now face down in his pillow.

Poking her finger through the mirror hole, Maddie was able to snag one of Francis' long loose strands of hair. She tugged, gently at first, to get his attention. When that didn't work, she pulled hard.

Francis' head came up. "Ow!" He tugged his hair back and tucked it behind his ear. "I'm tired Maddie, can't this kind of thing wait another day?"

She clicked her tongue. "Tch tch tch. We've already had to put things off. If we wait much longer we won't be ready."

"But we've got all the stuff right?"

"Tea ingredients, yes." Maddie pointed out. "Most of the 'arts and crafts' part of it I already had. The candles, the chalk, those kinds of things. Another thing we need is something related to the event that person needs to forget."

Francis rested his head on the pillow once again, he stared through the mirror hole at Maddie. "She wears it most of the time these days."

"That actually works in our favour." Maddie smiled. "And I've still got the broken hole. Those straps were built for me after all. So that's essentially two 'totems' for us to use."

"Right, well." Francis was feeling a little bit better. "So what should we do next?"

"I can think of one thing to do." Maddie shot him a lecherous grin. "You need to practice your part of the 'ritual' so it goes off without a hitch."

"Yup, yup." Francis pushed himself up and rolled over to be sitting. "What's my part in this?"

"Two things!" Maddie got up and walked over to her dresser. "First off. We'll need some 'precious liquids' from her."

He scoffed. "Too easy, might as well install a shower head in her."

She dragged open the drawer. "Well, normally that would be blood, to be spread on the runic circle, but I think we can make the exception."

"And the second part?"

"You'll need to, and I quote, 'provide an intense shock to her system such that oblivion beckons but does not consume.' you got that?" Maddie plucked the special black garment with it's obvious hole and held it in her hands.

"I'm not exactly certain..."

Maddie returned to her desk. "It's simple, you gotta practice eating a girl out, not slowly, but fast."

Francis shrugged his tired shoulders. "The things you talk me into Maddie. The things you talk me into."

"Pfffffffft. You like it."

*************

Maddie was biting her lip as she undid her pants. Those pants had been getting looser and looser as of late. Obviously because of the diet and exercise. So she was rather proud with how easy they came off.

Normal panties off, hole panties on and snug. She couldn't help but feel smug at how well this was coming together.

Francis himself rolled across his bed and opened the nightstand drawer that held the other ends of those particular holes. The pink pocket and the black pocket were there among a wash cloth and some condoms. It always paid to be prepared.

He lifted up the black pocket as he saw it fill out. Maddie was ready to go.

"So I get that I need to do this a little differently." Francis said as he removed her pussy from it's pocket. "Any advice?" He laid back on his bed.

"Much like in a shooter where you aim for the head." Maddie lowered herself down onto her bed, getting comfortable. "Go for the clit."

Taking that for the starting pistol shot, He immediately latched himself onto her clit and sucked hard. His tongue brought the fun button out of it's hood and immediately started lashing it side to side. The vacuum pressure pulling it hard outward.

Maddie gasped. The shock was intense, almost painfully so. Going from nothing to full on licking was maybe not the greatest of ideas.

"Ooooohhhh shiiiiiiit!" Maddie ground out from between gritted teeth.

Her hands clenched the bed spread beneath her. White knuckles grabbing at the sheets as Francis continued to assault her pussy. She could feel the suction he was applying around her nub. The little stubs of pubic hair being pushed against his lips and the insistent wetness of his mouth.

Francis was trying his hardest at this moment. He was doing all the little techniques that came to mind whenever he could. Pushing the nub hard then letting off rapidly. Running his tongue along it left to right like it was a piece of candy. He even tried to do the rolling of his tongue along her clit like waves on a beach.

When he started this feasting, he could taste a little bit of her flavour. The particularly interesting combination of sweat, salt, and skin had filled his mouth. That quickly disappeared as he continued to wash her with his saliva.

Maddie started letting out a high pitched whine. She immediately turned her head and pulled the corner of her pillow up over her mouth. That sound got muffled just in time as she let herself go.

Her body started to spasm. She could feel the intense sensation of his tongue finally translate it's way up her spine. It embedded itself at the base of her skull and made everything turn white for a brief moment.

"Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck!" Maddie said through the muffling pillow. "Francis! Slow down!"

Momentarily lost in his own little world, Francis didn't hear her. He continued to suck and lick her pleasure nub. Purely enjoying the feel of her. That tiny button, his own little point of pride that he was pressing as hard and as often as he could.

Breathing hard, Maddie was unable to speak. Her nether regions were aflame with strong pleasure signals. His tongue, his tongue! It was moving like a snake across her scalding hot rock. She couldn't hold it in any more and fell into the highs of another orgasm.

She let out a moan. The peak of her pleasure had passed for the second time. Those two waves had crashed upon her shores with a terrifying speed. Even though she had invited this storm, it's sudden arrival she hadn't been prepared for.

That moan of Maddie's brought Francis back down to earth. He slowed down the movements of his tongue. Pushing her clit out of his mouth and letting the vacuum like pressure come undone with a little pop of noise and a slurp.

The loss of Francis' tongue was almost as harsh as when he first started. She could feel a tiny cold breeze flow it's way across her nub. That minor gust sending a tiny shock that caused her legs to flinch together.

"You OK Maddie?" Francis was looking through the mirror hole, hoping to see her.

Panting from exhaustion, Maddie let her hand fall. The pillow obscuring her face and muffling her voice also flattened out to reveal her face. She was incredibly flush and glassy eyed. Having trouble to focus on anything other than whatever visions she had just experienced.

"I just... Wow." Maddie still had that blank far away look. Some of her hair had fallen forward to dangle. She reached up to brush it out of the way, missing twice before finally hooking those red curls behind her ear.

"So... got any notes?" He had an idea about how it was for her, but it would be best to get the actual answer from her directly.

She had to lick her lips and swallow before talking. "It was strong, fast, intense, but that can be... harsh." Looking through the mirror hole at Francis, she saw mild concern on his face. "Oh don't get me wrong, you did it, I came, but it sure was different. Definitely not an everyday kind of thing."

"But do you think it would work?" Francis rolled over to rest on his elbows.

Maddie bit her lip in thought. "I don't know... It might need to be... more."

Her pussy was still there in front of him, just below his face and hands. He started running a finger up and down her puffy folds. The wetness he had left, and she had made, still there meant that she was slick to the touch.

"So... try again... yes? I could do a little more for you."

She closed her eyes and let a grin turn the corners of her mouth up. "I wouldn't say no to that... Do your worst."

He extended his middle and ring finger up from his palm. Licking and slathering those two digits in saliva, he poised them just in front of her vagina.

"Gonna regret that." Francis practically whispered to Maddie, and plunged those two fingers deep inside of her.

At the same time, he reattached his lips to her clit. Pinching the little nub between his lips to keep it in place as his fingers dug in deep.