*Content Warnings: Incest, drug references, demons, gods, and magic.*
I am absolutely indebted to H. L. Ginsberg for this one. Without his translations of the hymns of Ba'al, I would not have had a lot to go on. For all the references to the lioness your research provided, I thank you.
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The call wasn't one that Josh was expecting.
He hadn't heard from his sister in a couple of months. She lived a few hours away from Melbourne in a very rural little town. Small and country enough that it was one of the filming sites for the original Mad Max.
The last time that they had spoken, he'd brought up that he was uncomfortable with a few of her friends. He'd been worried that they might be leading her down a bad path. She'd reminded him that she was an adult, and basically told him to leave her alone, forever.
He hadn't expected to ever hear from her again.
"J-josh? We... I... F-fucked up." Bek's voice was broken and rough, and that was all he heard before the phone dropped out with a burst of static.
He'd never heard her that upset before, and so, despite it being the middle of the night, he jumped in the car and headed out towards the tiny place. Every attempt to call on the way just got a busy tone.
It was two hours away, whether he went through Ballarat or Daylesford. Usually he opted for the latter, because the bigger town's drivers generally felt like they had a damn death wish.
Two hours was more than enough for him to descend into full panic, and maybe become a little reckless in his own driving. Bek hadn't managed to tell him how she'd screwed up, or if she was even at home.
He'd heard just her single voice, the static, and then nothing at all.
Trying to tell himself that the static was just music blasting through party speakers didn't really work. Bek's friends were the partying type, but it was the other stuff that had concerned Josh. The willingness to try any kind of drug, and inability to recognise addiction.
The combination of alcohol with any other cocktail of drugs that they were on, as if that wasn't just asking for trouble. Covering up the damage of the past with that, and sex. He doubted that most of them had escaped from infection and STDs, even if a few actually did practice safe sex.
All of that was bad enough.
However, where things turned weird, the reason he was so worried, was that the group was obsessed with the supernatural. One of them self-identified as a vampire. Another claimed to be the reincarnation of the Norse god of war.
The leader of the little group of hippies called himself a wizard and master of the mystic arts. Claimed that he could summon gods and demons, bind them to his will. He was a huge part of the problem.
He said he could use the magic of his summonings to cure disease and infection. Use the spirits to cleanse and purify. It all sounded like bullshit to Josh, and screamed warning signs at him. However, Bek didn't see it that way. She saw them as the family she'd never had.
She'd been proud to tell him that the asshole in charge was beginning to teach her magic. That she was finally fitting in somewhere. Which is when Josh had tried to caution her. He'd worded it as carefully as he could, but she'd still been beyond offended.
He could remember her hazel eyes glaring at him, threatening to cry. Her face framed by twin plaited fringes, as she told him that she didn't need him in her life, and she'd be better off if she never heard his voice, ever again.
It had beyond hurt.
The two of them had always been together, and it had always been just the two of them.
They'd drifted through state housing as kids. There weren't a lot of places willing to take two kids, so Child Protective Services had attempted to separate them.
Every single time it had happened, after being forced to move into a new place, his sister had packed her bags and just started walking. She said that she had never picked a destination, but she'd always managed to end up on Josh's doorstep. Even when he'd been sent to a new place in the meantime, after they'd been separated.
Twenty two years together, for it to end with just one thing said wrong.
The memories of his sister weren't helping his anxiety. Josh had seen Bek upset, and angry, and lost. He'd never heard her as broken as in that moment before the noise and the call ending.
Had someone died? Was it the sound of a car crashing?
A little over a thousand people lived in Clunes. His sister was over the main hill, down by one of several pubs, and then just off a dirt track that served as a sort of driveway.
It wasn't just one thing said, of course. Relationships end on the one thing said, but there were always lots of small things. Mistakes that you didn't realise you'd made until too late.
As his car thumped up and down over the drive, he saw it.
The whole night sky was lit up a deep orange as the house roared in flames. There was no fire brigade, no emergency services of any kind. Just black smoke and the flames.
He could see two cars outside the house, looking completely trashed. They were burning husks, but the roofs of both vehicles were caved in.
Josh swung in, and tossed open his door, reaching for his phone to call emergency.
A firm hand grabbed his wrist, "Bit late for that shit. This is beyond them."
"Get off me." He snapped at the woman in a white pointed hat. He really didn't need to deal with some deluded witch, right now.
"Not deluded, but these idiots were." The woman said sourly, "Summoning Ba'al for fuck's sake. Hmm. Sister? Bek. I think... Yeah. She's still alive. Hold my hand. We might, just might, have a chance to get her out. She's the only one in there who has a chance, really."
Josh didn't get a chance to answer. The woman interlaced her fingers with his, held tight to something on the end of a necklace with the other, and then dragged him towards the front door and the roaring flames.
The door fell backwards, off its hinges, as they stepped onto the porch, and Josh shielded his face with his arm against the heat, before he was dragged inside. He could feel the hair on his arm burning, the skin feeling like it was blistering. Stepping in was madness.
It was worse after the first step.
They stepped downwards towards the floor and his stomach twisted. Vertigo hit hard, and his foot ended up on the hallway wall. The witch didn't pause. Walking down the side of a wall like it was an everyday thing. Flames pulling back in front of her, but not him.
"Keep close. This one's pissed." The witch stated. "And please don't puke on me, when we get there. Hard enough dealing with the curses, as is."
"The fuck... Is happening?" Josh coughed through the smoke.
The woman tsk'd angrily, "Your sister and her friends summoned an ancient and powerful god that I was hoping was fucking dead. No questions? Good."
"Questions!"
