Page 29 of Hex House
“May your hex protect you!” the guests shout, thewords running into each other and overlapping, until it becomes one bellowing voice that feels loud enough to tear down the sky. They cheer, holler, clap their hands above their heads. They watch Lakshmi with something like awe, like she is a wonder. It gives Elly whiplash, the way their mood has morphed from derision to reverence. “May your hex protect you!”
It happens quickly, what comes next – though Elly will always think later that there should have been a way for her to stop it.
When Lakshmi leaps from the roof, Elly feels as if she has jumped, too: every muscle in her body contracts, and she bites down on her tongue so hard that her mouth fills with blood. There’s a whooshing sound as the air hits against the veiny undersides of Lakshmi’s outstretched wings, and then she disappears beneath their sight line. A moment of awful, hushed quiet – then she appears again, wings beating, sending her higher, higher, higher. She can barely make herself believe it, but of course, Lakshmi is flying. She doesn’t look like a bird, but she doesn’t look like a woman either – she’s a creature in between, clawed, lithe, powerful, tearing through the sky as though it belongs to her alone. It appears almost like she’s dancing rather than flying, using her feet to propel her forward, turning her body over in sweeping arcs. The crowd is frenzied, wild, their stamping feet a hurricane. Beside Elly, Margot’s cheeks are wet with tears, her single eye is wide and staring; she is laughing. It’s almost dark now, but Elly can still make out Lakshmi’s form as she nears the treeline, turns, and begins to arc back towards the house.
“Lakshmi!” the women shout in broken and beautifulvoices, more bursting with hope than any voice Elly has ever heard. “May your hex protect you!”
Elly looks to Theo’s viewfinder again. The shot is somehow even more unreal than what’s unfolding before her eyes: the sky a more violent blue, Lakshmi’s shape even more stark and impossible. Theo zooms in so that he has a clearer image, and so it’s through the viewfinder that Elly sees Lakshmi first start to struggle. It’s because she’s watching through the camera that she is one of the first to notice. With every few beats of her wings, Lakshmi sags a little, as though she’s weakening. Theo pans upwards slightly to her face: the white of her eyes and her wide-open mouth. He starts to say something to Siobhan, but Elly can’t hear him over the racket, and Siobhan barely seems to be listening to him. Lakshmi tilts dangerously to one side, falling two or three feet before righting herself again.
“Wait,” Elly says, to no one in particular. “There’s something wrong.”
But no one hears her. Everyone is half-mad with their cheering and screaming. No one else seems to realise what’s happening, no one but Theo. He’s trying to put the camera down but Siobhan won’t let him – she keeps it upright and pointing straight at Lakshmi. She’s shouting something at him, jabbing her finger repeatedly at the viewfinder. Theo’s eyes search the crowd, landing on Elly. He must recognise the panic in her expression because she sees, rather than hears, her name on his lips. She opens then closes her mouth uselessly, and they both turn their heads back to Lakshmi. They look back in time to see her falter, to let out a horrible, nightmare-haunting screech and then fall from their view, plummeting to the earth below.
NOW
Siobhan pauses the video. On the screen is the empty sky – so close to black – the camera trained on the spot Lakshmi had been just a few seconds earlier, before she fell. She should shut the laptop now, delete this clip, delete the whole fucking thing, because she knows what happens next. But she hits play anyway. She deserves to watch, to be forced to live this horror a second time.
In that moment, it had felt like the seams of everything she knew had been ripped open, like the earth had collapsed beneath her, as if it had never been anything more than a trapdoor all along. Theo was screaming – she can hear it on the tape – screaming like an animal, tearing at his hair as if he was about to pull it right out of his head. She tells herself that she only took the camera and walked to the edge of the stone wall so that she could preserve the truth of what happened. That’s the only reason she tilted it over the wall to film the lawn below, the only reason she zoomed in on the prone figure there. That figure nolonger had a fantastical beak and wings with a span larger than the height of a grown man, but was nothing more than a small naked woman with a dark pool of blood underneath her, her right leg hooked at an angle it should never reach. Siobhan had turned the camera around then, to the haunted faces of the women, who stood strangely silent. The last frame of the clip is Haina. Haina’s face, blank and emotionless, staring back into the lens. Siobhan thought it at the time, and she thinks it again now: Haina doesn’t look frightened or panicked.
She looks disappointed.
Minutes later, Theo dragged Siobhan to the attic room, locked the door behind them, and looked at her in a way he never had before. It was like something inside of him had bent so far that it had snapped. The intensity of his fear was blinding, flooding the room. She could almost smell it. He started rushing around, shoving cameras into bags and slamming laptops shut.
“We have to go,” he kept saying, panting, like he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. “We have to get the fuck out of here and get that girl some help.”
Every few seconds, he’d sit down, frenetic activity replaced by quiet sobs. “Fuck,” he whispered. “What the hell is this place? How was that even possible?” Then he was pacing again, his eyes desperate.
Siobhan could do nothing but stand with her back to the door. She was numb and shivering. It was only when Theo started shaking her shoulders that she returned to herself, that she was able to pin down the fracturing of her thoughts.
“We can’t leave, Theo,” she told him, watching his eyeswiden in response. “Do you have any idea what we just got on tape? Bird women who fly through the sky? Jesus Christ. This documentary couldmakeus, Theo. We have to stay.” Her voice sounded shaky and strange, but she believed the words with everything she had. This was the reason she’d been brought to Hex House, she knew now. In this moment, she had to choose between being afraid or becoming someone unforgettable, exceptional, and she already knew her answer. “Whatever’s happening in this house, we have to be here to witness it.”
Theo shook his head, studying her eyes, as if he couldn’t quite recognise her. “How can you eventhinkabout the doc right now? That girl…” he whispered raggedly, before trailing off.
“We’ll tell everyone, Theo,” Siobhan said quickly, laying a steadying hand on his shoulder. “We’ll expose what’s going on here. But don’t we need all the evidence first?” She sucked in a breath, mind reeling. “Just imagine what else we might film, if we stay.”
Theo didn’t respond. His shuddering exhales were the only sound in the room. Eventually, he said, “Are you really naïve enough to think Haina is going to let us leave with that footage? A woman falling from the sky? She coulddie, Shiv, don’t you understand that?” Siobhan flinched, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Jesus. No one in their right mind would ever set foot in this house.”
A knock at the door had startled them both, sent them jumping backwards. Siobhan opened it to find Haina, holding out two cups of tea. Theo didn’t move, so Siobhan accepted them both, watching Haina enter the room and sit down on the edge of Theo’s bed. Shewas careful and calm, Siobhan remembers now, moving as though through water. She was so measured.
“What you saw tonight,” Haina said, meeting both of their eyes in turn, “was very unfortunate. It’s also very rare.”
“Is that girl… Lakshmi…” Theo wrapped his arms tightly around himself. “Is she still alive?”
Haina nodded. “She is. The women here are very strong.”
“Are you going to make us delete the footage?” Siobhan heard herself ask, feeling Theo’s gaze snap to her, incredulous.
Haina slowly turned her head. “And why would I do that?”
“Surely no one would ever come, if they saw. If they knew.”
For the first time, Siobhan saw a hardness in Haina’s eyes, the glinting of something furious. “Everything that happens at Hex House is natural. It’s beautiful. It’s ancient. The whole world out there might be terrified of our true potential, but we’re not. We have nothing to hide.” She stood and crossed the room to Siobhan. “I need them to see. They have to see.” She lowered her voice, picked up one of Siobhan’s hands and cradled it in her own. Siobhan’s skin tingled at the touch. “Youhave to see.”
“She needs medical help,” said Theo from the corner, still visibly trembling.
Haina watched him carefully. “Her state is too precarious to move her, I’m sure you can see that. We will take care of her. Here. Don’t worry – Lakshmi is exactly where she needs to be. This is the safest place in the world.”
Theo barked a harsh laugh, but Haina didn’t flinch.“This place isfucked up,” he hissed. “They’ll come for you. The police.” Even as he said the words, he seemed to recognise their futility. He deflated a little, swearing under his breath.
