Purge

The lobby was polished and luminous, still having the shine from the brand new construction.  It wasn’t the biggest in the city and maybe not even the fanciest, but it was definitely a high dollar place.  Karen’s discomfort with the building was reflected in her every move.  She felt as out of place as a bird at the bottom of the sea.

At the elevators she stopped and looked back to the outer glass of the lobby.  The lights of the nighttime city went a little in and out of focus as she said aloud, “I shouldn’t be here.”

She clenched her hand around a special key for the elevator.  A key that would grant her access to the top five floors, all of which were owned by one man, her estranged husband, Charles.

She paused again, this time looking at her gold hued refection in the elevator doors.  She gave a sigh and pushed the up button.

When she hit the sixtieth floor she wished she had been in an older lift, one that would have taken twice as long to reach such a level, but the last chance was here.  She opened her palm and inserted the long rectangular key in a slot just above the “60” button. Karen let out a deep breath and turned the key.

One more floor up the door opened and before her stood the only man she had ever loved.  Her legs quivered a little.  He looked beautiful, as usual.

“You look beautiful, as usual,” Charles said.

Karen ignored the comment and walked into the room.  She didn’t offer him a greeting.

Charles just smiled.  How this would play out was forgone conclusion to him, his confidence at its usual level.

Karen look around the room which was in fact the entire floor of the building.  Completely open from full-length window to full-length window, only the support beams for the roof broke up the space.  The flooring appeared to be a dark blue or black stone that must have cost a fortune.  There was no furniture to be seen, the only thing sitting on the floor was a ring of candles with a book in the center.

“I hope you aren’t planning some ridiculous seduction scene here.  I can tell you right now that will not be happening.”

Again Charles grinned.  “No, no.  Take a closer look.”

Karen stepped forward to see markings on the floor inside the ring of candles.  Ancient and arcane markings that she was all too familiar with.

Karen shook her head.

“For Christ sakes, Charles.  Are you trying to impress me with your knowledge of the occult?  Is that what you expected to change my mind and take you back?”

His smile dropped to a serious look.

“Not at all.  I’m planning to do a purge ritual,” he said.

His soon to be ex turned her head to him.  Her look could only be described as incredulous.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Charles stepped towards her.

“I took a page from you book.  Almost literally.”  Charles motioned towards the book.

Karen crossed her arms and then put her right hand to her face, rubbing her temples with her thumb and forefinger.

“You have to be kidding me.”  Karen lowered her hand and looked at her husband.  “Just because I’m a professor of this stuff doesn’t mean I think it works, Charles.  It is all folk-lore and legend.  Again, is this supposed to impress me, somehow?  Your interest in my work was never the problem, Charles, so I doubt it will be the solution.”

Another confident smile crossed the man’s face.

“No, I understand that, quite well, actually,” he began to walk around the outer edge of the circle.  “But what you don’t understand is that these things are real.  Real as our love.”

Karen let out a derisive laugh.  “Did you just say, ‘real as our love’?  Cornball lines won’t help your case any.  Any love we have doesn’t matter one damn bit.  It doesn’t make up for all the times you have hurt me.  I can’t do it anymore.”

“If you took the time to come here, there must still be something inside you that wants this to work.  So take ten more minutes and hear me out.”

Karen started.  Her hazel eyes looked like they could have thrown golden sparks into Charles’ blue.  She nodded. Charles told his tale.

 

After she had left him, Charles put his intense focus on self-reflection.  Why couldn’t he put aside his unforgiving drive to be successful, even for a little bit, to have Karen stay?  He loved her more than anyone else but still could not stop himself from steam rolling her and everybody in his path in order to win.  That is what needed to go.

He knew no sort of therapy or analysis would help.  This drive of his was interwoven in his being and he knew he was smarter than any head shrink anyway What could they possibly do for him?

As he sat in their dimly lit library, he looked towards a shelf full of Karen’s books.  Wanting a distraction, he took one down and started to read.  The book was a grimoire.

Getting further engrossed, he wondered why these magic practitioners kept producing these books when they knew they didn’t work.  Oh,  there were some herbal remedies and poultices that surely were effective, but the full on supernatural?  That was in doubt. As he continued to flip through the pages, he saw it.

A purge ritual.

His grasp of this semi-literate Latin was tenuous but he seemed to get the gist.  Through this spell, a person could purge any unwanted aspect of their personalities and lead a happier life.  The answer he had been looking for was with Karen all along, in the form of this book.  If he could make it work.

He turned his laser focus on this project.  Weeks of intense study and a few trips to the other side of the globe to consult with people he would have never crossed the street to talk to before.  He worked out the mechanics, discovered the flaws and experimented with lesser spells to check.  He could do it.  He would do it.

 

“Okay, you truly are desperate, aren’t you?  I teach about this stuff for a living, Charles.  I’ve studied books from all around the world to further my academic knowledge and never once had I found anything that worked.  It doesn’t matter how great of lengths you have gone to, it does not change the fact that I have to leave you.  Don’t you understand that?  I can’t take the pain anymore, Charlie!” It was the first time she had called that in months.

“Just stay with me for the ritual, please?” His voice was soft and soothing.  He put his hands on her upper arms and gave them slight squeeze.  A tingle went through her.

She looked away, then back. “Okay,” she said.

Charles smiled. “Thank you.”

 

It began with an incantation.  Charles said ancient words as he walked around the circle, clockwise twice, counter once.  Karen noticed lightning in the distant night sky.  Charles then entered the circle and picked up the grimoire and held it to his head, all the while still chanting.  Each weird symbol on the floor was touched in a specific order.  The lightning came closer.

The final words were said as he placed the book back down in the center of the circle.  Now to wait for the storm to arrive.

Karen could hear the thunder getting closer, the incoming clouds were in line with this level of the building.  She seemed unimpressed.  Charles looked at her, somewhat confused to her reaction.

“Just remember,” Karen said, “I gave you a chance to not do it.”

Charles look became even more confused.  He looked down and saw the book giving off a blue glow that rose and engulfed his head.  And then he saw.

He saw Karen in the past, handling the book, casting on it something to draw Charles to its pages.  To the purge. Of course, he thought, this is what she wanted!  He would be free to love her and they would stay together.  A wave of relief warmed his body.  He smiled and looked at his wife.  She was not smiling.

That is when the storm hit.  The clouds swirled around the top of the building, gaining speed.  As they raced by, Charles could feel a tug on his body. In his body.  The tug became a pull, the pull a violent yank.  It felt to Charlie like the marrow was being sucked out of his bones and replace with napalm.  He screamed as he saw, something, start to be rent from his body.  As he felt it happening, he realized was it was doing to him too late.  The part of him being stolen snapped free and went into the clouds.  He reached out towards it and whispered, “No” before collapsing.

Charles’ body convulsed on the floor, flecks of foam collecting in the corners of his mouth.  He made vain attempts to gulp mouthfuls of air but the sobs and moans coming through his lips made breathing almost impossible.

Karen knelt down beside him, put her lips close to his ear and spoke in a firm voice.

“That feeling sending waves of anguish through your body, that gut wrenching emotional pain. That, that is loneliness.  That is what it feels like when the only man you have ever loved hurts you over and over again.  That is how it feels when you can’t find any hope and have nowhere to go for comfort or solace.  That part of you that you just purged from your soul was the closest companion you will ever have in your life and now it is gone.  And every day for the rest of your miserable fucking life you will know you are like this because of what you did to me.  And you deserve every second.”

Charles looked at her, his eyes open as wide as they could go.  His mouth tried to form a question, but all he could do was wail.

Karen stood and turned toward the elevator.  Her pace was measured and every movement one of control. As she went through its doors, she turned back towards the figure writhing on the floor.

“And the hell of it is,” she said as the elevator doors began to close, her voice trembled as tears began to well up in her eyes, “I still love you.”

The sounds of his cries grew faint as she made her way down.