Full Buck Moon (Bonus)

I need a distraction from all the drama lately. I need to forget that it’s no longer my decision to accept the High Priestess role, but a vote I must earn. I need to forget I was almost killed by my time traveling caller, and that I killed a dozen or so men as I saved Sam from a demon who made me his plaything for over a year. I need someone or something else to focus on that is untouched by all of that.

So, naturally, I pester Silas.

I haven’t spoken to him since a few Halloweens ago. Last time I saw him, he came to Fort Smith as part of the entertainment for the Halloween Festival thrown on Garrison Avenue. The Magnificent Mesmer is his stage name, and he communes with the dead. He created his stage persona to do this in an environment he felt more comfortable in, but Silas thinks himself a freak, and actively tries to suppress his powers. This came to a head in the middle of his show when he lost control and did more than commune with the dead. He became possessed by them, and raised corpses from the nearby cemetery as well. I haven’t invited him back as entertainment, not until he’s willing to actually embrace his powers instead of shoving them down so far he can’t control them. But over this summer, desperately needing something else to think about, I pondered on how to help him. I think I’ve found something he’ll be amenable to.

We meet in Little Rock on Saturday at dusk. I arrive an hour sooner than I told him to prep for the evening. I don’t bother getting a hotel. For what I have planned, we are going to be busy all night, so there would be little point to it. I’m glad I chose a weekend in the summer to do this – there’s an elementary school that borders the boundary of the cemetery. The thought of a 1st grader walking out onto the playground to see a zombie rising from the grave would be hilarious, but even I’m not mean enough to traumatize a kid on purpose.

I’ve just finished my prep work when I see him stopping his car at the gates, already questioning his decision. But once he sees me waving at him, he comes in. At the very least, he won’t abandon me without saying something first.

[SFX: calls pulls up into parking lot, door shuts, foot steps come close]

“I don’t know how I let you talk me into this.”

He lumbers towards me, gracefully awkward in his own skin as always. If he actually held the confidence he needed he would be able to control his powers. He’s only confident when hiding behind his stage persona. But a teenager stole his token that night, a very gaudy ring he wears at all times. The ring helps me keep his power in check because he refuses to. But he found out just how badly things can go without that ring.

I motion my hand to his.

“Because you’re tired of relying on that thing.”

Silas holds up his hand and lets the emerald glimmer in the dying daylight.

“I don’t know. I feel naked when I take it off.”

“What’s wrong with being naked?”

“(chuckles) Some of us still have some modesty, Jade.”

“Your modesty went out the window when you showed your ass on stage at Halloween.”

“It seemed to be a touch of fate, did it not? That had never happened to me before.”

“I hope it was the wakeup call you needed. I’m just following up with a plan.”

“A plan that may or may not work.”

“You wouldn’t have driven this far if you thought you had any better ideas.”

“Too true, my friend. Too true. Well, let’s get on with it then.”

The groundskeeper warns us it’s almost closing time as we pass by. When he comes to scurry us out, I’ll make sure he can’t see us. Silas follows me down the path. The Little Rock National Cemetery is the final resting place of over 25,000 veterans. Rows and rows of white headstones steadfast over well-manicured greenery. It’s the largest cemetery in Arkansas, and it’s exactly what we need.

Silas rubs his arms as we walk. Already picking up on many voices of the dead here, I suspect. But we didn’t come to talk; that’s the easy part for him. No, we’ve come to embrace the harder aspects of his abilities, the ones that seep out even with his ring keeping the voices in check.

“Where exactly are we going, Jade?”

“Riiiiiiggght, here.”

We stop at the crossroads of the paths in the cemetery. I wait to see if he feels it himself or if I have to tell him. He looks ahead of us, hearing something new outside the voices plaguing him.

“What’s here, Jade?”

“My circle of protection. This is the last open space before we close it.”

He feels it, good. I pull out the last of my guardian crystals, the same crystals I used that Halloween he lost control. He turns his head left and right, sensing the size of it.

“Jade, did you cast a circle around the whole cemetery?”

“That I did.”

“Are you just taking extra precautions?”

“I’m taking the right amount of precaution.”

I see the lightbulb come on in his eyes.

“No, no way. I am not purposefully raising this whole cemetery.”

“So you admit you’re powerful enough to do so?”

“I didn’t—this is—I’m not—”

I grab him by both shoulders and look him dead in the eye. I want to see his soul for this next question.

“Don’t you want to know if you can? Isn’t there a part of you that really wants to know just where your limits lie?”

I see the flicker of interest, that fire of curiosity in his eyes, but it is quickly replaced by fear.

(soft, defeated) “I’m afraid it’s boundless.”

“Wow, so much for modesty.”

I pat him on the shoulder and step into the circle.

“This is my plan. You stretch your magic muscle as far as it can go. This lets us know exactly how far it can actually go, so you know what you’re capable of and can better control it. Plus, letting out this much power tonight may quiet your everyday level dealing with it.”

“What’s the real catch here, Jade?”

“I think you need to learn a little bit of ritual magic to help you control it.”

“Oh, come on—”

“At dut! I don’t want to hear it. You have no trouble using the ring that suppresses your magic, a ring that was empowered by ritual magic. It’s not that much, and really, you can use it as a routine and a way to ground yourself to feel like you have control when you think it’s slipping. I know you don’t want to do this, but you need to do this. If not for your own peace of mind, then for Molly and Eric.”

“Playing the family card, huh?”

“Lay that one on the table and it always wins.”

The wheels are turning in that thick head of his. He knows this is what he needs to do, but I think for the longest time he’s been afraid of what he’s capable of. Like he’s superman but afraid he’ll use it for evil instead of good due to the nature of his abilities. I can appreciate that morale conundrum, but I can’t empathize. The only way to learn full control is to know exactly what you’re controlling. I was angry with my mother and aunt for so long trying to do the same to me, but thankfully they finally came around. Maybe I’ve always seen in Silas the kid version of me, the one who was taught to be afraid, to not control, just suppress. Reminds me of Elsa from Frozen, the conceal don’t feel line – I hated that movie for it and wanted to kill those parents all over again.

Anytime someone is told to deny a part of who they are, I’ll rage against it, even if they don’t want to.

I hold my hand out to him.

“I’m here every step of the way.”

He gives me a weak smile and takes my hand. I pull him forward, or maybe he actually steps forward a bit on his own, and I close the circle behind him before he can change his mind.

“All right, Jade, show me what you’ve got.”

“Isn’t that my line?”

“Okay, how about, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours?”

“That’s better. Now, I picked tonight for a special reason. Tonight is the Full Buck Moon, which technically has been up since this morning, but I made the assumption that your powers are strongest at night – was I right?”

“I hear the voices anytime, but this ability we’re testing tonight seems tied to the dark.”

“Good to know. Do you know why this moon is called the Full Buck Moon?”

“Because people get buck naked?”

“Closer than your joke was meant to be. It’s this time of year when deer are shedding their antlers.”

“Deer shed their antlers?”

“Yes, and this is going to be a metaphorical, and physical, shedding for you as well. No, not to be buck naked, though you did say you felt naked without it.”

He instinctively reaches for the ring on his finger.

“Ah, right.”

He begins to pull it off but I stop him.

“Tonight, when you pull that ring off, you pull it off for good. Tonight is your metamorphosis, your first step in accepting yourself. You take that ring off, and you give it to me. If it’s truly just the ring that you love, then I will have the magic cleansed from it and return it, but if it’s just a crutch, a reason to avoid a very big part of your life, then I keep it in a safe place at my store.”

He surprises me by not hesitating as he jerks the ring off. By the way he looks at the thing now sitting in his palm, I think he surprised himself as well.

“I should have done this a long time ago.”

“Hell, yes. I’m here for it. The circle is closed, we are ready to go. Do we need to wait for full dark?”

He shakes his head and smiles.

“The shadows are enough. I hope you know what you’ve asked for.”

“I’m excited for us to both find out. Let’s do it.”

He drops the ring into my waiting hand. As soon as it leaves his body, I feel his power rush into the air. A cool wind rips through the cemetery, rustling the few trees scattered around.

[SFX: chorus of whispers]

I hear the voices that Silas must have heard all along, whispers on the wind asking things, telling things, questions about the living and secrets that only the dead know. They swirl around him as he closes his eyes and releases his power in full. When he opens them, his eyes have glossed over into a milky nothingness, completely pale as the full buck moon rising. He doesn’t allow any of the spirits to take control of his body, like what happened at Halloween, but instead pushes that power into the ground.

A surge of energy courses through the cemetery. If energy wasn’t my forte, I may not have felt anything, but it’s like a bolt of lightning streaking the sky as it rolls through a thundercloud. And then I feel them. They’re faint to me, but I’m sure he feels every one of them clear as day.
The energy spreads away from us, rippling out, but it’s not his full power – it’s not the whole cemetery yet.

“Push, Silas. Give it all you’ve got. See if you can wake them all.”

[SFX: hand pushing up from the grave]

The ground rumbles nearby as those who have already woken up are shambling through the Earth to the surface. This is going to be one hell of a mess, but we won’t be around to explain it.

Another surge of power pulses through the ground, but not near us, further away, touching the far side of the cemetery.

“Do you have them all Silas?”

“Yes.”

“Then make them still.”

He pushes more power into the ground, but the certainty of being able to complete that task wavers on his face.

“Don’t just push with your power, Silas. Find control by voicing the commands.”

It takes him a moment to figure out exactly how to word it, but of course, in the Silas fashion, he makes his command something soft.

“Be at peace, my friends.”

The ground stops moving, but I still feel their energy, the spark of life Silas pushed into them.

“Are—are their souls back in their bodies?”

Silas shakes his head.

“Once a soul leaves the body it’s gone, unless some foul magic is done to tether it again. I won’t do that.”

“So what animates them? Just your own power?”

“The remnants of the person still linger in their minds, as long as there is something left of their body to hold a mind. Then again, I have restored older corpses before to almost life like again. Think of my power putting back what was there to begin with. They are not my puppets, they retain who they were. ”

That’s a note I’ll have to come back to later.

“Is it hard for you to control them right now, to keep them still? Are they pushing against your will?”

“No, they are mine completely. That’s what scares me.”

His fear darkens even his whitest eyes, but I put my hands on both sides of his face.

“It is not the power that makes you evil, it’s how you use it. This is not evil. A little creepy, maybe, but what’s life without a bit of fun?”

A smile returns to his face, a real smile.

“You really mean that?”

“I would never lie about something like that. The minute you turn evil, you’re on my hit list. So keep your shit in check.”

“(chuckles) Yes, ma’am. Now for the hard part – getting them to go back to sleep.”

“I have something to help with that.”

I pull a piece of paper out from my pocket and hand it to him.

“A spell, if you please. Just words of power to fill you with control, and hopefully make it easier for you to put them back without panicking.”

“I’ll panic when it doesn’t work.”

“You panic and I’ll smack you upside your head.”

He looks at the paper and shrugs as if it’ll do.

(as an invocation) “With my power, I bind you to your grave. By my will, sleep and walk no more.”

We didn’t actually get to the walking part, but the incident at Halloween already proved that his zombies can make it fully out of their graves and walk around. I thought the wording fit best.

One by one I feel the sparks of energy surge back towards Silas, until nothing is left in the ground. It’s like a fishing line he reels back into himself. Cool.

“How are you feeling?”

His smile widens as he takes a deep breath in.

“You never really appreciate how fresh the air is here. It’s hard to fathom there are places in the world where it’s not safe to breathe outside some days.”

“Is there a point you’re trying to make?”

“Giving the dead life and returning it to myself helps ground me in the present. It calms my own brain from all of life’s worries that seem so far away right now.”

“Well, I mean, anyone who has a brush with death usually appreciates life a little more after.”

“Thank you for this, Jade. Will I need to learn how to make a circle of protection?”

“Not as long as your control stays this good, but if you ever want to be on the safe side, yes. I’m happy to show you.”

“I’m always on the safe side, you know that.”

I hold up the ring that’s been his crutch for so long.

“Any goodbyes?”

He takes a minute to look. I wonder if he’s fighting the urge to reach for it, but ultimately shakes his head.

“Let’s go get some dinner, Jade. When it gets darker, we can see if I can do it again. I can’t go back to my wife telling her I’m a one and done man.”

I pocket the ring, wondering about its applications on demons in case I ever run into another one – more like when than if. I know Marbas isn’t done with me yet; I’ve got to be ready for him and when the Deck of Eternals returns to me.

Then I remember Roz mentioning my mother wanting to try necromancy with the coven. I feel a bit hypocritical thinking all necromancy is evil – Silas doesn’t have an evil bone in his body. So maybe Roz just spun the topic in a dark light, and what my mother was onto wasn’t dark at all.

I guess I’ll get answers soon, once a high priestess is decided on and I finally hear the truth. But one thing at a time, and tonight is to see how long Silas can hang.

The episode was written by Ashley McAnelly

Featuring the voice talents of Ashley McAnelly and David Ault

Theme music was produced by ThaArsonist

Episode was produced by Scott Thomas