A Witch's Calling by P. J. Whittlesea

Author:P. J. Whittlesea [Whittlesea, P. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789492523266
Publisher: Tyet Books
Published: 2023-05-01T22:00:00+00:00

THE WORLD SHIFTS

At first its origins were small. Initially, signs began in Western Europe.

Most naturals noticed it as minor earth tremors. They sensed the occasional rumbling of the ground beneath their feet. In the bigger cities many assumed it was the passing of an underground railway, or a nearby tram or another heavy vehicle. There is so much noise in a city with construction and whatnot that the odd extra sound of thumping could easily be explained. By many city dwellers it went unnoticed, falling on ears deaf to small noises through years of conditioning.

In the silence of the countryside it was a different matter. Why would there be a strange knocking sound coming from the graveyard perched on the hill? Most cast it off as the echo of farm machinery carried on the wind. The more inquisitive went to investigate, but the source of the sounds could not be determined. They were too intermittent to pinpoint.

Yet those in the natural world who did hear it sensed something was afoot. A change had occurred.

Others started seeing things they could not explain. Those with younger and more open minds saw it first. A group of secondary school students visiting Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris had quite a shock. Hanging around in the crowd surrounding his own grave, the deceased singer of the rock group The Doors—Jim Morrison—dropped his camouflage for an instant. He exposed his true self beneath the mask of an Eastern European bag lady.

In another part of the same cemetery, those with more literary knowledge—a group of university arts students—got a glimpse into the eyes of Oscar Wilde. From all accounts the looks of surprise were reciprocated.

These revelations were only momentary, but enough to send chills up the students’ spines. Some teachers, not having seen the stripped down shades, were dubious about their claims. Other more open-minded teachers, however, reading the reactions as genuine, encouraged their students to make contact. The shades were as non-responsive as shades normally were. This left doubts in the young minds, but the damage was not permanent.

Later, beneath the same city, tourists walking the dark subterranean corridors of the catacombs were presented with the unsettling sight of thousands of human bones reconfiguring themselves. Unlike what Anaïs had seen, the bodies did not completely reassemble themselves. In the ossuary, the rows of stacked bones and skulls found new and inventive ways to depict shapes other than the usual patterns of crosses.

As visitors were only permitted to travel single file, and the lighting was dim, many questioned what they had seen. Were they merely tricks of the eyes? Nevertheless, they made a swift exit. The place was eerie enough without sensing something not altogether natural moving around in the darkness.

Not all visitors were so fortunate.

One woman required resuscitation after passing out. Alone at the time, her shrill screams, which were swiftly cut off, alerted the ossuary’s caretakers to her predicament. For them it was all in a day’s work. They paid little attention to the claims

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