Wax man

"If you're too chicken - I'll do it", - Christine said, fuming, standing up and wrenching the gas lighter out of Maddie's hand.

It's just a stupid story, it's never going to work out. Witch's rituals, divination, spirits - what nonsense.

Maddie dropped on the floor, shaking head to foot. Under a long wave of blonde hair her eyes were glistening as if she was going to cry. She then took a deep shuddering breath and looked around.

Rose sat on the floor with her legs crossed, nervously biting on her nails.

"Look, do you honestly believe in those pagan rituals?", - Rose asked, failing to mask nervous tone of voice.

"You're on Maddie's side then? You think I'm stupid?", - Christine rounded on her, eyes flashing.

"I never said that!", - Rose replied averting her eyes, removing glasses and wiping them on her pajamas.

There was silence. Rose was glancing over boy band posters covering the room's wallpapers, twirling her curly red hair with her finger.

"Let's get this over with. I want to go to bed.", - she sighed, pulling a pillow from the nearest bed and laying down, facing the large bowl of water sitting on the room's floor.

Christine's eyes darted to Rose, then jumped to Maddie again.

"I'm doing it."

She swept by Maddie, moved to the opposite wall by the window and then lit the candle with a lighter. The tiny flame was growing stronger with every second, reflecting in a polished surface of a metal candlestick.

"Rose, turn off the lights."

Rose jumped as if waking from a dream. Her eyes were fixed at the tiny orange speckle slowly starting to make it's way down the wick. She trudged over to the light switch and flicked it.

As the room plunged into darkness Maddie retreated in one of the corners, bumping into a sleeping bag on her way there.

After a minute or so the melted wax started to trickle down the candle, collecting into small ivory pools at the bottom of the candlestick's base.

Christine pulled a piece of paper out of here pajama's pants and read it aloud.

"O spirit unsettled...", - she started, then paused, looking at the dark silhouettes of the girls.

"O spirit unsettled...", - they repeated in uneven voices.

"Follow the light", - Christine continued, glancing at her notes again.

"Follow the light.."

"And answer our questions about how you died.", - Christine finished, her voice steady.

The room was quiet. Maddie shuffled a bit, then settled down holding her breath. Rose was violently biting on her nails.

A minute passed in silent blackness of the room.

"Okay, this is stupid", - Rose said loudly, standing up, - "I'm turning in."

She moved to the light switch, when suddenly there was a sound of a drip splashing into the water. She froze and then turned to look at Christine.

There was a white face frozen in the darkness right behind her shoulder.

Rose tried to speak, but her throat was suddenly dry, only faint whisper escaping her mouth.

Her hand bumped into the switch and the lamp under the ceiling came to life, blinding the girls.

Christine was still holding the lit candle, looking half frustrated, half disappointed. Maddie was frozen in the room's corner, squeezing a pillow so tightly her knuckles were white.

"Did you not see it? And what was that sound?", - Rose said with a hoarse voice, her hand shaking violently.

"Seen what? I've only heard a splash.", - said Christine, bending down to look at the basin.

The girls scrambled to their feet and pulled closer while Rose stood frozen by the door.

"Freaky, it looks like a figure, don't you think?", - Maddie asked, looking at the tiny splotch in the water.

"I don't know..", - Christine was looking over Maddie's shoulder inside the basin.

She fished the strange figure out of water and raised it to her eyes. It was a small wax formation, not bigger than a fingernail, but detailed enough for them to recognize..

"It's him!", Christine shrieked, throwing the tiny figure away from her and retreating back to the wall, breathing heavily.

Maddie gingerly walked over to the wax shape on the floor and picked it up.

"It does look like Andrew.. Does it, Rose?"

"I guess. I don't know.", she said, not approaching her. Her face was almost as white as Christine's.

"Are you satisfied then? Can we go to bed?", - Rose pleaded, looking from Christine to Maddie.

"What's up with you?", - she looked at Rose still standing by the opposite wall.

"It's nothing, I just think I saw something. Never mind, let's turn in."

"No, please, I... I want to talk to him.", - Christine said suddenly in an unsteady voice.

Everyone turned to the girl.

"No it's.. I don't like it, you were over there and this thing appeared in the water..", - Maddie started, then fell silent.

She suddenly rounded on Rose.

"Are you playing tricks on us Rose, did Christine put you up to this? Is this your idea of a joke?"

"No I swear, I...", - Rose stammered.

Christine crossed the room and slapped Maddie across the face.

"How dare you?! I know he was your brother, but he was my boyfriend too! I just want to know.. Where he is..", - she broke down, crying.

Rose crossed the room and put her hands around Christine's shoulders, whispering:

"We miss him too, sister, but please calm down, he's not coming back."

Christine broke off her and retreated to the other side of the room.

"No, let's go on. I made up my mind."

A silence fell once again. Maddie was still holding hand to her cheek, looking stunned.

"Okay, no, I'm out, it's too freaky", - Rose said, reaching for the door's handle.

Christine rushed towards her and slammed shoulder against the door, pushing Rose back.

"You're staying here. He needs to come back.", - she said, glaring at Rose.

Locking the door behind her Christine moved back to the center of the room, picking up a lighter and a candle off the floor. Rose dropped on the bed and pulled the cover around her shoulders. Maddie moved to huddle together with Rose.

"Maddie, lights.", - Christine said, her eyes full of resolve.

The room fell dark once more, only the faint light coming off the candle was outlining girl's figures.

"Spirit unsettled, follow the light, answer our questions about how you died.", - Christine read aloud, looking in the water reflecting the dim candlewick.

A sudden ripple went across the surface, a dripping sound clearly reverberated through the silent room.

A clear ivory shape appeared on the water, slowly rotating and rising up, a bald head of a light yellow color, followed by a torso. It looked like a human-sized figure with a skin of bubbling caramel.

Overwhelming smell of paraffin, stronger than that of a candle, filled the room. The girls sat frozen each in their own corner, looking transfixed at the forming shape, it's legs standing in the pot of water.

Christine finally found her voice and asked her question.

"Is that you, Andrew?.."

It's head suddenly rotated to look at her, making an unpleasant squelching noise. While the body stayed stationary, the neck was crooked at an angle. Where eyes should have been there were only glossy surface of what looked like beeswax.

A slit opened where a mouth should have been, then a hole appeared going all the way through the head, pitch black of the room painting a dark sphere instead of a throat.

"Yes.", - the deep, muffled voice replied, it's words more of a gurgle.

Christine's legs shook, but she stayed upright.

"Oh Andrew.. I miss you so much..", - she said, tearing up.

The head was quiet. The empty shape that was a mouth started slowly melting and filling with wax again.

Maddie found the courage to ask her question.

"Tell.. Tell us where you are."

"Deep.", - another opening appeared where mouth has been just a second ago.

"Do you mean.. You drowned?", - Christine gasped.

The figure floated up and down in it's container, then turned to her once more.

"Yes.", - it said.

The girls felt quiet, watching the head reform again, the white glow emanating from it's surface.

"Who... Who do you miss the most?", - Maddie's voice was barely more than a whisper, carried in the dead quiet of the room.

The figure started rotating in it's vessel of water, then stopped, looking at something in the dark they couldn't see.

"Her."

"No!"

Rose shouted from the direction where the head was pointing.

"I.. I have no idea what he's talking about, I swear.", - she said in a panicking tone.

"I knew it, I fucking knew it! That's why he's been avoiding me in the past weeks!", - Christine rounded up on her.

"No, you got it all wrong! He was coming onto me.. He asked me to see him by the lake one day, and I went, and he was there, talking nonsense about how he always fancied me. And I tried to tell him off, I would never go behind your back, sister, I swear!", - Rose pleaded.

Christine and Maddie fell silent. Rose took an unsteady breath and continued.

"When I told him to fuck off he tried to grab me and I fought back, and I pushed him off the pier and ran away. It wasn't deep, he couldn't have drowned there.. He couldn't..", - she started to sob.

Maddie's face was shining with tears, Christine had a blank look on hers.

After a brief minute of silence dripping sounds were getting quieter. Maddie stood up and addressed the wax formation again.

"Please go now", - she said, wiping her face on pajama's sleeve.

The head swiveled and turned a brilliant shade of red.

"No", - it replied, then started spinning faster and faster, shaping into a blurry ball of gold. The whole of the figure's body started to glow brightly.

"I want you, Rose", - deep bubbling voice echoed through the room.

The figure's lower body melted and then it slipped onto the wooden floor, splashing wax all over it.

"NO!", - Rose yelled, reaching for the door.

The ivory shape stretched and grabbed Rose's leg. She screamed, red burn bubbles appearing all over her naked ankles, skin crackling, cotton pajamas burning off.

The girls jumped to her help, pulling her by the arms, but the mass of was was already enveloping Rose's feet.

She kept kicking and screaming as liquid boiling mass was dragging her across the floor, pulling her singed body into the small basin of water. In mere seconds her screams turned into muffled bubbling sounds as her body disappeared in the pot.

The lights came on. The girls sat on the room's floor, gazing transfixed at the charred marks leading to the bowl on the floor.

Small wax figurine floating on the surface of water.