Pinkerton's Bestiary Log 11: Enchanted Indwellings (Serial Novel)

In this log, I intend to address Enchanted Indwellings, or instances where something has taken over or overridden someone’s body. These manifestations range from random compulsory behaviors to full-on possession. I will freely confess to having some difficulty with this subject. If you’ve followed these logs for any period of time, then you’ll understand that I am a large proponent of free will. I’ve staked my life on the belief that man is not only sentient but is also able to influence the world around him in both physical and spiritual ways. He is therefore capable of overriding his curses, given enough time and a willingness to endure hardship. A man can learn to control his lycanthropy in time. A vampire can learn to subsist on animal blood and can defeat the voice driving him or her to kill. I’ve built alliances and rivalries based on this belief. I don’t feel it is melodramatic to say that free will is my gambit.

This conviction compels me to cover the subject of Enchanted Indwellings in more detail, to delve into such spells’ implications more than the tactics used to defeat the phenomenon. Not only do I have a personal interest in the matter, but a man’s beliefs can determine whether someone lives or dies. If one believes that man’s will can be overridden so completely that the original man no longer exists, that person might be inclined to kill the victim of such enchantments rather than attempting to cure them. I don’t believe victims of such compulsory spells are hopeless, so I shall be describing two cases that will hopefully demonstrate my point.

Before getting to them, we must first draw a few distinctions, and the best way to do this is by analogy. It is said that a man loses a degree of his sentience when he consumes alcohol or some kind of drug. But in this instance, free will is still very much in play because the man makes the choice to consume the product and, in so doing, surrenders his will for the time being. You might liken this to the nymph curse. When the Nymphs choose their affliction, they are agreeing to have their will altered in specific ways. In exchange for immortality, the Nymphs will find themselves compelled to remain naked in the forest, take care of animals and plants, attack anyone who threatens their environment, and murder any man who breaks his romantic vow to them. Place the nymphs outside these conditions, and they behave the same as any other human. They will be able to reflect on their own condition, hold different beliefs, and carry a regular conversation with ease. They are rational until the spell takes hold, then they essentially black out or lose all memory of whatever violence the enchantment compels them to do. But I use the word “compel” loosely because they must initially agree to the curse. Their exact knowledge about the curse can vary in the same way a man can be unaware of his own alcohol tolerance, but the Nymph must choose the curse in the same way a man risks consuming alcohol. So, in this situation, the subject of free will is not an issue.

The most extreme compulsive scenario is demonic possession, and—piggybacking off the alcohol and drug analogy—I would say this condition is similar to that of the long-time addict. There comes a point where an extended stint of bad decisions leaves the brain damaged, and the free will begins to weaken, being replaced by compulsion and habit. Free will is still in play during these situations because the choice to use the substance is being utilized, but chemical addiction and habit gradually begin to overpower it. In the case of demonic possession, repeated exposure to the demons through various kinds of sin or through dabbling in powers best left alone makes the victim more and more vulnerable to demonic influence until the creatures are able to indwell the wretch entirely, and prayers, fasting, and exorcisms are required to purge the being from the victim. You might think of this as a sort of rehab, an attempt to return the victim to a baseline so that they can utilize their free will to make a better choice the next time around. This is a very loose analogy, but I’m merely attempting to describe the interplay between free will and compulsion.

The third scenario would be these enchanted indwellings. Here the role of free will is harder to ascertain because this is essentially like one man drugging another and thereby removing his will by force. It could be argued that free will still exists because it is simply a case of one man using his will to subjugate another, and perhaps that might solve the problem philosophically, but, practically speaking, this does little to help us. I will say that such compulsive spells are one of the many reasons we carry runes on our person, but honestly crosses will suffice to deal with this issue as well and probably work better. However, multiple questions arise once someone has had their will removed. First of all, is the situation in any way their fault? Arguably someone who has been drugged has in some measure left themselves vulnerable, but this fails to account for every scenario. Prevention can only do so much. The second, and more relevant, question is: Does the person have any autonomy remaining to them? Here, I think the case can be made that they do, or at least they will in time. Referring back to the drug analogy, the drug in question can only last for so long. Then the will returns, for the culprit cannot go on drugging the victim indefinitely. When discussing Enchanted Indwellings, we’re talking about love potions, or murder potions, or any hex of a similar vein. This is a far better tactic for assassinations than the shapeshifter because the victim is in fact the same person until the hex, or programming, kicks in. But these sorts of spells require continuous energy or repeatedly administering a potion, and both cases require a link.

We’ve discussed links before, and they are not only mental or spiritual connections; they also serve as the energy source for the spell. And here is the rub. The link needs to be in some measure consensual, and the “consent” can be loosely or technically created in several ways, but this loose definition of consent has consequences. In classic fairy tales, the victim must do something in order for the compulsive behavior to take effect. The princess must bite the fruit or touch some random enchanted object designed to curse them. However, the princess in question is unaware of the situation, and so the link that is created is very weak, meaning unstable because it is essentially one-sided. This means more energy must be pumped through the link in a manner of speaking. Think of the link as a wire. When it comes to these one-sided links, the wire is a poor conductor; instead of it being made of copper, it is made of some inferior metal; therefore, more energy must be used to make the enchantment work. This is why Enchantment Indwellings are the exclusive realm of the demonic because demonic energy is both motivated by entrapment and compulsion, and most human enchanters, even those of the Antediluvian variety, do not have enough energy to support such unstable curses on their own. And since these links are inherently unstable, often times something totally unrelated can cure the victim of the malady. Think of the prince kissing the princess. There’s no way something so unconnected to the curse in question should work, but these links are so unstable that even basic affection can destabilize the curse to the point that it dissipates like a cloud.

So, to demonstrate my point, here is the first case in as brief a fashion as I can tell it. A young man wanted a woman to love him, so he went to an occult store and got a special candle. He was told to burn a picture of his love over the flame, and she would fall in love with him. He did so, and the woman fell in love with him. She became obsessive, not threateningly so, but obsessive none the less, and the young man, seeing this false compassion, was soon overwhelmed with guilt and asked for help.

Now, what is the first problem with this scenario? The woman had no part in the process. She wasn’t required to touch something or eat or drink something. So, in theory, the spell shouldn’t have worked at all, and yet it did. This told me two things. First, the connection had to be extremely unstable. Second, there was another connection holding the curse together. I soon found it. The young woman was a fan of the occult, and she and the young man frequented the same store. Her interest in the occult had left her more vulnerable to witchcraft than most. And the candle was undoubtably something they’d both seen. She may have even thought about using the candle on one of her own crushes, and this would’ve been enough to establish a link.

I considered two options. My first thought was to burn the place down, but I decided against this. I bet on choice, even as technical and tenuous as the choice might’ve been. I reasoned that since the curse had provided the young woman no choice at all, any choice, no matter how compelled, would create a force strong enough to sever the link to the initial curse. I therefore told the young man to tell the young woman that if she loved him, she would give up her occultic trinkets, refuse to visit the store, and renounce witchcraft altogether. She did, but the curse remained, so I had the man confess the whole crime to her. It wasn’t a kiss, but when she saw the young man’s remorse and genuine affection, it was enough for her to reassert her will over the process.

This is not to say the curse was broken in a moment. It took time, but I was able to weaken the curse enough for her will to reestablish itself. She had to fight feelings of affection for him, and because those feelings remained, the two decided they could never really be together because there was no way to know whether or not her affection was genuine, not that she would’ve felt inclined to be with the man anyway. She did forgive him, but the trust was gone.

Now, breaking this curse required two things. First, I had to weaken the link, cut one of the wires, so to speak. I couldn’t do anything about the candle, but the renouncing the witchcraft had done just enough for an emotional appeal to do some good, which was the second thing that was required. Had this not worked, I think prayer and fasting would’ve accomplished the same thing, but it was right for the man to confess his crime, and I think confession was needed for both their sakes.

There’s one more point I’d like to make, and this leads me into the next case. This variation of the curse, I believe, was physical. Frankly, I suspect the young woman already had feelings for the young man, and had he done nothing, they might’ve wound up together. But the bridge was burned thanks to his own impatience. However, the girl was essentially herself much of the time. This flavor of the curse was similar to the Nymphs in that respect, and this explained why her behavior never became extreme. However, these types of curses are seldom so mild. And to get around the dangers of free will, sometimes the enchanter will forcefully replace the soul with another being altogether to make the “love potion” look like it is working, when, really, the desired person is entirely gone.

I suspect that the person in question is essentially being replaced by a lesser intellect, which is something I’ll discuss in a future log, but for the present, I’ll only describe it as a programming. A distinction between these enchantments and typical possessions is that a possessed individual will have periods of lucidity followed by blackouts when the demon is active. This is because the demon wants to remain hidden. But some maintain that these enchantments are caused by demons as well, and I will freely admit that this could be right. But the demon would have to be particularly stupid if this were the case because they remain in control of the person the entire time and are easy to spot. Perhaps this enchantment is caused by a parasitic demon similar to the vampiric hunger, but it would have to be different in some respect because vampires remain lucid, whereas people afflicted with these types of enchantment curses become completely irrational. The real soul can be either unconscious, trapped in a mental void—more on that subject later—or they can be conscious the entire time, depending on the incantation. Unlike shapeshifters, you may be dealing with the real person who is trapped in a hijacked body. They can serve the same threat as any shapeshifter, but we have a moral obligation to free the trapped individual if at all possible, which, of course, it always is because no matter the compulsion, choice remains possible somewhere.

A girl wanted her mother to love again. She entered a cheap magic shop that was one of those tourist traps found in amusement parks. She grabbed a magic love rope. “Help Your Special Someone Tie the Knot,” the cheap packaging said. The little girl’s mother had sworn off men after a particularly nasty divorce. There was an office worker who loved her, and the girl was certain that if her mother loved him back, they’d get married. The way the spell worked is you tied one end of the rope around a picture of yourself, then you tied a picture of the person you wished to fall in love with you to the other end. The girl found a picture of the man on his social media page. She printed it, then tied his picture to the first end and a picture of her mother on the second end. The mother went from hating men to becoming murderously obsessive over her office worker in an instant.

This resulted in a Monkey’s Paw scenario, the norm in such cases. Now, there are one of two ways to read this: Either demons are directly involved in the curse, and that’s why such incantations have such tragic outcomes, or the demonic energy is reacting with the lesser intellect and creating abnormally chaotic results. I suspect the latter. But before going on, I need to mention that the reason trinkets like the rope are used is because the enchanter doesn’t wish to receive the backlash for implanting the curse. Remember, this is black magic, and participating in it always opens the practitioner up to demons. The enchanters want the demons to torment the subject using the trinket. The truth is that the demons will torment both parties, but most practitioners believe they are the ones manipulating the demons instead of the other way around. Sometimes, the enchanter will do the curse themselves, but this is seldom, and sometimes the enchanters are wholly ignorant of the rules surrounding backlashing. As I’ve stated before, I am not familiar with the particulars, but this basic information is important to understand when dealing with these situations, as I’ll show shortly.

Now, what made this situation anomalous is that usually the link is created by the longing lover’s obsession. Also, there usually need to be extended interactions between the lover and his desired target. The connection needs to be somewhat substantial because such links are tentative to begin with; that is to say, the link is only going in one direction. The lover is forcing the situation, so the pact is one way.

In this case, there were two things weakening the link. Number one: this pact was made by a fourth party. You usually only have the enchanter who builds the curse, the longing lover, and the target, but here there was the enchanter, the daughter, the office worker, and the mother. On top of that, the curse was motivated by love for the mother, not obsession. The teenage girl still had to have selfish motives, the desire for a father, but this isn’t the same thing as obsession; therefore, the demonic energy didn’t have as much to go on. In short, the curse shouldn’t have worked, but it did. This causes me to suspect that the mother’s anger was creating something else the demonic energy or demons could use. But I’m not sure on that point. Granted, she wasn’t a Christian, so she had no spiritual protection, but at the same time, neither she nor the teenage girl had any connections to the occult, and anger isn’t that uncommon, especially considering the divorce was recent. Still, something else had to be strengthening the curse, but I never found out what that something was. However, whatever it might’ve been had to be somewhat indirect, and this caused me to suspect that the situation was so anomalous the curse’s backlash was going to be severe, not on the little girl but on the enchanter because they must’ve done something to make the curse more effective, and they knew it. There are reasons such curses are not common. Something like this was likely to kill the enchanter.

As for how I got involved, I was approaching the matter from another direction. Some nitwit enchanter was mass producing these ropes and unleashing them on magic shops around the United States. They were disguised as typical retailers of novelty items, and the Order was trying to shut them down. The problem was the addresses were all fake, and the hotline—that’s right, there was a hotline—was tied to a burner phone that was running through a bunch of technical equipment that the Order was simply baffled by. I thought about bringing in my hacker—yes, I have a hacker—but I and the Order eventually decided to kill two birds with one stone. We’d received a number of complaints, but we didn’t want to take on those cases because we were worried whoever was running this operation had eyes on the Order, so I decided to track down one of the stores where the product was sold with the help of a partner, and that led me to the teenage girl.

I didn’t have much trouble convincing the teenager because by the time we’d shown up, the mother was already sitting in jail. She’d spent about two days laying siege to the poor office worker’s home. She’d been weeping hysterically and throwing rocks through the man’s windows. The teenager was willing to take all the help she could get and quickly told us everything. I did attempt to interview the mother, and all I got was incoherent nonsense. She babbled incessantly about her emotions toward the man and seemed wholly ignorant of the fact that her actions were the very thing causing him to spurn her affections. This discontinuity is a common theme in these cases. The victim will rant about love but will be totally unaware of how his or her actions are not achieving their articulated goal. I got nowhere with her, but that was just fine because I wasn’t expecting to. At this point, I’d assumed a demon had taken control, but as I said, I now suspect these are lesser intellects indwelling the person, a kind of programming, not demons, although I do think the programming is warped by the demonic energy being used. But I freely admit to possibly being wrong on this point.

The mother’s interview was merely an attempt to learn what I could about the nature of the curse. Our goal wasn’t just to stop the enchanter, but to try and understand this phenomenon because it is not well understood. I learned little, but the next step yielded better results. As I mentioned before, the packaging for the rope had a hotline. I called it and heard the voice of the enchanter for the first time. He sounded like a bored teenager, and this told me that I was dealing with someone who was better with computers than magic. I suspected he’d done the spell as a prank, then built a business around it. Unfortunately, there are malicious people in the world who spread pain out of boredom. I was dealing with such a man. So, I reasoned that the best thing to do was to try to make the situation his problem.

I had the girl speak on my behalf, writing her script on my phone. During the superficial banter about no refunds and how there was no way to fix the curse except by suicide—this wouldn’t have worked since the girl was not tied to the curse aside from the fact that she’d implemented it; however, he failed to mention that point—my partner connected the girl’s phone to a device my hacker had set up. It was basically designed to sift through all the towers and satellites and trace the call’s true location. Once that was done, I let the charade go on for another few minutes, then the real game began.

“There’s nothing I can do. Sorry,” the man said.

“Can I speak to the manager?”

“I am the manager.”

I could almost see the man’s grin, but that didn’t matter because I was grinning as well.

“Well, in that case, you’re in real trouble because I can sue.”

The manager laughed. The girl looked at me scared, practically pleading with her eyes. I smiled at her reassuringly. The longer the conversation went on, the more certain I felt that I was right. This guy was a punk who intimately understood computers but only had a cursory knowledge of magic. I intended to use that.

“Who’s going to believe you? How are you going to sue me exactly?”

“I bought that rope because I knew it would work,” I had the girl say. “I could recognize the real thing. What does that tell you?”

“I don’t know, little girl. What does that tell me?”

“That I know magic too, dummy. I know you broke the rules. You know what that means?”

“No. Wait. How did I break the rules?

“It’s not my mom. I said I wanted my mom to fall in love. You replaced my mom and put her somewhere else. You lied.”

“No, I didn’t. That’s how the curse works.”

This was where I had to be very careful. The man had probably read a book. He knew about things in theory, but if I was right, he almost certainly had to be new. So, he must’ve only pulled the trick once or twice before. Otherwise, he’d already be dead given the circles that gravitate to things like love ropes. I needed to play into his doubt. I needed to make sure he felt the risk wasn’t worth it. Undoing the curse, really, wasn’t said to be that hard. He just had to call back the entity that had indwelt the mother. From his perspective, this was low risk, so I just had to create enough doubt to make him feel like the risk of a counter curse wasn’t worth the thirty seconds it would take to undo the initial curse.

“Are you sure about that?” I had the girl ask.

“Yes!” the manager said emphatically.

“Because my books say that a monkey’s paw curse has to be fair. If you wish for a million dollars, then it’s okay if someone dies to make you get the million dollars, but the money has to be real. Everything about the curse has to be real. My mother has to really fall in love. You can change her hormones. You can orchestrate some event where the two lovers are forced to be together, but it has to be the real people. You can’t fill her with something like a demon because then the demon is falling in love, not my mom! You cheated!” I had no idea if any of this was true, but I was lying for a just cause.

“I did not. And it wasn’t a demon. I programmed her to love.”

“Even if that were true, it doesn’t matter. Because the programming still replaced my mother. She isn’t the same person. She doesn’t remember my dad! She doesn’t remember her own birthday!”

“That doesn’t prove anything!”

“Will the spirits I send after you believe that?”

The manager fell silent, and I knew I had him.

“Let’s have a bet. I’ll send my spirits after you, and they can decide our fate. If you’re right and I’m wrong, then they’ll kill me. Then I commit suicide, and the curse ends. If you’re wrong, though, they’re going to kill you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Fair?”

“Wait!” Sure enough, about thirty seconds passed, and the manager said, “There. She’s normal now.”

“I’m going to check. You better be rig—“

He hung up the phone, which didn’t matter because I’d gotten my trace about halfway through the conversation.

We went and checked on the mother, and she was fine. I would’ve stayed and tried to undo all the damage done by the curse, but there wasn’t time. The most I could manage was giving a stern warning to the teenage girl, but then I had to move on because I wasn’t sure if the manager was on the move. It didn’t matter because I eventually found the young man dead in his apartment. I don’t know if it was demonic backlash or if some other disgruntled customer had sent their own hex, but I didn’t much care either way.

A few notes before closing. Some people say that you can use someone else to make a wish that will undo the initial enchantment using the same mechanism, rope, potion, whatever. I wouldn’t recommend this. You’re opening yourself up to the demonic when you resort to such tactics, so it’s best to find another way to solve the problem. These kinds of spells are always a matter of lawyering. Finding loopholes in the wording, locating the links and severing them, and prayer and fasting are the best methods. But I believe the most important thing to bare in mind is that human free will always exists in some capacity, and there will always be a way to use that fact against compulsion, even if indirectly. Don’t assume such afflicted individuals are wholly gone. Should none of my methods prove effective, an exorcism will work if the intellect really is a demon. If the issue really is a matter of programming, then either a cross or a rune would work to ground the magic, but I’ll discuss that further in another log.