Authors: Danielle DeVor
Tor set the egg down on the counter. “God, I’m sorry, Jimmy. Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, just bruised. The biggest problem is that we don’t know enough about this thing that is messing with Lucy. I don’t know if it’s leaving Lucy at times to cause havoc or if it is just bringing other things in.”
“If it’s bringing other things in, how do we stop it?” Tabby asked. “I mean, I warded that room upstairs.”
Everything else was nuts about this place, maybe someone or something had damaged Tabby’s spellwork. “Maybe we should check upstairs, just to make sure.”
Tabby and I looked at each other. Something had happened. The black figure should not have gotten in. I doubted if a shadow person was what was attacking Lucy, but there was so much about paranormal junk I didn’t know.” We got up from the table in unison. “We’ll be back,” I said.
###
As soon as Tabby and I opened the door to the attic, we could smell something foul. Gone was the lackadaisical tour; we headed straight for the attic room. The symbols Tabby had made with the chalk were burnt black and looked as if a great claw had scratched through each one. The door to the attic room was wide open.
Tabby snorted. “Guess we know how it’s getting in.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I guess we’ll leave this room alone. I don’t have anything else.”
“Nothing?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
###
When we got back to the kitchen, Tor was scrambling eggs in a pan. She was doing it all with her right hand and seemed tired. She looked up.
“Will?” she asked.
Tabby threw herself down in the chair. “What I did upstairs was destroyed. If it wasn’t for claw marks, I’d be looking to see if either of you sabotaged the whole thing.”
Will froze. I looked him in the eye. He coughed.
“If I was in your place, I’d probably do the same. How do we stop it?” he asked.
“Right now, we can’t,” I said.
“Why ever not?” Tor asked.
I sighed. “Because we don’t know what else to do. This thing was bound before, and looks to have learned from it.”
Both Tor and Will paused. “What are we talking about?” Will asked.
“Your little mirror; Tabby’s work on the attic room. This thing can get out of bindings. It was first bound with that fancy silver mirror. That mirror once held this ‘thing,’ and your little girl let it out. Then, a couple of days ago, Tabby warded the room to keep anything from coming out of the room. The wards have been destroyed.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I wondered where they came from. Tabby and I hadn’t exactly talked about it all like that, but it came rushing out without me even thinking about it. Maybe I was right and shouldn’t be questioning stuff so much, but what if I was wrong?
“How?” he asked.
“Like Tabby said.”
“Now, how did Lucy let it out?” Will asked.
“She scratched the paint off the front, remember?”
“But what does that have to do with anything?” Tor asked.
It was Tabby’s turn, dammit. I looked at her. She cleared her throat.
“Silver mirrors, like the one upstairs, are not like mirrors today. The silver makes a door of sorts. That mirror had this thing trapped, or at least stopped from fully entering this world. When Lucy scratched it, for whatever reason she did, the thing came out.”
Will slammed his hand on the table. “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
I jumped up, grabbed Will by the shoulders and turned him to face me. “Because, if we can’t get the church involved, we might have to get rid of this ourselves. And to do that, we’ll have to try to repeat what they did before. So, unless you want Tabby and I to get the Hell out of here, I suggest you calm your crazy ass down.” I shook him. “I don’t like being attacked, Will. And so far, it’s been twice in two days. You want to start being attacked? I’m sure this thing doesn’t care who it hurts.”
Will looked sheepish.
Then, I felt a hand on my arm. I looked up. Tabby was there.
“Okay, enough. Both of you. It’s been a series of crappy days. None of us feel good. None of us are really happy right now, and fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to solve a thing,” Tabby said.
I let go of Will and stepped back. “She’s probably doing this, you know?”
Tor looked at me, puzzled.
There it was. I believed. “Really,” I said. “Demons like chaos and strife. It’s kind of their thing, ya know?” I sat back down at the table. “I’m pretty sure the real Lucy has no idea what is going on. I’m also sure that this thing has a plan. This plan certainly includes claiming Lucy’s soul, but you already know that. I would imagine that when it claims Lucy, it has every intention of taking the most of us it can with it to wherever it goes.”
Tabby nodded.
I rubbed my eyes with my fingers. “I think we need to be more vigilant. Our tempers are jumping at the slightest things, and it just isn’t normal. I’m going into the library to collect my thoughts, then Tabby and I are going to meet with Lucy.”
They let me go. I got up from my chair, left the kitchen and went into the library. I grabbed my note pad and tried to think. What could I ask it without falling into a trap? Its name of course. It said that in the book. I also needed the objects location thing. I looked around. My cell phone was gone.
One thing that was going to be hard for me to prove was showing that Lucy had more strength than she should have. Her being tied to her bed made it all the more difficult, but knowing what I knew about Lucy, keeping her unrestrained was not an option. The tape of the ladder was a start, but it wasn’t perfect. We needed something else.
Then there was the problem of getting Lucy to say something to me besides sexual innuendos.
I wiped the back of my neck with my hand. “Jesus Christ.”
Never in a million years did I ever think I would be dealing with something like this. I wanted to say that it felt like it was too hard, that I wanted to give up, but that wasn’t true. I wanted to save Lucy. I was just lost as to how.
Maybe Lucy would speak to me if I made her mad. I needed her speaking something other than Russian. The church could find a reason to reject the Russian. If I could get Lucy speaking Latin or Greek, now that would be real proof.
###
I tapped Tabby on the shoulder when I entered the kitchen.
She jumped and turned around to look at me. “What?”
“You didn’t eat anything did you?” I asked.
“No, why?”
I exhaled, slowly. “Because, before something like this, it’s best to fast
—
just like you do with your witchy stuff.”
“Why?”
“Demons do gross things. I really don’t want to go into detail, but they do things that will really make it hard not to vomit if they so choose. I think also there’s something about fasting that helps you keep your head clear.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I know. It sounds like a bunch of bullshit. I know your stuff has reasons for fasting. I imagine they are somewhat similar. I’m trying to get used to it all. If it helps, I never thought I would have to fend off a soul sucker.”
She paused, thinking. “What about our strength if this takes a long time?”
“If what takes a long time? All we are doing is talking to Lucy today,” I said.
We left the kitchen and made our way to Lucy’s room. When we got to the hallway, I stopped. “If we do this exorcism, I can guarantee that it will take a long time. But you can take breaks. Usually, an exorcism session only lasts a couple of hours.”
“How do you know that?” she asked.
“The internet.”
“Boy, are we in trouble.” Tabby stepped back and let me knock on Lucy’s door.
“Lucy?” I said as I opened the door and entered the room. The room was still full of that foul odor. At the doorway, the room felt normal, but closer to Lucy’s bed, it was so cold I could see my breath. “Good morning, Lucy.”
Lucy looked at Tabby. “Who’s the cunt?”
I nodded towards Tabby. “Just a friend. We would like to ask you some questions.”
Lucy let forth a strange gurgling growl.
“What is your name?” I asked.
Lucy rolled her bloody eyes. “It’s whatever you think it is.”
I knew I could tread no further with that type of question. To do so would be doing an exorcism on our own, and I didn’t really want to do that.
“How are you feeling today?” Tabby asked Lucy.
“Ahh,” Lucy said. “What a kind bitch. I’m doing well, dearie. Did you like your present?”
“What present?” Tabby asked.
Lucy smiled, revealing her broken teeth.
“Your visitor.” Lucy laughed her choppy laugh.
“Now, Lucy. I have a question,” I said.
“And what is that, priest?”
“I’ve misplaced my cell phone, do you know where it is?” I asked.
“And why should I help you?” she snarled.
“It’s up to you,” I said. “I just thought I would ask in case you knew.”
Lucy smiled again, then focused her eyes on Tabby. “Why don’t you ask her, she’s the one you told to hide it from you.”
And there it was, proof. “Please, Lucy. Think of it like a game.”
Lucy’s eyes rolled back in her head and she farted so long I thought she would hurt something. The smell that issued forth was so foul that my eyes watered and the back of my throat burned.
“A game, eh? Well, maybe you should check the kitchen. Victoria’s pantry under the dried pasta.”
We left her then. I closed the door behind me. Tabby handed me her phone and I turned on the video feature so that we could have documentation of our finding the “lost object.”
As we got to the stairs, Tabby stopped. “Why does Tor like the kitchen so much?”
I shrugged.
Tabby shook her head. “No really? The kitchen is where Black died. Will told her that when he told you the story, right?”
“Probably before that. She didn’t seem shocked when Will told me the story.”
“Then why doesn’t the kitchen scare the shit out of her?” Tabby asked.
“Maybe because the kitchen doesn’t feel spooky. I don’t know.”
We stepped into the kitchen. Tor and Will looked at us oddly. I suppose we did look weird. Me leading, holding Tabby’s phone in front of me, and Tabby bringing up the rear.
I opened the door to the pantry and turned on the light. Like everything else to do with the kitchen, it was arranged immaculately, except for the bags of pasta. I held the phone forward and moved the pasta. There was my phone all right, but it was dented and the screen was busted.
I picked it up and pressed the power button. Nothing happened. The phone was ruined.
“I didn’t do that, Jimmy,” Tabby said.
“I know.”