Experiment in Terror 05 On Demon Wings (22 page)

wash the dishes; you know, as a thank you so they wouldn’t

think about backing out on our arrangement.

“Do you hate me, suddenly?” Ada hissed at me as our

parents retired to the sitting room to read and sip decaf.

I made sure my parents were out of earshot before I put

the plates in the sink and grabbed her arm.

“Listen, that was al a ruse.”

“What? Muse?”

I rol ed my eyes. “No. A ruse. As in an act of deception.”

“You mean a lie? Speak English.”

“Yes, a lie. And I need you to be home with me.”

Her nose wrinkled up and she pul ed out of my grasp.

“Ewwww! Perry, I don’t want any part of your weird sex

games with that red-headed-”

“Ada!” It was my turn to hiss. “Lower your damn voice.

And, ewww, no! Sex games? Where is
your
head at? No,

we need you to help us do a cleanse of the house, you

sicko.”

She frowned and thought that over. “Like, a ‘ghost be

gone’ kind of cleanse? Or manual labor like what those

guys did today in the study? Because you know how I feel

about manual labor.”

“I do,” I said and turned on the taps to rinse off the

dishes. “But how do you feel about being involved in some,

um, magic?”

“M-A-G-I-C-K magic? I think I’m OK with that.”

“Good. Now I don’t know what Maximus has planned

but-” I stopped when I noticed a look of discomfort on her

face. “What, what now?”

“Nothing,” she said.

I sighed, unable to ignore it any longer. Now that I was

sleeping with Maximus, her attitude was starting to grate on

me. “What’s your problem with him? Seriously. He’s been

nothing but nice to you. And don’t say it’s because he’s a

ginger.”

She shrugged and grabbed a dish. “I don’t know. He

just…”

I raised my brows for her to continue.

She continued in a drawn out voice, “He just seems a bit

too good to be true. I think he might have something up his

sleeve.”

“He might have something up his sleeve?” I repeated.

“What is he, a vil ain with a twirly moustache?”

“You know what I mean,” she sniped, placing the rinsed

dishes in the dishwasher. “It’s just weird, you know. The

minute Dex is out of the picture, oh look who it is.”

I bit my lip and turned my attention to getting a stubborn

piece of stuck-on chicken off the pan.

“It’s not like that,” I final y said.

“Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. But I don’t trust him. And I

think you need someone to keep a level head here. You

need someone to watch out for you.”

I laughed and gave her a wry look. “Ada saves the day?”

“I’d like to be good for something other than comic

relief,” she said with a smile.

“Don’t flatter yourself, kiddo,” I joked. It was something

that Dex said al the time to me and it came out instinctively.

Hearing my old nickname pinched somewhere deep

inside.

Ada’s soft eyes met mine at that phrase and no more

words were needed between us. We continued to do the

dishes with only the whir of the tap water to break up the

silence.

When bedtime came a few hours later, the reality of what

had been going on hit me like a ton of bricks and things

were much scarier when I was alone in my room. Even

though I had sent Maximus a good-night text (to which he

replied “Sweet dreams darling” and I could just hear his

drawl in my head), he was over at his place and I was at

mine, where every little window rattle, creak of the house,

door shutting, or buzz of electricity had me on the edge. I

kept the bedside light on, deciding I didn’t care if I was

acting like a six-year old girl. If something was coming for

me, I wanted to see it. You couldn’t blame me for that.

Remembering what happened earlier, my eyes flitted

over to the book I got from the library. I half expected it to

start flying around the room, but it just sat on my desk,

looking ominous. I hadn’t opened it yet, deciding I thought I

should be around a load of people and bright sunshine

when I did. The way my imagination was running I’d be

thinking I was possessed by everyone in hel .

I shuddered at the thought and cursed myself for thinking

such things when I was trying to sleep. I spied the clock,

which read 11:40. Everyone else in the house was asleep

and I hated being the only one awake.

My eyes closed eventual y, shutting out the light, and my

mind began to twirl, taking my thoughts and body into a

lazy, limp journey into sleep. I was halfway there when

something roused my eyes open.

I held my breath in my mouth and listened past the loud

beating of my heart.

Silence.

Then…

There. Above my head. A
thump
coming from the roof.

I slowly turned my head so I was facing up, my eyes flying

around the empty space above.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Something was definitely up there. Something was

walking
on the roof
.

I had no choice. I grabbed the extra pil ow beside me

and covered my head with it, shutting out the noise and the

light. There wasn’t much else I could do but ignore the

horror before it took over completely. This time sleep would

be my only escape.

The countdown til Wednesday night went excruciatingly

slow. Ada was away at school during the day and I was stil

on hiatus from work, even though I was starting to feel

increasingly guilty about it. I hated taking advantage of the

time off but I knew there was no way I’d be a reliable

employee until after the cleanse, when everything would be

under control. It felt like my life was on hold until then.

Fortunately, al supernatural activity around me had

slowed down. Maybe Abby (or whoever/whatever it was)

knew what was coming and was scared off. Or maybe she

was just conserving her energy and gearing up for a

showdown. Either way, the random thumps coming from the

roof was the last peculiar thing that had happened and

things were looking brighter. Literal y. It was like my eyes

were so used to seeing shadows everywhere that

everything looked fresh and clean for once.

I hadn’t talked to Maximus much and I just put my faith

into whatever he was arranging, though I have to say I was

a bit wary when he cal ed me late Tuesday and asked me

to do a peculiar task.

“You want me to what?” I repeated into my phone.

“Get hair and nail clippings from your parents.”

I was sitting on the couch watching the news with them.

My face furrowed with disgust but they were paying me no

attention.

“How...and, good God, Maximus,
why
?” I whispered.

“I know it sounds goofy but it is part of the banishing

ritual. Just be glad you’re not charged with the task of

finding dragon’s blood oil.”

“Dragon’s blood?”

At that both my parents tore their eyes away from the

screen and gave me a funny look. I smiled at them weakly

and excused myself to my room.

“It’s al over the place in Louisiana but I’m having a hard

time finding it here.”

“I’m going to assume it’s a lot more normal than it

sounds,” I said as I climbed the stairs. I paused in the

hal way and with a quick peek down the stairs I quickly and

quietly made my way to my parents’ bedroom and into their

large, yel ow bathroom with enough light to show every pore

on your face.

“And so what am I supposed to do with the…parent

particles?” I asked him as my eyes roamed across the

counter. I spied my mom’s hairbrush and found my dad’s in

one of the drawers.

“Find a glass bottle, plastic might do, and put them in

there.”

I picked up a pair of tweezers and removed the hair,

holding it away from me. It was funny how hair was lovely to

look at and touch when it was on your head, but the minute

it was off your head it was as gross as anything.

“Mmm, you probably should have told me that before I

started this,” I said with a grimace. “Where on earth I am

going to get nail clippings from?”

“I guess it’s not crucial from them. The hair wil do. But

we’l need the same, plus the clippings from you and Ada.

And me.”

“Is there a book tel ing you to do this?” I quickly shut off

the bathroom light and soundlessly scampered back to my

room before I was caught, hair stil in my hand.

“I’m certainly not making it up off the top of my head,” he

answered. “Do you have a bel ?”

“A bel ?” A recal ed sound of the bel from my dreams

echoed in my mind.

“Yes. You know. Ring-a-ding, darling.”

“I know what a bel is. Why do we need one?”

“Why do we need holy water? We just do. If you can’t

find one they said we can substitute with an iPod.”

I laughed. “So we need holy water and dragon’s blood,

but if a friggin’ bel is hard to find, wel then we can just use

an iPod.”

“That’s the way it is.”

“I guess so.”

“See you tomorrow, Perry. Get a good sleep.”

“Good luck with the dragon. You’l probably need a real y

large needle,” I told him and hung up.

The next evening Ada and I were sitting in my room and

flipping through the book on demonology plus a few she

checked out herself from the school library. They were

mainly witchcraft books, nothing too serious for a public

school, but it was nice to know she was taking this as

seriously as the rest of us.

“Holy hel ,” she said as she paused on a certain page.

“Ada,” I warned, feeling extra touchy about mentions of

anything holy. I peered at the book. It was a real y old,

detailed black and white drawing of some pretty

despicable creatures in revolting positions. The fact that I

was viewing the artwork upside down and it stil made

sense spoke volumes about the depravity.

She looked up at me with a pained face. “These artists

were fucked.”

“It’s what they believed,” I said.

“Could you imagine if it’s what they
saw
?”

It was my turn to look pained. “I don’t want to think about

it.”

She watched me careful y with her big blue eyes. Final y,

she said, “Do you think this is what’s going on with you? I

mean, real y?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maximus doesn’t seem to

think so. In fact, he says it’s rarely the case and if this was

somehow…demon-related…we would definitely know

about it. I mean, look at everything that has been

happening. It seems to be a ghost and it seems to be

centered around me. Aside from the pig, it’s always been

about me.”

“And yet you got this book out.”

I looked down at my nails. The coral polish was al

chipped off and they looked normal again. “I just have a

funny feeling. Down here.” I put my hand on my gut. Then I

put it to my head. “And here.”

She nodded attentively. “I think you’re awesome for

trusting your instincts. You’l probably be wrong. But I don’t

think being extra careful wil be a bad thing.”

I

remembered

Maximus’s

warnings

about

the

dangerousness of doing exorcisms to people who weren’t

possessed. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Soon my parents were at my door, coming in just as Ada

hid the books underneath the pil ow. They looked nice and

fancy. My dad was actual y wearing a suit, even though the

navy jacket was stretched too tightly against his ever-

burgeoning bel y, and my mom was flawless as usual in a

lavender shift dress and black pearls.

“Ada, you need to leave your sister alone,” my mom

chided her. “Go on, shoo.”

“I’m being picked up by Rachel in ten minutes,” she lied

with a toothy smile.

“Al right,” mom said to her, then focused her pale eyes

on me. “Have a good time, Perry. Don’t burn down the

kitchen. Whatever you do.”

“And no funny business,” my dad said sternly, to which

my mother smacked him on the arm. “What, you said it

first.”

They left the room, with my mother cal ing out, “We’l let

you know when we’re on our way back. Nine-thirty at the

very latest!”

After they left and we were safe, I looked at Ada. With

Maximus arriving at 6:30, it didn’t give me as much time as

I hoped.

“I hope they don’t come home when we’re in the middle

of it, cuz that would be awkward.”