The Demon Notebook (7 page)

Mrs. Quinlan stopped suddenly. She pulled Grace toward her and looked directly into her eyes.

“What did you say?”

“We did the Ouija board,” Grace sobbed. “And now all our spells are working.”

“Where?” the woman snapped, showering Grace with spit. “Where did you do the Ouija board?”

“In the P block,” Grace said.

Mrs. Quinlan dropped her suddenly and rushed back into the kitchen. The girls could hear her rummaging loudly through cupboards, swearing. Then there was a loud smack on the kitchen table.

“Where?!” she yelled again.

“Let's get out of here,” Adie said, pulling the others to the front door. “While we still can! She's
crazy
!”

“Get in here and show me exactly where!” the woman shouted from the kitchen.

“No,” Grace said to Adie, taking her hand and nodding to the others. “Come on, let's go back.”

Jenny and Rachel looked worried, but followed Grace as she led Adie back down the gloomy hallway. Mrs. Quinlan had pushed the caged cat aside and was holding a large, curly sheet of paper open on the table. She looked up at them, her eyes wide and worried.

“Show me exactly
where,
” she repeated.

Grace circled the table to stand next to her and gazed at the fine-lined drawing of an H-shaped structure. Four blocks labeled
A, B, C,
and
D
connected by corridors, all leading to an area labeled “Main Hall” in the center.

“It's a blueprint of the school,” she gasped. “Why do you have this?”

“Where?!” Mrs. Quinlan shouted again, banging her hand on the table for emphasis.

Scanning the diagram, Grace pointed to a blank area in the top left-hand corner, next to the C block.

“There,” she said. “But these drawings are old. There's another part of the building there now, called the P Block. It's the newest part of the school.”

Mrs. Quinlan sucked in a long breath between her teeth and staggered backward until she flopped into a chair.

“Oh God,” she muttered. “What have you done?
What
have
you
girls
done?
”

Sitting at the table in the cat-filled kitchen, Mrs. Quinlan tapped a pencil between her top and bottom teeth.

“So let me see if I've got this right,” she said. “You did a bunch of spells. They didn't work. You did the Ouija board. It didn't work. You then decided that this foray into the occult was not exciting enough, so you broke into the school under cover of darkness and—”

“We didn't break in,” Adie interrupted. “There was a Career Night.”

“I see. So the Career Night was in that particular part of the school?”

“No, it was in the main hall and one of the other blocks.”

“So how did you end up in the new part?” the woman said.

“We—”

“You sneaked!”

“Snuck,” Adie frowned, sulking.

“Shut up.” Mrs. Quinlan raised one finger, preventing Adie from interrupting again. “You
sneaked
into this new part of the building and promptly summoned a demon, which possessed your friend Enid—”

“Una,” Grace corrected.

“And proceeded to execute each of your spells, starting with the most recent one. Do I have this right so far?”

“Yes. Although we don't know it's a demon. I mean, it's a
something
. A spirit or whatever. I'm not sure what the difference is.”

“What a relief you took care to educate yourselves properly before messing with something so dangerous,” Mrs. Quinlan said. “Show me this list of spells. How many are there?”

“Nine altogether,” replied Grace, pulling her notebook from her pocket and handing it over. “There are six left to go.”

Mrs. Quinlan tapped the pencil against her yellowing canines and breathed loudly as she read through the list.

“Made a boy pee himself, did you?” she sneered. “What a tremendous achievement. And the snow? That was you, was it? How original. If only you girls had found the occult sooner. What a wonderful world this would be.”

She read on to herself, as the girls glanced nervously at each other.

“My, my, my,” Mrs. Quinlan said quietly after a moment, sitting up straight in her chair. She raised her eyes and looked at the girls carefully. “That, I wasn't expecting.”

“We didn't mean it,” Grace whispered. “Tracy gave Jenny a black eye and…”

“And you decided that she deserved to die.”

“We didn't mean it.”

“These aren't parlor tricks and practical jokes,” Mrs. Quinlan said, leaning forward. “If you're going to cast a spell to end someone's life, you'd better be absolutely sure you mean it.”

“So can you help us or not?” Jenny asked.

“You really are a charming bunch, aren't you?”

“Can you help us?” Jenny repeated.

Mrs. Quinlan took a deep breath and sat back in her chair.

“I can try,” she said. “But we're dealing with powers bigger and meaner than anything you could imagine. This isn't going to be easy. There a few things we can try, but I need your solemn word that you'll do whatever I tell you. There's no chickening out now. Understood?”

“Understood,” said Grace firmly. “Whatever we have to do, we'll do it.”

“Good,” said the woman. “Now get out of my house. I have potions to mix, and I need peace and quiet while I do it.”

“Do you want to take my cell number,” asked Grace, “so you can call us when you need us?”

“Do you see a phone around here?”

“Oh, then how will you get in touch with us?”

“Keep an eye on the hedge at the end of the football field,” the woman replied. “I'll tie a red scarf on it when I need you.”

Grace nodded in agreement. Mrs. Quinlan raised her eyebrows.

“Are you still here?”

“Sorry,” said Grace. “We're leaving. And…you know…thanks.”

“Hmph,” was the woman's response.

Two minutes later, the girls were back in the cul-de-sac.

“I don't trust her,” said Adie as they scrambled back through the wiry hedge toward school.

“Well, she's the only chance we've got, and she seems to know what she's talking about,” said Grace. “Besides, it's a relief to know we're not on our own anymore.”

“Maybe, but…I don't know. What's the stuff she's talking about that we can't chicken out of? What's she going to make us do?”

“Yeah,” said Jenny. “What if she tells us we have to sacrifice a goat or something?”

“I'm not doing that.” Adie frowned.

“Me neither,” said Rachel.

“We don't know what we're going to have to do,” sighed Grace. “We'll just have to hope it's nothing like that.”

The group went silent as they trundled across the football field, each picturing the horrible, gross deeds that might be required to banish the demon they had summoned. Each one was already dreading the sight of a red scarf, tied to a branch of the skinny hedge, dancing in the breeze.

***

On Friday morning, Grace arrived at her locker and was horrified to see a red rose tucked into the door. Whipping it out and stuffing it into her bag before anyone else could see, she turned—to find herself looking straight into the handsome eyes of James O'Connor.

“Good morning.” He smiled.

She groaned to herself.

“Hello, James.”

“I left something for you, on your locker.”

“I got it, thank you.”

“I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie this weekend.”

“I'm really…I'm very busy. I really can't.”

Grace turned and walked quickly down the corridor. James followed, keeping in step with her.

“What about just meeting at the park?” he asked hopefully. “Just for a little bit. We could have a picnic or something.”

“I don't like picnics.”

“No, of course not.” He nodded solemnly. “They just attract bees and stuff, don't they? What about just going for a walk then?”

“I'm really not feeling well, James,” she said, stopping suddenly. “I think I'm just going to stay home this weekend.”

“Good idea,” he said. “I'll come over to your house.”

“No!” she exclaimed. “Please don't.”

“Just for a few minutes,” he said. “To see how you are. I could bring some soup.”

“Don't bring any soup,” Grace said. “Don't bring anything. Don't come to my house. Please.”

She felt a pang of guilt at the hurt look on his face.

“I'd just like to see you,” he said quietly. “The weekends feel really long 'cause I don't get to see you. Monday is so far away.”

“You two!” barked a passing teacher. “You're late for class. Hurry up, now.”

Grace silently thanked him for the interruption.

“I'm really sorry, James,” she said. “I'll see you later.”

Then she took off at a jog, cursing herself for a fool.

***

On Saturday, Grace escaped to Jenny's house, in the hope of avoiding James should he turn up at her house.

“Why didn't you just tell him you were going away for the weekend or something?” asked Jenny.

“I didn't think of that,” said Grace. “I just got all nervous and wanted to run away.”

Jenny smiled.

“There was a time when you would never have run from James O'Connor!”

“Yeah, well,” said Grace, “that was before we made him all weird. Now he just freaks me out.”

“He still has nice eyes though,” Jenny said with a wink.

“Yeah, but they don't blink when he's looking at me.” Grace shivered. “Makes me nervous.”

“Jenny!” Jenny's mom called from the kitchen. “Can you watch the baby for a minute? I have to pop over to see Mrs. Walker.”

“Coming, Mom!” Jenny called back. “Come on,” she said to Grace, “you can give me a hand.”

“Thanks, love,” Jenny's mom said, as she handed over the drooling infant. “Won't be too long. There's microwave popcorn in the cupboard if you girls get hungry.”

When Jenny was sure her mother was out of sight, she flicked on the TV to the cartoon channel.

“Mom doesn't let Sarah watch TV. She says she's too young for it. But Sarah loves it. She goes all quiet when it's on. You want some popcorn?”

Grace nodded as she laid out the play mat for the baby. Jenny plopped Sarah onto it and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Want some juice as well? We got this new mixed berry stuff. It's really nice.”

“Yeah,” Grace yelled back. “If you're having some—”

Grace couldn't finish the sentence. She looked at the baby, and horror washed over her.
What
was
Sarah
doing
?

“Jenny,” she whispered.

She could hear her friend switch on the microwave, and the corn began to pop.

“Jenny!” she said louder.

“I didn't hear you,” Jenny called. “Did you want juice?”

“Jenny!” Grace screamed this time.

Jenny raced into the living room.

“What is it? Is it Sarah?!”

Grace nodded slowly, her eyes wide, and pointed toward the television.

Jenny's mouth fell open, and she let out a small whine of shock.

There, standing firmly on her pudgy eight-month-old legs and tapping one foot, was Jenny's baby sister. She looked back to grin at them as she flicked through the television channels, finally stopping at one showing
Finding
Nemo
. She let out a squeal of delight, walked steadily back to the play mat, and sat down.

“She's walking.” Grace gasped. “Walking around like a grown-up kid. Her legs don't even look like they can carry her weight yet.”

“They can't,” breathed Jenny. “I mean, they're not supposed to—she's too young. It's spell number six!”

After one particularly grueling afternoon of babysitting, Jenny had wished that her little sister could take care of herself for just one day. The girls had humored her with an appropriate spell.

“Oh, God,” Jenny whispered. “I didn't think it would look like this. This is so…so
obvious
. My mom's definitely going to notice this.”

“We have to hide this from your mom and dad.”

“
How
?”

“Offer to babysit for the day,” replied Grace. “We'll take her to my house. No, wait, not my house. Just in case you-know-who pops over. We'll take her to Adie's.”

Sarah looked back at them and gurgled loudly, before getting to her feet once more and striding toward the kitchen. At that moment, they heard Jenny's mom open the back door.

“Grab her!” Grace squealed.

Jenny rushed forward, scooping Sarah up into her arms, just as her mom walked into the kitchen.

“You all right, girls?” she asked, noticing their flushed faces.

“Yeah, fine,” Jenny panted.

“I'll take her now, if you guys want to head up to Jenny's room.”

“No!” Jenny almost shouted. Then, calming herself, she said, “No, Mom, that's okay. I was thinking I'd give you and Dad a rest today. Why don't me and Grace take Sarah out for a while? You can have a nice, relaxing dinner this evening, by yourselves. You know, romantic, and all that.”

Jenny's mom gave her a funny look.

“Really?” she said. “Well, that's very sweet of you, hon, but are you sure you girls can manage by yourselves?”

“Oh, yeah,” replied Jenny. “I've a feeling she won't be any trouble today at all. Plus, I've got my cell with me so I can give you a call if I need to.”

“That's very kind of you, girls.” Her mom smiled back. “Your dad and I would really appreciate that. But please don't hesitate to call me, all right? About anything.”

“Will do, Mom,” Jenny called, as she hurried into the hall and tucked the baby into her stroller. Her mom packed up a bag of the baby's things and handed it to Jenny as she leaned in to give Sarah a kiss. Jenny exhaled loudly as she watched her mom head back into the kitchen.

“Ah!” Grace squealed. She rushed forward to grab hold of Sarah, who had unbuckled herself from the stroller and was climbing, chimpanzeelike, down one side.

“We'd better get out of here,” said Jenny.

***

“Your parents aren't here, are they?”

Adie frowned at the two girls who stood, panting, on her porch.

“And hello to you too.”

“We've no time for sarcasm,” Grace said, pushing past Adie into the house. “Are your parents here?”

“No, they went to my granny's. What's going on?”

“Thank goodness.” Jenny sighed, wheeling the stroller inside.

“What is it?”

“It's spell number six,” replied Grace. “And it's creepier than we thought it would be.”

“There's a shocker,” said Adie. “Everything's turning out creepier than we thought it would be. What was number six again?”