Hands held high in the air, the rag doll in one hand, palm turned out with the other, Agatha faced the old oak and the woods beyond. She mumbled words I didn’t understand, and the wind whipped and moaned, squealing around us like some unseen beast, tangling her mass of black hair like writhing snakes.
Unmoving, she stared into the darkness and called out. “Alastor. Alastor, I summon thee, demon. Return to our tree and serve me.”
The wind beat against my face, howling through the branches. Great rumbles of thunder boomed in the air, and a terrible chill crept up and wrapped its arms around me.
Then suddenly everything went still. Dead still.
I stared into the cold, soundless dark, waiting.
There was nothing at first. No scamper of rabbit or chirp of frog. Not a sound.
“Prepare yourself, child.” Agatha dropped one arm, the other still cradling the dolly to her chest, not bothering to look at me. “He’s coming.”
In a scuffle, I pulled the crucifix out of my left pocket and lashed it around my wrist, then yanked the bottle of holy water from my right pocket and freed its lid. I slid the book of prayers from my messenger bag and opened it to the page I’d marked. It was the prayer of exorcism Father Alvarez suggested I use. Salt by my feet and at the ready, I stood and listened.
I still heard nothing. Nothing but the ache of dark silence. Then, softly at first, and growing louder, I began to hear a gentle rustling sound as if a rabbit were scrabbling in the underbrush, hunting for supper.
Then I saw him. His pale face glowed in the moonlight before his body appeared. It was Dylan, except it wasn’t Dylan. The look on his face was cruel and hard, his mouth gnarled into a twisted smile in a gaunt face. Twigs and the remains of dead leaves poked out of straw-blond hair, dirt smudged his cheeks and arms and soiled his torn clothes.
“Dylan,” I whimpered without meaning to.
Agatha spun around, baring her teeth like a snarling animal. “Let go of your fear, girl, or he’ll take you before I can stop him.” She was no longer a mama longing for her lost baby. She was a witch again. Angry and fierce and powerful. “Now focus on what you came here to do, and that boyfriend of yours might be set free.”
Boyfriend? Was she talking about Hunter or Dylan? And I realized right then that I loved them both. Right or wrong. That’s how it was. Hunter was the love of my life, but Dylan had been there for me in these horrible times when no one else was. They were both trapped now. And so was Keisha. I loved all of them. A wall of fear and uncertainty washed over me, making my knees go all weak and wobbly. It wasn’t my fault, but why was I the one supposed to free them? Me? The girl from the trailer park with a drunk mama and a runaway daddy? It didn’t make sense. But here I was, hands trembling, pulse racing, getting ready to face a demon.
I didn’t have a choice. Not really. Not if I wanted to help Hunter and Keisha and Agatha. Not if I wanted to set Dylan free.
The thing possessing Dylan walked out of the woods, its amber eyes fixed on me. “What have you served up for me tonight, Mistress Agatha?” He stepped closer, just up beside her, slowly licking his lips with a seductive grin. “This ripe little morsel will be delicious.” He groaned with a subtle thrust of his hips that said he wanted more than a kiss. “This boy wants her so badly I can hardly stand it. It will destroy him to know he’s the one who killed her.”
He took a step toward me, but Agatha reached out her free hand and grabbed Dylan’s arm. The demon stopped and looked at her. She murmured a spell, and his wicked smile turned feral with hatred. “No,” he screamed. “You will not bind me. You will not hold me!”
Agatha held on to him tightly, her own face contorting with effort. “Now, child, do it now!”
I looked at the open book, barely visible in the moonlight, and began to read.
“Spirit of our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Most Holy Trinity, Immaculate Virgin Mary, angels, archangels, and saints of heaven, descend upon me. Please purify me, Lord, mold me, fill me with yourself, use me.”
“No!” The demon’s voice ripped at Dylan’s throat, scorched and harsh. “You will release me,” he howled at Agatha and wrenched his arm from her grasp.
The wind began moaning again, gusting up leaves and dust and fear.
Glowing eyes fixed on me, he took another step closer.
I tossed some holy water on him, then looked back at the book.
He screamed, but took another step closer.
“Banish all the forces of evil from me, destroy them, vanish them, so that I can be healthy and do good deeds.
“Banish from me and those around me all spells, witchcraft, black magic, malefice, ties, maledictions, and the evil eye; diabolic infestations, oppressions, possessions; all that is evil and sinful, jealousy, perfidy, envy; physical, psychological, moral, spiritual, diabolical aliments.”
“Stop it. Stop it, you stupid, worthless bitch. You’re nothing but a piece of trash. You’ll never amount to anything. Ever. Hunter never thought you would, and neither does this boy. He just wants your body. He wants to use you like your father used your mother, then he’ll leave you, too.” He hissed at me like his words were a thousand venomous snakes striking my heart.
Tears blurred the words, but I kept reading. “Burn all these evils in hell, that they may never again touch me or any other creature in the entire world.” My voice wobbled and tears spilled down my cheeks. I’m not strong enough. Not good enough.
He was within a couple feet of me now; all he had to do was reach out and grab me. “You’re just like your mother,” he snarled.
Dylan lunged, but I sidestepped, and he stumbled past me. It was like a gate opened inside me. With those five words. You’re just like your mother. It was then I realized he was wrong. Dead wrong. He was lying. It was just like Father Alvarez had said. Demons minced truth with lies. Why would I believe him over Hunter? Hunter’d loved me. Believed in me. Hunter knew I could leave this town with or without him. And so did I.
I was nothing like my mother.
Wiping the tears from my face with dirty fingers, I refocused on the prayer. I knew I would banish him. I had to. I had the power to set them all free.
I cleared my throat and spoke with strength I never knew I had. “I command and bid all the power who molests me—by the power of God all powerful, in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary—to leave us forever, and to be consigned into the everlasting hell, where they will be bound by Saint Michael the archangel, Saint Gabriel, Saint Raphael, our guardian angels, and where they will be crushed under the heel of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Amen.”
Nails digging into the skin of his cheeks, the demon wailed. His voice morphed between Dylan’s and something from a monster in my worst nightmare with scales and horns and claws. I grabbed some salt, stepped forward, and tossed it against Dylan’s clammy skin.
He fell to the ground, thrashing and wailing. Strange words of some long-dead language escaped his lips, but I pressed on. I grabbed the crucifix from my wrist and held it to his forehead.
The demon screamed through Dylan’s lips, but I kept going. “Alastor, in the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, I command you to leave Dylan and all of those at this tree in peace. Leave us now and go back to hell where you belong.”
His eyes flared bright then went dark and Dylan lay motionless on the ground before me.
I dropped to my knees and felt around his neck for a pulse. “Dylan.” Tears streamed down my face. I felt a heartbeat. “Dylan.” I shook him. “Dylan, wake up. Dylan!”
He moaned softly, but didn’t move.
That’s when I felt a presence beside me. That heavy feeling you get when you know someone’s watching you, but you haven’t seen them yet.
Agatha stood there looking down on us. Her hair was brushed back into a bun and her dress wasn’t dirty or ragged anymore. Her face was clean and smooth like porcelain. The doll in her hand looked new. “He’s gone, Kaitlyn. Praise the Lord, he’s gone.”
Surrounding her were nearly a dozen spirits. They were no longer broken or bloody, but whole. All the souls who must’ve died at that tree. Old Joe was there, too, smiling at me with those crooked teeth and that scraggly beard, but I didn’t see Hunter or Keisha. Then suddenly, one by one, they began to disappear. All except Agatha.
No longer scary or crazed, Agatha reached out to me. “I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so, so sorry for all the pain I’ve caused. I pray God will forgive me, and I pray you will, too.”
Her eyes were pools of loss and sorrow and hope. I wished all those people hadn’t died. I wished Hunter hadn’t died, and that I could see him one last time. I wished Agatha’s baby hadn’t been stolen from her and she hadn’t died either. She’d made mistakes. She’d definitely made some very bad choices, but now she was trying to make things right. And who was I to stop things from being made right? “Of course I forgive you, Agatha.”
She smiled at me, then she looked up to something above my head and past me. “Oh, my word. It’s beautiful.” She glanced down at me, then back up again. “Can you see the light, child? It’s the most beautiful thing.”
I looked over my shoulder, but saw nothing except darkness dappled in moonlight.
Agatha gasped, and I looked back at her. Her hand went to her mouth. “Henry? Mary?” Joyful tears streamed down her cheeks and she stepped forward. “Mary.” She reached out her hands, as if offering the doll to a child, and then simply disappeared.
Agatha Archer was gone. By the sound of it, she’d gone to be with Henry and her daughter. Finally. I gasped back a sob of relief and happiness and pain. There really was a place we went after we died. A place where all was forgiven and we could see our loved ones again. One day . . . maybe one day I’d see my daddy again, too.
“Kaitlyn?” Dylan sounded like he had a scratchy twig stuck in his throat.
“Here.” I rummaged around in my bag, fished out a partly drunk bottle of water, and offered him a sip. “Take a drink.”
He heaved himself up to his elbows and I helped him drink. “What happened?” He looked around the clearing, then up at the old oak. “Was Agatha here?”
“Yes.” Dylan shot upright, and I pressed him back to relax. “It’s okay. She’s gone now.”
“I thought I heard her.” He looked around, fear still in his eyes.
A little smile quivered on my lips. “I think she finally found peace. Same with the others.”
Dylan slowly sat up and probed his body, a look of sudden, fearful realization coming over his face. “Alastor”
“He’s gone, too.”
He let out a huge sigh, and putting his hand over mine, he squeezed my fingers. “You did it, Kaitlyn. I don’t know how, but you did it.”
I shook my head, heart still aching. Things were still unfinished somehow. “But I haven’t seen Hunter or Keisha. I don’t know if—”
“We’re right here.” Hunter’s voice was soft and strong and sexy, just like it had always been.
I stood up and turned around, pulling Dylan with me.
Hunter was whole and healthy, no longer charred or broken or bloody.
He smiled at me, then looked down and I realized I was still holding Dylan’s hand. I shook his fingers loose, guilt racking my heart, twisting my mind.
“It’s okay, Kaitlyn.” Hunter stepped toward me, the familiar, sexy Hunter grin making me all warm and tingly. Until I felt the chill where he rested his hands on my shoulders. “You are the love of my life. But if you had to be with anyone else, I’d want it to be Dylan.”
“No . . .” I swallowed back more tears in a glob of salty mucus.
Hunter just smiled and walked over to Dylan; his voice was low and whispery, just like when the boys used to be planning some crazy outing on my night off. I looked up at Keisha. She wasn’t bloody or burned anymore either. Soon as our eyes met, she threw her arms around me in an icy hug.
“I’m so sorry, girl,” she sniffled. “I don’t know what got into me. You weren’t even with Dylan when I got so mad. It’s like—like every little bit of jealousy I ever had exploded and took over my mind when I died.”
Taking a step back I looked at her. “Wait a second. I’m not with him.”
She gave my shoulder a chilly nudge and smiled. “Course you are. You just don’t know it yet. And that’s okay.”
My heart nearly burst. I wanted to cry and scream and laugh. I wanted Hunter and Dylan. I wanted them both. But Hunter. My beautiful, sexy, always-there-for-me Hunter was dead. Free now, but still dead. “Will you take care of him?” I gulped down a sob and looked at Hunter.
Keisha squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll be alright now, Kaitlyn. I can already see where we need to go.” She looked off into the distance, toward the same place Agatha had looked before she disappeared. “We just need to say our goodbyes first . . . Tell my parents I love them. Somehow let them know I’m at peace. Let them know that everything is going to be okay.” She kissed my cheek with frozen lips, then went over to Dylan. Face still pale and bloody with scratches, he was crying. This couldn’t be any easier for him than it was for me.
“Kaitlyn.” Hunter ran a chilly hand through my hair and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
I let out a gasping sob. “I—don’t—want—you—to—go.” I grabbed on to him, like he was some sort of partly tangible cloud that was ready to slip right through my fingers.
“Shh.” He held me close, but it was cold and wet, like being embraced by fog. “I know. I wish it hadn’t gone this way either, but we’ve got to make the best of it now, right? Just like we always said. No matter what hand life deals us, we’re got to make the best of it and do better than our parents.”
My body shook with sobs and snot plastered my hair to my face. “But I can’t. I can’t do it. Not without you.”
“Sure you can.” He smiled so that his dimples sunk in like dents in a Georgia peach.
“No. I can’t,” I whined, trying to cling to what was left of him.
He put his hands on my shoulders, sending shock waves of cold through my veins. Then he got that voice he used to have when he was trying to convince me I could do something I didn’t think possible. “Whatever happens with you and Dylan, he’ll always have your back. He’ll always be there if you need him. No matter what. But with or without him. With or without me, you can do anything you set your mind to. Anything. You’ve already done it.” He gestured to his now-healed phantom body. “If you think living in a little trailer park is gonna hold back the girl who sent a demon back to hell, freed a witch, and set me and Keisha free, then you’ve got another thing coming. You can do anything, Kaitlyn. And now I need you to promise me something.”
“Anything,” I gulped.
He smiled at me, that I-love-and-believe-in-you smile only Hunter could give. “You go on to college, just like we used to talk about. You become a nurse or whatever it is that suits you best. Just don’t stay here. And never let anyone tell you that you’re less than them. Or that you can’t do something. ’Cause you’re better than most. And you can do anything you want, Kaitlyn Karly. Anything at all.” He leaned forward and kissed me, his lips like broken ice, shattering my heart.
I savored the moment. Savored the kiss. Perfect and terrible.
And then he was gone.