Chapter Five

Jake

I waited for Meena at the top of the stairs. It took all of my self-control not to go spy. I didn’t like Bane being around her. He might be a demon but he was still a guy. I’d seen the way he’d looked at her and I knew what he was thinking.

Meena came up the stairs with her mouth set in a thin line.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

“As well as it could.”

Once we were back in her car, she handed me a twenty. “Bane paid me. Half of this is yours since you went everywhere I went today.”

Should I take it?

“I didn’t want it, either,” Meena said. “You can give it to your aunt for groceries if you want.”

Not a bad idea. “Okay.” I took the money and shoved it in my pocket. “Now what?”

“Good question.” She started the car. “I think I need ice cream.”

“Is that a medical diagnosis?” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.

“Yes.” She drove out of the lot and onto the street. “For stress reduction.”

“Works for me.” I didn’t ask where we were going because there was probably only one place to go for ice cream in this podunk town. That brought up another question. “Why are demons and vampires and witches in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Illinois?”

“Southern-nowhere Illinois,” Meena corrected. “Most people only think of Chicago when you say Illinois.”

I’d been to Chicago with my mom. “That’s about seven hours from here, right?”

Meena nodded. “People do stop here on the way through to the big city. Maybe that’s why creatures set up camp.”

A thought was forming in my brain. “Do you think all the pageant girls come from families who’ve sold their souls?”

Meena hit the brakes a little too hard at a red light. “I’m going to be seriously pissed off if my dad sold his soul so my sisters could collect tiaras and hang them on their walls.”

When the light turned green, she took a right down a side street and then drove to an ice cream shop that looked like it should have existed in the 1950s. Through the front windows you could see people sitting at a counter with chrome stools. There were tables with black-and-white striped tablecloths and chrome chairs. It would have been cool if everyone inside wasn’t watching us as we exited the car.

“What’s their problem?” I asked.

“You’re new in town,” she said. “You’ll get that look everywhere you go for a few weeks until people adjust.”

“Great.” I opened the door for Meena and a bell rang out. She headed straight for a booth in the back, so I followed. The sweet vanilla smell of waffle cones filled the air. We’d barely sat when a waitress wearing a retro uniform swooped down on us.

“Hello, Meena,” she sing-songed. “Who’s your new friend?”

“Casey, this is Jake,” Meena said. “He’s staying with his Aunt Zelda this summer.”

“Zelda?” Casey wrinkled her nose. And then she forced a laugh. “That should be fun. Zelda is such an interesting character. What can I get for you?”

“A chocolate shake in a to-go cup,” Meena said.

“Make that two.” We might want to make a quick getaway.

“Sure.” Casey turned on the charm again and sauntered off.

“Sorry,” Meena said. “I shouldn’t have mentioned Zelda.”

“It’s better to know who is fake up front,” I said. “And I’m pretty sure Aunt Zelda doesn’t give a crap what people think of her.”

Meena grinned. “Probably not.”

“Since you don’t blend, where do you plan on going after high school?”

“Any place but here for a start. I’m the youngest of three girls. Janice is twenty-five. She got married last summer and moved to Chicago. Laura is twenty-two and she lives an hour away in this really cool apartment above the dance studio where she teaches classes. Neither of them were interested in college. My grandma started college funds for all three of us with the stipulation that the money could only be used for school. Anyone who didn’t go to college forfeited the money and it rolled into the next grandchild’s account.”

“So you’re set to go wherever you want?” I had to admit, I was jealous. My mom paid bills by the skin of her teeth or by living off her latest boyfriend.

“I can’t go to Harvard, but I can manage a state school. This will only make me look nerdier, but I have all my applications filled out and ready to go.”

“That is pretty nerdy,” I agreed.

“How about you?” she asked.

“I want to go to a trade school. I like building things and fixing stuff.”

“That’s cool.”

“And it comes in handy when you’re trying to escape demons,” I said.

She nodded. “Yes, it does.”

The waitress brought our shakes. I took a drink and wow. “This town may be infested by supernatural creatures, but this is the best shake I’ve ever tasted. Way better than McDonald’s.”

“Are McDonald’s shakes the only kind you’ve ever had?” Meena asked.

I nodded as I took another drink.

“I have no idea what fast food restaurants put in their shake machines, but these are made with real ice cream and milk. And given a choice, I could exist on an all ice cream diet. At least until I grew out of all of my clothes.”

Once we were done with our shakes, I paid with the twenty Meena had given me.

“You don’t have to pay.” Her cheeks turned pink.

“Considering where the money came from, you shouldn’t argue.” I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. “And this is probably the strangest first date ever, but it’s still a date.”

She grinned and her eyes sparkled. “Oh, okay.”

…

Meena

Jake didn’t need to know this was only my fourth first date. I didn’t have a great track record with dating in this town, due to my inability to pretend I gave a crap about sports or other manly hobbies. Everyone else in the ice cream shop was probably more than aware of that fact. I held my head high as we exited the building. When we reached my car, I frowned at the blue envelope stuck under my windshield wiper. What the hell?

I plucked it from underneath the black metal arm and climbed into the car. Once the doors were shut and I had the car started with the air running full blast, I ripped the stupid envelope open. “Why is he bothering me again?”

“Did your bracelet go off?” Jake asked.

“No.” I read the note inside. Report to Carol’s house for training at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.

“What? No.” I’d agreed to work for Carol because it fit my schedule of staying up late and sleeping in. I glanced around. “Do you think Bane can hear me?”

“I have no idea.” He pointed at my bracelet. “Maybe your bracelet has some sort of voice mail.”

Not the craziest thing I’d heard today. “Bane, if you’re listening, the contract I signed didn’t specify any timeframe. I’ll go to Carol’s at ten, not eight.”

I waited. Nothing happened.

“Do you think he heard you?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know.” I reached up to rub my temples to fight off the headache I could feel coming on.

“If you’re done for the day, do you want to go back to my aunt’s house to see if we can find any more useful information in those books?”

“I don’t have a better idea.” I checked the time on my dashboard. “I don’t need to be home to cook dinner until four.”

“You cook?” he asked as I turned the car on and pulled out of the parking spot.

“Of course I do.” I glanced at him. “Please tell me you don’t eat McDonald’s all the time.”

“Hamburgers and fries are my go-to meal. My mom stopped cooking after my dad died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It is what it is. I’ve spilled my guts about my home life. What about your family?”

I sighed. “My dad manages Holland’s, which is our local drug store.”

“And your mom?” he asked.

The only good thing about living in a small town was everybody already knew about my mom. I didn’t have to share the story. I swallowed and blinked. “I’ll tell you when we reach your aunt’s house. I shouldn’t talk about it when I’m driving.”

“Okay.” He sounded confused, but he’d understand soon enough. One of the reasons I liked to live in books is that real life mostly let me down. I turned on the radio so Jake wouldn’t feel like he had to talk. Plus I needed some time to prep myself for the ugly reveal.

I headed out of town and soon we were on the gravel road that led out toward his aunt’s house. Dust flew through the air. The old two-lane road seemed bumpier than usual.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this.” Jake put his hand on my shoulder. “I think you should slow down.”

I checked the speedometer and I was going twenty miles over the speed limit. “Shit.” I hit the brakes and both of us flew forward against our seat belts. Jake braced himself against the dash.

“Sorry.” I steered the car to the shoulder of the road. “Maybe you should drive.”

“Yeah, I think so.”

I climbed out of the car and Jake and I traded seats. What the heck was wrong with me? I never sped…or speeded…or whatever the past tense of speed was. It had been an emotional day. Thinking about my mom on top of that must be messing with my brain.

Once we were back on the road, Jake reached over and grabbed my hand. “You don’t have to tell me about your family.”

I enjoyed the sensation of his warm hand wrapped around mine. “No. It’s only fair.” I took a deep breath and then dove in. “My mom was bipolar. I didn’t understand that when I was younger. I knew she had giant mood swings. Her highs were actually kind of fun until she hit the manic stage. Then nothing was good enough. When she swung into a low she blocked out the world. I thought she was reading. That’s one of the reasons I became a bookworm. She’d sit at the library and stare at books for hours. I didn’t realize she wasn’t turning the pages until I heard the librarians talking about it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” I slid down in my seat. “It gets worse. Doctors prescribed medication for her, and she’d take it for a little while. She’d get better, we’d be happy, but then I’d find her pills stuffed between the couch cushions, or inside the box of cereal between the wax paper and the cardboard. And she’d spiral down into depression, denying the entire time that she’d stopped taking her pills.”

“That’s rough.”

“Hold your sympathy. My mom and dad had a huge fight. He told her she had to take her pills or he was going to leave her and take us with him, so she did. She took the entire bottle and chased it with a bunch of sleeping pills.”

“Shit,” he said. “She killed herself?”

“Mostly.” I took a shuddering breath. “She’s in a vegetative state at Haven Nursing Home.”

“And that’s why your dad drinks every night and why you don’t like alcohol.”

“And everyone in town knows the story,” I said, “which is another reason why I can’t wait to leave.”

“I don’t blame you.”

I stared out the window.

“Now that you know about the demons and their deals, did you ever wonder why your dad didn’t try to make a deal to help your mom?”

“Shit. Now I am.”

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No. It’s a reasonable question. I guess the person selling their soul has to want whatever it is more than their own life.”

“Like my dad wanting my mom.”

“In a way what your dad did is tragically romantic,” I said. “He’d rather have ten years with her than live a long life without her.”

“I guess. I still think it’s bullshit. There should have been another way. I can’t imagine any situation where I’d be willing to trade my life for someone else.”

“I can. What if you had a terminal disease? You could trade your life for something good for someone else.”

…

Jake

At that point I’d be trading my soul for a cure to whatever disease I had, so her argument didn’t make sense. I wasn’t going to point that out to her. I squeezed her hand and said, “I guess so.”

As we drove down the road toward my aunt’s house I was surprised to see all the lights on. Like all the lights. The store lights and the bedroom lights and even something in the attic.

“What’s that all about?” Meena pointed at the house.

“I have no idea.” It wouldn’t be dark for a few more hours. “Maybe it’s a bug in the alarm system.” I parked and stared at the house. Something about this didn’t feel right. Not that much had felt right today. “Maybe I should call before we go in.” I didn’t want to interrupt my aunt if she was in the middle of some woo-woo ritual. I touched her name on my cell, hit speaker phone, and waited. The phone rang and rang. No one answered.

“Why would all the lights be on if no one is home?” Meena asked.

“Maybe she turned her phone off so she could meditate?”

“Does she do that a lot?” Meena asked.

“Yes.” I’d seen Aunt Zelda chanting and humming to herself on several occasions. Given what had happened today, that no longer ranked high on the weird meter. “We can’t sit here all night.” I turned off the ignition and unhooked my seat belt. “I’m going in. You can wait in the car if you want.”

“Or,” Meena said, “I could call Carol to see what she knows.”

Something bad could be going on right now. “I have to make sure Aunt Zelda is okay.” She was the only person who gave a crap about me. I climbed out of the car and headed up the walk. I heard Meena follow behind me. When I unlocked the front door, the alarm beeped. I punched in the code and all was silent.

“Maybe she turned all the lights on to brighten things up,” Meena said. “It’s been a creepy sort of day.”

“Maybe.” But it’s not like lights would keep Bane away. I headed over to the stairs which led to the second floor and the bedrooms. The sound of a television show drifted down to us. I could smell some sort of smoke.

When we reached the second floor I realized it wasn’t a television, more like a whispered conversation, and it was coming from my aunt’s room. I walked over and poked my head in her open doorway. She was seated on the floor, surrounded by candles, and she was talking to no one. Maybe this was some kind of chanting ritual. I ducked back out before she could open her eyes and acknowledge me.

“What’s going on?” Meena asked.

I headed toward the television room we’d been in earlier. “She’s talking or chanting or something. I didn’t want to interrupt her.”

“As long as she doesn’t start screaming, I guess we’ll assume she’s okay?” Meena said it like she was asking a question as she followed me back to the flowery couch we’d sat on earlier.

“That’s my plan.” I sat on the couch and she joined me.

Meena ran her hand back through her hair, brushing it off her face. “Is it just me, or do you have a sense of impending doom?”

I laughed. “Now that you mention it. Maybe I should distract you.” I reached over and turned off the lamp that was way too bright for the small room. There was plenty of light from the hallway and the window, so I could still see Meena smiling at me like she knew what I planned to do. Moving slowly so I wouldn’t spook her, I leaned in and pressed my mouth against hers. She sighed and kissed me back. I’d never been into nerdy girls, but Meena was changing my mind.

Laughter came close to my ear, which was bizarre since Meena was kissing me. I froze and pulled away from her. “Did you hear that?”

“Someone turned the light out,” a singsong voice drifted through the air. “And we like to play in the dark.”

“Jake,” Meena said, and then she was tugged from my arms and dumped onto the floor.

“Is that your name?” An apparition appeared in front of me. It was hazy and gray like smoke, but there were eyes and lips that curved in a smile. “We like it.”

And then something was pressing against my face, keeping me from breathing.

I shoved at the smoke but my hands passed right through it. Another set of hands grabbed my arm and tugged. I couldn’t move.

Meena flipped the light on. The smoke swirled away from me and smacked into Meena, knocking her to the floor.

“What the hell was that?” I yelled.

“Jake.” Aunt Zelda’s voice came from down the hall. She appeared in the doorway and looked at me and then Meena sprawled on the floor. “Did you turn the light off?”

I helped Meena up. “Yes.”

“From now on, if you see all the lights on, please leave them that way. I was communing with some spirits but when you open the door, sometimes ghosts sneak through.”

I scrubbed at my face. “Aren’t those the same things?”

“No,” Zelda said. “Spirits are people at rest who’ve moved on. They’ll cross over to communicate with the living. Ghosts have unresolved issues and they like to mess with people.”

“It looked like that ghost was trying to kiss you,” Meena said.

“More like trying to suffocate me.” I grimaced. “My mouth tastes like an ashtray. I’m going to brush my teeth.”

“Ghosts are more active in the shadows, so don’t turn off any lights until I’ve smudged the house,” my aunt said.

I headed for the bathroom. Meena followed close on my heels. “You’re not leaving me alone with some ghost.”

“We should stick together.” When I walked into the bathroom, I kicked my boxers and jeans into a pile behind the door before I grabbed a bottle of mouthwash. I rinsed twice and then brushed my teeth.

Meena looked slightly amused.

“What?”

She laughed. “A ghost shoved me aside so she could kiss you. You should probably find that flattering.”

“I don’t.” It hadn’t felt sexy, it had felt mean…not evil or anything, just like the ghost was trying to do something to cause trouble. In case the specter was listening, I said, “I only date the living.”

“That’s a smart policy.” Meena glanced out into the hall. “Maybe we should do some research while your aunt does her white sage thing.”