Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
“Mulberries!” I yell and grab my chest when I realize it’s not a ghoulish demon voice screaming to take Charlie away.
It's just the kettle. My heart feels like it’s about to leap out of my chest. Thank the gods I’m sitting down.
I have to double over and brace my hands on my knees to stop from puking.
Charlie points at the kettle. “You might want to…”
I straighten up and go right for the stove. “So that was bad timing.”
“The worst. I think I’ll have that tea now.”
My hands shake while I prepare our tea. I pour the water and end up splashing myself, but I ignore it. I use lavender and chamomile, anything to calm me down. No matter how much I try to steady my shaking hands it’s no use and the teacups clatter against the saucers when I carry them to the table.
Charlie gives me a knowing look as he sits down with me. “So, ah, demon voices?” I ask.
He gives me a glum nod. “Yeah, demon voices. Kind of sucks the big one.”
I don’t ask what the big one is. “How do you know they’re demon voices? They could be human.”
“There’s something to them that doesn’t feel human. It doesn’t feel like it’s anything I’ve ever heard except for one time before.”
That has me interested. “What did you hear before?”
“Wrath,” Charlie says softly and gives me a furtive look.
“When I first met him he was making a deal with me even though I didn’t realize it, for my games book.
He was in human form but he slipped, just for a second and I heard it.
His voice changed, it was like…like death. It was in my head. Powerful stuff.”
Death.
I blow on my tea and think for a second. “Why do I have a feeling this is connected to the mini-demons?” The timing of everything is far too neat to be coincidence. “I’m right aren’t I? The mini-demons are in on this?” I ask him.
He clears his throat and toys with the tea saucer in front of him.
“I think you’re right. I-I think they were looking for me.
I think maybe it’s them that I’ve been hearing when I try to use the book lately.
Tonight…it didn’t happen at first. I thought maybe it was over, just one of those magic book things but when I went to bed, they came.
It was worse this time. I was dreaming, I could feel them there with me.
The demons. They were evil, so evil, they wanted me to give them the book.
I think the demons came to my house last night for the book. ”
“Where were you when the demons came last night? You saw them, right? How?”
“I was in the graveyard,” he says without explanation, which has my attention.
“What were you doing in the graveyard?”
“Graveyard things.”
I sip my tea. “Charlie, I’m going to need more than that.
You say you made me into a witch and I’m not going to lie…
I feel something, right here,” I say tapping my finger against my chest. “So I believe you and I’m your friend so I want you to know mini-demons, full-size demons, whatever it is I’m with you till the end but we gotta have some transparency here. What if the mini-demons come here?”
He bites his lip and then sighs. “Okay, you’re right. I didn’t even think they might come here….and I used the book. Shit fuck.” He looks towards the windows. “We might need to keep a lookout.”
“And we will, no one’s getting past us, but the graveyard?”
“Right. The graveyard. I was trying to figure out if I could use the hallowed ground to do a little sanctification on my book,” he tells me before he gets up and goes to the window over the sink and peers out into the night.
I laugh. I can’t help it. “Why there? We both know that ground isn’t holy. The graveyard is about as holy as any place in Sweet Tooth. Which, if I had to count, would be negative holy points. You couldn’t sanctify a mini pig there.”
Charlie whirls from the window and gives me a ‘what the fuck’ look. “What do you mean it’s not holy and what do you mean we both know that, because no we did not know that. How is it not sanctified? It’s a graveyard!”
“Charlie, the graveyard belonged to a cult that prayed to a demon and murdered virgins under a full moon. When would that ground ever be sanctified? You basically went to a demon paradise with your demon phone book.”
“I can’t believe I did that and my book isn’t a demon phone.”
“So you went to the unholy ground of the graveyard and that’s where you saw the demons from?”
“Yeah, I saw about a dozen of them flood from the trees and just like that,” he snaps his fingers, “they lit my house up like a bonfire.”
“If they talk to you through the book wouldn’t they have wanted that? I mean, if that’s the whole reason they were there. A fire would have destroyed the demon phone.”
“Not this demon phone,” Charlie replies before he can stop himself. He groans and glares at me. “Now you got me saying it.”
I raise my tea mug. “It’s factual.”
“Fair play. The thing is, my book is fireproof.”
I blink in surprise. “How is that possible?”
“Because it’s magic, baby. It’s indestructible, so even if they tried to barbecue me the book was always going to be fine.”
“So then the mini-demon army doesn’t want you. They want the book.”
“Yup.”
I tap my chin and think over what I know about demons, which isn’t a lot except when you stack it up against a regular person. “Demons want souls. An offering, right? If they destroy you, could they still take your soul? Why would your soul be worth so much effort?”
Charlie opens his mouth like he’s going to answer me before he closes it again. “I didn’t think about that, but now that I am, I’m scared about them taking my soul after I’m dead. They can’t do that, right? You can’t hoover a soul out after the person croaks?”
“I have no idea on the logistics of soul-sucking, but we could ask Wrath,” I say and try to sidestep the part where he said dead. There was a reason I said destroy and not dead.
Death, dying, dead.
All of it all makes me think of what happened to Nina. I can still see the dark stain of her blood on her dress before she crumpled to the ground. I’ll never forget how that same thing almost happened to me if Buffy hadn’t rescued me.
Dead.
I’d be gone. Long gone and not even my parents would care because they would have gotten rewarded with a bigger house, more money, better rations.
My hands curl into fists and the power in me grows there.
It hums along my fingertips and settles into the palm of my hand.
I startle when I look down and see light shining through my fist. I have to squeeze my fingers tight to stop Charlie from seeing it.
I don’t think I have the mental energy to deal with mini-demons that might want Charlie’s soul and the fact that I have powers now.
Slow and steady, Meadow. One magical crisis at a time.
Sunday has been setting wards around town but the fact that they broke through once means they can do it again. I get up from the table and move to the living room windows. I pull back the curtains and scan the street. There isn’t a single light on. Everyone is asleep.
“Do you really think they’ll come here?” I ask him.
“Probably, yeah,” he whispers. “I can go,” he tells me hurriedly, “I don’t want you or anyone else in town to get hurt.
I’ll-I know that I can figure this out but I thought that the demon shit was just going to be in here,” he says and taps a finger to his temple.
“I never thought that they’d show up and find me like that.
I’m sorry for bringing this down on you. I’m so sorry, Meadow.”
The only way to describe Charlie’s face is anguished. He’s distraught and ready to leave if I give the word. I’d never do that. I know what it’s like to wake up and not have a home. I get what it’s like to suddenly have the world change on you.
“You aren’t going anywhere. This is your home now and you’re going to be safe here.”
“Meadow, I mean it. You don’t have to risk your life over me. I’ll go pack right now.” Charlie turns to go back down the hallway to his room but I stop him. Whatever Charlie has to say isn’t going to make a difference so I tell him that.
“You’re stuck with me. End of story, roomie.”
He opens and closes his mouth and then smiles at me. “Thanks, roomie.”
“No problem. I mean what are roomies for if you can’t face down an army of mini-demons with them, right?” I ask and that gets me a laugh which means I’ve won the battle of Charlie not running out of my house and into the night.
When it comes to keeping watch for the mini-demons we paper rock scissors it. I win because I have the uncanny ability to know what Charlie is going to throw because he silently mouths the word before he does.
He groans. “You’re a witch and a psychic?”
“I’m not, you’re just really bad at this game.”
I make Charlie go back to bed and I settle down onto a chair I dragged over to the window to keep watch. I sit for half an hour before I get up to check everything again. I feel antsy. Like something, anything, could happen at any second. In my case, that’s true. I woke up a witch after all.
“I’m going to have to tell Buffy,” I whisper to myself as I check the doors and locks for the fiftieth time that night. I can’t text this to her, so I’ll have to tell her when I see her tomorrow. There’s a town meeting at eight o’clock that I’ll have to catch her at.
“Hey, guess what? I’m a witch now. Neat, huh?” I practice and rub my temples. There’s no way Buffy isn’t going to freak out when she finds out I’m a witch, especially when I’m a man-made witch.
“Stupid demon phone.” I can’t believe Charlie’s book is filling his head with voices.
The thing might be a beacon for evil now for all we know.
I go back to the living room windows and nudge the curtains open.
I peer outside, trying to see if I can catch a glimpse of an army of mini-demons on the hunt for Charlie’s book but it’s no dice.
The almost full moon bathes the world in cold light, not a soul moves outside, or at least not a bipedal one.
I see Velma, Ms. Donna’s cat on the move. The calico cat swishes her way down the street with grace and speed that makes me think she’s got somewhere specific to be. I wonder where she’s going at this time of night. I watch the cat until she turns right at the next block and vanishes out of sight.
For a wild second, I think about following her on account of her going in the direction of Charlie’s old house but I don’t. If there’s demons out, mini or not, it’s best to stay inside with Charlie.