Chapter 20 #3
That’s when Annabelle made a last-ditch effort.
The mouth split again, and a black, grotesque-looking hand shot out.
My god, was that the demon’s body?! The hand seized the side of Annabelle’s mouth like someone trying to climb out of a deep pit.
My soul recognized something about the sight before me being fundamentally wrong and I was inclined to agree.
I wanted to run. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to somehow stop this from happening, and the keening from my soul was one of pure protest. It was all I could do to stand my ground, and I didn’t enjoy a single second.
Gramps bellowed, “DO NOT ESCAPE YOUR CONFINES!”
Right, that was super-duper bad. It meant the demon could possess anyone without physically touching them, and I wanted no part playing that game. It would be the worst Duck, Duck, Goose imaginable.
Jo Jo abruptly sprinted past me, coming out of nowhere with the pail of holy water I kept in the truck.
He unleased it like a quarterback throwing a ball.
The pail sailed through the air and landed right against Annabelle’s torso.
The water splashed in the mouth, too, right against the demon’s flesh, and it screamed its damning wail of protest once more.
Pain wound through the sound, and the arm abruptly disappeared when the mouth snapped shut.
Annabelle’s focus was so homed on getting past us, it didn’t realize it’d made a fatal mistake turning its back on Gramps. He evoked an exorcism ritual, one I’d heard numerous times. The doll flinched, its ragged body shrinking another few inches.
Holy shit. Go, Gramps!
Whirling, it faced him again, but the control over its host was slipping.
The doll tottered, visibly weakening as Gramps spoke the incantation.
I didn’t know if it was Gramps’s power alone, or the exorcism, or the combination of us all pouring waves of protective energy against it, but something was working.
On an off-chance, I threw my own bit of magic against the demon. “Void!”
The doll shrank a bit more, the demon screaming in rage as it tried unleashing those deadly ribbons, but they sputtered in its hands, unable to form.
Gramps’s voice rose as he spoke in sharp command, “DAKA!”
With that one word, every bit of evil mojo the demon had collected escaped the body all at once, pouring out the mouth in a visible cloud, as if oil and smoke somehow combined in this awful, thick slime.
It shot toward the ceiling, leaving a black smear against the tiles.
The doll’s body trembled from head to toe.
Damn. I’d never seen that kind of gathering of rotten energy before, and I’d seen some gnarly shit.
My bond jittered with incoming panic at the sight, and I wasn’t in danger of getting hit by the energy. Er, at the moment.
The doll crumpled, shrinking to its normal size, wheezing.
As if Tiffany had been waiting for that very moment, she leapt from behind Gramps like an Olympic pole vaulter, one of Meemaw’s bags in hand.
She had the opening of the bag over Annabelle’s head in one go, smooth as peanut butter before she pulled the strings up, sweeping the doll completely off its feet and the drawstrings tautly together in one powerful, swift move.
I stared at the embroidered bag and felt relief flood through me. “Wow. Great job, everybody, seriously.”
A little cheer went up, and we all hugged each other and gave high fives because fuck yeah, we rocked.
Past Gramps, I could see Dad poking his head out of the Golden Cage. “Safe to move yet?”
“Not yet,” Gramps called back. He put another bag over the one Tiffany had used, double bagging the demon. “Everyone who has a warded bag, use it now. I would rather put as many barriers around this pest as possible until we get it back in the box.”
Er, assuming the box was finished. Last word had been they were almost done with the box and needed another hour. I had no sense of how long this battle had taken, but pretty sure I’d lost five years off my life.
“Uh, Gramps, you need help transporting it to the workshop?”
“I wish to take something of a guard with me, just in case, but we should be fine. Your father and I can handle putting it back in the new box.”
Dad’s face said he’d rather not, but he also didn’t disagree, so…he was apparently game. If not secretly thrilled at the privilege.
“Then I’m going to the front.” I turned and jogged for the front of the store, checking in our missing three as I moved. “Evan, Ethan, you okay?”
Jo Jo jogged alongside with me.
“Sore, bruised, embarrassed, but yeah, okay.” Ethan sounded absolutely done. “I’m going to find glitter in every orifice for the next year. Ugh, I hate this shit. You got the arsehole?”
“We do.”
“Thank Christ. I never want to fight in a Walmart ever again. This sucked.”
“Preach, my brother.”
Not that we ever really got to pick our battlefields. I’d still take a Walmart over fighting EFTs or underwater any day.
By time I reached the front entrance, Kris already had the warded box in hand, because she’s the best. Seeing her safe, knowing the threat was eliminated, it hit me—the battle was over, and the tension that had clutched my heart the last twelve hours melted away.
I nearly sagged with relief, but there was still work to do.
“Uncle Ty just brought it to us,” she reported happily. “So we can stuff the doll in here without worrying about transport.”
Jo Jo took it from her, volunteering, “I’ll take it to them.”
“Thanks, man.”
I folded Kris into a hug because I ached with the need to hug my wife.
I felt so much better now that the danger was past. She hugged me back just as tightly.
I knew she’d been just as scared, just as worried for both of us.
We embraced for a long moment, and I felt like I could finally, finally breathe out.
Like having my wife safely in my arms was the actual signal of the battle’s end, not the defeat of a demon.
My heart had definite opinions where Kris was concerned.
“That looked intense,” she noted. “And Gramps is a badass.”
“Hell yeah he is.” I pulled her close, kissing her temple. “Thank you, lao po.”
“Just so you know,” she mumbled against my chest, “I am absolutely never shopping here again.”
I laughed, the rest of my tension easing. Who could blame her?