by Brian Corley
Zoe resumed her sentry duty in a defensive position
with a look of unintimidated determination screwed tightly on her face.
“What—the—fuuck?!” Max said.
“What-the-fuck-was-that?” Lin added.
“What-the-fuuck-was-that!” said Quinton.
“Shhh!” Zoe said. Her left hand reached out low behind her, palm flat, to silence the room.
Rather than cower in my room helplessly, I rose up through the ceiling and poked my head above the shingles of the roof and scanned for Willard and Masephson. I couldn’t see them, so I floated a little higher, turning in a complete circle and looking for any place they might be hiding. There really weren’t many options as most of the neighbors kept tidy yards. They could be behind one of the houses, so I did a fast sweep of the streets on the block, checking behind and around every house. I got to the end of our street and rose high above the neighborhood—still nothing. I felt comfortable that they decided to retreat for the night as Masephson didn’t strike me as the type to hide and ambush. He was more than likely reporting back on everything that just went down.
I flew back to the house, up to the front door, and bounced right off it. Hmm … should have seen that coming, I guess. I floated above and down through the roof into the living room where everyone maintained their positions.
Chapter 29
“They’re gone,” I said, my voice crackling through the speakers in the room.
The room seemed to exhale all at once, and the Psy-kicks relaxed their posture, some shaking out their arms and legs just as they would after any sparring match or competition.
“What was that?” Max asked.
“That was Willard and his mentor—” I started. Dammit, what was his name? “It was Willard and a demon.”
Zoe smiled, admiring Lin’s sword, flipping it from hand to hand, then giving it a twirl.
“Quinton, great work. These saved us tonight,” she said.
Quinton smiled, admiring his own sword as he ran his fingers over the carvings. “Thanks,” he said. “I can’t believe I was able to just hold him down like that.”
“Great job tonight, y’all. Everyone kicked ass!” Zoe exclaimed.
A collective whoop filled the house followed by a couple high fives and hugs. Tammy slapped Max on the ass. “Good game,” she said as she went on to high five Lin. After a few minutes, Zoe held her hands up to settle down the room.
“Alright, alright—grab a seat,” she said, bringing the room to attention. The group settled in and took positions on the couch, the one chair, and the floor. I hovered next to Zoe as she kicked off her post-battle speech. “OK, so again, good job tonight. That was scary, but you all hung in, and I’m proud of you.” She scanned the room making eye contact with every person there. “No one panicked, no one ran—you stuck to your training, and it paid off.”
The room filled with a mutual pride as eyes lit up and humble smiles emerged on the faces in the semicircle.
“This was a new one for us—we faced down an actual demon tonight. I want you to know that during my time with Kevin Yang, we saw clients who were possessed—or alleged to be possessed. We came in and chased them out—or in some cases, discovered the issue wasn’t spiritual, but chemical. We never saw what you witnessed here. I’ve never seen that. There is no mistaking what we did tonight—we faced down a demon and won.”
The group clapped, and there were a couple of whoops. Zoe smiled, then held up her hands to quiet down the room again.
“Celebrate this. Know what you’re capable of, believe in yourself, but don’t think this is over. Jonah, we need you to tell us everything that happened out there and don’t leave out a thing. Every detail you can give us is critical.”
The speakers came to life in the room as I gave them the whole story, without embellishment this time. I was lucky to make it out at all.
I’m not sure what would have happened to me exactly … I just knew I was scared. When I was alive, death was the overriding fear. I buckled my seat belt because I didn’t want to die in a car wreck—among other things. I was afraid of the ocean because I was afraid of being eaten by a shark. OK, that one was a good fear to have, but exaggerated.
My mom let me watch Jaws when I was in second grade. Couple that with the old James Bond movie Thunderball, where they trap him in a pool with a shark, and I was set up with a complex for life. Seriously, I thought a shark would attack me in a pool. Who lets elementary schoolkids watch those types of movies? Answer—my mom.
Anyway, now that I was dead, I didn’t know exactly what I should fear, but I had a similar type of mortal terror overwhelm me in those moments with Masephson. I wasn’t sure what it was he could do to me, but I was certain it was bad.
After I ran through the play-by-play of the altercation, Zoe had me go through it again a couple more times. After the third retelling, the room went silent, and she went to the kitchen to collect the whiteboard off the fridge. She came back without a word spoken among the group.
“OK,” she started, “let’s brainstorm. Last night, Willard arrived at midnight with three other spirits. Tonight, he arrived at the same time with a demon. Tomorrow, we should expect some combination of the two, or worse. Let’s hear some ideas.” Zoe looked at the group expectantly and waited.
“Alamo,” said Lin, right out of the gate.
“Great idea! Jonah, pop down to San Antonio and bring back Bowie, Travis, and Davy Crockett,” Max drawled.
“Not helpful, Max, we’re brainstorming here. We need ideas,” Zoe rebuked Max with a stare that would freeze molten steel.
“Actually, I like the Alamo idea,” I offered. “We don’t know what or who they’re bringing with them tomorrow night, but we do know the wards work. They can’t get through, and if they do, we’ll hit them with the swords. I say we double down on defense and utilize every resource we can between now and then.”
“Aren’t we all overlooking the fact that we lost the Alamo?” Max said.
“Shut up, Max. Thanks, Jonah. I think you’re on the right track,” Zoe said, nodding her head. “OK, what else can we use that we haven’t thought of already?”
One of the Psy-kicks whose name I didn’t know spoke up. She had a streak of purple in her hair tonight—looked cool. “My mom used to hang evil eyes around the house and at the front door. I could grab some tomorrow.”
“Good,” Zoe said, rolling her hand to encourage further responses. “What else?”
“We could bring Debra and her friends in, or have them set up a ritual or something,” Quinton offered.
“Yes! Good, Quinton.” Zoe rolled her hand more excitedly. “What else?”
“Let’s reach out to Father Chandler at St. Raphael’s,” I said through the speakers. “He seemed like he wanted to help out with Willard, but couldn’t because he could only perform exorcisms with demons. Well, now we have a demon problem.”
Tammy shifted awkwardly, but Zoe snapped her fingers. “Good, I’ll reach out to him tomorrow.”
“The Alamo is a good idea,” I offered, “but what if they couldn’t see us at all? Maybe I can get DeeDee and Jeremy over here to make it look like Max leveled the place out of spite. If there’s no house, maybe Willard moves on from his obsession with this place. If they figure it out, we still have our defenses—this would just give us another layer.”
“A cloaking device—I love it!” Max clapped and pointed in no particular direction. “See? All those years of sci-fi and video games are finally paying off, despite everything Mr. Gunderson said!”
“Mr. Gunderson?” I asked. “What the—that struck deep. Let’s explore this.”
“Let’s not,” Zoe said, putting her foot down.
Zoe mapped out a plan and assigned everyone a task, whether it was picking up supplies, making a phone call,
or both. My task was to
reach out to DeeDee and Jeremy immediately.
I blinked over to Tarrytown and floated up the front walk to their house. I could hear Jeremy from behind the door. “Deeds, it’s Jonah.”
She answered the door a few seconds later. “Hi Jonah,” she said with a smile. “Come on in.” DeeDee was outfitted in a green-and-white patterned wrap dress with green heels, while Jeremy reclined in a navy wool cardigan over a gray-and-red checked shirt with tan pants and slippers.
“How did you know it was me?” I asked, walking in.
“No one else comes over to visit—ever. Who else would it be?” Jeremy replied from the couch without turning his head or making any effort to get up. DeeDee shot Jeremy a look.
“What?” he said. “Seriously, he’s the only one that ever comes by.”
Jazz was playing through the house although I couldn’t quite place who it was, not that I was some expert in jazz anyway. To be honest, a lot of it sounds the same to me.
“What are you up to?” she asked.
“I need your help.”
“Shocking,” Jeremy replied.
“Jeremy,” DeeDee said.
“Fine,” Jeremy said, “how can we help you, Jonah?”
I relayed the night’s events as well as the background on Willard.
“Jesus,” Jeremy said in such a way that—to my surprise—made it sound like he was interested. “What do you need from us?”
I went on to tell them about our plans for the next night.
“Yeah, we can do that, I suppose,” Jeremy said after taking in the plan.
“Really?” I asked. That seemed too easy.
“Yes, really, but if you want this done, we need to do it now. I’m sure as hell not showing up tomorrow night to do it. I’m not risking running into that crowd—oh no, no thank you.”
Now that sounded about right for Jeremy, and hey, at least he was willing to help this time. Maybe we were becoming friends.
“Thank you,” I said, relieved. “You’re really helping me out of a tight spot here.”
“I know,” he said as he got up from the couch and walked toward me and DeeDee.
“Alright, Jonah,” DeeDee said, “let’s go.”
They positioned themselves close to me, and I blinked them back over to my house, which DeeDee and Jeremy surveyed from the street.
“This is your house?” Jeremy asked.
“Yep,” I replied.
“I don’t get it. Everything you’ve described over—this?”
He stood in the street with his right elbow resting in his left hand while the fingers of his right hand supported his chin with his palm to his Adam’s apple. He waved his hand into the air and said, “I would just move.”
“Jeremy!” DeeDee exclaimed. “So rude.” She turned to me. “Sorry, Jonah.”
“No offense, Jonah,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, no offense taken—how could I be offended by that?” I trailed off.
Jeremy rolled his eyes and went to work slamming a huge garbage receptacle full of construction debris into the front yard. He warped one side of the house into the appearance of a large pile of dirt.
Taking a cue from his work, DeeDee set about her work on the other side of the house, obscuring it into a massive pile of dirt, and so on and so on until the house was no longer visible. The two architects floated back and surveyed their work from the street, conferring and commenting on each other’s efforts.
Jeremy created a bulldozer, and DeeDee created a backhoe set on opposite ends of the property. After a couple more private conferences, they laid down some tracks in the dirt and made a huge scar through the front of the yard as the main access point from the street. They rose up one at a time to check and recheck, then invited me up to see what I thought.
“Well,” Jeremy drawled, “how’s this?”
I looked down on what appeared to be the remnants of a demolished house. Just piles of dirt, debris, and an overflowing dumpster—it was convincing enough for me. I made careful note of the debris that now marked the front door and the top of the house so that I could get back in later.
“Looks great,” I replied. “Just like a construction site. Willard is going to be pissed.”
“Well then, our work here is done. Deeds?”
“Happy to help out, Jonah. Anything else we can do?” DeeDee asked.
“Nope, I think that does it for me. I really appreciate it,” I replied.
I took them both by the arm and blinked us back to their house. Once back in their ultra-modern showpiece of a home, Jeremy pulled something from his sweater and handed it to me. It was a white, oversized envelope.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Your invoice,” he said through a yawn.
I opened the envelope, and sure enough, it was an invoice for $25,000. I floated over to their coffee table and materialized a briefcase.
“Great. Do you take cash?” I asked as I opened the briefcase revealing stacks of $100 bills. “You don’t have to count it in front of me. I left you a little something extra for your trouble.”
That actually got a bit of a laugh out of Jeremy, and I felt like I was starting to win him over.
DeeDee laughed and turned to Jeremy with wide eyes. “Jeremy, we’re rich! We’re rich! Our money problems are over. I’m going to buy a giraffe with all this.”
“Bye, Jonah,” Jeremy said as he halfheartedly jumped up and down with DeeDee. She was turning him in circles with a huge sarcastically playful smile on her face.
“Bye, Jonah,” she said, laughing. “Thanks for all the money!”
I smiled, waved, and blinked back home. The house was dark, and Max was asleep, so I decided to wind my night down with some home-improvement television. I turned on the TV to find that—coincidentally—it was demo day. Nice. I watched an excited host hand out helmets and awkwardly cajole two property owners into smashing up their old kitchen, and eventually I faded out.
Chapter 30
I faded in the next night to a quiet house, which was surprising, considering what was to come. Wary that something may be up, I phased my head just a few inches through my door. I could tell the house was darker than normal, but not completely dark. The living room was lit by what appeared to be a little over a dozen candles. The furniture remained to the sides of the room to allow for a clear, open space. The Psy-kicks sat cross-legged, meditating in a circle on the floor.
Relieved, I phased through the door to my room and joined the circle. I could feel an energy around them as I drew closer and watched the candle flicker violently as I came near. The group looked up almost as one as they sensed me join them, and I received a flurry of zenned out “Hi Jonahs.”
“Hey, everybody,” my voice crackled through several speakers in the room.
Zoe smiled, closed her eyes, and led them through a few breathing and stretching exercises to close out their meditation before breaking the group. I could feel a slight release of energy as the group got up and spread out around the house—some to the kitchen, some to the bathroom—while Zoe and Max stayed behind to bring me up-to-date on what they were able to accomplish that day.
Father Chandler was away for a conference in Chicago but promised to have the attendees pray for us as well as a small prayer group he led in Austin.
“Which is a huge help,” Max said sarcastically.
“Hey, you’d be surprised. He’s helped me before,” I said, remembering my introduction to Seph. “Why so cynical? We’re dealing with an actual demon. This kind of thing helps,” I said.
“I think I was just hoping for a guy with a cross and some holy water, and to be honest, I feel let down,” Max said.
“Moving on from that,” Zoe jumped in. “Talked to Kevin, and he’s out with a group at Enchanted Rock and can’t make it back.”
Enchanted Rock i
s a huge granite dome outside Llano, Texas, where people go to hike, camp, and take pictures for their various social media sites.
“I’m starting not to like Kevin,” I said.
“Maybe now you can see why I struck out on my own. Anyway, he has a new group of college dropouts and PhD candidates to train now, but he let us raid his store of incense and candles, so that was nice,” Zoe replied.
“That was nice,” I added.
“You told me you just took them out of spite,” Max said and laughed. “Jonah, this is like skyscraper levels of spite. The back of the van was full when she got here. Floor to ceiling, three-quarters of the van full.”
Zoe shrugged. “Well … we need a lot to smoke out the yard.”
“Alright,” I said, “we have spiritual help from Father Chandler, things to light on fire from Kevin, and—wait—we’re smoking out the yard?”
“Yeah,” Zoe said. “Kevin had these three-foot incense sticks like the kind you can buy to keep mosquitos away when you’re outside—except these actually work. We set them up around the house and lit them right before we started our meditation. Should be good through two o’clock or so, at which point we’ll go stake some more out if we need to.”
“Nice,” I said. “I was able to get Jeremy and DeeDee to cloak the house last night. It will look like a demolition zone when they show up. Were y’all able to come up with anything else that we didn’t think of last night?”
“Yep,” Zoe said, “these.”
She lifted the cuff of what looked like pants made from olive-green ballistics material to reveal a neon-pink heel-cut sock on one foot and a fluorescent-yellow sock on the other. She was wearing white canvas shoes, but I was pretty sure she was talking about the socks.