by Cassandra
The demon opened her mouth to say something but Jessica didn’t give her a chance to get the words out—she honestly wasn’t keen to hear her voice again. She thrust her hands forward and a burst of wind erupted from her palms and hurtled toward the enemy.
The woman toppled and fell with a pained cry. Her body squirmed and wiggled against its will, carried by the collective force of the snakes on her head as they slithered away to find cover. They propelled the woman halfway across the living room floor and frightened cats scurried, screeched, and leapt onto furniture to get out of their path.
Jessica stared, simultaneously disgusted and riveted. It had to be one of the most grotesque yet intriguing sights she had ever seen in her life.
Suddenly, the snakes froze and their bodies became rigid and stiff before they disintegrated into a big pile of ashes. The woman lay motionless on the floor for another several seconds. Her eyes had rolled so far back in her head that only the whites showed. Slowly, her skin began to pale before it turned gray and in a few moments, she crumbled into a pile of ashes as well.
“That…was…sick,” a voice said a moment later.
Jessica had stood frozen on the spot and simply stared at the big mound of dust on the floor, even after several of the cats had started playing in it. Hearing the voice, however, snapped her out of her reverie. She looked up to see that Chad had peeked from the top of the stairwell.
“Courtesy of Christa, from the nature coven,” she said once she found her voice again.
“Ahh, well…I guess that coven can be good for something, occasionally,” he said, a sarcastic smirk on his face as he came down the stairs, followed by Grandma Ethel and Pastor Norman.
“I have to admit it, honeybunch—you’re getting awfully good at this,” Grandma Ethel said and smiled proudly.
“Yep. All the makings of a top-notch demon hunter,” Pastor Norman chimed in.
She laughed and rubbed a hand across her forehead. “Thanks,” she said, mainly because she didn’t know what else to say.
“Hey, shoo—shoo!” Grandma Ethel yelled suddenly and waved and kicked at the cats who spread Medusa’s ashes steadily all over the living room carpet. “Look at that. You’re making a mess here. Shoo, I say! Shoo!”
Chad snickered.
Jessica frowned at the way the ashes were sinking into the carpet. “I guess that’s my fault. Sorry.”
Grandma Ethel waved her hand dismissively. “You got that ugly old snake-headed broad out of my living room. You don’t have to apologize for her dust.”
“Well, you ladies have had a rough day. I’ll clean it up,” Pastor Norman offered.
“Yeah, I’ll help too,” Chad said.
“No, that’s all right. I got it.” Jessica stepped forward with a smirk. From the corner of her eye, she saw that Frank had materialized in the stairwell and now looked out at them all. “I learned a neat little cleaning trick that I want to test,” she said and winked at her familiar. With a broad grin, she closed her eyes and imagined a high-powered vacuum eliminating every speck of Medusa dust from the carpet.
The place was spotless once Frank’s cleaning spell had worked like a charm. Grandma Ethel, Pastor Norman, and Chad had all moved into the kitchen, where they chatted with Frank and tried to get the imp to reveal how magically advanced imps really were. From what Jessica could hear, he seemed to enjoy the attention but remained intentionally elusive with his answers.
She smirked and felt honored that Frank apparently didn’t mind sharing his knowledge with her from time to time but wasn’t necessarily keen to let others in on his secrets. But, when she thought about it, it was simply an indicator of what witch and familiar relationships were all about.
The demon cards were still in her bag from when she’d taken them to the magic shop to show Christa, and she retrieved them and brought them to the dining room table. She took a seat, opened them, and withdrew the Medusa card, which was still at the top. Exactly as she had expected, the woman and her snakes were back inside the card. The depiction of her had changed, though, because there was a particularly annoyed expression on her face that hadn’t been there before.
Apparently, she was still offended by how things had gone. She had clearly underestimated her adversary and hadn’t anticipated defeat so quickly.
Jessica couldn’t help but laugh.
Her first thought was to put the cards up and start the next round in the morning. However, defeating Medusa had been quite an adrenaline rush. Not to mention that with each demon she defeated, the more frustrating it became that Roger was still trapped. She knew that wherever he was, it certainly couldn’t be pleasant. And she knew without a doubt that if she was in his position, she wouldn’t want anyone to take their time and drag their feet when it came to finishing the game.
As she glanced at his framed card, she imagined Roger fuming every time she even thought about taking a break.
That meant there was no other option but to roll the dice again and prepare for whatever she would have to fight next.
“Hey, guys,” she called, “just so you know, I’m about to throw the dice again.”
The chatter in the kitchen came to a halt as the others filed into the living room.
“Already? You don’t want to take a break after all that?” Pastor Norman asked.
“I have the feeling Roger wouldn’t appreciate me taking any breaks at this point,” Jessica said and lay the cards out on the table. “Look at how long he’s been trapped already. The poor guy is probably losing his mind.”
“Fair point,” Pastor Norman said.
Chad huffed. “He’d already obviously lost his mind, rolling the dice in the first place.”
“Come on, cut the boy a break,” Grandma Ethel said. “He was only an intern, after all.”
They all crowded around the table, with the exception of Frank, who stood on the table. “Come on. Please land on my cousin this time,” he said and jumped up and down.
Chad looked at the imp and shook his head. “Oh, boy. Here we go again.”
Jessica took the dice in her hand and rattled them. “Well, here goes.” She shook them in her palm for a moment longer and dropped them onto the table top. They bounced and clattered for a second before they stilled.
“Yes!” Frank bellowed, threw his tiny fists into the air, and broke into a victory dance.
“Uh oh,” Chad said.
“Yeah,” she said. They all knew what Frank’s enthusiasm meant. The dice had finally landed on his cousin.
She grabbed the card and stared at the ugly little imp. There was a visible evil in his countenance that was absent in Frank. She easily recognized that the imp on the card was much more akin to the one Debbie McCrow and her petty coven had sent out to attack her—as different from Frank as night and day.
“You know, it still has to be me who fights him, right?” Jessica said and eyed her familiar sternly. “That means you can’t jump in because you don’t like him. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself trapped inside a card again and waiting for me to finish the game like Roger.”
“I know that,” he said. “I am perfectly prepared to find satisfaction in merely watching you kick his ugly little ass.” He then proceeded to stand over the card and glare at his cousin. “So come on out, you slime-ball. My witch will smash you to pieces.”
Jessica blinked and couldn’t stop the grin that came to her face. It was the first time she’d heard Frank refer to her as his witch.
Their relationship had certainly come a long way.
“Uh, Frank,” Chad said, “none of the others came out right away, so what makes you think your cousin will?”
When the imp ignored him, Jessica exchanged glances with Chad and tried to relay that any attempt to decrease Frank’s excitement over this was obviously a lost cause.
“Well, what kind of spell will you need for this one?” Grandma Ethel asked.
“Water,” Jessica and Frank said at the same time. He knew intuitively and Jessica beca
use she read from the spell card.
She studied the card for a moment longer. “Hmm… I think I want to try something.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?” Grandma Ethel asked.
Jessica didn’t answer but leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. By now, she had deduced that the majority of spells seemed to involve simply concentrating and creating a vivid thought in her head first. So, doing the obvious, she thought of water.
A thrill went through her when she felt something wet plop on her forehead, and then on her hand.
“Jessica. Cut it out!” her grandmother yelled.
“Huh?” She opened her eyes. It was raining in the living room.
“Aaaaahhhh!” Frank yelled and ran frantically back and forth on the table before he disappeared with a loud poof.
“Oh no, I’m sorry!” Jessica said and gathered the demon cards quickly so they wouldn’t be soaked in the impromptu downpour.
Grandma Ethel looked at the ceiling and waved her arms in a series of complicated movements while she muttered under her breath. Eventually, the rain stopped.
“So…water spells come to you easily,” Pastor Norman said and broke the silence while he shook the water out of his thinning hair.
Meanwhile, Grandma Ethel glared at her granddaughter, her arms folded over her chest. “Lord have mercy. Look at my carpet. It’s soaked!” she yelled as a drenched and highly offended cat leapt into her arms. It had clearly failed to find sufficient shelter from the rain like the others had. “Your imp didn’t happen to teach you any quick drying spells, did he?”
Jessica shook her head. “No. Sorry. Where did he go, anyway?”
“He’s probably hiding,” Chad said, gathered his long hair with his hand, pulled it to the side, and squeezed water out of it. “Don’t you know imps hate water? Hence the water spell needed to kill this one.”
She sighed. “No, I didn’t know that. Sorry again, guys,” she said as she looked around and felt annoyed with herself. Her bright idea had now left them with loads of water to mop.
Chapter Twenty
It had been no easy feat to dry the carpet, and Jessica was fairly certain her grandmother had intentionally made it that way. Ethel Libbons was one of the most skilled witches to walk the planet, yet she hadn’t been able to come up with a simple spell to dry her carpet?
Yeah, right.
Nevertheless, since it had been Jessica’s fault, to begin with—having briefly developed an inflated ego about her magical ability after so easily defeating Medusa—she refrained from complaints when Grandma Ethel made her go back and forth over the carpet several dozen times in an attempt to towel-dry it.
She had certainly learned her lesson about jumping into things—especially spells—too quickly, that was for sure.
Chad had already bid them farewell and gone home for the night, while Pastor Norman had decided to stick around for a glass of wine with Ethel. She had no desire to join her pastor and grandmother over a glass of wine—as if they would let her have some in the first place—she climbed up the stairs and headed to her room, achy and thoroughly tired from all the excitement the day had provided.
Jessica blinked and came to a halt in her doorway.
She had presumed that Frank had retired to his own house since he now had one. But instead, he lay in the middle of Jessica’s bed, wrapped in a tiny bathrobe with a white towel over his head.
“Frank—what in the world?” She stared at him, halfway exasperated and halfway wanting to burst out laughing at the absurdity of his appearance. He looked like he lounged around in some kind of beauty spa.
Noticing her, he suddenly gave an overtly fake and exaggerated sneeze and put on a show of shivering. “You nearly drowned me down there. I think I’m catching a cold.” He clutched his throat and coughed.
“Oh, stop it,” she said dismissively and rolled her eyes. “You were out of there so fast, it’s a wonder a single raindrop even hit you.” She flopped down on her bed with a yawn and continued to eye her familiar. “Chad told me that imps hate water. I didn’t know that. Otherwise, I would have warned you first. So, I’m sorry.”
Frank abandoned his fake cold symptoms and rolled his eyes. Jessica could tell he wasn’t entirely serious or really upset with her, though. “There is still so much you have to learn,” he said.
“Yeah. Considering the mess I made downstairs, I’m abundantly aware of that. I won’t try out any more impromptu spells simply because I think I can do something.”
“Good. The rest of us would greatly appreciate that.”
“Anyway,” Jessica said and changed the subject, “what is it with imps and water? Can water kill you?”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Come on, you know I didn’t mean it like that. Not kill you, in particular. I’m talking about imps in general. I have to fight your cousin, remember. Any information on imp weaknesses would be helpful if you want me to succeed.”
Frank sneered at the mention of his cousin. He pranced around on the bed and tossed punches in the air as if he were boxing. “Yeah, and I hope you show my cousin who’s boss. The evil little—”
“Focus, Frank. And answer my question, please. Is water deadly for imps? If so…how do imps shower and stuff?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Water doesn’t kill imps. We merely don’t like it. So yeah, as you can imagine, showering is a real pain in the ass.”
“But you do, don’t you?” Jessica struggled to keep herself from grimacing. Still, she couldn’t help but think about all the times she had let Frank sleep in her bed. She could only hope he bathed regularly.
Frank rolled his eyes again. “Yes, I’ve showered today, Mother.” He shook his head. “Anyway, water won’t kill an imp, but it will send my stupid cousin back to the dry place where he belongs instead of the card. And trust me, I’m all for that. He’s probably had it way too easy, hanging out in that card.”
She tilted her head curiously. “What’s it like being in the card?” she asked when she remembered that she was speaking to someone who’d had firsthand experience.
“Ridiculously boring.”
Jessica stared at him for a moment longer and wondered if he would elaborate. When it became clear that he wouldn’t, her thoughts drifted in another direction. She now wondered what he’d meant about sending his cousin back to the dry place as she had not the faintest idea what that was. But her familiar jumped around the bed again and had resumed his imaginary boxing match. As a result, she had the impression that he wasn’t exactly in the mood for a serious conversation. Still, she was curious to know what exactly had happened between him and his cousin to cause so much animosity.
“Why do you hate him so much? Your cousin,” she asked tentatively, unable to resist.
He continued to ignore her. After a moment, he turned to face the television. The commercials that had previously played were over and Detectives was back on. “Shh! My show is on,” he said and finally settled down.
She sighed, resigned to the fact that engaging Frank right now was pointless. Instead, she retrieved a couple of pillows, propped them up against the headboard, and leaned back, deciding to simply spend the rest of the night watching television with her familiar. “So, how did we get back on Detectives? What happened to the Kardashians?”
Frank groaned dramatically. “I cannot take them anymore. Kourtney and Scott broke up again! It’s foolishness, I tell you.”
Jessica laughed, although it was short-lived because somehow, talking about Kourtney and Scott made her think of Kacey. By no means was their so-called romance anywhere near comparable, but much like Kourtney and Scott’s ill-fated relationship, she couldn’t help but wonder if things were bound to fall apart between her and Kacey before they even fully and officially got started.
If she constantly ran away from him without providing any reasonable, believable, explanations, his interest would certainly wane and he’d give up on her in favor of someone less complicated. It seemed the most
logical outcome and honestly, she couldn’t blame him if he did.
How far away is he from thinking I’m a total flake? she thought miserably.
She felt bad about how she’d left him in the grocery store parking lot and pulled out her cell phone. For a considerably long time, she simply stared at it. She really wanted to text Kacey but didn’t know what to say.
U and the groceries make it home ok? she finally wrote and pressed send.
She held the phone for a while and waited for him to reply. When he didn’t, however, she pouted and set it down, afraid that he was upset with her and hadn’t been sold on her cat food story. And how could she blame him? If she looked up lame excuses in the dictionary, the fib she’d given him would have been the first thing listed.
Yet, five minutes later, her phone buzzed.
He had actually replied. Yeah, me and the groceries got in fine. They tried to make me stop for a drink, but I told them no. How about u and the cat food? No cats died of starvation?
At first glance, Jessica thought there was something both sarcastic and passive aggressive about his reply, but then he followed it quickly with a laughing emoji.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Joking. He was only joking. Which meant he wasn’t upset with her.
Grinning, she wrote back. Yeah, although a couple of the cats nearly jumped me as soon as I got through the door. Gave me a thorough warning about never being late with their food again. If they hadn’t all been declawed, I’d probably be in the emergency room right now.
Kacey sent a rolling on the floor laughing emoji, and a few seconds later, he replied. I really wish we weren’t both still grounded. I miss hanging out with you. You know, other than in school and grocery store parking lots.