Page 19

"The demon found a new host," he said, taking another step back from the window.

“Who is it?" Clarabell asked, trying to see the edge of the parking lot.

They watched as Baron raised his hands defensively. His lips were moving, probably casting a spell, but the deputy kept advancing.

"He's trying to fight it," Tracey said.

"Good," Cody said. "Maybe they'll take each other out and save us the trouble."

The deputy lunged forward with incredible speed, grabbing Baron by the throat and hoisting him into the air, kicking frantically.

"Jesus," Jugs breathed, watching over Tracey's shoulder. "That's not something you see every day.”

"The demon's getting stronger, too," Clarabell said.

Baron broke free, a burst of energy sending the deputy staggering backward. Baron levitated again and hung in the air. His hands moved in complex patterns, and the air around him shimmered and distorted.

The demon laughed, the sound carrying through the glass and sending shivers up Cody’s back.

"You think your little parlor tricks can bind me?" the demon called, its voice unnaturally deep coming from the deputy's mouth. "I walked this earth for centuries before I was imprisoned. I was bound by five, and only five can bind me again."

Baron shouted something back they couldn't hear through the glass. Whatever it was, it made the demon laugh harder.

"They're arguing over who gets to kill us," Demmy said.

"Not exactly," Tracey replied, watching the confrontation. "Baron still wants to control the demon. The demon wants his freedom."

Outside, the battle escalated. Baron hurled balls of purple light at the demon, who dodged most of them with inhuman speed. One caught the deputy in the shoulder, spinning him around. He turned back in a crouch, the material of his shirt burned at the point of impact.

"How do you trap a demon, anyway?" Greg asked.

"According to the records," Clarabell said, stuffing her binder back inside the messenger bag, "the original coven used a combination of blood magic and consecrated ground."

"Blood magic?" Jugs said. “The fuck?”

"Just a drop from each descendant," Clarabell assured him. "Nothing extreme."

A crash from outside drew their attention back to the window. The demon had thrown Baron against a parked car, shattering the windshield. Baron rolled off the hood, his movements now more sluggish.

"He's losing," Demmy said, making a face. “I almost feel sorry for him.”

“I don’t.” Tracey’s tone was flat. “He released that thing. He deserves every ounce of pain he receives.”

"We need to go," Clarabell said. "Now. While they're distracted.”

Cody watched out the window as Baron crouched by the car he had hit, flinging balls of energy at the deputy. “Head for the back door. I’ll watch until everyone’s in the car.”

"We need to get to Margie's and pick her up, then head to the old church site,” Demmy said.

They moved as a group, gathering their belongings as quickly and quietly as possible. Cody made sure his parents were first out the door, then turned away to keep watch. The group sounded much too loud to him, and he hoped like hell the fuckers out front were too wrapped up in their fight to notice. Someone came up behind and took his hand. It was Demmy.

“Ready?” Demmy said.

“Not really.”

“Yeah, me neither. I’ll drive the Cadillac. Do you want to go with Jugs, Clarabell, and Tracey?”

“I don’t like splitting up,” Cody said, following him out the back door and watching him lock it with the key.

“I don’t either, but it’s safer this way,” Demmy said. “Get Tracey to the site so she can set up. I’ll stop and pick up Margie on the way.”

“All right,” Cody said with a grimace. “But I don’t like it.”

“You said that.”

“I’m saying it again, hoping you listen this time.”

A crash from the front of the strip mall made them all jump. Demmy locked eyes with him. “We’re running out of time.”

At the far end of the alley that ran behind the strip mall, Cody saw a shadow move. “Nope. We just ran out. Go. Now.”

Demmy looked in that direction and they both watched as the figure stepped into the light above the back door of what used to be Infinite Potential, the fitness center they had once belonged to. It was Baron, but he looked and moved differently than before.

“Is that…?”

“It’s Baron’s body, but I don’t think Baron’s driving the bus any longer,” Cody said. “Get going. I’ll meet you there.”

Cody ran for Jugs’s truck, Tracey and Clarabell waving from the narrow backseat for him to move. He scooped Enid Helen up off the passenger seat and held her tight in his lap.

“Drive,” he said to Jugs. “Fast.”

The truck roared to life, and Jugs slammed it into drive. Demmy had already driven off in the Cadillac, and Cody turned to look out the rear window. Tracey and Clarabell were doing the same, and they all watched Baron run toward them.

"Go, go, go!" Cody shouted as the truck lurched forward.

The demon sprinted after them, gaining with each step. It was inches from the tailgate when Jugs rounded the corner of the strip mall. Rubber squealed and the truck threatened to roll, but he kept it upright and hit the gas. The truck shot forward, tires smoking and leaving the demon in a cloud.

“I’m calling Lucia!" Clarabell yelled from the backseat. “Let her know what’s going on and see if she can give Demetrius an escort to the site.”

“Where am I going?” Jugs said.

“Out toward Parson’s Pines,” Tracey said. “At the S-curve.”

“The wiggle,” Cody said with a smirk.

“The what?” Clarabell and Tracey said together.

“Something Otis said. He called that stretch of road ‘the wiggle.’”

“You Parson’s Hollow folks have always been a little weird,” Jugs said.

“Hey, you’re Parson’s Hollow folk now, too,” Cody said.

“Maybe by blood, but not by name. We Harriettville folks got the hell away from all y’all and made our own town.”

Jugs drove as fast as he dared through town, truck streaking under the flashing yellow light. Out on Route 118, he was forced to slow down for the crew working to clear the elm tree from the road. Cody found it more than a little wild to realize he and Demmy would have been part of that crew not too long ago. Chainsaws buzzed and the bright work lights flooded the truck’s cab as Jugs eased past on the gravel shoulder. When they reached the other side of the fallen tree, he sped up again.

“That tree chased you?” Jugs said.

“It did,” Cody said. “Took out a few cars and at least one fence in the process.”

“Parson’s fucking Hollow.”

“Your home town,” Cody said, then looked down at Enid Helen. “You, too, little darling.”

“Leave my girl out of this,” Jugs said. “She had no choice.”

“None of us did,” Tracey said.

Cody looked back and saw her shining the light from her phone onto the binder so she and Clarabell could read.

“You two ready to go with all this once we get there?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about us,” Tracey said. “Let’s hope Demetrius can convince Margie to come with him.”

“Yeah, about that,” Jugs said, glancing up in the rearview mirror. “Now that the demon has possessed the witch, does that make him even more powerful?”

“Yes,” Tracey said. “And extremely deadly. Which is why we need to perform this ceremony as soon as possible.”

Cody directed Jugs to a spot on the shoulder just past the S-curve. The Cadillac wasn’t there yet, and he tamped down the worry that threatened to swamp his brain. Demmy had to make a stop at Margie’s house and convince her to go with him. It was going to take him longer.

“Now what?” Jugs said.

“Tracey and I will go ahead to the site,” Clarabell said. “Get things ready.”

“You don’t think we should stay together?” Cody said.

“I think we need to focus on speed over safety right now,” Tracey said.

“Okay. Just don’t get yourself killed or possessed,” Cody said. “We’re running low on descendants.”

After they’d climbed out of the back of the truck and set off into the woods, Enid Helen stepped across the center console and curled up in Jugs’s lap. Cody pulled his phone from his pocket, intending to give Demmy a call, when they saw headlights come around the bend. They were round and ancient, and he’d never been so glad to see the Widow Monroe’s beast of a car. Demmy brought the Caddy to a stop behind Jugs’s truck, and everybody climbed out, including Margie.

“Hi Margie,” Cody said. “Welcome to the party.”

“Some party,” Margie said, worrying the St. Christopher’s medal around her neck. She was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, with a heavy hoodie over that.

“We need to hurry," Demmy said, coming around the front of the car. "The demon won't be far behind."

Cody looked at the group of seniors and his parents. “Everyone who's not a descendant, stay by the cars. If anything happens, be ready to leave quickly."

“If she’s going, I’m going,” Otis said, putting a hand on Amelia’s shoulder.

“Oh, you sweet man.” Amelia placed a palm on his chest and stood up on her toes to give him a kiss. “You stay here and keep safe. The boys will watch out for me.”

Otis took her hand and kissed it, looking into her eyes. “You come back to me.”

“Always.”

He kissed her softly on the lips, and then Amelia turned to Cody, dabbing at her eyes. “Let’s end this fucker.”

Cody laughed and hugged her, then led the way to the drainage ditch. After stepping across, he paused to watch Demmy help Amelia and Margie over. With a final wave to the others standing back by the car, they turned and walked into the woods. The night closed in around them. The only light came from their phones and the moon overhead. Insects chirred and every branch snapping sounded like a gunshot.

It felt like it took forever for them to get to the site. As they neared it, Cody could see Tracey’s phone flash bob and weave between the trees like some kind of will-o-the-wisp. Margie was close behind, and he held her hand to keep her from tripping. Jugs followed Margie, having left Enid Helen in the truck. Amelia followed him, and Demmy brought up the rear.

When they stepped out into the clearing, Clarabell and Tracey looked up. They’d been setting up candles at certain points in the clearing, and Clarabell had a long-barreled lighter in her hand.

“Good, you’re all here,” Tracey said. “Margie, you’re over here.”

Tracey directed them each to stand near a stone on the eastern edge of the clearing. Jugs was positioned at the northern point, Amelia at the southern point, and Cody and Demmy stood together at the western edge.

“You two stand together,” she said. “To keep body and soul together. Just in case.”

Tracey stood at another point, holding a weathered book against her chest. Jugs looked wide-eyed at the dark woods all around them.

“Why’s it always in the woods at night?” Jugs said. “Why can’t we ever be on a sunny beach at noon?”

“I’m going to say some phrases and you all need to repeat them as closely as possible to how I pronounce them. Got it?” Tracey said.

The wind picked up, moving through the upper branches of the tall trees. It scattered some fallen leaves into the clearing, the skip and skitter sounding like claws against stone. Cody’s heart hammered, and his mouth tasted like copper. Or, Demmy’s heart and mouth. Dammit, he would be really glad when they were back in their own bodies. If they were able to get back in their own bodies.

Tracey began to speak. Cody repeated the words as best he could. Demmy stood behind him, also repeating the words, big hands on his shoulders. It was a strange reversal, but also comforting. And it was good to know when Cody stood so close behind Demmy, it made him feel safe and comfortable, not overshadowed or intimidated.

The wind increased, tumbling more leaves into the clearing. Candle flames fluttered but remained lit. Cody looked around their circle as they all repeated the strange phrases. Jugs shifted his weight from foot to foot, eyes moving as he watched the darkness within the trees. Amelia listened closely to Tracey. Margie held the St. Christopher’s medal with both hands and looked all around as she repeated the phrases. Cody saw Clarabell prowling around the exterior of their circle, holding a binder and seemingly following along with Tracey.

Something moved deeper within the trees.

Demmy’s hands tightened on Cody’s shoulders, so he knew he’d seen it, too.

Tracey spoke a phrase, and they all repeated it. The wind died, as if someone had switched off a giant fan. The woods seemed to be holding its breath. Cody discovered he was, too, and let it out.

“What’s happening?” Amelia said.

“He’s here,” Tracey said, staring out into the woods. “Everyone prepare yourselves. This next part is going to be wild.”

“Going to be?” Jugs and Margie said at the same time, then looked at each other.

Tracey resumed speaking, her voice louder, stronger. It rose through the branches of the trees and out into the night. Cody repeated the words, Demmy doing the same behind him.

Wind blasted across the clearing, rushing over them like a tidal wave of air. The candles guttered but remained lit. Margie, facing it head on, screamed and turned away, crouching down.

“Don’t leave your spot!” Tracey shouted over the wind. “You must remain where you stand!”

Margie put up a hand to block the wind and straightened up. She held the medal tight in a fist against her chest, the other hand up to keep wind, dust, and debris from her face, eyes squeezed shut as she repeated the phrases. Amelia bent slightly at the waist and turned her face to the side in order to breathe. Jugs had dropped to a squat, hands pressed against the ground, head bowed but lips moving as he chanted.

Cody turned his face away from the dirt, leaves, and twigs blowing against them. Demmy’s hands tightened even more on his shoulders. Through the tears in his eyes from the brutal onslaught of wind, Cody saw Baron out in the trees. He moved from spot to spot, too fast to track.

Suddenly, Baron came to a stop at the very edge of the clearing, facing Tracey. He looked terrible. His face was beyond ashen; it was white as chalk. Dark lines ran across his skin, and his eyes were completely black. As Cody watched, a dark spot burned into life on his cheek.

The parasite was already eating its way through the host.

“You won’t last,” Baron said, his voice deep and horrible, a phlegmy and resonant growl.

Tracey continued to read the phrases, and the five descendants repeated them, even as the wind stole their breath and snatched the words away.

Through squinted eyes, Cody saw Baron hold one hand up, elbow bent and fingers together, pointed to the sky. He turned his arm in a circle and extended his other hand, fingers spread as he pointed into the clearing.

The wind obeyed. It twisted around them, building in strength. Branches and leaves spun up into mini tornadoes. Dirt and small rocks battered Cody’s body and face, and he turned his head to keep it from getting in his mouth.

“Stay where you are!” Tracey shouted, barely audible over the roar of the wind.

Cody shouted when he felt his feet lift off the ground. “Fuck!”

Demmy’s hands slipped off his shoulders as Cody rose into the air. He flailed, words forgotten as the wind tried to spin him up into the night and away from the others, away from his connection with the grave.

Then strong hands clasped his ankles, fingers gripping him tight. Demmy looked up at him, expression determined as he repeated Tracey’s phrases. Cody nodded and closed his eyes, tuning into Tracey’s voice. He continued to repeat what she said, and the winds whipped around them even harder. His arms waved above his head, lifted by the updraft, and he closed his fists tight.

Then he rose a bit higher, even though Demmy still clutched him tight. Opening his eyes, Cody looked down. Demmy’s feet had also left the ground, and they hovered there, Demmy keeping him from blowing away, both of them swaying in the force of the wind. Cody squinted into the wind, looking around the clearing. The others had lifted off the ground as well. Tracey and Amelia had both lost their glasses, and Jugs had a cut across his cheek where something had blown into him. All of them were wide-eyed and panicked.

The ground rippled beneath Tracey’s dangling feet. She didn’t notice as she continued to read from the book she held, the pages lashing in the wind and her hair flying around her face. Skeletal hands thrust up from the earth and grabbed her tight around the ankles. She shouted in alarm and looked down, eyes going wide in shock.

Demmy gave a shout, and then Cody heard Jugs, Amelia, and Margie all cry out in alarm. Each of them was being held in place by a pair of skeleton hands that had pushed up from the dirt and now gripped their ankles.

Their ancestors were maintaining the connections.

The wind battered them, trying hard to rip them free. They were all being buffeted about by the force of the wind, Cody especially, but no one was lost. Tracey shouted her phrases and they all repeated them. Cody thought he heard something in the wind, what sounded like women chanting in time with them, but he couldn’t be sure.

Off in the woods, the demon thrashed wildly. Baron’s body contorted in ways no human body should be able to move.

“No!” it screamed, the sound audible over the roaring wind and their group chanting. “You cannot bind me again! I will not return to the darkness!"

"By the blood of the five, we command thee," Tracey screamed.

Cody and the others echoed her words.

“We need the blood to consecrate!” Tracey shouted.

Clarabell went to each of them, pricking their fingers as they extended their arms down to her. Demmy had to fight to pull Cody down far enough for her to reach his finger. He flinched, then squeezed out several drops of blood that fell straight to the ground, despite the brutal onslaught of wind.

Physics had nothing on witchcraft, apparently.

The demon's screams grew louder, more desperate. Smoke rose from his body, the wind grabbing wisps of black mist and tearing them apart.

"By our blood and by our will," the descendants chanted together, "we cast you out and bind you down!"

A blinding flash of light erupted from the center of their formation, and they all cried out. The vortex within the clearing collapsed, and Cody dropped to the ground, landing beside Demmy. A wave of energy pulsed outward from the center of the circle, knocking them all off their feet.

Cody felt a strange sensation washing over him—like being pulled through water backward. Heat and cold alternated across his skin in waves, making the hairs on his arms and neck stand on end. Every cell in his body seemed to vibrate at a different frequency, creating a discordant hum he could feel in his teeth and behind his eyes. For a moment, he couldn't breathe, his lungs refusing to expand as if compressed by an invisible weight. His ears popped painfully, and the taste of copper flooded his mouth. The world around him blurred, images smearing together. Then, with a jolt like an electric shock that started at the base of his spine and shot up to the crown of his head, everything snapped into place with an almost audible click.

He blinked, disoriented by the sudden shift in perspective. The world seemed both taller and more familiar. His limbs felt heavier yet more responsive, like returning to a well-worn pair of boots after wearing someone else's shoes. He realized he was on the ground in a different position than before, the soil beneath him pressing against different pressure points. The aches and pains of his own body greeted him like old friends—the familiar twinge in his knees, the slight tightness in his lower back. He looked at his hands—his hands, not Demmy's—with their broader palms and thicker fingers, dirt embedded under the nails. He patted his chest, feeling the solid muscles beneath his shirt, then his face, the rough stubble of his beard scraping against his palm, confirming what he already knew.

"I'm back!” He grabbed Demmy who lay beside him and pulled him up into a sitting position. “We’re back!”

“What?" Demmy said as he blinked slowly. Then he looked at Cody, looked down at his own hands, and back up, eyes wide. "We're back!"

Cody got up, so grateful to be at his full height once again. He pulled Demmy to his feet and into a fierce embrace, lifting him slightly off the ground. "I've never been so happy to be tall!"

Demetrius laughed, wrapping his arms around Cody's neck.

Around them, the others were getting to their feet, looking dazed but relieved. Clarabell was helping Amelia. She appeared shaken but unhurt. Tracey got to her feet, one hand pressed against the small of her back. Jugs was flat on his back, staring up at the night sky. The ground covering the graves looked undisturbed, showing no sign that skeletal hands had pushed up from beneath.

“Jugs?” Cody said. “You all right?”

Jugs rolled to his side and got up on all fours. He looked between him and Demmy. “That you?”

Cody smiled and put his arms out to his sides. “I’m back, baby.”

Jugs smiled. “Welcome back, Bonker.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Margie stood looking around, still holding the St. Christopher’s medal. “Where did he go?”

“There,” Clarabell said, pointing.

Cody noticed a large stone just outside the circle, close to the blackened and splintered oak tree that had once imprisoned the demon. The rough surface of the stone looked gold in the light from the candles that had somehow remained lit. Had it even been there before? On the other side of the clearing, on the outer edge where the grass gave way to the trees, Baron lay very still, head canted to the side at an unnatural angle, skin pale.

"The demon's bound," Tracey said, cautiously approaching the stone. "It worked."

"So that thing is in there now?" Jugs asked, pointing at the stone.

"Yes. Trapped in the rock. For good."

Cody stood with his arm around Demmy. The woods were dark and quiet, but the moon was higher now. As Tracey and Clarabell extinguished the candles and gathered their things, pale moonlight flooded the clearing. Things felt calmer now, peaceful.

"Some night, huh?" Cody said softly.

Demmy smiled up at him. "Some week.”

"I'm glad it's over."

“Me, too."

Cody grinned and looked down at him. "Although, I have to admit, there were some… educational moments."

Demmy smiled. Cody could almost feel the heat of his blush like when he’d inhabited his body. "We are never discussing that with anyone."

"Agreed," Cody said, leaning down to kiss him softly. "But we're definitely discussing it with each other. Later."

After a last look around the clearing, they began the trek back to the vehicles. As they neared the road, they could see the revolving red light of a sheriff’s vehicle, like a beacon guiding them out of the woods. Lucia and Deputy Gayle Walsh were talking with the others who had remained behind. Everyone cheered when they saw their group step out of the trees.

“Another body back there,” Cody said. “You’re going to need more yellow tape.”

Lucia looked from Demmy back to him. “You two are swapped back?”

“We are,” Demmy said. “Thank God.”

Lucia pulled her handcuffs from her belt. With a hard smile, she approached Cody. “Good. As a material witness, Bower, I’ll need you to come with me to the station.”

“What?”

After a lot of protests from Cody, Demmy, and Cody’s parents, Lucia put away her handcuffs, albeit with great reluctance.

“All right,” she said, then pointed up into his face. “But don’t leave town.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

He gave Jugs a strong hug, then Margie, Clarabell, and, surprising both of them, even Tracey. The three women got into Jugs’s truck and he pulled away. Through the driver’s window, Cody could see the top of Enid Helen’s head in Jugs’s lap.

After Jugs had left, Cody herded the others toward the Cadillac. Everyone was shouting out questions Amelia and Demmy were trying to answer. He avoided looking at the damage to the trunk caused by the demon possessed tree, and opened the driver’s door. The keys dangled from the ignition, and Cody paused to savor the feel of the driver’s seat, running his hands over the steering wheel.

“Hey, girl,” he said quietly. “I missed you.”

The engine rumbled to life and he executed a three-point turn to head back toward Parson’s Pines. It felt strange being back inside himself, but good as well. He was tired—exhausted, really—but relieved that it was finally, thoroughly over. A strange sense of peace came over him, and he smiled as Demmy pressed his leg more firmly against Cody’s.

They’d made it through, again. The demon was bound, once more, by the descendants of those who had trapped it centuries before. And now Cody and Demmy were back inside themselves and all was right with the world.

“Oh, shit,” Demmy said. “Your brother and his family are going to be back at our place.”

Cody made a face and hung his head.

And then, family ruined it once again.