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My own excitement was tempered by the woman's verdict: cursed. I was cursed...

"I guess that proves it then," Polly said, finally breaking the silence.

"Proves what?"

"That Luc is behind it," she said like it was obvious. "She said you were cursed... Curses are a kind of spell, right? So, that means someone has to cast them and purposefully target someone. They're not random, or location-based, like hauntings."

I sighed. "That doesn't mean it was him."

Polly narrowed her eyes at me. "We've been over this. Who else could it be?"

Just like the times before, I had no rebuttal.

I turned my attention to the fries on my plate and began pushing them around.

Polly went back to the book, flipping its cover open, revealing yellowed pages inside.

There was a small block of tiny handwriting on the first page; Polly had to lean in close to read it.

"'For Elizabeth,'" she read aloud. "'May no harm come to you or those you love. Protect all that is precious.' I wonder who Elizabeth was..." She turned to the next page. It was dense with text, the tiny writing reaching each edge of the page.

"Do... do you think this is really g-going to help?" I asked, my voice breaking slightly.

I wasn't so sure how much I trusted the idea of spells and curses. No matter how far I delved into this new world, my logical side still fought against it. Sure, I could believe in transparent monsters that attacked unseen and could come and go as easily as fog... but spells? Somehow that was still beyond me, and I couldn't completely trust that the contents of the book would help.

"Couldn't hurt to try something, right?" she reasoned with me. I watched as she flipped through the pages with a sharp hunger in her eyes. It was almost funny how quickly she had settled into this world of the paranormal. Once she had accepted that the creature tormenting us was a reality, everything else just followed suit.

"Blessing a home... Amulets for protection in dreams..." Polly muttered to herself, reading out the titles of the spells; they all fit the descriptor on the front, all of the protective nature. "Boundary protection spells... Potion to dull the temper..."

"You could use that," I said before I could stop myself.

"Ha, ha, ha," Polly laughed sarcastically but didn't look up. "It's... Oh, ugh, it's meant for abusive spouses. Yikes. I wouldn't have used a potion, I would've used a poison." She flipped to the next page. She continued to read out the titles of spells. The book had everything, spells for things I didn't even know you would need protection for, all lining the pages in delicate and tiny handwritten script.

"Ah-ha!" Polly cheered suddenly. She spun the book around and pushed it towards me.

Polly had left it open to the last page she was reading.

I touched it gently, expecting the pages to be brittle with age, but they weren't, in fact, they felt very resilient beneath my fingers. I wondered if this book had a protective spell of its own... I leaned in close and had to squint to read the tiny writing.

To protect oneself from another who means you harm.If another conspires to use their magic to bring you misfortuneweave this bind to sap them of their misused powers.

I just gaped at the page. It was miraculous—even suspicious—that it was this easy. The book had literally fallen into our hands, containing a spell was exactly what we needed and, at a quick glance, it seemed simple enough. Too simple.

"It's perfect," Polly said, interrupting my reading. She reached out and snatched the book back. "We have to get on this. It needs to be performed on the last day of the month and that's only a week away. Otherwise, we'll have to wait a whole month, and I don't want to even think about what'd happen in that time."

I nodded even though doubt dug at my resolve, hissing its suspicions. But there weren't any other options, and I wanted, no, needed this to work. I swallowed hard, fighting back the doubt.

"S-so..." I stuttered. "What do we have to do?"

?

She had bookmarked the spell for quick reference, and after flipping to the page, she scanned the description. She traced the ingredients with her finger as she read aloud.

"We need salt... bay leaves... light blue candles... blue ribbon... pins and the materials to make a doll, which we have to fill with the salt, bay leaves, and—" She suddenly stopped short, her face distorting as she read over the ingredients several times.

"And?"

She groaned. "...And part of Luc."

"Part of Luc?" I made a face, my mind painting a gruesome image.

Polly cringed too, but not for the same reason. "It says it can just be hair or nail clippings or something. Shit... that's going to be impossible. How the hell are we supposed to get that?"

I groaned, joining her in misery.

Indeed, just how were we going to get that?

It wasn't like we could just walk up to him and ask him for some of his hair so we could stop him from siccing his phantom demon on us. Besides, even if it were that easy, we hadn't seen him since that day on the doorstep.

Maybe all of this wasn't so simple. Doubt whispered I told you so in my ear.

Despite the major snag in our new plan, we bought everything else we needed, hoping we'd figure something out. As we headed back to the car, our arms laden with supplies, I turned to Polly. "So, how could we get our hands on some part of Luc?"

"Track him down and mug him?" she joked as she opened the trunk and plopped our bags inside. "Well, actually, if we could do that, I'd just stab him then and there, then we wouldn't even have to mess with this spell!"

I scowled across the roof as she made her way to the passenger door. "I thought we were doing this spell so we didn't have to—" I dropped my voice to a hiss, "—kill him!"

"When did I say that?" She dipped down and climbed into the car.

I joined her, positioning myself behind the wheel. "You didn't, but... won't this spell put a stop to all this stuff? Why would we need to kill him after that?"

"First of all, what's to stop him from finding a way to restore his powers? Then we're back where we started. And secondly, I don't think he should get off so easy for what he's done," she finished with a growl.

I snatched the keys from her hand and slid them into the ignition. "Well, I don't think more death is the answer."

Polly just sighed. "How about we cross that bridge when we come to it? Let's focus on completing this spell first if we even can..."

My knuckles whitened as I gripped the steering wheel. "How can we without some part of Luc?"

"As much as I like the idea of finding him and stabbing him, we don't even know where he is, so that's out."

"Yeah..." I huffed, but something itched at the back of my mind. "Wait. We don't know where he is... but we do know where he isn't."

Polly levelled a stare at me. "What?"

"He's not at his apartment, right? We've checked."

"Right..."

"So, we could go there! There's gotta be something of his we could use in there! Something in the garbage or maybe some hair in his brush or on his pillow..."

"You want to break into his place?" Polly looked shocked.

I rolled my eyes. "Hey, you were the one who was just plotting murder. What's a little B he had no garbage in sight, not even empty cans. The little front step was spotless, in fact. I looked at Polly and motioned towards the door, silently signalling that we had no other option but to break in.

She narrowed her eyes, still resistant to the idea, but shrugged in agreement.

I inhaled deeply, facing his door, wondering what the best way to attempt this would be. Pick the lock? Smash the window? Attempt to kick the door down?

After watching me struggle internally for a few moments, Polly sighed and shoved me aside.

She pulled out a credit card and slid it into the crack in the door frame, towards the handle mechanism.

She jiggled it for a second before she suddenly leapt back.

Her credit card shot out and clattered to the ground.

She hissed and shook her hands out. "The door shocked me!"

I blinked at her and then looked back at the door.

My fingers extended, I cautiously reached for the handle.

My hand barely brushed the surface when a force like a wall pushed me back.

It was sharp, tingling, like an electric jolt—just as Polly said.

I, too, shook my hand out.

Frowning, I reached out again, and the force pushed back again, this time before I even touched the door.

He must have placed some sort of protection around his place.

I now scoffed at my earlier assumption that this was too easy of a task. But at least now I had more confidence in the existence of protective spells.

Following our failure, we conceded to just head back to the hotel, the defeat weighing heavily upon our moods.

The spell's deadline was looming, less than a week away... otherwise we'd have to wait another month, and who knew what could happen in that time.

We needed that vital ingredient and had no idea where to get it.

"What are we going to do?" I asked Polly, as we drove towards the hotel's parking lot, a slight whine sneaking into my voice.

"I don't know," Polly replied, sounding just as exasperated as I was.

I racked my brain for solutions. We couldn't find him, we couldn't get into his apartment, there was no way to track him down. We didn't know where he went... we didn't know anything about him other than he lived next door to me and had something to do with the attacks on Polly's sister and me...

Polly's sister! The sudden brainwave hit me like a lightning strike.

Polly screeched as loudly as her tires as I slammed on the brakes. A braying honk blared out behind us, berating us for stopping so suddenly. Polly whirled her head around to stare at me, her eyes wide and fearful. Her expression eased when she saw that I had a wide grin plastered across my face.

"Polly—your sister! Do you think she would have anything of his?"

Polly's wide eyes changed, now gaping with comprehension. She understood exactly where I was going with this. "Maybe!"

"Did you keep any of her stuff?" I asked, making sure my voice was gentle as I approached the delicate subject of her sister. Polly's face showed that I had taken the right approach. Her eyes suddenly sparkled and drooped.

"I kept all of her stuff. Everything," she replied with an edge on her voice like I would be ridiculous to suggest that she would ever throw away her sister's things.

"Where?"

"My house," Polly said. Her eyes still shone, shimmering with tears, but there was a fire ignited behind that.

We had a new mission.

The tires squealed as I did a reckless turn in the middle of the road and sped off again, ignoring the honking drivers around us.

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