How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend (Necon Modern Horror Book 9) Read Free Page B

go.”
    They helped clear the table and
wash the dishes. Most of the time one of Larry’s friends sat in the kitchen
talking to their grandmother about problems with her husband. After they
finished drying the dishes, the girls went to bed.
    In the bedroom, with the lights
out, Angelique asked, “Is it going to work?”
    “Don’t have any doubt. It’s
important to be confident.”
    “Okay. Goodnight.”
     
    The rest of the week Angelique
tried not to ask Brenda about the gris-gris for her mother. Every night she
checked under her mattress to make sure the little white bundle, wrapped in red
yarn was still there. They played video games during the day and met with
Brenda’s friends to jump rope and window shop. At night Brenda showed Angelique
her favorite computer sites on spells.
    Friday evening the phone rang.
Their grandmother called Angelique from the yard.
    “It’s for you,” she said, handing
the phone to Angelique.
    “Hello, Mother.” She told her
about the fun things they did, leaving out the magic discussions. Her mother
sounded about the same. Angelique gave up all hope.
    “Talk to you next week,” she
said, ready to hang up.
    “What?
    “Oh. I love you too.” She stared
at the phone after her mother hung up.
    “She said she loves me,” she
said, hugging her grandmother.
    “Well, of course she loves you,
honey.”
    “But, she’s never said it before.
Never.” She ran out of the room to the yard, grabbed Brenda and swung her
around. “She loves me. She said she loves me.”
    They danced in a circle until
they collapsed on the grass, out of breath.
    “It worked, Brenda, it worked,”
said Angelique.
    “Of course it did. I had no
doubt.”
     
    The first half of the summer went
fast. Between playing, Brenda taught Angelique what she knew about magic. They
found spells online for making someone leave, to cure different kinds of
sickness. They made a list of the kinds of objects carried in a nation sack. As
they played and shopped, they collected unusual rocks from the park or
feathers. Every now and then, they would find some interesting piece of metal
or glass on the ground and added it to their box of magical material.
    They gathered ingredients for
small spells, but never put the whole spell together. They saw Mrs. Johnston
every couple of weeks; she stared at them from across the street and whispered
to herself, but she didn’t talk to them again.
    Angelique never saw their
grandmother doing magic, but every now and then someone came by the house and
Grandmom gave them a package wrapped in brown paper. She once saw her
grandmother take a small pale blue bag out of her blouse, rub it and put it
back. Brenda said that her was her nation sack, where she carried special
things for protection.
    Every time Angelique’s mother
called she told her she loved her, and even said she missed her.
     
    One hot July day, Brenda and
Angelique came in the house laughing, after a day at the park, and found their
grandmother in the hallway on the floor. Her chest was covered with a dark
cloud of squirming snakes. The girls screamed and the snakes melted away.
    Brenda ran to her grandmother’s
unconscious body and shook her, yelling, “Grandmom!”
    Angelique ran to the living room
and called ‘911’. The ambulance came quickly. Grandmom’s friend from next door
rushed in when the medics arrived. She called Larry’s school and left a
message. Brenda stayed by her grandmother’s side as they carried her into the
ambulance.
    “I need to go with Brenda,”
Angelique said.
    “Go ahead,” the neighbor said.
“I’ll watch the house. Larry will be there as soon as he can. I’ll be praying
here.”
    Angelique glanced across the
street before getting in the ambulance and saw Mrs. Johnston standing in the
shade of a tree, pointing and smiling. When she looked out the back window of
the ambulance the old woman was gone. Nausea gripped her stomach. Could that
woman have had something to do with this?
    The