The End of the World As I Know It (The Ghosts & Demons Series Book 2) Read Free Page B

relatively safe that far under the Keep.)
    When I got tired of screaming, I gasped for air. My father’s grave at the foot of the Keep’s wall by the church ruins held a demon. It was supposed to be Peter Smythe in that grave. It wasn’t, but I could set that right.
    A spell that conceals something is called a glamor. A glamor can make your crappy apartment look like a jewelry store. If done really well, it can even make a dumpy, hairy slob look like the male models in the Jockey underwear ads. In other words, it’s like beer goggles at the end of a long night in a sad bar.
    Victor Fuentes, head conductor of the Choir Invisible, says there are many dimensions. The dimension we’re supposed to move on to is commonly called Heaven. The land of our enemies, the Darkness Visible, might be our Hell. We’re unclear on the specifics, so no, I don’t know if you’ll ever see your dead pets again.
    Disney says all dogs go to Heaven. Let’s go with that. If you’re looking for certainty and reassurance, I don’t have any for you. Lesson 97: Certainty is for dimwits, anyway. Of that, I’m almost certain.
    I thought of Brad again and my father’s face disappeared from the Well of Sorrows. It started up the slow-mo replay of my boyfriend’s murder again. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to think of Brad when he wasn’t being brutally dismembered.
    “We had a lot of good times, too. Show me that.”
    The Well showed nothing.
    “Oh, I get it. It’s like Jeopardy. You’re Alex Trebek and I have to phrase my answer in the form of a question. When was I happiest with Brad Evers?”
    If you were expecting a pornographic scene…well, so was I. Instead, the Well showed me a memory immediately after a pornographic scene. It was me and Brad in the long grass, holding each other close.
    In the light of a full moon on a clear summer’s night, Brad’s deeply dimpled face was a lamp. The air was cool on our bare skin. We didn’t want to get dressed. Instead, we tried to do the impossible and hold each other closer.
    I giggled and his dimples got deeper when he smiled wider. “What would you say if I said we should get married when we graduate?”
    I stared at him for a while, smiling but suddenly serious. “Mama would kill me.”
    “But she wouldn’t really, would she?”
    “You’re right,” I said. “Mama would kill you.”
    “That’s why we should elope once we’re out of town, on the way to college. We don’t want the good townspeople of Medicament to hurt themselves jawing over us. We’ll elope quietly and we can tell them when we move in with each other.”
    “When will that be?” I asked.
    “As soon as possible. You can’t be this awesome and expect me to stay away, Tam. That’d be cruel, wouldn’t it? I know you can kick my ass with hapkido, but you don’t have it in you to be cruel.”
    Ha! Little did we know.
    I turned away from the Well of Sorrows. Brad was so wrong. I did have it in me to be cruel. I’d learned to fight from my martial arts teacher, Mr. Chang. I’d learned to be brutal when I was attacked in a mental health hospital that wasn’t any good for my mental health.
    The demons taught me to be cruel.
    No. That’s not right.
    We all have cruelty in us. I can’t blame the demons for that. They just brought it out in me when they attacked us and killed my brothers and sisters of the Choir. They killed my friends and I missed them.
    Lesson 98: When Evil takes away everything you prize and love and want, you can do anything. You’re most dangerous when there’s nothing left to lose. If that makes you Evil, too, so what? You don’t care anymore. Remember this one. It’s important later, too.
    I walked away from the Well of Sorrows. I had thought I would spend hours down there, sitting by the Well and quizzing it about which girls in high school didn’t really like me and who did what to whom. Instead, I had to get out of there. When I understood the horrors the Well of Sorrows