Hexed

by Michael Alan Nelson

  “Is her head going to start spinning around?” Kenna asked.

  Olivia shot her friend a terrified glance before Lucifer said, “No, that’s not how it works.” Usually, she thought. Lucifer grabbed Olivia’s shaking hands. “I know you’re scared and that’s okay. I was scared the first time it happened to me until I realized how easy it is to fix.”

  “You’ve been possessed before?”

  Lucifer smiled. “Not me personally, but someone I knew. And by something much nastier.”

  “What . . . what is it?”

  “A filcher demon.” Before Olivia could begin another frantic freak-out, Lucifer put her hand up to stop her and continued. “It sounds bad, I know, but trust me. As possessions go, this is weak sauce. You only looked in the book a few days ago, and it takes weeks if not months for a filcher demon to eventually get control of you. The longer you wait, the more difficult it is to get it out of you, but anything less than a month or two is cake.”

  Kenna stood next to Olivia, wringing her hands. “Am I possessed, too?”

  “No. You saw the symbol on my phone. And filcher demons are Fibonacci-blind.”

  “Fibo . . . what?”

  Lucifer opened the drawers in Olivia’s bureau and started going through their contents. “Fibonacci. There’s something called the Fibonacci sequence. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 . . . it’s a ratio thing. It shows up everywhere in nature, but filcher demons have a hard time seeing unnatural things with that sequence. Like the symbol I showed you.” She pulled out a handful of scarves and some long socks then turned back to Olivia. “How you doing, Olivia?”

  “I’m freaking the Mack Truck out and you guys are talking about math!” Olivia’s hair was stuck to the side of her face by sweat and tears as dark streaks of mascara streamed down her puffy cheeks. A tiny ball of guilt sat in the pit of Lucifer’s stomach. She wanted to get back at Olivia for her condescension, but she didn’t want her to be this scared.

  Lucifer gently pulled Olivia’s arms behind the back of the chair and started tying her wrists together with one of the scarves.

  “What are you doing?”

  “This is just so you won’t hurt yourself. Kenna, use the socks to tie her ankles to the chair legs. Tight.”

  “Hurt myself? Why . . . why would I hurt myself?”

  Finished, Lucifer stepped in front of Olivia and put a comforting hand on her arm. “This is just a precaution. Sometimes the extraction can be . . . violent.” Lucifer didn’t think it was possible, but Olivia’s eyes opened even wider.

  Lucifer opened her trick bag and pulled out a small glass jar filled with a rusty powder. “Kenna, sit here on the bed behind her. Whatever you do, don’t get in front of her. Understand?”

  Kenna nodded.

  “What’s that?” Olivia asked, nodding toward the jar in Lucifer’s hand.

  “It’s just paprika. See? Nothing to worry about,” Lucifer said.

  Olivia jerked back wildly, the wooden chair creaking under the sudden strain as it teetered on two legs. Lucifer reached out and caught Olivia before she fell over, but the poor girl was still struggling to get away.

  Kenna jumped up from the bed and screamed, “Oh god, her head is going to start spinning!”

  “Her head is not going to start spinning, now will you get a grip!” Lucifer turned back to Olivia. “Olivia, calm down. I said it’s just—”

  “I’m allergic to paprika! I’ll go into anaphylactic shock!” Olivia shouted.

  Lucifer wasn’t expecting that. It wasn’t really that big of a deal since almost any spice would do. Paprika was just what she happened to have in her trick bag. But the paprika seemed to frighten Olivia even more than being possessed.

  Quickly, Lucifer stashed the bottle back into her trick bag. “Okay, sorry. I didn’t know. It’s gone now. You’re fine.”

  Olivia was sucking in huge mouthfuls of air. “I . . . I can’t . . . breathe.”

  “You can breathe. None of it got out of the bottle.”

  “Are . . . are you sure?”

  “I’m positive.” Lucifer stepped in front of Olivia. “Are you allergic to pepper?”

  “Pepper? No. No, just paprika.” Poor Olivia was breathing heavily, but Lucifer suspected that was from having had a complete freakout rather than an allergic reaction.

  Lucifer turned to Kenna. “Go to the kitchen and get me some pepper.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Kenna said. “Are you sure her head isn’t going to spin? ’Cause . . . that’d be kinda cool to see.”

  “Jesus, Kenna!” Olivia shouted.

  Lucifer waved Kenna toward the door. “Go, Kenna. Hurry up.” Lucifer squatted down in front of Olivia, looking her square in the eyes. “Look at me, Olivia. Look. That’s good . . . on the way up to your room, I saw a picture of you on a mountain, holding a pair of skis. How good are you?”

  “What does that have to do with—”

  “How good?”

  “I . . . pretty good. I started skiing the black trails last year.”

  Lucifer smiled and spoke softly, calmly. “The first time you skied a black trail, I bet you were pretty scared. Right?”

  “A little.” There was still a waver in Olivia’s voice, but her breathing was becoming less labored.

  “But when you reached the bottom of that black trail, how did it feel?”

  A small, fragile smile spread across Olivia’s face. “Good. Like I could do anything.”

  “That’s right. Very few people can ski the black trails. I know I couldn’t. But you did. You were scared, but you did it. Because you can do anything. And this isn’t any different.”

  Kenna burst into the room holding out a jar of black pepper. “Got it! Did I miss anything?”

  Lucifer motioned her to sit on the bed. “Not a thing.” She went through her trick bag again but frowned when she didn’t find what she was looking for. “Olivia, do you have any stuffed animals?”

  “Uh . . . yeah. In the corner on the other side of my bed. Why?”

  “I need to steal one.” Lucifer walked around the bed and saw about a dozen dolls and stuffed animals neatly arranged in the corner of the room. She bent down and picked up a small, pink bunny with floppy, pointed ears. “Perfect.”

  Without another word, Lucifer grabbed an eyeliner pencil from Olivia’s vanity and used it to draw a small, delicate pattern of curved lines on the foot of the stuffed bunny. When she was satisfied with the design, she placed it on the floor several feet in front of Olivia.

  “Now, this is the easy part,” Lucifer said as she pulled her phone from her pocket. “The only thing you have to do, Olivia, is sneeze.”

  “Sneeze?” Olivia’s voice was almost a whisper. “That’s it?”

  “That’s it.” Lucifer tapped the screen of her phone a few times until she found an image of a sunflower. She held it up to Olivia and said, “Tell me what you see?”

  “I see a . . . it’s . . . a . . .” Olivia’s face went slack, her eyes still fixated on the screen of Lucifer’s phone.

  “Kenna,” Lucifer said softly. “Open the jar of pepper and put some under Olivia’s nose. But no sudden movements, okay?”

  “What’s happening?”

  “A sunflower is a perfect example of the Fibonacci sequence in nature. But the photograph itself isn’t natural. So the filcher demon inside her is . . . confused for the moment. It’s lost its grip on her. But any sudden movements will distract it. So move slowly.”

  Kenna came around Olivia’s side and very gingerly placed a pinch of pepper on top of Olivia’s upper lip.

  “That’s enough,” Lucifer said. “Now get back, please.”

  As Kenna made her way back to the bed, she asked, “What happens now?”

  “When she sneezes, the filcher demon should be expelled.”

  “Uh, is it safe to be standing in front of her?”

  Lucifer kept her eyes on Olivia’s slackened face. “No. When the demon comes out, it’s going to try and kill me.”

  �
��What?!” Kenna shouted. Olivia blinked and her eyes fluttered, but Lucifer moved the phone to keep the photo of the sunflower in her vision. Lucifer gave Kenna a quick, withering scowl.

  Kenna dropped her voice to a loud whisper. “Sorry. Sorry. But I mean, what? I thought you said this was weak sauce.”

  “It is. Relatively speaking.”

  Olivia’s nose twitched, and her chest rose with a quick intake of air. Lucifer jumped and rolled to the side just as Olivia sneezed. Olivia’s arms and legs stiffened so violently that the chair disintegrated beneath her, the sound of the sneeze as loud and deep as mortar blast. Lucifer could feel the concussion of air burst through the room, knocking picture frames from the walls and tipping over a nearby lamp and table.

  When Lucifer looked up, she saw a thin humanoid figure about three feet tall hunched on the ground in front of Olivia. Its arms and legs were impossibly long, bending at unnatural angles, and its bald, jagged head was covered in thick amber scales. The filcher demon turned its lidless black eyes back toward Olivia and sneered. Olivia sat on the floor in a heap of splintered wood and rags, a howl of terror caught in her throat.

  Lucifer jumped up and stood in front of the demon. The filcher demon rose up on its haunches and let out a piercing screech that felt like ice picks in her ears. It took a step toward her, but then stopped. The demon looked back over its crooked shoulder to see its legs dissipating into a red mist. It looked back at Lucifer, who stood calmly, writing letters in the air with her finger. “L. Eight. R. Buh-bye!”

  The demon turned back toward the pink bunny rabbit as the dematerialized parts of its body were being sucked in by the toy’s eyes, the symbol on the rabbit’s foot glowing with a bright, blue light. The demon sank its mottled claws into the carpet in a desperate attempt to free itself from the forces that pulled at it, but more and more of its body dissolved until there was nothing left but a sickly haze. There was a sudden burst of light and clap of thunder as the last wisps of the demon were rapidly sucked into the stuffed animal.

  Lucifer bent over and picked up the bunny. The symbol was now burned into its foot like a cattle brand, and a small trace of smoke rose from it, giving off a faint hint of cinnamon. She looked back over her shoulder and said, “You girls okay?”

  Both Olivia and Kenna were silent. Olivia still sat on the floor, her mouth agape, while Kenna stood on one leg and hugging herself in the middle of the bed like some 50s housewife who’d just seen a mouse in her kitchen.

  Lucifer grabbed Olivia’s wrist and helped her stand. She tapped a few icons on her phone and pulled up the first symbol. “What do you see?”

  Olivia wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Some . . . curly thing.”

  “Good as new.” Lucifer smiled. She waggled the stuffed bunny and said, “What did I tell you? The bunny trail of demon possessions. Now, your friend Isis. The one who found the book. Where does she live?”

  Kenna said, “Just down the street, but she’s not there. She’s with Brooklyn at the mall. Looking for dresses.”

  “Was Brooklyn with you that night, too?” Both Olivia and Kenna nodded. “Anyone else?”

  “No. That was it.” Olivia looked down at the ruined chair at her feet. “I’m never reading another book as long as I live.”

  “No, no,” Lucifer said. “You can read whatever you want now. This kind of possession is a lot like chicken pox. You get it once and then you’re done.” Lucifer put the stuffed bunny in her trick bag then slung the bag over her shoulder. She gave both Olivia and Kenna a pointed look. “But don’t try and summon anything again.”

  “We didn’t know this stuff was real,” Kenna said.

  “Now you do.” Lucifer turned to leave, but stopped and looked back. “But keep that to yourselves.”

  Lucifer was at the bottom of the stairs when she heard Olivia say, “Gina’s in trouble, isn’t she?” She turned to see Olivia and Kenna at the top of the stairs, looking down at her. Olivia’s mouth was turned down at the edges, her eyes filled with genuine worry.

  After what Olivia had just been through, Lucifer didn’t feel right lying to her, even if it was meant to protect her. “Yeah. I’m afraid so. But not for much longer if I can help it.” Lucifer patted her trick bag with one hand. “Thanks for the book.” She turned and headed out the front door.

  As she moved along the walkway toward the sidewalk, Lucifer struggled to ignore the feeling of guilt welling inside of her. This morning, the most pressing concern in both Olivia’s and Kenna’s lives was deciding which dress to wear to the dance. Now they knew that demons and magic were real. Lucifer had taken their innocence. Even though she did it to save their lives didn’t make it any easier to live with. And poor Olivia and Kenna were horrified enough by the filcher demon. How would they react if they knew that filcher demons were just the tip of a very large, very dark and ugly iceberg floating beneath the surface of the mundane?

  Lucifer watched a middle-aged man in a frumpy brown suit trundle down the sidewalk toward her and was overcome with jealousy. What was his biggest worry in life? Changing the oil in his car every three thousand miles? Getting his kids into the right schools? Paying his mortgage?

  As the man approached her, Lucifer toyed with the idea of telling him just how lucky he was. But when he was about to pass, she just smiled at him instead. Her smile tilted into a confused frown when she saw him pull something from his pocket.

  Then her face turned to fire.

  CHAPTER 8

  The pain was excruciating. It was as if her face had been slammed into a blast furnace. Lucifer’s eyes were swollen shut, and the inside of her mouth tasted of molten lead. Every time she struggled to take a breath, her lungs turned to fire. Her chest convulsed in terrible spasms with every violent cough, shredding the back of her throat.

  Though she couldn’t see, she could feel the man standing over her, desperately trying to yank her trick bag off her shoulder. Lucifer flailed at the shoulder strap, trying to wrap it around her wrist, but her arms wouldn’t obey her. She rolled on top of the bag, using her weight to keep him from taking it away. He pulled hard at the strap, lifting her from the ground with a strained grunt. Just as suddenly, he dropped her back to the ground, knocking what little breath she had left from her lungs.

  The man grabbed Lucifer’s shoulder and rolled her over. But instead of trying to take the bag, Lucifer felt him rummage inside. She didn’t care. The pain, the desperate need for air was so great now that all Lucifer wanted was to get away, to crawl somewhere safe like a dying animal.

  There was a sudden jerk as the man pulled something from her bag. She heard his shoes slide across the pavement as he turned and ran away. Lucifer listened to the man’s quickly retreating footsteps clacking down the sidewalk until there was nothing left but her own phlegmatic gasps and the mocking chorus of songbirds in the trees overhead.

  When her eyes were finally able to open, she was face-to-face with Buck. He loomed over her, filling Olivia’s front room with his massive frame. He smiled and gave her a fresh handful of ice cubes wrapped inside a kitchen towel.

  “How’s the breathing?”

  Lucifer’s voice came out harsh and broken. “Better.” She pulled the ice away from her eyes and gave him a pointed stare. “He took the book.”

  Buck didn’t say anything, just gave her a small nod before sitting down in the lounge chair across from her. Olivia walked in with a glass of water and handed it to her.

  “I’m so, so sorry. Kenna and I didn’t know what was happening until we heard you coughing out the window. We were going to call the police, but we didn’t know if it was the . . . we didn’t know what happened to you, so we called Gina’s dad.”

  Lucifer took a sip. Even the water burned as it went down. “Thanks.” She noticed Kenna sitting on the far end of the couch, looking more frightened than she had during their earlier impromptu exorcism. Lucifer understood. The most frightening monsters weren’t the ones with fangs and claws that hid under your bed, t
hey were the ones who walked among us.

  Buck said, “Girls, you want to give us a moment, please?”

  Kenna nodded and rose from the couch while Olivia said, “Yeah, sure. Lucifer, can I get you anything else? More water?”

  “No, I’m fine. Thanks, though.”

  “No problem.” Olivia started to follow Kenna out of the room, but stopped and looked back. “Mr. Pierce. I’m really sorry about Gina. We didn’t know. We . . . we just didn’t know.” She turned and left.

  Buck leaned forward, his thick leather belt creaking as he did so. “I see you told them what really happened. Are you sure that was a good idea?”

  Lucifer peered at him from under the ice-filled towel. “I’m not so sure getting out of bed this morning was a good idea.”

  “I’m surprised they believed you.”

  “Well, it wasn’t that hard to convince them. Sneezing up a filcher demon tends to persuade even the most hardened skeptic.”

  “What?”

  There was no point in worrying Buck any further by telling him about Olivia’s possession, so Lucifer gave him a dismissive wave with her free hand and said, “Bad joke, sorry.”

  “Lucifer. Are you okay? Did he . . . hurt you?”

  “A face full of pepper spray isn’t exactly a day at the spa.”

  “I meant—”

  “I know what you meant. No, he didn’t.” Lucifer repositioned the ice over her eyes. “He was after the book.”

  “Lucifer, this is very important. Can you tell me what he looked like?” Buck’s voice was strained, and the veins in his thick neck bulged like tree roots trapped under his skin.

  “White guy. Tall, thin.”

  He pulled a small black notebook from his pocket and scribbled on its pages. “Hair color?”

  “Dark with bits of gray, but most was missing on top. Cheap suit. Brown, about two sizes too big.”

  “What else? Can you remember anything else? Anything at all?”

  “Buck—”

  “Was he wearing a tie? A hat? Any scars or tattoos? You have to help me, Lucifer!”