How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend (Necon Modern Horror Book 9)
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“I sincerely hope you’re not going to try anything. I’d hate for you to experience the death of your cousin,” Mac said. He shoved Brenda out of her cousin’s mind.
“What’s wrong?” Sara asked. “Are you all right?”
“Come on,” Brenda said, pulling Sara out of the bar.
As they walked to the meeting place, Brenda explained everything to Sara.
“I don’t need magic to know that he’s dangerous,” Sara said. “Do you really think he’ll just let us walk away after he gets the information from you?”
Brenda shook her head. “At the best he’ll use his power to scramble our minds, which could probably turn a normal person into a vegetable. You know what the worst case is. Angelique and I could probably fight off some of his power together, but I don’t think we could protect you too. In fact, you should go somewhere safe until this is over.”
“No can do, not while Angelique’s in danger. I’ve lived in New Orleans long enough to suspect there was something to magic, but I’m not sure I can believe all of this,” Sara said as they walked down the street.
“I understand your skepticism,” Brenda said. “If you won’t leave then you have to do whatever I say, whether you believe or not.”
Sara nodded.
Brenda looked up at the entrance to the St. Louis Cemetery #1.
“We’ll meet them inside.”
Sara hesitated. “Not that I’m afraid, but I don’t think cemeteries and magic are a good mix.”
“I’m hoping not.” Brenda said a quick chant asking for the blessings of the dead before they entered.
They walked through the rows of stone houses. The full moon made the white stone crypts and concrete ground glow. Brenda went to a brick wall of arches, burial holes for the poorer community. A couple of the arches fronts had crumbled, leaving gaping openings. She laid her hand on the front of each small arch until she felt the vibration she needed.
“Someone in here died angry and betrayed.”
“What are you doing?” Sara asked.
“Trying to get us out of the mess I got us into.” She put her finger to her lips to quiet Sara.
She pulled a piece of red yarn out of a small bag in her pocket. Holding the yarn against the sealed burial hole, she said:
“With this knot I seal this spell
You will not rest, you will not tell
Knots of red, knots times three
Bringing chaos and forgetfulness
From the rage within to thee
So mote it be.”
Each time Brenda tied a knot she said the spell until she had tied three knots in the yarn. She bowed to the crypt, said a chant of thanks to the bones within and put the yarn in her pocket.
“Let’s go,” Brenda said running back to the cemetery entrance. They stopped within the borders of the grounds. “When they get here, I’ll take care of Mac. You keep your eye on the woman.”
A blue car pulled up slowly to the entrance. Mac got out with Angelique and the Asian woman. Mac walked with his arm around Angelique’s waist and one hand holding the laser knife against her side. Angelique held her wounded hand tucked under her arm. She stumbled at the edge of the sidewalk. The woman held a gun down at her side. They stopped outside the entrance.
“Are you all right?” Sara asked.
“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” Mac said. “A cemetery. Fitting if you try to trick me.”
“The information is in a memory rod in here.” Brenda pointed into the cemetery.
“Then let’s get it and finish this,” the Asian woman said.
“This way,” Brenda said, leading them back to the brick wall.
Sara tried to talk to Angelique, but the woman waved her ahead with the gun. They walked past the sealed burial arches to one that was open. The concrete entrance had collapsed inside the arch.
Brenda put her hand inside, pushing aside chunks of concrete. “How do I know you’ll let us go?”
“I didn’t think you’d argue with sharing a forgetfulness spell between the three of you.” Mac smiled.
“Okay.” Brenda glanced at Sara and Angelique quickly. Sara stood next to the woman with the gun. Mac lowered the knife toward the ground. Brenda grabbed a chunk of concrete from inside the arch and threw it at the woman’s head, hitting her in the face. As she fell backwards the gun went off, the bullet grazing Brenda’s arm. Sara jumped on the woman and slammed her head into the ground, until she passed out.
Angelique grabbed Mac’s wrist with her good hand and swung with all her weight, turning him off balance. There was a crack as his wrist broke, making him scream and drop the knife. Brenda rushed in and kicked him in the back of his knee. He crumbled to the ground. Sara grabbed the knife, sat on his back and held it to his neck.
“Don’t move, Mac, or I’ll activate the blade, and you won’t care if the wound is sealed,” she said.
Brenda pulled the knotted yarn out of her pocket and dragged the Asian woman next to Mac. She sat between them on the ground and placed her left hand on the woman’s forehead, grasped Angelique’s hand with her right along with the yarn. Angelique knew immediately what Brenda intended and let the fingers of her injured right hand touch the back of Mac’s head. Brenda said:
“With this knot I seal this spell
You will not rest, you will not tell
Knots of red, knots times three
Bringing chaos and forgetfulness
From the rage within to thee
So mote it be.”
Electricity shot through the cousins into their captives. Mac’s body stiffened, as did the woman’s unconscious body. Brenda said it again. Mac moaned, “No.” The third time Brenda said it Mac’s body went limp. The cousins closed their eyes.
They were falling in a dark sky. Thunder and lightning cut through the air. Four bodies tumbled in a circle, hands tightly clasped as if fused together. The first word of Brenda’s spell echoed in a strange voice around them like the sound of a car crash. The screech of metal became winged creatures, their long beaks and tails ended in razor sharp edges. On the second word, the creatures swooped at them, using their beaks and tails to cut and whip at the woman and Mac.
Mac tried to pull away, but the more power he gathered, the bigger the creatures grew. The woman screamed uncontrollably.
The voice continued reciting each word of the spell with building rage and poisonous anger. Thick blood splashed on the cousins as the creatures tore and ripped away at Mac and the woman. On the last word Brenda and Angelique released their hands and opened their eyes.
“You don’t have to hold the knife on him anymore,” Brenda said, took the knife from Sara and helped Angelique stand up. Brenda’s upper arm stung and bled where the bullet had brushed it. She looked at her cousin’s missing fingertip. “Let’s get you to a doctor.”
Angelique laughed weakly. “You need to have that arm looked at, too.”
“So, we just walk out of here and leave them?” Sara asked.
“They won’t bother us again. Their memory is in pieces, ripped to shreds,” Brenda said.
“Where did you keep the information they were after?” Sara asked, putting her arm around Angelique’s waist.
Brenda turned and smiled in the moonlight. She jangled the charm bracelet in the air. “Mac was right. I always carried the data with me, but tonight I downloaded it somewhere even safer.”
“Tonight?” Angelique asked, leaning against Sara. “You put it in Milez.”
Brenda smiled.
How to Recognize Your Friend Has Become a Demon
They won’t cross the threshold to your home
without a spoken invitation, snarling when you
ask if they will go to church with you.
You find strange patterns draw in chalk under
your bed after they have visited, your pets
suddenly begin to disappear.
They ask for your first born as a birthday
gift, avoiding the mirrors
in your house
saying they’re having a bad hair day.
You dream you ran away with them
to the Circus of Lost Souls, upon waking
you see red circus tents on the horizon.
They begin to smell like sulfur,
giggling when you tell them
someone has died in your family.
They take you to the crossroads
at midnight for a party, you offer
your soul as a door prize.
About the Author
Linda Addison grew up in Philadelphia, the oldest of nine children and began weaving stories at an early age. She moved to New York after college and has published over 200 poems, stories and articles. Addison is the award-winning author of Being Full of Light, Insubstantial (Space & Time Books) and the first African-American to receive the HWA Bram Stoker Award. Catch her work in Genesis: An Anthology of Black Science Fiction, Dark Faith and New Blood anthologies.
She is founding member of a writers group, CITH (Circles in the Hair), since 1990 and a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), Science-Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA).
See her site, http://www.lindaaddisonpoet.com, for the latest information.
About the Artist
Jill Bauman has been a freelance illustrator/designer for 32 years. In that time she has produced hundreds of covers for horror, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, best-selling books and other products.
She has illustrated works by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Peter Straub, Lilian Jackson Braun, Charles L. Grant, Robert McCammon, Richard Laymon, Jack Williamson, Hugh B. Cave, Fritz Leiber, Michael Resnick, J. G. Ballard, Stuart O’Nan and Justin Cronin.
Jill has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award five times and nominated for the Chesley Award several times. Her art has been exhibited at the Delaware Art Museum, the Moore College of Art, Science Fiction Museum of Seattle, NY Art Students League and the NY Illustrators Society.
Jill lives in Queens, New York.
Other Books by Linda Addison
Animated Objects
A first collection of poetry and prose, some original, some reprinted from such sources as Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Pirate Writings Magazine. Includes an introduction by Barry N. Malzberg and “Little Red in the Hood,” on the Honorable Mention list in the Tenth Annual Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror (1997).
“Addison has enough invention for two writers. And enough heart for three.”
— Terry Bisson
Space & Time Books:
ISBN 0-917053-09-5 (paper) $7.95
ISBN 0-917053-10-9 (hardcover) $14.95
Being Full of Light, Insubstantial
An exciting collection of 100 poems, most never seen before, from the first African-American to receive the Horror Writers Association’s coveted Bram Stoker Award!
Original photography and variations by Brian J. Addison.
“… is poetic achievement as solid and well-founded as a palace cornerstone. And that palace rings with the thrum and cadence of voice, weaving tales and songs full of fantasy and myth that will sweep you down from the eaves and up to the towers.”
— Tom Piccirilli, author of THE MIDNIGHT ROAD
Space & Time Books:
ISBN 978-0-917053-16-0 $10.00
Received Bram Stoker award
Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes
A collection of poetry to capture the path between things gone bad and transformation.
“…reveals the little horrors of the days, the curiously individual science fictions of the nights, the fantasies where ‘tomorrow will be reborn’.”
— Charlee Jacob
Space & Time Books:
ISBN 0-917053-13-3 $7.00
Received Bram Stoker award
NECON E-BOOKS: MODERN HOROR LIBRARY
The following links are to all of our Contemporary Horror Library titles available on Amazon.com. For questions or other purchasing options, please visit our company’s web site.
How To Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend by Linda Addison
*** 2011 Bram Stoker Award Winner for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection *** Who doesn’t need to know How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend? From the first African-American to receive the HWA Bram Stoker award, this collection of both horror and science fiction short stories and poetry reveals demons in the most likely people (like a jealous ghost across the street) or in unlikely places (like the dimension-shifting dreams of an American Indian). Recognition is the first step, what you do with your friends/demons after that is up to you.
Dark Duet by Linda Addison & Stephen M. Wilson
You’ve heard their voices before, but never like this: from three-time HWA Bram Stoker Award winner Linda D. Addison and multiple Rhysling Award nominee Stephen M. Wilson comes Dark Duet. Two different voices, in harmony, creating verse that sings and moves on the page, taking the reader through time and space on an infinite symphony of self-exploration. Come dance with them and you may find your own song.
For the Love of Horror by Michael Arruda
“You can tell how much Arruda loves the genre, and you will, too.”
— L.L. Soares, author of Life Rage
“Keeps the reader guessing and thoroughly disturbed … in a fun way.”
— Tracy L. Carbone, author of Restitution
“Michael Arruda has a knack for creating stories that turn your expectations, and your nerves, on edge.”
— Daniel G. Keohane, author of Christmas Trees & Monkeys
Sympathy for the Dead by P.D. Cacek
A few words about the author from Thomas Tessier (quoted from the introduction he penned for this collection): “She can be wickedly funny, or savagely satirical, and she has an unsparing eye for the foibles, follies and obsessions that drive human beings to those extreme moments where they either suffer or inflict great horror. Her prose can be by turns street-smart, flip, or blunt, as well as poetic, evocative, meditative. In case you might think that all adds up to something like glibness — guess again. Think virtuoso.”
The Wind Caller by P.D. Cacek
There is much conflict in the air of Richland, Arizona — the longstanding conflict between the “white” and the “red,” the very modern conflict between landowners and a real estate developer, and even a conflict of trust between Native American schoolteacher Sky Berlander and her lover, Sam. But these all pale in comparison to what brews between Sky and her estranged grandfathers, as a feud which has divided their family will finally come to a head over an ancient and terrifying birthright — the power to control the wind itself.
The School That Screamed by William D. Carl
Dolly Elliott’s earned its reputation as a school for bad girls. Nestled within an isolated forest outside of the London suburbs, it’s the last stop for students who have been expelled from every other school in Europe. For the right price, the administrators guarantee a diploma for any girl, no matter how rebellious.
But, the halls of Dolly Elliott’s are haunted by more than the laughter of the young women earning their degrees. At night, the wail of a baby can be heard from the cellar and foul odors permeate the dorms. Glimpses of blinded nuns disturb the daily routine of the young women. And something is moving from the other side of the mirrors, seeking a way into our world. It hates the living, especially the girls it jealously watches.
When Laura Pennington arrives as a new student, she carries secrets, a past that led to her fleeing her last school screaming in terror. On the same day, Sarah Stallworth begins teaching the young women of Dollie Elliott’s, and she brings her own baggage. When a young maid is horribly mutilated and a teacher is murdered, they launch an investigation into what roams the halls of the school at night. The past is trying to intrude upon the present, attempting to force its way into the new century. Can Laura and Sarah learn the terrible truth about the school before more women die?
Snowbird Gothic by Richard Dansky
Richard Dansky was named one of the top 20 videogame writers in the world by Gamasutra in 2009, but as he explains in his introduction, game writiing doesn’t offer “the chance to run off and play in your own sandbox. That’s what fiction’s for, and that’s why I write it.” In this collection, Dansky delivers “all the scary bits and bobs … filtered through a lens of late nights and off-kilter glances and that little nagging voice in the back of my head that constantly says, ‘But what if…?’ What if. It’s a question I ask a lot. I hope you enjoy the answers.”
Death’s Companion by Dan Foley
When Jerry Gibson chose to kill himself, he discovered that he couldn’t die. Instead he became Death’s Companion, forced to share the deaths of countless others. Then in one act of rebellion Jerry saved the life of a sixteen year old girl and unleashed a horror on the world that could destroy his immortal soul.
“Clever and well-written, Dan Foley’s debut novel taps the veins of Death Takes a Holiday for a compelling, horrific thrill-ride. Check it out!”
— Christopher Golden
The Whispers of Crows by Dan Foley
Dan Foley has been one of the horror genre’s best kept secrets, and we’re proud to continue spoiling that distinction with The Whispers of Crows (his collection featuring new and previously published stories). In the author’s own words —
“A gathering of crows is called a murder. When they gather, they call to each other in loud raucous caws or low gurgling whispers. The whispers of crows in these pages involve murder and so much more.”
The Birds and The Bees by Sèphera Girón
A paranoid fantasy, The Birds and The Bees is about what the title says it is. We learn to fear all sorts of flying things — birds, bees, hornets, wasps …. They are always just out of our consciousness, watching, waiting, their motives unclear. We also learn to fear all sorts of loving things — men, women, couples …. They are lying beside us, watching, waiting, their motives unclear. It’s as if Daphne du Maurier and Erica Jong went to a party hosted by Timothy Leary, dropped acid, and decided to collaborate. A truly manic read.