by Cassandra
But no. She had been too caught up in her drunken drama to notice sooner.
“Don’t worry, Frank. I’ll get you out soon,” she said to the card. Her lip trembled even harder, and she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. Whenever she saw Frank again, she knew he would be ticked off at her and likely give her an earful about how lousy a witch she was. Maybe he would even accuse her of trying to get him killed again. But she didn’t care, as long as she saw him again and managed to save him from wherever he had been taken.
And when she did, his complaining would sound like music to her ears.
With the card still in hand, Jessica made her way downstairs. Pastor Norman should be there any second now.
It seemed like she had only been downstairs for a matter of seconds when the doorbell rang. She rushed to answer it and a concerned Pastor Norman stood on the porch.
“Jessica,” he said, “show me the cards.”
She nodded wordlessly and handed over the imp card she was holding. Then, she dashed up the stairs to retrieve the rest of the deck and the box they’d come in. She placed everything on the dining room table as Pastor Norman approached, a frown on his face as he stared at the card with the imp that looked so uncannily like Frank.
“By the way, Chad and Roger will be here in a minute,” he informed her.
She swallowed at the sound of Chad’s name, shifted uncomfortably on her feet, and tugged on her earlobe—a nervous tick she hadn’t done in ages. “Uh… Okay,” she said and eyed the pastor.
Had Chad told him anything about the last time he and Jessica had seen each other? She tried to deduce whether she’d heard anything in Pastor Norman’s voice to suggest that he knew about her misdeeds.
In the next moment, she pushed the thought from her mind entirely. Pastor Norman was the very last person she wanted to know about her night of underage drinking, not to mention her make-out session. Even though she had sobered up from her hangover a while ago already, the thought of her pastor knowing about those particular antics was enough to make her want to vomit all over again.
If he knew, would he still want her as a part of his coven?
I guess that would help me out with my process of elimination, she thought bitterly.
Paranoid, Jessica kept her distance from the man while she watched him inspect the cards. Deep lines and creases formed across his forehead and after a moment, he sighed and shook his head.
“These are demon cards. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never actually seen them in person before.” Pastor Norman looked at Jessica, his eyes narrowed. “And you said you rolled the dice?”
She nodded. “Yes,” she answered in a small voice.
“Tell me again, where did you get them?”
“From a magic shop my grandma took me to.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Ethel let you buy these?”
Jessica swallowed and tugged her earlobe again. “She…she doesn’t know I have them. She didn’t see me buy them. I mean—it’s not like I hid them from her. It’s only that…I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time.”
Pastor Norman pursed his lips but nodded. “Yeah. I can see that. The packaging does make it seem like a cool game. It’s not surprising that a teenager would pick them up and believe them to be harmless.” He suddenly glanced around the house. “Where is Ethel, by the way?”
“Out.”
“Out? At this hour?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “She’s done this a lot lately—sneaks out without saying where she’s going. She’s so secretive about it. Something tells me it has to do with Maximus. She’s looked so much younger these days, and I know that’s a habit she has when he’s around. So I think she’s with him…”
Jessica’s voice trailed off, for as she spoke, she thought she saw a look of disappointment deepen on her companion’s face. His mouth had dropped open slightly, although she couldn’t tell if it was because he wanted to say something or if he was merely in shock. There was no time to decide, though, because the doorbell suddenly rang.
“I’ll get it,” Pastor Norman said and hurried off to the door.
She stared after him. While she’d known for a while now that Grandma Ethel had an obvious crush on him, was it possible that he had one on her in return?
Her mouth twisted into an involuntary grimace. A love triangle between Grandma Ethel, Maximus, and Pastor Norman was definitely high on her list of things she didn’t want to think about.
Fortunately—or perhaps not so fortunately—she was spared from thinking about it any further when Chad and Roger walked into the house. The mere sight of them made her think of Kacey and alcohol and getting caught red-handed. Her face warmed on the spot, and she squirmed uncomfortably, unable to even look Chad in the eyes.
“Hello, Jessica,” he said and his tone dripped with smugness and made her feel that much more awkward.
You have much bigger things to worry about, you know, she reminded herself and cleared her throat. “Hello, Chad. Roger.”
“Jessica, why don’t you fill them in on what’s going on?” Pastor Norman said.
She nodded gratefully. “Yeah, okay.” She took a deep breath and tried her best to give a short version of the story while retaining all the main details. “I bought a magic deck of cards from a magic shop I went to with my grandma the other day. I played around with them for a while, and unknowingly set a stickman demon loose. He’s knocked on my bedroom window for a few days, but I didn’t realize what it was until today when he came through the vent in my room, trying to get me…”
Silence followed as she paused and took a moment to catch her breath and observe the look of terror that came across Chad’s face. Meanwhile, Roger had gone to the dining room table to inspect the cards for himself. “Before he could get me, though, the cards flew around the room, and the blank card in the deck—this sounds crazy, I know, but it swallowed the demon. The cards, though, have somehow taken Frank now. He’s on one of the cards, and the instruction card wants me to roll the dice again—to keep playing, basically—in order to get him back. But I’m afraid of doing that because I don’t want to let another demon loose.”
Chad swore and immediately flinched. “Sorry, Pastor.”
“If there was a time for swearing, it would be now. No apology necessary,” Pastor Norman said.
The younger man looked over toward the cards, where Roger was still inspecting them. “This is so crazy. Demon cards. I halfway wasn’t sure they existed for real.”
“Yeah,” the pastor said. “I was telling Jessica that I’ve never seen any in real life before.”
Something clattered on the table and they all stopped for a moment.
Roger grinned sheepishly, and they all realized that the sound had come from him rolling the dice. “Sorry. I’ve only seen this in books and—” Whatever else he had intended to say, they would never know, for suddenly, a stupefied expression flashed across his face. He held his hands out before him and looked as if he was being pulled.
Jessica’s heart sank when she realized what was happening.
The young man didn’t even have time to scream before his hands disappeared into the blank card lying on the table.
Jessica, Chad, Pastor Norman—and every cat in their vicinity—froze as Roger was sucked into the card until he was there no more.
His image, flattened into a two-dimensional drawing, stared at them from the card. And then, right before their very eyes, the words flashed across the instruction card: Only one player.
“Oh…my…God,” Jessica said.
Chad closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe he did that.” He shook his head. “He’s obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed. Dammit, Roger—”
Pastor Norman bowed his head as if saying a prayer. “So now, that’s the imp and Roger whom we have to get back.”
“And how do we do that?” Jessica asked, panicked. It wasn’t lost on her that this was all her fault because s
he’d bought the stupid cards in the first place.
Christa really needed to be more careful about the items she sold.
The pastor sighed. “Well, we have no choice now but to play the game.”
“Are you serious?” Chad asked.
“While I wish I wasn’t, I am.” He pulled a chair out and sat heavily. “Demon cards. I may have never seen them before, but I know how they work. You see, each time you roll the dice, it releases a demon.” He looked at Jessica. “So you’re definitely right about that part. After the demon is released, the corresponding coven card lets you know that you need a spell from that particular coven to kill the demon. There’s a reversal card—think of it as a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ type of thing—that lets you reverse whatever you previously did with these cards. But for some reason, it’s not there.”
“I… It might be because I used it already. To get rid of the stickman,” Jessica said.
Pastor Norman nodded. “That makes sense. But that simply confirms that the only way to get Frank and Roger back is to roll the damned dice again.”
A heavy silence settled over them as Jessica and Chad let the information sink it.
Her thoughts were preoccupied with the fact that the card had said there could be one player only. She knew that the one player was her. There was no way out of it for her now.
She balled her fists at her sides and knew she had to take responsibility for what she’d started. This was her fault, and she would make it right. Resolute, she turned toward Pastor Norman. “All right. So if I roll the dice and get Frank and Roger out—is that it, then? Can I stop playing?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, kiddo. But no. The game has to be played through to the end.”
Well, crap. She looked at Frank’s and Roger’s pictures on the cards
Chapter Eight
Overwhelmed, Jessica pulled a chair up and joined Pastor Norman at the dining room table. “So,” she said and interrupted the silence that had seeped over them, “I guess there’s nothing left to do but roll the dice again?”
He nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid so, kiddo.”
She sighed, sure that this possibly topped the Worst Day Ever list for her. Ever since she’d woken up, she’d wanted nothing more than to get back in bed and go to sleep. The blasted day wouldn’t let her, though, and simply kept going on and on and on.
“How long will it take to save them from the cards?” she asked.
“I wish I had an answer for you,” Pastor Norman said. “Unfortunately, it depends on how the game goes.”
“And by that,” Chad said, “you mean by how much of a fight the demons put up.”
Pastor Norman nodded again. “And what kind of demons come out. Plus, with Jessica being a new witch who has to be taught the fighting spells…” He shrugged
“It’ll take even longer than normal. Because of me,” she concluded with a heavy sigh. “Well, at least you two are here now. That makes me feel much better than facing this stuff on my own.” She paused for a moment and stifled a yawn. Then, her brow furrowed as she stared down at the card containing Roger and Frank.
“What are you thinking?” Pastor Norman asked.
“Do you know what it’s like for them, inside the card?”
“Not very pleasant, I imagine,” Chad said.
“But is it dangerous for them in there?”
Pastor Norman shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. We can’t change what’s happened, though, so it won’t do us any good to dwell on it. We need to get them out.”
Jessica glanced sheepishly at the table. “I’m just…a little tired, that’s all.” Truthfully, she wished they could continue things tomorrow after she’d had a few hours of sleep. But she thought it would sound a little insensitive if she voiced the thought out loud.
Chad huffed. “Well, you have nobody but yourself to blame for that. No one told you to stay out after hours drinking yourself into a stupor.”
She froze and her face reddened. Both annoyed and embarrassed, she glared at Chad and wondered what had possessed him to bring that up in front of Pastor Norman. Was he really so ticked off at her that he felt the need to chastise her in front of her pastor, for crying out loud?
He flinched when he saw the look on her face and seemed to realize his mistake. He glanced at the older man, apparently regretful that he’d let such a detail slip in front of him.
Pastor Norman caught what Chad had said and saw the betrayed expression on Jessica’s face and tilted his head curiously. “What’s that now?”
“Nothing,” they responded said at the same time.
He shook his head, unconvinced. “No, I know what I heard. I’m simply trying to figure out why you two are acting so uptight around each other. Jessica, you went out drinking last night? With friends, I presume.”
Jessica opened and closed her mouth. She felt trapped and didn’t know what to say.
Pastor Norman turned his gaze to Chad. “And what’s your problem, exactly? She’s nearly eighteen.”
The younger man blinked, stunned, as did Jessica.
The pastor was cool for a priest, but she never in a million years would have suspected that he was this cool.
Suddenly, he looked toward the ceiling and shook his head. “Wait… That’s right. United States. The legal drinking age is twenty-one, not eighteen like in England.” He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a silly rule if you ask me. eighteen-year-olds can fight wars but can’t have a drink? Only in the USA.”
“Well, eighteen-year-olds are probably more mature where you’re from,” Chad said. “Not like these we have here who simply make bad choices for the heck of it.”
Pastor Norman laughed. “I beg to differ. Eighteen-year-olds are essentially the same everywhere, from what I can tell.”
Jessica briefly shot Chad a smug look. If Pastor Norman didn’t judge her, why should Chad? Hoping he caught the meaning behind her look, she picked up the dice, ready to drop the subject and focus on the issue at hand.
The smugness she’d previously felt quickly evaporated under the weight of the dice in her hands. She didn’t want to roll them ever again, but that clearly wasn’t an option. She couldn’t leave Frank and Roger stuck there like that.
“Think of this as a learning experience, Jessica,” Pastor Norman said soothingly when he sensed her apprehension. “If it helps, think of this as a type of training. You look forward to training as a witch, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. But somehow, this seems a little different.”
“Well, don’t let it. Convince yourself that this is nothing but another training session. Rolling the dice means learning how to get your friends back and how to kill a few more demons along the way. It’s a win-win situation, right?”
Jessica nodded again. She wanted to share the pastor’s optimism but found it a struggle, to say the least.
She took a deep breath. This is only training. All fun and games. Probably not what the person who left these cards behind intended, but that’s what it’ll be, dammit, she told herself.
“Come on, Jessica,” Chad said and stood beside her. “You’re all about new experiences these days, so don’t stop now.”
“Thanks, Chad. You’re so good at pep talks.” She rolled her eyes, took another deep breath, rattled the dice in her hand, and let them fall.
They all waited with bated breath as the dice landed on the table. Before any of them could even clarify what the dice had landed on, there was a loud popping sound, followed by a strong wind that seemed to blow straight through the table.
Or, rather, through one of the cards on the table.
The card began to glow, the light so bright that they had to momentarily shield their eyes. After several seconds, the illumination faded and in its place stood none other than Frank.
The imp blinked and looked completely stupefied for a moment before his expression suddenly turned angry. His gaze zoomed in on Jessica. “Do you want to tell me why I’ve been trapped ins
ide a damned card for days?” he yelled, visibly annoyed. “Seriously! What the hell? Again, why was I cursed with such an inefficient witch?” He folded his arms. “Go ahead. Let me hear it. What spell did you screw up now? Oh, and by the way, you’d better have recorded Keeping Up with the Kardashians for me.”
As irritating as the sound of his rant was, she was glad to hear it. In fact, she was so relieved to see that he was all right, she couldn’t help laughing. “Hi. Welcome back. Good to see you too, Frank. I’m so glad you’re all right—and I really mean it.”
He grunted and then turned away from her to eye Chad and Pastor Norman suspiciously.
“Good job, Jessica,” Chad said. “Why do I think getting Roger back won’t be as easy, though?” He shook his head. “I still can’t believe he did something so stupid. I think I’ll have to find a new partner.”
“We’ll get him back. Don’t worry,” Pastor Norman said.
“Oh, I know we’ll get him back,” Chad said. “I’ll still need a new partner, though. A smarter one.”
“I wondered why that dude was stuck too,” Frank said. “I should have known you were behind it.” He glared at her again.
“All right. Enough with the guilt-trip. I have another soul to rescue, or whatever.” Jessica picked the dice up, shook them in her hand again, and looked at Pastor Norman. “I can go ahead and roll again, right? I mean…” She glanced around the house. “No demon popped out yet.”
He stared at the dice in her hand. “I suppose you’d better give it a try. At this point, there’s nothing for us to do but proceed and see what happens.”
Jessica nodded, Chad pulled up a seat, and Frank continued to stand on the table and look affronted.
“Well, here goes.” She threw the dice for a second time. One die landed on a six. She jogged her memory and recalled that the sixth coven’s specialty was smoke. Quickly, she found the corresponding demon card, unnerved to see a creature that seemed to be made up of beetles and with sharp pointed teeth.
Chad shook his head. “Yikes. That looks nasty. You sure know how to pick ʼem, Jess.”
