by Zoe Arden
Rocky, however, was not to be pushed aside so easily. He was a large dog just standing on all fours—a wolfhound that came up almost to my waist—when he stood back on his haunches, he was even taller than me. Almost as tall as Colt.
Rocky stood up to his full height as my dad ran at him, a growl that was almost a roar coming from deep within his chest. He lunged at my father just as he tried to push his way through. His front paws landed square on my dad's chest and sent him flying backward, back into the apartment.
Tootsie ran in behind Rocky and wiggled his whiskers. The door slammed shut and the lock bolted. One day, I'd have to have Snowball try and explain a familiar's magic to me. Looking at their cute little faces, it was easy to forget how powerful they could be under the right circumstances. And it looked like now were the right circumstances.
My dad let out a wail. His voice cracked, and his arms flailed out at his sides unceremoniously. He was not going to give up easily but he couldn't seem to get Rocky off him. His body began shifting back into his normal self. The long arms dissolved into his smaller, normal-sized ones. The equally long legs shrunk. Everything that had just a few minutes before looked so unnatural on my father changed back to its normal self. It was weird.
"Rocky, down," I said. He shot me a look, as if to ask whether I was really sure, then immediately jumped off my dad when he saw that I was. My dad sat up, rubbing at his eyes.
"Ava?" he said, looking around. There was a confused look in his eyes, which were both red but normal red. Hungover, didn't get enough sleep, my contacts are bothering me red. And his pupils were a much more natural size, not the all-consuming black they had been a minute ago. "What's happening?" he asked.
"Dad?" I said, taking a step toward him.
"No!" Lucy shouted. She looked at me. "What if it's a trick?"
I looked at him again, double checking each of his features. His eyes were clear and normal. Gone were the black, blank things that had been staring back at me for the last ten minutes. His body was its normal size, and his teeth were straight and even.
"Dad, is that you?" I asked, stepping closer still. I knew I was taking a chance, it just looked so much like him. It even sounded like him.
"What do you mean is it me?" he asked. "Of course, it's me." He took a step toward me, his hands reaching out as if he meant to take me in a hug.
"Stop right there," Eleanor said. She was holding Colt's wand. In all the commotion, I'd forgotten all about it.
"Eleanor," I said, "be careful with that thing. I think it's him. I think it's my dad."
"What do you mean think?" my dad asked. His head was swiveling around the room, from one person to the next. "Would someone please tell me what's going on?" There was just a hint of irritation in his voice.
"You mean, you don't remember?" Eleanor asked, looking at him uncertainly.
"Remember what?"
Trixie was standing nearby, her eyes wide. Rocky, Tootsie, and Snowball hovered together in a corner of the room, their teeth exposed like they didn't trust him. I bit my bottom lip.
"What's the last thing you remember?" I asked him.
"The last thing I remember?" He scratched his head. "Sadie had a cold. I was trying to get her home when she tripped, and her keys fell into the sewer."
"That's the last thing you remember?" I said, dumbfounded. "That was over a week ago. Almost two weeks."
"It was?" he asked. "Why are you all looking at me like that?" He looked at Eleanor. "Why are you pointing that at me?"
Eleanor hesitated, then lowered the wand ever so slightly. "You've had a dark spirit living inside you."
My dad's eyes widened. "No!" he yelled, his face turning pale. "That can't be true."
"It is," I said. "But... I think it's gone now."
"Mama," a tinny voice said from below me. I looked down and saw Snowball standing there. "Bad man is not Papa. He smells the same."
I looked at Snowball, then at my father. I picked her up and cradled her in my arms. "What do you mean he smells the same?" I asked.
"Snowy, Tootsie, and Rocky all thought Papa smelled funny lately. Now we know why. He still smells the same. He is lying."
I looked to the corner where Rocky and Tootsie stood, baring their teeth. Slowly, protectively, they walked forward. I looked at my dad again. He let out a heavy sigh.
"I hate familiars," he said after a moment's silence. "They're always so pesky, ruining everything. Do you know how many more days I needed in this body to stay here? Two. That's it. I was so close." He was shaking his head. "It didn't have to be like this. If you'd just have left me alone, I'd have left you alone."
The old man's voice was back, laced with contempt.
"You've already killed two people," Eleanor said.
"Two strangers," he said. "I wasn't going to kill you. You're my family, after all. Now, though, you've left me no choice." There was a flash of lightning from the window. It lighted up the whole room, which suddenly seemed dim by comparison.
The dark spirit didn't shift this time. It stayed as my father, which was perhaps even scarier than the figure he'd morphed into earlier. This time, when he ran toward me, ready to attack, it was my own father attacking me and not a monster.
I jumped to the left just as he came crashing at me. Snowy ran in front of him and he tripped over her, landing on his face. I heard a loud crunch and when he looked up again, his nose was bent at an odd angle and it was bleeding. Slowly, he stood up.
"How do we send him back?" I cried out, hoping Eleanor or someone would have an answer for me, only no one said anything. The silence was worse than the sound coming from my dad's throat. Like nails on a chalkboard.
"You can't send me back," he laughed. "Only one person can do that, and she's—"
His words were cut off as Sadie rose from the floor. Her face was still pale, and she looked badly shaken but she was alive and standing.
"Get away from me," my dad said. He was acting like he was scared of her. "Get away!" he snapped. He moved toward her like he was going to strike out.
Snowball ran over to his foot, which was still bare, and bit him.
"Aaahh!" he cried.
"Hovero-kleys-um-inium!" Sadie yelled. There was a flash of lightning that seemed to come from inside the room.
My father held up his hands in front of his face but it did no good. Sadie's spell sailed through the air and hit him straight in the chest. There was a clap of thunder from outside followed by three more flashes of lightning. My dad was encircled in a ball of bright blue light that hurt the eyes to look at it. When it disappeared a moment later, he was lying on the floor, not moving.
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CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
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This time, when my dad opened his eyes, it was really him.
We were still in Sadie's apartment. She had collapsed back on the floor, still too weak to walk or stand for any length of time. Her short hair was matted to her face like she'd just stepped out of a sauna or a steam room at a health club. She coughed a few times and looked around at us as Snowball, Tootsie, and Rocky went to comfort her.
Rocky moved behind Sadie, helping to prop her up. She leaned against him, using his extra-large body like the back of a chair. Rocky licked her face when she turned her head to look at him, checking to make sure that she wasn't squishing him. I thought that it would be next to impossible to squish Rocky. Sometimes that dog looked like he'd grown another foot every time I looked at him.
Snowball and Tootsie took up residence at her feet, purring and nuzzling against her. Snowy looked at me to make sure I didn't mind, and I nodded, giving her the okay to continue. I knew they were just trying to help Sadie. Her body looked wrecked. Not that she was bleeding or looked obviously hurt, precisely, it was just that she seemed to be sweating and couldn't stop. And her breathing was far too fast. Tootsie began pawing at her legs i
n an effort to calm her down.
"Are you okay?" I asked her.
Trixie was kneeling next to her, placing one hand against her forehead in that old-fashioned way mothers still sometimes do when they're checking their child's temperature.
"She's burning up."
Lucy joined her at Sadie's side, her lips pressed tightly together as she took Sadie's pulse like she was a trained nurse.
"And her heart's beating way too fast," Lucy said after a minute.
"I don't feel very well, I'm afraid," Sadie said.
When I looked around for Eleanor, she was kneeling next to my father. I went to join them. My father was still lying on the floor, his face up toward the ceiling. His eyes were open, and he was looking around the room. They stopped on me.
"Ava?" he asked.
I nodded as tears washed over my cheeks.
"Yeah, Dad. It's me." I squeezed his hand as he sat up and looked around the room.
"Where am I? What's going on?" He blinked several times. I looked at Eleanor, who was watching him closely. Her eyes were drawn tightly together, and her lips were puckered, like she'd just eaten something extremely sour. She turned her head.
"Snowball, come here a moment, please, will you?"
Snowy left her place at Sadie's feet and hurried over to us.
"Does Eli smell normal now?" she asked. We both held our breath as Snowy sniffed at my father, who was looking at us like we were crazy. Snowball started with his feet then slowly moved up his leg, sniffing his hands last.
"Snowy thinks Papa smells like Papa again," she finally declared.
Eleanor and I let out a sigh of relief as Snowball returned to her place by Sadie's feet. Sadie was looking paler by the second, and I began to worry that we weren't quite out of the woods yet. I had no idea what spell my dad had zapped her with to knock her out but it looked serious. Had he done anything else to her besides zap her with Colt's wand? Poisoned her? Hexed her? It was impossible to tell just by looking at her. All that I could see was how ill she looked.
"We need to get her to Sweetland Hospital," Trixie said. "Quickly." Her brow was scrunched, and her eyes were dark. I could tell she was extremely worried.
"Whatever he hit her with must've really messed her up," Lucy said. She wasn't one to panic but right now I could see the panic button lighting up behind her eyes. That worried me. If she panicked, I was going to panic, too.
"I think I need to lie down again," Sadie said and moved her body so that she was no longer leaning against Rocky. Rocky insisted on doing something to help her, though, and spread himself out flat on the floor under her head, a living pillow.
"Sadie?" my dad asked, trying to stand. He fell back to the ground with a thump, his legs apparently still weak. "What's wrong with Sadie?" he asked, alarm sounding in his voice. His eyes were wild looking.
"Ssh," Eleanor said. "She'll be all right."
But he didn't seem to believe her. He glanced sharply at Eleanor.
"Tell me what happened," he snapped, his voice a combination of irritation and concern.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Eleanor asked, and I got the strangest feeling of déjà vu. It was unsettling but I knew it was only because I'd just asked my father this same question not more than a few minutes ago. He'd still been infested with the dark spirit then, though.
My dad blinked and scrunched his brow, thinking. "Sadie wasn't feeling well. She dropped her keys in the sewer; I fished them out for her then took her home and put her to bed. That was..." he looked around the room, his eyes landing on a clock on the wall, "...just a few hours ago."
I exchanged a look with Eleanor.
Hours ago? He had no idea how much time had passed since that moment.
The memory he'd just given us was the exact memory, more or less, that the dark spirit had given us when I'd asked him the same question. The spirit must have been using my father's memories as well as his body to keep his cover these last couple of weeks. It was unsettling to think a spirit like that had access to my dad's thoughts and memories. I was almost positive that if I hadn't been so preoccupied with Colt lately, I would have noticed that my father was off. I tried not to kick myself. It would do no good for anyone and would definitely not help the situation at hand.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Sadie said. Her voice cracked.
"Sadie!" my dad yelled, trying to stand again. This time he succeeded. He went to her on wobbly legs and kneeled beside her.
"Is it really you?" she asked as he took her hand. He nodded his head. I thought that Sadie might pull away from him, still freaked out by everything that had happened. After all, a spirit disguised as my father had just tried to kill her. But instead of freaking out, she smiled and squeezed his hand tightly.
"Of course, it's me," he said. "Now will someone please tell me what's going on here?"
Mike Bison groaned from his corner of the room. His body rolled over but his eyes didn't open. I was more worried about him now than I had been earlier. He was human. What if he was hurt worse than I'd imagined?
"Trixie," Eleanor said, "get my phone and call Dr. Dunne. Tell him what's happened and that we need an ambulance."
"Right," Trixie said and went to retrieve Eleanor's phone.
Eleanor looked at my dad. "You've been possessed by a dark spirit for the last two weeks," she said. "Well, nearly two weeks. Thank the witches it wasn't quite that long, or we might have lost you forever."
"A dark spirit," my dad said, blinking and looking around the room.
"That's right," I told him, backing up Eleanor's statement.
Bison groaned again and this time when he rolled over, he mumbled something that sounded like "I'll get you all." His eyes remained shut, however, and I wasn't sure whether he was dreaming or if some part of him was processing what was going on around him and still wanted to arrest us.
"What happened to Sadie?" he asked me and Eleanor. We exchanged a look.
"The dark spirit inside you tried to kill her," Eleanor finally said.
"It did?" he asked, his eyes widening, horrified. He looked back at Sadie. "Did I hurt anyone else?"
I quickly shook my head. "Not you. The dark spirit inside you."
"Uh, we have a problem," Trixie said from the side of the room. She held up Eleanor's phone. It was in pieces.
"I have my phone," I told them and reached into my back pocket. Only it wasn't there.
"I've got mine," Lucy said. She started searching her pockets and smiled triumphantly when she pulled it out. A sigh of relief washed over us.
"I'm calling Dr. Dunne now. You'll be fixed up in no time," she said and patted Sadie's arm before standing up and walking outside. I heard the muffled tones of her voice as she started talking to Dr. Dunne or one of his nurses.
"At least it's all over now," Trixie said, though I wasn't sure that was quite right.
Sadie was still very ill, and my dad didn't look so hot himself. I wanted to ask Sadie about everything that had happened in the last couple weeks but two things stopped me. First, I didn't want to make her waste what little energy she had on talking. Second, I didn't think that regaling us with the details of how my father tried to kill her, while in front of him, would be much of a good idea either. He was already prepared to blame himself, even though it hadn't been his fault. Not really.
Lucy came back inside, Colt and Sheriff Knoxx were just behind her.
"Look who I found," Lucy said, smiling.
"Oh, my roses," I said, running to Colt and throwing my arms around him. I kissed him passionately and felt my fears begin to melt away. Just having him here made me feel safe again.
Sheriff Knoxx wasn't quite as open with his feelings as Colt could be but when he saw Eleanor, I could swear that his eyes teared up. He hurried to her side.
"When you called me, I heard some of your conversation with Eli before I lost the connection entirely," Sheriff Knoxx said. "I got here as fast as I could."
"And I was already on m
y way," Colt told me. "I left COMHA just after I talked to you."
My heart warmed knowing that Colt cared enough to leave his job to come and help me.
"I talked to Dr. Dunne," Lucy said, interrupting. "He's sending an ambulance. They're on their way."
"Thank the witches this day is almost over," I said. "I was afraid it might never end."
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
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"Let me out of here!" Mike Bison yelled at the top of his lungs. He'd been yelling like that for the last three days. "What am I doing here?"
The nurses at Sweetland Hospital had begun to plug their ears whenever they were on shift. I didn't blame them. Bison's voice was loud enough when he wasn't yelling. When he was, he sounded like a hurricane coming through. Even Dr. Dunne had grown tired of him, though as a doctor he couldn't bring himself to put the man out on the street just because he was irritating.
"I'll sue you all!" Bison roared again. "You have no right to keep me here!"
Dr. Dunne chuckled. We were standing in my father's room, three doors down the hall from Bison's, and even still we could hear every word he yelled as clearly as if he were in the same room with us.
"What Mr. Bison doesn't realize," Dr. Dunne said, "is that I've ordered the nurses to start giving him heavy doses of morphine for his pain." He winked at us. "Soon Mr. Bison will be nothing but a pussycat." He chuckled again, and I raised my eyebrows, not sure if he was joking.
When neither my dad nor Sadie joined in the laughter, Dr. Dunne cleared his throat. "I'm only kidding, of course," he said and blushed. "A little doctor humor, that's all. I'd never prescribe morphine for a patient who didn't really need it."
