"You mean a lie? Speak English."

"Yes, a lie. And I need you to be home with me."

Her nose wrinkled up and she pulled out of my grasp. "Ewwww! Perry, I don't want any part of your weird s.e.x games with that red-headed-"

"Ada!" It was my turn to hiss. "Lower your d.a.m.n voice. And, ewww, no! s.e.x games? Where is your head at? No, we need you to help us do a cleanse of the house, you sicko."

She frowned and thought that over. "Like, a 'ghost be gone' kind of cleanse? Or manual labor like what those guys did today in the study? Because you know how I feel about manual labor."

"I do," I said and turned on the taps to rinse off the dishes. "But how do you feel about being involved in some, um, magic?"

"M-A-G-I-C-K magic? I think I'm OK with that."

"Good. Now I don't know what Maximus has planned but-" I stopped when I noticed a look of discomfort on her face. "What, what now?"

"Nothing," she said.

I sighed, unable to ignore it any longer. Now that I was sleeping with Maximus, her att.i.tude was starting to grate on me. "What's your problem with him? Seriously. He's been nothing but nice to you. And don't say it's because he's a ginger."

She shrugged and grabbed a dish. "I don't know. He just..."

I raised my brows for her to continue.

She continued in a drawn out voice, "He just seems a bit too good to be true. I think he might have something up his sleeve."

"He might have something up his sleeve?" I repeated. "What is he, a villain with a twirly moustache?"

"You know what I mean," she sniped, placing the rinsed dishes in the dishwasher. "It's just weird, you know. The minute Dex is out of the picture, oh look who it is."

I bit my lip and turned my attention to getting a stubborn piece of stuck-on chicken off the pan.

"It's not like that," I finally said.

"Maybe it is, maybe it's not. But I don't trust him. And I think you need someone to keep a level head here. You need someone to watch out for you."

I laughed and gave her a wry look. "Ada saves the day?"

"I'd like to be good for something other than comic relief," she said with a smile.

"Don't flatter yourself, kiddo," I joked. It was something that Dex said all the time to me and it came out instinctively. Hearing my old nickname pinched somewhere deep inside.

Ada's soft eyes met mine at that phrase and no more words were needed between us. We continued to do the dishes with only the whir of the tap water to break up the silence.

When bedtime came a few hours later, the reality of what had been going on hit me like a ton of bricks and things were much scarier when I was alone in my room. Even though I had sent Maximus a good-night text (to which he replied "Sweet dreams darling" and I could just hear his drawl in my head), he was over at his place and I was at mine, where every little window rattle, creak of the house, door shutting, or buzz of electricity had me on the edge. I kept the bedside light on, deciding I didn't care if I was acting like a six-year old girl. If something was coming for me, I wanted to see it. You couldn't blame me for that.

Remembering what happened earlier, my eyes flitted over to the book I got from the library. I half expected it to start flying around the room, but it just sat on my desk, looking ominous. I hadn't opened it yet, deciding I thought I should be around a load of people and bright sunshine when I did. The way my imagination was running I'd be thinking I was possessed by everyone in h.e.l.l.

I shuddered at the thought and cursed myself for thinking such things when I was trying to sleep. I spied the clock, which read 11:40. Everyone else in the house was asleep and I hated being the only one awake.

My eyes closed eventually, shutting out the light, and my mind began to twirl, taking my thoughts and body into a lazy, limp journey into sleep. I was halfway there when something roused my eyes open.

I held my breath in my mouth and listened past the loud beating of my heart.

Silence.

Then...

There. Above my head. A thump coming from the roof.

I slowly turned my head so I was facing up, my eyes flying around the empty s.p.a.ce above.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Something was definitely up there. Something was walking on the roof.

I had no choice. I grabbed the extra pillow beside me and covered my head with it, shutting out the noise and the light. There wasn't much else I could do but ignore the horror before it took over completely. This time sleep would be my only escape.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

The countdown till Wednesday night went excruciatingly slow. Ada was away at school during the day and I was still on hiatus from work, even though I was starting to feel increasingly guilty about it. I hated taking advantage of the time off but I knew there was no way I'd be a reliable employee until after the cleanse, when everything would be under control. It felt like my life was on hold until then.

Fortunately, all supernatural activity around me had slowed down. Maybe Abby (or whoever/whatever it was) knew what was coming and was scared off. Or maybe she was just conserving her energy and gearing up for a showdown. Either way, the random thumps coming from the roof was the last peculiar thing that had happened and things were looking brighter. Literally. It was like my eyes were so used to seeing shadows everywhere that everything looked fresh and clean for once.

I hadn't talked to Maximus much and I just put my faith into whatever he was arranging, though I have to say I was a bit wary when he called me late Tuesday and asked me to do a peculiar task.

"You want me to what?" I repeated into my phone.

"Get hair and nail clippings from your parents."

I was sitting on the couch watching the news with them. My face furrowed with disgust but they were paying me no attention.

"How...and, good G.o.d, Maximus, why?" I whispered.

"I know it sounds goofy but it is part of the banishing ritual. Just be glad you're not charged with the task of finding dragon's blood oil."

"Dragon's blood?"

At that both my parents tore their eyes away from the screen and gave me a funny look. I smiled at them weakly and excused myself to my room.

"It's all over the place in Louisiana but I'm having a hard time finding it here."

"I'm going to a.s.sume it's a lot more normal than it sounds," I said as I climbed the stairs. I paused in the hallway and with a quick peek down the stairs I quickly and quietly made my way to my parents' bedroom and into their large, yellow bathroom with enough light to show every pore on your face.

"And so what am I supposed to do with the...parent particles?" I asked him as my eyes roamed across the counter. I spied my mom's hairbrush and found my dad's in one of the drawers.

"Find a gla.s.s bottle, plastic might do, and put them in there."

I picked up a pair of tweezers and removed the hair, holding it away from me. It was funny how hair was lovely to look at and touch when it was on your head, but the minute it was off your head it was as gross as anything.

"Mmm, you probably should have told me that before I started this," I said with a grimace. "Where on earth I am going to get nail clippings from?"

"I guess it's not crucial from them. The hair will do. But we'll need the same, plus the clippings from you and Ada. And me."

"Is there a book telling you to do this?" I quickly shut off the bathroom light and soundlessly scampered back to my room before I was caught, hair still in my hand.

"I'm certainly not making it up off the top of my head," he answered. "Do you have a bell?"

"A bell?" A recalled sound of the bell from my dreams echoed in my mind.

"Yes. You know. Ring-a-ding, darling."

"I know what a bell is. Why do we need one?"

"Why do we need holy water? We just do. If you can't find one they said we can subst.i.tute with an iPod."

I laughed. "So we need holy water and dragon's blood, but if a friggin' bell is hard to find, well then we can just use an iPod."

"That's the way it is."

"I guess so."

"See you tomorrow, Perry. Get a good sleep."

"Good luck with the dragon. You'll probably need a really large needle," I told him and hung up.

The next evening Ada and I were sitting in my room and flipping through the book on demonology plus a few she checked out herself from the school library. They were mainly witchcraft books, nothing too serious for a public school, but it was nice to know she was taking this as seriously as the rest of us.

"Holy h.e.l.l," she said as she paused on a certain page.

"Ada," I warned, feeling extra touchy about mentions of anything holy. I peered at the book. It was a really old, detailed black and white drawing of some pretty despicable creatures in revolting positions. The fact that I was viewing the artwork upside down and it still made sense spoke volumes about the depravity.

She looked up at me with a pained face. "These artists were f.u.c.ked."

"It's what they believed," I said.

"Could you imagine if it's what they saw?"

It was my turn to look pained. "I don't want to think about it."

She watched me carefully with her big blue eyes. Finally, she said, "Do you think this is what's going on with you? I mean, really?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "Maximus doesn't seem to think so. In fact, he says it's rarely the case and if this was somehow...demon-related...we would definitely know about it. I mean, look at everything that has been happening. It seems to be a ghost and it seems to be centered around me. Aside from the pig, it's always been about me."

"And yet you got this book out."

I looked down at my nails. The coral polish was all chipped off and they looked normal again. "I just have a funny feeling. Down here." I put my hand on my gut. Then I put it to my head. "And here."

She nodded attentively. "I think you're awesome for trusting your instincts. You'll probably be wrong. But I don't think being extra careful will be a bad thing."

I remembered Maximus's warnings about the dangerousness of doing exorcisms to people who weren't possessed. I hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Soon my parents were at my door, coming in just as Ada hid the books underneath the pillow. They looked nice and fancy. My dad was actually wearing a suit, even though the navy jacket was stretched too tightly against his ever-burgeoning belly, and my mom was flawless as usual in a lavender shift dress and black pearls.

"Ada, you need to leave your sister alone," my mom chided her. "Go on, shoo."

"I'm being picked up by Rachel in ten minutes," she lied with a toothy smile.

"All right," mom said to her, then focused her pale eyes on me. "Have a good time, Perry. Don't burn down the kitchen. Whatever you do."

"And no funny business," my dad said sternly, to which my mother smacked him on the arm. "What, you said it first."

They left the room, with my mother calling out, "We'll let you know when we're on our way back. Nine-thirty at the very latest!"

After they left and we were safe, I looked at Ada. With Maximus arriving at 6:30, it didn't give me as much time as I hoped.

"I hope they don't come home when we're in the middle of it, cuz that would be awkward."

"Then your ginger boy better know how to do a quick cleansing..." she said wryly.

I had a feeling that he wasn't sure how to even do a cleansing in general. Oh well, there was no point in dwelling on it. We were all green when it came to this side of things and had no choice but to wing it.

At 6:30 Maximus came rolling into the driveway in his snazzy truck, coming up to the front door armed with a dozen bags. The scratches on his face were somehow uglier and clotted black red.

"Do we need all this stuff?" I asked as I opened the door and welcomed him in.

"Unfortunately," he said, and stooped down to give me a quick peck on the cheek. He looked behind me at Ada, who was giving him the staredown.

"Ew, what happened to your face!" she said.

He smiled and stroked his cheek fondly. "Wildcat."

I blushed, then shot her a look of my own, internally warning her to behave, and a wave of resignation flooded her face.

"Oh. Well, we're glad you could make it," she said with reluctance.

"Why thank you, blondie," he said. He held out one of the bags for her.

"You can be in charge of the cleansing material."