My eyes widened. "I don't want to go back there."

"Ditto," Ada piped up.

He gave us a small smile. "I don't either. But I can do it if you girls want to stay in the house. By yourselves."

Ada and I exchanged a glance. What was the better option here?

"The flames are almost out," he whispered, and nodded at the candles. The black one was burned down to a puddle of wax that spilled over the holder and onto the counter. The white one was close. I was thankful he had bought such stubby candles. The kitchen clock said we had fifteen minutes left, and our only saving grace was that my mom said she would text me a warning and my phone hadn't vibrated yet.

The black candle went out with a small snuff of onyx smoke and a minute later the white one did too.

"OK," I said, straightening up off the stove I was leaning on. "Time to bury these-"

As I said that both candles suddenly relit themselves with a crackling poof, even though there wasn't any wick left in them.

"Uh," Ada said. We all eyed each other, unsure of what to do.

"We'll just wait," Maximus said uncertainly. He protectively put his arms out behind him, shielding Ada and me, or maybe just keeping us in our place. "They have to burn out on their own."

We were glued to the flames as they continued their dance in the cold air. The buzz of my phone vibrating caused us all to jump and me to gasp. With trembling fingers, I brought it out of my pocket and looked at the message. It was my mother.

"Those flames better burn out in the next ten minutes," I warned them.

"Those flames shouldn't be burning at all," Maximus said.

I leaned forward, edging away from his arm, and peered down at the candles. They were a puddle of mush, and through the translucent wax and flame I could see the metal of the bottom of the holder itself. The wax itself was on fire. How was that possible?

All at once a terrible BOOM filled the house. It sounded like the front door had slammed open.

I screamed.

The lights around us turned off.

The flames went out.

We were plunged into darkness.

Ada made a whimpering noise.

Then a ROAR and rustle from the living room and my eyes picked up a trace of glowing light out in the hallway. Morbidly curious, we left the blackened kitchen, moving together like a unit of one, and cautiously stepped out into the hall. The front door was wide open, the salt in front of it dancing as if caught up in an invisible wind, one that we couldn't feel. The salt floated and fell, then was swept along the hardwood floors of the hall like an ethereal trail, past our feet, and made a right turn into the living room, where the glow originated.

We followed it and I wasn't surprised to see that in the living room, the fireplace was going full blast, a roaring, crackling inferno. At first it looked like someone was standing in front of the fire, a black silhouette gazing down at the flames, his back to us. But it was only a trick of the eye because I blinked hard and there was no one there.

"Who lit the fire?" Ada asked. In her skinny frame she looked like she was about to keel over in fright.

"Or what?" I added, which didn't help. She swayed slightly and leaned against the doorframe.

"There's...something in it," Maximus said, his eyes squinting in concentration. He began taking long strides across the Persian rug.

"Be careful," I called out warily.

He paused in front of the flames, staring down at it for a few moments, looking very much like the image I had just seen before. Almost exactly the same. Was I experiencing some form of pre-cognition now?

He grabbed the poker to the right of him and gently jabbed it into the heart of the fiery beast.

Ada and I watched him inquisitively as he pulled the poker away and turned around to face us. At the end of the poker, speared like a flapping fish, was a rectangular piece of paper.

He walked over to us slowly, staring down at it with an expression of growing alarm.

"What is it?" I asked.

He carefully pulled the paper, which was charred, smoking and torn all around the edges, off the pointed end and flipped it around to show us.

It was a photograph.

Not just any photograph. The last family portrait we had done, about three years ago. Though discolored from the flames, you could clearly see my mother and father standing behind the sitting room couch, Ada and I sitting down in front of them, our legs crossed politely, smiling attentively. It was a happy, cheery photo.

Well, it had been.

Our eyes were scratched out and replaced with clean black circles.

I s.n.a.t.c.hed it from Maximus's hand, feeling sick to my stomach, a terrible knot of dread and dead b.u.t.terflies.

A hush of heavy silence fell on us as we took in what it meant.

Was it a threat? A warning? A sign?

And who, what, sent it?

I opened my mouth to ask those things when a giant whoosh of wind came down the fireplace, putting out the flames in one go, smothering us in darkness again, and whipped the photo out of my hand.

Then the slow, menacing creak of the front door.

And...

A string of explicit Swedish swear words followed by, "What on earth?"

My parents were home. I could hear Ada gulp beside me.

"Perry, Ada?" my dad called out from around the corner.

"What is this stuff? Why is it so dark in here?" my mom cried. I could imagine her face crumpled at the sight of salt scattered everywhere.

Suddenly the lights in the hallway went on. We heard the click of the kitchen light next, and then they both made some sort of gasping moan together.

There was now enough light in the living room to see each other. I couldn't see the photograph around me and had no idea where it had been blown away to, but I supposed it wouldn't have made much of a difference if my parents found it. They were already losing their minds over the voodoo-like mess in the kitchen.

I sighed. Figured I'd have another thing to be scared of. I looked at Ada and Maximus.

"Well. Time to face the music."

Like the unit we'd become to face the unknown, we walked out of the room and into the kitchen together.

My parents were staring at the makeshift altar. My father was aghast, while my mother's face was a pinkish red. Probably from drinking and probably from anger.

They looked up at the three of us and I could see how hard they were trying to piece everything together. They were in for a surprise.

I explained what had happened the best I could, what I had thought had been going on from the very beginning, starting with feeling ill, then the miscarriage, the nightmares, the slippers, the sleepwalking.

My mother just shook her head back and forth, unable to find the words. She didn't need to. I knew what they were thinking. My father was shocked and appalled that I was experimenting with "witchcraft and wizardry" under his roof (his exact words, too), my mother was terribly upset that her daughter was reverting back to the old days of seeing imaginary people and blaming demons for lighting houses on fire.

Of course they didn't believe me. Why would they? They never believed me. They only believed that I had completely lost my mind again and was heading down the same slippery slope. In fact, just explaining what I thought was going on and how everything made sense in regards to that only gave them a reason to put the puzzle together themselves. But instead of believing I was haunted by a ghost, they decided I was going nuts again. My mother's face contorted into a worrisome frown that both aged her and reminded me of years ago.

Ada spoke up from time to time, bless her overlooked little heart, and tried to get them to see that something actually was wrong here and we had the best intentions. It didn't matter how much she sided with me, my parents dismissed whatever she said. Ada might have been the favored child, but she was still just a teenager and when it came to matters like this, it was like she didn't exist at all.

The only person they were willing to listen to was Maximus. Only Maximus barely said anything. He didn't pipe up once to reinstate my case or to give me support. He was silent, tall and watching, almost with disapproval, like he was suddenly on my parents' side, as if this whole ritual hadn't been his idea.

Finally, when I was done saying everything I could say and Ada had quietly started cleaning things up, my parents fixed their disbelieving eyes on Maximus.

"And what is your version of events?" my father asked him coldly.

Without looking at me, he gave them a smile and said, "It's pretty much the same as Perry's."

I relaxed.

"She believes this is what's happening to her," he continued. My heart paused. "And I know better than to argue with someone with that conviction. I reckoned the ritual would get it out of her system."

"You sneak!" Ada growled at him as she shoved the spices, bowls, bell and vials into a garbage bag with a noisy clatter. "You told us this would work! You believed it!"

"Ada, hush," my mother told her, then looked back at Maximus. "Well, you've made a fine mess of our house in doing so."

"I was only trying to help your daughter, Mrs. Palomino."

She crossed her arms and eyed me. "Yes. I see that. Well if this continues any further, the only help that Perry will be getting will be from poor Dr. Freedman. I swore we'd never been setting foot in his office again..."

The dead b.u.t.terflies were stirring in my insides again, awakened by the bone-chilling threat of seeing my old psychologist. I could have killed Maximus right there and then for insinuating that he was humoring me this whole time, and I shot the deadliest of death glares at him in case he was oblivious too.

He wasn't. He shifted uncomfortably, avoiding my stare, and said to dad, "I'll make sure this place is cleaned up fully before I leave. Really, it's just salt and spices. I'll bring the vacuum around and it'll be sucked up faster than you can say Atchafalaya."

My dad narrowed his eyes at him briefly, then relaxed. "I know you like your food down South; however, there's no need to make the carpets Cajun too."

Was that a...joke?

Yes. My dad smiled at Maximus, despite what was going on. He smiled, then patted him on the shoulder and my mother and him left the kitchen and went up the stairs to their room.

Once they were out of earshot and I could no longer hear my mother's faraway cries over the discovery of more cinnamon and sulphur, I smacked Maximus hard across the arm. I almost went for his face but a quick glance at his cheek told me to back off.

"What the f.u.c.k was that?" I yelled at him, trying to keep my voice even and under control and failing epically. The anger and frustration inside was dangerously high, swimming in my throat, ready to spew the most poisonous venom at him.

"Ow," he said, and grabbed his arm, rubbing it and stepping away from me.

"You're an a.s.s!"

"Seconded!" Ada put in.

He shrugged dramatically. "What? I couldn't just nod along with you ladies; that would have made me seem just as loco as you two."

"Excuse me?" I drew out the vowels in a shrill cry.

I took a step toward him and he took a few back until his legs. .h.i.t the stove.

"What?" I asked. "You afraid of me now? Afraid of me when you saw what happened tonight?! I mean, you saw. You saw it. You saw the thing outside, you saw the lights go out, the fireplace, the d.a.m.n fireplace lit up all by its f.u.c.king self. And the picture. The picture of my family, now who did that? And don't say I did, don't you dare!"

"Lower your voice," he said to me, his eyes hardening.

I walked until I was pressed right up to him and jabbed my finger near his eye.

"Don't you dare tell me to lower my voice. You and your, your...pa.s.siveness, your chicken-s.h.i.t, yellow-bellied f.u.c.kery, you nearly cost me a visit to my old shrink! You could have ruined my life, and no I'm not saying that lightly."

"Perry. You reckon you're possessed by a ghost, and in some cases, the devil. I'd say your life is already ruined. Isn't it?"

I had no words for that, so I just glared at him and then walked away in a huff and stood, seething, by my sister.

She shot me an apologetic glance and said to Maximus, "But you did see it. I saw it too, and I know I'm not cray-cray. Well, not always. Not often. I mean, come on, there's something here. And now it's going to stay here because you were too afraid to tell my parents the truth. You...douchecanoe!"

She looked at me at that last word to see if she said it right. I nodded.

"Why is it going to stay?" he asked, totally nonchalant. "We did the ritual. The candles went out on their own, we didn't touch them. All you have to do now is bury them in the back yard."

When I relayed the events to my parents, I conveniently left out the part about burying the Witch Bottle. Oh, and seeing a monster in the house. It was pointless to mention them, really, and I didn't want my dad digging it up, because he would have on account of it being all "black majick" and stuff.

"Or the front yard, really," he continued. "I'll make sure to empty the vacuum bag right away. The ritual will still hold."

"How do we know that?" I asked. "You saw the photo. The fireplace. That was after everything was said and done."

"It's not buried yet. Then it's said and done. And then, well darlin', you know the drill all too well by now. We just wait and see."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

The next morning I wanted nothing more to just sleep and sleep. Sleep for the next day, the week, the next year. After we had buried the candles (in the front yard now, away from my parents' prying eyes since their bedroom looked onto the back), I helped Maximus in vacuuming up the smelly, powdery mess we created. Unfortunately, this meant having to go into my parents' room while they were getting ready for bed but at least it was taken care of before my mother had a conniption.

When we said our goodbyes, somewhere just before midnight, he had gone in for a kiss. But I just couldn't return it. His actions had rankled me, and even though he said he was doing it all for me, something just wasn't sitting right. Maybe it had something to do with what Ada had said, about how she couldn't trust him. Whatever it was, it had me on edge and I was definitely in no mood to be amorous with him, even though there was something extremely s.e.xy about the dominating and fierce edge I had seen during the rituals.