“More spells?” Eve sighed. “This is like homework. I thought witchcraft was supposed to be fun.”

  “How do we know she’s still possessed?” Tina glanced at Deon. “Seriously, what if we just had too much sugar and it was all a bad dream?”

  “We woke up wearing clothes from the catalog! Besides, does this look real enough to you?” Eve rubbed at the scratch on her forearm. “Ow.”

  “Good point,” Tina said. “That actually looks pretty bad.”

  “It’s getting worse.” Eve nodded. “I think it’s infected.”

  “Maybe you should see a doctor or something?”

  “I’ll be fine.” Eve pursed her lips. “Are you okay?”

  Tina shook her head and her throat tightened. “What if this doesn’t work? What if Lacey really is possessed and we screw up again?”

  Eve turned to Deon with a narrowed, piercing gaze. “Oh, it will work. It has to.”

  The lingering scent of breakfast pancakes and maple syrup greeted Tina and Eve as they returned to Eve’s house later that afternoon. Her mother had left a note for her on the kitchen table that said, ‘ Gone to the mall! Pancakes are in the oven. Love you, Mom XOXO.’ Tina knew that a trip to the mall for her mother meant she would likely have the house to herself for a long time. It was a good thing too; she and Eve needed time to prepare.

  Tina’s stomach grumbled as the two friends helped themselves to a plate of pancakes. They sat down at the kitchen table, physically and emotionally exhausted from the events over the last twenty-four hours. Eve grabbed the book that Deon let them borrow and began to read.

  “This thing is like reading a textbook,” Eve sighed. “So many old words.”

  “Where did Deon even get that from?” Tina asked.

  “Not sure. It’s really old, though. Okay, right here, it says salt and iron can help to trap demonic spirits,” Eve said between bites of pancake. “Isn’t the cemetery surrounded by a metal gate?”

  “Yes. Plus it’s, like, holy land, so demons aren’t powerful there, right?” Tina poked at her uneaten pancake.

  “Sure, I guess.” Eve turned the page of the leatherbound book. “So, once we get her to the cemetery, she can’t leave and we’ll be able to perform the reversal ceremony. It’s just getting her there that’s the problem.”

  “What about salt?” Tina picked up the salt shaker on her kitchen counter. “That worked to keep the catalog model demons away.”

  “Yeah, but it would take a lot of salt to make a boundary around her,” Eve said. “Okay, right here it says you can draw this symbol and trap a demon. It can be drawn on a door, a floor, or a pair of restraints.”

  Tina glanced over Eve’s shoulder at the illustration on the page. In the illustration, a man in a robe stood over a woman with her hands bound together. The woman was curled up in a ball on the floor in the center of a giant pentagram.

  “So, we need to make demon trap handcuffs?”

  Eve nodded. “It says here that if we slip a bracelet over her wrist that bears this symbol, we should be able to control her.”

  “For how long?”

  Eve shrugged. “For as long as the symbol remains intact. Do you have anything we could use?”

  A lightbulb went off over Tina’s head. “I’ll be right back.”

  After a moment, Tina returned from her bedroom with a white fabric scrunchie and a black permanent marker.

  “What are you going to do with that? Style her hair?” Eve snorted.

  “No! I can draw the symbol onto the fabric with a permanent marker,” Tina said. “Then we just have to slip it on her wrist, and voila!”

  “That might work.” Eve pursed her lips. “Wait, there’s one more thing. Right here it says that as the demon becomes more human, it becomes even more powerful and less susceptible to the trap.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.” Tina frowned. “We don’t have much time, do we?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay then,” Tina said, forking a big bite of pancake. “Looks like we got a demon to trap.”

  “Come on in, girls. She’s been sleeping all day!”

  It was later that afternoon when the mother of their possessed friend answered the door for them. The setting sun chased them all the way to Lacey’s house, blanketing their little town in an unsettling quiet. Time was running out. There was a sparkle in Mrs. Dennison’s eyes and an empty wine glass in her hand, and for a brief moment, Tina realized they might be able to pull off their plan. Sneaking Lacey out of the house may just work after all.

  Tina and Eve entered the Dennison home armed with demon trapping paraphernalia and their best fake smiles. They had a loose idea of how they were going to get Lacey out of the house and down to the cemetery in time to meet Deon and Rasputin. Whether or not Lacey’s mother was relaxed enough to let them take her was another matter.

  “Tina, did you have a nice birthday?” Mrs. Dennison covered her mouth and gave a small hiccup as she swayed on her feet.

  “Oh, I sure did, Mrs. Dennison,” Tina said, hitching her backpack over her shoulder. “Thanks for letting Lacey stay the night.”

  “You girls are all growing up so fast,” Mrs. Dennison said, her voice slightly slurred. “You can go on into her room. She might still be sleeping. She’s been so tired all day!”

  “Thank you, Mrs. D.” Eve flashed Lacey’s mother a megawatt smile as the two girls walked through Lacey’s home. They reached her bedroom door with her softball team’s pennant tacked to the outside.

  Tina glanced at Eve and took a deep breath. “Ready?”

  Eve nodded. “Let’s go get our friend.”

  Tina gently rapped on the door. “Lace? It’s us. Can we come in?”

  Nothing. Eve reached for the knob and went to open the door and then thought twice. She glanced down at the palm of her hand, a circular burn mark still there from the night before.

  “You open the door this time,” Eve said. “I don’t have such great luck with doorknobs.”

  “Okay,” Tina said. “Here goes nothing.”

  Tina tapped at the doorknob, relieved to find it cool to the touch. She gently turned the knob so as not to make any noise and slowly opened the door. What she saw next confirmed all of her fears.

  Lacey hovered a foot over her bed, still clothed in the outfit she wore the day before. A blanket hung off her body like a shroud as she took in labored, gurgling breaths. Her eyes were closed, and it appeared as though she was sleeping.

  “Hey, Lace? Uh, it’s us. How you doin’?” Tina unzipped the front pocket of her backpack and pulled out the scrunchie.

  A warm breeze blew through Tina’s room. Photos tacked to the corkboard over her desk fluttered and a low groan filled the air.

  “We need to act fast.” Tina reached into the backpack and pulled out a container of salt. “Spread this in a circle just in case.”

  “On it.” Eve snapped the metallic spout of the salt container open and began to pour.

  A low whine rang in her ears, and Tina’s blood ran cold as she glanced up at her floating friend. Lacey stared back at her with glowing eyes and lips spread open wide to reveal rows of sharp teeth.

  “What’s up, witches?”

  “Oh, crap.” Eve finished her salt circle and held the container out like a weapon. “Tina! Get over here!”

  “Salt is smart, but it will take more than that to contain me,” Lacey said in that same demonic voice. “Won’t be much longer now.”

  “Listen you sucky ass demon,” Tina said, her voice shaking. “It’s our first day back at school tomorrow and our friend needs her body back, like now.”

  “Well, why don’t you come and take it?” Lacey reached out a hand, her glowing eyes locked onto Tina. Her once perfectly manicured pink nails were now long, sharp talons tinged black and green.

  “I think I will.” Tina gathered all of her courage, all of her will and stretched the elastic of the scrunchie as wide as it could go. In one swift move, she placed the scrunchie marked with the demon trap insignia onto the wrist of her possessed friend. A demonic scream ripped from her throat as Eve pulled Tina back into the salt circle. Lacey’s body went limp and fell to the bed as the glowing light left her eyes.

  “Did it work?” Tina panted, holding tight to Eve.

  Eve took a tentative step toward Lacey’s bed. She reached out a hand and poked her leg. Lacey didn’t move. “I think so.”

  “Okay. What now?” Tina asked, glancing at her watch. It was already late and Deon and Ras were waiting.

  Eve picked up a pair of sunglasses from Lacey’s dresser and gave Tina a knowing look. “Now we give her the Weekend at Bernie’s treatment, sneak her out of here and send that demon back to board game hell.”

  The two friends worked quietly, dressing Lacey’s limp body. They eased her favorite Looney Tunes hoodie over her head, and Tina flinched at Bugs Bunny and Tweety as they gazed at her with their bug-eyed stares. Eve found a pair of slip-on checkered Vans and eased them onto Lacey’s feet like some kind of messed up Cinderella. Tina carefully placed the sunglasses on her face and wiped a smudge of green crust from the corner of her mouth. Even possessed by a demon, Tina thought her friend was beautiful.

  “This will have to do,” Eve said.

  “Now what?” Tina’s gut lurched.

  “Now we take her to my car.” Eve shrugged.

  “Shouldn’t we try to smuggle her out or something?” Tina hitched her thumb toward the window. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”

  “Nah. Her mom will freak out if she sees that she’s gone,” Eve said. “Better to pretend that we are taking her somewhere.”

  “Do you really think her mom will just let us take Lacey out of here? On a school night?”

  “We’ll make something up,” Eve said. “I’ve seen her mom like this before. She won’t care.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Okay, just like that time Lacey twisted her ankle playing kickball,” Eve said, throwing one of Lacey’s limp arms over her shoulder. “You get the other side.”

  Tina grabbed Lacey’s other arm, the girl’s body heavy and limp. Together, Tina and Eve managed to whisk their unconscious friend down the hall toward the front door.

  “Thanks so much for letting us take her to the mall, Mrs. D. My dad sent me birthday money for back to school clothes, and well, Lacey always has the best taste.” Tina forced a huge smile as she held onto Lacey’s left arm.

  “Have fun, girls! Just be back by ten. You have school tomorrow!” Lacey’s mom said, a glass of wine in one hand and the television remote in the other.

  “Will do, Mrs. D!” Eve said, hoisting Lacey’s body up on the right side.

  Lacey’s head tilted forward, the sunglasses almost sliding off the bridge of her nose as they hoisted her out the front door. With a hoodie on, a pair of slip-on shoes and a pair of sunglasses, their friend was passable enough to get through the door. Most parents would have been suspicious, but, thankfully for them, Mrs. Dennison had worked most of the way through a bottle of chardonnay.

  “She’s so much heavier than she looks!” Eve grunted as they shuffled toward her car. “It’s a good thing we love her.”

  “It’s just all the muscle from playing softball,” Tina said. “Anyway, don’t make fun of her, especially since we accidentally got her possessed!”

  “I’m not making fun! Just sayin’, this isn’t easy,” Eve said. “Okay, I’m going to open the trunk.”

  “The trunk!”

  “Do you really want to be stuck in the car with her if this demon trap stops working?” Eve asked, popping the trunk.

  “Good point.”

  “Okay, together now,” Eve said. “One, two, three. Oof!”

  Tina and Eve unloaded Lacey’s body into the back of her Dodge Neon. She looked so peaceful and still, and for a moment, Tina practically forgot that a glowy-eyed demon resided within their friend.

  “She better not puke neon goo in the back of my new car,” Eve groaned and shut the trunk.

  Tina and Eve drove to the old church cemetery in silence as a full moon followed them overhead. Tina’s body trembled as they pulled into the cemetery, afraid that they would not be able to undo what they had unleashed. It was true that she loved Lacey as more than just a friend, but at that moment, none of that mattered. All she wanted was for her friend to be okay, and for things to go back the way they were.

  “Deon said that they would be waiting for us under the big banyan tree,” Eve said, slowly driving through the cemetery. Rows and rows of headstones illuminated in the twin headlights, and Tina shivered at the thought of so many bodies buried right there beneath their feet. So many memories, so many people loved and lost, now gone forever.

  Eve parked near the old banyan tree by an outcrop of mausoleums and killed the headlights. Sure enough, two shadowy figures loomed at the twisted root base of the massive tree. Tina hitched her backpack over her shoulder as she and Eve exited the car. The two shadowy figures approached under the silvery moonlight as banyan leaves crunched under their boots.

  “Did you bring her?” Deon asked.

  “Yeah, she’s in the trunk,” Eve said. “We put a binding spell on her wrist.”

  “Are you sure you did it right?” The other teen who must have been Ras emerged from the shadows. Like his namesake, Rasputin had long, dark scraggly hair and the beginnings of a patchy beard. His eyes were rimmed in black eyeliner and silver rings adorned his fingers. Like Deon and Eve, he was outfitted in the finest black fishnet and pleather mall goth ensemble that their small town had to offer.

  “Yes, we did it right!” Eve hissed. “Ras, I should kick your ass for putting us in this situation in the first place!”

  “Me! I wasn’t the one stupid enough to play with a spirit board,” Ras snorted. “Hurry up, the altar is all set. We need to do this thing before the candles burn out.”

  Eve popped her trunk and she and Tina hauled Lacey’s limp body toward the altar. A warm hairdryer breeze kicked up, and Tina’s gut lurched again.

  “Eve,” she said. “We better hurry.”

  Deon and Ras had drawn a pentagram with chalk on a slab of concrete in front of the mausoleum. Black candles were lit at each point of the star, their flames flickering in the warm late summer breeze. The two friends gently laid Lacey in the center of the star and stood back. Eve passed the leatherbound book to Ras as Tina opened her backpack.

  “You brought the spirit board, right?”

  Tina nodded and revealed the Ouija board.

  “Put it on the ground, there, next to her body,” Ras nodded toward the ground. “If this works, the demon will leave your friends’ body and return to the spirit board.”

  “What do you need us to do?” Eve asked.

  Ras flipped through the book and landed on a page near the end. He handed Eve the book and pointed. “See right here? You both have to chant this passage until the demon leaves.”

  “What happens if the demon doesn’t leave?” Tina asked.

  Ras shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never done this before.”

  “Great.” Eve huffed. “Okay, let’s give this a try then.”

  “Here,” Deon said. “I think you dropped this.”

  Tina glanced at Deon and the pit in her stomach opened wider. Her legs grew weak as she grasped the white scrunchie from his hand.

  “Oh no …”

  Eve jabbed an elbow into Tina’s ribs as a cry squeaked from her lips. “Look.”

  Lacey was no longer unconscious, lifeless and contained. Lacey was floating. Her eyes glowed like two flashlights in the dark as she hovered in a vertical stance just a foot above the pentagram. Rows of razor sharp teeth filled her mouth again as the terrible sound of demonic laughter filled the air.

  “What the hell, Ras?” Eve shouted. “This isn’t supposed to happen! We’re on hallowed ground!”

  “This isn’t a church cemetery,” Deon said. “It’s just a public cemetery.”

  “This is why children shouldn’t play with witchcraft,” Lacey chuckled in her demonic voice. “They never pay attention to important details.”

  “Read the passage!” Ras said. “Don’t let her distract you!”

  “Not very smart, are you?” The demon opened her mouth wide to reveal her rows of sharp teeth. Ras let out a yelp and tried to back away, but he was too late. Lacey released a violent, torrential stream of glowing green goo all over the would-be wizard.

  “Eve! We have to read!” Tina hissed.

  “Okay, okay. It’s here,” Eve said. “What was done, now undo. Quod factum est, nunc perdes.”

  “Tina, look out!” Deon pushed the two teens to the ground as a wooden bench whizzed through the air. The book was knocked from Eve’s hands as the two friends hit the floor. The demon Lacey cackled with her hands raised in the air, her fingers gnarled and twisted. A planter full of tropical flowers that had been next to the bench levitated, and the demon moved its hands as if guiding it through the air.

  “Flower delivery!” The demon cackled as the planter whizzed through the air. The planter hit Deon in the center of his back, knocking him to the ground.

  “Eve! We’ve got to hurry!” Tina picked up the book, her hands trembling as she struggled to find the page.

  The demon yawned. “Your little attempts at conjuring have been fun, but I’m growing tired of this game.”

  “Here!” Tina said, pointing to the page. “I found it. Quod factum est, nunc perdes.”

  “Oof.” The demon lowered its hands and doubled over. The Ouija board trembled on the ground and a low moan filled the air.

  “Oh my gosh,” Eve said. “I think it’s working! Say it again.”

  “Quod factum est, nunc perdes,” Tina said again. This time, the earth trembled under their feet.

  “You little witch!” The demon shrieked, still doubled over. “Stop this nonsense!”