The Pumpkin Man

from the sack over his face.

“This is ridiculous,” Jones said and reached out to pull Meredith away. “He needs CPR!”

George grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him. “You have to trust her,” he said. “She knows what she’s doing. And this is probably his only hope.”

Meredith’s blouse hung open as she bent over Donovan, and she lifted the man’s limp hand to press it to the flesh between her breasts as she continued to chant in words that sounded strange and foreign. She straddled the officer then, and bent down to press her open chest to his, her open mouth to his.

Moments later, Donovan’s feet kicked. His whole body shuddered, and Jones moved in just in time to see Meredith’s mouth leave his, a thin trail of drool connecting them for just a second as she raised herself to kneeling, and Donovan’s eyes blinked rapidly as he gasped for breath.

“Jesus my head hurts,” he said. And then, “Meredith, what are you doing?”

Meredith picked up the circular silver ornament from Donovan’s chest, and finally Jones saw what it was. The circle was actually the body of a snake. A snake eating its own tail.

Meredith stood up and pocketed the charm. She put one arm around George, while holding her blouse shut again with the other.

“You helped me,” she said, staring unblinking into Jones’s eyes. “I won’t forget that.”

In the distance, the warning bleats of an ambulance broke the quiet of the night.

“Let’s forget this,” Meredith continued, bending down to pick up the other trinkets she’d pulled from her purse. “I am not going to press charges. It was all a misunderstanding. Just let it go.”

“But . . .” Jones began.

She shook her head. “I don’t want any more trouble,” she said. “I’ll make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

With that, she turned away, pulling George along with her to their car.

Jones knelt next to Donovan, who looked confused.

“Her eyes . . .” he began.

“What about them,” Jones said absently, as he watched Meredith walk away.

“Her eyes were on fire.”

Meredith Perenais’s Journal

June 26, 2009

I said the words today!

It’s been too long in coming, this. More than twenty years. So many spells and foolish potions. Witchcraft isn’t about herbs and livers. It’s taken me far too long to learn what I know. It’s taken me far too long to grow strong. The searching, the planning . . . The failures. Looking for the strength to try again. I never gave up, not for long. There is always a way, though. If a door can open one direction, it can open another. I’ve opened doors before that were closed to anyone else. I’ve brought back men from the edge of death. Though I’ve never brought anyone back before who had fully crossed.

I hope he still knows how much I love him. I gave him my blood for this, and so much more. And finally I said the words:

Make them rue the day they hurt you.

My strength yours as long as you can

stay with me and make them regret

the day they hurt the Pumpkin Man.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FOUR

“I talked to Brian’s mom,” Nick announced. He set the cordless phone back in its cradle in the living room and flopped down in the easy chair next to it.

“How is she?” Kirstin asked. She and Jennica had waited on the couch while he’d gone to the back bedroom to make the call.

“Pretty broken up,” he said. “And it’s still not even totally sunk in. Brian was really tight with his family.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jenn whispered. “I’m really—”

“It’s not your fault,” Nick snapped. When she visibly cringed, he pushed himself out of his chair to sit next to her. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without him,” he admitted. “We’ve been buds since high school. His parents are like my own.”

“How did you first meet him?” Jenn asked, trying to help him talk it out.

Nick laughed. “He beat me up.”

“That’s how you met?”

He nodded. “Pretty much. He had this little gang, you know, and he was like . . . the cool kid. He was on the football team, and somehow was always able to get beer for parties on the weekends. I pretty much kept to myself, and so his gang decided it’d be fun to pick on the quiet kid. Except when I kneed his friend in the nuts, Brian stepped in and decked me.”

“And after that, naturally you became best friends?”

He laughed again. “I think Brian felt guilty, and after that, he kind of took me on as his special project. I had been pretty dweeby up to that point, and he got me on to the football team. He pulled me out of my shell, really.” He smiled. “And I forced him to do his homework.”

“Sounds a lot like me and Kirstin,” Jenn said.

“Nah,” Kirstin piped in. “I never tried to get you on to sports. I just tried to get you laid.”

Nick smiled. “Brian did that, too. Who invited you over to join us at Bottom of the Hill that night?” He grew quiet for a minute, obviously thinking back to better times. Then he continued. “Anyway, Brian and I have been friends forever. So I need to go see his parents tomorrow. But I meant what I said before. This is not your fault. This one is bigger than all of us. We just happened to walk into it, unfortunately. Don’t blame yourself.”

“I have to find a way to stop it,” Jenn said. As she vocalized the words, she felt something harden inside her; something that had been soft and easily pushed around for most of her life. Something that suddenly wanted to really take a stand. Maybe for the first time, ever. “I may not have started it, but I have to end it.”

“How? What are you going to do?” Kirstin asked.

“I’m going to ask for help. But I need your help to do that.”

Nick looked up. “What are you talking about?”

“Hang on.” Jenn got up and went into Nick’s room, where she’d left her things. She opened her bag, and stared at the thing inside. Really? she asked herself. And the answer came almost immediately. Yes. She was not going to stand by and let this just happen. Not this time. Meredith had shown her the way . . . she just needed to be strong enough to follow it. She emerged from the bedroom a minute later with both a new determination, and her aunt’s tablet of varnished wood covered by the etched letters of the alphabet. And the words YES and NO.

“When did you get that?” Nick gasped.

“You went to the bathroom when we were up at the house, and I realized that the police are not going to be