“Take a chance,” Ricky said. “Let’s fight.”
“Maybe your brother will know if talking about it is the reason it comes back.”
“Yeah,” Ricky said with his eyebrows raised. “Exactly. We’ll just talk to him and make answering that question the first priority.”
“I suppose,” Amber said.
Ricky led the way towards the stairs.
George had books spread around himself on the bed. He was paging through an old book with thin yellow pages. He looked up when Amber and Ricky came in and shut the door.
“So?” George asked. “What do…”
“Hush,” Ricky said. “Amber is going to tell you her story and I want you to hear it out and then figure out if it has a similarity to what we’re already doing.”
George nodded.
“That’s not the deal,” Amber said after backhanding Ricky’s shoulder. “First, I want you to hear the kind of thing I’m talking about and you need to research if it’s even safe to talk about. Given that…”
“Is this like the thing that attacked the Harpers?” George asked with a smile. “Are you going to tell me about something that becomes more dangerous if it’s named?”
“Maybe,” Ricky said. “That’s what Amber wants you to answer.”
George’s smile began to fade. Amber sat down on the edge of George’s bed and she told him the story with quick sketches. Just like when Ricky had heard it, she started with the death of her grandfather. George didn’t flinch at that part. He only appeared really disturbed when Amber talked about how afraid she had been to go home and how she had spent so much time at friends’ houses.
“Something like that almost happened to us,” George said. “Did you tell her about that?”
Ricky shook his head. “Another time.”
“Okay,” George said. “We’re going to have to start with affinity and coupling tests. That will tell us how much you’re involved and the nature of the entity that’s orbiting you.”
“What does that mean?” Amber asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” George said. “You’ll barely feel a thing.”
He began to clear the books from his bed and stack them up on his dresser. “Ricky, see if Mom has any saffron, yeast, salt, vinegar, and lemon juice.”
“We’re making a pie?” Ricky asked.
“Funny. Get a chunk of charcoal from the grill too, would you? And bring up one of the jugs of spring water.”
“Don’t start anything without me,” Ricky said.
George nodded.
# # #
George handed Amber the piece of charcoal and he held up his phone with the camera facing her, so it acted like a mirror.
“Draw a continuous line around your face, like a big circle of coal,” George said.
Amber began at the top of her forehead and angled the camera so she could see as she worked her way down past her eye.
“Wouldn’t this be easier if one of you did it?”
“Has to be you,” George said.
He leaned closer as she tilted her chin up and drew the line across her neck and then back up the other side of her jaw. Amber jerked back and swatted at the back of her head.
“What?” Ricky asked.
“Something touched the top of my head.”
She looked all around and then put down the phone so she could pat her hair. George motioned to Ricky and conferred quietly with him in the corner of the room.
“It’s here with us.”
“How do you know?”
“Watch. When she finishes the line, she’s going to feel something on her head again.”
Amber finished the circle around her face and then double-checked it, touching up a couple of places. The moment she set the charcoal down on the towel, she jumped up, startling Tucker. The dog stood up as Amber patted her head and spun.
“I swear, something just touched me. Is there a spider or something in here?” Amber asked.
George pointed at the piece of paper that he had flipped over and left near the jug of spring water on the table. Amber eyed him and then flipped the paper over. Her eyes scanned down the paper, she flipped it, and then read it again. When she looked at George, she looked a little frightened.
“You’re sure?” she asked.
George pointed to his ears and then nodded at her with wide eyes.
He pulled on Ricky’s sleeve and they all convened at the desk. George sat down and started typing on his laptop. They read the words as he wrote.
“There’s a difference between possession and encumbrance. The demon is attached to you—encumbrance—as opposed to possessing you. It was seeing and hearing through your eyes and ears. Now, it can’t see, but it can still hear.”
“So what do I do?” Amber asked. She touched her head again after she spoke.
George typed the answer. “Right now? Nothing. I think it’s too dangerous. We don’t know the thing’s power, and it’s going to be ready for us. We need to learn more.”
Amber sighed. She sounded completely defeated.
“Yeah. You’re right,” Amber said.
“No,” Ricky said. “We can’t afford it.”
He pulled the laptop from George and typed his own message.
“Dangerous or not, we have to be free of this and Dr. Hugs. It’s going to take complete focus to deal with what we have to do. I say we finish Amber’s encumbrance right NOW.”
George locked eyes with his brother and then they both turned to Amber.
“You’re not afraid?” she asked.
“Of course we are,” Ricky said.
“That’s not the point though,” George said. “We will do it if you will.”
Amber looked between them and then her eyes dropped down to Tucker, who was sitting there looking up at her. When she smiled at the dog, he thumped his tail on the floor.
“Okay,” she said after a big exhale. “Okay.”
“Then we have a lot to do,” George typed. He began to list out the instructions from his research.
# # #
Ricky stood there for a moment, gathering his nerve.
His mother finally looked up from what she was painting.
“Where’s Amber? I saw her go out to her car. Did she decide to leave?”
“No,” Ricky said. “She’s sitting out there, waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“We need your help, Mom.”
Mary set down her paintbrush and wiped
