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She looked at ht I nodded

"Why is it going to stay?" he asked, total y nonchalant

"We did the ritual The candles went out on their oe didn’t touch them all you have to do now is bury them in the back yard"

When I relayed the events tothe Witch Bottle Oh, and seeing a monster in the house It was pointless toit up, because he would have on account of it being all "black majick" and stuff

"Or the front yard, real y," he continued "I’l ht away The ritual wil stil hold"

"Hoe 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 dril all too well by now We just wait and see"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The nextmore 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 noay fro eyes since their bedroo up the smel y, powdery o intoready for bed but at least it was taken care of before oodbyes, soone in for a kiss But I just couldn’t return it His actions had rankledit all for ht

Maybe it had so to do hat Ada had said, about how she couldn’t trust hie and I was definitely in noextree I had seen during the rituals

But that was just ut told me to abruptly look away and say, "I’l talk to you soon

Thanks for your help," and shut the door Perhaps I should have been a bit rateful to him

Needless to say, I was exhausted when 10 am rolled around and I was rudely awakened by my phone

I pried open one eye and was looh the s and settle inthe screen with my blurry vision

Shit It was Shay

I cleared my throat and quickly answered it "Hel o?"

"Perry," she said in an oddly professional voice "How are you feeling?"

"Um," I rolled over onto my back and scrunched up my forehead withOK"

"Oh that’s great to hear," she said, as if I had just told her I was feeling like aby today?"

"To Port-Town?"

"Yes This isn’t a shift I just wanted to talk to you"

Uh oh I was suddenly overcome by a wave of nausea, fol owed by a stab of hol owness in my chest

"Oh…OK"

"Don’t worry," she said but then didn’t elaborate "Just come by before three"

"I wilSee you then," I said blankly and stared down at the phone as I heard her hang up I gradual y pushed the button to end the cal and placed the phone beside me

I’d been down this path before I kneas up It didn’t

Though, perhaps I was always too eager to jump to the worst case scenario Shay just wanted to seebetter Shay was a nice woman; she was almost a friend She liked me, didn’t she?

She wouldn’t fire soal, wasn’t it?

I let out a huge intake of air She probably just wanted to see me in person and work out so it over the phone Shay was personable like that

I took in another breath and then got up to start the day

I was a fla pile of nerves when I parked Put-Put outside the store and walked in through the glass doors Even though it was the busy lunch-hour rush, I stil felt like everyone was staring at irl ent postal" Of course, no one noticed ht such a thing Being in regular clothes and not a unifor from Ash or Juan, a student froave them both a small smile as I aardlyto handle the customers so they couldn’t real y talk to me but I preferred it that way The less that was said, the better

I observed Ash’s face It ar different about the way he was looking at ain, watched ed monkey in a zoo My mother had watched me like that earlier as I ured Ash would change once he saw the "real"OK