Riley's Excellent and Not-at-all Fake Exorcism Service

Chapter 5

Meditation Room . . . Hmm?

"You really brought a priest to my parents' house?" Daniel looked at me in disbelief, and I didn't blame him after all the times I had refused to even step foot in any house of worship. Just another thing that really pissed his parents off when we were getting married. I honestly surprised myself that my first thought was to get to a church. But if I had learned anything from the endless hours I spent reading R.L. Stein and Stephen King growing up, it was that if something freaky and supernatural was after you, it was way better to at least try and get help. And also, that cops were useless in these situations, hence why I had opted for a priest. But I wasn't going to explain all of that to Daniel.

He hadn't seen what I had. Shit like that changes people. Not that I was about to become a regular church-goer or anything. People don't change that much.

"I felt some bad juju in here." I decided not to mention the Ring girl. I was hopeful that Lawn's magic water did what it was supposed to, and the house was now ghost-free, so why make myself sound crazy?

Well . . . crazier.

"So bad that you ran out of here in the middle of the night?" His eyes searched my face for an explanation.

"How about we drop it, yeah?" Was all I offered in return.

"Riley, come on," he said, with a smirk.. "Were you spooked being in such a large house? I told you watching scary movies all the time would make you paranoid."

"Speaking of large houses," I said, ignoring his question, as well as his rude comment about my love of horror cinema. "What do you think of your parent's new shindigs?"

"It's definitely something," he remarked, looking around the guest room with wide eyes. "This one room might be the size of our apartment."

Nah, it's probably bigger.

"And your parents, they look . . . different."

"Yeah, it's great seeing them looking so healthy," he smiled way too proudly. "Mother told me they started meditating and eating better a while back."

"Yeah . . ." I wondered if questioning his parent's sudden transformation would tick one of his buttons, so I decided to hold that off for later. After all, I had a feeling he wasn't super happy with me, as there was something odd about his vibe. I couldn't really figure it out, but his eyes just seemed . . . different. "So did you know they were going to get such a . . . large home?"

"Not really," he shrugged. "I mean, before booking my flight back, I did look this gated community up. I was . . . surprised. But from everything I've read, it's a great place to live."

"But how. . . " The fuck could they afford this place? Was what I wanted to say, but I decided to rephrase that, "So why did they decide to move here, specifically?"

"Well," Daniel sat on the bed's edge, and indicated for me to do the same. "The guy that runs this place, Dolion Beelze, he was the one that bought their restaurant."

"Really?" I did as he wanted and sat down next to him, though honestly, I would have preferred going out onto the balcony for a smoke.

"And during the whole process, they became friendly. He was the one that got them into meditating, eating better, and eventually, he told them that his community here had a vacancy."

"So, he bought their restaurant, then essentially got his money back by letting them buy this place?" What a hustler.

Respect.

"You would see it that way," he said, nudging me playfully.

I felt mildly satisfied with that explanation, though the whole thing was still fucking weird.