The following day we convened once again in the Desecrated church for rehearsals.
I sighed loudly as Dorcas sat on her knees in front of Nicholas with her hands folded as if in prayer. She recited her lines in what was supposed to be Latin but it fell short. It was more of gibberish than anything. Even her sisters guffawed at her terrible performance.
"Am I saying it right?" she asked my mom innocently.
"Not remotely," Mom deadpanned, "Do you even know what it means?"
"Um..." Dorcas searched for an answer as she stood.
"It means, 'I curse the False God! And submit my fealty to you, Dark Lord'," Mom recited with bravado as she threw her book to the ground.
Nicholas delivered the next line flawlessly without even glancing at the script. I rolled my eyes and continued to try and remind myself it was Nick saying those words not the Dark Lord. And it was Dorcas giving a terrible performance not Lilith.
"Very good, Nicholas," Mom praised, "but I'd put the emphasis on the..."
Before she could finish she choked and a ribbit ripped from her throat. Everyone looked concerned as she gagged and a frog leg protruded from her mouth. She turned and squelching noises filled the room as she pulled the bullfrog from her throat.
"Which one of you did this?" She questioned as she fixed her lipstick presenting the frog.
Nick and I looked immediately at the Weird Sisters.
"Not us. That familiar belongs to a colleague of yours," Prudence shook her head.
"Shirley," Mom breathed, picking the frog up to look into its beady eyes.
"Allow me to handle this, Mother," I growled rolling up the sleeves of my blazer.
She put a hand up halting me.
"All in due time, daughter," She stated coolly.
It seems as though she was content enough to dispose of the wayward familiar for the time being.
I sat at the kitchen island as Mom set a pot to boil.
"Are you cooking dinner?" Aunt Hilda asked, surprised.
"I am. How do you feel about frog's legs?" Mom questioned in return stirring the simmering water.
I shook my head 'no' to my aunt wanting nothing to do with my Mother's chosen meal.
"Depends on the frog," Aunt Hilda laughed nervously.
"Sister Jackson has decided to pick on me, Hilda. As if we were common schoolgirls. I turned the other cheek when she tried to kill me with a gargoyle, but then she teleported her familiar down my throat to humiliate me in front of all the students, and that I cannot abide," My mother ranted angrily.
Aunt Hilda knelt to inspect the frog which my mother had placed in a jar on the counter next to the stove.
"Oh, the poor little familiar's innocent," Hilda gasped.
"Is anyone truly innocent?" Mom smirked.
"Aunties, Cousin, is Ambrose home?" Sabrina asked, coming around the corner.
"In his room," I confirmed.
"We missed you at rehearsals today, Sabrina," My mother chastised, waving a wooden spoon in her direction.
"I already have all of Lilith's lines memorized, Aunt Zee. And frankly, hearing Dorcas say them makes my ears bleed," She stated matter of factly leaning against the island next to me.
