The Psychic Next Door

[First Draft] Chapter 12: Ritual

On the last day of the month—which the spell required—we had returned to my apartment. It felt weird to call it that: my apartment. The place seemed foreign to me, and it felt strange to attach my ownership to it when I hadn't spent a night there in weeks.  

But we had decided to do the spell here because we thought that it was most fitting... after all, this is where it started. As we prepared ourselves, I was even jumpier than usual, starting at every little bump and scuffle. In the days since we had miraculously found the lock of Luc's hair, we still hadn't been attacked; I was sure that we were about to be ripped to sheds any second, like there was a timer ticking down, and I was afraid it would know that we were trying to stop it.  

Polly was calmer, but not by much. I could see her hands shaking as she arranged the candles and other materials into formation on my living room floor. I handed her items from my bag, sifting through the contents. My hands pushed aside Lillian's diaries; I had snuck them into my bag before we left Polly's house. I didn't really know what possessed me to do that, but I couldn't shake the feeling that they were important. But I hadn't had the time to look through them, because we had been so busy. They could wait, right?  

We laid out several candles, red ribbon, two pins and our doll, which had been crudely fashioned, as neither of us had ever been much for sewing. But it served its purpose, ugly or not; it was filled with salt and the tell-tale black wavy lock had been secured inside in, just like the spell told us. I doubt whichever power we were asking favours of tonight cared whether or not the doll was nice looking.  

Even though we had everything prepared, we couldn't help but procrastinate a little bit on actually starting the ceremony. I knew it was because we were both scared of what would happen if it didn't work. Would it know? Would it show up? We both shot each other glances as we paced and fussed, trying our best to find reasons to delay the act.  

But we could only escape what needed to be done for so long. Soon the hands of the clock were nearing the spot that would indicate midnight, and it would be too late. It needed to be done before the new day began. No more avoiding it. It was time.  

"So," Polly said, shakily. "Shall we?"  

"I guess so," I replied.  

We stared at each other. I realized that I was expecting Polly to start, and she was expecting me to do the same.  

"Rachel, we both know you are the one who needs to do this."  

I whined in weak protest, but I already knew she was right. It had to be me; I was the main target after all, I was the one who started this even if I didn't exactly know how.  

I sat down in position, in front of the circle Polly had formed with the candles. She sat across from me, on the other side of the circle. I had the book open, creased to the page with the instructions, and the other necessary materials within arms reach.  

"What's the first step?" Polly encouraged, as I just stared at the foreign objects in front of me. We had gone over this procedure a million times, but now that I was actually doing it, it seemed like a completely different task.  

"Uhm," My hands trembled as I placed a finger on the open page and ran it down the lines, trying to locate my starting point. "To... light the candles..."  

Polly leaned across the circle and handed me her lighter.  

"Do you always have this on you?" I didn't remember her buying one, and I was distracted by her owning a lighter. I think I would've jumped at any distraction at this moment. "Do you smoke or something?"  

"Stay on task," She replied, her eyes narrowing and her look stern, seeing through my last weak and desperate attempt at avoidance.  

I smiled back, sheepishly, and proceeded to light all the candles. It took longer than it should've, because my hands were shaking so badly. I held my wrist to steady my hand. The minutes ticked by, making us even more anxious. Our deadline neared.