The Curse ✔️

Chapter 9: Demon hunting study group

Morta threw five books on the table in my room. Why and how my room became the official meeting site was beyond me. I looked over the names of books. History of demons. Sigils and other important symbols. Invoking a demon. Banishing a demon. Advanced Black Magic.

"Advanced Black Magic? Just because I can create magical tweezers doesn't mean I'm ready for advanced magic." I pointed out.

"Oh, well, if you first learn fractions, division won't be a problem." Morta shrugged and threw herself on the red leather armchair in the corner.

"Or, you won't understand fractions because you can't divide jack shit." I suggested, to which Morta waved away with her hand.

"Okay," Amma showed up on the doorstep, "I've got coloured pencils, highlighters, chalks, lots of blank paper and a ruler." She put the bag full of stuff next to the table.

"Are we in kindergarten?" Morta arched her eyebrow.

"We need to be prepared! This is a lot of books and we don't know anything! Why am I only seeing books about demons and black magic?" Amma looked over the table suspiciously.

"Because we're fighting a demon with black magic?" Morta answered, causing Amma's gaze to turn distraught.

"It's honestly no wonder you failed so many subjects. Make yourself useful and get us intros to everything." Amma shooed Morta with her hand and began tidying up the table.

"Where did all this sass come from?" Morta asked but got up.

"You may be at home when it comes to insults and dark, death-related stuff, but studying is my area." Amma took out the blank papers and placed them in the middle of the table. Morta mumbled something, probably insults, on her way out, but Amma didn't budge.

"Okay, how do we do this?" I asked, admitting her superiority. She was a valedictorian in high school. If someone was able to find hidden secrets and dangerous information, it was this girl.

"I am going to read this book," Amma lifted Sigils and other important symbols, "find anything I can about that pentagram of yours and see whether something like that has ever happened before. Once Morta comes back with an Intro to Black Magic, you're going to read that and practice."

"I can do more than that." I suggested.

"We don't have time to gather information, you need to start practicing immediately. It's like trigonometry, Jade, you have to learn while you calculate." Amma handed a white chalk to me.

"What do I do with this?"

"Until Morta returns, you are going to draw those symbols you used to protect Thar from your notebook in front of all the doors and windows on this floor." Amma commanded in her teacher tone.

"That's a good idea." I turned to that immediately, taking the white chalk and walking over to the windows.

Autumn leaves covered the ground outside, colouring everything in yellow, orange and red, making this place livelier than it truly was. When I first learnt I would be coming here, I thought I would learn more tricks to help me through my life. Slowing down aging, removing cellulite, getting A's in college and stuff like that. Little have I known I would actually be hunting down a demon. Or whatever it was that attacked us.

Thar was pretty clear in the class when he said white magic was effective against demons. Thousands of years of history proved him right. Yet, white magic didn't help with the black ooze in the main hall.

Perhaps something much more dangerous was going on.

Something none of us understood. Tapping into it felt wrong, almost naive. Thinking that we could handle whatever came our way was the exact kind of superior thinking I wanted to avoid. Still, it seemed like we had no other choice.