Read Online The First Sacrament (The Demons of Stone Chapel Book 1) by Lex Duncan - Free Book Online
Authors: Lex Duncan
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think I was going to give him away, betray his hiding place? Or was it charity? Was I his good deed for the week?
I didn’t feel right accepting what I didn’t earn. Cash strapped or no, I wasn’t anyone’s charity case. Not anymore. Dialing his number, I put my phone to my ear and waited. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. His voicemail kicked in.
I hung up. “Not a good time to avoid me, Arturo.”
Now what? I could cash the check, take the money I needed, and give the rest back. Thanks but no thanks. Seemed to be my only option. Sighing, I put the check back in the envelope and put the envelope on top of my microwave in lieu of the cluttered mess that was my kitchen table. Less chance of losing it there.
The rest of my day went by slowly and uneventfully, but when day collapsed to night, paranoia came surging back like an unwelcome house guest. It didn't help that Marion came pounding on my door at an ungodly time asking after my rent, effectively scaring the ever loving crap out of me. We argued, I begged, and he shoved his finger in my face and said that I had until the end of the week to pay or else he was going to throw me out. Fun stuff. Even more fun was what happened when I finally convinced myself to get some sleep.
***
It was dark and I was cold. I laid awake on the couch, staring up at my ceiling, counting the fissures in the plaster to pass the time. One, two, three, four, four and a half, five―Wait. What was that?
I sat up.
My heart hammered in my chest. The noise, it sounded like claws, dragging along the floor. Every second the scraping lasted, the more my panic grew, congealing in my stomach like a flu. I waited. Listened. Held my breath. A siren blared in the distance, a gust of wind rattled at my window. I waited some more. The scratching stopped.
This was getting ridiculous. I was letting my fear rule my life. A fear that shouldn't have even existed. What happened at the church was scary. What happened with the dog was scary. Meeting Dante and Aralia and Max was scary.
But it wasn't worth this. I needed to chill. Get some sleep. School tomorrow. Detention. Ugh, detention. Had it really only been two days since I punched Jason Clark? It felt like an eternity ago. The Beatrice Todd who walked out of Stone Chapel High School on Friday was not the same one who went demon hunting an evening later on Saturday.
No, I'd changed.
I felt as though I'd been ushered into something much bigger than school, much bigger than overdue rent, much bigger than my life as I had lived it on Friday.
It was Monday now. 2:35 AM, according to my phone. And that, I think, is what scared me the most. Who knew what it would bring? More demons? Death? The ultimate destruction of the universe?
Okay, maybe not that last part.
I laid back down. Counted the cracks again. The repetition calmed my nerves.
I got to fourteen when I heard it.
The growling. A low, menacing noise that sounded exactly like the dog I’d encountered at the church. Only that dog was dead. Aralia killed it. I was safe here in my apartment. I was just imagining things. That's what I was doing. Imagining things. The growling wasn't real, it was a figment of my paranoia. So was the scratching. I was fine, everything was fine. Inhale, exhale. Breathe in, breathe out.
I closed my eyes.
Five hours later, I felt something dripping on my face. Something warm, something sticky, something that dribbled down the bridge of my nose and stopped at the parting of my lips. It tasted like...
Copper.
All at once, my panic came flooding back. I wiped at my nose, knowing full well what I'd come away with.
Sure enough, there it was. Smeared on my fingertips like a bright red warning sign. Blood.
The source?
A giant summoning seal that took up my entire ceiling.
Wiping furiously at my mouth and nose, I threw off my blood-speckled blanket and jumped to my feet. I stumbled, caught myself on the wall, and heaved.
My apartment looked and smelled like a murder
I didn’t feel right accepting what I didn’t earn. Cash strapped or no, I wasn’t anyone’s charity case. Not anymore. Dialing his number, I put my phone to my ear and waited. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. His voicemail kicked in.
I hung up. “Not a good time to avoid me, Arturo.”
Now what? I could cash the check, take the money I needed, and give the rest back. Thanks but no thanks. Seemed to be my only option. Sighing, I put the check back in the envelope and put the envelope on top of my microwave in lieu of the cluttered mess that was my kitchen table. Less chance of losing it there.
The rest of my day went by slowly and uneventfully, but when day collapsed to night, paranoia came surging back like an unwelcome house guest. It didn't help that Marion came pounding on my door at an ungodly time asking after my rent, effectively scaring the ever loving crap out of me. We argued, I begged, and he shoved his finger in my face and said that I had until the end of the week to pay or else he was going to throw me out. Fun stuff. Even more fun was what happened when I finally convinced myself to get some sleep.
***
It was dark and I was cold. I laid awake on the couch, staring up at my ceiling, counting the fissures in the plaster to pass the time. One, two, three, four, four and a half, five―Wait. What was that?
I sat up.
My heart hammered in my chest. The noise, it sounded like claws, dragging along the floor. Every second the scraping lasted, the more my panic grew, congealing in my stomach like a flu. I waited. Listened. Held my breath. A siren blared in the distance, a gust of wind rattled at my window. I waited some more. The scratching stopped.
This was getting ridiculous. I was letting my fear rule my life. A fear that shouldn't have even existed. What happened at the church was scary. What happened with the dog was scary. Meeting Dante and Aralia and Max was scary.
But it wasn't worth this. I needed to chill. Get some sleep. School tomorrow. Detention. Ugh, detention. Had it really only been two days since I punched Jason Clark? It felt like an eternity ago. The Beatrice Todd who walked out of Stone Chapel High School on Friday was not the same one who went demon hunting an evening later on Saturday.
No, I'd changed.
I felt as though I'd been ushered into something much bigger than school, much bigger than overdue rent, much bigger than my life as I had lived it on Friday.
It was Monday now. 2:35 AM, according to my phone. And that, I think, is what scared me the most. Who knew what it would bring? More demons? Death? The ultimate destruction of the universe?
Okay, maybe not that last part.
I laid back down. Counted the cracks again. The repetition calmed my nerves.
I got to fourteen when I heard it.
The growling. A low, menacing noise that sounded exactly like the dog I’d encountered at the church. Only that dog was dead. Aralia killed it. I was safe here in my apartment. I was just imagining things. That's what I was doing. Imagining things. The growling wasn't real, it was a figment of my paranoia. So was the scratching. I was fine, everything was fine. Inhale, exhale. Breathe in, breathe out.
I closed my eyes.
Five hours later, I felt something dripping on my face. Something warm, something sticky, something that dribbled down the bridge of my nose and stopped at the parting of my lips. It tasted like...
Copper.
All at once, my panic came flooding back. I wiped at my nose, knowing full well what I'd come away with.
Sure enough, there it was. Smeared on my fingertips like a bright red warning sign. Blood.
The source?
A giant summoning seal that took up my entire ceiling.
Wiping furiously at my mouth and nose, I threw off my blood-speckled blanket and jumped to my feet. I stumbled, caught myself on the wall, and heaved.
My apartment looked and smelled like a murder
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