The Demon Notebook (8 page)

“That baby Sarah could take care of herself for a day. Well, she seems very able to do that right now. Take a look at this.”

Grace lifted the baby out of the stroller and placed her gently on the floor. Sarah immediately got to her feet, stepped up onto the wheel of the stroller just long enough to grab her bottle, and trotted into the kitchen.

“Ugh!”

“Hey!” Jenny complained. “She's still my baby sister, you know.”

“Sorry,” Adie apologized, “but that's just plain freaky looking.”

“And I'm afraid she'll have to stay here for the day,” said Grace. “We have to keep her hidden from her parents, or we're all in trouble.”

Just then they heard the microwave turn on in the kitchen. They rushed in to see Sarah balanced carefully on a kitchen chair, pressing buttons to heat up her bottle of milk. Jenny picked her up and opened the microwave door to switch it off. Sarah shrieked in protest.

“We can't take our eyes off her,” Jenny said, “even for a second.”

“I don't know,” mumbled Adie, “it looked like she knew what she was doing there.”

Jenny shot her a look, and Adie pursed her lips together to show she wasn't going to say any more.

“Well,” said Grace, “we'd better get comfy. We're not going anywhere for a while.”

Taking care of a baby who's incapable of doing anything for herself is tiring. Taking care of a baby who's perfectly capable of doing everything for herself is positively exhausting. The girls could barely sit down for five minutes before Sarah would take off at a jog, looking for something else in the house to amuse her. They watched her wipe her own mouth after drinking her bottle, tidy her own soft toys into a neat pile at one end of her play mat and, most disturbingly, begin to change her own diaper before Jenny whipped her up onto the changing mat to do it for her. Eventually, Adie found a DVD of
Finding
Nemo
, and they all collapsed onto the sofa as the baby sat contentedly watching the screen. Grace was practically asleep when her cell rang. It was her home number.

“Grace, hon? Just wondering where you are. Are you still at Jenny's house?”

“Oh, hi, Mom. No, we're over at Adie's now. We're taking care of Sarah for the day, to give Jenny's mom and dad a rest.”

“Oh, I see,” her mom said. “She's actually at her friend Adie's house, James. It's just down the road.”

Grace shot up in her seat.

“Mom?”

“No problem, James. See you again. That was your friend, James, Grace. From school. He seems like a nice boy.”

“You didn't show him which house was Adie's, did you, Mom?”

“He's on his way over now, dear. Is there something wrong?”

Grace groaned to herself.

“No, nothing's wrong, Mom. I'll see you later.”

“Let me know if you're not going to be home for dinner.”

“Okay.”

Grace hung up and dropped her forehead onto her knees.

“What's up?” Jenny lay sprawled out, taking up more than her fair share of the sofa.

“As if today wasn't bad enough,” Grace muttered into her lap, “James O'Connor's on his way over.”

“You'll have to get rid of him,” Jenny said, sitting up. “Just tell him to get lost.”

“I can't say that,” moaned Grace. “And it wouldn't work anyway. I told him not to come to my house, and he did anyway.”

“Tell him you're sick,” said Adie.

“Then why would I be in your house?”

“Quarantine. You don't want to infect your mother.”

“I don't think that'll work, Adie,” said Grace. “Besides, it would be pretty cruel of me to avoid getting my mom sick by hanging out with an eight-month-old baby.”

“True,” agreed Jenny. “We're in a bit of a pickle here.”

The doorbell rang. The girls froze.

“We just won't answer,” Adie whispered. “He'll go away eventually.”

The doorbell rang again. After a moment, they heard footsteps from the porch to the window.

“Get down!” whispered Grace.

All three dropped to their bellies on the floor, sheltered by the sofa. There was a gentle knock on the window.

“Hello?” they heard James say. “Anyone there?”

Jenny gasped and lunged to grab hold of her sister, but it was too late. Sarah had skipped onto the sofa, using Adie as a step, and was giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the visitor behind the glass. James slowly offered his own thumbs-up, confused by the scene but unable to put his finger on what, exactly, was wrong with it. The girls conceded defeat and stood up in full view before Sarah could do any more grown-up-baby tricks. Grace faked a smile that was more of a grimace.

“Hi!” he chirped, as she opened the front door. “Your mom told me you were over here. She's really nice. How are you doing? Feeling any better today?”

“Fine,” mumbled Grace.

“Who's the baby? Is that your little sister?”

“No, Jenny's.”

“I'm great with babies,” said James. “Well, I'm all right with them. I've watched my little cousin a couple of times. Changed diapers and everything!”

“That's great.”

“So, you know, if you guys could use a hand, I'd be happy to help out.”

“Oh! No, no, don't be silly,” Grace said, holding the door open as little as possible, though James could still see in through the porch glass. “You wouldn't want to waste your Saturday babysitting.”

“Wouldn't be wasting it if I'm with you,” he said, smiling.

She grimaced again.

“Hey, is that…is she…?” he said, glancing past her with a strange look on his face.

Grace looked back to see Sarah trotting toward them, beaming brightly.

“Jenny!” she yelled, letting go of the door to grab hold of the baby. She rushed back into living room, where Jenny was kneeling on the hearth extinguishing a small fire. Adie was planted in front of the TV with the remote control in her hand and an angry look on her face.

“I think she's a little cold,” Jenny puffed.

“And wants to watch something else,” grunted Adie. “She's reset the TV, and I don't know how the hell she did it.”

“Here, one of you take her. James is still at the front door!” Grace hissed.

“Not anymore,” said a smiling James, entering the living room. “Hello, girls. I was just telling Grace, I don't mind giving you guys a hand if you're babysitting for the day.”

“No thanks,” Jenny blurted out. “I'm used to watching her. I don't need any help.”

“Okay,” he said with a grin. “Then, are you free to go for a walk in the park, Grace?”

“Yep, she sure is,” replied Jenny, grabbing hold of Sarah before she managed to wriggle out of Grace's arms onto the floor.

“What?” exclaimed Grace. “No, I'm not!”

“If you don't go out now,” Jenny said pointedly, through gritted teeth, “poor James will be stuck here all day.
All
day
. With
us
.”

“Great,” James said happily. “Let's go.”

Grace managed a covert scowl at her friends as James led her to the front door.

***

Grace was grateful for the few gray clouds that sat heavily in the sky, threatening to pour at any moment. She closed her eyes, about to wish for rain 'til she thought better of it. It wouldn't be a real spell, but still. No point tempting fate. She didn't want to end up floating home.

She smiled sporadically, at James's polite, and almost incessant, conversation, but she felt really awkward. She never talked to boys alone and didn't know what she should be talking about. He seemed to be rattling on about his dogs, how the school football team was doing this year and, oddly, his aunt Maura, who had a lot of fish. He took a deep breath and smiled shyly.

“Sorry,” he said, “I've just been going on and on, but you're so quiet today. And I'm a little nervous.”

That surprised her and also made her feel a little less nervous. She smiled back and apologized.

“Me too,” she said. “I'm a little shy, sometimes, I guess.”

“I know what you mean. Bashful, my mom calls me. You know, like the dwarf in
Snow
White
.”

“You?” She frowned at him. “But you're really popular in school. You make lots of noise in class, and no one ever picks on you.”

“I'm great when I'm with my friends.” He shrugged. “But when I'm not, I get all quiet. Like you are today.”

She smiled and glanced at her feet. A few small drops of rain had landed on her shoes.

“I think it's going to pour,” she said.

“Yeah,” he replied, “doesn't look good. Look, there's a bench over there under those trees.”

They headed for shelter, just reaching the bench in time before the rain began pelting down. They sat quietly, watching the downpour, and listening as it rustled through the trees.

“I love days like these,” Grace said.

“You love getting stuck in the rain?”

“Well, no,” she said with a little giggle. “But when you're cozy indoors, and it's torrential outside. I like that.”

“But you're not cozy indoors,” he teased. “And we might be going home with pneumonia today.”

“True.” She smiled.

Just then there was a flash of lightning and thunder rumbled in the sky. Grace looked up and grinned even wider.

“And I
love
thunder and lightning!” she exclaimed. “How far away do you think it is?”

“Wait for another flash,” he said, “then count.”

After a few moments another burst of light lit up the cloudy sky, followed quickly by another deep rumble of thunder.

“Six miles!”

“Eight!” James yelled at the same time.

They looked at each other and laughed.

“I'm not sure the counting thing really works,” she said.

“Apparently not,” he agreed.

“Everything's so gray,” she said. “It feels like we're in an old-fashioned horror movie or something.”

“Maybe a headless horseman will come galloping through those trees any minute.”

James leaned forward, staring intently at a clump of trees in front of them. He was quiet so long that Grace leaned forward to follow his gaze. Suddenly, he reached up, pulled down the branch above them, and shook it over Grace's head, shrieking at the same time.

“Agghh!” she screamed, jumping to her feet and into the rain.

James let go of the branch and laughed out loud.

“Very funny!” she said, mock-serious, as she ducked back under the shelter and slapped his arm.

“Sorry,” he said, still laughing. “I couldn't resist. Here.”

He took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. Grace didn't object. The extra warmth felt wonderful.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Don't want you coming down with flu or something.”

“Yeah, my mom would have a fit.”

“So,” he said, blushing a little. “I was thinking we could go see a movie tomorrow. There's lots of good stuff at the Omniplex. That new scary movie's supposed to be fantastic.”

“Maybe,” she said, blushing a little herself.

“Cool,” he replied. “Would hate to think I wouldn't get to see you again 'til Monday.”

She frowned and pulled his jacket a little tighter around herself.

“Going a whole day without seeing you is horrible,” he continued.

“Really?” she said, staring straight ahead.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I know we've been in the same grade forever, but I just didn't really appreciate you until now.”

“Um-hm.”

“It just dawned on me a couple of weeks ago. I just woke up one morning, and I couldn't wait to see you. And it's been like that ever since.”

“Right.”

Grace stood up and took off James's jacket.

“I'm really sorry, James,” she said, handing it back to him. “But I have to get home. My mom'll be wondering where I am.”

“Already? Oh. Okay.” He was clearly disappointed.

“And I won't be able to go to a movie tomorrow.”

“What? But I thought—”

“Sorry, James,” Grace said, feeling suddenly rather choked. “I just can't.”

She didn't wait for him to argue. Walking quickly in the pouring rain, the water on the ground splashed around her, soaking her feet. Her hair stuck to her face in long, dark streaks. For one happy minute, she had totally forgotten about the love spell. For one minute, she had been having a great time with the cutest boy in school, whom she'd always liked.

But James O'Connor didn't like her. Not really. And as soon as she and her friends banished the demon and stopped the spells, he would go back to not knowing she ever existed.

Monday morning had held on to the weekend's gray clouds. The girls stood together on the football field, shivering against the cold, and staring at the bare hedge at the end of the field. No red scarf.

“This is stupid,” said Jenny. “She's forgotten. I bet she can't even do magic.”

“We'll just give her more time,” Grace said. “She's our only hope.”

“It's been nearly four days,” Adie grumbled. “How long do we wait?”

“Just 'til the end of the day. If there's still no scarf, then…”

“Then what?” said Jenny.

“Then we'll go sit in her garden with the cats 'til it drives her crazy and she
has
to help us,” said Grace.

“All right.” Rachel sighed. “Who's got the non-Una this morning?”

They all groaned in unison.

“I forgot she was back from suspension,” said Adie. “Do we still have to watch her? I mean, Tracy took a good punching. Maybe she'll leave her alone now.”

“We can't risk it,” replied Rachel. “I'd say the Beast has even more reason to go after her now.”

“But, even if she does, should we worry?” asked Adie, totally serious. “I mean, the non-Una seemed able to handle her. Much more than all of us together. If Tracy goes for her again, she'll get her lights punched out.”

“How is that any better?” said Rachel. “When we get the real Una back, she'll find out she's been expelled and is on her way to prison, or juvenile prison, or wherever they send kid criminals.”

“Good point.”

“I'll take first shift,” offered Jenny.

“Good,” said Grace. “See you all at break.”

***

In history class that afternoon, Adie doodled flowers and birds on her notebook as Grace tried, in vain, to pay attention to Mr. McQuaid's droning voice.

“And it was the stopping of the mail coaches that was to signal the start of the 1798 Rebellion. Do you all have that down?”

Grace jotted down a few words, but by the time she had reached the end of the sentence, she had already forgotten what it was.

“But the uprising was doomed from the beginning,” the teacher went on. “In fact, cheese was aware of the curtains due to an egg in the spaceship.”

Grace's eyes snapped to the teacher, and Adie's hand froze, mid-scribble. A small titter of confused laughter rippled across the classroom. Mr. McQuaid stood still for a moment, looking perplexed, then tried to continue.

“The rebels ate chalk, and cowboy shoes melt concrete finishing flowers.”

He stood still again, waiting for more of the bewildered laughter to die down. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Rubbing his chin and swallowing a few times in quick succession, he tried again.

“Quake but rainbow remote control…no…piddling takes charming noodles around the mountain and…ah!”

Mr. McQuaid shook his head vigorously and rubbed his eyes. The laughter had now trebled in volume, and the whole class watched him, open-eyed, waiting for another deluge of nonsense.

“Peter the Rabbit,
brrrrr
—” He clapped his hand over his mouth, shook his head again, and sprinted for the door.

Students raced to the doorway to watch him hurry down the hallway, then huddled in groups inside and outside the classroom, talking excitedly about how Mr. McQuaid had gone crazy. Grace and Adie stayed in their seats, not looking at the other students or each other. Grimly, Grace pulled the notebook out of her bag, flipped through the pages, and made a little mark beside spell number five: “Make Mr. McQuaid talk gobbledygook in history.”

“Only four more to go,” Adie whispered through trembling lips.

“Come on,” said Grace, pulling her bag onto the table and packing up her things, “we need to check the hedge.”

They slipped through their classmates, careful not to be seen by any teachers as they snuck outside. Hunkering down, almost crawling, they passed classroom windows and headed to the end of the building. The cold wind whipped at their cheeks, making them glow bright pink. Grace hugged her jacket tightly around her, closing her eyes as they turned the corner to the football field.
This
is
it
, she thought,
if
it's not there, we're back to square one
. She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, then opened them slowly.

There, tied to one wiry, bare branch and fluttering in the breeze, was a deep crimson scarf.

***

The four girls watched as Mrs. Quinlan wrestled a large rolled-up sheet of paper out of a basket of junk in one corner of her kitchen.

“First of all,” the woman said, “let me explain what you've gotten yourselves into.”

She unfurled the blueprint of the school and stabbed her finger into the point where the new school block had been built.

“This here,” she said, “is the site of a demon well. A very rare occurrence on our plane, and a very dangerous one. It's like a weak spot in the Earth's crust, but on a spiritual level. Demons can push through onto our plane and take possession of animals, objects, or silly schoolgirls.”

“Then how come there aren't tons of possessed kids in school?” asked Jenny.

“If you shut up and listen, you'll find out. A demon can push through onto our plane, but only through a suitable medium. The conductor of a séance, for example, or a—”

“Or a Ouija board,” said Grace.

“Sweet lord, the girl's some sort of genius! Yes, a Ouija board. And
you
, idiot children, were kind enough to provide that suitable medium.
Hey
presto
, a demon snuck up through the ether, grabbed hold of your friend, what's-her-name, and began wreaking a little havoc.”

“But why make our spells work?” said Jenny.

“Couldn't say. Demons are mischievous. You never know what they'll get up to and why. The notebook was lying open by the board, you say? I guess it was in a playful mood and sensed some meager attempts at magic nearby. Now it's flexing its magic muscles.”

“So how do we stop it?” asked Adie.

“Calm yourself there, Amy—”

“Adie.”

“I'm getting to that. There are a number of things we could try, but the quickest and the safest would be to push from the demon end. Trap your friend in a circle and expel the demon.”

“Like an exorcism?” said Jenny.

“Of sorts. But with a pathway included, so it doesn't possess anything else.”

“How does that work?” said Grace.

Mrs. Quinlan rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Working with a group of twits is really quite exhausting. The enchantment includes a
pathway
. Instead of banishing the demon in any old direction—”

“Where it could grab onto another one of us,” Jenny interrupted.

“Thank you, Mrs. Helpful-Pants. Yes, instead of sending it off any which way, you stick it to a pathway that goes straight down the well.”

“And what's to stop it from coming back up?” asked Grace.

“Well, Greta—”

“Grace.”

“Unless you're planning another of your lovely Ouija sessions at that very spot, then it can't come back up, can it?”

“Good,” Grace said, suddenly smiling. “Better than good, that's great! We're going to make everything right!”

“Hold your horses there, Sparky,” said Mrs. Quinlan, rolling up the blueprint. “This isn't going to be a walk in the park. That demon may be playing the part of the schoolgirl right now, but it's not going to like being trapped in a circle. You'll have to be very quick and very careful. Get the circle around it before it realizes what's going on.”

“We've already seen what it does when it gets mad.” Adie shuddered.

“Indeed?”

“It punched the school bully square in the face for pinning it up against the wall.”

“That's nothing,” said the woman. “Wait 'til it realizes you're trying to kick it out of this realm entirely. That'll really make it mad.”

“Are you going to help us with the enchantment?” asked Grace.

“Hey,” said Mrs. Quinlan, raising a finger. “I'm giving you the tools and the information, but I'm not going to risk my neck for you all.
You've
made this mess.
You
clean it up.”

***

The girls agreed that Tuesday, after school, was when Mrs. Quinlan's exorcism enchantment would take place. Rachel was sent to lure the non-Una to the P block, while the others waited there in preparation.

“Ugh!” Adie exclaimed, sniffing inside the cookie jar Mrs. Quinlan had given them. “This stuff stinks! Wonder what's in it.”

“I wouldn't ask,” replied Grace.

“And how are we supposed to get it all over the non-Una without her noticing?”

“We'll have to do it stealthy like,” said Grace.

“And quickly,” warned Jenny. “Before she starts wondering where the smell is coming from.”

Grace had drawn a circle in salt over their Ouija board spot, but left it open a few inches. When the non-Una stepped inside the circle, Grace was to close up the gap with salt as quickly as possible. Jenny held a scrap of paper, scribbled with Mrs. Quinlan's untidy writing, in her shaking hands.

“Here they come!” said Adie.

“Hello, girls,” the non-Una said, with her usual wide-eyed weirdness. “Rachel says we're going to do some homework here together.”

“That's right,” replied Adie, her hands working deftly behind her back and lifting the lid off the cookie jar containing the magic goo.

“No teachers left in the school,” Rachel whispered to Grace, “but we'll have to keep an eye out for the janitor.”

Grace and Jenny smiled pleasantly at the non-Una, as they inched forward to scoop a handful each of the foul-smelling concoction.

“We thought we'd use one of the empty labs, where it's quiet.” Jenny put her hand on the non-Una's back and surreptitiously wiped the dark gray slime down her sweater.

“It's quiet
here
,” the non-Una said, smiling back.

“Three,” Grace said quietly.

“And there's ample lighting,” the non-Una continued.

“Two.”

“But are we allowed to be here after hours?”

“One.”

“Hmm?”

“
Now!
” screamed Grace.

Rachel grabbed the non-Una's wrist and flung her toward the circle. Grace gave her another push as she smeared more of the gray gloop under her throat, then fell to her knees to complete the circle of salt.

“Now! Do it now, Jenny!” yelled Grace.

Jenny held the paper and shouted at the top of her voice:

“Return, Demon, from whence you came,

Abandon, now, your evil game,

This sparkling realm is not your own,

Return, this instant, to your home!”

The non-Una gave a howling shriek, her eyes turning as red as blood. Grace fell backward as a powerful gust of wind swept through the hall, churning up litter and dust in a mini-tornado above the circle. The girls scrambled back to the double doors, holding on to each other in desperation as a sudden darkness descended on the hall.

Everything went very, very quiet.

“Is it over?” Adie whispered.

No one answered. They watched as the darkness began to lift.

At the end of the hall, there were two flecks of glowing red.

“Oh God!” whispered Grace. “It didn't work.”

The last of the darkness dissolved to reveal the non-Una on all fours, panting as if out of breath. She was glaring at them with burning, furious eyes and inching slowly forward.

“Run!” screamed Jenny. “
Run!
”

Springing to their feet, the girls raced down the corridor, hearing the pounding feet of the creature behind them. Metal trash bins and other debris from the school halls were fired at them from behind, one grazing Rachel's arm and another Jenny's leg. The girls whimpered and squealed in terror, pulling each other along. As they rounded the corner into the A block, the long wall of lockers to their left began to rock—and slowly tip forward.

“
Look
out!
” Grace screamed, dragging Adie to safety. Jenny and Rachel ducked out of the way of the falling wall of metal just in time.

The girls collapsed in a heap on the floor. They looked up to see the non-Una standing at one end of the fallen lockers, grinning, as they sat, trapped, at the other. Adie's left hand still held fast to Mrs. Quinlan's cookie jar. With tears streaming down her face, she stood up and flung the tin with all her might.

“Take that, you freak!”

The jar bounced off the demon's head with a horrible clang and showered it with the remains of the rank-smelling paste. The non-Una made a face and stepped back. Then, wiping its cheek with the sleeve of its sweater, it smiled its creepy half smile, calmly turned, and walked away.