Duncan stood in the entryway, looking like a sad, lost puppy. Micah was staring at him in awe, like Superman himself had stopped by to say hello. Melinda had that look in her eye, the one that told me she was going to say something obnoxious.
"Is this your boyfriend too?" She asked, her sweet, innocent voice was like frosting on a dog turd.
"Melinda!" I snapped, "how about minding your own business?"
"Yours is more interesting!" She said with a smirk.
"Ignore my evil brethren," I told Duncan, and he almost smiled. He looked…. haunted. Drained. Like his soul had taken a leave of absence. "Are you okay?" I motioned for him to follow me upstairs, away from my annoying brother and nosy sister. Of course, they didnt take the hint, and tagged alomg behind us.
"I don't want to interrupt anything," he said as we ascended rhe stairs.
"You're not. Don't be silly." He trailed behind me to my room with Micah and Melinda on his heels.
Malcolm was sitting at my desk, immersed in whatever he was reading on my laptop. We'd been trying to find anything about the students who originally summoned the entity, but there was nothing. The internet had been in its infancy when it happened, but surely something had been said, somewhere. Malcolm sighed, frustrated. "Still nothing."
I hoped my parents knew more about it. The only thing I was certain about was that it wasn't going away. Not by choice.
"What's up, DeWitt," Malcolm greeted Duncan.
"My stress level," Duncan sighed. He told us about his encounter with the entity. His words chilled me to the bone. "It's much stronger now. It has substance. It knew all my secrets. Told me it could help me."
"Help you with what?"
"I don't know for sure, I can only guess." Duncan sank down onto the floor. "It was inside my head….. inside my head," Duncan repeated, voice small. He rubbed his temples like he was trying to squeezr something out.
"What did it say?" I asked. "What did it sound like?"
"It—whispered. Knew things no one else does. It wanted me to let it all the way in. Whatever that means." He shrugged, staring at the floor. "It said if I did a favor it would return it."
Melinda's smirk faded. Even she looked uneasy now. Malcolm shut the laptop with a soft click and leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "What kind of favor?"
Duncan swallowed. "It just said to let it in. Maybe it wanted to take over my body? I dont know. It has something to do with the way it was bound. It said that they binding wasn't done correctly."
My stomach dropped. "You didn't agree to anything, did you?"
"I told it I needed time," he said. "Then it sounded disappointed. And it laughed at me. Not a normal laugh." He glanced at his hands as if waiting for something to crawl out of his skin. "It left something behind." He peeled back the sleeve of his jacket. There, along his forearm, were faint, grayish lines, like burn marks that hadn't healed properly. They pulsed when he moved. A sharp metallic smell wafted from them.
Malcolm pushed back from the desk. "That pattern. Where did you see it? In a book? A dream? It looks familiar."
"Neither," Duncan whispered. "It formed on my skin while it talked. It knew about my father. It knew about the accident. It knew things about me no one knows." He stared at the floor as if the shadow there might answer.
"It was feeding on your grief," I said softly. He nodded. I didnt push the subject. I felt something cold tighten around my ribs. "We need to tell my parents."
Duncan sighed. "It said the binding was a mistake. That whoever did it left it hungry. It said it just wanted everyone to know the truth about what happened that night." Duncan looked at me. "Maybe we should try to talk to it? Get a better idea of what it wants?"
Malcolm crossed his arms. "That's not happening. You aren't bargaining with something that scrapes people's souls for favors. We aren't taking orders from this thing. We can't let it call the shots."
"Does it know who they are? The students? Where they are?" I asked.
"If they still are?" Malcom added.
A soft click came from the hall It sounded like a camera shutter. We all froze. The hair on my arms lifted. Duncan's face drained further.
"Did someone just—" I began.
From the doorway came a whisper, so close it might have come from inside my skull: "Duncan." A layered, menacing voice, heard with the soul rather than the ears.
"You think you can hide from me? I know your secrets. I know where you are. I know who you are. And I will reveal everything."
"Great. It's back," Malcolm's voice shook with fear and anger.
"What do we do?" Duncan asked, his voice teetering on the edge of panic.
I thought for a minute, fighting the terror that wanted to hijack my mind. "We kill it with kindness," I said softly. "We refuse to let it feed."
"How?" Duncan threw his hands in the air. "I'm scared shitless and I can't pretend not to be."
"Think of someone or something you love," I told him, and he looked at me like I was crazy. Which I may well have been. "You don't have to tell us who or what it is. Just think. Feel."
Duncan closed his eyes, his face turning bright red. He seemed to be fighting something within himself. Something deep that was not allowing him to let go.
I turned to my brother and sister. "You two do the same."
"I love it when you throw rubber chickens," Micah snickered.
I was more than happy to oblige. Seconds later one hit him in the face with a loud "thwack." Melinda burst into hysterical laughter.
I encouraged them, by flinging rubber chickens in every direction. They bounced off the walls as I littered the floor with the yellow, rubbery fuckers.
To my surprise, I heard laughter from the source of the voice. "Mira, you amuse me, your chaos is delectable."
"Screw you!" I yelled, sinking to the floor among my creations.
"Yeah, fuck off!" Duncan exclaimed. "I refuse to be controlled by fear any longer! I'm GAY!" He picked up a stray chicken and chucked it at the door, "that's right! I'm gay! The biggest jock at Magicademy likes GUYS!"
The shocked silence that followed was broken by my mother's voice. "What the hell is going on here?"