“Isn’t that nice dear?” pausing, Hailey’s mother waits for her daughter to reply. Getting nothing, she continues blissfully, “Well of course I told the detective that he was welcome anytime, so long as he left his gun at home!” Laughing at her joke, Hailey’s mother again pauses, expecting her daughter to comment. Hearing nothing, she turns slightly and asks, “Honey? What’s the matter?”

Sitting next to her in the car seat, Hailey stares moodily out the window. Silence mounts between them for a minute until her mother says in a no-nonsense tone, “Hailey Juniper Penze, I will pull over this car if you don’t tell me what’s on your mind this minute.”

“Where’s dad?” bursts out Hailey.

Her mind, dear reader, is still ruminating on all that the demon Soneillon said to her in the confession booth just a half hour ago at church. Now, on the way home, questions regarding her parent’s relationship race through her mind.

Sighing, her mother answers in a calm voice, “He’s away. On a business trip. We discussed this, remember?”

Turning to face her mother, Hailey asks, “Is that the truth? Does he really have to travel so much for finance?”

“It’s a client facing position,” her mother answers, “he has to be prepared to speak with clients regarding portfolios, assets, loans, and a whole lot of other details. Sometimes that involves going onsite to see a business firsthand. Other times it means meeting them in person to talk about the roadmap for their companies. He has to be flexible.”

“Mom…”

Hailey trails off, wondering how to ask her question. Soneillon’s words regarding the seed of hate grown between her father and mother ring in her ears, but how can she broach such a topic? For a teenage girl, the prospect of such a conversation is daunting indeed. Instead of asking, she opts for sullen silence, her fears and emotions rolling underneath her calm exterior. Turning back to the window, she watches the streets roll by.

“Honey?” her mother asks again. “What were you going to ask?”

“I don’t know,” Hailey replies lamely. “I just…” then she turns to her mother and asks in a serious and urgent voice, “Do you love him?”

“W-what?” her mother replies, caught off guard by the sudden shift. Composing herself quickly, she hastily answers, “Y-yes, of course we love each other honey. Why, why would you ask?”

Months ago, before her ordeal in the mall and the death of her friend, Hailey wouldn’t have caught the subtle hesitation in her mother’s tone. But recent events forced her to mature much faster than an ordinary teenager, and while her tenders years do show at times, this is not one of those times.

“Mom?” she asks with a hitch in her quiet voice, “why are you lying?”

Fixing a smile on her face, her mother answers cheerfully, “I’m not silly! Your father and I love each other very much.” Then, she quickly changes the subject. “Now, I hear Father Sonny thinks you would make an excellent student helper this Sunday, is that true?”

Knowing she will not get anything more out of her mother today, Hailey sighs and says in a downcast voice, “Yes, the new pastor did say that.”

“Oh how exciting!” gushes her mother, “We’ll have to arrive early on Sunday then.”

“We?” asks Hailey, “isn’t Sunday School just for the kids?”

“Normally yes, but Father Sonny wants to have an adult discussion about the attack at your school. He said it wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss in front of the children.”

“I’m not a child mom,” Hailey protests with an eye roll.

“No,” answers her mother in a wry tone, “you’re a young lady, if I can teach you to act like it!”

Irritated and worried, Hailey slumps back in her car seat and broods, spiraling into a dark mood as the pair head home. If her mother notices her daughter’s darkening demeanor, she does not comment. Instead, the pair simply sits in silence on the slow ride home. Once back, Hailey stomps off to her room, kicks off her shoes, and with a flick of her finger unzips the back of her dress before throwing herself face first onto her bed.

“Guuuuhhhh!” she grouses. “Can you believe this Bel? He body snatched a priest? For once I agree, God must be a man, because he’s useless! How come he didn’t smite him or something?”

The question hangs in the air, unanswered. Slowly, Hailey’s face takes on a somber cast as she ages under the weight of the silence.

“So it’s true, huh? You really are gone or blocked or whatever?”

Expectantly, Hailey waits for an answer. When none arrives, she buries her face into her pillow and screams in frustration. Then she rolls over on her back and says to the sky, “In case you can hear me, don’t worry. This demon thinks he’s got me caught in his game, but if there’s anybody who can find a way to beat him it’s Bella! I’ll talk to her tomorrow at school and we’ll come up with some banishing spell or containment ritual to get rid of him. Maybe she can rustle up that spellbook of hers and we can learn some poisons that work on a demon!” Chuckling, she adds, “It would serve him right after that stunt he pulled with the communion wine.” Letting herself laugh a bit more, Hailey lies back on the bed with a smile on her face. Slowly the expression drains as her laughter ends and the crushing reality of her situation sinks back in. “Yep,” she says, reassuring herself, “Bella can find a way to fight him. I’m sure she can.”

“There’s no way to fight him.”

“What do you mean, no way?” Hailey asks, miming air quotes around the words, ‘no way.’

“I mean, no way,” replies Bella. “Soneillon isn’t a powerhouse like some of the other demon princes, but he makes up for it by being particularly hard to get rid of. He’s like demon herpes!” She raises her voice at the last bit, waving one arm around.

“And just what would you know about herpes?” asks Trisha, overhearing the conversation.

“Yeah,” cuts in Ally, “don’t you like, have to have sex to get herpes?”

Maggie interjects with a simpering, “And wouldn’t that mean a boy would have to be attracted to you?”

Trisha adds, “Guys, what if like, Beacon lost?”

“Or if Eldritch became friends with losers like Bella and Hailey,” Ally replies.

Confused, Hailey asks, “What?”

“Oh,” replies Trisha in a faux apologetic voice, “I thought we were discussing things that could never happen…”

Smirking, Maggie says in a sweet voice, “Sorry Bella, but no matter how many bananas you eat, they’ll all just be… mushy.” She taps her cheek and adds lightly, “Of course, we know how much you like bananas, don’t we girls?”

“Mhmmmmmmm,” hums Ally, drawing out the m noise.

“I think she prefers the peel though,” corrects Trisha with a giggle.

“Oh,” Maggie adds innocently, “I seem to recall Bella loves banana peels. Do we have any, girls?”

“Look here!” cries out Ally as she pulls a banana from her bag. Then she waves it in front of Bella’s nose and asks, “Want the banana? I’ll even peel it for you, because I’m so nice.”

Letting out a low hiss, Bella’s eyes begin to glow faintly green and the veins around her eyes start to feed the color out toward the rest of her skin. Shuddering at the feeling, she squeezes her eyes shut to hide the color change and turns away from the girls.

Maggie, interpreting this motion as Bella preparing to cry smiles triumphantly and flips her hair saying, “Come on girls, let’s go see what Jake is up to.” Shooting a nasty glance at Hailey, she adds in a snide tone, “I’m sure there’s nobody else he’d rather see than us, his girl,” Maggie deliberately pauses, her smile widening, “friends.”

Biting back a retort out of concern for her friend, Hailey grabs Bella by the elbow and pulls her away from the trio. In a worried voice, she asks, “You okay? Everything under control?”

Shuddering, Bella reaches for her cross necklace and grasps it tight as she nods quickly. Screwing her eyes shut she lets out a whimper as the green lines begin to fade back into her skin.

“It’s hard to control it around them,” she says after a long pause. “But it really helps to have you here, knowing I have friends is really important.”

“Yeah,” says Hailey, blushing slightly, “that’s me, the ever present friend.”

Bella clears her throat and changes the subject, slightly embarrassed by the exchange. “Are we doing another magic lesson this week? Belinda is teaching me body confidence to try and help control my magic energy. She promised to explain a super cool technique called ‘going skyclad’ to me!” Bouncing with energy at the thought of learning, Bella continues animatedly, “Is that how you float around the city all the time? By going skyclad?”

“No!” replies Hailey as her face reddens. Then a sly grin creeps onto her face as she says, “I think I’ll let Belinda explain the meaning of that term to you.”

“So when is the lesson?”

“Oh, right,” Hailey says, her mirth vanished as abruptly as it appeared. “About that. The demon used some kind of evil Passover thingy to block our connection. I can’t talk to Bel for a while.”

“Wow,” says Bella, “this stuff is really serious then, isn’t it?”

Shaking her head, Hailey answers, “No this demon isn’t so bad. I mean he’s nothing compared to Becca, right?” Then she lets out a tense laugh.

The question hangs between the pair for a few seconds as Bella, socially inept as she is, picks up on the fact that Hailey is more reassuring herself than her friend. Nervous, she says, “I could, I mean I could help out if you want?”

“You know what happens if you use magic Bella,” Hailey says with a sigh. “Things are bad enough without adding Belladonna to the mix.”

“But it’s really that bad?” presses Bella.

Grimacing, Hailey answers, “Ask me on Sunday.”

“I will,” replies Bella fervently, missing the obvious sarcasm. “And if I find anything more about this Soneillon in between now and then I’ll let you know. Don’t worry Hailey, we’re going to exercise this demon!”

“Exorcise,” corrects Hailey.

“Right.” Bella blushes and pushes her glasses up. “Sorry. I got a little enthusiastic there huh?”

“Yeah, but enthusiasm is good,” encourages Hailey. Then, she turns and sighs, trudging back to face Mr. Memely and the perils of schoolwork.

“Enthusiasm ladies!” Father Sonny says with a clap of his hands. “Enthusiasm is good!”

“So you got roped into this too, huh?” Whispers Missy to her best friend Hailey.

Rolling her eyes, Hailey nods and whispers back, “What did you do?”

Shrugging, Missy says with a grin, “Apparently those three harpies tried to flirt with Jake and Theo saw it happen. Jake was so convinced that he would tell me and that I would be mad that he showed up on my doorstep with a bouquet of flowers in the middle of dinner.”

“How did that land you here?”

“Well,” Missy adds delicately, “I may have been… enthusiastic in thanking him on the porch. So enthusiastic I forgot about the window from the dining room looking out to our front door. My dad saw the whole thing, and he was pissed. My mom on the other hand decided I needed Jesus. They argued about it and as usual mom won so here I am.”

Murmuring softly, Hailey replies, “Enthusiasm is good.”

Sighing lustfully, Missy nods in emphatic agreement with a faraway look in her eyes.

“Ladies!” Father Sonny says, “No more gossiping! Don’t think I can’t hear you clucking like hens over there. Now, did you read your scripts, and more importantly did you memorize them?”

“Scripts?”

Hailey shrugs. Then she speaks up so the demon can hear. In a sweet voice she says, “We didn’t know about the script Father. I guess we’ll just have to watch from the sidelines this time huh?”

Soneillon pauses fiddling with the rest of his assembled volunteers and turns to face Hailey.

“Why no,” he says in an amused voice, “you needn’t watch from the sides. But if you forgot your scripts I’ll have to have you play the only non-speaking parts I have, tell me, are either of you opposed to being witches?”

Hailey frowns at the failure of her gambit but before she can answer, Missy does for her in a bored tone. “Sure,” she says, “the less talking the better, right Hailey?”

“Good!” says Father Sonny in a triumphant tone. Then he whirls around and pulls a pair of warty prosthetic noses from a nearby box. Holding the pair in his hands he asks, “Let’s get you into costume, shall we?”

And so it begins, dear reader! For although she tried all week long, Hailey could not find an easy way to banish the demon and instead must rely on her wits and creativity to find a solution. But will she find one in time to prevent whatever insidious plot he has cooking? Find out next week in… “Gunpowder Bags!”