Was it wrong to say that I missed Riley? I had spent forty-eight hours wishing he’d return because of our connection. While I couldn’t leave the house, meaning I couldn’t get the music box, I distracted myself with my list of wishes: be free, see the world, and stop the Demon from destroying everything.
I sat on my bed early Thursday morning and thought about my old life, including when I fell for the Demon when he was alive. I was a naïve thirteen-year-old new to love blinded by a hot boy.
The house’s front door opened, and I gasped, standing. Was the Demon back? I didn’t think so. I didn’t feel negative energy.
“Riley?” I asked aloud. Sure enough, it was him.
He entered my room with a bike, and I noticed a fluffy, stuffed dog in the wired basket. Riley carried a backpack over his shoulder and a knife in his hand.
“Hello?” he inquired. “Brenda? Do you remember me?” He propped his bike against my wall and inched toward me.
Why did he have that stuffed animal? Wasn’t he a little old for them? And what about that knife? I hoped he wasn’t about to do something stupid. He didn’t need to follow in my footsteps.
“I know this is weird,” Riley said. “The boy who said you were evil is back, alone.” He kneeled and set the stuffed animal and knife on the floor. “I researched a ritual called One-Man Hide and Seek. If done correctly, I may get Dad off my back.”
Oh, he wasn’t there to help me?
Riley sat cross-legged on the floor, lifted his knife, and sliced the stuffed dog open from the front.
I cringed seeing it.
Riley pulled out the animal’s guts and created a pile of fluff beside him.
I moved closer to get a better look.
“All right, Step One, done.” Riley stood and removed a jar of rice and a sewing kit from his bicycle’s basket. He returned to his workspace, opened the jar, and stuffed rice in the stuffed animal.
What on Earth was I watching?
“All right, Step Two, done.” Riley opened the sewing kit and began sewing the animal like a surgeon. “Yeah, I know, I can sew, Brenda, but I suck at it. Anyway, One-Man Hide and Seek is a voodoo ritual, meaning I should be able to trap your spirit in this dog.”
Trap my—? Was I going to be free—finally?
“Now, I don’t know if I believe in this crap,” Riley continued, “but hey, you never know what you can do until you try. Dad said that Mom used to say that.”
It was strange. It was as if Riley knew I was there, even without the music box.
“Don’t tell Dad I’m here, though.” Riley finished sewing the dog. “I snuck out after he passed out drunk.”
Oh, dear, he had a drunken father? I didn’t, but the Demon gave in to peer pressure early.
“And here we are. Step Three, done.” Riley twirled in a circle and showed off the disfigured dog. “See my beautiful sewing work, Brenda? Anyway, now that I’ve stuffed the dog’s heart with rice, I need to drench it with water and say the magic words.”
Which were?
“This is stupid,” Riley whispered while unzipping his knapsack. He released a water bottle and unscrewed it. “Excuse me,” he added, passing me. Riley stopped over my bed and placed the dog down. He drenched it with water and inhaled. I noticed his hand shaking.
“All right, this is it.” Riley closed his eyes and counted on his fingers. “One, two, and three… One-Man Hide and Seek, One-Man Hide and Seek, One-Man Hide and Seek. Brenda, I summon your spirit into this stuffed dog.”
Fear, nightmares, and dark memories left my head. My feet lifted off the ground, and after a spin or two, something pushed me into the dog’s body.
I checked my shadowy hands and poked my head out of a small hole Riley forgot to stitch entirely. Light thoughts filled my mind, and was that excitement I felt? Was I free—or kind of free? Would I finally get out of the bloody house?
“Okay, let’s see if this worked.” Riley tapped his chin. “Brenda, give me a sign if you’re in the doll.”
A sign. Let’s see, what could I do? Did I have control of the dog? I moved my arm, but the dog’s leg didn’t follow.
“Anything?” Riley picked me up and held me before him. He lightly shook me. “Come on.”
I’m trying, Riley. I’ve never done voodoo before.
I wiggled my other arm, but the dog again didn't follow.
Riley groaned, “I knew it,” and chucked the dog on my mattress. “This is nothing but hoopla.”
Wait, Riley! I’m here! Please, don’t leave me.
Riley waited a few more minutes before he began to leave. He gripped his bike, turned, and peeped over his shoulder at me, where I continued to try to give him a sign.
Please, Riley.
“Ugh. What am I doing?”
I grinned when Riley scooped me off the ground and set me in his bike’s basket, the dog’s nose facing forward, not aft. I'm sorry. My dad had flown planes off aircraft carriers in Vietnam.
“Whether you’re in there or not, Brenda,” Riley said, mounting his bike and walking it toward the house’s exit, “you’re going to see Banyan.”
Banyan. What had changed after the war? I remembered Banyan being a small town filled with grisly rumors about a line of family-connected serial killers, one of them being the Demon.
I pulled scratchy rice out of my hair and put my hands together in prayer. “Dear Spirit World, please let this be my ticket out of here—away from the abuse and back to Banyan.” Were the banyan trees still as beautiful as ever? I had so many questions but so few answers. What was going on now with Riley, with One-Man Hide and Seek, was trial and error. If it worked, I’d be able to leave, but if not, it was only a matter of time until the Demon hit me again.
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