The Psychic Next Door

Chapter 25: Strategy

I pulled myself up off the ground. I wavered for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

"No! Luc! Polly!" I screamed, tears welling up and splashing down my face. "Lillian, you bitch! Let them go!"

"Was that Luc?"

I turned around, surprised. I hadn't noticed anyone land next to me, but there was Polly, standing in the rain where I had just been; I had escaped unscathed, but she looked like she had already seen battle. The raindrops mixed with the tear streaks on her face and her clothing was shredded in places. Several sets of four long scratches ran along her right forearm... In her right hand, she held a tangled mass of blonde hair. She must've torn it right out of her sister's head when Luc sent her flying from the room.

Her sister's hair... It dawned on me. If the Beast was now trapped in Luc's apartment with Lillian, that meant my apartment was empty. Empty, except for everything we would need to seal away Lillian forever. The materials from the spell were still inside, and it was the last day of the month...

I could end this. I could save Luc.

"Polly! Come on!" I shrieked, bolting from my spot and heading towards my apartment.

Polly just watched me for a second, confusion scrunching her features, but she followed me anyway.

I flung open the door to what had once been my home and was shocked by what I found. The suite had been completely destroyed. Deep gouges marred the once shiny hardwood floor, chunks had been torn from the wall, and what was left of the furniture wasn't even enough to call kindling. The damage was the worst where the two apartments met—it seemed that the creature had tried to gnaw and tear its way into Luc's apartment.

But there was one part of my former home that had survived intact. The circle of candles we had used for our ritual had formed some kind of sacred barrier that stopped the thing from destroying anything within it—not unlike the barrier that protected Luc's home. Almost everything we needed was there: the candles and the doll... but the book—where was the book?

I looked at Polly; her face was blank with shock. I wanted to explain what my plan was, but the words wouldn't come... All I could do was point primitively at the sacred circle. The horror on Polly's face from seeing the damage to my apartment was quickly washed away with comprehension. She looked from the clump of hair in her hand to me, and she smiled wickedly.

"Let's roast this bitch," Polly said viciously and ran past me into the apartment.

"We need to find the book first!" I cried. There was only a small chance that it had survived the destruction, but I had hope. Hope had carried me this far, and I wasn't about to give up on my one chance to save Luc.

I scrambled through the debris. Polly joined me. As she worked, I noticed she never let go of the wad of hair clenched in her white-knuckled fist.

We sifted through chunks of countertop and shreds of what seemed to be part of my fridge door. I clawed through the piles of splintered wood and crumbling drywall, desperately searching for the small hand-bound book that separated us—Polly and me and especially Luc—from death.

Polly cried out triumphant; she pulled the book out from a pile of what looked like rough-hewn sawdust. Tears flooded my eyes, obscuring my vision, as I took it in. The book wasn't only intact, it was completely untouched. I sighed with relief, remembering that I had once speculated that a book of protective spells would most likely have a protective spell on it.

We immediately fell to our knees around the circle of candles, our hands trembling with panic as we tried to work as fast as we could. The sounds of the Beast's screeches mixed with crashes and bangs—noises of destruction—gave me fuel, pushing me to work faster and faster.