Exorcize This, Julie Steimle [best books to read in life txt] 📗

worth it.

 

I closed my eyes and heaved a breath, holding the note to my chest.

Asking

 

The days after the arrival of Deidre Johnson turned out to be rather uneventful. Sarah was nice to her, so Deidre responded kindly back. But when Deidre found out that Sarah was a ‘Mormon’ thanks to Becky Dominae, she distanced herself a little, having also heard that that church was nothing more than cultists. Sarah was disappointed of course, but she didn’t put up a fuss about it. I guess she was used to being rejected. In a way, it made me respect her more.

In the meantime, I received an answer to my email to Rick.

He wrote:

 

Yeah, ghosts are real. I know a guy who can see ghosts. He is a few years older than me—was a senior when I was in eighth grade. His name is JJ. Joshua Johnson. His dad’s a homicide cop for the NYPD and he sees ghosts all the time. They kind of seek him out and haunt him. JJ helps his dad solve homicide cases by talking to them and helping them pass on. He’s in training to be a cop now. But you can always tell when ghosts are around him by how cold it is. Like in the movie Sixth Sense, when ghosts are upset, it gets cold. JJ always wore jackets because he was always cold. But I’ve never seen a ghost myself. I can’t tell you what they look like.

That aside—you think you saw an angel once? What was that like? What did it look like? I’ve met a few elves and a fairy once…

 

My eyes rested on the name of the guy and the description of how Rick knew when a ghost was near him. Joshua Johnson. And it got cold. Deidre was a Johnson. Could they be related? It was always cold around her.

About a week later, while I was busy helping Jane in the gym with a poster for the up and coming ‘Turkey Trot’—a thanksgiving race that they planned to hold in mid-November (we wanted the posters ready to put up right after the Halloween decorations for the dance would be taken down)—Deidre came right up to me and said, “Can we talk?”

I blinked at her. So did half the committee who were helping out. This was the first time she had said any words to me. Of course, I had not really said any words to her either, so I just shrugged and walked with her over to a corner for privacy, folding my arms. “What do you want?”

She drew in a breath, averting her eyes from my teeth, and said, “I’ve heard a lot of weird rumors about you. But I think you can help me.”

I raised my eyebrows. This was sudden, and strange.

She explained herself in a lower voice. “Look, I know you can see things that other people cannot see, and hear things that other people cannot hear. Well… I see ghosts.”

I nodded. I had figured as much, if Rick was right.

Deidre stared at me, leaning back. “That doesn’t startle you at all.”

I shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot. I don’t see ghosts but…” I heaved a sigh, looking around us. Nobody seemed to be listening in. They were giving us a wide berth, in fact. The two ‘kooks’ talking together was enough to keep them away. “I know there is an unseen world out there, and I know I have not seen the half of it.”

“What are you?” Deidre asked, dropping all polite formalities. “The ghosts say you are a vampire but—”

“I’m not a vampire,” I snapped back, indignation rippling through me.

“Obviously,” Deidre said. “Vampires can’t abide sunlight—even a little. And you—”

“Walk in the daylight,” I said, nodding, glad she was sensible

She burst into a dry laugh. “You go surfing the in the sunlight.”

I shrugged.

Then she lowered her voice barely above a whisper. “And you can go invisible.”

I frowned. Closing one eye, I said to her, “Have you ever met any vampires?”

She shook her head painfully. “No. But I’ve researched them. Thoroughly. The ghosts say it is all the vampires’ fault.”

Feeling the blood drain from my face, though I was always pale, I stared at her. “What’s all the vampires’ fault?”

Frowning, she replied, “Why they are stuck here.”

I felt sick. I needed to sit down.

Walking over to the nearest bleachers (not far from where Tabby McMahone and Bobby Macawber had been making out), I sat, closing my eyes and resting my head against my knees. Deidre had followed me. I could feel the cold from her.

“I need your help,” she said. “I don’t know what you are, but I am convinced that you can help me.”

“Do what?” I moaned, thinking about all the people who had died in our mountains over the years. The Bale’s house was not far from the forest. It would make sense that a ghost would haunt a forest or a house near where they were killed. So many people had died in that forest. And that last one… I felt sick.

“Help them cross over,” Deidre said.

Jerking abruptly up, I stared at her. “What? How?”

She shrugged. “That, I don’t know. But what I do know is that to help a ghost move on you need to get them to let go of a fixation. And you seem to be the key to this group.”

I stared wider, as she said group. There was more than one ghost in that home. I took off my sunglasses to stare at her more clearly. “Why?”

Her eyes widened on my orange irises. Her breathless answer whispered, “They’re afraid of you.”

That made no sense. They were ghosts.

I rose. “They’re dead. And I didn’t kill them. Why in the world would they be afraid of me?”

She leaned back, trembling. “I don’t know. I just know you terrify them. When I first saw you, I thought you were a death angel and I thought that was why. But everyone here in this town can see you, and they all know that you aren’t entirely human.” She then shook her head. “How is it that someone like you can walk around a town just like everyone else?”

This irritated me. Everybody else could walk around. Why couldn’t I? But said with a shrug, “My dad will sue because of discrimination?”

Deidre laughed out of shock. She then shook her head. “Spoken like a true Californian.”

I rolled my eyes. I also noticed Tabby and Bobby had stopped sucking face enough to sneak off to who knows where.

But Deidre gazed at me now in amazement as she said again, “What are you?”

Sighing, I decided I could tell her. She saw ghosts after all. What could possibly scare her after that?

“I’m a vimp, which is a cross between a vampire and an imp. But what is a death angel?”

“A vimp?” Deidre looked confused. “Is that even possible?”

I shrugged. “It is a result of an ancient curse. What’s a death angel?”

Deidre shuddered, pulling her arms closer. It was getting colder. I didn’t feel the cold much, but it was even starting to bother me. She leaned closer to me (surprisingly enough, as no one wanted to be close to me ever) and whispered, “An angel whose job it is to usher the spirits to the other side. They come in all shapes and sizes. Most have wings, though I think just for show—like a bestowal of power rather than for flying. Some are freaky looking, like you.”

I pulled back from her. I didn’t like being called freaky looking.

“They usually carry tools for reaping, like scythes, though some carry swords. The ones with the swords often protect the living, but the ones with the scythes come to claim the dead, and that includes the dying,” she said. “Now, really, why is it that you are going to high school?”

I stared, frowning at her. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Back to those death angels. How often do you see them?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Not that often. Most souls go directly to where they need to. Reapers—death angels—they—”

“You are talking about grim reapers?” My voice raised, realizing now what she meant.

Heads turned. Jane’s included.

Deidre shushed me, putting her cold hands over my mouth. It was the first time anyone outside my family did that to me. Not even Jane dared to. They were too scared of my teeth. “Shhh!”

I jerked back, hissing. “Sorry! Look, this is the first time I’ve heard of this. I’ve seen an angel once. It had gray wings—”

“That could be a death angel,” Deidre whispered. “The ones that look nice and ‘holy’ can often be the mean ones.”

“Mean ones…?”

She nodded. “No mercy. Too clean. Circumspect to a fault. The nicer, more compassionate ones are a little ragged and worn-looking. They understand the human condition for some reason, whereas the others don’t. Anyway, we’re off topic. I need you to help me figure out how to help these ghosts pass over, or that house is going to stay haunted forever.”

“The Bale’s house really is haunted?” I asked, hardly getting the words out.

Rolling her eyes, Deidre nodded. “Yes. This is what I have been telling you. I see ghosts. Ghosts are in that house. My father and I travel to exorcise them so they can move on. But this is a particularly tough case as their deaths are somehow connected to vampires—and those ghosts seem to blame you. But ghosts often get all mixed up in the between-life. I need to know—are those rumors around town true? Are there really vampires in the mountains nearby?”

I nodded, sighing. “There are. I think my father is one of them.”

She stared at me. “Father?”

Nodding again, I said, “My birth father is a vampire. My birthmother is an imp.”

She stared more. “An imp?”

Her imps were screaming at her to make fun of me for being related to some kind of machine part. Apparently there was some sort of nut or bolt called an imp.

“A little devil,” I said, groaning. “I’m a demon.”

She leaned back wordlessly.

“I told you,” I moaned. “It is part of a curse.”

Blinking and shaking her head, Deidre drew in a breath then let the notion that I was a demon go as if it didn’t really matter. She said to me, “Ok. So… what does this mean? What do you think the ghosts want from you? Because this makes no sense to me, and I can’t move from here until I figure this out.”

I shrugged, though an idea came to me… an idea that I hated. I didn’t bring it up. I wanted to think on it more. I could feel it now, the fear of those ghosts toward me. But it really wasn’t toward me. It was toward what I represented—the mountain vampires. The vampires that I had left alone after they had confronted me when I fourteen. I had not seen one since.

Deidre shook her head when I didn’t say anything in response. Finally, with another huff, she walked away without another word. As she tromped off, she looked like one of those folk who walked down the street muttering to themselves, or one step closer to that kind of madness.

I went back to Jane to help finish the poster.

“What was that about?” Jane asked me in a low voice.

Sitting down, I