
EXCERPT
​
Thane popped an incense cone onto the sand in the incense burner and lit it. Then he moved the female figurine to the center of the altar. Finally, he picked up the dagger and drew a circle in the air around himself and the altar. “I hereby declare this space sacred.”
Jorgi felt energy wash over him. He’d only felt something similar once before. When he was a child, his church had done baptisms at the local lake, and energy had rushed over Jorgi when the fourth person had been baptized. He hadn’t understood what that meant when he was eight, and he didn’t understand what this energy meant now, either.
“I’m not gonna get fancy here.” Thane set the sachets on the altar. “And you don’t have to get fancy. You need intent, visualization, and energy. And you need to bring your willpower to bear behind your intent. Anything after that is ceremony, and you can do as much or as little of that as you want.”
Jorgi once more felt a different world pulling on him, one he hadn’t asked for. But instead of feeling his veins burn with fear like earlier, this time he felt a heavy, warm blanket of peace settle on him, easing his disassociation.
Thane closed his eyes and fell silent, and Jorgi stared at him. Jorgi wasn’t interested in dating anyone—his previous boyfriend had burnt his ass good—but he was still struck by how handsome Thane was. He had a goatee, which was in vogue right now, and three piercings on his right ear and four on his left. His face was symmetrical in that way that assured he was pleasing to the eye, but he didn’t look so perfect that he was like model or movie star material.
Thane opened his eyes and picked up the dagger again. “I call upon Kwan-Yin. Please attend to us in the matter of our apartment being haunted. Have compassion for Jorgi’s suffering and drive out the evil. Lend your strength to these sachets and bless them for use in the protection of Jorgi and our apartment.” He touched the tip of the dagger to each sachet.
Jorgi felt another surge of energy. What is all this?
“I release my sacred circle. All remaining energy from this working will go back into the universe to see my will done. So I have willed it, so mote it be.” Thane drew a circle in the air again, and Jorgi realized this one was counter-clockwise while the first one had been clockwise.
Thane turned and handed Jorgi a sachet. “There you go. I’m giving you one with an emerald in it. Put it in your pocket or something. And sleep with it under your pillow at night.”
Jorgi had no faith this would work, but he felt a burning surge of curiosity as the rest of the dissociation eased. “Okay. Sure. I’ll try it out.” It wasn’t like it could harm anything. If magic wasn’t real, then nothing Thane did would either help or hurt. “Thanks.”
Jorgi stuffed the sachet in his front pocket and headed to his bedroom while Thane hung the other sachets on nails over the doors. Thane also hung one on a nail over Jorgi’s bedroom window and then purified the apartment with salt.
The ghostly voice didn’t speak to Jorgi again that night, but that didn’t make Jorgi feel any better. In seventh grade, the demonic voice had come back.
There was nothing to stop it from coming back again this time, too.