The exorcists house resu.., p.19
The Exorcist's House Resurrection, page 19
Originally, he tried to get her to help him in class with missing work because they always finished early, and Mr. Vink permitted them to do so, especially when he saw how Maren was aiding him. She knew he’d paired them together for a reason. Her mom called it intentional grouping, and Maren had every intention of capitalizing on the opportunity. She deliberately slowed her pace so that they wouldn’t have as much time to complete his late work. He would freak out and talk about how badly he needed to raise his grades, and she said he would have to sit with her during lunch because that was the only free time she had.
As soon as she’d mentioned it, she saw the hesitation on his face. It wasn’t disgust, so that was a plus, she supposed. She didn’t think of herself as ugly by any means, but she wasn’t the fair-haired bubbly type that all the jocks seemed to go for. No, this reluctance came from a fear of losing stature, of moving a rung or two down the social hierarchy. His peers would not only see him having lunch with Maren, but they would see him doing work…work she would be helping him with.
“That’s the only time that works for me. Take it or leave it,” she said.
“Yeah, okay. See you there.”
And as they sat in the corner table of the cafeteria with his worksheets and notebooks that were mostly filled with doodles and question marks, she took her time to really help him understand the concepts. She did want to help him. If she didn’t, that would be detrimental to the plan. She was under no illusion that she was going to force him to like her, but if she could make him dependent enough on her to be seen eating and working with her day after day, it would get to Kelsey.
Maren had the ability to break complex ideas down simply with him while simultaneously making chess moves three turns in advance. She scooted closer to him. Their legs touched. He briefly recoiled, but she just leaned forward like she had to point to something in the textbook. It was at that exact moment she glanced up and saw Kelsey leering at her from the popular kids’ table. She had no doubt she would hear about this from her when they both got home, though Kelsey arrived much later because she joined student council and cheerleading. The fact that she was able to make varsity cheerleading after years of being out of practice only showed how resilient her stepsister was, which, in all honesty, still made her proud.
Later that night, Kelsey stormed in Maren’s room, shut the door, and said, “What the fuck are you doing?”
Maren played it as coyly as possible, which was extremely convincing given her experience with telling lies and living secret lives ever since she could remember.
“What do you mean?”
“Chris,” Kelsey stated. “I asked you to try to get him to talk to me, and you were practically sitting on his fucking lap today.”
Maren could have defended this and told the truth, that she had scooted over for logistical purposes, but that admission of knowledge wouldn’t serve the endgame.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “I was just helping him.”
After a moment of scowling, Kelsey said, “Okay, fine. Whatever. Has he said anything about me?” and sat at Maren’s computer desk.
Maren followed her lead and took a seat on the bed.
“No.”
“Did you tell him I was your stepsister?”
“Of course not.”
“Good.”
Maren shot her a glare that could burn a hole through a wall.
“My goal is to get him to ask me to prom and the sooner the better. I heard he was going to ask Bri, but Ben asked her first, and they’re friends.”
“Is there something specific you want me to say?”
“If you can causally mention that I still don’t have a date to the prom, that would be helpful. Just please don’t tell him we’re related. Well, not really related, but you know what I mean.”
Out of all the fucked-up shit Kelsey had said to her since she got her new face, that one took the cake. Not only did she think she was better than Maren, but she no longer viewed her as family. After everything Maren had sacrificed to help her get through the darkest part of her life, Kelsey was this ungrateful. It was more than a lack of gratitude; it was entitlement. Maren didn’t do those things to be thanked, but she at least expected them to have a stronger relationship. After a few weeks at Maren’s school, it was evident that would not be the case.
“Would it bother you that badly if Chris actually liked me?” she asked.
Kelsey just stared at her, dumbfounded, and then after five seconds of silence, she started to chuckle and then transition into full blown belly laughs.
“Maren, you know I love you, and that’s why I’m going to say this: he’s out of your league. He has his pick of any girl in the school, and you think he’d pick you? He’s probably got you fooled right now. Please tell me you’re not doing his homework for him. I’ve noticed that’s kind of his MO. If he’s struggling in a class and can’t cheat his way through with his bros, he finds the smart kids to help him out, especially the girls. Like you, I’m sure they’re all flattered and will do anything to please him, so he just keeps on shattering expectations and breaking hearts.”
Maren almost replied with, “You don’t know him like I do,” but stopped herself, realizing how desperate and potentially delusional that would make her sound.
In her awkward silence and inability to form a response—a rarity for her—Kelsey stepped closer and said, “Oh my God. You like him, too, don’t you?”
Again, Maren remained silent while Kelsey giggled. This cruel, vapid version of the stepsister who used to be her best friend relished in her torment, prodding her in the places she knew would hurt the most.
“Why are you like this now?” Maren said out of the blue.
“Huh?”
“You were my sister, Kels. I could trust you with anything. When you started coming to our house to see your dad, I was so happy. What happened? I mean I know the last few years have been rough—”
“No!” Kelsey said, cutting her off. “No, you don’t get to do that. You have no fucking clue how rough the last few years have been. You don’t get to pretend like you know what I’ve been through, Maren. Don’t think that just because you helped me get through school that my life is perfect, and I owe it all to you.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It was your fucking dog that did this!”
The root cause for her secret resentment against Maren had finally broken through the surface. It was a gut punch that knocked loose her ability to speak. The bite had been an accident. She didn’t agitate Buck. He was old and didn’t know what he was doing.
No, she knew better. Deep down, Maren had her own epiphany, and it was that Kelsey was one hundred percent correct. The dog bite wasn’t your typical angry old dog warning snip. It was a vicious maul, an attempt on her life. Buck or whatever was compelling Buck wanted to maim her, and the physical disfigurement of a young girl who prided herself on her looks was a fate almost worse than death in Kelsey’s eyes.
And if Maren was really being honest and brave enough to look, it was the thing inside her that infected Buck. She hated the word possessed, but that’s exactly what it had done. Her only guess was that Buck was in such a decrepit state at the end of his life that he was an easy vessel to inhabit. Merle was no longer guiding him from the other side as he grew closer to death.
Kelsey was right. Everything was her fault. Her heart sank, and she felt a cold sensation slowly slithering through her veins like her blood was on the verge of freezing. For as much shame as she felt, another emotion was circling her gut like a snake waiting to strike. She tried taking deep breaths but she was shaking.
Still, she suppressed it like she’d been doing since the day Buck died and said, “Kelsey, I truly am sorry. You’re right. I don’t know what you’ve gone through, and it was wrong of me to assume I did. I just love you and want us to be like we used to be. And I guess Chris is kind of cute…and not as morally reprehensible as the rest of his cohort.”
“His what?”
“His group of friends.”
“They’re not so bad once you get to know them. But I get it. I bet everyone in that school has a crush on him. I mean, the fact we—two seniors—are pining after a junior is telling enough.”
Something moved inside Maren’s mind. It was a physical sensation different than the one in her stomach, yet just as troubling; what felt like a tarantula was crawling around the inside of her skull, and then she heard the voice.
I can make him like you. I can make him love you. That would humble Kelsey a bit, no? Let me do it. Let me steer the ship. I see the lighthouse. You know the power we have over others. It’s time to start using it.
For the first time in her life, she didn’t immediately dismiss the idea. She let it play out, watching the potential what-ifs like fractured strands of a timeline with infinite possibilities based on choice, and she feared the wrong choice would lead to utter chaos.
“Maren?” Kelsey asked.
“Hmm?”
“You, like, zoned out for a second there.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m good. I’m sure his friends are really nice to you.”
“I’m sorry I snapped,” she said.
That took Maren by surprise, and she felt bad that it did. Did she now see Kelsey as this irredeemable bitch? She was still her stepsister. She had to allow her a little grace. God knows, she appreciated it when people gave her the benefit of the doubt.
“It’s okay,” she said and got off the bed.
She walked over to her dresser and looked for the outfit she planned on wearing the next day. But something was different. She didn’t just throw together whatever she felt like wearing, which was usually jeans and some vintage T-shirt. She hesitated and wondered what she could assemble that would impress Chris. Yes, she would do what she promised Kelsey she’d do and plant the seed for him to ask her to prom, but if he showed no interest, was there anything wrong with gauging his interest in her? She definitely needed to get to know him a little better before getting her hopes up. It didn’t matter how good-looking or popular he was if he was a total asshole.
For a brief moment, she even questioned that stance and just fantasized about what it would be like to be his girlfriend—to be a popular girl, even if it was just for the last few months of school, and she’d never see most of the student body ever again. The coiling sensation in her stomach disappeared and the spiders in her mind crawled back into whatever hole from which they had emerged. Her dream scenario actually gave her a little flutter of butterflies—a giddiness she rarely experienced.
“Hey Maren,” Kelsey said from the desk behind her.
“Yeah?” Maren said, turning around, trying to conceal her grin that had automatically formed in the last few moments.
Something crouched on the computer desk behind Kelsey. Maren froze, staring at her stepsister who was completely unaware of anything in her proximity. Black soot and ash floated above her from the hidden figure. Maren saw its charred, scaley shoulder blades poking out.
“What?” Kelsey said.
The demon tilted its head, peeking just over her shoulder and stared at Maren. Its eyes were a set of glowing white orbs with no lids surrounded by burnt, cracked flesh.
Don’t be scared.
Maren heard the voice in her head just as before. The thing was communicating with her.
You have the power, remember?
She saw its head rise just enough to reveal a grinning mouth full of jagged blades for teeth. As hideous as she knew the creature was supposed to be, she couldn’t help but see it in another light. It was part of her—the part she had been born with. The longer she stared at it, the less fearful she became.
Kelsey turned around to see what Maren was staring at, and in that one motion, the demon disappeared. She spun the chair back to face Maren.
“What are you looking at?”
“I thought I saw something crawl under that poster.”
Kelsey leaped out of the chair and hurried to the door.
“Okay, fuck that. You can deal with the bugs. Good talk, though. Love you,” she said and rushed down the hallway.
“Love you, too,” Maren said, not sure if she was addressing Kelsey or the smiling face that receded under her bed.
THE NEXT DAY, Maren sat at the same table with the same crappy school food she wasn’t eating and stared at Chris as he looked over her notes.
“See, this is the part that’s losing me,” he said.
Maren didn’t even look at the paper.
“You just need to make flash cards and memorize the names of the bones. It’s just memorization. Just practice like you do with lacrosse.”
“So, you’re saying if I read the flash cards like I do a hundred reps of wall ball, it’ll sink in?”
“Yes. Terminology tests are the easiest ones, but people think they’re hard because they don’t study.”
“I’m assuming you study,” he said with a grin.
“No.”
He looked confused, and she regretted saying it.
“I have a bit of a photographic memory. Not fully, but looking at things and being able to recall them just comes supernaturally easy to me.”
“Must be nice.”
“It is until people make fun of you for being smart, so you have to pretend not to know the answer when the teacher calls on you.”
Chris shook his head. “I hate that. Me and most of my friends made fun of people when we were younger. I did it just to fit in, but I always felt bad about it after.”
Maren gazed across the bustling cafeteria and saw Kelsey watching her and then pretend that she wasn’t.
“Did you know Kelsey Fincher and I are stepsisters?” she asked.
He furrowed his brow. “The new girl is your stepsister?”
“Yeah.”
“Why’d she show up halfway into the year?”
“Her mom died so she moved in with us and then she had some medical issues and had to do virtual school. This is her first semester back in years.”
“Oh wow. I didn’t know that. Is it rude for me to ask what kind of medical issues she had?”
“When we were thirteen, my dog bit the side of her face. He was old and didn’t know what he was doing. I’ll never get that image out of my head. Buck—that was my dog’s name—bit most of her cheek off.”
“Holy shit!” he said and started to turn around.
“Stop,” Maren blurted. “Don’t look at her.”
“Okay. So, why’d you bring her up?”
“Please don’t tell her I said this because I’m just supposed to plant the seed in your head or something…” she said, trailing off.
“What are you talking about?”
“She wants you to ask her to prom.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh wow. Really?”
“Yeah, but seriously, please don’t tell her I just flat out told you. I don’t know if you even want to ask her, but I told her I’d gently push you in that direction. I guess it was more of a forceful shove.”
“I don’t have a date to prom,” he said like he was mulling it over in his head.
He turned around and looked at her, and Maren kicked his shin.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“I said don’t look at her. You’re making it obvious.”
“Well, isn’t it going to be obvious when I ask her?”
When. He said, “When.” He’s going to ask her. Do you really want that? I thought you wanted him to like you? What are you doing? Just give me the word, and I can make it happen.
“No,” Maren accidentally said out loud, responding to the demon’s voice in her head, but she saw that Chris thought she was answering his question.
“No?” he asked.
She tried to play it cool like she wasn’t having a literal debate with a little devil whispering in her ear. As badly as she wanted for him to like her, she knew she had to remain strong. People died when she didn’t.
“Not if you just play it cool. Wait until tomorrow and bump into her in the hall or something. Make it look like it was your idea.”
“I can do that,” he said and looked up at the analogue clock on the wall beside the school’s trophy case. “Shit, we only have a few minutes.”
“Can I just take your notes? I didn’t get them all, and I need to make these flashcards.”
Maren definitely didn’t need them.
“Sure,” she said and looked up to see if Kelsey was still watching before she tore out the notes and handed them to him.
“Thanks,” he said and shoved them in his backpack. “Seriously, you’re a lifesaver. And possibly a matchmaker.”
The comment made her bristly, but she pretended to be complimented by it.
Maren stood by her car in the student parking lot as she waited on Kelsey. She never understood why her stepsister had no desire to get her license, but she didn’t, despite Dean’s insistence that she needed to get a car and be more independent. She finally said she’d begin studying for her learner’s permit once she had her final facial surgery. They made a deal that if she got her learner’s and then her license and managed to finish the school year with good grades, Dean would buy her a car. Until then, she was stuck riding with Maren.
“Oh, hurry up,” Maren said to herself, watching Chris and Kelsey talk in the shaded grass right outside the door.
She watched their body language, but it was difficult from her vantage point and all the other students hurrying to their cars or just hanging around and talking. Some students hustled to the gym for practice, she assumed. The football stadium was in the process of getting updated since their team had made it to the state championship, something she didn’t care about except for the fact it made parking a pain in the ass since the student lot was right in front of the construction area. Orange cones, caution tape, and even a port-a-potty took up a third of their parking spaces. The lowerclassmen had to park behind the school as a result.
