Lend a Helping Hand Read online

  Lend a Helping Hand

  by

  Sara Bourgeois

  Chapter One

  “Hey, wait a minute,” Amanda protested.

  “I’m sorry, Amanda,” I said, but I really wasn’t.

  After all, this mess was her fault. Her obsession with Lupin had led us to the point where we possibly had to do battle with a high-level demon. Oh, and there was probably a coven of dark witches involved too.

  “I promise I won’t do anything. There’s no need to put a spell on me,” she said.

  “Right,” Glinda responded. “In what universe do you think we’re going to believe you? You made a deal with a demon to make Lupin yours. That’s interfering with someone’s free will. That’s borderline black magic on its own without the demon being involved.”

  “It’s not even borderline,” my mom interjected. “Love spells are dark magic.”

  “Plus, you agreed to kill a witch,” I said. “That’s us. We’re good, so we’re going to protect you and fight this thing, but who is to say you wouldn’t just kill one of us to fulfill your end of the deal? That would be a quick way to protect yourself. I don’t think you could kill one of us, but I don’t want to take the chance.”

  Dark as rest

  Dream as sleep

  Eyes are heavy

  Slumber you’ll meet

  Just like that, she was out again. We’d woken Amanda up, but only to put her back to sleep again. This time, she was under a sleep spell instead of a death spell, though. I hadn’t known what to do with her as dawn drew near and the demonic entity still hadn’t appeared. I didn’t want to tie her up. That seemed like a step too far. Plus, she probably would have been complaining the whole time. I didn’t want to have to fight the temptation to do something bad to the woman who had brought all of this terrible stuff down on my family and friends. At least we’d had some time to regroup and prepare as the fiend hadn’t shown itself.

  It wasn’t to say that the demon wasn’t still approaching. We could feel it lurking somewhere outside of Destiny Cove, but for some reason, it had chosen not to attack yet. My energy was waning, and I could tell everyone else’s was too. Well, except for Grim. He was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and hungry.

  “What do we do?” my mom asked. “It’s like it’s taunting us.”

  “I think we should get something to eat,” Grim said. “Do you have any cheese and crackers? Oh, and maybe some melon. I do love the rind. Nobody ever wants the rind, but I find it delightful.”

  “I have brie, rice crackers, and a cantaloupe. I wasn’t planning on cutting it up tonight. Well, I guess it’s morning,” I said. “Maybe we should all try to eat something and then get some rest. If this thing isn’t coming right away, we’d better take advantage.”

  “What if it comes while we’re sleeping?” Glinda asked.

  “Then, I think we’ll wake up. All of the wardings and protection spells on the house should at least buy us some time. Unless this thing is the devil himself, I think our magic will slow it down.”

  We trudged up the stairs and just as we’d walked into the kitchen, a loud thump sounded at the front door. That thud was immediately followed by another.

  “Oh, it’s Trucker!” Glinda exclaimed. “I’ll get it.”

  In all the excitement, I hadn’t even realized he wasn’t with her. Sage wasn’t with my mother either, but she’d told me before that he wasn’t much of a familiar. Sage was more of a companion and didn’t involve himself in magic unless he had to. I thought at that point perhaps she should talk with him about getting involved, but my mom didn’t have to use magic for much more than her cleaning. Besides, she’d done fine without a familiar up until she got Sage, and the only reason she got a cat was to mess with Ginger.

  Glinda opened the door, and Trucker trotted though. Amazingly, Sage sauntered in after him. I hadn’t expected them both to be together.

  “Sage, what are you doing here?” my mom asked as she emerged from the kitchen.

  “When you didn’t come back last night, Tom fell asleep in your easy chair. He’s snoring. I thought I’d come here and see if things were a little calmer. I can see that they aren’t.”

  For a moment, I thought that Sage would turn around and leave, but he walked into my living room and jumped up onto the sofa. “Try and keep it down,” he said with a swish of his tail.

  “Mom, it’s like your familiar can’t sense the evil,” I said.

  “I told you, Zoe. Sage is more like just a normal cat,” Mom said.

  “I can hear you,” Sage said. His eyes were closed and he didn’t bother to open them. “It’s not that I don’t know what’s going on, but that it’s not time for me to care yet.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Oh, we’re having snacks,” Trucker said excitedly and headed for the kitchen.

  “Are you even going to tell me where you were?” Glinda asked.

  “It’s kind of a funny story,” Trucker said. “I went out into the back yard, and I was nosing around in the grass looking for stuff to eat, right. So, then this little light appeared on the other side of the fence. So I jumped over the fence, and I followed it. Eventually, I got hungry and I went home. You weren’t there, so I came here.”

  “How did you know I was here?” Glinda asked.

  “I didn’t, but Zoe usually has good cheese. It’s just lucky that you’re here too. And that’s there’s a melon.”

  It was pretty quiet after that. Everyone sort of shuffled into the kitchen and snacked on fruit, cheese, and crackers. When we were done, we went into the living room and sat down. I turned on the television, but we were all exhausted. Within minutes, we’d all drifted off to a restless sleep.

  I must have been napping for a couple of hours when I was startled out of sleep by someone coming through the back door. “It’s just me,” a familiar voice called from the mud room.

  It was Joe. I stood up and walked quietly through the living room and down the hall. Joe was in the kitchen, and he looked like he’d been through the wringer.

  His eyes were rimmed with red like he’d been crying or hadn’t slept in days. The arms and back of his shirt were streaked with dried mud, and upon further inspection of his pants, I found there was dirt and grass on them as well.

  “What happened to you?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

  I crossed the room and threw my arms around his neck. Joe wrapped his arms around my waist, and I could feel him shaking. Wherever he’d just been or whatever he’d seen had filled him with terror.

  “I shot him,” Joe whispered. “I killed him, but he wouldn’t die.”

  “What?” I said and pulled back. “What do you mean?”

  “I shot him five times, Zoe, and he wouldn’t stop. He didn’t stop until I shot him in the head.” Joe’s eyes got teary again. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Do you think it was some sort of drug? I know people can ignore pain, but I shot him in the heart. He kept trying to bite me. His hands were ripping through my shirt. I just knew I had to stop him. I just knew.”

  “Slow down,” I said. “Let’s sit down. I’ll make some chamomile tea.”

  “I’d like some coffee,” he said.

  “How about a cup of chamomile tea first, and then coffee?” I suggested.

  “Okay. Okay, I’ll have some tea. Do you have any cupcakes? I could use a Blueberry Bliss,” Joe’s voice was tinged with a deep exhaustion.

  “I do have a few in the fridge. They aren’t super fresh,” I said.

  “It’s okay. I’ll take it.”

  I got him a cupcake and put it on a plate before getting a small glass of milk. I set them on the table and filled the kettle.

  “I thought it was just going to be a simple drunk
and disorderly. I figured I’d dump the guy off in the drunk tank and get back over here,” he said.

  “I take it that it wasn’t that simple.”

  “Something was really wrong with him, Zoe. It’s hard to describe in any way that doesn’t sound completely crazy,” he said.

  “Well, then tell me the crazy version,” I said.

  He was quiet for a few minutes just staring off into space. I let him be for the moment. When I set Joe’s tea down in front of him, he wrapped his hands around the warm mug and relaxed a little. He took a deep, shuddering breath before he began to speak.

  “I pulled the cruiser over to the side of the road and parked with my headlights on. I could see the outline of the man stumbling around on the edge of the road. I knew right away that I was going to have to arrest him, and I wanted to get him off of the side of the highway before both of us got hit by a car. Dispatch told me that there had been a lot of drunk and disorderlies last night, and that meant there were probably a lot of drunk drivers too.

  “I approached him cautiously because I thought he was just a drunk, but I still had to be careful. I knew things were getting weird and dark around Destiny Cove, but I had no idea.”

  “All right,” I said.

  I reached out and covered one of his hands. He’d let go of the mug with one hand, but the other still had a death grip on it.

  “So I approached him cautiously and asked if he needed help. Things tend to go much more smoothly when we come at the situation like we’re there to offer assistance rather than to arrest people.”

  “That makes sense,” I said.

  “I know there are some weird drugs out there, Zoe, but I don’t think he was on drugs. Drugs can make people act violent or strange, but they can’t make them look the way he looked.”

  When Joe didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes, I tried to get him talking again. “What do you mean about the way he looked?”

  “His skin was gray, Zoe. He wasn’t just pale. He was actually gray. His lips were blue and it looked like his eyes were clouding over. It looked like he was dead. I thought for a second that he was a walking corpse, but that couldn’t be, right?”

  “You sound like you’re talking about a zombie,” I said.

  “Yeah, it was like that. When I asked him if he needed help, he growled at me or snarled. It was not a normal sound. I asked him how much he’d had to drink, and he lunged at me, Zoe. I tricked myself into thinking he was just drunk and rowdy, but he kept trying to claw me. His jaw was snapping like he was trying to bite me too. But, that can’t be, can it?”

  “I don’t know, Joe. I guess anything is possible. It could be the doing of the demonic thing Amanda made a deal with. This could be the beginning of something.”

  “He kept trying to bite me. I didn’t want to shoot him, but when his nails started to rip my shirt, I knew I had to do something. I managed to pull my gun even during the struggle. I shot him in the arm, but it was like he felt nothing. He still kept trying to bite me. I eventually rolled and got him off of me. When I scrambled to my feet, I backed up until I hit the bumper of my cruiser. I told him to stop, but he kept coming. I waited to fire until he was practically on me again, and, Zoe, I swear there was nothing in his eyes. When I shot him in the gut, he staggered, but he kept coming. I shot him in the knee, but it only slowed him down. At that point, he was practically dragging one leg, one arm dangled to his side, and he stumbled forward to try and bite me more. I aimed at his heart and begged him one last time to stop. He didn’t, and the bullet to the chest didn’t even slow him down as much as the one to the knee did. For some reason I just knew that if he sank his teeth into me or clawed my skin, I was in big trouble. I had to shoot him in the head. It was my last resort. I wish there had been another way. I keep replaying the whole thing in my mind over and over trying to figure out if I could have done something different.”

  “Oh, Joe. I am so sorry,” I said.

  “I’m just a small town sheriff. I’ve never had to shoot anybody like that before. I’ve seen a few people dead, but this was so different. The level of violence in the situation is just so unsettling. I don’t know how big-city cops do this job.”

  “I’m going to make some breakfast, and then I think you should get some sleep if you can. Something else is coming, and we all need our strength.”

  “Don’t you need to get into the bakery?” he asked. “You’re already late.”

  “I’m going to leave it closed for today. People will understand. Whatever is coming isn’t going to affect just us. The whole town might be in danger,” I said.

  “I don’t know that I can sleep, Zoe. I need to be out there. I’ll just drink a pot of coffee. That will keep me going for the day.”

  “You need to sleep, Joe. The drinking a pot of coffee to stay awake time is coming, but for now, please take care of yourself.” I said as I got a pan down from the rack. “You need to stay sharp. Have they already interviewed you about the shooting?”

  “I talked to someone, but I’m sure that’s not the end of it. The state police officer who came to back me up and I both gave a statement. I suppose you’ll put a sleep spell on me if I don’t agree to get some rest,” he said, and I saw the first trace of a smile.

  “Well, I wasn’t going to say anything about that. How about some eggs and toast?” I said.

  “I was prepared to tell you that there was no way that I could eat anything else, but that actually sounds really good,” he said. “Maybe a food coma is what I need to get settled down. Can we have some bacon too?”

  He’d taken a few bites of the Blueberry Bliss cupcake, and I thought that it was starting to work. His color had started to improve, and that almost smile I’d seen earlier had to be a good sign.

  “Hey, don’t you need to get into the bakery?” my mom said as she appeared in the kitchen doorway.

  “I think I’m going to leave the bakery closed today,” I said.

  “You don’t have to do that. Let me make the eggs and toast. You get to work whipping up some cupcakes.”

  “I don’t know if I have enough room here. I’d have to go into the shop.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on things here,” she said. “I’ll call Tom and tell him to meet us there in an hour. You can whip up the cupcakes and then come home. He and I will run the store.”

  “It’s okay,” Joe said. “Go. I’ll stay here and rest until you get back, I promise.”

  “If he tries to leave for work, I’ll knock him out and put him in the basement with Amanda,” my mom said with a chuckle, but I knew she was completely serious. “It will be fine, Zoe. It’s only an hour and the shop isn’t that far. That thing isn’t here yet, and we can’t all hide in your house like it’s the apocalypse. When it decides to come for Amanda, if it decides to come for Amanda, we’ll all deal with it then.”

  “You think it might not come?” I asked.

  “It hasn’t yet,” she said. “Maybe there isn’t a huge grand design for evil destruction after all. Perhaps it just wanted an easy soul, and when it didn’t get it, it moved on.”

  I didn’t think she was right, but I had no real argument. Opening the bakery seemed like a bad idea, but maybe it would buy us time before the residents of Destiny Cove realized something was very wrong.

  “Be careful, Mom,” I said. “There might be an apocalypse starting. Joe will fill you in.”

  I ran upstairs to change clothes and used magic to make myself clean and presentable. A long hot shower sounded more like heaven, but I needed to get back to the house. I didn’t like leaving the others to guard Amanda without me.

  “Where are you going?” I was out on the porch getting ready to walk to my car, and Grim startled me.

  “To my bakery to bake,” I said.

  “Seriously?”

  “Trying to maintain normalcy for as many people as possible,” I said.

  “What about Ginger and Lupin?” he asked. “Aren’t you even going to go after them?”
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  “I don’t know where to look,” I said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go out wandering around searching right now. That might just put me and others in danger too.”

  “Then I’m coming with you to the bakery. I’ll try to scry a location while you bake.”

  “Scrying, right. I didn’t think of that,” I said and bit my lower lip.

  “You need to keep your head on straight,” Grim said. “Bake your cupcakes if you must, but I doubt you’re going to maintain any kind of normalcy for long.”

  Chapter Two

  Something was definitely wrong in Destiny Cove. My first clue was that there was no one around. It was early in the morning, but I usually saw at least a few people out at that hour. There were always joggers, people walking their dogs before dawn, and the few people who lived on my street that worked at the hospital would be up and getting ready. The lights in their kitchen or living room would cut through the darkness.

  That morning there was nothing. My street looked completely abandoned despite the fact that it was almost an hour later then when I usually left for work. As I drove my car toward the bakery, I saw that the rest of the town was the same. You could have cut the silence with a knife. Even the few species of birds that stayed through the winter were quiet.

  It was a chilly morning, but it wasn’t cold. Despite that, there was not one jogger or walker to be seen. Nobody had lights on. Not one. Every house was dark as if the whole town was under a spell or hiding from door-to-door salesmen.

  I almost turned around and went back home right then, but I ignored the warnings going off in my head. Still, I parked my car at the curb out front instead of in the back. I wanted it right there steps away from my front door. I wanted to be able to see it from the counter.

  “We should go back,” Grim said. “I doubt many people are going to be out buying cupcakes.”

  “Just give me a half hour,” I said. “You scry for Ginger, and I’ll step up my fire magic to the extreme. If things get bad, people will come to my shop looking for a little comfort, Grim. I don’t want to let them down. Okay?”