The sound of Hebrew pulled at me. I couldn’t
think of a logical reason as to why they were speaking Hebrew down there. I
took cautious steps towards the source of the sound, one of the back bedrooms.
The light that I thought had been from a tv, wasn’t. It couldn’t be. The
flickers were too often, and always the same colors. They were using lamps or
candles.
Are they doing some kind of
ritual? How would they know how to—
A particularly large flicker cast
light into the hall, and I could see on the wall an inverted pentagram and
Hebrew writing around it. Worse, the diagram had run, like wet paint or—
“Blood!”
Jessie’s eyes bulged, and she leaned so far out of her seat, it was a wonder
she didn’t fall out of the chair.
I nodded.
“Baphomet?”
Nikki asked.
“That’s
what I thought at first, but it was slightly different. I didn’t know that at
the time, though.”
“How do you
attract these cases, Matthew? It should have been a simple prank by teenagers,
but you managed to stumble on the one group who had successfully contacted a
demon. What are the odds?”
“Well,
you’re only asking about the story related to the hat. I get dozens of boring,
ordinary cases where people think there’s something supernatural going on, but
there’s not. You should look through them some time. Or maybe you want to go on
a stakeout some time where nothing happens?”
“Hmm, I
still think the odds are particularly high for something supernatural occurring
in proximity to you.”
I shrugged.
“Occupational hazard, I guess. You want to hear the rest of this?”
“Yes!”
Jessie yelled.
“By all
means,” Nikki said.