“I don't want any part of your witchcraft, Seth Barrett,” Darcy said.
“My what?”
“I know you and Jenny are in league with Satan.”
Seth was confused—Jenny and Darcy had become friends, even had sleepovers together. Now it was like someone had pushed rewind and loaded up an older version of Darcy.
“I want to talk about what happened in Charleston,” Seth said.
“Do you know how I even got there?” Darcy asked. “I can't remember a gosh-blamed thing. And my dad's all angry about it. He says I ran off with you, but I don't remember doing that.”
“We can talk about all that,” Seth said. “So can you meet me?”
“I guess,” Darcy said. “But it has to be somewhere public. And somewhere my dad won't see us together.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “For some reason, he thinks I've been having sex with you.”
“Oh,” Seth said. “Well, just name a place.”
Thirty minutes later, Seth sat in a plastic booth at the Taco Bell in Vernon Hill. He watched Darcy fill out a Taco Bell employment application.
“'Work experience,'” Darcy read. “My dad gives me a lot of work at home, and I've done tons of volunteering for church and things. You suppose that counts?”
“The church stuff might help,” Seth said. “So, what do you remember about this weekend, Darcy?”
“Nothing!” She looked up from the form. “You're supposed to tell me what happened. That's why I'm here. Well, and the job application.”
“I was going to Charleston for college orientation,” Seth said. “You told me you were going to the same college and you needed a ride to orientation.”
“I wish I were going to any college,” Darcy said. “Stupid Taco Bell.”
“Why did you tell me that?” Seth asked.
“I don't know! How many times can I say I don't know what happened? It's all a fuzzy haze and nothing makes sense.”
“Then what's the last thing you remember?”
Darcy looked at him for a long time, tucking her lower lip under her teeth and gnawing on it. “I don't know if I should tell you.”
“Who else can you tell?” Seth asked. She looked pretty upset, he thought, so she must have something to share.
“Well...okay.” Darcy looked around the Taco Bell, then lowered her head and spoke in a whisper. “They said they were angels.”
“Who?”
“Both of them.” Darcy looked around again, though the dining area was empty except for a very elderly couple arguing over the small Nachos Supreme they were sharing. “One said he was Tommy Goodling.”
“Goodling?”
“I believed him 'cause he had beautiful gray eyes, just like Ashleigh's. And he reminded me of her a little bit.”
“Who is Tommy Goodling?”
“Ashleigh's cousin. Well, he said he was Ashleigh's cousin. But later he said that he and the girl were both angels.”
“Who was the girl?”
“Some Mexican girl that was with him. And anywho, he told me that Ashleigh Goodling had a special task to do on Earth, but since she was dead, she had to...”
“She had to do what?”
“This is going to sound weird.”
“Everything's weird these days. Believe me.”
“They said I had to let her use my body for a little while,” Darcy said.
“And you agreed to that?”
“They were angels! Or they said they were.”
“You believed them?”
“You don't understand, Seth. When he touched me, I felt...” Darcy shivered and crossed her arms.
“Horny?”
“No, Dumbo! I was afraid. Not just afraid, but really afraid, like trembling in awe. Just like in the Bible, when God or an angel has a message for somebody. I've never felt so afraid in my life. When he touched me, I knew he was something.” Darcy frowned. “But now I think maybe he wasn't an angel. Maybe he was a demon sent from Satan.”
“Maybe,” Seth said. “So you're saying they wanted to put Ashleigh's soul in your body? Like The Exorcist? A possession?”
“But it couldn't really have been Ashleigh's soul,” Darcy said. “She was rude and used a lot of swear words at my parents. And stole my dad's credit card. That doesn't sound like the Ashleigh I know. It was probably some demon. Some girl-demon, I think.”
Girl-demon, Seth thought. Sounds like Ashleigh to me. “So all this time, you've had Ashleigh controlling you?”
“Somebody claiming to be Ashleigh,” Darcy said. “But really an evil spirit, maybe.”
Seth thought about how Darcy had become friendly with Jenny and gotten close to her. It was Ashleigh, pretending to be poor, awkward, friendless Darcy so Jenny wouldn't be too suspicious of her. Thoughts whirled in his mind—Ashleigh and her opposite Tommy must have set some kind of trap for Jenny. The zombie-maker, the guy who was possibly the reincarnation of Seth's great-grandfather, had been involved, too, but he couldn't be sure how.