Practical Demonkeeping

walking out of the woods and up the gentle slope toward them.
     
    Robert screwed the tripod into the socket of the telephoto lens, tested its steadiness, then fitted the camera body on the back of the lens and turned it until it clicked into place. From the camera bag at his feet he took a pack of Polaroid film and snapped it into the bottom of the Nikon’s back.
    “I’ve never seen a camera like that,” said Augustus Brine.
    Robert was focusing the long lens. “The camera’s a regular thirty-five millimeter. I bought the Polaroid back for it to preview results in the studio. I never got around to using it.”
    Howard Phillips stood poised with notebook in hand and a fountain pen at ready.
    “Check the batteries in that recorder,” Robert said to Brine. “There are some fresh ones in my camera bag if you need them.”
    Gian Hen Gian was craning his neck to see over the undergrowth into the clearing where Travis stood. “What is happening? I cannot see what is happening.”
    “Nothing yet,” Brine said. “Are you set, Robert?”
    “I’m ready,” Robert said without looking up from the camera. “I’m filling the frame with Rachel’s face. The parchment should be easily readable. Are you ready, Howard?”
    “Short of the unlikely possibility that I may be stricken with writer’s cramp at the crucial moment, I am prepared.”
    Brine snapped four penlight batteries into the recorder and tested the mechanism. “It’s up to Travis now,” he said.
     
    Travis topped halfway up the hill. “Okay, I’m here. Let them go and I’ll translate the invocation for you.”
    “I don’t think so,” Rachel said. “Once the ritual has been performed and I’m sure it has worked, then you can all go free.”
    “You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Catch will kill us all.”
    “I don’t believe you. The Earth spirit will be in my control, and I won’t allow it.”
    Travis laughed sarcastically. “You haven’t even seen him, have you? What do you think you have there, the Easter Bunny? He kills people. That’s the reason he’s here.”
    “I still don’t believe you.” Rachel was beginning to lose her resolve.
    Travis watched Catch move to where the hostages were tied. “Come, do it now, Travis, or the old woman dies.” He raised a clawed hand over Amanda’s head.
    Travis trudged up the hill and stood in front of Rachel. Very quietly her said to her, “You know, you deserve what you are going to get. I never thought I could wish Catch on anyone, but you deserve it.” He looked at Jenny, and her eyes pleaded for an explanation. He looked away. “Give me the invocation,” he said to Rachel. “I hope you brought a pencil and paper. I can’t do this from memory.”
    Rachel reached into an airline bag that she had brought and pulled out the candlesticks. One at a time she unscrewed them and removed the invocations, then replaced the pieces in the airline bag. She handed Travis the parchments.
    “Put the candlesticks over by Jenny,” he said.
    “Why?” Rachel asked.
    “Because the ritual won’t work if they are too close to the parchments. In fact, you’d be better off if you untied them and sent them away with the candlesticks. Get them out of the area altogether.” The lie seemed so obvious that Travis feared he had ruined everything by putting too much importance on the candlesticks.
    Rachel stared at him, trying to make sense of it. “I don’t understand,” she said.
    “Neither do I ,” Travis said. “But this is mystical stuff. You can’t tell me that taking hostages so you can call up a demon is consistent with the logical world.”
    “Earth spirit! Not demon. And I will use this power for good.”
    Travis considered trying to convince her of her folly, then decided against it. The lives of Jenny and the Elliotts depended on Catch maintaining his charade as a benevolent Earth spirit until it was too late. He glared at the demon, who grinned back.
    “Well?” Travis said.
    Rachel picked up the airline bag and took it to a spot a few feet down the hill from the hostages.
    “No. Farther away,” Travis said.
    She slung the bag over her shoulder and took it another twenty yards down the hill, then turned to Travis for approval.
    “What is this about?” Catch asked.
    Travis, afraid to push his luck, nodded to Rachel and she set the bag down. Now the candlesticks were twenty yards closer to the road that ran around the back of the hill—the road that Augustus