Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (best e reader for epub txt) 📕

while rubbing the back of his neck. He couldn't meet Maddie’s gaze as she stood off to the side with her arms crossed, tapping her foot as she glared at him. The marionette appeared at his side, his trench coat blowing in the light breeze as he tipped his hat at me. I couldn’t tell if he was smiling or not, since his lips were painted on. I wasn’t sure where I stood with him, as he’d been following me around in plain sight. Seemed Maddie had enough of the bullshit, though. She stopped tapping her foot and pointed her index finger at him.

“So how about you tell us, Cal, what’s with—I’m sorry, I didn't catch your name.” She glanced down at the dummy in confusion.

“Friends call me Roger, doll.”

“Right…” she deadpanned. “What’s with Roger following us around for two weeks?” Maddie raised a suspicious brow and narrowed her eyes at a nervous looking Calvin as he shifted his amber eyes over us all, his face turning slightly pale.

“He was just keeping an eye out for you guys. You're new to this world, and I wanted to make sure you were safe. I’m not supposed to talk about the Society because it’s a sacred secret tradition.” He held his hands up in a calming manner and took a step back as a dark blue bundle of static zipped between Maddie’s fingers that she still had pointed at him.

“That’s bullshit,” she snorted. “Everyone knows about the Society, I just thought you wouldn’t have joined something that lame. You seemed so much cooler than that, but I guess not. You’re just like your weird old man, it would seem.”

Maddie took a step forward, backing him into a tree, but she tripped over her own two feet and went crashing down, a shot of magic flying from her fingertips. I watched with my mouth hanging open as Cal made a dodging leap and the magic smacked into a wide eyed Roger, absorbing into his porcelain skin. His skin cracked and shattered, becoming the real soft flesh of a human. We stared at him with our mouths agape, wondering what the hell just happened.

His bright blue eyes went wide as he yelled, “I’m a real boy!” Patting down his body, he jumped in the air with his heels clicking together and that ridiculous duster coat flapping.

Auntie Fe gasped and started muttering under her breath as a white orb formed in her hands. “Reformandam!” she said. I knew that word. She was remaking him, undoing the accidental spell.

She shot the orb at a dancing Roger, the white light disappearing into his flesh, and we all watched in stunned silence as his skin hardened back into porcelain, as if it had never happened in the first place.

I looked at Fe in question, and she shrugged, saying, “It’s unnatural, and sooner or later, it would have driven him mad. Trust me, I’m doing the puppet a favor.”

“Ah, shucks.” Roger tried snapping his fingers together, but the glossy material of his hands just slipped by like butter. “A dummy can dream, can’t he?”

“What the hell am I watching?” Norman asked, shaking his head in bewilderment, and pulled me close, running his nose along my neck as he petted Jessica’s head with his thumb. Billie was perched on his shoulder, and I watched the little bat hop down his arm until he was nuzzling Jessica.

“Not fucking clue, but I say we go hunting. The clown has to pay.” Freddy cracked his knuckles and ignored how pale Jason went at the mention of clowns. Even after all this time here, he was still terrified of them.

The sound of clapping came from the front gate, and when I looked over, I saw the mayor leaning over the iron gates with a large smile on his long, handsome face. Once again, he was dressed like a circus ring leader. He looked like he took clothes out of a coffin from the eighteen hundreds and slipped them on all wrinkly and dusty.

Auntie Pip stood near her sister as they blocked his view of the rest of us, but that didn’t stop him from leaning to the side to stare at me. I had to wonder how long he’d been quietly standing there.

“That was most impressive, Miss Hallowell. It would seem you take after David after all. So happy to know the Grimm family will live on a while yet.” His smile only grew and his gaze shifted over to Cal for a second, but I swore his eyes hardened as he made eye contact with his son.

“So you’ve heard about the sacred law that was broken tonight, Ichabod? What will be done? One can not get away with killing a familiar, it is forbidden to mess with such creatures,” Auntie Fe said, crossing her arms as she glared up at him.

He quirked his finger at his son, and we watched as Cal blew out a shaky breath and walked to his father’s side painfully slow. I didn’t like it one bit. I might be mad at him right now, but something just didn’t sit right with me, and Ichabod just gave me bad vibes every time I’d run into him.

“Not to worry, ladies and gentlemen. Payton is being dealt with as we speak. She’s been removed from the Society altogether and will be leaving shortly to live with some relatives a few towns over. Not I, nor the town’s council, will stand for this kind of behavior,” Ichabod said. His voice was dark with a hint of anger, but I didn’t think he was upset about Payton, more annoyed than anything else.

Fucker.

“If you’ll excuse us, my son and I must be off. We have to prepare for the festival tomorrow. I do hope to see you there,” he said with a dramatic, douchey bow, his maroon robes snapping behind him, but he was looking at only me the whole time.

He grabbed Cal’s shoulder and waited for Roger, who also took his time making