Free Demon High by Lori Devoti

decided to keep the money.
    Nana’s prescriptions were nearly two hundred dollars. It had seemed like a fortune when I didn’t have it; now it was just a couple of bills off my wad. I knew I needed every penny I had, plus more to pay our taxes and start work on repairs, but I couldn’t resist splurging. I bought Nana some of those crustless, premade PB&Js. The kind you find in the freezer area. She never bought them, but swore they added something to the mix that made them extra-special—addictive. And I bought myself some eye liner. I’d never worn it, but Brittany did and I’d noticed how it made her green eyes pop.
    I tapped the eyeliner against my wrist. Having money changed everything; it made me feel normal, at least a bit.
    The woman who worked the cosmetic area came by and asked me if I needed any help. For some reason her question embarrassed me, as if she knew I shouldn’t be buying something as frivolous as makeup, or that it would do nothing to help my mousey looks. I dropped my gaze to my basket and scurried to the register.
    The cashier called out my total. As I handed her five fifties and waited for my change, the warm feeling of being normal returned. Thanks to the demons, I could be like everyone else. I could buy things like eyeliner and pre-packaged food. I could even take my grandmother out to dinner and afford gas so we could tear up our bus passes for good. I could, just like my mother, provide for us.
    I could be like my mother.
    Is that what I wanted? The memory of the wind and howls coming from that circle were already dimming, but they had happened…could happen again. Was I willing to risk that? Wouldn’t it be better to truly be normal? To get a real job?
    I glanced at the cashier. “Doris” her name tag said. She was around fifty, with permed hair that almost matched her blue smock. “Do you get a discount?” I asked.
    She peered at me down her nose, as if I’d asked to borrow her car or something equally inappropriate. “Not on prescriptions, but on the rest, yes.”
    “Oh.” I wanted to ask how much, but her manner wasn’t exactly encouraging. I picked up my bag and turned to go.
    “They’re looking for a stock girl. Our last one, Angela Hastings…” She tilted her head and studied me anew. “…you know her?”
    Angie was in my class. I knew her as well as I knew anybody, at least before I’d searched out Brittany a week or so ago. I could tell though by Doris’ slanted eyebrow that any association with Angie wasn’t going to be a plus. I gave her a non-committal shrug.
    She grunted and continued. “She up and quit. No notice. Got a job at some hotel in Bethel.”
    She paused again, as if waiting for a reply.
    “Oh.” It was all I could think to say. What did I care about Angie’s bad work habits?
    Doris shook her head and tore my receipt off the register. “Pays six fifty an hour, but you get the discount.”
    It took me a second to realize she was back on the topic of a job at the drugstore. I nodded my thanks and left. Six fifty an hour. It would take me four hundred and sixty hours to earn what I made with the circle, and that was before taxes. Somehow I doubted the discount would be good enough to make up that difference, especially without including prescriptions.
    Four hundred and sixty hours versus three, even three where I was pretty sure I was going to die. I could see why Mum had stuck to calling demons.
    o0o
     
    Back home I put the frozen sandwiches in the refrigerator, left Nana’s prescriptions on the kitchen counter and went to experiment with my eyeliner.
    I heard her come in about ten minutes later.
    “Lucinda?”
    I rubbed at the smudgy line I’d managed to tug across my upper lid. Brittany had what they called a smoky eye. I’d seen it on a makeover show on TV. Mine looked more smeared, like a mistake, rather than an artfully plotted “look.”
    Nana called me again. After one last swipe at my eyelid, I tromped down the stairs.
    She was