Free Brighter, a supernatural thriller by V. J. Chambers

after she had the conversation with Mason in his car, Ramona had been taking a lot of ecstasy, and ecstasy lowered her inhibitions. Okay, hell, ecstasy erased her inhibitions, turned her into a maddened slave to physical pleasure. Tucker had just been there. He'd been on ecstasy too. Sure, she knew that Cecelia was into Tucker. Tucker knew it too, but he wasn't interested in Cecelia. It didn't matter though, because when she did what she did with Tucker, Cecelia hadn't been her friend anymore. At least that's how Ramona had felt about it.
    And it had only been sex. It had been fucking amazingly awesome sex, sure, but that was mostly because of the ecstasy. At least, that's what Ramona thought, anyway. She'd never been able to work in a repeat performance with Tucker. Tucker had gotten back with his ex-girlfriend a week or two after she'd hooked up with him. They'd broken up again in a month or two, but by then the moment was over. She couldn't just call him out of the blue and say, "Hey Tucker, you wanna fuck?"
    Ramona considered. Actually, that might have worked. Unfortunately, Tucker was entangled with someone new now. Damn. Maybe if he was ever single again... But no, because Ramona was going to move out of Elston. Really. She was. And she wouldn't be around when Tucker broke up with his most recent conquest. Really. Really, really. Maybe if she insisted it over and over to herself, she actually would be able to get the hell out of Elston. Maybe.
     
                                                                                                 
     

 
                                                                                                  Chapter Seven
    "What do you know about demon possession?" greeted Ramona's voice over the phone.
    Heather was drinking wine on her back porch, watching the sunset. "Nothing," she said. "There are no such things as demons." Heather was starting to get worried about Ramona. She seemed to be...different, lately.
    "How do you know there are no such things as demons?" asked Ramona. "You believe in ghosts, right? Why not demons?"
    What was up with Ramona, anyway? She never wanted to talk to her about this kind of stuff. "Well, for starters, demons are malevolent spirits, and I don’t believe that spirits are ever malevolent. It's just too simple to break everything into black and white. Spirits are like humans. They run the spectrum—why are you asking me this, anyway? Does this have something to do with your seeing Angelica's ghost?"
    Ramona started talking. Well, she started rambling. She was saying things about Cecelia, who used to be her roommate way back in her sophomore year of college. And stuff about a picture of Dawn—Heather thought she knew who Dawn was, but she wasn't sure. It was very hard to follow. Ramona wasn't making any sense, so Heather cut her off. "Hold on a second. You think that Cecelia is possessed by a demon?"
    "She's a completely different person. She totally changed. What other explanation is there?"
    "Um..." Should she even dignify that question with an answer? "Lots of other explanations. She just changed. It's college. People change. You and I used to do lots of drugs, and now I'm married and you're...okay, well, you're kind of the same, but... The point is, people change for all kinds of reasons, but demon possession is not one of them."
    "You don't understand," said Ramona. "It's a pattern. People start hanging out with the river hippies, and then they change. They become different people. It happened to Angelica too."
    "But it doesn't mean anything," said Heather. "People just change. There's nothing supernatural about it. And besides, it seems like this whole thing started because you saw Angelica's ghost."
    "No," said Ramona. "It didn't. It started because..." she