Free Depraved 2 by Bryan Smith

unnatural elements was believed to be a rare thing. You had to have the knack for it in the first place, which few did. And even if she had been known to possess the talent, it was unlikely anyone would have believed her experienced enough to have mastered it.
    But that impression would have been wrong.
    She did have the knack and she had developed it to an extent even those who knew the truth about supernatural things would have found shocking.
    Sienna had known it since an early childhood visit to Mama Weeks, the old witch who’d lived out in a remote part of the woods around Hopkins Bend back then. Her father had taken her to meet the woman as a special treat. Everyone in Hopkins Bend knew the stories about Mama Weeks and her special talents, and Sienna had grown up enchanted by the tales. The old crone had sensed her latent ability and had counseled against letting any of the adults in her life know about it, advice Sienna had heeded to this day.
    She banged on the old plantation home’s weathered door with the base of a fist. The door rattled in a disconcerting way. Kicking it open would be a simple matter. The flimsy door didn’t offer much in the way of security, but it didn’t matter much. The home’s remote location made it an unlikely target for robbers. Also, people in Bedford knew Arlene Baker didn’t have much worth stealing. All the treasures formerly housed under this roof were long gone, many taken by a rampaging Union army in the wake of the War of Northern Aggression. It was a wonder Arlene had been able to hang onto the place this long.
    Total silence from the other side of the door.
    Sienna eased the backpack’s straps off her weary shoulders. She had been walking for hours and though she had the stamina typical of a person her age, she was feeling the strain. Also wearing on her was the lingering anger caused by the confrontation with Jodi. She hadn’t planned to flip out the way she had, but something about walking in on her sister while that idiot cousin of theirs was taking the hypocritical bitch from behind set her off.
    Oh, well. It was probably for the best.
    She had been yearning to get out from under Jodi’s thumb for a long time. And anyway, it was past time she started putting her resurrection scheme in motion. Getting the boot had given her the proper motivation. She just needed a temporary place to stay while she finessed the last details of how to make it happen.
    Arlene Baker was a woman who’d endured more than her fair share of misfortune. Her husband, Delmont, was tending to his husbandly duties less and less all the time, leaving his crippled wife to fend for herself. It was shameful, really, though for Sienna’s purposes his neglect was a good thing. It meant Arlene would be lonely and desperate for company. Surely she’d have no problem letting her young cousin stay with her a while.
    Sienna banged on the door again.
    Still no response.
    She put a hand on the doorknob and gave it a tentative twist. The knob turned easily in her hand and the door’s ancient hinges creaked loud enough to make her cringe as she began to ease it open. She called out for Arlene as she poked her head through the opening and peered into a large foyer shrouded in gloom. When no one answered, she entered the house, cringing again at the squeaking of the hinges as she closed the door behind her.
    Thanks to the bright sunlight filtering in through the few windows that weren’t boarded, the foyer wasn’t completely dark. Sienna found a light switch by the door. She flipped it and was relieved to see electric lights flicker on. That the power hadn’t been cut off struck her as a minor miracle, given the state of the place, which looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in many months, if not years. There were cobwebs in the corners and dust everywhere.
    The filth didn’t bother her overly much, having spent a portion of her childhood living in an ancient shack in the woods. Her branch of the Baker clan