The Three-Candle Prayer: A Novel by Abe Moss

Author:Abe Moss [Moss, Abe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grim Heart Publishing
Published: 2024-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

21

Kit watched discreetly from the living room window as Grace parked along the curb outside his house in her little black sedan. She peered up and down the street as she came, as though she feared being seen here. It was odd, Kit thought, someone of her stature looking so timid, so nervous. She could probably break his neck if she really wanted.

He answered the door ahead of her. She looked relieved to slip inside and away from any watchful eyes.

“You good?” Kit asked, as he shut the door behind her.

“Huh? Yeah. Why?”

“You just look like you’re hiding from somebody.”

Grace shrugged, though her shoulders didn’t have to travel far, she kept them so tightly wound around her neck, her hands shoved into her pockets. She gazed around Kit’s house much the same, searching for waiting boogeymen.

“It’s just a little weird, I guess, walking into Faith-land like this.”

“Oh,” Kit said, as suddenly it made some sense to him. “I can understand that, yeah.”

He promptly showed her into the kitchen. He’d already told her a little bit online, about what Faith had been getting herself into shortly before her disappearance. He showed Grace to the kitchen table, where the black candle wax was still in three hard puddles. He indicated the scorched kitchen chair.

“I think this was the last place she was,” he told her. “Before she vanished.”

Grace studied the chair, then the candles, then the chair again.

“You think she went up in flames, or…”

“No, no, not like that. I guess I don’t really know how it happened. I can only guess. But…” He hated this next part. Sharing his own experiences. He’d hated telling Jackie what little he had, and even that’d been enough to scare her off for good. “I’ve seen things. It started when she started using these to talk to your parents.”

“Using the candles, you mean.”

“Yeah, but it’s more than just the candles…” Kit grabbed the pamphlet and handed it to Grace so she could see for herself. “After she started performing this prayer at night, I started seeing this… thing. A shape in the dark. Some people would probably call it a ghost. It’s been watching me. Last night it fucking chased me through my own house…”

“Chased you?”

“And yesterday, when I was at your parents’ house? I was only there because I saw Faith the night before. Not actually saw her, but she appeared to me. In the dark. She told me she was ‘going home.’ That’s why I thought…”

“You thought she was leading you there,” Grace finished, unfolding the pamphlet as she listened, perusing its contents in a cavalier manner.

Kit sighed defeatedly. “You don’t believe me.”

“I didn’t say that,” Grace said. She folded the pamphlet back up and resumed studying the melted candles on the table.

“A month ago, I would have told you I didn’t believe in these sorts of things,” Kit assured her. “I’ve never seen or experienced anything like this before. Ever.” He scratched the back of his neck, feeling so exposed suddenly. Awkward. “Anyway, you said you had a weird dream last night?

“Oh,” she said, remembering.

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