The Curse ✔️

Chapter 27: Hypotheses

I sat on the floor next to Eugene, and took Intro to Demonology out of his lap, the book I thought I wouldn't touch before January exams. Well, maybe passing would be easier now that we've experienced most of the subjects on our skin.

"As I said," Amma stood in front of the blackboard, the beige cotton dress falling to her knees, "The rules are simple. We're brainstorming, there are no bad ideas. We're just throwing stuff that we come up with on the board and figuring out later why it might not be correct."

Dean brought coffee from the cafeteria in the girls' dorm and the smell overwhelmed the room in the best way possible. I crossed my legs on the floor and flipped a few pages.

"Alright, what do we know?" Morta sat on Amma's bed.

"White magic hasn't worked against the black ooze." I said. "And the origin of the ooze is demonic."

Eugene "There is literally nothing in this book or Advanced Demonology that suggests white magic doesn't work against demons."

"Maybe they're special demons." Leon inhaled and held the smoke in his lungs as he spoke, "Great, big demons that are immune to all magic."

Morta put strong demons on the blackboard.

I glanced at Leon, "You're joking, but it might very well be true."

He exhaled, "Everything I say is both true and ironic."

"So deep, such wisdom." I murmured.

"Oh, quit it." Bella looked up from her bright pink toenails. "If you two continue to talk to each other, I'll leave this fucking room."

I raised my eyebrow, "I don't even want you here, Bells."

She rolled her eyes so far back I thought they'd get stuck.

"But white magic is weaker than black magic when it comes to demons, right?" Dean asked, setting the platter with coffee on the table and pouring it into our cups.

"Not necessarily." Eugene stood up, walked to the blackboard, and spread out his hand, demanding the chalk from Morta. "Magic works against all magic." He wrote.

"Okay, sure, but we've never killed a demon." Morta said. "How can we be sure anything works against them?"

"We have banished them." Eugene said. "And captured them."

My eyebrows jumped up, "Captured them?"

"Oh, yes." Dean handed a cup of coffee to everyone. "Eugene and I dug out a book called Scientific Method of Inverse Summoning."

"Ugh." Morta grimaced. "I wonder why no one's ever read that."

"It explains the process of catching a demon." Dean sat back on the floor.

"It's also from the eighteenth century." Eugene added. "So, I'd take it with a grain of salt."

I took a sip of coffee, savouring the taste, "What does it say?"

"Lists all the ingredients." Dean shrugged. "The whole process. It also says they had to banish it immediately after catching it because they only managed to keep it still for a few minutes."

"Awesome." Leon murmured, his voice annoyed.

I glanced back at him, "Like you care about any of this."

He grinned, "You're just trying to pick a fight with me."

"No, she's trying to convince us that she hates you."

I met Morta's tight-lipped smile, and offered a mean stare.

"We're approaching this from a wrong direction." Amma said suddenly, her eyes on the blackboard, which now read strong demon, all magic works against all magic, demons cannot be killed, and Leon is a demon.