Day 64
Claudia woke up when something tapped her arm. Steve held out a cup of coffee. She pushed the books lying on her onto the couch and sat up, taking it. He made himself a hole next to her and sat down. The two sipped their coffee without speaking. Myka sat at a desk across the office, pouring through books. Artie and Trailer weren't in the room, probably outside or down with Pete. Abigail had gone back to the bed and breakfast to make sack lunches for everyone.
"We need a magic wand," Claudia said.
"For the office?"
"For Pete."
"Yeah."
They were silent again.
"Or the good witch from the Wizard of Oz," Steve said.
"Glenda," Myka corrected him.
"That too," Claudia said as she nodded.
Myka sat up, shoving a book away suddenly. She got up and stormed out of the office. The two watched her go, sipping their coffee together.
"That's getting more frequent," Steve said.
"Uh-huh."
"Why is it that I feel like I haven't slept any more than Pete has?" Steve asked.
"Empathy. You gots it."
Steve nodded, but the joke didn't make him smile. He started to stand up when his hand got caught in something. He pulled it up, staring at the tawiz amulet hanging off his wrist.
"What's this doing here?"
"I was seeing if it had any other powers that might help us."
"Oh." Steve handed it to her and got up. He took two steps before eureka hit him square in the gut. He spun around, pointing at Claudia.
She froze, her cup halfway to her parted lips, and stared at him.
"We are all complete idiots!" he cried.
She blinked a couple times. "Well… Speak for yourself! Wait. Why are we complete idiots?"
He grabbed the amulet and shook it at her. "We're idiots, Claudia. The damn answer has been here all along, staring us right in the face, and we never even saw it!"
She watched the dancing amulet, trying to connect his dots to her dots so that there was some sense made in both dots. She looked up at him.
"I'm not following, Steve."
"We turn Evil Pete into a God damned genie!"
"We can't. He's part of the soul that was evil and—"
"Yeah? And what were those demons that Pete and Myka found during the interviews? They weren't human. And they sure as heck weren't good."
"But we don't know how to turn anything into a genie."
"No, but the Circle does. And I bet you anything the Regents know how to get a hold of them and that even they would like to see this end. We turn that skanky assed son of a bitch into a genie and then bury him so far down that not even the devil himself can find him!"
Claudia stared at the amulet as it danced before her eyes. She jumped up and ran to the balcony, screaming, "ARTIE!"