"What?" Charlie demanded loudly.
"Rick and I don't believe in animal sacrifice" I said in my diplomatic voice. It wasn't the most humane way for an animal to die.
"Don't get squeamish on us" Antha said.
"Squeamish? I was an FBI agent, and Rick goes to crime scenes all the time" I scoffed. "Squeamish…..yeah..."
"doing this will blacken our auras!" Charlie told them suddenly.
"Really? I've never heard that" Antha remarked.
"Rick was referring to the interior of the aura.." I 'explained' to them to cover up for my brother. Then, I gave him a cue "Didn't your mentor once talk about the inside of auras?"
"Oh yes.. he talked about them extensively" Charlie picked up on the hint.
"Morlock's never mentioned anything about that" Trixie told him.
"Few people are familiar with the concept." Charlie explicated to her.
"Oh..."
"Aren't there any alternatives?" I asked.
"No there aren't. Sacrifices are a very necessary part of this!" Elizabeth said to my concern. It worried me to see how brainwashed she was.
"Well.." Antha began, but stopped.
"There is an alternative?" I asked hopefully and with my best smile.
"It would involve us cutting our arms and letting blood." Antha said reluctantly. I could feel Charlie's chagrin and dread as I saw the look on his very expressive face. I wasn't looking forward to it either.
"But that would decrease the potency and efficiency of the protection spell." Trixie argued. "Remember what Morlock said?"
"What if we just put a spell on the garage?" I asked, finally having an idea. "That way we don't have to sacrifice animals or cut ourselves up.My brother is bound to come home sometime anyway, and it'll be safer for him not to know that you guys are here, at the house."
"Don is very overprotective of his brother" Charlie said.
"I'm not overprotective" I argued. "I like to make sure that he's safe"
"Charlie might disagree" my brother persisted.
"A smaller area would require less blood" Antha conceded.
"We'd have to redo the prep work though" Trixie added.
"Rick and I will help you!" I offered. After some more effort on my part, they finally agreed to limit their spell to the garage. A part of me felt that maybe I should have suggested that in the first place when they said they wanted to do a spell. Hindsight's always twenty, twenty, right?
The prep work was redone, and the house was cleaned up. Charlie had hidden all of his cognitive theory work beforehand.
Then, I gave them all the stuff, Dad had instructed me to give. Such as a rollaway, some blankets, pillows, directions to the nearby YMCA, and other things.
"Thank you for everything" Antha said with a smile.
"No problem."
After they did the spell, which sounded like gibberish to me, my brother and I left them to get comfortable.
At the house, he asked me. "How are we going to get Elizabeth to go home, with those two staying with her?"
Before I could answer, the phone rang.
TBC