God, her damn head was bursting! It was stuffy inside the house, which made things even worse, so she opened the back door and promptly gazed upon the corpse of the orange tabby.
Its neck had been twisted and broken in such a violent way that at first she did not register what had happened to the animal. It looked like a towel that had been wrung tight. She bent down and touched its head.
She felt a violent twitch on the nape of her neck, as if she hadbeen hit with an object, and leaped back. She locked the door and stood in the middle of the kitchen, breathing fast.
Minerva rushed to the phone and dialed Hideo. She got a busy signal, which echoed as loud as a dynamite blast in her ears. She slammed the receiver down and fell back on the couch.
The pain seemed to be radiating down her back and she curled up on the couch. She felt exhausted and squeezed her eyes shut.
You simply live through it.The refrain invaded her mind.
When she opened her eyes, it was dusk. Someone was knocking. She shuffled into the kitchen and flung the door open. Hideo smiled at her.
“Ready for rounds?” he asked.
Minerva looked toward the corpse of the cat. It wasn’t there.
“You didn’t forget, did you? I brought the car so we could cover our dorms faster.”
She pulled her hair away from her face with both hands. “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?” Hideo replied.
“Someone killed Karnstein and left the body. It’s gone.”
“The cat you like to feed?”
“Yes.” Minerva moved quickly past Hideo and walked down the back steps of the house. She looked around the bushes.
“The animal that killed it probably dragged the carcass away.”
“It wasn’t an animal. Someone snapped the cat’s neck. It was right there.”
Hideo looked in the direction she was pointing. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure! They left it for me to find, they…fuck!”
She stared at the house. Hideo walked toward her slowly. “Okay, did you call campus security?”
“What?”
“If someone played a sick prank on you, you need to report it. Is it Conrad? The other night you said Conrad—”
“Un embrujo,” she said, switching to Spanish in her disquiet.
“Sorry?”
“Bewitchment. The dead animals, the feeling of being followed…I bet flowers would wilt inside the house.”
“Minerva, what are you talking about?”
“Hexing, curses, whatever you want to call it. My great-grandmother used to talk about this, and Beatrice Tremblay wrote about the exact same thing.”
“Beatrice Tremblay…wait, you’re talking about your thesis?”
“Not my thesis. The real thing. The real deal. What if witchesdo exist, Hideo? Have you ever wondered about that? Not like inBewitched,not the funny witches with pointy hats. Spell casters who follow ancient, well-known patterns. Universal concepts. Physics is universal, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter if you’re in Japan or Mexico or Salem, the apple will fall from the tree. What if it’s like that for magic? You find the constants; you make them work. You alter reality.
“What about…what about when you told me about inugami. Remember? They’re similar to familiar spirits and they’re created by sorcerers by killing a dog. My great-grandmother told me a story about something like that, about creating a minion—”
