My grandfather is a wizard. The greatest wizard to ever walk the earth. When I was four I came home to find my father transformed into a garden gnome, and my mother completely invisible. Grandpa Merle explained that they had been cursed by the Red Thane from up North, his nemesis. I wept for hours. My mother was so sad she never spoke again. But Grandpa promised me, if we worked hard, and made enough money we could send my mother to treatment, and perform the ritual to reincarnate my father as a bird.

Grandpa has always been there for me. He was there for me when I lost my first tooth, when I broke my arm playing baseball, and when I learned to ride a bike. And yet, on the first day of high school, I was feeling nervous, and Gramps wasn’t helping.

7:30 AM

I come down from my room to find he’s abandoned his task- cooking breakfast, pancake mix left unattended.

“Morning Granda Merle,” I say. He’s crouched by the blinds, spying outwards.

“Lance, have you seen the new neighbors?”

“No?”

“They’re right across the street!” Merle raves. A moving van is parked outside. A family—two men in their early forties and a teenage girl, unload boxes and furniture.

“They look nice.”

“Don’t be daft- Can’t you see what’s wrong with them!?”

One of the men wears a Minnesota Vikings hoodie, the other a pair of overalls. The Viking must have just told a joke because the other man and the girl are laughing.

“No.”

“They’re demons Lance! Demons!”

“Gramps, what? That’s so offensive! Just because they don’t love the same—”

“What?! No Lance, I don’t care that they’re gay. I’m talking about actual demons, conjured by the Red Thane! They killed those poor homosexuals and stole their skin!”

How could I be so blind? I shudder. The demons are moving a couch inside.

7:45

Driving to school, Gramps begins one of his warnings, cigarette in hand.

“Listen. You’re in high school now and I’ve gotta warn you. There’s lotsa evil spread around those places. Anybody offers you a vape, don’t take it. Weed is fine, but if you vape, ghosts will steal your manhood. Do you want that Lance?”

I did not.

8:25

English class is about to begin. The boy next to me is on his phone. I notice something odd about his phone case—it doesn’t have any lead tape on it.

“You know those things make you sick right?” I whisper.

“No they don’t, cell phones create only non-ionizing radiation,” he whispers back.

“Not because of that. Because of the ghosts trapped in them.”

“What?” he exclaimed.

“Ghosts. How else do you think they work?”

“I—I don’t know. But ghosts aren’t real.”

“Oh- really? How do you know?”

“You can’t see ghosts.”

“Can you see carbon monoxide?” I retort.“No, I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am. Here, take some lead tape. It keeps the ghosts inside the phone, and out of your brain.”

9:36

Biology class. A shrill, short man with a ratty beard is describing the importance of turning work in on time.

“Oh my god, what a leprechaun,” I groan. The girl across the lab table laughs.

10:39

I’m in history class when my phone rings.

“Hey kid, it’s grandpa Merle—the demons got me.”

“What!?”

“They put a curse on me. I’m not feeling very good at all. If something happens to me—”

“What’s gonna happen?”

“Probably nothing, don’t worry… But listen, I need you to get me something. I need you—”

“PHONE AW AY” the teacher shrieks. She plucks the device from my hands.

“I was talking to my grandpa.”

“I’ll tell Grandpa he can come and pick it up from the dean.”

12:45 PM

Lunchtime. I borrow a phone to call Gramps, but he doesn’t pick up.

2:37

Math class. Across the room is a window. Outside I watch as the last leaves fall from a great oak tree.

Winter has come early.

3:30

I begin the trek home. Halfway between my house and the school stands a church. I step inside, dipping my bottle into a font of holy water. A priest yells at me. I don’t bother to explain that my grandpa needs it to fight demons. What’s the point? Nobody else believes in magic.

4:17

I find the door to my house ajar. Gramps is nowhere to be found, yet his truck is still parked out front.

That’s when I see a note on the fridge.

Lance— If you are reading this, I have been turned into a frog by the demons. I tried to call you, but you did not pick up the phone.

—Grandpa Merle

I run upstairs to his bedroom, underneath a crooked floorboard is the wooden box housing grandpa Merle’s gun. I grab it, load it, tuck it into my waistband.

4:23

I knock on the door where the demons live. The viking answers. “Hello there,” he says. I douse him in holy water, to prevent him from changing shape, then I pull grandpa’s gun.

“The hell!? What do you want?”

“Turn my grandpa back into a human!”

“What?”

“Don’t play stupid with me- change him back!” I demand.

He babbles- but I don’t pay him any mind. What could he say that wouldn’t be a lie?

“5… 4… 3…” I begin.

“Wait— wait—,” he pleads.

“2…”

He jumps at me, groping for the gun. His daughter is walking towards us from the kitchen.

*BANG*

Blood is everywhere.

7:06

They say I’m not going to live with my grandpa anymore— That I’m going to Clark County Juvenile Detention center. I don’t believe them. Grandpa Merle has always been there for me. I know he’ll come back—using one of his potions or spells to rescue me. He’ll come back. Grandpa Merle is a wizard, the best to ever walk the earth. And anybody who says otherwise is a demon.