Except the Equinox Bookstore was anything but a suburban respite. For starters, it was in North Center, west of the yuppies who lived in Lincoln Park and north of the drunken postcollege grads who cosplayed as weekend warriors while doing shots at the Cubby Bear every Friday night. It was also between a sex toy shop and a dispensary.

“Ohhhh,” Jess said as I parked the car across the street.

“No,” Melissa and I said in unison. She was next to me in the passenger seat and neither of us so much as turned around to see what Jess looked at in appreciation. We knew it was the Candy Vault, apparently famous for their variety of dildos, according to the placard out front.

I glanced at Melissa and saw her eyes were trained on the dispensary. “No for you, too. We are here for business.”

I tried to peer into the windows of the bookstore, but it was too dark. Equinox was an occult bookseller that Melissa had found online. We needed reinforcements, knowledge, and expert advice on how to approach an exorcism. Melissa had flatly refused any notion of asking her parents if they knew any actual demon hunters but offered to find a place that might know something.

As we approached the front door, a strong wave of anticipation nearly made my knees buckle. We could have been just steps from finding out information that would make everything stop, and the thought was overwhelming. What was more overwhelming, though, was the idea that we wouldn’t.

I pushed open the door with my friends following closely behind. It was dimly lit inside, and it took several moments for my eyes to adjust. While my vision was coming into focus, the smell of incense overwhelmed me. It reminded me of my first-year dorm, when my next-door neighbors smoked copious amounts of weed and burned incense all night to cover the smell. I don’t know why they bothered; our RA distilled her own liquor in her room, so she didn’t care what anyone did.

The inside of the Equinox Bookstore was painted a dark blue. The bookshelves were white and full of brightly colored books, an array of pink and green spines like you’d usually find on beach reads. In one corner sat a glass case with talismans, charms, and sparkly jewelry.

“Where’s the demon section?” Melissa said impatiently as she eyed a collection of crystals under a glass box.

“I don’t know. Look around. I—” I said before I was cut off.

“Hey there, ladies,” said a voice that at first appeared to have no body. But then a figure stepped out of the shadows. “Welcome to Equinox.”

“Oh! Hello,” I said.