Melissa shrank back from the books, hand poised in the air. “I don’t know if I can do this.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I thought I could, but this brings back a lot of memories.”

I made a sympathetic sound. I couldn’t imagine growing up in her family. Each week she would attend their megachurch, hear fire-and-brimstone rantings about going to hell, and then have brunch at Cracker Barrel, musing over the various possible demonic activities they had all witnessed in the past week. Neighbors accused other neighbors, and Melissa told me her parents once ran a family off the block for having tattoos and piercings, a definite sign of the devil. None had anything to do with God.

“Did you know they canceled Halloween? The head of the church said that it was Satan’s holiday and shouldn’t be celebrated. No costumes, no trick-or-treating. Nothing,” she said with a head shake. “I’m sorry, Amy. Really. But I just don’t believe in any of this.”

“Let’s humor her, Mel. I’m not saying it makes sense, but you guys know I’ve never turned down an adventure,” Jess said as she flipped open one of the books. She turned it around and tapped one of the illustrations, that of a naked woman rising above a terrified man in the bed below. “Maybe this is why Tim isn’t concerned.”

I grunted and reached for a book, scanning the accounts of people changing their personalities, of unexplained noises in the night, of electrical problems that couldn’t be explained by ComEd.

“It’s hard to know what any of this is. I feel like half of these things could be attributed to nervous husbands or a midlife crisis. I mean, how often in history have women been accused of supernatural things when they were just being humans?” I said. “Look at Salem. Scary groupthink is a real thing, and I don’t want to veer into that territory.”

Melissa brushed her hair back from her shoulders. “First of all, we aren’t setting Liz on fire. And besides, you were the one who checked these books out, Cotton Mather.”

We heard footsteps and quickly closed the books, turning them over so the covers weren’t visible. Tony appeared in the doorway.

“I just remembered that I have some excellent brie en croûte that I could heat up for you all if you want,” he said as he hooked a thumb toward the kitchen. He took a step toward it before we said anything.

“Heather had so much food, we are all full,” Melissa said quickly. They exchanged a long, silent conversation before he nodded and walked back upstairs again.

“That was strange,” Jess said, her eyes shifting toward the stairs. “He seems obsessed with feeding us.”