Curse/Or: Just a teeny bit more

Because while I really liked ending on Esther's killer line yesterday, it didn't properly close out the scene. So, here you go.




She could hear shifting in the front seat, imagined the Nose was turning around to look at her again. "Jesus," he said, "she's still out. What did you do to her?"

Esther sighed again. "Miss Satan Stick there is having a time out."

"You used the Voice on her?" Nose's tone was somewhere between incredulous and impressed. "Isn't that massive overkill?"

"She tried to smoke in my car." The vehicle accelerated perceptibly. "Even after I very politely asked her not to."

Nose gave a long, low whistle. "And you say what I do is witchcraft."

"Don't you start on me with that! You study things that aren't in the Bible. What I do just comes naturally. It's a gift, one that I've prayed about for a long time. Since Jesus hasn't taken it from me, I reckon it's safe to use. Besides, the working of miracles is a Gift of the Spirit. One Corinthians twelve."

"So psychic energy is witchcraft but believing in invisible sky gods is…"

"Yevgeny." Teresa twitched, hearing the power in Esther's voice. It felt exactly like being scolded by her mother, assuming her mother was shouting down the length of a tank's cannon. "Thou shalt not blaspheme."

The silence that followed was palpable.