Rockwood General Supply was a combination grocery, feed store, and used-car lot. Like much of the architecture of the town, the building was without any attempts at decoration. Its name was painted on each of the white walls in stenciled black letters. The used-car inventory consisted of three battered pickup trucks in various states of disrepair and a Volvo on cinderblocks that nonetheless "ran like a dream" according to a cardboard sign under the windshield wipers. Broken-down cars aside, the store was well stocked. Duke was able to find most of the things on Earl's list. Not that there was much hard-to-find stuff on it. Most of it was pretty basic.
There was magic in the mundane. Hector had once told him that a practitioner with three yards of duct tape, a PEZ dispenser, a CD player, and a pair of oversized clown shoes was responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire. Duke never really understood how that worked, considering the Roman Empire had already fallen long before any of those items were available. But magic was never bothered by paradoxes like that. Supposedly, the average bathroom had all the necessary bits and pieces to resurrect the dead or exorcise an evil spirit. Of course, one needed an impressive level of talent to pull off something like that. Which was why most practitioners made it easier on themselves by throwing in weird doodles painted in blood, waving around exotic props, and chanting in an excessively dramatic fashion. The way Hector had put it, the forces invisible generally like a good show.
Duke prowled the aisles twice. He was still missing a couple of items when he went to the register.
"Evening, son," the short old woman replied. "Find everything alright?"
He checked his list. "I need candles."
"We got some back thataway."
"They're white. I need blue."
"Don't think we got any of those." She turned toward the back of the building and shouted. "Hey, Bill! Bill! Goddamn it, Bill, you lazy son of a bitch!"
The door in the back marked "Employees Only" opened a crack. Nobody came out, but a voice emerged.
"Yeah? What?"
"We got any candles?"
"Aisle six!"
"Those are white! This feller wants blue!"
"Blue? What for?"
The register lady shook her head. "Ain't none of our business! Just go check if we got any!"
"We don't got any!" Bill's voice yelled back immediately.
"Did'ja check?"
"I said, we ain't got any, Mary!"
"Did'ja check?"
"Hell's bells, Mary! I know what we got back here!"
"Just check already, you worthless. . "
"Alright, alright! I'm checking!"
"You better really check!" Mary growled. "I'll know if you don't!"
The door slammed shut.
Mary began ringing Duke up. "Sorry 'bout that, son."
"S'alright."
The cash register was an antique. It clanged and clicked with each push of the keys.
"Hey, Duke!"
Tammy bounced through the store's front doors, followed by a woman he guessed to be her mother. She skipped by his side.
"Hey," he mumbled back.
"What'cha doin'?"
"Shopping."
"Cool."
Bill's door opened. "Ain't got no blue candles back here!"
"You sure?" Mary asked.
"Yeah!"
She shrugged at Duke. "Sorry, son."
"That's okay. No big deal." He ran his finger down to the next item on his list. They probably wouldn't have it, but in a town like Rockwood there was no way of knowing unless you asked.
"Got any powdered raven's eye?"
"Might. Let me check. Hey, Bill! Bill, you no-good bastard!"
The door opened a crack again, and Bill and Mary spent a minute shouting at one another before he agreed to go and check. While they did, Duke went down the aisles to retrieve some white candles and a can of blue spray paint. Tammy tagged along.
"So what'cha gonna do with all that stuff," she asked.
"Cast a magic spell."
"Really? Like a love spell or something?"
"Don't know."
Tammy's mother called her away, much to Duke's relief. He'd always made fun of Earl for complaining about the attentions of nubile young girls. Now he finally understood Earl's dilemma. The human portion of Duke's soul didn't want to take unnecessary advantage of Tammy. The raging beast simmering just below the surface had no such constraints. It saw Tammy as a potential and all-too-willing mate. The beast threw pornographic flashes across his consciousness. He pushed them back.
"Is this enough, son?"
"Huh?"
Mary shook a plastic bag with a few ounces of dried raven's eye. "Is this enough? It's all we got."
"Uh. Yeah. That'll do."
"Anything else?"
"Got any belladonna?"
Bill, who now stood beside Mary, was a short, stocky man who looked as if his skin had been left to tan in the desert sun for the last four hundred years. "Don't think we got any."
Mary jabbed an elbow in his ribs. "Why don't you go check?"
" 'Cuz I'm pretty sure we don't got any."
"Well, why don't you make sure?"
He shot her a hard glare. She shot back a harder glare. Bill withered and shuffled into the back room, mumbling.
While Duke and Mary waited for his return, Tammy and her mother went about their shopping. Duke tried not to watch Tammy as she bent to retrieve Liquid-Plumr or stretched on her tiptoes to reach the canned goods on the really high shelves. He couldn't help himself. The beast grew stronger as the moon grew fuller. By the month's end, he doubted he could resist her. Hopefully, she'd be bored with him by then. Or his business with the diner would be done, and he'd leave Rockwood and temptation behind.
If not. .
Well, if not, then it was only a matter of time.
Tammy caught him staring at her. She smiled in a way that was both full of girlish innocence and seductive allure. Mary caught him staring, too, and shook her head in a most disapproving fashion. Bill was too busy staring himself to catch anyone else.
He tore his eyes from Tammy's jeans just long enough to toss a paper bag on the counter. "Belladonna. Anything else you wantin' there, son?"
"No. That's it."
Duke paid the bill, dipping deep into his nearly empty pockets. Freeing Earl's girlfriend was draining their limited resources. Duke hoped she was worth it. Cathy was bound to find out what an asshole Earl was. If she could see the positive traits buried beneath his avalanche of character flaws, then they might stand a chance. If she didn't, and Duke didn't reckon she would, she'd take off. Earl would take it hard. The poor bastard had it bad for the girl. If things went south, he'd be a real son of a bitch for the next couple of months. Duke wasn't looking forward to it.
In the parking lot, Marshall Kopp's cruiser pulled up. The sheriff rolled down his window and stuck out his head. "Mornin', Duke."
"Sheriff."
"How are things at the diner?"
"Gettin' worse."
"I was afraid of that. I been pretty busy myself, lately. Rained horny toads over at the trailer park, and I found Curtis Mayfair running 'round last night, covered in green sludge, rambling about alien abductions. And the shrieking yucca at Lover's Grove has stopped screaming and started laughing. That ain't never a good sign. Sumthin's brewing. Sumthin' bad." The sheriff ducked his head in the cruiser just long enough to take a drink of soda.
"I've been checking all the cult hot spots: Sander's Mill, the old Robertson place, Canin Field. Every place that's lonely and deserted that a bunch might be able to get together and practice black magic."
"Any luck?"
"None so far. My guess is they know we're lookin' for 'em and are keepin' a low profile. But it's only a matter of time before they slip up. And you know what they say, it's always the last place you look."
"Yup." Duke tossed his sack of magical supplies in his pickup's cab. He climbed in after it.
"See ya' 'round, Duke."
The cruiser took off.
Duke started the truck. He glanced back at the store. Tammy waved from the doors and blew him a kiss. He caught her scent lingering in the breeze. She smelled good. Young, eager, and fertile. A perfect mate. Every muscle in his body tightened. The steering wheel bent in his grip. The impression of his large hands was left in the imitation leather.
"Goddamn."
Drawing on his dwindling reserves of self-control, he fled from Rockwood General Supply and Auto Sales at a leisurely forty miles per hour.