Val’s mother kept coming home with more mysterious, old and musty books. She’d sit by her bedside and read them, mumbling to herself. Val had noticed her mother had been visiting the garden shed a lot. She’d go inside the shed and stay there for hours, only returning to go eat or read more. Once, while her mother was in the shed, Val decided to investigate the books she had been reading. She picked one up that was beside the bed. It had a dusty red cover, and there was no English title written, but there were some other symbols inscribed. Val didn’t understand these symbols, nor did she recognize them. Val flipped through the pages. They felt brittle and were stained with dirt. How old were these books exactly? Val examined one of the pages to see if she could find out what the books were about. It was written with the same kind of symbols as the ones she saw on the front cover. There was a diagram in the top left corner of the left page. It showed some kind of circle, kind of like a pentagram. A human figure was placed in the center, and candles were illustrated around it. As Val flipped through the pages some more, similar kinds of diagrams appeared. Though she couldn’t understand the book’s writing, she thinks she's figured out what the book was for. The diagrams were rituals. This book was some kind of occult textbook. Val worried for her mother. She must have been scammed into buying these textbooks. The seller prayed on her mother’s vulnerability, feeding her lies so they could sell these tomes of junk. For a scam though, they were rather detailed. Seems like a lot of effort for a scam. Val kept flipping through the book, amused by the effort the swindler put into it. 

A stomp. 

Val froze. She slowly put the book down, and turned around. Her mother was standing behind her, breathing heavily. She carried a spade, likely from the shed. Val braced for impact.