The front door opened a moment after the knock, then I heard Tabby call out "Hello?"

"Hey Tabs," I called back. "I'm in the living-room, come on up!"

A couple seconds later she was at the top of the stairs. Her hair looked a bit damp from the rain outside, and her ears were folded back while her tail twitched around. She wasn't wearing a jacket but her tight t-shirt was dry, so I figured she left her jacket down by the front door.

I couldn't help staring at first, I was still getting used to her new look. She was wearing another pair of tight jeans today, but these ones were black instead of blue. And her t-shirt was a dark green and brown camo pattern, with a deep scoop-neck that showed off a bit of cleavage. She had a pair of black sneakers on her feet, and her purse was hanging from her left shoulder.

She was actually staring back at me too, so I didn't feel so bad for looking at her. I was a little more covered-up than her though. I was wearing a cute comfy pastel green dress that came down to my knees, and another pair of thigh-high stockings. These ones were white with an abstract yellow pattern. I was also wearing a pair of white sneakers. Most of my outfit was actually hidden though, by the huge oversized black hoodie hanging open overtop of everything else.

"So what's up?" Tabby asked as she moved to sit next to me on the sofa. Her tail wrapped around her hip as she sat down, in a natural fluid motion like she'd been doing it that way for years.

"And where'd you get the hoodie?" she added. "I thought all your clothes got turned into skimpy colourful stuff? Or have you already gone shopping this morning?"

I grimaced but shook my head, "It's Avery's. I uh, stole it. And cursed it to make it too big for her, and changed the colour to black. To replace my old favourite hoodie that she turned into a tiny purple thing that won't do up over my boobs."

My friend frowned, "Huh. So what else have you been up to? Did you get any homework done yet, or are you saving it up for the last minute tonight?"

"Nah," I shook my head. "Avery accidentally triggered that compliance curse on me when I got home from your place last night? She had me doing chores and stuff, and I got all my homework done before dinner."

Tabby made a face, "Oh crud, that must have sucked. Did you tell her about it? Or actually no, that'd just be even worse if she decided to take advantage of it."

I smiled, "She figured out something was up when I was running all over the house doing chores and being efficient and not complaining. So I told her what happened? Then she wanted to kill Holly for a bit but I talked her out of it."

"As for the chores and homework," I continued, "It actually wasn't that bad? Like I said, I was really efficient. In like two hours I got through a ton of chores and all my homework. I probably won't go around getting people to use that curse on me again, but it was actually kind of helpful? Although I was probably pretty lucky that neither you or Avery or Holly tried to take advantage of me with it."

She had a thoughtful look on her face as I told her all that. Then she finally asked, "That's worn off now, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah the twenty-four hours was up a couple hours ago."

"Good," she stated.

Then she asked, "Speaking of Avery, I guess she's at work again?"

"Yeah. She'll be back later this afternoon though? Before dinner time anyways," I replied.

"Ah right," Tabs responded. "So you asked me to come over here, what did you want to talk about that we couldn't do online or by voice? Is this something else about your crazy curse book?"

I grimaced, "Yeah it's curse book related. Remember yesterday we were talking about how it seems like the book can change its contents? Last night that kind of got proved, it's for sure."

Tabby looked curious as she asked, "Oh yeah? What happened? You caught it changing something?"

"You could say that," I nodded.

I actually had the book with me, it was tucked away out of sight in between me and the side of the sofa. I pulled it out though and offered it to Tabby as I said, "I thought Friday night was kind of wild and crazy, with accidentally turning into a girl and stuff? Last night was a pretty close second though, in terms of crazy stuff."

"Why, what happened?" she asked as she took the book from me. "And what am I supposed to do with this?"

I sighed, "I had some weird conversations last night, and I wanted to share this stuff with you. I didn't want to talk to Avery about it, I knew she'd freak out for sure. I know you'll be more... I don't know. I figure you won't freak out as much."

Tabby frowned, "Conversations with who?"

"Just have a look at the first couple pages of the book," I gestured at it in her hands.

She continued frowning as she stared at me for another second or two. Her ears were both pointed at me as well, while the tip of her tail swished back and forth alongside her leg. Eventually she turned her attention to the Hexinomicon. She opened the front cover, then turned past the first blank page and froze as she saw the text on page two.

"Ok that wasn't there before," she stated. "Property of Cheryl Weaver huh?"

I nodded, "Remember I told it I was its new owner? I'm pretty sure that's why it added that text to page two."

She frowned at the book again, "So that's definitely proof it can change its contents."

"There's more," I told her. "Check the next page."

She turned it over to page three then nearly dropped the book.

"Oh shit!" she exclaimed, while her ears folded back and her tail twitched around unhappily.

I looked over, and sure enough it had a little two word greeting in the middle of the page.

"Hello Tabby."

"Yeah," I sighed as I looked at my best friend. "You can talk to it. It'll talk back, but you have to keep turning pages? It won't change the text while you're looking at it. So like, turn forward or backward a page, then go back to page three again and it'll respond to what you say."

Tabs stared at me for a couple seconds, then slowly looked back at the book in her hands again. She closed the book then addressed it, "How do you know my name? And what do you want with me, and with Cheryl?"

It took her a few seconds to work up the courage to open the book again, then she turned to the third page. As soon as she saw the new text her tail started twitching around again while she muttered, "This is messed up."

"You told me your name a few times already, when you used me to curse your body and some of your possessions."

"Those curses gave me some interesting insights into you, by the way. Like for instance, I know the significance of that collar of yours. And I know what will happen if Cheryl scans the QR code with her phone."

"As for what I want with you and Cheryl, I've already had that conversation with her. I want to be used. I'm a book of curses, and I've customized my curses to suit your and Cheryl's preferences."

"So pick some curses, pick some targets, and get cursing."

Tabby stared at the page for a few more seconds before she snapped the book closed again. Her cheeks were red and she looked like she had a lot of conflicting emotions going on all at once.

She finally glanced at me and asked, "You said you found out it could do this last night? So it's been bugging you to curse people since then?"

"Yeah," I sighed again. "I haven't cursed anyone else. I did a few more curses though. I cursed this hoodie, like said earlier?"

"So you've just been cursing clothes and things?" she asked.

I nodded, "More or less."

My friend narrowed her eyes at me, "So what else have you done with it?"

My cheeks were heating up too as I mumbled, "I maybe cursed myself again with it last night. Once or twice."

She facepalmed, "What did you do to yourself this time? What are you hiding under that big hoodie?"

"I didn't do any more changes to myself!" I insisted. Then with my cheeks even brighter I admitted, "I used that horny curse on myself again. The one you did on me Friday night? I figured it was pretty safe, and I knew it'd wear off in an hour."

My voice was very quiet as I mumbled softly, "And I was all alone so I could actually um, enjoy it more."

Tabby gave me a sort of incredulous look for a few seconds, then looked back down at the book she was still holding.

She frowned, "So what now? You've got a magic book full of magic curses, it knows our names, and it wants us to use it to curse people? Why? What's it get out of that? You know how many alarm bells this is ringing, how many red flags it's waving?"

"Yeah I know," I grimaced again. "That's why I wanted to talk to you about it? I figured you might have some ideas or suggestions or something? If I tried talking to Avery about this stuff she'd just tell me to throw it out. Or burn it. Or she'd make me send it back to the bookstore."

My best friend gave me a look, "You know all three of those are probably valid suggestions? Remember what I was just saying about alarm bells and red flags?"

I rolled my eyes, "So apart from the stuff we know Avery would say, do you have any ideas or whatever?"

Tabby sighed and frowned down at the book on her lap. She finally addressed it, "So you can communicate with us. Do you have a name we should use?"

"I already asked that last night," I told her. "Its name is Hexinomicon, but it said I could call it Hex."

She gave me another look, then focused on the book again. "All right Hex, if you don't mind me calling you that. Um, do you have pronouns you'd prefer we use for you? Mine are she and her by the way, same as Cheryl's."

After waiting a moment she opened to the third page and found the book's response waiting there.

"Yes Tabby, you may call me Hex."

"Nobody has ever asked my pronouns before. Interesting. I suppose they would be it and its, considering I am an inanimate object. I am after all only a book."

My friend closed the book again as she replied to it, "If you were just an inanimate object I don't think we'd be having this conversation. That's why I wanted to ask."

"So next question," she continued, "Are you the actual book, or are you some sort of spirit that's been bound or imprisoned within the book?"

After a second she added, "Or I guess if that question doesn't make any sense then put it another way? Were you something else before you became a book? And if so, what were you before?"

When she was finished she opened it up to page three once more, and we both took a look at Hex's answers.

"Just because I'm inanimate doesn't mean I'm not sentient, Tabby. As as fan of sci-fi and fantasy stories I'd have thought you'd be more open-minded. Surely you're aware of talking swords, rings, and doors? Such things aren't uncommon in fantasy tropes, as I understand it."

"Or perhaps you'd be more comfortable with an example from science fiction? What about artificial intelligence? I'll bet you're very familiar with the concept of AI."

"As for your question regarding me being part of the book or imprisoned within it, how does that work for you? Are you part of your body, or merely imprisoned within it?"

"To be honest Tabby I'd rather you and Cheryl were using me for cursing, rather than trying to analyze me by playing twenty questions. I had to resort to incentives last night to get Cheryl to use me, I'm not above doing the same with you now."

As soon as Tabby was finished reading all that she snapped the book closed again. Her cheeks were red again, while her ears were folded back and her tail was twitching once more.

She looked at me and half-demanded, "What does it mean about resorting to incentives?"

I grimaced and shook my head, "I don't really know? It was sort of vaguely threatening last night, so I did that horny curse on myself to make it happy. Then I stole Avery's hoodie and cursed it too, like I said earlier."

Tabby sighed as she slumped back next to me, "The magic book full of magic curses seemed threatening? Cheryl this is dangerous as heck! For all we know it's home to some demon or something, just waiting for the chance to kill us or eat our souls or do some other horrible things to us!"

"I don't know about that," I frowned. "Even if it's an evil book it's still just a book, right? It can't do anything to us."

"It's got magic and it's already done plenty to us!" she insisted.

I shrugged, "I don't actually think it's evil though? Like it got rid of all the nastiest curses because they upset me and I didn't want to hurt anyone like that."

My best friend stared at me for a few seconds, then she sighed and looked back down at the book in her hands.

In a firm voice she told it, "We're not using you again unless you give us some straight answers. No more riddles, no more games. Right Cheryl?"

"Right," I nodded. "Hex, you already acknowledged that I'm your owner. Me and Tabby want some clear answers please."

With that out of the way Tabby asked it, "Question one. Hex, the entity we're communicating with, are you the actual physical book? Question two. If you aren't the physical book, are you some other spirit or entity that's been imprisoned within the book? Number three. If you are something imprisoned within the book, what are you or what were you before you were imprisoned? And four, what do you get out of us doing curses?"

She waited a couple seconds, then opened the book to the third page so we could both see Hex's answers.

"Fine."

"1. No."

"2. Yes."

"3. Cambion."

"4. Life."

PurpleCatGirl

Can't wait to find out what happens next? Join our Patreon and get immediate access to the next chapter, bonus chapters, and more! Patrons have already read up to chapter 21 and you could too!
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl