BOOK SUMMARY #2 : The Witches of Worm

 "We invite our own devils and we ourselves must exorcise them"   
- Mrs. Fortuna

Jessica is an outsider, some might say she’s “different”. Used to being alone, Jessica likes to play pretend and make up conversation in her head. She used to have friends, Brandon and Diane. But along the way they decided that “playing pretend” isn’t cool anymore or rather hang out with the new girl who owns a swimming pool. Most of the time Jessica’s is left all by herself in her tiny apartment, while her mom, Joy, spends more and more time with her boyfriend. But Jessica doesn’t mind the loneliness…..or does she?

One day, when Jessica was reading in her hideaway cave behind her apartment, she noticed something moving near the back. When she looked a little closer, it turns out to be a small black kitten. Not knowing what to do, Jessica brought the tiny creature to Mrs. Fortune, The “crazy” cat lady that lives in her building. Surely she’ll know how to take care of a stray kitten. Mrs. Fortune says that she’s far too old to take care of another cat, having up to 10 in her apartment so far. So annoyed that she was for being forced to take care of the misshapen little black lump, Jessica took the cat home.

As time went on, the cat grew. It still looked strange with its slick body, pointed ears, slit diamond eyes and the fact that it never makes a sound. The cat looks like a worm according to Joy, and that’s how it got its name. But something feels off about worm and Jessica can’t seem to put her finger on it. Then one day something strange happened. As hard as it was to believe, but Worm talked to her. A soft howl-like voice crept inside her mind. Jessica was 100% sure it wasn’t one of her imagination, so it must be this strange cat. One incident turned into another, then another, and after a while Jessica was certain that worm isn’t an ordinary cat. But a harmless whisper from worm soon turned into something a little more vile and wicked. And Jessica doesn’t seem to notice it.

Worm’s “whisper” started to incite Jessica to do bad things. Like lie to Diane’s parents to get her in trouble, ruin her mother’s brand new dress, and even push Brandon’s trumpet out the window. Jessica read something from a library book that mention this occurrence happened before to someone who was possessed by a demon. A girl name Ann, that lived a long long time ago said that she was possessed by witches and it made her do terrible things. Could Jessica be facing the same issue? All this horrible things happens right when worm entered her live. Maybe he’s a demon, or a witches cat, and now Jessica’s is under his spell. She must do something about it before he’ll make her do something more evil than the last.

Jessica went to the one person who she believe understand cat better than anyone, Mrs. Fortune. She explained everything that had happened to the old lady. Mrs. Fortune says that Jessica might need to perform an exorcism on worm if she truly believe that he’s a devils cat. But Mrs. Fortune also suggest Jessica to reflect on herself. Is she certain that all the things she had done was caused by a cat? Not because of her own negative feelings? Is worm really the pinnacle of all her problems or is he just an escape goat? It took Jessica some time to realize that even if Worm is “evil”, she surely made it very easy for him to entice her to do all those wicked stuff. She’s just as guilty as he is. Realizing that, Jessica finally understand what Mrs. Fortune had told her before, “We invite our own devils and we ourselves must exorcise them”. And that’s exactly what Jessica did.