She cocked a brow at the flying door and raining splinters, although she wasn’t entirely surprised. Contrary to popular belief, not every incorporeal spectral presence altered the temperature of the surrounding air. It took a particularly potent spirit to be able to affect the physical world, and one that could actively manipulate it was one that had been around for a long time. They grew in potency over time, though only those that caused the deaths of others were able to significantly benefit from chronological development.<br/><br/>She sighed. So much for a peaceful evening with her hubby. She pulled her dress up just a little, revealing an elastic black garter on her upper left thigh and the waistband of the dark-purple silk-and-lace panties that she wore; she had turned away just enough so that her undergarments couldn’t be seen entirely, though. A half-dozen tiny vials were securely fastened to the garter, and she pulled out two of them before sliding her dress back down again. She slid the right side of her dress up and pulled something from a garter on that side as well before straightening her dress entirely.<br/><br/>“If you’re cursed in some manner,” she told the poltergeist-afflicted boy, “this will probably burn you.”<br/><br/>She let a pendant drop from her left hand, secured only by its thin chain. Both the pendant and the chain were of polished pewter, the pendant resembling a rooster with its mouth open and its wings back as though it was calling the dawn. The implication for him to wear it was hopefully obvious, and she quickly donned her own identical necklace as well. One of the vials she also handed to the boy, shifting its white crystalline innards as she did so.<br/><br/>“Don’t waste that unless you have to,” she told him. “If the poltergeist manifests itself or something else comes near you that isn’t warded off by that pendant, which bears a protective mark upon the back, empty the contents into the air at whatever’s coming. But don’t you dare lose the vial or the cap.”<br/><br/>Her own vial was identical.<br/><br/>“Follow me.”<br/><br/>With that, she walked out through the restaurant and pulled up her dress near the bar, where it couldn’t be easily seen. She dropped a bill onto the counter, put her money away, and lowered her dress again; then she set the emptied glass atop the bill and walked out to her car. She unlocked and opened the door, put her bag on the back seat, and told the boy to get in. She closed her own door and buckled up, fully expecting him to do the same. It was still freezing, rain aside, but it was less noticeable out here and now that the pair were protected. She wasn’t about to practice her Craft in public but she knew a good spot nearby: the small park just a few blocks north by northwest of the tavern. It was technically land owned by the local churches but there was enough tree cover that it would be easy enough to perform a protection ceremony and possibly trap and capture the poltergeist. A poltergeist would keep her fed for a couple of days, at least, depending on how strong it was. Given the state of the door back in the tavern, it was fairly strong.<br/><br/>She started the car up once her passenger was buckled, backed out of the parking lot, and took off down the road and around the corner.