Out of Salem: Chapters 7–10

by Hal Schrieve
Z, a witch-turned-zombie, and Aysel, a werewolf, befriend one another when they are shunned by members of their community.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–10, Chapters 11–14, Chapters 15–18
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. disconcerted
    having self-possession upset; thrown into confusion
    Aysel looked disconcerted. “Well—I’ll talk to him anyway,” Aysel said.
  2. morose
    showing a brooding ill humor
    But at lunch, Aysel looked morose.
  3. din
    a loud, harsh, or strident noise
    If you were in the hall, the din of the distant lunchroom echoed down the linoleum floors and stopped you from hearing anything.
  4. gullible
    naive and easily deceived or tricked
    You have already managed to get one rather gullible member of the staff arrested on charges of attempted necromancy.
  5. dispassionate
    unaffected by strong emotion or prejudice
    They tried to hold eye contact with Mr. Holmes, but his face was contorted with such intense, dispassionate hate that they couldn’t bear to keep looking at him.
  6. precarious
    fraught with danger
    “I was just talking to Susan about not pulling you into her...precarious situation.”
  7. indignation
    a feeling of righteous anger
    Mr. Holmes spluttered, and turned his body away from Z toward Mr. Weber in a gesture of indignation.
  8. leaden
    made heavy or weighted down with weariness
    The backpack on their back felt heavy and leaden.
  9. ambivalent
    uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
    Z shrugged ambivalently.
  10. ecstatic
    feeling great rapture or delight
    Z felt an ecstatic high build in their chest.
  11. illicit
    contrary to or forbidden by law
    “This is like too perfect. You showed up at exactly the right time with exactly what I needed. I think I’ll go home and try to do some illicit necromancy.”
  12. sluggish
    moving slowly
    The brew smelled really rank until the licorice and bananas were added. It turned an odd purple color in spite of the orange turmeric and bubbled sluggishly when the unicorn blood was poured in.
  13. perigee
    the nearest point in an orbit around the Earth
    The perigee moon drew everything out.
  14. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    She seemed solemn instead of frantic, and this made Aysel even more scared.
  15. lope
    run easily
    She staggered into the woods, loping in a way that even to her did not seem human.
  16. keen
    express grief verbally
    Her tongue grew long and the elated cry became a keening howl that was not human in tone.
  17. subtly
    in a manner difficult to detect or grasp
    It was there on the edge of her vision at first, moving subtly in and out of bushes.
  18. subside
    wear off or die down
    Both of them slid in and out of the shadows around Aysel as she finished her transformation and curled up on the floor of the forest, waiting for the pain of the change to subside.
  19. bramble
    any of various rough thorny shrubs or vines
    She felt the worms move in the leaves beneath her feet as she paced quickly through banks of brambles, following in the wake of larger paws.
  20. pelt
    body covering of a living animal
    She wanted closeness, and other soft pelts against her own, and she wanted speed, and the things were wrapped up together in the way the wolf could not untangle. She had to run with the other wolves.
  21. overt
    open and observable; not secret or hidden
    They ran and were like dogs tearing through the underbrush, nothing stately or graceful or too overtly magical about it.
  22. fray
    a noisy fight
    Aysel leapt into the fray at the scent of iron and salt and bit hard on her neck, which killed her so she stopped feeling the pain.
  23. irrepressible
    impossible to control
    She blinked and, embarrassingly, yawned loudly. It was one of those yawns that come on with an irrepressible force, and she couldn’t stop herself.
  24. alienated
    socially disoriented
    Aysel knew that meant she should be sympathetic toward them, but it made her feel even more alienated.
  25. saccharine
    overly sweet
    “Good luck with the bike,” Crystal Bell told Aysel in a saccharine tone.
  26. opalescent
    having a play of lustrous rainbow colors
    After two days in the Tahirs' garage, the potion was no longer the original deep purple; instead it was an odd opalescent lavender color.
  27. fervently
    with strong emotion or zeal
    She had almost bought cow’s brains at the supermarket until Z convinced her that this was a bad idea. Z wished fervently that they could be vegetarian.
  28. endeavor
    attempt by employing effort
    Z did their homework to the noise of hissing cooking meat in a pan and the sound of cats endeavoring to be in everyone’s way at once.
  29. hunker down
    take shelter
    “Okay,” Z said when they had hunkered down just inside the door to their room. “What do you want to talk about, Tommy? Is something wrong?”
  30. wheedle
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
    His voice was high and wheedling, and Z felt sure he was going to ask something of them.
  31. parched
    extremely thirsty
    It seemed as if every pore of their skin was aching for fluid. Z was a desert, parched.
  32. articulate
    put into words or an expression
    But they felt less dead now than they had, somehow. Something was happening in their chest—not exactly a heartbeat, but a kind of presence. Z wasn’t sure how to articulate that.
  33. avail
    a means of serving
    He attempted to fend them off, to no avail.
  34. incessantly
    without interruption
    The trees hung low and thick and green with needles falling incessantly in fine waves on the ground.
  35. mottled
    having spots or patches of color
    After only one dose of the potion, they looked much more whole than they had a few days before—the bags under their eyes were gone, and they looked less mottled and green and more like a pretty body lying in a casket.
  36. emaciated
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    Her friend’s face was less emaciated and flaky, and it looked as if the cartilage in their nose, which had been rapidly vanishing, had partially regenerated.
  37. queue
    form a line or stand in line
    A line of students were queued up and slowly approaching Charley and his friends. One by one, they went up and wrote something on the clipboard.
  38. contingent
    a gathering of persons representative of some larger group
    "Apparently there’s like, an anti-werewolf rally happening tomorrow, and Charley is recruiting the Youth Fascist contingent.”
  39. gauge
    judge tentatively or form an estimate of
    Aysel looked around at her classmates to gauge their reaction to this speech.
  40. rapt
    feeling great delight and interest
    Ginger was leaning forward in her seat, rapt, and did not appear to be doodling.
Created on Thu Sep 26 08:41:43 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Oct 01 14:47:41 EDT 2019)

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