by P. S. Power
And Coretechs.
So, it was time to run off to Darla so that she could use her hundreds of years of experience to handle the situation. Well, that or get the gang together so that they could ignore common sense, proper planning and decide the very best thing to do was to run into danger alone, eschewing all help, so that they could save the day.
Because that would work. In a children’s movie.
Kind of like Quince and Gary were doing, come to think of it. At least Quince had an excuse. He really wasn’t very bright. Gary on the other hand was nearly a genius, or at least comfortably bright and should have figure it all out on his own. Grief for his loss would explain it, but it was still idiotic.
On the good side, there were at least fifty people at the party by the time she left.
So, yay. Definitely a bit of a success. Glen was lighting the bonfire himself.
When she got to the park by Raintree she had to admit to feeling a little taken aback. There were hundreds of people. Not all kids either, parents, and possibly a few perverts lusting after firm teen flesh, stood off to one side, dancing awkwardly, and in a couple of cases, drunkenly.
“Woooo!” One woman yelled as another lifted her shirt to get a guy to toss her some mardi gras beads. About thirty teenage boys stared with rapt attention. Becky from Taco Bell did too, her mouth hanging open as Keeley walked up to her.
“Becky, have you seen Darla around anywhere? Maybe with Hally or Eve?”
The girl looked down and blushed brightly, very much so.
“No. Um, I think I have to leave in shame now.” She pointed at the woman who’s breasts still hung out in the night air.
“That’s my mom. God, I can’t go back to school now, can I?”
Keeley patted her on the back and smiled.
“No worries there. Just walk up to her and do the same thing, she’ll back off it I think. That or you’ll be incredibly popular next Monday.” Scanning the crowd she caught a hint of red hair above a pink dress.
Hally.
“Or, you know, you could just walk over and ask her to stop before the police kick her out. Either way. I’d go with you, but I really have to run. Talk later?”
The girl ducked her head, curly hair not moving above the powder blue sweater she wore.
“That sounds good. You can help me with the note I write to explain why I’m running away.”
“OK. Seriously though, don’t worry about it. Just have some fun. No one here cares half as much about that as you do.” Well, except for the guys staring, but Keeley really doubted they were going to think less of Becky over the whole thing. Her mom had decent breasts, even if she was a little on the heavy side.
It actually took some work, and dodging through the crowd, to find Hally, who stood alone, not dancing or even talking to anyone. Her eyes lit up when she saw her friend walk over, so Keeley gave her a little hug, just a friendly one armed thing.
“Have you seen the others? I have a Darla centric emergency. Gary centric too.”
Hally grimaced and made a dark face.
“The jerk took off and left me at the dance. Alone. I get that he’s really upset about Rob, but if he didn’t want to be there with me, he could have just said so. I wasn’t his original date or anything, but still… He left with Quince. There probably off having hot man love right now. They should have asked. I would have liked to watch at least.” She seemed sad and serious for about five seconds then gave it all away with a smile.
“Seriously though, I don’t know where they are. I can call, you don’t have a phone, right?” It wasn’t a judgment, just a statement of fact. Her small pink cell came out about then and she dialed a number. Then hung up and tried another. After a few seconds she looked at the device and tried again.
“I have reception bars, four of them, but it’s not dialing out for some reason. Kind of odd. I wonder what’s going on?” She tried several more times before Keeley started feeling really uneasy. It was like she was being watched.
Hunted.
Looking around she didn’t see anything too strange at first. Then she noticed that one of the glowing lamps was missing. As she watched, another one vanished, then a third. Inside thirty seconds all the lights were gone. People started to notice. Taking Hally by the hand, she moved, carefully trying to avoid the people around her as the crowd, unhelpfully, began to make noise. The whole thing just didn’t feel right.
Then it happened.
A sound, like thunder, came from the loudspeakers. Then a strobe light lit. four of them, all working in unison.
Then a blast of music came as the six people ran out. Wearing very little. Not strippers, but still exotic dancers none the less. Barely clothed, all in things that showed their behinds and the shape of whatever they had in front pretty clearly, the three women with tops that had just enough cloth to cover the nipples.
Mostly.
The lights slowly came back as they danced through the crowd, not letting anyone touch them, but moving close enough to. People were laughing and dancing at least, and it certainly was more interesting than a raffle. It had Darla written all over it.
Possibly Eve too.
That didn’t explain the cell phones though. Taking Hally by the hand, forcing a giggle, she walked over to the adult side of the event, trying to find someone with a cell phone. She found such a person in the form of Dan Carmichael, who was busily trying to chat up Ginger York as her husband stood by, amused by the other mans antics. They were still both looking pretty happy.
“No Steve?” Keeley asked the girl next to her, who shook her head.
“Nope, invited to come with, but he decided to stay home and get to bed early. Probably to jerk off while spying on the neighbor lady. Too bad, he’d have liked to see this I think. I probably shouldn’t say that in front of you. I think he has a crush on you, you know. Since the other day he keeps asking when you’re going to come over, and if you have a boyfriend. Since my parents aren’t acting half as freaky now that nothings hanging over them, I should have you and the girls over for a party. A sleep over. Then he can spy on you all to his heart’s content. His little, totally perverted heart.”
“As long as he isn’t spying on you or your mom, I wouldn’t worry over it. We should definitely do that though. The sleepover. If I can ever get my dad to agree. Let’s see if we can get another phone… Dan!”
The Demon that was Finias pretending to be a medium-high level office worker or whatever his job description was, turned and waved to her with a happy smile.
“Girls! OK, I know Keeley, but who’s your friend?” He made enough eye contact that it would have been considered flirting if that wouldn’t have gotten him a swift kick to the groin. She doubted it would land, so decided not to try, but the idea was fair.
He did look at her though, making just as much eye contact, but with a more serious look to it. She smiled back and gestured around firmly, trying to seem professional.
“Dan Carmichael, Hally York. Can I use your phone? Hally’s isn’t going out right now. I want to try calling Darla Gibson. It shouldn’t be long distance or anything.” The phone was in her hand before she finished saying the words. It was all silver, but, if she was any judge of such things, it was real silver, at least through the body. It had four bars too.
And also didn’t dial out.
OK.
They checked on both the Yorks’ phones as well. Nothing. If she were paranoid, she’d have guessed some kind of attack to be coming, but why? Looking around she walked over to Clara, to see if she had any ideas, which, awkwardly had everyone else following her for some reason. The near-strippers kept dancing, grinding and bumping all over the place provocatively as a lot of people clapped in time to the music, distracted.
Dangerously so?
Keeley just didn’t know. What she did know was that it might be awkward if Clara called her Master in front of everyone. The woman didn’t though, seeming relaxed and normal now. Not scared of her at least.
“Keeley is all well?”
“I don’t know, can you get in touch with Glen? No one’s cell phones are working.”
Keeley knew the woman could. It wasn’t exactly telepathy, but it was something so similar it might as well have been. All Hsreth could talk to any other that way, or even all of them at once. They were all one family after all.
Surprisingly Clara pulled a cell of her own, tapped some numbers and put it to her ear. After a minute she gave Keeley a frightened look and shook her head.
“No. Nothing Keeley. That… really shouldn’t be happening.”
That Keeley knew, was an understatement. In all the known world only a very few things could block a Hsreth. All of them ancient devices and artifacts created before Atlantis was even a dream in the mind of a poet.
It didn’t take a huge leap to figure out that it was either Darla, the device Demon, or Edith the Gatherer. And what were the odds it would be the one that would benefit her in some way?
She held in a growl and increased her speed and strength as much as she could, then reviewed everything she knew about fighting. Just in case.
Chapter nine
Nothing happened, except that Becky’s mom flashed a stripper and in retaliation Becky flashed everyone, which actually got her mom to keep her shirt on for a while. The male strippers laughed at the interplay and the police crossed their arms and glared, which got people to calm down without ruining anyone’s good time. On the good side for Becky several guys came over to talk to her then, which made her blush, but didn’t stop her from chatting.
Next to her Hally looked on wistfully and finally took Keeley’s hand, it was a gentle move but held meaning, especially since the information that came with it was kind of sad suddenly.
“Do you think I’ll ever find someone that likes me?” Her voice was little and she looked very cute in her pink dress, Keeley glanced around and saw a boy, one she didn’t know, who kept watching them. Watching Hally.
“How about him? Significant eye contact, at least he’s trying, cute enough. Nice dresser, looks like he showers? What more could you ask for?”
The male voice behind her was deep and connected to what had to be the largest guy in the whole school Not just tall, but heavy. About six-six and three hundred pounds. The football team’s center, if she remembered what Darla had told her. He also was a decent person.
“Well, I know that about half the team wants to go out with you, but aren’t you and Gary kind of an item? It’s been keeping a lot of the guys from asking you out. I mean, we all know about him and Rob, they didn’t keep that secret or anything, so we’d all know to punch them if they were looking at our butts in the shower, but Rob dated girls too, so why not?” He sounded pleasant, and spoke slowly, but with a clear tone. The whole picture was of a person that might be a little slow compared to a Demon, but probably had a decent level of intelligence. As long as he used it.
“Like who?” Hally said, missing the lingering gaze that she was being given.
Keeley rolled her eyes.
“Um, duh, Hally… Like him? And really if that’s the case you should grab on to him now because Darla and Quince are planning to set us up. I might just go even if you do start dating him. I haven’t dated much, so that would be nice.” OK, so it was heavy handed, brutally so and a little pushy all around, but it was also a real point.
Keeley hadn’t had a lot of dates. None wasn’t a lot, right?
Hally giggled, making Gavin turn red. He stiffened face going blank, and started to turn to walk away, embarrassed. As if they were mocking him.
“That sounds fun. When would you like to go out?” Hally spoke softly, but loud enough to be heard.
They made plans for the following Saturday, while Keeley scanned the crowd, wishing she had a clue what she was looking for. Nothing happened other than a decently busy party. But if it wasn’t happening there, then maybe it was to keep them from knowing about something else?
There were five parties after all, but who’d try and keep them from communicating? For that matter, did it have anything to do with a party at all? Still, it was the “who” that came to her as the central question.
Well, Edith came to mind, but why? Unless there was a reason? Then, did crazy need a reason?
Keeley had a half dozen ideas and zero proof that any of them were possible at all. It was wasted effort even thinking about it until she learned more.
“There they are! I knew I saw them over here.” Dan had walked up behind Gavin, from the side, followed by a distinguished gray haired older woman, wrinkled by time, but with a straight back and sharp looking clothing that had probably cost more than everything in Keeley’s closet.
They hadn’t met, but she knew her anyway. There was a “familial” resemblance.
“Mrs. Gibson, how wonderful to see you! I didn’t expect you to come.” Keeley made her voice pleased and it wasn’t hard to manage. Not at all.
She’d been worried that something very bad had happened to Darla. Of course that still might be the case. Her sister had talked of what it took to change shape several times in the last weeks, how long it took, and how it required a good bit of concentration to carry off. A good bit of energy too.
But as far as Keeley knew she’d gone to the dance with Quince not two hours before. Maybe three now. That hardly made a difference compared to twelve hours, did it? Some trick, or machine then, most likely, otherwise Darla would have had to do something insane to make it all work.
If it was really her at all.
Putting out her hand to shake, Keeley got nothing. That’s what would happen with a Demon, true, at least in her own experience, but it could also be due to whatever was stopping communication from working. She hadn’t touched anyone else for a while, which was really just habit. After she released the dry and firm hand, she took Hally’s arm, as if to lead her away from the crowd, along with Dan and Mrs. Gibson. Thankfully she got everything.
That didn’t mean it couldn’t be a trick, but it was probably Darla.
She’d have to be careful. If it was really Darla, then she’d had a reason to appear in this form, and it probably wasn’t to impress boys, or even to just avoid flashing the crowd.
“Have you seen my granddaughter anywhere around lately? She was supposed to meet me here, but mentioned possibly touring the other party locations with you? Could she be at one of those, do you think?” If regal and commanding could have a voice without being rude, “Mrs. Gibson” had long ago nailed it down, her words sounded like an order, even as she asked fairly mundane sounding questions.
Darla then for sure.
Edith Givens was a known thing to Keeley now, due to the contact they’d had. That didn’t mean she’d had time to consider everything however, not at all, so the woman had tricks and resources that were still a mystery. One thing she didn’t have however was a high level of acting skill. In fact she was almost brutish in her relationship to the world as a whole.
She took what she wanted and felt that because she could, that made it right. It wasn’t even a rationalization, she just simply believed it with all her heart, and had been raised that way. Gatherers most often were.
So it was a thing, a kind of society, not just a personal choice. They were feared by some, because of one simple reason. They were all freaking insane. Not true insanity, most of the time, at least from what Keeley could pick up from the memories, but yeah, the whole society was sick and entitled. Broken.
No worse than Demons though, that was clear. It wasn’t something she’d thought of, but the idea had to be pretty clear didn’t it? Demons had the reputation they did for a reason, little things like enslaving people against their will could do that. Especially if it was forever and without hope of escape.
Unless the Demon died.
Being that she was the Demon in her case, that didn’t seem like a great plan. The best she could do was treat her people well and try to make sure they benefitted from the situation. At the same time
trying to not seem like a giant softy, because that would give everything away, wouldn’t it? No one would believe that a hundred year old Demoness went around being nice and kind all the time. Not for real.
No, she had to make it seem like everything served her in some way.
She smiled at the older looking woman and nodded.
“I don’t really know. Her date is running the free drawing at the Wilson High party, along with a friend of mine, Gary Turks? A close friend of Darla’s too. I was just going to head over there, do you want me to give her a message if I see here? I don’t know if I’ll be back here any time soon though. I really need to check on everything else. No one can call out from here for some reason. It’s very inconvenient, but it means I need to make a physical check.” She shrugged and waited to see what the plan was, if there was one at all.
Mrs. Givens looked at Dan Carmichael and then, oddly, over his shoulder at the Yorks and Keeley’s parents. She stepped forward with a hand out toward each of them in turn to shake, not reacting to the information she was picking up at all. When she spoke it was firmly, but sounded pleasant enough.
“I know it’s an imposition, but we really should have a responsible person from Coretechs at each site, to match the police presence. I take it that the little show we had earlier won’t be repeated hourly?” She glanced at Keeley, and gave her a dry look.
“At least while the reporters are here?” Pointing a weathered finger, one held low and so casually no one would probably think anything of it overly got the whole group to look over to where a man was taking pictures with a large, but digital, camera.
Keeley shrugged. The dancers hadn’t been hers, but it was a brilliant idea anyway.
“I think we can hold them off for now. It’s a bit cold for them to be doing that anyway.” She kept her face blank, waiting, while her father started to look embarrassed about what he thought his daughter had done.