Necessary Evil

by Donald Hanley

  “Peter –” She hugged herself and shivered.

  “Are you cold?” It was warm and a bit close in the stairwell but we were both still soaking wet.

  “Peter.” She turned to face me directly, her dark eyes searching my face. “You were dead.”

  “What?” I asked, startled.

  “I was just reminding myself that Daddy wouldn’t actually kill me but then I thought about you. You died back there. That demon killed you right in front of me and you were just lying there and you weren’t breathing and –” Her voice caught in her throat. “I almost lost you,” she whispered.

  “I got better,” I pointed out, trying to make light of it, but she shook her head vehemently.

  “That’s not the point! What about next time?”

  “Next time?”

  “Yes! Dara said Lilith’s not going to stop. She’s going to keep sending demons after us until she gets that stupid Stone of yours and you could die for real or I could or – or –” She took a shuddering breath. “I don’t want to lose you.”

  “We’ll figure out a way to stop her,” I insisted.

  “But what if we don’t? What if you die before we – you know.” She tucked a dank wad of hair behind her ear in embarrassment.

  “Before what?” I really wasn’t prepared for discussing my imminent demise in a dark stairwell.

  “Before we make love!” She winced as her words echoed up and down the stairs like a chorus of spirits urging us on. “I love you, Peter, and I want you and I want you to be my first. We have to do it now.”

  “Now?” I squeaked.

  “No, not right now,” she said in exasperation, rolling her eyes. “It has to be special. Tonight, after we talk to Mrs. Kendricks. We’ll find a place, somewhere romantic, and – and do it, you and me. Agreed?” She looked up at me, biting her lower lip hopefully.

  “Are you really sure this is a good idea?” I stammered. “I mean, what if something happens?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like –” I had no idea. “What if you get pregnant? We’re too young to be parents.”

  “I’m on the pill.”

  “But what if someone walks in on us and catches us?”

  “We’ll lock the door.”

  “Well, what if –?”

  “Peter,” she said with a cold edge to her voice, “don’t you love me? Don’t you want me?”

  “No, it’s not that,” I insisted, swallowing with difficulty. “It’s just –”

  “This is about Dara, isn’t it?” she asserted, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “You still think you’re in love with her. With a demon.”

  “Well –”

  “I don’t know how she got you all twisted around like this but enough is enough. I’m your girlfriend, Peter Collins, not her!”

  She dropped her purse and jacket and grabbed my head, pressing her body against mine as she kissed me fiercely. Then she broke off with a gasp and stepped back, reaching for the buttons on her blouse.

  “What are you doing?” I asked uneasily.

  “Reminding you of what you’re getting.” She was already halfway down, exposing the top of her camisole.

  “Here?” I tried to blink or look away but Little Peter wouldn’t let me.

  “You’ve already seen me, Peter,” she said huskily, licking her lips as her eyes bored into mine. She undid the last button and pulled the tail of her blouse out from under her skirt. The blouse slid off her shoulders as she unfastened her cuffs. “You’ve held me in your arms. You’ve touched me.” She let the blouse drop to the floor and slowly pulled the bottom of her camisole up, exposing her taut stomach. “This is all yours, Peter,” she whispered, “whenever you want.” She stripped the camisole over her head and threw it aside.

  “Oh my God,” I breathed as my heart thudded against my ribcage, trying to escape. I’d seen her breasts in all their pale, glorious perfection twice before, but she’d been drunk the first time and high the second. Now she was standing right there in front of me, stone cold sober, inviting me to look at her and touch her and Lord knew what else. It was a teenage boy’s ultimate fantasy and my hand slowly lifted of its own accord. Then the door above us clattered loudly and started to open.

  I’d never seen anyone move as fast as Melissa did then. In a blur of motion, she snatched up the closest article, her jacket, and threw it on, fastening its single button and tugging it into place before the door opened wide enough to reveal Mr. Franklin.

  “Oh, you’re still here?” he exclaimed in surprise. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.” He frowned at the rest of Melissa’s belongings scattered across the landing. “What happened here?”

  “Oh, sorry, I, uh, just dropped my stuff.” Melissa hastily gathered up her blouse and camisole, wadding them into a soggy white ball before retrieving her purse. “We were just heading out.” Her cheeks were flushed bright pink.

  “I see.” He looked her over doubtfully as he joined us on the landing. It was pretty obvious to me that she was naked under her jacket but he didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he chose not to say anything about it. “Well, take care, then. I’ll talk to you later, Miss Andrews. Mr. Collins,” he added, nodding to me. He continued down the steps and we waited in anxious silence until the lobby door closed behind him before we both let our breaths out in a whoosh.

  “Oh my God,” Melissa said shakily. “I would have died if he caught us.”

  “And fired,” I noted.

  “Yes, thanks so much for that reminder,” she said, shaking her head. “We’d better get out of here. Don’t think I’m giving up, though,” she warned me.

  “There’s no need to rush into this,” I insisted. “I mean, we’re still in high school. There’s plenty of time for us to –” My voice faded out as she spun around to face me, setting her fists on her hips.

  “Peter, what’s wrong with me?”

  “Uh, nothing,” I said carefully.

  “Do you think I’m attractive?”

  “Yes, absolutely!” I’d have to be blind not to think that.

  “Are you gay?”

  “What?” I exclaimed, startled. “No!”

  “Then why don’t you want me?”

  That was a darn good question but it was the wrong one. I did want her – I was a normal red-blooded American male, after all – but I didn’t love her the way she wanted me to and she deserved better for her first time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of any way to explain that to her that wouldn’t upset her more than she already was. “Well,” I stammered, “it’s just that I have a lot going on right now.”

  She thought that over with her lips twisted to one side. “I guess I’m just going to have to try harder, then. Come on.” She started down the stairs and then looked back when I didn’t follow her right away. “Peter?”

  “Coming,” I sighed.

  What is wrong with you? Little Peter demanded as I trudged down the stairs. Just do it with her. It’ll make her happy and you’ll enjoy it and maybe it’ll lead to something more.

  I love Dara, I argued. It would feel like I was betraying her.

  Has Dara ever told you she loved you?

  No, I admitted reluctantly.

  Has she ever given you any indication that she wants to have sex with you?

  No.

  So you’re pining after her for no good reason.

  I have reasons! I couldn’t come up with any right then, though, as Melissa opened the door to the lobby and waited for me to join her. I sighed discretely and followed her out.

  To my surprise, Olivia was in the lobby, walking towards us. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I needed my keys,” Melissa said, giving me a weird look.

  “No, not you. I was talking to Olivia.”

  Melissa scanned the obviously empty lobby. “Who?”

  “Olivia. The dead girl. Her soul’s inside Dara, remember? Well, not anymore,” I amended. “Anyway, she’s here.” I pointed. Melissa’s gaz
e swept right past her and then returned to my face with a skeptical frown.

  “So she’s invisible?” she asked pointedly.

  “She’s a ghost. She’s been following me around for a while.”

  “Two days isn’t a while,” Olivia argued, sounding peeved.

  “Why?” Melissa asked me.

  “What do you mean, why?”

  “Why is she following you? Is she haunting you?”

  “No,” Olivia insisted.

  “Yes,” I said. “Sort of. She’s bound to the Philosopher’s Stone, remember? You helped with the spell.”

  “That was just supposed to stop the demon hunter from following her,” Melissa said.

  “Well, it did more than that,” I sighed. “We got her soul out of Dara just before that demon lord showed up and now we have to undo Susie’s spell so she can leave.”

  “I don’t want to go!” Olivia protested. “I like being with you!”

  “You can’t stay with me for the rest of your life!” I told her. “Well, the rest of my life, anyway. You have to move on.”

  “Make me.” Olivia crossed her arms defiantly.

  “Oh God,” I breathed. As if I didn’t have enough woman problems.

  “Wait a minute,” Melissa said suspiciously. “Is Olivia that girl who appeared and then disappeared behind the library?”

  “Um, yes.”

  “Oh my God, Peter!” she gasped. “You’re being haunted by a naked girl?”

  “No!” Olivia and I insisted simultaneously, although Melissa only heard my denial. “She’s wearing a nightgown!” I explained hurriedly.

  “You’re being haunted by a girl in a nightgown? Peter!”

  “It’s not like we have a choice!”

  “Oh my God, you have your own private peep show!” she exclaimed in sudden fury. “No wonder you’re not interested in me!” She stomped out of the lobby and shoved the revolving door like she was trying to slam it. It barely got halfway around before it stopped, though, so she just glared at me through the windows as she strode out of sight.

  “Well, that’s just great,” I muttered, trying to rub out the knot forming in my temple.

  “So who is she exactly?” Olivia asked doubtfully. “She just showed up after that monster appeared.”

  “That’s Melissa.”

  “Oh! She’s your girlfriend, right?”

  “Well, sort of,” I sighed.

  “You said that before. How can she sort of be your girlfriend?”

  “It’s complicated. Why are you here?” I asked again.

  “You were taking a long time and everyone was getting bored so I came looking for you.”

  “Sorry, she had to talk to her boss.” And seduce me in the stairwell, I thought glumly. Thank God Olivia didn’t catch us. “Let’s get out of here before anything else goes wrong.” I headed for the street.

  “So what are we going to do now?” she asked, trotting after me.

  “I’m going home. You can stay here and loot the stores if you want.”

  “Really?” She looked hopeful and doubtful at the same time.

  “No. Come on.”

  2

  Mom and Dad have two children born three years apart, so it stands to reason they had sex together at least twice. Or once, if you accept the still-unproven hypothesis that Susie was adopted. That’s what the rational part of my mind tells me but the rest of me simply can’t conceive of that actually taking place. On the extremely rare occasions where the thought of them in bed together crosses my mind, no image is formed. It’s just an amorphous blur.

  I have no conscious awareness of them ever having sex. I’ve never heard giggling or moaning through their bedroom door, I’ve never accidentally walked in on them getting frisky, their shower has never stayed on for an inordinate amount of time, and yet, near as I can tell, they seem to have a perfectly normal relationship. They kiss every now and then, they go out on date nights once or twice a month, and they sometimes hold hands when they’re watching TV together. They have to be having sex at least occasionally but I have absolutely no concrete evidence to support that conclusion.

  It’s as if my brain has some deeply-ingrained defense mechanism that screens out any hint of hanky-panky between them. I shudder to think what would happen if anything ever made it past the filters. If I wasn’t immediately struck blind from the horror, I’d probably either keel over stone-cold dead or end up in an insane asylum somewhere. Of course, none of those possible outcomes compares to the soul-destroying embarrassment I’d suffer if they ever walked in on me having sex.

  Susie sat cross-legged on the hood of the Mustang, looking bored and resentful. She heaved a sigh as Olivia and I emerged from the building and slid off the car with a squeak of damp skin on metal. “Took you long enough,” she grumbled.

  “Do you have somewhere important to be?” I asked acerbically. Every woman in my life seemed to be annoyed with me today, even though none of it was my fault.

  “No, but anywhere’s better than here.”

  “Where’s Dara?”

  “In the car.”

  I leaned down to peer through the open passenger door. Daraxandriel was still jammed into the back seat, glowering back at me. “Why didn’t you get out?” I asked her.

  “The waif did not release me,” she complained. “I am imprisoned.”

  “Why not?” I asked Susie.

  “She didn’t ask me to,” she shrugged.

  “I did, most emphatically!” Daraxandriel insisted.

  “I didn’t hear her. Let’s go.” Susie plopped herself back into the passenger seat and nearly hit me with the door when she closed it.

  “Fine,” I sighed. “At least you have more room in back now,” I said to Olivia.

  “I suppose,” she agreed reluctantly. “Is your girlfriend going to be okay?”

  I looked around. The Thunderbird was still parked by the curb but I didn’t spot Melissa until I walked around to the other side. She was squatting beside her car with the driver’s door open, bailing out the footwell with a plastic cup she found somewhere. The pool she created on the pavement surrounded her like a moat but it didn’t look like she’d made much of a dent in the water level.

  “Do you need any help?” I asked her cautiously.

  “What I need is a way to turn my car upside-down and dump the water out,” she snapped back at me as she stood, tossing the cup onto the passenger seat with the rest of her belongings. “I give up. The repair shop can deal with it.” She eased into the driver’s seat and we both winced as the cushion squelched underneath her, oozing liquid all around. “Ugh, it’s like sitting on melting jello,” she groaned.

  I refrained from asking her how she knew what sitting on jello felt like as she inserted her key into the ignition and turned it. To my surprise, the Thunderbird started up without any problem, revving as she tested the accelerator. “Maybe I should follow you home, just in case,” I offered.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said, “as long as I don’t have to stop suddenly. I’ll talk to you later, after I decide what to do about you.” She shifted into first and pulled away from the curb before I could ask her what she meant by that ominous statement. I watched the Thunderbird accelerate down Milton and swerve out of sight around the corner with a squeal of rubber.

  I returned to the Mustang, where Olivia was standing by the driver’s door. “Did she dump you?” she asked. She almost sounded hopeful, although I couldn’t imagine what she had against Melissa.

  “No,” I told her firmly. “She’s just mad about her car.” I opened the door and pulled the driver’s seat forward for her but she didn’t make any move to climb in.

  “She wasn’t mad about the car inside the building,” she pointed out. “I think she’s jealous.”

  “She doesn’t have anything to be jealous about.”

  Olivia looked like she was going to argue with me about it but then she shook her head and clambered in, sitting as far away from Daraxandriel as poss
ible. Both of them glowered at me with their arms crossed, while Susie favored me with a skeptical look.

  “Talking to yourself again?” she asked snidely.

  “I’m talking to Olivia,” I informed her as I set the seat back and got in.

  “Right,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You know what they say about people who talk to things that aren’t there.”

  “Being insane would explain a lot about my life these days,” I muttered. “Buckle up, everyone.” I started the Mustang, savoring the deep rumble of its engine for a few seconds before shifting it into gear.

  The damage left by Bellaxragor’s storm seemed to be contained within a two-block radius centered on the library and we quickly left it behind. Traffic heading into downtown was a bit heavy for a Tuesday afternoon as the curious came to see what the news reports were all about but it was clear sailing for us in the other direction and I pulled up in front of the house a short while later.

  To my surprise, Melissa’s Thunderbird was parked by the curb with Melissa herself leaning against her trunk as she emptied out one of her shoes. Water dripped from the hem of her skirt and her stockings were a mottled mess.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked her when I got out. “I thought you were going home.”

  “I was,” she grumped, “but what would be the point? I’d just be sitting there waiting for Daddy to get home from work. At least here I can keep an eye on you.” She watched me suspiciously as I let Olivia and Daraxandriel out of the back seat. Susie just ignored all of us and headed straight for the front door.

  “You’re wasting your time,” I told her. “Nothing’s going to happen.”

  “I told you she’s jealous,” Olivia said smugly.

  “She’s just having a rough day,” I insisted.

  “Who is?” Melissa asked frostily.

  “No one,” I assured her hastily. “Let’s get inside.”

  My entourage followed me into the house, pausing to shed our shoes on the porch before crossing over to the kitchen. We still left a trail of damp footprints behind on the carpet and I hoped they’d dry without leaving any evidence of our passage before Mom got home.