Necessary Evil

by Donald Hanley

  The doorbell broke the companionable peace and everyone looked up from their diversions. It was only five minutes after Pizza King’s promised delivery time, which was basically early for them.

  “I’ll get it,” I said, pushing my chair back. “We’ll eat in the kitchen.” The last thing I wanted was olives and pineapple bits in my bed.

  “I shall be there anon,” Daraxandriel said absently, peering at her screen.

  “I’m almost done,” said Olivia, turning another page.

  “Be right there,” Melissa told me, her attention focused on her screen. She swung her legs over to sit up on the edge of the bed but got no further.

  Maybe Mom has a point, I mused as I crossed the hall and tapped on Susie’s door. “Pizza’s here,” I announced.

  “Just a minute,” came her distracted response. I just rolled my eyes and continued on to the front door.

  “Hey, Pete,” Justin greeted me from the doorstep. He thrust three cardboard boxes bearing the Pizza King crown logo at me, two medium and one small. “You having a party without me?”

  “Just a bunch of hungry people,” I assured him, taking the boxes. “That a new uniform?” Justin’s green-and-red shirt hung on him like a cloth sack on a scarecrow. The matching ball cap almost managed to disguise his carrot-colored hair.

  “Yeah, the boss wants us to look more professional. So, is, uh, Dara here?” he asked hopefully, craning his neck to look past me. Since he was eight inches taller than me, that took no effort at all on his part.

  “Does Ashley know you’re pining after another girl?” I asked pointedly. Justin’s ongoing infatuation with Daraxandriel was basically harmless but it still got on my nerves.

  “Who?”

  “Ashley, your girlfriend. The love of your life. The only woman who’ll put up with you for more than five minutes at a time.” A glimmer of recognition crossed his face.

  “She doesn’t mind,” he assured me, although he looked a bit guilty.

  “You might want to check with her on that. Hang on a sec, let me go put these down.” I carried the pizzas into the kitchen and he trailed after me. “I thought you weren’t supposed to go inside people’s houses.”

  “It’s okay, we know each other. Dara!” Justin stopped in his tracks as Daraxandriel appeared at the end of the hall. He swept off his cap and put on a smile that was halfway between a grimace and a leer. “How are you doing?”

  “I do well, Justin,” she told him pleasantly. “And how art thou faring this day?”

  “Great, great. So when are we meeting up again on Lorecraft?” he asked eagerly. Justin, Daraxandriel, and I were all members of the Death Ravens guild, although we hadn’t played much as a group since summer break started.

  “Mayhap soon, an we survive my clutch-mate’s predations.” Daraxandriel started peeking into the pizza boxes. “Didst thou include additional pine fruit?”

  “Clutch-mate?” Justin echoed doubtfully.

  “Her sister,” I explained.

  “Dara has a sister?” Justin’s eyes practically popped out of his skull. “What’s her name? Is she here? Is she single?”

  “You don’t want her, believe me,” I told him firmly.

  “Don’t want who?” Melissa asked, striding into the kitchen. “Oh, hey, Justin. How’s Ashley?” She started rooting through the cabinets for plates.

  “She’s, uh, fine,” Justin replied with a frown. “What are you doing here, Melissa?”

  “Just hanging out with my boyfriend,” she said, shooting a pointed look in my direction.

  “Boyfriend?” Justin’s face twisted up in confusion. “I thought you were dating Dara, Pete.”

  Melissa paused in the act of setting the dishes on the table. “He’s dating Dara?”

  “Yeah, he asked me for ideas yesterday.”

  “Oh, really?” Her voice was frosty enough to reverse global warming all on its own.

  “Sure. There’s a whole list of things you two should do on a date. Here, I’ll show you.” He dragged his phone out of his pocket as I gasped in horror

  “No, don’t show them that!” I lunged for his phone, intending to throw it into the garbage disposal, but Daraxandriel’s tail whipped around between us. I back-pedaled hastily before I ended up losing an eye. “I wasn’t going to ask you to do any of those!” I told her desperately.

  Daraxandriel leaned over Justin’s arm to read the screen and her eyes flew open wide. “Dost thou truly desire such acts from me?” she asked disbelievingly. “Would not number four cause grievous bodily harm?”

  “Wait a minute, show me this list,” Melissa demanded. She easily shook off my attempt to restrain her and planted herself on Justin’s other side. Her jaw fell open as she perused the text. “Oh my God, Peter!” she breathed. “What kind of pervert are you?”

  “That’s not my list!” I insisted desperately. “Justin sent that to me!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she argued. “Ashley would never do any of these things. Oh my God,” she gasped, “you already made me do number three! And number seven!”

  “I didn’t make you do anything! You did that on your own!”

  “Wait, when did this happen?” Justin asked breathlessly. “Did you take pictures?”

  “None of your business,” Melissa told him firmly. “Send me that list and don’t ever show it to Ashley.”

  “Don’t do it!” I begged. Justin ignored me and Melissa’s back pocket pinged a few moments later. “Great. Just go ahead and shoot me now,” I muttered.

  “Shooting’s too good for you,” Melissa told me. She unlocked her phone and scrolled through her texts. “Oh my God! Is this one even legal?”

  “What’s legal?” Olivia was only a couple of inches taller than Ashley and she had to crane her neck back to see Justin properly as she entered the kitchen. “Oh, um, hi,” she said doubtfully.

  “Holy smokes, Pete,” he exclaimed, “what kind of party are you throwing here?”

  “It’s not a party,” I told him tersely. “It’s a living hell.”

  “Man, I wish Ashley would let me do stuff like this,” he sighed.

  “Prayhap she would accede an thou didst ask it of her,” Daraxandriel told him.

  “Ashley’s too uptight,” he said dolefully. “She gets upset if I hold her hand too long in public.”

  “Nay, thou art mistaken,” she said, shaking her head. “She did confide in me at prom that she wished thou wouldst be more alphaman with her.”

  We all blinked at her. “Alphaman?” I echoed. “What does that mean?”

  “To be forceful and direct,” she explained impatiently. “To pursue one’s own desires and aims over another’s.”

  “Alpha male?” I guessed.

  “Wait, you mean Ashley wants me to tell her what to do?” Justin asked hesitantly.

  “Aye,” Daraxandriel nodded. “She fears to cross the strictures of her upbringing yet she longs to do so.”

  Justin stared at her for a slow count of three and then bolted for the front door. “Gotta go! Later, Pete!” He pelted down the walkway, hurdled the gate, and practically dove into his rattletrap of a car. He made a complete U-turn in front of the house before he remembered to close his door. I hoped we were the last delivery on his route because nobody else was getting any pizza from him today.

  “Well,” I sighed, trailing after him to close the front door, “that was fun. Anyone else have any – Oh, God, no! Don’t show her that!”

  Daraxandriel and Olivia both crowded around Melissa, peering at her phone. Olivia’s mouth hung open in shock and her eyes couldn’t possibly get any wider.

  “Oh my God!” she squeaked and suddenly her corporeal body popped like an soap bubble, leaving her standing there in her nightgown looking horrified. To Melissa and Daraxandriel, of course, she just vanished into thin air. Her shift and panties dropped to the floor and she gathered them up hastily. “Excuse me,” she whispered and she fled down the hall.

  “What just happ
ened?” Melissa asked, aghast. “Did she – is she still –?”

  “She’s fine,” I assured her. “I guess the list was too much for her. She’s been in the hospital since she was thirteen or fourteen, you know. She doesn’t have any, um, experience.”

  “Oh, right,” Melissa said, looking contrite. “I’ll go over this later.”

  “Or maybe you should just delete it.”

  “Nonsense, how am I supposed to know what you really want in a girlfriend?” she asked archly.

  Susie wandered in then, headed straight for the pizza, and extracted two cheese slices. She plopped them onto a plate and retraced her path back to her room with no indication that she noticed the rest of us, passing Olivia on the way.

  “Sorry,” Olivia said meekly, solid and garbed once more. “I guess I don’t have as much control over it as I thought.”

  “Just try not to disappear in front of Mom,” I told her dryly. “That would be hard to explain.”

  “What would?” Mom asked, carrying a basket of laundry. “Oh, hello,” she said to Olivia. “I don’t believe we’ve met. Are you a friend of Peter’s?”

  “Uh, hello,” she said, shooting me a worried glance. “I’m Olivia,”

  “Welcome, Olivia! I’m Peter’s mother.” Mom juggled the basket to free a hand and held it out to her. “That’s such a charming accent! Where are you from?”

  “Um, New Orleans.” She shook hands gingerly and Mom frowned.

  “Goodness, why are you so cold?” she asked. “Are you feeling all right, dear?”

  “I’m fine!” Olivia assured her hastily. “I’m just, um, cold.”

  “Well, it’s no wonder, walking around being dressed like that,” Mom chided her, eyeing her bare legs and feet. “You should put something else on.”

  “She had to borrow that dress, Mom,” I told her. “She doesn’t have anything else to wear.”

  “Well, she’s welcome to borrow pants and socks too, you know.” She shook her head as she headed to the laundry room. “Pleased to meet you, Olivia!” she called over her shoulder.

  “Thanks.” Olivia waited until the door closed behind Mom and then she sidled up beside me. “Does she know about, you know, magic and stuff?” she murmured.

  “No, thank God,” I sighed.

  “But Dara lives here, doesn’t she?” she persisted. “Doesn’t your mother notice the horns?”

  “She does, she just thinks they’re normal.” Olivia favored me with a dubious look. “It’s complicated,” I told her wearily.

  My phone pinged then and I saw Mrs. Kendricks’ name on the display. Her message was brief and to the point: Bring everyone to my house. We need to talk.

  “Eat up, everyone,” I announced. “We need to go.”

  4

  What do roller coasters, skydiving, and haunted houses have in common? They’re all designed to give you a sustained jolt of adrenaline by convincing your body that it’s in mortal danger. Some people live for that moment, enjoying the pounding of their hearts and the thrill in their guts. I’m not one of those people.

  I don’t like surprises, at least not the kind that threatens to scare the living bejeezus out of me. I like discovering money in a supposedly empty pocket, I enjoy a good plot twist in a book or a movie, and I love unwrapping presents at Christmas. Even an unexpected monster spawn adds a bit of spice to those otherwise long and tedious treks between towns in Lorecraft. What I don’t ever want to experience is that bowel-loosening fear that results from someone jumping out from a dark corner and yelling “Boo!”

  Most of my friends mock me for my lack of adventurous spirit as they troop off to the next Corkscrew Plummet of Screaming Death at the theme park, but I’m okay with remaining on solid ground while their stomachs trade places with their lungs.

  “Bellaxragor was just the first of many,” Mrs. Kendricks told us with a heavy sigh. “More will follow.”

  “Bellakh-whatever was a pretty bad-ass demon lord, all things considered,” I argued. “Is Lilith really going to be able to find someone stronger to do her dirty work?”

  Daraxandriel shook her head. “Certes, Peter Simon Collins,” she said dolefully. “Bellaxragor Stormreaper was naught but a messenger for my Dread Lord. He was powerful, aye, but there are countless others more potent than he.”

  “Well, sure, but how many of them would actually go along with Lilith’s crazy plan?”

  “To wrest the Burning Throne from my Dread Lord? Many have such ambitions, they only lack the means. Lilixandriel offers them a chance for victory. An they slay thee and claim thy Philosopher’s Stone, their ascension is all but assured and she will be rewarded most handsomely.”

  “She just wants the Stone for herself,” I countered. I felt the Stone under my shirt, smooth and warm against my skin. “She’ll stab them in the back the first chance she gets.”

  “Aye,” she agreed, “yet she needs must work through others to achieve her aim.”

  “Which means more demon attacks,” Mrs. Kendricks said, hauling the conversation back on track. “We have to be prepared.”

  “What are we going to do?” Melissa asked uneasily. We all sat in a close circle on Mrs. Kendricks’ patio and Melissa’s fingers gripped mine tightly. “We barely beat the first one.”

  “We shouldn’t even have been able to do that,” Prescott said, shaking his head with a scowl. The FBI agent sat on Mrs. Kendricks’ left, their knees almost touching. “That spell you cast was incredibly powerful, Melissa. Where did you learn that?”

  “Oh, uh, I don’t know, actually,” she stammered. “It just came to me.” Prescott looked skeptical and Mrs. Kendricks touched him on his arm.

  “That was my doing, Ryan,” she said quietly. “We were outnumbered and vulnerable. I had to open her mind’s eye to give her the spells she needed.”

  “Including that orb?” he asked skeptically. “Where did you learn that?”

  Mrs. Kendricks hesitated. “I didn’t,” she admitted. “Melissa came up with that one all on her own.”

  “You knew it too,” I reminded Prescott. “You and Susie cast the same spell.”

  Prescott shook his head. “She created it,” he said, nodding to Melissa. “I just repeated it to reinforce it.”

  “Me, too,” added Susie. She sat slumped in her chair, looking bored as she twirled her wand between her fingers. “It was pretty cool.”

  “It completely disintegrated a demon lord,” Prescott pointed out sharply. “It could easily have killed one of us or taken out a building.”

  “That would have been cool, too,” she agreed thoughtfully.

  Prescott blinked at her but Mrs. Kendricks made a calm-down motion with her hands. “It doesn’t matter, that enhancement faded hours ago. You can’t remember how to do that spell now, can you, Melissa?”

  Melissa screwed up her face like she was trying to recall what she had for breakfast last Columbus Day. “No,” she said, sounding disappointed. “It’s gone.”

  “Can we get it back?” Stacy asked. She sat on her mother’s other side, looking annoyed that she missed all the excitement behind the town library. “It sounds like we’re going to need it.”

  Mrs. Kendricks hesitated and then shook her head. “It’s far too risky. She shouldn’t have been able to come up with that spell on her own, not without a lot more training than she’s had. Who knows what might happen next time?”

  “It was a Lorecraft spell, wasn’t it?” I asked Melissa. “Dark Void?”

  “I suppose,” she said doubtfully. “All I knew right then was that I had one chance to cast the strongest spell I knew. It just popped into my head.”

  “It certainly fit the bill. Maybe you can do Melisandre’s other spells too.”

  The adults stared at us like we were speaking gibberish. “What are you talking about?” Prescott demanded. “What’s Lorecraft?”

  “Legends of Lorecraft,” I explained. “It’s a fantasy MMO. We all play it.” I indicated myself, Melissa, Daraxandriel,
and Stacy with a spin of my finger. “Melisandre is one of the most powerful characters in the entire game.”

  “And you were able to recreate a spell from a computer game?” he asked with a dubious grimace. “How is that even possible?” Melissa confessed her ignorance with an apologetic shrug and he shook his head with a sigh. “Arial’s right, we can’t risk it.”

  “So what’s the alternative?” Stacy pressed. “Are we just going to bring knives to a gun fight?”

  “I’ve called in reinforcements,” Prescott assured her. “We’ll be ready.”

  “The FBI has a SWAT team for demons, does it?” I asked sarcastically.

  “Yes.”

  I opened my mouth to scoff at him and then shut it again. “Really?”

  “Really,” he said firmly, “although we don’t call it that.”

  I waited but no further information was forthcoming. “So what do you call it?”

  Prescott shook his head. “That’s classified.”

  “Ryan,” Mrs. Kendricks told him quietly, “they deserve to know what’s going on. They saved our lives, after all.”

  He looked like he was going to argue the point but then he let his breath out in a huff. “Fine, but this absolutely can’t be shared outside this group, understood?” We all nodded dutifully, leaning forward on our chairs. “I’m with the Occult Investigations unit, based in Philadelphia. Officially, we look into cases involving religious groups, cults, Satanic rituals, and the like.”

  “And unofficially?” I prompted.

  “We hunt demons.” Prescott looked at Daraxandriel when he said that and she stiffened in her chair. “My boss, Special Agent Morgan, is one of the most powerful witches I’ve ever met. Her entire team is made up of witches and warlocks with experience dealing with demons. I’ve been with them for almost ten years now.”

  “And the government knows about this?” I asked doubtfully.