Other Places 2: Road Blocks

by P. S. Power

  "We can go into that later. Maybe I'm wrong and it's another one of us. That would probably be for the best. Xenses... He's insane. Not the good kind either. For our kind it means a being incapable or unwilling to see what's really there. Like you, but worse. Much so, because he's violent and horrible at the same time, and honestly sees it as his best option in many cases. That you're so gentle is really what's kept you alive so far, I think."

  That got a shrug in return, and a bit of a frown. He'd done violent things, even hurt people. He'd killed twice, that he knew of and...

  The girl just blinked at him.

  "Yes, you did all that, and a lot more. The thing there isn't that you've killed, but why you did it. In each case it was sensible at the time. When you killed that Mage girl's father, you did it to save her life, which was the job you were doing at the time. Later, with the master Vampire, you were trying to survive. That part of you is remarkably well balanced, for one of us. Maybe too much so. It isn't the same thing at all, so don't worry that way. The big problem is that half of your mind is someone else, and that's going to have to change, only..."

  She stopped talking and Zack wasn't totally certain it was just to control the flow of conversation or what he was thinking about. When she continued, her words were harder, and she almost seemed ready to give up on him.

  "You can't handle what Mirror Him knows. Not yet. You may never be able to. The problem is that too many know that you're a Greater Demon, and you've seen how that goes for the young of our kind. People will try to kill you, eventually. Especially since you aren't that well balanced."

  Zack nodded, since he really had seen how she was treated and beings feared her, at least as much as any of the other of her kind. Their kind, if he wasn't being jerked around.

  "So, I'm dead?" It was a simple question and she smiled about it. Then nodded.

  "Almost certainly. It's what happens to you, and to those you love and care for before that happens, that you need to be willing to fight for now. There are some ways to die that are simply better than others, if you have to. Not that you shouldn't try to get around all that anyway. I just don't want you to think this is really about saving you."

  "It isn't? Then what's the plan?" It seemed like a good thing to know, didn't it?

  "To flush out Xenses, and kill him. I'm using you as bait. That doesn't mean you aren't someone I want as a friend as well, but that's my current goal. You... Really, I doubt you can survive that. I'll try, but I can't promise anything. Honestly, if you were going to be sensible about all this, I'd suggest using the one talent you really have, and use the in-roads to get so far away that even Demons can't easily find you. That could give you... decades of time to prepare. Longer if you did it right." It sounded matter of fact and a bit cold, but suddenly a look of misery crossed her face. It wasn't a thing he associated with her at all.

  "Of course, if you do that, then a lot of innocent people will die."

  Zack thought about it all for a while and tried to work out what he should do. Mirror Him was hiding in a deep corner of his mind, so wasn't going to be very helpful for a while. The brave thing to do would be to stand and fight, but it was also foolish. You didn't do that if you had another choice. He could end up a slave, or worse, if things went wrong. On the other hand he really didn't want to starve to death either, did he? That was something new to him, he realized, this was the first time in... years, that he actually felt not hungry. He'd sort of been blocking it out for a long time, but it had been there, gnawing at him.

  After he mentioned this out loud, Keeley nodded.

  "Sure. You can do that on purpose. In fact, if you can do that, you can do a lot of other things too. Imagine what emotional state you want, focus on it for a bit and you'll enter it fully. If you can remember a time that it's happened before it's really easy. The same with feeling awake, rested after exertion, or healing. Remember to feel whole and well, add a bit of energy to it and you'll do it. You'll have to eat a lot more for that. Like you did here, three or four times a day. Here, try to imagine yourself feeling happy and really hold it for a while."

  She had to wait, since Zack didn't easily come up with a happy thought, but when he did, remembering how he felt when he first went to a carnival as a boy, it all came back to him, washing over and through him perfectly. Keeley didn't let him stop there, getting up to fix him a snack, and then running him through ten different states she thought were most useful.

  "Blank and peaceful are both good. Especially when you're about to get shocking news, which... Well, I could do without three hours of tears. Why not practice that one right now and write me another check? I want to go over some of the healing things too." It sounded pretty innocent, and of course really just wasn't.

  First she had him find a good healthy feeling and push it for a while, which actually left him feeling good. Much stronger than before. He hadn't realized how much like crap he'd been feeling for years.

  Then she winked at him, leaned in and kissed his cheek, taking his right hand gently.

  "Got it?" She whispered the words, which made him feel pretty uneasy, suddenly, because she was still far too young for him. And, if she was right, his Aunt. He made that go away however, leaving a sense of peace behind and then did the healing thing again.

  "Yes. I think so-" He figured that she was going to do something. Crush his hand or give him a black eye that he'd have to heal. Apparently that was too wimpy for a Greater Demon, so she pulled a flat gray knife out of nowhere, from the bent space beside her really, and stabbed him in the stomach. Only once at least, so there was that, but it still hurt horribly.

  "Healing and pain control. Remember both at once, so you can function. You just practiced them, so let's see it." She waited as he bled, her face blank and then slightly happy as, miraculously, he started to manage it. The whole thing took about five minutes to get done, but he did get the pain to go away faster than that.

  She grunted and looked disgusted with him, glancing at the blood.

  "And if I were Xenses, you'd be dead. Or more likely, being raped about now. That's his go to family friendly move, by the way. At least that seemed to be his plan for me, when we last met." She looked at him, as if he were supposed to get it all, and he nodded.

  "I always just assumed that I was raped, in my missing time. Is that the bad part?"

  "You keep asking that, and it keeps not being the case. You were raped, and raped people. You ate them alive and then did even worse things to them to bend your mind into his image. He tortured you in ways that I won't tell you about, but physical things won't break one of us that easily. Not even as babies. You're getting the idea? If those are the things that I'm telling you, then the rest is so bad that you still don't want to know yet. Not until you master your thoughts and emotions more fully." She waited, focusing on him closely.

  Too closely really. It left him feeling afraid and uncomfortable.

  She threw up her hands, smiling.

  "And what do the baby Demons do when they feel uncomfortable?"

  "Change how they feel?"

  She nodded, seeming to think he was actually adapting to what was going on. He tried to control his mind, and managed it, after a few tries. This was decently big after all, and it was so temping to block out the bad things that he'd heard, before he remembered them. Zack could feel that happening, and didn't want to relive things. Then, he probably didn't have to, did he?

  Keeley clapped him on the shoulder gently and smiled.

  "Not bad for the first day. I need to get you to The Technician and The Mind Stealer. That's probably going to be Darla and Finias to you, but it's important to use the right titles. You have a lot to learn and will need a mentor. That probably isn't going to be the sixteen year old girl, regardless of me being proclaimed an adult early. Really, I vote for Darla. Finias is great, but you two have history and it might make him want to be too gentle with you. Darla... She dropped a car on me once, to help me learn something. I don't know i
f that's who you'll get." She turned and got out a box of snack cakes, which were the cheapest kind most stores sold, and pushed it toward him. "Snack first. These things are great. Lots of calories for a low cost. Mom buys them in bulk for me."

  They were strawberry shortcake rolls and she was right, they were good. Enough so that he finished the whole box of them in about five minutes, then felt guilty, for having eaten so much. He was able to make that go away too, and then realized that it would work for all the negative emotions. She'd said that was the case, but it was real, suddenly.

  "Okay, let's go. We can walk. Darla only lives about three blocks from here."

  She really did too and Keeley didn't run or anything, just strolling along, watching the world around her, as if it were constantly fascinating. Zack tried to copy that too, and felt a sense of wonder, and a sudden popping out of details that he'd been missing. Keeley grinned about it, but didn't comment.

  At the door she did two things. The first was knock and the second was standing back about three feet, which got him to follow along with her. He didn't see a trap door, but he didn't know how The Technician guarded her place either.

  Really, it just seemed like she opened the door, looking like a hot blonde cheerleader from a movie or television show. It was really a little over done, he thought, but at least she hadn't overdressed for the evening, just being in jeans and a t-shirt, like Keeley was. They didn't look like sisters, being very different from one another, but they both seemed just a little unreal, now that he was paying attention to things like that. Too perfect and smooth. Even gorgeous women their age needed a bit of makeup, right? They had features that were just on the uncanny valley side of balanced, not being normal really. Oh, it was a close thing, so most wouldn't understand what they were seeing, or might think they'd just had really good plastic surgery, but it was there.

  "Good evening. Have you come to sell me cookies? If so I have to point out that the local Girl Scouts have already shaken me down three times this week. They're just so cute in their ugly little uniforms." The words were playful and didn't admit to anything on the surface, but high school girls didn't get approached by girls selling cookies, did they? And they certainly didn't buy them.

  Of course, The Technician knew that he'd recognize her, didn't she?

  "Technician." He felt like he should bow or something, but didn't know if that was a Greater Demon thing or not. She actually gave him a little hug.

  "Line Walker." Then she sighed and glanced at Keeley a bit harder than seemed normal. "And the Mistress of Souls. So, you told him. Don't give me that line about how he guessed on his own either. That wasn't what happened."

  Instead of arguing the point, she smiled and patted her sister on the arm in a way that looked funny, but that Zack didn't get for a few seconds, until he realized she was talking to her telepathically.

  "Do you disagree?" Keeley tilted her head a little, almost imperceptibly and waited, not even moving to go in at all.

  Darla sighed, a large and overdone thing that was meant for him, Zack realized, not her sister.

  "Ah, kids. Just because you're correct, that doesn't mean that it's the wisest course of action to take. Too late to take it back now, and I do agree, with reservations. Finias should have been there for it, and possibly broken the news himself. Now we have to try and manage him, which is going to be... Less than a fun way to spend the evening. Come in. Try not to bleed on the furniture again."

  That got a chuckle from the darker haired girl and entry into The Technician's home, which was very white. Cream colored carpets and eggshell furnishings, accented with wood and only a few pieces of art hanging on the wall. They were all by the same artist, he thought, and not bad. A little too impressionistic for his taste, but the splash of color the pictures of flowered fields and barns gave was nice. Near the back of the room, beyond the sunken living space, was a short staircase. It was a strange shape for a house, it was clear. All the recent work on his own brought it to mind. Looking around he could see how the place was in a bent field of space. Why, he didn't know.

  "I'll make the call. Would you two like anything? I can make some sodas?" She said it blandly, as if she weren't testing him personally on what he'd just learned.

  He pulled out his checkbook, which got her eyes to light up.

  "At cost?"

  She nodded, and then smiled, which was a sunny thing that made him feel warm and gooey inside, in a way that was a bit out of place for the moment, given what they were really talking about, he shut that down with a bit of work and then made the check out for five dollars. She took it and didn't mention that being too much.

  "Exactly like that. If you hadn't done that, she would have tried to enslave you again. She probably will anyway. Every adult Greater Demon you meet from now on will, until you become an adult yourself, and sometimes they might even try then. Don't fall for it. Just a word of warning; I won't try that myself, because it would work. Don't get complacent however, since you've literally seen another Demon looking like me before. It's a good trick, once you learn it. Shape shifting." She made small talk, but it was important information anyway, covering things like bowing, ranking systems for their kind and the fact that about half of them were born crazy.

  She actually went over that one a few times.

  "You weren't. You were broken, and before you had a chance to develop. Forced into being a full Greater Demon before you were ready for it. Like I said, that has to be fixed, and might not be possible. Remember the rules for now, because I'm pretty sure we're getting the full meeting here already." She didn't explain that, but Darla nodded after getting off the phone and called for them to follow her up the stairs.

  That was all about changing clothing, into a very light brown outfit for him. The girls each got one too, and the material was the same, but theirs were darker. Keeley was about three shades so, and Darla ten. He understood the significance, since it had been explained, in the ranking thing. He was at the bottom, the closer to black you got, the higher you were.

  It was just a tradition, but if someone thought you were going above your station, they'd attack. Or might at least. If they thought you were too weak, they might too. You wore about what you thought you could back, really. He was pretty happy with his light tan. White was for sacrifices, so he didn't want to go that low, after all.

  They still had to wait, and Darla kept examining him, in ways that didn't make a lot of sense to start with. Mainly it involved her touching him a lot, and then poking at him occasionally with various metal and crystal devices.

  She didn't say what anything meant, just letting him sit until about three in the morning, when there was a bending in space moving toward them from different places, but at great distances away. Three of them, to be exact, coming from the position of the door. That would be the terminus, he thought. The Technician nodded, but only after a few moments, and Keeley stood, turning to face that direction.

  There really was bowing, which wasn't hard, since he'd been told what to do, and made himself feel relaxed enough not to forget or mess it up. The men that came were in deep brown, but different colors, with Finias being just darker than Gregor The Cleric, and the third man being in what seemed to be pure black. He didn't recognize the face, which was like a picture of a Roman patrician, more than anything else. None of them were bothering to look half as good as the women were. Then, they were a lot older, so maybe it just didn't matter to them as much?

  Finias did the introductions, but realized that only the last man, the high ranking one, was needed.

  "This is The Librarian. Tarsus. You've met. He looked like Keeley at the time?" The words brought the scene back easily enough. It had happened in his own living room after all.

  "I remember. Librarian." That apparently was close enough to correct that no one ripped his head off, thankfully.

  The man gave him a watery smile, and then held his hand out to Zack, as if to shake, which he wasn't buying at all. Still, he did it, s
ince he'd been instructed to be polite, and really didn't want to die that evening. Why, he had whole weeks, possibly months left for that.

  The Greater Demon laughed.

  "Fatalistic, but accurate. Still, my task is to give you information. You might not be able to make good use of it, as disjointed as your mind is. It will be there however. I suggest you make the effort. Then, I always do, and very few ever bother."

  What happened next was something that Zack just wouldn't have been able to articulate to anyone. It was as if the sum of the world's knowledge was suddenly hovering over him, beating at his mind, wanting him to know it all at once. For a second it tried to overwhelm him, but then pulled back, ever so slightly, fading slowly over the course of minutes, until Tarsus let go of his hand.

  "Well set, at least. That's better than I feared. Normally at this point I try to intimidate the new ones, so that they'll work hard and listen to their mentors. I'm not going to bother with you. You're either going to survive this or not, based on what you truly are. Oh, learn all you can, but being insane means that the rules are different for you than others. On the good side, you can make them up for yourself. Which of you is going to watch him?" The words went hard, and there was no attempt to volunteer himself, Zack noticed, which was nice. The man was creepy. Not in a good way either, but in the way that he associated with the worst kind of evil. The sort that knew what it was, and relished in it.

  Finias started to clear his throat, and gesture, which got The Cleric to look at him with a soft smile.

  "I think not. Perhaps the Mistress of Souls? Or Bente?" That suggestion got a puzzled look from Keeley at least.

  "The Fashion Demon? I'm not certain I see that as a good fit." That started a conversation that finally worked around to Darla, who had her arms crossed and was rolling her eyes at him behind everyone's backs. Not that they didn't get it. They were pushing her into it with their words, and by ignoring her.