by Adam Dark
“What?” April asked.
“Yeah, I know. Not what I expected, either.”
“Wait, so she knew what was going to happen?” Peter asked.
“Yep.”
“And she was totally okay with it?”
Ben shrugged. “That’s what she said. I guess Rufus had come to her before tonight and given her the option, or something. And she’d said she wanted to do it.”
“How does that conversation go?” Chase asked. “‘Hey, I’ve got this demon. How would you like to be its next victim and just let it snake into your body to try you on for size?’” Then he bent toward his straw and sucked in the longest, gurgling slurp of what little drink he had left.
Peter elbowed him in the side. “Dude, cut it out.” Chase just snorted and glared at him but didn’t say anything. “I bet you they brainwashed her. The Sectarian Circle.”
Ben and April both frowned at him. “You coming up with conspiracy theories now, Pete?”
“What? That’s a real thing.” The guy looked genuinely surprised that they didn’t know this.
“I… don’t think that applies to this,” April said slowly, eyeing Peter like she was trying to figure him out and not burst out laughing at the same time.
“Why?” Peter shot back. “Because there’s demons too? Why can’t they overlap?”
“Mostly because I know that I was talking to the real Lizzie,” Ben said. “Who she was before whatever happened to her happened. You saw her when we got there, right? She was pretty much catatonic, or basically unable to move. And she even told me she’d much rather stand and speak and move around, even with a demon in her body, than sit there all day every day for the rest of her life the way we found her. It didn’t not make sense.” Peter just stared at him for a second, then took a long drink of his ice water. “She told me she could see Ian, too,” Ben added.
Peter choked on his drink, swallowed, and raised his eyebrows. “Great.”
Yeah, Ben figured the guy would still be sore about any mention of Ian, but he couldn’t let that get in the way of what they had to talk about. “Hey, I’m just trying to make sure I cover everything this time around, okay?”
“Dude, whatever. Just tell your story.” Peter shrugged and folded his hands on the table, but he stared at them instead of anything else.
Fine.
“I think Lizzie was actually really happy about the whole thing. I mean, she didn’t look afraid. Or hurt by… everything that happened before that.” Ben glanced up at the restaurant’s ceiling, hoping to get the image of that woman flailing around in that chair and choking on her inability to speak out of his head.
“Yeah,” April said softly. “That was pretty awful.” Ben just nodded. “But I guess if she was okay with it…” She frowned and closed her eyes for a second. “What I don’t get is why Rufus couldn’t just tell us what was going on before we went in.”
“I know,” Ben said.
“Because we wouldn’t have believed him,” Peter added. “I mean, ‘No, really, we’re possessing people with demons for their own good’ doesn’t really sound that convincing. Especially after what we’ve seen a couple of those things do to other people.”
Exactly.
“So he figured we had to see it instead,” Ben muttered.
“I mean, I’m still not convinced.” Peter still didn’t look at him, but the guy seemed just a little bit embarrassed now by his own stubbornness.
“Hey, if I could show you guys what I saw,” Ben replied, “I would.”
“I believe you,” April told him.
Ben let out a wry chuckle. “Well, thanks. I’m still working on figuring it out.” He thought he might have laughed too quickly at her, but then he felt her leg press up against his under the table, and nobody did that when they were offended. She was smiling at him when he turned to look at her.
“Anybody figure out what that place was?” Chase asked. “Patron Hill?”
“No clue,” Ben said.
“It was definitely weird.” April tapped her fingers on the table. “They’d just left that woman in her room like that, in the dark, and nobody came in to check on her. My grandma was in a nursing home before she died. I know those have a bad reputation sometimes, but I never saw anybody treat any of the people there that way. Like they’d just forgotten about her.”
“Rufus knew that lady at the front desk,” Peter said. “That was obvious. So he’d been there at least once. Probably a lot more than that.”
“Yeah, and it wasn’t like anybody was scrambling to hide the fact that they’d pretty much just locked Lizzie in her own room and forgot about her.” April bit her lip. “Patron Hill can’t be an actual medical facility, can it?”
“I bet you Rufus knows what it is,” Ben said.
“The guy knows a lot of things we don’t, doesn’t he?” Peter said.
“I hate that.” Chase jammed his straw up and down in his glass full of nothing but ice now. He didn’t look up when the others just stared at him.
“Did you tell him about the dreams?” Ben asked April. She nodded.
Peter cleared his throat. “Yeah, she told me. Totally weird that you’re seeing the same things. I guess you guys were pretty much made for each other.”
“Right?” Chase said. He turned toward Peter, his eyes wide with excitement. “That’s what I thought.” No one but Chase had missed Peter’s sarcasm.
‘This guy really needs to figure out how having friends works,’ Ian said.
We’re not friends.
‘Well, kinda, right? Nobody’s told him to screw off since that list of his pulled through.’
True. Even April had softened to the guy since then, and Chase had helped with her stalker ex problem. Did every group of friends need to have an obnoxious dude who only helped when he felt like it?
‘We did.’
Well, yeah, when they were twelve. Chase was over twice that now. Ben shook his head, wondering why Ian would mention their friends from seventh grade right now, when half of them had died in the Guardian’s house.
“You okay?” April asked.
“Huh? Yeah, just… thinking.”
She nodded but kept studying him. Sometimes, he felt like she actually could read his mind.
‘I’m just sayin’, man.’
Whatever.
Perfect timing, once again, for their server to bring a giant tray with all their food on it. When the chicken Ben had ordered was placed in front of him, he just stared down at it, feeling like he was missing something in the bigger picture of all this. But the big picture had always lost him.
The server left, and April nudged him with her elbow. Everyone else had started eating. “Not what you wanted?” she asked, smirking at him as she chewed.
“I mean, it’s definitely not that steak,” Ben said. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand when she laughed, and that, at least, made him feel a little better. Peter made some kind of exasperated remark around his mouthful of food, which made it completely unintelligible. If that was all he had to say, great.
“How’s your food, Peter?” April asked, batting her lashes at him.
“Not that steak, either,” he muttered, then shoved another huge forkful into his mouth. He didn’t look up at any of them.
Chase’s utensils clattered onto his plate. “Okay, what steak are you guys talking about?”
April barked out a laugh, and Ben smirked around his first bite of chicken. He looked up briefly at Peter, who stared at his plate and diligently worked through his own food. But it looked like he was trying not to laugh too. At least they could agree on the satisfaction of making Chase this worked up about literally nothing.
22
Everyone paid for their own dinner, and before anyone could even mention heading home for the night, Ben had to bring up one last thing. Probably the most important thing, which of course nobody wanted to talk about, because it meant that one way or another, everything was about to change.
“Okay,” he said. They all looked up at him, even Peter when he finished signing his credit card receipt. “I asked about the dreams, ‘cause there’s something else I have to tell you guys.” April drank down the last of her water and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Maybe Ben should have brought this up before they’d eaten, but he couldn’t do anything about that now. “So, the sand in my bed—”
“This again?” Chase said, rolling his eyes. “I don’t see why it’s such a big deal.”
“Well you will when you hear what I’m trying to tell you,” Ben snapped. “So do you mind?”
Chase leaned back in the booth with wide eyes and gestured for him to continue.
‘Just a little touchy, maybe?’
Yeah, Ian would be too if Chase always managed to interrupt him and make fun of him at the same time.
“I’ve been leaving it alone, for obvious reasons. But I had to grab my phone charger”—he could leave out the part about being terrified of his bedroom and tripping on the mess he’d made in there—“and when I saw the sand again, whatever was going through my head yesterday came back to try again.”
“Yesterday?” Peter asked.
“His little spill on the sidewalk,” Chase clarified. “When I came to his rescue.”
Peter snorted. “Oh. Right.”
“Whatever,” Ben said, shaking his head. “Same kind of thing. I didn’t see that demon again, or whatever it is, but I saw the desert from before. And something grabbed my leg.”
“This sounds like a bad horror movie,” Chase muttered.
“Will you cut it out?” April frowned at him. “I don’t know why you’re denying everything all of a sudden, especially after all the stuff you’ve seen with us. But if you just can’t help it, no one’s forcing you to sit here and listen.” She tilted her head, and Ben looked at Peter. His friend just widened his eyes, then glanced down at the table and snorted.
Chase seemed to meet April’s challenge in a battle of the wills, and Ben didn’t know how the guy hadn’t caught on by now that she was pretty much the reigning champion on that one. Finally, Chase shrugged and shook his head. “You guys are so serious all the time. Doesn’t anybody ever lighten up?” He obviously tried to sound easygoing and unaffected, but he still jerked his head back and looked away from April.
“You know, when we’re sure that nothing’s trying to kill one of us,” April said, “we’ll have a party. How does that sound?”
Chase smirked at that, like it was exactly what he wanted to hear, which was totally weird right now. “That would be cool.”
April looked at Ben and rolled her eyes. If it had been that easy to get Chase to shut up, Ben would have done that a long time ago. Then again, Chase and Peter had both punched each other, and Ben didn’t really want to fight anyone, and he guessed both April and Chase knew that wasn’t an option between them. So okay.
“Anyway,” he continued, “it felt exactly like what you said was in your dream.”
“The hands pulling you down,” April said softly.
“Yeah. My head felt like it was about to explode at that point, and I couldn’t see anything, so I have no idea what it was or if it was even really there.” Ben swallowed. “The whole there-but-not-there thing is kinda weird to figure out. But I did that… green light thing again.” He spread his fingers wide in the only way he knew how to refer to that blast of spirit-realm green coming from his own body and not Ian; he had no idea what that was. “And the thing disappeared. But it was way too much like your dream.” He looked at April and held her gaze. “Seemed like a pretty important thing to put on the table.”
Apparently, nobody had anything to say to that, but at least nobody was telling him it was all bull, either.
“I called Rufus like right after that, then I sent you guys the address, and then… well the rest of our night, right?”
“Did you tell him about all that?” Peter asked, looking like Ben’s story had now made the guy’s dinner seriously disagree with him. Probably should have led with that bit before they ate.
“No,” Ben said. “I told him we’d come with him tonight. Obviously not what we were expecting, so there’s that. But I made him promise me that if I went ahead and took their offer, he’d answer every single question I asked. Because he obviously knows something about what’s going on, way more than we do, and I’m tired of being jerked around.”
“Their offer,” Peter repeated. “You mean joining the Sectarian Circle?”
Ben nodded. “Yeah, if—”
“You’re actually considering doing that?” Peter’s anger was making a comeback now. “After they locked us in that weird basement and would only actually talk to you? After what happened tonight? That’s seriously something you want to be a part of?”
“He didn’t say he’s actually going to do it,” April said.
“Yeah, but he’s thinking about it. Just to get a couple answers.” Peter’s voice rose about an octave, and he shook his head. “Dude, these people don’t care what happens to you. All they want is Ian, because he’s—” He’d thrown a hand toward Ben, and now he lowered it, clearly surprised by the fact that he’d just acknowledged Ian’s existence there with all of them.
‘You think he realized I can hear him?’ Ian asked.
Probably.
The table was silent for a minute, and Peter just kept shaking his head as he stared at the floor. Ben couldn’t blame him. He’d probably have said the same thing if his and Peter’s situations were reversed. That didn’t change the fact that Ben really didn’t want to be snatched up by a rag-demon and carted off underground, or into the spirit realm forever, or somewhere else entirely to wait for whatever the demon wanted to do to him before the Gorafrim arrived. Because that had clearly been a major point for the demon he’d seen in his dream. And none of them could keep anything clearly awful from happening if they didn’t know what they were dealing with. They’d proven that already.
“Pete,” Ben said. It took a few seconds for his friend to look up at him again. “I don’t want to do anything with those people. It’s not like I really enjoyed our visit in Richard Monday’s house or the way they handle… well, anything. I just want to find out what’s happening to me. What might happen to other people and what I can do to stop it. Especially if it’s something that might come back at any of you.” No, he wasn’t going to single Chase out as an exception in this, though he briefly entertained the idea. “I’m serious.”
Peter just grabbed the back of his head and stared up at the ceiling.
“It’s kind of the only option, right?” April said. “I mean, you can tell them thanks but no thanks, but then we’re totally on our own. It’s not like we would’ve made it very far if Peter hadn’t gotten that cabinet in the first place for the stones, right?”
Excellent point.
“And that weird little doll for the… cats,” she continued, then stopped to swallow that nasty memory back down. “I’m pretty sure Ben would have died in the cemetery if Richard hadn’t shown up. The rest of us might have. We obviously don’t know enough about going after these things on our own. I don’t exactly want to stop doing it.” She laughed a little. “I think it’s awesome. And Ben’s basically a target now for everything in the spirit realm, because of Ian.”
Peter clenched his eyes shut and sucked in a breath through his teeth.
“No, but seriously,” April added. “As far as we know, there’s nothing he can do about that now. And if the Sectarian Circle are the only people who understand what’s going on, it’d be pretty stupid not to accept their help. Even if that means Ben has to join them, whatever that is.”
Peter rubbed his face. “This whole thing is stupid.”
Ben couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I know.” When Peter finally looked at him, he realized he hadn’t told them the last part. “Whatever happens, though, I’m not doing anything with those people unless you guys come with me.”
Chase snickered. “Yo
u mean like tonight? Where we’re just tagging along to watch?”
“No. I mean if the Sectarian Circle wants me to join them for whatever they’re doing, they have to let you guys join too. I’m not going in there by myself. And I’m pretty sure that if I told you something I wasn’t supposed to, they’d come after me.” A nervous laugh escaped him, because that seemed way too possible. They’d probably try to come after his friends, too, and Ben had no desire to live the rest of his life unable to tell anyone about what he was doing or what he’d seen. He’d done that once already with keeping Ian a secret, and that was one of his worst mistakes.
There was a palpable silence, then Peter burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter. Like really in hysterics, his face turning a disturbing shade of red and a few tears leaking out of his eyes. Chase leaned away from him in the booth, and Ben and April exchanged just slightly concerned looks.
When Peter finally calmed down, he wiped his eyes and blew out a quick breath to pull himself together the rest of the way. “This is literally what we’re doing now, isn’t it?” he asked, looking up at them with glistening eyes.
“Yeah,” Ben said, wishing he knew what Peter found so funny about this. “At least it makes you laugh.”
Peter shrugged. “Well, it was either that or punch all of you in the face. Not sure my hands could handle that.” He stopped and locked eyes with April’s, who sat there looking at him like he actually had just hit her. “I’m serious,” he told her, snorting as he choked back more laughter. “I actually pictured it. All three of you.” April clicked her tongue in disapproval. “And you made that exact same face!” Peter shouted before he exploded again, flinging his head back against the booth and yucking it up all by himself.