by P. S. Power
On the doorstep of the modest but well kept house, she set her friend down.
"Here we are. You can open your eyes."
"Oh? That is so amazing. I wish I could teleport."
Keeley didn't explain the difference. To Hally they'd traveled instantly after all. To Keeley it had taken about a minute of walking and pushing her friend through the line. Humans weren't that hard though, really. She'd carried Darla that way, and it had felt like she was carrying a car with her the whole time. Greater Demons drank the world around them, after a fashion, pulling on it and bringing things to them. It made it really hard to hide what they were for long.
In that way Zack was doing alright so far. It wouldn't last, and was already starting to fall apart. Him taking a job at a node like that, for instance, was a sign for sure. That probably meant that she, or more likely, Finias, needed to watch him closely, so that nothing too bad would get a shot at him.
"Well, for now, you can ask me, or possibly Zack, and we can do it for you. Though... I do have a device you could buy from me... it lets you teleport once per day." She actually did. It was kind of limited, but no one had bought it yet. She'd gotten it from a Gatherer's hoard.
"Oooh! How much?" There was genuine excitement in the words and everything.
"I don't know, a few million at least. Though that's the rate for friends. I mean, it lets you teleport. Anywhere on the planet." A few places off of it too, or into other reality schemes, but she didn't mention that, as her friend's face went flat.
"Ah. Well, I can't afford that. There aren't enough buildings to burn down in town here, and I'd rather not become a killer, if I can help it. Nothing else I can do is worth that."
She was right, so Keeley just smiled and rested a hand on her shoulder, keeping it friendly, since one of the neighbors, a rather nosey thing from across the street, was staring at them. The woman had seen them appear, but instantly forgotten about it, thinking that her eyes were playing tricks.
"Probably true. It also isn't that useful really. You could do more with millions of dollars than you could with a gadget like that."
"That's true." The girl seemed sad for a few seconds, but held her hand lightly and moved away, going to the door. "Thanks, Keelzebub."
For half a moment she wondered why the girl was thanking her, but then she got it. Her friend had simply expected to be rejected. Romantically. She was thanking her for being more polite than that.
"No worries, just don't tell everyone we're secretly dating, or, you know, it won't be a secret." She waited while the news processed. Hally simply smiled and nodded twice.
"I won't tell if you don't. Does this mean we get to go on dates and stuff too? Gavin is sweet, but he's mainly in it to see how far he can get with me, I think. Not exactly inspired in the romance department."
Keeley raised a single eyebrow.
"Maybe. We'll just have to see, won't we?"
It would have been the perfect time to kiss her again, except the very aware neighbor was still watching them. It was annoying, but then Keeley shrugged.
"See you tomorrow? Or the day after that? We have that midnight mass to go to. Your whole family should come." She wouldn't order them to, but if Hally mentioned it to them, they'd do it, never really knowing exactly why. They were trapped by her, but didn't know it at all. She didn't want them to. All they had was their illusion of freedom after years of feeling hunted. Why would she take that away?
They parted and she walked away, since stepping onto the inroads would probably make the woman watching her worry about her sanity, if she saw it too closely. It was a pain, but she moved off, knowing that as soon as she got around the corner she needed to find a place hidden from view so she could get home. She didn't have a coat on, and it was just cool enough that people would notice that if she had to go too far.
It took a few minutes, and a handy blind alley that looked to lead to someone's private garage. She was home a minute after that and settled in her bedroom, sitting on the bed, her feet pulled up under her a bit. She wasn't hungry yet, but made a point to pull in as much energy from around her as she could hold before starting to work on the construction of her private pocket universe.
She was so going to name it Keeley Land.
The work itself was pretty hard, and even trying to use only drawn energy she ended up eating all night long, taking a break for it every few hours. The basic premise wasn't that hard, since she sort of knew how to open doors into other spaces already, but the inroads were the place between worlds, and she needed to create a brand new place for this to work. One that was part of her physical body, but separate from it at the same time. The idea gave her a migraine at first, which was a sign that she was doing brain damage trying to think about it. Oddly enough, that also meant she was doing it right.
By the next morning though, she finally had it.
The idea was hard to explain, but basically she had shelves in a different reality that would always be with her, no matter where, or for that matter, when, she went. It was a timeless space, which meant that, if she stepped into it, she wouldn't need to breath or eat for a while. She also couldn't move inside it, since it was tiny that way, just big enough for her to seem to vanish. She could look out though and from regular space there were points around her body, all toward the front, where Keeley could store things. Not a car or anything, but her new sword had a spot on her right hand side, built for a nice surprise grabbing movement. The handle would hang about head high, so that she could chop downward instantly.
On the left, a little lower, was a place for a knife. On the right, about even with her hip, was a place for several guns, side by side. Once she had them, they could just hang there, ready to shoot all the time. It would take a little of her own power to reach them, but once set up, the pocket dimension was pretty close to self-sustaining. It would fade over time, but she had a few decades before that would happen, unless she took it down first.
To her left she had what amounted to real storage space. That way she could cart around gear with her all the time. Snacks, some extra clothing, whatever she wanted, as long as it could fit in the space of a short bookshelf. No one would see it, in the main, so it wasn't as cluttered looking as it sounded. She didn't think so at least.
A trip to the garage and a bit of energy had the blades set up nicely enough. There were no firearms in the house, so she loaded an extra outfit and a pair of sneakers up, along with some food from the kitchen. It wouldn't go bad at all, so she didn't have to worry about spoilage. That meant she could have good food, ready to go and hot, all the time. She cooked some steaks, eggs and pancakes and buttered them, drizzling some syrup on just before getting them into place. Then she tucked a knife, fork and spoon in too. A carton of orange juice came next.
That made her nearly ready for anything sane or normal, she figured. Not a real fight, and not a real food emergency, but it was a start and she had more space. To that end she loaded up several jars of high density fats. Peanut butter, shortening and some expensive almond butter that she liked, but normally didn't get much of at the store. That was mainly because her mother did most of the shopping, and she hadn't mentioned that she really liked it yet.
When she started making breakfast, she realized that she felt a little sleepy. It took a few moments to fix that, since she wasn't going to spend time sleeping if people were out to get her. Paranoia might be a problem, but dead, or trapped in an inescapable cage was almost certainly going to be worse. She had some rolls ready about two hours later and made cream cheese frosting for them. They were orange flavored, because that was her favorite.
They were done just in time for the front door to be knocked on. That was something she was starting to get used to, the coincidences that Greater Demons pulled out of the world around them all the time like that. It wasn't always a good thing, but her kind organized the world, even if they weren't trying to.
At first Keeley didn't get who was standing there, since the feeling was
a bit different than what it should have been, but after a few seconds she picked up what was going on. It was supposed to be Zack.
It really wasn't, of course. For one thing, Zack didn't have a regular energy flow, like a human did. He faked one pretty well, but only part of the time and it was very organized when he did it. Like a Taoist wizard. This being seemed perfectly human that way. Chaotic and a bit weak.
Opening the door, she let hand come up to wave, as she smiled at the now familiar face.
"Zack, how great to see you! Did you come to have sex? I know you mentioned that you wanted to do that..." Keeley chuckled, and pulled her new sword from its place, making a single fluid movement of it, chopping into the neck of the boy in front of her.
Who shrugged the movement off without even saying ouch. Because that's what the human line walker would do.
The next moments were spent slamming the sword into the person in front of her as fast as she could, while gearing up to try and take them, even as a gun was pulled from behind their back, where a small holster sat. Just as she was hit in the left arm she managed to take off the Demons hand. That didn't stop the fight at all, but it got confusing then, as she tried to take their head off, literally, and found her left knee snapping out from under her, causing her to fall. It was hard to focus enough to speak, so she just tried to reach out and take them, making a silent deal with them. All they had to do was attack...
Which they did of course.
The struggle for their being, their soul, for lack of a better word, was harder than with Fram, by a good percentage. She nearly had them though, this fake Zack, when something hit her from the right. Hard. It knocked her from where she was all the way over to her car, the force of the move slamming her into it. She healed as fast as she could then, burning magic and physical resources for it. Her sword was out of her hand, but by killing the pain she managed to get her knife out fast enough to meet the second rush of the new... thing. It wasn't exactly a person after all.
No, it was a Lesser Demon. At least it looked like it could be Bal's brother. The reek coming from it was strong, and it held something in its hands, whatever it had used to hit her the first time. Whatever it was, she really wanted it. It was... wonderful. After a moment she realized what it was. Her neighbor's plain black mail box.
Locking that sense down, finding that it was being projected by the creature coming toward her, she sighed. Then leaped past it, slashing as she moved, knowing that it would have to move away, unless she let it connect with her, which took willpower and force on her part to manage. The other Demon was rallying already, not being weak by any means, though still without a right hand. It was a Greater Demon though. Clearly.
It was hard to hobble on her broken leg, even though it was mending enough to let her do it, so she wasn't as fast as the person in front of her. Not enough to catch them as they turned and ran physically.
"Malphius, to me!" The Greater Demon cried the word as a command, but the creature stopped to stare, at her, instead of doing what they were told.
Keeley turned, ready to fight, the blade in her hand moving, being infused with magic enough that the metal started to glow an eerie purple color. She tried to make it something that would rip the energy of the being in front of her apart, but Malphius, if that was it's real name, just bowed slightly.
"I was misinformed. The conditions of the contract stated that you were weak, a being with only one skill, that of stealing the lives of those that challenged you. I should have asked far more questions, Mistress of Souls. We won't meet again, anytime soon."
"That might be a good idea." It actually came out sounding like she had a plan, other than engaging the giant thing in front of her, easily the same size as Bal, in hand to hand combat. That might work, or she might just die then and there, if they did it.
The Lesser Demon didn't know that however.
"So I see. Perhaps next time we'll meet under... better informed conditions?"
"Of course." She nodded. It was simply the truth, no doubt.
The thing fled to the inroads then, not even taking a step back first. The other Demon had as well, she was certain.
Who'd know to fake being Zack though?
More to the point, who'd bother, and then do that poor of a job of it? True she was young, but they had to know, whoever was doing this, that she wasn't exactly horrible at magic.
Unfortunately they all kept getting away before she could ask them anything. To do that though, she was going to need a trap, and not just be responding to what was coming, time after time. Plus, she looked a bit bad at the moment, since she hadn't killed them. Picking up her sword she stepped onto the inroads, which meant starting the fight up again, since the Greater Demon that was wearing Zack's face, was just standing there, clearly watching her.
Her blade work wasn't exactly elegant, but she was moving fast enough that she scored some hits, even as she knew that it was nearly impossible to catch someone in an off space like they were in. At least if they could think, or had free will. Resetting, she tried to grab them again, ready to fight if they had another buddy, or if Malphius came back. That didn't happen, but they weren't exactly as helpless as all that, tossing something at her as they fled away from her, stepping off the line suddenly.
At first she didn't get what it was, until it exploded, right there on the inroads. The force pushed her back, but Greater Demons were a bit sticky on the roads, meaning they tended to stay in place when pushed on. She wasn't any different from the others that way, so the fragments from the small round sphere stuck in her skin, driving inside her flesh. It would have hurt, except for the fact that she was already killing all the pain anyway. Her left eye was gone though, or at least she was blind on that side. It was annoying, but a clever enough trick.
Not magical either. It had been a fragmentation grenade.
"I need to get some of those for my new stash." The words weren't as clear as all that, because of her half destroyed mouth. That was going to make eating fun, while she healed, wasn't it?
She didn't go back in the house, limping to her other place instead. True, Darla might be able to help her more, but it was pretty clear that her sister actually had plans at work, and might not even be home at the moment. Rebekah, Balthias and the others would be. They could get her something to eat while she looked into healing.
It was harder to get all the way there than it should have been, meaning she was pretty injured. It was bad enough that she put the blades back in their places, just so she wouldn't have to try and move the extra weight with her. It was a little easier then, but when she tried to get off the road, the silver shimmer around her felt harder to move than normal. That was because she was passing out. It was a bit of a shock, but she didn't let it happen, wondering why it even was. She didn't seem to be bleeding overly or anything, and while her energy reserves were being stressed, they weren't gone or...
"Duh, Keels, think. Poison."
She started working on that too, which was hard, since, after a while she realized that it wasn't that at all, it was radiation. The grenade hadn't been anything normal then. It had something strange in it, like uranium. Whoever that had been had actually thrown a nuke at her?
That got a smile. It was the wrong kind of nuclear weapon for her to be proud of surviving, but the idea was a good one. It would keep weakening her, until she got the pieces out of her body. Even a little sliver of it would wear at her, until she finally couldn't fight enough anymore and died.
Stumbling into her other living room, she nearly fell. There were beings there, sitting on the sofa. Oddly enough Fram got to her first, and assessed the whole situation.
"Get food. All of it. We'll need more. Some kind of bomb went off."
Looking at him she didn't bother trying to smile. Half her skin was off and dangling around her chin anyway. Speaking wouldn't work either, so she nodded once and moved to the couch, and closed her eyes, so she could focus. It took a splitting of her attention, half of i
t given over to healing, so she wouldn't die instantly and the other part going into using magic to push out the radioactive components. It was harder than it sounded like, but she was able to pick up on people talking around her. Finally Clara came over and poured something down her throat. There was a sweet taste to it, but other than that she couldn't tell overly what it was. Her nose wasn't up to smelling anything at the moment really and she didn't have enough attention left to try and guess by the texture.
After a while she did nothing but that, swallowing when something was placed in her mouth, healing and then trying to drive every last particle from her body. After a long time, hours at least, Darla and Finias both showed up, Fram looking... A bit frantic, to tell the truth.
"Techie... She's expelling radioactive bits. Someone really did a number on her. We need to contain those. I don't have anything for it here. I've been moving them away from the others, but that's all I can do without instructions."
"Really? I wonder what happened? Keeley, can you keep going?"
That was a stupid question. She either could, or she died. Right now she was on the downward road too. Dying. It wasn't a fun thought, but the honest answer was that she doubted she could keep going long enough to get everything. The only way involved more food than they were giving her. A lot more, and her figuring out some way to increase the rate of healing.
"Hand." It probably sounded strange, but what the hell? If she lived she could use the hand to find her new little playmate, and if not, then the sliced off thing could be buried with her. "Other door."
Looking at Bal got him to leave and come back with it, along with the semi-automatic pistol that was still in the grip.
"Good." It sounded strange and mushy, still lacking lips. "More food." She was going to try for please, but decided on muttering the word faster, instead. It worked at least. They were pushing things into her mouth nearly constantly after that.