by P. S. Power
He nodded, trying to keep things positive and fairly upbeat for her. She’d clearly been through a lot.
“It means that I work for the government. These other people have come with me to save you, and as Hally said, to help Santa Claus as well, if we can. I’m a Vampire and so are my friends Jonas and Rebekah.” He gestured at them, hoping that the woman’s strange looks wouldn’t be a problem.
The little girl looked at her closely for a long time, but then just nodded slowly.
“I’m not a Vampire.”
Hally moved forward then, smiling, which seemed to hurt a little. “Me either. But these are good Vampires. Just like Balthias is a good Demon. He looks a little scary, but that’s just because he’s so big. He’s really nice. He’s going to take us away from here.” She sounded right, her voice cheerful and elfin. Rich would have believed in her, if he were the abused and neglected child at least.
Maci wasn’t buying it at all.
“Nope. I wanted to leave, but The Greater Demon Ma’at won’t let me. I wrote to Santa, but when he came she grabbed him and then made him not move with a thing. It went all around him and hurt him. Then she told him that she was going to lock him in the basement while she punished him. I don’t know how.” There was a little shrug of tiny shoulders and she looked down and pretended to draw with the bit of crayon on the top of her box. It was too small to do much with anymore.
That got Richard to smile, which was fake and a bit harsh, but the girl needed to know that they weren’t there to play games, and they didn’t have a lot of time to reassure her that they could fight Ma’at. They couldn’t after all. Not and live to tell about it.
“That’s why we came. Santa is a good being, a kind and gentle soul, but not one that can fight a Greater Demon. What he was thinking coming for you himself we don’t know, but we need get you out of here and then go and find him. Balthias, could you take Maci and Hally back to the Mistress of Souls’ home? That should be a safe enough place for them, I think.” As long as it didn’t come under attack too. He wasn’t going to risk sending them to his house however.
Hally shook her head, smiling a bit. “I need to get Santa. The rest of you can go. Balthias, you’ll come back for me, right?” She was scared again, which made Jonas move towards her just a little, until she looked at him and shook her head again. “Don’t. I’ll be alright. I just need to find him. You said he was in the basement?” This was addressed to the little girl who looked at her with big eyes.
“Yes. I’ll show you the stairs. We need to hurry. I’m not supposed to go down there. Ma’at will be mad and punish me again.” She didn’t seem to want that, but whatever it was didn’t scare her so much she refused to try or anything.
It was strange, but the girl took his hand to lead them towards the stairs, which turned out to be the door at the end of the hallway. One of the two they weren’t supposed to open. Maci did it without hesitation.
“He’s this way. Come on.” She moved with that sense of awkward surety that only little kids had in their own homes. She knew what she was doing, and had no doubts about it. Richard figured that it would lead them into another trap, which it did, after a fashion. He saw it for what it was almost instantly, having age and experience on his side.
It was Santa wrapped with a single silver chain. There was no lock on it that he could see and it was wound so many times around his middle and legs that he couldn’t move at all. He was plump, but not truly fat, and what clothing could be seen was red and made of real fur, with bits of white at the cuffs of his legs above black leather boots. There was a hat too, but it had been tossed in the corner of the space, on the dirt floor. The walls were rock, but it wasn’t exactly an impenetrable prison.
He was being kept by the magic in the chain alone then. Richard made himself take a breath to speak. “I don’t suppose anyone knows how to remove these?”
Hally tried to simply slip them off, which looked like it was working for a moment, until the thing started shifting under her hands, coming back to the original position almost instantly.
Santa smiled and shook his head.
“That doesn’t seem to be working. I have a magic key that can open any lock, that I think might work on this. This trap has a lock, one that is kept in another universe, but that shouldn’t be too big of a problem. Unfortunately that was taken away from me by Ma’at, which caused it to go to my home. It will be on my work bench there.” He seemed to be in a good enough mood, even a jolly one, considering his dire straits.
They all stared at him for a few seconds, though it was Balthias that asked the needed questions.
“You can’t get yourself free? Go up the chimney and leave the chains behind? If I have to go to the North Pole only to find you had the power to escape all along, I’ll…” He didn’t get to what he’d do, since Hally punched him in the shoulder lightly. She had to jump up to do it.
“Don’t be stupid Bal. If he could get free he would be. Right Santa?” There was a rather hopeful tone to her voice then as if she really wanted it to be true.
“That’s true, I’m afraid. I’ve tried every trick I have and a few I made up just for the occasion, but nothing’s worked so far. I don’t know when the Greater Demon might return, but you must flee and get Maci to safety. Promise me that you’ll do that.” His eyes were imploring, but he stared at Jonas, which seemed more than a little odd.
Out of all of them Richard would have gone after Hally if it were up to him. She was clearly the easiest one to manipulate.
He answered for them though, his voice resigned.
“We’ll do that. Balthias, if you could take Maci as we discussed? Then we need to find that key. At the North Pole?” It didn’t seem real, and might not be. There could be strange rules when dealing with creatures that came from other people’s imaginations. Especially when there were millions of people involved. The minds of many made for powerful ideas, but reality would assert itself too. In this case it was in a different way than he’d suspected, at least until the heavy man explained.
“Near there, on Coffee Club Island. At the northernmost tip of it, you’ll find a small shack. That’s the opening to my workshop. There isn’t a lot of time left. Christmas is in twenty days. Please hurry.”
Hally, bravely, volunteered to stay and keep Santa company, but the man shook his white bearded head, his bald spot glistening in the dim light.
“No. You must go with them and help them return. The Puzzler will require you all to make your way through again and it will be different when you try. I don’t know that you all have to do it together on the return, but that would be my guess. She’s been a very naughty girl, for a very long time, and for all she promises to not give a person more than they can handle, that factor has been known to push the line more than once or twice before.”
Balthias didn’t wait for them to tell him what to do, or even to come up with a plan, holding his arms out for everyone to touch, making a point of leaning down and to his left, so that Maci could take his hand on that side. She looked nervous, but took the changing surroundings well enough. The room they came back to looked different however. Before it hadn’t been decorated at all, now two blocky people in white moved around rapidly, setting things to order. The room had tasteful decorations in every available spot and the air smelled faintly of peppermint. There was even a plate of cookies laid out on the table.
Maci stared, wide eyed.
“Is this real?” She touched things then, but kept her exploration to the table in the middle of the space, near the food.
“That it is child. I take it that you’d be young Maci? We’ve been expecting you! Would you like some cookies?” The woman looked around then, but didn’t mention anything else directly. Her eyes went to Hally’s face and arms, which got her whisked away without a word, only to come back a few minutes later with bandages on her arms.
“Clara, I can’t take time to rest right now. We have to go to Santa’s house and get his magic key.�
� She stopped dead and made a face, looking at Rebekah. “That sounds incredibly insane, doesn’t it?”
“Pretty much. It’s the plan we have to work with, even if it is crazy.” Her face was set and looked a little troubled. “Can you get us there Balthias? I don’t know if you’ve ever been.”
The massive shoulders shrugged, “It will take time and we may not have enough. It will be faster to go without all of you, but I may be barred from entry to the place proper. My guess would be it isn’t a place that just anyone can go to. I have to find it on the Inroads first. I will make haste.” He left in a way that was similar to what the Greater Demons had done earlier, but it was slightly faster than what Keeley had done.
That left them all sitting, Maci happily eating a fudge brownie that seemed to have caramel on the top. When she went for her third sweet in a row Richard stopped her.
“Slow down a bit there honey. Maybe we could find you something to eat that’s a bit more substantial? I don’t know what you’ve been getting lately.” Now that he looked at her it was clear she was thin, malnourished possibly. It was awkward offering food at someone else’s house, but he could run out and find something if he had to.
That didn’t seem to be the case at all.
The stocky woman that he thought might be named Clara just smiled, and held her hands in front of herself happily.
“That would be fine. What would you like to eat? I can make almost anything and if not, I’m sure I can come up with something close.”
“Can I have a hamburger? With pickles?” She sounded shy suddenly, but the woman was already gone, and the noise from the other room became oddly intense for simple cooking. Seven minutes later a large tray of food came back through the door. It had a burger on it, a giant thing that was flat enough that even a small child could eat it. Half of it had cheese melted on the top of the meat patty, the other didn’t. There were condiments to the side and three different kinds of French fries with it. Regular, seasoned and curly. Those last turned out to be the most popular, the little girl playing with them a little as she ate, as if it was fascinating to her.
“Thank you Clara.” Richard tried to model good behavior for the little girl, though she didn’t catch it immediately. After a second though she looked at him with wide eyes as he watched her, smiling.
“Tank you Clara.” She was a little subdued, but continued to eat anyway. She didn’t make eye contact again for a while, but smiled when she realized he was pleased with her.
That spoke of a harsh environment, if nothing else. She was trying to read them all for signs as to what was appropriate or not and reacted with fear when she thought she’d gotten it wrong. She kept eating too, even though her stomach was sticking out and she was showing signs of being uncomfortable already.
“You don’t have to eat it all now. You can have food whenever you want here.” It was a lot to promise, but Clara and the other non-human creature both nodded happily.
“That’s right, whenever you want. All you have to do is ask.” It was the male that spoke, his voice eerily similar to the woman’s
“Thank you. I’m full now.” She seemed hesitant to let the food go, but didn’t complain when Clara took the tray away, even if she did follow it with her eyes.
There didn’t seem to be anything for the girl to do at first, but Hally jumped up and grabbed a bag from a closet, then disappeared through a door, coming back with some plain white paper. After a few seconds of digging in the blue bag with straps on it she pulled out a modest set of colored felt tip pens. There were six colors in it, and they weren’t the fat ones he’d seen, but the little girl’s eyes went wide when she saw them anyway.
“These belong to my friend Keeley. She’s really nice.”
That news got Jonas to look at her funny, but Richard was more concerned with the fact that Hally was planning to use the Demon’s things without permission. No one else seemed concerned however and Maci didn’t know any better, so she just started drawing. It wasn’t skillful, but her face screwed up in concentration in a way that was very cute. They should probably get her cleaned up he decided, but didn’t want to interrupt her creative endeavors just yet.
There was new music on, Celtic instrumentals playing classic songs that reminded him of his youth, hundreds of years before. No one spoke at all for a long time, but that was fine. Finally Hally did, her own youth causing her to be a little scared when it wasn’t needed. There would, he knew, be plenty of time for that later. It was strange, sitting in the house of a Greater Demon, waiting for a Lesser Demon to find the route to Santa’s workshop, but it wasn’t uncomfortable really. After about an hour, two small brown eyes looked at him, holding out a piece of paper to be examined.
Richard looked at it closely, trying to make it all out. It looked familiar enough, he thought, since it was all of them in the room, except for a woman in a dress with a knife or small sword, holding Balthias with one hand, ready to behead him.
“Well this is a very good picture Maci! I see that we’re all here, and, is this Ma’at?” He pointed to her, as everyone else looked worried. It was a real enough thing, since for all they knew the girl was psychic. Most people were, at least a bit. He’d been around too long to deny it himself. For some reason he didn’t think it was the case this time though. “And this is Balthias, about to be killed?”
She nodded somberly, but didn’t speak. She did look surprised when he moved to the little table and sat next to it on the floor, getting a clean sheet of paper. Richard quickly copied part of her scene, making it a little larger, but trying to hold the character of her work as closely as he could. It was just the part with Ma’at and the Lesser Demon, but he added two other figures just to either side. One of them was easily holding Ma’at’s sword to the side, the other had a hand on her throat, pulling her away. He made little motion lines like they used to use in the comics.
“Do you know who these women are?” They had skirts too, so obviously they were girls, that part didn’t need to be explained, just like Balthias was the one with horns. The others came over and looked then, smiling, except Jonas who seemed to be considering his artistic prowess.
If he said one thing about the use of lines and color to show emotional impact Richard decided to fire the man.
Hally pointed at the sheet smiling, “I know. Can you guess who they are Maci? I’ll give you a hint, this one here?” She pointed carefully, showing the one that held the blade out of the way. “She’s the person whose markers you’re using.”
“Your friend Kelly?” She said the words innocently enough. The voice behind them was a little ragged when it answered, but happy enough.
“Keeley.” The Demoness herself walked over, glancing around carefully first, and looked at the drawing. “Not bad Rich. There was even a scene kind of like that about an hour ago. Ma’at managed to get away, but that won’t be for too long. I just came to get a snack. Darla will be back for hers after I start the chase. It will take a while, but we’ll wear her down.”
She glanced at the other drawing, the first one and shook her head, just a bit. “Balthias won’t get caught like that. He can go almost anywhere he wants. Speaking of which, where is he?”
Hally answered for them, moving in to pat the Demoness on the back like a friend, rather than her owner.
“He’s going to try and find Santa’s workshop. It’s on…” She froze for a second, clearly trying to remember the strange name.
Keeley just nodded and provided it for her. “Coffee Club Island. That makes sense, it’s the northernmost solid land mass most of the time. There are a few others that move around from time to time, but you’d be insane to build on them.” She looked at the plate in front of her and smiled.
“Can I have a cookie do you think? Clara should have some more things for me to eat in a bit… But they sure look good.”
Maci nodded and handed the plate to her.
“Are you an angel?” Her words were sweet and kind as the Demoness snatch
ed something that looked crisp and had chips in it. They weren’t chocolate. They might have been butterscotch but it was hard to tell.
Keeley smiled at him, “butter toffee. Clara makes the toffee herself.”
Then she patted the little girl on the shoulder and swallowed the bite she’d taken, using very good manners.
“To answer your question, I’m not an angel, even though I can see how you might get confused. I’m a friend of Richard’s. You asked him for help, so he came to my sister and me to make sure you got it. That was pretty brave of him. He’s afraid of me, even though that’s silly.”
“Why is he afraid of you? You seem nice.” The girl said with the kind of simplicity that only a child could manage.
“I don’t know. I think I’m wearing him down at any rate. I’m sure any day now he’ll see that we’re friends.” She smiled at Richard, punctuating it with another bite.
It was just too hard to trust that she meant what she said. Greater Demons lied after all, it was what they did best.
Chapter five
One thing that he hadn’t expected was the raw amount of food a Demon could put away at a single sitting. She appeared to be model thin, nearly anorexic, but Keeley ate vast quantities that should have left her stomach distended and aching. It would have been the result if she were a real girl at least. Instead she ate… and ate. Clara the cook coming in with a half dozen trays of food for her to consume. It was both fascinating and extremely gross at the same time. Not on the level of something he couldn’t bear to watch, but if she didn’t need to eat that much it was wanton consumption without a real reason.
Jonas fairly stared at her, which was rude as well. It took a solid elbow in the ribs from Rebekah and some meaningful eye contact to get him to look away, his face slightly shocked. It probably wasn’t the power of the blow, since there hadn’t been much sound from it, so it was likely just the contact from the woman. It reminded Richard that her wish, the second one she was forced to take without time to think or plan, had been for “true love”. If Jonas wasn’t very careful he might just end up wrapped up in that. If he hadn’t been already.