Stir Until Petrified

by Theda Vallee

  She stood up straight grabbing a nugget from my plate as she stood. “Please excuse me now. I have orders to issue, things to get into order prior to your departure. I'll have someone else come shortly to return you to your rooms. Come along, Charlotte dear, we have so much to do.”

  “Freaking hell. A succubus!! How did we not think of that as a possibility?” Brady huffed.

  “Obviously someone didn't want us to suspect a succubus. There’s nothing in this case that would make us look in that direction. Succubi prefer men. Over half the victims are women. They feed on people’s fear and sex. Vee would’ve felt that. She’s one of the best there is at picking up demonic activity, especially succubi. We’ve worked two other cases with them. She would’ve known. I don’t understand,” Luc said, his voice trailing off in frustration.

  “Please follow me back to your rooms.” Another blonde woman stood in the doorway, blinking at us with one eye. Her other eye was covered with a black eye patch. She curled her lip into a half snarl when she saw me. The one blinking eye was very familiar. Shit. She was the wolf whose eye I’d popped out. She wasn’t happy to be escorting us. I wasn't going to apologize. She’d tried to eat me.

  As we walked through the corridors following the one-eyed woman, Clara’s words swirled around my head. She’d said we were looking for a succubus but not to put the strega theory to rest so quickly. We needed to find her true motive. It was a succubus. They got off on torturing people. Maybe this was just a very creative succubus. She’d found a way to make a pool of people to feed off. It was an all you can eat buffet of fear for a hungry demon. What would a strega have to do with it?

  “You’ll be staying here for the next few days while you train.” One Eye said abruptly stopping in front of one of the many doors along the corridor.

  “Her Supreme Self has made certain you have what you need. Your cell phones will work for a short period of time, so you can let your people know you’re safe. The fridge has several items we thought you might enjoy. If you need something else, please let one of the guards outside know. We’ll see that it’s provided. Any questions?” she blinked her eye at us expectantly. We shook our heads no in unison. “Very well. We ask that you don't leave the room without an escort. As you may have noticed the facility is not easy to navigate. Someone will be here at five am to take you to begin training.”

  “Five a.m.? Who gets up at five a.m.?” I sputtered.

  “You do, if you want our help.” She shut the door securely behind her.

  “You do if you want our help meh, meh, meh,” Brady mimicked her. “These people are crazy. How long do you think we’ll have to be here for? I am totally creeped out by the vibe of everything going on here.”

  “These people are helping us. Be nice,” I scolded. These people had been watching me my whole life, there was no reason to think they’d stop because we were here. I didn't want to be slaughtered in our sleep for offending someone. “Luc, are you alright? You look like you’re lost in your own head.”

  “I don’t know. I’m trying to piece the puzzle together. Succubi are not known for being random. They’re methodical and intelligent, but they’re also simple. They usually take what they need and move on. There must be something we’re missing about these victims. Some connection we’ve never noticed before. We missed something, or we were misdirected away from something important.” Luc’s hands balled into fists.

  “I’m going to let you wrestle with that. I need to get some sleep, so I can start training in the morning. The faster I learn this, the faster we get home.” I said turning to find a bedroom.

  “And the faster we can get some real damn food,” Nerina said, slamming the fridge shut.

  Chapter

  24

  Luc sat on the couch with a laptop open in front of him, when I strolled into the living room at four thirty. Where the hell did he get a laptop? The wall to the right of him which had been blank last night was covered in photos of people and sticky notes. It looked like a scene out of a cop movie where they plastered all the suspects and associates plastered to the wall.

  “I see you’ve been busy. Did you sleep at all? Where the hell did you get all of this stuff?”

  “Yes. No. Guards outside the door,” Luc answered, without glancing up from the laptop.

  “You want coffee if I can find some? Then maybe you can explain to me what kind of crazy is going on over there?” I said gesturing at the wall.

  He nodded without looking up. The kitchen had a coffee pot on the counter which was a promising sign. Digging through the cabinets I was overjoyed to find a bag of beans. Getting the pot brewing I searched around for something to eat. I found a loaf of sourdough bread and popped a few slices in the toaster while waiting for the coffee to finish.

  A few minutes later I set a cup of steaming coffee next to the laptop. I placed a plate with toast and jam down as well. “Here drink this and eat this. You need to keep your energy up if you’re going to stay up all night creating crazy paper collages on the wall.”

  Luc glanced away from the laptop for a second and smiled wanly. He leaned over, planting a kiss on my temple. “Thank you, cariad. I needed this.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked him. He’d been using the word since yesterday, but with everything that’d happened there had been no time to ask him about it.

  “I was wondering when you’d ask. It’s a Welsh term of endearment like saying love or darling,” he said without looking up. “Does it bother you?”

  “It doesn’t bother me, but we haven’t even dated. Isn’t it a little quick to have pet names for each other?”

  “We’ve slept together. That usually happens after some dating. I figured we were kind of following a nontraditional path. Besides, seeing you almost die yesterday…” He trailed off without finishing the sentence. He looked up from the computer, his face a canvas of emotion. “I won’t push you. I get it. You’re not ready to call this anything, but I’m not going to pretend I don’t feel something more. We can leave it at that for the time being.”

  “After we deal with the succubus, get everyone out of their comas, and have a few days to relax; you and I should go somewhere and talk this out.” I sighed. I’d known that this was going to get complicated. How was it every time I had sex things had to get messy, no pun intended?

  “Will we be naked?” he asked with a smile.

  “Shut up and drink your coffee. I still want to know what the hell you’re doing with all this.” I picked up a stack of sticky notes eyeing the random notes on every page.

  Nibbling my toast, I examined the photos on the wall. They were of the victims. Each one had six sticky notes leading to the next victim. The notes had names on them. Some of them had names and dates. He was either onto something or desperately clutching at straws.

  “Do you think you have something that ties all of these people together?”

  “Not yet. Nothing I’m ready to share. I have a theory though. A few more hours of research and I might be able to say I have something.”

  “You know I might be able to help. I’ve been known to come up with a good idea occasionally.” I said looking to see if anything in his scrawled handwriting caught my attention.

  “You need to get ready to dive into dreams with Charlotte,” he said, leaning over to kiss me again. “She’ll be pissed if you’re not ready on time. I don’t think that’s a woman we want angry.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him, before flouncing off to get ready. I wasn’t looking forward to spending time with Charlotte. She’d added herself to the list of people who wanted to kill me. That already put me at unease in her presence. Add to that her anger-is-an-accessory- personality, and it promised to be a very harrowing day.

  At five on the dot someone knocked on the door. Charlotte entered without waiting for an answer. She stood glowering at us, her arms folded across her chest in displeasure. She was a ray of sunshine.

  “Good morning, Charlotte. Anything we need to bring
with us?” I asked.

  She arched her eyebrow as if trying to determine what species I represented. “Us? You and you alone are training. Now let’s go.”

  “Shouldn’t someone know what to do with my body while I’m in the dreamscape? Like monitor me for signs of danger or something?” I asked refusing to move.

  “I think Etta’s is right. She needs a spotter. Her body is going to be defenseless while she’s in there,” Brady said.

  “Not you buddy. We need to figure out how to stop the succubus. I’ve worked on cases before. They can’t be killed. We need to figure out the safest way to banish it, while making sure the people in comas aren’t hurt,” Luc said.

  “Why am I always stuck on research duty? Nerina’s here. She can look things up too.” Brady pouted. I had a feeling he only wanted to come because he thought it would be entertaining.

  “She doesn’t have security clearance to go through the archives,” Luc replied, giving Brady a look that said he was not arguing this with him.

  “Alright. I’ll go,” Nerina said, jumping up to join me.

  “For fuck’s sake. This isn’t going to be that interesting. You’ll sit in the corner and keep your mouth shut, understood?” Charlotte turned, heading down the hall assuming we’d follow.

  Thirty minutes later I found myself laying on the floor of an all-white room. I felt like I’d been taken to a padded cell in the asylum. The floor was covered in plush white carpet that your feet sank into. It was soft against my cheek as I lay sprawled out on the floor. Staring at the seamless white ceiling I listened to Charlotte blather on about relaxing my mind and body so I could recognize the onset of theta waves.

  “I don’t want to interrupt but I have no idea what you’re talking about. How am I going to recognize a theta wave if I have no idea what it is?”

  “Are you really that ignorant? It’s simple biology,” she snapped.

  “I know people fall asleep. That’s the extent of my knowledge.” I shrugged. How many people knew this stuff? I had a feeling it was a lot less than she thought.

  “Fucking hell. Fine. Let’s stop what we’re doing so I can give you a lesson in something you should’ve learned in high school. Pay attention because I’ll only explain this once. Sleep has five stages. Each night your body cycles through these five stages multiple times. The first two stages are a subtle transition between waking and sleeping. Your brain begins to emit theta waves allowing everything to slow down. As you near the end of stage two your heart rate lowers and your body temperature drops. This is the cusp you’re looking for. As your body transitions into stages three and four, you will begin emitting delta waves. These delta waves are what allow you to transpose your consciousness and move into the dreamscape. If you can recognize the deep delta waves in your subconscious you can force your consciousness to come across before you hit REM. When you force past that boundary you can see the spindles of consciousness that everyone let’s go during sleep. You can follow those trails to the person's dreams you want to be in.” She finished with a flourish of her hands like she’d performed a magic trick.

  “We were supposed to learn that in high school?” Nerina asked, sounding as confused as I felt.

  “What I’m hearing is I need to look for delta waves. Do they look a certain way? Maybe color coded?” I asked trying to wrap my brain around this. If I couldn’t understand a basic explanation, how the hell was I going to figure out how to do this.

  “When you get into your brain, you’ll see a marked difference between the wave types. It’s going to take you actually getting in that thick skull of yours to see it.” Charlotte answered.

  “How do you know what trail to follow? If it’s a collective of every person’s dreams, there's got to be trillions of paths to follow?” I said, feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of what I’d taken on.

  “Yes and no. The dreams that are pertinent to your reality will be accessible to you. You would need to have had contact with the dreamer at some point. Your consciousness will have a reference, some indicator it will use to identify the person the path belongs to. They’re unique for each person entering the dreamscape, so only you will be able to tell whose path is whose.” Charlotte said walking over to stand over me.

  Fantastic. Not only was I going to have to learn neuroscience, but once I got in there’d be no clear-cut path to. “I’ll be just taking a stab in the dark?”

  “I’ll be with you, so you’ll have some guidance. Now can we please get back to work. I don’t intend to spend the next three months doing this with you.” She stared down at me her eyes eating a hole in my skull. Jesus. She was terrifying.

  I laid my head back onto the softness of the carpet closing my eyes to mimic the moments before I drifted off to sleep. All I could hear was the sound of Nerina breathing heavily in the corner. I needed wine. That would do the trick. I bet two glasses of wine equaled instant theta waves. Lying here knowing someone was willing me to relax, made relaxing impossible. I opened one eye and found Charlotte peering at me with barely concealed hostility.

  “Look, it's not easy to doze off when you are in a strange place with someone forcing you to do it. Why do I need to do this sleeping anyways? The first time it ever happened I was wide awake.”

  “Impossible. You can’t move into the dream world from waking,” Charlotte scoffed.

  “You can say impossible all you want but that doesn't change the fact that it happened.” I rolled my eyes at her dismissive tone.

  “Will you please focus? I don’t care if you entered the dream world standing on your damn head. This is how we master it. Shut up. Close your fucking eyes and get into your brain.” Charlotte kicked my butt with her heeled foot for emphasis.

  A vein popped out on her forehead as she waited for me to obey. I wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass, but this wasn't simple. I closed my eyes trying to do what I needed to do. If I could relax, I could go into my mind like I’d done when I first found my magic. Taking deep breaths, I tried to let myself sink down into my own brain.

  It took a great amount of effort, but I was finally able to get inside my head. The firing of synapses refracted off the shiny grey surface of my brain. As disgusting as it was to be slogging around in the squishy tissue, it was a wonder to behold. I settled into a small indent prepared to watch and wait. Somehow, I had to be aware of when I was drifting to sleep and recognize the changes in the light show as it took place. Simple right?

  Quiet settled around me except for the occasional soft pop as the neurons in my brain fired in a quick succession. Time ticked away as I waited for something to happen. Finally, I noticed the light show was slowing down. There was longer gaps between the popping of the neurons. Cautiously I moved over to peer down the synapse to see if there was anything worth noting. Down the length of the path was a surge of light heading towards me. The currents of energy whooshed through building pressure until they burst. As I watched the energy stretched out languorously, adding space between the next burst. This must be the waves. Thank God! Now I could say I accomplished something today. I still had no idea what I was looking at but at least I knew where to look.

  “I saw the waves,” I said, triumphantly opening my eyes.

  “That’s it? That’s the bare minimum of what you need to learn. You have to be able to drop to stage four on command. Close your eyes. Go again. We’re not leaving this room until you’ve actually accomplished something.” Charlotte said, pinning me with her unnerving glare.

  Hours flew by as I pushed myself to drop through the stages of sleep on command. Charlotte’s voice barking commands at me was going to be in my nightmares tonight. I was learning, but not fast enough for her royal bitchiness. I could only progress to stage three, and not every time.

  “Take them back to their room. We’ll pick this up in a few hours.” Charlotte ordered one of the guards standing by the entrance. “Come back ready to perfect this. We don't have time for you to be an underachiever.”

  We follo
wed the guard back through the tunnels, my stomach grumbling along the way. It was almost noon and all I’d eaten in the last seven hours was two pieces of toast. How did anyone expect me to learn on an empty stomach?

  “I heard that. I’ll see what I can find for us to eat when we get back. Are you doing ok? I didn’t expect this to be so militant,” Nerina whispered.

  “I just have to try harder. She won’t have a reason to yell at me if I can do better.” I wasn’t going to complain. It was hard. Charlotte was one of the most unpleasant people I’d ever encountered. Despite that, I was being given the tool I needed to save my grandmother. I’d put up with a lot for that.

  “So, what’s up with your boyfriend?” Nerina asked.

  “He’s not my boyfriend and what do you mean?” I said bumping into her on purpose. She’d get a lot worse if she continued to insinuate Luc and I were a couple.

  “Well, someone should probably tell him that. But what I’m talking about is all the crazy conspiracy theory wall art he’s created. I was up to pee twelve times last night. All that fried food made me so thirsty. He didn’t sleep at all,” Nerina said.

  “I have no idea. He wouldn’t tell me about it this morning.”

  “Get creative. Use your boobs to get it out of him,” she said, reaching over to tweak my breast.

  I smacked her hand away, flipping her off before opening the door to the apartment. The guards looked at us in disgust. Nerina winked at them before following me in.

  Our moment of levity was lost as we walked in to find Luc standing in front of the wall muttering under his breath as he moved from note to note. He looked like he’d lost his mind. I looked at Brady for an answer, but he shrugged as confused as we were.

  “Luc are you OK?” I asked, placing my hand on his arm.

  “I found it. I found the connection,” he said his accent heavy from lack of sleep.

  “Show me?” I asked.

  He stared at me with a hollow look in his eyes. It was the haunted look of someone who’d learned something they didn’t want to know. That couldn’t be good.