“Back up?” I asked, wondering how the spirits who liked to hang around him could seriously help in this kind of situation.
“If I need to, I can ask spirits to possess them to get them out of the house. There’s no risk to me going over there and doing this. If you go you could get hurt.”
“Okay,” I said, willing to admit his idea was the better one. “I had no idea.”
He flushed a little in the face. “It’s not something they like to do, but if needs must.” He shrugged. “I’ll be back soon.”
He left and I put the extra large meat feast pizza in the oven. Checking the time to make sure I wouldn’t end up burning it to a crisp. I went back into the living room to find Celia picking through her mail. She picked up the land line and I checked my mobile. Battery’s almost gone. No new messages. I checked Selena’s phone and found it almost fully charged. I’d figure out the best way to dispose of it later. For now, I left it in my pocket.
Celia’s call seemed like it’s going to be a long one, so I went into the kitchen and started setting the table with four place settings. I wasn’t sure what else Mason planned to put out with the pizza until I saw the tortilla chips and dips combo sitting out on the counter. It was a teenage dinner if ever I saw one, but at least it was something. I doubted Celia had anything better in her house while there was no power over there.
I was starting to wonder what was taking Mason so long when it was time to take the pizza out the oven and I realised I couldn’t find anything big enough to slide it onto.
“Damn,” I muttered as I turned the oven off and started to hunt through cupboards. There was no sign of a serving platter and the chopping boards weren’t big enough. Eventually, I settled for pulling the shelf out of the oven using the gloves that were there and putting it on top of the hob while I tried to decide if trying to drag it off the shelf and onto two chopping boards would work or not.
Going into the living room I saw Celia was still on the phone. I moved to the window and peeked out, trying to look over into her garden. It wasn’t the best angle for a view of her house and I couldn’t see a thing.
What the hell was taking him so long? I sent him a text message after a few seconds hesitation, and then moved to the bottom of the stairs to call Fergus down for dinner.
He didn’t shout back, but I could hear him scuffling around. I moved back to the kitchen, and took my time dragging the pizza carefully onto the chopping boards. It wasn’t a perfectly stable platform but it let me cut the damned thing up at least so I could distribute it onto plates.
I took one slice for myself, knowing the reason Mason buys these insanely huge pizzas was because Fergus will actually eat half of one without any kind of complaints involved. I didn’t want to deprive the kid of his favourite dinner.
I put a few slices onto Celia’s plate and split the rest between Fergus and Mason. By the time I was done dividing it up, I heard Fergus thundering through from the other room.
“Can I eat it in my room?” he asked, picking up his plate.
Knowing Mason’s response to that question, I shook my head. “Your brother will be back in a second. We’re eating at the table.”
“Aw man,” he muttered, sitting down.
I put the other plates down, leaving mine on the counter as I moved towards the fridge. The fizzy juice inside was in cans. I picked four out and placed them on the table. Fergus picked one up and cracked it immediately, guzzling it as if he was dying of thirst.
“Careful, you could choke.” I shook my head at him.
I went to the door to the living room and my nerves finally settled when I saw Mason come through the front door. He smiled at me. “The window’s all boarded up. We had some wood in the shed so it’s as secure as we can make it until you can get it fixed.”
Celia was no longer on the phone and she nodded. “Thank you so much. Both of you.”
She tried to pat her hair down but it was too much of a mess. It would hurt to get it untangled. I’d probably be tempted to cut it short, if I was in her shoes.
“Pizza’s ready,” I said.
“Let’s eat.” Mason ushered us through to the kitchen, where Fergus was practically already done with his pizza. Only a handful of crusts remained.
“Where’s your plate?” Mason asked as he pulled out the chair for Celia.
“I left it on the counter.”
He went over and picked it up, stopping to add a few slices from his own plate to mine before he put it down next to his seat. The table was big and I’d set the other place next to Delia. I moved it and sat down.
“Can I take some up to my room?” Fergus asked, pointing at one of the bowls of tortilla chips that I’d placed on the table.
Mason sighed at him. “Fine, but you’re not staying up all night playing that game. Another hour tops, right?”
“Okay, bye!” He picked up a second can and the bowl and dashed out of the room as if every second counted.
Mason laughed. “He’s addicted to that game.”
“It’s cute,” Celia said, smiling weakly as she picked up her knife and fork.
We ate mostly in silence. I asked if Celia had gotten things sorted out with her electricity provider and she said it was in process. It would take a day or two, but she would just eat out until it was up and running again.
“I know a guy who can fix your window,” Mason said. “He owes me a favour so he’ll do it for free.”
“Oh, that’s so kind of you. I don’t know what to say,” Celia murmured, still trying to flatten her hair.
“It’s nothing,” Mason told her, taking my hand in his on the table. “I could help with your garden if you wanted too. Fergus needs to learn how to use the mower anyway.”
“Thank you,” she said, scraping back her chair and getting up. “Both of you. This has been nice. I should be getting back.”
We got up and walked her to the door. She picked up her handbag, the bills stuffed inside.
“Good night,” she said, as she left.
I waved, hoping this was it for her now. I didn’t have the same feeling of dread I’d had after I sent the demon to hell before. She seemed more awake, more present. I hoped it was enough.
Mason closed the door and kept hold of my hand. “You’re staying tonight.”
“I am?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at him.
“I’m sorry for acting like an ass before. I can’t promise it won’t happen ever again,” he told me. “But I’m going to try harder not to let it happen again, because I can’t stand the thought of losing you.”
“I’m not sure we’re ready to live together,” I said, knowing we jumped into this too quickly and not wanting to retract that. “But I can’t stand the thought of losing you either.”
He sighed in relief. “I love having you here, but if you want to stay with Lucy that’s fine.”
“I can stay over tonight,” I told him.
I didn’t realise it then, but it was going to turn out to be the best decision I could have made.
Chapter Thirty-One
The dreamscape I woke up in was confusing and kind of painful to look around. I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of what I’d seen before I closed them. Lots of colours, and a weird series of corridors all around me. It felt like the room was spinning. Even while my eyes were closed.
“Thought you could call mummy on me and have me locked away tight without any repercussions?” Selena’s smug version of my voice makes me open my eyes.
I see her in front of me, smirking as the colours make this weird junction part of a building seem to swirl and dip. It’s some kind of illusion, but it’s starting to make me feel travel sick all the same.
“What is this place?” I asked her, wondering where my mother was now. How the hell did she manage this without her mother knowing? Both of them could read minds, couldn’t they?
“It’s a little section of hell that I carved out for myself. Mother dearest doesn’t have a clue what’s going
on inside my head, Tina. I learned to block her years ago,” Selena told me, pride in her tone. “And now you get to see why it sucks to be you.”
I took in what she was saying and tried to make sense of it. She brought me here. That’s clear enough. The why was obvious. She blamed me for being locked up. I just didn’t know what her plan was, though by the multiple colours in the room I could tell she had several demons at her disposal. Maybe even all seven types.
“And why does it suck to be me, exactly?” As if I didn’t already know. I was well aware of how much of a mess my life was. I doubted my twisted sister even knew the half of it.
“Too many friends, Tina. Let’s see. We have the pathetic excuse of a best friend,” she started, ticking of her list with her fingers. “Lucy whatever her name is. Then we have the real best friend who you barely even think of as an acquaintance. Piper with the blue hair. Can’t forget her lush of a friend and your ex-fling Jimmy. Then there’s hottie police officer Dawson. Not really a friend or a lover, but boy would he like to be. You don’t know what you’re missing out on there, Tina. Of course then you have the loyal to a fault moody boyfriend with the ugly hair. And his impressionable little brother. Did I miss anyone out?” She seemed to consider it before shaking her head. “Don’t think I did. I guess we’ll find out.”
Chills settled over me as I began to grasp what she was doing with this dreamscape. The corridors were all coloured differently. There were seven of them. “Why do you hate me so damned much?”
She didn’t even know me. I didn’t understand it.
“You have no idea what it was like to be raised by a selfish bitch,” Selena told me, venom in her tone. “You’re so damned innocent. So good, so perfect. You’re the good daughter, Tina. That makes me the bad one. So here’s what’s going to happen tonight. There are seven demons and seven paths. Each demon has been sent to attack one of your friends. It’s up to you to stop them, but there’s a catch.”
“Are you serious right now?” I asked her, wanting to stop this madness before it can begin. “I don’t know where you’re getting your facts from but I don’t have a perfect life, Selena, and I don’t deserve this kind of shit from my own flesh and blood.”
She stared at me, her gaze cold. “You deserve everything you’ve got coming. Now hurry up and pick your first corridor. The clock is ticking. The last one to wake up will play host to a demon until their dying day.”
She chose that moment to disappear, leaving me in a swirling corridor with seven options and a short timer. I tried to think. If she was serious, I had to save everyone as quickly as possible, but I also had to make sure I didn’t leave anyone I cared about with a demon at the wheel when the timer stopped.
I needed to find Fergus first. I didn’t want him left with any lasting damage from this. He was just a kid. I looked around, trying to figure out which demon she might have sent after him. Typical teenage guy, probably pride? Ugh. I didn’t know, but I couldn’t waste another second. I darted down the blue tinted corridor, praying I’d made the right choice.
Chapter Thirty-Two
There was a doorway at the end of the corridor and I walked through it, into the Demon’s Lair nightclub. I guessed wrong. This had to be Jimmy’s demon. Strange, considering Selena used lust to attack him before.
I looked around, until I saw us on the dance floor, entwined and starry-eyed as if we were deeply in love. Weird. I didn’t look the same as I did in his last dream. He didn’t either. I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly, but his features seemed exaggerated, as if some kind of filter had been used on his face to make him look more polished or something.
That’s when it hit me. This couldn’t be his dream. I looked around, half expecting to see Mason. I found Piper staring back at me, her gaze watery, and it was like a punch to the guts.
“It’s always the same,” she whispered. “Every time I’m into a guy, he goes for another girl. It’s like none of them ever see me. Why is that? What makes me invisible to them, Tina?”
She turned away. “I won’t let them see me cry. I just wish I understood why this keeps happening.”
For a moment, the shock of seeing her like that pulled in. Oh, this demon was good. He knew I cared about Piper. He knew I would want to comfort her. I didn’t touch her. I was due a weapon. Any minute now.
It appeared in my hand just as she turned back around, tears rolling down her cheeks. I hesitated. It was so much harder to kill a demon when he looked like a friend. I couldn’t believe I’d never really had this problem before. I wished he’d at least say something demonic. Something to shatter the illusion.
He didn’t, but he lunged and that was enough to push me to use the weapon. I grabbed the leather and slapped the band across her face, only irritating her. Shit. It wasn’t a whip. What the hell was it then? I tried to look while avoiding the grasp of the demon. I didn’t want to navel-gaze myself to death and that was kind of what a prideful demon did best. I jumped back and looked at the thing in my hand. It was a damned choker with spikes on the outside. I had to get this thing around her neck and pull? Shit that was specific. What was wrong with a good old fashioned sword or gun?
Apparently, because this was about pride and Piper liked to wear these things I had to find a way to choke the demon with it before he could lay a finger on me. This sucked ass. I jerked away from him as he lunged again, this time growling at me in annoyance. I was wasting too much time. I had to get this done.
I kicked him and jumped on him when he fell onto his back. Piper’s sad eyes looked up at me as I pinned her to the ground. I looked away, focussing on getting my job done.
“I owe you a drink when this is over,” I promised her, before I put the choker around her neck and pulled it tight.
She gasped for breath, wheezing and thrashing as I pulled harder. I closed my eyes as the leather bit into my hands. She collapsed, motionless under me, a few long seconds later. I got up and looked around for the exit. I didn’t have a second to waste.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I raced back down the corridor, wracking my brain. Not pride for Fergus. So what else was there? I looked at the swirling colours, discounting Wrath and Lust. Envy? Maybe. It didn’t feel right. Greed was common in teenagers. Sloth could be too. Shit. This was hard. I looked at the pink lit corridor and thought of how quickly he ate his pizza tonight. Gluttony it was.
Darting down the corridor, I opened the door and stepped into Mason’s kitchen. It looked so eerie in the strange neon pink tint of this demon’s light. I saw Mason at the counter, making dough. Odd, considering he didn’t ever make the pizza from scratch, but I guess this was Fergus’ dream so anything goes. The teenager was sitting at the table with several already well fired pizzas in front of him, and there was a pretty blonde girl twirling her hair and giggling at his side. She had the face of a pretty teenager, and the body of something out of a Playboy magazine. It was disconcerting, to say the least, but at least she was wearing clothes.
“Tell me more, AlienKilla5,” the girl said, sliding forward in her chair and making her clearly braless boobs bounce under her cropped top.
Ugh. Get me out of here. I stretched my fingers, waiting for my weapon.
“Then I burst out of the tank and threw a grenade onto a landmine and took out a whole line of the damned things at once,” Fergus told her, his attention on the girl’s chest as he stuffed his face with pizza at the same time.
This was clearly because of the whole ‘Sophie’ thing, though Fergus’ love for pizza has been around much longer than that obsession.
“I bet your mum was so proud,” the disturbing girl with the woman’s body said, a smirk reaching her lips before disappearing as if it was never there.
I frowned at her. Is she the demon in this dreamscape? It would be highly unusual, but nothing about this was anywhere close to usual. I’m going to have to be careful here.
His pained expression hit me hard. This was what she’d been doing. Making him feel bad
. Of course his mum would be a sore point for him. She must have found that out before she started messing with him. That bitch.
When I get out of this dream I’ll be looking for a way to contact my own mother to get her to keep a tighter rein on my evil twin. Whatever she’s been doing clearly isn’t working.
I moved towards the table and dragged out a chair, hoping to figure out who the demon was in the new few minutes to get this shit over with.
Fergus glanced over at the noise and shot me a shocked glare.
“Tina?” he asked, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Okay, I was still leaning towards ‘Sophie’ being the demon then. “Introduce me to your friend, Fergus.”
He flushed tomato-red. “Oh. Eh. This is Soph. I met her online.”
I looked the demon in the eyes and she leant forward, staring me down. “Hello, dream walker.”
The feel of metal in my hand made me smile back just as she smirked once more. My weapon had arrived and it felt much more substantial than a piece of leather this time.
“Hello, demon.”
“Uh, Tina. Would you mind leaving?” Fergus asked in a low voice. “I don’t get to have this dream very often. I’d like to enjoy it, if you know what I mean.”
Soph snorted. “Teenagers are so easy.”
“And demons are hard? Give me a break,” I told her, slashing out at her and gouging a slice out of her forearm with what appeared to be an extra large pizza cutter with a particularly nasty blade.
Fergus gasped. Soph scowled at me. Apparently one slice wasn’t enough to send her back to hell. Why doesn’t that surprise me? I slash out again and she backs away fast.
“You can’t hurt me with that thing,” she told me.
“Don’t hurt her,” Fergus said, his tone indignant.
Shit. “Is it not past your bedtime?” I asked him, trying to get him out of the room.
Quicksand Nightmares (Seven Deadly Demons Book 2) Page 9