by P. S. Power
For some reason, even if she was the one digging for her phone, a thing that meant taking part of her new kit out of her purse, Nick pulled over to the side of the road. She didn’t bother asking why. After all, it made sense enough to her.
He didn’t know what to do either. In fact, he seemed to be waiting for her to come up with the answers. As if that was even possible. She was at least as clueless as anyone else would have been. Trying to make herself calm, which largely worked, due to a life spent pretending she hadn’t just had a flashback to a horrifying event, she tapped the first button on her call list. That was to the house phone, which picked up, a bit leisurely, on the fourth ring.
It was her father, at least.
“Good evening. How may I help you?” He sounded normal. Pleasant, even.
“Hey, dad! Not to be that troubled girl who always calls with odd requests, but Malia just showed up at Nick’s place and sort of told us to run. It sounded urgent, so we did. Apparently, he is coming. Whoever that is. The problem is that… Well, you and mom forgot to cover what to do exactly if a strange entity tells you to flee into the night. An oversight, I’m certain. We can cover that later, but right now, um, help? We’re both pretty out of our depth here.” She was, overall, pretty proud of how she sounded. There was just enough glib to it so that she sounded nearly sane. Even as she talked about entities and running away like they were doing.
There was a long pause, then a soft cough.
“Well, that’s moving right along then, isn’t it? My best guess is that Malia wanted you out of the location you were at, specifically. Coming here should be fine. If not… Well, in that case, we all need to run. Where are you? Do you and… Nick, need to be picked up?”
She shook her head, as if that was going to make any sense over a phone. Glancing at her guy friend, she shrugged.
“We can go to my house. It could be safe. I’m definitely getting a sense that we might not make it until morning, to be honest. Then, that’s my dad for you. Always worrying about things. On the good side, he pretty much doesn’t run into problems, because of that very trait. I think…” She looked around. The world was pretty generic around them, being one of the fifteen to twenty tree lined streets that Elroy had going on. It was dark out, meaning that she could see stars above, over the trees. The clouds had gone away. Off in the distance, it looked like a storm was rolling in. She could tell by the way the dense clouds were blotting out the full moon.
It was at least mainly full. That was probably a good sign. Jessica was nearly certain that nothing bad ever happened on nights like that. She nearly chuckled at her own macabre sense of humor, but didn’t, since freaking Nick out even more than he already was would just be mean.
Catching back up, Nick nodded and started the car.
“We’re on Gillis Lane. I should have her there in… Seven minutes.” His voice sounded calm and confident then. Not cocky at all. Thankfully. That would have meant he didn’t really understand what was going on.
Not that Jessica had it down either, but they’d gotten a warning that someone was coming. Possibly something. That they needed to run. Malia has said they needed to go. Not just her. Meaning whatever was happening, Nick was supposed to be involved. Maybe.
“Got that, dad? We’re incoming. Give us… Seven or eight minutes. After that…” She didn’t really know. Except that, she kind of did.
She sort of needed to have a chat with her old best friend.
A thing which, if she wanted to do it right, was going to take some supplies. A lack of an audience as well. In the whole time that Mal had played with her as a kid, she’d never once shown up when someone else was with her. Not as far as she knew, at least.
That could be done when they got there. Even if she did silently make a plan. A thing which, since she was thinking about Malia anyway, caused a flashback. A thing she could feel coming, just like almost every other time it had ever happened. The car vanished from around her, and she was back in her room. The one at the old house, the place they’d moved from.
This time was different. After hundreds, or thousands of identical relivings of the same night, the same twenty minutes of it, unable to change even one single thing about it, only to observe, something finally broke. Except that it wasn’t anything that useful. At least it didn’t seem that way at first.
Little her, dressed as she always was when it was time to be taken over and then go kill Mark, or possibly Deamon, started the evening a bit earlier this time. Other than that, it seemed to be the same night, and the same things were still going to happen.
“Malia? Do you want to play with me?” She recalled that. Mal didn’t always have time to come for things like that. After all, her friend was busy. With what, the younger version of herself didn’t know. She was a big kid though, being about ten, so she could have school. That or possibly be running a business. Malia never came out during the day, or almost never had, which could mean either of those things.
She appeared next to her, sitting at the little plastic table that Jessica had always had. The girl smiled at her then.
“Jessie! How’s my favorite human?” She always said things like that. It was funny.
Jess grinned at her.
“Hi, Mal. I was just coloring. My parents are going out. They didn’t want to take me with them.” She felt a bit sad about that part of things. She always did when they left without her.
Her friend patted her arm, then picked up a crayon. If she recalled the whole thing correctly, it was about half an hour before anything was going to happen. Her parents had just left, with the scary man still there with them. Even at five, that part had clearly seemed like a mistake. She knew the word for evil and at that moment, understood what it meant for the first time.
The other little girl, who always wore the same outfit, which could mean she was poor, shook her head.
“That’s fine, Jess. You and I have something we need to do, later. It… Well, it won’t be fun. It’s needed. Then I’ll have to hide for a while. I’ll still be here with you, but no one will know it. Not even you. Then, later, I’ll come back and you’ll be able to know about that part of things. Don’t let that scare you. I’m still your friend. Best friends, forever, right? Except… I’ll need to hide. Inside of you. That might hurt you.”
Jessica felt her face move, then her own, very young, voice spoke to the other girl.
“You’ll hurt me? It will be bad?”
There was a determined look on the older girl’s face then.
“My being with you, inside of you, that will be hard on your body. Over time you’ll grow strong because of it, but people won’t like you as much as they should. Some will hate you, because I’m there too and that isn’t right for this realm of being. I need to be here, to watch for him. The master who sits behind it all. When he comes for you, I’ll come back. Then you’ll probably die. You know what death is?”
Jess made a hard face.
“Like with Simpson? He died.”
That had been her pet goldfish. A thing that her older self had actually forgotten about, totally. At least until it was mentioned.
“That’s right. Like Simpson. It’s your fate to face him, and his minions. I’ll be there with you. I was and will be, when the time comes. Don’t worry about that. It’s a long time away, for you. Longer than you’ve been alive, in fact, by a good bit. Death isn’t a thing to fear, for people like you. Not as long as you aren’t trapped by one of the dark lords. Don’t let that happen. That won’t really be a problem, but I’ll have to pretend it is, later. To fool the Master.” She stopped then, and grinned.
It wasn’t even creepy seeming, even if the pale girl should have been. Malia was always nice to her. Even if the talk of death wasn’t a pleasant thing to think about. She forgot about it then. They played for a while, coloring and talking about normal things. Starting school and having other friends. Malia wasn’t even jealous about that.
“That’s going to be good, I bet. You�
��re very nice, so a lot of people will like you. At least if things could go normally for you. You should have friends. Real ones. Not just imaginary people, like me.”
That got a nod then, from her own tiny self. Jess could feel the room shift then, as noise started in the other room. The sounds of a muffled beating, with crying out and at least two screams for help.
Then, between one breath and the next, the normal flashback played out. Her eyes opened at the correct time after that, but instead of being in the car, she was sitting in the living room of the house. Nick was there, looking worried, with her mother and father seeming a bit uneasy as well.
“Hey.”
Reid took a deep breath then.
“Thank god. You were gone for… How long do you think it was, Nick?” Before the boy could speak, Jessica did. Standing up.
Thankfully, she hadn’t wet herself or anything. That used to happen, when she was younger. At least if her bladder was full when the vision started.
“About forty, maybe forty-three minutes? Malia left me a memory, I think. One that was triggered by something tonight. I need to…” She looked at her mother then, since she was the right person for the job.
“I need to get Malia to talk to me. If the information as right, she’s been hiding, inside of me, the whole time. He’s coming. I need to have a chat with her. That’s going to take… Cookies. Some hot chocolate too, if we can swing it.” That had been one of the things that they’d done back before Malia had gone away.
When little Jessica had thrown a tea party though, there were always real cookies and no tea, since that was gross. Sometimes they had lemonade, which might work as well, but it was mid-fall. That was cocoa season. Obviously.
For some reason, instead of asking just how much crack she was on, or if the new memory had broken her mind, her parents both nodded. It was her dad who spoke for them.
“That could work. You have a personal ritual worked out with her. An old one, but you think that she’s inside of you?” He seemed curious, instead of properly freaked out by that news.
Jess just nodded.
“That was what the new flashback said, anyway. She even told me that I’d forget, until I needed to remember it. Then, she’d also mentioned that I was probably going to die when that happened. So, no pressure, but we might want to hurry, just a bit.” If nothing else, she could say goodbye and maybe work out what she was supposed to do.
Clearly to avoid being trapped by a dark lord, whatever that was. To her it sounded just a bit like a demon, but that might just have been her ignorance showing. Regardless, Mal had indicated that part wasn’t a thing she needed to worry about.
Her mother actually got up and jogged toward the kitchen.
“I have some nice lemon walnut cookies I made earlier and can whip up some hot chocolate in a few minutes. You should go and get things ready. Do you need anything else?”
Everyone else stood up then, including Nick, which was cute of him.
“Privacy. Mal never came when other people were around. Probably because none of you are trustworthy. Not that I am, but…” She waited then. After all, nothing else she said was going to come out right. It was sort of clear that Malia was indicating that everyone around her was going to lie to her. Even Mal. That meant nothing she thought she knew would be trustworthy at all. Telling people that wouldn’t help. Either they were telling the truth, as they knew it or not. Being called liars wouldn’t make them more honest, just insult them if they weren’t.
Nick sat down first. Her father simply making a face at her, as if it were a bad idea for her to go alone.
“Honey, you don’t really know how to deal with beings like this. I might be able to get information from it that you can’t.”
A thing that was probably the simple truth. Her father was funny, most of the time and kind. He also tended to dig into the heart of things as if it were his mission in life. Most of the time that seemed to be related to business, but it was a trait that might well translate to other things. The problem there was that Malia could simply stay hidden, if she wanted to.
Getting her out to play would be hard enough to do without an audience.
“Nope. I have this. Or I don’t. My plan isn’t hard. I need to work out who he is, first. If possible. Then find out what I should do. It might mean going off to college early.” Not that she had a place yet. She’d applied, for the next year, but no one had given her a definite spot yet.
Her dad just shook his head.
“It’s a bit early to plan for that yet. I’ll just sit out here and worry about you, then. Try to learn everything you can and write it down. Recordings almost never work for these things.”
That made sense, after a fashion. At least Nick had seen Malia, or something like her, but as a see-through apparition. One that might not have been talking at all. Jess had experienced that part of things much differently, herself. The girl was as solid and real looking as she was.
If, possibly, inside of her.
That sounded a bit kinky, to tell the truth. Slimy and little bit weird, as well. She grinned, if gently. Hopefully it would leave her looking brave, if a bit foolish. She didn’t think she was either of those things, but it was possible. After all, being a fool meant you were probably going to miss that kind of fact about yourself.
“I’ll take paper and a pen with me. Two of them, in case Mal wants to write anything. That will probably be either run or to not trust anyone. So far those have been the things she’s told me. Well, in person, as an adult.” The new flashback had held more than that. A lot more.
Some of had sounded a bit final, to be honest. Secret, as well. As if there was no way out for her, other than death. Even then, death might have some issues with it. Dark lords or some such. She really didn’t love the sound of that. In fact, even thinking about it left her feeling a bit sick to her stomach, as goosebumps climbed up her thin arms.
Rubbing at them, she tried to act like it wasn’t anything major. It probably wasn’t. Fear, but the healthy kind that was telling her not to get involved in the stupid antics of extradimensional beings and their relatives. Her own relatives and their actions, either. She nodded, trying to seem strong. It didn’t work, most likely. After all, when she headed toward her bedroom, she flashed back to an entity slamming her into a wall. Preventing her from being able to breathe.
Then doing other things to her for so long she couldn’t track it all, really.
For a moment, she wondered if that was him. If so, then he’d already come and they didn’t need to wait for him, any longer. That was probably a good sign that the beast that had attacked her was something different. A thing that Malia hadn’t been that worked up about at all.
Which, in hindsight, was a bit bitchy. In general, if she was going to be ass raped, she sort of wanted her supposed friends to jump in to save her. If nothing else, the entity could have shouted at the thing to leave her alone. It was possible that Mal simply hadn’t been able to do anything about it. Still, when she’d talked later, the being, her oldest friend, hadn’t seemed that bothered by the idea. She’d just said that it had really happened.
It was something else to ask about.
Working quickly, she pulled out two of her school notepads. One of them was used for history class, the other was new. That one was for Malia, just in case she wanted to leave a message. The girl used to color at least and actual crayon had been left on the paper pages. She’d been good at it too, using sophisticated shading and colors that Jessica still couldn’t have pulled off. Not without a guidebook to copy.
Then she waited, since there was bait to be had, if they were going to have a proper party. She needed a table as well. She used the nightstand for that, clearing it and pulling the thing to the middle of the room. Then she went to the kitchen, where her mother was pouring two cups of hot chocolate, into real mugs, instead of teacups. The heavy things were brown and hand thrown, since they had nice things like that.
Her mother saw
to it. She’d also taken time to plate the food. They were cookies, but they had whipped cream on the top, and a raspberry drizzle, along with a sprig of mint on the top. There were two little plates, each made up identically.
Instead of look at the woman accusingly, since it wasn’t normally how she slapped some cookies on a tray for her, she grinned.
“Nice. Well, wish me luck.”
“Good luck, Honey. We’ll be right outside, if you need us.” Her mother, Megan, seemed to mean that. Even if there was probably very little that anyone could do to help her just then.
Still, at least the cookies looked good and the hot chocolate had been made from scratch, with real whipped cream placed on the top. Piped in, which had to have taken time that they didn’t really have at the moment. Except that they clearly did.
Carrying the silver serving tray, she moved to her room, pushed the mainly open door with her right foot, then settled the thing gently. Then she set the places, directly across from each other. After that, she closed the door, then moved back to her place. The one closest to the pink covered bed.
That was made up. A thing that she hadn’t done that day. Oh, she’d pulled things around a little, but it looked as if it had been stripped and new bedding put on. The room also smelled a bit. What it was, she didn’t know. Some kind of herb. Like stuffing mix had.
“Malia? Do you want to come and play? I have some pens and pads to write on, plus some cookies and hot cocoa.” She sounded tentative, even to herself. Shy, nearly, as if her best friend wasn’t going to be around for her, for some reason.
She went on anyway.
“I think I got your message, earlier, about you being inside of me? We should probably talk, if that’s all…” For some reason she’d figured that it would be harder to get the girl to come out. Instead, she was there already, eating a single cookie. It looked like she was, anyway.
Malia grinned up at her.
“These are delicious. You always did throw the best tea parties. Now, you want some answers, I bet.” She shrugged then and gestured for Jessica to sit. Then, very obviously, the girl locked eyes with her and shook her head, slowly. Then she mouthed another word at her. Rather carefully.