by P. S. Power
The blank masks turned then, almost as one, to look at the rising smoke of the incense. At first nothing seemed to happen. At least not that Jess could tell. There was a pause then and a tingling feeling that covered her whole being. For a few moments, maybe ten, her vision simply blurred. After a while that cleared, the whole room snapping into focus in a way that didn’t seem reasonable. The whole time she felt like something, a familiar force now, was watching her.
The thick black and gray smoke kind of bunched in the air about that time. Sinking back down on top of itself, instead of rising at a steady and aromatic rate. They all watched it, without making a sound. At the end of two minutes, maybe three, goose flesh making every hair she owned stand straight up, a face formed.
It wasn’t human, exactly. The smoke showed a three-dimensional figure, but the eyes were nearly as large as the palm of her hands. They were filled in and well defined, but had goat like slits to them. There was a slight golden glow to the orbs. That was, she had to admit, familiar. Much like the feeling in the room was. Not like Malia, but the other entity. The one that had raped her.
The mouth opened, the huge jaw showing what seemed like fearsome teeth. Even if the face was new, those were familiar enough, having seen them outside her window. It was a more human face this time, just floating there, all done in gray and white, except the glowing eyes.
Part of her wanted to run from the room. Instead she tried to play it off as being more or less common in her life to see things like that. Which, if she were just counting the last week or so, was actually true. Weird shit had happened to her almost every day for the last four or five. On top of a lifetime of being haunted or whatever Malia had actually been doing, Jess was probably as well endowed with spooky stories as anyone ever was. At least if they weren’t insane. She might have been that, of course. If that was the case, then these other people were even worse, standing for two hours, chanting and moving in specific patterns to cause her to hallucinate.
Carlos, hidden by the cream-colored blank mask, the eye holes being the only relief to the whole thing, spoke loudly. Commandingly.
“You who have come to attend us, we welcome you. We have a gift for you, first.” He turned then, gesturing in her direction, ever so slightly. It was enough that Jessica got ready to run. For real this time. At least if having her used as a sacrifice or whatever Carlos intended was the plan of the evening. That this creepy crowd might betray her had crossed her mind, a time or two, already.
Instead there was a stirring from behind her, and someone, who was about her own size, probably meaning they were a woman, moved to the side, lifted a silver domed lid and pulled out what had to be five to ten pounds of beef roast. That was on a silver platter. A thing which was probably real. When it was brought forward, the woman stepping slowly, as if measuring her pace on purpose, Carlos spoke again.
Not selling Jess to the thing at all. Not yet, anyway.
“Take this gift of meat, for we have tasks for you and you will need to bind yourself to this world, for a time. Do you agree to that?”
Things got a bit more interesting then. The smoke growled into the room. Speaking perfect English as far as she could tell. Really, except for the low tone of what was being spoken, it could have been the words of any man who lived in Nebraska.
“I agree to bind myself to this realm, for a time. Nothing more, unless we agree upon it, separately.”
That sounded totally fair to her. She wouldn’t have signed on to do something without at least an idea of what was supposed to be happening. Even with their current ritual, she knew what the supposed plan was, more or less. So far, they’d even followed it.
They got the being’s attention, a thing which was a crap shoot, more or less as to it actually happening or not. They’d basically spent two hours yelling for help, if in a commanding and formal fashion. Then this being, as scary and rough as it looked in the moment, had shown up. Responding to the words, or possibly the psychic call of the people there.
What happened next was fascinating to watch. The smoke being didn’t descend on the tray of raw, almost bloody beef. It held its position. At the same time, the food on the platter just dissolved. Like ice melting, except that nothing ran off. It just went away. Again, no one spoke, until the food was gone. The link to their reality set by it, somehow.
Then, after that was finished, Carlos spoke again.
“There is a being here, known to us as Malia. She has plagued this young woman, for a very long time. We need to know if she is working alone or with another. If she has guidance here, then we need a name and location for that person or being. That is all we ask, this night.”
The being, which was in a circle that had been drawn on the hardwood floor, using some kind of fine powder that her mother was no doubt going to love cleaning up later, didn’t shift or move at all. In fact, it went very still, for a long while. When it animated again, the incense smoke still feeding into it, to allow it to have a visible form, there was a soft humming sound.
Then the eyes turned to look at those in the room. It scanned past her, then went to each of the others. One by one. Searching them for something.
In the end, it lingered longest on the masked form that had delivered the meat to it.
“I can do what you ask. There is a price to be paid. What do you offer for my efforts?”
Jess stiffened, a thing that no one else there seemed to notice at all. She waited for the payment to be her immortal soul, or maybe her body, to possess. Possibly just her rear end for the thing’s nightly amusement. It really did feel a lot like the thing from the other night, after all. The shape was different but that might not mean all that much for such a being.
Instead, Carlos bowed toward the smoke.
“We shall hold an adulation of you, by any name you choose, three times. We will feast in your honor and praise the work you have done for us.”
As payments went that sounded kind of lame. Instead of countering with an offer to have them step that up, say to six adulations, instead of a mere three, the being lowered eyelids that hadn’t been there before.
The grumbling was just as deep as ever, then. The sound was almost outside of what she could hear at all. It wasn’t comfortable to listen to, she had to admit. It reminded her of thunder. A reminder that the lightening had already hit, doing its damage, so was unbeatable by mere mortals.
The smoke entity seemed to be more polite than that.
“I agree to the task, with those payments being returned to me, for my efforts. The high being, known to you as Malia, is here, in this world. She is away from this place, but has existed in this specific dwelling for many years. Over twelve of them. More than that. Her will is not her own. She is under contract and cannot see to her decisions as she wills. The one who holds her is…”
A sharp wind ripped across the room then. It wasn’t enough to knock anyone down, or to break the glass in the windows, but it came from the outside. That or matched it perfectly. Each candle in the place went out, as did the power. The few papers that were sitting around blew away, heading to the far wall, then rattling invisibly.
A bit of a commotion came then, meaning that what had just happened probably wasn’t normal. Not really. Carlos spoke, his voice annoyed, instead of fearful. Jess didn’t think her own would be holding to that, given the sudden shock of the moment before.
“Hold. Everyone stay still. We don’t know that we’ve lost our summoning. Moving might release it. The bargain hasn’t been fulfilled yet.”
Jessica didn’t move at all, but a moment later, when the lights came back on, mainly in the kitchen off to the side, the events of the evening having been performed by candlelight, for ambience, their smoke buddy didn’t seem to still be there. Then, like the candles, the incense had gone out. Since that kind of thing burned hotter when hit by air, normally, instead of going dark, that meant something. Probably that magic of some sort had been used.
A thing not lost on anyone there.
Roxy growled, her old lady voice coming from behind a mask that was near where Carlos stood.
“Well, whoever did that doesn’t want to be found right now, do they? It’s not going to last forever. This being already accepted the task. It won’t rest until it tells us the information in a way that we can use. I imagine this bought whoever it was a few days, at most.”
Jessica understood that. If a person had hidden the information they needed, without destroying or banishing the creature that was trying to deliver it, then it might just come back. Trying to fulfill its end of things, in order to get that sweet adulation that it, apparently, craved enough to be bothered to work for it.
For a moment she wondered if it actually gave power to the being or if it was more like a child being promised a gold star for good behavior in school. She didn’t know why, but she kind of thought it might, more or less, be that second one. They, the creepy cultists who claimed not to be that, were promising to be nice and give the thing attention, in return for it doing what they wanted.
It seemed unbalanced, but she wasn’t the one in control of the rules. Worse, the being had made it sound like Mal, her old friend, might have been locked into doing the things she had. Not a decade and a half before, but in the last few weeks.
She kept her mouth shut, since it was pretty obvious to her that the being had already done its part in things. At least well enough for her to take the information and run with it. The entity had focused on only one of the people in the masks, with any real sense of meaning it. The person, probably a woman, who had given the meat on the platter. True that could be about looking in that direction due to the gift having come from there, but she doubted that was the case.
The being had checked that it could get the information first, before making any promises. At the very least, whatever was going on had a link in that direction. With that one person.
Reid, her father, took his mask off then. His face was sweaty, under the ceramic thing. When she looked over, his hair was damp with sweat. What had been happening hadn’t seemed to be a big deal, on her end. They’d chanted and did a slow motion, in unison, dance. One without music, even. Hand gestures that came slowly, if with meaning.
When the rest of them did the same thing, showing their faces, she saw that the woman she was interested in was familiar, without her mind making the leap to who, exactly, she was. She was just about to go and try to get that information, when Carlos clapped his hands.
“Very well. We will do this again, in three days. This was too close the full moon. A mistake on my part.” He didn’t explain why that was at all. Then, only one person in the room seemed to not understand why that would be at issue. “We will meet here, at that time. Go now. Make sure to cleans yourselves after the nights working. Rest and replenish. This was a success, but we have more to do.”
Jessica could see that as valid. They’d tried to get information from an extra-dimensional being and they had. Even the disruption was meaningful. After all, the wind had blown inside the room. With all the doors and windows closed. It matched what was happening outside. A thing that looked to be intensifying, at the moment.
Standing, she tried to get to the correct woman before she could simply leave. No one stood there, talking about what had happened or anything. They just packed their masks and robes in small bags, things that weren’t matching at all, then left, directly. As if fleeing the scene.
She felt like growling a little bit, since she had a lot of questions. Plus, she needed to find out about the woman with the meat. Her face had been really familiar, before the mask had gone over it. Someone that Jess knew. Except that she was having problems placing it, in the moment.
It wasn’t as if she saw millions of people each day or anything, so it would, eventually come to her.
Out of everyone that had been there, only Roxy moved over to her. That was to deliver a pat on the arm, as if the woman felt awkward about the whole thing. On impulse, Jess moved closer and hugged her. It was returned fairly warmly, instead of rejected.
The old woman grinned then. It was the happiest that Jessica had ever seen her look.
“That went well! That this entity of yours, Malia, is being controlled isn’t good, but once we locate the magician controlling its actions we can settle this, easily enough. I’m surprised that they had enough power to be able to disrupt us like that, though. The magician, I mean. That had to have been done by a human being.” She clucked her tongue then and shook her head. “Which is why we can’t do this for a few more days. Human psychic and magical powers, the ability to influence the world, specifically, get stronger at the full moon. On the new moon, the ability to read minds and find out what the future will bring is strongest. Still, this person has to be a rare talent to have pulled that off. That was incredibly high-level telekinesis.”
Reid and Megan moved over then, their own robes off and faces covered with a fine dampness, even if the room hadn’t been that warm at all. Her father made an annoyed face.
“Clearly. Still, even that tells us a lot. Such as that whoever is behind this is almost certainly a female.”
The other two nodded, not commenting on why that would be.
Jess just shrugged.
“Right? Why does it mean that?” She sounded a bit funny, since she kind of thought that it might be a specific woman, but that didn’t seem to have been noticed by any of the others, yet. At least they hadn’t stopped to mention it to her for some reason. An oversight, no doubt.
Her dad shrugged.
“Well, everyone has greater influence over the world at the full moon. If I tried hard enough right now, I could, possibly, get the winds outside to blow a bit harder or shift their direction. Women are about two, two and a half times stronger than men that way. Men have greater control, but are weaker.” He was simply being matter of fact about it, as if the idea didn’t bother him at all.
Then, he was physically stronger than she was and that didn’t bug her, so maybe it was just the truth. It was kind of nice to know that women were stronger at something, at least.
Her mother snorted a bit.
“Right. It’s true, but being able to influence twice or a bit more of very little isn’t exactly a big deal. It’s of more use in telling the future, really. That and reading minds. I agree though, this was a female. I felt that at the time. Someone in the room with us.” She looked around as if they might still be there. A covert glance went to Roxy, who shrugged.
“Don’t look at me like that, Megan. If I had control over a being like Malia, I definitely wouldn’t be wasting my time and effort in going after Jessica.” The woman looked at her, a hand coming out. It seemed to be placating. “No offense, but think about it… Who could possibly gain anything by attacking you? Even having you possessed, which is the only real benefit to anyone I can see at the moment, would be undone in a few days or weeks.”
She stopped talking then, her face going hard. She also looked guilty, which meant she was glancing down when her parents both scowled at her, seeming scandalized by the words.
Jessica put things together on her own, just from that information.
“When you killed me? Or had a demon do it. An entity, I mean. Because you can’t afford to have one of those things running around in a human body, if you aren’t in control of it. Normally that would be done by a group, right? Not just the woman who passed the meat over earlier? She seems to be in sole control of Malia, according to the being that came tonight. I didn’t get her name. Then again, I’m almost certain that our entity pal here is actually the same one that sodomized me the other day. So even that part might be a set up. Someone controlling it to give us a false picture of things. Still, just in case, who was that woman?” She tried to sound casual about it, but Meg and Reid both winced.
Roxy on the other hand just tilted her head.
“Deborah? Deborah Walsh. She’s been a part of our group here for four years now or so, hasn’t she?” The look then was for Re
id, specifically.
He nodded.
“That’s about right. She moved here, with her son, about then.”
It still took a second for Jess to put it all together, though it was clear that both her father and mother got it first.
“Wait, Debbie? My old babysitter? I did not know that she had a son. Nick, clearly. That…” She was about to be upset over that part of things, since there was almost no way for them to not be linked.
They were all just standing near the front door, which was closed, as if to say goodbye to Roxy. The old woman moved back into the room, and took a seat on the sofa. That had been pushed against the far wall to make room. Jessica joined her, since it seemed to her like they were going to need to have a real conversation about a few things. As her parents settled as well, both of them on the loveseat that was part of the five-piece furniture set, all of it in white, she blew out a puff of air.
“Nick Walsh approached me the other day, at school. Community college. He asked me out, and was frankly pretty darned smooth about it. I mean, awkward, but in a charming way. So, we went out last night, before all of this happened.” She waved around, since there was still a circle on the floor and unlit candles all over the place. It wasn’t messy looking, but there was a feeling of the party needing to be cleaned up after, anyway.
She went on, not knowing if it would be important or not.
“Um, we were doing some decently grown up sex stuff when Malia showed up and told us to run, because he was coming.” Jessica had to wonder if he even existed, given everything.
Probably not.
Her father looked a bit annoyed then, which she had to think was about her doing that kind of thing with a boy, even if she was an adult already. She hadn’t been dating for years already or anything and really, even if she had, he might well not be thrilled to hear about her specific exploits like that. It could have been important though, so she’d mentioned it anyway. Sitting on a truth that they all needed to know was a bad plan.