Dee of the Damned Chapter 4-6 Fini
Title: Dee of the Damned
Author: Betafish
Rating: Adult
Summary: Most of the world denies the supernatural. They do not know of a world in which there are slayers, demons, or other supernatural elements. They believe the world, like themselves, to be fairly average. Reality is mundane, or so Dee believes until she is kidnapped and reborn into a new world. Warning f/f and m/f/f
Word Count: 12,266
Reviews would be swell!
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Chapter 4
“What the fuck was that?” After Billy had regained his senses he became very agitated.
“You know, I asked the same thing myself,” Jessie offered, “Then we came here and had sex with you. I don’t think you should ask that question again.” Jessie was accepting this situation far more maturely than Billy was.
“No, I mean...” This was going to get very boring, very quickly. I could see that. I pulled him in close and kissed him hard, releasing him quickly. Shock. Good. That’s what I wanted.
I spent the next twenty minutes explaining the night spent clubbing, subsequent supernatural occurrences, and my newfound infectious libido. Jessie started chiming in once my story led into the area of my adventures with her. Apparently I was being too ‘graphic’. ‘Prudes’, I thought, and listened to Jessie.
“But everything is so different about you Dee, and about us when we’re around you.’ She sounded more than a little concerned. “There is something other than post traumatic stress at work here. That ceremony changed you.”
“Ya think?” Of course it had changed me. I could feel it in every cell of my being, but I was still the same person. Still little old me, right?
“No Dee, I don’t think you’re getting this,” Billy said, “Oh, hell. I need coffee before I can deal with this.”
We had long ago taken over the only booth in the local Barnes & Nobel café. We had opted for the seclusion and access to a steady supply of the art magazines we couldn’t afford at B&N over the superior grounds of Starbucks. Besides, we’d never shoplifted anything, so they liked us there. When someone said coffee, they meant our booth.
I parked the Lexus across the street and locked the doors once everyone had emerged. Two cars approached us slowly from opposite directions, but we had plenty of time to cross.
“What I was trying to say Dee,” Billy continued with the annoyingly boring rhetoric he’d begun in the car. “Is that you seem to have no sense of shame, guilt, or even a conscience after your metaphysical experience and that smacks of serious trouble.”
In the middle of the street, I stopped and turned toward the Jeep that approached from one direction, briefly exposing my breasts. He swerved and as he passed, nearly collided with the station wagon coming the other way.
They both came close enough to me in the near collision to cause both of my friends, already on the other side of the street, to call out my name in terror. The station wagon lost control, ending up sideways in the middle of the street. The Jeep just accelerated away.
“Or impulse control...” I called out to Billy.
I thought it was very funny, but he and Jessie didn’t seem to think so, judging from the expressions they wore.
“But I’m still me.” I was pretty sure of the veracity of that statement, but ‘me’ had definitely turned a few new corners recently.
A single woman in a business-suit sat in our booth, a Fairstein novella in one hand and a cruller in the other. There were four tables for two and this one booth in the B&N, and today there were only two people here ahead of us.
As Bill started to drag a third chair up to one of the petit café tables, I sat down next to the business woman and smiled at her, saying, “So Billy, any reflections on having had sex with the two of us this morning?”
Cruller sprayed over the far side of the booth.
The business woman got up and disappeared into the store, discarding her unfinished pastry in the garbage.
Jessie and Bill glared at me in disbelief
“She didn’t need it,” I protested. “Did you see her ass?”
My friends shook their heads and sat down to wait for a round of our usuals to be brought over. It was strangely comforting to be somewhere so familiar, but as I relaxed into my surroundings I started to notice little differences. People were staring at me. I was acutely aware of everyone’s position around me in the store, and whether or not they were aware of me. If I reached out with my mind I could even...
“Ahh!” Billy screamed, startled. “What did you just do to me?”
“You’re sitting across from me, but for a second while you were talking to me it seemed like you were sitting beside me, touching me and whispering in my ear.”
“What?” Jessie said.
“I know it sounds weird, I know I must have imagined it, but it was so vivid!”
“I’m not talking about that,” she corrected, “Dee didn’t say anything to you. I was talking to you and the two of you were just staring off into space when you screamed.”
Okay, so maybe they had a point.
“Okay, maybe you both have a point,” I said. “But what am I supposed to do about it? Take two holy wafers and ask for an exorcism in the morning?” I grabbed my coffee off the server’s tray and took an emphatic gulp.
“No, Dee, but we could all go back to the mansion and take a look around. Maybe we’ll scare up some clues to what happened to you.”
“Roo really rink ro Raggie?” I couldn’t resist.
“Oh, and we could talk to Phil today if he’s working.” Jessie added, ignoring my comment.
The mention of Phil’s name was always accompanied by a wave of mild nausea. From the first time I had met Phil, wearing a “Print is dead and so am I” emblazoned t-shirt and working in the back stacks of the school library, I had disliked him. Whenever I saw him at school he creeped me out. It wasn’t just his over-fascination with the occult, nor his wan appearance and ghoul-like haunting of both the school’s library and the hallowed B&N, but Phil just exuded bad. Not the enigmatic fuel of an adolescent girl’s fantasies brand of ‘bad’, but the ‘biting the heads off of kittens’ variety.
He was voted, ‘Most likely to eat a fetal pig’ in the yearbook, if that’s any indicator.
Before I could object, Jessie had already asked our server if Phil was working. Luckily, today he wasn’t.
We finished up our coffee and agreed that we should head out to the mansion and see what we could find, after picking up a couple of items from Bill’s place.
As we left I couldn’t help but be excited, speculating about what strange powers I might now possess. Somehow transformation into a slutty super-being wasn’t being accompanied by fear and loathing, just excitement.
“I wonder if I’m psychic? Wouldn’t that be cool? Maybe I have ESP!” I said as we exited our coffeehouse.
“Get real, stupid” Billy shot down my theory.
“Yeah, well,” I replied. “Then why do I know that the reason Jessie doesn’t ever call you by your proper name is because you came in her mouth the last time she was screaming it out?”.
In my experience, silence is rarely deafening, but sometimes it is crippling. I lead the two new invalids out to the Lexus and sat them both in the back seat, strapping them in without a word. I started the car and revved it up. As it rattled back into a steady idle I ran my hand up along the visors. The material felt alive. Sensuous. Everything was alive, and everything wanted me. I had never been drunk behind the wheel before, but, popping on the sunglasses I found behind the visor, I felt exhilarated and devoid of inhibitions.
My only thought was, ‘This is going to be fun’.
I popped the clutch on the Lexus and pulled out onto the street.
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Chapter 5
Nothing had changed since the last time I’d been inside the mansion. I almost began calling out for any minions again when a noise upstairs caught my attention. To the left of the grand staircase a form emerged from a dimly lit study on the second floor.
“Peter?” My eyes narrowed. I started up the stairs, moving quickly but not fast enough to startle the figure. “I’m not mad, I just need some answers.” Arriving face to face with him, I reached out my hand and grabbed ‘blue eyes’ gently by the throat. It took me a second to realize that in the time it took for Bill and Jessie to take two steps inside the door, I had ascended the massive staircase and assaulted this particular blue-eyed devil.
“Hail Asmodée-deva chief of all demons, general of Angra Mainyu, the principle of evil, and the enemy of Sraoscha. Corrupter of men, father of lust, and light of the way. How may I serve thee master?” As he genuflected before me I realized that Peter hadn’t heard what I’d said downstairs. He thought the old bastard’s spell had worked. Since I still had no happy feelings about either him or his master, I figured this was probably not what they’d intended. I figured I’d see if I could fake some inter-dimensional jet lag.
“Who am I boy? What goes on here?” I said in the deepest, most gravelly voice I could muster as I picked him up by his collar and pressed my face into his. My strength was impressive. Another of my new ‘gifts’, I supposed.
“Most benevolent Master, you are Asmodai, brought forth by my former master to fulfill the prophecy and open the gate for the rest of your realm to claim your birthright to this dimension and all it’s riches. I have your servants waiting, I have kept the menagerie faithfully.”
Wow, he bought it; and to think this looser got my juices flowing before. I was starting to think that this may be the best thing that ever happened to me. How pathetic I used to be. How hopeless, fragile, unsure. I don’t know what was done to me, I didn’t feel thankful for it, but I didn’t want to go back to what I was before.
“The book.” I demanded. It was a shot in the dark, but I figured, wizard, black-magic, the old loony had to have kept some notes or had a reference manual. It’s not like I’d never turned on a TV before.
“Of course, Master.” Peter retreated back into the room he’d come from. I motioned to Bill and Jessie to stay where they were as I followed Peter into the bedroom. I noticed the very large suitcase Peter had been packing. A large amount of currency was stuffed as padding around a number of rather antiquated looking objects and books. A number of amulets hung from around his neck. Apparently he wasn’t taking any chances in the backlash of the apparent spell-gone-wrong.
He returned with an ancient leather and brass bound book, a small wand of silver and bone, and a talisman. He handed them to me, bowing. I took the lot and walked to the bed, throwing it all into the suitcase and snapping the overstuffed package shut with no effort.
Peter looked crestfallen as the creme-de-la-creme of his employers’ treasures were being acquisitioned by his new master. I walked out on the landing with the luggage. Dropping it off, I motioned to Billy to pick it up and take it downstairs while announcing to Peter that it was time to “Show me the menagerie.”
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Fortunately, Bill grabbed the bag. Unfortunately, he and Jessie followed along with Peter and me as we departed for the other wing of the mansion. Luckily, they didn’t utter a word for the next few minutes and were probably regarded as more of my servants by Peter.
Tapestries, gold sculptures, antiques, and riches of every kind abounded in the house. It was like walking through the Louvre, the Smithsonian, and half of the shops in Antwerp all at once. It was hard to not be impressed, but I stayed ‘in character’ as best as I could so as to not arouse Peter’s suspicions. After a few minutes of travel through this wonderland, we came to a wall.
Peter waved his hand and the illusion of the solid wall faded to reveal an old banded door.
‘Odd construction for this part of the country,’ I thought. Then again, there wasn’t much I couldn’t take in stride anymore. I wasn’t sure if I’d lost my mind or not, but there was something totally freeing in the prospect. Somehow, suddenly, nothing was impossible.
And there it stood.
The impossible.
Twenty cages. Two rows of ten lining the sides of the warehouse-sized room. Each filled with a bizarre and twisted, but somehow strikingly familiar, creature. Like something from a repeated nightmare, both horrifying and comforting at once.
“See, Master?” Peter’s voice was static in the symphony of what I was beholding, “I took good care of them.”
“Fool!” I slapped the boy to the floor and told him, “You treat them as pets though they are your masters, you insolent slave!” Not my voice, not my words.
Okay. I hadn’t expected that...and abruptly hiccuped.
It was amazing, cage after cage of alien creature. Multiple examples of some. A rogue’s gallery of demonic forms and new alien designs. One species was more common than the rest. An alien looking humanoid form. I approached the first of them.
She was beautiful. Porcelin-white skin and jet black hair. As I reached through the bars and caressed her soft cheek, the whites of her naturally black-lined green eyes glowed when she stared up at me.
A honeyed purr escaped her lips as she knelt in front of me and unfurled her bat-like wings and forked tail.
I was drunk. Absolutely drunk with power, with glee, with possibilities, with...
The doubt that this wasn’t me.
There it was. Standing ‘full-frontal’ and plain as day in a field of daisies.
The seed my bastard friend Billy had planted in my skull...that I’m not me anymore.
The little girl that had, for all my life, been passed around, passed by, and passed over.
The undeniable, unforgettable, and completely regrettable truth that I was no longer anything like the limited ludicrous laughable joke I had been for all of my previous life.
Suddenly, I remembered the fragile little person I was. The real me. The person I had been, who seemed an eternity away.
Oceans of time contracted, as the person I was connected with the person I’d become.
It was nauseating.
Doubt.
Then I got scared and couldn’t continue the play further.
“Release them,” I ordered.
I had to get out of there.
“Master, they have been summoned for your service, but their training is not yet complete. If I could...”
I cut him off, “Now.” It was not my voice that resonated within the room, but the voice of something far older. Something Peter did owe his respect to, responding to the waver in my strength.
My hand gripped his shoulder, guided by a force beyond my control, and urged his total compliance.
“Of course, Master.” Peter said, and started unlocking the cages, his actions now lacking any hint of question.
At first it seemed as if none of the figures would depart their now open cages, like this was all some bizarre display of oversized TVs at an otherworldly electronics store.
Then, in an instant and with the flurry of leather wings, talons, and various sulfurous stenches, the ‘menagerie’ was gone. All except for my green-eyed demon. She sat, squatting, as if deciding whether to behave like an animal or a human; finally deciding to stand erect, nude, and approach me as an equal.
“Give her your clothes” I didn’t dare smile, but I was certain that I caught the green eyed-demon doing so out of the corner of my eye.
Peter didn’t dare hesitate, and was down to his underwear within seconds.
“You will stay here as this manor’s custodian until I command you otherwise, and will make so any task he asks of you,” I said, pointing at Billy. I was loosing it fast. I wasn’t sure if it was the mystical influences, the unusual marathon sexual experiences, or the influence of a demonic force, but the room was starting to spin.
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“It was hypoglycemia, stupid.” Billy’s voice shocked me back into reality and back into consciousness as well. I almost laughed at his response to my half-remembered fever dream.
The vision that presented itself to me assured me that it was, unfortunately, no dream.
The green-eyed demon sat at a small side table with Jessie, the two talking and giggling like old friends. Billy was attending me as I lay in a large bed in the middle of a huge, well-lit bedroom.
I knew that somewhere in the same building Peter scurried, pants-less, doing our bidding.
Sanity wasn’t so much a friend anymore, but more of an acquaintance.
“Now, eat this soup so we can get the hell out of here and figure out what’s going on. You’ve missed a bunch sweetheart, and it’s about time you’ve come around.” Billy’s voice was supportive and agitated at the same time, and its tone irritated me as he shoved a spoonful of soup in my mouth before handing me the bowl....
“Your name...” I gasped around a mouthful of Campbell's Beef & Barley.
The demon rose and approached, kneeling at my side so our eyes would meet. Her head tilted slightly and her eyebrows arched softly urging my question.
“What is your name?”
“Giselle,” she sang.
I had never seen anything so beautiful, so pure before. I was beholding a vision and was transfixed, dreamlike.
“The one called Billy has summoned a party who can deduce if it will be more advantageous to merely assume possession of Dr. Worstcer’s estate, or to abscond with all the items we can pack into a rented conveyance.” Her voice was sexy, sweet and lilting all at once. It was intoxicating and mesmerizing. “When Dr. Worstcer performed his ceremony, he opened a portal and many demons were released. I was summoned before that time and am not part of the latest incursion into this realm. May I ask why was the ceremony was not completed?”
The fact she wasn’t calling me ‘Master’ calmed my nerves and snapped me out of my dream. It was as if she already sensed that I was not her master and she didn’t care. At least that is what I’d quickly convinced myself of.
“Okay...That’s most of what you’d missed.” Billy said, the wind taken out of his sails. At least he looked good, calmer than before. He had obviously accepted the situation.
“That’s okay Bill, it would have taken you an hour to convey the same thing.” Turning toward Giselle I said, “I don’t know why the ceremony wasn’t completed. It might help me to know what the ceremony was, or was supposed to do, but I’m pretty sure I know even less than you do.”
“You took me out of a cage, from inside a house, where I have been held for nearly a month since being summoned to this plane of existence in anticipation of the crossing of Asmodai. How much less could you know?”
“Good point.” Demon or not, she was logical, and I liked her attitude. “What about these other demons?” I said, addressing Jessie this time.
“The assorted inhabitants of the hellish dimension from which these folks hail.” Jessie had a flair for this. “A few thousand probably came over into our world before the gate sealed itself. We probably would’ve noticed something on the news or around town, but they dispersed pretty quickly and apparently the authorities were slow to respond. They didn’t believe the calls they were receiving for some reason.”
“Besides...” she added, leering at me. “Someone was keeping us busy.”
“You loved it,” I fired back. “Besides, I didn’t hear you complaining.”
“Yeah, and we’ll get to that part in a minute too,” Billy said impatiently. He proceeded to fill me in on everything that had been discussed. Between input from Giselle, Peter, and reflection on my repeated account of the events that transpired, Bill and Jessie had managed to answer a number of questions.
Apparently, the crazy old bastard who tried to sacrifice me was some sort of warlock. Pretty well known in those circles. He was seeking to open a portal to another dimension and picked me to be his sacrifice. I was to be the vessel for Asmodai, and after possessing my body, he was to open a permanent gateway bridging the two dimensions, and allowing them to conquer the earth.
Personally, I thought that the clubbing I had been doing sounded like a bit more fun, but I listened on as both Jessie and Billy announced in unison, “...But then something went wrong.”
“What?” I asked
“We don’t know. None of us. That’s the problem. We know about Worstcer, his associations, bank accounts, tax records, what he was trying to do, and thanks to Giselle we have the historical demon perspective and various prophecies to work with, but it didn’t work. Had it, we’d have tons of info, but as things stand now, we’re all baffled.” Jessie didn’t sound hopeful. “The only other lead we have is the book, and none of us can translate it.”
I was hoping to avoid this, but we were going to need Phil’s help.
“Billy, you get to work taking care of the rest of Worstcer’s stuff and start building us a network. We’re going to need some contacts in order to understand the scope of this.” I clicked into ‘little dictator’ mode. “Keep Peter in the dark, but if he starts getting in the way,” I wanted to say, ‘kill him’, but settled for, “See if you can get him arrested for something. Just keep him out of the way, and from attracting any attention for at least seventy-two hours.”
“Jessie, you get a hold of Phil and set up a meeting between the three of us as soon as possible.” I was pretty sure that it was still the same day that we had come to the mansion, but the sun had long since gone down, and dawn would soon be approaching. The meeting would have to wait until morning.
“Giselle, I need you to tell me everything I need to know about being a demon.” We both grinned at each other like a couple of sociopathic twins. Billy and Jessie sighed and rolled their eyes at us. I was right. This was fun.
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Chapter 6
Seeing Jessie standing alone, leaning against the glass of our beloved B&N, giving it a good licking-clean in the morning light was a blessedly pleasing sight.
We’d decided to meet up outside of the B&N
“Still not open, huh?”
She shifted one eye toward me and stopped mid-lick, as if it were a January day and her tongue was frozen to a flagpole. “Yeah, but I already saw Phil wandering around inside, so they’ll open soon.” She managed to get all that out clearly without dislodging her tongue. Talented girl.
“Need coffee,” she announced. “Young girl; she do get weary!”
I was finally feeling somewhat stable again.
Jessie was spouting gibberish and salivating on a storefront.
Billy was busy trying to figure out whether we needed to move all of Dr. Worstcer’s stuff out of the mansion or if we could just keep it all.
I had spent all night talking with a bat-winged demon, and was blearily meeting up with my friend to question an assistant librarian about my demonic origins...over cappuccino.
Life had reached a state of normalcy.
Since the night before, I hadn’t stopped playing the leader. Something scared me. It wasn’t the large numbers of demons that had supposedly flooded the earth - although the complete lack of reports in the media made this seem unlikely - it wasn’t the fact that I was nearly evicted from my body by a duke of hell, it wasn’t even having to explain where I’d been to Clark and Marie. It was the fact that no one knew why the ceremony failed, or what that meant. It was the fact that I had changed, that I was still changing, but into what? I was a little glad that I was worried. It was the first ‘normal’ sensation I’d felt since this all started. At least I was still human...for the time being.
I missed Giselle. I wasn’t worried for her. We’d left her in charge of Worstcer’s mansion and Peter. I wasn’t worried about him either; Giselle was enjoying the role reversal too much to do him any permanent harm. I just wanted her close. If I reached out with my mind I could feel her, see her, and I knew she was aware of my presence. It made her smile.
“Finally!” Jessie’s voice shocked me back into place. “I thought I was going to have to lick the whole thing before you noticed we were here!”
“I clean the windows. You were saving me work.” Phil, wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed ‘I ate your honor student with some fava beans and a nice chianti’ was his usual ray of sunshine.
The demons from the portal had scattered far and wide very quickly. As a result, things were pretty much normal today, save for the occasional siren in the distance and some serious grist for the Weekly World News’ mill. At least at the moment. I seriously doubted that the new immigrants would remain the stuff of rumor and legend for long.
A few minutes later Phil had provided us with caffeine and listened to a retelling of the previous happenings in three part harmony. I was beginning to get pretty sick of retelling this story.
“Well,” Phil began, “What I know of Thelema, Mazdeism and Judaism isn’t going to help much.” Maybe we wouldn’t need Phil after all. “Unless you want to know more about the demon who this warlock tried to summon.”
Damn it, he was going to be helpful.
“Yes, we need to know more about that, but moreover we need to know what has been done to me.”
“...And what can be done to reverse it, right?” Jessie’s voice was both questioning and searching.
She hadn’t yet accepted the inevitable. I could feel it slipping further and further away. The ‘me’ that was had boarded a ship, and I stood on the boardwalk watching her sail away.
“Let me look at this book, and I’ll see what I can find out.” Phil was as emotionless as ever.
“It’s some kind of ancient language; I doubt you can read it,” Billy said as he handed over the text.
“Aryan cuneiform,” Phil muttered. “I’m rusty, but give me an hour or two and I’ll have something.” Phil got up from the table and started towards the back-room.
“There’s something else” Bill got up and followed him, “I’ll come with you.”
Jessie was busying herself behind the counter, making some more coffee and reveling at being in the B&N before the place had opened for the day.
I closed my eyes and reached out to Billy. I couldn’t stand thinking at the moment. Too many conflicting thoughts; or rather, too many convergent ones. I thought a little practice might take my mind off of things.
It was easier than I’d thought. It was like I had a video camera in the room.
“Listen.” Billy was nervous. “The three of us did things to each other today that I would never have imagined us doing. With the exception of one or two heterosexual experiences in my life, I am absolutely gay. Totally closeted, but gay. There is no way I would have done what we did today.”
“You know, I’m not exactly the kind of guy most folks choose to come out to,” Phil said without emotion, his attention fixed on the book.
“You don’t understand,” Billy continued, “I wanted her, I wanted Jess, but I never have those kinds of feelings anymore.”
“I’m sure you were being influenced,” Phil stated without changing his focus, “If that makes you feel any better.”
“What? You mean Dee was controlling us?” Billy was shocked, although I couldn’t imagine why.
“Look” Phil was getting agitated at the interruptions, “In Mazdeism, Asmodai, a.k.a. Asmodaeus is the chief of all demons whose mission is to fill hearts of mankind with lust, and to create all evil on Earth. He seduced people in order to make them abandon the path of good. He incited carnal desire, and was the protector of homosexuals - homosexuality being one of his methods of seduction.”
Billy’s jaw went slack.
“So, what you’re saying doesn’t surprise me in the least,” Phil continued. “What I’m curious to discover is how much influence this demon has over her, and whether she’s controlling this consciously or not.”
“She wouldn’t do that!” Good boy Billy, stand by your friends.
“You’re not getting it,” Phil countered. “Dee may not even be Dee anymore”.
With that comment I snapped back into the coffee shop.
Gone were my aspirations of college. Gone were my modest dreams of being a professional photographer, but wasn’t I still me? Was I controlling my friends’ minds? Was I treating them as puppets?
No. The thought was too sickening for me to accept, and therein was my salvation. If I found that detestable, then I was still ‘me’. A new ‘me’ to be sure, but I still loved my friends. I had just been handed a new destiny, and was facing a new world.
This wasn’t a Greek tragedy. It was going to be an absolute blast, and for the first time in my life...
I was going to be the center of the party.
Jessie walked over to the table with a tray full of her espresso-mentations. I smiled at her, pulled her close, and kissed her.
She kissed back, and all was well.
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“This is what it says.” Phil began, “As the portal was opened the heavens bled, and the skies grew black as ebony wood. Thus will begin the rule of the demons that will peak with the coming of the freed one. A rule of one score years and two where demons shall walk the earth, and fear and hate will rule the minds of men. The harbinger of this time will be the demon Asmodai. He will be the key, and make way for the others. Once the demon time has passed, the earth will be barren and lifeless, and no seed shall find purchase in it’s soil.”
“Boy,” I whispered. “That’s depressing.”
“From what I made out from the ceremony, he must’ve screwed something up or you would have become a host for this demon. Considering you’re not killing everyone around you and bringing forth hell on earth, but rather sipping a mochaccino, I think there’s no fear of that happening.”
Billy sighed, and was instantly embarrassed he’d done so.
“It’s okay Billy, I was a bit worried myself for a while,” I said, trying to soothe him.
“Well, what went wrong, and what’s wrong with Dee?” Jessie demanded.
“I don’t really know.” Phil was perturbed at his ignorance, “I’m sure he must’ve had all the necessary components assembled, the incantations were pretty simple, and from what you’ve told me, he made sure you were the perfect sacrifice.”
“You were born on February sixth, right?”
“Right.”
“Only survivor of five siblings?”
“Yes.” I didn’t like talking about this; this book was getting too personal.
“You were a virgin at the time of the ceremony, right?”
“Right...” I hesitated. “Well, oral sex doesn’t count, right?”
“What?” Billy choked.
“You said oral doesn’t count, right Jessie?”
“Well...yeah.” Jessie had told me that after Eric and I had broken up.
Phil started chuckling; the first time I’d heard him do so.
“I think this is the first time a blow-job has saved someone’s life.” Phil was cracking up. “That’s what did it. It’s a matter of purity and you were...well, impure.”
The laughter proved contagious, and it took all of us a few minutes to compose ourselves.
Phil was the first to speak.
“I don’t really know what has happened to you, but you’ve obviously absorbed the demon, or at least some aspect of it’s powers into yourself. There’s really nothing in the book on how to reverse it, if that’s even possible.”
“So what are we going to do?” Jessie sounded calmer now.
“We have a base of operations, plenty of money, and a group of unencumbered teens,” I offered. “I say we have some adventures.”
I grinned.
“Not to mention the aid of an occult expert,” Billy added, motioning to Phil.
“Don’t count me in. I’m just saving the store from Jessie’s salivary glands.”
Jessie was concise, “Two words Phil, ‘moldy library’.”
“Crap.” Phil sighed, instantly defeated. “I’ll give notice after the manager gets in.”
We were starting a new life together. Not all the demons we’d meet would be like my angel, Giselle. Most would be the stuff of nightmares, but we’d deal with them when we found them. I was going to make sure they knew whose world this was, and who was their master.
The last vestiges of my old self had been cast off. I wasn’t the timid girl I used to be. I wasn’t some dark and evil demon. I no longer had dreams of chronicling the world that passed before me, hiding behind the safety of a macro-lens. I was just me. Just Dee.
...And there was no way the world was ready.
Author: Betafish
Rating: Adult
Summary: Most of the world denies the supernatural. They do not know of a world in which there are slayers, demons, or other supernatural elements. They believe the world, like themselves, to be fairly average. Reality is mundane, or so Dee believes until she is kidnapped and reborn into a new world. Warning f/f and m/f/f
Word Count: 12,266
Reviews would be swell!
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Chapter 4
“What the fuck was that?” After Billy had regained his senses he became very agitated.
“You know, I asked the same thing myself,” Jessie offered, “Then we came here and had sex with you. I don’t think you should ask that question again.” Jessie was accepting this situation far more maturely than Billy was.
“No, I mean...” This was going to get very boring, very quickly. I could see that. I pulled him in close and kissed him hard, releasing him quickly. Shock. Good. That’s what I wanted.
I spent the next twenty minutes explaining the night spent clubbing, subsequent supernatural occurrences, and my newfound infectious libido. Jessie started chiming in once my story led into the area of my adventures with her. Apparently I was being too ‘graphic’. ‘Prudes’, I thought, and listened to Jessie.
“But everything is so different about you Dee, and about us when we’re around you.’ She sounded more than a little concerned. “There is something other than post traumatic stress at work here. That ceremony changed you.”
“Ya think?” Of course it had changed me. I could feel it in every cell of my being, but I was still the same person. Still little old me, right?
“No Dee, I don’t think you’re getting this,” Billy said, “Oh, hell. I need coffee before I can deal with this.”
We had long ago taken over the only booth in the local Barnes & Nobel café. We had opted for the seclusion and access to a steady supply of the art magazines we couldn’t afford at B&N over the superior grounds of Starbucks. Besides, we’d never shoplifted anything, so they liked us there. When someone said coffee, they meant our booth.
I parked the Lexus across the street and locked the doors once everyone had emerged. Two cars approached us slowly from opposite directions, but we had plenty of time to cross.
“What I was trying to say Dee,” Billy continued with the annoyingly boring rhetoric he’d begun in the car. “Is that you seem to have no sense of shame, guilt, or even a conscience after your metaphysical experience and that smacks of serious trouble.”
In the middle of the street, I stopped and turned toward the Jeep that approached from one direction, briefly exposing my breasts. He swerved and as he passed, nearly collided with the station wagon coming the other way.
They both came close enough to me in the near collision to cause both of my friends, already on the other side of the street, to call out my name in terror. The station wagon lost control, ending up sideways in the middle of the street. The Jeep just accelerated away.
“Or impulse control...” I called out to Billy.
I thought it was very funny, but he and Jessie didn’t seem to think so, judging from the expressions they wore.
“But I’m still me.” I was pretty sure of the veracity of that statement, but ‘me’ had definitely turned a few new corners recently.
A single woman in a business-suit sat in our booth, a Fairstein novella in one hand and a cruller in the other. There were four tables for two and this one booth in the B&N, and today there were only two people here ahead of us.
As Bill started to drag a third chair up to one of the petit café tables, I sat down next to the business woman and smiled at her, saying, “So Billy, any reflections on having had sex with the two of us this morning?”
Cruller sprayed over the far side of the booth.
The business woman got up and disappeared into the store, discarding her unfinished pastry in the garbage.
Jessie and Bill glared at me in disbelief
“She didn’t need it,” I protested. “Did you see her ass?”
My friends shook their heads and sat down to wait for a round of our usuals to be brought over. It was strangely comforting to be somewhere so familiar, but as I relaxed into my surroundings I started to notice little differences. People were staring at me. I was acutely aware of everyone’s position around me in the store, and whether or not they were aware of me. If I reached out with my mind I could even...
“Ahh!” Billy screamed, startled. “What did you just do to me?”
“You’re sitting across from me, but for a second while you were talking to me it seemed like you were sitting beside me, touching me and whispering in my ear.”
“What?” Jessie said.
“I know it sounds weird, I know I must have imagined it, but it was so vivid!”
“I’m not talking about that,” she corrected, “Dee didn’t say anything to you. I was talking to you and the two of you were just staring off into space when you screamed.”
Okay, so maybe they had a point.
“Okay, maybe you both have a point,” I said. “But what am I supposed to do about it? Take two holy wafers and ask for an exorcism in the morning?” I grabbed my coffee off the server’s tray and took an emphatic gulp.
“No, Dee, but we could all go back to the mansion and take a look around. Maybe we’ll scare up some clues to what happened to you.”
“Roo really rink ro Raggie?” I couldn’t resist.
“Oh, and we could talk to Phil today if he’s working.” Jessie added, ignoring my comment.
The mention of Phil’s name was always accompanied by a wave of mild nausea. From the first time I had met Phil, wearing a “Print is dead and so am I” emblazoned t-shirt and working in the back stacks of the school library, I had disliked him. Whenever I saw him at school he creeped me out. It wasn’t just his over-fascination with the occult, nor his wan appearance and ghoul-like haunting of both the school’s library and the hallowed B&N, but Phil just exuded bad. Not the enigmatic fuel of an adolescent girl’s fantasies brand of ‘bad’, but the ‘biting the heads off of kittens’ variety.
He was voted, ‘Most likely to eat a fetal pig’ in the yearbook, if that’s any indicator.
Before I could object, Jessie had already asked our server if Phil was working. Luckily, today he wasn’t.
We finished up our coffee and agreed that we should head out to the mansion and see what we could find, after picking up a couple of items from Bill’s place.
As we left I couldn’t help but be excited, speculating about what strange powers I might now possess. Somehow transformation into a slutty super-being wasn’t being accompanied by fear and loathing, just excitement.
“I wonder if I’m psychic? Wouldn’t that be cool? Maybe I have ESP!” I said as we exited our coffeehouse.
“Get real, stupid” Billy shot down my theory.
“Yeah, well,” I replied. “Then why do I know that the reason Jessie doesn’t ever call you by your proper name is because you came in her mouth the last time she was screaming it out?”.
In my experience, silence is rarely deafening, but sometimes it is crippling. I lead the two new invalids out to the Lexus and sat them both in the back seat, strapping them in without a word. I started the car and revved it up. As it rattled back into a steady idle I ran my hand up along the visors. The material felt alive. Sensuous. Everything was alive, and everything wanted me. I had never been drunk behind the wheel before, but, popping on the sunglasses I found behind the visor, I felt exhilarated and devoid of inhibitions.
My only thought was, ‘This is going to be fun’.
I popped the clutch on the Lexus and pulled out onto the street.
********************
Chapter 5
Nothing had changed since the last time I’d been inside the mansion. I almost began calling out for any minions again when a noise upstairs caught my attention. To the left of the grand staircase a form emerged from a dimly lit study on the second floor.
“Peter?” My eyes narrowed. I started up the stairs, moving quickly but not fast enough to startle the figure. “I’m not mad, I just need some answers.” Arriving face to face with him, I reached out my hand and grabbed ‘blue eyes’ gently by the throat. It took me a second to realize that in the time it took for Bill and Jessie to take two steps inside the door, I had ascended the massive staircase and assaulted this particular blue-eyed devil.
“Hail Asmodée-deva chief of all demons, general of Angra Mainyu, the principle of evil, and the enemy of Sraoscha. Corrupter of men, father of lust, and light of the way. How may I serve thee master?” As he genuflected before me I realized that Peter hadn’t heard what I’d said downstairs. He thought the old bastard’s spell had worked. Since I still had no happy feelings about either him or his master, I figured this was probably not what they’d intended. I figured I’d see if I could fake some inter-dimensional jet lag.
“Who am I boy? What goes on here?” I said in the deepest, most gravelly voice I could muster as I picked him up by his collar and pressed my face into his. My strength was impressive. Another of my new ‘gifts’, I supposed.
“Most benevolent Master, you are Asmodai, brought forth by my former master to fulfill the prophecy and open the gate for the rest of your realm to claim your birthright to this dimension and all it’s riches. I have your servants waiting, I have kept the menagerie faithfully.”
Wow, he bought it; and to think this looser got my juices flowing before. I was starting to think that this may be the best thing that ever happened to me. How pathetic I used to be. How hopeless, fragile, unsure. I don’t know what was done to me, I didn’t feel thankful for it, but I didn’t want to go back to what I was before.
“The book.” I demanded. It was a shot in the dark, but I figured, wizard, black-magic, the old loony had to have kept some notes or had a reference manual. It’s not like I’d never turned on a TV before.
“Of course, Master.” Peter retreated back into the room he’d come from. I motioned to Bill and Jessie to stay where they were as I followed Peter into the bedroom. I noticed the very large suitcase Peter had been packing. A large amount of currency was stuffed as padding around a number of rather antiquated looking objects and books. A number of amulets hung from around his neck. Apparently he wasn’t taking any chances in the backlash of the apparent spell-gone-wrong.
He returned with an ancient leather and brass bound book, a small wand of silver and bone, and a talisman. He handed them to me, bowing. I took the lot and walked to the bed, throwing it all into the suitcase and snapping the overstuffed package shut with no effort.
Peter looked crestfallen as the creme-de-la-creme of his employers’ treasures were being acquisitioned by his new master. I walked out on the landing with the luggage. Dropping it off, I motioned to Billy to pick it up and take it downstairs while announcing to Peter that it was time to “Show me the menagerie.”
********************
Fortunately, Bill grabbed the bag. Unfortunately, he and Jessie followed along with Peter and me as we departed for the other wing of the mansion. Luckily, they didn’t utter a word for the next few minutes and were probably regarded as more of my servants by Peter.
Tapestries, gold sculptures, antiques, and riches of every kind abounded in the house. It was like walking through the Louvre, the Smithsonian, and half of the shops in Antwerp all at once. It was hard to not be impressed, but I stayed ‘in character’ as best as I could so as to not arouse Peter’s suspicions. After a few minutes of travel through this wonderland, we came to a wall.
Peter waved his hand and the illusion of the solid wall faded to reveal an old banded door.
‘Odd construction for this part of the country,’ I thought. Then again, there wasn’t much I couldn’t take in stride anymore. I wasn’t sure if I’d lost my mind or not, but there was something totally freeing in the prospect. Somehow, suddenly, nothing was impossible.
And there it stood.
The impossible.
Twenty cages. Two rows of ten lining the sides of the warehouse-sized room. Each filled with a bizarre and twisted, but somehow strikingly familiar, creature. Like something from a repeated nightmare, both horrifying and comforting at once.
“See, Master?” Peter’s voice was static in the symphony of what I was beholding, “I took good care of them.”
“Fool!” I slapped the boy to the floor and told him, “You treat them as pets though they are your masters, you insolent slave!” Not my voice, not my words.
Okay. I hadn’t expected that...and abruptly hiccuped.
It was amazing, cage after cage of alien creature. Multiple examples of some. A rogue’s gallery of demonic forms and new alien designs. One species was more common than the rest. An alien looking humanoid form. I approached the first of them.
She was beautiful. Porcelin-white skin and jet black hair. As I reached through the bars and caressed her soft cheek, the whites of her naturally black-lined green eyes glowed when she stared up at me.
A honeyed purr escaped her lips as she knelt in front of me and unfurled her bat-like wings and forked tail.
I was drunk. Absolutely drunk with power, with glee, with possibilities, with...
The doubt that this wasn’t me.
There it was. Standing ‘full-frontal’ and plain as day in a field of daisies.
The seed my bastard friend Billy had planted in my skull...that I’m not me anymore.
The little girl that had, for all my life, been passed around, passed by, and passed over.
The undeniable, unforgettable, and completely regrettable truth that I was no longer anything like the limited ludicrous laughable joke I had been for all of my previous life.
Suddenly, I remembered the fragile little person I was. The real me. The person I had been, who seemed an eternity away.
Oceans of time contracted, as the person I was connected with the person I’d become.
It was nauseating.
Doubt.
Then I got scared and couldn’t continue the play further.
“Release them,” I ordered.
I had to get out of there.
“Master, they have been summoned for your service, but their training is not yet complete. If I could...”
I cut him off, “Now.” It was not my voice that resonated within the room, but the voice of something far older. Something Peter did owe his respect to, responding to the waver in my strength.
My hand gripped his shoulder, guided by a force beyond my control, and urged his total compliance.
“Of course, Master.” Peter said, and started unlocking the cages, his actions now lacking any hint of question.
At first it seemed as if none of the figures would depart their now open cages, like this was all some bizarre display of oversized TVs at an otherworldly electronics store.
Then, in an instant and with the flurry of leather wings, talons, and various sulfurous stenches, the ‘menagerie’ was gone. All except for my green-eyed demon. She sat, squatting, as if deciding whether to behave like an animal or a human; finally deciding to stand erect, nude, and approach me as an equal.
“Give her your clothes” I didn’t dare smile, but I was certain that I caught the green eyed-demon doing so out of the corner of my eye.
Peter didn’t dare hesitate, and was down to his underwear within seconds.
“You will stay here as this manor’s custodian until I command you otherwise, and will make so any task he asks of you,” I said, pointing at Billy. I was loosing it fast. I wasn’t sure if it was the mystical influences, the unusual marathon sexual experiences, or the influence of a demonic force, but the room was starting to spin.
********************
“It was hypoglycemia, stupid.” Billy’s voice shocked me back into reality and back into consciousness as well. I almost laughed at his response to my half-remembered fever dream.
The vision that presented itself to me assured me that it was, unfortunately, no dream.
The green-eyed demon sat at a small side table with Jessie, the two talking and giggling like old friends. Billy was attending me as I lay in a large bed in the middle of a huge, well-lit bedroom.
I knew that somewhere in the same building Peter scurried, pants-less, doing our bidding.
Sanity wasn’t so much a friend anymore, but more of an acquaintance.
“Now, eat this soup so we can get the hell out of here and figure out what’s going on. You’ve missed a bunch sweetheart, and it’s about time you’ve come around.” Billy’s voice was supportive and agitated at the same time, and its tone irritated me as he shoved a spoonful of soup in my mouth before handing me the bowl....
“Your name...” I gasped around a mouthful of Campbell's Beef & Barley.
The demon rose and approached, kneeling at my side so our eyes would meet. Her head tilted slightly and her eyebrows arched softly urging my question.
“What is your name?”
“Giselle,” she sang.
I had never seen anything so beautiful, so pure before. I was beholding a vision and was transfixed, dreamlike.
“The one called Billy has summoned a party who can deduce if it will be more advantageous to merely assume possession of Dr. Worstcer’s estate, or to abscond with all the items we can pack into a rented conveyance.” Her voice was sexy, sweet and lilting all at once. It was intoxicating and mesmerizing. “When Dr. Worstcer performed his ceremony, he opened a portal and many demons were released. I was summoned before that time and am not part of the latest incursion into this realm. May I ask why was the ceremony was not completed?”
The fact she wasn’t calling me ‘Master’ calmed my nerves and snapped me out of my dream. It was as if she already sensed that I was not her master and she didn’t care. At least that is what I’d quickly convinced myself of.
“Okay...That’s most of what you’d missed.” Billy said, the wind taken out of his sails. At least he looked good, calmer than before. He had obviously accepted the situation.
“That’s okay Bill, it would have taken you an hour to convey the same thing.” Turning toward Giselle I said, “I don’t know why the ceremony wasn’t completed. It might help me to know what the ceremony was, or was supposed to do, but I’m pretty sure I know even less than you do.”
“You took me out of a cage, from inside a house, where I have been held for nearly a month since being summoned to this plane of existence in anticipation of the crossing of Asmodai. How much less could you know?”
“Good point.” Demon or not, she was logical, and I liked her attitude. “What about these other demons?” I said, addressing Jessie this time.
“The assorted inhabitants of the hellish dimension from which these folks hail.” Jessie had a flair for this. “A few thousand probably came over into our world before the gate sealed itself. We probably would’ve noticed something on the news or around town, but they dispersed pretty quickly and apparently the authorities were slow to respond. They didn’t believe the calls they were receiving for some reason.”
“Besides...” she added, leering at me. “Someone was keeping us busy.”
“You loved it,” I fired back. “Besides, I didn’t hear you complaining.”
“Yeah, and we’ll get to that part in a minute too,” Billy said impatiently. He proceeded to fill me in on everything that had been discussed. Between input from Giselle, Peter, and reflection on my repeated account of the events that transpired, Bill and Jessie had managed to answer a number of questions.
Apparently, the crazy old bastard who tried to sacrifice me was some sort of warlock. Pretty well known in those circles. He was seeking to open a portal to another dimension and picked me to be his sacrifice. I was to be the vessel for Asmodai, and after possessing my body, he was to open a permanent gateway bridging the two dimensions, and allowing them to conquer the earth.
Personally, I thought that the clubbing I had been doing sounded like a bit more fun, but I listened on as both Jessie and Billy announced in unison, “...But then something went wrong.”
“What?” I asked
“We don’t know. None of us. That’s the problem. We know about Worstcer, his associations, bank accounts, tax records, what he was trying to do, and thanks to Giselle we have the historical demon perspective and various prophecies to work with, but it didn’t work. Had it, we’d have tons of info, but as things stand now, we’re all baffled.” Jessie didn’t sound hopeful. “The only other lead we have is the book, and none of us can translate it.”
I was hoping to avoid this, but we were going to need Phil’s help.
“Billy, you get to work taking care of the rest of Worstcer’s stuff and start building us a network. We’re going to need some contacts in order to understand the scope of this.” I clicked into ‘little dictator’ mode. “Keep Peter in the dark, but if he starts getting in the way,” I wanted to say, ‘kill him’, but settled for, “See if you can get him arrested for something. Just keep him out of the way, and from attracting any attention for at least seventy-two hours.”
“Jessie, you get a hold of Phil and set up a meeting between the three of us as soon as possible.” I was pretty sure that it was still the same day that we had come to the mansion, but the sun had long since gone down, and dawn would soon be approaching. The meeting would have to wait until morning.
“Giselle, I need you to tell me everything I need to know about being a demon.” We both grinned at each other like a couple of sociopathic twins. Billy and Jessie sighed and rolled their eyes at us. I was right. This was fun.
********************
Chapter 6
Seeing Jessie standing alone, leaning against the glass of our beloved B&N, giving it a good licking-clean in the morning light was a blessedly pleasing sight.
We’d decided to meet up outside of the B&N
“Still not open, huh?”
She shifted one eye toward me and stopped mid-lick, as if it were a January day and her tongue was frozen to a flagpole. “Yeah, but I already saw Phil wandering around inside, so they’ll open soon.” She managed to get all that out clearly without dislodging her tongue. Talented girl.
“Need coffee,” she announced. “Young girl; she do get weary!”
I was finally feeling somewhat stable again.
Jessie was spouting gibberish and salivating on a storefront.
Billy was busy trying to figure out whether we needed to move all of Dr. Worstcer’s stuff out of the mansion or if we could just keep it all.
I had spent all night talking with a bat-winged demon, and was blearily meeting up with my friend to question an assistant librarian about my demonic origins...over cappuccino.
Life had reached a state of normalcy.
Since the night before, I hadn’t stopped playing the leader. Something scared me. It wasn’t the large numbers of demons that had supposedly flooded the earth - although the complete lack of reports in the media made this seem unlikely - it wasn’t the fact that I was nearly evicted from my body by a duke of hell, it wasn’t even having to explain where I’d been to Clark and Marie. It was the fact that no one knew why the ceremony failed, or what that meant. It was the fact that I had changed, that I was still changing, but into what? I was a little glad that I was worried. It was the first ‘normal’ sensation I’d felt since this all started. At least I was still human...for the time being.
I missed Giselle. I wasn’t worried for her. We’d left her in charge of Worstcer’s mansion and Peter. I wasn’t worried about him either; Giselle was enjoying the role reversal too much to do him any permanent harm. I just wanted her close. If I reached out with my mind I could feel her, see her, and I knew she was aware of my presence. It made her smile.
“Finally!” Jessie’s voice shocked me back into place. “I thought I was going to have to lick the whole thing before you noticed we were here!”
“I clean the windows. You were saving me work.” Phil, wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed ‘I ate your honor student with some fava beans and a nice chianti’ was his usual ray of sunshine.
The demons from the portal had scattered far and wide very quickly. As a result, things were pretty much normal today, save for the occasional siren in the distance and some serious grist for the Weekly World News’ mill. At least at the moment. I seriously doubted that the new immigrants would remain the stuff of rumor and legend for long.
A few minutes later Phil had provided us with caffeine and listened to a retelling of the previous happenings in three part harmony. I was beginning to get pretty sick of retelling this story.
“Well,” Phil began, “What I know of Thelema, Mazdeism and Judaism isn’t going to help much.” Maybe we wouldn’t need Phil after all. “Unless you want to know more about the demon who this warlock tried to summon.”
Damn it, he was going to be helpful.
“Yes, we need to know more about that, but moreover we need to know what has been done to me.”
“...And what can be done to reverse it, right?” Jessie’s voice was both questioning and searching.
She hadn’t yet accepted the inevitable. I could feel it slipping further and further away. The ‘me’ that was had boarded a ship, and I stood on the boardwalk watching her sail away.
“Let me look at this book, and I’ll see what I can find out.” Phil was as emotionless as ever.
“It’s some kind of ancient language; I doubt you can read it,” Billy said as he handed over the text.
“Aryan cuneiform,” Phil muttered. “I’m rusty, but give me an hour or two and I’ll have something.” Phil got up from the table and started towards the back-room.
“There’s something else” Bill got up and followed him, “I’ll come with you.”
Jessie was busying herself behind the counter, making some more coffee and reveling at being in the B&N before the place had opened for the day.
I closed my eyes and reached out to Billy. I couldn’t stand thinking at the moment. Too many conflicting thoughts; or rather, too many convergent ones. I thought a little practice might take my mind off of things.
It was easier than I’d thought. It was like I had a video camera in the room.
“Listen.” Billy was nervous. “The three of us did things to each other today that I would never have imagined us doing. With the exception of one or two heterosexual experiences in my life, I am absolutely gay. Totally closeted, but gay. There is no way I would have done what we did today.”
“You know, I’m not exactly the kind of guy most folks choose to come out to,” Phil said without emotion, his attention fixed on the book.
“You don’t understand,” Billy continued, “I wanted her, I wanted Jess, but I never have those kinds of feelings anymore.”
“I’m sure you were being influenced,” Phil stated without changing his focus, “If that makes you feel any better.”
“What? You mean Dee was controlling us?” Billy was shocked, although I couldn’t imagine why.
“Look” Phil was getting agitated at the interruptions, “In Mazdeism, Asmodai, a.k.a. Asmodaeus is the chief of all demons whose mission is to fill hearts of mankind with lust, and to create all evil on Earth. He seduced people in order to make them abandon the path of good. He incited carnal desire, and was the protector of homosexuals - homosexuality being one of his methods of seduction.”
Billy’s jaw went slack.
“So, what you’re saying doesn’t surprise me in the least,” Phil continued. “What I’m curious to discover is how much influence this demon has over her, and whether she’s controlling this consciously or not.”
“She wouldn’t do that!” Good boy Billy, stand by your friends.
“You’re not getting it,” Phil countered. “Dee may not even be Dee anymore”.
With that comment I snapped back into the coffee shop.
Gone were my aspirations of college. Gone were my modest dreams of being a professional photographer, but wasn’t I still me? Was I controlling my friends’ minds? Was I treating them as puppets?
No. The thought was too sickening for me to accept, and therein was my salvation. If I found that detestable, then I was still ‘me’. A new ‘me’ to be sure, but I still loved my friends. I had just been handed a new destiny, and was facing a new world.
This wasn’t a Greek tragedy. It was going to be an absolute blast, and for the first time in my life...
I was going to be the center of the party.
Jessie walked over to the table with a tray full of her espresso-mentations. I smiled at her, pulled her close, and kissed her.
She kissed back, and all was well.
********************
“This is what it says.” Phil began, “As the portal was opened the heavens bled, and the skies grew black as ebony wood. Thus will begin the rule of the demons that will peak with the coming of the freed one. A rule of one score years and two where demons shall walk the earth, and fear and hate will rule the minds of men. The harbinger of this time will be the demon Asmodai. He will be the key, and make way for the others. Once the demon time has passed, the earth will be barren and lifeless, and no seed shall find purchase in it’s soil.”
“Boy,” I whispered. “That’s depressing.”
“From what I made out from the ceremony, he must’ve screwed something up or you would have become a host for this demon. Considering you’re not killing everyone around you and bringing forth hell on earth, but rather sipping a mochaccino, I think there’s no fear of that happening.”
Billy sighed, and was instantly embarrassed he’d done so.
“It’s okay Billy, I was a bit worried myself for a while,” I said, trying to soothe him.
“Well, what went wrong, and what’s wrong with Dee?” Jessie demanded.
“I don’t really know.” Phil was perturbed at his ignorance, “I’m sure he must’ve had all the necessary components assembled, the incantations were pretty simple, and from what you’ve told me, he made sure you were the perfect sacrifice.”
“You were born on February sixth, right?”
“Right.”
“Only survivor of five siblings?”
“Yes.” I didn’t like talking about this; this book was getting too personal.
“You were a virgin at the time of the ceremony, right?”
“Right...” I hesitated. “Well, oral sex doesn’t count, right?”
“What?” Billy choked.
“You said oral doesn’t count, right Jessie?”
“Well...yeah.” Jessie had told me that after Eric and I had broken up.
Phil started chuckling; the first time I’d heard him do so.
“I think this is the first time a blow-job has saved someone’s life.” Phil was cracking up. “That’s what did it. It’s a matter of purity and you were...well, impure.”
The laughter proved contagious, and it took all of us a few minutes to compose ourselves.
Phil was the first to speak.
“I don’t really know what has happened to you, but you’ve obviously absorbed the demon, or at least some aspect of it’s powers into yourself. There’s really nothing in the book on how to reverse it, if that’s even possible.”
“So what are we going to do?” Jessie sounded calmer now.
“We have a base of operations, plenty of money, and a group of unencumbered teens,” I offered. “I say we have some adventures.”
I grinned.
“Not to mention the aid of an occult expert,” Billy added, motioning to Phil.
“Don’t count me in. I’m just saving the store from Jessie’s salivary glands.”
Jessie was concise, “Two words Phil, ‘moldy library’.”
“Crap.” Phil sighed, instantly defeated. “I’ll give notice after the manager gets in.”
We were starting a new life together. Not all the demons we’d meet would be like my angel, Giselle. Most would be the stuff of nightmares, but we’d deal with them when we found them. I was going to make sure they knew whose world this was, and who was their master.
The last vestiges of my old self had been cast off. I wasn’t the timid girl I used to be. I wasn’t some dark and evil demon. I no longer had dreams of chronicling the world that passed before me, hiding behind the safety of a macro-lens. I was just me. Just Dee.
...And there was no way the world was ready.