“My old chum, how I've missed you. Can you believe it's been nearly a year since we last saw each other? I simply can't wait for our reunion. I bet you'll just die when you see what I have planned. It’s been annoying that you haven’t been playing my games. I orchestrated so much that you didn’t even see. Getting you to the hospital, hitting your car again… ugh. I wanted to do so much more, but that old man has been looking out for you.” I glance back looking for Eph, but no one has come upstairs yet. Is Rhal afraid of Eph? I stow that away. “I could never get close enough. I even told that Hound where to find you. I'm glad that creature didn't take you out,” he chuckles. “I finally felt all the extra energy disappear from your house, so I thought I’d leave you a little message to make sure you didn’t forget about me.”
It was probably when we all went into the portal that gave him his opening. The hound was out here and must’ve seen Rhal as just another demon, but what about my mom?
(Master?) The Hound nudges my leg with its snout.
“I'll be seeing you real soon, Mike. Make sure you're taking care of yourself. I wouldn't want to catch you unaware and ill-prepared. That wouldn't be fun for either of us.”
The voicemail ends there, and my heart is beating so hard I can hear it in my ears. My head swivels from side to side as I search for any other remnant of his visit.
“Shit!” My mouth feels like a desert, and I think I’m hyperventilating. That’s what it means when you can’t breathe through the panic, right? “Shit, shit, shit!”
The Hound drops low and starts growling next to me, looking around.
(Where is danger?) It asks. I assume it can feel my worry and probably my fear in my aura–I can't hide it.
No! Now is a perfectly good time to freak out.
You don't– I start, but he's right. Being alert is good, but freaking out like this won't help me. I need to make a plan. My mind races, but only images of how my 'plan' went last time flood my head–it ended with someone being ripped apart.
I try to swallow, but my mouth is still much too dry. I rush back inside, and the Hound follows close on my heels. I can hear the others' voices and laughter before I see them coming through the door to the basement. At the look on my face, Mom’s smile drops.
“What? What's wrong?”
“Vithar, can I talk to you real quick?” I ask, getting a frown from mom.
“Yeah, man. Of course.”
“Sorry,” I tell my mom. “I'll talk about it in a minute, I promise.”
She is visibly upset, but doesn't push it. Vithar and I head upstairs. The Hound starts to follow, but I shoo it away and it whines.
“What's up, man?” he asks once we're upstairs and out of earshot. I walk into my bedroom and pull my phone out, calling my voicemail again. “What are you doing?”
“One sec, I need you to listen to this.” I play him the message, and he creases his brow.
“Okay?” He says, shaking his head. “What was that about?”
It dawns on me that while I've talked about him, Vithar has never seen or heard Rhal. Even in his prophetic vision that he had, Rhal wasn't there. And Rhal’s message is vague enough that it doesn’t necessarily sound threatening. I sigh with semi-frustration, but it's not directed at him.
“That was Rhal. He's back, and he was here. Like, he was at the house.” Walking over to the bedroom window facing the front of my house, I pull the curtain aside and gesture to the lawn. From up here, it looks like such a mess. There's burnt black grass in one spot, then dug up ground in another–but the message is still there.
“Bait?” He asks with an upward inflection. “Why bait?”
“He tried to use me as bait to draw out Behzir. I did it a different way than he wanted, but he kept calling me bait.” I open the text message and show him again. “He also etched these into my car the first time I ran into the Hellhound.”
“Why a fish?”
“I assume he was trying to be funny. It's supposed to be a shark. He looks like a shark-human hybrid.”
He looks at me and squints.“What's funny about this then?”
“He's got a sadistic sense of humor.”
“Clearly,” he says. “Well, what are you going to do?”
I lift my hands and shrug. “You heard the message. He just said we'll have our reunion soon, and that he's got something planned.”
“Mm,” he says with a few small nods. “Well, what do you want to do?”
“What I want is to not have to deal with this. But what I need is to talk to . . . ah shit!”
“Bless you?”
“Funny,” I say flatly, “I forgot about the 'therapist.' I still need to go back and talk to him.”
“What? You're in therapy?”
“No,” I say. “Oh, man. The Hound thing completely overrode what happened with Anna's therapist.” I turn my head and look through the doorway to the foot of the stairs. “Let's go back down; we need to talk to everyone about this.”
Vithar shrugs, “Why did we come up here then?” he asks, and I was thinking the same thing.
“To be honest. You’re probably my closest friend right now. You know more than anyone else about what I’ve gone through with him in the past year and I wanted your opinion. It only comes to me now that it’s still kind of just a story to you.”
His eyes fall to the floor briefly and he shakes his head. “Sorry, Mike. I don’t have the words to help here.”
“I understand, it’s fine. Getting it all out helped me get my thoughts in order. It’s time to tell everyone else.
“I’d take a minute and get it right. There’s a lot of information that you still haven’t even told me,” he says. I nod my agreement and he leaves the room.
I do take a moment, following his advice. I take a few deep breaths and let them out slowly–hoping at least some of my tension will go with it–then make my way downstairs.
Anna, Eph, Mom, The Hound, and Vithar are all in the living room when I take the last step down. Everyone in the room looks at me, and I look between Anna and Mom.
“In the excitement from our guest,” I gesture to the giant black dog in the room. “I forgot to update everyone on something that is a bit of a shock.” Their attention becomes even more focused on me, and I continue. “We went to meet Anna's therapist…only to find out that he was a demon. He was trying to keep a lid on her knowledge of me and the greater supernatural community. What he didn't know is that, through a friend of mine, Anna's mind had safeguards in place. This demon needed to keep applying pressure to keep her from witnessing or remembering. That is what caused so many problems.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Mom leans forward. “Why put that much effort into,” she pauses and turns to Anna. “No offense, honey,” she says, then looks back at me. “But why so much effort on some average human?” Anna gives my mom some crazy wide side-eye, and I answer the question quickly to keep this from turning into something it doesn't need to be.
“Exactly! It's because of who this demon is tied to. He did so, I'm assuming, on orders from my 'Father.'”
Mom sighs loudly and rolls her eyes. “Alastor,” she says, shaking her head. “You idiot.”
“Yes!” I exclaim, snapping my fingers. “Alastor! Thank you, I couldn't remember the name. Anyway, he's also the one that sent this charming dog for me.”
The Hound is sitting with its tongue lolling out of its mouth. It pulls the tongue inside and speaks.
(Sent ‘to’ you.) it corrects. (Beast made mistake. Was told wrong.)
“Did everyone else just hear the dog talk?” Anna asks.
“Yes,” the rest of us say.
“Okay,” Anna says, exhaling in relief and putting a hand to her forehead.
“So the Hound was sent as a protector apparently, but thought I was weak and that it would put me out of my misery. Correct?”
(Yes, Master.)
“Please stop calling me that.”
(Apologies, M–)
“Anyway, now I have to go speak with this demon and get some answers. I would like to do this alone. Any objections?”
Vithar raises his hand. “Didn't you just find out that that other demon is after you? Should you be going alone?”
(Strong one? After master?) the Hound asks then growls.
“Yes, but he's not after me yet for some reason.”
“Well, that's what he says.”
“If there's one thing about Rhal that I learned last year, it's that he likes theatrics, and that he likes to toy with his 'prey.' I think I'm fine until he wants to guide me to a trap of some kind.”
Vithar doesn't respond but also doesn't look happy with my answer. No one does. They all start asking questions, but I don't answer. I talk over them, planning to give them time to express their displeasure after I am finished.
“So, I'll be going and . . . I'll need a car. Damn.”
I nearly forgot that mine was partially melted when those wizards went supervolcano. Vithar goes into the kitchen and grabs some keys off the counter. He tosses them to me and I catch them, confused.
“You have a car?” I ask him.
“What? No, those are the keys to your car. It's been mended.”
“You guys fixed my car?” I examine the keys. They are definitely mine.
“Yeah, the yard is tricky though,” he explains. “Nature doesn't like to be mended. Even though the materials used to make the car are natural, they were processed and put in a way that they should fit together.” He opens his mouth to continue talking about what made the magic work–which I would love to hear under normal circumstances–but now is not the time.
“Wow, thanks, you guys. That's awesome,” I say excitedly.
Vithar and Mom both smile.
“I have questions,” Mom says.
“I don’t have a lot of answers. I would like to go and talk to this guy first then, hopefully, I will have more answers.”
She has a sour look on her face. “Okay,” she says. “Be careful, kiddo.”
“I will. Hound, you're with me,” I say, exiting the house and jumping down the steps.
The Hellhound jumps from the porch, clearing most of the yard, and trots with me to my car. I open the door for it to hop in, and it sits patiently on the passenger's side. Sitting in the driver's seat, I pat its head.
“Good boy,” I say, then wonder if it even has a gender. I guess I'll find that out if I have to. I start the car and back out of the driveway.
I mostly remember the path to get there, but I also saved the address from last time just in case I didn't. The drive seems longer this time without someone to talk to. It gives me some time to think, to reflect on the past few days. Here I am, again, doing some of the same stuff I did last year. Some of it feels the same, but in other ways it feels so different this time. I have people in my corner instead of people just telling me I'm doing everything wrong and threatening me. It's kinda nice. However, there is so much unrest right now. The thing with the wizard's guild is really weird. The last time I was there, they seemed to be more threatened by the presence of a half-demon than wanting to ally with it. Hell, there were people that got up and left the room last time when my lineage was announced.. I wonder how far that goes. But I'm getting ahead of myself on that front.
One problem at a time.
I need to question this Gnat guy and see why Alastor is screwing with me. I practice some questions until I pull up to the building again. It's pretty late now, so darkness has fully set in. I'm not scared of the dark, but it does lend a certain level of creepy to the old building. I can't see if anyone is inside, so I walk up and feel around for an aura. It doesn't take long to feel the weak energy moving back and forth at the back of the building. He's here, and it seems like he's pacing. I don't feel any others around, so I instruct the Hound to stay, wait, and watch. I think the proper play here is doing what I think Alastor would do–walk in like I own the place and screw up everyone’s lives. I push through the door to his 'office.'
“I have some questions and you will answer them,” I say, putting some demonic energy into my aura.
He straightens up at my entrance and snaps to attention.“Yes, My Lord,” he says, and the words come out somewhat slurred. His red-blotchy face is a swollen mess, disfiguring his previous appearance. “Your father instructed as much.”
“Good,” I say, not really feeling it. I don't want any favors, but at least I'll get some questions answered without the normal resistance or typical double-talk. “First, why were you here posing as Anna’s therapist?”
“Yes, of course. We will start at the beginning. I had been ordered to retrieve your father's stolen power source.”
“So, he did get it back. Good to know. And just call him Alastor.”
“As you wish, My Lord,” he says, looking at the ground. “Lord Alastor requested I retrieve the item immediately, and I had to perform some mind manipulation on the girl after she wouldn't allow me to simply take the package. Knowing that you cared somewhat for her, I thought it best not to kill her, and your fa–Lord Alastor agreed.”
I breathe in deeply through my nose and out through my mouth. I hate it when people talk about killing someone so nonchalantly. Like it's just no big deal to take a life. I've killed, but it hasn't been easy. And I hope it never is.
“Ok,” I say through gritted teeth. “Continue.”
“Yes, she proved . . . resistant to the process. Had I known then that she had had previous manipulation, I would've tried a different tack,” he says and glances to the side as if in thought.
“Focus,” I say, snapping my fingers.
He can’t seem to work up the nerve to look me in the eye, but he’s at least looking in my direction again.
He clears his throat. “Right. So, I monitored her after to ensure the safeguards stayed in place. It was very clear early on that they didn't. Shortly after she had a conversation with you following your ordeal, fractures began forming. I set this up as a means to reapply the treatments as needed,” he finishes.
“So, what part did Alastor play in this?”
“Lord Alastor was unaware of the continued treatments. I feared that, had he known, he would have seen it as a failure on my part.”
It sounds like he was afraid of punishment, but he could still be lying. I don't feel any deceit in his aura, but I don't know if I can trust that. As far as I've come, I can still only read surface level emotions in auras from people who don't know how to hide it. I've only really had this much luck reading the Hound's feelings, because it doesn't try to mask them. Like, at all.
“Not sure if I believe that. But what about this? You can come in now,” I call out to the guest I brought. The Hound bursts through the door, making the little demon flinch. It bounds into the room, coming to a stop next to me. Gnat straightens himself as much as he can and tries to stand tall, but his eyes are filled with fear. A strong feeling that is bleeding into his aura.
“Change your skin to normal.”
(Master told Beast–)
“I know, but I need you to show this man what you really are.”
“I am aware of its–” Gnat begins, but the Hound follows my command. It grows from its already intimidating size to dwarf him even further. Gnat takes a step back as the lava flows coursing through the Hound’s body illuminate the room with a shifting orange light.
“So, you know what this is?” I ask.
“Yes, it is one of your . . . One of Lord Alastor's creations.”
So the Hound was telling the truth. The confirmation is gratifying.
“And why is it here?”
“For your protection, of course.”
I laugh. “It tried to kill me.”
“Oh . . . Yes, well. Uh.” His stammering makes me feel like he's stalling for a lie, and I'm already frustrated. I need to just go to the source.
“Enough of this. I want to speak to him. I know you have a way to talk to Alastor. I want to speak with him now.”
I try to make it sound threatening, but I feel like I just said, 'I wanna speak to your manager.'
Gnat's eyes go wide.