Then it would be, wouldn’t it? At least if it had to do with the fact that Hally’s parents were wanted fugitives accused of murder. Or had been a week ago. They hadn’t done it, but that information was just now coming out. The evidence was a confession to the crime by the person that had actually done it, gotten from the man by Balthias, her pet Lesser Demon.
Eat that, Lassie. Keeley smiled at the thought, but had turned away so her mom didn’t see.
A very handy thing to have around, Balthias, at least when it came to extracting information or revenge without getting your own hands dirty.
She no more than hung up when a soft knock came from the front door. She’d been distracted, but she got that it was Finias before she opened the door, the scheme of reality just tended to organize in some strange, but perceptible, fashion around her kind. It was kind of obvious once you paid attention to it.
“Good morning!” He said, looking good in his to expensive suit, a deep gray, with fine lighter colored lines through it, slightly shining. The shoes were a polished black, real leather, high quality, but handmade. So worth hundreds of dollars or more. The man was kind of hot, in a slightly sleazy business man way.
“Mr. Carmichael, good to see you again.” Sherry spoke calmly, but with a slight edge that cried out for attention. It was really obvious.
To the man at the door as well, who smiled suddenly, making his gaze linger on the face of the chipper woman. She played with her hair just enough to signal sexual interest without being obvious about it. As if having to tear himself away, Dan reoriented on Keeley, who still stood between them, and gave her a wink.
What was with all the stupid winking from these people? Did they constantly have things in their eyes or something?
“Keeley. You look nice today. You both do. What’s the plan?”
It took about thirty seconds to get through it all, and would have taken longer, but Dan nodded when she got to the part about her friend needing to talk and having to go get her.
“I’ll meet you both at Raintree then? Or, maybe Sherry would like to ride with me? We can make plans for the day and not bother you and your friend as you chat?” He made his voice almost bland when he said it, but seemed secretly eager.
Perv.
Flirting with her mom right in front of her like that. Finias smiled at her and nodded just a little, letting her know that he’d heard her. Also that he agreed, and was a pervert. Grrr.
She smiled though. It was kind of funny in a way. Sherry jumped at the chance, but looked back over her shoulder as she spoke, knowing Charles could be coming out at any moment. That was just a constant problem in their lives. It kind of made every day a little less bright.
Well, nothing for it now, Keeley shrugged and got the keys to Frieda back and took off, leaving the others to figure out what they were doing. They were all adults and old enough to know what the heck was right or wrong, and what would just be asking for trouble. Given they were, mainly, regular people, Keeley had no doubt that they did indeed know what to do. They’d also probably mess it up.
People did that, didn’t they?
She didn’t think of it again as she pulled out, carefully. The van was just on loan after all and Keeley couldn’t afford to have it fixed if she got in an accident. In the review mirror Keeley watched as her mother drove off in Dan’s car, headed toward the school.
Riding with a Demon.
Chapter four
Hally wasn’t outside her front door waiting like she normally did, but rather stood on the street corner nearly a block away from the brown single level ranch style house her family lived in. The Yorks weren’t rich people, but had managed their money pretty well and lived a decently comfortable life.
That was what everything about them said at least. Hally’s parents took every possible precaution they could, trying to look like normal, friendly people, ones that cared about keeping kids off of drugs and who did drug counseling on the side. Both were recovering drug addicts.
Except they weren’t really, that was just their cover story, meant to explain any slips they made. No one expected much of a junkie, and they all had dark things in their pasts they didn’t want to share.
They were really recovering con artists. Good at their jobs too. They were largely just pretending to be straight now, not because they loved their lives so much, but because the alternative was prison, almost without a doubt. Keeley pulled to the side of the street and leaned over to let the cute redhead into the van. She wore her little cheerleading outfit, and a letterman’s jacket over the top. Advertising for the big game the next day, Keeley figured. Though they were supposed to do that on game day.
Keeley steeled her nerve and reached a hand out to help the other girl in, catching the sum total of what the girl was and had been through all at once. Again, having done it before, which made it easier. The first time was always the worst. That’s when whatever you thought about a person got trashed, those first moments, as everything they’d ever done wrong, each dark thought and desire, washed over you.
Most people did a lot of things they weren’t proud of. Hally was no different, but refreshingly, most of her issues were so minor that no one else in the world would really care. She hid over the counter diet pills in her closet for instance, afraid her parents would be mad if they found out. She also had a slight crush on their friend Gary, who was gay, which she didn’t feel happy about, because it was confusing, not because of anything else.
Then, she had a crush on almost everyone she knew. She was friendly like that.
Once she was in, she just sat quietly, not moving for a long time. She didn’t even buckle her seat belt. Finally she looked in the back and saw it was empty, but didn’t bother asking where Sherry was, or why they weren’t moving. After several minutes of this she just spoke, her voice almost imperceptible it was so soft.
“I… Keeley. My parents… I, they… said something.” Then she went silent again.
“OK. Seat belt please.” She had to help her with that, then they drove… right back into the York’s driveway.
Amazingly Hally just got out, not even asking anything at all. Her face was pale and she shook a bit, clearly scared and not having any clue about what to do about it.
That kind of made sense, didn’t it? Keeley didn’t have a big plan for her either, but leaving her alone wouldn’t help at all. She had to get Hally out of the van, walking around to the far side and taking her hand to ease her back to the ground. Then, slowly, making sure that the girl didn’t stumble, they walked back to the front door.
There was yelling coming from inside. It was loud and angry sounding too.
Goody. It was always fun to walk up on a tense situation, wasn’t it?
She couldn’t make it out, but knocked firmly enough to make it stop after the third set of four raps. Hally blinked a bit and stared at her, as the door opened.
“No… I… School…”
“It’s alright Hal, you just need to change. It’s Thursday, you need to wear your uniform tomorrow, not today.” Besides it was an ugly set of colors, bright blue and orange and should be worn only in an emergency. The only person it had ever looked good on was Darla, and really Keeley suspected she cheated somehow to make that happen. Magic or special make-up tricks she hadn’t shared with anyone else.
The door opened and Devon York, Hally’s dad, a pleasant looking man in his early forties, with wire rimmed glasses he didn’t need, and just a few extra pounds, gave them a funny look. He didn’t speak, just stepped to the side to let them in. On their way past, he patted Hally on the back, accidently touching Keeley’s hand when he did. This flood of information was a lot more intense, and held a lot more darkness than Hally’s had. So much more Keeley had to fight a shudder.
It wasn’t that he was evil, but the man was a career criminal and had been in a lot of places that most people didn’t go into, seen things that couldn’t be unseen, and done a few that even he wished he could take back now.
“Girls? Is everything alright, Hally was just leaving for school…”
“Who cares?” This was nearly screamed and came from a decently cute, round cheeked boy who was named Steve and liked to watch the neighbor lady undress when he could. He kept talking, loudly.
“You lied to us, you lied to everyone! I’m not even who I think I am. Who am I then? Huh? Are we going to have to leave? I should just run away. This whole thing is screwed.” There was anger there, but misery too. Betrayal.
Keeley just nodded to him, which caught his attention pretty well. Apparently without her glasses and a few pounds lighter, she was suddenly considered pretty instead of dorky. She even had some make-up on, so that helped, she knew.
“You’re the same person you were yesterday, and the day before that. Don’t let a little new information throw you Steve. Besides this is a good thing, a happy one.” She couldn’t say more and even that got both Ginger and Devon to stare at her. Hally hadn’t told her anything, but she knew what they’d told her, about the murder, how they’d run before charges could come in, how now some of their friends had told them that it was over and they didn’t have to hide any more.
They were free again.
“She told you? But she just left, how?” This came from Ginger, who didn’t seem upset at all, just confused.
Keeley found herself lacking for words again and finally just smile and shrugged.
“No, she didn’t tell me anything. She’s still in shock. I already knew. I had a friend of mine see to Mr. Monroe for you. The confession will be accepted, and he won’t recant.” Taking a deep breath she looked Devon directly in the eye, knowing he had to be ready to fight about then. Physically. That information wasn’t anything Hally had known. They hadn’t gone into detail with what they’d told their daughter, had they? So it meant that the dark haired girl in front of him knew something.
“As to how I knew anything at all, don’t ask. Ever. That’s the price of your freedom. Don’t ask why I did it, or how, and maybe help me out on a little project every now and then. Legal things mainly, nothing too dark or sinister. Deal?” She held out her right hand which the man took by reflex.
She felt the twisting inside herself, flowing over and out of her, and over the man in front of her instantly. He went a little still and let go of her hand, so she put it out to Ginger and then Steve too, who clearly felt awkward about it, but was pleased to be included it seemed.
“Right, so here’s the plan for the day.” Keeley laid out what she was doing and found that Steve needed to get ready for class, Devon had work, selling insurance and Ginger had to show a house later that afternoon.
“So, let’s get to that? Try to be happy, you’re all free now and this thing won’t really do much to your lives at all. Go Steve, get ready and get something to eat first. Most important meal of the day and all that. Go, go.” She grinned to soften the orders she’d given, making it seem more like playful advice, which is it was. Of course none of them had a choice, not after they’d made a bargain like they had. One with a Greater Demon too.
They were, functionally, all her slaves now. More than just that too. If she told them to do something, anything, they had too. Eeep.
Hopefully Darla wouldn’t kill her for poaching in her territory. She was supposed to ask first. There just hadn’t been a lot of time and… Yeah, well, she’d talk to Darla soon, she could let them out of the deal. She didn’t really know how, but kind of thought it might be as simple as telling them they were free of it. It was innate Demon magic, but it didn’t take any ceremony, not even physical contact, just a sense of agreement was all that was really needed and some kind of action taken showing it. A single word, like yes, would do it.
They all went along with their business quickly, as if it were their own idea. They did seem pretty happy though and the yelling stopped. It meant that she could get Hally changed into real clothing, a nice skirt and sweater vest arrangement over a deep blue shirt. The skirt was shorter than anything Keeley owned, but looked long compared to the scanty thing they gave the girls to lead cheers in. It was so obviously designed to end up flashing the audience that it was nearly a joke. The cheerleaders all knew it too.
Freaks.
Not that Keeley had a problem with them doing it, if that’s what turned them on, but it was still kind of funny. The school district was too conservative to let two guys go to a dance together, but they’d let teen girls dress like an old man’s porn fantasy?
After that she managed to get everyone off for the day without any problems, and Hally off to school with her. It took an extra twenty minutes, which meant that her mother and Dan were waiting for them in the parking lot of the school, in the visitor’s area, waiting to go in.
The first bit was easy, just sending Hally off to class. The next part was a bit scary for her, having to face down a school official and explain what the parties were about, who was paying for it, and that local law enforcement was backing them too, to try and keep the kids safe.
Principle Morton gave her a hard look at first but cracked a smile after a few seconds and volunteered the gym for it. It was tempting, but that was where the kids were for the dance, so it would really end up being thought of as the same party, plus they kind of wanted everyone to be welcome, didn’t they? They decided to use the parks closest to each school for it.
Or rather Chief Benson did. The man was at work already. She’d seen him at the office at nearly eight the night before and it wasn’t even eight in the morning yet. He certainly had the dedication part down at least.
Then Morton helped drastically by calling the others schools principles and arranging everything so that she wouldn’t have to go to each one and beg for cooperation.
It wasn’t until nearly ten that they got to leave the office though, Sherry smiling hugely.