Necessary Evil

by Donald Hanley

  “So now what?” Melissa asked. She pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and then changed her mind about sitting in it. “Are we just going to hang around here until Mrs. Kendricks calls?”

  “I would change my garb,” Daraxandriel said, looking down at herself distastefully. “I dislike being wet.” She put her words into action and headed off towards my bedroom. Melissa watched her go with narrowed eyes until we heard the bedroom door close.

  “So what does she have that I don’t have?” she asked me.

  “Horns and a tail?” Olivia suggested. “And spooky eyes.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked Melissa cautiously. Little alarm bells were going off again.

  “I mean, why are you in love with her and not me?” She planted herself right in front of me with her fists on her hips. “What’s wrong with me? Am I so bad that you’d prefer a demon over me?”

  “No!” I protested. “It’s not that.”

  “Then what? What do I have to do to make you love me?”

  “You can’t make someone love you,” Olivia told her, despite the fact that Melissa couldn’t actually hear her. “They do or they don’t.”

  “I don’t not love you.” I said awkwardly. “It’s just that things are really hectic right now.”

  That prompted both girls to roll their eyes at me. “That doesn’t keep you from loving Dara,” Melissa pointed out. “Things are hectic with her too, aren’t they?”

  “Well, yes, but –”

  “Just tell me what you want me to do, Peter.” She stepped towards me and rested her hands on my chest, looking up at me through her eyelashes. “I’ll do anything you want. I’ll be anything you want me to be.”

  “Um –” I swallowed with difficulty.

  “I can be shy,” she whispered. “I can be dangerous. I can be wild. I can be pure. Just tell me what you want.”

  “She’s just trying to trap you, Peter,” Olivia warned me. “Don’t fall for it.”

  “Or maybe you want all of them,” she continued. “Let’s start with wild.” She reached for her jacket button and I grabbed her hands.

  “No, don’t do that!” I told her, casting a frantic look at Olivia.

  “Why not?” Melissa asked breathily. “Don’t you want to look at me again? Don’t you want to touch me?”

  “No! I mean yes, but no!” Both girls looked at me with puzzled expressions. “Olivia’s standing right there!” I hissed.

  Melissa froze and then pulled the lapels of her jacket tighter around her as her ears turned bright pink. “You let me say all that and do all that with her watching and you didn’t say anything? Peter!” Olivia looked equally embarrassed as she pretended to inspect the calendar on the fridge.

  “I didn’t know what you were going to do!” I protested.

  “How long is she going to be hanging around here?” she demanded. “You freed her soul from Dara, right? Why is she still here?”

  “She’s still bound to the Philosopher’s Stone,” I reminded her.

  “Well, tell her not to spy on us!” Melissa glared around the kitchen.

  “I’m not spying, I just don’t have any place else to go,” Olivia argued.

  “She can hear you, you know,” I told Melissa awkwardly.

  “I don’t care! How are we supposed to have any privacy with a ghost following us around all the time?” She gasped with a sudden thought. “Oh my God, did she see us on the stairs?”

  “What happened on the stairs?” Olivia asked.

  “No, she wasn’t there!” I assured her. “She didn’t see anything!”

  “See what?” Olivia demanded. “What didn’t I see?”

  “Oh my God, I don’t know how to deal with this. Demons and ghosts? What’s next? Pixies and unicorns?” Melissa let her breath out in a frustrated huff. “I need to get out of these clothes,” she declared. “Do you have anything I can wear?”

  “Sure, take anything you want,” I said, relieved at the change of topic. “Dara’s stuff should fit you, you’re the same, uh, size –” My voice trailed off as my brain belatedly realized that that probably wasn’t the best thing to say right now. Melissa’s lips tightened but all she did was take in a long, slow breath and let it out.

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” she said calmly and she disappeared down the hallway.

  “She’s kind of scary,” Olivia observed uneasily.

  “She can be,” I agreed glumly.

  “So what happens now that you’ve dumped her?”

  “I haven’t dumped her!” I protested. “We’re just going through a bit of a rough spot right now.”

  “But you just admitted that you don’t love her. It sounds to me like you dumped her.”

  “It’s complicated,” I sighed.

  “I don’t think it’s complicated at all. If you love someone, you just know it.”

  “And how many people have you fallen in love with?”

  “Lots!” she insisted.

  “How many of them knew about it?”

  “That’s beside the point! Love is love!” She crossed her arms to emphasize the steadfastness of her position.

  “All right, then, Miss Love Expert, who should I go out with, Dara or Melissa?”

  “What?” she asked, startled.

  “You seem to have all the answers. Which one of them should be my girlfriend?”

  “Well, um, it’s not the simple,” she stammered. Her colors were still washed out so I couldn’t tell if she was actually blushing but she certainly acted like it. “You should pick someone you’re compatible with, someone who’s a lot like you.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and had trouble looking at me.

  “So Dara’s a soul-stealing demon and Melissa’s a rich kid with relationship issues,” I persisted. “Which one am I most like?”

  “Well, neither! You need someone nice who likes you and appreciates you and who understands what you’ve been going through.”

  “Do you know anyone like that?” I asked dubiously. Olivia stared down at her fingers and mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out. “Who?”

  She cleared her throat. “Me.”

  I blinked at her for the longest time. “What?” I said finally.

  “I mean, I know we hardly know each other but you’ve been so nice to me even though I’m dead and you’re trying to help me and you open doors for me even though you don’t really have to and you were dead too, at least for a little while, so you know what it’s like.” The barrage of words came to an abrupt halt as she bit her lip and hunched her shoulders. “So I was just thinking maybe I should be your girlfriend,” she said quietly.

  “What?” That was the most articulate response I could come up with right then.

  “I know it’s kind of sudden but I’ve been thinking about it ever since you drove me downtown that night.” Her blue-gray eyes looked up fleetingly and then locked onto her hands again. “You remember when we were talking about that list of things I wanted to do after I got out of the hospital? I told you one of them was personal.”

  “I remember,” I said carefully.

  “It was the very first thing I put on the list. I wanted to get a boyfriend.” She knotted and unknotted her fingers. “Except I died before I could ask anyone.”

  “Olivia –”

  “I mean, you let me watch a movie and you gave me driving lessons and you kept Lilith from stealing my soul and you got me out of Dara’s head and – and –” She took a shuddering breath. “You’re the nicest boy I ever met and you seem to like me too and I just thought, maybe, you could be my boyfriend.” She looked up again hopefully.

  “But you’re a ghost.”

  “Not really,” she insisted, “not anymore. I’m sort of undead now. Not in a creepy way,” she added hastily. “I don’t want to eat your brains or suck your blood or anything. But I can sort of become alive again, at least for a little while, and that’s good enough, right? We can do things together now.” She nodded encouragingly.

&
nbsp; “Olivia, I don’t know what to say.” I really didn’t. The last thing I expected to deal with today was a ghost professing her undying love for me, no pun intended.

  “Just promise me you’ll think about it,” she pleaded. “I know it’s sudden and all but, you know, it’s not like I’m going anywhere. I can wait,” she assured me with a tentative smile.

  Oh God, I thought bleakly. She’s going to turn into a wraith if I turn her down, isn’t she? I really needed to talk to Mrs. Kendricks about this but Olivia was still waiting for my response. “Look, I’m really flattered, Olivia,” I said carefully, “but I don’t know if I’m ready to make any commitments right now. Lilith is still out there somewhere recruiting demons to kill us.”

  “But that’s why we’ll be perfect together!” she insisted. “If she kills you, we can still be ghosts together for all eternity!” She actually looked happy at the thought.

  “Great,” I said with a wan smile. “But let’s get through the next few days first, okay?”

  “Well, okay,” she agreed reluctantly. “So what do we do until then?” She looked around the kitchen dubiously.

  “Peter?” Melissa’s voice called from the hallway.

  “Oh, thank God,” I breathed to myself. “Stay here,” I told Olivia, “I’ll be right back.” I bolted out of the kitchen before she could say anything.

  I found Melissa standing outside my bedroom door with a t-shirt and jeans dangling from one hand and panties and a bra from the other. “Peter,” she said, “do you mind if I take a shower before I change? I’m all,” she gestured to herself, “well, I need a shower.”

  “Sure, no problem.” She just looked at me. “The bathroom’s there.” I pointed at the door but she didn’t move. “Is something wrong?”

  “Can you show me where everything is?” Melissa asked with a wide-eyed smile. She seemed to have forgotten she was mad at me, which made me nervous.

  “Well, the towels are in the cabinet under the sink and the shampoo and stuff is on the bathtub.”

  “Show me,” she said, a touch of impatience creeping back into her voice.

  Obviously I was missing another important signal but I led her down to the bathroom. “Everything’s out in plain sight,” I told her, “so you can – oh.” The doorknob failed to turn under my hand and the sound of rushing water hissed through the door.

  “Go away!” Susie called at my knock.

  “Sorry, I guess you’ll have to wait,” I told Melissa.

  “Don’t your parents have a shower?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Are they using it right now?”

  “Of course not, they’re not home.”

  She waited for a beat and then rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Can I use it then?”

  “My parent’s shower?” My mind just couldn’t grasp the concept. I eyed their bedroom door like it was the entrance to a new dungeon filled with unspeakable horrors. “Well –”

  “Great. Let’s go.”

  Melissa propelled me down to the end of the hallway, waited for me to open the door, and then did it herself when my hand failed to move. She pushed me inside and closed the door behind us, sealing us in.

  I looked around uneasily. I’d been in here countless times before but Mom or Dad were always present then. It felt like I was intruding in some forbidden sanctum, about to be cursed for all eternity for daring to defile the place with my unclean presence.

  Melissa clearly wasn’t picking up the same vibe. “This is it, right?” she asked as she marched straight across the room and through the open doors into their bathroom.

  I hurried after her and found her opening the shower door. Mom and Dad’s shower was a separate unit across from the garden tub, lined with white tile and fronted with frosted glass. Melissa turned on the water and held her hand under the spray as she adjusted the temperature.

  “So, um, the towels are there,” I said, pointing at the stack on the shelves. “The soap’s in the dish and I guess you can use whatever shampoo you want.” There was a whole row of mismatched bottles along the tiled bench jutting out from the back of the shower.

  “Thanks. Um, Olivia’s not in here, is she?” she asked uneasily, looking all around.

  I surveyed the room to make sure. “No, just us.”

  “Good.” Melissa unbuttoned her jacket, letting it fall open, and I went into immediate cardiac arrest.

  “Oh my God.” My eyes refused to blink as she slipped off the jacket and draped it over the edge of the bathtub. Then she perched beside it and slid her skirt up to reveal the tops of her stockings.

  “You need a shower too, Peter,” she observed. She unclipped one stocking from her garter belt and slowly rolled it down her leg.

  “I, um, I, uh, I’ll, ah, take one after Susie’s done.” I tried to swallow but my mouth was unaccountably dry.

  “There might not be any hot water left.” Melissa started on her other stocking.

  “That’s fine, I don’t mind.” A cold shower was probably the best thing for me right now.

  “You wouldn’t want to catch pneumonia.” She laid her stockings aside and stood, reaching for the zipper of her skirt.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said in a strangled voice. “I’m almost dry anyway.”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head with a resigned sigh. “Peter, take your clothes off and get in the shower with me.” She let her skirt drop to the floor, followed a moment later by her garter belt. “Now.”

  “Peter Simon Collins?” Daraxandriel’s voice called from the bedroom. “Art thou within?”

  Melissa had to be using magic to move so quickly. Between one blink and the next, she appeared on the other side of the bathroom clutching a towel to her chest. “Get rid of her!” she whispered urgently. ‘Don’t let her in here!”

  “I’ll, uh, go see what she wants. You start without me.” I beat a hasty retreat and closed the bathroom doors behind me, letting my breath out in a relieved sigh at my reprieve, as brief as it was likely to be.

  Daraxandriel stood just inside the doorway to the hall, looking around the room with a puzzled expression. She’d exchanged her rain-soaked outfit for another of my t-shirts, a dark blue one bearing the HPD shield. “Did I hear Melissa within?”

  “She’s, uh, just getting cleaned up,” I assured her. “Did you need something?”

  “I would speak with thee, Peter Simon Collins,” she said, looking serious and apprehensive at the same time. “Since our victory over Bellaxragor, I have given thought to thy plight. Thy demise is all but certain.”

  “We’ll figure out a way to stop Lilith,” I insisted.

  “Nay, thou dost not comprehend the gravity of thy situation. The demon lords of Hell are legion. Where one falls, ten more rise.” She shook her head dolefully. “Thou art mortal, Philosopher’s Stone or no, and thou canst not long withstand their might. Come sooner or come later, thou shalt fall.”

  I already knew I was pretty much screwed, so I wasn’t surprised by her assessment. “Well, I’m not ready to give up just yet,” I told her.

  “Thy valor does thee credit,” she said with a fleeting smile, “and yet I am in no haste to enscribe it upon thine epitaph. I have conceived a plan that may see thee through these dark times whole and unharmed.” She ducked her head nervously. “Though I fear it shall displease thee.”

  “Okay,” I said cautiously. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Cede me thy soul, Peter Simon Collins. Afore thou dost deny me out of hand,” she hurried on, as I was about to do just that, “hear my thoughts. I have defied my Dread Lord and refused His summons. I shall no longer gather souls for Him and yet my powers as a succubus are undiminished. I can grant thee thy heart’s desire, an thou scribes thy blood upon my contract.”

  “Wait a minute,” I frowned, “are you saying you can kill Lilith if I give you my soul?”

  Daraxandriel hesitated. “Nay,” she said regretfully. “I may only bend thee and thy world to thy benefit.
I do not have the power to alter Hell and its denizens.”

  “Then what’s the point of bringing this up?”

  “I gave thee the powers of Lorecraft to defeat Parathraxas,” she reminded me. “I can do so again.”

  “Really?” I brightened up. “That would be great! And the contract would be invalid like last time, right? You wouldn’t actually take my soul?” Daraxandriel suddenly found the floor between us very interesting. “Right? I’d get my powers back and my soul would be safe?” I nodded encouragingly but her tail hid behind her back, as if it didn’t want to get involved with what was about to happen. “You mean you would take my soul this time?”

  “Then, thy aim was to save the waif and the others,” she said apologetically. “Now, thine own survival is at stake.”

  “So because the contract would benefit me personally, it would be valid and you’d own my soul.” I shook my head, disappointed. “Dara, I don’t think –”

  “I would not deliver it unto my Dread Lord,” she insisted. “I would hold it safe against all who would claim it.”

  “But wouldn’t that be like what happened to Olivia?” I asked doubtfully. “Wouldn’t I be stuck here forever?” I was in no hurry to pass through the Pearly Gates but I wanted to get there eventually.

  “Why are you talking about me behind my back, Peter?” Olivia appeared in the doorway, eyeing the two of us suspiciously.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I assured her. “We’re almost done, just wait for us in the kitchen.”

  “There’s nothing to do there,” she complained.

  “An thou dost desire such,” Daraxandriel said doubtfully. She moved towards the door but I waved her back.

  “Sorry, I was talking to Olivia,” I explained. “We were just discussing what to do about Lilith,” I said to Olivia. “We’ll be done in a minute.”

  “Then I shall abide,” Daraxandriel said, “yet I am curious what thoughts another spirit may have on this manner.”

  “I don’t think you should be talking to other girls in someone’s bedroom,” Olivia insisted, “even if they’re demons. You’re my boyfriend.”

  “I’m not your boyfriend!” I argued. “I said I’d think about it.”