After a week's long fast, a full breakfast was heavenly. Ashley shoveled everything in, ravenous. In-between bites, she saw the tentacle tips of a chatnuslan poke out from between her lips. The parasite had attached itself to her tongue, and was feeding off her euphoria. She zoned it out without a second thought.
"Things are complicated between me and Ronald." Doris nervously preened her hair, straightening its curls. "I'm never going to let him lay a finger on you again. I'll have him arrested. But I want to give him a second chance. I'd like us to be a whole family when this baby is born, and for these past three years he'd been perfect. I think this was a hard adjustment for him, but if you can't stand for him to be here then-"
"It's okay, mom," Ashley interrupted, smiling. "He makes you happy, and I want you to be happy."
Doris blushed. She almost cried. Ashley adjusted her focus and could see that a medrel had replaced the khootols on her face. It was softly beating its wings, gently tapping them against her cheeks.
"He does make me happy. . .but you're much more important to me, honey. You and Kayla are my world. If he ever touches you again - then that's it. He's gone."
"Okay." Ashley scooped out a segment of the grapefruit. "Can you take me to Lucy's today? I want to see her again. I miss her."
"Sure, honey." Doris stood up from her seat. "Finish breakfast first. Don't share anything with Lucy, though. I don't want you getting sick and missing more school. I'll pick you up before five. Let's go out for dinner tonight. Think of somewhere special."
***
Lucy was home alone when Ashley arrived, nursing a fever. She greeted Ashley and Doris at the door, flush and sweaty. She invited Ashley in, and the two girls scurried up to her bedroom.
Her bedroom was clean, yet cluttered; an organized mess of scattered books and art supplies. She had been painting with watercolors before Ashley came over, and when they entered the room, she picked up where she'd left off.
Ashley scanned the bedroom walls. They were covered with Lucy's artwork. She seemed to like painting still-lifes of flowers and hilly landscapes. Some of the pictures looked childish, like they were made in elementary school, but her more recent sketches were highly refined; intricate and beautiful.
"Thanks for inviting me."
"No problem. This cold blows. I'm really bored and have cabin fever but I'm too achy to go outside. I have no energy." Lucy dabbed some paint onto her brush tip and looked up at Ashley with a smile. "I was worried about you. Tom said he saw you in English the other day. He said you looked really, really upset, and that you cut out before lunch."
Ashley picked up a pen, sat down next to Lucy, and began her own drawing. She liked how Lucy would let her draw while she talked. It was easier for her to open up when she didn't have to make eye contact. Eye contact made Ashley feel insecure. Self conscious.
The girls worked on their art for several minutes without speaking. Ashley tried to sketch out Phan, but had no idea where to begin. Phan's form was so amorphous, she didn't know how to capture it. She decided to start with its teeth as they had made a strong impression. She doodled them, large and perfectly squared.
"Kayla outed me. . .She told Nick that I was a boy because I kissed him at the party. I don't know if he told anyone else. I think he did. I thought I heard people gossiping. I - I couldn't take it. . . . "
"Really?" Lucy stopped mid brushstroke. She put her hand on top of Ashley's, comfortingly. "What a bitch."
Ashley giggled. It was her first laugh in a long time. She gave up on her drawing and watched Lucy paint what looked like a peacock. Her eyes wandered around the room. She scanned the titles of the books that seemed to be lying on every flat surface.
Encyclopedia of the Occult. Demonology. The 'Good' Witch's guide.
"Have you really read all of those books? There's so many. Do you know a lot about magic. . .and demons?"
"Yep," Lucy chirped. "I like reading, and I told you - I'm into that stuff. I don't totally believe it, but I have a bunch of friends that are practicing Wiccans. I did a séance once. . .and I'm trying to learn tarot reading. "
"Have you ever read about something called Qualkhoikhom or Phan?"
"No." Lucy shook her head. "What are they?'
"Things I saw in dreams."
"Like the man with the skeleton hand?"
Ashley's heart skipped a beat, surprised that Lucy remembered.
"I'm pretty sure they aren't in those books, but I can look them up online if you want." Lucy grabbed a laptop from under her bed and opened it with a sigh. "I looked up the man with the skeleton hand but nothing came up."
"Why'd you look him up?" Ashley peered over her shoulder.
"I dunno. It was a really weird name." Lucy sneezed and then grimaced. "God, that hurt. I'm so sore. Do not catch this, Ashley. It's like the flu. . .it's hellish. . .How do you spell Qualk-wa-cum and Fan?"
"Here." Ashley entered the names and hit search.
There were no results.
"Supernatural things normally have more than one name. Maybe you could find them by a different one." Lucy coughed. She quickly covered her mouth. "Sorry. What are they supposed to be? We could look them up by their powers."
"Phan said he grants wishes." Ashley furrowed her forehead. "I don't know what Qualkhoikhom is. Just the name."
"You talked to Phan? He's a genie? Did you wish for something? What did you wish for?"
Ashley looked away. The word 'genie' made everything seem ridiculous. She returned to her sketchpad, anxiously drawing Phan's horns.
"It's okay." Lucy tried to suppress a coughing fit. "What happened? I won't judge you. I'll believe you. I promise. Tell me."
"The boy they think I killed - Ian - a khlathu killed him. It's a giant bug that only I can see. There are a lot of those bugs. Nine, I think. Qualkhoikhom told me their names. I've known them ever since I can remember."
Lucy wiped her nose. "You can talk to Qualkhoikhom too?"
"No. I just know him. Qualkhoikhom makes me shift. He takes me places. The other night, I shifted with Kayla. I took her with me to the ocean. She almost drowned. The next night, Phan came to me. It said it'd grant me one wish. I wished that I could control where I shift and what I could see."
"What's a shift?"
"I don't know. I don't know where I go or why. I just go cold and can take things with me into another place - lots of different places - but it's random. And painful."
"Could you shift with me?"
"Why would you want me to? Kayla almost drowned. And Ian-"
"I'm a good swimmer. I'm a lifeguard in the summer," Lucy cut in with a smile. "It sounds cool. Try it. Let's see where we go. Somewhere tropical, hopefully. The beach. Maybe Europe?"
"No. . . Ian died."
"You said that you wished for control." Lucy yawned. She looked tired. Her eyelids were droopy. "Did it work? Did Phan grant your wish?"
"I think so. I don't see the bugs anymore. Unless I want to. I haven't tried to shift yet."
"So, try it."
"No. It's too dangerous."
"Well, don't if you don't want to, but it'd be fun. You can bring me back like you did with Kayla." Lucy stood up and then plopped down onto her bed like a stone. "If we're not going, I'm lying down. So sleepy. Draw something neat while I nap - like the man with the skeleton hand. This time I want to keep what you come up with. Frame it."
"Ian didn't come back," Ashley mumbled.
"That was before your wish." Lucy turned her head on her pillow so she was facing her. "You should try it once. Maybe we can find out why you shift. I promise I won't ask you again, but maybe it's better to go with someone than alone. Someone who's willing to go, anyway. . . "
"Just once?"
Lucy nodded.
While Lucy napped, Ashley sat down on the carpet next to her bed. She crossed her legs and closed her eyes, concentrating only on her breathing. She tried to meditate. Nothing happened. She let her mind go blank and her thoughts wander. She didn't feel
the pains or tremors she usually got before she shifted. Something was different.
It wasn't working.
Suddenly, Ashley felt a gentle breeze blow across her lips and the sun beating on her face. She slowly opened her eyes.
Ashley and Lucy were in a desert. Lucy was sprawled out on the sand, lying on her back, in the same position she'd been in bed. She shot to her feet and stared at the red-tinged sand dunes that stretched out to every horizon. The sky above her was a deep royal blue. Filling up nearly a quarter of it was a gigantic, triple ringed, green planet.
"Ha - ho - holy shit!" Lucy spluttered.
"It worked," Ashley whispered to herself, astonished. "And I didn't have a seizure. It was so easy. I - I just drifted. . ."
"Where the fuck are we?"
Lucy looked refreshed. Her face was no longer flush. She scanned the desert, enraptured by the alien surroundings. Small, brilliantly colored flowers carpeted the sand dunes several hundred feet away. Without saying anything to Ashley, she took off, jogging towards them.
"Stay with me!" Ashley barked, sprinting after her. "Don't run off! That's how I lost Mist!"
"This is amazing!" Lucy shouted back, slowing her jog to a crawl. She took in a deep breath and stopped walking. "I don't feel sick anymore. I don't feel tired. I feel. . .awesome! This - this is incredible! How did you do this? Where are we?"
"I don't know." Ashley squinted up at the green planet in the sky. "I never know. I just shift. It's random."
Lucy bent down and picked one of the flowers from the sand. Its inner petals were red and pink. They folded in on one another, mimicking the shape of a woman's lips. She showed the flower to Ashley and pushed it towards her mouth.
"They sorta look like labia, don't they?'" Lucy giggled. "Here. Kiss it."
Ashley playfully ducked away and then snatched the flower from her. She tore off a few petals while Lucy picked more. She could tell that Lucy was euphoric. A chatnuslan had anchored itself to her tongue. The parasite looked like a sea anemone that filled her mouth with wriggling tentacles. Ashley focused hard and blocked out the nauseating image.
Lucy put one of the strange flowers into Ashley's hair, tucking it behind her ear. She then sat down on the sand, picking up a handful of it, and letting it trickle out between her fingers like falling water. She shot back up to her feet, manic, bubbling over with giddy energy.
"Hellooooo!" She shouted at the horizon. She waited for several moments for an echo that never came. "This is unbelievable! Are we in another dimension? What's that green planet in the sky? Are there other people here? How - how long can we stay here? Do you know the name of this place?"
"I don't know where we are," Ashley repeated, shrugging. "Normally I shift back after a little while. . .but I've never shifted like this. It - it must have been from whatever Phan did. This is different. . . "
"Can you take us somewhere else?" Lucy gushed. "Let's go somewhere else. This is like the ultimate vacation. No packing or being squished into a car. And I'm not sick anymore. Let's not go back yet. I love this. Take us somewhere else."
"No. We're going back. You promised. One shift. That's it."
"Fine," Lucy pouted. She grabbed onto both of Ashley's hands and held them tightly. "But I better not be sick when we get back. If I am, I'm giving it to you. I'll lick your face. I swear. Don't test me."
Ashley smirked. She closed her eyes and followed the same pattern as before, silently meditating, and then letting her mind drift.
When she reopened her eyes, Lucy was gone.
Ashley had shifted into a meadow during the height of a blizzard. Everything was blanketed in snow. The shadows of veiled trees creaked in the distance, mimicking the sound of breaking bones. A few tufts of dead, yellow grass poked up above the snowline. Everything else was a complete whiteout.
"Lucy!"
A stiff wind blew over the meadow, chilling Ashley to the core. She huddled down, shivering. She spent the next ten minutes screaming her throat raw for Lucy, but there was no response.
Lucy hadn't shifted with her. She was gone.
Ashley's teeth chattered. Her lips were turning purple, chapped and beginning to freeze. She tried to shift back, picturing the alien desert in her mind's eye, but it was too cold for her to concentrate. She gave up and sat down, sobbing in the snow.
"PHAN!" She shouted into the blinding white. "Where are you? You lied to me! You tricked me! Where are you? Come to me! Come here!"
Gradually, the snowflakes froze in place in the sky, as if time had slowed to a stop.
Ashley stood up from her ball and touched one of them.
The snowflake melted on her fingertip.
For a moment, nothing else moved. The wind and trees didn't make a sound. Everything was quiet.
Phan then appeared from the blinding white, taking shape from nothingness. It was much shorter than before. It now had a reptilian tail, a thick coat of white fur, and its horns were pointed upwards, like a bull's.
"Lo Jezna, akasana de icks. Ita buyato? Ita pyana? Some dili huarta deli is, os de chata al leon?"
Phan chanted these words as it approached. It gave Ashley an unsettling smile.
"Poor Jezna, trapped in the ice. Do you breathe? Do you feel pain? Are those cold eyes frozen open and agape, or serenely shut, like a sleeping swan?"
"You lied to me!" Ashley shrieked. "You tricked me! Where's Lucy? Where did she go?"
"I took her," Phan hissed. Its long tail coiled around its left leg. The tip wagged in the air, and Phan grabbed it.
"What?"
"I took her," Phan repeated, expressionless.
"Wha - why?" Ashley stuttered. "Bring her back to me! Bring her back! Please!"
Phan plucked the desert flower from Ashley's hair and closed its claw around it. When its claw reopened, the flower was gone - replaced with a grey cat.
The cat jumped out of Phan's grasp, and lunged at Ashley. It curled up in the snow at her feet, terrified.
Mist?
"This is my cat." Ashley picked him up, cradling him like a baby. "I - I want Lucy. Bring her back, too."
Phan began to circle Ashley with a look on its face like it was going to eat her. The snowflakes were still frozen in the air. Phan cut through them, clearing a small donut of clear sky around her.
"Very well. . . .but with every wish comes a price. . . ."
A tear trickled down Ashley's cheek. It froze before she could wipe it off. She picked at it and Mist wiggled in her grasp, trying to burrow his face into her armpit. "What. . .what's your price?"
"A life for a life." Phan pointed a long finger at Ashley. It looked like a dagger. "You must take a life to be, for me to retrieve your friend."
"You want me to kill someone?"
"You must take a life to be," Phan crowed. "A life before it has been born."
"What does that mean?"
Phan once again opened its claw. In its brown, gorilla-ish palm was a long, black worm. It motioned for Ashley to take it.
Ashley grimaced. She adjusted her grip on Mist and reluctantly picked up the tiny creature. It was slimy and cold as ice.
"What is this?"
"Put it onto the belly of the woman who birthed you, and she shall give birth no more."
"No!" Ashley threw the worm at Phan. It bounced off its ram's head and fell into the snow. "I won't do that! Ever!"
Phan grinned. A repulsive, animal's grin.
"Then your friend shall remain lost. No matter how hard you try, you will never find her. You will never shift to where she lies. She lies with me. Forever."
"You said you'd help me!" Ashley snarled, now furious. "You said you were created to take care of me! Why did you lie? Why are you doing this?"
"I never said those things. He created me to care for Jezna, but she is dead. You and her may be the same - but I was created to serve her - not you."
"Does He want me to kill my mom's baby? Why is He torturing me? Did He make you do this? What does He want!"
"He only tasked me to grant your wish and to get your kiss." Phan seemed to grow larger, puffing itself up like a dragon until it was twelve feet tall. "My prices are mine to make. I took you here, and I took your friend. If you wish to see her again, you must pay with a life."
"No. . .please bring her back. I'll do anything. Anything but that," Ashley begged. "You can take me. Take my life!"
The Book of the Nine Ides Page 8
