Slay

by Kim Curran

  She padded in her socks towards the kitchenette. Unwashed plates, crumpled-up serviettes and three old pizza boxes lay scattered around. She picked up a knife and used it to push the boxes and paper napkins into the trash can. It seemed the boys were too busy saving the world from demons to worry about washing up.

  She tried a few of the cupboards before finding a glass. She felt a sudden pang of loss for her favourite glass at home – the one with a moustache printed on it. She’d found it in a second-hand shop in London with Naledi and had smothered it in bubble wrap when she’d packed for the move to Chicago. Now it was left behind in the house along with everything else she owned. JD had dragged her away before she’d had a chance to get any of her things. How petty to be thinking about objects with everything that had happened. It was like her brain wouldn’t let her deal with the impossibility of what she’d seen, so it focused on the little, stupid, menial things instead.

  The water was ice-cold and soothed her throat. But she didn’t want to risk going back to sleep just yet; the nightmare was still too fresh. She filled the glass up again, sat down at the table, pulled her knees up under her chin and thought. In a handful of hours her life had unravelled and she couldn’t see a way to put it right.

  The bus shook as an L train rumbled above. Milly wondered who would be riding it at this time of the morning. Did demons take the L train? she wondered dumbly. How many demons were there out there, passing as human? She thought back to all the weird people she’d met in her life, all the strange artists and hangers-on her mother used to attract. Had any of them been demons? How could she trust anything any more? There was a world she never knew existed and she’d been thrown right into the heart of it.

  She knew two things. One: she didn’t want to go back to the house – not yet, maybe not ever. Two: she wanted revenge for her mother. She was going to make Mourdant and the demon he had summoned pay for what they had done. The problem was, how? She was just a teenager with straight As but no idea about how to fight demons. The boys, on the other hand, were armed and clearly knew how to handle themselves. She needed them. But JD had made it quite clear that they didn’t need her. If she was going to be allowed to stick around, she was going to have to make herself useful. She couldn’t fight, but there was one thing she could do. Study.

  She patted her back pocket, expecting her phone to be there, then remembered it was back at the house. There was a laptop on the table. She pulled it towards her and was relieved to see it didn’t have a lock on it. She opened the internet browser and keyed one word into the search bar: Tezcatlipoca.

  Even looking at the word made her blood go cold. There were pages of results and the more she read, the more afraid she became. She found a pencil and a notepad and began scribbling down notes as she went. Just wait till she told them all what she’d found.

  JD slammed open the door of the bus, not caring if anyone inside was still sleeping.

  “Wha—? Ouch!” Connor sat up so fast he hit his head on the ceiling.

  JD charged down the aisle, ignoring the protests from the stirring boys, and stopped at the table, where a red-eyed Milly sat, scribbling into a notebook.

  “What’s going on, JD?” Tom asked, sitting up on the sofa and scratching his curls.

  Zek and Niv were fully awake now, long legs dangling over the edge of their bunks, looking at him with tired yet curious eyes.

  JD threw Mourdant’s diary on the table in front of Milly and beamed. “I know what Mourdant is up to. He’s trying to bring back…Tezli…Tezli…” He struggled to pronounce the name he’d read.

  “Tezcatlipoca,” Milly said, stifling a yawn.

  “Tezliwhatnow?” Connor said.

  JD’s smile froze. “But…how?”

  “Could one of you tell us what’s going on?” Tom said, struggling to untangle himself from a blanket.

  Milly looked to JD as if asking for permission. He shrugged. This girl had a way of stealing his thunder.

  “I finally remembered the name I heard Zyanya say and I looked it up. Tezcatlipoca was the Aztec god of death, shadows and…” She spun the laptop around, showing Tom one of the pages she’d been reading.

  “Demons,” Tom said, scanning the page.

  “Whoa,” Connor said. “A god of demons. That’s heavy.”

  “Do demons even have gods?” Zek asked.

  Niv shrugged.

  “Whatever he’s up to, Mourdant has been planning this for years,” JD said, picking the diary up and flicking to the front page. “I think he tried some kind of ritual dedicated to Tezlico…” He hesitated again.

  “How about we just call him the Big T, okay?” Tom said.

  “Dedicated to the Big T, but it failed. He needed the priestess, this Zyanya.”

  “And thanks to my mother,” Milly said, “now he has her.”

  “This is not so good,” Connor said.

  “We’re talking about a god of demons here, Con,” Zek said. “‘Not so good’ doesn’t come close. We’re talking ‘end of the world as we know it’.”

  “I go to bed for what feels like a matter of minutes and you’re talking about the end of the world.” Gail walked out of her room, yawning. Her hair was stuck up on one side and she wasn’t wearing her eyepatch, revealing the scarred skin around her injured eye socket. “What’s going on?”

  “I went to Mourdant’s apartment to do some digging and—”

  “You went there alone?” Tom said.

  Gail sucked her teeth. “JD, how many times do I need to tell—”

  “Rule one: never go alone. We’re a team, no man is an island, blah blah blah. I get it, all right? Do you want to hear what I found or not?”

  Gail nodded reluctantly.

  “Mourdant’s diary. I can’t make most of it out, but this seems pretty clear.” JD picked up the leather-bound book and turned it to the last page before handing it over to Gail.

  “Hmm, it’s definitely a ritual of some kind. Maybe a sacrifice to the god in return for something.”

  “Can I see?” Milly asked. And before JD could object, Gail handed it over to the girl. She flicked through the pages. “It’s not a language I know, but this bit he’s scribbled and circled is in Latin.”

  “You know Latin?” Tom said.

  “Some. And French, obviously, as my mother is…I mean she was French.”

  Niv signed.

  “Yeah, and sign language,” Milly said, signing at Niv as she spoke.

  “Right now, I don’t care if she knows Elvish,” JD said. “Can we focus on the diary? What does it say?”

  “I do know Elvish,” Milly muttered, before coughing and looking back down at the diary. “It’s hard to read his writing. Fica? No, Sica. Sica Umbrarum. Umbrarum means shadow, like in umbra physics, and Sica is, um…knife. No, blade. Blade of shadows. Wait, Mourdant mentioned a blade. He said he had tracked it down and that once it had been returned to Zyanya nothing would be able to stop her.”

  JD blinked at Milly. Was this girl for real? She’d only found out about the demon world a matter of hours ago and she was already proving herself essential.

  “The rest of the writing on the page, I’m sorry, I don’t even recognize the alphabet.”

  “Run it through the translator,” JD said, taking the diary off Milly and handing it over to Niv.

  Niv lay the diary on a scanner and pressed a few buttons. A moment later a message flashed up on screen.

  NOT RECOGNIZED

  “We need more information.”

  “Maybe this professor could help?” Milly said, flicking through a notebook she had covered in scribbles. “Professor of Aztec Studies at Chicago University.”

  “I guess it’s worth a shot,” JD said. Milly seemed to be one step ahead of him again.

  “The radio interview is at ten. We leave at nine,” Gail said. “Now I’m going back to bed.”

  The boys fought over who got to use the shower first; Tom wanted to know where Connor had hidden his boots; and all th
e while Milly sat there, looking at JD, her expression unreadable. Anger? Disappointment? Fear? He couldn’t tell. All he knew was that when he looked at Milly, he felt like he’d failed somehow. In not killing Mourdant or saving her mother from possession. In not being able to save her from all of this. Tom pushed him out of the way so he could get to his boots, which were apparently under the table. When he straightened up he looked from JD to Milly and back again. Tom shook his head only the smallest of fractions, but JD knew what it meant. Let up on her.

  Tom turned back to Milly. “You need to borrow some clothes, Milly?”

  The girl looked down at the baggy tracksuit bottoms she’d been wearing since they first met her. “Actually, that would be great.”

  “Just don’t let him give you one of his horrible sweaters,” Connor shouted from the front of the bus, where he was doing chin-ups again.

  “I’ll have you know they are vintage,” Tom said, brushing imaginary dust off his black and green striped top.

  “Yeah, vintage as in dead people’s. And they should have been buried with them,” Zek said.

  Tom stuck his tongue out at Zek, before sliding a drawer out from the wall. After rummaging around for a bit he pulled out a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. “Will this be okay?” The T-shirt had a picture of a cat shooting laser beams out of its eyes. “I, um, I went through a phase of buying ‘so bad they’re good’ tees.”

  “So bad they should be burned,” Zek said, stretching.

  “They’re perfect, thanks,” Milly said. “Not like I’m one to talk.” She gestured towards her clothing.

  “You look great,” Tom said.

  JD could tell by the way his eyes widened that he instantly regretted it.

  Judging by Zek’s chuckle, he wasn’t the only one who noticed. JD couldn’t hear exactly what the twin muttered, but it sounded something like, “Slick.”

  Milly smiled. “Thanks, those are great. You’re…I mean, thanks.”

  JD could have sworn he saw Tom blush as he handed over the clothes. “They’ll be too big on you, but I’m sure you’ll make it work,” Tom said, giving Milly his bright, goofy smile. When he turned away to get dressed, JD was pretty sure Tom avoided his eye.

  The sooner we get to the bottom of this demon god stuff, JD thought, the sooner that girl is out of here.

  It had taken just under an hour to drive across the city to the University of Chicago campus. Fifty bumpy minutes in a bus full of bickering boys. They argued about what music to put on, about which was the quickest way to get there, about who should drive. Zek started off behind the wheel but Connor kept nagging him for a go. Gail put an end to that one by making Zek pull over and driving Agatha herself.

  It was a constant whirlwind of punching, pulling and poking. Milly, who hadn’t spent much time with boys before, was stunned. How they could be so continually mean, while at the same time it was clear they all loved each other deeply? They insulted each other constantly and just laughed it off. Connor was frequently the butt of their jokes, but she noticed that whenever Tom thought they’d gone too far with Connor he’d get them to ease off and squeeze Connor’s cheeks affectionately. Or when Niv got frustrated that he wasn’t making himself understood, Zek would focus all of his attention on what his brother was saying. Even if he would then mistranslate it, just for a laugh.

  They cracked long-running jokes that Milly didn’t understand and rude ones she pretended not to. They burst into song and reminisced about their early gigs. Milly let it all wash over her, the chatter of their voices soothing her weary brain.

  Only JD didn’t join in. He sat at the back of the bus, wearing large black headphones and staring out at the lake whizzing past the windows. Milly had seen boys like JD before, moodily moving through school corridors and leaving girls sighing in their wake. She’d always assumed it must have been an act, because no one could be that cool all the time. But it seemed that JD could.

  She didn’t care what all the sighing girls thought, she liked nice boys. Boys who laughed and made her feel like she was someone worth getting to know, not boys who made her feel clumsy and stupid. If this were a TV show, she would most definitely be Team Tom. Almost definitely.

  “So, Milly,” Tom said, making her jump. She hoped he hadn’t noticed the way she’d been looking at JD. “We haven’t asked you yet, are you a Slay fan?”

  The other boys stopped chattering to turn and look at Milly. She felt embarrassment prickle at her cheeks. “Um…” She didn’t need to say any more.

  “She hates us!” Tom said, clutching at his chest and falling to the floor as if he’d been struck a mortal blow.

  Get off the bus, Niv signed, but he did so with a large smile that let her know he wasn’t serious.

  “No, it’s not that at all, it’s just…my mother never let me listen to modern music. And I was only allowed to play classical pieces on the piano. But I like what little I’ve heard and I’m sure if I heard more I’d…”

  “Still hate it?” Zek said, and the other boys chuckled.

  “She clearly has good taste then,” Milly heard JD say from behind.

  Everyone turned to look at JD. He was still staring out of the window, as if he hadn’t said anything, but there was a small smile itching at the corner of his mouth. Suddenly, the boys all grabbed whatever was at hand and threw it at him. JD yelped and ducked behind the chair as a sneaker flew over his head. When the assault was over, he came out with his hands up. He smiled at Milly – the first time she’d seen him smile properly – and sat back in his seat, pulling his headphones back on.

  Tom clambered into the seat opposite Milly. He leaned in, keeping his voice low. “JD likes to pretend he’s too cool for all the pop stuff. But he loves it as much as the rest of us. You might too, if you, you know, gave it a chance.” Tom looked down and started drawing a circle on the table between them with his finger. It made a soft squeaking sound.

  “I’m sure I will love it,” Milly said. And then blushed as she made brief eye contact with Tom.

  “Well, if you want to listen to some…” He reached into his pocket and handed over a mobile phone wrapped with a set of white earphones. “It’s my spare one and I was thinking, as you left your phone behind… It’s got all our songs on it and some other stuff that I love.”

  “Thanks,” Milly said, taking the phone. “I’ll listen to them as soon as I get a chance.”

  “Yes!” Connor shouted from behind them. He’d challenged Zek to an arm wrestle and it looked like he’d won.

  “Best of three,” Zek said, rubbing his arm.

  “Oh, I can keep doing this all day,” Connor said, rolling up his sleeves to reveal a tattoo of a five-pointed star – the same tattoo that Tom had, she realized.

  “You ever tried reverse arm-wrestling?” Milly asked.

  Connor tilted his head to one side and looked at Milly. “You wanna take me on, girlie? Well come on then!” He pushed Tom out of the way and sat down in front of Milly, then spun his baseball hat around to the back and got into position: elbow on the table, muscles tensed. “To make it fair, like, you can use both hands,” Connor said.

  “How kind.” Instead of gripping his hand in the usual way, Milly wrapped her hands over Connor’s fist.

  “So, in reverse arm-wrestling, you pull towards you, and I pull towards me.” Milly heard Zek stifling a laugh behind her. “On three. One, two, three,” she said.

  Connor pulled away from her and she pulled against his hands with all her strength. She stood up, putting her whole weight into it.

  “Cheat all you like, you’re going d—” Before Connor could finish, Milly let go and, with a resounding thwack, Connor punched himself in the nose.

  He blinked in shock; his pale blue eyes watered. Red patches spread across his cheeks and Milly felt suddenly sick at the thought that she might have just given him a pair of black eyes. It was a joke her father had taught her. She hadn’t meant to actually hurt him.

  “Oh God, I’m so—”
>
  Connor burst out laughing and rubbed at his nose. “Do it on JD!” he said.

  JD pulled his headphones off. “Do what on me?” he said.

  “What’s going on back there?” Gail called.

  “Milly’s going to teach JD how to reverse arm-wrestle!” Connor said, apparently delighted by this new game.

  Gail’s sigh carried all the way down the bus. “If you can hold off killing each other for just a few more minutes, we’re nearly there.”

  They drove through the large gates welcoming visitors to the university campus and pulled up in the parking lot. Milly had always imagined university as a place where young people who were hungry for knowledge sat around drinking coffee and arguing over philosophy. But looking out the bus windows, all she saw were students lazing on the grass with books lying ignored by their sides.

  “Okay,” Gail said, killing the engine. “Milly and Tom, go check out this professor. The rest of us will stay here and dial in for the interview.”

  “Aw, but…” Connor moaned. He already had his skateboard under his arm.

  “But nothing. We owe Jack Caroll; he took us seriously when no one else would.”

  Connor slumped back into his chair.

  “I think it would be better if I stayed here and JD went,” Tom said.

  “What?” Milly said at the same time as JD. His jaw clenched and he didn’t look too impressed at the idea of having to accompany Milly. She wasn’t too excited by it either.

  “You’re always saying you’re better at reading people than me,” Tom said, with a mischievous smile.

  “Well, yeah, but I didn’t mean… Besides, what about the interview?”

  “Oh, I think we have that taken care of,” Zek said.

  He nodded at Niv, who pulled up an app on his phone. A few button presses later and JD’s voice came out of the speaker. “Yes. No. I guess. For the music.”

  “We took the liberty of sampling a few of your previous answers,” Zek said. “Did you know you have said ‘For the music’ a total of seventeen times in the last eleven interviews?” JD glowered at him. “I guess moody looks don’t come over as well on radio. Shame. You’ve got them down.”