Malia

by P. S. Power

  The older woman gave a wintery smile.

  “What, exactly, were you doing?”

  She blinked, then looked away. Recalling it, instead of trying not to embarrass her dad more.

  “I was blowing him at the time. Poorly. I have, like, zero experience. Still, he’d given me some tips. He didn’t get to finish and seemed panicked when he saw Malia. He said that she looked transparent to him. Like a ghost. Instead of solid the way she always seems to me.” That he might have been lying about that seemed probable now.

  Except that the others there all nodded.

  Her mother was the one to explain.

  “That’s how most people encounter such things. As transparent or sometimes as if they aren’t really there at all, but they are at the same time. It can be hard for most people to deal with that factor. Having been touched and changed by such a being at one point, that very one, means that you might be more attuned to that sort of thing in the future. Then, you also started seeing her as a child, so you could simply be more open to things like that than most are.”

  There was big sigh, from her father, who didn’t seem all that pleased to be hearing what he was.

  “We didn’t mention that Debbie was part of the group. After all, we don’t broadcast who the members are, as a rule. The first rule of magic club, is that you don’t talk about magic club.” He grinned, about cribbing off of an old movie like he was doing. One that had come out years before she was born. She understood the reference at least.

  The other two just agreed with him, nodding a little. As if telling her that freaking out and yelling about how they should have informed her that Nick, a guy from school, who’d asked her out, was the kid of the girl who had been nearly murdered when Malia had possessed her.

  That part also needed to be explained.

  “Wait, Debbie was only sixteen when Mark Close tried to rape and kill her. Nick is my age… I was five then, so she’d have had to get pregnant at what, eleven?” That math didn’t really add up. Not in her head.

  Reid was the one to squint then. Her mother looked away. Roxy did nothing at all, just glancing at the others, as if she didn’t know the story there. A thing they clearly did.

  Her father went tight lipped.

  “Debbie had him when she was twelve. Joe, her father, had her impregnated, to try and create a host for an entity. Nick. After he, Joe, retired as County Sheriff, she moved, taking her son with her, so he couldn’t be used that way. It might have worked. Though… Joe and his crew did some work that way, about six years ago, so…” There was no sense of her dad being matter of fact about the words at all.

  Really, he seemed pretty upset.

  More so than even having heard about a twelve-year-old being raped and made pregnant nearly two decades ago should have made him. Not if he’d sat on the story for a while. You got used to things like that, over time. Even if it still left you feeling bad, you didn’t have veins on your head stand up over the idea. Not unless it was personal.

  Jessica flashed on the idea and groaned.

  “Holy fuck. Please tell me that Nick isn’t the incest baby of Joe the Sheriff and his own daughter…”

  Reid looked away then, and shook his head.

  “No. No…It… well, there were six of us. We had to take turns. We didn’t get a choice. There was real blackmail involved. My guess is that he’s probably Rick’s, given the size and hair color but he could be mine as well. The rest of the men were too short. He’s, Nick, is good sized that way. Six-six at least.”

  The blood rushed from her face well enough that Jess saw stars for a moment. The other two there didn’t seem to be shocked by any of the admissions. That her father had raped a little girl, for instance. Even if he’d been forced to, using coercion, that didn’t make it right. Then, when Jess had gotten a date with a guy who had a fifty percent chance of being her half-brother, he hadn’t really tried to stop her from going out with him.

  Her mother had even suggested she experiment. With Nick, specifically.

  It could have been that she hadn’t known about that at all, but given everything and the lack of yelling in the moment, on finding out about it, that didn’t seem all that likely.

  “You probably should have mentioned that part. That he might be related to me? Even if you claimed he was a cousin or something…”

  Her mother shrugged then, seeming younger than her years by a good bit. Not that she was old. Not even forty yet.

  “Um… Well. It’s worse than that, Honey.”

  That made sense, even if she couldn’t see how yet. After all, it was clearly how her life was going for the time being. Hopefully Malia was right and everything was a lie. Otherwise, things were going to get pretty hard to live with, at the rate they were going downhill, lately.

  “Oh? Well, out with it. How is it worse than that?”

  Her mother didn’t speak then, leaving her father to do it.

  “Ah. Okay. Well, I’m not actually your biological father. Joe Walsh is. So, Debbie is your sister and Nick is your nephew, regardless of who his father was. We didn’t want to tell you about that, since, well, Joe isn’t a good man. It was part of why we left when we did and found another group to work with. He walks the left-hand path. It wasn’t a thing that we really knew about him or his group. Not to start with. By the time we were in deep enough to know about it, we nearly couldn’t escape. We were allowed to leave, unmolested, because of what had happened to you. To protect you from harm.”

  She waited for a bit, then, instead of screaming about the collapse of her world, plus the fact that she badly needed to shower again, after having blown her own nephew, if without knowing that was what was happening, she closed her eyes.

  No one else spoke for a long while, so, finally, she did.

  “Right. Well, no one had ever claimed my life wasn’t going to be messed up. What do we do now? I, well, it’s pretty clear that Debbie is part of this, isn’t it? How do we find out how much of this is about her? Also, I need to talk to Nick, I guess. This is… Pretty messed up, guys. As in, I’d have to go to therapy over it, except that kind of stuff doesn’t work.”

  It was Roxy who moved in and patted her hand then.

  “I didn’t know about most of this, to tell the truth. I do think you’re probably right. We, at the very least, need to look into these people Nick, Deborah and Joe Walsh. I’ve heard that last name in certain circles before. A real piece of work. Famous for it, too. Internationally. I’ll handle that part for us. After all, no one will expect me to be doing that kind of thing at all. I help with the ceremonies, but don’t really socialized with the others. I have my reasons not to get close to people.” She didn’t go on about why that was.

  Then, on that score, Jess had a decent idea. The woman’s whole family had been killed by a dark entity. She didn’t want to risk anyone else going down with her.

  Taking a deep breath, Jessica looked at the woman, directly.

  “Can you show me how to keep Malia off of me, in the meantime?”

  Her parents looked concerned, but the older woman nodded, as if that made perfect sense.

  “Oh, I can indeed. We’ll start on that in the morning? For now, I have to imagine you’ll be more than safe. After all, this place is well and truly warded against Malia already. You might want to try not to leave for a while. Then, even if you do, the wards on you should work well enough. When entities have orders, they can do more than they will otherwise. Eventually those will fail, if not replenished often enough. We can see to that.”

  Then, as if there were no need for further plans, she got up and left.

  Leaving Jess there to look at her parents. In disgust. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like them very much, anymore, when the whole thing was over.

  Chapter ten: One thing left.

  Jessica desperately wanted to be alone for a while. Thankfully, it was late, so no one really thought anything of her going to bed, instead of staying up to discuss the news of the
evening. The first thing she noticed though, as soon as she was able to get away from the pain and embarrassment of what she’d heard not long before, was that the information seemed a little… fake.

  Oh, it was very possible that her parents, or the others, could be hiding things like that from her. After all, that she wasn’t her father’s child, that her old babysitter was her half-sister and that her father, the only one she’d ever known, had raped that other girl when she was twelve, or possibly younger than that, was the kind of thing a person might just keep secret.

  She would have, if it had been her. Then, she wouldn’t have done any of it. Not that she couldn’t forgive parts of it. Her mom having sex with that guy, Sheriff Joe, that could have been something innocent enough, she guessed. After all, the woman had hinted that she kind of liked to play around. More than once, and to her own daughter.

  Her father though was incredibly strait-laced that way or had always seemed to be. She couldn’t imagine what kind of blackmail material that Joe would have had on him to get him to sleep with, possibly impregnant, a little girl. She couldn’t wrap her head around that part. Unless it was all a lie.

  If so, then they were on round three or four of that kind of thing. Just like Malia had told her would be happening. At first everything had kind of made sense with the new information. Really, even this time it did. It was horrible, but everyone had agreed that it was real enough. Her parents had, at any rate. Roxy hadn’t really seemed to know much about what they were going on about. Which, if it was part of a plan to drive her insane, or into allowing possession, that might not make sense. At least if Roxy was in on it. If not, if it was only her parents, Jess couldn’t understand why everyone had come at all.

  That thing, the smoke image, the entity that had been summoned had come though. That or someone was using a very high-end holographic projector in order to make that seem real. Some fans to create wind and… Weather magic to make it match up the wind outside. That didn’t make any more sense than a demon being showing up.

  Possibly less, since she knew that Malia was real. Unless it was all in her head. If so, then people going along with her like they were didn’t make sense.

  One thing kept coming back to her. A bit of advice. Trust no one. Malia hadn’t included herself in that, but then had reinforced the idea, just before she flipped out, or had pretended to and pushed Jess around with a level of power that was insane to think about for a being that didn’t even have a body.

  Rather than sleep, like a sensible person would have done, or might have, even if their world was crashing in on them, she just laid there in the dark. For hours. Until light came through her window, the gray clouds not having lifted at all. The wind fairly howled outside, which was strange to see during the day.

  She had to think about what day it was. On Monday she had school, after all.

  After a bit she worked out that it was either Sunday, or that she had more important things to worry about than good grades, at the moment. At seven she got up, cleaned herself carefully, applied fresh makeup and left the house. Walking, since she didn’t have a car. That had seemed normal enough, before that point. A lot of kids her age didn’t bother driving at all. The bus was good enough. Except that early on Sunday that wasn’t running in Elroy. A few places in town would open at about nine, but until then she was walking, if she wanted to go anywhere at all. Her feet moved and she felt a bit numb, overall.

  The smart money would have stayed inside, at home, behind the supposed comfort of magical wards. Instead of doing that, she was outside, wandering aimlessly, like a fool. It wasn’t until two hours later, having turned back toward town each time that she found herself outside the Armsmen Apartments. She recognized it before the sign out front came into view. She’d been there the night before, after all. Almost on a whim, without thinking enough about it first, she walked up to the building, then to the third floor, where Nick lived.

  Quietly, as if hoping no one would answer, she knocked on the door. For a moment nothing happened, then, in near silence the white portal opened, only the turning of the handle letting her know it was about to happen. Nick smiled at her instantly, his ginger hair looking tidy, even that early in the day, nodding when he understood who was there.

  “Hey! Come on in. I was just about to make something for breakfast. Nothing brilliant, but if you like corn flakes, I can set you up, too?”

  She nodded. Not that she was hungry at all.

  “That sounds good, actually. So, I um, found some stuff out last night, after you left? Possibly. It may not be real. A lot of people have been lying to me lately. It might be almost everyone.” She shrugged, having convinced herself that she’d simply been lied to, once again. That made the most sense, after all. At least if the world were going to be right, ever again.

  Nick backed up, letting her inside. His face a bit more serious as he waved for her to move toward the kitchenet. Once there he pulled a second bowl from the cupboard, and retrieved another spoon from a metal basket of them on the counter.

  Then he started pouring.

  “I generally eat at the table. Yes, even when I’m alone. My mother has a hang-up about that and I guess it kind of passed down to me.” He seemed a bit shy about the idea.

  Jess moved toward where he’d pointed.

  “Um, your mom is Debbie Walsh?” That was the first thing she needed to check out. If not, then the whole thing she’d heard the night before was an obvious game. The last names were right though, so she didn’t have high hopes for that one. Plus, Nick had mentioned that his grandpa, Joe Walsh, had given him his car. She recalled the name. Not only did she had a good memory, but that Grandpa Joe was the bad guy fit with her memories of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. That offhand statement had cemented the name in her head.

  Nick bobbed in place a bit.

  “Right. Have you met her?”

  It was her turn to do something. She decided to turn away, ever so slightly. Bobbing had just been used, after all.

  “Yeah. She used to babysit me, when I was little. She was there, when I had to kill that man.”

  Nick snorted a bit. For a moment she thought he might have heard a different story.

  “Ah, so that’s what you found out? Did whoever tell you that I’m related to you? That my mom is like, your half-sister or something like that?”

  Jessica winced.

  “Fuck. You knew about that?”

  Nick smiled then.

  “Oh, sure! I knew about that even before I met you at school. We met a long time before that, when you were a kid. I don’t know if you remember me. I looked a bit different, back then.”

  Her mind tried to search for a younger version of Nick in her head. If that had ever happened, she couldn’t bring the face up at all. Then, other than the memories, the flashbacks, of that one day, she didn’t recall that much from her childhood. She vaguely recalled the old house, but that was all. It was a rental, so nothing special had been done with it. Not past the bare essentials that her parents had wanted or needed at the time.

  Shaking her head, she waited.

  Nick brought over the cereal, then danced back to get a half gallon of milk that had to be opened, so there was enough for both of them to have some. When they were both arranged, food wise, he sat across from her at his little table. It was just off the kitchen area, and only had two chairs. They weren’t rich looking, but he was doing all right, for a kid their age. He had a good job, after all.

  She wrinkled her nose then.

  “Wait… If you knew about us being related, then exactly what kind of sick fuck are you? I’m your aunt. By blood. We did stuff, last night. Things I’m almost certain family members shouldn’t be doing.” She felt a bit annoyed, rather than angry. Nothing made sense after all, so there was no reason to blame Nick for it. Not yet.

  He took a bite of golden, still crispy, flakes.

  “What can I say, I like a challenge. Besides, I didn’t have a choice. You could have told
me no and that might have ended it. Instead, you wanted to hit this. Not that I can blame you. Nick here is a prime side of beef, isn’t he? The one that controls me, who traded this body to me, they ordered me to do it. If it helps you feel better, you did fine. More than that considering it was the first time you’d done anything with another person. Good job. Your teddy bear would be proud.”

  She got it then, and instead of starting out fighting, she just sighed and ate some corn flakes. After three minutes of silence, other than munching on prepackaged breakfast fare, she smiled. Not that she meant it. She felt like puking, the terror was so bad.

  “So, Deamon, was it?” She waited then, but not long. No more than a second or two.

  Nick nodded at her.

  “Right. Exactly. I tried to kill that bitch, but, alas, you stopped me. Well, Malia did it, but used your body. That set me back for a bit, let me tell you. It wasn’t until the offer came in to take this one as a host that I was able to regain a foothold here, in this reality.”

  That made a certain level of sense. At least if she wasn’t mad. In that case, well, it still made sense. It just wouldn’t be sensible. Those were, after all, two different things.

  “Ah. Okay. So, did Malia put you up to the things you did that night, or was it someone else. Joe Walsh, maybe?” Possibly even Debbie, though if so, she’d have to be insanely tough to let someone beat her like had happened.

  A lot more so than Jessica was.

  The being, the one in the body of her nephew, the only guy to have ever asked her out on a date, if that story was to be believed, shook his head.

  “I can’t say. That’s pretty much the first thing that everyone puts into the bargains. I have to protect my master and their interests, to the best of my ability, after all. I do wish they wouldn’t be so stuck on the idea that they’re in charge all the time, you know that, Jessica?”