Malia

by P. S. Power

  She ate more, nodding while she took a bite off of her spoon.

  “I can see that being annoying. How does that work, anyway? I mean, I saw something be summoned last night and the being seemed happy to do work for a bit of attention. Adulation. Do your kind of people feed off of that, or…” She didn’t know. That what had been summoned was probably the thing inside of Nick was clear, but she wasn’t calling him on that yet. Not directly. Not if she might get some answers out of him first.

  The world was suddenly filled with a great many things she had no clue about.

  There was a soft chuckle from the possessed man, who was still managing not to be that creepy at all. He seemed like Nick, not the evil serial killer, Mark Close. Then, from the sound of it, she’d never met Nick at all. Just someone in his body. For a moment she felt bad about that.

  Then she watched the being across from her closely.

  “You’d think, right? That it would be about power, or something sensible to you like that? It’s more about social customs, where I come from. The highest payment is always in attention. Then, immortal beings who can create reality around them don’t really need much, in order to get by, outside of that kind of thing. Here, the people are easy to manipulate and work around to our benefit. I do things for my master, and they, in turn, pay vast amounts of attention to me for what I do. From our side, we’re always ripping you all off, so freaking badly. It’s like you don’t get how important a little of that attention can really be. Well, you might get that. You’re pretty isolated.”

  Jessica looked away then. Filing that piece of information for later.

  “Contracts are unbreakable to you?”

  There was a snort then.

  “Not really. We try a lot harder to hold to things once we agree to them, but that doesn’t always work out correctly. People can fail us, or not hold up their end of the deal that was put together. At other times they want things that even we can’t do. I mean, we can’t make your world perfect, or anything like that. This is a very static place, compared to home. Still, if you’re willing to do a bit of easy work, you can make a pretty good living here.”

  She thought she got the idea. Their currency was measured in attention. A thing as valuable as gold, no doubt, for a certain class of person. Or being. She didn’t suggest that Nick was evil. She didn’t even suggest that about Deamon. It was a strange name, and a bit telling but his people didn’t have that kind of thing, unless given them by people in the world they were in.

  Jessica, feeling a bit sad, waved at him. Down at his body.

  “So, is Nick still in there, or… How does that work?”

  There was a shrug, then the boy tilted his head.

  “It… Not really. I guess there’s a shadow of what he once was in here. I mean, I still like hamburgers and dunking my fries in milkshakes. That didn’t come from my dimension, you know? It isn’t as if we can share the same space. Not easily anyway, so, one of us had to die. That would take work and be dangerous for the person who holds my contract. I was ordered to kill him, nearly first thing. Clearly, I’m here and he isn’t, so…”

  She shook then. Not in fear, or not only in fear. If she was really talking to Deamon, then it was very possible that she was going to die.

  “You can lie… Do you always have to lie or is that about what your keeper wants?” She waved her right hand in the air a little. “Um, in general. I don’t mean with your current master specifically or anything.”

  A spoon, silver and shiny, was pointed in her direction. Empty, as that case of the moment had it.

  “That one isn’t us. If I’m not told to be dishonest, then I do what I feel like that way. A bit like you. Humans, I mean, not you in particular. On the other hand, I wasn’t told to lie to you about most of this information. A few things in my schedule were about you. I was sent to the college to find you and then get you interested in me. I have to say, I was a bit surprised that I could do it with nothing more than a bit of banter. Are things really that hard for you around here? When it comes to finding a date, I mean?”

  The look she was given was soul searching. It seemed to be waiting for a real answer. Which was fair, as long as he’d been telling her the truth. A thing she didn’t have any way to verify. Still, she didn’t have a lot of other sources for data like that.

  So she just let her head drop a bit, as if ashamed.

  “Harder than you know. Well, you were in school with me. You saw how I was treated.”

  Nick, tall, thin and a little boney, winked at her then.

  “I did. I also heard about how half the guys wanted to bang you. They just didn’t think you were interested in them. A lot of the girls didn’t exactly hate you, either. It was a small handful of people sabotaging you that messed things up that much. Still, that’s over now. I was never part of it, having just been sent there to observe you, like I was. I wasn’t there to get involved in tearing you down, or I bet a lot more would have happened. You probably would have killed yourself. That or shot the school up. Those people were lame when it came to tormenting you, let me tell you.”

  That didn’t make a lot of sense, of course. Instead of whine about how watched and betrayed she felt, since Nick, apparently, hadn’t had a choice in the matter he’d ended up dying over, she just finished the cereal in her bowl.

  Then, the slightly golden colored milk still in the dish, she waved at him. It got his attention.

  “Okay. So, you can’t tell me who you’re working with. Can you make more than one bargain at a time? I mean, if I offer you something valuable, too. Like, say, if I were to meditate on you, or something, would that…”

  There was a greedy looking grin then.

  “You could pay off in blowjobs. That worked for me, pretty well. Nick’s body enjoyed that, too. At least until Malia cock blocked me. Don’t think that wasn’t on purpose, either. Still, to answer your question, I can do things for you. Yes. At least if they don’t conflict with anything else I currently have going on. That or if your offer is just that much better than what I’m already getting. You have to actually hold up your end of things, but do that and we can see about what can be done. I… Pretty much can’t see me going directly against the person that I’m already working for. They really pulled out the stops that way. Other than that, yes. What do you want me to do?”

  She didn’t know exactly, so thought for a moment.

  “First, I’m not doing anything sexual with you again. You get focus from me, but nothing physical. If that doesn’t work for you…” Well, then it wouldn’t. It wasn’t as if she could go elsewhere to find an entity willing to talk to her at all. Not on her own.

  Nick, almost carelessly, waved that away.

  “Fine, be a prude your whole life. I can work with that though. I want solid meditation though, instead. Real concentrated focus, just on me.”

  That was doable, she thought. Not that she was any kind of master of the mind.

  “First, can you get rid of the memories I have of that night? The flashbacks that I have to relive?”

  She waited, since, if he wasn’t allowed to do that, it might well give her a clue about who was behind things. Rather than be helpful that way, he simply closed his eyes. Then he reached out and took her hand. His own was warm, but didn’t seem threatening or scary.

  “I can. Those were implanted. They aren’t real. I mean, it was very close to what happened, but it’s not just what you remembered. That was put in to shape you. To tell the truth, those are breaking down already. Malia didn’t build them. Clearly. I can’t tell you who did. I mean, well, you get that game by now. I know, but I’m not allowed. You might have one or two more of them, but it would be wasted effort to have me take them away from you. You’ve moved into a new part of your life. Well, not your life.”

  She smiled then, since it would be nice to know that the one memory wasn’t going to come back, even if she had to go through it a few more times.

  “Neat. In that case, can you ac
curately tell me who my parents are? Also if, well, you know, are you related to me? Nick, I mean.” She didn’t know how much of what she asked could be filled with loopholes, but being clear wouldn’t harm her.

  The being closed his eyes again.

  “There… The person I’m already working for is part of that question, so I can’t really do that. I can tell you that what your parents told you last night is true. At least the stuff about you. I can’t go any further into the rest of it, without stepping on some of my previous orders. You’re sweet and all and I wouldn’t mind helping you out, but you didn’t get me a body to ride around in.”

  She thought about it for a second, knowing that there was information in what she’d been told. Her family tree had something to do with the person that was controlling Nick. That meant she could narrow down the list. The obvious person would be Debbie, of course. Her parents came next, then, she guessed, Joe Walsh. Past that, she didn’t know who it might be.

  It could be that more than one of them, possibly all of them, were in on things. Acting against her, for some reason. That they’d be that selfish was more than possible. Not that she couldn’t do the same thing, given the right circumstances. After all, she was sitting there, over a finished bowl of cereal, talking to a spirit that had once inhabited a serial killer.

  The question then would be simple enough, had Deamon been the killer, or had Mark?

  She didn’t ask that out loud, since if the answer was that the possessing spirit was, it might remind him to kill her.

  “How about a way to keep beings like you away? Outside of the attention that I’d owe for the lessons, I mean.” That would have to come first, since cheating on something like that would be insanely stupid of her.

  There was a shrug then.

  “Easy. Don’t pay attention to them. Just don’t think about them at all. Don’t see them, even if they’re there. Don’t give them your energy or thoughts.” He grinned. “Of course, if you could do that, then most things won’t come for you, will they? Still, my kind, we aren’t the same as people from here. If we aren’t acknowledged, or under orders, then we won’t bother with you. If we have orders… Well, then stop the person giving them and that will end things pretty well, won’t it?”

  She nodded then.

  “That sounds a bit like not thinking about a pink elephant, doesn’t it? Once it’s in your head, then letting it go is going to be nearly impossible.”

  The words got a nod at least.

  “Sure.” The being played with his milk for a moment, just stirring it with his spoon. All the cereal was gone from his bowl as well. “Except that you can stop thinking about that pink elephant in a few minutes time. At least if you bother trying. An hour or two, tops. Just distract yourself and stop dwelling on it and it will go away. It isn’t even that hard for you people. More so for you. That thing they put in your head was brutal that way. A recurring memory that you couldn’t control at all. Keeping Malia central to everything in your life. That was brilliant. I might just borrow that one myself, if the need ever comes up.”

  Jessica couldn’t help but notice that Nick hadn’t agreed to the work before telling her how to defeat one of his people. Not like the being the night before had carefully done. A thing that she still thought was probably him. There was no concrete acceptance of payment, nothing worked out.

  Meaning that what he was saying was a trick, she didn’t doubt. That could still be helpful to her. After all, if his trick was to tell her to ignore them, and they got paid in focused attention, as lame as that sounded, then it was possible that doing that wouldn’t work at all. Of course, there was no benefit to him if she was taken by Malia. Not that she could see. Unless, of course, the person that was controlling the possessing spirit had an interest in her being taken over that way.

  Then, Nick had already admitted that he’d been paid with a body. That was a bit more than simply having some attention paid to him.

  She shrugged, then stood up.

  “Well, keep in mind that I’m willing to deal. I don’t know that you can do anything that way, really. Not right now. I can’t get you bodies or anything. Not if they have to accept you in. You already have one, anyway.” She didn’t call him on his lies.

  Which had the monster in front of her, the one in the body of her old high school friend, shrugging.

  “You always were smarter than anyone else could see. They didn’t get that about you. Almost no one does in the situation you’re in. Just… You know, back then, when you were little? I had orders to kill you. Not just anyone that was there that night. You, specifically. You might want to think about why that would be. Now, I’ll let you go. After all, I have different orders, now.” He waved at her, indicating the front door. As she turned, he spoke to her again.

  “I can’t tell you what the plan is, or to run from it, or hide. Not without being in breach of contract. I can’t even tell you if it will be real, or fake. A hallucination, to push you into taking action against your will. If I could let you know that sort of thing, I would.”

  She walked to it, half expecting the man to rush her from behind. The troubling portion of things, one of the problems she was having with Nick in the moment, was that he didn’t feel any different to her. He was just the same guy from school that she’d known, loosely, for years.

  Except here he was, claiming to be her nephew, as well as Deamon, the demon that she’d once killed. Well, his body at the time, at least. Strictly speaking it hadn’t been her doing it, of course. It wasn’t impossible for Nick to have worked all of that out. Especially if his mother had been there at the time, like she had been.

  There was no way Debbie Walsh didn’t know the whole story.

  Which meant that she was probably the next person on the list that needed to be talked to. That might be a poor idea, but the truth was, Jessica was already grasping at straws. In the entire world she had exactly one person she could trust at the moment. Herself.

  A person who didn’t have a really good grasp on reality at the best of times. Certainly not the shared one that everyone else was part of. Rather than let herself be upset by that fact, she simply walked out, waving behind her, to Nick. It was just too hard for her to see him as anything else, other than what he was. Before she left, she stopped, halfway outside.

  “Oh, hey… Were you the butt rape demon or the floating werewolf?” She didn’t know if he’d been either of those, of course.

  Nick shrugged, pretending not to care. It was telling.

  “I couldn’t say, either way.”

  She understood his meaning. If his master was involved, whoever that was, then he’d have to keep his mouth closed. That didn’t mean he was lying, to throw her off. It would depend on how he felt about her, she guessed. If they were friends, in any real sense of the word, then he might be giving her a clue that way. Telling her that it had been him, or related that way, but done by the command of another. That was her actual thought on the matter, from everything else she’d seen.

  On the other hand, if Nick was just there to distract her or send her into a tailspin, which was just as possible, given everything, then telling her nothing that way might be a ploy in itself. The trick there was that she needed to not let him lead her anyplace. Not even inside her own head.

  Nodding, she left. Not even saying goodbye.

  Then, as she walked, she didn’t think about him, or Malia at all. It wasn’t an easy task and she didn’t think that it was going to stop either of them from finding her, or showing up, if that was the plan. She just wanted the practice, in case that could be useful to her in the future. Lacking anything better to do, she went back home.

  After all, she was either going to find help there, or learn that everyone in her world was actually part of a massive plan to set her up. If that was the case, then she was probably going to lose her life, in fairly short order.

  It wasn’t a great thing to know about, honestly. Nothing was what it had seemed so far. Her entire lif
e was, possibly, a lie. Even who her father was. For that matter, she wouldn’t be shocked to find out that her mother wasn’t that at all. Too much had changed, or been changed, in the last few days. It was perfectly done, really, she decided, if the goal was actually about getting her to feel helpless or hopeless.

  Except that she wasn’t going to do that. One thing that everyone always seemed to forget about her was a simple fact really. They looked at her thin body, the makeup, the nice clothing and impractical shoes and forgot one very important fact.

  Jessica was strong.

  On a level that was going to make it very hard to break her.

  She’d lived the worst moments of her life, over and over again. In a way that would have shattered the minds of most people. She’d been ostracized from the world around her, which had kept her isolated. Instead of making her weak, Jess had decided to become powerful. Weird, true, but in a way that allowed her to look at what she’d been told about herself and those around her and to simply take it.

  If it was a lie, then she’d go on. If it was the truth, the path was the same.

  So, taking a clue from what evil Nick had told her, she let go of all of it. Not giving the situation her attention, at least for the moment. That lasted right until she got home. Then, as she opened the front door, a wave of something hit her. It tingled and distorted the world around her. The feeling was, interestingly, a lot like when her flashbacks hit her.

  She went in, feeling interested at what she was seeing. It wasn’t the old memories at all, at least. No, this was something new. A thing that she had to figure was going to turn out not to be real at all.

  Mainly because, there in her living room, were both her parents, Carlos and Debbie Walsh. That was fine enough, since she’d wanted to chat with Debbie anyway.

  That looked like it was going to be hard at the moment, of course.

  The woman was on the floor, in a pool of very red, fresh blood. Her throat slit, from ear to ear. Carlos had a bloody knife in his hand, which really did leave him seeming guilty. He grimaced when he saw her walk in.