“Jadis, honey, where have you been? We’ve been looking for you for months! We called the police, the FBI, everyone we could think of! You just disappeared from school, no one knew what happened to you! Honey, you need to come home, please!”
“You aren’t real,” Dys ground out through clenched teeth. “Stay the fuck away from me!”
“Jadis, don’t talk to your mother that way. She’s worried about you. I’m worried about you. We all are. You’ve been gone for months. No one’s mad at you. We love you. We just want you to come home.”
“Shut up!” Jay screamed at the apparition. “You aren’t my father!”
“Jadis, stop being a witch,” Aslan told her, crossing his arms and shaking his head in that familiar gesture of frustrated patience. “You’re freaking mom and dad out. Just calm down and we can go home. I gave up a whole semester of college to come looking for you. Don’t make it a waste.”
“Fuck off Aslan!” Syd swung her arm, batting the false image away. “You’re not real! None of this is real!”
No, Jadis was certain. None of what she was seeing could be real. She couldn’t be seeing her mother or father or brother. It was impossible for them to be there. She was on Oros and they were back on Earth. She had died and been reborn as a Nephilim.
Hadn’t she?
Jadis didn’t remember dying. She had no idea how she had died at all. D had said that he’d found her soul bouncing around in the ether, lost and falling apart. But he had never actually said how she had died. Had she had an accident? Did she have some random brain aneurism? A heart attack? Choked on her own spit? Was she murdered?
She didn’t know. She hadn’t bothered thinking about it much. She was reborn. There wasn’t much point in thinking about the past when she couldn’t change it, especially since it hurt so much to remember the family she had left behind. But now she couldn’t help but think about it as images of what she had lost were thrown into her face with no way to escape them.
“I made you hot cocoa with milk and cinnamon, just the way you like it,” another vision of her mother told her in a sweet, kindly voice. “Come sit here with me and we’ll drink some together.”
“Get away from me!” Jay swiped her hand through the illusion. “You aren’t real!”
Her mother was knocked back by the swing of her arm, her body skidding across the floor. The sight of her mother lying on the ground, hurt and confused, caused her heart to clench like it had been put into a vice. How could she strike her mother? How could she cause her pain like that?
“Because that wasn’t my mother,” Jay growled to herself even as the tears rolled down her faces. “That was something else. That wasn’t her.”
She knew what she was saying was true, but it was so fucking hard not to see the figures as anything other than her family. The illusion was insane. Everywhere she looked, she saw different versions of her family, her mother and father, her older brother, and others like her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, and her cousins. They were all looking at her, all talking to her. It was a cacophony of familiar voices all vying for her attention, all asking her about what had happened to her, where she had gone. All asking for her to come back with them, to return to her old life, to go home.
They weren’t real. Obviously. Looking around, Jadis could see that she was still in Trummelton’s, the halls of the restaurant still shining with overt luxury. Besides, the illusions copied more than just her more recent memories of her family. She could see that the version of her mother who had offered her hot chocolate was from years ago, when her mother’s hair was still brown and not streaked with gray. The mother lying on the ground was wearing a Christmas sweater she’d worn when Jadis was seven, an ugly image of a knock off Frosty the Snowman on it. The version of Aslan who was helping her to her feet was just a kid. Aslan was two years older than her. He should be twenty-four, not nine.
Jadis saw this all and recognized that the various duplicated familiar members were all an illusion that someone had cast on her. But she couldn’t tell what was under the illusion. She knew something bad had to be happening. She hadn’t been able to see it, but she’d felt the ground shake under her feet. She’d felt bits of stone and other debris strike different parts of her bodies as well. She couldn’t hear or see it, but she thought for sure that something had exploded. She couldn’t smell it, exactly, but she could sense something foul in the air, like there was a feeling of smoke’s grittiness in her mouth that was somehow being masked.
“Aila, where are you?” Dys called out, trying to spot her lover in the crowd of fake faces. “Eir? Thea? Which one are you!?”
“I’m here, honey,” four different versions of her mother called out to her, and two of her grandmothers. “Everything’s going to be alright. I love you, just come home.”
It was useless. She couldn’t tell who was who. It didn’t matter which of her lovers she called out to, anyone could be an enemy trying to attack her, or nothing at all. But just as easily, anyone could be one of her lovers. There was no way to tell. At least, no way to see or hear a difference. Touch, though. She had felt the ground shake and felt the bits of debris strike against her. She could feel heat and cold and she could tell there was smoke in the air, even if she couldn’t see it or smell it. The illusion wasn’t interfering with her sense of touch.
Seeing all the figures moving around her, she decided to take a chance. Reaching out, she grasped the hand of the closest figure.
“Jadis, I’ve missed you,” her father said in his kind, soft-spoken way. “You left us so suddenly.”
“I missed you, too,” Jay couldn’t help but gasp out as her eyes met her father’s gaze.
He was exactly the same as the last time she’d spoken to him at the end of summer break. His brown, wavy hair had more gray in it than it used to, a sign of his age. He’d just turned fifty and was stubbornly refusing to use any kind of hair dye even though her mother had teased him about it. He still had a young face, hardly any wrinkles, and the gray hair was the only thing that made his clean-shaven face look older. His round glasses sat low on his nose, as always, giving her an unobstructed view of his sad, dark green eyes.
“Come back home,” her father said as he firmly took her hand. “I know I told you that you had to at least finish your bachelor's degree before leaving university, but I don’t care about that anymore. Your mother and I just want you safe.”
“I—I want to… Ow!” Jay winced as she felt something biting into her hand. “Dad, stop!”
“What’s wrong?” He asked as he stood there with a concerned look on his face, simply holding her hand. “Jadis, honey, tell me what’s happening?”
“Shit!” Jay cursed as something clawed and scratched at her hand and arm, sharp and jagged points digging into her flesh.
Jadis couldn’t see it, but she could feel that whatever was pretending to be her father was attacking her. It felt like there were many things, many hands or claws or whatever it was slashing at her skin, trying to cut her. It wasn’t having too much success, likely due to her high Fortitude stat, but the pain was growing as she felt the attacks gradually sinking deeper. She couldn’t see any of it though, her vision entirely replaced by the sight of her father.
Bracing herself, Jay grabbed hold of the hand she had taken and squeezed hard while simultaneously lifting the attacker up into the air.
“Jadis!” her father yelped, pain screwing up his face as he dangled from her closed fist. She could see that her grip had crushed his hand. She could even see the bones sticking out from under the torn skin of his palm. “Jadis! What are you doing!? Jadis, you’re hurting me!”
“You aren’t my father,” Jay snarled through a clenched throat, using the pain that was radiating from her own hand to prove it. “You aren’t my family or anything else to me but an enemy. Whatever you are, you’re fucking dead.”
On her left and right, Dys and Syd grabbed hold of the obscured figure held up high by Jay. To her eyes, she saw that she’d grabbed hold of her father’s other arm and his leg, but she knew it was a lie. There was no other choice. It had to be.
With a shriek of pain and fury, she closed her eyes and pulled.
Wet blood splattered across her arms as she felt whatever it was go limp in her grip. Letting the thing drop to the ground, she heard a wet plop of gore and viscera hit the floor. She didn’t want to look. She couldn’t. If whatever that thing had been still looked like her father, she didn’t think she could stand it. She already felt like she was going to throw up. The smell of blood was growing strong and her fears were growing worse.
What if that had been someone she loved? She knew it wasn’t her father, but what if that had been Aila, or Kerr, or any of her lovers? Or one of their parents, or even just some poor, innocent server who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
No. It had been a monster. She had felt it. Too many arms, too many hands. It had felt like cold, pallid flesh on one part and fur like an animal on another. That had been a monster, probably a Demon of some kind. She couldn’t know for sure, but she had to believe.
As Jadis stood there, eyes closed, trying not to think about what she’d just done to something that had looked like her father, she felt a familiar sensation. It was warm, like a fire, but not just warm. It was comforting, while at the same time energizing, like being given a warm glass of hot chocolate on a cold day. The feeling suffused through her bodies and she knew in an instant what it was.
“Bridget?” All three of Jadis opened her eyes to look around.
There were still just more false images of her family all around her, moving amongst each other like they were talking to her or about her and just trying to vie for her attention. Unable to help herself, Jay briefly glanced down. She saw a flash of the ruined corpse of her father and quickly looked away, the bile rising up in her throat.
It was just an illusion.
Moving towards the source of the feeling that she recognized as Bridget’s Stamina Beacon, Jadis blindly ignored the false imagery surrounding her. Soon enough, she was standing before a cluster of fake family members. One she recognized as the nine-year-old version of her brother, calmly holding the hand of their grandmother.
“Is Jadis going to come play outside with me?” Aslan asked, looking between her and Grandma Stella.
“Of course dear,” Grandma Stella said, her voice rough from years of smoking. “And when you’re done, I’ll serve you both a slice of my pumpkin pie. With whipped cream on top, of course.”
Jadis ignored them both. The beacon wasn’t coming from them.
The feeling of stamina-restoring warmth was coming from the version of her mother that she remembered from Christmas so long ago. She was standing there, wearing that stupid sweater, holding a glass of eggnog and smiling warmly at her. She held out one hand, beckoning for her to come closer. Her bright brown eyes promised her a hug and forgiveness for any past sin.
“Come here, honey,” her mother said. “Don’t worry. Just close your eyes and everything will be back to normal.”
Jay knelt down before her on one knee. The hand she reached out to take her mother’s trembled as the thought of what she’d just done to her father replayed in her mind.
“Please, please, please be Bridget,” Jay pleaded with the illusion. “I can’t see you or hear you, but I can feel you. Please, for the love of D, be Bridget. I can’t—I can’t do that again.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” her mother reassured her. “Your father and I are going to take you home and nothing bad is ever going to happen to you again.”
“She’s right,” an illusion of her father said as he walked up to join them. “Just rest here for now. I’ll sort things out and we’ll get back to the house before you know it.”
The younger version of her remembered father smiled as he wrapped an arm around her mother’s shoulders. The sight of his smiling, bespectacled face made her shudder as she thought of the terrible image lying on the ground behind her. It took every ounce of willpower to not look back.
Closing her eyes, Jadis focused not on what she could see or hear, but what she could feel. In Jay’s hand was a warm, familiar hand. Small in her own, but strong and roughly calloused. It had to be Bridget’s hand. She was clammy with sweat, moving around like she was struggling to get away, which Jadis didn’t understand. Why was Bridget trying to get away from her?
Was she under some illusion too? That was entirely plausible. Her Resilience stat was much lower than Jadis’ so if someone was capable of casting a spell on her, then Bridget and pretty much everyone else was just as vulnerable. What if it was a mass illusion spell and everyone was seeing things differently, just like her? Bridget might be seeing some false image of her parents, too.
It was hard to know what to do, but Jadis figured that if Bridget was affected too, then the best thing she could do was hold onto her and keep her close until the spell wore off. It had to have a duration, just like Sorcha’s spells. Maybe it was a set time, but it could also be affected by her Resilience, which meant the illusion would wear off of her first before anyone else. Once she could see who was who, Jadis could act. She could grab hold of any of her lovers that she could see and protect them until they also came to their senses, while also hopefully going after whoever was doing this to them.
And by the fucking gods Jadis was going to vent her wrath on whatever sick fuck had cast the spell.
So, who was the person behind the illusion of her father? Opening her eyes, Dys reached out with one hand to take hold of the person, hoping it was one of her other lovers who had also sensed Bridget’s beacon.
The flesh she touched made her recoil. It was not one of her lovers. Cold, sticky, and studded with sharp bits that dug into her skin, she recognized that the image of her dad was covering another one of those monsters that she had…
Jadis didn’t want to think about it, but she didn’t have the luxury not to. It was an illusion, nothing real. It didn’t matter if it looked exactly like her father, because it wasn’t him. She wasn’t going to let false images scare her into inaction.
Lifting the struggling thing high, whatever it was, Dys winced as it clawed at her skin as she held it at arm’s length. In doing so, she felt Bridget rise up too, which meant the thing had to have a hold of her orcish lover as well. Carefully, trying her best not to hurt her, Jay and Syd both felt around Bridget’s body for where the demon or possessed thing had grabbed her so she could pull them apart. As she did so, she changed her own grip on the warrior and she felt Bridget flail around, her hands grabbing hold of her as she struggled to find some purchase.
As Jay tried to whisper a few comforting words, doing everything she could to ignore the illusion of her mother speaking to her, she felt Bridget try to put her arm around her neck. Her hand must have slipped, though, and she felt a sharp tug as the chain of the flower pendant she wore broke.
“Jadis, get this fucking thing off of me!”
The whole world exploded in a jarring burst of sound as the omnipresent murmur of her illusionary family trying to talk to her was replaced by screams of terror, shouts of rage, and the sound of battle. Jadis jerked in surprise, nearly dropping Bridget as the sudden shift in sound took her by surprise. There was so much noise that for the first couple of seconds, she could barely make sense of what she was hearing. It didn’t help at all that she could still only see the false images of her parents and family around her.
“Jadis, please!” Bridget screamed, practically in her ear.
“I can hear you!” all three of Jadis shouted, stirred back into motion. “But I can’t see! What the fuck is happening? What’s attacking you?”
“Crawler!” Bridget choked out, her voice changed as though something had suddenly grabbed hold of her throat. “It’s on—on you! Kill it!”
“I can’t see it!” Jadis repeated, momentarily paralyzed by the thought of accidentally hurting her lover in her attempt to save her. “I don’t want to hurt you! I can only hear—”
She could hear. She could hear, but still not see. From the sounds of the spells and explosions going off around her, she should be able to smell smoke, too, but she couldn’t. But her hearing had been restored the moment the necklace had been…
Reaching to her necks, Dys and Syd immediately tore the remaining two pendants from her person, tossing them onto the ground.
The smell of blood and smoke and putrid flesh rushed into Jadis’ nostrils, making her gag. In the same instant, her sight was restored and what she saw only made the urge to puke worse.
Bridget was held suspended between her three bodies, alive and holding what looked like a decorative lantern that she must have torn off of a wall. A thing that was made of a dozen different mutilated and rotting limbs was holding onto her, two of its grasping hands around her leg, a third on the arm that held the lantern, and the fourth partially wrapped around her neck as it tried to strangle her. The rest of the rancid abomination’s limbs were holding onto Dys’ arm, its torn and rotted nails struggling to dig into her skin. The worst part of it was that Dys’ forearm was wearing the Demon like a fucking bracelet. There was a hole in the middle of the thing’s body that was ringed with stabbing, slicing fangs on either end. It had put her arm through it, seemingly with the intention of severing her limb off her body with its gruesome teeth. By the blood starting to pour from the wounds on her arm, it was starting to make progress.
“What the fuck!?” Jadis screamed at the sight.
Without hesitation, Jay and Syd grabbed hold of the arms that had Bridget grappled and squeezed hard enough to make the monster’s flesh ripple and burst like bags of ground beef. In the same moment, Dys used her free hand to grab the Demon around its inner ring and yank. Hard.
With a terrible ripping sound, the Demon’s flesh was torn to pieces as black blood and ichor splattered across her dresses and the floor.
“Are we getting attacked by fucking evil Demon donuts!?” Syd shouted as she pulled the remains of the creature’s arms from Bridget.
“Are you okay?” Jay asked at the same moment, unable to keep herself from speaking at the same time. “Where’s everyone else?”
“I’m going to fucking kill whoever cast that spell on me,” Dys growled as she turned towards the noise of the battle. “They’re dead!”
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