This is a short story. I hope you all enjoy. I'm thick skinned so let me know what you think.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Scary Godmonster
By Matthew Kayal
Jules was cleaning the attic. This was not her preference. Jules had allergies. Jules had fear of closed space. Jules hated dark rooms at high temperatures. Jules had a grandmother who passed away and part of her duty as a granddaughter was to go through the entire house and clean up sixty years of existance to make it sellable. Thus explains why Jules is in dark, hot, tight space full of things she's allergic to.
I'm not getting enough for this, thought Jules, Grandma's car isn't worth it. Jules was promised by her parents that if she cleaned the house, from top to bottom, she could have her grandmother's car. At four thousand miles, the twenty year old Honda Civic would make a valuable asset to the young college student. Road trips, vacations, getting to places in general would be easier.
Jules was well into a pile of lapsed insulation when she heard her phone ring.
"Fuck my life."
Jules back tracked through the attic. On all fours, she came out of the attic, down the ladder, and to her phone. It was her mother.
"Hi, Mom."
"How's it going at the house? Where you at?"
"I was just in the attic."
"Did I interrupt you?"
"No, no, you caught me when I was taking a break."
"well you need to hurry up, we're having people come to the house next week."
"Most of the rooms are done, Mom. All that's left is the attic and the basement."
"Just remember to throw away everything. The dumpster should hold everything."
"Okay, bye, Mom."
Jules hung up the phone. She and her mother were not exactly close. Jules arched her back, waiting to hear the pops and cracks from her hips to her neck. She leaned forward and brushed the dust and web materials off her clothes. Grabbing a flashlight, she climbed into the attic again.
Jules spent the day looking for boxes, small boxes that had been stuffed into the attic for the past sixty years. Her grandparents had owned the house for sixty years. The insulation covered everything. Not one for delicacy, Jules threw every box she found down the hole to the downstairs. It was after several trecks in and subsequent breaks for clean cool air that she felt she was done. Collecting the boxes full of moldy clothes from the fifties, warped vynil records, empty medicine bottles, broken cologne bottles, broken christmas lights, and boxes filled with boxes. Jules promptly took these things to the dumpster outside.
"Hey, do you mind if I look through that dumpster?" A neighborhood kid approached Jules.
"What for?"
"To see if there's anything good."
"Like what?"
"Well, Mrs. Dolen was always nice. If there's anything in there to remember her by, I'd appreciate it."
Jules not one for conflict, let the kid go through the trash. Jules was trying to think of her grandmother being nice. While she supposed her grandmother had to be nice to her at one point, before she could remember anything, what mostly she remembered was the fights her grandmother and mother had. The endless chores her mother made her do at grandma's house as punishment for staying up late or not being on time for dinner. Today was not the first time Jules had to go into that attic. While the kid looked through the dumpster, Jules looked at the top of the house. The roof came to a point in the center and had several boarded up windowed alcoves jutting out of the sides. Having been in the attic, Jules knew that the alcoves were sealed off.
"Why the hell am I doing this?"
Jules found herself in the attic once more. She brought a hammer with her. Somehow, an entire lifetime of curiosity just welled up inside of her. She wanted to check it out. She needed to see from one of those windows. The first choice was the left alcove. However, a spiderweb prevented Jules from going to it. The next choice would require Jules to balance herself in such a way that she did not punch a hole in the celing below her. Her third and last choice, the only alcove sealed with brick and mortar would be her best bet. Putting the flashlight in her mouth to see, Jules target was the lighted center of the wall. She had hardly ever swung a hammer in her life. Of her choice of tools, let alone hammers, she could have done much better than a roofer's hammer. She couldn't swing the thing in tight space, let alone build the force to break the brick. Jules took five wacks at the brick before giving up.
Jules heard her phone ringing downstairs. At the exact same moment, Jules heard a noise. No, more like felt a movement through the floor. Jules was accustomed to hearing and feeling the pipes and electrical motors of the fans through the house. But this felt different. Passing the phone off as her mother calling, again, Jules put the flashlight down and pressed her folded legs up against the wall. Using her hands and hips for leverage, Jules used her small frame to crack the mortar around the bricks. She had done it.
"Okay, last try."
Jules pulled her arm back, lining up her swing wit the most cracked part of the mortar. She swung with all she could and...
"Oh my god."
The entire brick wall fell, taking part of the ceiling of the room below her as well.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Jules repeated as she hurried down the ladder assess the damage. Stupid, she thought of herself, she just had to see what was behind a brick wall. As she entered the room, she fell to her knees. A hole, about two feet wide and long, was in the ceiling. A break in, a freak accident, she'd just leave the house and say it happened after she left.
"Fuck my life."
Jules grabbed a garbage bag started sweeping up the debri. But something was odd.
"What the hell?"
In the rubble was a large.. envelope. The paper was covered in dirt and dust, the edges were frayed. But it had to be old. Very old. The paper was almost like leather. Wait, Jules though, was it paper? Paper isn't so heavy. Jules looked over the envelope and saw a seal. She'd seen wax before, but this was so old it was more like a blood stain. Jules looked up above, there was nothing left in the alcove, there was no floor for anything to be on.
"One envelope? That's all that was up there?"
Jules examined the seal. There was a coat of arms that she couldn't make out. To herself Jules said, why not?
Jules broke the seal and removed the contents of the envelope. She read the gold lettering on the odd peice of paper.
"Whom so much as reads one word shall set him free." Jules scratced her head. "Set who free?"
"Me." A voice boomed through the room.
The contract and envelope began to contort in Jule's hands. Shrieking in horror, Jule's dropped both. The paper expanded, it contracted, it broke apart at the creases.
Blood flowed from the paper.
Jules, horrified, backed up against the wall. She couldn't believe her eyes. What was an envelope and what was inside are now... Growing.
Growing arms, growing legs, blood everywhere. And the noise.
Jules felt the opening of the door and bolted through it. She ran out of the house and saw the young kid going through the trash.
"Hey!"
The young kid was walking away with junk. He turned around and saw Jules dashing towards him.
"What's the matter?"
"Monster!"
"What?"
"Monster!"
"What are you talking about?"
"In the envelope in house monster attic grow blood paper it was dusty monster blood everywhere attic crash blood bricks cleaning monster help please."
"Wait, were you attacked?"
"Yes."
"Wait here."
Jules reached out and screamed to stop as the kid ran into the house. She waited for him to scream. She waited for him to come running out. She waited in vain because the boy came out in a couple of minutes.
"Whoever it is is gone. Did you see anyone come out this way?"
"What?"
"You want to come in with me? you want to show me where what happened?"
Jules didn't know why she went back in. She didn't know why she wanted to see the blood. She just wanted to know she wasn't going crazy.
"You said something about blood, where?"
"In this room." Jules lead him to where the bricks fell through the insulation. Where she opened the envelope. Where the envelope turned into a monstrosity.
"Where is the mess?"
Jules looked around the room. It was gone. The monster, the blood, all gone. The mess on the floor, gone. The hole in the ceiling, gone.
"Where is the mess? Was there an attack? Are you okay?"
Jules gathered her stuff and left for her home in the city. She took a bus and a cab and got there, gladly. Jules explained to the kid that she must have hallucinated. Heat exhaustion, she said, from being in the attic too long.
Jules entered her apartment. She layed out her phone and purse by the door. She lived above a heavy metal bar. It was every three months that she had to replace all her glasses in the cupboard. The vibrations from below would open the door and the glasses would fall to the floor and break. Jules took out a glass to fill with water. When she turned around, the glass fell to the floor, not from vibrations from below.
"Who are you?"
Jules stood in shock a the man in her apartment.
"How did you get in. I'm calling the cops."
Jules ran for the phone. The man in her apartment moved through the island counter, and stood in front of her path to the phone.
"I'm glad you're braver when I'm more human."
Jules pushed off him and ran to get a knife from a drawer.
"Don't come near me."
"Really, a knife."
Jules held the knife in front of her with both hands. She placed the knife in such a way that the blade could pierce the man's stomach. Jules eyes, transfixed on the man's stomach, saw the split across the belly. Jules was frozen in fear as eyes opened on the man's chest and the line across the chest became lips, which bared teeth. The man arched his back and the mouth sprung open, it's tongue lassoing the knife in Jules hands. Jules let go of the knife as it pulled the blade into it's giant chest gullet. The mouth closed and the eyes and lips disappeared on the man's chest.
"Jules, Jules, Jules, have you not realized who I am?"
"Get away from me."
Jules was scared stiff.
"Listen, I understand that you don't know who I am. I've been away for so long."
"Just leave me alone."
"You see, I can't do that. Here, let me explain."
The man pulled a lock of hair out of his head. As he held it up close to his mouth, the hair caught fire.
Stay away, Jules thought, before the man shoved the fire into her mouth. As she swallowed, the fire passed through her skull, exiting through the ears, burning through her yes, flames bursting through her nose. Images surged through her mind. A man, he forefather, a great patriarch, was in the forest. Another man, the same man in her kitchen, the monster, laying down in the forest, near death. Her forefather, his name was Arturro, gave the monster, the wizard Aeon, shelter in his own home. Aeon, gracious, would serve Arturro's children. The family would prosper with Aeon's support. Images of sons with beautiful wives, beautiful mistresses. Women with supreme artistic skill and countless suitors. Images of jealousy, strife, and calamity. Civil war in the house. Images of patricide, fratricide, matricide, and bloodlines dissappearing. The wizard Aeon, being sealed by a sole surviving heir, Jules Great Great Grandmother. Jules saw images all around her, a three dimensional history of her family falling on hard times, into squalor in war, coming to America, her great grandmother putting the envelope that sealed Aeon in her daughter's home, and all the family's hard times that lead Jules to the current moment in her apartment with a half naked man covered in strange tattoos.
"Better now?"
"What just happened?"
Jules approached the man. His name was Aeon. But wait, Jules thought, how do I know that?
"I just told you, so to speak, I told you everything."
Did he just read her mind?
"Yes I did. I'm a wizard woman, keep up."
"Okay, so, what exactly are you suppose to do? I mean, don't you have something else you need to do?"
"After one hundred years of being away, you bet your ass I do. I'm rude enough to enter your home unannounced but would you kindly offer me some food, I'm starving."
Jules felt oddly unafraid. Did this man, this wizard, make her unafraid, she wondered.
"Yes I did. It was a matter of expedience, I can't be bothered with all the screaming and the attempted stabbings. I assure you, it's only my presence that I made less frightening, my actions are more than open to reaction."
"Uh, I don't have much here. I think there might be bread and beer here but I usually order out." Jules pointed to the fridge. The man opened the door and was curious.
"I do believe they've invented an ice box. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed with the twenty first century. Women have the vote. You can have cold beer any time. And what pray tell is this google?"
Jules watched as the man downed beer after beer and ate slices of bread.
"Google... uh... it's a search engine."
"What's a search engine. Is it like a locomotive? I foresaw those."
"Forsaw?"
"Precognition and divinity. Half the time it's a simple parlour trick but if you can, you can see anything."
"How far can you see?"
"Not so far into the future I know what google is. The day I got sealed, the first world war was the big to do. I foresaw the second world war. I didn't see myself sealed but that's the laws."
"Laws?"
"Oh no, you tell me what google is."
"Google is a search engine. It can find anything on the internet. The internet..." Jules searched for the words. "Imagine a book. This book has every type of information. Now, take this book and tear off the spine. Throw the pages all over the room. Now, imagine people wanting to throw pages they make themselves into the pile. That's the internet. What google is, a way to find what you're looking for."
"Okay. Show me."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"My laptop is broken."
"Laptop?"
"A computer."
"I'm going to give you nightmares in two seconds."
"Look, it's late, I can't process this right now." As Jules spoke, a heavy metal drum guitar onslaught became so audible that the song was tactile through all surfaces."God damn it, here, take this phone." Jules did not have a smart phone but she could get internet on it. "Please don't use this for more than three hours. That's usually when I reach my limit. Please let me sleep."
"Fine. Sleep well."
Jules went to sleep. Not easily, but Jules had a prescription for sleep. Having lived over a heavy metal bar for three years, she needed to sleep on the extra loud nights. So she got a prescription for sleep. She slept incredibly well. She slept despite the horrors she'd seen that day. She slept rather dreamlessly. Jules had a good prescription.
"Move it to right, if you will."
Jules made herself decent as she slowly fully woke up to some odd noise. As she left her room, she was shocked to see that she was in a new apartment.
"Good morning, Jules. Come sit, I ordered in if you don't mind."
The man from yesterday, Aeon, who is a wizard, was sitting in what looked to be a showroom from Ikea. He was dressed like Hugh Heffner in silk pajamas.
"What time is it?"
"It's 11:20, I was going to wake you but your medicated sleep shouldn't be interupted. Come, I couldn't find any of my favorite places but there was this little place in the south of France that was open. Try the eggs, they're delicious."
"Where did this stuff-south of France what?"
"France, Jules, respect the language. It's with a soft ah, say it like fr-onss, not frantz."
"This is America. You went to Fra-onz? In eight hours?"
"What's eight hours to me, the time it takes to cross the ocean or a breakfast run."
"Where did you get all this stuff?"
"The internet."
"What?"
"The internet. You'd be amazed at what you can get on there."
"I think you're right. You didn't even know what the internet was last night."
"I know, I know, first, sit and eat. Those demon pills make you sleep too long."
"Demon pills?"
"I'll explain later, now say ahh."
"Wha-mmmph" Aeon shoved a sliver of eggs in Jules mouth. The eggs were the very best she had ever tasted. "This is the best thing my mouth has ever tasted."
"Last night, I was on the internet through your phone. I felt a little confined, so I looked up laptop repair. I repaired your laptop, by the way. With a little bit of looking around, I found some nice company sites. I wanted to thank you for setting me free and make up for lost time."
"How did you pay for it?"
"You're credit card."
"What!?"
"Don't worry, I called your card company and let them know that your card was stolen."
"You what?"
"Calm down. I do a good impression of you." Aeon changed his face to mirror Jules, he spoke in Jules voice. "Hi, I'd like to report my card stolen. Could you freeze it, by the way, I'd like a credit limit increase. And a lower APR, like, nothing. While you're at it, I don't want an annual fee either."
"How did you? You sound like me, I couldn't..."
"I can be very persuasive. Think Star Wars. I love Star Wars. I watched it in Russian. Such a beautiful language, oni ne yavlyayutsyadroidov vy ishchete. I love that."
Aeon changed back to his usual self. Was this his usual self, Jules thought.
"I am usually like this. For the record, I like dark hair, medium length. Not so long that it goes to my shoulders but longer than a spartan hair cut. Nothing against other shades, I like to presever my western european qualities, tan in the summer and pale in the winter. I like my height around six foot. Two or three inch margin sometimes. As you can see, I like my abs and I can't do anything about these markings." Aeon removed his top pajama to show Jules a very well defined, very lean, and very tattooed upper body. "There's a tattoo law that basically means a contract can be made by having the image imprinted on the skin. I should have you get one by my guy."
"Some other time. Now about my card..."
"Oh, come on, you have tattoos, some piercings, and your hair is pink. Why not be adventurous?"
"If my card was frozen, how did you order this stuff."
"I told you before, I'm persuasive."
Aeon reached under the table to grab a bag, he handed it to Jules.
"Jules, I want you to get changed into this. I saw it in a window and thought of you. But eat first, don't let the food go to waste."
"I have to work today."
"No you don't."
"No, I have to work today. Then I have to see my mother."
"One, I called in to your boss. He's a real douchebag, how do you work for him?"
"Bills? Where did you learn that word?"
"Urban Dictionary."
"How long were you on the internet? What else did you buy? What do you mean I'm not working today?"
"I do a very good impersonation of you. He tried giving me crap about you taking off so many days for a funeral and how tables won't wait themselves. I brought up all his health code violations and him banging the other female employees besides his wife and he shut up. By the way, you got a raise."
Jules was shocked and appalled.
"What about my mother?"
"You have to deal with her. I'm not dealing with more than one family member this time."
"This time?"
"Last time I was everyone's uncle Aeon. This time, I'm picking a horse and sticking with it. You're in charge of her and your family."
"I'm going to see my mother."
"Of course you are, but I need you to examine yourself."
Inside her room, Jules was with Aeon pulling clothes out of the closet.
"Look at all this, what do you see?"
"Clothes."
"Who gave you these?"
"Friends, family."
"Do you do a lot of your own shopping?"
"Not really, I don't throw away stuff and I save my money for other things."
"Like hair care products and tattoos."
"And bills and what not."
Aeon had nothing in his hand and then he closed it, when he opened it up again, he had a pair of glasses in his hand.
"Put these on."
"Why?"
"So you can see."
Jules put on the glasses and to her horror she suddenly became surrounded by winged beasts, worms, tiny little cochroaches with spike covered wings, octopus tentacled birds, monkees with shark teeth and bird legs. She clutched Aeon, who appeared nothing more than liquidous tar in the shape of a man, and Jules violently threw the glasses off.
"What the hell?"
"What you saw is what you surround yourself with."
"Excuse me?"
"Do you think of yourself as a happy person?"
"Yeah."
"Really? No boyfriend, no real friends, a deadend job, and your mother is the person you talk to on the phone the most."
"I have friends."
"Look at what your friends give you."
Aeon produced another pair of glasses and placed them on Jules.
"When you give someone a gift, the will of the gift exists. What sort of friends would harbor such ill will as all this? Look, see that worm with such thorny scales? That's the pills you take to sleep. Look at yourself in the mirror, look at what your life is making you."
Jules looked in the mirror. Her relfection was wrong. She didn't have grey skin. She did not have black lips, eyes, or blood in visible spider web veins. But her reflection did. The clothes she wore weren't a black oily mess of knotted flesh but in her refection they were. Jules was shocked by the snakes and spiders crawling and slithering over skin and reflexively screamed and tried to shake them off.
"Calm down, woman, they're not the fiends you can push with your hands."
Jules took the glasses off again.
"What are those?"
"Intentions."
"What?"
"Festering emotions imprinted on your clothes, the oils, the creams, the shampoo you use, and the enviroment that either you or those that affect you have intended for you."
"what about you?"
"You're not going to get a good look at me from any angle. I've got a millenium worth of bad following me around. But just to show you what a neutral, slightly positive enviroment looks like, go check out all the new stuff I got you."
Jules went to the door and closed her eyes. She put the glasses on and opened her eyes. Her new apartment, the new furniture and new items were free of fiends, free of the grotesque, and looking at things like the remains of breakfast, Jules could see a slight golden tint. Staring at the eggs alone, there was a fading glow. JUles made the mistake of looking in another mirror. Her presence in the new room was disconcerting to herself. Her snake and spider covered body made the the glow of the room dim faster. Jules took off the glasses not to witness the spiders and snakes spread to her new furnishings.
"How do I get rid of these things?"
"What would you like to get rid of first?"
"I don't know what to begin."
"Well, let's start with your mind cause that's were most things dwell. Funny thing about souls, they like to concentrate in the head."
Souls? Like religion souls? Is there a Heaven, Hell, or God? Jules asked herself these things. Certainly Aeon's presence could attest to higher powers.
"You're going to make your head implode if you go down that pit. One thing at a time. Now, the easiest way to get rid of the bad things is burn them. I'll put everything in a bag that is bad and we'll set fire to it later."
"What about me, I can't burn myself."
"You're not going to like it."
Aeon closed the distance between himself and Jules. He did so withouth moving his legs the whole five feet. He put his arm around Jules and Jules found she could get loose.
"Try not to scream."
Aeon grabbed the back of Jules head with one hand and arched it backward. Jules tried to get loose but couldn't.
"..."
Jules opened her mouth but no words came out. She tried to scream but her voice was gone. Her lungs put forth incredible effort but no sound left her mouth. Aeon arched his head back and with his free hand, reached down into his mouth and pulled out a long, scaley, barbed, eel looking yellow creature. He held the creature over Jules face. Jules closed her eyes and mouth.
"If you do that, it has to go through your nose. You don't have to watch but at least make it easy. Trust me."
Jules shook her head no.
"I'm doing this for your good."
Aeon removed hand from the back of Jules head and she tried to break away but her feet and hands and the whole rest of her body were frozen. Jules could not open her eyes, scream, or move.
"Now say ah."
Aeon, with one finger, gently pressed open Jules lips. Jules feared that the creature would slowly enter. She was wrong. Aeon dropped the creature and Jules could feel it crawl down her throat. Jules body felt weak and she fell into Aeon's arms.
"Now, now, don't fight it. Let it do it's job."
Jules violently shook, pure revulsion made her want to scream. However, the creature felt like it was growing. Jules felt it in her throat, she felt it in her stomach, and she felt it make knots inside her.
"You're not going to like this next part."
Aeon pressed his body against her arm and walked her out of the room. He led her to the bathroom and put her face over the bathtub. Aeon found the bath plug and vaseline and sealed the drain on the tub.
"Try and keep it in the tub."
Aeon held her above the tub with one arm and held her hair back with the other. Revulsion shot through Jules entire body. Her body uncontrollably pushed away from the bath tub but Aeon held her in place. Jules could feel her neck and arms contorting to unnatural angles. Jules vision blurred to point of blindness. A surge of bad emotions and sad bitter memories occupied Jules mind. Being picked on by the older girls in the third grade. Having her underwear stolen out of her locker in highschool. Her mother telling her good riddance when her first pet died. Crashing her second car. Drinking at frat party and waking up in the next town over the next morning. Having to take a year off of college because she couldn't afford to eat and go to school. The constant dissappointment she felt everyone had in her. Jules vision became clear just in time for her to feel her stomach invert and clench violently. A geyser of black bile made her entire body spasm as it erupted out of Jules mouth into the bath tub.
"You're going to be okay, Jules, just let it all out."
Black tears of the same bile flowed down Jules face, her sweat was just as black, and Jules could not breath as her body suffocated itself.
"You're almost there Jules."
Aeon held more firm as another wave stronger than the first interupted the first eruption. The bathtub was full of black bile, the smell was not unlike rotted garbage on a hot summer day with no breeze. Jules managed to catch her breath after strong dry heaves.
"Wh-wha-what d-did you do to me?"
"You're almost there."
"There's mor-ughh"
Jules felt a violent surge through her throat. Her vision blurred to blindness again. She couldn't hear the sound of her own retches over a deafening rumble. She couldn't be sure that it was the building as her own arms and legs had gone numb but she was more sure that it was her head ready to explode.
"Hey, you did it."
Aeon stood her up, still keeping her head hanging over the tub. He grabbed a washcloth and wiped the remains on her face.
"Want to see something cool?" Aeon threw the contaminated washcloth into the tub that was full of the black tar to have Jessica see herself in the tar grab the washcloth and tear it apart.
"What is that?"
"Truth be told, you. Part of you. Was anyway, take a seat for a second while I deal with this."
Jules sat on the sink. Aeon found a match and struck it across his face and threw it in the tub. What followed was a scream a thousand times louder and more schrill than anything Jules ever heard. She saw faces in the fire. Her face, her family, friends, but the faces were from memories and they were speaking. No, she thought, the faces are replaying what was said that hurt her. Jules oddly felt satisfied in seeing the memories burn as they were replaying her worst experiences. Jules then passed out.
Jules slept very well. She had no nightmares. She had no discomfort to speak of. She did not notice traveling one hundred fifty mile an hour in a corvette.
"Where am I?"
Until now.
"Going to your mother's house."
"What?"
Jules opened her eyes to see a blur of highway. She looked down at herself to see she was wearing a sun dress.
"How did I get here?"
"I put you here."
Jules hit Aeon in the arm as if she were trying to stab him with her fist. She did so repeatedly.
"Will you stop that, please, I'm driving."
"You don't have a licence."
"I do so. I got one in 1908."
"You saw me naked, didn't you?"
Jules started hitting him harder.
"I did no such thing. I commanded the dress you're wearing to assert itself onto you."
"You did what?"
"Magic."
"Magic? I'm a little tired of magic right now."
"Thanks to a little magic you're not tired at all."
"What the hell did you do to me?"
"I made you stronger, faster, better than you were before."
"What did you do to me?"
"I have given you a parasite I like to call a Hell's Compassion."
"I still have it? I think I"m going to be sick."
"Not in the vette."
"And where the hell did you get this from?"
"I bought it."
"With what money?"
"My money."
"This is a hundred thousand dollar car, where did you get that kind of money."
"I have my money. I used to make a trip to the bank when toilet paper ran out but occasionally it lets me buy a nice contraption."
"Is it still today?"
"It's always today."
"That's not what I mean. How long ago was I barfing?"
"That's a very ladylike expression."
"I'm not feeling ladylike."
"Three hours ago."
"Really?"
Jules stretched in the seat, she felt like she'd waken up from a year of sleep, and she was ready to burst with energy.
"No reason."
Jules mother lived by herself, technically. Jules father lived next door on the same property when he was in town. Neither of them believed in divorce but neither felt like acting like a couple. The corvette kicked up a dirt cloud as it pulled into the front of the house after coming off the dirt road. Jules got out of the car and stretched. Aeon was got out of the car and went from being half dressed and unkempt to being well groomed in nice clothes. Jules mother came from around the back to greet her daugther.
"Julia, I love that dress, where did you get it from. I must have one."
Julia gave her mother a hug.
"It was a gift."
"Hi, Jules Mom."
"Oh, hello, is this your car?"
"Yes it is."
Jules mother asked her under her breath "Who's this show off?"
"Mother, this is Mr. A." Jules inexplainably answered. She meant to say Aeon.
"Oh, what does the A stand for?"
"Something from the old country with lots of syllables. Call me Ian."
"Well, Ian, let's all go inside. You can call me Helen."
Inside the house, there was a dinner of chicken and salad prepared. The chicken was dry and the salad sparse. For drinks there was ice tea. It's a sad meal that the drink was the most enjoyable aspect. The conversation was more sparse than the salad.
"I must say, Julia, you look incredible. Maybe I should clean out Mother's house if it has such a good effect."
"I think I should take credit for that, Helen."
"Oh? How so?"
"Oh, couple tricks, wearing different clothes and surrounding yourself with nice things."
"That sounds like some hairbrain feng shui."
"Oh, you follow feng shui?"
"Don't believe in it."
"Really? I'd have thought you did by the looks of your home."
Aeon looked around the home. There was not much to speak of. Photos were of dead people, not the living, and none that Aeon could see were of her child. There was no art of any kind. Not the visual kind or the musical kind. If Jules had the glasses, she would see nothing. The mother had managed to keep her life perfectly neutral. After dinner, Aeon pulled Jules aside.
"Say what you will of the fiends but at least they offer hope and pleasure."
"What do you mean?"
"This place is pure neutral."
"Isn't that good?"
"Think of it as seesaw perfectly balanced. You have one fat kid on one end and another fat kid on the other. If one end touches down, you get a chaotic but occasional euphoric feeling and other you get a joyous content feeling you get bored of. The transition is the only part that really sucks. She's in constant transition."
"What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing."
"Hey, mother, can I talk to you about something."
"Sure."
"Aeon, would you excuse me."
Aeon left the room.
"Mom, what are the plans after we sell grandma's house?"
"What do you mean?"
"After we sell the house, what do you and Dad have planned for the money?"
"Your father will have nothing to do with the sale."
"Well, what do you plan to do with the money?"
"I plan to keep it."
"For what?"
"Myself."
Jules didn't know where she was going with the conversation but she had two instincts. One was pushing her to get money for some goal. The other was sheer annoyance with her mother.
"Julia, all you have to do is have the house clean and her car is yours. I don't know why you even need that with your friend and his fancy car."
"Because it's his car, not mine."
"What do you need a car for? Your work is walking distance from your apartment. Public transport can get you anywhere. You're going to spend a fortune on parking."
"That car is going to get me better jobs. Better jobs will pay for my education. You're not going to question why I want to finish college are you?"
"Let's be honest, Julia, you've been in college since you were eighteen and now you're twenty four. How many years would it take to finish your bachelors at the rate you're going?"
"With the right job, I could get it done in one year."
Jules mother looked at her indifferently.
"It's your life dear. You decide what you want to do."
"Seeing as how I finished Grandma's house. I'd like to drive the car."
"I'd have to transfer it to you."
"The car is here isn't it?"
"Yes, but do you have insurance?"
"This was all done a while ago, Dad said he did it."
"Your father does not have the authority to do it."
"Are you kidding me?"
"When your father comes home, I'll be sure to discuss with him and then discuss with you what will happen. Then, and only then, will you drive that car."
"Everything okay in here?"
Aeon came in from outside.
"Everything is good, Mr. A. Right, Julia?"
"Yeah, will you excuse me?"
Jules went into the bathroom. She locked the door and gritted her teeth as she vented her frustration. In the past, an argument like that would result in Jules crying and having anxiety. As Jules looked in the mirror, she fully realized how different she was. Her skin was less flawed. Her face had no lines. Her hair was smoother, even the dyed bangs she had were more vibrant. Jules examined herself in the dress. The dress fit perfectly. Her ass stuck out just right, her waist was slender, and she had bigger boobs. Jules pulled out her mother's scale and got naked to weigh herself. She weighed the same thing she did in highschool. She was at her freshman year weight and she was six inches taller than when she was a freshman. Jules stood up against the wall and noticed that she was in fact seven inches taller than when she was a freshman. Out of curiosity, Jules went closer to the mirror and opened her mouth. She wanted to see if she could find that wonderful creature. All she saw was perfect teeth.
"So you own all seven Harry Potters?"
Jules approached the room where she imagined a hilarious conversation was taking place.
"Yes."
"Do you own all seven films?"
"There are eight films."
"Why are there eight?"
"They needed one more film to do the seventh book justice."
"Did they?"
"Eh."
"Do you recommend I start with the films of the books?"
"The books, definitely the books."
"Okay, I'll read the books."
"I can't believe a man like yourself wouldn't have already read Harry Potter."
"Never did get into fantasy novels." Aeon turned to Jules. "Ready to go?"
"Yes, I think so."
Jules and Aeon said goodbye. In the car ride, Aeon was silent. Jules spoke first.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"Making me the way I am now."
"How so?"
"For one, I'm getting less and less afraid of you. Got any more worms you could shove up my ass? I got hotter after the first one."
"I'll take that as a compliment. You're personality has changed."
"I think so. So what were you two talking about?"
"Your mother reads Harry Potter and Twilight."
"Do you know what those are?"
"While I was on the internet, I saw a good deal of hate directed towards Twilight. Also, there was a lot of young teenage girls and a lot of people posing as young teenage girls acting as a fan base for it. It was the same for Harry Potter and Justin Bieber."
"What do you think of them?"
"I don't think of them. Humans have always managed to hyperbolize things they don't understand. I walked into a Hall once where the king boasted he killed a demon wolf with his barehands. I had created this wolf. I take pride in my work so I want to meet the man that can kill something I made with his barehands. Naturally, I get to talking to him and it comes out that it wasn't his barehands. But it wasn't his sword and it wasn't his boys helping him. He did do it by himself. Turns out, he managed to sneak up on it and push a boulder down a hill while it slept. So for the next forty fucking years, everyone remembered the good old king who killed a demon wolf with his bare hands."
"Why would you make a demon wolf?"
"Because I could. Anyway, the point is that humans like to tell stories. With Harry Potter as opposed to me, is that as you can see, I don't carry a wand. I don't have to call out what spell I'm doing. There is no school for wizardry."
"Are you born into it?"
"Was I born into it? No, came across individuals that were into magic and I happened to luck out."
"Could I be a witch?"
"Sure, just find something to make a contract with."
"Contract?"
"Contracts are a wizards great source of power. I want this, you help me do it, I get you what you want, and everyone's happy."
"So you have to sacrifice some virgin?"
"I never got into that. Don't get me wrong, there's tons of sacrificial rituals. It's also a matter of sustainability. If I have to kill one hundred virgins every year on a specific date, I have to find a town that can produce one hundred virgins and replenish one hundred virgins in the year. That's another thing humans get wrong. Souls are the one and only thing really valuable at death and they've got two of the biggest bastards in the game already claiming ownership. Unless you're appeasing someone's entertainment craving, it's useless."
"How many wizards are there?"
"Hundreds, thousands, millions if you count poser goth kids and the people you see at incense shops."
"Are you powerful?"
"Excuse me while I answer your question."
A burning circle appeared in the middle of the road. Aeon drove the car through the circle. Jules screamed as the car drove through a crowd of walking skeletons. In the distance, she could see great pillars.
"See those over there, they're made of skulls and femurs."
Another circle appeared in front of the car and Aeon drove through that. Jules was very greatful the windows were up because they were driving on the moon.
"If NASA is so great, why would they leave the equipment here? See if you can find that golf ball."
"How are we breathing?"
"I don't know, it's a little stuffy in here."
Aeon rolled down his window and Jules screamed in horror and bent into the fetal position.
"You're funny. What are you so worried about?"
Jules looked up and saw that they were on the same highway as before.
"were we really driving through those places or was that in my head?"
"I'd go with the cooler answer... Brace yourself." Aeon yelled loudly, Jules looked into the distance and saw nothing. But then she saw the car, it was a serene feeling, she was upside down, looking at the car that she was just riding in, and then she saw the road really close to her face that resembled the road.
Jules opened her eyes to see what was left of the corvette overturned. There were deep claw marks all over the chassis. The fluids were spilling onto the road. Jules managed to get up and look around. She was surprised she wasn't as hurt as a crash would surely kill her. She looked around and saw nothing, it was odd for a highway. Looking at the corvette, she could see octopus tendrils coming from underneath the ground with a luminous green gel as the source. The octopus tendrils slowly dragged the car wreckage into the earth.
Jules could see the rest of the wreckage disappearing the same way. Jules began to hear boots on the ground. When she turned to look her eyes were blinded with a powerful light.
"On the ground." Voices yelled.
"Hands and head on the ground or we shoot you."
Jules could see men with guns pointed at her head. From behind her she could feel a large man grabbing at her wrist. Jules heard the clicking of hand cuffs and instinctively shot her elbow into his neck. She felt the contact and did it repeatedly. When the man fell to the ground she found half the one cuff fastened to her wrist. She instinctively closed the other half and held it in her hand to load her first. Jules ran away from the light and the men with guns but heard a shot and felt something stab her in the back of the leg.
"Someone bind her and load her up. And burn the weakling."
Jules was groggy and sedated. She managed to stay concious in the van ride, if only barely. A bag was placed over her head and she was walked into what she guessed was an elevator. The end of her trip was a room that was very warm, Jules heard the sound of a fire, and she put in a very soft chair and injected with something. The bindings and bag were removed, Jules realized she was in a study with book shelves and a fireplace across a desk from a blond woman in a black dress.
"Good evening, Jules, I can call you Jules? I feel like I've known you forever."
"Uh, who are you?"
"Ah, so sorry, introductions, Jules, I'm Elena."
Elena had very blue eyes. She had skin like marble, smooth and white. Jules studied her and was part attracted and frightened.
"well, I must apologize, I simply wanted to talk to you but I must have been not clear. The men who roughed you up will be dead and butchered by morning, we can eat their meat for breakfast."
Jules stomach dropped and she realized she was dealing with someone from Aeon's crowd.
"That's very nice of you but I..."
"Oh, come on, Jules, you'd be doing me a favor. There were four men that collected you, I'd have to eat for weeks on them. My chef isn't so well versed with cooking humans. Besides, they're going to kill themselves tonight anyway. I gave them strict orders that you would not be harmed and they did not follow those orders. If I can't trust them to follow instructions, I can't use them. But waste not want not."
"Uh, I, um..."
"Jules, pet phrases like uh and um are so unbecoming."
"Ms. Elena..."
"Miss Elena, if you will, I'm not married and I don't subscibe to Miss Steinem's word."
"Miss Elena, I was with someone at the moment, I was... I was in the car, than I was out of the car, and now I'm here. Could you tell me where here is?"
"My home."
"Right, your home, and the man I was with before I was with you?"
"He's around here somewhere. You see, me and your benefactor, Aeon is what he's calling himself now? Anyway, me and Aeon have a history. You see, he's been missing for the past century and he and I have so much to discuss."
"You say he's here?"
"Yes, I hope you don't mind, I'm using you as means to get to him. But I am curious, what do you think of him?"
"Think of him? I've only known him for two days. The majority of which I've been passed out or self medicated."
"Yes, he is a bit too much at first."
"Would it be alright to ask if this is something I can expect to happen a lot with him?"
"You being abducted on account of him? It's quite possible. He has a knack for trouble and he enjoys seeing others suffer."
"Really?" A voice streamed through the room.
The entrance double door opened and the fireplace blew out like a giant candle. Aeon entered the room. He brought a very cold chill into the room. Elena remained seated. Jules as well but for different reasons.
"Elena, it's good to see you. You could have called or sent a telegram. They have these internet mails now. Did you know that? Why they put E instead of I for internet is beyond me. The stunt you pulled though could have been in better taste."
"Aeon, where have you been?"
Elena got up and walked over to him.
"Ah, ah, ah, keep your distance, woman, I remember you have a distaste for dogs." A growling noise was heard. Jules could see no dog though.
"A hound? You bring a hound into my home?"
"You're messenger dragged and destroyed my car that I bought with my own money, not to mention that I was still in the car when it dragged everything to the inbetween. If this hound should tear apart this room, I would consider us even."
Jules could hear the growling and see the floor be gouged by invisible claws.
"Stop that right now, this floor is one of a kind wood. I admit I might have over reacted but after one hundred years of no word and then I find you with a mortal."
"You found me with a charge and one that you knew about. You know my contract with her forefather. If you're upset that you couldn't find me, let me remind you that I was sealed away and in the possession of that family that you knew about. If you're upset that I was lost, you could have easily figured out where I was."
Jules looked like she had been slapped in the face. She had tears in her eyes. She began muttering something Jules couldn't understand. She then leaped onto Aeon locked her arms and legs around him. It was then that Jules realized that she had been abducted because Aeon's girlfriend missed him.
"Jules, Aeon, I'm sorry for causing you trouble. Please stay the night. Be my guests." Elena shot a look at Aeon. Jules was pretty sure it was the "you're staying in my room with me in my bed look". "Aeon, that dog must go though. Chauncey, see the dog outside." A man at the end of the hallway appeared.
"Go play, boy." Aeon told the invisible dog. Chauncey over at the end of the hall was knocked down and picked up, he was obviously in the dogs jaws as a chew toy.
"Come, Jules, I'll show you to your room."
Elena lead Jules to a giant room filled with furniture from forgotten empires and a bed the size of a swimming pool that was twice as soft as water. Elena led Jules to the bed.
"Again, I must apologize for my behavior."
"No, no need," Jules said out of fearful reverence, "I think it's natural to over react."
"So how was your first day with him?"
"Well, it's hard to comprehend. For me at least it is. I met him, I've had fire shoved in my head, worms thrown down my throat, I barfed negativity, I think I"ve been to Hell, I've been abducted, and I don't think that bothers me."
"How so? Has he been fiddling with your head?"
"Maybe. It's been a good day though. I woke up, I had a lot of great new things, almost like christmas, I had a fight with my mother that didn't leave me an emotional wreck, I think I went to the moon, and it feels like I'm a whole new person."
"Makes you wonder what tomorrow's going to bring."
"I honestly can't wait."
Scary Godmonster
By Matthew Kayal
Jules was cleaning the attic. This was not her preference. Jules had allergies. Jules had fear of closed space. Jules hated dark rooms at high temperatures. Jules had a grandmother who passed away and part of her duty as a granddaughter was to go through the entire house and clean up sixty years of existance to make it sellable. Thus explains why Jules is in dark, hot, tight space full of things she's allergic to.
I'm not getting enough for this, thought Jules, Grandma's car isn't worth it. Jules was promised by her parents that if she cleaned the house, from top to bottom, she could have her grandmother's car. At four thousand miles, the twenty year old Honda Civic would make a valuable asset to the young college student. Road trips, vacations, getting to places in general would be easier.
Jules was well into a pile of lapsed insulation when she heard her phone ring.
"Fuck my life."
Jules back tracked through the attic. On all fours, she came out of the attic, down the ladder, and to her phone. It was her mother.
"Hi, Mom."
"How's it going at the house? Where you at?"
"I was just in the attic."
"Did I interrupt you?"
"No, no, you caught me when I was taking a break."
"well you need to hurry up, we're having people come to the house next week."
"Most of the rooms are done, Mom. All that's left is the attic and the basement."
"Just remember to throw away everything. The dumpster should hold everything."
"Okay, bye, Mom."
Jules hung up the phone. She and her mother were not exactly close. Jules arched her back, waiting to hear the pops and cracks from her hips to her neck. She leaned forward and brushed the dust and web materials off her clothes. Grabbing a flashlight, she climbed into the attic again.
Jules spent the day looking for boxes, small boxes that had been stuffed into the attic for the past sixty years. Her grandparents had owned the house for sixty years. The insulation covered everything. Not one for delicacy, Jules threw every box she found down the hole to the downstairs. It was after several trecks in and subsequent breaks for clean cool air that she felt she was done. Collecting the boxes full of moldy clothes from the fifties, warped vynil records, empty medicine bottles, broken cologne bottles, broken christmas lights, and boxes filled with boxes. Jules promptly took these things to the dumpster outside.
"Hey, do you mind if I look through that dumpster?" A neighborhood kid approached Jules.
"What for?"
"To see if there's anything good."
"Like what?"
"Well, Mrs. Dolen was always nice. If there's anything in there to remember her by, I'd appreciate it."
Jules not one for conflict, let the kid go through the trash. Jules was trying to think of her grandmother being nice. While she supposed her grandmother had to be nice to her at one point, before she could remember anything, what mostly she remembered was the fights her grandmother and mother had. The endless chores her mother made her do at grandma's house as punishment for staying up late or not being on time for dinner. Today was not the first time Jules had to go into that attic. While the kid looked through the dumpster, Jules looked at the top of the house. The roof came to a point in the center and had several boarded up windowed alcoves jutting out of the sides. Having been in the attic, Jules knew that the alcoves were sealed off.
"Why the hell am I doing this?"
Jules found herself in the attic once more. She brought a hammer with her. Somehow, an entire lifetime of curiosity just welled up inside of her. She wanted to check it out. She needed to see from one of those windows. The first choice was the left alcove. However, a spiderweb prevented Jules from going to it. The next choice would require Jules to balance herself in such a way that she did not punch a hole in the celing below her. Her third and last choice, the only alcove sealed with brick and mortar would be her best bet. Putting the flashlight in her mouth to see, Jules target was the lighted center of the wall. She had hardly ever swung a hammer in her life. Of her choice of tools, let alone hammers, she could have done much better than a roofer's hammer. She couldn't swing the thing in tight space, let alone build the force to break the brick. Jules took five wacks at the brick before giving up.
Jules heard her phone ringing downstairs. At the exact same moment, Jules heard a noise. No, more like felt a movement through the floor. Jules was accustomed to hearing and feeling the pipes and electrical motors of the fans through the house. But this felt different. Passing the phone off as her mother calling, again, Jules put the flashlight down and pressed her folded legs up against the wall. Using her hands and hips for leverage, Jules used her small frame to crack the mortar around the bricks. She had done it.
"Okay, last try."
Jules pulled her arm back, lining up her swing wit the most cracked part of the mortar. She swung with all she could and...
"Oh my god."
The entire brick wall fell, taking part of the ceiling of the room below her as well.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Jules repeated as she hurried down the ladder assess the damage. Stupid, she thought of herself, she just had to see what was behind a brick wall. As she entered the room, she fell to her knees. A hole, about two feet wide and long, was in the ceiling. A break in, a freak accident, she'd just leave the house and say it happened after she left.
"Fuck my life."
Jules grabbed a garbage bag started sweeping up the debri. But something was odd.
"What the hell?"
In the rubble was a large.. envelope. The paper was covered in dirt and dust, the edges were frayed. But it had to be old. Very old. The paper was almost like leather. Wait, Jules though, was it paper? Paper isn't so heavy. Jules looked over the envelope and saw a seal. She'd seen wax before, but this was so old it was more like a blood stain. Jules looked up above, there was nothing left in the alcove, there was no floor for anything to be on.
"One envelope? That's all that was up there?"
Jules examined the seal. There was a coat of arms that she couldn't make out. To herself Jules said, why not?
Jules broke the seal and removed the contents of the envelope. She read the gold lettering on the odd peice of paper.
"Whom so much as reads one word shall set him free." Jules scratced her head. "Set who free?"
"Me." A voice boomed through the room.
The contract and envelope began to contort in Jule's hands. Shrieking in horror, Jule's dropped both. The paper expanded, it contracted, it broke apart at the creases.
Blood flowed from the paper.
Jules, horrified, backed up against the wall. She couldn't believe her eyes. What was an envelope and what was inside are now... Growing.
Growing arms, growing legs, blood everywhere. And the noise.
Jules felt the opening of the door and bolted through it. She ran out of the house and saw the young kid going through the trash.
"Hey!"
The young kid was walking away with junk. He turned around and saw Jules dashing towards him.
"What's the matter?"
"Monster!"
"What?"
"Monster!"
"What are you talking about?"
"In the envelope in house monster attic grow blood paper it was dusty monster blood everywhere attic crash blood bricks cleaning monster help please."
"Wait, were you attacked?"
"Yes."
"Wait here."
Jules reached out and screamed to stop as the kid ran into the house. She waited for him to scream. She waited for him to come running out. She waited in vain because the boy came out in a couple of minutes.
"Whoever it is is gone. Did you see anyone come out this way?"
"What?"
"You want to come in with me? you want to show me where what happened?"
Jules didn't know why she went back in. She didn't know why she wanted to see the blood. She just wanted to know she wasn't going crazy.
"You said something about blood, where?"
"In this room." Jules lead him to where the bricks fell through the insulation. Where she opened the envelope. Where the envelope turned into a monstrosity.
"Where is the mess?"
Jules looked around the room. It was gone. The monster, the blood, all gone. The mess on the floor, gone. The hole in the ceiling, gone.
"Where is the mess? Was there an attack? Are you okay?"
Jules gathered her stuff and left for her home in the city. She took a bus and a cab and got there, gladly. Jules explained to the kid that she must have hallucinated. Heat exhaustion, she said, from being in the attic too long.
Jules entered her apartment. She layed out her phone and purse by the door. She lived above a heavy metal bar. It was every three months that she had to replace all her glasses in the cupboard. The vibrations from below would open the door and the glasses would fall to the floor and break. Jules took out a glass to fill with water. When she turned around, the glass fell to the floor, not from vibrations from below.
"Who are you?"
Jules stood in shock a the man in her apartment.
"How did you get in. I'm calling the cops."
Jules ran for the phone. The man in her apartment moved through the island counter, and stood in front of her path to the phone.
"I'm glad you're braver when I'm more human."
Jules pushed off him and ran to get a knife from a drawer.
"Don't come near me."
"Really, a knife."
Jules held the knife in front of her with both hands. She placed the knife in such a way that the blade could pierce the man's stomach. Jules eyes, transfixed on the man's stomach, saw the split across the belly. Jules was frozen in fear as eyes opened on the man's chest and the line across the chest became lips, which bared teeth. The man arched his back and the mouth sprung open, it's tongue lassoing the knife in Jules hands. Jules let go of the knife as it pulled the blade into it's giant chest gullet. The mouth closed and the eyes and lips disappeared on the man's chest.
"Jules, Jules, Jules, have you not realized who I am?"
"Get away from me."
Jules was scared stiff.
"Listen, I understand that you don't know who I am. I've been away for so long."
"Just leave me alone."
"You see, I can't do that. Here, let me explain."
The man pulled a lock of hair out of his head. As he held it up close to his mouth, the hair caught fire.
Stay away, Jules thought, before the man shoved the fire into her mouth. As she swallowed, the fire passed through her skull, exiting through the ears, burning through her yes, flames bursting through her nose. Images surged through her mind. A man, he forefather, a great patriarch, was in the forest. Another man, the same man in her kitchen, the monster, laying down in the forest, near death. Her forefather, his name was Arturro, gave the monster, the wizard Aeon, shelter in his own home. Aeon, gracious, would serve Arturro's children. The family would prosper with Aeon's support. Images of sons with beautiful wives, beautiful mistresses. Women with supreme artistic skill and countless suitors. Images of jealousy, strife, and calamity. Civil war in the house. Images of patricide, fratricide, matricide, and bloodlines dissappearing. The wizard Aeon, being sealed by a sole surviving heir, Jules Great Great Grandmother. Jules saw images all around her, a three dimensional history of her family falling on hard times, into squalor in war, coming to America, her great grandmother putting the envelope that sealed Aeon in her daughter's home, and all the family's hard times that lead Jules to the current moment in her apartment with a half naked man covered in strange tattoos.
"Better now?"
"What just happened?"
Jules approached the man. His name was Aeon. But wait, Jules thought, how do I know that?
"I just told you, so to speak, I told you everything."
Did he just read her mind?
"Yes I did. I'm a wizard woman, keep up."
"Okay, so, what exactly are you suppose to do? I mean, don't you have something else you need to do?"
"After one hundred years of being away, you bet your ass I do. I'm rude enough to enter your home unannounced but would you kindly offer me some food, I'm starving."
Jules felt oddly unafraid. Did this man, this wizard, make her unafraid, she wondered.
"Yes I did. It was a matter of expedience, I can't be bothered with all the screaming and the attempted stabbings. I assure you, it's only my presence that I made less frightening, my actions are more than open to reaction."
"Uh, I don't have much here. I think there might be bread and beer here but I usually order out." Jules pointed to the fridge. The man opened the door and was curious.
"I do believe they've invented an ice box. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed with the twenty first century. Women have the vote. You can have cold beer any time. And what pray tell is this google?"
Jules watched as the man downed beer after beer and ate slices of bread.
"Google... uh... it's a search engine."
"What's a search engine. Is it like a locomotive? I foresaw those."
"Forsaw?"
"Precognition and divinity. Half the time it's a simple parlour trick but if you can, you can see anything."
"How far can you see?"
"Not so far into the future I know what google is. The day I got sealed, the first world war was the big to do. I foresaw the second world war. I didn't see myself sealed but that's the laws."
"Laws?"
"Oh no, you tell me what google is."
"Google is a search engine. It can find anything on the internet. The internet..." Jules searched for the words. "Imagine a book. This book has every type of information. Now, take this book and tear off the spine. Throw the pages all over the room. Now, imagine people wanting to throw pages they make themselves into the pile. That's the internet. What google is, a way to find what you're looking for."
"Okay. Show me."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"My laptop is broken."
"Laptop?"
"A computer."
"I'm going to give you nightmares in two seconds."
"Look, it's late, I can't process this right now." As Jules spoke, a heavy metal drum guitar onslaught became so audible that the song was tactile through all surfaces."God damn it, here, take this phone." Jules did not have a smart phone but she could get internet on it. "Please don't use this for more than three hours. That's usually when I reach my limit. Please let me sleep."
"Fine. Sleep well."
Jules went to sleep. Not easily, but Jules had a prescription for sleep. Having lived over a heavy metal bar for three years, she needed to sleep on the extra loud nights. So she got a prescription for sleep. She slept incredibly well. She slept despite the horrors she'd seen that day. She slept rather dreamlessly. Jules had a good prescription.
"Move it to right, if you will."
Jules made herself decent as she slowly fully woke up to some odd noise. As she left her room, she was shocked to see that she was in a new apartment.
"Good morning, Jules. Come sit, I ordered in if you don't mind."
The man from yesterday, Aeon, who is a wizard, was sitting in what looked to be a showroom from Ikea. He was dressed like Hugh Heffner in silk pajamas.
"What time is it?"
"It's 11:20, I was going to wake you but your medicated sleep shouldn't be interupted. Come, I couldn't find any of my favorite places but there was this little place in the south of France that was open. Try the eggs, they're delicious."
"Where did this stuff-south of France what?"
"France, Jules, respect the language. It's with a soft ah, say it like fr-onss, not frantz."
"This is America. You went to Fra-onz? In eight hours?"
"What's eight hours to me, the time it takes to cross the ocean or a breakfast run."
"Where did you get all this stuff?"
"The internet."
"What?"
"The internet. You'd be amazed at what you can get on there."
"I think you're right. You didn't even know what the internet was last night."
"I know, I know, first, sit and eat. Those demon pills make you sleep too long."
"Demon pills?"
"I'll explain later, now say ahh."
"Wha-mmmph" Aeon shoved a sliver of eggs in Jules mouth. The eggs were the very best she had ever tasted. "This is the best thing my mouth has ever tasted."
"Last night, I was on the internet through your phone. I felt a little confined, so I looked up laptop repair. I repaired your laptop, by the way. With a little bit of looking around, I found some nice company sites. I wanted to thank you for setting me free and make up for lost time."
"How did you pay for it?"
"You're credit card."
"What!?"
"Don't worry, I called your card company and let them know that your card was stolen."
"You what?"
"Calm down. I do a good impression of you." Aeon changed his face to mirror Jules, he spoke in Jules voice. "Hi, I'd like to report my card stolen. Could you freeze it, by the way, I'd like a credit limit increase. And a lower APR, like, nothing. While you're at it, I don't want an annual fee either."
"How did you? You sound like me, I couldn't..."
"I can be very persuasive. Think Star Wars. I love Star Wars. I watched it in Russian. Such a beautiful language, oni ne yavlyayutsyadroidov vy ishchete. I love that."
Aeon changed back to his usual self. Was this his usual self, Jules thought.
"I am usually like this. For the record, I like dark hair, medium length. Not so long that it goes to my shoulders but longer than a spartan hair cut. Nothing against other shades, I like to presever my western european qualities, tan in the summer and pale in the winter. I like my height around six foot. Two or three inch margin sometimes. As you can see, I like my abs and I can't do anything about these markings." Aeon removed his top pajama to show Jules a very well defined, very lean, and very tattooed upper body. "There's a tattoo law that basically means a contract can be made by having the image imprinted on the skin. I should have you get one by my guy."
"Some other time. Now about my card..."
"Oh, come on, you have tattoos, some piercings, and your hair is pink. Why not be adventurous?"
"If my card was frozen, how did you order this stuff."
"I told you before, I'm persuasive."
Aeon reached under the table to grab a bag, he handed it to Jules.
"Jules, I want you to get changed into this. I saw it in a window and thought of you. But eat first, don't let the food go to waste."
"I have to work today."
"No you don't."
"No, I have to work today. Then I have to see my mother."
"One, I called in to your boss. He's a real douchebag, how do you work for him?"
"Bills? Where did you learn that word?"
"Urban Dictionary."
"How long were you on the internet? What else did you buy? What do you mean I'm not working today?"
"I do a very good impersonation of you. He tried giving me crap about you taking off so many days for a funeral and how tables won't wait themselves. I brought up all his health code violations and him banging the other female employees besides his wife and he shut up. By the way, you got a raise."
Jules was shocked and appalled.
"What about my mother?"
"You have to deal with her. I'm not dealing with more than one family member this time."
"This time?"
"Last time I was everyone's uncle Aeon. This time, I'm picking a horse and sticking with it. You're in charge of her and your family."
"I'm going to see my mother."
"Of course you are, but I need you to examine yourself."
Inside her room, Jules was with Aeon pulling clothes out of the closet.
"Look at all this, what do you see?"
"Clothes."
"Who gave you these?"
"Friends, family."
"Do you do a lot of your own shopping?"
"Not really, I don't throw away stuff and I save my money for other things."
"Like hair care products and tattoos."
"And bills and what not."
Aeon had nothing in his hand and then he closed it, when he opened it up again, he had a pair of glasses in his hand.
"Put these on."
"Why?"
"So you can see."
Jules put on the glasses and to her horror she suddenly became surrounded by winged beasts, worms, tiny little cochroaches with spike covered wings, octopus tentacled birds, monkees with shark teeth and bird legs. She clutched Aeon, who appeared nothing more than liquidous tar in the shape of a man, and Jules violently threw the glasses off.
"What the hell?"
"What you saw is what you surround yourself with."
"Excuse me?"
"Do you think of yourself as a happy person?"
"Yeah."
"Really? No boyfriend, no real friends, a deadend job, and your mother is the person you talk to on the phone the most."
"I have friends."
"Look at what your friends give you."
Aeon produced another pair of glasses and placed them on Jules.
"When you give someone a gift, the will of the gift exists. What sort of friends would harbor such ill will as all this? Look, see that worm with such thorny scales? That's the pills you take to sleep. Look at yourself in the mirror, look at what your life is making you."
Jules looked in the mirror. Her relfection was wrong. She didn't have grey skin. She did not have black lips, eyes, or blood in visible spider web veins. But her reflection did. The clothes she wore weren't a black oily mess of knotted flesh but in her refection they were. Jules was shocked by the snakes and spiders crawling and slithering over skin and reflexively screamed and tried to shake them off.
"Calm down, woman, they're not the fiends you can push with your hands."
Jules took the glasses off again.
"What are those?"
"Intentions."
"What?"
"Festering emotions imprinted on your clothes, the oils, the creams, the shampoo you use, and the enviroment that either you or those that affect you have intended for you."
"what about you?"
"You're not going to get a good look at me from any angle. I've got a millenium worth of bad following me around. But just to show you what a neutral, slightly positive enviroment looks like, go check out all the new stuff I got you."
Jules went to the door and closed her eyes. She put the glasses on and opened her eyes. Her new apartment, the new furniture and new items were free of fiends, free of the grotesque, and looking at things like the remains of breakfast, Jules could see a slight golden tint. Staring at the eggs alone, there was a fading glow. JUles made the mistake of looking in another mirror. Her presence in the new room was disconcerting to herself. Her snake and spider covered body made the the glow of the room dim faster. Jules took off the glasses not to witness the spiders and snakes spread to her new furnishings.
"How do I get rid of these things?"
"What would you like to get rid of first?"
"I don't know what to begin."
"Well, let's start with your mind cause that's were most things dwell. Funny thing about souls, they like to concentrate in the head."
Souls? Like religion souls? Is there a Heaven, Hell, or God? Jules asked herself these things. Certainly Aeon's presence could attest to higher powers.
"You're going to make your head implode if you go down that pit. One thing at a time. Now, the easiest way to get rid of the bad things is burn them. I'll put everything in a bag that is bad and we'll set fire to it later."
"What about me, I can't burn myself."
"You're not going to like it."
Aeon closed the distance between himself and Jules. He did so withouth moving his legs the whole five feet. He put his arm around Jules and Jules found she could get loose.
"Try not to scream."
Aeon grabbed the back of Jules head with one hand and arched it backward. Jules tried to get loose but couldn't.
"..."
Jules opened her mouth but no words came out. She tried to scream but her voice was gone. Her lungs put forth incredible effort but no sound left her mouth. Aeon arched his head back and with his free hand, reached down into his mouth and pulled out a long, scaley, barbed, eel looking yellow creature. He held the creature over Jules face. Jules closed her eyes and mouth.
"If you do that, it has to go through your nose. You don't have to watch but at least make it easy. Trust me."
Jules shook her head no.
"I'm doing this for your good."
Aeon removed hand from the back of Jules head and she tried to break away but her feet and hands and the whole rest of her body were frozen. Jules could not open her eyes, scream, or move.
"Now say ah."
Aeon, with one finger, gently pressed open Jules lips. Jules feared that the creature would slowly enter. She was wrong. Aeon dropped the creature and Jules could feel it crawl down her throat. Jules body felt weak and she fell into Aeon's arms.
"Now, now, don't fight it. Let it do it's job."
Jules violently shook, pure revulsion made her want to scream. However, the creature felt like it was growing. Jules felt it in her throat, she felt it in her stomach, and she felt it make knots inside her.
"You're not going to like this next part."
Aeon pressed his body against her arm and walked her out of the room. He led her to the bathroom and put her face over the bathtub. Aeon found the bath plug and vaseline and sealed the drain on the tub.
"Try and keep it in the tub."
Aeon held her above the tub with one arm and held her hair back with the other. Revulsion shot through Jules entire body. Her body uncontrollably pushed away from the bath tub but Aeon held her in place. Jules could feel her neck and arms contorting to unnatural angles. Jules vision blurred to point of blindness. A surge of bad emotions and sad bitter memories occupied Jules mind. Being picked on by the older girls in the third grade. Having her underwear stolen out of her locker in highschool. Her mother telling her good riddance when her first pet died. Crashing her second car. Drinking at frat party and waking up in the next town over the next morning. Having to take a year off of college because she couldn't afford to eat and go to school. The constant dissappointment she felt everyone had in her. Jules vision became clear just in time for her to feel her stomach invert and clench violently. A geyser of black bile made her entire body spasm as it erupted out of Jules mouth into the bath tub.
"You're going to be okay, Jules, just let it all out."
Black tears of the same bile flowed down Jules face, her sweat was just as black, and Jules could not breath as her body suffocated itself.
"You're almost there Jules."
Aeon held more firm as another wave stronger than the first interupted the first eruption. The bathtub was full of black bile, the smell was not unlike rotted garbage on a hot summer day with no breeze. Jules managed to catch her breath after strong dry heaves.
"Wh-wha-what d-did you do to me?"
"You're almost there."
"There's mor-ughh"
Jules felt a violent surge through her throat. Her vision blurred to blindness again. She couldn't hear the sound of her own retches over a deafening rumble. She couldn't be sure that it was the building as her own arms and legs had gone numb but she was more sure that it was her head ready to explode.
"Hey, you did it."
Aeon stood her up, still keeping her head hanging over the tub. He grabbed a washcloth and wiped the remains on her face.
"Want to see something cool?" Aeon threw the contaminated washcloth into the tub that was full of the black tar to have Jessica see herself in the tar grab the washcloth and tear it apart.
"What is that?"
"Truth be told, you. Part of you. Was anyway, take a seat for a second while I deal with this."
Jules sat on the sink. Aeon found a match and struck it across his face and threw it in the tub. What followed was a scream a thousand times louder and more schrill than anything Jules ever heard. She saw faces in the fire. Her face, her family, friends, but the faces were from memories and they were speaking. No, she thought, the faces are replaying what was said that hurt her. Jules oddly felt satisfied in seeing the memories burn as they were replaying her worst experiences. Jules then passed out.
Jules slept very well. She had no nightmares. She had no discomfort to speak of. She did not notice traveling one hundred fifty mile an hour in a corvette.
"Where am I?"
Until now.
"Going to your mother's house."
"What?"
Jules opened her eyes to see a blur of highway. She looked down at herself to see she was wearing a sun dress.
"How did I get here?"
"I put you here."
Jules hit Aeon in the arm as if she were trying to stab him with her fist. She did so repeatedly.
"Will you stop that, please, I'm driving."
"You don't have a licence."
"I do so. I got one in 1908."
"You saw me naked, didn't you?"
Jules started hitting him harder.
"I did no such thing. I commanded the dress you're wearing to assert itself onto you."
"You did what?"
"Magic."
"Magic? I'm a little tired of magic right now."
"Thanks to a little magic you're not tired at all."
"What the hell did you do to me?"
"I made you stronger, faster, better than you were before."
"What did you do to me?"
"I have given you a parasite I like to call a Hell's Compassion."
"I still have it? I think I"m going to be sick."
"Not in the vette."
"And where the hell did you get this from?"
"I bought it."
"With what money?"
"My money."
"This is a hundred thousand dollar car, where did you get that kind of money."
"I have my money. I used to make a trip to the bank when toilet paper ran out but occasionally it lets me buy a nice contraption."
"Is it still today?"
"It's always today."
"That's not what I mean. How long ago was I barfing?"
"That's a very ladylike expression."
"I'm not feeling ladylike."
"Three hours ago."
"Really?"
Jules stretched in the seat, she felt like she'd waken up from a year of sleep, and she was ready to burst with energy.
"No reason."
Jules mother lived by herself, technically. Jules father lived next door on the same property when he was in town. Neither of them believed in divorce but neither felt like acting like a couple. The corvette kicked up a dirt cloud as it pulled into the front of the house after coming off the dirt road. Jules got out of the car and stretched. Aeon was got out of the car and went from being half dressed and unkempt to being well groomed in nice clothes. Jules mother came from around the back to greet her daugther.
"Julia, I love that dress, where did you get it from. I must have one."
Julia gave her mother a hug.
"It was a gift."
"Hi, Jules Mom."
"Oh, hello, is this your car?"
"Yes it is."
Jules mother asked her under her breath "Who's this show off?"
"Mother, this is Mr. A." Jules inexplainably answered. She meant to say Aeon.
"Oh, what does the A stand for?"
"Something from the old country with lots of syllables. Call me Ian."
"Well, Ian, let's all go inside. You can call me Helen."
Inside the house, there was a dinner of chicken and salad prepared. The chicken was dry and the salad sparse. For drinks there was ice tea. It's a sad meal that the drink was the most enjoyable aspect. The conversation was more sparse than the salad.
"I must say, Julia, you look incredible. Maybe I should clean out Mother's house if it has such a good effect."
"I think I should take credit for that, Helen."
"Oh? How so?"
"Oh, couple tricks, wearing different clothes and surrounding yourself with nice things."
"That sounds like some hairbrain feng shui."
"Oh, you follow feng shui?"
"Don't believe in it."
"Really? I'd have thought you did by the looks of your home."
Aeon looked around the home. There was not much to speak of. Photos were of dead people, not the living, and none that Aeon could see were of her child. There was no art of any kind. Not the visual kind or the musical kind. If Jules had the glasses, she would see nothing. The mother had managed to keep her life perfectly neutral. After dinner, Aeon pulled Jules aside.
"Say what you will of the fiends but at least they offer hope and pleasure."
"What do you mean?"
"This place is pure neutral."
"Isn't that good?"
"Think of it as seesaw perfectly balanced. You have one fat kid on one end and another fat kid on the other. If one end touches down, you get a chaotic but occasional euphoric feeling and other you get a joyous content feeling you get bored of. The transition is the only part that really sucks. She's in constant transition."
"What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing."
"Hey, mother, can I talk to you about something."
"Sure."
"Aeon, would you excuse me."
Aeon left the room.
"Mom, what are the plans after we sell grandma's house?"
"What do you mean?"
"After we sell the house, what do you and Dad have planned for the money?"
"Your father will have nothing to do with the sale."
"Well, what do you plan to do with the money?"
"I plan to keep it."
"For what?"
"Myself."
Jules didn't know where she was going with the conversation but she had two instincts. One was pushing her to get money for some goal. The other was sheer annoyance with her mother.
"Julia, all you have to do is have the house clean and her car is yours. I don't know why you even need that with your friend and his fancy car."
"Because it's his car, not mine."
"What do you need a car for? Your work is walking distance from your apartment. Public transport can get you anywhere. You're going to spend a fortune on parking."
"That car is going to get me better jobs. Better jobs will pay for my education. You're not going to question why I want to finish college are you?"
"Let's be honest, Julia, you've been in college since you were eighteen and now you're twenty four. How many years would it take to finish your bachelors at the rate you're going?"
"With the right job, I could get it done in one year."
Jules mother looked at her indifferently.
"It's your life dear. You decide what you want to do."
"Seeing as how I finished Grandma's house. I'd like to drive the car."
"I'd have to transfer it to you."
"The car is here isn't it?"
"Yes, but do you have insurance?"
"This was all done a while ago, Dad said he did it."
"Your father does not have the authority to do it."
"Are you kidding me?"
"When your father comes home, I'll be sure to discuss with him and then discuss with you what will happen. Then, and only then, will you drive that car."
"Everything okay in here?"
Aeon came in from outside.
"Everything is good, Mr. A. Right, Julia?"
"Yeah, will you excuse me?"
Jules went into the bathroom. She locked the door and gritted her teeth as she vented her frustration. In the past, an argument like that would result in Jules crying and having anxiety. As Jules looked in the mirror, she fully realized how different she was. Her skin was less flawed. Her face had no lines. Her hair was smoother, even the dyed bangs she had were more vibrant. Jules examined herself in the dress. The dress fit perfectly. Her ass stuck out just right, her waist was slender, and she had bigger boobs. Jules pulled out her mother's scale and got naked to weigh herself. She weighed the same thing she did in highschool. She was at her freshman year weight and she was six inches taller than when she was a freshman. Jules stood up against the wall and noticed that she was in fact seven inches taller than when she was a freshman. Out of curiosity, Jules went closer to the mirror and opened her mouth. She wanted to see if she could find that wonderful creature. All she saw was perfect teeth.
"So you own all seven Harry Potters?"
Jules approached the room where she imagined a hilarious conversation was taking place.
"Yes."
"Do you own all seven films?"
"There are eight films."
"Why are there eight?"
"They needed one more film to do the seventh book justice."
"Did they?"
"Eh."
"Do you recommend I start with the films of the books?"
"The books, definitely the books."
"Okay, I'll read the books."
"I can't believe a man like yourself wouldn't have already read Harry Potter."
"Never did get into fantasy novels." Aeon turned to Jules. "Ready to go?"
"Yes, I think so."
Jules and Aeon said goodbye. In the car ride, Aeon was silent. Jules spoke first.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"Making me the way I am now."
"How so?"
"For one, I'm getting less and less afraid of you. Got any more worms you could shove up my ass? I got hotter after the first one."
"I'll take that as a compliment. You're personality has changed."
"I think so. So what were you two talking about?"
"Your mother reads Harry Potter and Twilight."
"Do you know what those are?"
"While I was on the internet, I saw a good deal of hate directed towards Twilight. Also, there was a lot of young teenage girls and a lot of people posing as young teenage girls acting as a fan base for it. It was the same for Harry Potter and Justin Bieber."
"What do you think of them?"
"I don't think of them. Humans have always managed to hyperbolize things they don't understand. I walked into a Hall once where the king boasted he killed a demon wolf with his barehands. I had created this wolf. I take pride in my work so I want to meet the man that can kill something I made with his barehands. Naturally, I get to talking to him and it comes out that it wasn't his barehands. But it wasn't his sword and it wasn't his boys helping him. He did do it by himself. Turns out, he managed to sneak up on it and push a boulder down a hill while it slept. So for the next forty fucking years, everyone remembered the good old king who killed a demon wolf with his bare hands."
"Why would you make a demon wolf?"
"Because I could. Anyway, the point is that humans like to tell stories. With Harry Potter as opposed to me, is that as you can see, I don't carry a wand. I don't have to call out what spell I'm doing. There is no school for wizardry."
"Are you born into it?"
"Was I born into it? No, came across individuals that were into magic and I happened to luck out."
"Could I be a witch?"
"Sure, just find something to make a contract with."
"Contract?"
"Contracts are a wizards great source of power. I want this, you help me do it, I get you what you want, and everyone's happy."
"So you have to sacrifice some virgin?"
"I never got into that. Don't get me wrong, there's tons of sacrificial rituals. It's also a matter of sustainability. If I have to kill one hundred virgins every year on a specific date, I have to find a town that can produce one hundred virgins and replenish one hundred virgins in the year. That's another thing humans get wrong. Souls are the one and only thing really valuable at death and they've got two of the biggest bastards in the game already claiming ownership. Unless you're appeasing someone's entertainment craving, it's useless."
"How many wizards are there?"
"Hundreds, thousands, millions if you count poser goth kids and the people you see at incense shops."
"Are you powerful?"
"Excuse me while I answer your question."
A burning circle appeared in the middle of the road. Aeon drove the car through the circle. Jules screamed as the car drove through a crowd of walking skeletons. In the distance, she could see great pillars.
"See those over there, they're made of skulls and femurs."
Another circle appeared in front of the car and Aeon drove through that. Jules was very greatful the windows were up because they were driving on the moon.
"If NASA is so great, why would they leave the equipment here? See if you can find that golf ball."
"How are we breathing?"
"I don't know, it's a little stuffy in here."
Aeon rolled down his window and Jules screamed in horror and bent into the fetal position.
"You're funny. What are you so worried about?"
Jules looked up and saw that they were on the same highway as before.
"were we really driving through those places or was that in my head?"
"I'd go with the cooler answer... Brace yourself." Aeon yelled loudly, Jules looked into the distance and saw nothing. But then she saw the car, it was a serene feeling, she was upside down, looking at the car that she was just riding in, and then she saw the road really close to her face that resembled the road.
Jules opened her eyes to see what was left of the corvette overturned. There were deep claw marks all over the chassis. The fluids were spilling onto the road. Jules managed to get up and look around. She was surprised she wasn't as hurt as a crash would surely kill her. She looked around and saw nothing, it was odd for a highway. Looking at the corvette, she could see octopus tendrils coming from underneath the ground with a luminous green gel as the source. The octopus tendrils slowly dragged the car wreckage into the earth.
Jules could see the rest of the wreckage disappearing the same way. Jules began to hear boots on the ground. When she turned to look her eyes were blinded with a powerful light.
"On the ground." Voices yelled.
"Hands and head on the ground or we shoot you."
Jules could see men with guns pointed at her head. From behind her she could feel a large man grabbing at her wrist. Jules heard the clicking of hand cuffs and instinctively shot her elbow into his neck. She felt the contact and did it repeatedly. When the man fell to the ground she found half the one cuff fastened to her wrist. She instinctively closed the other half and held it in her hand to load her first. Jules ran away from the light and the men with guns but heard a shot and felt something stab her in the back of the leg.
"Someone bind her and load her up. And burn the weakling."
Jules was groggy and sedated. She managed to stay concious in the van ride, if only barely. A bag was placed over her head and she was walked into what she guessed was an elevator. The end of her trip was a room that was very warm, Jules heard the sound of a fire, and she put in a very soft chair and injected with something. The bindings and bag were removed, Jules realized she was in a study with book shelves and a fireplace across a desk from a blond woman in a black dress.
"Good evening, Jules, I can call you Jules? I feel like I've known you forever."
"Uh, who are you?"
"Ah, so sorry, introductions, Jules, I'm Elena."
Elena had very blue eyes. She had skin like marble, smooth and white. Jules studied her and was part attracted and frightened.
"well, I must apologize, I simply wanted to talk to you but I must have been not clear. The men who roughed you up will be dead and butchered by morning, we can eat their meat for breakfast."
Jules stomach dropped and she realized she was dealing with someone from Aeon's crowd.
"That's very nice of you but I..."
"Oh, come on, Jules, you'd be doing me a favor. There were four men that collected you, I'd have to eat for weeks on them. My chef isn't so well versed with cooking humans. Besides, they're going to kill themselves tonight anyway. I gave them strict orders that you would not be harmed and they did not follow those orders. If I can't trust them to follow instructions, I can't use them. But waste not want not."
"Uh, I, um..."
"Jules, pet phrases like uh and um are so unbecoming."
"Ms. Elena..."
"Miss Elena, if you will, I'm not married and I don't subscibe to Miss Steinem's word."
"Miss Elena, I was with someone at the moment, I was... I was in the car, than I was out of the car, and now I'm here. Could you tell me where here is?"
"My home."
"Right, your home, and the man I was with before I was with you?"
"He's around here somewhere. You see, me and your benefactor, Aeon is what he's calling himself now? Anyway, me and Aeon have a history. You see, he's been missing for the past century and he and I have so much to discuss."
"You say he's here?"
"Yes, I hope you don't mind, I'm using you as means to get to him. But I am curious, what do you think of him?"
"Think of him? I've only known him for two days. The majority of which I've been passed out or self medicated."
"Yes, he is a bit too much at first."
"Would it be alright to ask if this is something I can expect to happen a lot with him?"
"You being abducted on account of him? It's quite possible. He has a knack for trouble and he enjoys seeing others suffer."
"Really?" A voice streamed through the room.
The entrance double door opened and the fireplace blew out like a giant candle. Aeon entered the room. He brought a very cold chill into the room. Elena remained seated. Jules as well but for different reasons.
"Elena, it's good to see you. You could have called or sent a telegram. They have these internet mails now. Did you know that? Why they put E instead of I for internet is beyond me. The stunt you pulled though could have been in better taste."
"Aeon, where have you been?"
Elena got up and walked over to him.
"Ah, ah, ah, keep your distance, woman, I remember you have a distaste for dogs." A growling noise was heard. Jules could see no dog though.
"A hound? You bring a hound into my home?"
"You're messenger dragged and destroyed my car that I bought with my own money, not to mention that I was still in the car when it dragged everything to the inbetween. If this hound should tear apart this room, I would consider us even."
Jules could hear the growling and see the floor be gouged by invisible claws.
"Stop that right now, this floor is one of a kind wood. I admit I might have over reacted but after one hundred years of no word and then I find you with a mortal."
"You found me with a charge and one that you knew about. You know my contract with her forefather. If you're upset that you couldn't find me, let me remind you that I was sealed away and in the possession of that family that you knew about. If you're upset that I was lost, you could have easily figured out where I was."
Jules looked like she had been slapped in the face. She had tears in her eyes. She began muttering something Jules couldn't understand. She then leaped onto Aeon locked her arms and legs around him. It was then that Jules realized that she had been abducted because Aeon's girlfriend missed him.
"Jules, Aeon, I'm sorry for causing you trouble. Please stay the night. Be my guests." Elena shot a look at Aeon. Jules was pretty sure it was the "you're staying in my room with me in my bed look". "Aeon, that dog must go though. Chauncey, see the dog outside." A man at the end of the hallway appeared.
"Go play, boy." Aeon told the invisible dog. Chauncey over at the end of the hall was knocked down and picked up, he was obviously in the dogs jaws as a chew toy.
"Come, Jules, I'll show you to your room."
Elena lead Jules to a giant room filled with furniture from forgotten empires and a bed the size of a swimming pool that was twice as soft as water. Elena led Jules to the bed.
"Again, I must apologize for my behavior."
"No, no need," Jules said out of fearful reverence, "I think it's natural to over react."
"So how was your first day with him?"
"Well, it's hard to comprehend. For me at least it is. I met him, I've had fire shoved in my head, worms thrown down my throat, I barfed negativity, I think I"ve been to Hell, I've been abducted, and I don't think that bothers me."
"How so? Has he been fiddling with your head?"
"Maybe. It's been a good day though. I woke up, I had a lot of great new things, almost like christmas, I had a fight with my mother that didn't leave me an emotional wreck, I think I went to the moon, and it feels like I'm a whole new person."
"Makes you wonder what tomorrow's going to bring."
"I honestly can't wait."
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Wonderful story.