Chapter #77A Gift from Kenandandra by: Seuzz   My God, it actually hurts to not call Kendra back. Your eye keeps going back to the phone, even after you've laid it on your desk and propped yourself up on the bed with a notepad. A couple of times it buzzes, and you dive for it as instinct takes over. But they are meaningless little questions or messages from classmates, about schoolwork or who is going to be wearing what to class tomorrow. It irritates you that you have to deal with them, and it irritates you that prefer to ignore them, and it irritates you that it all irritates you so.
You close your eyes and let your head fall back. You hear voices from downstairs. Your brother and your dad talking while watching TV. Your mother is on one of her exercise machines. Your room is directly over the laundry room, and a buzzer goes off. If you could only escape the noises, the bother, the distractions— But the only places you know are loud (coffee bars) or lame (libraries). If you could retreat inside yourself—
Pfft. Chelsea, you're such a ditz. You dive inside yourself and find your essentia, and gulp hard as you surface again. You close your eyes again, let your breathing become regular, and sink into a shallower place.
Kenandandra appears. It hovers before you, burning. It holds your eye and your mind rapt. And as you stare at it, you realize it is staring back at you.
You feel yourself cracking, and something molten pours forth. You are swallowed up inside Kenandandra, like liquid iron into a mold.
* * * * *
You raise your head and blink stupidly. The bedroom light burns harshly. You look over at the clock. 2:34.
Oh, Jesus! You sit up , feeling stiff all over. Your right hand is cramped, and you shake the pencil from it. In your left hand is that notebook.
The paper is covered in a complex sigil. As you stare at it, its design and purpose fills your mind.
You smile broadly. You didn't even consciously know you wanted this. But it is perfect.
* * * * *
"Gordon, come on, I'm serious, I need your help." You try pulling away, but your boyfriend pulls you back into an embrace and mashes his lips against your forehead.
"I'm trying to get 'em off you, Chels," he says, and reaches under your blouse for the hooks on your bra.
"I don't mean that. I need you to get one of your friends up here."
"Oh, you mean for a threesome?" Gordon's grin goes broad and lopsided. "Who? Kendra? Gloria? Ma—"
"One of your friends! Jesus!" You shove him; it's like pushing a brick wall.
He starts to turn red. "I'm not gonna share you with—"
"Christ, can you let me talk to Frank instead?"
Gordon passes red and into purple. "It's only one person in here," he says. "Like you explained, these faces are just masks. Talking to Frank will be just like—"
Your sigh is ragged. "Then why are you getting so pissed off, the way Gordon always does?"
"Why are you being such a cocktease the way Chelsea always is? You promised me that we'd pop our cherries with these bodies today at lunch in the fuck room. Well, we're here in the fuck room." He gestures. "And it's lunch time."
"Like I told you on the drive to school, I had another breakthrough last night. That's why I had you take us by Straussler's to pick up the sigil board."
"You said we'd be doing that after school."
"We will. But I want to show you now, because we'll be using it a lot after school, and we need a head start so we'll know who to—"
"Can't you just tell me what it does?"
"It's best if I show you. Now, will you please call Steve or Jason or another one of those idiots?" You turn your back on him to unpack two blank masks from your backpack. Honestly, if you're going to be in charge, the least that your companions can do is follow your orders.
When you turn back around, Gordon is grunting into his phone. "Lynch on his way up," he says as he puts it away.
"What happened to Steve?"
"Look, if you want Steve instead of Jason—"
"It doesn't matter to me, sweetie. I was just asking what happened to Steve. I haven't seen him today."
Gordon just kicks at the floor, and you don't press it. Neither of you speaks until you hear the creak of footsteps outside. "Grab him when he comes in," you say. "I'll get the mask onto him."
"New technique, huh?" snorts Gordon. "Sounds pretty old-fashioned to—"
The door opens and Jason Lynch sticks his head in. His clear blue eyes shine with a friendly light, and his sandy hair gleams. But he cackles, and in that cackle you hear the psychotic bully. "You guys decent? I hope not, 'cos—"
The door bangs open and Jason flies across the room, crashing hard against a wooden pillar. He spins around, and his eyes bulge as something big and invisible presses him against it.
"Gordon!" you cry. "What are you doing? That's Frank's—"
"You said to grab him!"
"With your hands! You don't need to— What are doing running Frank's essentia anyway?"
"I switched back into last night, didn't switch back. Helped me deal with my dad."
"Your dad?" you gasp. "Gordon, you didn't use that fist of Frank's against him, did you?"
"You think I'm an idiot? Even if I did, he'd just get his cop buddies to—" He glances over at Jason, who is making choking noises. "Shouldn't you get that mask onto him?"
You march over to Lynch and slap the mask against his face; it vanishes into him. "Well, as long as you know what you're doing." Gordon releases Jason, who flops heavily to the floor.
"And as long as you know what you're doing," he retorts. He squints down at Lynch. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"Making a new toy for you. A golem and a new disguise." You giggle. "You're gonna love this. Now, you have to put on this mask." You hand him the second blank. "Part of the design," you add when he frowns.
Ten minutes later you have a mask of Jason and a mask of Gordon. The originals are naked, and Jason—still unconscious—is sprawled across the sigil, which has bottles and your new sigil placed at strategic spots. You hold up your arms, then gasp. "Oh, jeepers, maybe we should wait till after school to do this."
"Now what?" Gordon explodes. "I told you—"
"Yeah, but I wasn't thinking about the noise it makes. You know, that thundering when we strip people of their imago. Someone's bound to hear and they might think it's a school shooter."
"We can't let Lynch go! Not after what I did to him when he—"
"Well, check out the window. Maybe it's getting ready to rain."
"It's not getting ready to— Just do whatever the fuck you're planning on doing."
You grit your teeth and close your eyes. Maybe if you're extra careful—
The first lightning strike almost blows you off your feet. "Just hurry up and get it over with," Gordon hisses.
You strip Jason of his imago, essentia, and anima in three big strokes. "Okay, your turn, pookie."
"Mine?"
"Sure, if I'm going to give you his face."
"What do I want Jason Lynch's body for? Did you see how tiny his pecker is?"
"This isn't about— I can't show what the new spell does if you don't—"
"You're gonna have to! The state you're in, Chelsea, I don't trust you to get it right."
"I'm not using Chelsea's essentia, I'm using mine. Kenandandra and—"
"I'm not talking about your essentia, I'm talking about your nerves!"
"Fine, I guess I can show you his half. But you're gonna want the rest of it after I show you! Put your mask—not that one, the one with your face, Gordon's face, in it. Put it over there." You vibrate in place. "Oh, and I need some of your hair. Shift back over to Gordon's essentia."
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to make him your slave. You can't order him around if you're not running Gordon's essentia."
"Well, who's gonna know if I'm running Frank's?"
"Let's just keep things straight! I don't think you'd wanna waste Frank's essentia on a cocksucker like Lynch anyway."
Gordon grumbles and falls to the floor cross-legged. He turns very white for a moment, then plucks some hair from the back of his neck. You put in he proper position and raise your arms again.
* * * * *
Gordon peers at the figure. "And why am I supposed to be impressed with this?"
"Don't you see?" You wave your hand across Jason's face, and he blooms up again into Gordon's twin. Another wave over his face, and he shrinks back into Jason's form. Both transformations leave the golem blinking stupidly. "If you had Jason's imago, you could just turn yourself into Jason and him into Gordon with just a wave of the hand. Swap places without using masks!"
"Why would I want to switch with Lynch?"
"It's the principle of the thing," you sigh. "Look, you'll have a bunch of golems. With this trick, you can step in for any of them. Just get some place private with them, and half a second and a change of clothes later—"
"Yeah, and you could just give me one of those control sigils, and put the remote on him."
"Then your real body would be unconscious. This is just like swapping with masks, except it takes only a few seconds." You pause. "I was gonna start turning some of my girl friends into golems after school. Unless you wanna work on the basketball team then."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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