Fuck me, I hoped that happiness wouldn’t give way to something else entirely.
The ritual finished. The bowls were scattered around the apartment.
I threw Ty’s sweatshirt and boxers to him.
“Holy shit,” Ty said.
“No kidding,” Alexis said.
“No, I mean… wow, holy shit.”
“He can see,” I said.
“Like you explained,” Alexis said.
I nodded.
“Holy shit,” Ty said. He looked at Evan with eyes that were too bright. A lingering, very personal effect, like my tattoos had been.
“Hi,” Evan said.
“Shit on me. Hi, bird.”
“Evan,” Evan said.
“Evan, sorry.”
“Be careful,” I said. “Hyperbole is bad. You can’t lie now. Might want to cut back on the swearing.”
Ty nodded. “Did I do that right? The bit where the objects came up?”
“I used one word answers most of the way through. I think it’s flexible. You’re… I dunno, making yourself known, on a fundamental level. The ideas are more important than the words. It worked, so it probably wasn’t wrong.”
He nodded.
Eye on the clock. There wasn’t a lot of time. I glanced at Nick. “Can you take Ty out? Give him a rundown, or take him where you know there’s something he could bind?”
“Not really our thing, binding on the fly,” Nick said. “But I could teach him the basic runes.”
“Please,” I said.
“Sure.”
“Rest of us clean up, set things up anew, and then the next person takes their turn,” I said.
■
I watched as the knife came up for Alexis. I leaned against the wall, so the corner by the kitchen meant I couldn’t see her, but I could see the area in front of her.
“Sculpting. Carving,”
The Stonehenge charm.
“Stonehenge was for keeping track of phases of the moon, right? Female, I guess?”
The dreamcatcher.
“Bondage.”
The cat skull.
“Violence.”
The tarnished coin.
“Pride.”
The rose.
“Pain.”
Her personal item.
I hadn’t seen when she put it in the bowl. I saw now. Three molars, attached to a plate.
Dentures?
“This one feels important. If I’m supposed to clue the supernatural world into who I am, make my signature as I step through the door, then… this is pretty fitting. We’re flawed, people are. We’re damaged. We come into the world nearly perfect, naked, and happy and then life delivers the beatdown. It kicks our asses and makes us feel like shit. It does permanent damage. Bad luck, people, our own mistakes. I want to work hard at things I love, find the good, be one of the people who fix instead of break. Who loves instead of hates, in my twisted manner of loving, I guess. I want to make as few mistakes as possible… and I say that as a smoker. So maybe stick a small ‘hypocrite’ label on me too, while you’re at it.”
The bowl rotated out of view.
“Yeah,” she said, as the next bowl rotated into view. “That’s about right.”
Words said to greet and pay respect to the Others.
Then the pledge.
The room brightened.
Alexis took her time before she gave the ok.
I looked. She was mostly dressed.
She took more time to find the bowl with the teeth. She picked them up, then opened her mouth wide to set them in place.
Her coarse hair shifted as if in a gentle breeze. A juxtaposition of the supernatural and very natural.
“Hi,” Evan greeted her, as she approached me.
She smiled and raised a hand in a wave, then came to my side, leaning her head back against the wall, eyes closed. Taking it all in.
Tentatively, I took her hand and squeezed it. I saw her smile, her eyes still closed.
■
Only Tiffany remained. I had more reservations about her than anyone.
I was growing more and more aware of the time limit. I felt anxious as she went through her paces, for several reasons.
I was glad to see the items find their place. The knife.
“Dangerous if not handled with care.”
The charm.
“Deceptively simple, has history.”
The dreamcatcher.
“Need to think outside the box, sometimes, to find your dreams, or to find the right ones.”
The cat skull.
“Frightening when laid bare… or beautiful? I can’t decide. Both.”
The rose.
“Symbolic, pretty, almost useless.”
The personal item.
An AA chip.
“Not mine. But my entire life, I’ve been defined by other people. I’m hoping this is when I can define myself. Get a little power, when I’ve always felt so powerless. I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with my new friends, find some courage. This is… it’s a reminder of broken promises. That reminder shaped me into who I am now. Flawed and broken, like Alexis said. But there’s a certain strength in rules, and I can feel good about myself when I swear to myself that I won’t drink, that I won’t do drugs, that I won’t betray my family. I like that I’m sticking to these rules now. If you… if whoever is listening now was listening before, maybe I didn’t sound certain. But now that the rules are setting in place, I’m feeling more sure. I want to become reliable, and I will, with your help.”
The bowl moved on.
I drew in a deep breath, then exhaled.
She paid homage to the Others, then said the words that sealed the deal.
The indicators of power were short lived, explosive. A rush of light as the circle spent itself, then illumination for the entire room.
By the time she was dressed, which didn’t take long, the effect was long gone.
“Hi!” Evan called out.
“Hi,” Tiffany said.
It was done.
I had a circle now.
And I had no more time.
“There’s no time to teach you guys,” I said. “Which means strict, simple tasks.”
“Strict and simple sounds good to start with,” Ty said.
Forty five minutes. Discounting the time it took to drive…
“Nick, want to help me out? My friends need a fifteen minute crash course in magic.”
“I’m not that knowledgeable.”
“Me either,” I said. “But it’s going to have to do. We gotta deal with Conquest.”