The Talented Blackwoods Chapter 9

The girl, or thing, called Lucy was standing totally still on the front drive, hands at her sides. She looked like a girl from a fairy story, thought Jason, who was the only one who could see her. She had blonde hair tied in two bunches and wore a pretty pink dress and matching sandals. She looked around eight years old. Jason found her creepy – even creepier than the loathsome creatures that lurked in the trees on either side of the driveway, their oil-like forms squirming through the undergrowth, some up high, wrapped around branches like great, dark pythons. She also reminded him a little of Sally, who lived across the road, although she was annoying rather than creepy.

Jason had first seen the girl Lucy about an hour earlier. She’d looked up at the window of the bedroom where he had gone for some peace and quiet and waved at him. His first instinct had been to call for his Aunty Stella, and she had come at great speed, obviously detecting the sheer terror in his voice.

“What does she look like?” Aunty Stella had asked, and when Jason had described the girl to her, Aunt Stella had gasped, and there was terror in that sound too.

Despite her fear, Aunty Stella had eventually projected her astral body in order to communicate with the demon that called itself Lucy. Apparently, it had demanded a meeting with his grandmother, Miriam, who was now heading back from the hospital.

Jason had hoped that today would be the day his father got better, but now, thanks to the arrival of the Lucy demon, that looked unlikely.

“Is she still there?” David sidled up beside him. The rest of the family members were gathered in the living room, waiting for Miriam’s return. Jason had hung back in the dining room, where he had a better view of the demon girl. While she terrified him, the thought of not knowing where she was felt worse. He nodded in response to his cousin’s question.

“I wonder why it wants to speak to grandmother,” said David. “Surely she can’t really be respected among demons. She’s just a crazy old bat. You’re probably more gifted than she is.”

Jason could tell from David’s tone that this wasn’t a compliment.

“What is she doing?” asked David.

Jason knew his cousin was irritated that he was able to see the demons without having to be on the astral plane.

“Just standing,” he replied. “Waiting, I guess.”

David tutted. “Aren’t we all?”

Half an hour later, Jason saw his mother’s car turn onto the driveway from the road. He ran to the living room to alert the others. They all looked up as if he’d awoken them from a dream.

“Right,” said Aunty Stella, standing and heading for the front door. “I guess it’s show time.”

“Careful,” said Dale, who was sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to his chest.

“Don’t worry,” said Aunty Stella, pulling open the front door.

Jason had followed her into the hallway, keen to be reunited with his mother. He saw the first of the creatures slink past his aunty and into the cottage. It stood on its hind legs, like a giant centipede, bulbous eyes fixed on Jason. He screamed.

“Aunty Stella, there’s a demon in the hall!”

“What?” As Aunty Stella turned to look at him, more of the things burst past her. She shivered, obviously sensing their presence.

From the corner of his eye, Jason saw David running up the stairs and heard a door slam.

“How many are there?” asked Aunty Stella.

But Jason was too terrified to form a response. There were at least six of them, squirming along the walls, converging in the sitting room doorway, sniffing out their prey.

“What’s going on?” asked Miriam, as she and his mother reached the house.

“What’s wrong with Jason?” his mother demanded, running to crouch at his side.

Another of the creatures crawled through the front door, but this one didn’t head to the living room it jumped onto Aunty Stella’s back and hung from her, its clawed finger gripping her neck.

“What is it, Jason?” Aunty Stella asked, seeing the look of horror on his face.

One of the things bolted from the living room and leapt upon his grandmother, who let out a cry as it settled on her back, burrowing into the folds of her clothing.

“Is there one on me?” she asked, slapping at her shoulders. Her hands passed through the creature nestled there.

Aunty Stella slammed the front door and hurried back to the living room.

“Jason,” she called, and reluctantly he followed her, his mother and grandmother close by.

As he entered the room, one of the things skulked over to him, circling his legs like an evil cat.

“Jason, do we all have one of those things attached to us?” his aunty asked.

Jason scanned his relatives. Several of the demons were snaking around the furniture as if marking their territory.

“Aunty Stephanie does,” he said, eyeing the thing currently sniffing Stephanie’s unruly hair. “And you do, and Grandma does. My mum doesn’t, and nor does Dale.”

Dale was still huddled on the floor, fringe hiding his face.

“Dale?” said Aunty Stella.

“What?” Dale mumbled through his hair shield.

“Did you remove the protective symbols from above the door?”

Dale didn’t respond.

“Why would he do that?” demanded Stephanie.

“To get away from you!” yelled Dale, suddenly standing. “I met with that demon last night, the one outside, the one that’s behind all this, except it didn’t look like a child then, it looked like a very attractive woman.”

“You walked on the astral plane?” asked Miriam.

“I figured I’d be safe enough as long as my body was inside the cottage.”

“What did it offer you in return for betraying your family?” asked Aunty Stella.

Dale laughed. “Family! Is that what you call yourselves? You all know what she’s like.” He pointed at his mother, who tried to look indignant. “Dragging me from one hotel to another while she worked her little gift, and then forcing me to use mine once she realised no-one wanted her any more. None of you stepped in. That’s what real family would have done. It offered me money, that’s all, enough money to get away from her.”

“It won’t keep its word, Dale,” said Aunty Stella, her voice now soft and non-accusing.

“Well, I’m the only Blackwood without a demon latched onto me, so it's kept its word so far,” Dale replied.

Jason felt a tingling sensation on his shoulder. He turned sharply and saw the Lucy demon standing just inches from him.

“Tell your grandmother I’d like to speak to her outside,” she said, in a horrifyingly high voice.

Jason spluttered the message out, and his grandmother scowled.

“She doesn’t seriously expect me to leave my body with a bloody demon ready to slip inside the minute I’m out of it?”

“Tell her she has my word that no demon will enter her body while we are speaking,” said Lucy. “I have a proposition for her that could end all this.”

Again, Jason conveyed the message as best he could, stumbling over some of the words.

His grandmother looked around at her gathered family members and sighed.

“I suppose I have no choice,” she said, her voice growing louder as if she were speaking to a much bigger audience. “Tell it I need to go upstairs and lie down somewhere quiet. I will be down as soon as I can.”

“Mother, are you sure?” asked Stella as his grandmother swept from the room and up the stairs, demon still clutched to her back.

***

Miriam peered down at the seemingly innocent girl. She looked as she remembered from thirty-odd years earlier, complete with freckles and pigtails. She was like a drawing from a children’s book. Just the right look to entrap a young girl into inviting her in. All those years ago, Miriam had managed to trick Lucy into leaving Stella for Leonard because Lucy had liked the idea of wielding power in the creative, influential world of movies. And Miriam had convinced Leonard that inviting the creature into his body would cure his terminal cancer, although she’d stressed to him that he mustn’t reveal to Lucy about his illness until she was settled inside him. Miriam had read in one of her mother’s old books that once a demon like Lucy has taken up residence in a new body, they can’t flit back to a previous host without, once again, being invited. Neither man nor demon had got what they wanted from the arrangement. When Leonard died six months later, the demon had been left without a host. Miriam had known Lucy would return one day with an ultimatum. She’d expected it much sooner. But she hadn’t anticipated what the demand would be.

“I want your grandson,” said Lucy in her sweet, unassuming voice.

“Jason?” asked Miriam, horrified.

“No, the other one. The one that has a screw slightly loose. I met him the other day. I pretended to be a boy called William. I thought he might crave a male friend with whom he could have intelligent conversations, but he ran like the wind at the suggestion that I join with him.”

“Well, what can I do?” asked Miriam. “He won’t listen to me.”

“No, but you could skulk into his dreams, find out what does attract him, what he desires, and then I can lurk close by for when he next ventures out, take the form of the person he most wants and trick him into inviting me in. The thing about David is that he talks a lot, but he doesn’t actually reveal much about what is going on in his head. Not the important stuff, the stuff I can use.”

“David isn’t stupid,” said Miriam. “Annoying, but not stupid. He won’t fall for your tricks the way Stella did.”

“That’s why I need to get it right the first time,” said Lucy. “I can’t afford for him to suspect what I’m up to. I need the form I take to be so appealing he loses his senses.”

“I think you may find fooling that boy a challenge,” stressed Miriam.

“With me, he could be so powerful,” said the demon. “Not like your stupid daughter. She was terrified of the potential we had as a unit.”

“How powerful exactly?” David, or his astral form, floated down from one of the upstairs rooms and settled on the path close by.

Lucy shimmered, briefly disappearing, then reassembling into the shape of the boy William.

“How did you avoid having one of her little army attached to you?” asked Miriam, glaring at David.

“I drew a symbol on my bedroom door like the one that was above the front door of the cottage,” said David. “It seemed to do the trick, for now anyway.”

“Seriously? It took my grandmother years to master the art of recreating that symbol. Every detail has to be exactly right for it to be effective.”

David shrugged. “I guess we’ve just discovered yet another of my talents.”

“Imagine your intellect and raw talent combined with my centuries of knowledge,” said the boy, stepping towards David, who stood his ground, showing no fear at all. How different from his original reaction to meeting William. The promise of power was obviously the only bait the demon needed.

“I seem to be doing okay without you,” said David. Miriam didn’t know whether to be irritated or impressed by his arrogance.

“With me inside you, we could create our own world on the higher levels of the astral plane, populate it with astral beings of our own making. You would be like a god.”

Even David looked taken aback by this statement.

“Granny,” he said. “I think you can leave me and William to talk alone now.”

“What about my son?” asked Miriam. “And the rest of my family?”

“As a gesture of goodwill, if David does me the honour of sharing his being with me, I will banish the feral creature from your son’s body,” replied the demon. “And I’ll call off my little army so you Blackwoods can go back to your lives. I think that’s very generous after how you treated me.”

Miriam looked from William to David. “Well?” she asked.

“Leave the grown-ups to chat,” her grandson said, and it was all Miriam could do not to slap him. Maybe when she was back in her body she would go to the room where his physical body was lying and do just that – pound his arrogant little face to pomegranate…

“Granny?” asked David.

“Fine,” she relented.

***

All eyes turned to Miriam as she entered the living room.

“I think it’s done,” she said

“Really?” Angela took two steps towards her and for a horrifying moment Miriam thought she was going to get emotional, maybe cry on her shoulder.

“What are the demons doing, Jason?” Miriam asked her grandson.

“They’re leaving,” he said, his eyes following the creatures’ departure.

“Maybe give your friends a call,” Miriam said to Stella. “See if there is any change in John.”

“I think we both know the answer to that, Granny,” said David, entering the room behind her.

On cue, the phone in the hallway began to ring. Angela ran to answer it and seconds later was sobbing and wailing, “Thank God!” As if God had had anything to do with it.

Miriam looked at David’s smug expression. For a second, she thought someone or something else looked back at her. Should she feel guilty or terrified? Had she condemned her grandson to a life of pain and servitude, or had she helped him become a monster with enormous power?

“Are you okay, David?” asked Stella. She looked concerned and maybe suspicious.

“I’ve never felt better, Aunt Stella.”

***

Jason had been lying down in one of the bedrooms but not sleeping. His mother had gone back to the hospital. She’d said she would stay the night and, if his father was up to it, come back for Jason the next day. Jason couldn’t wait to be home with both his parents, playing in the garden, maybe even trying to sell those stupid plants if they hadn’t been stolen from the wall.

Something moved in the shadows on the landing. Jason sat up, half expecting one of the terrifying demons to slither around the door.

“Who is it?” he called.

David stepped into the meagre light of the bedroom.

“It’s only me,” he said.

But one look at him and the new intensity of his gaze, the aura of otherness that surrounded him, and Jason knew that wasn’t true.

The End…for now