Brian's Choice Ch. 04

"Bullied and abused most everybody in town and got away with it," the man's wife added. "I guess somebody's prayers were answered."

"I don't think God would kill them just because someone prayed for it," his dad opined.

"He would if it meant protecting something important to him," came the counter.

"The surviving children already have a foster home," the man's wife said. "Or rather, a pair of adult slaves to do their bidding I expect. Everybody kisses up to them, even the judge. He greased the wheels for them; they even get to stay local."

"They're-" his dad choked but then continued. "Children."

"Couldn't get out the word, 'innocent'?" she countered. "Sure, there's a path to redemption for them but don't hold your breath. Oh, hello, Brian. And you must be Susan. I hear you've been a naughty boy, Brian."

"I was there too, you know," Susan added before this conversation could go the same way as the other one. "I share half the blame. We fucked up, together."

"Good choice of words," the man snarked to the consternation of his wife. "But I am glad to see the two of you accepting responsibility for it. I guess you'll be coming here with Brian now, instead of wherever you were going before?"

"Why does everybody assume I've stepped foot in a church before?"

"You're prolife. Where else would you have learned to be that way if not in church?"

"I just..." Susan drew in a shaky breath. "There are multiple reasons, but it is a life we're talking about. How could I live with myself if I destroyed it? Asking myself for the rest of my life, what my... our child could have become had I just given it a chance?" She leaned into Brian for comfort and support. "I just, couldn't. So I chose life."

"Then may God bless you all the more. And if you need any help, feel free to ask. It's going to be a scary time for you, but this Church can be your support structure if you let it."

"Can we go now?" Brian asked his father. "While it may be justified, I feel embarrassed enough for one day." This was enough to break up the conversation with everybody chortling at Brian's expense.

It was only two more groups of people that got in their way on the way out, with each having similar results, before they finally escaped.

"What fresh hell is this," Brian moaned. "For all the passages in The Bible about gossips, churches are insanely full of them."

"You did knock her up, you know," his mom countered.

"Not on purpose and you know it. Too bad we can't explain that. It would create too many questions. And everybody knows already."

Susan smirked. "Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws."

"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," his parents declared.

Susan stared at Brian, who smirked right back at her in response. "What? I come by my geek cred honest."

"So the Fureys have a bad reputation?" Susan asked, deliberately changing the subject.

Brian and Susan listened to his parents talking to them in turn.

"Seems so," his dad replied. "We've not lived here long, of course, and we've already gotten an earful."

"Indeed," his mom continued. "This isn't the first time the Fureys have been mentioned."

"Speeding through town, refusing to stop when a cop tried to pull them over, then after a crash getting arrested for it all, and yet somehow getting the cop fired and investigated for sexual harassment."

"Judges rezoning parts of the town, and local bureaucrats harassing people, to force out anybody who gets in their way."

"City council members doing their bidding on whatever they want."

"Nobody crosses the Fureys here, it seems. So yeah, people are throwing parties now over their deaths."

"When you mentioned it was the Furey girls that had raped you, that's when it became believable for us. We'd had already heard of their reputation by then."

Brian hadn't, but then again, Brian hadn't been going out of his way at church to make new friends. He was more of an introvert, and that meant he took his time with such things.

Brian's mom continued. "But now that we know about magic, the Fureys have been using magic to abuse the town, haven't they?"

"Likely," Susan said. "I didn't know any of this, just the shit the triplets have done at school. We've otherwise kept to ourselves; ostracized because nobody wanted to be our friends. There's only been one pair of girls at school that's been supportive of me, and they've had their own issues with being bullied and ostracized."

"Nobody wanted to be your friend. How much would you bet, that too is by design?"

Susan laughed morosely. "Sucker's bet."

When they got home and Brian's parents went into the kitchen to make lunch, Susan dragged Brian to their bedroom.

"What are we doing?" Brian asked as Susan rummaged around in one of her drawers for a second.

She approached him and undid his belt buckle. "You are sitting on the edge of the bed," Susan replied, pulling down his pants and underwear. "And I am giving you a blowjob."

"What? Why? I mean-"

"Yeah, you don't want to sound ungrateful about it but you don't understand what's gotten into me?" Susan grinned. "I saw you take that punishment even though none of this is your fault. This is your reward. And when it happens again, this will again be your reward. Every time you have to accept responsibility for it, you'll have this to look forward to." Susan grinned at him before taking a swig from a potion vial. Brian was able to identify it by its smell.

"Lust draft?"

"Can't send me into heat as I'm already pregnant, but it does help suppress the gag reflex." She then demonstrated what she was talking about, and at that moment Brian couldn't do anything but sit there and let her have her way with him.

"What's all this for?" Brian asked after lunch as Susan was hanging objects on the walls of the house..

"They're going to find us," she explained. "These should help protect us."

"How are they going to find us?"

"Remember, they have my wand, the first wand I ever made? They can trace that to me. And if that fails, they can mindfuck a school administrator into giving them our address."

"And you don't think we're protected enough?"

"I don't know, but there's no harm in adding to it. I wish I could test your parents' resistance. Just because you have True Faith doesn't mean they do. Frankly, I have no idea what qualifies you for it. Not many Christians have it."

"I don't know either. But we do have more protection than just that, though."

"You do?"

"Dad hasn't shown you yet, and I've not had more than just a little training at the range, but we have guns. Mom has an actual AK-47, although it won't fire more than one bullet at the pull of the trigger. Dad prefers his shotgun. Californicate wouldn't let them carry pistols, but they still own a pair and are working on conceal carry permits now that we're in Colorado. Anyway, they're loaded and ready, but kept in a gun-safe behind that closet in the hall, with a handprint scanner to quickly open it."

"Magic can make guns jam -- but it's still another threat they'd have to deal with, and jammed guns can be unjammed. And it'll be 4 against three. Anything to increase the odds of our survival."

"Well, as long as these magic items aren't religious idols, it won't hurt to have them on the walls. I guess you don't have any more of those grenades, or we could set a trap at your house for them."

"Sorry, no. Mom had me concentrating on defensive and utility stuff. One of the books has the formula to make them but it would take too long to learn. I guess that's fortunate. I did promise not to get involved. Goddamn it though, they killed my mother! I'm really regretting making that promise to you and her."

"It wouldn't be justice anyway."

"Huh?"

"If you're doing it, it's not justice. It's revenge."

"Same thing."

"We don't let victims punish the criminals who hurt them. The punishment isn't legitimized like that. The best we do is let the victims watch the trial, watch the imprisonment, and when it happens, watch the execution."

"Survivors."

"I'm sorry?"

"We're not victims. We're survivors."

"Ahh. Sorry for my poor choice of words, then. But my point still stands. It's not your responsibility to take vengeance."

"Vengeance is all that's left."

"No, there is another path -- the harder path."

"And why would I want the harder path?"

"Because it makes you a better person."

Susan thought it over for a few seconds."

"And what is this path of which you speak?"

"Let it go."

"What?"

"Let it go. Let go of the hate. Let go of the anguish. Don't let what they've done define who you are."

"You want me to forgive them?"

"If they came to you on bended knee, yes. And it's hard, because there's nothing they can do to make it right."

"I couldn't ever trust them if they even tried that."

"I never said to trust them. I never said to forget. And I definitely never said to stop defending yourself. What I am saying, is that I want you to move on from this. I want you to be better." Susan looked about ready to explode, so he let her simmer down for a minute. "Do you remember studying the Jewish Holocaust in history class? Do you remember that quote from that one woman? 'I can forgive, but I can never forget.' That's what I'm talking about."

"Why? Why would you ask this of me?"

"Because hate leads to the worst of sins. There is no bigotry without hate. All the bigotry your kind and other minorities have endured is fueled by just that. Hating somebody means you share something in common with those bigots. You can be better than that."

"Sins. This is a Christian thing."

"I'm a Disciple of Christ. I can't help see things but through that lens."

"Yet all the bigots who persecuted us were Christians."

"Yep. They're just like the people who tortured and murdered Christ. They're the ones who need Christ most of all."

"Tortured? Murdered?"

"Whipped to the point of internal organ damage. Arms spread wide, tied down with rope to a heavy log. Forced under the same whip to walk through the city like that, to a wooden pole outside the city. Nails driven through his hands and into the log. The log had a hole partially drilled out of it, at its center; this hole was placed on top of the pole, leaving him hanging from the nails. More nails were used to attach his feet to the pole. Then for the final insult, a crown of thorns was pushed onto his head. He was left like that for days, until he died from exposure and starvation."

"That's..."

"Inhumane? Yes."

"No, more than that. That's one of the old blood sacrifice witchcraft rituals. In fact, the most powerful of them."

"Well, that I did not know. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. So I guess that some of them actually did know what they were doing."

"What do you mean?"

"Christ pleaded with God about this. 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do.' I guess he was referring to most of the crowd who did this, that didn't draw power from the ritual."

"There was a crowd that supported this? How many?"

"From my understanding, thousands."

"That's another kind of power, having a ritual that large for a human sacrifice."

"Hmm. I did not know that either. Still, let go of the hate. Hate leads to suffering."

"Okay, Yoda."

"Oh, you like Star Wars too? Of course you do; you know about D&D, after all. And Hitchhiker's Guide. Geek."

She smiled a bit at his teasing. "Up until Disney bought it, anyway."

"Actually most of the problem has been traced to one person: Cathleen Kennedy, and that problem has been mostly dealt with. The Star Wars series on Disney Plus are actually pretty good."

"I boycotted Disney over the sequel trilogy," Susan admitted.

"Then we need to binge some Star Wars."

"Before you do, tell me about your sister?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Your parents said she was the wild one?"

Brian blushed, remembering his infatuation and the daydreams that remained with him even to that day. "Well, she did teach me how to kiss."

"Oh, that kind of sister," Susan said. "No wonder you didn't react as badly as I thought you would, when I told you of my origins."

"We also had a shared bathroom between our bedrooms, and no locks, if you know what I mean."

"Oh. Wow."

"Yeah, I never needed the internet to see what a naked woman looked like. But we didn't do anything beyond kiss. And I don't think mom and dad actually caught us kissing either. So I have no idea why they call her 'wild'."

"You had a crush on her though, didn't you?"

"You know how siblings fight and all that? That almost never happened with us. She'd invite me along with her when she went out, and the few times her friends tried to make her choose between them and me, well, she chose me. Me. She's a babe, like you, and smart too, like you, but in that moment it wouldn't matter if she was ugly and dumb. She chose me."

"Wow. You still have that crush on her."

Brian thought about it a moment. "Yeah, I guess I do. We never even shared that shower together."

"I know how to make that potion."

Brian gaped at her. "But... What about..."

"What about us?"

Brian nodded his head. "That's one problem, yes."

Susan blushed. "Call me perverted, but I like the idea of you knocking up other people. Like, if Leah and Tracey did call on you, I'd want a ring-side seat for that."

"So what you said during lunch the other day, that wasn't joking around? That was legit?"

"Yep. I've been thinking about it, and yes, that was legit."

"But it'd be cheating."

"How is it cheating if I'm not just okay with it, but cheering you on?"

"You'd... Share me?"

"As long as you come home to me, I'm okay with it. I've even thought about getting you a job at the fertility clinic, and letting you help clients up close and personal."

"I don't think that's how fertility clinics work."

Susan waved a hand in an arcane gesture. "Magic."

"You're insane," Brian declared.

Susan sighed dreamily. "Batshit crazy. So, what's your sister's name?"

"Amelia."

"Classy. And she sounds like my kind of girl. I'll have to thank her properly for teaching you how to kiss. You knocking her up might be just the thing."

"I have no idea how it would work out, but I don't think I could just knock my sister up then abandon her." Brian paused. "I can't believe we're even having this conversation."

"Yeah. As for long term, I don't know. I'd have to see how we got along first. I do know one thing, though."

"What?"

"This conversation is making me hot."

"This conversation is a rather overwhelming."

"You don't want to knock women up?"

"I'm a guy, Susan. There's a part of me that wants to knock everybody up, even Amy. But I'm more than just that...animal. So I'm going to deliberately change the subject here, and start watching Disney Star Wars..."

The living room windows exploded inward, catching them by surprise. This was caused by people jumping into the living room through the windows -- the triplets, hatred etched all over their faces, and dead-set on doing their family name justice. However this in turn triggered one of Susan's protections; a blast of light and sound erupted from the broken windows. For Brian and Susan, the effect was muffled enough to not daze them, but Brian could tell the triplets took the full effect. This gave the couple time to react, which was good, for the triplets had their guns out.

Their training instinctively kicked in, the current episode of The Mandalorian forgotten. Normally it's a 50/50 chance to close with an armed attacker and disarm him before he shoots you dead. Brian had practiced this in martial arts class, with water guns instead of the real thing, so he knew the odds. But with the triplets momentarily disoriented, he jumped at the opportunity. Brian quickly disarmed one of them, with Susan doing the same to another.

But this left the third, who started firing wildly. Brian flinched as a bullet came his way -- there was no time to dodge -- but it literally splashed against him, as if made of water. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Susan; she had backed away from the triplet she had disarmed and was casting some sort of spell; it must have been that spell that saved him. Getting hit by a glorified paintball did hurt, but it could have been worse, and thanks to his martial arts training he was good with pain.

Brian actually didn't know their names, but still labeled them in his mind, A B and C. When A and B started casting spells at Susan, Brian attacked A (B was too far out of reach to also attack), disrupting that effort. For her part, Susan was able to defend against the sole remaining attack; a continuous blast of energy that was deflected by her hastily erected magical shields. The force of it still hit her, though, staggering her and making her retreat under the onslaught.

But Brian couldn't do anything about it, because the triplet he was attacking fought back. It didn't take long for him to recognize her form as belonging to Shotokan Karate. Interesting that they dissed the use of martial arts in their previous encounter, yet they still knew a martial art. It wasn't one of the arts he had studied, but with his mixed martial arts background he wasn't concerned about that. What he was concerned about was how hard she was hitting. He was still able to parry her blows, but she was attacking with the strength of a man. Magic again, Brian supposed. She must have buffed herself up before crashing through the windows.

But Brian had no time to worry about that, as the Triplet C loaded in a fresh clip. Brian couldn't stop her, nor could Susan, as both were on the defensive against the first two, who were fighting like demons. They couldn't stop the triplet as she finished reloading, nor could they stop her as she took aim.

The BOOM of a shotgun blast, however, did stop her, as she dodged to the side and tiny holes appeared in the wall behind her in a classic spread pattern. Brian didn't need to see who that was; he identified the new combatant as his father, and from the angle of attack he was standing in the entrance to the hall from the living room, likely using the corner between the living room and hall as cover from Triplet C's gun.

When the girl rose back to her feet, however, she had a wand in her hand, aimed in that direction. Brian grabbed his opponent and pulled her into a grapple; in the twisting struggle that resulted he was able to catch a glimpse of what was happening behind him. Around the corner and into the hallway, he could see his dad holding his shotgun, but the weapon was at a strange angle now. She had magically grabbed the shotgun and was trying -- and succeeding -- in turning it around to point at him. The image reminded him of movie-Magneto ripping guns out of the hands of his enemies and using the guns against them. Fortunately she wasn't as strong as he was in the movie, for dad still had his hold on the gun and was fighting her efforts.

But behind him was mom, with her AK-47. She fired wide of the girl, but it was enough to make her split her attention between them both. Now, she was turning both guns against their wielders, but used against two people at the same time, the process was much slower. Interesting that the girl wasn't using magic directly on his parents, but rather on the guns. Seems they weren't taking any chances on them having magic resistance.

Susan, meanwhile, had been pushed up against the wall next to the hall due to the continuous attack, and was now being pushed at an angle along the wall towards the hall, where his parents were. She had her wand out, and both hands on it, but was just barely hanging on. Brian glanced at the triplet attacking her, and noticed she was using Susan's wand. Holy shit but Susan was getting pummeled by it; Susan telling him that she was vulnerable to her first wand was quite the understatement. Susan's shield was the only thing protecting her, but at least she was able to keep it up. Meanwhile the strands of magical energy that bounced off her shield would then bounce off the wall behind her; at least the protective magics on the wall were working.