Claimed by a Goo Girl Ch. 03

Her story sat heavy in my ears. The sorrow palpable, and her words painting a pain so like mine, it felt like gazing through in a mirror. I swallowed around the lump in my throat before asking, "What was his name?"

She started to answer. "S-" Then she paused, looking at me closely, her stride missing a beat before taking two quick steps to keep up. Her voice quieted and she answered the question I really asked and not the one she'd first took it for. "Bailey. And you?"

"Mom." My jaw clenched and I struggled to get the next word out, tasting unnatural even as I thought it.

She deserves it, after offering me her story she deserves a slice of my own.

"No," Lara spoke with conviction inside my brain. "If you want her to know, then tell her. But don't do it out of some misplaced sense of obligation."

Startled, I couldn't do much more than blink for a couple of seconds.

Thanks Lara, you're right. It's high time I started to unload some demon's of my own.

"Her name was Sarah. She wasn't perfect, but what family is. I lost her when my fath- I lost her in an accident and I've blamed myself for it for too long. But I think I'm gonna start trying to let it go. I'm sorry about your brother."

"It was a long time ago."

"I don't think pain has an expiration date," I told her with a dark chuckle.

She stumbled again, snorting once. "I guess you're right about that."

Those were the last words we said for a bit, each of us contemplating past regrets and pain, but feeling inexplicably lighter than we had before having the conversation. Two blocks down the road and Lara spoke quietly in my head. "I'm proud of you. That took a lot of courage."

I would rather not talk about it.

"That's okay, I have something else I wanted to discuss." She sounded, nervous, worried and it instantly put me on edge.

Are you okay?

"I don't really know. I've been feeling strange for the last couple of days."

Is it some lingering effect from the fire barrier we ran into at the graveyard? The guilt clutched at my soul and I once more chastised myself for my impetuousness.

"No. At least... I don't think so. It doesn't hurt, nor does it feel like scar tissue or anything like that." Stilling inside my mind, I could feel her considering her words closely. "For the last couple days, when I've absorbed my sustenance from you-"

Thank you for putting that nicely, you know how that wigs me out.

"I do indeed dear. Even two people requiring nourishment that only you can provide has not lessened the strangeness you feel because of that.

It's just... squicky, I thought lamely, unable to come up with better vocabulary. If I had to eat someone's cum just to survive... I held my tongue out and wiggled my body from my shoulders down to my hips. Definitely a no from me dog.

Lara giggled. "Back to the subject. Whenever we... do that, I've found that my core just isn't growing the way it's used to, it's changing in some manner I can't quite catalogue."

That's weird. You're normally on the ball about that sort of thing.

"Not so weird. How good are you at diagnosing exactly what's going on inside your body at any given moment? Just last week you had heartburn and you swore that you were having a heart attack." She chuckled at the memory of the event.

That devilfire chili was so good though, I whined. So if we don't know what it is or what's causing it... What can we do?

"I don't know, I just wanted to let you know, in case something happens."

Can I rely on you in a scrap?

"Of course. It hasn't affected any of my abilities as of yet, as far as I've noticed. I only wished to inform you to be on the lookout for me acting strange."

Rodger rodger, I said, matching my internal voice to that of a droid from Star Wars.

Mikey spoke up, shattering our light-hearted exchange. "She's here."

We were at the edge of a long bridge that crossed a shallow river. She was leaning against the railing looking out over the slow moving water. Then I began placing the pieces together.

The, 'I'm so tired. What's the point?', combined with a demon's lacky and a bridge. I'm not all that versed in cooking, but even I can see this recipe for disaster.

Seeking a plan of attack, I turned to my companions. Mikey looked at the girl like she was holding up a sign declaring his greatest fear to the world. Claire was a starving wolf staring down a half eaten bone, stalking forward and flexing her fingers in restless waves.

That's not gonna do, Mikey's not gonna be able to talk between his chattering teeth and anyone with a lick of sense would take one look at Claire's face before sprinting the other way.

"Claire, is she dangerous?"

"Shouldn't be. Sentyne's particular tastes tend to sink them into despair. Rather than lashing out, we'll be lucky to get a response at all. Let's go grab her and take her to someplace less conspicuous." She tilted her head, and her eyes unfocused. Cyprian poofed into existence and she conversed with him for a tense moment. "Seem's there's an alleyway next to the bowling alley over there that runs over a leyline that should do perfectly. Now are you ready to roll?" Not waiting for our answer she began to prowl towards the still motionless girl.

I stopped her cold, my hand gripping tight to her shoulder. Meeting her glare with pinched lips and determined eyes, I muttered a single word.

"No."

She growled.

"I will go out and bring her back. She's hurting and I will not give her more nightmares by appearing behind her to drag her off to some alleyway for a some arcane exorcism."

She curled her lip, exposing a fang that no longer seemed so cute, testing my resolve. Finding me her equal, she shrugged my hand from her shoulder and took a deep breath. "Fine. You have five minutes before I'm coming after her. They are not people Jonas, they deserve to be destroyed."

"She is. And from what you've told me she's likely to remember what we do to her today. The easier we can make this, the better. She's suffered enough."

Mulling that over, she frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "You... have a point. I am not exactly the gentlest of souls, and that was before I spent time in the infernal realm. Go retrieve her Jonas so that we may free her from this nightmare."

"Will do partner." I set off along the slow upward curve of the bridge.

"She is good for you. Challenging you and drawing you from your shell."

Now's hardly the time. Let's see if we can't talk a girl down from the ledge. How much do you know about the thought processes of a highschool girl?

"About as much as you."

Then this should go swimmingly.

...

Or not as it were. Shit, I hope this goes well, it's not like I'll get a second shot at this.

As I approached, I considered and discarded various opening lines. Each one landing in one of two camps, either I sounded like a serial killer, or a creepy pickup artist. In the end, I decided to simply lay my forearms on the rail next to her, leaning on it and looking out over the water. I didn't say a word, giving her some time to get used to my presence. She didn't react to me at all. We looked out over the sluggish river together. Mercury looked like a normal kid, nothing indicating the presence of her other-dimensional parasite. Retrieving the empty frames from my pocket, I placed them across my bridge, pushing them into place with a single finger while Lara became the lenses. Even with her assistance there was nothing about her that seemed-

...Wait a minute.

Tilting my head a little bit, I looked closer at the girl's eyes.They weren't supernatural. They didn't glow with any demonic light or stained with the blackness of the pits of tartarus. But with Lara's help, I could see unshed tears that hid below the surface, speaking of an internal struggle long fought but slowly being lost. Shadows of sleepless bags hid beneath the skin above her cheekbones, making her face seemed gaunt. With a gentle shake and a mental nudge, I bid Lara to remove the lenses. With that, Mercury once more looked like any other bored careless teenager.

That poor girl. Suffering in silence. Unable to find her way out of the darkness that's engulfed her entire world.

A cold anger followed the heels of pity, an outcry against the monster that had the gall to do this. That anything could take joy at this sort of suffering... I bit my lip hard enough that I would have bled had it not been for Lara's modifications. It was while my companion was helping me control this anger that Mercury began to speak.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" her voice was quiet and inflectionless, not giving away any deeper meaning to the words.

I settled for a grunt and a nod. Not trusting myself with speaking quite yet.

She isn't wrong. There's a sort of cold, emotionless beauty for the whole thing. I'm just glad she doesn't seem to be suicidal like I'd first thought.

"You've nothingness inside you too, don't you? I can feel it."

I shivered as I thought about the cold emptiness that resided in the pit of my stomach. It had been there ever since the crack of my mother's head hitting the coffee table had consumed my world.

Lara thrummed in my brain.

Her prompting helped me recognize that although that void was still there, it was much diminished. Filled in with the love of a strange but wonderful woman, an odd friendship, and a world enriched by the presence of magic.

Shifting my stance a bit, my fingers clenched around the metal railing, flecks of the paint floating down to the river. "I can help you, if you let me." Despite Claire's assurance that the filch wouldn't do anything overt until we actually began to extract it, I still worried about her response.

She didn't react beyond a slow turn of her head towards me. Pausing for a moment before returning to the river landscape.

"I've heard that before. But what's the point."

"The point is making you better."

"Heard that before too." Her empty tone was more than a little unnerving.

I fully faced her and spoke from the heart, pleading with her. "I know you're in their Mercury. And we can help you in this fight. Free you from this burden."

"The drugs and therapy don't do anything. They just make me feel funny and the doctor says things that don't really matter and he doesn't believe. Although that's nothing special. Also I think he's sleeping with his receptionist. Not that I care, nothing really matters anyway." She tossed the rock she had in her hand off the bridge, careening toward a watery grave. Starry skies met her eyes when she tilted her head back, the streetlamps on the bridge not enough to snuff out the brightest amongst them. "We live and we die. Never doing anything that matters or really making a difference. There's practically no difference between the two states." She finally turned to look at me, meeting my increasingly worried stare.

"Just... come with me. Give me a chance. What do you have to lose?"

Such a stirring speech. Angels weep at your eloquence you idiot. There's no way she says yes to that.

"You're doing fine."

She cocked her head, considering me with unfeeling eyes.

We might have to do this Claires way. Lara get ready to bind her feet and mouth. I want to draw as little attention as-

"Okay. Let's go," she said with a shrug.

It took an effort of will to prevent my mouth from flapping open. "Right. Got it. Follow me." I waved a hand for her to follow and set off back down the bridge. She moved spookily silent, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. Briefly I wondered if Claire might have been mistaken and about to eat a shiv to the back, but I shook it off, trusting in Claire's experience and Lara's ability to protect my naked feeling back. Looking towards the end of the curved bridge, I saw Claire nod and grab the back of Mikey's dress shirt, hauling him across the street towards the bowling alley. When I got there, Mercury trailed close behind, hands tucked into her jean pockets. Claire was setting up for the ritual. Cyprian hovered nearby, flipping through his pages while the devil girl was sketching out a giant circle on the concrete. Where she kept the chalk considering how tight her clothes fit was a mystery that would remain unsolved. After a short consultation with the grimoire, she sketched out four runes in each of the cardinal directions. My molars began to vibrate with the latent magic in the air.

"Here we are," I told Mercury.

The alleyway was fairly clean, all things considered, a greasy paper tray, half filled fries and an empty beer bottle the only litter in sight. The concrete path was approximately twelve feet wide, the circle taking up three quarters of the space. Anxious sweat sprouted on my skin, and was just as quickly whisked away, consumed by the ever diligent Lara.

Her hands tucked into her jeans, the girl looked entirely unimpressed with the circle, which was nothing new. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something before a cloud flitted over her face and she gave up the task halfway, settling for a lazy shrug instead.

"If you would step into the circle dear, we can begin."

Holding my breath, we followed Claire's instructions. Nothing happened as we crossed the threshold of the circle expertly scrawled onto the ground. I released the air in my lungs with a long woosh.

Step one complete.

Mercury raised her hand to her mouth and started to nibble on her thumb absentmindedly. A trickle of blood flowed down her wrist, her teeth scraping the inflamed tissue of her exposed nail bed.

Fuck me.

"Not right now honey."

I snorted Lara's words snapping me out of the horror of the girl's casual self-mutilation.

Thanks.

I put on my proverbial gameface, Lara shimmering around me, my civilian clothing morphing into the dense, tightfitting suite with faceplate that Lara and I used when we went patrolling. My thumbs up gave pink haired devil girl the go ahead, signaling to her I was ready to roll.

A quick tilt of her head, and we were off. Claire began to chant, alien words that swung in the air like a prayer, drifting back and forth. The walls seemed to bend, reality distorting around the ritual circle. Something beyond the scope of mortal minds leaning in, responding to her call. The air grew heavy with magic, dancing across our skin like blankets made of muted electricity. Watching closely, I waited for her signal.

There.

With a quirk of her cheek she exposed a brilliant white fang framed by crimson lips. Shifting my attention toward the girl, I prepared myself to act. Mercury, stood in the center of the circle, bearing the posture of some amalgamation of boredom, exhaustion, and apathy. There was no warning before a scream ripped through the air, an animalisted squeal of panic. Her arms jerked around like an action figure caught in the clutches of an energetic toddler. Then her scream cut short and she fell bonelessly to the floor. An oily sheen began to bubble free from the shirt over her chest, pooling in a small blob of some formless substance that made me want to look away from it, it's presence unnatural, clashing with this plane of reality. The smoky goo solidified into a semi-solid creature, crouching low on her chest. With spindly legs and beady eyes the filch watched us carefully, having been forced from it's designated host. The creature looked like a cross between a spider and a mosquito, with a needlelick nose atop a hairy, six-legged body. The instant it formed, I swiped at it with my hand, Lara growing the surface area to the size of a catchers mitt and filling in the gaps.

Before I could capture it, the filch darted off trying to escape now that it could no longer hide in the host, poisoning her with its presence. Shooting off, it smacked headfirst into the invisible cage Claire had erected with the ritual circle.

Some part of my brain contemplated how such a thing could fly like that without any sort of wings, while my mouth ran on autopilot. "That's right fucker, you're trapped in here with me. Just stay still so that I can hold you real close," I told it with an unkind grin. Despite my words, the creature proved too elusive to catch, darting around our arena with impossible speed. It was like trying to swat a mosquito made out of smoke: it didn't matter the strength difference if I couldn't touch the thing. The contest however, was never in doubt, it was only a matter of time. We were operating under the nebulous time constraint of a random passerby happening to witness the rather nefarious looking scene. The end came when the filch attempted to hide from me behind my back.

Unfortunately for him, I did have eyes in the back of my skull. Or rather, Lara did.

Now.

At the mental command, two things happened simultaneously: I lept backwards, and Lara exploded the suit off my back in a parachute of her goo. Together we managed to pinch the filch against the barrier like a spider under an overturned cup. From there it was a simple matter for Lara to expand along the barrier, closing off the opening and constricting until all that was left was a tiny ball of swirling evil. Lara pinched off the excess and returned to my suit. My hand now containing a nice little pokeball of filch.

"Nicely done Jonas. We'll make a hunter out of you yet. Now set the filch as near the center as you can and move young Miss Mercury and yourself away from it so that I may open the portal and send it back."

After I followed her directions, Claire began to chant. The presence descended upon the alleyway again in a sort of, spine tingling, boots quaking way that made me reconsider my status as an atheist.

Did I just find god?

"Ha. More like a god found you."

True.

The presence bore down on the circle, the pressure building until it felt like my eardrums were going to burst.

"Besides, I'm pretty sure you'd break the tenets of whatever religion you joined within the first day. Don't get me wrong, they would be lucky to have someone with your drive to save innocents and put your life on the line for others. But you're not one to toe the party line."

Then... *Pop*

The pressure equalized as a small tear in the fabric of space opened up. It was a small hole, emanating red light like an obnoxious christmas decoration. The air seemed to swirl, getting sucked into the greedy anomaly, the miniature black hole stretching and compressing light particles. The orb rose from underneath the portal, wobbling slightly as it floated toward the gateway.

That's right fucker. Go back to where you came from.

Right as we were on the cusp of victory, the filch halfway into the portal, was the moment that everything went sideways.

Literally.

The sphere looked like it had some sort of chord, some connection that kept it from going through to the infernal realm, tethering it from the shifting atmosphere in the portal. Mercury groaned beneath me, still unconscious. The orb sprung free from the portal rolling halfway between her and the rift.

"The beast has somehow entangled it's soul with the girl's, we will be unable to send it back to the infernal realm unless someone carries it through the portal, or I'll have to send the girl with it."

"Why didn't you warn me about this?" I shouted, the heat from the pinpoint slit in reality already making me sweat.