Fucking Magic - A Potion Problem Ch. 07

"It was your sister!" I saw it right at the end but I also heard a knock, the hotel clerk outside the door. Jessica didn't hear, she was out like her husband, glassy eyed and only on her feet because I kept her that way. It was true, I could feel it, see it, all the stuff she knew, the potions and the ring and the Tellemec. It had all been stolen from her sister, stolen and substitutes left behind so Madeline would never know. "She's who I need to talk to!"

Madeline was the Wizard!

There were more knocks on the door, I ignored it.

Instead of taking all the memories of her picking and choosing I just took the act of settling on the body she had, the dick she had, and most of all the face she had. Drew them into me, tiny bubbles compared to the hours I'd taken. But they were old and... Better. Happier. I replaced them with alternatives; the more ripped body with tattoos (I wondered if they would have shown up had she picked that one!), the foot long dick (That too many women would have been afraid of.) and some guy from a sitcom that I was VERY glad she had not chosen, it had been the closest of all.

It was easy to bump the alternate memories into place. It was easy to fuze the entire year we were together with doubt about the magic, because the doubt was already there. I just amped that up. Doubt, to a level of almost certainty, that it had never worked. None of it. It was a stupid phase she had followed her sister in as teens.

"Sir! Mister Cain. If you don't open this door I am going to go get the master key and come in." Why he hadn't come with the key? I don't know, but it was my dumb luck because he would have walked in on me with two unconscious people. I caught Jessica before she fell, my brain still in it's racing mode, adrenaline rocket fueled by the Ring of Horn and Holly. I had made all the connections from Jessica meaning to betray me lightning quick. I made new ones now, "Okay! I have warned you. I'll be right back."

Dragging Jessica to the door I waited, pivoting left and right to make sure it was empty out there still. It was, if any other patrons had heard Jacob they had grown bored and gone back into their rooms. I darted out as soon as the guy was inside the lobby. Jacob had not locked his vehicle doors, that made it easier to lift his curvy wife inside, onto the backseat. Darting back into the hotel room as the door was just about to close. Jacob should have been a lot harder but he wasn't that different. I'd left his car door open, I tossed him in next to his wife, closing the car door this time. Inside my room, once more just before the door could auto close.

There was so much energy flowing through me from those (stolen!) memories. My thoughts raced finding solutions.

I powered on the TV, cranked up the volume, and ran into the bathroom. Turning the water on, jumping in while it was still cold, it didn't matter. Huffing, I hurried up and started lathering up. I didn't hear the keycard being used as much as I felt the air currents in the room change. A moment later they settled but... There was still something disturbing them, slightly. The door was closed but somebody was in here with me. The sallow man came into sight through the crack I had in the curtain, looking around the room. Not picking up that there were too many clothes kicked into a pile outside the bathroom door, or the wet spot on the floor.

"Sir! Mister Cain?"

"What the fuck?" I called in a high shocked voice.

"Sir there were reports of a disturbance and... Why is your TV up so loud?"

"Why are you in my room? While I'm in the SHOWER!" I yanked the shower curtain open all the way, as if that was a normal reaction. I wanted to make sure he saw that it was JUST me, he would report me being alone, if he reported this at all. I went on with my offended act, yelling. "I'm fucking naked!"

"Sorry, your TV! I..." He turned the TV down all the way, then turned it off. "I'm sorry! I..."

"I didn't even turn the TV on, your hotel has faulty equipment! I'm in here in the shower and YOU are perving around on me. You probably turned the TV on just to come in here!" I felt bad but... It was either this or plug into him, Jessica and Jacob were self defense, this guy would be an invasion on an insane level. Tricking him didn't seem right, but it was the lesser of two evils.

"Sorry! No... Sorry!"

"I want my money back and I am staying somewhere else."

"Sorry, yes of course."

"Get the fuck out! Have my money ready when I get to the counter." He nodded and ran out, I think my adrenaline going so much had my muscles all standing out, my fight instincts so close to the surface.

I hurriedly dressed, checked to make sure that the coast was clear and tossed Jessica's stuff into their car. It wasn't until I was walking into the lobby that I remembered the damn USB cable. Fully expecting it to be dangling from my hand, my jaw fell. I had a tattoo! For a millisecond I thought changing Jessica's memory of who she had chosen had changed my body.

But no. The spread "roots" of the wire was atop the spot on my forearm where people on TV always take a patient's pulse. The cable went all the way around my wrist then up to my palm where the USB end was inked. Only there was some rigidity to it that tattoos didn't have, a 3D quality. And just thinking about it, the plug started to.. come OUT of my palm.

"Sir! Sir I have your money right here, if you could please not....Tell anybody about our... misunderstanding?"

"Tell anybody? Besides my psychiatrist you mean? About the time I was traumatized by the creepy hotel worker?" He apologized some more, but watched me closely. Even going to the lobby window when I walked out. Instead of going to Jacob's car I got into my own, drove away. A few blocks at least. Parked at a restaurant. It wasn't far but I was there in almost as much time as it took to drive it. Lucky too because the hotel clerk was out again, staring at the 'unknown' car. Jacob's car. "Shit!"

He was wandering towards it, pointing to the rooms that he must have rented himself. Mouthing what kind of cars he remembered them having. I felt a little bad, if he was the only guy he was probably the owner, if there were so few rooms rented that he could memorize the cars he was probably not doing too well. I still couldn't have him find two unconscious people almost right out front of the room where the "disturbance" happened. Just because I gave the key back and had my money didn't mean Westley Cain wasn't written down when I had checked in.

Tucked up beside a maintenance building I looked around, found what I needed. A piece of the curb was crumbled off, just a little smaller than my fist, eyeballing the distance, then figuring where I wanted him to look. I was thinking how far I'd normally be able to throw this heavy of a thing, but I was no longer normal. The fucking thing flew! Like a MLB pitcher had thrown it.

I was already ten feet out, knowing the timing had to be perfect. But the thing didn't land when I thought it would. He vaguely saw the moving object, me, his head starting to pivot in my direction when the rock smashed into the hotel sign. Another stroke of luck, it hit the metal rim of it and not the plastic with the hotel logo. So instead of smashing through, it gonged loud enough to make both of us flinch. Only I just ducked my head, he almost dropped straight to the ground.

By then I was at the SUV, slipped inside as quietly as I could, just about started freaking out about the keys. THE DAMN KEYS! WHERE? But then I saw it was a push button. I sunk low in my seat, the owner walking in the direction of the gonged sign. Pushing the button, Jacob being inside was close enough and the SUV engine rolled over. The guy turned but I was already backing up, angling towards the side exit that went into the parking lot of a dollar store next door, rolling through there I stayed down the entire way, out onto the road and past the place where I parked my car.

My heart slowed down gradually, my brain replaying what had happened.

It might be the craziest thing yet! The most insane (Magical!) thing and I was a guy who'd let his aunt and mom drink love potion and fucked their brains out for two days.