Maghean

Whoever the scriptwriter is in my life is a sadistic bastard, and I'm considering firing them.

It was another of those dreams in the first person, but I knew that "I" wasn't really me. I was some girl named Stephanie, typical cheerleader type but with brains. I was with this big jock type football and wrestler. He looked a lot like the jock guy from American Pie. Come to think of it, the chick I was looked a lot like the girl he was after in the movie.

We were all living in this huge wooden house. Built like a shack, but 3 stories. I think at one time it had been a frat house the school had shut down (revenge of the nerds?) and we had bought. He had moved up at the beginning of the summer to get a job and I had joined him a week before fall semester begun. Some university, I don't remember which. Probably whichever one she was going to end up at in the movie, who knows.

I was nervous about seeing him again because it'd been three months since we'd been together. He had talked a lot about some girl named Molly who worked with him and had been really nice about showing him around the city. Yeah. Nice. He seemed oblivious to the fact that she wanted him and, I knew from experience he was a little slow on the uptake.

Still, I was a bit worried.

First thing I needed to do was get a part time job, early mornings and/or evenings. All my school was taken care of but I wanted some extra cash for spending and such.
I was looking though the want ads when I saw an advertisement for a lady who needed child care for a couple of hours every morning and every evening. The child required special care. While I was reading the advertisement I got flashes of a 6month old girl who had to be put on a breathing system (Ventilator?) for ten minutes every hour. She was born prematurely and her lungs hadn't completely developed yet, but the treatment was supposed to help.

So I called and talked to the mother, let her know that I had some experience with children and with instruction I could easily learn what needed to be done to help out. She thought it was great and had me come out right away to meet her daughter, Brianna.

They lived in a huge house, one wall entirely made of glass overlooking a grassy hill with a HUGE yellow dog in the back yard. I was looking out there Christyne (the mother) started to get nervous and said something about not going into the back yard. She asked if I believed in magic and voodoo. I kind of shrugged off thinking she was just trying to make her point that I shouldn't go out there. That, and why would I, the grass was waist high, no way I was taking the kid out there!

We toured the house, which was beautiful. In the master bedroom the bathtub was literally a swimming pool. The kitchen was like a hotel's. As we were walking through the house, I kept thinking of the Shining, her husband's name was Jack...

It was all great and wonderful, and I headed home to tell my boyfriend about it. He was happy, though a little uncomfortable about the house I was going to, there'd been some odd stories about the place. He wouldn't go into it, saying he'd only heard bits and pieces. Bad things happening, strange noises, typical haunted house type stuff. I didn't care, I liked Brianna and I liked Christyne.

So next morning I headed back. Christyne was in the bathtub with Brianna, throwing her around and getting her to swim. I sat at the edge watching and laughing. Christyne turned to look at me at one point and stopped, dropping Brianna into the water. She looked shocked and for a brief moment, afraid. She quickly recovered, asking me to grab towels, and picking up the baby. It was time for her treatment.

As I dressed the baby and Christyne got dressed, we talked a little bit. Just making conversation. Suddenly she looked serious and asked if I knew anyone named Maghean. I said it didn't sound familiar and she let it drop. I could tell though that there was something that seriously bothered her, and I had no clue what or why.

The next few days went well. Then one night she asked me to come sit with her during a thunderstorm. I brought my boyfriend along, and a bottle of wine. All was well. We sat and chatted and had a great time. She seemed to have gotten over whatever bothered her about me that first day and we had become friends.

Flash of lightning, crash of thunder, and she yelped out something about the dog being outside. I volunteered to go find him and let him into the laundry room. There wasn't really much rain, and I couldn’t find a flashlight so I grabbed a book of matches. They'd been water damaged at some point but most of them still worked.

As I was stumbling along, I noticed a clear patch on the side of the hill. There was a silver pentagram imbedded somehow into the dirt. No grass grew in it or within a foot of it. I was impressed because it was very beautifully done. There was a candle, and a picture and a mirror in the center of it. I dropped to one knee and fumbled with matches until I managed to get one to light the candle.

I muttered something under my breath, then stopped, confused because I had no clue what I had just said, or in what language I had spoken. I heard a soft growling from behind me and turned to find the dog. I laughed and called to him, but he wouldn't come any closer and ran down the hill.

We played chase for a while, and finally he let me catch him. I had completely forgotten about pentagram and the candle. I clipped a leash to the dog's collar and we ran back to the house.

Christyne was sitting on top of the dryer in the laundry room waiting, looking worried. I grabbed a dirty towel and dried the dog off while we talked. She asked me at one point if I had found/seen anything odd... I told her the candle was burning, having no clue why I said it. She became almost frantic, asking if I had lit it or if it was still burning. I couldn't remember lighting it, so I told her it was burning. She looked relieved and we went back to our wine and conversation.

Later, she was at my house. Her husband was with her. Apparently her mother had come over to watch Brianna for the night and let them go out for a bit. It was a HUGE party. People everywhere. Orgies had started up in every room. I wandered around talking to people, looking for my boyfriend. I found him upstairs in the shower, talking to two guys and a girl who were having a grand time soaping each other up. They kept inviting him to join them but he said no, he had other plans. The girl grinned and said she could bet. He looked at her funny as I came in, then he turned to me with a big grin. "Hiya Babe."

We ended up in the same bedroom as Christyne and Jack. Christyne said she wanted to try me, and my boyfriend was all for it, so long as they got to stay and watch. So we put on a show for them, then I pounced my boyfriend and drug him off to our own room. Just couldn't get enough.

Later we were talking, and I asked about the people in the shower. He said the girl was Molly, one of the guys worked with him and he didn't know the other guy at all. I asked why he was in there with them and he shrugged, saying with everything going on around the house, he figured he'd end up in a room with something like that anyhow. He just stayed in one place till I found him.

Sounded logical. I got up to go check on guests and say goodnight to Christyne and Jack, who had to leave before midnight. There was still time before they had to go, so they pulled me into bed with them. Nothing happened, we just snuggled and talked a little. She laughed that she had been worried before. We all dozed off, waking up when Jack's cell phone went off, her mother wanted to know what time they would be home.

I got up and went back toward my bedroom, freezing in the doorway. Molly was in bed with my boyfriend. He was completely passed out still, obviously hadn't moved since I left him. She curled up close to him, kissing him. Of course he responded, why would he think it was anyone else but me? They started making out pretty heavily, she was pulling off her own clothes to give him better access. I couldn't speak or move. A door slammed somewhere behind me and I jumped, running down the hall.

I heard him say something back in the bedroom, from the tone of his voice I knew that he'd realized it wasn't me he was with... I spent the next half hour getting rid of people in the house, then passed him in the hallway. I waited for a minute for him to say something, anything... To tell me what had happened... I understood why he had responded to her but I expected him to tell me. He didn't know I had seen it all...

He said nothing. A few minutes later I passed him again, stopping to ask if he had seen Molly. He said she'd gone home already. I asked when, and he said a couple of hours before. I bout exploded, he was lying to me. Was he ashamed, embarrassed? Or was I completely mistaken, had he known the whole time that it was her and not me?

I headed upstairs to wait for him to come to bed so that we could talk. After an hour I went looking, he was taking a shower downstairs. It was what we called the dorm area, 7 guys living in a room that took up half of the first floor. I'd taken to nicknaming them after the seven dwarves. Grumpy answered the door and told me I couldn't come in. I did anyway, completely ignoring the random naked people wandering through, waiting for my boyfriend.

When he came out I told him we needed to talk. He dragged me out to the hallway, pushing me against the wall and started kissing me. He assumed I wanted to have sex again, and seemed to want to get it over with as quickly as possible. Either that, or he was trying to avoid talking to me. I got him to stop and told him I needed to talk to him. He said he was really tired and was going to crash downstairs with the dwarves. Sleepy had passed out on a couch, so he was going to take his bed.

I was livid, go figure. I left without another word, heading upstairs to catch a nap before I went to "work" the next morning. It didn't improve my mood much. Christyne asked me what was wrong but I didn't want to go into it. To avoid the question, I offered to take the dog out for a few minutes before she went to run her morning errands.

I felt better after a good run with the dog, and was heading back up the hill when I heard something. Whisper soft like rustling through the grass. I couldn't help but think Children of the Corn as I headed toward the source of the sound. As I got closer to the clear patch in the grass, the sound got louder.

Someone was crying... She sounded so hurt, and lost, and alone... It touched the part of me that was the most hurt by what had happened the night before. In the center of the pentagram, the mirror and the glass over the picture had shattered. The candle had melted down completely. I was carrying a wooden box, and knelt down. "Help me, please." there was a shimmering from the center of the pentagram. I gathered the picture and the broken mirror into my box and told the voice that I would help it, if it could help me somehow.

I tucked the box into my jacket pocket and headed into the house, wondering if I had woken up yet or if this were some weird dream brought on by my being upset. The house was in chaos. Things lay broken everywhere. Christyne and Jack were a mess. He was missing a chunk of hair from the side of his head, and her shirt was ripped. I thought at first that they'd gotten into a fight. They both looked terrified though, as if they'd been attacked.

Christyne asked me what I had done. Had I lit the candle or was it already lit when I found it. Had I touched the circle or anything inside it. She was not accusing, simply very... afraid. I told her what had happened, as I suddenly could remember it all, and she started crying. Jack held her close, stumbling as his knee was hit.

Christyne told me I had released Maghean, a demon they had summoned to kill Jennifer, the girl who caused Brianna's premature birth. Jennifer had been trying to seduce Jack, saying that his wife was no longer attractive and he must be so frustrated. She had become obsessed with him, and wouldn't leave them alone. She had attacked Christyne.

Maghean was a vengeance demon, and would not be satisfied with only one death. They had tried to bind her into the circle. If the candle burned down on it’s own, she would be banished to her own realm and could never be summoned to harm them again. However, if the candle were lit by another… who released it… that person would become her master. The first morning I had come to work, Christyne had seen something in my face, a slight shifting so that I resembled the demon... It was an Omen that I would be the one to set it free.

As she talked, two things were happening. The demon was attacking her randomly, just to annoy her, tearing at her clothes, her hair, poking and punching at her. It had no intention of killing or harming either of them permanently… it simply wanted to punish them for binding it. Secondly, I had begun to think of Molly, and her trying to steal my boyfriend. I knew she was at work already and I couldn't help wanting something to happen, something to punish her...

Not death...

The violence around us stopped. A soft voice behind my ear asked what I wished. I thought for a moment, giving her an image of an accident, a cast, something to damage her prized beauty... "It will be done." Then disappeared.

Christyne and Jack looked at me, concerned, wondering what had happened. I shrugged, still not quite sure what I had just asked for but knowing that so long as Molly didn't die, I could feel vindicated by her injury. I apologized for the chaos I had inadvertently caused, and asked if I should leave. It was for the best we decided. The demon would not return to them now that it had been released and exacted its small vengeance.

I headed home just in time to catch the phone call from my boyfriend's work, saying there'd been a freak accident. A huge pan of oil had dropped, crushing Molly's leg, splashing oil across her. A spark of electricity had lit the oil, covering her in third degree burns. She was in the emergency room, and the place was going to be closed down pending investigation.

I did my best to act concerned even as Maghean showed me a vision of what had happened.

The perfect arc of the pot as it had slipped from the counter, slamming into her leg, shattering her knee and several bones in her leg, landing on her foot and crushing her toes. A solid satisfying thump… The oil splashing across her like a tidal wave, leaving her thoroughly soaked. The splitter splats as it splashed a few others, just for show. The spark of fire, as a drop of the oil landed on the stove, flaring up, jumping from stove to pot, and Molly. The agony and screams as the fire had spread across her, and to the others splashed.

The fear, Molly's and the witnesses, as the fire refused to go out at first, creeping slowly toward her face, the heat causing her hair to frizz, then burn. The rush, as if to finish the job, the fire fairly leaping up to her face, blistering instantly. It concentrated at the left side of her face, making sure to leave scars that could never be grafted away. Leaving her scalp blistered in patches where hair would never be able to grow in.

A fire truck had come, smothering her with a blanket, putting out the fire. Just for added flavor, the blanket was allowed to pop some of the blisters on her face and head. The pot was allowed to shift, grinding the crushed bones together, sending a shard of it through her leg with a gout of blood.

The voice in my ear asked quietly. "It is pleasing?" I nodded, saying under my breath. "Well done." It laughed in pleasure and at the pun.

I spent the next several days alone in my room. When classes started, I would leave only for the school and home. My boyfriend knew something was "wrong" or "up" with me, but had no clue what. He wouldn't ask. I was sure he knew I had seen what happened with Molly. He went to visit her once, but otherwise never spoke of her or what had happened.

Maghean told me where he had gone that day, when he said he was grocery shopping. I asked him as he came to bed that night how she was. He froze, then slowly settled down beside me, saying she would be permanently scarred from the fire and the doctor wasn't sure if her leg would ever heal enough for her to walk. Probably she would have a severe limp if she walked at all. I nodded and fell silent for a long time, sat staring at my hands.

Then hesitantly I spoke, letting my voice falter, letting the tears of all my pain and rage flow. It was time for confrontation. "I ... saw you... together... in our bed..." I turned to look at him, letting him see only the hurt and the fear of losing him. "I… Why? Why did you lie?"

He turned first white, then red with shame, reaching out to hold me, realizing finally that the night of the party was when I started acting oddly. Maghean whispered to me that she would tell me if he lied again, she would know from his thoughts.

He explained that he had been ashamed, and afraid I would be upset. I would blame him. That he honestly had believed it was myself at first, but it was a flimsy excuse. How could I ever not be hurt by him not having noticed the difference, not noticing that it was someone else? He went on and on for a while about how much he loved me and would never intentionally do anything to hurt me. Every word, as attested by my demon companion, was true.

I relaxed for the first time in days, letting him hold me. My first impressions had been correct, she had tried to take advantage of him. He had pushed her away as soon as he realized it wasn't me. I had done the right thing in punishing her by taking her beauty.

Things were well again. Months went by with little incident. I could feel the growing hunger of Maghean, the need to cause violence, the searching of my thoughts for any petty or harsh thoughts of anyone around me. Minor accidents happened to people who annoyed me. Stubbing their toes, losing their car keys. Major annoyance came for anyone that had managed to anger me. The teacher who failed my first research paper got a flat tire on the way to work. I knew it was nowhere near enough; she was growing restless. I also knew that I was growing restless as well.

Something within me had responded to the violence of Molly's punishment. I started going to bars and clubs in the worst parts of town, seeking out those who deserved punishment. Maghean would scan the thoughts of those around us, find their sins, asking for permission to punish and to what degree. She took delight in enacting the punishments.

I took my boyfriend to one of the clubs once. I could tell he was disturbed by the changes he had seen in me over the months. I had become darker he said. He was sure it was his fault; I was still reacting to the Molly incident. Quite honestly, I didn't care about it anymore.

The club was an underground type place. Maghean had found its location in the thoughts of one of our victims who enjoyed the thought and practice of raping young girls. It was where he had taken several of his victims.

I wore tight black leather, and had a seven ft python wrapped around me. Maghean had learned the trick of inhabiting animals, and we had discovered some interesting tricks because of it. Nifty new ways to intimidate people… We planned to get a cobra after she learned more control, and could find one that had had its poison removed if it was possible.

My boyfriend wore shredded jeans and a t-shirt. I told him it was for a research paper I was working on, which was partially true. I had decided to do a paper for my sociology class on human nature, and was trying to figure a way to work the punishments into it. Karma maybe? Didn’t really matter, of course. It was an excuse.