Popularity Ch. 01

Hello. My name is Alexa Winter, although everyone calls me Alex. The name 'Alexa' was forever ruined by that damn Amazon Echo thing. When people used to call me Alexa that fucking device would always respond.

But I digress.

The main point of my story is about popularity and the extraordinary lengths some people will go to obtain it.

I was always the unpopular member of the family. My father is a bestselling author, my mother is athletic and good looking. She competed in the Olympics when she was in her early twenties and won a silver medal in the long jump. She's now in her forties, but she's still got a remarkable body and she does professional modeling.

My sister Haley is also amazingly good looking. I've always been jealous of Haley's good looks. She has a face like Emma Myers and the body of a swimsuit model. Guys stare at her when she walks by and follow her like mindless zombies. Meanwhile, I've had to beg for attention. Just getting guys to acknowledge my existence has always been a huge struggle.

Try to understand how difficult this was for me. My sister has always been popular. She'd be off partying and going on dates with cute guys, while I would be at home, resigning myself to the social life of a monk. I never got invited to parties, and my existence never even seemed to register with boys my age.

I was cursed with remarkably small boobs, which apparently made me invisible to boys. If you're a girl with a flat chest, guys won't even glance in your direction. It's like you don't even register as female in their eyes.

A girl without boobs might as well be a boy. And a girl without boobs who wears thick glasses and has a nose that was broken years ago and didn't heal quite right, is basically a geeky boy that nobody wants to hang out with.

And it didn't help that I studied, paid attention in class, got good grades and liked to read. When my peers paid attention to me at all, they referred to me as 'the bookworm' or 'teacher's pet.'

So, I was exiled to being invisible or untouchable while everyone knew my sister's name and wanted to hang out with her. This bugged me for years, and maybe it made me a little bit desperate and willing to try stupid, reckless things in an effort to improve my social status.

Hey, I'm eighteen years old! Teenagers do stupid, reckless things all the time, right?

My big opportunity to do something stupid and reckless came up when my whole family went down to a Mexican beach town for a week. It was during the summer, my parents took some time off from work and the schools were closed, so it was time to have some fun, right?

The weather was gorgeous, we packed drinks, snacks, sunscreen and beach towels. We all changed our clothes to get ready for the beach.

Most of us wore swimsuits. Haley wore two tiny pieces of fabric that just barely covered her nipples and pubic lips.

The way my sister was dressed revealed more skin than if she were wearing a bra and panties. I couldn't believe that my mom and dad allowed her to go out on a public beach dressed like that. Her ass was completely exposed. The only fabric in the rear of her bikini bottoms was hidden between her buttocks.

My sister has a nice ass and I know she likes to show it off, but seriously? Does the girl have no shame? She strutted on to that beach, swaying her hips and putting her bare bottom on display like she was some sort of performance artist.

And while all eyes on the beach focused on my sister's ass, I became completely invisible.

People who had been sunning, jogging, or wading, suddenly abandoned their previous activities. It was like my sister had a gravitational pull and everyone on the beach was drawn to her. All the boys on the beach drifted closer. Hell, even some of the women seemed infatuated with her!

"Mom! You cannot be okay with this!" I protested as Haley walked along the beach, practically naked with a crowd of ardent fans spontaneously forming around her.

"Alex, honey, calm down." My mother said reassuringly. "When I was Haley's age, I was walking naked on the beaches of St. Tropez and nothing bad happened to me. Haley will be fine."

My father pointed out that there were lifeguards on the beach, plus he and my mom would keep an eye on Haley so there was nothing to worry about.

I wanted to counter with a wickedly brilliant counterargument, but the fact was I was just jealous of all the attention Haley was getting. My sister effortlessly made friends just by walking onto the beach. Her gathering of admirers grew from a dozen to two dozen, to three dozen, and I turned on my heel and walked away before I could see it get any larger than that.

Filled with anger and jealousy, I stormed away and made it to a section of beach that was at least a mile away from Haley.

I ended up on a section of the beach where six small shops were set up. Well, there was a bar that was selling cocktails at 10:30 in the morning, and there were five small shops clustered around the bar. I was too young to drink, but I wandered into one of the shops in hopes of finding a distraction to take my mind off my troubles.

The one with the big, bold letters over the front entrance that said TIENDA DE BRUJAS somehow stood out as the one most likely to take my mind off my troubles, so I walked up to the front door of that shop, grabbed the brass doorknob and pulled the door open.

I was the only customer in the place, and indeed, I didn't even see any employees in the shop. I couldn't imagine why a shopkeeper would leave his shop unlocked and unstaffed, but there was a tomblike silence about the place. The whole place had an empty feeling to it.

"Ah," I said, reminding myself that I wasn't there to buy anything. I was just there to kill some time and take my mind off my problems. If the place was empty, I'd just look around and leave. If there was anything worth buying, I could always come back later when the store employees showed up.

I walked slowly and gingerly around the shop. The atmosphere around the place felt creepy. And as I cautiously navigated the interior of the shop, it occurred to me that it looked more like a museum than a store. There were several glass display cases, the sort I'd seen in museums. It looked as if the shopkeeper had spent a considerable amount in the display cases, but the items that were under the glass, to my eyes, looked rather unimpressive.

The case closest to the front entrance had a spotlight trained on it. I crept forward and got a closer look at what appeared to be an ancient sheet of parchment, yellowed with age. There was a brass plate at the base of the display case with the words, La confesión de la reina engraved on it.

"I should have taken a Spanish class," I muttered to myself. A quick inspection of the other cases revealed that all the items on display were identified in Spanish. There were no English translations anywhere. It appeared I had wandered off the beaten path. This wasn't an area normally frequented by tourists.

Another display case contained an exotic looking greenish-gold gemstone. The gemstone seemed to change color dramatically depending on where I was standing as I examined it. I viewed it from a number of different angles, and it was fascinating how much the appearance of the stone changed depending on my vantage point. The engraved plate identified this gemstone as El ojo de la diosa gato.

Another case was inhabited by a polished conch shell. There were dozens of conch shells on the beach, but somehow this one was designated as special.

"Trompeta de la sirena," I muttered, reading the inscription on the brass plate.

On the north side of the room was a much larger display case with a large wall mirror in an ornate silver frame. I was thinking that if it was for sale, I wouldn't mind having it in my room. It looked classy and sophisticated somehow.

"Espejo de la locura," I said, reading the nameplate.

I glanced at my reflection in that mirror, and I was surprised at how hard and bitter I appeared. My eyes looked cold, and my facial features looked merciless, like a heartless villain in one of those movies who goes around killing everybody until the hero shows up and saves the day. My stomach twisted into knots, and I felt a strange and powerful dislike for my own reflection.

Yeah, suddenly I had zero desire to buy the mirror. As a matter of fact, I backed away from it slowly, and I didn't stop backing away until I was all the way on the other side of the room. The reflection I saw in that mirror gave me the creeps.

I was about to leave the shop altogether, but just as I headed for the door, a woman appeared in my path. I didn't hear her approaching or see her shadow. She was just suddenly standing in front of me, standing between me and the exit.

"Jesus Christ! You startled me!"

The woman was at least six inches taller than me and at least twenty years older. She had dark eyes, pitch black hair and Mediterranean skin. She had an amused smirk on her face; however, she quickly covered it up with her hand and said, congenially, "I apologize. I hadn't meant to scare you."

She was like a ninja. I was about to ask how she moved so silently across the creaky hardwood floors of the display room, but just as the words were about to leave my mouth, I saw that the entire room was carpeted. The room had wall-to-wall blood red carpeting.

"Oh, um," I replied. "Yeah, no problem."

I couldn't help but notice that the dress she was wearing was the same color as the carpeting. It was like the room changed its appearance to match her appearance. I know that sounds crazy, but that was the first thought that popped into my head.

"I was just about ready to pack up everything and relocate to a new location, but when I woke up this morning, I had a feeling that if I stuck around, I would get a customer today, and here you are!"

She introduced herself as Elena. I reflexively told her my name was Alex.

"Alex; what a delightful name," she exclaimed. "And I sense you are here in my shop because there is something that you are lacking."

"No, not really," I said. "I'm just a tourist, taking in the sights, browsing and whatnot."

"You've wandered off the tourist path, Alex," the shopkeeper said. "Tourists never come into my shop unless they sense that there's something they need that I can provide."

Who talks like that? Elena was kind of creeping me out and I was planning on making a hasty exit from her shop, but my feet stayed right where they were, and my mouth opened up, and these words came out.

"Yeah, I need something. I need to stop being invisible. Right now, my sister is surrounded by fifty or sixty adoring fans, but I'm just some anonymous girl who can't get a date to save her life."

Did I really just say that? It wasn't normally in my nature to spill my guts to a total stranger like that.

Elena raised one eyebrow, paused meaningfully and then commented, "I see."

Then she added, "You want for people to notice you. You want admirers. You want perhaps, to be more popular than your sister."

Dammit. I hated the fact that she had summed up my problem so quickly and succinctly after knowing me for all of twenty seconds, but she was right. That was exactly what I wanted.

"Maybe," I admitted grudgingly.

"I understand," Elena said soothingly. "Popularity is very important, especially with you Americans. You're always wanting to be the biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the prettiest. You have contests and then you brag about your victories. Your social order depends on somebody being the best and lording it over everyone else."

"Um," I replied. I didn't quite get all of that, but my sister had won the contest of who was the prettiest and most popular. And her popularity impacted my social status. I understood that much, so I just nodded in agreement with Elena.

"I have something that can help you," Elena said, and she wandered over to one of the display cases. When she returned, she was holding an ancient-looking silver coin.

"This is the talisman of Callidus," she explained.

"When the followers of the White Christ spread across Europe, her temples were torn down or repurposed, but some of us still remember the old gods and show them the respect they deserve. If you call upon her, she can help you with your popularity problem."

I gave Elena an incredulous look.

Elena called it a talisman, but to my eyes it looked like an ancient silver coin. It was tarnished with age, but I could see that a woman's face had been engraved into the silver disc.

"You want me to call on a demon to solve my problems?"

"Callidus is not a demon," the shopkeeper insisted emphatically. "She is a goddess who has fallen out of favor with the mortals of this world."

My parents were Christians. I mean...they weren't very religious, but they belonged to Saint George's Episcopal Church, and they would be appalled if they knew I was even considering calling upon an ancient Pagan goddess to solve my problems.

And yet, I was considering it.

Something about Elena's offer sounded genuine. I had a hunch that if I called on Callidus that there was a chance she truly could assist me with my remarkable lack of popularity. And to make my decision even easier, Elena offered to sell me the silver talisman for the low, low price of sixty dollars.

I finally relented. I bought the talisman, and Elena told me how to use it to summon the ancient Pagan goddess and ask for her help.

"Why not?" I asked out loud. "What's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

I was back at the hotel when I finally used the talisman. Elena told me that Callidus was a goddess of the night and the moon, so I should wait until sundown before I tried to summon her.

The logical part of my brain told me that Callidus wasn't real, and Elena wanted me to wait until sundown so she wouldn't have to explain Callidus's failure to appear until she'd had time to concoct a plausible excuse...or maybe until she had time to pack up her stuff and leave town.

The more emotional part of my brain was excited about summoning a Pagan goddess who could make me even more popular than my sister. My parents were down at the hotel bar and my sister was down at the pool, with a dozen of her new friends. I locked myself inside the bathroom for maximum privacy as I had no idea what might occur when I summoned a centuries old goddess and if something bizarre happened, I didn't want to have to explain it to my family.

According to Elena, I needed to rub my blood across the talisman while calling out the goddess's name three times. I made a small cut in my thumb with an X-Acto knife and called out "Callidus, Callidus, Callidus" while smearing my blood across the surface of the silver talisman.

What happened next was extremely intense.

The entire room shook abruptly, and I lost my balance as the floor beneath my feet lurched violently. I lost my footing, slammed backwards into the wall and then all the lights went out. The room went pitch black.

"Crap!" I exclaimed.

When the pitch blackness faded, it seemed that I was no longer in my hotel room. The bathroom sink, toilet and towel rack had all disappeared and a dim, eerie sort of lighting illuminated what appeared to be a subterranean cavern.

I was standing on an uneven, rocky surface and the darkness was punctuated by esoteric lighting in the distance, which was blurred by some sort of pervasive fog. And just as I was adjusting to the fact that I was no longer in familiar surroundings, a deep, ominous female voice erupted out of nowhere and said, " Mortal! What is your name? Why have you called upon me?"

I turned and got my first look at the Pagan goddess. She was at least six feet tall, wore a long, black cloak and underneath the cloak she wore a black leather cuirass, or possibly her cuirass was made of black iron. It was too dark for me to get a good look, although I think I saw runes or mystical symbols inscribed onto it.

My heart thudded frantically in my chest, and I felt as if my life was in grave danger.

A significant part of me didn't believe that Callidus existed and was certain that the summoning would fail. I was so shocked at the sudden appearance of the imposing deity that I nearly peed myself. A plethora of questions suddenly invaded my mind: Pagan gods and goddesses actually existed? How many of them were there? Were they all still alive? Did they have influence over the mortal world? Was it sacrilege to summon them? Were they at war with the Christian god? Did the existence of Pagan gods mean that there were Pagan heavens or Pagan hells?

All these questions and more crowded into my brain, but rather than ask any of these out loud, I nervously responded to Callidus's question. I feared that there might be consequences if I made her impatient by not answering her right away.

"My name is Alex," I replied nervously. "And I called on you because I'm so sick of being flat-chested, invisible and ignored. My older sister is beautiful and popular and desirable, and I'm just sort of invisible and unattractive. I'm sick of it."

Callidus made an impatient grunting sound and gave me an intensely annoyed look. Her eyes glowed bright orange, like hot coals in the fireplace. I got the impression she was glaring at me.

"According to tradition, those who summon me are expected to make a request. They are not expected to whine petulantly about their misfortunes."

"Oh, right," I said. "I'm new to this. Sorry."

My heart hammered in my chest, I was nervous, and my head was reeling. I was afraid of the ancient goddess that I'd summoned, but I tried to hold it together long enough to tell Callidus what I wanted.

"I wanna be the one who gets all the attention for once," I said. "I want to be sexy and desirable. I want to outshine my sister. I want my ass to be higher and firmer and more coveted than Haley's. I want to be desirable and popular."

The red-hot glow in her eyes seemed to cool. Her eyes reduced in intensity down to something that resembled dying embers in a fireplace. I took that to be a good sign.

"You wish to be desirable and popular," the ancient deity said. "This I understand. I can alter reality to grant you beauty and make you the most desirable female currently living in human society."

A wave of relief washed over me. Not only was the scary goddess not angry at me, but she was going to work her mojo to make me more popular than Haley. I silently swore that this was the best day ever!

"To warp reality in your world, I will require freshly shed mortal blood," the goddess explained. "Give me your hand."

I held my hand out timidly. Callidus took hold of my wrist with one hand and sharp, claw-like barbs suddenly protruded from her fingertips. My eyes widened and I had to suppress an overpowering urge to pull away.

"This will not kill you," Callidus told me. She dragged her claws down the back of my hand, tearing the flesh open. Then she held my hand up to her face and licked the blood off. It looked like something out of a vampire movie.

Are vampires real too? I never believed in vampires before, but I also never believed in gods. If the ancient Pagan gods were real, maybe vampires could be real too. And maybe there's some sort of connection between the two. Maybe they both gained power from drinking the blood of humans.

The old Pagan gods demanded blood sacrifices back in the day, didn't they? I was about to ask about this, but suddenly Callidus was gone, and I was back in the bathroom in the hotel.

"Alex! Alex, sweetie, are you in there?"