Gary moped and acted put upon right up until Keeley got ready to leave. He followed her out to the garage and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“Keeley… This is so weird, you’re a Demon? You seem so nice all the time. Darla too… Anyway, I won’t get in the way, I promise. Just, make sure this works will you. I really liked Rob. I’m not dumb enough to think it was more than a temporary thing, we weren’t soul mates or anything, but he was with me and those… things, killed him. Over a stupid game we probably wouldn’t have won anyway. That witch of a Principal has to be stopped. If you need help with that or anything…”
Keeley put a hand on his upper arm, gently squeezing it.
“Then I’ll get in touch with you first. I should get a cell phone, but my “parents” don’t think a young girl should have one. Probably correct too, so I can’t say much, can I? It would be handy though. Remember, we don’t want or need you going off to prison for this. Darla is perhaps one of the best planners in the world on things like this. Trust in her abilities and don’t go off trying to play hero.” It was likely even true. She’d be better at it than Gary at least.
Of course it wasn’t some kind of super- plan, was it? Distract the Gatherer, make sure the device got destroyed, if possible, and then kill Edith, all of which was really up to Darla, though Keeley would be keeping an eye on the woman. And working. The party was real enough. She needed to make certain that guy from her father’s office was invited too. It was his plan.
Really, he should be in charge. At least sort of.
Keeley would have to take care of that too. She fought a sigh and, a little impulsively, gave the boy in front of her a warm hug. His anger hadn’t subsided much at all, but he didn’t seem to currently be planning any personal mayhem. It would probably happen though, eventually. Unless he was managed pretty carefully. The memories in her head told her that. Rage manifested eventually, if you knew enough to see the signs and had a long enough view of things.
This wasn’t just a little anger either.
The boy hugged her back, clinging to her, not really believing she was anything other than what she looked like. He bought Balthias was what was claimed, and could nearly accept Rebekah, as exotic as she looked, but Keeley was just… Her. Darla was the same in his mind. That was fine, as long as he didn’t get himself, or anyone else, killed.
How likely was that though? Cynical maybe, but Keeley figured that at least some of her friends would die in the coming days. Not because they had too, just because they were too easy as targets went. Too hard to really miss. Even a Gatherer could remove them from being without sweating it as a problem.
That was going to make her sad, if it happened. She really hoped it just didn’t.
Chapter thirteen
“Pure favoritism on Darla’s part, but you both have the needed skills for it, so why not?” Keeley openly teased Karen Benson, who was near forty, but looked a lot younger, not more than thirty really. Lean, well made up, and dressed almost perfectly for a group party planning session. The woman had greeted her with a hug even though they’d never met, and Eve with shock, clearly both recognizing the girl and not expecting her to be there at all.
Nice of her sister to forget to mention that to the woman. Too late to do anything about it, Keeley acted like it was normal.
“I’d like you two to work together. If you could kind of take her under your wing for a while Karen? Things are possibly getting a little rough, and her mother…” Keeley didn’t want to speak ill of the woman. Or rather, she wanted to bad mouth her for several hours, and possibly convince Roy to arrest her, but that couldn’t happen and being a gossip, or seen as catty, would just reflect poorly on her.
The slightly older looking woman nodded, and pulled Eve into a tight hug.
“I know. Some of it at least. Darla told us, about six months ago. I…” Real tears formed in her eyes, but it was slightly misplaced. Mistimed at least. The others were showing up. Dan Carmichael in his nice silver car, which was someone Keeley hadn’t expected, but could see being there, since he was kind of the money man for side projects as far as Coretechs was concerned.
Not that they were going with a vast budget. It was just a Halloween party. Candy, games and prizes, decorations and some food. Music. Maybe some fog machines. What else did they need?
Her school’s Principal, Mr. Morton, was there and he nodded to her and Eve, but didn’t approach overly, being positively entranced with Karen. The woman seemed pleased enough right back, and since both she and Roy were swingers, into having an open relationship and multiple sex partners, it might even be worth the man’s time to flirt with her. Who knew? Well, Karen… but who else?
Keeley smiled at Eve, but the girl didn’t get it at all. Then, she really didn’t know Karen, did she?
They both liked sex as a hobby though, so they at least had that in common. She’d have to point that out.
Edith was the last one there, not late, just exactly on time, walking in the door at seven, with at least four strange devices on her, powerful enough things they stressed the very fabric of reality as she moved, a visible warping of the air around her. Keeley could see it at least. She also had three people with her. Daryl was there, as was a woman in her forties or so, who looked like the stereotype of a trailer park dweller, and very unhappy to have been dragged along. The last was a giant man, who just looked insane, bearded and with a nearly cylindrical body. Nearly six-eight at a guess too.
Keeley didn’t know what he was, but it wasn’t strictly human, that was for certain. Edith’s back-up then. As if she needed it for a party planning session? Keeley just smiled and put a light skip into her step, making her seem a bit perky and happy. It was all she was allowing herself to feel. Edith wasn’t her favorite person, but it was good she’d come, they needed the help. She’d even brought some friends.
Cool. That they weren’t normal looking was fine, it was for Halloween anyway, right?
Bob Richards looked like what he was, a middle management guy from Coretechs, who at forty-five had realized he wasn’t moving any higher in the company in his section, so if he wanted to go anywhere before he retired, he had to start coming up with new ideas. Like this PR gimmick. That Charles Thomson’s daughter had gotten him the spot wasn’t lost on him at all. He figured that Thomson was angling to get a favor later, in return. If it worked, that could be done. Help your friends out, and all that. Keeley knew all this because he kept touching her. Just arms and shoulder, not anything too over the top, not even on purpose.
The man did the same with Eve and Karen too. Not Edith or her female friend though. They looked either pissed off or as if the touching would be unwelcome.
“Let’s get started then, we need a venue, I was thinking the conference center, unless anyone else has an idea?” Bob looked around as if expecting that no one else would have anything at all. He was used to dealing with business people and this group might not have business sense overly, but they had creativity in spades, didn’t they?
Eve shook her head.
“Not a horrible idea, but we might be able to do it more cheaply, and seem a little more accessible to the general public. How about that spooky abandoned church downtown? It has both creep factor, and if we can do some work in there, both the sheer space and its own cobwebs.” She grinned, showing it was a joke, but everyone else looked uneasy.
Edith growled though, nearly a literal thing.
“Don’t be a moron. Today’s youth, never planning properly. It would cost too much and we don’t have time for major renovations.” The woman glared. Hard enough that Daryl followed suit, staring hard at Eve for having made his love upset.
Keeley gave a single nod, thinking.
“How about the Farmers Hall instead? It’s not as nice as the conference center, but it’s centrally located and really, I’d rather pay fifty dollars for the rental for a night than ten thousand.” She held up her right hand, palm out.
“I know, cheap of me, but we can set up a walkthrough haunted house and really, I think more people will be willing to bring their kids to something that isn’t quite as fancy.”
On the far end, of the room, nearly out of it, standing in the living room doorway, keeping her distance from them all, stood Clara, who had a list in her hand.
“The Farmers Hall goes for sixty-five per night. The conference center two-thousand. Either way we should get at least four nights, one for the actual event on the day itself, and three lead up, so we can actually do proper preparations. We could also possibly get the Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting center. They have a good space there. If we bring them in on this, playing a part, we can probably get that for free and they’ll host and man the bar. Not a free bar, but at a family event that should probably be avoided anyway.”
The rest of the planning actually went smoothly, the only problem was that Keeley kept reigning in what was being spent, with Bob ignoring her on that and Dan Carmichael just agreeing with everything. Clara had a contact at the VFW and had the whole thing arranged within an hour, just making two phone calls. Even getting some of their guys to help with the haunted house. Then she sat quietly making calls in regards to real cow brains and animal entrails. Plus blood. Fake blood though. Real blood would be harder to get out if it spilled after all. That Clara knew how to get the real stuff off the top of her head reminded Keeley to arrange for Rebekah to chat with her. That might be handy. The Vampires could live off of animal blood, she’d said.
“How about snakes?” The dowdy woman, Lyn, who was with Principal Givens said, looking around. “Real snakes would scare me at least. If we can keep them warm enough, I mean.”
Bob smiled at her, suddenly interested, as if he hadn’t really noticed her before.
The food and drink would be traditional enough, a soda fountain, punch, various snacks with no meal served. It was both cheaper and made more sense. Who served dinner at a Halloween party? Especially a giant public one.
It went pretty smoothly, with Edith complaining about everything that wasn’t her idea, while managing to add a few decent things, like the need to advertise. Keeley wrote that down and got some suggestions as to where to do it and how. Mentioning it to the local news outlets and all that. She needed to build some contacts there, it was clear. How to do that, she had no clue. Maybe take them some cookies?
Laughing to herself she decided to do just that. It probably didn’t have to be anything major after all. Go in, say hello and get some numbers to call, just in case something came up.
It all went happily enough until Just before nine, when Daryl, Lyn and the giant hairy man suddenly all froze. It wasn’t that obvious at first, they just didn’t move. Or breathe. Then they started to shake horribly, screaming, flesh turning red as everyone looked on in horror. After nearly a minute of that they all stopped, panting. But still all alive.
They clearly looked pissed too.
Keeley stood and clapped a little.
“That was fantastic! Yes, if you three could do that, we can make room in the haunted house for it. Ooh, I know, we’ll work you into each group going through and make it seem like you’re all under attack by some kind of creature. Brilliant idea guys. If you come up with anything else, please let me know? I think that on that note we might all want to get to things. What we can this late at night.” Keeley chuckled, gasping a little as if out of breath.
“I haven’t been scared like that in a long time. Thanks everyone. Bob, anything to add?” She was trying to keep everyone busy and distracted from what had just happened. It had been weird and the three newly freed people seemed to be in shock still. That or they knew enough not to go all crazy in front of the new people. Either way worked for her.
No one was really buying it though, but that just meant they got out of there fast, at least Bob and Keeley’s Principal did. Everyone else lingered, with the giant hairy man standing firmly in front of the door as Edith tried to walk out.
“I don’t really think so, Gatherer. I’m free, witch. I don’t know how, but I’m not yours and love you no more. You no longer own my mind.” He didn’t sound friendly about it, but the voice wasn’t threatening either. The vast size, and obvious power, was probably enough there.
Lyn stood at the ready too, a heavy glass piece that looked like a mermaid on a rock and must have weighed six pounds in her hand to use as a weapon. Karen looked at the scene and held out a hand, as if begging them all to be reasonable.
“Wait, please…” She got a fireplace poker from the other side of the room and held it out to Lyn.
“That statue was given to me by a dear friend, she made it herself and it can’t be replaced. Could I trade you?” It was an incredibly bizarre scene but the woman nodded and made the exchange, as if expecting a trick.
For her part, Edith, clearly frightened, looked at Daryl.
“Sweetie? If you’d be so kind as to not let them kill me?” Now her voice held something close to kindness. It was a bit too late though, wasn’t it.
Or maybe not.
“You heard her. You two stand down. It’s not our place to take her life. Besides, she’s armed with weapons we can’t beat. Best to just let this go and escape while we can.” He made his voice reasonable and not smarmy at all when he said it.
It was so obviously a ruse that Keeley had to fight rolling her eyes and she was pretty sure Eve and Karen both actually did. Edith just looked triumphant. It was stupid of her. True she probably was armed, but that wouldn’t save the woman for long, would it?
“Um, what’s going on?” Keeley sounded scared and uncertain, Dan looked at her, then walked over and patted her gently on the back, as if actually consoling a frightened young girl.
“I think there’s been some kind of disagreement. But it looks like it’s resolving itself. Still, that’s for the best, I don’t imagine that inside the Chief of Police’s home is the best place for an altercation, do you?”