Smoke and Mirrors - Dark Side of the Moon

Not all Learning Comes from Books

I laughed inspire of myself. "This isn't funny" Ezra said, colour rising in his face. "I told you man, you can't just tell people stuff like that" Max said, locking his fingers behind his head and stretching out on the couch. "Shut it Max!" Ezra snapped uncharacteristically. "No, it's not that" I said quickly, trying to find the words to explain. I hadn't meant to laugh. "Look, conjuring Demons from the Nether, that's some top tier stuff, not something that a Friday night half a coven could do on a whim with some kitchen herbs and chalk from your little sisters art box" 

"You saw it!" Ezra insisted and I shrugged non committally at him. "I saw a big, real big, real angry, dog" 

"Did it look like any dog you'd seen before?" Juniper now interjected. "I'm not an expert on dogs" 

"No, but you were scared when I saw you, and you wouldn't get scared like that by Mr Fredrickson's Labradoodle being off the lead, would you?" Ezra retorted. 

"Guys, I get it okay" I had to laugh bitterly to myself again. All the effort my Uncle had gone through to get me away from this kind of thing, and here I was, first day, waltzing straight into the midst of it all. Would he believe me if I were to explain it to him? Would there be any convincing him that I hadn't corrupted these pure country souls, but that I had found them like this, dark and twisted in surprising ways already. "Something obviously happened" I conceded "But, honestly, guys, this isn't like some quick charm to help you do well on a test, or some pumpkin patch hex. You're talking about summoning, and conjuring, a demonic spirit from the heart of Hades. That's not the sort of thing that you could do by accident. You'd have to be trying, seriously trying, to do that". 

"What if we were?" Juniper asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "What?" I looked at each of them in turn, but none of them met my eyes. "What do you mean you were trying?" I demanded. A long and uncomfortable silence stretched between us, making the previously cosy basement space now seem like a cavernous void, the silence reaching, filling and exacerbating every last inch of that space. "Blaire's been seeing this guy" Max eventually said, when the silence was weighing that hard on us it was almost smothering. "But the sleeze balls seeing someone else, I'd say on the side but, the way it sounds, looks like Blaire might be the one on the side". I thought of Blaire, pretty Barbie doll Blaire with the tanned legs and perfect hair. 

"Is she involved in all of this?" I asked. Juniper shook her head, her braids clacking together. "No, not this part of it anyway. She dabbled a bit with other stuff, but she thinks it's all stupid" I smiled to myself, of course pretty perfect Blaire couldn't see the power of what they were all messing with. The rest of them did though, they felt that intoxicating thrum of power, just out of grasp, and they wanted more of it. 

"She was crying one night after he blew her off for the other person" 

"And you all decided that you'd try and teach him a lesson?" I finished slowly for him. Again silence. I pinched the bridge of my nose again and bit down on the inside of my cheek. 

"Who's the guy?" I asked. "We don't know" Ezra admitted, shrugging. I stared at him, dumbfounded. "So you all just thought you'd summon some Demon to haunt some guy you didn't even know? What did you use to tether it then?"

"We had something he gave to Blaire" 

"So what's to stop it going after Blaire?" 

More silence. Goddess give me strength. 

"Demon's aren't the brightest beings, it wouldn't have been able to differentiate between the giver and the recipient, especially if its something that Blaire handled a lot" 

"How come it is that you know so much about it all then?" Max asked, a note of unmasked suspicion in his voice as he regarded me in a different way now. "I -" I started, but stopped myself. How much could I tell them? They'd been very open with me, but could I trust them with my secrets yet? "I've read about it. A lot!" I added when Max continued to look skeptical. 

"Where is Blaire now? Can we get her to come back? If we did, it should be pretty easy to find out if whatever it you conjured up attached onto her" 

"She went home already" Juniper said "But I could ask her to come back, I can tell her mum she left some school work here or something" 

"Good idea" 

"I'll be better off calling her from upstairs, the receptions rubbish down here". 

"I'll come too, I need to put the kettle on" Ezra said, scratching absently at the back of his head, the way he was stretching lifting his shirt and exposing his toned midriff, a small patch of hair, darker than his head, descending below his jeans. I swallowed hard and looked quickly away, not wanting to get caught staring. My mouth suddenly very dry. "Hang on, I'll come too" I called after Juniper who was already half way up the stairs. 

"Do you want a drink?" Ezra was that close behind me that when he spoke his breath stirred the hair behind my ear and my flesh erupted in goosebumps. "Err, n-no, thank you. Maybe a water actually?" I stammered. "Sure thing" He smiled at me, his arm resting on the door frame above him, leaning slightly in towards me. He was tall anyway, but this stance made him imposing in a whole different way. "I, we, Juniper . . . That is, I should check - on Juniper" Smooth Amaya. Real smooth. 

"Sure thing" Ezra smirked at me, but didn't move out of the way. "I should just. . ." I mumbled pathetically, motioning with my hand at the gap beside Ezra's waist. I was only little, maybe I could squeeze through. "How do you really know so much?" Ezra asked me, his eyes narrowing. "About what?" I asked, playing dumb. "You don't have to tell me. But I'll answer any question you've got honestly" Ezra said, his eyes piercing into me. My heart hammered loudly enough in my ears that I felt sure Ezra would be able to hear in too. "You know what, never mind, I'll catch up with her when she's done," I announced and quickly hopped back down the stairs. 

I was half way down the stairs when I heard the sound of hushed voices, it sounded intimate enough that it made me pause. I crept a little further along the stairway and peered into the basement. Max and Sascha were no longer on the sofa, but on their feet now. Sascha's back was against a supporting joust and Max was leant in close to her, a knee forcing her legs apart. "Look at me. Look at me!" He demanded of her. She made to move, but he grabbed her wrist and pinned her body heavily with his hips. "You do exactly as I say and this'll all go a lot easier for you, do you understand me? I said, do you understand me,?" He annunciated every syllable until Sascha eventually nodded along to what Max was saying."There's a good girl".

I could hear Ezra above me, whistling while the kettle boiled, and Juniper, who had started walking back toward the basement, obviously finished on the phone to Blaire. I sprang up quickly and started descending the stairs. Max and Sascha must've heard her too because, by the time I'd gotten to the bottom of the stairs, Max was on the sofa, examining his nails, and Sascha had flopped into a bean bag, like the heated exchange between them had never happened. 

"Is Blaire coming?" I asked, trying to distract myself from what I had seen between Max and Sascha. "No" Juniper said, a small crease forming between her dainty brows. "I couldn't get through on her mobile, so I rang the house. Her mum thinks she's staying here" 

"So where is she then?" I asked puzzled. 

"That, is an excellent question".