The Onset of A Panic Situation
Part
2
Sometimes, it's so easy, babe!, I thought to myself, laughing as Jerry fell into a deep sleep in front of me. All I gotta do is preoccupy your free time and, bam!, you leave me alone! I wasn't really sleepy anymore, so I took the remote out of Jerry's relaxed hands and sat on the floor in front of the tube.
It had already occured to me that Jerry's mind was slightly more dangerous than mine, which was the main reason I wasn't helping him clean it out now. Every time the boy had tried going into that Darkness of his, he'd found either something scary (like Alan) or something troublesome (like Stevie). In fact, I thought, he'd really only gone twice and come back with a new entity each time.
This was a
negative pattern, I thought with a frown. Maybe I should go with
him. I was actually considering joining him when I remembered why I had
suggested he go clean out his head in the first place--he'd been trying to
drive me crazy! He's probably waiting in the Dark right now getting ready to
scare the hell out of me when I come over there, I thought irritably.
The idea that he was probably doing just that pissed me off again and wiped away any worries. If that big dope thought I was coming over to that black hole of knowledge he called a brain just to wet my pants from fright, then he was severely deluded indeed.
I, I thought to
myself as I clicked on the tv
remote with determination, wouldn't be caught dead there!
She's not coming, Jerry
thought to himself, standing in his hiding place behind a semi-hidden cabinet.
She probably just said it to get rid of me.
He stepped out of the
shadows into the dim light and sighed. Well, as long as he was here, he might
as well get something done.
He opened up a filing
cabinet and began rifling through the completely unorganized papers within. As
he read through them, he noticed that they all seemed to have one thing in
common: they all were memories of exceedingly cruel things he had done. Once
he'd killed a kitten out of anger and that was here in chilling detail. Not
only that, but there were some things that had been written in that he had only
thought of once of twice in passing, like killing his brother with a shotgun,
running over his teacher with a dull bladed lawn mower or smothering Daina with a pillow. Some of the papers were so evil in
nature that a chill actually ran down his spine as he read.
He was still reading in
a sort of fascinated horror when he heard the noise. It caused him to jump ever
so slightly, then look in the direction it had come
from. "Who's there?" he called out nervously. The Darkness hid all
figures from his view, but he knew somebody was in there.
After all, he certainly
wasn't the one who had laughed evilly.
Hogan's Heroes had gone off before I looked back at Jerry again. I really needed to get home and get ready for work. He was still sleeping, which meant that subconsciously, he was probably still in the filing room. I kinda wanted to leave him alone, since his physical body definitely needed the rest (we'd both been putting in late hours of hang out time lately), but I was becoming a little concerned now. He should have been back nearly 20 minutes ago; after all, this was Jerry. If scaring me to death hadn't worked out, I doubted very seriously he would have waited around for me to show up and even more seriously that he would have actually started trying to clean out his subconscious (that would've required work!).
I got up and started packing my things. I had to go to work, no matter what he might have be doing. I was set to go when a twinge of guilt hit me. If he really had gone into his deep subconscious and something really was waiting for him in that Darkness...
Then, again, I thought, ruffling his hair affectionately as I left, what were the chances of that happening a third time?
Jerry stood frozen in
place as the shadows he was peering into gave way to a figure in the Darkness.
It didn't move quickly; in fact, it was strolling toward him at a rather
leisurely pace. It stopped near him at the edge of the Dark.
"Hello?" Jerry
said uncertainly.
"Hi," came the voice, still not completely visible. A match flared
to light a cigarette and for a brief moment, the face was visible.
Jerry almost jumped. "Hey,
you're..."
"What?" came
the reply. "Black? So
are you to the untrained eye. Especially in the summer."
Suddenly, Jerry was flying through the air, coming to rest when he finally
slammed into the cabinet nearest him. He fell to the ground and the shadows
finally took on a completely human form. The person walked over to Jerry, who
was sitting in a daze on the ground and deliberately stepped over his legs and
swung a carefully aimed kick between them.
"Oh, shit!!!"
Jerry gasped, his voice pain wracked. "You...fuckin'...bitch!"
"Exactly," she smiled, "but
most people just call me Julie." The girl stood next to him and laughed
slowly, taking a luxurious drag on her cigarette. She took his face in her
hands gently and blew smoke at him. "So, let's play a game."
"What kind of
game?" Jerry grimaced, still greatly pained.
"It's called 'You
Suffer & I Watch'," said she, taking another drag. "It's
fun."
"No," Jerry
disagreed. "We just played that and it's no fun at all."
"Mmmm," she nodded, continuing. "For
you." They sat quietly for a moment, Jerry trying to get over his
pain, Julie smoking and tapping her ashes on his head. He looked up at her and
realized, to his wry amusement, that if She-Nay-Nay from Martin were cast prettier,
this girl would've had the part instead of Martin Lawrence. Her hair was
braided into infinitely small french braids, then pulled back into a ponytail with shorter braids for
bangs. She wore a tank top and hot pants with a sleeveless plaid jacket over
the top that reminded Jerry of the one that he and Daina
had fought over some time ago in Target. To top off this ensemble, she wore a
set of round "Dwayne Wayne" flip up shades
and a pair of earth shoes. She was of an indeterminate age, but definitely pretty enough to be fairly young and stylin'.
Who cares?, he thought grimly. She's outta here.
He began to concentrate,
channeling some of his magic energies into getting rid of the girl, but the
minute he could feel them being harnessed, a sharp pain drilled into his head.
He stopped in surprise.
He definitely recognized a magic damper when he felt one. Dampers aren't
supposed to work on me!, he thought in horror.
"What are you doing to me?" he demanded.
"Nothing, why do
you ask?" she replied cooly. He frowned as if to
say "take a guess" and she smiled. "You wouldn't be trying to
get rid of me now, would you?" she added, tapping ashes on him again.
"Quit that!"
he snapped. "I don't want your ashes all over me."
"Sorry," she
said. "I'll put it out." Without a moment's heistation,
she grabbed his arm and ground out her cigarette on it. He yanked it away, but
not before she'd left a sizable burn.
"God-damn!"
Jerry yelled. "What are you, some sort of anti-Daina
or something?"
"Yeah, that's
it," she said with a slight smile. "The complete
opposite of her. Where is she right now?"
"Probably watching tv," Jerry said irritably. Just when I need her most,
he added mentally.
"Call her,"
Julie said.
"Why?" Jerry
asked. He had actually been about to, but now that this girl had asked, he
wasn't so sure.
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Let's play a
game," Julie said suddenly. Jerry's head whirled and then slowed down.
When he could see straight again, he found himself strapped to a wooden chair
with Julie standing in front of him. She was holding a tray with razor blades
on it. She took one, then set the tray down and picked up a small hammer from
it. The razor blade she set right underneath the edge of his fingernail.
"Call her," she said.
"No," Jerry
replied adamantly. Again, with no hesitation, she whacked the end of the blade
with the little hammer.
Pain shot up Jerry's arm
in sparks, making him see stars and yell to the moon for a moment. He almost
automatically began concentrating again, this time channeling all his energy
into ridding himself of the agony he was suffering. He couldn't be totally
without magic, not now. But again, the pain from the mysteriously placed damper
coursed through his body, making him forget the pain in his finger entirely
until he stopped.
"Do that
again," Julie smiled at him. "I liked that face better." He
gaped at her and she shook her head. "Oh, no, that's not it at all. Oh,
well...never mind." She grabbed up another blade and smiled again.
"Call her."
Inwardly, he cringed,
trying to keep his bravado up outside. He knew what Julie was trying to do;
after all, enough torture and he'd probably call just about anybody.
But right now, if for no
other reason than because this evil little witch in front of him had requested
it, the last person he wanted to call was Daina.
"No," he said,
and as Julie hammered in another blade, Jerry bellowed and the call went out...