The Onset of A Panic Situation
Part
7
Jerry watched his Evil
Incarnate leave Daina's body and reform into Julie.
He caught Daina as she passed out and looked up at
Julie.
"Nice try," he
said, "but I can see through a line of bullshit a mile away."
"Please,"
Julie snorted. "If she hadn't been so weakminded
and easily confused, you'd still be begging her not to make you kill her."
"You mean if she
hadn't been so strongminded and knew the game you
were playing on her," Jerry corrected. "Get your lie straight before
you tell it to me."
"I don't see why
you have to insist upon defying me," she sighed irritably.
"Because
I can!" Jerry grinned.
"Let's play a
game," Julie suggested.
"No!"
Jerry said. "No more games! You either deal with us straight, or you don't
deal at all."
"Al-right!"
Julie said, teeth clenched. She suddenly looked as if
she were smoldering in anger. Jerry suddenly felt a minor apprehension. God, I
hope she isn't snappin' on me!, he thought weakly.
"Here's the problem I'm having. Most of what I made Daina
say to you is true. You've grown past that innocence that little brat Stevie had; he's an integral part of you now, which is why
he's learning so much. And you'd started controlling Alan and his "wanna be evil" self, so I made him part of me."
"But then you start
trying to deny me with this niceness to everybody, this letting
people walk all over you stuff and then this pact to be good
for a whole month just because the bitch is your friend???!!!"
Julie was nearly hysterical now, half laughing and half angry. "See, I
can't have that, honey," she said, her voice trembling with emotion.
"I'm you're Evil and I need my space. I didn't mind laying low for a
while; I'm used to running things from the sidelines, but this is that last
straw, y'know? So you're gonna
have to step aside and let me handle things. You've had your chance to do
things wrong and you blew it, so it's my turn."
Jerry had watched
Julie's whole discourse in a sort of mesmerized fascination. She's serious!, he thought. She really wants to take over my body!
"What if I say no?" he asked.
"Then I have to get
rid of you," she said tightly.
"You can't do
that," said Jerry, raising a finger as if to call a point of order.
"See, if I'm reading this right, this is a perfect example of the
classical battle of good versus evil. If you had the power to win right now,
you'd be winning, but I don't think you do. I think you were down a quart
before you nabbed Alan and that's what put you up to par with me. We're
perfectly even and if I decide to stand against you, the only way you'll get
what you want is if I step aside. You can't kill me anymore than I can kill
you."
"So what are you
saying?" Julie asked, maintaining her fragile shell of calm.
"That you can kiss
my ass; I'm not giving up this throne for nobody," Jerry replied calmly.
Julie turned away from
him, furious and Jerry knew he had won. This was the climax; this was where she
would lose her cool and fade back into the shadows from whence she came and
then he and Daina would wake up and Daina'd write a nice story about the whole deal and they'd
talk about it over dinner at Denny's...
Julie turned back
around, the hysterical look on her face again. "Who
said anything about killing YOU!" she demanded, then before Jerry
could say anything, Julie screamed hysterically and disappeared in a bright
flash of pyrotechnics.
Jerry laughed. "Yesss! Daina,
we got her, man, she's really gone this time..." He looked down in
mid-exultation and found his lap empty.
Julie, he found out, was
not the only one gone.
The room around Jerry
disappeared slowly and he found himself sitting in his subconscious in the
middle of the aisle he'd originally been in when Julie had first appeared.
"Daina?" he called out. "Daina, you here?"
A deep rumbling from the
direction of the Link made him remember Julie's parting words; who said
anything about killing YOU?
He was sprinting down
the hall as fast as he could go, then flying, then teleporting himself the
extra distance. He went from the Door to the inner tunnel of the Link and found
both Julie and Daina. Daina
was lying on the floor, gray and ashen while Julie sat by her, one hand on Daina's arm, the other on the Link wall. The walls were
transparent now, making the void outside it visible.
"It's alright
now," Julie was saying as he ran toward her in the collapsing remnants of
the Link. "She's making you be good. I'm taking care of that..."
His shouts of protest
were lost in the Nothingness that invaded the Link. A sort of confusion reigned
momentarily as his world collapsed around him, leaving him floating between two
minds. Somehow, he remembered Daina saying something
about fairies and sprites not being able to handle voids without going insane.
This, he realized, as his mind began to slip, was not the time to deny that he
was definitely a fairy.
He could actually feel
the ties of sanity falling away from him until he finally screamed out, his
voice providing him with the only bit of tangible reality he could find. Like a
tether rope, it mentally helped him find his way back to his own mind.
It was fairly dark
around him, but he knew the feel of his own subconscious when he reached it. He
sat down, trying to collect all his thoughts. He tried to reach out for Daina, but knew he wasn't going to reach her before he felt
the blank nothingness that had replaced the Link. Not only had Julie killed the
Link itself by infusing evil all through it, she had undoubtedly killed Daina the same way. He could always wake himself up and
check to be sure, but if he woke up to find Daina
lying dead on the sofa...
She always told me she
was inherently good, Jerry thought, tears running down his face. She couldn't
possibly have survived that.
Brown arms encircled him
from behind as he sat and a soft cheek placed itself against his own. "Daina...?" he gasped, grabbing the wrist of one arm
desperately.
"Julie," came the reply. Jerry's spirit sank again, and Julie
continued to hold him, running her finger through his hair. "It's
over," she said softly in his ear. "Let go."
"Let go of
what?" he asked huskily, grief clouding his voice. She used to run her
fingers through my hair, he thought. And she used to get excited when I played
with her ears...
"Of
everything. Let me take it away from you."
"Yeah," Jerry
said, feeling his pain slip away in the warm shiver her fingers in his hair
gave him.
"Why should you
have to suffer?" Julie told him.
"I shouldn't,"
he agreed quietly, tension melting.
"You tried your
best."
"I did everything I
could."
"It wasn't your
fault."
"No, it
wasn't."
"I mean, I'm
the one that killed her."
Jerry's relaxed, almost
trancelike state snapped, bringing him to a full consciousness he'd never felt
before. He was still holding Julie's wrist, so he tightened his grip and pulled
her over his shoulder into his lap. "That's right," he said with a
deadly calmly, "You did. Her and everyone she ever created, which includes
Josh and Naomi and Robin and Christine and all sorts of people. You also killed
off Stevie and Alan, too. I saw Stevie
go right in front of my eyes. You did all that."
Julie could see she had
been in the eye of the storm before and that it was about to change rapidly.
She needed her control back before that happened. "Cigarette?" she
asked him, using her free hand to hand him her own pack.
He pulled one out, put
it in his mouth and lit it. "Thank you," he said, still grasping her
wrist.
"You're starting to
hurt my arm," she said.
"I know," he
replied...then he decided then and there that he really had absolutely nothing
to lose by being evil right now. Daina was dead now,
so she wouldn't be in any danger. Certainly no one else was around here that
could be affected, either.
In fact, he really had a
lot to gain, since the first evil thing on his agenda would be to treat Julie
to tortures untold (yet catalogued neatly) in his file room.
The best part was he felt
like being evil...really evil. In fact, he hadn't felt like this in
almost a month. He looked down at Julie and mirrored the smile she'd given him
throughout his whole ordeal.
"Let's play a
game," he said, taking a luxurious drag on his cigarette.
"What kind of
game?" she asked warily.
"It's called 'You
Suffer & I Watch'," said he, taking another drag. "It's
fun."
"No," Julie
disagreed. "I've seen that and it's no fun at all."
"Mmmm," he nodded, continuing. "For
you." They sat quietly for a moment, Julie trying to get free,
Jerry smoking and tapping his ashes on her head. "Where's Alan?" he asked.
"Why?" she
replied.
"Are we gonna go through this again?" Jerry asked, shaking his
head. "Oh, never mind, I'll find him myself." He concentrated briefly
and found himself changing. His hands became paws, the paws became hairy and
his body became lupine.
"Hey, guess
what?" he said coldly, looking at Julie through icy yellow eyes. "I
can do this myself! I guess my friend, whom you killed, was right. I
really am a fairy."
"I know,"
Julie replied, standing up and began to back away. "You always were."
"She also told me I
could be pretty evil at times," Jerry added. "I think this is
definitely one of those times, don't you?" She didn't answer, but
continued to back away. He focused on her as well, holding her mentally in
place as he padded up to her on all fours. He smiled at her and the smile was
his, except now he flashed a wolf's teeth instead of human ones.
"Don't do something
you'll regret, Jerry," Julie said.
Jerry chuckled.
"What a line!" he said...then leaped silently at her, taking her to
the ground. She screamed and Jerry laughed again. "Do that again," he
said. "I liked that face better."
Let me up," she
said, her voice trembling.
Jerry
cocked his head to the side and for a moment, he looked like a friendly, but
curious dog. Julie stopped shaking for a moment, then he growled low at
her and attacked, tearing at her until there was nothing left.
In fact, there really was
nothing left. Jerry looked around for body parts and other gore that her knew
must have been flung far and wide, but found nothing at all, not even a drop of
blood, save the stains on himself. He changed back to a human form and stood
listening to the silence.
"Well, now that's
done," he said aloud. He listened again, but still heard nothing. It was
maddening really.
He was alone, but not
alone.
Alan was somewhere
contained within him, probably as thrilled as he was to be so close to evil.
Julie was a part of him now, too; he felt her new and disturbing, yet
comforting presence. Stevie was with him, too, but,
he thought, callously taking another drag, he'd probably be dead from all this
evil soon, just like Daina. They were all a part of
him now, which should have equaled him out in terms of good and evil, he knew.
And it did, in a way.
He actually felt so bad,
he felt good, he thought with a smile.