Chapter 9
Elise was in the cold damp warehouse kneeling on a concrete altar. Men and women were flagrantly fucking all around her, but seemed to pay her no mind. She saw Cody, her Cody in front of her. "What happened?" She asked.
"Hotspur," he said quietly. "He's here."
"Where?" she shook her head with confusion.
"Inside me."
"So I can still save you?" He didn't answer, but instead pulled her towards him. She shivered at his touch. "You're so cold."
"So warm me up," he smiled at her and she kissed him. He maneuvered her so her knees were spread apart and his hand reached her labia. Her hand found his shaft and she started working it. "Slower," he panted and she slowed her strokes as he found her clitoris.
"Cody," she moaned breathlessly, "Make love to me."
He put his other hand behind her neck and eased her onto her back. He positioned his dick against her wet slit and gently pushed inside. Her lips parted and her mouth formed into an "O" but no sound came from her. She could feel each vein inside as he moved in inch by inch. "I love you, Elise."
She woke in her bed slick with sweat and the smell of her own arousal. She brought her hand to her forehead. It was like Cody was calling out to her and wouldn't stop. Her parents wouldn't listen and certainly didn't understand that Cody was somehow speaking to her through her dreams. Once again she found herself on the road and this time she didn't have Cody around to protect her. Some Beatles song floated in from the back of her memory. No words, just the melody as she stepped onto the sidewalk in front of her house. It took less than an hour to find her way to the on ramp and it wasn't long before the sun was up and a small red truck stopped in front of her. "Thanks," she said as she climbed into the truck.
"Where are you headed?" He was an older man with messy white hair and a kind of amused look on his face.
She thought about the question, but didn't know where Cody was. It never came up in her dreams. "South?"
"Works for me," the man said with a smile.
* * *
"No one knows what it's like to be the sad man, to be the bad man, behind blue eyes." Collodi sang to Key as the environment around them shifted. They were no longer in a parking lot in front of Collodi's compound. Instead it was a kitchen with green accents and black and white checked floor.
"Where are we?" Key asked.
"I don't know, but it's from your mind. There seems to be some commotion in the basement, shall we?" Collodi said and led Key through the basement door.
He could already hear chanting and knew instantly what was being said. It was a ritual to summon a demon. A woman had a baby on an altar while a large broad man with black hair and a thick black beard held a sword out in front of him. "Would you kill me father?"
"Yes I would," he said sternly.
There was a woman with the man similarly armed, "please Madeline, give us the boy."
"No, I must summon him, I am one of his chosen."
"Oh, this is interesting. I bet I know who the baby is," Collodi chided.
"It's me," Key answered. "Those are my grandparents."
"Oh that is rich," Collodi laughed.
"How is this stripping away my magic."
"I assume this is some kind of nexus event. The root cause. This is why you fight demons, maybe? I don't know, this is all very new to me."
The scene played out in front of them and in one sudden motion Key saw his grandfather shove his sword into Madeline's stomach as his grandmother grabbed hold of baby Key. Key remembered his grandparents vividly. They were younger in the dream vision of course, but it was them all the same. He turned away as his mother fell into his grandfather's arms. He cradled her and for the first time ever he saw his grandfather shed a tear. It was just a single drop and got lost in the tangle of his beard, but Key felt the sting of it. "The event still happened whether or not I remember it."
"No matter. This is about to be erased, either way," he declared. "I'll replace it with something more mundane or nothing," he shrugged.
"This isn't what made me. I don't have a conscious memory of this."
"Oh, what was it then?"
"Let me show you," Key answered.
"I should still take it, leaving you a broken husk sounds delicious."
"No," Key said and thrust the railroad spike into Collodi's heart. He staggered back against a wall and trying to pull the spike free. "You have no idea what you're fucking with."
The scene shifted. A living room covered in blood and a man and woman dead on the couch with their decapitated heads on their lap. "How?" Collodi tried in vain to pull the stake from his chest.
"Meet Jolene," he said and pointed up the stairs just outside the living room. She stood at the top covered in gore with a scissor blade in her hand.
Jolene stepped down the stairs slowly "I waited for you Key," she said, "It's so beautiful and horrible."
"Where is Lucas, Jolene?" Key asked as if he was reciting a script
