Sister Cinco (Scenes 3-4)
3
At the top of the double grand staircase, Rancaster explained to Auna that the three Hearn sisters were not to be underestimated, especially the eldest one, Katherine Hearn. Out of the three, Katherine was the most formidable and decisive, and this very mansion they infiltrated was her domain, making her presence here difficult for even Rancaster himself to sense. So Rancaster warned Auna that under no circumstances was she to engage Katherine in a fight on her own, because he had already got that part figured out already. In addition, he also warned her not to engage Kendra Tellerman again like she did in the hallways just before he had intervened and kept Auna from turning a mere complication into a catastrophe.
Auna fisted her hands into tight knuckle-white fists and said, “She never took me off guard.”
“She didn’t have to when Mara was the one who did it,” he said. “That girl almost skewered you to the wall, for Christ’s sake, and here you are still fuming over it when you should be thanking your lucky stars you got out of it unscathed.” He then put his hand on her shoulder and added, “Selfishness is not a good look for you, bambina. Kendra may be an enemy combatant, but you should thank her for what she did for you. At least she has a modicum of honor left in her, if nothing else.”
Indeed, Auna remembered the two scenes earlier tonight, in which Auna was just about to fire a shot at Nico and send her away for good when that shotgun-toting Kendra had blasted her way into the hallway through one of the mirrors and scared her off, and again in which Auna was about to fire a shot at Nico carried over Kendra’s shoulders when Mara surprised her. Auna felt like kicking herself for getting surprised in both instances and said, “I’ll remember it.”
“Good,” he said.
“What about the Cairns twins?” Auna said.
Rancaster wavered a moment, seeming to weigh the possibilities in his mind against their previous engagements with Nico Cairns at the square in the old Rancaster district last night and in the hallways of Katherine’s dream mansion earlier tonight, let alone Nico’s involvement with Kendra’s meddlesome actions. Finally, he shook his head and said, “There are too many variables with those two, especially with Nico, so no. I won’t risk you killing Mara, nor will I let you tangle with her sister or Kendra. Is that clear?”
“But why?” she asked.
“Too many variables, bambina,” he said. ”Nico’s a sly one herself, and Kendra’s not to be trifled with, either, so let me handle these intruders in addition to Katherine.”
“So if I see the Cairns twins or this Katherine or this Kendra,” Auna said, “I should run?”
“Yes, run away and lead them to me,” Rancaster said.
Auna deflated a bit at his words.
So he added, “Believe me, I have faith in you, Auna. I’ll let you take care of the other two Hearn sisters. How you engage them, it matters not to me, but give Katherine a good show while you’re at it. I know she’s watching from somewhere in this place, so get the upper hand on her sisters, and you might draw Katherine out.”
So Auna paused and gulped, then looked away when she said, “You’ll come to my rescue when I do, right?”
At this, Rancaster cracked a smile, saying, “With guns blazing and sword shimmering, I’ll be that very Prince!”
And with those words, he bowed to her and took her hand and kissed it, sending a hint of color to Auna’s deadpanning face. Then he turned on his heel and walked into a darkening haze enveloping the top landing of the staircase and disappeared before her eyes.
Now it was her turn to prove herself, so Auna put up a brave face and steeled herself for the hell to come, ready to follow his plan to a tee.
So she stalked back down the stairs and entered the library, coming to the cafe table where the Carroll book sat undisturbed. She bit her thumb and drew blood, dripping a drop of it onto the cover, then placed her palm flat over it and imagined the two queens from Through the Looking-Glass, letting her life-blood flow through the ink between the pages, and the air inside the library grew denser and thicker, tinged with the metallic scent of blood and ink from the epicenter of her spell.
She said, “From page 34, enter the Red Queen! From page 91, enter the White Queen!”
And strings of sentences swept out from the pages and across the tabletop and down the stem and feet of the table to the floor, then swirled into two spirals before her, on which the Red Queen and the White Queen materialized.
Both Queens had Auna’s face and short bobbed hair and wore crinoline dresses over their forms, one red and one white, but they wore different expressions and fashions. The Red Queen wore a Lolita look of a pristine red Sunday dress, her bangs trimmed and her hair neat above her shoulders and her face doll-like with small red lips and glassy eyes, but the White Queen had a grungy look of a tattered white Sunday dress with a soiled bodice, her hair unkempt and limp and her makeup a mess over a sweaty complexion and a maniacal stare about her eyes and holding a dildo in her hand. Both were opposite extremes of Auna herself in demeanor and dress, the Red Queen representing the stern and stately extreme of Auna’s calm demeanor and the White Queen representing the outlandish and outré extreme of Auna’s agitated state.
“What do you want this time, Auna?” the White Queen said, still holding a dildo in her left hand. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Manners, Shiromi, geez! And put that thing away!” the Red Queen said, elbowing her counterpart in the ribs. “Sorry about that, your Grace. What are your orders?” And she even curtsied, prim and proper and annoying—
Which irritated the White Queen, who dissipated the dildo from her hand and manifested a knife and pointed it at her red counterpart, saying, “You know what? Maybe instead of Akami, your name should be Goody Two-Shoes Period-Puss!”
The Red Queen’s face lit up, so she manifested a knife of her own, when Auna manifested a revolver in her hand and fired a shot that bit off a chink from the ceiling. Then she pointed it at the White Queen and said, “I created you, and like it or not, you are my subject. And if you haven’t noticed, I’m the one with the gun,” and she cocked the hammer and chambered a round into the barrel of her weapon.
Both queens stopped their tussle and curtsied, though the White Queen did so with a scowl on her face, saying, “What is your bidding, your Grace?”
“Rancaster and I are playing a game of chess with six others.”
“Who are they?” the Red Queen said.
“The three Hearn sisters, the two Cairns twins, and Kendra,” she said.
Both queens traded looks, and the Red Queen asked, “Of those six, who’s their queen?”
“A girl I haven’t seen yet,” Auna said. “Her name is Katherine Hearn. Rancaster said she’s powerful, so he’ll take care of her along with the Cairns twins and Kendra, while the three of us will take care of the younger Hearn sisters, Madison and Celia. I’ve seen both, so you’ll recognize them when you see them, but stay alert. We’re on their home turf, you know.”
Both queens curtsied again and said, “Your word is our command, your Grace,” yet the White Queen added under her breath, “Fuck-face.”
Which got the White Queen glares from her Red counterpart, saying, “Ugh, you’re hopeless.”
But before Auna reacted to their bickering, the Queens turned on their heels and skittered away.
“Don’t worry, your Grace,” the Red Queen said back to Auna. “When this game’s over, I’ll let you play bondage with Shiromi, so you can get back at her.”
But the White Queen had the last word, saying, “And be sure to invite Lord Rancaster over, so we can have a foursome!”
“Ugh, you’re disgusting!” the Red Queen said.
“And you’re Goody Two-Shoes Period-Puss!” the White Queen said, and their tussle of words continued out of Katherine’s library and up one of the staircases of the double grand staircase, where she heard them greeting Rancaster at the top landing with the same mannerisms.
Auna blushed and gritted her teeth, wondering how those two shared anything in common with herself.
4
The more Katherine thought about it, the more she hated the circumstances of her current predicament, because everyone here had an active role except for Katherine herself. This place was her dream mansion, a little corner of the Phantom Realms in which she created and arranged everything down to the last detail, a labor of love and an exercise of her mental acuity. Now here she was, hiding in a private part of her dream mansion and relying on others to help take it back for her because of a little oversight on her own part. This, and the added humiliation of letting her sisters see her so weak, irked her like an unreachable itch.
“Don’t go yet,” Katherine said, and Celia and Madison and Nico looked at her getting up from the vanity table. “I’m not sending you out there till we know where they are.”
So she went back over to the big wide mirror they had used to get into the room, putting her hand over it, and summoned a slimmer mirror that was connected to her life-line, where it shimmered on contact against her hand beside the wall. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on Rancaster’s presence in her dream realm but the image in the mirror stayed blurry.
“God, damn it,” Katherine said.
“What is it?” Nico said.
“Rancaster,” she said. “His presence is all over the place, so I can’t find his exact location. Nico, I think he’s doing what your sister’s doing, so be careful when you’re out there. I’m not sure why he’s doing this, though.”
“Maybe he’s trying to find Mara,” Nico said.
“Or maybe he’s just trying to throw us off,” Madison added.
“Or maybe it’s a trap,” Celia said.
“Yeah, those might be true,” Katherine said, “but I think he’s trying to find me, too. I’m the creator of this place, and I’m in a weakened state already. If he gets to me when I’m this way, it’s over.” She then paused in thought, rolling possibilities through her mind like balls of yarn and trying to grab at strings of logic, and added under her breath, “Unless I do something, we won’t get out of here.”
Closing her eyes again, she concentrated on Auna’s presence this time, and an image of Auna in the library appeared in the reflection.
“What’s she doing over there?” Celia said.
“Rewind the last half hour and show me,” Katherine said, and the mirror reflection rewound itself like a VHS tape on a videocassette recorder. And immediately, Katherine regretted doing that, and the girls averted their eyes in disgust at Auna playing with herself on the solan sofa.
“God, that girl’s nasty!” Madison said. “Just stop it!”
“Wait,” Celia said. “What’s she masturbating to?”
“We don’t have time for your jokes, damn it!” Madison said.
And before Celia spat her comeback, Katherine said, “Pipe down, you two! I need to concentrate,” and she zoomed in on the book lying on the parquet floor as Auna masturbated and saw the three-volume compilation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and The Hunting of the Snark.
“What the fuck’s wrong with this chick?” Madison said. “If she did that in my dream world, I’d roast her ass on the spot!”
“Slut-shaming won’t get us out of here, Maddy,” Celia said.
“Voyeurism won’t either,” Madison said.
“Shut up and let me think, geez!” Katherine said, zooming out of the closeup of the book. “Let me see the rest of it,” she added, and the mirror showed Rancaster confronting Auna about how she spent her downtime (masturbating) before taking up the book and putting it on the cafe table and then walking out and leaving the girl crying. “Show me upstairs about five minutes later,” she added, and the mirror blurred out and refocused on Auna talking with Rancaster at the top of the stairs, who directed her to ‘run away and lead them to me.’ Pausing it there, she looked at Nico and said, “You and Mara are staying with me, got that? Rancaster will have to get through me to get to either of you.”
“That’s risky,” Nico said in a grimace. “If he captures all three of us, it’s over.”
Katherine ignored her observation and said to her mirror, “Show me the rest,” and the mirror showed Auna coming back downstairs into the library entrance (“Show me the library,” she added), where Auna took up the book from the cafe table and placed her hand over it and summoned two doppelgängers. “She knows blood summoning and ink invocation.”
“Are you serious?” Celia said. “She can summon, too?”
“Damn this chick,” Madison said, folding her arms and eyeing Auna in contempt with heat surging through the room in waves. “What the hell can’t she do, huh?”
“Gee, jealous?” Celia said, giving her elder sister a sidelong glance and a knowing smile.
“I’m not jealous!” Madison yelled. “Ugh, I just wanna go out there and burn her ass alive, the bitch!”
Katherine ignored her sisters and kept watching, gaining more information before saying, “A chess match, eh? What else do you have for me?” And through the mirror, when Auna threatened one of her doppelgängers with a gun, Katherine said, “Damn, she also knows transmutation alchemy. This chick’s really interesting,” she added. “Okay, what else?”
As she kept watching, Katherine garnered looks from Celia and Madison and Nico, all three watching her watch another girl with the scrutiny of a stalker. The mere sight of it had Celia and Madison trading whispers with Nico on whether or not their eldest sister had a thing for girls, which Nico answered with a half-hearted “Maybe,” while looking at Katherine. Yet as she looked, Nico puckered her lips at the sight of Katherine staring so intently at someone else in her mirror.
Then Katherine started pacing around the room, completely oblivious to the unwholesome ideas of her peers, while Celia and Madison traded another glance, and Nico sat apart from them on the bed and eyed the pacer.
“What are you thinking?” Nico said.
“Is it sexy?” Celia added.
“Don’t be disgusting,” Katherine said.
“Then tell us what’s on your mind,” Madison added.
So Katherine faced Nico, saying, “If Rancaster’s ultimate goal is to get to your sister, then you and I are just extra pieces in his plan to get to her. In the end, he’ll use both of us to get to your sister, so having you two here is too dangerous, but I know a place where you can hide.”
“Where?” Nico said.
“In my mirror,” she said, nodding to the one against the wall. “It’s not just a doorway or a window into another part of this mansion. It’s an actual place in my soul, and it’s where I got my inspiration for this mansion. This mansion you’re in is a reflection of who I am, a reflection of my soul. Even if Rancaster somehow gets inside there, he’ll have a hell of a time trying to find you or your sister, because he’ll be dealing with me at my strongest.”
“How are you so sure?” Nico said.
At this, Katherine cracked a smile and said, ”My soul is like a drop of water in the sea, and in that drop of water is the sea itself. I’m stronger than you think.”
Her words seemed to strike a chord in Nico, causing her to pause for a moment as if Mara was trying to urge her into action, so she said, “Do you think it’s okay, Mara? Do you think she knows what it’s like?”
Katherine said, “Wait, has Mara—”
“Yeah, she’s been here this whole time. Sorry for not telling you earlier,” Nico said, and she got off the bed and walked in front of Katherine’s mirror and pointed at the reflection. “Look in your mirror, and you’ll see.”
All eyes turned to Katherine’s mirror.
When Katherine blurred out the reflection of Auna inside the library, all three Hearn sisters saw Nico standing next to Mara in the room, two kindred doppelgängers in the reflection waving their hands with smiles on their faces as if they had been playing a game of hide and seek all along.
The Hearn sisters gasped, then looked back and saw Mara Cairns standing bodily in the room with them.
“Good God, no,” Madison said. “Please don’t tell me I have to deal with two more Celia clones in one building. One Celia’s enough as it is!”
“Hardy har har,” Celia said, then teleported in between the Cairns twins and grabbed both their arms in hers. “When this is over, you two are gonna have so much fun with me and Colbie. I just can’t wait!”
At her words, Nico frowned and averted her eyes, catching Celia’s attention.
“What’s wrong?” she said, till it hit her. “Oh . . . Nico, I’m . . . I’m really sorry.”
“That’s okay,” she said, then smiled a very Celia-like smile. “I have other ways of playing with those I like.”
Celia’s face lit up, her cheeks flaring at her words, so she said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’ll find out later tonight,” Nico said, making Celia blush even redder than before, then smiled at Katherine, saying, “Don’t worry, I’m not like that.”
But Mara qualified her statement, saying, “Most of the time,” and she smiled at Katherine.
Katherine stared at the twins, then at Celia, and then at Madison, with all kinds of weird thoughts flooding her head involving her youngest sister and these two shady twins in less than wholesome circumstances in her soul mirror. So she looked at Nico and Mara in their eyes, eyes that seemed to betray no ulterior motives despite their words, and said, “No funny business in my mirror, you two. Otherwise, I’ll know, and you’ll both regret it, trust me.”
Nico chuckled and smiled, saying, “I see. Then I guess Celia was right about you,” and she walked into the shimmering mirror before Katherine got out a word.
So she stopped Mara from entering and said, “What does she mean by that?”
“I don’t know,” Mara said. “I wasn’t awake yet at the time. Maybe ask Celia after this is over.” Then she turned and walked up to Celia, cupping her hands in her own. “Celia, I never had a chance to thank you back at the Rancaster district for what you did for me and Nico, so I’m doing it now,” and she hugged her close like a soul sister, saying, “And I’m soooooo so sorry for stabbing your friend. I was so scared that time, and I’ve put you through so much, and you have no reason to be my friend for what I did, but you did so much for us,” and tears ran down her cheeks that she wiped away.
Celia stood there without saying anything.
When Mara finished hugging Celia, she looked at each of the three Hearn sisters and added, “You three are more beautiful than you know,” and she walked into Katherine’s mirror that shimmered in her wake.
With that, the three Hearn sisters traded looks amongst themselves, and then Madison and Katherine smiled at Celia as though she had passed a rite of passage with flying colors, proving herself their equal, so Katherine had the last word, saying, “You passed.”
“Wait, what?” Celia said.
“I said you passed,” Katherine said.
