“Charlene! No!””
Betsy had teleported over to Charlene’s location just as she felt the the other demonic presence disappear. However, instead of the triumphant Charlene she expected, if maybe winded from exertion, what she found was her friend on the ground with two holes through her torso. Shocked, Betsy falls to her knees as she approaches, as if inspecting her friend from closer will reveal the hole is just some cruel prank. The only thing she saw was evidence of burns around the upper wound.
Betsy’s mind flashes to other faces. To Kim, in the hospital, never improving. To Hana, turned into a menacing mass of shadows, always hungry, always consuming. And now Charlene, dead. She cradled Charlene and wept. And that’s how she was found, however much longer later it was until people decided it was safe to come back. She didn’t notice them. If there were any demons, they could have easily gotten off a free attack. She just sat there, sobbing, even as sirens sounded in the distance.
She heard shouting in the background, heard authorities roping off the scene and attempting to make order of the people on the scene. She felt someone gently touching her shoulder, shaking it, trying to get her attention.
“I feel for you, ma’am. But you can’t always save all of them…”
Betsy heard the officer’s voice, but it was practically in one ear then immediately out the other. It just didn’t register. She was half despondent and half terrified. Who would be next? Jerry? Sure they broke up but she didn’t hate him. Her unpowered friends at University? Those who managed to escape that first terrible fiery demon, or even those who had never been involved in the first place? Captain Suse? She didn’t realize she was fighting to keep the body until someone shouted out.
“Stop, someone stop! You’ll tear her arms of!”
She let go, her hands brushing along Charlene’s arms and finally hands as the girl was pulled out of Betsy’s grip. She noticed something falling, out of the corner of her eye. She grabbed at it instinctively and recognized it. It was one of those stupid enchanted rocks. he almost threw it away. If Charlene hadn’t spent so much time on them, maybe she wouldn’t have run out of power. But she stopped herself. Did she even know Charlene ran out of power? Maybe she just changed back upon death. She gripped it tighter. It was Charlene’s. She couldn’t just destroy it, in the end. She couldn’t just get rid of it. She cared too much about her late friend. So she just grabbed onto it. A rock in a raging river, took one last look at her friend, and flashed away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I don’t know if I can do it anymore. But I know I need to, and, I mean. I just don’t think I can. I haven’t slept more than 7 hours total since she died.”
Betsy felt the goddess wrap her in a hug, her arms radiating warmth like standing in the light of the sun. The hideout was starting to feel less like a hideout and more like a catacomb. They hadn’t touched Kim’s things, choosing to believe that she’ll wake up and come back. Now they stood there, a monument to her memory. And in just the next room, there was Charlene’s workshop; a fresher and even starker one. Betsy leaned into the hug.
“If you wish to pass the responsibility on to another then I will, of course, help you transfer the power. I shall even make sure you are provided access to this space even after. But I do not believe it necessary. You are strong, brave, and pure of heart. Most, by now, would be swearing unending vengeance on my sister and her demons. Or else they would break, and think only of their own lives. You instead worry of others. And that is your strength.”
Betsy had no tears left. She’d cried them all out with Christopher at Charlene’s wake. So she just sat there, leaning into the comforting warmth the goddess radiated. It helped return feeling to her numbed body. Betsy wasn’t sure how long she sat there, before she turned around to face what felt like one of the last people she had left. She was startled by how close the goddess’s face was to hers, but the goddess seemed not to notice, and Betsy didn’t feel like arguing.
“No. No, don’t. I can’t force this onto anyone else. I just, I don’t know fi I can handle this alone. But I will. No one else has to die.”
“You are not alone. Retrained as I am to this safe house, I am still always with you.”
Were the goddess made of flesh and blood, Betsy would be able feel her breath on her face. Betsy felt her face warm. She looked the ethereal woman in the eyes, saw her sad smile and tried to return it. She gave up quickly. There was too much grief in her heart.
“You are still grieving. Do not try to rush a smile, they will come in time, and be all the more beautiful for it.”
“Thank you. For everything. You’ve always been here for us. You saved us once, and been here to comfort us ever since. I’m sure you didn’t need to do this. You trapped yourself here just to help us.”
“You act as if I have no stake in this. We have learned my sister is behind this, have we not? Corrupting your friend Johanna. Likely that pugilist that killed dear Charlene.”
“But you didn’t know that when you first helped. That was done out of the goodness of your heart. So thank you, again. For everything you have done for us. And for them, we will finish this, won’t we?”
“Of course. And there is nothing we can’t overcome together.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Betsy finally listens to the recording stone. It has the goddess gloating over dying/dead Charlene about sending Betsy through a proper hero origin story, and the goddess’s twisted obsession with Betsy. End with Suseanne arriving with the book.
“‘You…’
‘Yes. Me.’
‘Okay. So, you definitely know each other. So, yeah. That was cold. And I should know, my mistress is the lord of cold, far as I know. Still, don’t think even she’d literally stab me in the back. And you were winning, too. What does that serve?’
‘Silence’
‘Hey. I got a right to talk. Hey, wait. What? My hand. My arm! Shit, I don’t feel so good.’
‘Now that that annoyance is gone. Where was I, dear Charlene. Ah, yes. Finished removing one last complication. Kim removed herself for me, though I admit that Johanna is lasting longer than I thought. No matter, now there is but a matter of time until she too is out of the way completely. A proper origin, for a proper hero. Tragedy is a must, to provide fuel for their growth, after all. I should go now, before dear, brave Betsy arrives. Farewell.’”
Betsy stood in her room. Slack jawed. It was the third time she’d listened to the recording. There was more on it, it just didn’t matter. It was her arriving, too late, and crying over her friend. A little of the beginning of the sirens arriving, as well, before it cut off. 30 minutes total, Charlene had said. No wonder she felt out of tears, she had cried for nearly half an hour even before anyone arrived to take the body away. The third time listening, and she could still hardly believe it. That was the goddess’s voice. She’d planned this all. She’d lied to them for months, pretending to be their friend and savior while plotting to kill what, two-thirds of them?
“That bitch. That utter bitch!”
She swiped wildly at her desk, vaguely registering the crashing sound of her books and pens, maybe her computer as well. She was in her dorm, studying for classes, when she realized she still had the recording stone. On a whim she decided to play, knowing most of them were just her and Charlene goofing off. There were 5 of them doing karaoke, with time cut out in silence for Kim. She thought this would have something else she could use to remember her friend. She grabbed the stone up from where it had also fallen, not even damaged by the short fall. It had taken a much larger one, after all, and been just fine. She shoved it into her purse, slung it over her shoulder, and stormed out of her room.
She ignored the looks she got from others unused to her moving with anything less than perfect poise. She shoved past Vicky, who had obviously heard something was up and rushed out to see what was wrong. Vicky didn’t give up, however, obviously worried about the girl who lost two close friends in one semester, one to a coma and the other permanently. Betsy had no idea where she was going. To the hideout, maybe. She was stopped abruptly by someone she knew trying to get past the security gate.
“I’m telling you, I’m Betsy’s friend. She lives here. Can’t you, I don’t know, send someone up to ask? Tell her Suseanne, from high school, is- Holy, shit! Betsy! Just who I’ve been looking for, how are you? I heard what happened when I got back from my trip.”
Betsy was charged by the energetic woman and hugged. She heard Vicky calling for guards while charging forward, but she ignored that and just hugged her friend back. The last person who knew what was going on. It was only then that she sensed the presence from the book. Before, she would have just called it demonic. Now, after the revelation of the betrayal of her divine patron, Betsy didn’t know what to call it. It was, after all, the third of three different sensations that pinged her radar. It was weak, but that didn’t worry her less.
“Captain Suse. It’s nice to see you. Come on, I was heading out walk with me.”
Betsy finally had enough presence of mind to take stock of the situation. She waved off Vicky and the guards. Vicky hesitated, and Betsy rolled her eyes before mouthing that this was an old friend. Vicky just looked confused, however, so Betsy broke the hug and walked over to her RA.
“Hi. I’m sorry, this is an old friend from high school. She called me to schedule a visit when she heard about what happened, but I was I forgot to get her a visitors pass. Its fine.”
Betsy had grown skilled at lying ever since she’d gotten her powers. Not that she was some naive kid who couldn’t before, it just wasn’t something she really needed to be good at. She smiled at her RA, it was still tinged with sadness, but there was some true joy in it. She always liked seeing her friend, and since she knew some of what was going on thanks to Hana, she might be able to provide some kind of advice, or help.
Vicky and the guards, with a couple more lines from Betsy and some smooth acting from Captain Suse, finally relented in their objection of the girl from the bay, and the two walked out. They made it about 4 blocks before Betsy grabbed Captain Suse and flashed them to a cave that she had fought some mole demons in with the other two girls. When she realized where she was, she almost cried. This was the first place they’d trained outside of the altered space that made up the hideout, though Betsy supposed she’d need a new name for it now. All just to see it overrun with demonic moles.
“Shit, Betsy, you good? Urgh!” Betsy pinned her friend to the wall of the cave.
“Why do I sense something similar to a demon on you? What happened?” she tried to ignore the breaking in her voice, if she was about to lose yet another friend she wasn’t sure she’d be able to take it.
“That’s probably the book. I got it from another creature like your goddess and her evil sister. By the way, and I probably should have told you this before I left, but your goddess is also an evil bitch.”
“I know. Wait, you knew that?! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“When did you learn it?”
“I’m asking the questions, here! What book?”
“It’s in my bag. Leather bound, no title. It’s a grimoire, or something. That’s the term, right? For a book of magic? Talks about binding and slaying gods.”
“Oh, great. Some crackpot wrote a book on killing gods. How useful.”
“I’d make an argument about the validity of the person who gave it to me, but you said it yourself. You sensed something on it, right?”
Betsy paused at that. She sensed something on something her friend was carrying. She wasn’t sure what was on what, however. She slowly backed away.
“Show me.”
“Gladly. By the way, I did some studying on my way back here. We’re going to need your girlfriend for this.”
“She’s not my girlfriend. We never got a chance to see how that would go.”
Betsy mumbled that last bit, and Suseanne grimaced. That was a lot more dejected than she’d been expecting. And really, why was it, considering all the things Betsy had gone through. Suseanne coughed awkwardly, then hugged her younger friend. Betsy just stood there being hugged for a long moment before she lightly jabbed Suseanne.
“Go on. Show me.”
“Yeah,” she pulled the book out of her satchel bag. “Here. As I said, we’re going to need Johanna for this. At least, if I am understanding all of the situation correctly. But, one warning. I don’t think there can be a perfect ending to this anymore.”
Betsy took the book and opened it. There were two powers fighting in it; one was fighting to escape while the other was fighting to keep the first trapped. She flipped to the page Suseanne had dog-eared and began to read.
