SOMETIMES SHE COMES BACK...

By

Betsy Jorgensen

“Why me?” she said, digging her nails into the soft flesh of her upper arm. “Why in the hell is it me...”
“Hey Kelsi!” said Ashley, pushing through the double doors of the public bathroom. Her puffy purple dress brushed either side of the narrow entry way. “Why are you in here? Your junior prom is going on without you!”
Kelsi closed her eyes for a second before turning to face her friend. She almost wanted to tell all, but her pride held her back. She had seen horrors unnamed, she was not telling the school blabber mouth about her romance problems.
“It’s nothing. I’m just getting a little headache,” she said, grabbing a paper towel to wring in her dry hands. “The bass in there is so loud.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad,” said Ashley, scurrying over to grab Kelsi’s arm. “Jessie was looking for you. You seemed to disappear after the last song.”
Maybe I objected to seeing my date grope my supposed friend, you blabber-mouthed hussy.
“I just had to use the bathroom,” said Kelsi. “I’m fine now.”
“That’s good,” said Ashley, leaning over the sink, checking her contacts. “We should get out soon. I think the DJ’s going to play a couple slow songs pretty soon.”
“Oh...that’s...great...”said Kelsi, plastering a smile on her face. “I wouldn’t want to miss that.”
The two girls left the light bathroom to the semi-twilight of the dance. In one corner there was a large table up on a platform. There were flashing lights and lots of sound equipment. One man stood in the middle of it all. he was wearing a large jesters cap with a microphone sticking out of the side. As he flicked his hands out, the lights flashed from yellow to blue to green.
“Here’s a song for those of you that are feeling FUNKY!!” he yelled into the mic, nearly deafening Kelsi. He was greeted with the roar of the crowd. As the rumbling bass shook the floor, the mass of teenagers started to shake and groove.
“I’m going to get some punch,” said Kelsi, leaning over to catch Ashley before she reentered the herd. “If you see Jessie, tell him I’ll find him later.”
A barely perceptible nod was the only response Kelsi got before the dance claimed another victim. Kelsi turned and ran her hands up and down her arms. Suddenly she felt as if her skin had a life of it’s own.
It must be the music she thought, walking toward the punch tables. I swear, the demons of the lower plains would do well to take notes at functions like this. This must be raising power like you wouldn’t believe.
Kelsi walked towards the small grotto in the corner, were the punch bowl was kept. One poor boy was left to guard it for the night, and she thought she recognized him. She wondered fleetingly if he knew that the reason the faculty had put the punch table over here was because it also nearly blocked the door to the basement, the prime make-out spot.
“Heya Kelsi,” said Steve, reaching under the table to grab some cups.
“Hi Steve,” she said, circling around the table. “How did you get recruited into serving this madness? You told me you weren’t coming.”
“Well, “ he said, pouring her a cup. “My third hour teacher asked for volunteers, and Adam said we would do it. I know your excuse in;t quite as saintly.”
“I guess I’m just a romantic at heart,” said Kelsi, taking the punch. “But, where’s Adam?”
“I don’t know,” said Steve, mixing the bowl with his ladle. “We got here and he disappeared.”
“Strange,” said Kelsi, sipping her munch. “I haven’t seen him tonight. I wonder where he is?”
“He probably found some girl who will let him...yeah,” said Steve, gesturing at the cloth covered door to the basement, answering Kelsi’s earlier question. “So, to change the subject, how’s the whole you and Jessie finally going together doing?”
She smiled ruefully at him.
“It’s going great.”
“Liar,” he replied, a smirk forming. “So, what has he done to you tonight? I heard he’s been busy.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Kelsi, feeling a sick sense of betrayal forming in her chest.
“Well, Anne was just here, “ said Steve, looking over Kelsi’s shoulder. “She and Jessie were looking awfully satiated.”
Kelsi felt a cold liquid run down the side of her hands. She was surprised to look down to see she had crushed her punch cup in a fit of anger.
“Hey, are you OK, Kel?” said Steve, reaching to put his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed, pulling away. She knew if he touched her, she would break something he might want later.
She spun on her heel, feeling the muscles in her shoulders tighten painfully. She pushed through the curtain and nearly ran into the door to the boiler room. Looking down, she put her hand over the knob and closed her eyes. Her hand glowed and the lock clicked open. As she opened the door, she flicked her wrist to turn off the alarm that the teachers had set on the door. She entered the descending stairway, and turned to secure the door with a star-shaped comb from her purse. She glided down the stairs, the faint illumination more than enough for eyes accustomed to night rituals.
As she descended she could not hear a single sound from the dance. They could fire a cannon on the dance floor and she would still immersed in the eerie silence of the boiler room. She reached the last step and came up against an unexpected barrier.
On the ground before her lay Adam. Her anger momentarily subdued, she knelt down by his head. Reaching up to his face, she felt his breathe coming in low sighs. She was also greeted with a sense of the underworld powers.
“Adam..” she said, reaching out to find his pulse. “Adam, can you hear me?”
If he could, he didn’t say anything. Kelsi reached to his hand, trying to pin down the feeling of power that was radiating from his body. Upon feeling his hand, she found something sickeningly familiar. It was a ring.
Kelsi was no stranger to the underworld. She was well known throughout all to the underworld for her power, and had come across many rings such as this in her battles. She looked at it with trained eyes, knowing that it was much more than the class ring it appeared to be. It was a ring of welcoming. One of the few artifacts of the underworld that did not require the consent of the owner, it looked like a harmless antique ring. The inner beauty bound into the rings would attract the bearer to it’s interests, and they would not take it off. depending on the strength of the monster controlling the ring, a low level anger up to utter chaos would be the result. But if the owner of the ring did something incredibly stupid like, say, ditching a friend and breaking a promise to chase some tail, you would welcome the monster who controlled the ring to you, sacrificing your life force to pull it through the vale.
“Ye gods,” said Kelsi, sitting back on her butt. “If Adam is still alive, it means that I still have some time to close the portal...”
She looked to Adam’s chest to see it had stopped moving.
Springing to her feet, she felt a low level power fill the room. One or two pairs of eyes glowed red at her from the darkened corners. Kelsi pulled her arms to a position of rest on the top of her head.
“I see you out there,” she said, kicking off her shoes. “And I realize that you know no mortal should be able to see you , since you are using power to hide yourselves. I am known as she who should not be, and I have had an UNBELIEVABLY bad night. So, if you are going to put up any kind of fight, come out now, because you will find no sympathy hiding. Your fate has been sealed.”
Kelsi wasted no time waiting. She pointed her hand at one of the pairs of eyes. A red glow shot from her hand to the small dark corner. As the red glow hit the corner, an unearthly scream filled the room. Kelsi felt her lips curl in a smile. She formed her open hand into a fist, and the red glow condensed into a blob that clung to the creature in the corner. As the ooze writhed in the corner, smoke started to rise, and a flash of light illuminated the room. When the light had faded and the smoke had cleared, all of the eyes in the basement were gone.
She dusted her hand on her skirt, and leaned back against the wall. It had been a long time since she had summoned the power in a combat situation. It just felt so GOOD! She almost couldn’t remember why she had stopped .
Kelsi grinned at the thought. Her, going into the great underside, carving herself a little home in the middle of chaos, ruling with an iron fist.
She then looked down at Adam, and remembered the reason she had stopped using power. She had fallen in love with a mortal. She had talked to some of her “friends”, and they said the only way to find out what it was to be mortal, was to go to this underside-forsaken school. Ye gods, it was awful. The kids all had some kind of animal instinct about her. They treated her as if she was not to be trusted. Well, to be fair, she wasn’t, but still...
She sat down on the steps. She had actually started to like the mortals around her, especially the outcastes like her. But then Jessie had asked her to prom. She had liked him for so long, that she went crazy when she found out. Her outsider friends were happy for her, but they all started treating her differently. She didn’t understand them at all. It seemed like Steve was the only one who understood, but he was like a bunny on crack when he got his teeth into a secret.
Kelsi leaned back and rubbed her temples with her fingers, when she felt a cold wetness fall down her back. Springing to her feet, she saw that a mass of liquid was running under the door from the dance floor. It was thick and red, but she didn’t think the punch bowl tipped over. She reached down to dip her finger in the mess, and then brought it up to her lips.
Just as she thought. Blood.
Mentally cursing herself for getting lost in memories, she raced up the stairs. She muttered a unbinding and pulled her comb out of the door. She pushed the door open, and was greeted by carnage.
To her left was a body on the floor. It was missing her eyes and half her arm. It took a moment for Kelsi a second to realize it was the date stealer, Anne.
“Ye gods,” she said, floating above the blood covered floor to survey the mess.
The dance floor was flooded with red light. Kelsi saw a sight that was worthy of any duel on the underside. Small demons ran across the floor, feasted on the fallen dead of the dance. One of them saw her standing there, and raised a claw to throw a binding spell. Kelsi raised her hand in return, letting it glow for a second before tossing a ball of black streaked white light at the demon, banishing him back to the underside. Her attack evicted a scream for the twenty or so survivors huddled by the exit door. Kelsi was about to fly over and let them out, when she heard a faint voice sigh. She looked down to see a body lying with his head propped against a punch table. She recognized him as Steve, and flew to his side, propping up his head.
“Steve,” she asked. “What happened?”
“Kelsi...is that You?” he asked, looking past her shoulder, his eyes unseeing.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Are you OK?”
She smiled. “Better than you,” she said. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his eyes wandering. “I was serving punch, and suddenly the DJ’s lights when red. Then, WHAM!, carnage.” He then began to cough a very wet sounding cough.
“Don’t talk anymore,’ she said, placing her hand on his forehead, in one of the meaningless gestures of sympathy she had learned. But as she touched him, a rattle in his chest shook his frame. After that, his eyes didn’t wander any more. She took her fingers and closed his eyelids.
“How touching,” came a voice from the shadows. Kelsi turned to see a purple haired demon, cloaked in darkness.
“Kelsi El Johnson, I presume,” said the monster, inclining his head in admiration, but never breaking eye contact. He was a foot taller than Kelsi, and his legs were in the shape of wolves.
“I’d ask you how you know that,” she said, moving to a standing position. “But I am known in the underside by many things. You have me at a disadvantage though, so I ask what I may know you by.”
“For all means and purposes, I am called Robert Lackz Dagun,” he said, a smirk forming.
“Ok... Bob,” Kelsi said, smiling to see his grin falter. “Tell me what you are doing here.”
“I was called here by the ring,” he said, looking over the dance floor, beckoning to his demonlings to stop playing with the bodies. “But when I got here, i found something that was much more appealing to me.
“And what,” said Kelsi, “Pray tell, is THAT?”
“Well,” said Bob, leaning back against a wall of air. “ I found a thing that is more powerful than any demon I know in the underside. I found... a source of energy that I have never felt before. And I knew I had to do something to try to attract that power.”
“It looks like our time is up,” said Kelsi, moving her hands into a banishing spell. “What ever you were looking for hasn’t seemed to notice your little display here, or was impressed by it if they did.”
“On the contrary,” said Bob, pulling himself up to his full height. “I see the power that has rivaled my own. It’s standing right before me.”
Kelsi turned her head around, ready to blast what ever had snuck up on her into the very pits of the abyss. But when she turned around, there was nothing there. She turn back to Bob, confusion showing plain on her face.
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “The only people in this room are corpses, the cowards in the corner, your demonlings, you... and... me...”
“Exactly,” said Bob, falling to one knee. “You have come to see my handy work. I offer this scene of destruction to you, as a example of my devotion. I wish only to serve you.”
Kelsi looked at the high level demon kneeling at her feet, and felt her mouth drop open. She worked her jaw, but no sound came out.
“What do you mean, this is for me?” she said, after regaining her composer. “ You killed all of these people for ME? So I would be impressed by your POWER? Ye gods, man. I don’t know what to say...”
“Are you not impressed?” asked Bob, his eyes never leaving the ground. “Is not my offering satisfactory to you?”
“Well...yes....it’s very flattering. And, I can’t say they didn’t deserve it...,” said Kelsi, offhandedly. “but ..NO! You can’t do this!! I gave up this kind of thing when I came to the mortal realm! There are laws here...”
“But have you been happy here, my lady?” asked Bob. “Has anyone on this plane really every understood you, like I have? Do you really wish to stay here, always different?”
“I don’t know,” said Kelsi, wiping her hand on the fabric of her dress. “But I do know, if I am unhappy, I need to find out for myself. I have friends here, at the very least.”
“I ask you not to make your decision now,” said Bob, standing up and looking Kelsi in the eye. “Just think on what I have said. If you need me, I will be at the call of your desire. I serve you, and live or die by your displeasure.”
“Oh, Bob,” said Kelsi, reaching up to touch his cheek. “I will think about it, but these are my people here. I need to find where I belong. I think they are starting to accept me here, but if I run now, I will never know.”
“I don’t understand,” said Bob, taking her hand off his cheek and placing it at his lips. “But, I will obey your words. “
With that, Bob raised his hand. The demonlings started to fade out, taking most of the desecrated bodies with them. Kelsi looked at Bob’s face as he to began to fade away, and saw all of the destruction that he brought with him fade back to a humane level. The red light from the dance floor faded back to blues and greens, and the blood on the floor began to evaporate, like water on a warm day.
Kelsi stepped on the air above the floor and made her way over to the group of survivors. She walked on the space above the floor until she got about ten feet from the group, then she gracefully dropped on the floor.
“Are you guys OK?” asked Kelsi, looking at the group. Jessie was in the center, and they all were looking to him as to what to say.
“What did you do out there?” asked Jessie, walking over to Kelsi.
“Well, I didn’t really do anything.” said Kelsi, looking at her feet.
“You talked to that demon!” yelled a girl from the center of the crowd. “And he didn’t kill you!”
“No...he didn’t...” said Kelsi, backing up a step.
“He listened to you....I bet your working with him!!” yelled one of the boys, placing a protective hand around the shoulder of his date.
“NO! that wasn’t it at all!” said Kelsi, backing up a few more steps. “Tell them Jessie...I wouldn’t hurt anyone..”
She looked at her “date” and realized that he had placed himself between her and the rest of the dancers, protecting them with his force of will.
“You heard them,” said Jessie, placing his hands in front of his body. “We don’t want any devil worshipers around here. Just...go back to the pit you crawled out of.”
Each word that he said cut like a knife across Kelsi’s soul. She felt a tear fall down here cheek.
These are people, she thought. I have given up more power that any of them will ever imagine existed, and a servant willing to do anything I asked. And this is what I have to look forward to for the rest of my existence.
“I just risked my life for you,” Kelsi said, eyes pleading. “That demon could have killed me, but I sent it back to the underworld.”
“The WHAT?” said another girl. “I bet you made that up, just so you could build up our trust! Get away demon-spawn!”
“Yeah,” said another. “Go back to...where ever you came from.”
Suddenly, the group of dancers started to throw small object at Kelsi. She turned and ran threw the mess of body parts and ran behind the DJ’s stand, narrowly dodging a folding chair that was hurled.
“BOB!!” yelled Kelsi, hiding under the table. “WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?”
“Yes, my lady?” inquired a small voice from a dark spot in the under table.
“If you get me out of this one,” Said Kelsi, moving towards the voice. “I will take up the old ways that I am practiced at and take a shot a being your lady for a while.”
“That sounds wonderful, my lady,” said Bob, his eyes glowing red from under the table, lighting up his strangely attractive face. “But there is the small problem of the survivors. What shall I do with them?”
At this Kelsi smiled. That was no problem at all. She might as well get back in the habit of her old days. No decisions like old familiar ones.
“Do what you want, just make sure there are no witnesses.”