Chapter 23

Something wasn’t quite right. Madison woke up on New Year’s Day with the distinct memory of celebrating the new year in several different ways. Was that what happened when you got drunk? But she’d only had a little champagne. She remembered the thrill of kissing Daniel as the clock struck midnight. How amazing, he really was into her. But then, somehow, she had also spent midnight making out with her friend, Brittney. And then she’d also had several boring celebrations in the living room. Each moment was as real in her memory as the next one.

Several other people woke that day to the same confusion. Penelope rolled away from her still snoring husband. She was giddy, because Daniel had chosen her to spend midnight with on New Year’s. But then she remembered he’d gone off with other women and she’d been left at that boring party several times. How had both happened?

Daniel had heard that mysterious clock signal midnight while he spent time with several women. He was grateful for all of it, but especially that he got to share that special moment with both his sister and his mom. They were, after all, the two most important people in his life. He knew the house had bent space and time for him. That’s what he got for being friends with Day Star, he supposed. Were they friends? Partners? He took a deep breath and got out of bed. Daniel threw on jeans and a t-shirt and headed downstairs.

There were still discarded cups and party hats on the stairs. But it didn’t look too bad. He sighed, and turned toward the kitchen to grab a trash bag. Being the first Anderson up meant he’d bag some garbage so the others would wake to a cleaner house. Daniel paused. Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He slowly turned to the right and his mouth fell open. Someone had stepped on Khadra’s salt salamander drawing last night, and it was nearly unrecognizable on the floor. Above it, the door to the locked room stood wide open.

“Shit.” Daniel walked at a snail’s pace toward the room. A quiet settled over the house. Not even the great clock so much as ticked. The steady metronome of his pulse beat in his ears.

Upstairs, Penelope stopped daydreaming, sat up in bed with a start, and jumped onto the cold floor. She threw on a sweatshirt and raced out of the spare room, leaving her sleeping husband behind. Something was wrong and the house needed her.

“Hello?” Daniel couldn’t see into the room from his angle, but a trapezoid of orange, flickering light fell across the hall. “Is someone there?” His bare feet padded closer and closer. He walked up to the open doorway and looked in. The great bear stood in its corner, still in a fearsome pose. The last man Daniel expected to see sat in the armchair near the back wall wagging a finger at Daniel. “Mr. Samatar?”

Maxamed said nothing and didn’t move but for the finger that continued to admonish Daniel. He wore one of his dark suits, with a red tie. A small rivulet of crimson ran over his dark forehead, snaked around his right eye, and dripped off his cheek.

“Um ... Are you okay?” Daniel looked around the room. Everything else was as he remembered it. The sideboard, the bottles, the sofa, the oil lamp, were all in place. When Daniel looked back at the bear. It had moved a foot closer to the door. Now, its glass eyes were trained on Daniel. “We need to go, Mr. Samatar.” Daniel held out his hand and blinked. During the fraction of a second his eyes were closed, the bear moved another couple feet. A frozen snarl had spread on its face, further exposing its yellowed canines.

A deep frown etched itself on Maxamed’s face. He kept wagging his finger.

“Danny?” Penelope’s voice carried down the stairs.

“I’m here.” Daniel looked toward the stairs and then back into the room. The bear had moved closer, standing still as a statue in the middle of the room, partly obscuring Daniel’s view of Maxamed. The dead animal looked very angry. “Shit.” Daniel widened his eyes, trying his best not to blink. “Come on, Mr. Samatar. It’s now or never. Let’s get you out of there.”

Maxamed gave no indication of having heard Daniel. He sat reclined in the armchair, his finger waving back and forth.

“Daniel, no.” Penelope’s feet hit the bottom of the stairs. Goosebumps broke out on her bare legs. She sprinted over to the room, pulled Daniel by the shirt away from the doorway, and slammed the door shut. The last thing she saw of the room was the giant, brown bear mere inches away, its claws outstretched. The crack of the slamming door echoed around the hall and the entryway. Penelope put her hands on her knees and sucked in air. “That’s a bad ... room, Danny.” She looked over at her eighteen-year-old brother-in-law.

“Yeah...” Daniel gathered himself. “Wait, Mr. Samatar is still in there. We have to get him out.”

“There’s no one alive ... in there.” Penelope caught her breath.

“How do you know?” Daniel reached for the knob on the door. He tried to turn it, but it was locked.

“I have some connection ... to that room.” Penelope straightened up.

Daniel wanted to ask her questions about it, but that would have to wait. A troubling thought occurred to him. “Mrs. Samatar said she’d trapped Mr. Palmer in there. So, he’s out. What’s he doing now?”

“Upstairs,” Penelope said.

“Upstairs,” Daniel said at the same time.

Together they turned and raced up the stairs. They didn’t know who Frederick would target, but Khadra, Brad, Brittney, Julie, and George were all asleep and vulnerable.

“This is where I welcomed those destined for the sacrifice.” Frederick Palmer sat in an armchair and waved his hand to encompass the small room. A massive stuffed bear stood to his right. A sideboard rested to his left. “I would pour them a drink from there. And they wouldn’t wake up until the ceremony.”

“Sacrifice?” George sat on a comfortable sofa, a tumbler in his hand. Ice clinked in the glass as he held it up to regard the amber liquid. “What did you do to those people?”

“I shed blood, Mr. Anderson.” Frederick smiled. A thin white line formed under his black mustache. He pushed back his hair from his forehead and tugged at his perfectly tailored suit. “It gave me clarity of purpose. But that was so long ago, and the world has darkened since. To change the course of things, He needs more offerings. But they are so few and far between now.”

“You are an abomination before God.” George couldn’t get the tremor out of his voice.

“You misunderstand me. I did this for God.” Frederick eyed George’s tumbler. “And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering.“ He paused to see the effect on the other man. “But the sins of our species compiled, and God asked for greater and greater pledges. He needs our blood to wash away our sins. I did as he asked, ever the humble servant.”

“You did this for God?” George dropped his drink to the richly colored carpet on the floor. It spilled, ice fanning out from the impact.

“Are you not His servant, too?” Frederick leaned closer to George. “Do you not want to atone for our sins?”

“This is a nightmare.” George slid to the other side of the sofa. “This isn’t my house. This is a perversion.”

“Let’s talk about perversion, Mr. Anderson.” Frederick’s smile widened.

Women fell before Daniel. Julie watched them fall in her dream. For some reason she reveled in it. She saw wives give up on decades of fidelity for a chance with her son. Just like Julie had herself. She delighted in each conquest. In her dream, Julie could see Daniel’s seed spread about their city like an infection. No, that wasn’t right. He moved throughout the city like a cure stamping out disease. He would root out the sickness of a false hegemony.

But something reached out to him. Something sought Daniel from the dark. It desperately wanted to cut his wick before he could burn brightly. Something so very black. And it was in the room with Julie. She opened her eyes, sat up, and screamed.

Crouched on the other side of the bed was a large man Julie recognized. He leaned his head right next to George’s ear, whispering something Julie couldn’t hear. Frederick’s black eyes darted up to her when she woke, but his lips continued working.

“Leave ... please...” Julie croaked.

“I will not leave my house.” Frederick smiled cheerfully, and straightened to his full height.

Daniel and Penelope burst in the door behind Frederick.

Despite Julie’s scream, George continued to snore.

“My own room cannot hold me. That was a foolish endeavor. There once was a prison of thorn and vine.” Frederick stuck an arm behind him and knocked the onrushing Daniel to the side. Daniel hit the floor and slid until the wall stopped him near the bathroom door. Penelope rushed the phantom and met the same fate, sliding on the floor until she came to a stop next to Daniel. They groaned in a pile at the other end of the room.

“Danny!” Julie screamed.

“She kept me there for decades.” Frederick’s voice carried an unnatural calm and measure. “Thorn and vine, thorn and vine. But her order depended too much on entropy. When she couldn’t ensnare the pathetic and corruptible, her power ebbed. And He gave me what I needed. Thorn and vine. Thorn and vine.”

Julie looked down at her sleeping husband. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing I haven’t done before.” He took a menacing step toward Daniel and Penelope where they lay on the floor. “But it wasn’t me that donned the poor man’s horns. You made a mockery of him.”

“I ... I...” Julie hugged her bare breasts and shrunk into her mattress.

“Begone demon.” Khadra, dressed only in her panties, stepped into the room holding a box of salt and a fiery demeanor. She poured a half circle of salt on the floor around Frederick, but faltered when he fixed her with his dark stare. How could she get behind the creature without stepping too close to him?

“Look at what a harlot you’ve become.” Frederick spat the words. “Your head uncovered. Your dark globes exposed to man. Men who are not your husband...”

As he talked, Eloise improbably crawled from under the bed behind him. She stood and made eye contact with Khadra. The pregnant woman in Victorian dress nodded to the box of salt. Frederick did not see his wife behind him.

“My offer is not forfeit,” Frederick continued. “I can reunite you with your husband.”

“Don’t.” Daniel looked up at her. “Mr. Samatar is dead, I think. I saw him. I think Mr. Palmer killed him.”

Fury spread on Khadra’s face, contorting her pretty features into something almost unrecognizable. She looked back and forth between Daniel and Frederick. Khadra then dropped the box of salt in front of her and kicked it right through Frederick’s spread legs. Eloise stopped the box with her foot, picked it up and finished the circle around her husband.

“You took my husband?” Khadra stepped toward Frederick as he stood frozen.

Frederick did nothing more than wink at her.

“Goodbye, dearie.” Eloise waved her hand through Frederick’s chest. The apparition fragmented and evaporated.

“Is he gone?” Daniel moved Penelope off him and sat up with his back against the wall. He rubbed the back of his head.

“For now.” Eloise stepped over to the naked Khadra and took her into an embrace. “Thank you. I did not know he had come by a sacrifice. He’s stronger than I thought. I am aggrieved at the loss of your husband.”

“Is he... ?” Tears rolled down Khadra’s cheeks. She let herself be drawn into the cold, demonic embrace. Had she really made allies with one of their kind? “Is he really gone?”

“It seems so.” Eloise patted her back. “Frederick hid it from me. I couldn’t see.” She led Khadra to the bed and sat her on the edge. Eloise looked down at George as he continued to snore.

“Is my husband okay?” Julie looked on at the strange scene. A tightness pulled at her chest.

“That was a fine trick orchestrated by our friend here.” Eloise rested her pale hand on Khadra’s dark shoulder. The binary stones on her wedding ring shone in the first rays of sunlight peeking through the window. “Mrs. Samatar and I pushed Frederick and his influence some distance from us. But watch your George closely. If he seems to wander astray, it may be wise to move him from the house for a while.”

“What did he mean by thorn and vine?” Daniel stood up and helped Penelope to her feet.

“My partner and I once tricked my husband after his death into a prison of his own making just outside the house.” Eloise pressed her lips together. “But we didn’t have the strength to keep him there.”

“But you’re getting stronger?” Daniel walked over to the bed, sat next to Khadra, and put his arm around the crying woman, trying to comfort her.

“I am.” Eloise nodded. “But if we were to try and lock him away again, for good, we would need more strength still.”

“I’ll do what I have to,” Daniel said. “We’ll all do what we have to.”

Julie, Penelope, and Khadra all nodded at this. George continued his soft snores.

“Very good.” Eloise smiled. Warmth emanated from her freckled face. And she told them how they could raise the energy needed to deal with Frederick and his troublesome God once and for all.

Days passed and Frederick stayed away. Khadra put another ward in front of the locked room, but she doubted he was in there. She searched her feelings to see if Frederick had spoken true about her husband. Had her departed Maxamed somehow fallen under the evil man’s spell? Khadra couldn’t find his spirit, but such tasks were difficult without her dreamstone.

The twins continued to console and comfort Khadra with their bodies. It became clear Daniel had successfully planted his seed inside the dark woman as her belly swelled. That meant he was going to be a father four times over. At the least.

It was inevitable that Julie would find the twins together. It happened late one cold night. She put on a lace bra and panties and threw a long robe over her lingerie. The house was so chilly whenever the temperature dropped near zero. She looked back at her sleeping husband. He’d done so much better in the last few weeks. Julie hoped that the poor man would continue to keep his focus on the house and lead his charmed, unsuspecting life. She wondered what would happen when George finally finished his work on the house. Would they actually sell it? Even with the threat of Frederick’s return, Julie didn’t want to leave.

Julie slipped out of the room and padded down the hall toward Daniel’s room. The night before, she’d visited Brittney. So, now it was her son’s turn to share in his mother’s body and soul. A fire burned inside Julie. She needed the twins more and more every day. When she wasn’t with them, she often caught herself daydreaming about the pleasures they gave her over and over again.

The great clock tick-tocked, echoing off the old walls. Julie arrived at Daniel’s door and let herself in. She closed the door behind her and turned toward his bed. She froze when she heard a soft moan, and then her eyes caught sight of Brittney’s small frame slowly undulating on top of her brother. “Oh, my.” Julie put her hand to her mouth. “I ... I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Brittney turned her elfin face toward her mother and smiled. “It’s okay, Mom. We ... uh ... uh ... like having you here.”

“Yeah.” Daniel had a dreamy smile on his face with his head on the pillow. “Remember what we talked about?”

“You mean...” Julie’s eyes widened. “You’re doing her without a condom right now?”

“He is,” Brittney purred. “And he’s already ... oooohhhhh ... cum in me once tonight.” She made slow circles with her hips.

“Oh, my.” Julie’s pussy flooded at the thought of what she was witnessing. “In your vagina?”

“In her pussy, yeah.” Daniel gripped Brittney’s hips and ground her down on him with a little more force.

“In her pussy,” Julie whispered. “You’ll get her pregnant for sure.”

“He probably already has.” Brittney lost focus for a second and her eyes rolled as Daniel’s long cock moved around some of her organs. She refocused on her mom. “It’s good, Mom. Danny and I have always been ... close. Now we’re even closer. I’m going to have his baby.”

“We’re all having Danny’s babies, aren’t we?” Julie rubbed her legs together. “Okay, I’ll let you two have some space.” She put her hand on the doorknob. She needed to rub her pussy.

“No, Mom. Stay.” Brittney leaned back a little, pushing her large breasts away from her chest. She put her hands behind her on Daniel’s thighs. “What’s ... oooohhhhhh ... under the robe?”

“Oh ... um ... Danny likes when I wear sexy underwear for him.” Julie took her hand off the doorknob.

“I bet I’d ... ugh ... like it, too.” Brittney looked her tall mom up and down. She was so sexy. “That’s no fair that you only show Danny.”

“You’re a girl ... so I didn’t think ... I didn’t think you’d like that stuff.” Julie took a deep breath and dropped the robe to the floor. “Do you like it, pumpkin?” Julie spun a slow pirouette for them.

“Damn, Mom.” Brittney’s eyes glazed over. “You are so hot.” The lingerie had clearly been purchased after Julie had taken her deal, because the bra somewhat fit. But even so, her boobs spilled over the top, and her panties looked skimpier than intended under her bulging belly. “Did my dumb dad buy that for you? And now ... ah ... it’s for us.”