Crawling Chaos 38

Orison thought to himself, "So the illusion was spot on that fact too. The three 'J's do play pinball here. They are just older and more asinine."

The owner said, "Jen, take the boy out back."

James, better known as Club Foot, said, "Nah, old man. The boy can hang with us. We got shallow pockets these days and could use a little friend like him to help us have some fun. Right boys?"

Horse Face (Jimmy) and Slim (Jacob), grunted agreement and leveled a predatory gaze at Orison. His brain on fast mode, Orison was calculating how much he should rely on 'illusion world' knowledge. He wasn't particularly in the mood for peaceful solutions but he didn't want to leave problems for the nice bartender and her father. The young mage gave the owner and his daughter a reassuring smile and bought a round of drinks for the three 'J's.

They leered at Orison and called him names but didn't immediately lay into him or try to steal his wallet. They were smart enough not to take it too far. They wanted to leave Orison with enough nerve to come back so they could do it again Some other time. It was a cunning enough thought for small time bullies turned small time thugs.

If they were dealing with a normal teenager, it might have worked. By the time Orison was done planting seeds of discord by bringing up old sore spots between them, they were outside beating the stuffing out of each other and ruining a childhood friendship. James 'stole' one of Jimmy's girls. Jacob had certain unrequited feelings that he never intended to see the light of day about James that Jimmy had accidentally found out about but kept to himself. Once the lid was open, worms kept pouring out and they'd never be able to put them back in again.

With Jimmy more intent on hurting feelings than throwing fists and James not really able to bring himself to beat his little brother too much, Jacob took the brunt. While James was busy, Jimmy tried to take off with the car which may have been the only thing that kept James from beating Jacob to death. After knocking his little brother out, James thew him into the back of the car and drove off, leaving a bloody and sobbing Jacob in the dirt.

Sighing, Orison walked over to Jacob. "How are you feeling right now? Are you more angry that you walked into the darkness for someone who couldn't appreciate it or are you more heartbroken and feel like dying?"

Through the painful sounding shallow gasps of someone with a fractured rib, Jacob said, "If you're going to do something, do it. If not, then beat it, kid."

"What I'm thinking about doing is whether or not to take you to the hospital but I'm not going to bother if you've already given up on life. That's why I'm asking," Orison said.

Jacob said, "Don't have the money for a hospital anyway."

"You're one wrong move away from breaking off a piece of rib. A punctured lung would be more of a when than an if scenario after that. You need a small surgery or a miracle and I don't really see you deserving a miracle after the things you've done," the young mage offered in a pitiless voice.

After a bit of back and forth, Orison was at his wit's end and ready to walk away. The man couldn't afford a hospital. If he went back 'home' there was a good chance that James would finish what he started and 'Mr. Ashland', a person who might possibly be Smiley or a devil, didn't involve himself in the squabbles of the floor level members of his organization.

Orison looked at the living problem that was struggling to breath in front of him. He fished a silver dollar out of his pocket and flipped it in the air. Letting it fall to the ground, it bounced and half fell through a crack, wedged in a vertical position. It would have felt like divine providence if he wasn't standing on a wooden patio.

Walking back inside the bar, he said, "I need someone to help me move the bleeding guy to my car without jostling him too much. He has a rib fracture that could turn life threatening if it finishes breaking."

Originally, it looked like there weren't going to be any takers. Considering the person involved and the dirty laundry aired outside the bar, he wasn't that surprised. He was surprised when Jen slapped the rag she was using to wipe down a table with and said, "If a kid who was bullied by them can be the bigger man, how 'small' does that make all of you?"

Orison almost chuckled on her suggestive emphasis of 'small', obviously implying an unrelated topic. Making her way out the door, she turned and raised a shaped eyebrow at him. The young mage smiled and jogged out the door. He got another shock when, after loading Jacob up in the back seat, she jumped in the car as well.

Seeing her raise an eyebrow at him again when he didn't immediately start up the car, the young mage thought, "I wonder if she realizes her bar persona has wormed its way into her everyday one." To her, he said, "Isn't your dad going to be pissed once he realizes you're not coming back?"

She replied, "Well, I hope you'll bring me back after we settle the charity case in wherever you're taking him."

Orison said, "That's going to take some time. Since he's refusing medical care, that leaves homeopathic treatment and he's actually pretty bad off, even if most of it's temporary if treated properly. To get him settled and stable might take a good portion of the night. You still down?"

She smiled saucily, "And miss a teenager playing doctor on a grown man? As long as you're not into taxidermy, I want front row seats!"

Starting up, he drove a little slower to keep from jostling the weakly moaning Jacob who'd lapsed into a semi delirious state after the shock wore off. "Taxidermy? Oh, hell no! A little leather work maybe. Human skin doesn't make good leather though... too thin."

That she laughed at his lame joke instead of getting weirded out put her further into his good books.

Jen said, "That's a comfort to know. Didn't stop some Egyptian guy from doing it. One of my girlfriends told me about this museum piece that was put up a day or two ago in the Smith's Science and History museum down in New Yorkshire. We were thinking about making a trip down to see it before it gets packed up next month. Since your car is in better shape than hers, want to chaperon two single ladies on a big city weekend getaway?"

Orison snorted. "Please... and be treated like a little brother luggage carrier while the two of you enjoy yourselves? I have more self respect. Make it a real date and not only is it a deal, I'll foot the bill, within reason."

Jen looked him over critically. "If you can contain yourself and be a proper gentleman instead of a creep, it's a deal. Which one of us ends up your arm candy is up to us." Smiling wickedly, "Who knows. We might end up fighting over the privilege depending on how generous of a gentleman you turn out to be."

The young mage gave a saintly smile and said, "Deal. Also, feminine wiles challenge accepted as long as no one fights too dirty."

"Oh? I thought you'd be into us making it as dirty as we were willing to go." Jen said, distracting with flirtation.

"Fake histrionics and jealousy ploys involving other men are deal breakers. The rest are dealer's choice, madam. And I'm fully aware the house always wins. At least give me a chance to enjoy myself before raking me over the coals." Orison said with an amused side glance.

Teasing and joking was the order of the day until they got Jacob onto Orison's bed after the young mage laid down a painter's tarp and a fresh sheet. They'd even found an indirect way of introducing each other by exchanging driver's license.

While Orison carefully stripped Jacob from the waist up, Jen said, "I was expecting something nicer... Not that it matters or anything."

"I'm newly emancipated and dealing with a legal issue over some finer points of inheritance laws. This is all fairly temporary and I'm not going to invest heavily into temporary. It serves its purpose and I don't want to offend my sponsor by insulting his home." Orison explained.

Discretely utilizing the elaborate magic circle hid by the rug his bed sat on, he placed a sprig of lavender on Jacob's head and whispered, " Draw him deep down into sleep."

By the time that Jen had turned back towards them from where she was giving the plain and unadorned bedroom a once over, the young mage had already wiped off the small amount of dust left behind by the lavender.

She said, "I can't believe how exhausted he must be to fall asleep while in so much pain."

"Whatever the reason, since he doesn't have any head wounds, it'll only make things easier for both of us... Um, no offense but would you like to be helpful or are you more interested in just observing at this point?" Orison said.

Jen said, "I'd like to be helpful as long as you aren't about to say something like 'could you boil some water?' Because we both know that's just busy work to get someone out of the way."

He pretended to reach into a draw and pulled two dried herb packs from his space. "This one needs steeped in hot water... The second one needs thrown in a blender with a cup of the milky looking stuff in the corked wine bottle after you shake it well."

Jen laughed. "So what you're saying is that even though I'm helping you, it's by being a bartender?"

Orison shrugged. "I need them and I also need to address a sensitive injury spot. It's more of a two birds, one stone thing."

Catching on after she glanced at a spot of shoe scuff in a bad place for one to be, she faintly blushed and walked out silently. By the time she came in with the mineral smoothie, Jacob had been stripped, spell cleaned and lightly spell healed to a non-critical state. He was also modestly covered up.

Waking Jacob long enough to get the smoothie and tea infusion in him before putting him back under, he went through the motions of home hospice he'd have to undo after she was gone to finish his work. They chit chatted about general stuff and basically just got to know each other. It almost made all the unnecessary effort worth the trouble. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and it was after seven on a Friday which meant she needed to get back.

Leaving Jacob to his own devices for awhile, Orison left his room with Jen as they discussed when their 'date' would be. He was kind of confused why they'd be having it there instead of the car when Neil came hopping over from his own room and said he'd drive her back because he wanted some R&R. Apparently, they'd already met. The detective had came in while she was getting the tea infusion ready.

As they were leaving, Orison said, "Neil, if you have more than one without waiting an hour before leaving, I WILL do terrible things to your after morning workout shake... I mean it and I've already proven I can tell."

Muttering some kind of derogatory statement that made Jen giggle as they left, the young mage returned to making sure his unpleasant visitor would be just good enough to leave the next day. Once he'd cast a third light heal to seal a herniation, everything looked decent enough to give the man walking papers after a good rest and letting the infusions do their work. Too much healing might raise suspicions but it was easy enough to play off his earlier words if Jacob got curious why he was better off than he felt he should be.

Seeing a twitch and involuntary grimace on the sleeping man's face, Orison muttered, "I can't imagine a piece of intestine sliding back where it's supposed to be felt fun. I better do some more research on that sleep ritual. It wouldn't be good for someone to wake up when they're not supposed to."

Jacob's face smoothed out and breathing returned to an even pace. The young mage played with the idea of throwing a pair of shorts on the guy but after thinking about the probability of an accident of one kind or another, decided to let things slide as they were. Doing some quick math in his head, Jacob had around eight hours left on the sleep spell so Orison decided to trigger his trance early while slumping in his salvaged reading chair and get a head start on the next day.

He came to with a start as a door slammed. The first light of day was cutting through a dispersing a loose cobweb mist of negative energy. He would have been panicked but whatever had happened was over.

Looking out the window where Neil had stopped to dry heave, Orison overheard him mutter. I- with an old lady! Blurgh... I'm going for a long jog. Maybe get lost for half a day. Maybe she'll be gone before I get back. No more whiskey.... I'm done. Done, done..."

Neil continued to mutter to himself as he took off on a morning jog that was apparently going to take awhile. Orison chuckled at the detective's outburst and breathed a sigh of relief that whatever happened may have traumatized Neil but he was healthier than ever. Swinging back to scan his room, the young mage realized that Jacob was in good shape too. Still overly skinny, there was not a single bruise or scrape to be seen. That was both good and bad.

Tracing the source of the negative essence that had kept both himself and Jacob resting lazily well past the point they should have been up, Orison saw the busted spirit bottle under his bed. The trap that was meant to catch any supernatural that attacked the young mage hadn't been quite strong enough to endure but it had done its job long enough for the principles written into his circle to 'sacrifice' what had been trapped for the betterment of the one resting above it.

Orison narrowed his eyes at Jacob and mumbled, "Lucky son of a b*tch."

He almost retracted the statement immediately the next moment. Not just because it was wrong to insult a man's mother just because he wasn't that great of a person but because the entity that had been caught came from Jacob to begin with. He could tell because Jacob's aura was the pearl gray of a lightly overcast day rather than just a few shades shy of 'can't call it gray anymore'. Mixed with it being slightly unstable along with his spiritual seat and compromised soul shell, it all added up to possession.

Fortunately, whatever it had been was more of a masker and influence inducing kind that slowly eroded its host. It could have been the full dark thirty kind that came with a spinning head and projectile split pea soup. Anything was possible when your employer dealt with infernal types. It was alarming to say the least but due to spending a night in Orison's circle, he wasn't only free of it, the circle made it spit its earnings out plus enough interest to undo it.

It would be some time before all the negative energy completely cleared out so the young mage had the opportunity to check Neil's room before his guest, becoming more complicated by the moment, woke up. Peeking into Neil's room, the first thing he noticed was the naked old lady breathing rhythmically. The second thing was the filled but intact spirit bottle under the detective's bed.

Focusing back on the woman, he noticed that whatever her deal was, her aura was glossy black. It wasn't as far dark as an aura could go but it was 'over the line'. He'd seen one like it in the illusion before but that woman wouldn't have been taken down by the slightly better than novice protections he had made, no matter how much extra effort he put into them. Either the illusion's version was portrayed as being more powerful or this was just a student or some such of hers. If that was the case, it was seriously bad news.

Best that he could gather from the lingering essence and obvious activities of the night before, this woman had tried to pull a succubus but it had backfired horribly as the possessing entity that gave her the ability was yanked from her. The circle was relatively simple in design and had no complex ability to tell what from what. It just kept pulling from the bad and giving it to the people on the bed. The bad kept pulling from the woman and she'd get a little back from the circle while what was being given to Neil was sticking.

It was complicated and he didn't know if his interpretation was that accurate. Not really knowing what to do with her, he cleaned and dressed her. Seeing that she had basically been reduced to an eighty year old Alzheimer's patient, he called a local hospice to come pick her up. He used a building a couple of blocks from his own and sat her down with a cup of lukewarm coffee and a fresh bagel, letting society handle the rest.