Slaying demons, p.7
Slaying Demons, page 7
part #2 of Damsel Series
Her friend leaned into her then, in a cozy fashion that spoke of being close enough that they might have dated in the past. It wasn’t true, exactly. They were that close, but at the same time, Kate was too prudish, or at least straight, to have done anything fun with her. Even when they were both drunk. Now that Hannah wasn’t doing that, it almost certainly wasn’t going to happen.
“Nothing that bad. We get a cabin and there will be some trailers and all that. We’re going to have a survival instructor, even, so that will be fun, right? Learn to make fires and what berries to eat? We’ll be gone for a week at a time. Five days, with three off, each time, I think.”
She seemed hesitant, as if expecting a real meltdown over the words. At least for the camera, if nothing else. Instead Hannah let her head move side to side.
“I didn’t really pack to be gone and need to get with some people, since, you know, they might think I’ve been taken, if I don’t. My brother, Veronica and...” She nearly added Alistair in, then grinned and changed that up. “Tyler. We should get him out there, too. That would be interesting, I bet!”
The man was a technical genius, after all.
Katie snorted, seeming different than her Life of Kate act, suddenly.
“That’s the plan. Only in the second or third week, after we prove to the world that we’d instantly die if left out in the woods, alone.”
She nodded at the camera then.
“Which is honestly the truth. At least for me. I was just thinking about how I’ve never even been camping. Well, this will be fun. I guess going without warning is a good enough way to start things off? If nothing else, you’ll get to hear me whining about not having an internet connection for an entire season. That will be interesting, won’t it?”
For a moment, it occurred to her that she was supposed to be helping to save the world, not be out in the woods for over a month, but then she realized something else. She, Hannah de Peyser, while not a Damsel in distress any longer, also wasn’t one of the super freaks. Her part in things was to make certain that Al had a place to work and that he had good supervision. Since their first shot at that had been having a party girl with a bad reputation look out for him, she pulled her phone out, to talk to her brother. The ex-super villain.
That was probably a step up from her being in charge. The trick, of course, would be in not saying anything important to Nate.
When he picked up, she grinned.
“Nathaniel de Peyser, how are you doing?” That was friendly sounding, and not businesslike, while still being polite to anyone who was calling for him. Almost no one would have that number, since he hadn’t been out picking up women or applying for jobs. Not yet. He couldn’t really, so that was totally fair, even if it might have been hard for him to do either of those things, even if the world had been normal and free of Tri-D.
“Hey, brother of mine! I’m being forced to go on a weeklong camping trip, by Kate and her television minions. It’s not a kidnapping or anything, but I’m watching Mary and Gerald’s dog for them, for a few weeks and now I won’t be there...”
She was being a bit obscure, but her brother simply laughed.
“What do I get if I watch him for you? Other than not having him use the carpet in here for a restroom, I mean?”
She didn’t know how to answer, and was distracted then.
~Hannah? Are you in trouble?~
She smiled then and spoke out loud.
“Well, you can use my VR room, while I’m gone? Call Tyler if you need help, learning to use that. I’m probably going to be out of cell range. It sounds like I get survival training, which... Well, that will probably be good for me.”
Then, trying not to screw up her face, she replied inside her head.
~I don’t think so? Keep in touch with me, and I’ll try to do the same, just in case something happens. So far I recognized a few of the people with me. Kate, of course. You caught that one, last night?~
There was a brief pause.
~That she’s Wisp, that you know it, and that she doesn’t know that you know yet? I did get all of that, actually. More than that, of course. The people who were in that room know some secrets... Anyway, I’ll keep my ears open for you. Let me... One second?~
Her brother was talking again then.
“That sounds fun. I can do that, this once. Next time I expect to be informed before you leave, if that’s an option? Not just on the dog watching side of things, either. I mean, what if I had plans? I don’t, and Al’s a great pupper, but what if we were both gone, suddenly?”
She made a face then, and hunched over, then straightened a bit.
“Well, if it came to that, then I’d stay with my responsibilities. Hanging with Kate is fun, but I’m not going to abandon Al, all alone.”
There was a click, in her head, and then Alistair spoke again.
~Okay. Everyone there is fine. Doug, in the back, is depressed though. Not suicidal, but his girlfriend was a real piece of work. She’d pretty much been using him to get into acting, and then when that didn’t work very well, she traded up to an assistant producer. Of course, she didn’t tell Doug that was the plan the whole time. Instead she implied that his dick was too small to satisfy her, so she found a real man. He’s fine that way, if it means anything to you.~
It took everything she had not to respond to that bit of news out loud.
Instead, she spoke to Nate.
“Thanks, Nate. I know you aren’t there to be the dog walker.”
He chuckled, which sounded almost real.
“I might as well make myself useful. Try to call, when you get in?”
She nodded.
“If I can? Who knows what kind of cell service we’ll have, in the deep dark woods. Love ya, bro. Talk soon!”
He said something similar back, as she hung up.
~I love you, too!~
She nodded, catching that the boy was being funny, instead of expressing his real feelings. It was carried in the information, rather powerfully. Still, it was kind of nice to hear, even if it was just from a friend.
~Same back at you, Al. I’ll be in touch, if things change.~
Then she stopped thinking about him, since he had real work to do and that kind of thing, from what she’d heard, could be distracting for powerful telepaths. True, she only knew the one, but he’d been the source of the information, so it was probably true, for him, at least.
Then, as Kate smirked at her, Hannah grinned.
“I have a few more calls to make, if I’m going to be hidden away for a week...”
The next part would be harder to manage, of course. Still, she needed to let some people know about what was going on in the world. They were, technically, the bad guys, but keeping them in the dark wasn’t going to help anyone. Not really.
She had one of the numbers in her phone, at least, so tapped the icon for it and waited.
“Hello? This is Alexander Darius.”
“Alex! This is Hannah... de Peyser? I was calling to tell you not to say anything over the phone. You know, about the special program we have going on, in regards to the Tri-D contagion?” The whole statement had to seem incredibly off and while they’d had dinner recently, about a month before, they’d spoken about personal responsibility and not relying on those with super powers to get everything done.
A thing that Hannah more or less agreed with the slightly older man on.
There was a pause.
“I... Understand the need not to speak about that... Over the phone. We could meet and talk about it in person, perhaps?”
She grinned then, since the man was freaking clever, having picked up her hints already.
“I can’t. I’m headed off to the woods for some televised survival training. I should be back in a week, or so I hear. In the meantime, well, you know, this current situation is almost magical. We need to be careful though, so that we don’t get caught, before we go public. So, watch for cameras, people trying to jack your phone signal and all of that. This Tri-D thing is... Well, it’s a problem on the production portion of things. Also, we legitimately need more food for the banks. This thing has screwed the economy and real people are going to starve, if we can’t be there for them. Work projects and all that, too, if possible. I’m working that end of things, or will be, as soon as I can. For right now though, I just wanted to call and let you know that people are interested in what we have to say. My tech guy pretty much told me that whoever is doing this is a real wizard.”
Again there was a pause, then a considering voice. A deep baritone, that was kind of sexy, she had to admit. Then, she always did have a soft spot for bad boys. She used to at least. Now she was past that, since that kind of person tended to lead to bad things, if you weren’t careful.
“I can double the amount of food, coming from my holdings. It’s a bit tight, and we’ll have to work at a loss. The trouble isn’t the cash flow, it’s having enough workers. I have robot facilities coming on line, for food production and the farms are working at full capacity. I’ll set that in motion. I have my own technical... Wizards, who can look into things. Carefully, of course.”
She swallowed then.
“Well, the real key will be in forecasting the future. So you’d need a psychic, not just a tech... wizard. That, or the ability to read minds that way. Do you know anyone who can do that? That would be a real help, about now.” She didn’t know how much the other man was picking up, but it was clear that Kate got it all. She went a bit wide eyed.
Then, Hannah was talking to one of the biggest super-villains in the world, and telling him to be careful. As if they were friends, which, after a fashion, they were. He was decent guy, if you weren’t running around in a costume or trying to stop him from helping people. Which hadn’t kept him out of prison, all the time.
“Understood. Thank you for calling me on this. It’s good to hear from you, as always, Hannah.”
“You too, Alex. We should meet up in a week, and see about dinner? If we can of course. These lockdowns are murder.”
They exchanged pleasantries then, real ones, and hung up.
Then she glanced at Kate.
“We have more food coming for the food banks. We need some kind of jobs program, too. I don’t know how to get the captains of industry in on that one. Especially as business is going to be drying up, over the next year. They aren’t all evil, but a lot of that kind of person can be pretty afraid, if the money starts to get short. If we can act fast, we might be able to keep the economy opened up.”
To that end, she called her father, just as they were heading out of the city.
“Richard de Peyser, how may I help you today?”
“Hi, Dad! I’m being taken out of town by Kate Sinclair for a week. I managed to get with at least one person, and have some extra food coming in for the food banks. We need to focus on expanding that, and some kind of jobs program, as well. Oh, you should have Nate and the puppy he’s watching, Al, over for dinner. We live in the city, so it would be great for Al to stretch his legs and run around a bit. Also...” Instead of trying to be coy, she simply smiled and told the truth, part of it. “Also, you need to be careful speaking over the phone. Nate will explain. Don’t ask now.”
That got a strange laugh.
“I see. Very well. I’ll get with your brother. Is there... Anything else I need to do for this meeting?”
She thought for a moment, then tilted her head.
“You know, it would be good if Cynthia were brought in on this one? Karen, too, but we might need Cynthia to look out for Al, if Nate gets busy. I was supposed to be doing it, then literally was ambushed with work stuff. We can’t slack off on the food banks right now, either. This is... Things aren’t good, right now.”
She just meant that, but her father sighed.
“Agreed. Talk to you soon, honey.”
“Soon, Dad.”
Then she put her cell phone away. There were other people to keep up with, but not that day. Pleny and Carl were probably not going to be pleased with her lack of practice, being off in the woods. Then, she could walk almost anywhere and shooting, while not a thing she had enough ammo for, could be practiced in her head, if she was careful about it. That wouldn’t be the same, but things came up in real life. The trick would, she hoped, be in not losing anything she’d gained, so far.
Lewis smirked at Katie then.
“So, how do you think you’ll do, out in the wild? The current bet is that both of you will quit, inside the first twenty-four hours. I’m supposed to remind you that you’re both under contract?” The guy seemed smug, as if they couldn’t afford to buy out of those.
Still, people were going to need to be entertained, sitting locked in their houses, trying not to die, like they were at the moment. Hannah didn’t speak though, since her friend did.
She took her hat off, and held it on her lap.
“I have no clue. If I don’t die, it will be a miracle! How about you Hannah? Are you planning on running off into the night to get away from the evil camping trip?”
She shook her head. Mainly because that actually sounded like a good way to die.
“Nope. I might lose it a few times, but I won’t go down that easily. At least I’m claiming that until the pain sets in. Then I’ll probably start crying and change my mind pretty fast!”
Almost as if reminding her of what was really going on, the cuts and burns on her arm throbbed. She ignored that and tried to smile. Weakly, as if she wasn’t too certain about a trip into the woods.
Which was true. She didn’t have a clue what to do for that kind of thing and while the production company wasn’t really going to get them killed, it might well not be that fun.
Then, it wasn’t supposed to fun for her. Just the people watching at home.
Chapter five
Hannah got that she was supposed to freak out, when she saw the cabin that was being provided for her and Kate to share. It was about six feet long, four feet high and six feet deep, from front to back. There was no window either. In short, it was a wonderful log coffin, made for two. It had been smoothed inside, even, so looked familiar to her that way as well.
The trick to the whole thing, for her, was that she had to doubt that anyone there, other than her best friend, would get that having been buried alive once, in a box, meant that she might just not want to go back into one. In this moment, the size and shape were the big deal. That and how dark it would be inside, at night.
It was, she had to allow, cute, on the outside. Probably cozy, as well. She’d had a lot of training, in controlling her fear, using exposure therapy and had, of late, gone into sensory deprivation in a fairly small box, so she could, if she had to, get through a week of sleeping in the thing. A tent would be little better, of course. The only thing was that this box was made of wood and had the right shape to terrify her. Rather than whine, she simply nodded at the thing.
“So... Has anyone else here ever been buried alive in a piano crate? No? Just me, the girl you want to sleep in this? You do get that this is the log cabin version of my worst nightmare, right?” She smiled, but was actually ready to fight over the issue. Possibly even for real, though she knew that wasn’t going to come up. She’d probably just throw a fit for a while, look incredibly weak and then have to suffer sleeping inside of the thing anyway, because she was under contract. Her nightmares and screams, would, no doubt, be entertaining.
Next to her, Katie gasped. She, out of all of them, understood what Hannah was going on about. After all, the woman had been there, after her sessions, to hold her hand and hug her, when she was shaking like a leaf, all those times.
“What the freaking hell? No. I mean, I’ll sleep in this for your amusement, Connie, but this is unacceptable! Hannah has a real reason for...”
She was interrupted, by a man with a big bushy beard and a weathered face. There was enough gray in the look to offset the tan around his eyes. He had a cowboy hat on, and was otherwise dressed the way that a lumber jack probably would have. Flannel shirt, weird off colored tan pants and brown hiking boots.
He looked directly at Hannah, as if nothing else there mattered in the slightest.
“You’re good with being outside, though? How about making your own place to sleep? That won’t be big either, but making your own won’t be as bad. Maybe. It doesn’t have to be a box or anything like that.” He didn’t seem that certain of things that way, but softened a bit, when Hannah nodded. It could work, if she did it right.
“Just nothing underground? Maybe with a bigger door?”
The fellow nodded at her then, smiling a bit.
“You’re making it, so that can be as big as you want. You’ll want to stay warm, so keep that in mind.”
The hole they were supposed to use for a door was tiny on the little would be coffin cabin. Too easily blocked off, as well. A thing made of pine boughs and leaves would be better that way. If they trapped her inside, she could rip her way out through the sides. Not that she had a clue how to make that kind of thing.
The beard guy scratched his face in a way that spoke of not understanding that it was going to be on television. So would her throwing a fit. Probably without context, so she’d get to look really bad, refusing the tiny, dark, place to stay. Ungrateful and spoiled. Too good for what was being provided.
That was the job though, so she simply took a deep breath.
“Sorry. I’ve done some work that way, but being trapped like that is probably my biggest fear. I mean, sure, bears might get me, if I sleep out, but that...”
The big guy shrugged then.
“No problem. We were going to be doing that next week, but there’s no need for you not to get a head start on it. I’m Max Welerd, hired on to teach you girls a bit about how to survive out here. In the end we’ll be doing that with nothing more than what you have on you. I can lend you a knife for today?”
He started to get one of those out, but Hannah dug into her pocket, to show she had her own. She held it up, rather cutely. Technically the blade was too big to be legal for a folding knife, in most places. Then, if she had to use it in the city, it would be for things that were probably outside of the law anyway. You had a right to reasonable self-defense, but starting out a fight by stabbing an unarmed man or woman, while fair in her eyes, and needed for her to win a fight, wouldn’t go over all that well in the court system.
