Lucy's Demons Part II: Ceremony

Lucy killed the lights in her room and closed the blinds. Shimmering gold rays blasted around the sides of the covered window, illuminating particles wandering through the air. Lucy felt she could almost become one with the glowing beams and chat with the little fairies roaming within. The sight reminded her of stained-glass windows on Sunday mornings with her mother long before she’d passed to the other side. She felt a wave of sensation flow down her body. A mystical sense of holiness enveloped her as she removed a black robe from a shelf at the bottom of the altar and somberly put it on.

Lucy tried to slow her breathing and calm herself for the ritual, but her excitement bubbled over. She dashed across her room to an enormous poster of Dantalion in his black leather suit and white collar. He was half-turned with an innocent expression on his glowing and youthful face. She gave him a quick peck and ran back to her altar to begin the ceremony.

As she lit a green candle and a stick of sage, Lucy began to feel her emotions settling like a restless sea in the aftermath of a storm.

Opening her leather-bound copy of The Tome of Artemis, Lucy recited briefly from the chapter titled “The Revelation of Artemis”, hoping for a message from the Goddess. “Artemis came to Earth in a rushing whirlwind of smoke and ash. Brandishing a flaming sword, she brought about peace through justice and pain. The Grand Goddess struck the wicked men with feebleness and all the women of the world rose up to claim their rightful thrones.”

Lucy raised her hands to the sky and pictured her own body growing larger and larger. Bursting through the ceiling, expanding as big as her house, Lucy looked down, imagining her feet the size of a bed. Then Lucy became vast as a mountain. Then grew past the Moon, with her soles resting on the miniature sphere of the Earth. She gestured, imagining drawing down power from the bright center of the universe. The very source itself. She became Artemis. The Goddess. She chanted ancient words, performing the ritual of the Sword of Light. As she intoned each syllable, she imagined thousands of angels hovering about her singing along with her own strong voice. She became a vibrant star, pulsing and powerful. At least for this brief moment, Lucy was satisfied.

As she traced a pentagram in the air with two fingers, Lucy imagined blue fire emerging from the tips. With deep slow breaths, she chanted Gaap’s invocating enn: “Deyan anay tasa Gaap. Deyan anay tasa Gaap.”

Lucy did this in all four directions. She chanted low and slow at first but grew louder and even slower with each repetition. “Deyan anay tasa Gaap! Deyan anay tasa Gaap!”

This was the signal Gaap had been waiting for. The mindscape is home to all demons, but when humans visualize imaginary objects within reality, a middle plane of existence emerges between the aether and the mind that the demons can inhabit. Compressing his aetheric form to the size of an imp, Gaap jumped inside Lucy’s soul and rode the crest of her emotions into her core. He could see the flaming blue pentagrams even more clearly than Lucy could visualize them herself. Gaap settled behind her eyes, prepared to ingest as much energy as possible from the forthcoming feast.

Lucy paced back to her altar in the center of the four roaring pentagrams, and intoned, “Lord Gaap, I just know this is going to fix everything. I have faith in you. I offer you this reward of burning incense for the miracle you manifested in my life. May you experience the essence through my human perception. May it carry a pleasing aroma across the plane to the aether.”

Gaap stretched his wings and extremities to the limit in the crawl space behind Lucy’s eyes. Taking in emotional energy at this proximity and volume was a transcendent experience, even for a Goetic demon, like Gaap.

Most legions in hell deal with imps in order to transfer energy. When a human has a strong emotional impulse, an imp is created. It may then be enthralled by a demon of the appropriate legion, be taken by Metatron's angels, or wander off into the aether.

Hell’s armies are bound by Lucifer’s decree to draw only from the deadly sin corresponding to their particular army. At every full Moon, the imps are counted, transmuted to pure energy, and sacrificed upward to the legion generals at the Lunar Ceremony. The generals then offer up to Lucifer. As Gaap was a soldier in General Forneus’ Legion of Wrath, he could only conscript wrathful imps without risking a dangerous overstep of his bounds. But there was no limit upon direct energy consumption. Especially since the girl had specifically invoked him.

But for Gaap, his kick-up was simply a matter of pride.

When General Leraje ousted Gaap from the Legion of Pride, General Forneus defended Gaap and took him in while others had merely mocked him. Despite losing the untold hundreds of thousands of imps running energy up his chain of command under Leraje, Gaap vowed to himself that he would not vary his kick-ups in the least. He would prove to Leraje that she had erred in her judgement of him. But starting an imp chain from scratch takes time. Gaap realized his only hope to maintain his numbers was finding a handful of humans in emotional turmoil and bleed them dry himself before the end of the month.

And his ploy worked. At that first Lunar Ceremony, when Forneus felt the unexpected jolt from just one soldier, his eye turned with surprise to see Gaap.

Forneus being a rare demon of planetary proportions, he can only attend the Ceremonies with one suspended eyeball rising through a portal from the abyss where he resides. At the transfer of such a healthy dose, Gaap almost thought that enormous slime-covered eyeball had smiled.

The method was very “old gods”, and Gaap would most likely be mocked even more if his compatriots caught wind of his menial tactics. But it worked. And efficiently, since a human spends nearly twice the soul energy creating an imp than Gaap could syphon by sacrificing one.

The following month, Gaap actually increased his numbers. By himself, a mere soldier, bringing no imps whatsoever to the Lunar Ceremony, he had out-produced nearly a third of Hell’s captains. Yet Gaap remained oblivious to the angry stares around him.

And everyone in Hell knew the score. Merlin, Hell’s resident scientist and handyman of sorts, had placed a display in the east wall of Hell’s Dining Room that tracked energy flow and ranked contributions after every Lunar Ceremony.

Gaap started to come down from his intoxicating energy fix as Lucy neared the end of her ceremony. With only the closing left, he crouched within her mindscape fighting the inebriation as the walls started replaying her memories of the day.

Lucy set the sage on a plate beside the Tome and put her hands together in prayer.

And yet, Lucy’s mind would not remain quiet. Again, it flashed back to the events of the afternoon. Still a bit groggy by passing through the sage-soaked hybrid plane and the blast from the ceremony, Gaap failed to notice the shift in Lucy’s mindscape and slipped into her memories. When Gaap reestablished his consciousness, he discovered himself in a familiar scene.

Just as she had on every school day afternoon without fail for the last 9 months, Lucy stood before the school community corkboard, staring at the missing persons poster featuring her younger stepsister, Robin. Every school day, Lucy took a picture of the last portrait of her and posted it on Moongrams. Every day the paper had become a little older and more ragged. Every day a little more faded and battered. And every single day Lucy had to force back a flood of tears.

But today, as Lucy rose her phone to snap the shot, a hand swept across the screen, ripping the poster from the board. Lucy cried out and looked up from her phone.

One of the more popular girls in the school, stood in front of Lucy crumpling the paper and loudly chewing gum. “She’s dead, honey. Get over it.”

Lucy felt that dreaded chill of irrational fear run up her spine. She didn’t understand what was happening. Lucy never associated with this girl. She was big and angry with fiery hair and looked meaner than a blue jay as she stomped away crumpling the poster.

Now roiling with a muddy mix of righteous anger, fear, sadness and confusion, Lucy felt a flicker of courage at the increasing space between them and lashed out.

“How dare you?” Lucy yelled in a shaking voice.

The girl spun around and threw the wadded paper on the ground in front of Lucy and shot back, “Me? How dare I? You’ve got some nerve, slut.”

As Lucy bent down to pick up the crumpled paper, her aggressor advanced and slapped her face knocking her glasses off. Lucy shrieked and dropped back onto her rear, scrambling away backwards. She started sweating all over her entire body.

“Steal my man and turn your eyes off me? You’re stupid.”

“What? I didn’t… I have barely even spoken to any of the guys here in like two years!” She rubbed her cheek and stayed planted on the ground, hoping her attacker was finished.

Lucy could feel her panic continue to rise. She began breathing fast and her hands became clammy. She tried to put her glasses on, but her face was soaked with sweat, and they kept slipping.

The larger girl stomped forward and leaned her face down into Lucy’s, “Promise.”

“I have never been near your man, nor will I ever… I’m not even… I mean, I don’t think…”

It was clear by her crumpled face that Lucy’s answers were not satisfying her, and Lucy started to go into full-blown panic, when suddenly the menace vanished from her personal space. Neither girl had registered a clatter of powerful footfalls rushing toward them until the bully was violently yanked back by her hair.

“Leave her alone, Alice!”

Lucy recognized Alice’s assailant instantly. The son of the county Sheriff and the school’s star quarterback was hard to miss. Aside from being one of the biggest names on campus, the young man stood a full head above all the other players on his team. His name was Jim, but all his lackeys called him Bulldog.

“Fucking bastard.” Alice yanked herself free from Bulldog’s already loosening grip. He towered over her menacingly as she backed away.

“Just leave her alone, Alice.”

“How dare you, asshole?” Alice griped while retying her ponytail and glaring.

“Like it’s the first time I pulled your hair.”

Alice came right to Bulldog’s barrel chest and glared up at him.

“I swear to God, if you embarrass me with this little cunt, I’ll…”

While Lucy watched with wild eyes, Bulldog shot Alice a dark stare down that shut her up quick.

“Message received. We’ll talk about this later. Now go,” he barked and jerked his head to the side.

“Your little friend is dead. Everyone knows it. It’s been a year. Get over it, you…”

“Leave!”

Alice spit her gum past Lucy’s head as she walked away.

“She’s my sister. And it’s only been nine months,” Lucy said meekly. She was fairly certain she’d avoided a full-on panic attack, but her hands had already clenched into useless balls of tight muscles.

“Hey, man. I’m really sorry about her. Are you ok?”

Lucy whispered meekly, “I can’t…” Leaving the thought unfinished, she lifted her hands slightly, showing Bulldog how the thumbs had turned inward. She scooted on her butt to lean back against the posts of the board feeling confused and traumatized. Lifting her nose into the air, she tried to slow her breathing.

“She’s so mean.” Lucy complained sniffling.

“Well. It’s an act.” Bulldog smiled and took her hands. He gently massaged the locked muscles until they softened and relaxed. Lucy appeared to be coming out of her ordeal and cried, “She slapped me! She said to stay away from her man. I take it that’s you?”

Bulldog took in a hard breath as he rose back up to stand, “Goddammit. Yeah.” He shot an angry glance in the direction Alice had left. “Dude, I’m really sorry”.

“Why? You saved me!”

As he helped her pick up her things and stand up, Jim sighed. “Yeah, well…”

“What?”

“I’m also kinda the reason she came at you.”

“Huh?”

“But listen…”

“Wait, how?”

Lucy took a step back as Bulldog looked her in the eye sheepishly. He scratched the back of his neck and explained, “So, look. Dad scored me these tickets to Dantalion’s Water, and Alice hates anything heavy. Or good!” he rolled his eyes, “So I told her I was gonna take someone else and I seen you always wear those DW shirts, and I thought… not a date really but if you want…”

“OH, MY GOD!!! OH, MY GOD ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!” Lucy was almost screaming at him.

“Hahaha! Yeah! I am! You wanna come? I think that’s a yes?”

“YES! YES! YES! YES! OH MY GOD! THANK YOU!”

Gaap had been watching the entire scene play out from inside Lucy’s mindscape. As soon as Alice had showed up, Lucy’s mindscape became like the interior of a dollhouse. There were stuffed animals everywhere and pinks and pastels covered the walls, floor and ceiling. Lucy’s native wrathful demon shrank to the size of an imp. No point in trying to push or dominate that. Lucy’s fear golem had grown to fill her headspace and was crushing her other personalities out of existence. But as soon as Bulldog had shown up, the fear monster popped like a balloon. The other personality imps came straggling back with lust seeming to grow largest. And Lucy’s mindscape slowly morphed into a peaceful country cottage. Gaap was still unaware that he was sinking deeper and deeper into a fleeting memory and Lucy was about to bury the thought in her mind again at any moment. But as Gaap observed, he started to remember he’d experienced all this before.

“Hey, man don’t thank me after all this, I kind of owe you. I had told Alice I was going to ask you. That’s why she came after you.” Bulldog shrugged. “Again. Really sorry.”

“Oh. I get it now. It’s... It’s ok.” She paused and pondered a moment. “Are you sure it’s cool, though? I don’t want to mess y’all up.”

“Alice will be fine. I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Bulldog had come beside Lucy and put a hand on her shoulder as they walked toward the parking lot. “Hey, I don’t wanna have to fight with Alice. And I’m sure your friends would be surprised to hear you are going on a date with the quarterback anyway. Let’s not make a big rumor about this, ok?”

“I don’t really have… I thought you said it wasn’t a date?”

Gaap started to survey the area frantically, realizing something wasn’t right.

“I mean… you’re hot in your own grungy way. You’re thin…” Bulldog grabbed Lucy’s left butt cheek with a hard squeeze and placed a forefinger inside her shirt pulling it out so he could peek inside. Lucy gasped.

All had seemed normal previously, but at this point, Gaap was suddenly slapped right out of Lucy’s mindscape. He fled to a nearby tree, adopted his gargoyle pose and watched.

Except he was also still in Lucy’s mind. Gaap saw himself in the branch above Lucy and it hit him where he was. “Oh, spizz,” he muttered. “I’m in her memories.”

Gaap could see Lucy was completely under the control of her libidinal golem. These core personality monsters where not something Gaap could just consume like fleeting emotional imps.

“It could be a date.” Bulldog shrugged. “Up to you. No big.” He winked and patted her rear.

Lucy was paralyzed. She wanted to lash out at his gross behavior but was afraid to jeopardize her invitation. She bit her lip and stayed silent.

“Hey, I’m really sorry about that bitch. Can I give you a ride home now to make sure she doesn’t double back at you?”

“Oh!” The mere suggestion terrified Lucy. She was not nearly as worried about Bulldog’s hands as she was Alice’s. “Yes, please!”

Gaap was desperate to escape before he became locked in Lucy’s mind but found himself fascinated by seeing himself as another. He saw himself perched on the lowest branch above her, crouched in his gargoyle pose. He had mildly wondered what this new development might mean for his plans for Lucy. But had little chance to consider before he’d been brought out of his conjecture by a call from across the sidewalk.

“Holy spiz, brother!” It was Sabnock. Another foot soldier like Gaap, Sabnock served in General Gremaje’s army of the Deadly Sin of Lust. “Did you see that sewage? I almost lost my slime when he pulled her top!” Sabnock took a peek of his own down Lucy’s shirt as she walked away with Bulldog. “I pumped that myself! It was so gunk! Hahaha!”

“Hello, Sabnock. Always a pleasure. Yes, that was quite the spectacle.” Sabnock sneered, a bit perturbed that his enthusiasm wasn’t returned, but pressed on.

“Hey, hey. What’s your angle on this worm, huh? You just like ‘em young? Maybe this angry little speck about to assassinate the President or something?” Sabnock guffawed at his own banal joke.

“She suffered some trauma that she’s too scared to work through and it keeps her constantly angry. As General Leraje says, the energy off the young is stronger, more dense. She’s a wellspring.”

“Hahaha. A ‘wellspring’. Dork. What happened? Her daddy boink her or something? Hahaha.”

“Her mother died of cancer.”

“She was killed by a crab?” Sabnock said nodding, genuinely skeptical.

“No, ah… it’s a… leprosy of some kind, I think.”

“Pff. I don’t know how you can spend so much time watching these worms, Gaap, my brother. I send my quota of imps to Ronove, then I’m out looking for adventures. But anyway, that’s what I wanted to ask you about. You on this girl for a while? Can you do me a favor? I want her to hook up with this Big Dog guy for some plans of mine. You will get a shitload of wrathful juice after they break up. And this dude always breaks up fast. Just keep her mad at him, ok?”

“I don’t understand. I thought you wanted them to get together?”

“Yeah, man. Just keep reminding her about how she thinks he’s arrogant and how he groped her tits and…”

“But he didn’t grope…”

Exasperated now, “look, scrote. Just keep her hot at him.”

“Alright but I fail to see…”

“All your watching and watching, you still don’t get these worms. If she stays hot at him, she will be hot for him. Her lizard head just knows she can’t stop thinking about him. Get me now?”

“I believe so.”

“Slime! Listen I’d try to work her myself, but I have to get these clowns lined out for the other part. And I think the wrath angle is better than mine at this point, anyway. Just trust me. If you help me here, you’ll be in the black too, dig?”

“It’s fine. I can stay here awhile.”

“Goddamn. I knew you were cool, brother. Just trust me, I got it handled, cool? Ok. I’ll be back in a day or so. Fester, brother.”

“Fester, sir.”

Gaap realized upon watching himself that his compatriot had completely ignored the fact that Lucy was his by virtue of her invocation. Sabnock had no right to be dealing with her anyway. Gaap's sigil was clearly visible above her head. Gaap closed his eyes and shook his head, angry in retrospect at his own submissive behavior.

Gaap opened his eyes and found himself back inside Lucy’s current mindscape. Apparently he had shifted from Lucy’s memories to his own when he had encountered his doppelganger and Sabnock. He shook off the confusion and jumped out of Lucy’s soul as she completed her ceremony. Gaap still wasn’t sure how he’d gotten out of that scrape but took note of the dangers of this intimate new tactic he’d developed. Maybe he could talk to Merlin about it soon.

As Gaap watched from the bookcase, Lucy drew pentagrams again with the smoking sage, then fell to her knees and gave up the power of the Moon. Gave up the Goddess. She became a little girl again, took off her robe, blew out the candle, and put away her altar.

Lucy took The Tome of Artemis to her bed and began to read the chapter titled Dantalion’s Water. It was one of the most popular tales in the Tome and her favorite, of course. The Tome of Artemis had spread across the Earth like wildfire in the last half-century, creating a newfound interest in Goetic Demons, King Solomon of antiquity, occult magic and the ancient Goddess herself. This chapter spun the tale of the demon, Dantalion. How he manifested on Earth on a wager with a powerful demon in Hell. In human form, he engineered the aqueducts of Petra, became wealthier than kings and descended back to Hell to claim his spoils: generalship of the Deadly Sin of Avarice.

As she read, Lucy felt her brain was crackling with energy. The mystical, magical quality of the whole situation made her excited and bouncy like a dancing electron. The band claimed to be officially sanctioned by the demon, Dantalion. The lead singer adopted the name as his own and often dropped hints that he might just be the demon himself, in the flesh. In the extremely conservative town of Liberty Hill, Lucy and Talia were just about their only fans, but the show was in Austin, where Dantalion’s Water was hot as hellfire. Tickets had sold out instantly. She’d thought her dreams were dashed until this miracle.

A Dantalion’s Water concert was heralded by many as much more of a spiritual awakening than a concert. Lucy believed the show would induce the inevitable revelation that she had been imploring of the aether. There she would find her purpose. There she would discover how to find and free her sister from whatever hell had befallen her. There she would surely feel the divine assurance that her sister was still alive. Waiting to be rescued. Waiting to return to the family and start over. Lucy just knew it was true. Gaap had lined everything up for her. Dantalion had the answers from the other side. The concert would reveal all. Lucy had faith.

A knock at Lucy’s front door pulled Gaap and Lucy from their reveries. Lucy greeted Talia and they entered her room. And so, from his perch on the bookshelf, Gaap observed as Lucy told her tale to her friend.