Chương 136: Interlude 30 – Defined & Identified

=::= Melanie's PoV =::=

"I don't have anything against her," Cerys replied. "I'm just saying, we don't know anything about sorcery and she's associated with a goddess who's motivations and goals are unknown to us."

She continued, "Plus we're a month away from summer break, and next year's our last year of high school. So we'd be bringing in a stranger who needs a lot of training and education using magic that none of us are familiar with, and she might only be with the club for a year regardless."

I shrugged, "Fair points. From the sound of it bringing Willow into the club might be a repeat of Melody? She's nice and we all like her, but even she knows she hasn't really contributed much. And she might be leaving us this summer, less than a year after joining."

"On the other hand," I added, "Melody's been a source of information we wouldn't have had otherwise. And she's been helpful in other ways. It's not exactly supernatural, but having another club member with a car has been handy."

My girlfriend pointed out, "Willow doesn't have a car, so that's not really a valid argument."

I rolled my eyes, "I just meant Melody's been helpful in ways that you can't really measure against spells and stuff. Heck I haven't even been much use when it comes to that sort of thing. My biggest contribution has been my nose."

"Fair enough," Cerys conceded. "So you think we should invite Willow to join us?"

I nodded, "Yeah. I know you didn't like her before, and it sounds like you still don't really like her now. But if Paige asks us all to vote on it at the June club meeting then I'm voting yes."

"I don't dislike her," my girlfriend responded with a shrug. "I thought she was a nerd before, but honestly so was I? And now that I've got to know her a bit better she seems ok."

Her expression got more serious as she looked up ahead, "We're almost there. Are you sure you want to see it?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "I don't know why? I guess I just want to see who's there now, if someone's moving in or something."

It was Friday the twentieth, and we were heading into the May long weekend. Me and Cerys would be working all day Saturday and Sunday which wasn't great, but Monday was a holiday so we'd get the one day off. We weren't working tonight either, but instead of heading straight home with Cass and Nina there was something else I wanted to do first.

Today was the day the new owner got possession of the house where my dad and I used to live, and I had a sort of morbid curiosity to go and see who they were.

Neither Cerys or I had been back to the place since Nina helped us move the last of our stuff out, which to be fair was only two and a half weeks earlier. In fact it was kind of weird in a way, like as far as I knew nobody ever contacted my dad about a new rental agreement or anything like that. Apart from telling him when the new owner took over, no-one ever told him we had to move out or if the new landlord would let us keep renting the place.

Maybe that's why I wanted to see it. I was curious if we'd have had to pack up and move out by now anyways, or if maybe dad and Cerys and I could have stayed there after all. Assuming we didn't have that big fight and everything.

Whatever it was, I just needed to see the place again. So my girlfriend and I kept walking, then rounded the last corner onto our old street.

There were still a couple for-sale signs up, one next door to our old place and one two doors down. At least one of them was owned by the same guy who used to own our place, but after the thing with the developer fell through he decided to sell off all his properties here. A couple other homes in the area went up for sale as well, people who'd already made arrangements to move or already bought a home someplace else so they had to sell.

The whole thing was a depressing mess, but even if we didn't live there anymore I was glad the deal fell through. It would have sucked to see all the houses and trees and stuff bulldozed.

As me and Cerys approached our old place it became obvious nobody had moved in yet. There was no moving van out front, no cars in the driveway, no new scents in the air. Even standing on the sidewalk the place still smelled like home, in a way Cass's house didn't. Even though all our stuff was there and we had the whole basement to ourselves, it wasn't home for us. Not yet. Not like this place was.

"The front door's open," Cerys pointed out. "Someone must be in there."

"Huh," I frowned. She was right, the front door was ajar.

After staring for a second or two she asked, "Want to go check it out? Or would that be too much?"

I continued to frown as I stared at the door for a half minute or so. I was curious, I wanted to see if the new owner was in there.

On the other hand I wasn't sure how I'd feel about going back inside now. I was trying not to admit to myself I felt homesick for the place. There were some bad memories there, especially from the first six or seven months dad and I lived there. But there were a lot more good memories too, from after I joined the club, after me and Cerys hooked up. And especially after she started spending all her time there with me.

"Ok," I finally decided. I walked up the driveway with my girlfriend, then we climbed up the front steps to the door.

After a slight hesitation I gave it a gentle push. It swung all the way open and I called, "Hello? Anybody home?"

I wasn't really sure what to expect, if I'd get an answer or not. But the reply I got was pretty much the last thing on my list of plausible responses.

"Hello Melanie, Cerys," Cass said as she stepped into view. "Please come in."

She sounded calm and confident, like she'd been waiting for us. She looked exactly like she did twenty minutes earlier when she left the school to head home with Nina and Kaylee, but there was no hint of her usual shyness.

My girlfriend and I exchanged a confused glance, then I stepped into the house as I asked "What are you doing here Cass? I thought you went home?"

Our friend turned and walked into the living-room, but there was nowhere to sit. All dad's furniture was gone, the rooms were bare. Which made the stains on the carpet and the dents and marks on the walls way more obvious.

Once all three of us were standing in the empty room Cass turned to face me and Cerys again.

She replied in that same calm confident voice, "I came here to speak with you both. None of this turned out the way I'd originally envisioned, and I don't really know how to do this. I suppose I didn't exactly have a firm plan in mind regardless, but originally I thought your dad would still be here. I didn't anticipate the two of you moving into our basement while your dad left town on his own."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, and my confusion was probably obvious in my voice and my expression. "What did you envision, what's going on?"

She reached a hand into one of her hoodie pockets and pulled something out, then tossed it to me.

I caught it easily enough, and found myself looking at a key ring with two matching keys on it. I recognized them immediately, they looked like keys to the house.

"Cass?" I frowned as I looked up at her again. "What the heck is going on?"

She replied calmly, "The day after I saw the for-sale sign on your front lawn I made arrangements to buy the property. I wasn't sure how to handle it, but I wanted to make sure the house remained available for you and Cerys."

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"I considered contacting your father," she continued, "To try and work out a deal with him regarding the rent. I even thought about having someone else act as an intermediary, to keep my involvement secret. Unfortunately I had to abandon all those plans when your father kicked you out and you ended up staying with my family."

She shrugged slightly, "I wasn't sure what to say or how to handle the situation after that. I already owned the place, but didn't get possession of it until today so I couldn't do anything about it regardless. I've spent the past seventeen days trying to think of the best way to talk to you about it. When you said you wanted to come by this afternoon to see it, I realized it was as good a time as any to have that conversation."

Through all that Cass didn't blush or stutter once, her voice remained calm and she seemed completely confident and self-assured. Meanwhile I had at least a hundred questions, and most of those were about how she could afford to just go buy a house without a second thought.

My girlfriend obviously had some questions in mind too, but not so much about the property or the money. She was more curious about our friend, and how this entire conversation seemed out of character for her.

"Cass this doesn't sound like you," Cerys pointed out. She sounded a little concerned as she continued, "You're not acting like your normal self. Is everything ok?"

With my eyes on our friend I stated warily, "I don't think this is our usual Cass. I think this is Cassandra, the demonic goddess. Cass is channelling her inner deity."

A small smile appeared on the brunette's lips, as though she was amused by what I just said. She nodded once, "Very observant, Melanie. Somehow I'm not surprised you're the first one to figure it out."

"You're correct by the way," she continued. "More or less. Rather than a 'demonic goddess' I prefer to think of myself as the goddess of chaos. I believe that is a much more accurate title for me, as demons do not worship me and I don't gain faith from them. My power comes from chaos, and from the humans who believe in chaos and perform my rites."

Cerys pointed out, "You're half demon though, so I think 'demonic goddess' should still apply?"

Part of me wanted to tell my girlfriend to keep quiet, like friend or not I didn't think it was a good idea to try and get into an argument with an actual literal goddess. But part of me was honestly pretty happy. No matter what name she called herself, whether Touhou witch or werewolf, she was my bold brash girlfriend and of course she'd contradict and question a real live goddess.

Fortunately the goddess in question didn't seem to take any offence at being questioned about how she identified herself. Instead she continued to wear that amused little smile on her face, as she regarded my girlfriend and I.

"I suppose you could make that argument," our friend responded. "I prefer to differentiate between the two of us. The way I see it, Cass represents our demonic side, she's much more closely aligned with Nina. I represent our divine half, but please don't take that to mean I'm anything like Socha or May."

Hearing that sent a little shock of anxiety through me, and I wasn't quite sure why. Maybe it was something about our friend referring to herself in the third person as if she was someone else. Or maybe it was just having this conversation with her while she acted so different from what we were all used to.

I knew it was her, not just from her appearance but from her scent as well. She still had Kaylee's and Nina's scents on her too, there were even traces of other scents from school. There was no way this was somebody else in a glamour or disguise to make them look like Cass. It was Cass, without a doubt. But she didn't act like Cass, and now she was basically telling us that she wasn't.

"You're talking as if Cass is someone else," Cerys stated, "But you're Cass. You're just channelling your inner goddess, like Melanie said. Right?"

Cassandra shrugged, "That's debatable. Let's say, I'm much more aware of her than she is of me."

By that point my heart was racing a little, and I had an arm around my girlfriend. I wasn't exactly scared of the petite brunette, I didn't think we were in any danger from her, but I couldn't get my head around some of the stuff she'd just said and it made me really uneasy. It was probably going to take me a few minutes to process everything, but unfortunately I wasn't going to be able to do that now.

"Anyways this conversation has veered well off topic," the young goddess stated. "I came here to discuss your living arrangements, not how Cass and I define or identify ourselves."

She continued, "None of us are in any hurry for you to leave the Underwood home, you're welcome to remain with us as long as you both wish. But I know you're not happy there, just as I know you were happier here. If you want to move back here you're welcome to. I'm sure Nina would be happy to help teleport your belongings back into the basement here, if that's your wish."

"Or you could take over the upper floor," Cassandra added. "You don't need to relegate yourselves to the basement. Having said that, Cass might like to move here as well at some point? We did make that suggestion, of pooling our resources and becoming roommates."

I nodded slowly but I was still trying to get my head around everything she'd just said. I still had the keys to the house in my hand, and after glancing down at them I looked back up at our goddess friend and asked, "If we move back here, what should I tell people? I mean about how we got the house, or who's paying the rent?"

Cassandra replied, "You can tell them Cass did it for you. She'll blush and cringe, she'll probably try and deflect and change the subject, but that's fine. Neither she or anyone else will question things too deeply."

"And what do we tell people about you?" Cerys asked. "Should we say it was you who got us the house, instead of Cass?"

"I'd rather you didn't," the goddess responded. "I think it's best that we keep that part of our conversation between the three of us. As I said, Cass is less aware of me than I am of her, and I think for her peace of mind we should keep it that way. For now, at least."

I nodded, "All right Cassandra. We'll keep that to ourselves. For now me and Cerys need to talk this over? About whether we're going to come back here, and how we want to handle it."

"Should I leave these with you for now?" I added, as I held out the keys for her.

"Keep them," Cassandra replied. "I don't need them, and I can always make more if necessary."

She added, "I'll return home now. I believe the plan tonight is to order Chinese food for dinner, so if you both want in on that try and be there by six? Goodbye for now."

Before either Cerys or I could respond the goddess vanished in swirl of light. I was left with the house keys in one hand while I hugged my girlfriend with the other. There were a hundred more questions on my mind for Cassandra, and one for Cerys.

"What do you think?" I asked as I held her a little closer. "Should we move back here?"

After a second or two she replied, "I think that whole conversation was weird and I'm not sure how to process it. But I think I'd like to come back here. Maybe we can move on Monday, since we've got the day off?"

I smiled, "All right then. We should let Tanya and Julie know. And we'll have to ask Nina for her help again."

My girlfriend grimaced, "I know Cass said not to tell anyone about the demon goddess stuff, but maybe we should mention something to her moms?"

"No," I shook my head. "She asked us to keep that to ourselves for now, and I agreed. Anyways her moms might already know? Or they've probably noticed stuff anyways. I can't be the only one."

Cerys frowned, "It's going to be weird hanging around Cass now. Like what do we even say to her?"

"Act normal and don't say anything. She's just Cass, same as she's been all along. Whatever she's got going on with the demon goddess stuff is none of our business," I stated.

Then I gave her a kiss and added, "Let's head back to their place. Chinese sounds good for dinner."