Chapter 4: 4)

4)

Martin – Ruminating over his fate in front of the Party-mart.

I had decided to slunk over to sit on the little wooden bench in front of the store since going inside just seemed to be too much effort. The bench had lost most of its paint over the years and the wood had been bleached by the sun to a pale gray as Mr. Jawahir considered that to be weathered rather than shabby. A similar attitude had governed most of his decisions about the maintenance of the old store.

I idly noted that the bench was now covered in a brand new coating of fresh looking green paint. "Oh good, my new home for life in the middle of a multi-dimensional wasteland at least looks nice."

I checked the time on my phone and in passing, glanced at the signal strength. Four bars.

“Wait...”

I thumbed over to my contact list and hit the first name, <AAALi new2>

It rang twice before a voice tentatively answered. “Martin?”

“Yeah boss, do you know wh-”

“Oh thank Allah you are alive. I thought you died in the explosion. Are you hurt? Where are you?”

“Explosion?”

“Yes, I was told the gas line for the store leaked and blew up the entire building. I am so sorry my friend, but I was told everything was lost so all of your things in the apartment are gone. You of course will stay at my home, my boy’s old clothes should fit you.”

Sal had four inches on me now and was still growing, so the clothes in question would be from when he was at my height at the age of fourteen and seriously into heavy metal band t-shirts and ripped jeans. Hard pass. Even if I had needed them.

"It's alright Ali. My company has a few apartments set up for people in situations like this, and I was planning on moving into one of them after my graduation. At least until my house was finished, so I already have a lot of my stuff over there. I’ll be fine, but ah... well boss, there isn’t a gas main anywhere near the Party-Mart.”

A confused “Eh?”

“You remember? The water heater and the stove in the apartment were both electric because the store didn't have a gas line. You complained that you had no hot water whenever there was a blackout back when you and your family used to live upstairs.’

“Then why did they tell me...ya ibn el sharmouta! Fucking Mibs! They bespelled me!"

“You know they hate being called Mibs boss."

"Well screw the Magic incident bastards. They know my wife and children and her whole family are all Djinn. But nooo, treat the mundane husband and father like a know nothing pariah. Tozz feek!"

“I'm sorry this has got you upset Ali, but I need to let some other people know I'm okay."

“Of course Martin. I was wondering why I wasn't bothering to go down to the store to see the damage myself, and now I just know that it's even more mind tampering. I will be having a word with the Bureau agents when I get there. May your god be with you."

I cleared the call and took a moment to think. If I could get a phone signal, then maybe I could get the internet as well?

As I stood up to headed upstairs to my office in what had been a walk in closet off my bedroom, the forest around the store seemed to shimmer and shake for a moment before the blurred scenery abruptly switched from enchanted tropical forest to bleak swampland.

A confused shout was cut off by a splash from the scummy water in what had been the front of the parking lot.

Cassy – At the Exchange, watching a recording of the events of the previous night.

So I leaned in to watch the recording as the kid in a dark blue muscle shirt and badly fake-aged torn up blue jeans went into the store. He looked nervous as hell as he walked around behind the shelves.

He might as well have been wearing a tee shirt with -Robber- printed on the front.

Even with the grainy camera feed, I could almost make out the clerk, Martin Thibedeau, rolling his eyes as his head tilted back before he opened the register. Then he called out to the kid nervously fondling the gun tucked into the back of his pants as he lurked behind a Little Eddie’s display rack.

The panicking thug came running up to the counter waving a revolver in Thibedeau’s face and silently shouting on the feed.

The clerk rather calmly reached into the register and pulled out the cash, laying it down on the counter. While visibly trying to calm down the robber who snatched the cash out of the clerk’s hand and screamed at him again before the gun abruptly went off in his hand.

I’m not sure who looked more surprised.

I could hear Natalie whisper. "When i catch the man who shed my families' blood. He will burn until I'm ready to let him die.”

At least part of the reason my boss plays the clown is that she can be very scary when she doesn't.

Thibedeau sank out of sight behind the counter, the thug reached over to pull out more cash then looked down as a bright light began to appear from below. He then turned to run and all four screens suddenly went white.

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A moment later all four screens came back. With one corner of the screen showing the back of the store now having some tall grass growing along the back half of the ally. Up front, the thug bounced off the inside of the front door.

Then we saw the demon show up, the gunfight, and its gory ending

Ouch.

Natalie giggled. “At least we know his heart was in the right place.”

Then he started to come back to life and my Glamour-stone dropped from above to clonk the shooter in the head before my programmed illusion of rubble filled the store. Which made all of the internal screens go black as they got caught up in the illusion.

So that’s where the hole goes. “At least now I know where my lithoglyph went.”

My boss grined at me.

I learned over the last few years of working with her to dread her grins. “You’re going to make me go through the gate, aren't you.”

She shook her head, while still giving me the same cheerful grin. “Those things cost money, but I would never make you do anything so dangerous.”

She tried to look prim as she nodded u[ at me “You’re going to do it because that's where the case is taking you."

Crap.

Khalid turned off the recording and the screens now showed the live images from the cameras.

Which includes the three demons entering the store, with all their horns, hooves, and tusks.

Donovan- Scared, cold, in the dark, and surrounded by unseen inhabitants of hell at the Party-Mart

The creepy voiced girl called out. “Found it.”

“And...Well, that was easy enough.” The lights came back on, and I could see who is in the store with me.

First up is the hottie frowning down at me as I checked out her chest, then the rest of her. Nice ones, perky. But she is trying too hard with the fake horns in front of her long flaming red dyed hair held in place with a spiked silver barrette. That, all the Halloween themed jewelry, the thigh high spiked heeled black boots, matching mini skirt, and corset all added up to a nice, but high maintenance looking, package.

The cutey with a short black pageboy haircut and covered in pale blue body paint walked up with a rock covered in black squiggly lines. She hid her face behind her bangs as I looked her over. Not much in the chest, but really nice legs ending in some kind of heelless high heel shoes made to look like hoofs. Some sort of black wrapping or tattoos went around her arms and legs and she had on a one piece black swimsuit with a high collar looking thing.

Last was the scary looking one standing half a foot taller than me. She was all muscles with a set of shiny white fake tusks sticking up from behind her lower lip. Her tits were nice. Full sized ones and she has a dark tan that almost looked greenish in the fluorescent lights. Blue cargo shorts, a sports bra with a leather harness over it holding up a big goddamn sword on her back.

Big and scary was too busy shaking the bullets out of my gun and into her hand to notice me eye-balling her ches. She was staring at my gun with a funny look on her face as little blue lights flashed in the cylinder and another set of bullets started to fall out.

“You, minion.” Hottie, the one whose voice had been so excited to find the store, poked me in the chest with one long black fingernail. She did it hard enough to hurt.

“Hey, watch the nails bitch.”

There was a clattering sound as the bullets hit the floor and a very strong hand was suddenly wrapped around my throat. It lifted me up with a quick jerk until my feet left the floor.

“Only one warning. You do not call any of us that word.” Scary, the one with the deep voice, seemed pretty serious about that.

Bitch.

"Oh let him down Clarice, he can't answer questions when he can't breathe."

Scary, or Clarice, held up one finger in warning before dropping me down suddenly enough that I ended up on the floor. Cutey walked up with little click-clack sounds as she looked up from the stone with black squiggly lines on it to the walls of the store. “I don’t think the person who made the wards made this stone.”

And she’s Miss creepy voice.

She looked down at me "Hello, not dead person. What's your name?"

I give her my best smile as I start to get up. “It’s Dono-” Then hottie kicked both my legs out from under me.

“I didn't say you could get up lackey.”

“What the hell bitch!”

The sword comes off Clarice's back in an instant and I see the point coming at my eyes just before everything goes black again.

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