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charisstomaAnd Meep said: Makes me wonder what happens when a demon is after someone whose not interested, because the power and support are all with the demons here.
Master List - http://charisstoma.dreamwidth.org/1302810.html
Title: Enter Silas
Part 8 – Trust - http://charisstoma.dreamwidth.org/1311441.html
Author: charisstoma
Word Count: 1928
His cousin had been silent for too long.
Born on the same day, they’d grown up together, shared the same great- great grandmother whose grandchildren, twin girls, had married twin brothers. Needless to say the family was close.
He and Fern touched base with each other several days a week and she’d been unreachable for too long. Last time she’d contacted him, she’d mentioned needing to do another banishment of a demon. He shook his head. He might have to do an extraction from the Demon Plane if what he thought had happened had happened. With luck she wasn’t mated yet. An uneasy dread crept up his spine when he considered if he was too late. If she didn’t like how things turned out, the repercussions could rattle the discrete diplomatic arrangements the Demon Plane had in place.
He turned off the car and sat staring at the place Fern had rented. The lights were on. That might be a good sign or she was taken during the night and never got a chance to turn them off.
“Okay. Staying in the car isn’t going to get any answers,” Silas told himself.
Opening the door, he stepped out and walked up the walk. The flowers were in good shape and the potted herbs were healthy looking. He couldn’t see her paying anyone to take care of her herbs. Fern was anal retentive like that, or so he liked to accuse her of being just to see her scrunch up her nose at him. That one time though when she’d been practicing that ejection spell…
The resulting experience would come in handy if he did have to do a rescue. It had taken him a week to find the appropriate demon agency to get him back home from that stunt and paying for the help, in the meantime, in ways that had widened his horizons. He wondered if Ezzy was still there. It’d be nice to reconnect with him. Silas again shook his head, he wouldn’t want to stay on the demon plane. He doubted Fern, if she was there, would want to stay there either.
He rang the bell and listened to the chimes inside the house. There was no responding sound of steps coming to answer the door. Glancing around he wondered if he could get away with peeking through the letter box.
“She’s not there,” an older lady spoke, standing at the entrance to the house next door. “And those lights have been on since last Wednesday. Some people don’t need to worry about utility bills it seems,” she sniffed.
“Ah, well luckily I’ve got the key and can gather up her mail from the floor for her. My cousin gets caught up sometimes and forgets.” Silas turned to the lady, “you been watering her plants for her? They seem in very good shape.”
The neighbor raised her eyebrows, “Touch her plants?! A person would have to be willing to take their life in their hands to do that and all I wanted was one sprig of the rosemary for a stew I was doing.”
Silas smiled, “You thought she wouldn’t notice, didn’t you. I know from experience not to touch her plants. Well, they seem to be doing well, so I’m not going to do anything with them either. But I will check inside to see if everything is alright and leave her a note telling her of your watchfulness of her place while she was gone. Thank you.”
He turned, fishing out his own keys and inserted the key blank he kept with his, into the lock, murmuring the words to open the lock. The lock clicked open and he turned to smile at the neighbor as he pushed open the door.
“You going to notify the police about her disappearance?”
“Depends on what I find inside,” he patiently explained. “She would expect me to check on her if I couldn’t contact her. She might have left a note for me. Thank you again,” he said and entered the house, feeling the security spell as it identified him. He wouldn’t put it past the woman to be writing down his car’s license plate right now. Ah well.
The house was cool, comfortably so and tidy as always. He stooped to pick up the neat pile of letters and ubiquitous junk mail. There wasn’t that much. Fern couldn’t have been gone that long, her house’s up-keeping spells were working well. Unless she’d strengthened them past the levels of what she normally had done in the past, the neighbor had missed Fern’s popping in.
He moved further into the house; taking stock of things and placing the mail onto the black granite kitchen counter. There was no note from her in the kitchen, the obvious place for her to have left it for him to find if she didn’t want him searching her place as she would know he would if she disappeared unaccountably. So upstairs it was.
If she was acting true to course the study would be upstairs along with the bedrooms. He smiled as he looked into a bedroom with a male decorating scheme. Obviously his bedroom, if and when he came to visit. There was no note left on the bed. Worry started to pucker his forehead.
Ah, the study. Everything neat, the desk clear of the normal mess that people accumulated around the edges of where the laptop would rest. Even the pens and pencils were organized. There was one new thing though, a plain, thin, flat green rectangle of slate. Unusual. With careful caution he did not touch it.
So her laptop was missing and there was a new piece of office equipment, if that was what the slate was.
Did he want to check her bathroom first or her bedroom? he asked himself. Bathroom, he decided. You could find out more from what a person left or took with them when they left their home.
The bathroom had a nice clear glass shower enclosure, the floors were more natural stone. Not original feature, that stone floor, he’d bet and not a permanent feature of the house when she moved out. Fern liked to maintain her environment from place to place. This was almost exactly like her home at the family’s compound for its decor. Surely it would have been gone if she’d moved, at least voluntarily. Silas pitied the poor demon who thought to impose less than what Fern liked in her home… unless she couldn’t transport her taste in how she liked her home to the other plane.
He noticed that her favored electric toothbrush was missing, as was the tooth paste, so she knew she was going to be gone overnight at least. Opening a drawer he found the sundry makeup items that she normally kept around but she rarely took those with her and she really didn’t need them.
Okay, that left her bedroom. Here there was more expected order. Why did she miss the more normal organized chaos gene that everyone else in the family possessed? Even just a little bit…Aaaah? There was used clothing in the hamper. She did laundry on the weekend.
He could stay here, the bedroom was ready and waiting in case he visited, and if everything was alright she should be back before Monday.
He needed to check the kitchen again and the refrigerator for the basics he needed. And check the milk for freshness.
A light chime, distinct from the doorbell, sounded, the proximity alarm. Someone was near the house. The neighbor had exercised due diligence and contacted the authorities about the stranger who had entered her neighbor’s home.
He opened the door and smiled at the police officers, “Hello. I expect you were called about a possible break in. I’m Silas McKenny. Cousin to Fern McKenny and here to check up on her. She hasn’t answered my attempts to contact her. We’re close.”
“Could we see your ID please, sir.” It was not a request.
Slowly Silas pulled one side of his suit coat open widely to reveal the pocket inside where he kept his wallet. The police had enough stress in their lives, he didn’t need to add to it and maybe acquire a bullet from a nervous officer. Withdrawing the wallet, he fished out his driver’s license and extracted one of his cards with his official business contact information. Handing both of them over.
“My cousin is here doing research for a book she’s writing. We usually talk several times a week and as I said, I was having difficulty contacting her. Thought I’d drop by and see if anything was wrong.”
“That’s a long way you’ve come to check up on her. You could have just contacted us.”
“You don’t know my cousin. If I panicked and called you and it was nothing.. Let’s just say it is better if I made a visit instead.”
“Is everything alright then?”
“Well, her toothbrush is missing. There are indications that she’ll be back from wherever she went by this weekend if she is able to return. If she doesn’t contact me by that time and nothing’s wrong, she’ll hear from me when she does get back, you can believe me.”
“You’ll be staying then?”
“I plan on it at least until Monday, when I will contact you if she doesn’t show up. She knows how to reach me. In the mean time would you like to search the house before I move my things in from the car?”
“Thank you, sir. Yes.” The officers relaxed.
“Don’t touch anything,” Silas cautioned. “Fern is really particular about her home. Only years of growing up with her have trained me with what I can get away with.” He smiled as he said it.
One of the officers grinned, “I’ve got an aunt like that. We’ll be careful.”
They were, Silas noticed and they left their own card in case Fern had any questions, which Silas thought was nice though overkill. IF he, Silas was some person intending to ransack the house, would he leave the officers’ card of their visit?
He brought in his things, putting them away in the bedroom that Fern had meant for him, and then went out to get fresh milk. Fern’s had gone sour. Most unlike her.
It was late and the house was still empty by the time he returned. He’d eaten out, because only a fool shopped for food on an empty stomach. Silas waved at the neighbor as she peered through her window. The drapery dropped quickly.
After showering and brushing his teeth, Silas tried one more time to call Fern before going to sleep. There was no answer, so he sighed, climbed into the bed and mentally set the alarms for if anyone tried to enter the house. If Fern didn’t like it, she could yell at him but he’d yell back. She had to know that he’d be worried, especially with the whole demon ejecting thing. She was just lucky he hadn’t raised the alarm with the rest of the family.
Sometime in the night a warm body crawled into the bed with him. Silas jerked himself up, still groggy from sleep, but preparing an attack. It was a big body and both of them had yelled.
“Fern! Who is this man in ...” the voice was familiar.
“Ezz?”
“Silas?”
The light flicked on in the bedroom and there stood Fern in the doorway. “Alright, how is it that you two know each other?! And Silas why are you here?!”
Next - Part 10- Pumpernickel - http://charisstoma.dreamwidth.org/1329915.html
Master List - http://charisstoma.dreamwidth.org/1302810.html
Title: Enter Silas
Part 8 – Trust - http://charisstoma.dreamwidth.org/1311441.html
Author: charisstoma
Word Count: 1928
His cousin had been silent for too long.
Born on the same day, they’d grown up together, shared the same great- great grandmother whose grandchildren, twin girls, had married twin brothers. Needless to say the family was close.
He and Fern touched base with each other several days a week and she’d been unreachable for too long. Last time she’d contacted him, she’d mentioned needing to do another banishment of a demon. He shook his head. He might have to do an extraction from the Demon Plane if what he thought had happened had happened. With luck she wasn’t mated yet. An uneasy dread crept up his spine when he considered if he was too late. If she didn’t like how things turned out, the repercussions could rattle the discrete diplomatic arrangements the Demon Plane had in place.
He turned off the car and sat staring at the place Fern had rented. The lights were on. That might be a good sign or she was taken during the night and never got a chance to turn them off.
“Okay. Staying in the car isn’t going to get any answers,” Silas told himself.
Opening the door, he stepped out and walked up the walk. The flowers were in good shape and the potted herbs were healthy looking. He couldn’t see her paying anyone to take care of her herbs. Fern was anal retentive like that, or so he liked to accuse her of being just to see her scrunch up her nose at him. That one time though when she’d been practicing that ejection spell…
The resulting experience would come in handy if he did have to do a rescue. It had taken him a week to find the appropriate demon agency to get him back home from that stunt and paying for the help, in the meantime, in ways that had widened his horizons. He wondered if Ezzy was still there. It’d be nice to reconnect with him. Silas again shook his head, he wouldn’t want to stay on the demon plane. He doubted Fern, if she was there, would want to stay there either.
He rang the bell and listened to the chimes inside the house. There was no responding sound of steps coming to answer the door. Glancing around he wondered if he could get away with peeking through the letter box.
“She’s not there,” an older lady spoke, standing at the entrance to the house next door. “And those lights have been on since last Wednesday. Some people don’t need to worry about utility bills it seems,” she sniffed.
“Ah, well luckily I’ve got the key and can gather up her mail from the floor for her. My cousin gets caught up sometimes and forgets.” Silas turned to the lady, “you been watering her plants for her? They seem in very good shape.”
The neighbor raised her eyebrows, “Touch her plants?! A person would have to be willing to take their life in their hands to do that and all I wanted was one sprig of the rosemary for a stew I was doing.”
Silas smiled, “You thought she wouldn’t notice, didn’t you. I know from experience not to touch her plants. Well, they seem to be doing well, so I’m not going to do anything with them either. But I will check inside to see if everything is alright and leave her a note telling her of your watchfulness of her place while she was gone. Thank you.”
He turned, fishing out his own keys and inserted the key blank he kept with his, into the lock, murmuring the words to open the lock. The lock clicked open and he turned to smile at the neighbor as he pushed open the door.
“You going to notify the police about her disappearance?”
“Depends on what I find inside,” he patiently explained. “She would expect me to check on her if I couldn’t contact her. She might have left a note for me. Thank you again,” he said and entered the house, feeling the security spell as it identified him. He wouldn’t put it past the woman to be writing down his car’s license plate right now. Ah well.
The house was cool, comfortably so and tidy as always. He stooped to pick up the neat pile of letters and ubiquitous junk mail. There wasn’t that much. Fern couldn’t have been gone that long, her house’s up-keeping spells were working well. Unless she’d strengthened them past the levels of what she normally had done in the past, the neighbor had missed Fern’s popping in.
He moved further into the house; taking stock of things and placing the mail onto the black granite kitchen counter. There was no note from her in the kitchen, the obvious place for her to have left it for him to find if she didn’t want him searching her place as she would know he would if she disappeared unaccountably. So upstairs it was.
If she was acting true to course the study would be upstairs along with the bedrooms. He smiled as he looked into a bedroom with a male decorating scheme. Obviously his bedroom, if and when he came to visit. There was no note left on the bed. Worry started to pucker his forehead.
Ah, the study. Everything neat, the desk clear of the normal mess that people accumulated around the edges of where the laptop would rest. Even the pens and pencils were organized. There was one new thing though, a plain, thin, flat green rectangle of slate. Unusual. With careful caution he did not touch it.
So her laptop was missing and there was a new piece of office equipment, if that was what the slate was.
Did he want to check her bathroom first or her bedroom? he asked himself. Bathroom, he decided. You could find out more from what a person left or took with them when they left their home.
The bathroom had a nice clear glass shower enclosure, the floors were more natural stone. Not original feature, that stone floor, he’d bet and not a permanent feature of the house when she moved out. Fern liked to maintain her environment from place to place. This was almost exactly like her home at the family’s compound for its decor. Surely it would have been gone if she’d moved, at least voluntarily. Silas pitied the poor demon who thought to impose less than what Fern liked in her home… unless she couldn’t transport her taste in how she liked her home to the other plane.
He noticed that her favored electric toothbrush was missing, as was the tooth paste, so she knew she was going to be gone overnight at least. Opening a drawer he found the sundry makeup items that she normally kept around but she rarely took those with her and she really didn’t need them.
Okay, that left her bedroom. Here there was more expected order. Why did she miss the more normal organized chaos gene that everyone else in the family possessed? Even just a little bit…Aaaah? There was used clothing in the hamper. She did laundry on the weekend.
He could stay here, the bedroom was ready and waiting in case he visited, and if everything was alright she should be back before Monday.
He needed to check the kitchen again and the refrigerator for the basics he needed. And check the milk for freshness.
A light chime, distinct from the doorbell, sounded, the proximity alarm. Someone was near the house. The neighbor had exercised due diligence and contacted the authorities about the stranger who had entered her neighbor’s home.
He opened the door and smiled at the police officers, “Hello. I expect you were called about a possible break in. I’m Silas McKenny. Cousin to Fern McKenny and here to check up on her. She hasn’t answered my attempts to contact her. We’re close.”
“Could we see your ID please, sir.” It was not a request.
Slowly Silas pulled one side of his suit coat open widely to reveal the pocket inside where he kept his wallet. The police had enough stress in their lives, he didn’t need to add to it and maybe acquire a bullet from a nervous officer. Withdrawing the wallet, he fished out his driver’s license and extracted one of his cards with his official business contact information. Handing both of them over.
“My cousin is here doing research for a book she’s writing. We usually talk several times a week and as I said, I was having difficulty contacting her. Thought I’d drop by and see if anything was wrong.”
“That’s a long way you’ve come to check up on her. You could have just contacted us.”
“You don’t know my cousin. If I panicked and called you and it was nothing.. Let’s just say it is better if I made a visit instead.”
“Is everything alright then?”
“Well, her toothbrush is missing. There are indications that she’ll be back from wherever she went by this weekend if she is able to return. If she doesn’t contact me by that time and nothing’s wrong, she’ll hear from me when she does get back, you can believe me.”
“You’ll be staying then?”
“I plan on it at least until Monday, when I will contact you if she doesn’t show up. She knows how to reach me. In the mean time would you like to search the house before I move my things in from the car?”
“Thank you, sir. Yes.” The officers relaxed.
“Don’t touch anything,” Silas cautioned. “Fern is really particular about her home. Only years of growing up with her have trained me with what I can get away with.” He smiled as he said it.
One of the officers grinned, “I’ve got an aunt like that. We’ll be careful.”
They were, Silas noticed and they left their own card in case Fern had any questions, which Silas thought was nice though overkill. IF he, Silas was some person intending to ransack the house, would he leave the officers’ card of their visit?
He brought in his things, putting them away in the bedroom that Fern had meant for him, and then went out to get fresh milk. Fern’s had gone sour. Most unlike her.
It was late and the house was still empty by the time he returned. He’d eaten out, because only a fool shopped for food on an empty stomach. Silas waved at the neighbor as she peered through her window. The drapery dropped quickly.
After showering and brushing his teeth, Silas tried one more time to call Fern before going to sleep. There was no answer, so he sighed, climbed into the bed and mentally set the alarms for if anyone tried to enter the house. If Fern didn’t like it, she could yell at him but he’d yell back. She had to know that he’d be worried, especially with the whole demon ejecting thing. She was just lucky he hadn’t raised the alarm with the rest of the family.
Sometime in the night a warm body crawled into the bed with him. Silas jerked himself up, still groggy from sleep, but preparing an attack. It was a big body and both of them had yelled.
“Fern! Who is this man in ...” the voice was familiar.
“Ezz?”
“Silas?”
The light flicked on in the bedroom and there stood Fern in the doorway. “Alright, how is it that you two know each other?! And Silas why are you here?!”
Next - Part 10- Pumpernickel - http://charisstoma.dreamwidth.org/1329915.html
