Disclaimer: I do not own Boy Meets World.
Chapter 8
Cory felt a chill go down his spine. "Now, when you say evil, you mean what, exactly?"
The psychic guy's eyes widened in an exorcist-possessed kind of way. His voice deepened to sound menacing. "Evil."
"Right," Cory said, dragging the word out. "Glad we cleared that up."
Cory watched as the psychic guy continued to leaf through books and toss them aside. He went through only a few more books after their conversation before he shook his head and put all the books back on the shelf.
"I wish I could help you," the psychic bookstore owner began, "I really do, but I can't."
"What does that mean? What do I do? What about Dani?" Cory asked.
"The countercharm you used is the best there is for undoing love spells and enchantments. If that didn't work, none of the other ones I found in those books will either." He gave Cory an apologetic look.
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"So, Shawnie," Cory said, leaning up against the lockers while Shawn continued to finish dealing with his. "You've watched a lot of sci-fi, fantasy thrillers and stuff, right?"
"Right."
"In any of these TV shows and movies and such, did any of them happen to go into dealing with, you know—uh—well . . . love spells or enchantments or anything like that?"
Cory tried to ignore the look Shawn just shot him.
"I'm just curious and all. I mean—hypothetically speaking, of course—how would one break through one that is too strong for the normal means of breaking it?"
Cory saw Shawn shake his head as he closed his locker. "Seriously, Cor, you need to let this thing with Dani and Brody go."
Cory winced. Yeah, he guessed he was pretty transparent. "I can't." Cory looked around. The halls were still really crowded, but everyone was preoccupied with their own conversations and stuff. He lowered his voice. "I know you and everyone else think this is just Dani finally letting loose and being the teenage girl she's supposed to be, but I know it's not."
"Why? Because she's actually happy and not secretive all the time?"
"Because she's not fully with it. Just look in her eyes next time you talk with her."
Cory ignored Shawn rolling his eyes.
"Besides, I went back to the bookstore to talk to that psychic guy after what I tried didn't work."
"So you could give him more money."
"No," Cory said. "He didn't sell me anything else. Didn't even try."
Cory took it as a good sign when Shawn looked a little confused and stood a little straighter.
"When he did his reading on her at the dance, he said he could sense she was falling in love, but that love was unnatural," Cory said, "but of course, then he sensed that 'dark presence'—which, I'm thinking starts with a capital 'B'—so he got sidetracked and didn't say anything before he left.
"The psychic guy said since the method I tried didn't work, it seemed whatever kind of hold Brody has over her is much stronger than that method or any other I'd find in any of the books he had in his store." Cory felt renewed frustration over that as well as the continued fact he seemed to be the only one who knew something was wrong—well, aside from the psychic guy, but he didn't really count. He could tell he'd lost Shawn completely during that last part. "I know you don't believe me, but please just humor me with this and I promise I'll leave you alone about it. What can it hurt? I can't just do nothing, but I don't know what to do."
Shawn ran his hand through his hair and slumped back against his locker. "Okay, so in just about everything I've watched involving storylines like this, in the end, it usually ends up having to be the person under the spell who has to break it. If—and that's a big if—Dani is actually under a spell or enchantment or something, she might be the only one who can break it. You'll just have to talk to her. You do realize, though, if you're wrong about this—and let's face it, you're probably—no, not probably—definitely—wrong about this—you'll just ruin your friendship with her over nothing? And, I mean, she lives at your house, so it'll be kind of hard for you two to avoid each other when this blows up in your face."
Cory frowned. He'd already made his choice that he'd rather risk things getting tense between them if he was wrong than do nothing and find out he was right when she got hurt or worse. So that wasn't even slightly in question for him, but now what? How the heck was he supposed to get Dani to break it when she didn't even have a clue there was anything to be broken?
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Angela looked so beautiful. It wasn't just her looks, though. Yeah, she was pretty and all, but it was more the whole package. She had a great personality. He could sit there and talk to her all day. She didn't try to change herself just to make herself more appealing to guys. She was who she was and if anyone didn't like that, tough luck.
Shawn shook his head. He was starting to get a little sappy there. It was okay, though, to really like friends. Because they were still friends. They had talked about it at the dance. She seemed okay with it then, unless something changed between then and now.
"So, this is it, huh?" Angela asked.
Shawn gave a nod. "This is it. Two weeks and done."
Angela gave a weak smile. "We had fun and no one gets hurt. It's been a good two weeks."
"A great two weeks." Shawn returned her smile.
Angela started to slide out of the booth.
"You don't have to leave yet. I mean we can still hang, right?" Shawn said quickly. "Friends?"
Angela gave a bigger smile at that. "Friends, but I really should be going."
Shawn felt only a little better at that. He frowned as he watched her walk out. Why didn't he feel good about this? No attachments. That was his rule. Yeah, he kind of broke that a little with wanting to stay friends with her, but there was a first time for everything. Besides, he was willing to bet he'd be feeling worse if they weren't going to stay friends.
He wasn't actually feeling something more for her, was he?
Topanga's constant nagging and getting on his case about his two-week rule kept circling in his mind. Did he want a deeper commitment than what two weeks gave him?
No. That was just setting him up for getting hurt.
But then why didn't he seem as convinced of that as he did before?
Shawn shook his head at that thought. He and Angela gave it two weeks. They had fun. It was over, but they were staying friends, so they could still have fun. Yeah. He was okay with that. Really, he was. That was a good thing. Friends could get hurt, sure, but not like couples. Friendships were more likely to last than relationships. Being just friends was a good thing.
Shawn took one last sip of his drink before he left. He didn't really feel like sticking around.
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Cory hesitated just outside Dani's bedroom. Was he really going to do this?
Everything he had worried about over the last several days rushed through his mind.
Okay, then. He could do this.
He peeked his head in the door. Dani was sitting at her desk again.
"Dani, you have a minute?" he asked.
She turned towards him.
"We need to talk," he said, "about Brody."
"I thought you said you'd let all of this go," Dani said, head cocked to one side. She sounded curious, not angry. There wasn't even a hint of anger in her eyes. There wasn't even a hint of anything in her eyes. They were empty.
Not good.
"I know what I said, but I can't," Cory said. "I know this isn't real. I know this isn't you. Somewhere deep down, you have to know that too. You have to fight this. I think you're the only one who can break this, so you have to. You can do this."
"There's nothing to fight." She gave a soft smile. Her voice was light and airy.
Cory bit back a frustrated groan. "Yes. There is. C'mon, Dani. Think. Remember back to the dance. Something happened. I don't know what, but I know something did. You said you wanted nothing to do with him after that. Beneath all the layers of sunshine and rainbows, I'm sure you have to remember that."
"That was all a misunderstanding." Her smile grew even more. "He loves me. And I love him." The smile still didn't break through the emptiness in her eyes.
Cory bit back a frustrated groan. He was getting nowhere. This was ridiculous. And it wasn't even like he could go to anyone else to help him with this little intervention, because everyone else in their lives didn't want to see that this new chipper Dani wasn't real.
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The cold air hit Shawn like a bucket of ice water as soon as he opened the door.
Things really were changing for him. Not just how he was with Angela. Really, when he thought over the past year, it was kind of weird. If anyone had told him his parents would both take off on him again, and he'd end up back living with John with the official guardianship papers signed and all, and that he'd actually be okay with it and not really want to go find his dad at all, he'd tell them they were crazy. If anyone told him his best friend's family would win the lottery and take him and John along on a luxurious resort vacation only to end up stuck on a mostly deserted island on the way back, he'd ask them what they'd been watching lately to cause that whacked out dream. That wasn't even including finding out telekinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance were actually real and that he'd at one point have been friends with someone capable of all three—and that there were apparently many more things than just that that existed and were possible—that Temple of Doom place he had been forced to go through at gunpoint being a perfect example, with all the horror movie crap in there. Then, of course, he went from being really close with Dani to not really wanting to be around her at all after the whole memory-wiping incident.
He never told everyone, but lately, some of the memories she had accidentally erased started coming back. It was a little hazy, but he remembered a little bit of it—at least enough to get the gist of the conversation. He never asked John if he remembered or not. The topic had never come up and he didn't really want to pursue it. He knew Dani was trying very hard not to go down that road again. She'd gotten a better handle on her powers and supposedly wasn't willing to make that mistake again—not on purpose, anyways—and he didn't want to tempt fate by possibly pushing an issue that could lead down that road again.
See, the thing was, apparently the whole trigger to her erasing their memories was the strong need she felt to protect them. Obviously, she went about it the wrong way, but that's what it was. She dealt with supernatural stuff, apparently, and she didn't want anyone else to get caught in the middle of it.
Thus, why he didn't want to say anything to John about it. He knew from talking to Cory that Dani had apparently shared with the Matthews that she sometimes had to deal with this stuff, but still. John was an adult who, after hearing that a student of his was possibly in some kind of trouble, would feel obligated to help, and—once again—he didn't want to tempt fate with the whole memory erasing issue.
He couldn't help but think about how she'd been acting lately. He knew what he told Cory—that he was sure it was nothing and that Cory was just overreacting—and really, Shawn did actually believe that was the case . . . mostly. There was just this little bit of doubt about it that he was having a harder and harder time ignoring. What if Cory was right? What if there really was something going on with Dani involving that part of her life? If she really was under some kind of love spell or something, what then? Would she even be able to defend herself? Would she even want to defend herself?
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Dani grabbed her head and shut her eyes so tight, it was like she was wincing with her eyes closed.
"Dani?"
She slid to the ground—curled in a ball, back against her bed, hands pressing against her forehead, knuckles white from the pressure.
Cory crouched down in front of her. "Dani?"
No response.
Should he get their parents? Would they even be able to do anything? What was even going on? Was it Brody? Was she trying to fight him? Was he trying to fight her? Was it something else? Was she having an aneurism or a stroke or—
Dani slowly moved her hands away from her face and opened her eyes.
Cory met her pain-filled gaze. "Just hang on. I'll get mom and dad."
He stood quickly—turned towards the door. It slammed shut. Dani's hand was held out towards it. Not surprising.
"No, don't," she said, voice weak. "I'm okay." She gave what she probably meant to be a smile, but it looked more like a grimace. She was pale, her eyes a little unfocused.
"I still think I should get them," Cory said.
She shook her head and stood up. Cory stepped toward her, ready to help in case she needed it. She looked really unsteady. He only relaxed slightly when she sat down on her bed. Smart move. "Really, I'm fine," she said. "That was just Shawn."
Cory frowned. What did Shawn have to do with any of this? Yeah, he and Dani were still not on good terms, but how could that possibly have caused whatever just happened with Dani?
Dani said, "I don't know if Shawn or Amy and Alan told you about the telepathic connection Shawn and I have that seems to stem from his end or not, but we do have one. It's mostly gone since the incident a few months ago, but every now and then it's like his mind desperately tries to reach out to mine—probably without him even realizing it—and it takes just about all the power I've got to block him out. That's what happened just now. It's over though."
Cory took in the way Dani's hands seemed to dig into the comforter on her bed. Though some color was starting to return to her face, she was still too pale. Even if whatever caused that episode was over, she still didn't look good. "I still think I should g—"
"Cory, seriously, I'm fine." Her voice sounded a little stronger that time.
He looked at her—really looked at her. Even with the lingering haziness in her eyes from the 'psychic attack,' if that's what did actually happen, her eyes were clearer than he'd seen them since that night at Chubbie's before Brody showed up. The emptiness was gone. She looked much more like the Dani he was used to.
"What?" she asked, fidgeting a little.
"You're really back with me, aren't you?"
"I thought that's what I've been trying to tell y—"
Cory shook his head a little. "No, I don't mean from that psychic attack or whatever the heck that was—well, not just that, anyways—I mean whatever mind control or love spell/enchantment thing Brody had you under. You're back to being you."
Dani frowned and stared down at the floor for a few moments. "I was really out of it, wasn't I?"
"Yeah. You were."
Cory watched as she continued to stare at the floor. She ran a hand through her hair. "Shit," she whispered.
"What's going on?" Cory asked after giving her time to readjust to being back in control of herself.
She looked back up at him. Her face took on that blank look she often wore, but not before he glimpsed the fear in her eyes. "I already told you. Shawn—"
"I know. That's not what I'm talking about." Cory pulled a desk chair over so he could sit and be at eye level with her. "I meant with Brody."
"What about him?" She was probably going for a casual tone, but she couldn't fully hide the slight shakiness to her voice. If he wasn't watching and listening to her so carefully, he probably would have missed it, but it was definitely there.
"Well, after the dance, you said you wanted nothing to do with him. You didn't seem at all happy to see him when he showed up at Chubbie's a few days later, but then the two of you went outside to talk alone and when you came back, it was like you had been replaced by this perky valley girl head-over-heels in love with Brody."
Dani seemed to shudder at his 'perky valley girl' description. "That sounds terrifying."
Cory almost cracked a small smile at that. "Oh, believe me, I thought so. But seriously, what's going on? What happened at the dance? What happened at Chubbie's? Was I right? Was it some kind of love spell or enchantment or something?"
Dani looked away from him again. "It's—"
"The next word better not be complicated." Silence followed that statement. "Come on, Dani. I know something is going on. Does it have anything to do with that other part of your life you still barely talk about—with those people with powers that you sometimes have to deal with? Is Brody one of them? I mean, he showed up right after that psychic guy's freak out at the dance, and when I talked to the psychic guy later, he said he reacted the way he did because he sensed a seriously dark presence. That was Brody, wasn't it?"
Dani looked back up at him. "Cory, I appreciate that you care and all, but please trust me when I say the best thing you can do is drop this. You're in over your head here, and the deeper you dig—well, I doubt you'll like what you find and once you know about this stuff, there's no going back. Ignorance is bliss with this stuff. Please don't go there. There's not really anything you can do—more than you already have, anyways."
That sounded like a yes to him. He could—and probably should—get their parents, but he had a feeling she'd clam up even more if he did and that's if she even stuck around long enough for them to get there. "You're my friend. More than that, you're family. I'm worried about you. I'm not going to drop this, because whether you think I can help or not, I want to, so let me try."
"Cory, I can't—"
"Yes, you can. It's easy. I'll even help you get started. 'Yes, Brody has powers . . . .'"
"Then you understand why you can't help. Why no one can. I'm the only one here who can deal with him . . . with what's going on."
"Okay, so yeah, right now you could, but what if he whammies you again? What then?"
Dani looked down again. "That's a chance I'm gonna have to take. He's not just going to go away. Sooner or later I'll have to deal with him and—" What color had returned to Dani's face drained away. "Shit," she said softly. "Better make that sooner rather than later. We have a date tonight. In that old abandoned factory by the pier."
"Quite the romantic, isn't he?" Cory couldn't help but quip.
"The creepy part is, I was so out of it that it did seem romantic. Everything seemed romantic. Shit." She ran her hand through her hair. "That has 'trap' written all over it and I would have walked right into it, no questions asked. He would have . . . and I wouldn't even have . . . . Shit."
Cory leaned forward in his chair. He swallowed down the uneasiness that seeing Dani like this caused. Aside from her jumpiness when she sensed something bad was going to happen, she was usually so calm, cool, and collected—well, maybe a little irritable . . . or more than a little irritable—in situations that would have anyone else panicking. To see her like this was unnerving. "What would he have done?"
Dani looked up at him. "Don't worry about it. It's not your problem."
"I care about you, and it affects you, so yeah, it is my problem. What would he have done?"
"Cory—"
"I'm not going to drop this. What would he have done?"
Dani stood up and walked towards the window. She kept her back to him once she got there. "He would have tried to kill me again."
Her tone was so matter of fact it took a moment for the words to register. "What do you mean 'again'?"
She turned back towards him, her face an emotionless mask. "At the dance. You asked what happened before. That's what happened, only his control over me wasn't strong enough to stick, so I snapped out of it in time to fight back."
It felt like something heavy fell in his stomach and kept growing heavier. "That mark I saw on your neck, that wasn't a hickey," he said, realization dawning. "It was . . . ." He couldn't even bring himself to say what he was thinking. It was right after Dani came back inside after she said Brody left that her voice sounded raspy and she started with that cough. She had kept her scarf around her neck, refusing to take it off, keeping it covered. That bruise he saw on her neck later that night—the part she hadn't covered up yet . . . . "You're sure I can't take him? Because right about now, I want to kill him."
"He'd kill you first."
Cory took a few deep breaths. This was so unreal. "So, he would have tried to kill you again," Cory said, barely able to get the last few words out. "I'm guessing the rest of the fill-in-the-blank words for what you said before was that you wouldn't have fought back this time. Why?"
Dani frowned and looked away from him again. "His control over me was much stronger this time and kept growing stronger the longer I was under it. The way it seemed to work was that all I wanted was to make him happy . . . and me dying would make him very happy."
Cory was more than halfway to the door before he even realized he had stood up. "I'm getting mom and dad." He tried to open the door, but he had barely opened it an inch before it closed again. He tried again. It wouldn't budge. He turned back to face Dani. "You don't have to go all 'Carrie' on me here."
"They can't know about this," Dani said.
"Dani, you just admitted he tried to kill you, is probably going to try again, and has the power to make you want him to succeed. They need to know about this."
"There's nothing they can do," Dani said. Her eyes had taken on a steely edge Cory had come to associate with her 'G.I. Jane' look, as it had been dubbed. "You already figured out he's not normal. You're right. I'm not going to deny that. You have no idea what you're up against here—what they'd be up against if they try to help—Brody's more dangerous than you could ever imagine. If Amy and Alan insist on trying to help, he will kill them. That's not something I'm willing to risk."
"You don't know that—"
"The reason I changed my mind and went with you, Topanga, Shawn, and Angela to the ice rink and Chubbie's was because I had a vision earlier that day . . . of you confronting Brody, and Brody killing you."
Cory swallowed hard at that. It didn't actually happen. He needed to focus on what was happening now.
Dani looked away for a moment before meeting his gaze again. "This is my fight, not yours—not Amy and Alan's—and I won't let any of you get dragged into this."
"It shouldn't be your fight either."
"Like it or not, it is." Dani ran her hand through her hair. "Do you really think people like me . . . ." She held her necklace forward for emphasis. ". . . people who are different—people with powers—exist just for variety? Those 'bad people with powers' I sometimes have to face—they're . . . well, they're not exactly human. We exist because they exist—to be humanity's fighting chance against them."
"What do you mean, 'not human'?"
Dani turned away from him again. The silence stretched on for long enough, Cory wasn't sure she was going to answer. Then she turned back towards him. She just stared for a few moments before finally speaking. "They're known as warlocks—more or less demons in human form."
Cory sat down on Morgan's bed. This was so unreal. Yeah, sure, he already knew some pretty out-there stuff was actually real, but this . . . . Learning his friend—his foster-sister—was capable of telekinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance was one thing. This was . . . .
"Cory, I'm sorry. I know this is a lot to deal with, but I need you to promise me you won't say anything to Amy and Alan. They can't help with this. They'd just get hurt—or worse. Can you promise me that?"
Cory nodded.
"Are you okay?" Dani asked.
Cory cleared his throat to try to regain use of his voice. "I'm not the one getting ready to face a . . . um, warlock." The word just felt so strange.
"I'm not exactly new at this," Dani said. "I have a little over an hour before I need to leave. I have more information to go on for researching how to deal with him than I had before he 'whammied' me the last time. I can handle this."
Cory sat there for a few more minutes before he felt he could stand. He was still in a bit of a daze when he left her room and went straight to his. He didn't even know how to process this. The words "warlock" and "demon" kept swirling around in his brain and mixing with the psychic guy's revelation that the "dark presence" he sensed at the dance was "evil." It all came together and in a strange way made some kind of sense, but it was just . . . .
Did he mention he didn't know how to process this?
This kind of stuff wasn't supposed to be real. It was supposed to just be in comic books and movies and stuff.
As time drew on, Cory found himself just mindlessly looking out the window. A part of him felt like he should tell their parents—that they needed to know about this—that they could help. Another part of him remembered what Dani said—and especially now that she had revealed more about what she'd be dealing with that made him inclined to believe she was right—that if their parents tried to get in the middle of this, they would get hurt or worse. And it wasn't like they could go to the cops.
Then there was also the fact that Dani had finally revealed a little bit more about her secret, and he was afraid if he betrayed what trust she placed in him, she wouldn't reveal anything else. He knew enough now that if he played this right, she might tell him more. It was better to have one person know everything about what was going on with her than to have multiple know bits and pieces, right?
Something didn't sit right with him about just sitting at home and hoping for the best when he knew she was—as she put it—walking right into a trap set by someone—something—very dangerous. Was there really anything he could do, though? He didn't know. Or, well, he did know that the answer was probably—most definitely—no, but it didn't feel right to not even try.
He opened his window before he could chicken out and climbed out onto the tree to wait and watch for when Dani left. He wasn't sure how long he sat up there before he saw her make her way down the tree outside her and Morgan's bedroom window. He kept going back and forth over whether he was making the right decision or not, but he always landed on the fact that he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he did nothing and she died because Brody whammied her again and she had no will to fight back and nothing and no one to try to snap her out of it. Resolve set, he waited several seconds after he saw her turn the bend around their house before he climbed down the tree to follow her.