Trigger warnings for violence and assault of a disabled person and for choking.
Demon's Downfall
Part two
A Temporary Victory
Chapter two
Mistress of shadows-Part one-Attack
That night, Dodge waited for Ellie in the kitchen, in the dark, next to the fridge. She could see perfectly in the dark and heard Ellie coming down the stairs.
When Ellie entered the kitchen, turning on the lights, it was then that Dodge reacted, walking away from the fridge, smirking as she closed in on Ellie, who had discovered Rufus's ripped apart action figure.
"I visited Erin today," Dodge said, catching Ellie's attention, "Took a stroll through that troubled head of hers. I found where Rendell hid the Omega key. He put it inside his own head," Dodge grinned with Lucas's lips, "They went in there together. How sweet is that?"
Dodge watched Ellie's expression hungrily. Wanting to know if this hurt her or scared her to know.
Ellie did not disappoint. She swallowed and shuddered, looking incredibly disturbed.
Dodge smirked still.
Now all she needed to know was what happened to Rendell's body.
She'd leave that for tomorrow morning. She wanted to keep Ellie frightened and shaken up for now.
Till she had Ellie do what she needed Ellie to do.
She headed off to her room, leaving Ellie to suffer with the knowledge of what Dodge knew.
It had become abundantly clear, after Dodge had killed Ridgeway and had left Ellie to take the fall, that Ellie knew that the creature she had been keeping secret in her home, wasn't her beloved Lucas at all, but a demon. By human standards, a monster.
Which meant that Ellie had to realize the danger of the implications that Dodge knew about where the Omega key was.
Dodge would leave Ellie to her fear.
She went to Lucas's room and settled in for the night.
Back at Key House that night, Kinsey had questions.
She had found her brother crouching on the floor in front of a shattered red urn where their father's ashes littered the floor.
Found in those ashes, was a key.
Black and had the omega symbol at the top of it.
No one needed to say it. Both Kinsey and Tyler were thinking it. The Omega key.
They sat across from each other at the kitchen table, the Omega key between them.
"So, dad hid the key inside him?" Tyler asked, confusion on his face.
Kinsey nodded. She said quietly, "I saw Dodge at the psychiatric home," at Tyler's startled look, she said, looking uneasy about her next words, "She was leaving already. She used the Anywhere key to go. She went into a closet, then disappeared. She said something before that."
Tyler's eyebrows narrowed. "Are you alright?" He asked.
"I'm fine, Ty," she said, "But Dodge? She said something I don't understand. She said that she had fun 'playing with you.' Do you have any idea what she meant by that?"
Tyler stiffened up, suddenly looking very much like a deer in headlights.
Kinsey was suddenly put on alert.
What the hell had happened that Tyler didn't want her finding out about?
"Uh…, look," Tyler said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, "I was at this party, drinking and this…really hot woman approached me. I mean, I didn't get why she would want to talk to me of all people. But she did. So, I wasn't gonna question that. We talked. Then Jackie showed up, and the woman left. Then when I fucked up with Jackie, I went to get something from a liquor store," at Kinsey's skeptical look, he grumbled, "Look, I'm almost twenty-one. And it's not like you wouldn't."
Kinsey scoffed quietly, but he was right. She'd probably drink even more than him if he had been in his shoes.
"What happened next?" She asked, already having an idea of who this "mysterious woman" was, who had taken such an interest in Tyler.
Tyler answered, voice unsteady, "I got to the liquor store and the woman was there. She had a whisky bottle already with her and got me to follow her back to that pickup truck she drove to the house yesterday. We got in the pickup at some point and…"
Tyler's voice trailed off and Kinsey inhaled. Oh…
The way Tyler had never let anyone see his neck since last night. And she had gotten the feeling that Tyler had been keeping something from her all of last night and today.
"You…," Kinsey said, "And Dodge…"
"I didn't know who she was," Tyler protested quietly, "She gave me her name, and that was it. I didn't realize who she was until I found the Anywhere key on her clothing."
(After you two got dressed,) Kinsey thought weakly. "So, that's how you got home so fast," she said, "I was wondering how you could have gotten it off of her without her taking a limb off."
Tyler snorted, looking nervous again, "She definitely looked at me last night like she wanted to rip both my arms off. Then I asked her why she didn't just take the key from me. And she didn't like that at all. It looks like Bode was right. She can't take the keys from us. At least, not from the Lockes."
Kinsey nodded, a chill running through her as she remembered what Dodge had done to Sam. "But anyone else," Kinsey said, "She can take keys from easily."
What sort of person was that, who would kill one of their own henchmen even after he had done everything she had wanted? Just how depraved did you have to be?
"Honestly," Kinsey said, chuckling, "I think you having sex with the well lady is the least weird part of all this."
Tyler laughed, smiling dryly. "That's pretty bad."
"I know," Kinsey said, "Right?"
A thought then hit Kinsey. "Oh, hell, Ty, did you use protection?" She asked, panic in her voice.
Tyler's eyes went wide, telling Kinsey that he hadn't even thought of that particular danger.
"Shit," he said, growing pale, "You don't think she gave me something, do you?"
Kinsey groaned, "No, that's not what I was thinking. I mean, we don't know what she is. Is….is she even capable of getting pregnant?"
Tyler looked somehow ashen now, looking like he might be sick.
"Fuck," he whispered, "I hope she isn't."
Kinsey swallowed hard.
Neither of them wanted to think too hard of that possibility, did they?
It felt like almost ten minutes dragged in dreadful, unsettled silence after that, till Tyler finally coughed out and broke it.
Tyler said, looking down again at the Omega key, coughing his words out. "So, this key opens up the door in the sea caves," he said, "And dad was hiding it in his head the entire time. Whatever is behind that door? It can't be good."
Kinsey grimaced. She had already guessed that. Which made her think over why she had tried to open that door in the first place when she, Gabe and the others had been in the sea caves.
She hadn't lied when she had said that she thought she might find answers behind that door. She had. But that hadn't been the only reason why.
She wasn't sure why, but she had felt…drawn to the door.
She couldn't place why.
It definitely wasn't good that both times she had been down there, both with the Savinis and the next time, with Tyler, she had felt…..safe in front of that door.
She was positive that she wasn't supposed to feel safe in front of it. But she had.
"Ty, can I ask you something?" She said.
Tyler looked at her, curious.
Kinsey sighed and asked, "How did you feel when you were in front of that door? I know that sounds weird. But I need to know."
Tyler frowned.
"Um," he said, "I guess…it's weird. But I felt…I don't know. I felt like it was something familiar. Something…safe. That's probably not a good thing, since we're both sure there's something really bad behind it."
Kinsey tried not to shiver.
So, they both felt drawn to that door. They both felt safe. Both felt a sense of familiarity from the door.
Yeah. That wasn't good.
Definitely not good.
Kinsey wasn't going to risk bringing Bode down to the caves. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what his reaction to the door would be.
The next morning, at Ellie's house, Dodge, in Lucas's form, was eating breakfast, and asked, "What did they do with Rendell's body? Do you remember?"
Ellie answered, "I think he was cremated. Why?"
Dodge answered while eating, "Because if the Omega key was hidden in his head, it will still be in there, along with what's left of him."
That got a reaction.
Ellie walked over to the table, demanding, "You're going to go searching through his ashes?"
"No," Dodge said, looking up at Elli, "You are."
Dodge smirked at the helpless look on Ellie's face, before going back to eating.
If Ellie betrayed her? Dodge had a plan for that.
And if that plan worked, she'd be rid of both Ellie and Rufus.
But only if Ellie betrayed Dodge.
But she'd give Ellie a chance to retrieve the Omega key and the Shadow key first.
However? She had a way of making sure whether or not Ellie and Rufus were going to betray her.
She just hoped that the key she was thinking of was still where she had left it, last time-or at least where Lucas had left it, the last time he had been on the Locke property, before going with his friends to the sea caves and getting possessed.
When Dodge was done with breakfast, she gave Ellie the orders, to bring her the Omega key and the Shadow key, then left.
She got to the cliffside house, undressed, changed into Gabe, put on Gabe's clothes and headed out with the Anywhere key.
There was a trip she needed to make, before anything else. So, she used the Anywhere key to go to Key House.
She went behind the property, heading to the cemetery. She hadn't wanted to risk pulling this one out, given how valuable it was, but now, she suspected she might need to.
She reached between two great roots of a towering oak, and sifted through the moss, till she found what she was looking for.
The Philosophoscope key.
She smiled, seeing the gold key with the pair of old-fashioned binoculars at the top of it.
Dodge grinned, with a very threatening un-Gabe-like look.
Thank goodness for Harland Locke. The creator of this key.
She had no idea how he was related to the current Lockes. And she didn't care.
What she had here, was a tool to keep a watch on Rufus and Ellie.
She went to the conservatory room of Key House, found the machine that the key could be put in, put it in, turned the dial of the categories of the one who was using it could spy on, to the option, "untrustworthy ally," and turned the key. Images appeared as she looked.
Images of Rufus and of Ellie.
Talking at Ellie's house. And Rufus? He held up a plastic bag. Full of keys. With the Head key, the Music Box key, the Flower key and the Mirror key inside it.
Dodge grinned as Rufus and Ellie made a plan to tell the Locke children everything.
As if Rufus would ever have seen Dodge hiding those particular keys, if Dodge hadn't wanted Rufus to know about where she had hidden those keys.
Dodge had known that now that she had had the memory of where Rendell Locke had hidden the Omega key, she had had no real need of the Head key.
So, the Head key, like the rest of the keys in that bag, had been nothing but bait. Put under the floorboards where Rufus had pulled them out, strictly so that Dodge could test and see if Rufus and Ellie were actually trustworthy.
And now Dodge knew.
She pulled the key out of the machine, closed the secret compartment where the machine was up, decided that she didn't want to risk any of the Locke children finding this by hearing them whisper to the three Locke children, used the Anywhere key, transported herself back to the cliffside house and hid the key there. She then wiped her sleeve off from where she had stuck it to retrieve the key, used the Anywhere key again, and got to Kinsey and the others' school.
Only to hear some odd news.
Apparently, Eden Hawkins had been attacked by some giant cat or something.
She had been clawed painfully and she had believed Kinsey responsible at first. Because she had said that the thing that had attacked her, looked like Kinsey. Gabe had almost laughed.
Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?
She learned that Eden was at the nurse's office and that Kinsey wanted to talk to Gabe.
She did as asked and met up with Scot, going to Kinsey in the hallway as Tyler passed them by, nodding to them.
Again, Dodge knuckled down the warmth she felt in Gabe's chest at seeing Kinsey again, and that need she felt to help comfort Kinsey in her vulnerable moment.
After they had made sure that Eden was alright-not that Dodge cared, Dodge then asked what happened, "So, she got attacked by a seven-pound feral cat?"
Dodge looked to Scot, "Cause that makes total sense."
Scot hummed in sarcastic agreement.
Dodge had no idea what Scot was doing here anyway. Why was he here when it was obvious that the moment another man that wasn't Kinsey's brothers or uncle appeared in the same room, he turned into an insecure puppet?
However, at the tenseness in the room, Kinsey spilled.
She told them about pulling her fear out and so, she didn't worry about consequences. She said, nodding to Gabe, "I started going out with you," she turned to Scot, "Even though you and I were already a thing."
Dodge tried not to groan. Really, it felt like someone would need a magnifying glass to see any indications that Kinsey and Scot were together in the romantic sense.
Kinsey continued, "You're both amazing."
Dodge had Gabe scoff.
Kinsey was really putting Dodge in the same category as Scot? That was ridiculous. Even Dodge's beagle puppy form was more interesting and more loyal than Scot.
Kinsey then said something that startled Dodge. "I know I should choose," the blonde said, "But…I don't want to." Another few seconds of silence, then she said, "What if I didn't?"
Dodge listened carefully.
"What if I dated you both?" Kinsey asked Scot and Gabe. Her phone then began to ring. "Think about it," Kinsey said, pulling her phone out and heading between Gabe and Scot down the hall, talking into the phone.
Dodge watched her leave, again, taken aback by Kinsey's actions.
It wasn't that polyamorous relationships were rare in the demon world. They really weren't.
But Dodge didn't feel comfortable with that. She was possessive. And when she wanted something or someone, she usually had them.
She knew enough about herself and her need for Kinsey to know that she wanted Kinsey.
But was willing to share? That would take quite a bit more convincing before Dodge stopped being so possessive. It wasn't like Scot. There were any other men around or women around, she would not be so obsessive. She wasn't like Scot.
She was possessive of those she wanted to protect and wanted the love of. but she could handle polyamory, if the relationship didn't have any emotions involved. And to be honest, most of Latavanko's previous relationships hadn't been emotional in the slightest.
As Kinsey took her phone call and walked off, talking to see who was there, Dodge turned to Scot, who had leaned against the wall, looking stunned.
"You alright there?" Dodge asked Scot.
Scot said, "Uh, yeah. Fine, fine. Just realizing that my on and off girlfriend might be ready to enter a threesome."
Dodge had Gabe laugh. "Easy there, Scot. She didn't say anything about threesomes. Just that she might date us both if she wanted," she answered.
Dodge watched Scot's expression. It was a look of disgust that Latavanko knew a little more than she liked.
Human beings judged a lot more easily than demons did.
Kinsey got off the phone and told both Gabe and Scot that they needed to meet with some friends at Key House.
Dodge didn't have Gabe pick at that. But she had a good idea of who they were meeting.
Eliie and Rufus Whedon.
When Kinsey left, saying goodbye to both Scot and Gabe, Gabe said their goodbyes to Scot and headed out.
Eventually, she reached the cliffside house, grabbed the The Philosophoscope key.
She pulled it out and headed for Key House again, intending to find that machine that the present Lockes never found out about.
There were five other keys that Lucas had hidden around the property. Places that Lucas had wanted to tell Rendell about, but hadn't gotten to it, before Latavanko had possessed him.
Which meant that there were several dangerous keys that Dodge knew about the location of, but none of the Lockes knew. Not even Rendell had known before his death.
Which meant that Dodge had more than one advantage here. But she would get those keys later.
She heard a car drive into the driveway and when she saw from behind a tree, who had come here, she wasn't surprised. Ellie Whedon.
She scoffed. But decided she had bigger fish to fry. She found keys that she was looking for. And she used them.
Rufus and Ellie were continuing their treason. Ellie telling the Locke children everything that had happened before Dodge had first died.
Dodge smirked. Oh, Ellie and her friends got rid of a massive threat to them, but they were about to enter a war.
Then Ellie used the head key and brought Kinsey and Tyler inside, Bode and Rufus on watch duty. That, Dodge found hilarious.
So, she had her answer of what she was to do with Ellie.
She watched as Ellie led Kinsey and Tyler into Ellie's door-into her brain.
Dodge eyed Kinsey.
(What will you think of what you see, Kinsey?) Dodge wondered, (What will you think of seeing me like that in Ellie's memories?)
It disturbed Dodge to realize that she cared about how Kinsey saw her.
She pushed that concern away. She had to focus on the mission. On getting the Shadow key, then getting the Omega key.
She pulled the key out of the machine, walked to a closet door, used the Anywhere key and transported herself to a fashion store where she had stolen one of her most ornately decorated outfits. A tight suit with a slight cape, with shining, glimmering fake jewels all over them.
She was going to steal another one.
She reached that store, stole the outfit and went back to Ellie's house. She went there and waited.
Eventually, Ellie and Rufus returned home. And Dodge, aka, Lucas, was waiting for them.
Dodge watched as Ellie and Rufus came into the next room, and Dodge sat in the dark, watching and smirking with Lucas's lips.
She said, "Where were you, Ellie?"
Ellie and Rufus turned to her, fear all over their faces. Dodge wasn't going to pretend that she didn't enjoy their fear.
Dodge walked into the room where the two humans stood.
"Where is the Shadow key?" Dodge asked, "And the Omega key?" She knew the answer already, but she wanted to see Ellie and Rufus squirm.
"I tried looking for them," Ellie said, lying, of course, "But I couldn't get to the urn. The kids were home. I can try again when they're not home."
"Stop it, Ellie!" Dodge spat, glaring.
She knew where the Shadow key was. It was in Ellie's bag. She could get them from Ellie easily.
Rufus moved, grabbing something from the table. But a demon's eyes were better than humans' and she saw the movement Rufus was going to do, even before his hand reached for the screwdriver on the table.
Dodge allowed Rufus to get close enough to stab Lucas in the shoulder. That damage would do nothing. Dodge would heal up in seconds.
Dodge feigned a cry of pain when the screwdriver's sharp end hit her shoulder, and sent Rufus back, sending him flying back hard, crashing him down into the table, the table falling to bits and Dodge grinned, pulling the screwdriver out of Lucas's shoulder when she heard Rufus's clavicle bone broke.
Humans were so fragile.
Ellie cried out, trying to run for Rufus.
Dodge caught Ellie, wrapping her right arm around Ellie's throat, pressing down and choking Ellie. Dodge had seen where Ellie had stuck the Shadow key in her pocket. Dodge strangled Ellie as she stuck her other hand into Ellie's pocket, feeling the key in there.
Dodge smirked, pulling the Shadow key out of Ellie's pocket.
"Well," Dodge said, holding the Shadow key in front of her and Ellie's face, "Look what you found. That's very helpful, Ellie. Thank you."
Ellie gasped, "Let me go."
Dodge snorted, releasing Ellie, allowing the woman to drop and run to her son's side, kneeling down next to Rufus, asking if he was alright.
Dodge looked hungrily down at the Shadow key.
She then leaned down, grabbing Ellie's purse off the floor. She opened the purse up and reached in, pulling the Crown of Shadows out.
Her hungry gaze fixated on the crown and its key.
Finally.
The Omega key was the most important. But now that she had the crown and its key, she had one of the most useful ways of getting to that key.
The Head key, and the other keys had been useful in luring Rufus and Ellie into a trap, and now she had a way of disposing of them both.
She put the Shadow key onto the Crown of Shadows and when she heard the click, she raised the crown up and placed it down onto her head.
She focused, feeling the power shoot through her.
How to describe how the power of the Crown of Shadows felt?
It felt like snakes slithering over oneself. That would have frightened anyone else. But Dodge just knew that that meant that the power was kicking in.
She manipulated the shadows as Lucas had at one time, years and years ago, before her possession of him, and she grinned as she watched the shadows around her expand and reach out with claws and greedy tendrils.
"Hello, darkness," Dodge said, recalling one of Lucas's favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs, 'The Sound of Silence,' "My old friend."
She grinned as she saw the shapes above her, shadows stretching over the ceiling.
Oh, victory was within her grasp. She could feel it.
She then cast her gaze over to Ellie.
Speaking of.
She needed to dispose of Rufus and Ellie.
And she needed to give the Locke family belief that they would eventually be rid of the being pursuing them.
Well, she'd give the Locke children a bone to chew on.
As long as it was a bone that looked like the bone they were after.
Dodge walked over to Ellie whose dark eyes were now full of terror. She reached into Lucas's pocket and pulled out the Identity key and kneeled down in front of Ellie.
"Hold still," Dodge said, "Or I'll have the shadows MAKE you hold still."
Ellie was quiet and held still as Dodge stuck the Identity key under Ellie's chin and turned the key viciously, watching as Ellie's face changed into the face of Dodge's preferred form.
Dodge pulled the key out of Ellie's face smirking and pocketing her key and stepped back.
Ellie reached her hands up, uncharacteristic confusion appearing on Dodge's double's face.
Ellie touched the face she now possessed, getting up and ran to the mirror on a sideboard.
Given Ellie had never seen this face before, she obviously didn't understand what the purpose was of Dodge having made her face look like that.
"I don't understand," Ellie said, looking at Dodge with confusion.
"No, you don't," Dodge said, "And you never will."
She expanded the shadows down and the shadows closed in on Ellie, their long arms wrapping around Ellie's throat, pressing down on it, knocking Ellie out.
Ellie sagged down, unconscious, and Dodge used the shadows to carry Ellie across the room. Dodge saw Rufus barely opening his eyes to see the sight in front of him. Dodge knew what Rufus was seeing. He was seeing big bad, scary Lucas, with the Crown of Shadows, carrying a strange lady across the room.
Rufus knew that Dodge could make herself look like anyone, thanks to Bode telling him, but he didn't know what Dodge's preferred form looked like. He did not understand what he was looking at.
Rufus then fell unconscious.
Dodge chuckled, carrying Ellie out, to the stairs and laid her down. She then had the shadows recede and used the Anywhere key.
She had the shadows pick Ellie up and opened the door and saw the cliffside house and walked through, carrying Ellie through the door with the shadows, and closed the door behind them.
When the connection between the cliffside house and Ellie's house had been severed with Dodge closing the door, Dodge laid her down on the floor, pulled off the crown and placed it on one of the tables. She smirked down at Ellie, pocketing the Anywhere key.
She walked to where she had stuck the second outfit she had stolen for herself, carrying it over to Ellie and kneeling down next to her.
She began to undress Ellie. When she was done, she forced Ellie into the second black and shining outfit she had stolen.
She stepped back. Now Ellie looked perfectly like Dodge. Good.
Now, time to give the Locke children to believe that they had defeated her.
Dodge inserted the Identity under her own chin and turned it, changing Lucas into the form she liked. Dodge's form.
She grinned, pocketing the Identity key and picked up the Crown of Shadows, and manipulated the shadows to pick up Ellie's body.
She pulled out the Anywhere key and went to the closet of the house, used the Anywhere key and opened it to the basement of Key House.
She put Ellie behind the staircase of the basement. She then took the crown off her head and then left the basement and walked around to the front of the house, the night completely dark. Dodge walked along the dark road, smirking when she saw all three Kinsey, Bode and Tyler on the front porch of the house.
She wanted to emphasize the situation that they were in.
Make them understand that they never had a chance-only for them to believe that they had had an advantage over her, which they never had.
Bode saw her first, pointing her out to Kinsey and Tyler.
She walked over, making sure all three of them saw her.
She said, "I hope you don't mind. I invited some friends."
She raised the crown up and placed it on her head. She had always had a flair for the dramatic, even her younger years in the demon world.
Kinsey established how in danger they were by whispering, "Shit."
Dodge raised her arms up as she felt the power of the crown and the key shoot through her.
That slithering snakelike feeling all over her skin, as the power surged through her and she felt her hair billow with the movement of the shadows around her.
Her shadow grew, and split, more shadows emerging from it in masses.
She heard Tyler trying to reassure himself and his siblings. "Just…a scare tactic," he said, "Shadows are just shadows."
Dodge stared at him, having no more patience for this foolish human. Of the three Locke siblings she had come to see him as the weak link.
After all this time, he still thought logic had anything to do with magic? Real magic?
She would impart this one last lesson to him, before she proceeded.
She raised her right hand, palm turned up, and a shadow sliced over to the car in the parking lot and lifted it up, sending it flying through the air, till it reached the other side of the front of the property, flipping in the air, before it went on its proper side again and crashing it down on that side of the property, displaying the damage that the shadows could do.
This was enough for all three Locke children.
"Get inside, now!" Tyler snapped.
The three siblings ran inside and Dodge smirked, walking forward.
Good. Now she could proceed without feeling like she was taking advantage of a couple of young adults who still, despite all they had seen, knew nothing. No need to hold back now.
Author's note
The Philosophoscope key is a key that shows up in the comics, created by Harland Locke. Don't know if we'll see it in season 3.
