Kazumi stared blankly at the Brandon. "Koemi…do you have something to tell us?"
"Uhh, well…" She scratched her head. "You see, remember those last 6 or so months you never saw me when I was at boarding school?"
Kazumi's mouth fell open. "NO! YOU'RE BLUFFING!"
"Of course I'm bluffing, dipshit," she slapped him over the head and pushed through with the child. "His mum is a streetwalker. Anyways, that would have made me like…10 when he was born. Way to use logic, ya fool."
"Ouch." Kazumi looked at the youth again before Hua appeared.
"Aww!" She scooped the boy up instantly. "You're so cute! Let's go play!"
"Well, I guess that takes care of that." Koemi said. "Goodie?" She went to her special cabinet and gathered all of her incense and salt. "Well, this isn't going to take me long." She threw her favorite green, earth-symbolizing cloak over her shoulder.
Just to be safe, she snatched up her broom and wand, and a spare jar. There weren't any complicated spells, but it was always better to hold a good channeling tool. "Oh!" She grabbed her Athame and two dried roses before she took off back to Oliver's place.
She was about to knock on the door when she heard a scuffle of noise inside. "You need to be more careful with her!" Eugene's angry voice rang. It was crackly and distorted. Probably over the speaker of a cell phone.
"She should be able to take care of herself! She's not a child." Oliver argued. "I thought I could leave her on her own for two seconds! It's not the end of the world if she got a little scratched up."
"What about the doppelgangers she's been seeing?" Eugene asked quietly. "She could die soon. Something bad is going to happen if we don't take care of her."
Koemi raised her head indignantly and slung her cloak over her shoulders, raising the hood to cover her face.
"You love her…" Oliver murmured.
Eugene didn't answer, nor did Koemi hear. She was already going down the street to the haunted house. When she entered the house, it was at least twenty degrees colder. She flicked on one of the lights, but it did not illuminate the shadow in the center of the staircase.
Carefully, she lit a dragonblood incense and carried it at her side. She sprinkled salt as she spoke. "It is time to leave here; all is well. There is nothing for you now, you must be gone. Go now, go…complete your passing. Go and with out blessing fare well. Farewell."
The shadow turned to face her, revealing pale eyes. It blinked owlishly as she drew a pentagram on the floor with chalk. Carefully, she placed five different candles on the points of the star. "Earth, air, fire, water." She told the green, light blue, red and deep blue candles. "Spirit." She lit the white candle. "Banish all sorrow trapped in this abode. Trap only positive psyche, and release the negative load." She outlined the circle with salt and settled in the center.
Closing her eyes, she knew she would have to go around the house and cleanse it completely with salt. Anything that could have once belonged to one of these monsters would need to be forgotten. As soon as she stepped out of the circle, a hand wrapped around her wrist and dragged her forward.
She closed her eyes and twisted her hand free. Not acknowledging the being was always the first step to purifying it.
"Go, continue your journey to the Realm of our Lord and Lady." She took her Athame from her cloak and wielded it. It was for show, of course, but the creature took it as a threat. It lunged at her, reaching for her arms.
Without thinking, she lashed out and caught the thing between the eyes. It let out a high-pitched squeal and stumbled back.
The door burst open and Lin cursed, grabbing for Koemi. "You don't know what you're doing!" He barked, furious at the Japanese girl for attempting a full scale exorcism on her own.
Koemi roared as he caught her around the waist and dragged her back towards the door. The knife fell from her hands and clattered to the ground. "MR. KOUJO LET ME GO! YOU'RE ONLY GOING TO MAKE THINGS WORSE!" She clutched the door frame and screeched ungodly.
He didn't respond to her and threw her out onto the sidewalk.
"Mr. Koujo," she snarled. "Do you understand what it means to stop an exorcism of my caliber?" She considered it for a while. "I don't either, but I'm sure it's not good. It's probably very bad!"
Lin ran back inside the house without answering, once again ignoring her.
"Why don't you answer anything, man!" She clenched her fists and took a step towards the house. There was a loud inhuman screech and a flash of white light.
Lin returned and stared down at her. "If you would wait for the professionals, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."
"I'm not hurt, you dolt!" She wriggled her limbs as proof.
The ever-present scowl on his face deepened and he grabbed her wrist, holding it up for her examination.
It had turned a deep purple-blue along where it had been gripped, and there was blood dripping down to her fingertips.
"Is that bad?" She wondered aloud, aiming to poke at it with her other hand.
Lin smacked her uninjured finger away. "It will hurt. We should get it wrapped and iced."
Koemi blinked at it in awe and allowed him to lead her away. "That's so weird! It doesn't hur…" She broke off her sentence slowly. "Hmm…" A dull throb ached in her wrist, matching time with her heartbeat. "I lied. It's starting to hurt." She flexed her wrist and yelped. "WHAT DID THAT BASTARD DO TO ME?"
Lin sighed and walked her to the Davis house. Oliver was just opening the door as Lin raised his fist to knock.
Koemi flinched when he saw her wrist. "What did you do this time?" He demanded in a low voice. Somehow it was scarier than if he would have yelled at her.
"I…well…" Koemi considered it. "I sort of went to exorcise the things without you because I heard Eugene yelling at you and I wanted to prove that I was fine on my own but then the thing touched me. Apparently it really offended my wrist."
Oliver's eyebrow twitched and he closed his eyes. "You really are a stupid girl."
"I-I'm sorry." She sighed. "It was an accident, you know. I just thought…"
"Stop thinking." He snapped, stepping close to her. "You could get seriously hurt. Killed. How do you think I…Eugene would feel about that? It would break his heart."
"You say that like I go and try to get myself killed!" Koemi snarled at him, closing the short distance between them. She glared up at him as she continued. "You say that as if I like getting hurt, and I like being yelled at by you guys!"
"Sometimes it feels like you do." Oliver sighed. "Eugene would miss you terribly, so don't die."
"For God's sake, I WON'T DIE!" She screamed, spinning on her heel. "You're so dramatic!"
Oliver watched her stalk down the street. "Says she who's scream puts a banshee to shame."
Koemi kicked into her bedroom and flopped onto her bed, laying on top of the surplus of clothes that littered her room. "Freakin' Oliver, man." She sighed into her pillow, hugging it as she rolled to stare skyward.
"Bad day?" Hua padded into the room and settled cross-legged on the end of Koemi's bed.
"Not really." Koemi replied.
Hua took notice of the bruise circling her wrist like a bracelet. "What did you do this time?"
"Why do you all say that?" Koemi demanded.
"Because you tend to get hurt…" Hua raised a sleek black eyebrow. "What's bugging you, girlie?"
"Oliver keeps scolding me about getting hurt, and this is like the first time I've gotten hurt." She complained.
"Didn't you say there were dotted gang members were following you?" Hua asked, only half caring. She ran her fingers through her silky hair and examined her nails.
"Dotted gang memb…What?" Koemi furrowed her brow and stared at her future sister-in-law.
"The ones that follow you and stuff. I dunno. You seemed freaked when you told me about it." Hua shrugged a shoulder lazily.
"Doppelgangers?" Koemi offered.
"Yeah! Those." Hua pointed so hard she nearly fell off the bed. "Those!"
"Dotted gang members…" Koemi snickered. "Hua, you're so stupid."
"Am not!" She rubbed her swollen stomach and blinked. "I wonder where my stomach has been pushed by my womb…"
"Oh my God." Koemi dropped her face into her palm. "What does Kazumi see in you?"
"I'm going to slap you," Hua warned.
"Girl, I'd like to see you try." Koemi snapped her fingers.
"Word." Hua growled before bursting into a fit of giggles.
Koemi chuckled and sat up. "Neh, Hua, why are you so huge? You're only like 5 months pregnant."
"That's not very nice." Hua pouted.
"Seriously. You must eat a lot." Koemi raised the side of her lips in a snicker. "You fat ass."
"You're offending me!" Hua cradled her stomach. "Hey, hey, how do you feel about this Oliver kid?"
"Who the hell is Oliv…Oh. Fetus face." Koemi's grin quickly faded into a scowl. "That's only fun when he can hear me."
"Oliver and Koemi sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love! Then comes marriage! Then comes a baby in a baby carriage!" Hua sang.
"Cut that out! You're being juvenile!" Koemi mewled.
"You wanna kiiiiss him, you really loooove him, you think he's seeexy, you want his—."
"Hua! Shut up! Seriously!" Koemi's face flushed. "You're being childish!"
"I bet you'd like to be childish with Oliver." Hua winked suggestively.
Koemi snatched her purple-covered pillow and threw it at the Chinese woman. "Shut your face hole!"
"SHUT YOUR LEGS!"
"OH MY GOD HUA I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AND HARVEST YOUR ORGANS."
Hua leapt up with surprising speed for her state of belly, and pointed at her. "YOU NEED TO GET MORE SERIOUS WITH OLIVER." She screeched before sprinting out of the room.
Koemi hid her face in her hands and slowly shook her head. "Stupid hormonal crazy woman." She wailed into her hands, going limp to lay on her bed again.
There was a cough at her doorway and she peered up to see the David and Eugene at her doorway. "So…" David twiddled his thumbs awkwardly.
"Bloody hell." She groaned. "You guys…"
"You like my brother?" Eugene blinked several times, owlish at the mere thought.
"Just because Hua said it doesn't make it true." Koemi whined. "Hua is a cruel individual!"
"You totally dig him." David decided sadly. "But you're like a 2nd grade boy. You bully him to show your affection."
"THAT IS NOT TRUE!" Koemi screamed.
"Then why are you defending yourself so much?" Eugene challenged. "And why is your face so pink?"
Koemi smashed her palms against her cheeks and shook her head. "LEAVE ME ALONE! WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN MY ROOM?"
"Kazumi let us in." David pointed at the living room as if it were said relative.
Eugene examined her in a fashion similar to Oliver's deep stares, and she recoiled. "Does he know you like him?"
"No," she spat. "Because I don't!"
Eugene looked at his shoes and joined his hands behind his back. "So, umm…"
Koemi jumped to her feet. "Why are you in my room?"
David raised his hand to point again and Koemi sent him a sharp look.
"I realize how you got in my room, but why are you here? For what purpose did you visit me?"
"Oh."
Eugene answered in his stead. "We wanted to come see how you were. Oliver said you went to exorcise the demons and you got hurt."
"Of course he did." Koemi scowled and padded into the living room.
"He was concerned." Eugene shrugged. "He doesn't seem like it, but he wants to protect his friends. You're our friend."
David nodded eagerly. "You know, he's actually a lot of fun. He's just mean to you."
"You lie. He doesn't possess that capability." She argued.
"You've never seen him charm a girl." Eugene pointed out. "He's good, and he knows it."
Koemi slowly tilted her head. What if he charmed me? Did he coordinate his actions to pin me?
David sniffed and ran towards Koemi. "I love you!"
Koemi dodged the bull's charge and felt her phone buzz urgently in her pocket. "Torro, torro!" She called as she pulled it out and flipped it open.
Still on 4 tonight? –Noll