Demon Girl (Keeley Thomson Book One) Page 3

  “I'm so glad to meet you all! Well, you're all welcome any time. Just to be clear the wine thing was a joke, I'm not that open minded. Still, just let us know if you're staying over and it should be fine.” She waved a little at Gary.

  “Except for you. Keeley's father wouldn't like that. Plus, no one will buy that you're straight if you spend the night with a group of girls, not with parents in the house.” She just smiled at the boy though.

  Gary nodded back firmly.

  “Yeah. There are limits aren't there? No big thing. Thanks for being so understanding though... Um and if you ever meet my dad, um, tell him all about how I hit on you? Maybe seem a little put out about it? That should work.” He looked around at Darla who patted his back a bit.

  “Ooh, good one. Yeah. She's hot, a straight guy would totally do that in your dad's mind. Good call Gar.”

  This got laughter all around, except from Keeley who felt a bit out of step suddenly. Was this normal banter? It seemed a little too fast and chummy for some reason. A lot too fast. It all seemed to center on Darla, who spoke for several more minutes, smoothly and as if she expected everything to just go her way. It wasn't just the “pretty” effect either. Sherry stood smiling and nodding along like the rest of them. Like a puppet or a bobble head doll.

  “I think that sounds wonderful Darla.” The nodding and smile both got bigger. Just shy of over eager. That phrase got used several times in a row, making them all chuckle about it for a moment.

  They talked for a few minutes, covering a lot of ground fast. Sherry looked at the girl half skeptically on a few points at least. So whatever was happening wasn't total mind kung-fu or whatever. Still, it was fishy to Keeley.

  “You live alone, because your father is working overseas?”

  “Yep. Japan. He pays for everything and I'm already eighteen, so it's not as weird as it sounds. I had a little trouble in the first grade so had to repeat it. I blame the teacher on that one, I always got “A's” through all the other grades. Personality conflict most likely. I really hated Mrs. Brong. I always thought she was a witch. The sacrifice children when no one was looking kind, not the dance around under the full moon Wicca type.”

  Keeley blinked at that.

  Because sure, her OCD mom that had run a home inspection the one time she'd tried to spend the night at a friend's house before was going to let her go into that situation. A sleepover party with cheerleaders and no chaperons? A wave of relief flowed over her then. It was a way out, so that she could spend the night hitting the inter-webs and then maybe doing some extra credit for school.

  That was something Darla had right. School wasn't hard. It never had been, but lately it seemed almost ridiculously easy. She turned in work that seemed a bit light to her, lacking decent content in the papers half the time and not only got good marks, but glowing comments for them. Sure, she made them look pretty and could back up her research with sources, but it took maybe an hour or two for a ten page paper, tops.

  Still, good student or not, she really doubted that she was going anywhere that night, and maybe not over to Darla's at all, ever. Not once the implications soaked in with her mother. Keeley waited for that shoe to drop, letting her own skepticism show pretty clearly.

  “Sure! That sounds great. Keeley honey, make sure to check in and remember, you can always call if you need a ride. Any of you kids can, here, let me get you some of my business cards, that has my cell on them in case you ever need to reach me.” She scurried off for less than a minute and came back with some small cream colored cards in hand.

  “Ooh! Floral arrangements? So cool!” Eve actually sounded impressed and started a conversation about the business while the rest trooped into Keeley's room to get some clothes and a bag for the next few days.

  Her room, thankfully, was just as tidy as the rest of the house. Her mom again. She could have locked the door or padlocked it from the outside, but that didn't make a lot of sense. She didn't hide anything, mainly because she didn't do anything wrong.

  Not really wrong. Not sex and drugs, or serial murder hard core. When she did do things, like what she did to those football team members, she kept it open and subtle. Most people couldn't even see that anything related to her had happened at all. Putting up a peppy and interesting poster wasn't bad. It couldn't hurt anyone.

  The freaky thing was that she had an odd sense that Darla got it. More, that the girl was strumming a song out of the situation so perfectly that no one else really even saw it. It wasn't something she could do herself. Keeley got that something was happening, and that it was... smooth and controlled, it flowed too well really.

  Darla went to her closet and, kindly enough, didn't wince too much, or threaten to burn anything. She started sorting through things and pulling them out. Just a few. Some jeans, a single skirt that Keeley had worn a grand total of once, and some tops. That and a pair of footie pajamas that actually fit, given to her by her dad as a gag Christmas gift. That or he secretly hoped that by dressing her funny no guy would ever touch her. That wasn't too far from the actual case, she knew.

  They were all red, with white traction feet on the bottom and made her look like a Dr. Seuss character when she wore them. They were also hot to sleep in, so she grabbed a pair of stretch shorts and a tank top as well. In about five minutes they had everything and were back out in the hallway. The house had come with paintings, so they looked at a scene of an old barn with assorted wild flowers around it as they headed down the little hallway toward the front room.

  Amazingly enough Eve sat in the little office space off the living room, working at a flower arrangement with Sherry, just a single vase, a salmon pink ceramic with crackle finish that was given a base of dried babies breath, little white dried flowers, and some fresh cut daisies. This got finished with a very nicely tied yellow ribbon.

  “And there you go!” Sherry said, passing the flowers along to Eve. “It's not that hard, once you have the equipment and know what you're doing. Then, that's most things in life, isn't it?”

  Eve goggled more than a bit and finally nodded her head.

  “Can you do corsages? If you can make them not too expensive I think we can get you some orders for homecoming.” She glanced at Darla who took the vase lovingly for a second.

  “I agree. We can probably deliver more work than you can handle just from Raintree. It's a price thing. Most of the shops in the area charge about forty dollars for an arrangement. If you can bring it in for under twenty...”

  Sherry seemed pleased by the idea, but didn't say anything more about it. Keeley wondered if it was because her mom almost never really did anything with her business? Not that she wasn't good, just that getting the clients was hard for her. Her dad didn't really like her to leave the house, but – surprise – that's where the customers were.

  Sherry walked over and gave her a hug, then passed hugs out to everyone else too, which should have been embarrassing but no one seemed to mind too much. Her mom wasn't OCD about germs, just keeping things in order and of course, doing things in threes or fours. The medicine had really helped there. She almost never had to go back and redo each group of three things three times any more.

  “OK, remember to check in! At least once a day.” She called as Darla practically dragged Keeley out the door by the arm, making pleased sounds as she did it. Giggling.

  Who giggled?

  “Don't worry, I will.” Darla called back as if the woman had been talking to her. It got a laugh though.

  When they resettled back in the car Keeley turned to her and shook her head.

  “OK, that was not normal, what did you do to my mom?” Even drugs wouldn't have explained it. No time for them to be delivered and the control was too precise for that anyway, hitting just the needed area of her mom's brain. So it had to be something else.

  Yes, her mom was always nice, but also overprotective and a bit hesitant when it came to letting Keeley do much of anything. She didn't let her gaze wonder even as Darla sat,
looking innocent at first, and then focusing on backing up carefully. She didn't speak until they were on the road.

  “Oh... that.” The blond let the wind blow her hair back, not concerned with losing her hairstyle for some reason.

  “I used an ancient mental trick on her...”

  “Oh?” Keeley suddenly felt electric, like she was on to something new. An actual technique had been used? Before she could even point and yell, “ah ha” accusingly, Darla explained.

  “Yes, it's called “inundating people with the truth.” When I walked in I didn't give her a chance to doubt us or become suspicious, just putting everything up front. Obviously so. When you hit people with that much blunt truth, they tend to trust you instantly. It doesn't make them like you any better really, but they won't think you're lying. Which I didn't, so that all works out.” She waved her right hand a little, at first Keeley thought it was a conversational gesture, but then she noticed that it was directed toward a motorcycle police officer giving someone a ticket.

  The helmeted man nodded back. His look suddenly strained. Worried. Keeley wondered what the girl could have done to make the man feel like that. He looked away, a pointed thing, and stopped writing, then patted the top of the car, causing the suddenly shocked looking driver to pull out into traffic slowly. The officer's eyes followed them as they passed.

  “As for why she let you come over... Well, think about it Keeley, it's Friday and if you're gone for a few days, your parents can actually go and do something. Or stay in and do something. Actually, wait, don't think about that last part.” Darla got a wicked look on her face. Gleeful.

  Keeley made a point of that, because, ugh. Her parents didn't do things like that, not in her mind. She knew it wasn't true, but still... Ugh.

  From the back seat Hally called forward, voice loud to compensate for the wind, which wasn't fierce at residential street speeds, but didn't make conversation easy either. The girl pulled forward a bit and tucked her head between Keeley and Darla's, a little cozily really, considering they didn't really know each other all that well, having just met. The sports car was small, tiny really. It made close conversation both difficult and mandated at the same time.

  “What's the plan for tonight?”

  Darla didn't take her eyes off the road but gestured with her head toward Eve who sat directly behind her.

  “Ask her. Eve's turn to pick the entertainment.”

  This got an exaggerated shrug and a mysterious look from the black haired cheerleader in the back. Keeley just hoped it wasn't going to be based around a spot of her-centric torment. Eve wouldn't talk though and the others seemed curious too, so maybe not. She decided to be wary just in case. Darla was really paying a lot more attention to her than seemed right.

  OK, she admitted to herself, any attention would have been over the top, so not a huge leap to say it was too much, but she'd been watching her? OK, that was normal. Totally and completely.

  For a stalker.

  The next big shock was that Darla's house, a real house, nicer than the one she and her parents lived in, with two levels and a sunken garage connected to the house, technically making it three stories, was only about two blocks from her house. That could, possibly, explain how the girl knew where she lived, without it being too fishy, right? Just seeing her walking in and out?

  Still, the blond was strange and possibly had weird mind powers. Keeley chuckled at her own joke, which just got a small nod from the driver as they pulled into the garage. They had to wait for a bit while the door opened. Automatic, but not all that fast.

  “Yeah, my powers are kind of amazing, aren't they?” The girl said with a wink.

  She winked a lot. Too much. Only dirty old men winked that much. On top of the comment it was off. Wrong.

  Darla immediately hopped out and started moving everyone into the house while the door closed.

  “Let's not leave the door open too long. I left the air conditioning on and I don't want to cool down the whole state.”

  Keeley blinked and didn't move for a bit. How had she known to say that right then, about the powers?

  Coincidence? A lucky guess?

  That... or strange mind powers.

  She moved with the others, her nerves slightly on edge now. Had she said something that led Darla to assume she'd been thinking that? She had asked about what she'd done to her mom, so maybe that was enough? A reach though. Maybe she was just trying to be all mysterious or something, but if so, why?

  The house, a light tan color outside was fabulous inside. Really nice. Like a very wealthy person had decided to go slumming, but couldn't quite leave their old life all the way behind. Hard wood floors and white carpets, a kitchen that Keeley wouldn't have even known what to do in, all in stainless steel and, she noticed as Darla showed her which room she'd be in, of the four possible that were empty. Several guest rooms.

  Seriously. Who just kept that many rooms waiting empty like that?

  Keeley just shook her head.

  She was supposed to believe that the girl was just a regular person and lived like this? Alone while attending high school? The weird thing was that everyone else just went with the idea. Her dad was rich and her mom had died a long time ago. So Darla attended public school in Arizona while he worked off in Japan?

  They really thought it made sense even. Mind powers for sure. Keeley shook her head gently again, making her ponytail bob. The cool air of the house kissed her skin gently. The air smelled like flowers, lavender and jasmine. It would have been relaxing if not for all the weirdness. Both of those were soothing scents. Powerfully so even. She'd read an article about jasmine being used to replace Valium even.

  Wouldn't a rich girl like her be in a boarding school? And why were there no pictures around of people? Her dad or even her friends, or her mom. It was... really a very lovely place, but it looked like a decorator had done it all up without consideration for who would be living there and hardly personalized it at all. Even the paintings on the walls were that same generic style that she had hanging on the walls of her own house. Barns and country fields, an ocean scape, a few mountain scenes. Nice, but not special. They could have even been done by the same artists.

  In fact, in at least two cases, they pretty clearly were.

  The picture in the guest room, the one Darla had given her, was of a barn. The same barn she had near her bedroom door in the hallway. But the angle was different. Closing her eyes she brought the picture up for comparison. Both unsigned, both very well done, but the same structure clearly, even the same tone and colors of paint. The frames were different and this one was under glass, but yeah, that was a bit odd.

  Really strange.

  “Keeley, come and join us in the living room when you're ready? I'm going to start dinner soon. Do you want anything in particular?” Darla stood outside her door, not entering at all, just waiting for her new friend to come out.

  Or her potential victim.

  At least it wouldn't be some freaky identity stealing thing, Keeley decided. Darla had no reason to leave the life she had. Not a sane one at least. Plus they looked nothing alike. Of everyone in the group of cheerleaders Keeley thought she probably looked most like Eve and that only because of the dark hair.

  “Just a minute. I can help a little. Cooking I mean. Not in deciding what to have. On the good side I'll eat almost anything.” She made her voice happy and a little wry.

  “On the bad side, I'll eat almost anything...” Keeley looked down at her waistline, something she didn't normally worry over, but being around all the cheerleaders had left her feeling a little self-conscious. She wasn't fat, only a size six, having filled out a little early in the hips, but that suddenly seemed like a cow by comparison and her jeans felt a little too restricting, like she'd have been better off in a mu-mu.

  Darla laughed and held her hand out, as if to draw her into the hallway.

  “Don't worry. We'll burn everything off before the weekend's done. Do you like Mexican? Ita
lian? I could make pizza or we could have Chinese if you like? I make a really credible General Tso's chicken. Decent fried rice too.”

  That all sounded pretty good to her really. Better than the canned chili she would have probably made herself.

  “We can vote on it. I don't want to alienate everyone the first time I meet them. After all, what if I wanted escargot? I really doubt that would go over well, though it might compliment the frog's legs. Taste just like chicken I hear.” Snails and frogs, Keeley smiled at her own little joke trying to sound playful.

  Darla just shook her head.

  “I have the snails in the fridge but I don't have any frog legs, so we'd have to run out for those. I do know a shop...” She sounded flatly serious.

  Keeley shrugged, an exaggerated thing, hands coming up just a bit, “See? There I go making more work already. Hardly polite of me... I definitely think that I'll let someone else suggest dinner. That way the disaster from it being a bad choice can be their fault. Shall we?” She tried to put all the strangeness out of her head and walk down the white carpeted stairs without tripping.