Short Story - Hex (4/9)

Title: Hex

Genre: Paranormal

Rating: PG-13 (for language)

Story Type: Short story
Warnings: mild violence

Word count: (total) 18,373 - (chapter) 2,019

Summary: Nora used her powers for revenge, and even though it was just a little revenge, she's still in trouble with The Powers That Be.  To atone, she helps as many people as she can.  Now, she's helping Tyler, and his problem is just so big that it might be the one that gets her out of the doghouse for good.

             

“So, you gave a girl herpes.”

             

“Pretty much.”

             

“And now they are going to take your powers if you don’t do enough good with them.”

             

“Yup.”

             

“And exactly who are these they?”

             

While I said often that I was going to feel him up to check his aura, that wasn’t entirely accurate.  Not a bald faced lie, because I did have to touch him really close.  I had to get right up in there, close enough that if anybody bumped into me, I’d fall forward and then I really would be feeling him up.

             

It was actually feeling the air around his body.  My hands gliding maybe an inch off of him, maybe a little bit less, feeling for the small holes.  I could see the aura just fine, the color and everything, but the holes would have been so tiny that I had to feel them.  Unless of course, they were huge, and in that case, he’d already be lost and well… Then I’d never get to pseudo feel him up.

             

With my hands dangerously close enough to his man parts that Nana stood over me and reminded me not to be dirty, I said, “You know… They.   Big Brother.  The Man.  They’re all just names given to ‘em ‘cause people feel like retards constantly saying they.  I just say they, though.”

             

“So, you want me to not only believe that I’ve been hexed, but that there’s some grand Pubah in the world—“

 “Oh, cool! I call ‘em Pubah’s, too.”

             

Tyler cleared his throat and I took that as a cue to stop being a dumbass.  See, I don’t always miss my cues.  Just the ones that I don’t want to take.

            

 “Like I was saying, not only have I been hexed for no earthly reason in the world that I can think of, but there’s a they watching and nitpicking over everything we do.”

             

“Not exactly.”  I sighed and leaned back on my haunches.  From feet to groin, he was clean.  “They only nitpick over what we do.  They shake their heads at what you do.”

             

“Oh, I feel so much better about it.”

            

 I pushed myself up, hands on my knees as I hoisted all my little bit pounds of girl parts up off the floor.  He was quite a little smart ass, I was learning quickly, and I didn’t think that had anything to do with the hex.  Good guy or not, he had a sharp mind and a sharper tongue. 

            

 I couldn’t really blame him.  I mean, I can’t say that many people have taken news like this much better.  And honestly, it had to sound completely ridiculous to him.  He lived in a world of facts and figures and here I was, giving him this whole new dimension to everything.  It was probably a whole lot of stuff that he never wanted to know.  Sometimes, it was a lot of stuff that I never wanted to know.

             

“You’re also telling me that Walmart and Starbucks are the entry points to which darkness wants to take over the world.”

             

“Pretty much.”  I shrugged.  “People need coffee and people need to shop for cheap.  Can you really think of a better way to get in?”

             

Tyler pursed his lips and they were oh so pink, like a deep salmon.  I focused way too hard on his lips because Nana popped me in the back of the head with a curt, “I know what you’re thinking.”

             

“Would you stop it, please?”  I grunted.  “Nana’s a little testy.  She doesn’t like the way I do things.”

             

“And what way is that?” Tyler asked. 

             

“My way.”  I smirked, then sighed and let my body droop.  “You’re really tall, you know that?”

             

“That’s what they tell me when I shop for pants.”

            

 I shook my head.  “I could go so many places with that.  And none of them would make Nana very happy.”  With a  groan, I turned and found a foot stool.  And it was too short.  Damn. 

            

 I had to settle on a chair, and it was an uneasy rise from the floor.  If I took my heels off, I would have had to add a phone book to chair, and considering that the seat of the wooden chair was something like a crater, that wouldn’t have been stable at all.  I’d have fallen.  Then, he would have caught me.  And then, Nana would have hit me.

             

Why didn’t I just levitate?  Because I hated doing it.  Granted, it would have completely proven my point about the magic and everything, but I was going with the belief I already had.  Tyler had seen the shadow ball.  He’d watched me destroy it.  And he’d seen Nana.  He didn’t need me see something I really hated to do.

             

“Any girlfriends?”  Tyler’s body went still and I looked at his face.  His lips were curled up in a snarky little smirk.  His left eyebrow was raised impossibly high.  “What?  I’m not hitting on you.” 

             

If possible, his eyebrow went up higher.  I groaned.  “Okay, so maybe I’ve been hitting on you the past however many minutes it’s been since I saved your ass in Starbucks.   I’m a natural flirt, sue me.  However, I’m talking really serious business, now.”

             

“And me having a girlfriend is business because—“

             

“Because, genius, I have to figure out who put the hex on you.  That means I need to know who you may have inadvertantly pissed off.  Boys piss off girls by accident all the time.”

             

He didn’t seem to enjoy being called a boy, but I didn’t really care.  Finally, he said, “An ex-girlfriend.”

             

“Ooh, that’s juicy.”  He winked.  “Are we talking Bruce and Demi break-up?  Or Ben and Jen break-up?”

            

 “Excuse me?”

            

 “Good or bad, man.  Jeez, don’t you keep up with celebrities?”

            

 “Not really.  I have a life.”

            

 I narrowed my eyes.  “You know what?  Uncalled for.  Just because I’m forced to spend my time in Walmart and Starbucks—“  I stopped before Nana felt the need to hit me.  “Whatever.  Good or bad.”

             

“Decent.”  He shrugged.  “It couldn’t be her, anyway.  Besides the fact that it would be too easy—“  He had a point there.  Exes were always the easy way out and this didn’t feel easy.  “—she’s not exactly a magical sort.  We lived together for three and a half years.  I think I would have noticed.”

             

“Oh, darlin’, you have no idea.”  I shook my head and sighed.  “You’re probably right, though.  That would be too easy and while darkness itself is lazy as shit and takes the easy way out, the actual people who do these things are never easy.”

             

I pursed my lips and let my arms drop.  There were little holes all around him, but nothing major.  Not yet, at least.  They were attacking him full force because his aura was so strong.  That much innate goodness in one person made for one hell of a protective shield.  He’d been hit three times on the way to my place, and the only reason he was safe now was because my house warded up the ass.  There was no way something could get in without setting off all sorts of metaphysical bells and whistles.

             

“Okay, so I have to find the actual spell.”  I tapped my lips and used my search for a place to begin as an excuse to check him out.  What can I say?  I loved the look of a guy dressed nicely.  The only thing more attractive was a guy in a tux.  Yum.

             

“Might I make a suggestion?”

             

I groaned.  “Would it do any good if I said no?”

             

“No.”  Nana stepped forward and Tyler went tense.  He’d been introduced to my grandmother and experienced the awkward moment everyone had of figuring out how to shake a ghost’s hand.  But, just because he’d officially met her didn’t mean that he was entirely comfortable around her.  Most people were that way with ghosts.  I think it had something to do with the cold air coming off of them.  That, or the death part.  Probably the death part.

             

“While we are both well aware of the complexity of a hex of this magnitude, you should also be aware of the fact that there is always one easy part to the process.”

             

“Nana, please.  Would you get to the point before I’m a ghost, too?”

             

“Show a little more respect, Nora.”  Nana stepped towards me and I thought she was going to hit me.  Thankfully, she didn’t.  Instead, she pointed towards Tyler’s head.  “The most obvious point of entry is usually the correct point of entry.”

             

I would have gotten around to the widow’s peak eventually.  And, it just so happened that it was the most obvious point, and I knew everything she chose to embarassingly lecture me on.  However, I wanted to do the whole thing my way, which involved some very close attention to his person.

             

“I know that, Nana.  Thanks for ruining my fun,” I grumbled.

             

I got down out of the chair and went to my bag … er … trunk of tricks.  I could feel the holes with my fingers, but I couldn’t just pick a piece of the spell off of him like it was a pimple ready to burst.  For that, I was going to need something with a little more oomph than my manicured fingers.

             

I plucked out a clear crystal.  The crystal was cut prismically, and at the center was a bright red, twinkling eye. 

            

 I went back to Tyler, but moved the chair.  “I’m going to put the red part of this crystal at your head, alright?  I’m betting that Eddie Munster on your head is where the culprit is.  How does a guy get a widow’s peak like that, anyway?  It’s like having a huge Adam’s apple.  Weird fluke of nature.”

             

Tyler cleared his throat and darkened his eyes to let me know that he didn’t find my comments amusing.  Such a shame, because I did.  “Does it really matter?”

             

I shrugged.  “Not really.  I need you to get on your knees, though.”

             

“What!”

             

“Look, I’m not gonna do anything kinky to you.  I just told you exactly what I’m gonna do.”

             

“Why can’t you just get back on the chair?”

            

 “Because, I have no idea what’s going to happen when I touch that thing and I don’t feel like falling again.”

             

“Again?”

            

 “Yeah, let Nana explain that one.”  I still hadn’t told him that I’d been spying on him the night before.  Probably a good thing.  I didn’t want to freak him out even more.  “So, will you please get on your knees?”

            

 Tyler was suspicious, rightfully so, but he got on his knees.  It was the good guy in him.  He may have had the usual senses of suspicion and wariness, but at the core, he believed the best of people.  He trusted people.  That’s probably what got him into this mess in the first place.

             

“Okay,” I said, “just hold still.”

            

 His eyes closed and I stepped forward.  He was only a few steps away from me, but it was slow going.  I won’t deny it.  I was scared as hell.  I had no idea what would happen if this were the right spot.  Every hex I touched did something different.  Once I was knocked out for two hours.  Another time I just got a little shock.  With the level of attack he was getting and just how grave the situation was, anything could happen.

             

I couldn’t avoid it forever, though.  I took in a deep breath and stepped up to him.  I held the crystal tightly in my palm.  Another deep breath and I let it drop until I held it at the very base of the chain where it connected to the crystal.  Yet another breath and I let the red center touch the point of his widow’s peak.

             

The crystal flashed red.

             

Tyler cried out.

             

Nana gasped.

             

And I went flying across the room until I hit the wall and slid to the floor.