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"hi!"
Orthodox Cross// Pareizticīgo Krusts .
playlist 12.16.20
Tristan Perich Drift Multiply (Nonesuch) Liturgy Origin Of The Alimonies (YLYLCYN) Clark Kiri Variations (Throttle) OneOhTrix Point Never Magic OneOhTrix Point Never (Warp) Philip Glass Analog (OMM) Kemper Norton Oxland Cylinder (Bandcamp) Lauren Bousfeld Palimpsest (Deathbomb) Christine Ott Chimeres (Pour Ondes Martenot) (Nahal) Tony Conrad Early Minimalism Volume One Box Set (Table Of The Elements) Jan Jirasek /Arvo Part / Hildegaard Von Bingen Renaissance Of Humanity (Catalyst) Ecker & Meultzer Carbon (Subtext) Mark Van Hoen Invisible Threads (Touch) Daniel Wohl L’Etat (Nonesuch) Markus Floats Third Album (Constellation) Soft Pink Truth Shall We Go On Sinning…(Thrill Jockey) Mange Feraille Erba Spontanea (Dur Et Doux)’ Insane Warrior Tendrils (RJ’s Electrical Connections) The Ridiculous Trio Plays The Stooges (Modern Harmonic) Krust The Edge Of Everything (Crosstown Rebels) Billy Brooks Windows Of The Mind (Crossover) Sigur Ros Odin’s Raven Magic (Krunk)
Krust, KL. 2020. //
krust
Basement Demon
Hey there everyone! It’s ya gurl Father Par Par! Luci suggested I post this short story of mine, so here I am! It has swearing, mentions of non-con experiments, and recreational drug use, so if you’re not into that, don’t read it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Penny rolled over in bed and opened Snapchat on her phone. It was ten in the morning and she already had four snapchats. Three were from her friends and one was from her mom, sent at midnight. She opened that one last. It was a long series of videos of the cats. Penny missed her cats dearly since she’s been living in Detroit, and she loved getting pictures of them.
But these videos were strange. The first one was a video of her black cat, Soske, sitting in front of the basement door on his hind legs, pawing at something in front of him. His eyes looked glazed over and his behavior was unlike anything Penny had ever seen. The caption said “Cats are acting weird.”
The next video was of Penny’s white cat, Keko, who was stalking something by the basement door. With a quick pan, the video showed that the basement door was open but there was nothing there. Keko continued to stalk but then she stopped and her eyes lost focus and she stood up to do the same thing Soske did in the last video. The next video made Penny sit straight up in bed and her heart skip a beat. Soske was standing on his back legs again and he was pawing at the air and then he collapsed and started shaking on the floor. Penny’s dad came into the video and scooped him up. The next video was of Soske in her dad’s arms, shaking and curled up close to him. The next snapchat from Penny’s mom was a picture of the cats sleeping on the living room couch. The caption said, “Cats are fine, that was weird…”
It certainly was weird… But Penny didn’t have time to dwell on it because she heard her brother come into the apartment and throw his keys.
“Penny! Mike’s waiting for us outside,” Adrian shouted. Mike was their other roommate, one of Adrian’s friends from high school.
“Where are we going?” Penny shouted back as she hurried to get dressed.
“There’s a garage sale a few blocks away,” he said.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Penny stuffed her phone in her pocket and pulled her hair into a quick ponytail as she ran out into the apartment. She followed her brother outside and hopped into Mike’s van, which was waiting outside the building.
“Ready to go?” asked Mike.
“Yep,” said Penny, buckling her seatbelt, not trusting Mike’s driving skills. They drove a few blocks down into the neighborhood with the old houses mixed with the newer houses. It was a pretty normal looking neighborhood, mostly filled with elderly people and college students. There were a few younger families in the newer houses. It looked like this weekend was the sub sale, since there were many garage sales scattered throughout the neighborhood. They drove past the ones that looked like a bunch of junk or the ones with all baby stuff. They stopped at one that looked big and had lots of interesting things out on the driveway.
Penny hopped out of the van and ran to the interesting looking desk sitting out. She opened all the drawers and cupboards before moving onto the vintage Singer sewing machine next to it. The boys went into the garage and looked through the books and movies. Penny joined them but something caught her eye before she got the chance to browse the books. An old fashioned radio with a cassette player in the front was sitting on the electronics table next to a box full of cassette tapes.
“Does this work?” Penny asked the person sitting in a lawn chair just outside the garage.
“Yep, still works,” the woman said. “Just needs new batteries if you plan on using it. I used to carry that thing around back in the eighties.”
“Whoa…how much?” asked Penny, already searching through the tapes.
“You can have it for ten bucks,” she said.
“How about five?”
“Seven.”
“Deal.”
Penny walked away from that garage sale carrying the radio and three tapes; the Best of the Bee Gees, Hall and Oates, and a blank tape without a case, smudged writing on the sticker.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Everyone listen up!” Anabel shouted, trying to get her team’s attention. She slammed her hands on the table for good measure. Her four teammates slowly quieted down and looked at her. They were sitting around the meeting table in their underground headquarters. The headquarters was small, but big enough for five bedrooms, two bathrooms, an armory, and a conjoined kitchen and meeting room. The five of them have been working on it since they were kids.
“We have a mission,” Anabel said. “A house in the Chesterfield suburbs has a demon living in their basement. The homeowners don’t know yet, and I’d like to keep it that way. But the problem is, they have cats.”
“Why is that a problem?” asked Jason.
“There are two beings that are most susceptible to being possessed by a demon,” Ava said, folding her hands on the table and glancing at Eli who sat across from her. “Cats and Androids.”
Eli stiffened. He had a feeling he knew what the plan was going to be and he didn’t like it.
“Why is that, do we know?” asked Luke. His glowing blue eyes met Eli’s nervous yellow ones. Luke was born blind but he wore special contacts that allowed him to see. They were almost completely discreet except for the fact that they glowed icy blue. He often wore sunglasses out in public so that the blue glow wouldn’t draw attention, just as Eli wore sunglasses in public to cover his yellow eyes.
“We’re not sure yet, but we believe that it’s because demons can’t possess a human without permission. But androids aren’t in their code of honor, so they’re free real estate according to demons,” said Anabel.
“That’s stupid,” said Jason. “Androids are people too. Just because they don’t have a soul or whatever, no offense Eli, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the same rights.”
“If I may,” Eli interrupted. “I believe it is simply because we have easily changeable programming. For instance, I have programs that protect me from viruses and hackers, which could change my programming, but a demon isn’t either of those things. To them, I am basically an empty, semi organic body that is, as Anabel said, free real estate.”
“And why cats?” asked Luke.
Anabel shrugged. “No one knows.”
Jason clapped his hands, making everyone startle. “Welp! I’m ready for whatever happens on this mission. Let’s go capture a demon!”
And that was that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Penny, Adrien and Mike were laying on the roof of the van, which was parked next to a corn field. They passed a blunt between them as the last few notes of the Hall and Oates tape played out on the radio, which sat next to Penny on the roof. Penny replaced it with the mysterious tape with the smudged writing.
“Anything could be on here guys,” said Penny as she rewound it and prepared to play it.
“I’m ready for anything,” Mike said, his voice sounding congested and slightly muffled as he held in the smoke. Penny pressed play and took the joint Mike handed her, white smoke curling from his mouth. There was no music that started up. Instead, there was just the sound of distant voices and other movement.
“Alright Dr. Darling, now I have a few questions to ask you,” said the crackling voice of a man over the sound of rustling paper. “You conducted illegal experiments on your assistant involving demon possession, did you not?”
Penny looked at Mike and Adrien with wide eyes. They looked back at her with equally surprised expressions.
“Yes,” said a different man.
“And your assistant is an android, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Are you aware of the trial that took place last year confirming the citizenship and personhood of androids?”
“Yes.”
“So you knew that these experiments were unethical in nature and punishable by law.”
“Yes.”
“Did you create your assistant?”
“Yes, I created Ben.”
“It says in your file that all of your research up until Ben has been about demons. Is it possible that you created your assistant to help you specifically in these types of experiments?”
“Yes, that was my intention.”
“That is nonconsensual and violates many-“
“Detective, sorry to interrupt, but Ben is programmed to not have any emotions. Consent does not matter to him, he is simply programmed to do as I say. What about all the cats I’ve used before Ben? They are not able to consent, so is that considered unethical as well?”
“Yes, doctor, that is exactly what that means. If a person or animal is unable to consent, then it is unethical to conduct experiments on them regardless. Do you understand why you are being detained for the things you’ve done.”
“Yes.”
“And do you admit that your experiments were unethical and unprofessional?”
“Yes.”
The tape ended there and there was nothing but staticy silence.
“What the fuck?” Adrien mumbled.
“You found that at the garage sale?” asked Mike. Penny stared at the sky, still thinking about what she had just heard.
“Uh-huh.”
Just then, Penny thought of the Snapchats she received that morning from her mom. The detective on the tape mentioned Dr. Darling using cats in his experiments. What if her cats were being possessed by a demon? Or a demon was trying to possess them? She sat up with new energy, feeling the need to go back to her parent’s house to check on her cats.
“Mike, take me back to the apartment building. I need to drive home.”
The boys followed Penny off the roof of the car.
“Why?”
“I need to save my cats.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’m the bait, aren’t I?” asked Eli, cocking his head to the side slightly.
“I mean, we didn’t want to come right out and say it…” Jason said. “We didn’t want you to panic or anything.”
“We didn’t want to hurt your feelings by putting you out there like that,” said Luke.
Ava chuckled and shook her head.
“You both know that I have no feelings to hurt,” Eli said. “I do not mind. I’m willing to be of assistance in any way I can.”
“That’s the spirit!” Jason shouted. The four of them were driving to Chesterfield, preparing to attend a big party at the house they were targeting.
“Let’s go over the plan once more,” said Ava, still giggling. “We are going to attend this party and act like the other party goers. So just act like normal, like you’re regular people attending a party. Eli will hopefully draw the demon out and then we can capture it. The goal is to be discreet and quick. We need to get out of there as fast as possible.”
“Won’t this be kind of unsafe with all those people there?” Luke asked.
“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” said Ava. “Besides, most demons aren’t visible to the human eye, so we’ll just keep an eye on Eli and wait for the signs.”
As they entered the neighborhood, they could see the party from all the way down the block. Cars lined the street on both sides and people streamed into the house they were looking for. The party already looked like it was hoppin’ and it was only seven o’clock. Jason navigated through the street and found a spot to park. Eli and Luke put on their sunglasses before they got out of the car. As they walked to the house, Luke nudged Eli and tapped his sunglasses.
“Twinsies,” he grinned. Eli just started at him. Luke cleared his throat and looked forward. When they entered the house, they saw that the party was mainly going on in the basement. The stairs going down to the basement were converted into a train ride. There was a track that looped around at the top where people piled into the cars and then the conductor, a middle aged man in a stripped conductors outfit, used the controls to make the train slowly go back down the other side of the tracks.
There was a long line of partiers waiting to go downstairs and the four demon hunters got in line. They stood behind three giggling women who wore short dresses and a bunch of leis and beads around their necks. They were clearly drunk. The three women shared a car on the train, the conductor having to help them on. The four hunters got into a car behind them, squeezing in tight, not wanting to get separated by these drunk party goers.
As they disembarked the train at the bottom, Eli tried his hardest to focus and keep his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. The drunk women were still nearby. Eli’s concentration was broken as someone shoved past him and smacked one of the girl’s butts. She shrieked and turned around, her drink spilling on the guy and her friends laughing hysterically. Eli turned away from the scene and tried to find his friends. They had already disappeared into the thick crowd.
As Eli wandered the party looking for his friends, he noticed three things. First, the basement, before it was wrecked by the mess of a rager such as this, was a very nice basement. It was huge and nicely finished. There was an entertainment center and pool table off to one side, a sitting room, a spacious floor, old arcade games lining the back wall and a full bar on the other side.
Second, the people here weren’t particularly drunk and awful. It was simply the fact that there were so many of them and most of them seemed to be inebriated in some way. Not to mention the empty cans and bottles all over the floor and the raggedy streamers hanging over almost everything.
And thirdly, Eli realized that he was becoming paranoid and anxious. He didn’t realize that he was capable of experiencing such things, but the way his hands were shaking and the fact that he jumped every time he saw a flash of red told him otherwise. More than once, he thought he saw someone staring at him through the crowd wearing a red demon mask. But when he looked, they would disappear. It was putting him on edge. So it wasn’t a surprise that he jumped and spun around when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Whoa, it’s only me,” said Luke. “You okay?”
“Of course.”
“I’m glad I found you,” said Luke. “I can’t find Jason and Ava.”
“I think this crowd is affecting my ability to focus,” said Eli. He saw Luke glance down at his hands, so he shoved them into his pockets to keep them from shaking.
“Okay, we’re almost done here. We’ll get out of here as soon as possible. Do you want to leave? I’m pretty sure we’d be able to handle ourselves without you,” said Luke, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“No, I am fine. I don’t see how leaving would make any difference. Let’s find Jason and Ava,” said Eli.
The pair pushed through the crowd trying to locate their friends. They spotted them over by the bar, where they were talking to a shirtless guy who was sloshing his drink all over the place. He wore a lei and sunglasses that were sliding off his face. Eli watched as the guy reached over and touched Ava’s hair. She gently pushed his hand away and shook her head. Luke and Eli approached and Ava’s face lit up.
“There you are! We were so worried about you!” she said.
“Hey! There you are! You two wandered off without us!” said Jason. “Having fun just the two of you I see.”
“Jason, please focus,” said Ava. She smiled at the man who was still leaning on the bar, trying to get closer to her. The man looked at the two newcomers and lit up.
“Hey! Twinsies!” he reached out and touched the lenses of Luke’s sunglasses, making him flinch and recoil. The man’s fingers left a grease streak on the lens.
“I’m sorry for cutting this short but this has been a very unpleasant conversation and we’re leaving now,” said Ava.
The boys followed Ava as she left the bar and walked to the back where the arcade games provided a bright glow.
“Avaaa, first kill of the night, huh?” said Jason. Ava smiled and rolled her eyes.
“Please, that guy was asking for it,” she said. She looked over to Luke and Eli. Luke had taken off his glasses to wipe the lens with his shirt. “Any luck finding anything you two?”
“No luck,” said Luke, putting his shades back on.
“I did see something…” Eli said, pausing to figure out how to say this. “At least, I think I saw something. On many occasions, I thought I saw a man staring at me through the crowd. He was wearing a red demon mask but every time I looked for him, he would disappear. Perhaps I’m having some sort of malfunction.”
“You aren’t,” said Jason, staring at something over his shoulder. Eli turned around to follow his friend’s gaze and saw the man in the mask. He stood ominously still as the throng of partygoers flowed around him. Someone passed in front of him and then he was gone. Further into the crowd, somewhere the four hunters couldn’t see, a scream erupted, followed by more screams and a rush of people.
“Now’s our chance!” said Luke. The four of them pushed through the crowd, which was becoming thicker as everyone ran to the train. The conductor was evacuating people. Four or five people were piling into each car and the little train was having trouble staying on the tracks.
Eli looked away for one second and he lost track of his friends. They must have been swept away by the crowd. Eli had to try his hardest to not be swept away himself as he pushed his way to where the scream came from.
Luke, Ava and Jason found themselves at the top of the stairs, the thick crowd of people pushing them back.
“Eli is still down there!” said Jason.
“Let us back down our friend is down there!” Ava said, trying to get past the conductor. But the man wouldn’t let them pass. He pushed them away and held the controller out of reach.
“No one goes down there! It ain’t safe!” he shouted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Penny passed the cars that lined her street and parked in her driveway. The lights were on inside and she could hear quite the commotion. It didn’t sound like a party, it sounded like chaos. She pushed through her front door and immediately searched for her cats. She found them in her parent’s room, hiding from the crowds of people. They looked fine so Penny hugged both of them then went out to find the demon. She figured it would be in the basement. The only problem was that people were pouring out of the basement and there seemed to be a bit of a scuffle at the top of the stairs. Penny pushed her way through and got to the top of the train. The conductor was pushing three people out of the way who seemed to be trying to get back on the train.
“Let me down there! I need to kill the demon that tried to hurt my cats!” she told the conductor.
“No one goes down there!” said the conductor. He shoved Penny back. “Everyone has been evacuated and it’s not safe to go down there.”
“This is my house! Let me down there!” Penny yelled, trying to force her way past him to grab the controller. He shoved her back and she stumbled, falling backwards into the crowd. How dare he put his hands on me, she thought. Whoever caught her when she fell back, pushed her back up. She used that momentum to surge forward and punch the conductor in the face. The crowd Oooh-ed. Penny used the opportunity to snatch the controller from the conductors hand and hop into the train. She drove the train down the tracks and into the basement. The basement was eerily quiet. There was no more music and it was dark save for the flashing party lights and the glow from the arcade games.
Penny dropped the controller into the train car she was in and got out. She heard a scuffle coming from the entertainment center. She ran to where she heard the noise and saw two people. One was a man with pale skin and dark hair. He was on the ground, a pair of broken sunglasses on the ground beside him. Standing over him was another man. This one was tall and wore all black except for the red demon mask covering his face. There was an aura about him that sent chills of panic down Penny’s spine. She ignored it and stepped forward.
“Hey!” she shouted, causing both men to look at her. The man on the ground had yellow eyes, telling Penny that he was an android. The demon only had two black voids where his eyes should have been behind the mask. “Get away from him, it’s me you want!”
“And who are you?” a disembodied voice said. It sounded suspiciously smooth and normal.
“I’m Penny, and you tried to possess my cats,” she said. “No one messes with my cats!”
“Is that so?” the demon stepped over the man on the ground and approached Penny. Penny felt a jolt of uncertainty run through her, but then she thought of her cats and the disturbing Snapchats from that morning. She stood her ground, glaring at the demon, not having a plan in case she was overpowered, which was more likely than not.
The demon walked right up to her and crowded into her space. Penny could faintly see eyes through the holes in the mask but otherwise, there was no sign of him being a human. No breath, no footsteps, he was silent. Penny clenched her fists and decided to do what she had just done with the conductor at the top of the stairs. She punched the demon in the face with all her might.
Penny gasped as she heard her hand crack against the demon’s unmoving face. Pain shot up through her arm. The demon grabbed her shoulders and brought his face closer, tilting his head as if he were going in for a kiss. Penny knew that a kiss from him would mean bad things.
Before he could get any closer, something sounding like glass shattered over his head. His head turned all the way around. Behind the demon stood the android, the broken neck of a wine bottle in his hands. The android dropped the bottle neck and grabbed the demon’s face with both hands. In one swift motion, he pulled the demon off of Penny and flung him across the room. The demon hit the wall across the room and slid down to the ground.
“Are you alright?” the android asked, approaching Penny who was staring wide eyed at the demon who was slowly getting back up.
“Yes. Let’s kill this thing,” Penny growled, quickly getting over her shock.
“Agreed. I am Eli,” he said.
“Penny. How do you kill a demon?” she asked.
“We need to trap it and then banish it,” said Eli. “They are immortal beings, they cannot be killed.”
“Right. Is banishing it a permanent solution?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s do it.”
Penny and Eli stalked around both side of the demon. The demon’s head snapped between the two of them before settling on Eli. He lunged and tackled Eli to the ground. Eli struggled under him and the demon began his descent. Penny took the opportunity to run at the demon and kick it in the face with all her strength. He stumbled back, falling off of Eli. Eli jumped to his feet and grabbed the demon by the collar. He slammed the creature against the wall, leaving a dent.
“Penny, make a circle on the floor!” he said. Penny scrambled to find something to make a circle with. Then she saw the streamers hanging over everything. As she began gathering streamers, the demon kicked Eli square in the chest, making him fly back and crash through the wall into the bathroom. Eli pushed the pieces of ceramic from the destroyed toilet off of him and charged through the hole in the wall. He tried to get a hold on the demon as Penny laid the streamers on the ground in a circle.
“I’m ready!” said Penny.
“Help me get him into the circle!” Eli said, struggling with the demon. Penny ran to the scuffle and kicked the demon in the groin. It didn’t seem to have the effect she was hoping for but he still doubled over, giving the two of them the advantage. But as Eli tried to grapple him, he pushed the android out of the way and grabbed Penny around the neck with both hands, lifting her off the ground.
“Enough is enough! I will not be defeated by a little girl and her bag of gears!” the disembodied voice filled the basement. Penny struggled to gasp for breath and claw at his hands around her neck. Her feet kicked and she could feel her windpipe being crushed. A wire wrapped around the demon’s throat. Eli, who was holding the wire, pulled the demon back, making him stumble into the circle, where Eli yanked the demon to the ground, making him release his hold on Penny. Penny fell to the ground and pushed herself away from the monster.
Before the demon could do anything else, Eli lit a match and flicked it into the circle of streamers. The circle and the demon burst into flames. The demon seemed to sink into the ground, screaming and writhing. But the fire kept going.
“We need to go,” said Eli, pulling Penny to her feet and leading her to the train.
“We need to put that fire out!” said Penny.
“It’s hellfire, water won’t do anything. It will go out on its own, it won’t destroy anything. But we need to leave before it consumes us,” said Eli. The two of them ran to the train and they got into one of the cars. Penny fiddled with the controller but the train wouldn’t move.
“What’s wrong with it?” Penny yelled, feeling the heat from the fire get more intense.
“It’s steam powered. It’s out of water,” said Eli. “It looks like water can just be dumped into the engine up there.”
“The fish tank!” Penny shouted, pointing to the glowing fish tank across the room. “If we can get to it…”
“There are no life forms in there, right?”
“No. We haven’t had fish in there in years.”
Eli took off across the room, running past the flames which seemed to reach for him. He lifted the tank and hurried back to the train, the water sloshing out of the top. He got to the train and Penny tried to help him dump it over the engine. Steam poured out of the train engine and the machinery inside hissed and rumbled to life. Eli jumped into the car with Penny and they rode to the top of the stairs. The crowd of party goers cheered when they saw the train crest the stairs. Penny and Eli hopped out of the train car. Eli was immediately enclosed in a hug from three people at the front of the crowd. They fussed over him as the conductor angrily took the controller from Penny. She let him have it.
“Eli,” she called. Eli and his three friends looked at her. “Thanks for helping me down there. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“And I would not have survived if you hadn’t stepped in,” said Eli. The woman next to him with dark curls cascading down her back wrote something down on a slip of paper and handed it to Penny. It was a phone number.
“Keep in touch with us, will you?” she said. “My name is Ava. Thank you for helping my friend.”
“Anytime Ava,” said Penny. “I have a feeling you four weren’t here for the party.”
“Call me and I’ll explain everything,” she said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Penny wandered down to her basement the next morning, her hand wrapped tightly. The party had dispersed long ago. Everyone left shortly after they defeated the demon. That night, after everyone left, Penny had called Ava and she explained that her and her friends were part of a demon hunting club. They were still learning their trade, but they could use someone as spunky as Penny. She told Ava she would think about it.
The thought of defending cats everywhere appealed to her. She knew she would call back.
Penny passed the burned spot in the carpet and looked past it to see the big hole in the wall and the destroyed bathroom within. She wandered to the bar and kitchenette. There were streamers and empty cans and pizza boxes everywhere. A garbage bag overflowing with paper plates and solo cups sat against the cupboard. Dishes filled the sink.
But most importantly, her cats joined her downstairs, finally feeling safe from the demon that had lived down there. She hugged her cats, knowing that she not only avenged their honor, she also potentially saved their very lives. She then thought of all the other cats who were susceptible to being possessed by demons.
She would definitely call Ava back.
As she continued to ruminate over this, a flash of red flew past behind her…
