NOVEL NEXT Interlude 8 – Saving The World
=::= Melanie's PoV =::=
It was about half past one when we pulled into the resort parking lot.
"Do you know your way around here?" I asked. "I've never been here before, and it looks like a big place."
Marissa shook her head, "Not really. I've only been here once, for a school skiing trip the winter before last."
As we emerged from the car she added, "I figured you could sniff them out though, right? If there's demons around you can pick up the scent?"
"Probably," I nodded. "Unless they're doing something to mask it. That doesn't have to be supernatural either, anywhere with a lot of strong scents can mask stuff."
With a wide grin Marissa pulled on her witch hat and stated, "Well we can always snoop around the old-fashioned way, until we find the scent."
I rolled my eyes, "Or until they spot you in your giant hat."
My girlfriend giggled as the two of us set off towards the main resort building.
Fortunately it wasn't hard for me to pick out the scent of demons among the thousands of human scents that clouded the area. Until yesterday I'd have thought demons would smell like sulphur, or maybe like something burnt. They actually had a sort of musky earthy smell, but it was hard to describe. It turned out to be fairly easy for me to follow though, which was convenient.
There were some criss-crossed areas where the demons had been, some pools of scent where they'd stood or lingered, but even in my human form my nose was good enough to easily tell which trail was fresh and which was old.
Marissa stayed at my side as we wandered through the resort lobby, then out a side door. The scent grew stronger as we followed the trail past some open lawn and through some tress and bushes, past a garden, till we finally came to a clearing surrounded by more trees and bushes.
There were a bunch of folding chairs all set up facing towards a podium at one end. There were tables with bouquets of flowers all around, and about fifty people were sitting or standing around like they were waiting for something. I spotted four of the demons up at the front of the crowd, but the demonic twins were missing.
"Marissa," I said quietly as I looked to my girlfriend. "This looks like a wedding. I don't see any kind of demonic ritual stuff going on, and I'm positive most of these people are humans."
She frowned for a few seconds then stated "Could be they're planning to attack the wedding for some reason? Those four up at the front might be dopplegangers, like they've replaced the real guests so they could get close to the action?"
"Maybe?" I shrugged. "There's more scents, I think the demon twins are nearby. Maybe we can see what they're up to."
"Good thinking!" she stated with a grin.
I led the way, and the scent led us to a small outbuilding at the back of the wedding area. It had a waiting area on the side, where we spotted four people. There was a middle-aged black woman in a wedding dress, an older guy that looked like her father in a fancy suit, and a younger girl and boy who might have been her kids were also dressed up nice. All four smelled human though so I kept moving.
Around the other side of the building we found another little alcove, and that's where the twin demons were lurking. They had a middle-aged white woman with them, she smelled human and was also in a wedding dress.
Me and Marissa stopped by a tree a dozen or so meters away from them. I stated, "The bride's human. Same with the other bride and the folks on the other side of the building."
"Maybe they're going to sacrifice one of the brides," Marissa stated. "Or maybe the two brides are going to be offered up to Satan himself!"
I gave her a look, "On a normal average sunny afternoon in May? The full moon's not till next week, and the new moon was more than a week ago."
"Honestly Marissa," I added as I shook my head, "I'm starting to think maybe this is just a wedding. Maybe they're not even demons? Maybe there's some other explanation for..."
My voice trailed off when I noticed one of the twins suddenly started walking towards us. She had her eyes fixed on my girlfriend and me, and I knew there was no getting away.
Marissa whispered, "Be ready! I'll hit her with a sleep spell if she tries anything."
I braced myself for the confrontation, my hands curled into fists. I wasn't as confident in my magic, but I had plenty of experience with good old school-yard fighting.
"Hey you two," the demon greeted us in a friendly voice. "What's going on?"
"That's what we'd like to know!" Marissa responded in a brave confident tone. "Whatever you demons are planning, you won't get away with it. We're here to stop you!"
The dusky-skinned demon looked momentarily startled, and I realized she hadn't expected us to know what she was.
It took her a second or two to recover, but she still didn't act angry or threatening. She just asked, "What makes you think I'm a demon?"
I kept quiet, I figured it was best not to reveal our secrets just in case. Unfortunately my girlfriend wasn't that cautious, not that this was news to me.
She stated proudly, "Thanks to my magic sight I can see your twin's horns and tail."
"Seriously?" the demon asked with a grin. "Are you a real witch or something?"
I was still on edge but she wasn't acting the least bit worried or threatening. If anything she seemed amused and curious. And Marissa was still thinking more about showing off and bragging, rather than being careful or safe.
"Of course I'm a witch," she responded with all the confidence in the world. "And whatever it is you lot are planning, it's not going to work. Me and my girlfriend are here to stop you, we'll put an end to your evil schemes!"
The dusky-skinned demon sighed as she seemed to finally get serious.
She gave us both a look, then her voice took on a slightly menacing tone as she stated "Listen, I'd love to talk more with you girls about this witch stuff but it's going to have to wait till some other time ok?"
She gestured towards her demonic twin and the woman in the wedding dress as she continued, "That's my human mom back there alright? And she's about to get married to her human girlfriend. Me and my twin and all our girlfriends promised there wouldn't be any supernatural shenanigans at the wedding. So if you two kids mess that up, if you two mess with my mom's wedding?"
The demon paused there for just a moment, before she stated in a cold and threatening tone, "Then you'll be dealing with four unhappy succubi. And three very angry demons. And worst of all? You'll have to explain yourselves to the two human brides who's wedding you'll have messed up. And believe me when I tell you this? If you ruin my mom's wedding? She *will* have words with your parents. And it won't be pretty."
The demon's words hung in the air as I looked to Marissa. She glanced back at me, and from the look in her eyes I was pretty sure we were both thinking the same thing.
Up until that moment it was almost kind of fun. We were chasing down supernatural stuff, we knew those six girls weren't human and we knew one of them was hiding horns and a tail. But having it confirmed, being told we were actually dealing with three real demons and four real succubi... I was positive we were in over our heads.
Marissa was a strong witch and I was a werewolf, but we were both just sixteen year old girls. We were grade ten high-school students. If they wanted to sacrifice some humans or open a gateway to hell, there probably wasn't much the two of us could do about it.
I wasn't even sure what to say at that point, like how to back down and get out of the confrontation. Luckily my girlfriend spoke up first, and better still she was actually reasonable and rational for once.
"We're sorry for the interruption," Marissa apologized. Her tone made it clear she was as uneasy as me. "We'll just move along and let you all get back to the wedding. And um, we wish your mom and her wife all the best?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "Good luck."
The demon smiled, "Thanks. You two have a nice day."
Me and my girlfriend exchanged another glance, then the two of us turned and hurried away. I looked back over my shoulder once, but the demon wasn't chasing us or following us. She wasn't even watching, she'd gone back over to rejoin her twin and the bride.
We kept moving till we were well out of sight, then we finally stopped and I let out a sigh of relief.
"Holy cow," I exclaimed quietly. "That got way too serious Marissa!"
She grimaced, "I know. I still want to keep an eye on the demons just in case, but we'll stay clear of the brides."
I frowned at her, "Huh?"
My girlfriend shuddered, "Never mess with a bride on her wedding day. You think demons and zombies and witch hunters are scary? They've got nothing on an irate woman in a wedding dress. I learned that the hard way when my aunt Maisie got married."
"Don't ask," she added with a grimace.
I stared at her for another couple seconds as her words sank in. She still wasn't scared of the demons and succubi. It was the threat of angry brides that frightened her.
"Oh my goddess Marissa," I finally laughed. "You're too much, you know that?"
She gave me an exaggerated innocent look, then grinned. "C'mon! Let's find someplace we can keep an eye on them without being spotted!"
I sighed, but I knew I wasn't going to change her mind. So I followed, and the two of us snuck around till we were at the far end of the clearing. We were off to one side, where we had a good view of the wedding ceremony.
A few minutes later the music started, then the two demonic twins walked up the aisle with their human mom. A few moments later the other group came up the aisle behind them. The four other demons, or succubi apparently, were all sat in the front row seats to one side of the make-shift outdoor chapel.
"What are you doing now?" I asked, when Marissa pulled out her phone.
She opened up the camera app as she replied, "I'm recording the event. If anything goes down, at least we'll have a record of it to show the rest of the club. It might help when we need to figure out what sort of magic to use to reverse the effects."
I sighed again, "It's a wedding Marissa. The effects don't get reversed until they break up and hire lawyers."
"You never know!" she protested. "Why else would there be a bunch of demons and succubi at a human wedding? Plus there's got to be another demon lurking around, right? She said four succubi and three demons, but we've only seen the six of them so far."
"Fine," I shrugged. "Just don't get us caught ok? My life's finally started getting better, I don't want to end up dead. Or in juvie."
Fortunately my girlfriend kept quiet, and the two of us watched a long, boring, and completely mundane human wedding. The brides exchanged rings and kissed each other, there was some cheering, and that was that.
When the crowd started to disburse I asked, "Ready to go home now?"
"Nope," she stated. "There'll be a reception. Maybe that's when they're going to spring their trap."
I suppressed a groan, but I followed Marissa as she followed the wedding party. We wasted the rest of the afternoon watching the two demonic twins and the rest of the wedding party posing for a bunch of official pictures.
When that was done the twins and the brides and everyone else disappeared into their rooms in the resort. I wanted to leave too, it was pretty obvious to me that this was just a normal wedding and nothing supernatural was going to happen.
My girlfriend insisted on staying, and I let her bribe me with meat. Marissa bought us dinner at the hotel restaurant, and a ten ounce sirloin served blue rare was exactly the kind of payment I needed to keep me on her side for another six hours.
After that the two of us continued to lurk around, but we couldn't get into the reception while they were eating. The best we could manage was eavesdropping during the speeches. We didn't get a look inside till after the dinner was over. They had music going and there was dancing, and it was more like a typical grown-up party at that point.
Marissa insisted we continue to monitor the situation. By ten o'clock there were people coming and going, and the two of us tried to infiltrate the room. She refused to take off her huge hat though, so it wasn't much of a surprise that we got caught pretty quickly. We did manage to nab a couple cans of cola and some fancy cookies before that same demon girl cornered us.
"Hello again you two," she stated as she stood a few paces away.
She looked amused, but I was worried. Looking past her I could see her twin was watching, along with the four succubi. The twin with the horns was talking to the others, probably telling them about me and Marissa.
Meanwhile the demon standing in front of us said, "I appreciate that you two stayed clear for the wedding, but my human moms are still here ok? And we still don't want any trouble. So how about you girls go home, it's getting late."
Marissa looked brave and I could tell she was about to get us in trouble, but I grabbed her hand as I told the demon "Sorry for intruding. We're leaving now."
"Glad to hear it," the demon responded.
I just smiled, then hauled Marissa away before we got in any worse trouble. She was quiet till we got out in the hall, then she started protesting. I didn't let up though, I hauled her all the way out of the building, through the parking lot, and up to her dad's car.
"Just get us home ok?" I stated. "It was a human wedding, with a couple demon guests. Nothing happened."
Marissa sighed and her shoulders slumped, "Fine."
A few seconds later we were in the car, and her mood had already bounced right back up.
As she started the car she turned and grinned. "Nothing happened, because we were there keeping an eye on things. That demon confirmed it right? We saw four succubi and at least two demons. We made contact with one of them. And whatever their evil plan was, we stopped it. They knew better than to risk it while me and you were there to save the day."
"Right," I rolled my eyes. "We didn't crash some private wedding, we saved the world. We're heroes."
With a wide smile on her face Marissa stated, "You know it!"
