The Demon, the Witch, and the Priest, page 1
The Demon, the Witch and the Priest
KC Donovan
Copyright © 2021 KC Donovan
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 9781234567890
ISBN-10: 1477123456
Cover design by: Art Painter
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309
Printed in the United States of America
1
Gio-
Sticking to the shadows, Gio waited for the life within the walls of 235th Pl SE to quiet down, one room at a time.
Stiff branches rustled in the crisp autumn breeze that ruffled his hair as a steady rhythm of heartbeats picked up on the tail end of the wind. As the sounds of the night grew strong, Gio sifted through them one at a time.
First to sleep was always Mr. Olsen. Confident with his family under one roof, the steady drumming of his heart set the rhythm each evening.
With the feather-light beats of a young child, little Max was natural competition for his father. Almost at the same time each night, Gio would pick them up one after the other.
Mrs. Olsen often stayed up late with worry. Gio could hear it in the pitter-patter of her heart, notably when it skipped a beat. On the hardest nights, he would smell lavender and honey. It was the apparent sign that Mrs. Olsen couldn’t sleep and had made herself lavender tea to calm her mind. Sleep wouldn’t take long after that.
As routine as these heartbeats were for him, there was still one more Gio searched for. One more pulse that always kept him wanting. The one that stayed up the latest reading in her window long after she should have been asleep.
As soon as Gio heard it, a sense of peace settled within his bones.
For the briefest of moments, Gio closed his eyes as he listened to the drumming beat of a young girl that sang to him. A beautiful whisper like the wings of a hummingbird.
An internal scoff had Gio grinding his teeth.
Pushing against the infernal darkness, Gio took a deep breath, counted to ten, and returned to the soft flutter of the girls beating heart. If it weren’t for her existence, he would have turned a long time ago. It was the very reason he exhausted every breath protecting her.
When are you going to tell her? the voice inside asked.
“I can’t,” Gio breathed softly.
You said you would.
Gio groaned. “She’s just a kid.”
If you don’t tell her, let me kill her.
“Are you insane? Don’t answer that, of course, you are.”
I cannot help who I am, Giovanni. You shouldn’t try so hard to repress me either.
“You won’t touch her.”
You shouldn’t repress yourself.
“I am nothing like you.”
Sure, you are. After all, you are me, the voice chuckled.
Gio took another breath and shut the voice out.
Finally, the light went out in the window on the second floor. Soon the girl would be asleep just like the rest of the sleepy little town in the Pacific Northwest.
As he listened to the sweet trill of her heart, Gio decided it could wait a little longer.
2
Paige-
It was one of those dreams where you know it’s a dream, but you have no control over what happens.
Where you try to tell yourself to do one thing, but you do something else. And yet when you wake up, you know, it wasn’t a dream at all. That everything you felt was genuine.
Paige was unsure of where she was. She had never seen this place before, but something Paige couldn't define pulled her closer.
Uncontrollably, Paige walked the stone path until she came upon a bridge. Stopping at the peak, Paige looked down over the side, where a small river flowed silently. There were no fish, or frogs, or mud. Just river rocks sparkling beneath the clear surface.
A light breeze rustled her hair and carried a gentle voice. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Spinning around, Paige stared at a woman who could have been her twin. The air seemed to be punched from her lungs as she stood there speechless.
“It was one of my favorite places,” the woman said. “Do you have a favorite place?”
Paige tried to answer the woman’s question but was still too stunned to speak.
“I have dreamt of this day.” The woman smiled with tears lining her eyes. “I’ve thought all these years about what I might say. Now I’m not sure there is enough time to explain.”
“Explain what?” Paige asked as she continued to study the woman’s features. The woman wasn’t an exact image of herself, but she was pretty close. Where Paige had deep red hair the woman had strawberry blond. And the woman had green eyes while Paige’s were like molten amber.
It was so close, but…
“Who…?”
The woman gripped Paige’s arm with an urgent look in her eyes. “You must run, my darling, Pagan.”
“Run from what?”
The woman’s grip tightened. “He’s coming for you. There isn’t enough time…”
“Who’s coming for me?” The woman spoke in such a rush; Paige barely caught the woman’s words. “You aren’t making any sense.”
“Don’t be afraid, my darling. I’m always with you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“One more thing, find Giovanni.”
“But…who are you?”
The woman smiled brightly. “I’m your mother.” The woman wrapped her arms around Paige and said, “It’s nice to meet you.”
“My…my mother? But that’s not…”
“If you find Giovanni, you will get the answers you need. For now, I must go before they find out what I’ve done.”
“But…wait…wait…” Paige raced down the bridge in pursuit of the woman. It wasn’t making sense. How could the woman be who she said? “Wait…I can’t keep up.”
The woman kept running and refused to look back. Paige ran and ran, but the woman was faster. Suddenly her legs felt like cement, and she couldn’t lift her foot to take another step, Paige fell into darkness.
∞
Paige woke with a start.
Her heart pounded as sweat beaded along her brow. Paige gasped short, shallow breaths.
It was just a dream. Wasn’t it?
But Paige could still feel the sensation of the woman’s arms wrapped around her shoulders. It was such a powerful feeling. She couldn’t shake the strangeness sticking to her skin.
The moon shone brightly through the window as Paige sat up to gaze at the stars.
The dream played over and over in Paige’s mind as she tried to analyze each movement. Each word spoke. Each emotion felt.
Out of Paige’s periphery, something shuffled in the shadows of the trees, but as soon as she searched the yard, it was gone. Pulling her fingers through her hair, Paige mumbled, “Get it together.” And with a huff, she fell back against her cold-sweat soaked bed.
3
Paige-
The school day had been long and arduous. The dream kept pulling on Paige’s attention, leaving her unable to concentrate during class.
When the last bell rang, Paige blindly rushed to the student lot. Other students were piling into their cars when a conversation about the bonfire was too loud for Paige to tune out.
“You’re coming, right?” a kid at the next car over asked.
“Um…I…,” Paige tried to remember who he was but couldn’t recall his name.
“Of course she’s coming,” the kids’ friend said as he climbed into the passenger seat. “She’s the captain.”
The kid smiled as if there was no question. As if she didn’t have a choice.
Was that who she was? Was that all she was?
The kids climbed into their car and drove off, leaving Paige standing there alone. Despite the crowded parking lot, she felt the sense of cosmic loneliness deep within.
Paige couldn’t help feeling lost as the dream came back to her once more. It had felt so real.
“Hey, you okay?”
Startled and confused, Paige looked up into the smiling face of her boyfriend, Troy. He was tall and lean with broad shoulders and a strong jaw. Every girl in school wanted him, and every guy wanted to be him.
There was always that one guy in the group, and at Skyline High, Troy was it. The all-star. The MVP. The captain of the football team. Paige’s boyfriend. And it was possible she felt the most alone when she was with him.
“Huh?”
“You okay? You look lost.”
She felt lost, but instead of voicing it, Paige said, “I’m good. I thought I saw something, but it was just a trick of the light.”
“Okay, well. I’ll see you at the bonfire later?”
“Yeah…yeah, I’ll see you there,” Paige agreed without questioning it further.
Troy smiled that winning smile, wrapped his arm around her waist, and kissed Paige quickly before running off to catch up with the guys a few aisles over.
∞
Paige looked around her bedroom, feeling like she had never seen any of it before.
The shelves of
The pictures on the corkboard.
The pink ruffle comforter.
The white vanity table; cosmetics of varying shades and uses scattered in organized chaos.
Who was she?
“Shake it off, Paige. It was just a dream,” she spoke softly to herself.
Taking a breath, Paige went to the shower to wash the day away. There was a bonfire she had to get to and a whole senior class that expected an appearance.
∞
“Where are you off to?” her mother asked with a warm smile.
Paige halted at the bottom of the stairs. Consciously, she looked at the petite framed woman before her, examining her mother's short-cropped raven hair and glacier eyes. Paige noticed her mother was small chested and built more like a teenage boy than a grown woman.
Turning towards the mirror hanging to the left of where she stood, Paige felt massive with her 5’7” frame. Paige had wide hips, a small waist, and ample breasts. She might as well have been an Amazonian woman next to her mother.
“Why don’t I look anything like you?” Paige blurted out, surprising herself. It was just a dream, she thought.
Paige turned to look at Mrs. Olsen, who had shock written all over her face. “What?”
“Nothing.” Paige shook her head as if to erase the thought. Plastering a smile on her face, she said, “I’m going down to Jensen’s Cove. The school is throwing a bonfire. Nothing big, I promise.”
“A bonfire? Can I go?” Max asked as he jumped down the stairs behind his sister.
“Not this time, booger-eater,” Paige said as she ruffled his hair.
“Paige, don’t call your brother that.”
“Yeah,” Max chimed in. “I haven’t eaten a booger since I was five.”
“Max, don’t be gross,” Mrs. Olsen chided her youngest child.
The front door opened as Mr. Olsen greeted his family with a broad smile. “Well, hello, family.”
“Movies, score!” Max exclaimed as he pulled the small black plastic bag free from his father’s grip.
“I’ve got pizza too,” Mr. Olsen hollered after his son. Mrs. Olsen took the pizza boxes from her husband’s hands and left for the kitchen with a smile. “Where’re you off to, pumpkin?”
“The bonfire,” Paige answered honestly.
“I heard about that down at the station house. As your local fire captain, I’m going to tell you to be careful. Raging fires are dangerous,” Mr. Olsen cautioned.
“Yes, sir,” Paige agreed.
“As your father, I’m going to tell you to have fun and be home by eleven.”
Paige smiled brightly and hugged her dad. “Yes, sir.”
4
Paige-
The thing about the Pacific Northwest was that it sprinkled misty rain at a near-constant pace. When the skies finally shut off, you had to seize the opportunity for outdoor activities. The senior class of Skyline High did so as often as they could.
Tonight, Paige observed, was the perfect night for a bonfire.
The wind picked up Paige’s hair around her shoulders as she walked towards the crowd down by the water. The were guys playing tackle football in the sand while a co-ed group played volleyball. Those left, not dancing around the fire, were mingled in their cliques, talking it up.
Paige spied her boyfriend, Troy, talking animatedly with her cheer mate, Michelle, when a second pair of shoes fell in step beside her. Momentarily surprised, Paige looked up to see Nick smiling back.
Nick was an average 5’10” comic book nerd who had lived across the street from her since the day her family moved to Sammamish 8-years ago. Nick had shaggy brown hair and sad puppy eyes that kept him looking vulnerable despite how mature he was.
Paige adored him.
Being around Nick was easier than being with the others. While Paige knew she was supposed to lead the popular kids, she always wondered if she belonged with them at all. Troy was the quarterback star and captain of the 4A Varsity football team at Skyline High. Naturally, when Paige became the cheer squad captain, Troy chose her to be his girl because it just made sense to him.
Paige hated to admit it, but she fell for it.
At the time, she had been tired of being the underdog. Paige had spent the previous seven years in the care of her next-door-neighbor-slash-best-fried-forever, Nikolas Goldstein. As much as she loved him, she had been ready for a change. It wasn’t until after Paige got her wish that she realized how alone you could be while surrounded by so many friends.
What Paige didn’t voice out loud was that she would give anything for things to go back to the way they used to be. Just her and Nick. Best friends forever.
Nick offered his arm to Paige as they walked towards the bonfire together. “I thought maybe you weren’t going to show.”
“Why would you think that?” Paige asked, a little reserved in thought as her friend talked.
“Don’t know, you seemed busy lately. You also looked a little tired earlier.” Just as Nick finished his sentence, the toe of his shoe stubbed on a hidden rock.
Paige gasped and threw her hands up as if she might catch him, but then the oddest thing happened. For the space of an eye blink, Nick seemed to stand still as if he had frozen for just a moment, but then he didn’t.
Nick stuttered in his steps before he caught his balance with his other leg, righting himself. “That was close.”
“Yeah, it was,” Paige said out loud, lost in thought once more.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it was probably a trick of the light.”
“Oh, yes, the moonlight. Such a trickster.”
“Keep it up, chuckles.”
“Chuckles, huh?” The friends laughed together. “For real, though, is everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t sound so sure,” Nick observed.
Paige sighed. It was a silly dream. Nothing more. But why couldn’t she stop thinking about it? “Do you think I look like my parents?” she asked quietly.
When Nick didn’t respond, Paige stopped walking. He stayed with her and turned thoughtful before replying. “No, I’ve never thought so.”
“But Max does, right?”
“I suppose so. Yeah. I mean, he shares their black hair, and he has your dad’s beady eyes.”
“But I look nothing like them. Shouldn’t I have inherited something? A chin. A nose. I don’t even have the same body type,” Paige babbled.
“What’s brought this on?” Nick wondered.
Paige suddenly worried she was overreacting. She wasn’t going to tell him. She wouldn’t tell him because there was nothing to say. It was a ridiculous unproven feeling based on a silly dream.
Except Paige looked into Nick’s puppy dog eyes and found overwhelming concern. She knew Nick wouldn’t judge her, no matter how ridiculous she felt. He stood 6 inches away in his solid red tee over a white thermal, patiently waiting for answers.
Paige let out a breath and said, “Last night, I dreamt of a woman...”
“Were you making out with this woman?”
Paige rolled her eyes at Nick’s light-hearted deflection. “The woman looked like me, though her hair was lighter, and she was older, but not by much.”
“Okay, so were you making out with this twin of yours? The question needs answering,” Nick jested.
“No, Nicky! Stop being ridiculous.”
“I'm not ridiculous. It’s happened before. I’m sure I’ve read about it somewhere.”
“This is my dream we are talking about. Not an article in Playboy.”
“I’m just saying. Would it be so awful?” Nick joked as he tried to lighten the seriousness radiating in the air around them. When it didn’t work, he cleared his throat and seriously asked, “Did anything specific happen during the encounter with yourself?”
“She called me her daughter.”
“Oh,” Nick looked unsure of what to say next. “Maybe we should look it up. Hey, you know what? That would be a great article. We could call it Dreams Unveiled: What Your Dreams Really Mean.”
“What if I’m adopted?” Paige asked in a whisper. Geez, where was this coming from? Honest, it was just a dream, she thought. But she couldn’t deny the odd feeling burning deep inside.
Nick put his arm around Paige’s shoulders as they began to walk again. “Then consider yourself lucky. There have been plenty of times I have wished I was adopted, but alas, they are my people.”
