Accidental Summoning Ch. 04

"...and then they cut me loose and brought me here. That's all I can tell you." Hamid raised his hands in front of him in mock surrender. "I know, it sounds insane. It is insane, and the more I tell the story the less I believe it. Everybody's been looking at me like I've grown an extra head." He looked up at Alberth and gave a helpless shrug. "But that's what happened."

The detective flipped his notepad shut and set it back in his pocket. "I believe you," he said soberly.

Hamid stared in shock. "You do?"

Alberth chuckled. "Well, let me clarify. I believe that you believe that's what happened." He reached over into his briefcase and pulled out a manila folder. "We've got the test reports back on your blood." He opened it and began reading one of the pages within. "It looks like the late and unlamented Randall Peterson had given you quite the cocktail of drugs. Some of the tests were positive for known sedatives, and a few more tested positive for a psychoactive compound."

"Psychoactive...you mean like LSD or something?"

The detective nodded. "They're still trying to nail down the exact drug but it appears to be a very strong dose. Certainly strong enough to cause severe hallucinations. So you see, I do believe your story. You did indeed 'see' a green demon-woman, but only because of drugs and the power of suggestion. She was never there, and you never got your bonds loose. That part was all in your head."

Hamid stared at the wall with a growing sense of relief. Could it really be that simple? "But Randall...she told him to cut his throat and he did..." He shuddered, remembering the horrible strangling gurgle as Randall drowned in his own blood.

"He did indeed," replied the detective. He flipped to another sheet in his folder. "The only fingerprints on the knife were his, and when we combine that with the angle and position of the wound plus the blood spray patterns and the knife's location on the floor...yes, it was clearly self-inflicted." He gave Hamid a nasty grin. "And it turns out that our boy Randall was on an even bigger dose of that psychoactive compound."

"He was?"

"Oh yes. Along with some sort of designer drug similar to Ecstasy in its effects. That last one isn't too surprising. We've had an eye on Randall for a while. He was suspected of running a designer-drug ring that was involved in both manufacturing and selling."

Alberth shook his head, his scalp gleaming like polished ebony in the overhead fluorescent light. "In the unlikely event that you felt any remorse over his death, rest assured that young Mr. Peterson was a thoroughly nasty piece of work. We even suspect that he was responsible for a few rapes around campus...nothing that we could prove, of course. And now it looks like he was getting set to graduate to full-on murder."

The detective gave a sad laugh. "When it comes to my fellow humans, I tend to ascribe to the John Donne school of 'the bell tolls for thee'. But in this case I can safely say that the world is a better place now that Randall Peterson is no longer in it."

Hamid tried to wrap his head around the news. "So Randall...he cut his own throat just because he was on drugs?"

"Well nothing in his bloodstream was exactly FDA approved, now was it?" Alberth gave Hamid a twinkling smile. "Either of them by itself would be bad enough. But combined together, it could be very dangerous to the user. Drug interaction is a scary thing even before you add hallucinogens to the mix." His smile faded. "I once saw a man on PCP who decided that his eyes were itching too much. So he took them out. With his own thumbs." He made a scooping motion with one thumb next to one of his own dark eyes.

Hamid shuddered, and the detective leaned forward to pat his bed-clothed foot. "Sorry," he muttered to the policeman.

"No need to feel ashamed, Hamid," replied Alberth. "You're someone who's been through a very scary experience. It'll take time to process it. And don't feel like you need to gut this out or be 'manly' about it. If you need to talk to me or somebody else, do so. Trust me, I've been there."

Hamid sorted through his emotions. "In a way, I'm already feeling better about this. It was just a weird hallucination." Hamid laughed. "There aren't any green demon-women, and now the world makes sense again."

"That's the spirit!" said the detective with a smile. "Oh, before I forget..." He retrieved his notepad and opened it again. "Randall mentioned one Paul Haskell, correct?"

"Right. But I never knew Paul. I remember reading about his disappearance but that's all."

Alberth nodded. "Did Randall or the others say anything that made you think that they were responsible for Mr. Haskell's vanishing?"

"No. I guess Lonnie had classes with Paul, and had gotten one of his notebooks. It was some kind of...Sumerian translation scheme? I don't remember exactly. They claimed that a demon had taken Paul." He looked up in sudden realization. "The Fuckwit Twins! Lonnie and Wilfred! What happened with them?"

Alberth finished making a few notes in his pad. "Lonnie Jenkins was picked up half-naked and covered in blood in an alleyway not too far from where we found you. He had quite a few self-inflicted wounds on his chest, most likely done with his own fingernails. He was screaming something about needing to take out his heart and hide it so that the demons couldn't eat it. It won't surprise you to find out that his blood tests also showed the same massive overdose of drugs as Randall's tests. Wilfred Nason is still at large, but Mr. Nason does not strike me as one with the necessary mental or physical discipline to remain at large."

The detective gestured at the closed door into the room. "Nevertheless, I have a few officers taking shifts in guarding your room. I think it's highly unlikely that Wilfred would try to get at you but I also believe in being careful."

As Hamid leaned back against the bed, the detective flipped back a few pages in his notepad. "So do you recall what happened to Mr. Haskell's notebook?" Alberth asked casually.

Hamid had to think back on it. "The demon took it with her. Well, at least that's what I saw happen to it. For all I know, it might still be lying in that pentagram."

"It wasn't. We found that larger tome you described, but no trace of the Haskell notebook. Pity. It would be nice to wrap up that case as well." The detective sighed. "That is, of course, assuming that the notebook was actually there and not another hallucination."

There was soft knock at the door, and then it opened. A uniformed policeman stuck his head in. "Detective? His family's here."

Alberth smiled broadly. "Excellent timing." He put away his notepad and folder and then stood and handed Hamid a card. "Take care Hamid, and call me if you think of anything further or if you just need to talk. There's going to be a lot of tedious legal proceedings ahead, but it should be over in a month or two. I think you'll come out of it okay."

Hamid took the card and returned the detective's smile. "I think I will. Thanks, detective."

They shook hands and Alberth strolled out of the room. Hamid was able to enjoy all of one second of peace and quiet before a herd of people burst through the door with his grandmother at the head of it.

__________________________________________________________

There was a lot of happy tears and a lot of hugging. Hamid's father even got moist in the eyes. His sister was all set to 'break him out of stir', as she put it. The doctor assured them all that Hamid was fine and not at all under arrest or suspicion. But he still had to remain for one more night, just to be sure he didn't have any weird after-affects from his drug exposure.

Eventually, his family agreed. Hamid spent a pleasant few hours catching up on family gossip as well as getting poked and prodded by his grandmother. "You're too skinny," she claimed.

"Skinny? Grandma, I'm a flanker on a rugby team. The last thing you could call me is 'skinny'."

His grandmother patted his taut stomach. "You still need some meat on your bones. How are you going to get a nice girl looking like a twig?"

After a lot more happy hugs and tears, he was finally left alone again. He relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever.

His world made sense again.

There had been no demon, no hint of powerful forces beyond human comprehension. Now everything in the universe was neat and tidy once more. Yes, Hamid had nearly died but that was due to understandable human failings.

He dozed for a bit, then woke when he heard a murmured conversation outside his room. The officer outside opened the door to admit yet another nurse. Most of the nurses that Hamid had seen so far were of what could charitably be called the 'matronly' type. In contrast, this nurse was thin, blonde, and vaguely pretty. She was dressed in the standard green scrubs and had a sensible button-up blue sweater over the top of those. The nurse nodded her thanks to the officer, who left and closed the door.

"How are we feeling, Mr. Abedi?" she asked in the standard 'Cheerful Nurse Voice' that he was getting very familiar with.

He sat up. "Not bad. A little dry-mouth is all."

She tutted and picked up the plastic cup that sat on a tray next to his bed. "You need to drink more water." As she refilled it in the nearby sink, she kept speaking. "I just need to get your vital signs, is that all right?"

"Of course," he replied. "It's not like my social calendar is exactly full up right now."

She chuckled and set the cup back on the tray. "I'll make it as painless as possible, I assure you."

The nurse leaned over him and in an eye-blink she changed.

Her pale skin shifted into emerald green, her hazel eyes became yellow and glowing, and two horns peeked out from the top of her scalp. She smiled, and her mouth was now full of sharp teeth suitable for stripping flesh from bone.

"Open wide and say aaaaah," purred Alichino.

As Hamid stared slack-jawed in surprise, she pounced.

Her lips mashed against his in an electrifying kiss that thrummed through his body and made him convulse. One slim hand gripped the back of his head in an iron hold as her tongue licked at his lips and then slipped into his mouth. After a brief moment of shock, Hamid grasped her face in his hands and returned the kiss with equal fervor. He wrestled with her tongue and even made a few tentative probes into her mouth, being careful to avoid her sharp teeth.

Alichino hummed with pleasure, and then her tongue pushed his aside and went deeper into his mouth. And that tongue kept on coming, it was far larger than any human's. Alichino scoured his palate with that impossibly huge tongue, then pushed past his mouth and down his throat. Her saliva had a metallic tang that was oddly pleasant, and Hamid did not feel the slightest gagging as she began to tongue-fuck his throat. His hands dropped back to the bed as he began to feel faint. He wasn't getting enough air but he didn't care as long as her wonderful invasion of his body kept on going...

The world focused again with a snap as she reeled that long tongue back into her mouth. Hamid gasped as she broke the kiss, and he stared into her eyes as she pressed her forehead against his.

"Sorry, babe," she panted. "I couldn't resist. You're just too damn cute for your own good."

She pressed her chest against his and tucked her head against his neck in a gentle hug. Her hand released its grip on the back of his head and now stroked his scalp.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I hope these guys are treating you all right."

He hugged her in return and patted her shoulder blade in a dazed, automatic maneuver. "I'm fine, just fine. Thanks for checking up on me."

She lifted herself back up off of him and smiled. "My pleasure, I assure you."

He smiled as well. "You came back."

"Technically, I never left. I just whipped up a little invisibility spell and hung out in the corner while they got you loose. After I made sure they put you in the ambulance, I had a few other chores to take care of. And now I'm here."

His brain started working through options. This demon could look like anyone, go anywhere, and hide in plain sight. "Those tests that showed hallucinogens," he said aloud. "That was your doing. You spiked the blood samples."

Alichino got a smile so smug that if she were a cat she'd have a few feathers sticking out of her mouth. "You are a smart boy. And behold, your testimony and that of the Fuckwit Twins is now rendered completely useless. Therefore the police will disregard you all and focus on the physical evidence, which will show no trace of my presence there. I made sure of that." She playfully booped his nose with one talon-like nail.

Hamid's mind had been wrenched back out of its comfort zone, but he was still thinking. And the mention of 'physical evidence' reminded him of something else.

"The notebook!" he said. "Alichino, that detective was looking for Paul's notebook. He said something about wrapping up the Haskell case too."

"Hmm...yes, I can deal with that as well. It will take a little more running around, but I can make it work."

Hamid felt oddly guilty at making her jump through such hoops. "You don't need to do that," he said aloud. "You've already done so much for me."

She patted his hand. "Don't fret, cutie. I haven't had this much fun in ages. That said...I will need to put a sigil on you."

"A what?"

Alichino held up a hand. "Just a temporary one! I need to fix your location so that when I pop back to Abbadon I can find you again. There's a lotta timelines out there, you know?"

"Ummm...sure? Sure, go right ahead."

She gestured over his head and chanted a few words in a sonorous language that sounded like she'd grown an extra six feet of larynx. Hamid felt a little tingle in his scalp but nothing else. Alichino smiled at him after she'd finished.

"Now we're officially going steady," she said with a wink. "I'd better head out before that policeman pokes his head in. Just stay strong, do exactly what you've been doing. I'll see you again, I promise."

In another eye-blink, she snapped back into the guise of the vaguely pretty blonde nurse. The 'nurse' patted his hand again, gave a dazzling smile, and headed out of the room.

__________________________________________________________

After working for a few months in the Great Library of Abbadon, Paul was finally getting used to the ladders. The Great Library was, as its name implied, a huge place. Each book stack was a few stories in height, with little walkways at each level to allow patrons to browse the titles. And those walkways in turn were accessed by ladders up each side of the stack. There were no railings anywhere; it was clear that there was no such thing as OSHA in this world.

Paul clambered up to the level he was looking for and stepped out onto the walkway. He slung the satchel from over his shoulder and quickly found the proper places for the books within it. Fortunately, there was plenty of lighting for him to do so.

The cavernous interior of the Library was lit by innumerable floating candelabras. Their candles never seemed to get any lower no matter how long they burned. The 'floating' part was taken care of by a fleshy gas-bag above each candelabra, attached to it by an equally fleshy-looking rope or tendril. Paul wasn't sure if the gas-bags were alive, since nobody ever seemed to feed them. But they did pulse and twitch like living things, and on occasion the gas-bags let out rude farting noises as they drifted around the huge expanse.

Paul finished shelving the books and trotted back over to the ladder. He slid down it in a maneuver that had given him the willies the first time he'd tried it. But by now it was old hat, and he stepped off at the bottom with aplomb. Then he headed off to find the head librarian.

Artalos'faloooten was on one of the lower levels of another stack. The creature hummed happily in a voice issuing from a metal box fixed to the top of his 'head' while he sorted and shelved books using about fifteen tentacles at once. His main body was as tall as a human but had the appearance of an American football made out of dinosaur hide. Artalos'faloooten (or 'Artie', as he insisted on being called) had three thigh-thick tentacles supporting his body as well as three dull, doll-like eyes that let him see in all directions. He also had a seemingly infinite number of tentacles and tendrils of various sizes which sprouted from little slits all over his main body.

Artie gave a little 'bow' with his walking-tentacles as Paul pulled himself up to the walkway. It had taken Paul a little while to figure out Artie's nonverbal expressions; the head librarian's eyes kept the same dull look no matter how happy or sad Artie himself was. In spite of Artie's Lovecraftian appearance, Paul had found the guy quite cheerful and a pleasure to work for.

"I've got the last of the Roman histories sorted," said Paul. "All of the alternate Polybius volumes are now in one spot."

"Excellent! I'm glad to see the library was in good tentacles while I was away."

Paul smiled. Based on Artie's mood, it was clear that the head librarian had gotten good and laid while on vacation. "I'm gonna head back to Ali's, so just leave me a note for tomorrow on what you want me to tackle next."

"Will do!" piped Artie.

The library's double doors were about the size of a battleship. Paul was heading towards them when he ran into a woman named Janelle making her way in. The skinny woman gave him a big smile as she walked up to him. "Heya! Where's the big guy?"

She was naked, as was Paul. In his previous life Paul would have been beet-red at this point from embarrassment. But it was amazing how quickly the unusual becomes mundane, and so Paul ignored her nudity. He casually turned and pointed back the way he'd come. "He's in the four hundreds." He turned back and matched her smile. "From how happy he is, I'm assuming the vacation was a success."

"Oh, yes! Artie and dad hit it off great, and my mom was very impressed with his manners." Janelle was from one of the 'domesticated' Earth timelines, where things like demons or like...whatever Artie was...were commonplace. She waggled her eyebrows. "And we did the thing."

"I'm sure you did it a lot. I've never seen him in such a good mood."

Janelle shook her head. "No no, we did the role-playing thing." She waved her hands in front of her in mock fear. "You know, 'Oh no, I'm a little woman lost in the woods and now a big scary tentacle-monster is going to tear off my clothes and ravish me!'"

Paul looked at her in surprise. "And Artie went for it?" It was hard to imagine Artie ever raising his voice in anger, let alone doing anything as rude as 'ravishing' someone.

Janelle nodded as her grin got wider. "Did he ever! That was the hardest fucking I've ever gotten. I'm still a little sore. Now I just gotta find a good costume for our next session." She snorted. "You would not believe how hard it is to find a 'Saucy French Maid' outfit around here. Anyway, how's Des? Is she back yet?"

"Nope."

She peered curiously up at him. "And you're not worried?"

He laughed. "This is Desdemona we're talking about. I think the only reason she's not back is because she's trying to be subtle this time and not just do her usual thing." Desdemona's 'usual thing' involved getting pointed at a problem and then smashing everything that moved until nothing was left moving.

"Well, when she does get back let her know that we should have a double-date night." Janelle gave him a wave and strolled off into the stacks.

Paul made his way back to Alichino's apartment, and that process was another example of the terrifying now becoming mundane. He gripped the mandibles of one of the huge spider-like xemites as it scuttled up the side of one of Hastur's physics-defying skyscrapers. It then gently deposited him at the correct landing, and Paul absently gave the huge creature a good scratch in between its many eyes while it chortled happily. He strolled in through the door and into Alichino's apartment.