Pink Gold - Ch.49 - Straight Answers (Patreon)

"Hi Amelia," I greeted my sister when she got home at around a quarter to eleven. "How was the date?"

She shrugged on her way from the front door to the stairs, "It was fine."

From her tone I got the impression the date wasn't a huge success. She didn't sound upset, just bored and tired. While she headed upstairs to her room I told Harper and Ellie, "My mom should be home in the next fifteen or thirty minutes."

"That's fine," my girlfriend replied, before taking another bite of her sandwich.

It was about half past ten when we all decided we wanted something to eat after all. None of us were that picky though, so I made up some sandwiches and that was good enough. We were all still sitting together on the sofa, and we finally found something on the TV to keep us distracted from the other stuff.

"Thanks Blake," Harper said after finishing the last of his food. "That was nice."

I smiled, "You're welcome. Not much to it, but I'm glad you liked it."

Ellie thanked me as well when she finished, and after I was done I gathered up the plates and took them into the kitchen. It didn't take long to tidy everything up, then I grabbed us all some bottles of water before returning to cuddle with them some more.

After that things were pretty quiet again, until a few minutes past eleven when my mom finally got home. After closing the door behind her she stopped by the living-room door and stared at the three of us.

"I don't know about your friends, but I know you've got work tomorrow Blake," she frowned. "Maybe you should think about calling it a night."

I took a deep breath then sighed, "Mom we need to talk. And no, this can't wait until tomorrow."

She hesitated, "Hon it's late and I've had a long shift."

"We just killed two more Outsiders a couple hours ago," I stated bluntly. "The rift might be closed, but the fighting's not over after all."

Mom's eyes went wide and she gasped, "Outsiders? Here?! Where's Amelia, is she ok?!"

"Amelia's fine," I told her. "And no, the Outsiders weren't here. They were in Newfoundland."

She was obviously relieved to know my sister was ok, but ended up looking confused instead of worried. "That doesn't make any sense. How could you fight Outsiders tonight if they're in Newfoundland? That's a couple thousand kilometres away."

"The magical girls can teleport now," I replied. "And we also gained a couple new teammates."

Mom frowned again like she was about to ask about that, but before she could say anything both Ellie and Harper held up their right hands to show off their new rings. Seeing that left my mom staring in surprise, and from her expression I could tell she was about to ask even more questions.

"They were there this evening too," I stated before she could ask.

Harper commented quietly, "There were two Outsiders. The team killed them both, but one of the magical girls was hurt really bad. She'll recover, but it was pretty nasty."

"We think the Outsiders are travelling in the ocean," Ellie added just as softly. "They came ashore about a dozen kilometres north of St. John's, onto a country road lined with farms and houses."

I sighed as I concluded, "We don't know how many innocent people might have been hurt or killed. Everyone was in hiding when we got there. There was at least one death though."

My girlfriend shook her head, "Probably more. There'd have been two cops in the squad car. And who knows what happened before the cops got there?"

That left me feeling even worse, and I could tell Harper was upset too. For that matter so was Ellie. None of us had bothered looking at the news yet, we'd been avoiding social media and everything else tonight. I knew we'd find out the truth sooner or later, but we weren't in any hurry to hear it just yet.

Meanwhile my mom looked equal parts uneasy and confused. She finally asked, "You said we needed to talk, was that it? You wanted me to know about the Outsiders? Or is there something else?"

"We've got a bunch of questions mom," I replied. "And we need some straight answers. We think the Outsiders are here because of what Judith did last month. Except since some of Judith's occult stuff was stolen, we can't rule out the possibility that she's got another accomplice who's trying to carry on her work. So we need to know about the magic your mother used, and what sort of stuff it's capable of."

Ellie asked, "Could Judith's magic be used to control Outsiders? We know the ritual was used to open a rift and bring them here, but was there other magic that would let her or someone else give them orders or something?"

There was a stressed look on mom's face as she looked back and forth between me and my girlfriend. Then she sighed, "Let me go make myself some coffee, alright? In fact give me a few minutes to get out of my work clothes, then we can talk."

I nodded, then mom went into the kitchen and put the kettle on. While that was heating up she headed upstairs and got changed, before finally coming back downstairs in time to get the kettle before it started whistling. Meanwhile Harper and Ellie both helped themselves to cans of cola, but I stuck with my water.

In all it was another ten minutes before Mom was ready to talk. She settled into one of the chairs across from us, dressed in some old track pants and a t-shirt and cradling a mug of coffee in her hands.

"Alright Blake, Ellie, Harper," she said as she got comfortable. "You all know it's been about two decades since I had anything to do with my mother and her magic. So bear in mind that my information is at least twenty years out of date, and some of it may be inaccurate since I've been doing my best to forget about that whole mess."

I nodded, "Understood. So back to Ellie's question, do you know if Judith had any way to control the Outsiders?"

Mom had a sip of her coffee then replied, "I believe she thought she did. I seem to recall something about magic that was supposed to let her control them. But considering she died at the hands of one of them last month, I sincerely doubt she was able to control them in any meaningful way."

"That's not a bad point," Harper commented quietly.

Ellie grimaced, "Yeah. If she could control them then odds are she wouldn't have let them kill her."

I frowned, then slowly shook my head. "I don't think she was trying to control them. She was expecting to be rewarded, she was offering them the Earth and thought they'd be grateful or owe her a debt or something. She didn't try and control them because she didn't think it was necessary."

My mom and Ellie both sighed as that sank in, while Harper frowned quietly. I still hadn't told him and Ellie exactly what happened during the big fight, but my mom knew all the gory details. So did my aunt. Which brought me to the next question.

"Have you heard back from Aunt Leslie yet?" I asked. "It's been a week and a half since you told us about the burglary out there, but we haven't heard anything since."

That left another troubled expression on mom's face. She had a long sip of her coffee, then let out an equally long quiet sigh. It took her another couple seconds before she finally responded, "I haven't heard from my sister at all in about a week. Honestly I'm getting worried about her."

"I know she can look after herself," mom added, "And I can't exactly drop everything and rush out to Saskatoon to check up on her. Even if I did, there's not much I could do if Leslie has gotten herself into some kind of trouble. But she's my sister, and I'm worried."

"Damn," Harper frowned.

I nodded, "I hope she's ok. But that's obviously another thing we have to worry about. Leslie makes five missing people out there, and all five have ties to Judith one way or another."

There was a thoughtful expression on Ellie's face, but she didn't speak up. Not that she needed to, I could guess what she was thinking. If my aunt was up to something, going missing could have been part of the cover story. Like if she faked the burglary, she could just as easily fake her own disappearance.

My girlfriend spoke up a few moments later, but instead of voicing her suspicions about my aunt she had another question about my grandmother's magic. "It sounds like we don't have a firm answer on whether or not Judith's dark magic could actually control Outsiders. That sort of magic might exist, but we don't know for sure if it works or not. What about communicating with them? Do you know if she had any way to contact them, to talk to them?"

"Yes," mom nodded. "I know that for a fact. That's how Jacob got access to a lot of the other magic, by communicating with them across the rift."

She continued, "I assumed most if not all of that knowledge was lost up north with Jacob's old book, but my mother may have made a copy first. She had that book in her possession at least since my grandfather died, in twenty-oh-nine."

Ellie grimaced, "And if the copy was on her laptop, then that knowledge is now in someone else's hands. They might be using it to communicate with whatever Outsiders got away last month."

"We don't know that yet," Harper pointed out. "It's possible, but there's no proof yet either way."

I looked back and forth at my two friends, "It seems like we need to start planning a trip to Saskatoon. Even if we don't have proof yet that the disappearances are related to the Outsiders or Judith's missing occult stuff, I think it's too much of a coincidence with the timing and everything."

My girlfriend nodded slowly, "Agreed. It's not like we're going to find that proof sitting around here."

"So does that mean we need to take time off work again?" Harper asked. "I don't know if my boss will let me. I don't think he's going to be too happy if I tell him I need another emergency last-minute vacation."

Ellie made a face as she agreed, "Same. Not that working at the body shop is that great, but I may as well just quit if we're going to have to take another week off."

"Then again I'd rather blow off the body shop job than miss the first week or two of college," the tomboy added. "I really hope we can take care of all this stuff before school starts."

"Me too," I frowned. Then I suggested, "Maybe we can part-time the Saskatoon stuff? Like go to work as usual, then when we're done for the day we could jump out west and check into things there? Like first stop should be Judith's place, then maybe try and find my aunt, or search for the missing students?"

Mom spoke up at that point, "If you've run out of questions for me, can I ask a few of you three? Are Ellie and Harper really magical girls now too?"

"Or are you a magical boy?" mom added as she looked at my boyfriend. Then she added, "And does that mean two of the other magical girls retired?"

I decided to stay quiet, since the first two questions weren't really for me to answer. Meanwhile Harper and Ellie exchanged a quiet glance, like they weren't sure yet what to say either.

Then our boyfriend finally replied, "Yeah I can turn into a magical girl now. And I do mean girl, I'm not a magical boy."

"Me too," my girlfriend added quietly.

"Seriously?!" Amelia exclaimed as she suddenly came through the door from the hallway. "First Blake gets magic, now her friends all get magic too?! How's that fair?!"

I cringed while mom sighed, and my friends both went quiet. I had no idea how long my sister was hiding out there, but something told me she'd probably been there since mom sat down with her coffee.

Mom started to say something but Amelia cut her off, "I want magic too! I'm tired of being left out. It's bullshit that we've got this big family history and all these secrets, you and Blake and now her buddies are all part of the club, but I'm completely left out in the cold!"

"You know I don't have anything to do with handing out those rings hon," mom tried to explain. "And even if I did Amelia, the fact is you're too young. You're only sixteen, there's no way I'd want you fighting monsters."

"I'll be seventeen next week!" my sister stated angrily.

Mom frowned, "Blake's eighteen and I'm still not happy about her being mixed up in all this stuff. Please Amelia, now isn't the time to have this discussion."

"I just want to feel like part of the family," my sister pouted. "If I can't be part of Blake's gang then I want to know more about the family magic stuff instead. So teach me!"

Our mom shook her head, "Absolutely not! That magic is evil and the more you use it the more it corrupts you. I won't let that happen to you Amelia, I love you too much!"

My sister took a breath like she was about to argue more, but mom spoke up again first.

"There's other kinds of magic I can teach you," mom offered, in a more conciliatory tone. "Not the dark magic our family specialized in. There's other, safer occult practices I could share, things that won't corrupt your body and soul."

Mom gave my sister a pleading look and added, "Please Amelia, can we let this go for now? I promise you and I will talk about it tomorrow."

"Fine," Amelia pouted as she slumped into the other chair to mom's right. "I'm not going to let you get out of if though. You promised."

"I did, and I meant it hon," mom responded in a serious tone.

It seemed like that distraction was over, although I couldn't help worry that my little sister was going to get herself into trouble with this stuff, one way or another. There wasn't anything I could do about it now though, so instead I tried to get us back to the conversation we were having earlier.

"To answer your last question mom, none of the other magical girls retired. There's seven of us now, instead of the original five."

Mom frowned at me for a few seconds then asked wearily, "You said you can teleport now? That's how you travelled to St. John's and back this evening?"

"Not me personally," I shook my head. "But as of a couple nights ago the magical girls have access to teleportation magic. So we don't have to worry about plane tickets and stuff like that anymore."

It probably didn't matter, but I figured it was safer not letting on that Ellie was the one with the teleportation magic. If my girlfriend wanted to share that it was up to her, just like it was up to Harper whether or not he talked about what magic he got.

Mom didn't ask though, she just accepted what I told her. Then she sighed, "Please promise me Blake, whatever you do you'll be safe? Ok? I won't ask you not to get involved, honestly hon I'm proud of you for wanting to help people. I'm proud of you for taking these new powers and responsibilities so seriously. But please look after yourself. Magic or not, you're still my child and I couldn't bear it if something happened to you."

Hearing her say she was proud of me filled me with emotions, and left a little smile on my face. I nodded, "We'll be careful mom, I promise."

"Thank you hon," she replied. Then she addressed my friends, "Harper, Ellie, please be careful too. Look out for yourselves, and each other."

"Don't worry ma'am," my boyfriend replied. "We will."

My girlfriend nodded, "For sure."