Pink Gold - Ch.60 - Tough Choices (Patreon)

** content warning: mentions of possession, mind control (non-mc) **

"That wasn't Tina," my aunt Leslie stated quietly. She paused for another sip of brandy before continuing, "Or at least, not entirely. It probably started out like influence or a compulsion. That's what drove Tina to break into the house last month and retrieve some of my mother's occult belongings."

Violet frowned, "I don't understand how Judith could possess anyone, considering we all saw her get consumed by an Outsider up north."

Leslie explained, "It was the dagger. I don't know how exactly, but mother must have done something to tie her soul to that enchanted blade. Maybe Tina picked it up out of curiousity, or maybe that was my mother's influence as well. Although it's entirely possible she was hoping for one of you to pick it up, rather than her student."

"However it happened, I can say with certainty that the young woman you encountered downstairs this evening wasn't Tina anymore. That was Judith," she added with a frown.

We were all back on the main floor of the house again, gathered around the big dining table. The magic controlling both Leslie and Glen ended when Tina, or Judith apparently, was pulled through the portal. We weren't even sure if she was dead, although it seemed pretty likely considering what we all witnessed.

In fact it seemed like all the active dark magic in the house faded after the grad student was gone, including the portal itself. Onyx couldn't even say for sure if she'd had any affect on that at all, or if it simply closed on its own after the possessed coed was gone.

Ruby healed my side again, but I was left with another scar and it still felt tender. My boyfriend healed Glen's injuries too, then the young man went upstairs and found the rest of his clothes. Leslie was still in the dining room when we all came up from the basement. She'd already opened that decanter and helped herself to a glass of brandy, now she was working on her second glass. And she was still dressed in the maid outfit.

"So what happened to you, how'd she get her claws in you?" Violet asked the older woman.

My aunt explained softly, "I was trying to catalogue what was missing from the theft, along with making the other arrangements for my mother's estate. I didn't want to stay here though, that's why I got the hotel room in the first place. Except I started to notice some odd details each time I returned to the house. Chairs had been moved, papers on the desk weren't where I left them, food and drinks were missing from the fridge. I realized someone else was visiting the place when I wasn't here. So I stayed one night to try and catch them."

"Only she caught you instead," Onyx stated.

"Correct," Leslie sighed. "At first she thought I'd be happy to help her, mother still believed I was sympathetic to her goals. I tried to convince her to give it up, to accept defeat and release Tina's body. I warned her that if she tried again it would only lead to her complete destruction. And when she made it clear she was going to carry on regardless, I tried to stop her..."

My aunt grimaced then shook her head, "I've never been that skilled with magic, I didn't stand a chance against my mother. I'm just lucky that she didn't make me her next sacrifice, as reward for my betrayal. Instead she put me to work as her maid, she thought a lifetime of quiet servitude would be a fitting punishment."

"So she sacrificed Sasha and Zayne instead," Ruby stated sadly.

Peri asked, "What about the guy who was conducting the ritual when we got here?"

"That was Alex," my aunt replied. She drained her second glass then continued, "His full name was Oleksiy Baran, but everyone called him Alex. He was another of my mother's accomplices. As far as I know mother reached out to him as soon as he returned from up north. He'd been disappointed about missing the original ritual, but his part of the cover story meant staying behind at the hotel in Resolute. So he was eager for the chance to be an active participant when mother resumed her work here."

I frowned, "I sure hope that's the last of them. Or do you know if there's any other accomplices or apprentices, or anyone else your mother worked with who's still out there?"

Leslie shook her head again, "I don't know, I'm sorry. Mother and I were still on speaking terms up until last month, but I live in Ontario. I didn't visit her that often, and she didn't keep me updated on all her occult activities. I only knew about her plans for Camp Hazen because she tried to convince me to accompany her there."

At that point she got up and moved to the sideboard then poured herself a third glass of brandy. While she was doing that my teammates and I all sort of looked back and forth at each other.

"So are we done here?" Ruby asked. "What do we do about Ms. Williams? And Glen?"

The grad student was sitting at the end of the table, he'd joined us after he found his clothes and got dressed. He was slumped forward in his chair, his head rested on his arms which were leaning on the table. I had a feeling the poor guy was going to need a lot of therapy to get over everything he'd been through, after being almost sacrificed in July then kidnapped and held prisoner and mind controlled here.

Meanwhile my aunt slumped back into her seat then had another gulp of brandy. She finally offered, "I can drive Glen home, or wherever he wants to go. As far as I know my rental car is still in the garage here."

"You're not driving anywhere after drinking like that," I stated. "And what are you going to do for clothes? You're still dressed up like a maid."

Leslie frowned as she looked down at herself, before taking another sip of her drink. Then she shrugged, "My clothes are probably around here somewhere. Mother had me check out of the hotel and bring all my things here, after she got control of me."

"Why haven't you people called the cops yet?" Glen suddenly spoke up. He was still resting his head on his arms on the table, so his voice was kind of muffled. He sounded stressed though, and I couldn't blame him. "They're going to want to know what happened to Zayne. And Sasha. And Tina. And Alex."

Violet and Peri exchanged a look, then the green magical girl shrugged.

"He's got a point," our archer said. "We've taken care of the Outsiders and put an end to the dark magic here. We should just go, leave everything else to the local authorities. I'm sure that's what Lily and Azura would tell us if we asked them."

I knew she was right about that, those two were both adamant about not talking to the cops. They'd be telling us to get moving now that we'd handled all the magical girl business here. Violet looked like she was thinking the same thing, but she didn't respond right away.

"What exactly would we tell the police?" my aunt asked in a pointed tone. "If we told them the truth they'd lock us up. They're not going to believe Tina was possessed by my dead mother, or that Judith was controlling us with dark magic. They'll think we're crazy, that we've lost our minds. And that's if we're lucky. Odds are they'll try and find some way to blame us for what happened to the others."

"That goes double if they catch us lying to them. If we're evasive and try to hide the truth they'll be even more suspicious of us," Leslie added.

Ruby rolled her eyes and said, "They don't lock people up for 'being crazy', not anymore."

"Doctors don't, but the police will," my aunt responded.

Violet finally decided, "Peri's right. We're not getting involved with the authorities. Glen if you want to call them that's your choice. I'm going to ask once again that you keep our names to yourself. We've saved your life, twice now. I know you're a victim in all this, but we can't really do anything else to help you. We fight the evil, and now with Ruby on the team we can heal the injured too. That's about it though."

"Maybe you and Ms. Williams can come to some sort of arrangement?" the purple magical girl added as she looked to my aunt. "I know you were a victim here too ma'am, but all this was ultimately due to your mother. Maybe you can do something for Glen. Maybe you can do something for the other students' families too? We'll leave that with you folks. Whether or not you call the cops, and what you decide to tell them is up to you. Just keep our names out of it."

She stood up as she finished speaking, so the rest of us all got to our feet as well. All except Glen and Leslie that is, they stayed put and my aunt had another gulp of her brandy.

Then Violet gestured for the door, "Let's go girls."

The five of us filed out of the dining room, but we only went as far as the front hall. Then Onyx commented quietly, "We might be done here, but you know this isn't over yet right? There was something big on the other end of those tentacles, and it's still out there."

"And now it's got that enchanted dagger. And maybe Judith as well," Ruby added with a frown.

"I know," the purple magical girl replied. "We'll pass that on to Lily and Cel, along with everything else we learned here. There's nothing more we can do right now though, so let's get out of here."

My girlfriend nodded once, then raised up her staff and gave it a spin. A moment later my grandmother's house vanished into shadows.

• • • • •

"This isn't bad," Fiona commented as she relaxed into the whirlpool hot tub. "Definitely relaxes the muscles."

Ivy shrugged, "Eh, it's alright."

The Welsh woman rolled her eyes then looked at my friends and I and asked, "How are you three enjoying it? Blake, Ellie, Harper, are you doing ok?"

"It's good," Harper replied.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It feels nice."

Ellie nodded, "I could get used to this. Now I'm sorry we didn't try it yesterday, it definitely would have helped after the workout we had in the morning."

"I'd almost be happy hanging out in here all day," she added. "Too bad we have to check out at noon."

It was about quarter after ten Saturday morning, and both Viola and Ivy managed to convince my friends and I to put on our swim suits and visit the hotel's hot tub. I was a little self-conscious about being in a public place in my new bathing suit, and Ellie seemed to feel the same way. Although I thought she looked fantastic in her new cute black and grey camo-pattern two-piece. And she said I looked great in the pink one-piece I'd picked out at the mall yesterday.

Of the three of us Harper seemed the most relaxed, but then he was used to being a hot guy with a great body. And both Ivy and Fiona were chill about things too, they both seemed pretty calm and confident regardless.

Apart from being my first time as a girl in a swimsuit the other reason I felt self-conscious was all the extra attention the five of us were getting. Ellie and I were both kind of modest compared to Fiona, who was wearing a sexy new purple bikini. And Ivy was in a sexy red one-piece that somehow managed to have less fabric than my girlfriend's two-piece. Even Harper looked hot in his simple navy blue swim trunks.

So some people were checking us out, which was still a new experience for me. Another thing I wasn't expecting was the way some guys were giving my boyfriend jealous looks. Like when they realized the five of us were together, which meant Harper was the strong handsome guy surrounded by four hot young women.

On the other hand, I also caught a few people staring at us for a different reason. They weren't checking us out though, it was because they'd noticed our scars.

Fiona's left leg was covered in faint pink marks from that Outsider that got her up north, and now she had a large oval scar on her back from the battle in Ireland yesterday morning. Ellie had the small scar over her left eye from the plane crash, and her right lower leg was decorated with faint pink lines now too. As for Ivy, she escaped Camp Hazen unscathed but now the left side of her face and her left shoulder were discoloured.

I still had that scar on my right arm from up north, and yesterday I picked up those three claw marks on my right hip from that giant lupine Outsider. And as of last night I had a new scar on my left side. I was probably being paranoid but I couldn't help worrying it was a little too obvious that I'd been stabbed.

Basically us four girls looked like we'd all been through some serious shit, and I had a feeling that left people wondering what happened to us. Or maybe the fact that we all wore our scars with pride made folks nervous. Like yeah we'd been through stuff, but we were all strong enough to survive it just fine.

"If you kids are enjoying this we could always stay an extra night," Fiona suggested with a wry smile. "I certainly wouldn't complain. We could grab lunch somewhere, do some more touristy stuff, have a nice dinner, then come back down here for another soak before retiring to our suite for the night."

She looked to our Californian friend and asked, "What do you think Ivy? Wanna stick around for another day?"

After we left Judith's home last night the Asian-American girl came back to the hotel with us. Then instead of asking Onyx to take her home to San Francisco she decided to spend the night with us. Or more specifically, with Fiona. They opened a couple bottles of that fancy imported beer the Welsh girl bought, then the two of them spent an hour or so just talking and chilling and eventually cuddling as they sat together on Fiona's bed. Meanwhile my friends and I put something on the TV while we unwound with some cola and snacks, before finally heading to bed at around two in the morning.

I hadn't figured out yet if Fiona and Ivy were in or starting a relationship, or if it was more like two friends having a little fun together. Either way it really wasn't any of my business, and while I was curious I definitely wasn't going to ask. I figured if they wanted us to know they'd say something.

"I should probably head home," Ivy sighed after taking a few seconds to think it over. "Like I said the other day, I've got some personal stuff I'm supposed to be working on."

Ellie made a face, "We should probably get home today too. I'm supposed to be at work tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure Harper and Blake have to work as well."

My boyfriend and I both nodded.

Fiona looked around at all of us, then her lips curled up into a smile. "I'm hearing some 'shoulds' but I'm not hearing anyone say they actually want to go home today."

"Yeah," Ivy nodded slowly. Then she started to smile as well, "Fuck it. After everything we went through yesterday, I think we've earned a little vacation."

Harper glanced at me and Ellie and grinned, "Ivy makes a pretty good point."

"She really does," I agreed. Then I looked at my girlfriend and pointed out, "It's kind of up to you though, Ellie. After all, you're our ride."

The cute tomboy looked back and forth between all four of us then smirked. "You're right, I am. And I think Ivy said it best."

"Fuck it," Ellie decided. "We deserve a vacation."

~ End of Book Two ~