To anyone following along -- I accidentally preposted some of the later chapters as chapter 29 and 30. This has been worked out now, but if you haven't read the *revised* chapters you might want to go back and read them since they're new material. Oh yeah, and forget everything that was posted before in their places. ;)

Raine

Desdemonia in April’s body went to bed a little while later, leaving me and April in her bedroom.

“Are you sure you want to try this?” she said. “There’s no going back, once the process is initiated.”

I shrugged. “No. But I don’t see a way out.” I got dressed, putting my watch back on and combing my still wet hair.

“You look like you’re leaving.” She wrapped her arms around me.

“I need to talk to Mom and Dad,” I said.

She looked up at me. “Will you be back after?”

I caressed her face. It was eerie, I’d been looking at that face in a mirror not too long ago. I had a distant desire to smoke a cigarette and change into nightclothes. “I’ll sleep in my own bed tonight.”

“Aww,” she walked away from me, pouting. “I waited all night for you. You could see them in the morning?”

“No, I really need to talk to them. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see them again.”

She nodded, then leaned up for a kiss.

I kissed her back.

“I love you,” she said softly.

I knew what she needed. She needed me to say ‘I love you too.’ But did I?

None of this would have happened if she hadn’t been so intent on making me or Mitzy her fool in a fit of petty jealousy. Mitzy, my sweet best friend, who hadn’t hurt anyone - who was now at the hands of whatever monster in my original reality had been created from my body as Desdemonia. Had she and Jeff been taken in by the hypno virus? Were they standing, now, in the glow of the crystal, ready willing and wanting to be a tasty treat for the Ancient One?

It wasn’t all April’s fault. A lot of it was circumstance. Would the Who have just found someone else? Someone with less powerful friends, someone who would have opened the Gate blithely?

“I love you too,” I said, and gave her another kiss.

###

“Are you kidding me?” Dad said, when I told them of our plans. “You’re going to trust your body to a trio of dark mages? How stupid are you, boy?”

“Dad, I don’t know what else to do!”

“You are not going to let those people cast any spell on you,” Mom said, furious. “I forbid it!”

“Look, I know they have their own reasons and motivations,” I said. “But in this case, I think we all want the same thing!”

“But, son, they’ll discard you if it’s in their best interest to do so, and at the first moment you become inconvenient.”

I thought of April, kissing me, telling me she loved me. Was all that manipulation?

“I don’t know, dad.” I sat down, putting my head on my hands. “What else can I do?”

“It’s not up to you, Seth, honey.” Mom sat down next to me, putting her arms over my shoulders and laying her head down. “This isn’t your problem to solve.”

“Mom, it’s got a hold of me. You can use your third eye, too. Look at me.”

She sighed, and closed her eyes.

I stood up in front of her, holding my hands out at waist level.

“Jesus, your aura has shifted. I can see Desdemonia’s influence!”

I nodded. “At least I’m me right now. In the last reality, I think I was mostly her. It was scary, I was doing things, thinking they were right but they weren’t. I was essentially going to offer up the entire mortal population of earth as fodder to the Old One.”

Dad shook his head. He was angry, I could see the way his jaw muscle pulsed. It was the telltale sign.

“If we could unravel this hold it has on you, then it would leave you alone,” Mom said.

“Or would it just find someone else?” I replied.

Dad sat down, and the three of us were silent for awhile.

“I don’t like this idea at all.” He finally said. “It feels like you’re sacrificing yourself.”

I nodded. “I don’t either, dad, but things in all realities are pretty fucked up as it is.”

“And how would this fix any of that?” Mom said.

“I’d defeat the Old One. Either encapsulate it in a pocket reality, or kill it, or blind it at least to dimensional travel.

“But, Seth, you’d be a feral Were trying to do it! You know what that means!” Dad pounded the table.

“I was thinking about that,” I said. “I mean, yes, I’d be in Were form, but I’d also be able to see the other realities. Maybe I could jump to one after defeating it where the moon is full, and then the power of the moon will help me to return to normal.”

He nodded, frowning. “I could see how that could work.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Mom said. “This brilliant plan is to have you go through this rite, so your alpha nature is changed to that of the Ancient One. Then when the Ancient One comes through, somehow you battle it and send it packing. Then, after defeating it, you’ll translocate to a dimension where the moon is full, return to normal, and then what?”

“Come home,” I said.

“And what happens during the full moon every month?”

I shrugged. “I’ll become that..creature…again. Unless they can figure out a way to remove it. I dunno, Mom, I’m just trying to prevent the Apocalypse.”

“We’ll have to burn that bridge when we come to it,” Dad said, sighing. “I suppose I don’t see any better ideas, Seth. If you truly think they won’t try to warp this to their own ends—“

“Well, I think if you were there it’d really help.”

He nodded. “We both will be.”

“God, I’ve missed you guys,” I hugged mom, and dad patted me on the shoulder.

“We’ve always been right here.”

I nodded, feeling a tear bite the corner of my eyes. “I know.”

He stood up. “You better try to get some sleep, son, considering what day it is.”

I stood up, yawning. “Yeah.”

“What time are you going to meet them?” Mom said.

“Sundown,” I stretched. “They have to get the other members of the council to agree.”

“Ugh, that is going to be difficult,” Mom said.

“I think they’ll be victorious,” I grinned.

They walked with me to my bedroom, and gave me a hug before bed. Then, arm in arm, they walked to their own bedroom.

I slid beneath the covers, too nervous to be sleepy. I was worried I’d wake up in the wrong dimension, and all this planning would go to waste.

My phone pinged just as my eyelids were starting to droop.

DD: you up
Me: Yeah, just trying to close my eyes
DD: what did your parents say when you told them
Me: Not much to say. They’re worried.
DD: me too
Me: I’m worried I’m going to shift dimensions before we do the rite.
DD: That would be bad
Me: Right?
DD: Then youd have this old lady body not me
Me: Love, in that reality, you’re stuck as a Grey Wolf.
DD: I think Id rather be that than this
Me: And mated to my dad?
DD: Hes not bad for a dadbod
Me: Hey!
DD: Just sayin stupid
Me: I’m going to get some sleep now.
DD: Sure you dont want some old fat lady lovin
Me: I’ll see you in a little while.
DD: Heart Emoji
Me: Heart

I set my phone on the charger, then tried to close my eyes. Images of the Thing beyond the world staring at me through the dimensions played over and over. I don’t know if they were a dream, a waking dream, or reality. All I know is I could hear the birds outside frolicking and twittering before I knew it.