Belief In The Occult

Four

Being back in his Aunt's house brought forth a lot of memories. Granted, they were extremely fuzzy and mostly narrowed to hyper specific recalling of certain couches and his Aunt's dresses, as he spent most of his time sleeping leaned up against her or just... sitting there listlessly. Kodiak still did the sitting around blankly thing but he slept only a slightly-above-average amount.

He stood in the foyer with Varick, looking around through impassive, half-lidded eyes. He heard a door open and perked up hopefully as he turned his head, and was greeted with the welcome sight of his Aunt, the archdemon Bloody Mary.

She smiled and he shuffled over to her immediately, letting himself be engulfed into a hug. He hadn't seen her since that hazy month right after he was created where he stayed with her, when he was so new he was a lot like a kitten that barely had its eyes opened.

Bloody Mary herself was a well-known demon originating the Victorian Era, created and given power from a widespread Belief in a mirror game.

She was terrifying.

Nearly seven and half feet tall, nails sharp enough to be talons, curved horns and eyes that glowed blood red and coal black, she had immaculately styled auburn hair and a large maroon and white dress with skirts that had more volume than a mountain range.

When Kodiak shuffled over and laid his forehead against her stomach she gave a small chuckle and a quiet, wordless coo as she ruffled his hair gently. His entire skull nearly fit into the palm of her hand. Varick found himself smiling slightly.

Then, Kodiak tilted his head up and blinked open those big dark eyes, and she didn't think it was possible for her horrifying grin to get any wider. Bloody Mary loved those eyes, they were like beautiful dark mirrors in their own right.

She looked up and her eyes met the other demon's.

"Varick."

"Mary."

She smiled again, which was quite a frightening sight. "It'd been far too long. We should make more social calls. I feel like I haven't seen you in years."

"Likewise." He said pleasantly, handing his overcoat off to the maid that appeared at his elbow before walking over to join Bloody Mary and Kodiak, the three of them walking in the direction of the parlor.

This particular moment reminded him of the day she had called him over to meet Kodiak and take him to the house his game had been created in to begin his training.

Back then, Bloody Mary had made it clear to him that as much as she adored his clinginess and docile nature, that wouldn't get him very far with other entities, at least not into any position of power or stance of respect. She needed to have another demon's help before she was unable to stop herself from coddling him, someone who could give him a spine.

When he had asked about Kodiak in general, she had chuckled, "He is a little slip of a thing, just as morbid as the night is long, but he needs a mentor, and you and I both know I'm not at all well suited for that kind of thing. I'm worried that if he's left alone with me much longer I'll simply spoil him rotten."

Her antique phone had made her voice crackle oddly as she added, "You're the only one I'd ever trust with him. He's terribly new, but just the most eerie little thing you'd ever laid eyes on, and his Belief is growing fast. It won't be long before he has more strength than he knows what to do with. Mortals have always had a fascination with mirrors..."

And she had been correct. Varick remembered stepping into the Blue Withdrawing Room and immediately catching sight of a small figure standing in front of a large window at the opposite wall, watching the lightning and thunder. The little thing turned his head, and Varick felt a surprised chill go down his spine at those eyes. He remembered pushing down the smile that wanted to appear on his face.

At that time, he had sat down on the couch and laced his fingers together over the top of his cane, observing the boy. He had only been manifested for a short time, but his game had already been terrorizing the mortals for a few months now.

He had introduced himself, "My name is Varick. I'm your mentor."

"I'm... Kodiak." He had spoken even slower back then.

"I hear you have a game, Kodiak, how does it work?" Varick had asked, leaning over the top of his cane slightly.

"They light the candles... they look in the mirror... and they ask me what they're afraid of." Kodiak had spoken slowly, thoughtfully, his sentences dragging on.

Varick smiled, and it hadn't looked very friendly, "Then what do you do, Kodiak?"

"I show them something to be afraid of."

It had only been two or three years ago, and it was easy to observe how much Kodiak had changed. But he was still a small ghost, and looked even tinier in his Aunt's shadow, but Bloody Mary made a majority of entities look small.

Kodiak had become more... solid. At first he'd been a bit of a wisp, docile and fuzzy around the edges, a little see-through at the core, a pushover really, but there must have been something in his origins that infused him with just a sliver of that horribly inaccurate teenager stereotype and he changed from a smokelike presence to a literal depression in the air, the weight of his aura setting in like quick-drying concrete. Kodiak went from dreamily vacant to a healthy sulk, and though he was highly anxious, a vein of reproachful spite was in there too, like a needle hidden in a cotton ball.

Varick pulled himself out of his contemplations when they reached the Parlor. The Blue Withdrawing Room was for formal guests, and right now she was with a family member and an old friend, so this much cozier room would suit better.

The crimson wallpaper with its intricate black designs was the same as Varick remembered it, and the fireplace glowed and crackled ominously in the middle of the wall, black, inhuman skulls replacing firewood. They held pleasant conversation, about how Kodiak's powers were progressing, how he was doing, what he liked. Most of the conversation seemed to be about Kodiak, but Bloody Mary was a pretty single-minded demon. She knew he was here as a stopover before Varick took him on a tour of the Dorms, to see if he liked it there.

Every occult hotspot had a Dorm. Some big building, converted to have lots of private bedrooms and a few communal spaces, passed off to the mortals as a private hostel or a shelter, or an extended family under one roof. There would be a few permanent chaperones, and the mentors that came by, but the main occupants were new and young demons of the same physical and appearance ranges.

Mostly, it was a place to learn and grow into power.