Building up to Christmas with Dusty the Demon Hunter - A Blast from the Past - Flights of Fantasy Part 4

Dusty the Demon Hunter has had a few adventures that she decided to share with me - seven in all (so far) and this is the second one, hot on the heels of Dream Lover, came Flights of Fantasy.

This is the updated book cover. My wonderful best friend, Anna posed for these pics.

This was the original cover

Images of the book covers are mine, all others are from Google's Free for use image search unless the source is stated.

As ever, I have so many stories rolling around in my head, I can't recall every detail, so you'll just have to read it with me.

Enjoy!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Flights of Fantasy

Finn was a little more composed when she came back and though he didn’t smile at her, neither did he glower in the same hateful way he had before.

Dusty sat down opposite him and sipped her drink. She looked at him for a few moments and he tried hard to stare her out but she was having none of that and she made her eyes alter and his mouth dropped open with surprise.

“Now Finn, tell me about your new friends.”

“I don’t have any new friends...”

Ange coughed and nudged him with her elbow. He looked at her with a slight scowl and pursed lips but then turned back to Dusty.

“All right, I suppose I do. They were new girls at school,” he started, and Dusty was a little shocked, she had assumed that Finn was older than school age but she kept quiet. “The oldest was in my year and her twin sisters were in the year below us. They were really pretty and really cool. Everyone wanted to be friends with them but they didn’t seem to want to know. They weren’t arrogant or anything but they kept themselves to themselves until one day Petra, the oldest, asked me if I wanted to come out with them all. They asked two of my friends too so I said yeah. I was cool about it but I was really excited.” Finn looked down at his hands for a moment while he thought about what to say next.

“The date didn’t go very well at all. We went to the shopping centre before the cinema and the girls were stealing stuff left, right and centre. They had bags full of gear that was no use to them and I was really embarrassed but my mates thought it was funny. We went to see a film but I really wasn’t comfortable with them anymore and I didn’t even let her kiss me. Her sisters were snogging my friends all through the film but Petra was furious that I didn’t want to. The next day at school they all came up to me and I really thought I was going to get beaten up but they were ok with me. We went to lunch together and Petra even bought me a drink. They apologised for embarrassing me and promised not to do it again as long as I’d go out with Petra again. After that I suppose I started getting to like them again but I didn’t go out on another date to the shopping centre.”

“When did it all start getting weird, Finn?” Dusty asked when he paused again.

Finn looked at Dusty and his eyes filled with tears again. “After the accident.” Was all he could manage.

“What accident, Finn?” Ange asked. She took his hand in hers and squeezed it to reassure him that he was ok.

“My friends, Chris and Gordy went out one night, they wanted me to go too but I didn’t want to. They were supposed to be playing football but they didn’t get there. Their bodies were found in a disused factory a few days later. It looked like they had both fallen through the roof and fallen on some scrap metal that was sticking out from the walls. Their guts were ripped out but they wouldn’t have survived the fall anyway.” Finn was sobbing by this time and Dusty left him alone for the moment, Ange held him tight and he sobbed for his dead friends.

Dusty seemed to recall the tragic accident from the local news and she could understand why it had taken such a great toll on Finn. But the story rang more than a few alarm bells, the boys had been disembowelled, the girls loved to steal and were accomplished thieves and there were three of them.

All the facts added up to what her grandparents had been discussing with her.

Then there was the greasy feather of the Strix that Hunter had taken from her jacket, Dusty was fitting everything into place and it was scaring her, she realised now why Hunter had seemed frightened the previous night.

“Finn, have you gone all the way with Petra?” She asked in as casual a tone as she could manage.

Ange shot her a look that said she’d gone too far but Dusty had to press on. Finn’s cheeks coloured up and she knew that she had hit the nail on the head.

“Finn, it’s ok, I’m so sorry that I had to ask. You don’t have to answer me, I can see by your red face that you probably have.”

“Not just with Petra, with Celene and Ali too.” Finn admitted his exploits with the same air of embarrassment as he had recounted their thieving. He wasn’t bragging; he was ashamed.

“At the same time?” Ange asked. She held him away from her in order to look at him and Dusty could see the reproach in her expression. Finn couldn’t, his eyes were cast downwards again and his cheeks still flamed.

“Those names, they’re not really their names you know.” Dusty said. Finn looked up then at Dusty, not Ange, he couldn’t face his cousin yet.

“What are their names then?” he asked.

“I’m so glad you asked me that.” Dusty smiled at Finn and he couldn’t understand why. “When you know a creature’s real name, you have a certain amount of power over them. They can’t beguile you so easily.”

Finn was still puzzled but Dusty could see curiosity there too and her smile became wider.

“The main thing is, Finn, that you stop being ashamed of what they did to you.”

“But, I did stuff...” Finn began but Dusty held up her hand to stop him from speaking.

“You took that drink from her and I’m betting that she put a love potion in it.” Dusty saw the question forming for both Ange and Finn and she answered it without their need to ask. “There are such things as love potions, but they always come at a price. I’ll tell you more about that later. Your new girlfriend likes to play some kinky games, doesn’t she?”

Finn’s face reddened again but he held Dusty’s eyes and nodded.

“I thought so. Does she also like you to cut yourself too? Not all of the wounds on your arms are in batches of four. I would bet that she made you put your arms together and hold still while she sliced you with her fingernails. Am I right?”

Again Finn nodded and Ange made a sound that told of her anger.

“Then she progressed on to sex?” Dusty asked. Finn gave another slight nod and Dusty continued. “She likes to lick your wrists when she’s cut them and she likes to see you cut yourself. She’s programming you to become a self-harmer Finn.”

Dusty’s voice became quieter and more gentle as she spoke and Finn was drawn in by her voice. He began to calm down and Ange could see that he was becoming sleepy too. Ange looked at Dusty and she shook her head to tell Ange to keep quiet and let her work. She was hypnotising Finn but Ange couldn’t understand why – yet.

“She wants you to become a suicide, Finn, because then she will be able to torture you after you die. Her sisters also want a piece of you and that’s why they’ve drawn you into their sordid circle of debauchery and sex. Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Finn?”

Finn nodded in a lethargy that worried Ange but she trusted Dusty and remained quiet.

“Tell me what they did to you, Finn.” Dusty said and she put her finger to her lips to prevent the outburst from Ange that she could see coming.

Ange did as Dusty indicated but she didn’t think that she could sit through what her favourite cousin was about to tell, so she braced her legs and raised herself from the sofa that she shared with Finn. She was deliberate in her movements and so controlled that she didn’t move him at all as she stood and Dusty smiled at her as she left the room.

It was as though Finn knew that his cousin had left because he became more open to Dusty’s questions.

“I had sex with Petra a few times before she started to cut me. I’d never had sex before and it was better than I even imagined.”

As Finn spoke about his experience, Dusty was so glad that Ange had left; she thought it may have been too much for her to hear.

“Finn, can you start to call the girls by their real name?”

“I don’t know them by anything but the names I’ve told you.”

“Think, Finn, I think you do.”

“Petra, I mean Ocypete is the oldest and she tells the others what to do. She made Ali, no, not Ali – Aello. She made Aello come to her room while we were having sex and she made me suck her...”

Even under the hypnosis, Finn was reluctant to go into detail.

“It’s ok Finn, I know what she did. What’s the other sister’s name?”

“Celaeno was the youngest; they weren’t really twins at all. She was the youngest and she did terrible things. They had milk and I sucked their milk.” Finn shuddered and pulled a face that told of the taste of the Harpies’ breast milk.

It may have tasted like nectar to him at the time but under the spell that Dusty had woven, he recalled the real taste of it and Dusty was on the way to weaning him off the sister’s addictive hold they had over him.