Clay gave Martha a quizzical look. “A higher purpose? What could be more important than saving Elena?”
“This Alphabet King...” Martha paused as if the words were distasteful rolling over her tongue, “is more than just a powerful criminal.”
“How so?” Jackie asked.
“He is a truly evil man,” Martha responded.
“Well, I suppose we already know that given what he’s willing to do for revenge,” Clay responded.
“You don’t understand,” Martha insisted.
“Oh, I think I do.” Clay’s voice ratcheted up a notch. “Any person, if you can call him that, who harms children in cruel ways is the worst kind of filthy existence imaginable. Use the word evil if you like, but don’t think for a second I don’t understand that.”
Jackie nodded in agreement. Michael had turned to listen as Clay became more agitated. Sean glanced back from the rearview at intervals as he also tuned in.
“I agree,” Martha continued, then looked down at her hands. “But I am afraid I have not been as forthcoming as I now know I should have. There is more I must tell you. Remember what I said just before we left the workshop, about learning that more than one person has discovered the gift of amalgamation?”
“Yes,” Clay said, still adjusting to a full understanding of that word. He also thought it best to keep her ability to connect between them unless she chose to reveal it to the others.
“I believe this Alphabet King can do the same... only, he connects with an entity of malcontent that is hellbent on wreaking havoc in this realm. It thrives on inflicting pain and inciting trouble through violence and deceit.”
Everyone sat silent until Jackie spoke up. “How do you know?”
“Well... this is going to take some explaining.” She paused as everyone turned their attention to her. “And I’ve been trying to piece this together in the midst of everything else.”
“Just do the best you can,” Michael encouraged. “We don’t have much time.”
“In the hospital parking lot. I could see it in his eyes. There were hints of a red glow showing. This is an indication that the man has allowed himself to be possessed.”
Jackie looked at her, shocked. “Possessed? That sounds demonic.”
Martha nodded. “I fear this entity of malcontent is actually the remnant energy of a demon.”
Jackie’s jaw dropped.
“What’s more, I believe this man is possessed by the same demonic energy that has been lurking around your home,” Martha said.
Jackie’s head twitched to the side. “Before, you said malevolent entity... or malcontent or something like that. You never used the words demon or demonic.”
“I...” Martha stammered for a split second. “I didn’t want to alarm you unnecessarily.”
“You knew we were up against an actual demon, and you didn’t tell us?” Michael added.
“These things can be a bit nebulous—hard to grasp even for me. This day has been an intense influx of information but I’m pretty sure I figured it out at home this evening, once I had time to settle my mind. Before that, I didn’t know we were directly up against a demon. I knew something terrible was involved, but I had assumed it was in the shadows, working by proxy to perhaps manipulate the events back at Haynesville Woods or be disruptive in general.”
“You assumed? You assumed, and now my daughter is in the hands of an actual fucking monster!” Jackie yelled.
“Before the events tonight in the hospital parking lot, I had no way to know for sure it possessed this man who calls himself The Alphabet King. I had believed... no...” Martha thought back to Jackie’s front yard earlier that day. The pishtaco had tricked me, allowed me to feel smart for figuring something out, fed on my ego, I had been a fool. “I was led to believe that the demon had been trapped, but he’d really been playing the victim, both to me and his so-called master so that he could escape his fate, influence events and outcomes, and remain unsuspected. Now it seems obvious that it made a pact with this man and it wants to be free of him.”
“What the fuck, Martha! How could you not tell us all this?” Jackie shouted.
“There has been so much happening in just a few hours. Again, I wasn’t sure about this until after they took Elena and I saw this man for myself. In the parking lot, his demon... communicated with me... psychically. At that point, I understood it was bound to ABCs but I still needed time to process, to prioritize how I would explain all this.”
“Yeah, while you’re fucking prioritizing, my daughter is in the hands of a man possessed by a demon, and we didn’t know about it.”
Martha raised her voice. “Maybe we should be asking you why you didn’t pick up the clues around your own home.”
Jackie turned herself fully in the seat, on her knees so she could face Martha. “What clues?” she demanded.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Martha said with a coolness that unnerved Jackie. “You know what I’m talking about. Besides, I’m here doing my best to help, trying to process all this so that I can unpack what you are up against.”
“Processing... unpacking,” Jackie snapped. “I can’t fucking believe this! You withheld important information!” She reared up on her knees and reached her right hand back for Martha, who put her hands up in surprise, eyes wide. Jackie grabbed the lapel of her suit jacket and yanked her forward. “How about I unpack your—” Jackie faltered when Martha resisted and wrapped strong fingers of her left hand around Jackie’s wrist.
Martha’s eyes narrowed and her voice deepened. “You’re not going to unpack anything, girl.” Then, with her right hand, she found Jackie’s thumb and levered it back, breaking her grip. Clay moved to help, but with a sharp snap of her head and one look, Martha stopped him.
Jackie grunted with pain and cocked her left arm back for a punch, but Michael put his arm out to block her. Martha slid her left hand and grabbed the other side of Jackie’s hand, then with both hands, bent back Jackie’s wrist and pushed her weight up and over the back seat, sending Jackie to the floorboard behind Sean as she released her grip.
Jackie squirmed for a couple seconds to get her legs back under her. Michael put an arm up between them but didn’t touch her. Jackie looked up, face contorted in anger, and saw Martha glaring over the seat with a calm but intense look, orange sparks popping around her irises. The anger melted away and Jackie reared back a bit, first in shock, then understanding.
Martha decided to land the final blow. “You’re the one who couldn’t see that her daughter was communicating with the spirits of dead children in your own front yard.”
The words hit Jackie like a gut punch. Her head dropped, chin to chest, admitting defeat. She’s right. I missed so much because I was caught up in my own bullshit.
“Alright, that’s enough!” Michael boomed. “We don’t have much time.”
“There is more I must tell you!” Martha demanded.
“Sean, slow down some.” Michael placed a hand on Jackie’s shoulder and turned to Martha. His eyes widened at the sight, but he remained calm. “Okay, what do we need to know?”
