Family reunion

A myriad of emotion ran across the woman’s face as she studied you. Whatever she saw when she looked at you, her stance was defensive, her arms crossed. The cop smirked at you knowingly, then turned back to your grandmother. “So, I imagine Doc will be wanting to come down and press charges? Identity theft and such?”

Your grandmother broke off her particularly intense eye contact and looked at the cop. “Who is he, Bobby?”

The cop-Bobby, merely shrugged. “I’ve sent his prints off, but otherwise we got nothing. The only ID he was carrying was that fake shit. Michael Maywood, date of birth…heh, almost twenty years from now.”

Hearing your name caused the auburn haired woman to stiffen slightly. “Any chance I can talk to this guy alone?”

“Now Selena,” the cop started, rubbing his jaw, “I don’t know that’s a good idea…”

“What’s he going to do?” She gestured to your cell. “There are metal bars separating us, and I’m not dumb enough to get closer.”

“But Doc-”

“Wouldn’t care,” she interjected. “I handle all the matters of the family estate and finances. If this boy was trying to rip us off somehow, I’m the one to handle it.”

It was plain that he didn’t like it, but you also got the sense that Bobby was more than a little bit intimidated by your grandma. With a sigh, he took a step back. “I’ll be in my office, but you only got five minutes!”

You watched the old bastard stroll on out, his footsteps fading into the distance. Selena waited until she heard the click and shut of his office door before she turned her attentions back to you. Her eyes were hawklike, sharp and intent.

“Michael Maywood, huh?” She looked you over again. “Do you know the significance of that name?”

“It’s the one I was born with,” you answered. “My mother gave me that name.”

Selena took a single step forward. “Unlike the long, flabby arm of the law back there, I pay attention to things.” She laughed mirthlessly and gestured to your face, “For instance, I see my father’s eyes,” she looked down at your hand, at the ring that for some strange reason the cop had not taken, had not even noticed. “And I see my husband’s family ring. A ring he was wearing not two hours ago when I had lunch with him.”

You glanced down at the artefact, rubbed it self consciously. “Huh…”

“The ring blessed by Lilith….”

That made you snap to attention. “How do you know about that?”

“I’m married to a sorcerer,” her eyes were surgical as she watched him. “I know all about Those On the Other Side. I know about the darkest aspects of our world and everything outside it…so why don’t you explain yourself?”

A sigh escaped your lips. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

“You recognised me when I walked in here. You look like a mix of mine and my husband’s features, you’re carrying a magical item bound to his bloodline, you have documents stating you were born decades in the future,” she crossed her arms, “Back to the Future Part II came out last month. I’m familiar with the concept of time travel.”

You hesitated, but eventually got the words out. “I’m your grandson.”

Selena inhaled sharply and took a moment to process, then asked. “Though which one of my kids?”

“My mom’s Victoria Maywood.”

She let out a laugh of disbelief and bemusement, shaking her head. “That’s so fucking weird, Vicky having a grown son…”

“I’m not making it up,” you protested, “and if get my stuff back from that dickhead cop, I can even prove it.”

“Don’t worry, I believe you,” she said after a moment’s thought. “Hang on a second,” she marched down the hall and went into the cop’s office. You could hear rumblings of a conversation, loud complaints from the old man, followed by a grumble of defeat. A moment later the two of them returned before your cell, the cop bringing out the keys and opening your cage. He didn’t look at you, but there was a permanent scowl etched across his face. Selena handed you back your wallet, phone and the locket. “You’re being released into my custody.”

You weren’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth and eagerly took back your items. Selena led you from the jail, out of the station and into her parked car. When the two of you sat together for a moment you decided to open your phone. Part of you was concerned that maybe you were drastically altering space and time, but that bridge had already been crossed.

You got up a picture of yourself and your mom, and showed it to Selena, who stared in amazement. She seemed almost skittish about handling the futuristic device, but when her eyes fell on the photo itself there was a sharp inhale. A flurry of emotions crossed her face, and she let out a little shuddering breath.

“This is so fucking weird.” her finger traced over the image of your mom’s smiling face. “She lost her baby fat, and there are wrinkles, but I can still see that same happy smile,” she looked up at you with wide eyes, “you have to understand that Vicky was our oops baby. We had her late and…Christ, the last conversation I had with her was to put her toys away and get ready for school this morning.” She returned to the picture and sighed. “To see her all grown up…”

You nodded before digging out the locket. “I know this is a lot, but I need your help. This locket brought me here, but it’s dead. I don’t know if it’s out of juice or if there’s some other problem, but it’s not working. I need to find some way to supercharge it and return to my own time.”

Selena tore her eyes away from the phone and studied the locket. “We’d have to ask my husband. He’d know more about what’s going on than I do.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” with all the things you had learnt about the man over the last few days, you weren’t sure that he was trustworthy. “It would be better if we didn’t involve…everyone in the occult community.”

Her eyebrow rose a fraction. “The occult community?”

“Look, in my time I’ve had some negative experiences with people dabbling with magic, I’m not eager to meet their parents.” You glanced out the window, “where I need to go is the observatory.”

She shook her head. “You won’t get in there, place is being monitored for the next month or so while the government clears out.”

“The government?” That gave you a chill. Just how deep did all of this stuff go?

“Well, I’m taking you home,” she said with a voice of finality. “At the very least we can look in Victor’s study and see if there’s anything to be gained.”

The rest of the car ride was mostly silent as you drove down the familiar path to your grandparents home, though on occasion Selena would glance at you. Something was gnawing at her, a thousand questions about the future, about what happened to the world, or her own personal life progression. If you were in the same position, you’d probably feel just as antsy.

Eventually it got too much, and the woman finally spoke up. “Tell me about yourself.”

You hesitated. “Is that wise? I mean, won’t that destroy all of reality or something?”

Her lips twisted in a grin, “I think if that were the case, it would have already happened.” She was silent for another beat, then asked, “just tell me little things, about you, your mom. How are you both doing, in your time?”

“It’s been…it’s good,” you admitted. “It’s just me and her, but Mom works hard to look after us both. She’s friendly, she’s supportive, kind…I’ve had a good life.” You examined your hand, “ at least until this ring came to me, and all this crazy magic shit happened.”

She hummed. “Magic, demons, all the horrors…they’ve always been here, under the surface. I discovered it when I first started dating your grandfather, he confessed the whole thing to me when I saw him casting a spell. That opened the doorway to the powerful families, the dark rituals, the parties…”

The two of you pulled up to the house and it was exactly as you recalled it from childhood memories, large and austere as many older houses were, but with a certain warmth to it that you associated from better times. It had been within your family for several generations and your grandfather had taken great care to look after it.

“The girls are at school and Victor’s working, so we shouldn’t be disturbed.” A series of barks greeted you both as you got out of the car, and Selena smiled. “Well, unless you count the dog.”

The Saint Bernard came out to give you both a ponderous look. His tail wagged furious at the sight of Selena, but he watched you with some caution. Your heart skipped a beat a few dozen memories came back to you. “Waffles?!”

“This is Muffins,” Selena corrected, giving you a curious look.

That name brought a dim glow of recognition. “Oh,” you laughed, “well, when I was a little kid you guys had a dog called Waffles, Son of Muffins.”

“Cute,” she replied, opening the door and letting you inside.

It was very similar to what you remembered, though there were more photos that lined the shelves. Your grandparents wedding day, your aunts Laura and Sophie in their school uniforms, and your mom on Selena’s hip, the baby of the bunch and happy little girl.

“This way,” Selena waved, guiding you to the study. It seemed much more lived in than what you remembered, with less of a dusty smell. Stacks of books lined the shelves, ranging from various anatomical books to modern fiction like Peter Benchley’s Jaws, to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Your grandmother plucked one that was unmarked, a large tome of very dark leather and cracked it open, flicking through its yellowed, gnarled pages.

“There are a few things in here that mention time and the warping reality.”

You came to stand next to her, and glanced down at the pages, the illustrations of demons and humans in various forms of congress. Something caught your eye, or rather, something sent out a pulse that caught your breath. One page, writ entirely in a strange kind of purple crimson liquid. You could somehow taste a strange metallic substance in your mouth, like blood…but no blood that was human. Selena had paused too, staring at the page and the illustration of a naked woman and beast. The ink seemed to glow.

The two of you looked at each other, both caught in a moment of supernatural arousal. The kiss that came should have sparked some kind of revulsion, but in that moment all you could think about was the pulse in your groin, the softness of her lips, the firmness of her body as she pressed against you.

Her eyes glowed with supernatural lust and when you parted, she began to strip and knelt down, presenting herself to you alluringly.

“I need…” she muttered in a voice thick with arousal, “ to be fucked..”