Help! Chapter Six (Patreon)

Jeremy avoided mirrors that evening and the next morning.

“How are you feeling, honey?” Jeremy’s mother asked when he came down for breakfast.

“I feel fine,” he said. “It’s more how I look that troubles me.”

Cynthia Fuller made eggs and pancakes, just how he liked them. She was an amazing cook and always took the time to make breakfast before her workday. Jeremy’s father had left when he was just a kid, so Jeremy and Cynthia had been on their own for a while.

“Well, hopefully, guru Venkman will help us get to the bottom of it. I got us an appointment at 9:00 this morning.” Cynthia took a small bite of toast.

“It’s not just me, now, mom. She—” Jeremy tried to tell her about Bethany, but something held his mouth shut whenever he tried to talk about it.

“She what?” Cynthia said.

Jeremy shook his head in frustration. He thought about Bethany, now an inanimate object, and he felt the bite of tears.

“Is it too emotional to talk about, or is there something stopping you from talking about it?” Cynthia said.

Jeremy nodded and held up two fingers and touched the tip of his nose.

“I see,” Cynthia said. “So that bitch has done something so you can’t talk about what she did...hmm”

Jeremy nodded.

“She did something to someone else?”

Jeremy nodded and touched the tip of his nose.

“Devon?” Jeremy shook his head. “Jacob?” Again, Jeremy shook his head.

Cynthia’s eyes grew wide. “Please tell me she didn’t do something to Bethany!”

Jeremy nodded and touched the tip of his nose.

“What did she do?”

Jeremy tried to speak, but his vocal cords wouldn’t work.

“We have to play this like charades. Ummm...did she hurt Bethany?”

Jeremy shook his head, making a ‘more or less’ sign with his hand.

“Did she put her to sleep?”

Jeremy shook his head.

“Did she transform her?”

Jeremy nodded and touched his nose.

“Now to figure out what she transformed her into...”

Jeremy got up and pointed at a lamp near the table.

“A light?” Jeremy made a circular motion with his hand. “A lightbulb? Lampshade...lamp?”

Jeremy nodded patting his head. “She turned Bethany into a lamp?”

Jeremy nodded and started to eat again.

“Well, that’s horrid,” Cynthia said. “And I’m guessing she’s blackmailing you into whatever this is with Bethany?”

“Yes,” Jeremy said, hating the tone of his voice. Ever since he’d taken on Mrs. Manchester’s stature he sounded like a seventh-grader and looked like a demon-spawned-agent-of-hell with lipstick.

“Well, let’s get going,” Cynthia said. “We can’t have you distracted like this during football season!”

Jeremy gave a wry smile. Cynthia had been his most stalwart supporter, cheerleader, mentor, and coach. She knew exactly zero about football, but she had been an athlete in school and had helped with his diet, exercise regimen, schedule, sleep schedule, and homework. Jeremy loved his mother because she always gave everything she had to any situation...like this one.

“Want me to drive?”

“Will you be too distracted if more changes occur while you’re driving?” Cynthia said.

Jeremy sighed. “Probably.” He handed his mother the keys to their mini-van.

***

“We walk from here,” Cynthia said, as she pulled their Jeep Cherokee alongside a sidewalk near an open pasture.

“How far is it?” Jeremy said.

“Only about a mile.”

It felt strange walking beside his mother and at eye-level with her. He’d had a growth spurt his freshman year and had topped Cynthia by more than a foot, but now he was back to a much smaller stature and he felt like a kid again. Luckily, there hadn’t been any more tingles signaling more changes since the night before when—

Jeremy bit back tears at the thought of the lamp Beth had been turned into.

At least the day was sunny and relatively warm. The leaves still hadn’t changed yet and the birds, squirrels, and other forest animals talked to them as they passed by.

They came to a gate, and Cynthia opened it so they could enter the compound.

Sometime later they came to a bricked walkway, and they began climbing up into the small hilled area. They came over a rise to be greeted with a lovely pond with flowers and Asian statues that Jeremy didn’t recognize. A young woman stood in front of them on the path.

“Greetings and salutations Miss and Mister,” the woman said.

“Hi, Lilly!” Cynthia said.

The woman brightened. “Oh, Miss Fuller, I am so happy to see you! Guru Venkman is waiting for you. This is your son, Jeremy?”

“Yes,” Cynthia smiled.

“Please to follow me, Jeremy,” Lilly said. “Miss Fuller, you may meditate in the garden if it please you.”

Cynthia took Jeremy’s hands in both of hers. “Honey, this is where we part. Tell the Guru everything that has been troubling you and he’ll know what to do.”

“You can’t come with me?”

“Your mother is to meditate in the garden.” Lilly took Jeremy’s hand. “Please to follow me?”

“You’ll be okay, son,” Cynthia said. “I’ll be waiting for you here.”

“Alright, Mom,” Jeremy said.

He started up the path after Lilly.

“Your mother love you much.”

Jeremy nodded. “Very.”

They walked up the path and Jeremy could see a figure in the distance. It appeared he stared into a whirlpool of swirling leaves and energy.

“When address Guru Venkman, one address Him as Guru. Any other name is a display of disrespect.” Lilly stopped just outside the circle.

“When approaching Guru, kneel with head lowered. Guru will instruct if he desire to rise.”

Jeremy shrugged. “Kneel, gotcha.”

“Guru may choose to answer question or not answer. If He not answer, respect and obey.”

“Okay,” Jeremy said.

“Do not turn back on Guru. When leave, walk backward and I will guide you. To show your back to Guru is sign of—”

“Disrespect, gotcha,” Jeremy said.

“You may proceed, Jeremy,” Lilly said, waving her hand toward the man in the distance.

Jeremy walked up to the man and took a knee. The Guru appeared not to have heard him, continuing to direct his attention to the spinning vortex of leaves.

As Jeremy waited, his thoughts turned to Bethany. He hoped she was okay. It was about time for fourth hour to start so Mrs. Manchester would soon know he wasn’t in class. He hoped she wouldn’t do anything more to him in retaliation. He felt butterflies in his stomach at the thought of it all and ground his teeth with impatience.

“You are impatient, Jeremy?” A soft voice said. Jeremy blinked and realized it was the Guru.

“Apologies, Sir...I mean...Guru.” Jeremy almost stood up, but then remembered to stay down. “My mind is...well..on other things.”

The Guru turned. “Rise and tell me of your struggles.”

So Jeremy did. Starting at the beginning he related everything that had happened over the past few days. The Guru stood silently, no...in silence listening to everything Jeremy said. It made Jeremy a little uncomfortable with how deeply he listened.

At one point, Guru held up a hand, and Jeremy paused. “She instructed you in opening Ajna?”

Jeremy frowned. “Ajna?”

“Third eye.” Guru lowered his open palm until it hovered over Jeremy’s forehead. “Here.”

Jeremy nodded, “Yes. Guru.”

“Interesting. Continue, Jeremy.”

Jeremy finished by describing what happened the previous evening. He got a bit choked up when he described what happened to Bethany.

“And this was a complete physical transformation? Not a geas?”

“Geas?” Jeremy said.

“Illusion. You saw your friend in Anja as a lamp also?”

Jeremy nodded.

“But you saw Anapata and Sahasrara chakra were intact and encapsulated within the vessel?”

“If you mean her heart and brain, yes.”

“Yes, that is what I mean exactly.”

He nodded, rubbing his chin.

“So now, I don’t know what to do,” Jeremy said. “I’m already almost—”

As if on queue, Jeremy felt tingles again.

This time they centered on his head and hands, and a deep tingle in his groin.

“Uhhh, oh nooo.” Jeremy moaned, bending over from the pain.

“Fight it, Jeremy!” Guru said. “I can see the energy surrounding and penetrating you. Hold on to who you are!”

Jeremy closed his eyes. He thought about who he was, Jeremy Fuller, star quarterback, boyfriend to Bethany, son to Cynthia. Tall, strong, Masculine.

What are you doing, Jeremy? Her voice in his head suddenly, breaking his concentration. Why are you resisting?

I am Jeremy Fuller. Tall, strong, masculine. I am the quarterback, the athlete. Boyfriend to Bethany. Son of Cynthia. I resist you!

Jeremy, stop this nonsense. It is only illusion, a game we are playing, that is all.

“What does she say to you, Jeremy?” a deep voice in front of him, Guru Venkman.

“That...it’s just a...g.g.game. An illusion...”

He was Jeremy Fuller. Tall...strong...masc...Boyfriend to Bethany? Could that be right? Son...of Cynthia?

“Jeremy, you must deny her. Just because she says something to be true, doesn’t make it true.”

“But what if she takes it out on Beth?”

The tingles coursed through his body. He felt his skin changing, becoming softer. Nails growing out as he clenched his fists.

“Who are you?” Guru Venkman said.

“J.j.j.jermy F.f.fuller.” Jeremy tried to keep himself, the way he’d been, in his mind. Playing football, making passes, dancing with the girls. He thought about Bethany and the way her lipstick tasted. The way she’d gone down on him, the way her mouth felt...

He felt the shifting of his clothes. No longer was he wearing a hoodie, he wore something else..a dress?

“Fight it, Jeremy! Reclaim your identity! Don’t let her win!”

This is getting tedious darling. Stop resisting. Any more resistance and I remake reality without Bethany.

The tingles ended. Jeremy opened his eyes.

“What happened?”

Jeremy sighed. “She said she’ll remake reality without Bethany if I resist.”

Good, your illusion is complete. Come to me and we can take the next steps together.

Yes, Mrs. Manchester, Jeremy responded

Good girl. Oh and come alone.

At that Jeremy sighed and looked down. He was wearing her clothes, her shoes, her pantyhose. And he couldn’t feel anything between his legs.

“She says the illusion is complete.”

“Jeremy, that is all it is, illusion. Your mother and I see you as you’ve always been.”

“Why is she doing this, Guru? I mean, she turned Bethany into a lamp why is she only casting this illusion on me?”

“It’s soulcraft, Jeremy.”

“I don’t understand?”

“You understand the concept of yin and yang, though yes?”

Jeremy nodded and shrugged. “Opposites?”

“Not just opposite, but duality. Can light exist without shadow? Can Spring exist without fall? Can male exist without female? Opposing forces also create a whole in the universe that is qi. She seeks to form a qi bond with you: young to old, male to female, teacher to student. You can see that yes?”

Jeremy nodded.

“By having you feel the experience that is yin to your yang, you associate that reality to yourself. You feel yourself as yin, feel her body, wear her clothes. These shift the soul inside you so her soul can shift in response.

“But...I’m still...me.”

Guru sighed. “Think back to your sixth birthday, Jeremy.”

Jeremy closed his eyes again remembering. “Dad was still around. He was drunk. Mom had a bunch of my friends over...we played party games.”

“What kind of cake did you have?”

“Just a white cake with buttercream frosting.”

“Are you sure?”

Frowning Jeremy tried to picture it. Light sabers...”No, it had Darth Vader on it!”

“You remember that now, but a moment ago you saw the buttercream cake, yes?”

Jeremy nodded.

“And the friends. Boys or girls?”

“Jenny Thomson, Gabi Freeman, Delores Nightcastle...” he could picture all of them.

“Jeremy...do you really think a six-year-old boy would have female playmates?”

“No!” Jeremy said, suddenly a bit panicked and looking up at Guru. “I can’t remember them!”

He nodded.

“So she’s taking my memories?”

“I’m afraid it’s a bit more than that. Look at how you’re standing right now.”

Jeremy glanced down. He’d been patting the back of his hair, absently with one foot a bit forward...

“Oh pity! I’m starting to stand like her too!”

The Guru nodded.

“So what can I do to stop it without losing Bethany?”

The guru sighed. “There will be a sigil of power, somewhere close to her.”

“A sigil of power?”

The guru nodded. “To you it will look like a diagram. But if you use Anja, your third eye, you will see it.”

“And when I find it, what do I do?”

“Destroy it, erase it. Whatever you need to do. Your friend will be returned to herself, and you will as well.”

“That’s it?”

The Guru smiled. “This is a very old, very evil creature who has cast its’ eye on you, Jeremy. It seeks to prolong its life through your worldly vessel. Destroying its sigil is only the first step. That will break the spell. But to ensure it never casts it again, you must destroy her, Jeremy.”

“I don’t know that I can kill someone!”

“Even if it means the life of your friend might be restored? This creature has lived far past its natural lifespan, Jeremy. Do you really want it to continue to claim more victims?”

“No, I suppose not. But how do I do that?”

The Guru paused a moment. “You’ve heard how a stake through the heart kills a vampire?”

Jeremy nodded. “So a stake then?”

“You must destroy her Anahata. Her heart chakra. It may or may not be in her body. It must be close, however, so it might be in a jewel, a crystal...something.”

“How will I know it when I see it?”

The Guru tapped Jeremy on the forehead. “Anja, Jeremy. Anja will lead you to her Anahata.”

“Alright,” Jeremy said.

The Guru smiled and took Jeremy’s shoulder. “You can do it, Jeremy, you are strong.”

As the Guru led Jeremy to Lilly and his mother, Jeremy wondered just how strong he still was.