Glendale, Ca
1975
(Transform Or Dare? Earth)
Mackenzie Winters screamed in terror as the demon loomed over her, his pitch black eyes reflecting the scared fifteen year old cowering against the edge of the Pacific ocean.
She was going to die.
She couldn't believe that she was really going to die, right now, right here, in this sleepy little suburb.
She was never going to get her driver's license. She was never going to go on to college. She was never going to travel the world, or get married to David Cassidy, or become a mom, or any of the other things that she wanted to do with her life.
Why oh why had she gotten into black magic?
All she had wanted to do was to make the cute older man at the beach notice her. A simple love spell. That was it! But she had messed it up, somehow.
Now the poor man, whose name she didn't even know, was being possessed by Laz'ku'dal, or whatever the fuck the demon's name was.
"After I ravage your body, Mackenzie, I'm going to bring this world under my heel, and ten thousand years of darkness will fall! Your entire family, your entire species, will know nothing but pain unimaginable as I make you all my playthings. This pale blue dot you call Earth will be my domain, and mine alone. One day, I will rule all of God's creation, and when I have amassed my army, I will overthrow Lucifer himself!" the demon claimed arrogantly, sulfur blowing from his nostrils.
"You sound like a bad James Bond villain" Mackenzie said defiantly, trying and failing to put up a brave front, as she was clearly nervous. "And you smell like rotten eggs."
"Are those your final words, Mackenzie Winters, before I deflower you?"
"Nope. My final words to you are... Transform Or Dare?"
A good fifteen seconds went by, Laz'ku'dal confused by the mortal's question.
"What?" he asked, deadpan.
"TransFORM OR DARE?" Mackenzie said, as slowly as possible. "Do you want me to get a dictionary to define those words for you? Because I could do that."
"Is this meant to be some kind of joke?" the demon asked, still confused. "I never knew that mortals had such an odd sense of humor. It's fascinating."
"Nope. It's not a joke! It's kind of a..." Mackenzie searched for the right word, stalling for time. "...It's kind of a game we like to play here in Glendale. A really fun game! My brother and I play it all the time at our house. Humor me."
The demon turned the offer over in his head and smiled.
"Ah, yes, the infamous Glendale Curse. I understand your play now. Do you really believe that you could trick me so easily, mortal? I, Laz'ku'dal The Slayer Of Innocents, who existed for eons before your pathetic, weak, divided species had even crawled from the primordial soup? Before this planet had even cooled? Before the stars existed? You think that you could trick a being who was born in the darkness, can see in every dimension at once, can view the entire electromagnetic spectrum, smell and taste and experience things mortals could never hope to imagine?"
"Yep, I think all of that, because your sixty seconds are up! Maybe you should stop monologuing, Laz'ku'dal, it's bad for your health! In the words of Eli Wallach, when you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk. First, I dare you to be completely and utterly incapable of using your powers again for the rest of eternity."
With a wipe of the posssessed man's hand, the demon tried to flay Mackenzie's skin from her body, but found that he could not.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!?" he screamed in rage.
Mackenzie blew a raspberry at him.
The demon tried several more times to use his infernal, hellish powers on Mac. Explode her body. Turn her inside out. Revert her to a fetus. Give her a heart attack, but he couldn't do anything. The curse that she had put on him was strong, very strong indeed. Ironclad. He had effectively been rendered mortal.
Screaming in a rageful, animalistic voice, Laz'ku'dal pounced upon the girl, knocking her tiny body to the ground, wrapping the possessed man's strong hands around her throat, choking the life out of her.
"I... wish... that...you'd transform...into a... vacuum cleaner!" she said, gurgling. She was in a daze, feeling woozy from lack of oxygen. She then felt her windpipe breaking.
Within moments, the pressure around her throat ceased.
The man was gone. All that remained was a rather clunky looking vacuum that her mom might have used.
As she died upon the beach, the teenage girl smiled, knowing that despite her mistakes, she had saved the day.
**
Upland, Ca
2022
(Still Transform Or Dare? Earth)
Aziza's banishment spell had worked perfectly.
Laz'ku'dal had finally, after nearly fifty years, been sent back to Hell, only to become a laughingstock among his fellow demons.
With that out of the way, Aziza and Tom continued their road trip up the west coast.
Only now they had a companion passed out in the back seat, the man that the demon had possessed.
"How's our Rip Van Winkle doing?" Tom asked after a few hours.
"I have him under a sleeping spell" Aziza told Tom. "It'll last for another six hours at least. I'm sure that things will become very awkward for him when he wakes back up. We need to ease him into things."
"I guess after you fix Jennifer, we'll have to find this man's family too, if he has any" Tom said. A cold breeze blew in his face, so he turned the window up. "Poor guy. Imagine waking up after fifty years, and it's the apocalypse."
"Indeed. I feel sorry for him."
"So Aziza, is it OK if I get you a Christmas gift? I know that you don't celebrate, but it's the least I can do for getting rid of my curse."
Aziza smiled.
"Of course, Tom. I appreciate the thought. I will get you one too."
Tom reached out and snuggled Aziza with one hand, his other hand on the wheel..
"Not necessary. You're my gift."
"Aww, you're sweet. You remind me of Kylie right now. She loved Christmas too."
"Please never compare me to Kylie" Tom said.
**
After discussing it with Nancy for close to an hour, and consulting several gods and goddesses just to be safe, Savannah shook Diana's hand.
"We'll take the deal."
"Excellent! I'll tell our fabricators to whip up an antivirus."
While Diana set up the arrangements, Nancy asked her Dad if it was alright to explore outside of Chronivac HQ while they waited for the cure.
"It's my first time in another dimension! I don't want to waste it hanging around a boring old building."
Savannah was nightly reluctant at first, but she told her daughter that it was fine as long as she didn't accept anything from strangers and to stick close to the building.
"I will! Thank you, Daddy!" Nancy squealed and kissed Savannah on the cheek, then walked outside of the building, surprised to find that Google Maps worked here.
"Oh thank goddess that the kid is gone" Savannah said staring lustfully into Diana's eyes. "I've been waiting to ask you since you walked in here if you wanted to maybe..."
"I've been waiting to ask you the same thing!" Diana said.
Savannah snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, the two found themselves in a break room, where Chronivac workers could grab a coffee or feel each other up, whatever worked for them.
The two women were alone. They were laying on top of a large bed, both of them naked. Savannah was on top of the Amazon woman and stuck her tongue down Diana's throat.
Diana thought, so this sexy ass MILF is also a sorceress. And apparently had once been a man, like she had once been years ago too. Cool.
**
Katerina hadn't seen Savannah in a little while. She was spending a lot of time with her daughter, catching up on lost years and maybe producing a new generation of sorceress.
No matter.
Katerina would take her time alone to visit her stupid sister back in Russia for the holidays. She was probably lonely, the poor stupid thing.
**
Lydia smiled from the next room as she saw Emily and Hermione getting along.
She remembered how much Emily had used to despise Hank.