You nod, liking the basic idea, even if it came from Lawrence. "Yeah, sounds good," you say. "There's an old house not far from here we can use. Maybe get some people to fix it up."
Ralphie nods. "Right on."
After a pause you add: "when you say you brought weed…"
"The good stuff," he says without missing a beat. "I don't skimp out for friends."
Ralphie is good people. No way around that. You actually find yourself smiling faintly.
A peal of thunder breaks the silence and everyone looks automatically skyward—superstitious primates who believe the gods are fighting. A flash of lightning splits the night, banishing shadow in favor of stark, merciless light for a single millisecond. The Pines around you stand sentinel, each trailing a thin black shadow to infinity. The bolt strikes the center stone of the circle.
When the rolling thunder fades away you see Virginia and Candi standing side by side at the stone circle, facing the congregation. People automatically fall to their knees, others stand in mute shock. Nearly all of them have seen it before, but it never fails to impress. Even you find yourself struggling to reconcile this raw power displayed so nakedly with the people you know to be nearly human.
Virginia looks basically the same as before, vaporwave dolphin dress, rose shades, and combat boots.
Candi is wholly transformed. Her eyes are ringed with black, artificial tear tracks running down over her cheeks nearly to her painted lips. A triangle is marked across her forehead in ash, her entire body painted in sigils and runes, symbols and signs. Speaking of her body, she's almost completely nude, wearing only a leather harness that showcases everything and hides nothing. She's wearing that antlered headdress she had the day she healed you too. Her pale eyes are unblinking, unseeing and yet wholly focused. Somehow, they find you in the crowd though there's not a hint of recognition on her expression.
Candi Mercer, Priestess of the Dead Antlered God. The Thing in the Woods. She stands by tetherball pole, one hand resting on the polished, shining metal, her fingernails black as night.
This is the part where you have a job, simple as it may be. You reach over to the MP3 player connected to the sound system, track already cued up, and press "play."
https://youtu.be/9-5IIx4R6E8Candi dances, but dancing is an understatement. If she had any clothes on, you'd say she was stripping. She circles the pole, trailing her fingers across in, walking slowly, deliberately, moving her platform boots heel to toe. The bassy, driving music seems to control her. She writhes, spins, and performs acrobatics you didn't know she was capable of. Her body is a force of nature, something you can't look away from.
No one else can either. Ralphie watches rapturously as your sister inverts herself, hanging from the pole, thighs locked tight around it. Again, I'm not sure if this counts as being cucked.
