13. CHAPTER #3
“And you’re a demon with powers to influence those decisions, and oh, by the way—” Gammy’s smile turned to a sneer as she glared at Mr. Heiss. “—you’ve been keeping him prisoner here!”
“Oh, I didn’t need powers for this.” Mr. Heiss looked absolutely smug. “As for being a prisoner, well, that’s for his own safety. You, madam, are already dead.”
“Still got plenty of spunk to whoop your butt—”
“Don’t say it like that.” Indy shuddered. “And seriously, it’s fine. It’s not a big deal. Just letting some steam off after fighting a monster army or whatever—”
“What?” Gammy shrieked. “An army?”
“Okay! Yes, and we will absolutely talk about that, but first.” Indy clapped his hands. “What’s for dinner? As the one person here who actually needs to eat every day, being human and all, I’m thinking I should choose.”
“Dear God,” Gammy groaned.
“What would you like?” Mr. Heiss asked.
“I have the craziest craving for Wendy’s, but you know? To celebrate another day of not dying, I want filet mignon, tres leches, palak paneer, some samosas, pad Thai, and oh! A garden salad. Ranch dressing, but it better be fat free.”
Mr. Heiss stared. “And you want all of that… at the same time?”
“I’ll share if you’re nice.”
“As you wish.” Mr. Heiss bowed his head and vanished.
“So.” Gammy tapped her foot, materializing it specifically so the sound was audible. “A monster army? You and Mr. Heiss…?”
“What?” Indy scoffed. “It’s nothing!”
“Uh-huh. Then why are you blushing?”
“I am not. I’m flushed because I need to moisturize and I don’t have any foundation on.”
“Why are you smiling like that?”
“I can’t be happy to be alive? Did you know I was kidnapped? Again?”
Gammy pursed her lips. “All right, sit down. Tell me what happened.”
Indy joined Gammy over on the couch and gave her the condensed version of what happened at Chuck E.
Cheese’s and the following battle. He did tell her about the kiss but left out the intimate details.
He also didn’t include Luke eating someone whole because ew, he was going to be eating soon and didn’t want that mental image in his head any more than it already was.
“And now I’m here,” Indy concluded, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. “Hanging out with you while my benevolent demon trade gets me dinner.”
Gammy hummed thoughtfully. “So, now we have the Ides.”
“Mmhmm.”
“And the mostri.”
“Mmhmm.”
“And they both want the ring.”
“Which means me dead.”
“This is a sticky little mess, isn’t it?” Gammy frowned. “So, what do we do?”
Indy gestured vaguely and shrugged. “I keep playing booty call for Mr. Heiss until we figure out how to give Dill to him.”
Dill, naturally, appeared then to poke his head up from beside the couch with a low whine. “Dill? Go?”
“Sorry, babe.” Indy reached over to scratch the top of his head between his antlers. “You and your hottie are very cool, but so is having all my organs stay inside my body and getting back to my life. My job. My whatever. I don’t get involved in shit like this, okay? I just—”
Mr. Heiss reappeared then, balancing a giant stack of various to-go containers in one hand. “Your buffet has arrived. Shall we take it in the dining room?”
“You have a dining room?”
“Yes.”
“Okie dokie. I’m so hungry I’d eat it off your ass right now. Then again, I’d probably do that anyway.” Indy hopped up to his feet, taking Mr. Heiss’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, only the two of you dining together, hmm?” Gammy eyeballed them suspiciously.
“I don’t care if you want to—” Indy started.
Mr. Heiss cut in, “Yes.” His smile appeared strained. “How would you like to see the finale of Ruple? Would that be suitable entertainment for you?”
“It’s RuPaul. And what season?” Gammy demanded.
“Fifteen.”
“That hasn’t even aired yet—”
Mr. Heiss snapped his fingers, and the TV flickered to life.
“Oh!” Gammy was immediately glued to the screen with wide eyes and appeared content to stay as she was without any further argument.
“Wow… That was surprisingly easy.” Indy blinked. “Like, way too easy.”
Mr. Heiss smirked. “I am very charming.”
Without looking up from the TV, Gammy cleared her throat.
Indy frowned and tried to figure out why Gammy wanted their attention. They were clearly missing something. He didn’t understand until he happened to glance up at the ceiling. “Oh. Ha!”
Mr. Heiss followed Indy’s gaze and then sighed heavily, scowling.
The entire ceiling was covered in intricate symbols within circles—banishing circles. There had to be hundreds of them, including a very big one right over Mr. Heiss’s head where he stood with Indy by the doorframe.
Mr. Heiss snapped his fingers, but only about half of the circles vanished.
“Oh, while you were gone, I went ahead and put banishing circles all over the house,” Gammy said cheerfully.
“I’d never made quite so many before, and I actually figured out how to make them even stronger so you can’t snap them away now.
” She turned to flash a big smirk at Mr. Heiss, either feeling pretty smug herself right now or directly mocking him. “Isn’t that charming?”
Mr. Heiss sighed.