GemmaSparks 2 - No Place Like Hell

Eyes clenched shut, Gemma could feel the sudden heat of a raging fire surrounding her.  Unnoticed by her, tiny human legs were frantically kicking beneath the yellow flower dress she still gripped. Rich was confused and disoriented, he had felt his every literal fiber massaged by the energy flowing from Gemma’s fingers. He felt blindfolded and helpless from the waist up, and could feel a new warmth radiating from all around. Rich ran as best he could, but could only manage to scuttle around in circles with his sleeve still tightly gripped by Gemma.

Quickly opening her eyes, Gemma was horrified by what she saw. Had she somehow teleported into the pits of hell? Cartoon animals with sharp fangs holding pointy sticks snarled from beyond the fire. They looked more like cosplayers in furry suits, but the fact they were clearly animated and staring straight at her as if she was the weird one, made the two giant rabbits, the fox, a pig girl, and the lion all the more exotic and menacing.

“Definitely not Hawaii… I don’t think? Maybe inside a volcano?” Gemma puzzled over her whereabouts versus where she had been thinking about teleporting, then shook her head to clear out any stupid thoughts. “No, not Hawaii.”

Looking around she appeared to be in an ancient temple made of obsidian, sparks like lightning pulsed up the walls and converged on a giant throne.  Quickly she grabbed Rich’s sleeve and pulled him back towards her to prevent him from wandering into the flames.

“I’m so so sorry Rich! I can fix this, maybe...” Gemma raised her fingers and snapped. Nothing happened. Again she snapped, and again nothing.

A booming voice echoed throughout the hall, “That little trick aint’ werkin’ here, toots.”

Looking all around for the source of the voice, Gemma was frightened and confused. “Um, where are you? I can like hear you, but I can’t see you.”

“Seriously? How about now?”, the voice echoed a bit less and was higher pitched than before.

“Nope, sorry. Maybe if you just told me where to look?” Gemma now felt more frustrated than frightened. She reasoned if she was in mortal danger she would have already been attacked, but this creature apparently wanted to chat, and the cartoon animals had settled back down and were now toasting marshmallows, of all things, on their pointy sticks.

“For cryin’ out loud, I’m on the big giant throne in the center of the temple. It's literally the only place for me to be!” the voice had lost its threatening tone and was now just annoyed at the situation. “Don’t tell me you can’t see me!”

The voice began mumbling in frustration as one of the cartoon rabbits looked up, shook its giant furry head and shrugged, before grabbing some graham crackers to make more s’mores.  

Staring up at the throne and squinting, Gemma blinked and shook her head. “There’s nothing on that throne. Am I being pranked? Are you some sort of magical trixter like my grandma always warned me about?”

Gemma thought back to all her adventures with her grandma, pushing her down the halls in her wheelchair and letting go, pouring ketchup in her bed pan and then pressing the nurses button, switching her heart monitor onto jellybean their pet cat, such fun times.

“Grammy always said, you can never trust fairies or leprechauns, and I always said, Grammy, take your meds!” Gemma paused a moment, “ Maybe grammy wasn’t totally nuts after all. I feel a little sad she got committed now, but at least she escaped...”

“You’re killing me here with your poor grammy.” the voice shouted. “How about this, you may approach my throne.”

Instantly the fires blocking the path to the throne disappeared. The group of cartoon animals stood upright in frustration, a tiny bunny voice shouted out, “Not Cool Gee!” as it gave the giant throne the finger, with its animated paw magically growing a middle finger.  The others grabbed their sticks, marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, then trudged off to find a different flame.

Gemma mumbled mockingly as she tugged Rich along, “Maybe if we had just started without all the big fiery flames it would have been easier. Big talking voice is a moron.”

“You know I can hear you? The room, it echos. That’s why I sit up here, for the superior acoustics.”

“Yeah, I figured that part out!” Gemma shouted at the top of her lungs back.

A spark jumped across the seat of the throne. “Yeouch! No need to be violent, geesh!”

Looking up from the base of the throne Gemma could now see a small creature made of lightning standing a foot tall on the giant 50ft throne. “Are you effing kidding me? Well no wonder I couldn’t see you. I’ve made bigger sparks rubbing my feet across carpet.”

“Feelings..” the creature sarcastically squeaked. “No need to stab a dagger in mine. I just wanted to make a good first impression, seeing as since we’re stuck with each other for all eternity.” The voice attempted to laugh, but only managed a small squeak before being interrupted.

“Say what?” Gemma squinted at the tiny creature.

“Let’s start again.” coughing, the creature cleared its voice. “Greetings mere mortal! I am the great and powerful energy demon Glitz.” The barely audible greeting squeaked out of the tiny creature. “Let me just stand back here where the acoustics are better and start again…”

“Don’t bother, I heard you. Mr Squeaky.” Gemma laughed, “ Oh my, an energy demon, I am but a low and humble human named Gemma. Please have mercy on my mortal soul, great and powerful one.” Gemma burst out laughing, unable to hold her composure.

“Damn girl, no need to be so sarcastic!” Glitz squeaked, “You’re in the presence of greatness!”  Glitz struck a pose, bringing forth sparks from around his throne.

“Cut the crap, sparky. What’s this all about.”

“Basically, you turned 21 so now I own you.” Glitz rubbed his little lightning hands together maniacally.

“Nope” Gemma resolutely responded.

“Whaddya mean nope? I just told you…”

Gemma interrupted, “Nope, as in, you’re lying. So far, I’ve been the one asking questions and you’ve been the one answering and accommodating me. If you owned me, great and powerful demon,” Gemma smirked, “I think you would be commanding me to do things, not getting all friendly... but since you are clearly following my orders, I think that makes you mine.”

Glitz looked dumbfounded, uncertain what to say.

“So, one more time, what’s going on?” Gemma gave Glitz an evil stare.

“Your dear mommy, rest her soul, made a deal with a demon, namely me. As of your 21st birthday and until the end of our existence, I get to use you as my vessel into the world...”

“Rest her soul? She’s not dead you moron!” Gemma retorted.

“Yet..” Glitz laughed back, "Yet."

“Whatever, sparky. Get to the part where mom’s little deal with a demon helps me.”

Glitz stammered then quickly spouted out, “... fine, you gain access to all of my powers while I reside in you.”

“Why would mom make a deal with some second-rate demon…” Gemma pondered out loud.

“Glitz. You can just call me Glitz. Or would you rather be addressed as a second rate human?”

“Sorry, Glitz. I suppose you’re the reason I ended up at a space station coffee shop?”

Gemma paused. “Eww! You little perv! You were the one making all the sparks when me and Rich were making out all night! What the fudge!” Gemma looked down at the half human half dress still in her hand, twisting itself up from running in circles, “You did this to him?”

“As much as I would love to take credit for that, it was all you. When you turned 21 we became linked by energy. You’re part energy demon now. Build up a little static, a little spark, and your magic gets charged. Get ME inside you and you will be overflowing with magic! C’mon buttercup, get me inside that body...”

Gemma pulled off a shoe and threw it at Glitz, knocking him over. “Get away, you perv!”

“It’s not like that my dear.” Glitz paused, “Well, I guess technically it is sort of like that, but… do you want to fix your boy-toy or not?”

Gemma caved, “Fine, fill me with your mighty power.”

“Oh boy!” Glitz carefully climbed down from his throne, walked over to Gemma and proceeded to lift her dress.

Without hesitation Gemma kicked Glitz into his throne.

“What the hell Gemma?”

“Sorry, reflex. Isn’t there some other way you can ‘fill me’?”

“Damn, was so close to getting some action…” Glitz mumbled. “Fine, but you're missing out.. Hold out your hand.”

Floating into the air, Glitz began to shimmer. Tiny flickers of lightning exploded from Glitz over to Gemma’s outstretched hand, suddenly a loud explosion filled the hall as lightning from across the obsidian room simultaneously sizzled through the air, arcing into Gemma’s body.

Gemma’s eyes glowed brighter and brighter as her body slowly lifted off the ground. Rich lay on the ground, his feet still kicking in circles, but unable to stand upright.

A purple glow ignited around Gemma’s body until lightning exploded from her hands, feet, and eyes. A moment later, she floated back down to the ground, tiny imperceptible sparks jumping across her skin until they too were absorbed by her body.

A tiny voice whispered inside Gemma’s head, “So toots, was it good for you?”

Gemma immediately grabbed her other shoe, and promptly slapped herself in the face.

After a few minutes Gemma began to see and feel Glitz within her mind and body. Her spirit, thankfully, was all her own, but Glitz was also there, like a puzzle piece that had been missing her entire life.

“For 21 years I’ve been waiting for this moment, to leave this room, this place. I’ve wanted to explore and see the world again!... but your mom...” Glitz froze, thinking about Gemma’s mom. “Now your mom was a tough cookie. After she imprisoned me and forced me to help her with..” Glitz froze again, “well that’s not important… after she used me, she left me here. A sweet little surprise gift for her eldest and most dearest possession, erm, daughter.”

Gemma relaxed her mind, feeling around how to communicate with Glitz. Being a gifted learner, she caught on fast. “Touching story Glitzy. Now what does it take to make you shut up?”

Clearing her mind, Gemma began imagining music playing in the background over the sounds of Glitz. After some practice she realized she could pick out real radio stations from all over the Universe and beyond, “Now that’s better!” Gemma began head bobbing to the beat as she thought about what to do next.

Even Glitz had to agree Gemma was an awesome host as she picked up Rich, snapped her fingers once to make Rich a 2 piece bikini, a second time to replace her current dress with Rich, and then a third snap...

As Gemma’s body exploded into light, Glitz echoed his approval in her mind, “A triple snap? Girl’s got sass and class!”.

In seconds Gemma was standing on a sandy beach in Maui.