30 day holiday writing challenge: Day 3-Baking

 “Charlie Brown had the right idea: popcorn, pretzels, and jellybeans. That’s about to be our Thanksgiving menu if these pies won’t set.”

Why did Harper volunteer to cook Thanksgiving dinner? She hates cooking. No, loathes. Loathes is a better word to describe her deep hatred for cooking. And since her boyfriend survives only on the ‘souls of the wicked’, Harper can usually get away with cooking once or twice a week.

But of course having a live-in boyfriend and two pets, well one pet and one reanimated corpse, made Harper long for the Hallmark holiday. So when her brother announced he’d be back stateside during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she jumped at the chance to make that dream holiday a reality and invited him and their parents to her house for the holiday. 

How much did she drink to make her think this would be a good idea?

“Mmmerow, mmmerow.”

“Hi baby.” Harper turned around and spotted Sherlock crouched in the middle of the kitchen. The orange tabby’s tail twitched as he wiggled slightly before pouncing on an object laying in the doorway. He caught the small, cylindrical toy between his paws and let out a little chirp.

“Aww, who’s a good hunter? You are!” Harper watched her cat play with the item for a minute but started to get concerned the more she looked at it. It didn’t resemble any of Sherlock’s normal toys. And with Aeron around, there has been an increase in unsafe artifacts in the house. Normally he was good about keeping them locked up, but he has left one or two lying around before. 

“Whatcha got there, Sherlock. Let mommy see.” 

After setting down the pot holder in her hand, Harper tip-toed over to where the cat was chewing on the make-shift toy. She reached over, grabbed a bag of cat treats from off the shelf by the door, and shook the bag, laughing when the cat tripped over his own feet as he rushed to her side. “I knew that would get your attention, you goofball.”

She placed a few of the treats on the floor and stroked Sherlock’s head for a moment before turning her attention back towards the mystery object. “Let’s see what you were playing with.”

Walking over to the item, Harper bent down and picked it up. It felt cold and stiff but also strangely squishy. Grayish in color, the object did have patches of dark discoloration, almost like bruises. Turning it over, Harper immediately felt her stomach turn as she spotted a fingernail on the tip of the object. 

“Oh my god, it is a finger! How the hell did a finger get in my house?!”

…Dave. It had to be from Dave. Where else would a human finger come from besides her boyfriend’s pet zombie?

“Oh no. The stasis spell Aeron put on him must be wearing off. We’ll have to see if he can do something to fix him. But first, where’s Dave?”

A shaky, discolored hand with a missing index finger dropped down on Harper’s shoulder. Her heart raced as a scream tore its way out of her throat. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Sherlock jump in fear and race out of the room. Honestly, Harper wishes she could do the same. 

Taking a deep breath, Harper put on a smile and turned around to face her undead roommate. “Hey Dave! How are you…”

Her voice drifts off and her eye widen in horror as she takes in the sight in front of her. 

A strange shiny substance with a few thick, pink pieces covers Dave’s face. Sprinkled in the slime is little flakes of pepper, rosemary, and other green specks. Hanging out of his mouth was a tiny hooked bone. And in his hand was the 15 pound turkey she had out on the counter so she could season it for tomorrow’s dinner. Well, what was left of it. Currently it has several chunks missing from it. 

“Oh no no no! Dave, no! That turkey is for tomorrow! Give it here!”

Now, Harper has done a lot of stupid things in her life, but trying to steal a half-eaten turkey from a hungry zombie? Gotta be in the top three.Right behind dating the demon who adopted said zombie.

Fearful of loosing his food, Dave flailed his arms around, trying to scare away the woman trying to take away his prize. However, one of his fists caught Harper in the cheek and sent her stumbling backwards. She threw hands back behind her to keep herself from crashing into the stove. And felt her hand land in the gooey pie she left on the counter in hopes that it would set.

Harper felt a rush of cold run down her spine as her hands began to shake. Tears began to well up in her eyes as feelings of disbelief, despair, and defeat warred inside her. 

Then rage decided to join the party.

“Aeronzile the Slaughterer! You better get your ass down here before I drag you back to hell myself!”

The smell of sulfur filled her nose as Aeron appeared in the room in a puff of grey smoke. The look of fear in his eyes slowly slipped away and was replaced by sadness as he took in the scene in the kitchen. 

And with Sherlock peaking in from the safety of the hallway, Dave munching on huge bites of raw turkey and bones, and Harper leaning sgainst the counter with pumpkin pie innards on her hand and a bruise blooming on her cheek, it was probably a sight more appropriate for Halloween than Thanksgiving. 

“My poor Harper.” Aeron moved in front of her and gently cupped her injured cheek in his hand. A warm pulse of energy engulfed the area beforefading away,leaving a slight tingle. “It appears that your morning has been more difficult than expected.” 

“No shit its been difficult. I, the girl who is on a first name basis with every delivery driver in the zip code, have to prepare an entire Thanksgiving dinner by myself because I am dating the one person on the planet who will be poisoned if they eat food. And guess who has absolutely no cooking skills and even less baking ability. That’s right, this girl,“

The fact that Aeron was actually showing emotion and looking a little shocked and hurt by her rant should have set off warning signals in Harper’s brain and told her to stop. But the lead up to this week has been so stressful, and releasing the rage felt so good. So she didn’t stop.

“It’s been years since my family has all been in the same city let alone the same house. So everything has to be perfect. But the pies wouldn't set, and then Sherlock was eating Dave’s finger so who knows if he’s going to catch some sort of disease because could have sworn decaying flesh wasn’t good for you. Oh, and Dave ruined Thanksgiving dinner for the rest of us because he is currently eating the Turkey I bought almost two months ago to make sure I got one cause I’m pretty sure the stores have been sold out for a week already. And now I am currently using the pumpkin pie as a hand cream. So on top of trying to figure out what to do with Dave while my family is here and how to explain to my family that you can’t eat because you are a demon and will be poisoned by the food. So, yeah. It’s been difficult.”

As she finished raving about everything bothering her, Harper’s head felt a little clearer; instead of feeling like every mishap was the end of the world, they all felt manageable. Frustrating and unwanted but manageable.

“Do…do you wish to end this arrangement between us?”

Not manageable! Very not manageable!

“What?! Of course not.  Why would I want to do that?”

“Then do you wish for me to find a new place of residence for Dave?”

“No. When I agreed to take him in, I said we’d treat him with dignity. And part of that is not kicking someone out just because they made a mistake.”

A frown slipped on Aeron’s face as he took one of her hands into his. “I must confess,” he murmured as he ran his thumb over the back of her hand. “I am not sure how to respond to the claims you have just made. And these feelings of confusion and uncertainty are making me uncomfortable and slightly infuriated. I do not approve of them.”

“Listen, there really is no specific way to respond. A million bad ways to respond though. Like the way I did.” Pulling on his hand gently, Harper led Aeron to the table in the corner of the kitchen and had them sit down. “That rant was unfair to you. I was stressed and frustrated and took it out on you. I’m sorry.”

“Apologies are unnecessary. You were bound to have another day where you expressed true rage at me. Though this incident was strangely more intimidating than the last time.”

“Well, this time I’m not just the girl who released you; I'm also your girlfriend.” 

“Last time you threatened me with holy water and various sharp objects.”

“You were trying to eat Sherlock!”

“Now that he and I are, what did you call it? Ah yes, ‘besties’, I am grateful you stopped me. He is a truly magnificent creature.” The corner of his lips lifted in a teasing manner. “And I promise Sherlock will not get sick because of Dave.”

A little twinge of guilt echoed through Harper as she thought about everything that happened with Dave today. “Here.” She put the finger that was clenched in her hand on the table and pushed it over to Aeron. “I think your stasis spell is fading. Maybe you can reapply it or something.”

“Thank you. When I feed him later tonight I will reattach his finger and reapply the spell.”

“…I hate to ask this so soon after all that but do you have any ideas on what we can do with Dave tomorrow? Sherlock might have accepted him, but I doubt the rest of my family will.”

“I will put him in a pocket dimension for the day. I have a few colleagues who are indebted to me, so they can guard and entertain him for the day.”

“…I have so many questions about that statement but I am already behind on everything, so I am going to leave it at ‘thank you’.”

Aeron lifted her hand off the table and kissed it gently. “You are more than welcome, my dear.” Then he tugged her to her feet and gave her a soft nudge towards the oven. “Now, how about you forge on with your baking while I go settle Dave in at his accommodations for the holiday and then go procure you a turkey.”

“I appreciate the thought but there is not a single place in town that will have a turkey the day before Thanksgiving.”

“Trust me my dear. You shall have a turkey before tomorrow arrives.

…..

“Aeron, what is this that you are trying to hand over to me?”

“It is a turkey. The biggest one I could find so that we can show your parents the proper honor and respect.”

“But it is not packaged. And it's warm. Oh my god, did you just kill and pluck this turkey?!”

“Are you certain you wish to have that question answered?”

“Oh no! You can’t say things like that! Now I know the answer!”

“I am afraid I am unable to determine if you are upset or not. Are we once again fighting?”

“No. We’re not fighting. It just… surprised me, that’s all. Thanks for finding me one. Put it in the tray in the fridge, wash your hands, and you can help me decorate the gingerbread men. I even made up a batch of fake blood you can throw on them to make it look like they've been in a bloody battle.”

“Marvelous!”