Mimi's Demons

Chapter 55: Getting Access to the Mega Nerd

 One of the best things about camping was coming home to take a shower. There was something deeply satisfying about watching all the dirt wash off and feeling hot water after rolling around in crisp mountain air and dirt.

Mimi came out of her bathroom in much the same zen as she had been camping, humming tunes she only half-remembered and drowsily considering crawling up into her loft with a book. She had her eye on a few about treating sepsis. Sepsis was the best. So much puss.

She'd just gotten her book when a knock came at her door. She wondered if it was Serena, back early from her surgery for light work (maybe she'd be up to helping Mimi braid her hair?). When she opened the door, however, it was a big-eared zit-dork minion. The blue-gray of his stealy demon's tail and wings vanished behind his back.

"Reporting with acquisition!" Juli saluted, flashing a toothy grin, then handed her over a brown paper packet, the kind that kept paperwork all fancy and confidential.

She took it from him and thumbed the thin metal clasp holding the flap closed.

"These are the identities you were told to steal?"

"The information on the identities so they could be stolen," he said. "Technically. The act of stealing doesn't actually occur until you use them."

Mimi eyed where the stealy demon had once been and thought that was cutting corners.

"You want to come in?" It wasn't as fun as sepsis, but seeing what would make a demon laugh at her was still important, and she did like having Juli around.

Juli beamed. "Can I play with Voltron?"

"As long as you put him back together as you found him."

"Is it really a him if there are female and male paladins?"

She left her door open, as was policy for having a boy in her room, minion or otherwise. "Why does it matter?"

"Hey, people wonder about these things nowadays. It's the 'in' thing, gender and all that." Juli was already to Voltron's corner, fiddling with its head to get the black lion loose from the whole. "Got some online friends insisting their bi or pan or whatnot."

"Sounds like they're bored." She scooped up Bloods-o-Lot the Bear against her chest and got comfortable against a chair-pillow.

"Meh, maybe they are. Or horny."

"Juli," she said in warning. It wasn't just on her list to not talk about nasty stuff, but her dad's as well. She knew that for a fact.

"I wasn't going to say anything else," he protested, black lion already free and morphing up for flight.

"Sure."

With some regret, she put her sepsis book aside and went to opening the packet. Sometimes being an adult was so hard.

She only got halfway down the first page, which was a directory of the names whose profiles filled the rest of the pages.

The names of her mother and younger half-brother stood out in black ink.

"Who gave you these names?" she asked, something awful and cold building up in her chest.

"The boss, obviously," said Juli, posing the black lion just right beneath the TV set.

"My dad?"

"Uh, yeah, what other boss is there?"

Mimi rolled her bottom lip, trying to understand the roiling of her stomach.

"What happens to these people once their names are stolen?"

"Oh, all sorts of things, or nothing at all. Sometimes the boss just needs them for background checks or to hang blackmail over their heads. I've heard other's being completely destroyed, though, like...framed for murder and tossed in jail or signed up for buttloads of debt. You basically have control over a person's life if you have their identity, it's scary shit—I mean, crap."