The Deal (14 page)

‘
It will prevent any demon from
the lower world being able to detect your true motivation.
Essentially you could lie to the face of our lord and get away with
it. However, it won’t stop them from being suspicious of you, so
once again use it wisely.’

The warmth was slowly dissipating and I could
feel the cold air of the abandoned building beginning to push its
way back under my skin.

‘
Can these symbols be seen by
anyone other than me, because Satan didn’t seem to notice the one’s
on my forehead earlier?’ It was a silly question that had just
occurred to me.

‘
No. No one and no devil can see
your markings, but…’ The hesitation in his voice was back once
again and I could feel his guard coming back along with it. ‘…Once
you have the last of the artefacts in your possession those
markings will become visible and you will have no option but to
stand before Satan.’

I nodded my head upon receiving the answer I
had already suspected. My mind swam with countless thoughts and
questions, and trying to pick out something coherent just wasn’t
working.

‘
Thank you, once again. I’m sure
I’ll owe you debt when all is said and done.’

‘
I must go now Samuel. I suggest
you get some rest. You will be unable to think straight given your
energy levels.’

I opened my mouth to ask one more
question but before I could he was gone in that familiar puff of
black smoke, and once again I was alone in the small
classroom
, staring blankly at the remains of what must have been a
massacre of innocent children.

The strange and cryptic symbol
seemed to demand my attention from the bottom of the drawer. If
everything Pertilius had told me was even half true, then it seemed
Lisa had been the
victim of
Satan’s deal making
process
just like me.

Suddenly feeling tired, I slammed
the drawer closed and stuffed the photograph into the inside pocket
of my jacket. I was certain that there was a detail in it I just
wasn’t seeing, but until I got some rest and looked at it with a
set of fresh eyes the odds
were
good that I wouldn’t be
able to find it.

I felt nothing but exhausted by
the time I made my way back out of the once busy school. I didn’t
bother to look back as I exited the way I had
gone
in.
Something inside me told me it was best to just keep walking and
put as much distance between myself and the building as
possible.

Just to add a sense of urgency to that
sensation was the sound of distant sirens. Someone had found
Slicks’ and made the call. I had no idea how long I had been inside
the school, but it didn’t feel like it had been any longer than an
hour, which was exceptionally quick for the body to be
discovered.

After walking another two blocks
further north, I turned on to Eisenberg Avenue and hailed a passing
cab. Normally after a
hit,
I would take my own car so many
blocks back home before parking up and then walking the rest of the
distance. The idea being that the cops would have to work much
harder to connect the car to my apartment since that wasn’t where
it was registered to.

In this
case,
though my car was still parked in
the alley near the bar where I had found Slick touting his stolen
goods. I was going to have to go back for it at some point, but
right now a taxi cab seemed like the quickest and safest way to get
back home. I just needed to get some sleep.

The
high-pitched
beeping of the
alarm clock woke me with a start. I was drenched all over with
sweat and the pounding in my temples and tightness in my jaw told
me I had been grinding my teeth again.

Slapping the top of the clock I swung my legs
out of bed and sat on the edge. The red digits told me it was six
in the morning and I had been asleep for the last three
hours.

Not much, but it was better than the
occasional hour here and there I had managed to grab while working
for my new boss. The taxi had dropped me off a block away from my
apartment building just as I had instructed.

The downside was that the short walk in the
cold night air had actually made me feel a bit more awake and by
the time I closed the door on the outside world my mind was already
starting to rev up once again.

I studied the photograph I had
taken from the
classroom
in St Helens. I remembered
every smile, every rose coloured cheek and every set of blue eyes
including Lisa’s. It was her I studied the most. My heart and my
body ached for her presence. Her soft touch and the heavenly scent
that emanated from her skin.

Some or her story was starting to make a
little bit more sense now as I had discovered thanks to Pertilius
that she herself had made a deal with the devil.

It explained why she was in purgatory without
the daily fear of a Grimoyle ripping her innards out with its
teeth, but it also left more that I needed to find out.

Why did she make the deal in the first place?
That was the big question on my mind.

Was it possible that she was the one
responsible for the deaths of six children and possibly a seventh?
I found it incredibly hard to believe that such a caring and gentle
soul would even dream of smacking a child never mind taking the
life of six.

Yet I knew in my heart that it actually made
perfect sense if that was the reason why she made her deal with the
eternal trickster. Although I couldn’t see she would have to offer
Satan in return for getting away with murder.

Maybe she agreed to be his
wife?
Chimed the voice in the back of my
mind as I lit a cigarette and rubbed at my stinging
eyes.

The thought of her being touched
by him in
any
way
left a stinging sensation deep in my
heart that I had not felt since the day she was taken from me.
What
hurts
the most was
that he
might be
correct.

Whatever he wanted from Lisa, I
was certain that it had to be something personal. Something that
gave him good enough reason to at least protect her from
the most
brutal aspects of life in hell.

Before I could get a chance to stop them,
tears were rolling down my cheeks. The whole situation seemed so
frustratingly surreal, yet I knew first hand that it was anything
but a projection of an overworked imagination.

It was real and no matter how hard
I tried to swallow the pain of my
loss
I had to deal with the
fact that my beautiful wife could be the sexual plaything of the
darkest of souls.

Wiping my tears away using my
forearm, I picked up the photograph once again.
This time,
I
wasn’t really looking for anything. I just needed something other
than my bedroom floor to stare at.

And that’s when it finally clicked.

I had been looking for the obvious, like razor
sharp fangs of a demon posing as a smiling child, or the hilt of a
knife in Lisa’s clasped hands. What I had failed to notice was the
symbolism.

Pertilius had mentioned the creation of the
seven levels of hell, and that particular number seemed to have
great significance in the underworld. Almost as if it was a sacred
number.

I scanned the faces of each child
in the picture once again. One of those kids shouldn’t be there,
but they all looked so natural and as real as any photograph could
possibly exert. Then I spotted something I could not believe I had
missed. Standing to the right of Lisa was a black haired boy. He
was smiling, but it wasn’t the smile of
happiness
or a smile
that said he was enjoying the moment for what it was. No behind it
there was venom and hatred.

It wasn’t the smile that made him
stand
out,
though. It was his eyes. They were deepest and
clearest blue eyes I had ever seen on any child, and I had never
seen anyone with black hair have those colour of eyes to start
with. As far as I understood it was biologically
impossible.

Then I noticed something even worse. Far worse
than I could have imagined, and this time I felt my heart sink all
the way to the pit of my stomach and it would have kept going had
there been room to continue.

When I looked at the boys eyes I
noticed that they were exactly the same colour and brightness as
Lisa’s.
In
fact,
I would have gone as far as to say
that they were identical in every respect. And as I continued to
look, it got a whole lot worse. The boy had a small smattering of
freckles across the bridge of his nose which spread outwards onto
to his cheeks. The formation and pattern of the freckles
were
identical to Lisa’s.

I sat in stunned silence for a moment. My
cigarette smouldering between my lips as I absently puffed on it,
trying to take in the realization of what I was looking
at.

She had a son.
Came the voice in my head.
She had
his son!

I shook my head, trying to bring back some
sort of calmness to my mind, but it wasn’t working this time. The
voice was right and it all made much more sense now.

‘
This is insane.’ I said aloud to
what I thought was an empty room.

‘
I’m sorry Samuel.’ Came
Pertilius’s voice from behind me.

‘
Two visits in one day? What’s the
special occasion?’ I sounded more sarcastic than I had intended to,
but I was at a point now where I was ready for a fight.

‘
My brothers suggested that I
should pay you a visit.’ He said and I could detect no sarcasm in
his voice.

‘
You better watch out, or your
lord will think you are trying to be my guardian angel.’ Tears came
streaming back without warning.

‘
I see you have found a piece of
your puzzle.’

‘
This isn’t a puzzle!’ I shouted
throwing the photograph across the room where it floated to the
floor
beneath
the window. ‘This is a fucking nightmare come
true.’

Silence befell the room as I sat there on the
edge of the bed sobbing. The only problem is now I wasn’t sure what
made me feel the worst. Not having Lisa or knowing that he had sunk
his dirty slimy hooks into her.

‘
Did you know he had a soon?’ I
asked trying to get myself together.

‘
It’s our lords’ sixth millennia
at the throne. It is usually about this time when he would create
an heir before ascending.’ The monk was calm and I knew he was
picking his words carefully once again.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to me. It
seemed so brilliantly obvious.

‘
You’re paying me these little
visits to make sure I don’t get in the way of his son taking the
throne aren’t you?’

‘
Actually,
Samuel, me and my brothers
are seeking the opposite.
In essence,
we’re trying to
help you to stop that from happening, but we have to do it in such
a way that it doesn’t bring down the wrath of our lord. Our magic
is very strong, but it’s not enough to stop him from punishing
us.’

The frustration welling up inside of me was
becoming unbearable. Every question I found an answer to seemed to
lead to more questions and more confusion.

‘
You need to try and help me
understand what the fuck is going on because none of this is making
any sense!’

I could feel Pertilius move closer. It was a
strange sensation because I could feel his aura gently pushing
against my back like it was shoving me out of the way, or perhaps
making sure I was kept at a safe enough distance.

‘
Our lord in his current
incarnation has lost his way. Just like the evil souls he commands
you to punish, he revels in the delights of the earthly plane. Over
the last nine
decades,
he has become more accustomed
to the joys of human flesh and less interested in his duties as
master of the underworld.’

He gave me a moment to take that in before
carrying on with his explanation.

‘
The heir to the throne, his son,
will share pretty much all of the characteristics of his creator so
it’s to no one’s benefit that either one of them
wields
the power required to rule over the kingdom.’

This was probably the first time
that I actually paid attention to the big monk as he spoke, and I
couldn’t help but notice that his fingers would move
absently
like they were counting the amount of words he was speaking.
I thought it strange that such a powerful being from the darkness
of hell would have what was basically a nervous twitch.

It was when his fingers stopped moving that I
realized he was waiting for me to pose more questions. The simple
truth was, though, that my mind was absolutely numb with it
all.