The Deal (11 page)

‘
All you have to do is trace
infinity on your right wrist and you will become invisible to him
and any other demon. And
of course,
you should trace it again to
release the magic.’

I looked down at my right wrist, a little
puzzled at first and then I saw it. Dead centre in the middle of my
wrist was the number eight. The sign of infinity. I had to fight
the temptation to trace my index finger around the
shape.

‘
I understand that it may not be
what you were hoping for.’ Said the big monk, and I could
definitely hear a note of sadness in his voice now. ‘But there are
many artefacts just like that one, which when combined can give you
the power you need to break your deal with Satan.’

It didn’t really take a genius to figure out
what the monk was aiming at. I already understood that the only way
I was ever going to break my deal with his royal darkness was to go
head to head with him. And you know what, I was starting to warm to
the idea of the day when that might come.

‘
Thank you Pertilius. I know you
don’t have to help me at all.’ I said, still in awe at my new
golden tattoos.

‘
Well,
I did say I wouldn’t forget
your
kindness.’

I looked up just in time to see
Pertilius peel back the hood on his robe. I could feel my jaw
slacken as the face that was revealed belonged to the young man I
had set free from the demon lord
Hermetia’s
kitchen.

‘
You! But how? Why?’ I was
flabbergasted and unsure what to make of it all.

‘
I wanted to make sure you would
actually find your way into the great hall and the only way to do
that
was allow
myself to be taken as a lost soul.’

‘
But what if I had left you
there?’

‘
We are practitioners of black
magic. There are no objects or demons which can keep us bound.’ A
wry smile crossed his thin lips. ‘It’s time for you to go back to
the Earthly
plane,
Samuel. I sense our lord will be
looking for you soon.’

‘
Great. That’s just spoiled my
day.’ I
said
trying to be jovial but I couldn’t hide just how
depressing my life had become since I made that damn
deal.

‘
When you find the time, I would
suggest that you pay a visit to St Helen’s Elementary school and
kindergarten. You may find something there that can illuminate your
path.’

I looked at Pertilius, even
more,
puzzled than before, and I was about to ask him what he was
talking about when he suddenly shoved me backward. I tried to
steady myself but it was no good, I was falling straight back into
the
passageway
.

The light of the world vanished quickly as I
fell. Air rushed around me at an alarming speed and I had no option
but to brace myself for a hard landing.

The hard landing never
came.
Instead,
I landed on something soft, and as I scrambled to
my feet I realized that I had landed on my own bed.

I was back in my own apartment. Back in my own
bedroom which was still in the soft darkness I had become
accustomed to. Sitting on the edge of the bed I tried to get myself
together. My thoughts seemed broken and scattered, yet there was
one thing I remembered very clearly:

The name of the elementary school Pertilius
had mentioned. It had sounded so familiar and now that I was back
in my own world I understood why. It was the same school where Lisa
had once been a teacher before she had been cruelly snatched away
from me.

During the time after making my
deal with
Satan,
I had never thought to actually
look into my wife’s life on this plane.
Instead of
choosing to
try and figure out why she was in Hell.

I looked at the magic symbols tattooed on my
wrists. Now was the time to find out the truth about Lisa and find
a way to not only free her from Hell but also to break Satan’s hold
over both of us.

PART 3:

SINNERS HEART

Beads of sweat dripped into my eyes,
almost blinding me, as I sprinted towards the abandoned abattoir.
Ahead I could see my newest target, an overweight street hustler
who goes by the name of Slick, crash through the main door of the
gothic building.

I was surprised at how fast the fat bastard
could move and even more surprised at how just unfit I had become
over the years. Wiping a thick layer of sweat from my forehead, I
slowed my pace down to a fast walk as I entered the building
through the same door as my target.

Slick knew he was fighting for his life now.
This wasn’t going to be a simple beat down like he was used to from
the cops or his fellow street urchins. He knew I was out to take
his life and I knew he would do whatever it took to stay alive.
Caution was the key word when you had to chase after your
prey.

The
doorway
opened into what
looked like a small office. There was a couple of overturned desks,
a smashed computer and plenty of obscene graffiti on the once white
walls.

I figure it had probably been the manager’s
office at some point in its history, or possibly even a reception
area for the drivers bringing in the livestock.

In the near
distance,
I
could hear the crash of metal against metal and quickly moved in
that direction.
This
time,
I choose stealth over speed. He was
still in the building and thanks to only a few shafts of pale
moonlight
shining
in through the shattered
windows, he was just as blind as I was.

I felt confident that he wasn’t going to be
leaving the building by own his accord this time. I moved to the
doorway near the far end of the room, its door propped up against
the wall, long removed from its hinges.

Beyond the office lay the main killing floor.
The area of the building where the animals would be brought through
and slaughtered one by one, each receiving a single bolt to the
head. Not exactly the best way for an animal to die but probably
about the kindest a cruel race like us could think up.

‘
It’s over Slick!’ I shouted out
into the vast room. I wasn’t expecting an answer, but if he was
stupid enough to reply to me then it would help me
pinpoint
his location more accurately.

‘
Fuck you!’ Came a rattled,
wheezing voice. For a career
con-artist,
I was surprised at
just how stupid he was being. But then again all intelligence goes
out the window when you have the hitman from hell chasing
you.

‘
No thanks.’ I shouted back. On
the floor just beyond the
doorway,
I could see the shape
of a meat hook and moved to pick it up. ‘I know plenty of women
willing to do that for me.’ I wanted to try and keep him talking as
I moved quietly in his direction.

‘
What do you want from me!?’ He
cried out and for a
moment,
he actually sounded like he
genuinely didn’t know.

The meat hook felt heavier than I had imagined
it would be as I slapped its hooked blade into my open palm. Edging
along the ceramic tiled wall, and heading towards the far right of
the building I decided to elaborate on my predicament.

‘
You have in your possession a
very valuable Gold chain that was stolen from my boss some time
ago. He knows you still have it and I will get it back one way or
another.’ I kept my voice loud enough so that he could hear me but
also soft enough to try and reduce the threat level.

If he had any instinct for self-preservation
his next tactic would be try and bargain with me. It was a classic
scenario that I had dealt with countless times before.

‘
I don’t have your stupid
necklace. I pawned it a few days ago at Harry’s Pawn Shop on Tenth
Street.’ He was starting to calm down a little as he began to think
that he might have a chance of walking away from this situation
unharmed.

If only you knew the truth you fat
fucker.
I thought to myself as I continued
through the darkness, following the sound of his voice as it led me
closer to another room where the animals would be cut up for their
meat.

‘
Are you absolutely sure about
that?’ I asked, reaching the wide doorway which led to the gutting
room as I called it. The roof at that end of the building had been
badly damaged by the various storms that came and went through the
years which was good for me since the huge gaping hole allowed
moonlight to flood inside and give me a
much
better
vision.

‘
Of
course,
I am. I’m only interesting in
making a few bucks
to
feed
my family. If I had known it was
going to cause this much problem I would never have
taken
it off him.’ He was on the verge of tears now, which was
exactly what I wanted.

But I found myself faltering as he
spoke.

‘
Who did you take it off?’ I
asked, becoming more curious as to what kind of story he was going
to make up to cover his sorry ass.

‘
I don’t know, some big guy
dressed like a monk. But he was creepy as all hell. Hardly spoke a
word to me. He just pushed the necklace at me and I gave him a
couple of bucks for it.’

Now I was truly curious. My mind
flashed back to my meeting with Pertilius in the apartment of the
thief who had stolen Beelzebub’s soul. Surely he wouldn’t be up
here on the Earthly plane, trading ancient relics that
were
obviously very important to his master, my boss, just to make
a few bucks?

‘
His robe. Was it black?’ I asked,
just a few feet away from the opening to the next room.

There was a moment of silence as
Slick thought about my question. Con artists usually had very good
memories but old Slick wasn’t up there with the crème of the
crop.
In fact,
he spent more time in jail than he did out
conning people of their hard earned money.

‘
Yeah.’ He shouted eventually. ‘It
had strange symbols on the cuffs and the hood. I don’t know, like
magic symbols I guess. I thought he was just another whack job
looking to score a few bucks so I played along.’

As far as I remembered seeing,
Pertilius was the only brother in his order with those symbols on
his robe. But it made no sense for him to be here trading in
ancient
artefacts
if indeed that was what the
necklace really was.

Those lovely folk down in hell
weren’t exactly well known for their honesty and it was certainly
possible that this could be some sort of
ruse
. A means to get
me to do more of the brothers dirty work, while I was also working
for their
master
or our master as it was for the
time being.

I had thought it strange that
Satan himself would waste my time and energy on such frivolous
items.
After
all,
he has gone countless centuries
without caring about them, so why should he suddenly be interested
in them now?

As various thoughts floated around in my head
I noticed I had neared the doorway and when I looked down at the
concrete floor I could see a shadow being cast from the other side
of the doorway.

At
first,
I thought it was my own, but as I
waited a few seconds for my vision to focus properly in the poor
light, I noticed it was way too fat to belong to me. The meat hook
I held in my right hand began to glow along with the gold band on
my finger. The gold band that was my power supply when it came to
dealing with the scum from hell, or in this case, the scum that was
going to hell.

However,
I had one last question before
I permanently removed Slick from the streets of New
York.

‘
Did he say anything? The monk.
Did he speak at all?’ I was certain the answer would be
no
but was surprised when the fat hustler replied.

‘
Yeah. He muttered something like
the
heart
of the
sinner
or some such crap. I wasn’t
really interested. I just wanted to get the gold chain from him and
then make him go away. He really freaked me out.’

The heart of the sinner. What the
hell did that mean
? It was a question I
was going to have to ponder on later. Right now, I had a job to
do.

Gripping the steel hook as tight
as I could, I swung it fast and hard in the direction of where I
thought the fat
man's
head would be behind the
wall.

An agonized scream filled the air
and a flock of birds who had been nesting on the roof of the
building suddenly took flight away from what they thought was
a
danger
. I pulled the hook towards me
and watched as Slick stumbled out of the darkness and fell to his
knees
in front
of me.