The Deal (18 page)

I felt it was a safe bet that as soon as the
human occupants moved out the winged demon had moved in. Or perhaps
they were the ones who had emptied the place all those years ago
when the city had decided it no longer had a use for the old nut
house.

What I found strange was that, if the story
was true, it had been here all those years, still looking for that
sacred artefact which would please their master, and they were
never able to locate it.

Surely these otherworldly monsters
had some sort of magic bred into them which allow them to find holy
and unholy items without too much of an issue.
After all,
Satan
liked to boast that he knew everything about everyone, yet he had
no clue about the ancient objects left behind from the original
ruler of hell.

A lot of things just did not add up for me,
but I had more than enough questions floating around in my head and
I certainly did not want any more clouding my judgment. I had
started the day with a mission to find out why my wife had been
committed to Muirmill and that was all I was going to focus on
until I got some sort of an answer.

I could feel my gaze being drawn
to the desk where
Dr.
Williams would have sat and written
his daily patient notes. The desk was almost identical to the one I
had found in the kindergarten
classroom
except it was maybe
a little larger. Making my way a
round
to where Williams would
have been seated, I pulled the leather chair out of the way. Almost
instantly my eyes fell on the congealed pool of blood on the seat
of the chair.

Making such a discovery at any
other point in my life would have unnerved or possibly even made me
feel a little afraid of what I was getting into to. But after
seeing the things I had and already working under the assumption
that the occupants of the asylum weren’t simply allowed to skip
freely
out of
the front doors, it actually came as no
surprise
.

As I shoved the leather bound chair further
out of the way until it bumped against the nearest bookcase, I
imagined that the Grimoyle probably gave the good doctor a surprise
lobotomy while he was typing up one last patient report.

There
were
two drawers on
the side of the desk, the smaller one at the top had been wrenched
open and left that way to show scavengers such as myself that there
was nothing in it. The bigger drawer at the bottom was still
closed,
though, and for some
reason,
that got my pulse
going with anticipation.

Was I going to find a nasty little surprise,
like a severed head or something awful along those lines? Or could
it simply be that the drawer had been closed after it was raided
and all I was going to see was nothing but five years’ worth of
accumulated dust?

My palms grew slick with sweat as
I reached out and grabbed the drawer handle. I only had to tug at
it before it was quietly being drawn along its metal runners. I
breathed a sigh of a relief as I looked down and saw there was
nothing horrific to scar my mind.
However,
the drawer wasn’t
empty. A single folded sheet of white paper lay at its
bottom.

A bead of sweat rolled down my
furrowed brow and dangled from the tip of my nose as I bent forward
and plucked the piece of paper between
forefinger
and thumb.
On closer inspection there did not seem to be anything out of the
ordinary about the paper. It had turned a light kind of mustardy
yellow from the years of being stored in the drawer and as I
unfolded it I could see only a sequence of numbers neatly hand
written in black in half way down the page.

Five. Eight. Two. Zero. A
simple
four-digit
sequence which could have
been used for anything ranging from the doctors credit card pin
number to his computer password. Although I doubted a man of his
intelligence would have been dumb enough to write such sensitive
details down on a sheet of paper for anyone to find.

What I was certain of was the fact that they
did have a use. They were written down for a specific reason and as
I slid the aged piece of paper into my jacket pocket, a voice in my
head told me that they could be very useful at some point in time.
When that time would be was another story probably, but they had
meaning and a use and I was keeping them until I found out exactly
what for.

As I had been studying the four digit sequence
my ears had been trained to listen out for anything suspicious.
Even as I puzzled over the numbers, I could hear birds who had made
their way inside to nest flapping their wings and the sound of
scuttling feet belong most likely to the rats who had made the
asylum their new home.

The sound I heard above all that did not
register straight away. I was still perplexed by the numbers on the
paper that my mind did not give it enough to time to fully process
at that moment. As I slipped the paper into my pocket I could hear
the sound again.

It was coming from the floor above. A sound
like something hard scraping against the concrete walls. As I
listened more intently I could hear soft thuds which sounded like
large feet pacing back and forth along the hallway.

Immediately my mind conjured up an image of an
extremely pissed off Grimoyle. Pacing back and forth, unsure where
to search next for his masters’ treasure, and looking for
something, anything to take its frustration out on.

I gave the office one last going over, still
looking for a map that was nowhere to be found. If there was one it
certainly wasn’t in the doctor’s office.

Feeling a little frustrated I turned to head
back the way I had come in and bumped against the leather chair. I
held my breath as I watched it roll across the room, tilt, and then
crash to the floor. The noise seemed deafening and I could feel my
jaw clamp shut hard enough to make my temples throb under the
pressure.

I stood there motionless, teeth
gritted, listening for the sounds of a winged demon from hell
coming to get me and vent its anger and frustration on my pitiful
human body. Images of being torn limb from limb flooded my mind,
but after a minute of standing
there,
my jaw began to relax
and breathed more easily once I felt certain my presence had gone
undetected.

At least that was what I thought.

I was about to take a step towards the door
when out in the hallway I could hear a snort. It was the kind of
sound you would expect a wolf to make as it sniffed the air, trying
to pick up the scent of its prey.

Shit! Shit! Shit!
How the winged harbinger of death had managed to
move so quickly and silently was unbelievable. There had been no
rush of footsteps or bellows of anger. It had moved quickly and
silently like any good predator would when it was looking for
something to sink its teeth into.

I remained frozen on the spot. Listening and
hoping that it would not be able to detect my presence. My hope was
shattered when a large claw suddenly tore the door completely off
the frame and discarded it like a used tissue. I could hear the
clatter as it landed somewhere further down the hallway.

My heart was now working at full throttle as
the winged beast, flames roaring in its eyes, poked its head into
the room and immediately spotted me doing my best statue
impression.

‘
Found you!’ It spoke with a deep,
broken growl which told both man and beast that it wasn’t to be
fucked with.

Even though the Grimoyle’s looked big and
cumbersome they were incredibly fast as the one staring at me with
the venom of a thousand snakes in it eyes had just proven.
Unfortunately, us humans aren’t exactly quick off the mark,
especially when it comes to thinking our way out of tight
situations.

As the beast tried to push its way into the
small room, I could feel the gold ring on my right index finger
vibrate and grow warmer as it got closer. I quickly realised I was
faced with a serious problem.

The ring granted me the power to
knock that thing back to hell, but it had seen me. It knew I was in
the asylum prowling for information on my wife even though the dark
lord had told me to leave well alone or face dire consequences. If
it survived it would surely report everything back to Satan
who
would, in
turn,
come looking for me.

On the other
hand,
if I did actually kill it then Satan
would want to know why the asylum was minus a Grimoyle. Which once
again would most likely end with him turning his attention on
me.
Basically,
I was damned if I did and damned if I
didn’t.

The creature, its razor sharp
teeth bared for the world to see, managed to force the rest of its
body into the room and within
seconds,
I was back peddling
as it charged towards me.

As I tripped and fell down on my
ass with a hard thump, I used my shaking left hand to trace the
number eight across my right wrist. The sign for infinity. I prayed
to any God that would listen that the protective symbols
tattooed
onto
my body would really work as promised.

There was a sudden rush of extreme
warmth through my body. I could see my skin with a strange golden
aura, and the symbols on my forehead felt like they were being
branded
into
my head.

I looked up from where I was now
sat on my ass just in time to see the Grimoyle prepare to take a
swing at me. Without
warning,
it stopped mid motion and its
grotesque face looked confused.

‘
Where are you, you pathetic
little man?’ The creature snarled as it sniffed at the air, trying
to pick up my scent again.

There was little time for me to marvel at the
fact I was now invisible. Well to the demons of hell at least. The
sacred symbols had worked their magic just like the monk Pertilius
had said they would. I could only hope I wasn’t premature in using
them. I had wanted to keep it as a surprise for the day when I knew
I would have to challenge Satan for both my wife’s and my own
freedom from his murderous, torture filled kingdom of
despair.

Unsure how long the magic would last for, I
quickly got back to my feet and made my way around the demon. I was
hoping to make it to the doorway and out into the hall without
incident.

I was just a few feet away from the hall when
the creature let out a loud roar and my heart began to race again
as I was sure the magic had worn off and once again I was in the
demons sights. I turned just in time to see it raise a heavy,
muscular leg which it brought down on the desk with enough force to
leave an impression on the concrete floor. The air filled with the
sound of wood splintering under the sheer force and I had to shield
myself from the flying shards.

Enraged I quickly stepped aside, fist clenched
and ready to move to plan b. I was going to have to kill the
bastard. But surprisingly it stormed back to the doorway, forced
its self out of the room and went back to where ever it lurked on
the floor above.

I looked at my exposed hands. The pale white
skin still had that soft golden glow which told me the magic was
still working. Bringing my left hand over to my right wrist I let
my index finger hang there like a blunt dagger as I tried to decide
whether I should break from my camouflage and expose myself again,
or if I should simply leave it be and see how far I could get with
it protecting me.

Eventually,
I withdrew my finger and
decided that now was as good a time as any to test drive the magic
and see just how long it would last for future
reference.

Glancing back at the destroyed desk briefly, I
headed back into the hallway and turned left to carry on as far as
it would go. My heart had returned to a more normal tempo and the
thin layer of sweat on my forehead was beginning to dry as the
cooler air of the hallway brushed against me.

I took a moment to regain my thoughts and
remind myself of the reason why I had come to the asylum in the
first place. As an image of Lisa’s beautiful, smiling face passed
through my mind I took a deep breath and started
walking.

There
were
four more offices
on the ground floor. Each one of them
was
in various states
of decline. The same cheap desks and bookcases furnished all of
them and despite my encounter with the
Grimoyle,
I had to
investigate the drawers in each one.

Other than
a scrap
of
neatly folded paper with the four digit sequence scrawled on it, I
could find nothing else of remote importance. Near the end of the
hallway was a set of doors which the signage above stated would
take me into the holding dormitory.

I hesitated for a moment,
arm
outstretched
, palm ready to push the
doors open. I glanced back up the hallway towards the main foyer. I
half expected to see the raging beast from hell charging towards
me, its nose finally detecting my scent.
Instead,
I saw nothing
that I hadn’t already as I entered the asylum. There
were
no signs of life not even of the
four-legged
furry
kind
.