The Deal (24 page)

‘
What happens to you if you are able to beat Satan?’ She
asked.

I had tried to
avoid telling her the whole truth, which in my heart I knew to be
stupid since Lisa was the only person capable of seeing right
through me. I took a moment to think about how I was going to tell
her before I spoke.

‘
Well, the monk’s seem to think I’m the original sinner,’ I
said eventually, feeling unsure how Lisa would react.

‘
What? Satan is the original sinner,’ she said, confused
again.

‘
Not
really. He is the heir to the throne, so to speak. The original
sinner or Beelzebub as most like to call
him
is the one true ruler of hell,’ I
said.

‘
And
the monk’s think you are him?’

‘
Pretty much. Even Gabriel believes it,’ I said.

Lisa looked at
me in shock.

‘
You
met Gabriel?’

‘
Yeah, but to be honest he’s a pain in the ass. But then again
I suppose you don’t have much to worry about when you’re an angel,’
I said, thoughtfully.

Silence befell
the room and as much as I wanted to spend the rest of my days just
gazing at her beautiful face, I held the scroll in front of me so
that Lisa could see it.

‘
What is that?’ she asked.

‘
This is the deal you made with Satan, or I should say, your
father forced you to make with Satan. When I rip this
apart
it will break the
deal and you will have to go,’ I said, feeling my hands and my
heart start to shake again.

‘
Samuel, you don’t have to do this for me,’ I could see
the
pleading
in her eyes.

There was no
going back now. I had the scroll and it was time to step up to the
plate and take on Satan.

‘
I
love you. You’re the only woman I’ve ever truly loved and if I
can’t at least try and save you then I wouldn’t be much of a
husband would I?’ I said, preparing to tear the ancient parchment.
‘Are you ready?’

Lisa licked her
lips. She looked like she had more to say and I figured that she
was trying to think of something, anything, to stop me. It was then
that I decided it had to be done with or without her express
permission.

The air filled
with a loud rip as I tore the parchment in two and let the pieces
fall to the floor. As soon as they touched the granite we both
watched as the paper pieces erupted into flame and
vanished.

I
looked up at Lisa and had just enough time to tell her that I
loved
her
before a strange black cloud began to form around her body.
The cloud soon turned into a swirling mass which engulfed her. A
few seconds later and I was alone in the dingy little room
again.

Or at least I
thought I was.

‘
So
it has begun,’ said Pertilius as he re-appeared nearby.

‘
Yeah,’ was all I could think to say as I had just watched
my wife disappear from one
godforsaken
place to another.

‘
Before I inform his lordship, would you like me to take you
back to the Earthly plane. You may get some time before he comes to
confront you,’ said the big monk.

In
my
head,
I realized that Pertilius was offering me the chance to
fight in my own surroundings. In a place that I knew and
understood,
whereas
if I stayed in hell then Satan would have the upper
hand.

I agreed by
nodding my head. I needed time to prepare for what was to
come.

When I
re-appeared back in my apartment, I found myself standing in the
living room, glancing aimlessly at the drab furniture. It all held
even less appeal to me now than it had done when I initially agreed
to rent the small living space.

I had no idea
how long it would take before Satan paid me a visit. I suspected
that even as I stood there, Pertilius the monk would be delivering
the good news. I looked down at the ring on my finger, once it had
been a bullet and I had it melted down to its current
form.

It would grant
me the power to hit back, but I wasn’t sure if that would be strong
enough to knock Satan on his ass. Feeling my lungs twinge I
searched the bedroom for my pack of cigarettes and found them on
the bedside cabinet.

I stood there,
enjoying the intoxicating smoke rush into my lungs as I looked at
the picture of my wife and the seven smiling kids she was charged
with looking after. I felt my heart sink as I thought of the place
she was now. It wasn’t torturous like hell, but it was hardly
heaven either.

Exhaling a cloud
of grey smoke I looked down at the ring on my finger. It had gone
back to its dull and natural color. There was no magical glow to
alert me to the presence of a supernatural being.

In
the back of my
mind,
I suspected that the dark lord had ways of getting to
people like me without raising alarm bells. I wouldn’t have
expected anything less, and sure enough, as I turned to face the
doorway I saw him standing there.

There was a
wicked looking smile on his face as he stood there in his famous
white suit. I could see the glint in his eyes that stated I was
about to get my ass handed to me.

‘
Loving those tattoos Samuel,’ He said, unmoving from the
doorway.

‘
Thanks,’ was all I could muster.

‘
So,’ he said with a loud sigh, ‘a little birdy tells me
that you managed to sneak into the great library. That same little
birdy also told me that you managed to steal Lisa’s contract from
the library. And
finally,
the little bird tells me that you destroyed that
contract.’

I was expecting
flames of pure rage to erupt from his nostrils, but as he spoke he
sounded perfectly calm and in control of his temper, which was
actually quite disconcerting in its own way.

‘
I
couldn't do anything
while my wife was in hell,’ I said.

Satan nodded his
head
as if he somehow understood my quandary. There was
almost a hint of sympathy on his face as he glanced around the
small room and noticing nothing of great importance.

‘
Oh,
I understand the position you were in Samuel. It’s a shame
that you didn’t heed my
warning,
though. I mean you hadn’t laid eyes on her for
over five years so there really shouldn’t have been any need for
you to help her out,’ he said, lighting his own
cigarette.

‘
When you love someone as deeply as I loved her, you can’t
just ignore them,’ I said, and I could feel something strange begin
to happen inside me.

All
the fear and other emotions that had coursed through my body that
day
were
transforming into hatred for the man, or god if you so
choose, standing in the doorway of my bedroom.

The
feeling grew so powerful that I could feel my body heat up
rapidly
like someone had
just poured boiling water over me, except I wasn’t being burned by
the heat.

‘
Her
heart was never yours to have Samuel. It has belonged to me since
the day of her conception and it will always belong to me as long
as I still exist, which brings me to another point. That little
birdy I spoke about earlier also seems to think that you are stupid
enough to try and take the throne from me. Is that true Samuel?’ I
could see the viciousness returning to his face as he prodded me
for an answer.

‘
All
I ever wanted was for Lisa to be freed from hell. If you had done
that for me then we wouldn’t be in this position.’

I could feel my
body growing warmer and warmer. The tattoos etched into my skin
were starting to become painful and a part of me wished I could
pull them off and kick them away.

‘
So
it is true. Let me explain something to you. If by some miracle you
are able to defeat me, which we both know is never going to happen,
you will never be able to take the throne because there is another
heir. My son,’ the
spite
was back in his voice now.

He
was right. It had never entered my mind that I would have to not
only deal with
him
but also his son who Lisa had been a mother to for all his
life. I couldn’t grasp why there had to be so many damn rules and
regulations to hell. I would have thought the place was operated on
a whim of its owner and not something as honourable as
succession.

‘
And
you’re forgetting something to,’ I spat back, suddenly realising
that I had some powerful ammunition.

‘
Oh
really, pray tell what nugget of information I may have
overlooked,’ he goaded, puffing on his cigarette.

‘
Some point soon your brother, you know the big guy that
runs heaven, is going to notice that you have a soul in hell who
does not belong there. As my history lesson with your
monks
reminds me, didn’t
that almost cause a war between you two the last time you forgot to
keep a record of your souls?’ I felt triumphant, even though I knew
it would be
short-lived
.

The
smile on Satan’s face fell harder than old drunk trying to stagger
home. My body was now feeling like a living inferno, the pain from
the tattoos was gone and in its
place,
I could feel a deep
throbbing
as if they were trying to etch
themselves deeper into my soul as well as my skin.

‘
Well played, you fucking little runt!’ he
spat
and flicked his
cigarette across the room.

I braced myself
for the fight that was about to come next. Satan, eyes burning with
fury, charged towards me. I let my body loosen up just enough to
take a swing at his gut.

There was a strange hissing sound as my fist connected with
his rock hard stomach and I watched as he flew across the room,
smashing through the wall which divided it from the sitting room,
and
crashing
hard
onto
the coffee table.

‘
I
should have
known
better than to make a deal with you, your just a rat,’ he
spat, clambering to his feet.

I ran towards
him as he got to his feet, hoping to land another punch before he
could get himself together but I was too slow. My teeth rattled
together as his fist connected with the underside of my jaw and it
was my turn to go flying.

Right
out of
the window.

I looked at the
shards of glass floating past, in a dazed and confused way, as I
hurtled towards the street below. This had to be one of the
quickest fights I had ever lost.

It
was my turn to let out the strange hissing sound as the air
got
knocked
out of my lungs. I could hear men and women screaming as I
hit the yellow taxi cab with enough force to crush it and its
driver.

Amazingly I was
still alive, and after a few seconds, still breathing. My body felt
strong instead of smashed. I could feel my muscles transform and
become harder as if they were being pumped full of iron.

Pushing myself
up, I was just in time to watch Satan land on the pavement a few
feet away from me. His landing was much more elegant than mine and
didn’t so much as leave a crack on the sidewalk.

‘
You
think you have the power to beat me?!’ He screamed, running over to
me and grabbing me by the head of the hair.

I
tried to hold on to his wrist as he swung me around and then let me
go. I was flying again and
this time,
there was a louder crash as I went through the
front window of a local convenience store.

The fat guy
behind the till muttered something in a foreign language at me as
he ran to get help.

Still dazed, I was able to push myself back up and onto my
feet just in time for Satan to join me.
This time,
I gave him no quarter.

Grabbing him by
the collar of his suit jacket I dragged him over to the solid
counter next to the till and slammed his face down on it as hard as
I possibly could.

I
did that four more times, blood splattering
everywhere
before I let him slide to the
floor. He looked up at me with bleary eyes, his nose was a broken
ruin and at least three of his front teeth had gone
AWOL.

‘
I
could have given you everything you desired,’ he said, wiping the
blood away from his mouth.

‘
No
you couldn’t,’ I said, preparing for my next attack, ‘I asked you
to let Lisa go, and you refused.’

Taking a short
run towards him I lashed out with my right foot which connected
hard with his jaw. He was flying again, smashing through the
counter, the fridges containing soft drinks and finally the wall as
if they were made of paper.