The Deal (25 page)

Dusting myself down I stepped outside and made my way round
the corner to the spot
where
Satan should have landed. Other than a wrecked car
with terrified looking female driver, there was no sign of
him.

‘
You
didn’t think you were going to kill me that easily did
you?’

I spun around to
face Satan. He was wiping a fresh flow of blood from his wounded
face. Wounds that I knew wouldn’t take long to heal. The problem
was I had no idea how to kill him. I had been treating the fight
just like any other. Human versus human.

But that wasn’t
the case. He was a God in his own right and I was, well, I was just
me and I wasn’t entirely sure just how much power I had. The
problem was, the fight was on now, and I had to stick with it until
I found something that would put an end to him.

‘
You’re going to die one way or another,’ I said, realizing
just how unconvincing I sounded.

‘
Really, let’s see how strong you really are.’

I watched as he
clenched his fists and his eyes rolled back in their sockets to
reveal nothing but white. The ground began to tremble and then
shake violently before the tarmac ruptured all around
us.

Between the
cracks,
I could see the flames of hell licking
up
as if they were expecting a fresh
soul to be delivered. Turning my attention back
to
Satan I noticed that he was growing
in size. His skin was turning the famous crimson red that we all
associated with him. His suit ripped as his frame grew larger and
bulkier.

The
finishing touch before his eyes rolled back round to face me, was
the massive black horns which grew on either side of his head. This
was the Satan that I had
grown
to know. This was his real form and I had to admit
that it was terrifying.

I could feel
myself become frozen as he eventually stopped growing. He was
standing at least five foot taller than me which meant his overall
height was something like eleven feet tall.

How the hell
could I fight with him now?

‘
You
have more power than him Samuel,’ came a voice, more like a
whisper. I recognized it instantly as belonging to Pertilius but
glancing around I couldn’t see him.

Then
without warning my body began to grow too. I could feel muscle and
bone stretch and form into their new and bigger sizes. My skin
changed to that same crimson red
except for
the golden tattoos now looked like parts
of a suit of body armour.

It took only a
few painful seconds before I was standing at the same height as
Satan and feeling twice as pissed off as he probably
was.

‘
Oh,
so you do have some power after all,’ he said, his voice sounding
much deeper.

The time for
talking was over for me. I just wanted to end him, and that was all
I wanted to do. I charged at him, my own horns pointing at his
chest.

I
felt certain he would step out of the way before I hit him,
but
instead,
I could hear his booming voice let out a scream as my horns
pierced his chest.

His screams
changed as he muttered something in Latin and by the time I was
able to pull my horns free, I noticed that the city was rapidly
disappearing and we were heading back to hell.

When
the world came back into focus again, I noticed that we were inside
a massive,
cathedral-like
building. Located at the far end of the room, at
the end of the
long
red carpet, stood a throne made of every human bone
possible.

‘
If
you want to kill me you’ll have to spill my blood on that
alter
,’ said Satan, pointing to the stone
alter
near the doors to the
building.

‘
So
be it,’ I said, charging at him again.

I
was hoping for a repeat of my previous
goring
but
this time,
he was quick enough to step out of the way, and I
could feel him kick me.

I landed amongst
the ancient wooden pews with a loud crash. Satan charged after me,
picking up the pews like they were nothing and throwing them
against the walls where they would shatter into pieces.

He
launched himself into the air, and I watched as he descended upon
me, but at the last
second,
I brought both feet up and lashed out. They connected with
his wounded chest and sent him hurtling in the direction of
the
alter
.

Knowing that
time was of the essence, I quickly got to my feet and ran after him
as he crashed to the floor, just a foot or two away from the large
lump of stone.

I grabbed the
demon lord by the throat and used every ounce of strength I could
muster to drag him over to the alter where I slammed his head down
hard on the stone tablet. I noticed there was a sacred symbol
carved into the stone.

Realizing that
his blood may need to fill that symbol I started slamming his face
into the stone slab in rapid succession until his blood filled the
crevice.

Smoke started to emanate from every part of his body as
the
alter
drew his power away. I clenched my fist around his throat
even tighter so he could make no sound and I held him there, his
body convulsing violently.

I
watched as his skin returned to a mottled grey color. His horns
disappearing soon after that. Then his body went limp. I could hear
something bubbling and when I turned to look at the
alter
, I could see that it was his blood which had been trapped
within the sacred symbol.

Fascinated, I
watched as the blood started to glow and transform from its crimson
liquid state into solid gold. Soon after that, and much to my
surprise, the alter crumbled to the floor like ashes, leaving the
golden symbol balanced on its pedestal.

‘
Well done your grace,’ said a familiar voice. I turned to see
Pertilius enter the building through the main door for a change.
‘He is dead now, you can let him go.’

I looked down at
Satan’s limp body, almost confused that I was still holding on to
him. I let my grip slacken and watched as his body hit the floor
and immediately turned to ashes.

My attention was
drawn back to the golden symbol. Something inside me told me that I
needed it. To complete the process I needed that symbol.

Cautiously, I reached out and grabbed it. In that
instant,
a sharp bolt of
power coursed through my body making me growl in agony. It lasted
only a few seconds, and when I could eventually move my neck to
look down, I noticed I was holding nothing but a pile of ashes in
my hand.

‘
It’s good to have you back my lord,’ said Pertilius, bowing
to me.

I glanced
towards the throne, knowing that I still had a couple of things
left to take care of before I dared to sit on it.

‘
Bring the boy to the church.’

I
stood inside the church where Satan had first brought me to make
the deal. I lingered near the
alter
, back in my human form, the form that was
starting to feel unreal. I decided to wear a white suit for the
occasion. I don’t know why, but it just felt appropriate in some
strange way.

I watched as
Pertilius led the way, followed by the young boy who was flanked at
the rear by more of the brother’s. I watched the boy’s face,
looking for something that would tell me he was scared or
frightened in some way.

What I saw in
his eyes was nothing. There was no love, no hatred, just an
emptiness that was going to make what I was about to do next all
the easier on me.

‘
Do
you know why I have brought you here child?’ I
asked
once the monk’s stepped away from
him.

The boy looked
up at me with those lifeless eyes. There was nothing there, either
in his features or his facial expression that told me there was a
heart beating in his chest.

‘
To
take my soul back,’ he said bluntly.

I
nodded and motioned towards the
alter
. The time for conversation was gone and
instead,
I simply wanted to
get the ritual over with so I could move on to something more
important.

There was no resistance from the child as he walked to
the
alter
and lay down on top of the
blood-stained
stone. A part of me was glad, but the
other part wondered how he could be so forthcoming knowing that his
life was about to be taken from him.

I
moved so I was standing by the boy’s side and placed my hands on
his chest. The monk’s, including Pertilius, surrounded us and
started chanting in their ancient language. Under the palms of
my
hands,
I could feel the child’s heart slow with each second until
it eventually stopped.

I looked down at
his lifeless face and watched as his mouth dropped open. Something
black and shapeless began to escape from the cavity. The monk’s
chants filled the air, seemingly growing louder, as it wrapped
itself around my body before soaking into my skin.

My stomach
suddenly felt like I had swallowed a slab of ice and it was only
once the chanting came to an end and I removed my hands from the
boy’s body, that the feeling dissipated.

‘
It
is done master,’ said Pertilius.

The
other monk’s all placed their hands on the boy’s body and
within
moments,
it began to crumble into a small pile of ashes before being
blown away. The last heir to the throne of hell was now gone and
that left just one last thing I had to do.

‘
What would you have us do now, master?’ Asked Pertilius, and
I noted that his voice had changed. He sounded more regal, or more
respectful maybe.

‘
I
need to find my wife.’

The
realm between hell and earth was whatever a soul choose to make it.
Unlike hell where Satan, or I should say me, had the power to shape
everything a soul would see, in this
realm,
it was the soul who had that
power.

Thanks to Pertilius and his brother’s I was able to locate
Lisa sitting under a huge, old oak tree. All around her
were
green fields with
no animals or wind to give it the impression that it was
alive.

Tears were
trickling down her cheeks as she stared out at the vast landscape,
which for some may have been heaven, but I knew for Lisa it was
just another form of hell.

‘
Hey
you,’ I said, as I approached her.

Startled she
looked up at me and for a moment it looked like she couldn’t
recognize me, but her smile soon returned.

‘
Oh
my god, you did it,’ she said, scrambling to her feet and rushing
over to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek I had waited so long
for.

‘
You
didn’t think I was going to leave you alone in this place did you?’
I teased, my own smile growing.

She hugged me
tighter and if I had been human again I was certain she would have
squeezed the air right out of my lungs.

‘
I
can’t believe you beat Satan, Samuel,’ she said, her eyes still
brimming with tears.

‘
Well it was that or death, and you know how I feel about
dying,’ I joked, but her smile didn’t grow.

‘
What happens now?’ I could see concern spreading across her
face like a
thundercloud
.

‘
Take my hand and come with me,’ I said, offering her my
outstretched arm.

Hesitantly she
took it and within the blink of an eye we were being transported
across space and time. The fields the tree and everything else from
that realm quickly becoming a distant memory.

When the world
came back into focus we were standing in a hospital room with a
young, and heavily pregnant woman, laying on a bed while a nurse
rubbed ultrasound lube all over her swollen belly.

Lisa turned to
look at me confused. She couldn’t understand why our presence was
going undetected.

‘
Why
can’t they see us?’ she asked.

‘
Because you’re a spirit and I’m now the all-powerful ruler of
hell,’ I said, maybe a little too bluntly than I had
intended.

‘
Okay, but why are we in a hospital room with a pregnant
woman?’

Now that was the
question I thought she would have asked first, and as much as I
hated to admit it, I could feel my heart sink a little as she did
so.

‘
Well, you remember I told you that if I beat the Devil I
could put you back into your body here on earth and give you a
chance to start over again?’