I nodded as he helped me stand up, my damaged shoulder sending thunderbolts of pain through me that I hardly registered. As we went to walk away, I stopped suddenly. "Wait. What about the goat?"

  Frank sighed. "Fine, I’ll get the goat."

  As he walked over and untethered the goat, I couldn’t help but stare at it.

  "You had a lucky escape, fella," I said.

  As a dreadful afterthought, I added, "I wish I could say the same…"

  2

  Due to the severity of my injury, Frank took me to see Eva at her house in the city. When she opened the door, she seemed shocked to see me standing there, as if she had expected me to be at the cabin, if not resting, then at least laying low— certainly not hunting with Frank.

  "What can I say?" I said before she could speak. "There’s no rest for the wicked, right?"

  I laughed a little too hard at that, and both Frank and Eva stared at me like I was losing my marbles. I was only a stones throw away from going to Hell after all. Standing on the edge of such a precipice with nothing but darkness down below, tended to make one a little…unbalanced.

  Eva took me down to the basement to begin tending to my arm while Frank explained what happened like he was giving a debrief.

  I put things in more succinct terms, though. "I fucked up."

  Eva nodded. "You’d be forgiven for being a little…occupied, I’m sure."

  "Occupied? What do you mean?"

  Does she know what’s about to happen to me? Where I’m going?

  Eva frowned at me slightly. "I mean with everything that happened only yesterday. I’m surprised to even see you here at all. I thought you’d be—"

  "Resting? Watching TV?"

  "With Lucas I was going to say."

  "Oh…right; Lucas."

  I hadn’t seen him since he took us all back from the cemetery. I was planning on visiting him tonight, but things obviously turned out differently.

  Frank came closer at that point. "Okay, I gotta ask," he said looking me straight in the eye. "Has something happened to you, something maybe to do with your…demon other?"

  I stared back at him a moment before looking away. Then Eva did something to my arm that made me cry out in pain. "Jesus!"

  "Sorry…just trying to stop your arm from falling off here."

  Sighing agitatedly, I shook my head. "I need to tell you guys something," I said quietly.

  Eva stopped what she was doing for a second, and then continued as if she was listening.

  "I knew it," Frank said. "What is it, Leia?"

  Staring hard at the floor in front of me as I bit down on my lower lip, I sat in silence for a moment, hardly able to bring myself to speak now. It wasn’t just that I was going to Hell. It was also the fact that I couldn’t help but feel as if I had let down Frank and Eva in some way. My shame was keenly felt under their gaze.

  "Mullin, the demon I sold my soul to, came to see me earlier while I was in the woods." I took a deep breath before saying the next part. "He’s coming back tomorrow at midnight…to take me Hell."

  It seemed like the word Hell hung ominously in the room after I said it, and no one knew how to react to it. Frank and Eva just looked at each other like they had no words.

  Christ, this is hard…

  It was a full five minutes before any of us spoke again. Throughout the long silence, I just sat there on the examination table as I stared hard at the floor like it had all the answers. The worst thing was, there was nothing really to say on the matter, and everyone knew it. I was going to Hell, and there wasn’t anything any of us could do to change that. The long silence was so Frank and Eva, and to a lesser extent myself, could absorb that fact.

  There was, however, more to say on the matter than Frank and Eva knew, so I told them about what Mullin wanted me to do once I got to Hell.

  "Jesus Christ," Frank breathed. "Is he serious? He wants you to kill the fucking King of Hell?"

  "As far as I can tell," I said. "He isn’t kidding."

  "But that’s an impossible task," Eva said, still in shock. "There’s no way…" She trailed off, as if she didn’t want to depress me any more than I already was, which would’ve been a hard task, considering how low I felt.

  Though, despite the darkest of clouds hanging over me, I did manage to retain some optimism.

  "Look, Mullin obviously thinks it’s possible, otherwise he wouldn’t be asking, right?"

  The two of them exchanged glances; then Frank shrugged. "I don’t know. Maybe."

  "Does this Mullin have a plan?" Eva asked.

  I puffed my cheeks out for a second. "I’d like to think he has, although he never mentioned one. I’m hoping he’ll fill me in tomorrow night."

  Frank shook his head. "This is fucking crazy. I can’t believe you’re going to end up like…" He stopped himself as if he didn’t want to say.

  "It’s okay Frank," I said. "You can say it. Like my mother, right?"

  "Sorry."

  "It’s fine." I sighed then and raised my undamaged hand in a gesture of mild optimism. "Look, the way I’m looking at it, I’m at least not looking at fucking eternal damnation or whatever the fuck happens to souls in Hell. At least I have a chance of getting my soul back, and maybe my mother too if I can find her."

  Neither of them looked very hopeful.

  "Come on, guys. I have to treat this like a mission. I have to approach it like…like a Watcher. Right?"

  Throw me a frickin’ bone here, guys…

  "You’re right," Frank said eventually. "You have to look at this as a mission."

  "A mission you are going to get through," Eva added.

  I threw her a look. "Steady, Eva, let’s not get too optimistic about things. I’m under no illusions here, you know."

  Frank smiled at me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say his eyes looked slightly wet, though that could’ve been just the whiskey. "I wish I could go with you, take your place…"

  I smiled back at him. "You can’t."

  He knew better than anyone that once a deal with a demon was done, that was it. There was no getting out of it except at the demon’s behest.

  "Yeah, I know."

  "I know you would, though…take my place I mean. I appreciate it."

  Frank nodded, and then turned away.

  I never thought I’d say it, but I was going to miss him the most.

  3

  After Eva had done all she could to fix my shoulder, it was up to my grace to heal the rest of the damage. At the rate my grace was regenerating the damaged tissues, I figured it would take a day or so to completely heal. At least I had some movement in it now, although it still hurt like fuck. To help with the pain, Eva gave me two pills containing a herbal mix of her own making. Within minutes of taking of them, my whole body began to relax and the pain in my shoulder became just a numbness in the background.

  "Wow," I said to her. "These pills are awesome. You’d make a fortune of these on the street."

  Eva shook her head. "They aren’t for getting high."

  "Well, they’re getting me fucking high."

  It was Frank’s turn to shake his head. "Come on. I’ll take you home."

  "Actually, you can drop me somewhere else."

  Earlier, I called Josh, surprised when he even answered. I intended to see if he wanted to meet for a drink somewhere, so we could talk, but he informed me that he was in his new apartment in Mint Ridge, an upmarket neighborhood on the edge of Little Italy. When I asked him how he managed to find somewhere so quickly, he told me that he had already acquired the apartment before things turned bad a while ago. The apartment was supposed to be a surprise for me, but he made it clear on the phone that it was his now, and that I already had somewhere to live. Slightly hurt by this, I asked him for the address and told him I would be around to see him shortly.

  Before I left Eva’s, she gave me a long hug, though she knew better than to tell me everything was going to be all right.

  We both knew it wasn’t going to be.

  Not by a long shot.

  When Frank pulled up outside Josh’s apartment building, I told him I would find my own way home.

  "Be careful," he said looking at me.

  We both knew what he meant by that. He was talking about Josh.

  "I will, don’t worry."

  As I was getting out of the car, he said, "Leia?"

  I stood on the sidewalk, about to shut the door. "Yeah?"

  He looked awkward for a moment. Pained even. "I’m sorry about all this."

  I shook my head. "None of this is your fault, Frank."

  "Maybe if I’d come to you sooner…"

  Sighing, I looked away for a second, Eva’s pills making me more serene than I probably should’ve been. "What’s done is done. You’re here now, that’s all that matters."

  He stared at me a moment, then looked away and nodded. "Yeah."

  "I’ll see you later, Frank."

  I shut the door and headed into the apartment building.

  When Josh open the door, there was a moment of awkwardness as we both stood looking at each other, each of us hardly knowing what to say. It was then that I knew for certain things would never be the same between us as they once were. There was simply too much water under the bridge now, and we had both irrevocably changed from the people we used to be. It was hard not to feel deeply saddened by this new state of affairs, and only Eva’s pills enabled me to keep my emotions on a level plane so they didn’t spill out in the form of tears.

  "Come in," Josh said eventually, stepping aside so I could enter the hallway. The place smelled like new, like it had been freshly painted.

  After he closed the door, I followed him into the living room, which was large and spacious, sparsely furnished with a large leather corner sofa, a glass coffee table and a widescreen TV attached to the wall above a fake fireplace. I had to admit, it hurt a little to know that the apartment had originally been meant for me as well, and that now I wouldn’t be living in it. Not that I would be living anywhere but Hell very soon.

  "Nice place," I said. "I bet it’s costing you a pretty penny in rent."

  "I can afford it." He sat on the sofa and picked up a game controller, most of his attention now fixed on the TV in front of him.

  I shook my head as I sat slightly over from him on the sofa. Some things never change, I thought. Always with the damn video games.

  We sat in silence for a few long moments while Josh played his game. It felt like we were two strangers instead of twins, and I hated it. I hated the distance that had developed between us—the fucking chasm!—a distance I feared we would never be able to bridge. I guess that’s what happens when you spear your brother in the chest with a sword, nearly killing him.

  "So," I said after clearing my throat. "Are we going to talk about what happened?"

  Josh carried on playing his game for a moment as if he hadn’t heard me. Then he pursed his lips in that way that he did when he knew he couldn’t avoid the inevitable. That was him about to bite the proverbial bullet.

  Pausing the game, he dropped the controller in his lap and sighed. "What exactly do you want to talk about, Leia?"

  Was he serious? I hardly even knew where to begin.

  "What do you mean? A lot happened—"

  "That I’d rather forget."

  Josh stared at me, his dark eyes completely serious.

  I shook my head. "That’s how you are going to handle this, by not talking about it and forgetting it ever happened? As if you ever could forget it…"

  "We both did what we had to do."

  He didn’t seem at all remorseful for any of the things he had done, or for the way he had treated me while he was a demon kin. Which only made me wonder about just how much darkness was left in him. Abigor’s influence may have been neutralized, but the long term effects of his influence were likely not. Josh’s innate darkness had been stirred up by Abigor’s own hand, and I was starting to realize that darkness would remain forever agitated.

  "Do you still love me Josh?"

  A scowl came over his face as he shook his head at me. "Of course I still love you. You’re my sister, Leia, and despite what you believe, I never stopped loving you, even when…" He trailed off, as if he didn’t want to bring up the way in which he treated me.

  "Even when you tried to cripple me and leave me to die?"

  He looked away. "That wasn’t…you don’t understand, the darkness that was in me, it…"

  "I know," I said, thinking back to when I was demonized myself, and how hard it was to control the dark power coursing through me.

  "Yeah, you do, don’t you? I didn’t see what you became, but I heard all about it. It sounds pretty fucked up to me."

  I frowned. "What do you mean you heard all about it? From whom?"

  "It doesn’t matter," he said, shaking his head. "Point is, you’re the talk of the town now, Sis."

  "Stop fucking calling me that, or I swear to God…"

  His jaw clenched slightly as he stared at me. "You’ll what, Leia? Stab me in the chest again?"

  "Fuck you…"

  Josh turned away as she shook his head, and the two of us sat there in tense silence.

  After a moment, I wiped tears from my eyes and said, "You want to know why I’m here, Josh?"

  "To take the moral high ground like you usually do?"

  I bit back my anger. "No, Josh, I’m here because…because…"

  I couldn’t even say it. Suddenly all of my pent up emotions welled up in me at once and I burst out crying, collapsing back into the sofa as my body convulsed, and my eyes screwed themselves shut as though I was trying to block out the world.

  When I felt Josh’s hand on my shoulder, I flung my eyes open with a start and tried to push him away. But Josh merely moved my arm and pulled me into him, holding me tight to his chest as he wrapped one arm around me, holding the back of my head with his hand. "It’s okay," he whispered. "It’s okay…"

  I shook my head against his chest. "It’s not okay…you don’t understand…I’m going to Hell…actual fucking Hell!"

  "What?" Josh moved away slightly so he could look at me. "What are you talking about?"

  "I sold my fucking soul, remember?"

  He shook his head in confusion. "You sold your soul…to a demon?"

  Now I was confused. "What the fuck, Josh? You were at the warehouse when Abigor brought it up."

  "I…don’t remember everything. There are blank spots, whole days that are too hazy to make out…"

  "Christ…"

  "Why would you sell your soul?"

  I shook my head like it didn’t matter anymore. "To get the Demon Blade I used to kill Abigor."

  "I vaguely remember Abigor talking it about once or twice."

  "Well, I guess you know now then." I sat back in the sofa and wiped the wetness from my face. "The demon who now owns my soul is coming tomorrow at midnight to escort me to Hell, so I can embark on some crazy fucking mission to, wait for it…kill the King of Hell."

  Josh sat back in the sofa along with me, genuinely stunned it seemed. Though why wouldn’t he be? His fucking sister was about to go to Hell on a suicide mission. While he sat taking that news in, I was happy to sit there in silence as I rested my head against his shoulder, knowing this could very well be one of the last times I could be with him.

  "We’re cursed," he said after a while. "That’s the only thing that would explain our lives."

  "Cursed?" I sat thinking about it. In some ways he was right. We had certainly been through more than most, and had to endure some pretty bad shit, especially recently. But despite everything, a lot of good had come about as well, at least for me. Frank for one; Lucas for another. "I don’t think it’s that simple."

  "You seem to be following in Mom’s footsteps. Sounds like a curse to me."

  I almost laughed. "You might have a point there."

  "A point? You’re being dragged to fucking Hell, Leia."

  "I refuse to believe this is all bad," I said. "Maybe I’ll be able to contact Mom in Hell…"

  Josh sighed as if he was holding back his pessimism for my sake. "Yeah, maybe. If there’s one thing I’ve learned lately, it’s that anything can happen."

  I nodded. "That’s true."

  Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door, a rhythmic tattoo as if whoever was knocking wasn’t a stranger.

  "Just a second," Josh said as he stood up.

  "Are you expecting someone?"

  "Yes, actually. I’ve got business to tend to tonight."

  "What kind of business?"

  He walked to the hallway as if he didn’t hear me, disappearing out of sight. A second later, I hard the front door being opened, and then a male voice.

  "Hey Bro! You ready to fuck some shit up or what?"

  It wasn’t a voice I recognized, and for whatever reason, my grace was giving me a tingling sensation just under the surface of my skin, as if it was trying to warn me about something.

  "Come in," Josh said to the stranger. "I’ll be ready in a minute."

  When Josh came back into the living room, he gave me a quick look as if to say I probably wouldn’t like the person following behind him.

  Turns out he was right.

  As soon as I saw the other guy, I knew I hated him. Sure, it was a first impression, but I had been learning to trust my instincts ever since my grace had come forth. I was also learning that my instincts were rarely wrong.

  "Hey there," the new guy said as he came into the living room like he owned the place. "You must be Josh’s sister. I’ve heard a lot about you. The name’s Brody, pleased to meet you."

  Brody was about six feet tall, in his early twenties with short, light brown hair, similarly colored eyes, and a face that had slimy arrogance written all over it.

  He was also a demon, which I could hardly believe. I didn’t need to see his true face to know that. He may have been hiding behind a fleshsuit, but my grace could sense his demon form underneath.

  I just stared at him as he stood in front of me with his hand out. After a moment, he smiled and nodded as he withdrew it. "I see," he said. "You obviously have a problem with my kind."

 

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