by N. P. Martin
Getting to my feet, I climbed unsteadily out of the helicopter, the light outside hurting my eyes. Photosensitivity to light was another ghoul trait, the progression now seeming to move at full steam. It wouldn’t be long before I couldn’t stand the light at all, and I became a creature of the night only. A human rat, holed up all day, coming out at night to feed. “Just take me home,” I said to no one in particular, not even sure why I wanted to go home at all. What was left for me there but a house full of useless books and artifacts, and a Garra Wolf that wouldn’t want to know me anymore when it realized the person it once knew to be me no longer existed?
Still, for the time being at least, where else was I going to go?
* * *
Sitting in the front passenger seat of the black SUV Leona was driving, I barely listened as she tried to tell me about what happened after I lost consciousness. Leona's debriefing voice filled the vehicle's cab with a flat and level monotone, going over the way Belger's husk reduced to ash of its own accord, and which was followed up by her radioing in the reinforcements Brentwood was on standby to receive. With Division's arrival, an outbreak of followers resisting arrest resulted in many being killed, the small number remaining were thus couriered to the mainland for processing. Brentwood was happy apparently, as it was a huge bust for him and would surely go a long way to securing the next year's budget, which according to Leona, is all he really cared about. I didn't react to anything she said as I stared out the window in a semi-catatonic state. After a while, she gave up on trying to talk to me, and she lapsed into silence until we got to the Sanctum in East Oakdale.
Robotically, I got out of the car and walked up the steps, then stopped when I saw that someone was standing there. It was Sanaka, though I barely acknowledged him as I stopped at the front door and realized I wouldn’t be able to open it on account of... you know... the whole having no magic thingy. “Damn,” I said.
"I sensed what happened to you," Sanaka said, his hands plunged into his black trench coat, his long hair blowing in the gusty wind. "I thought you might need my help."
Leona came up behind us. “Who are you?” she asked, addressing Sanaka with suspicion as she eyed up the sword he held in his hand.
Sanaka gave her a small, respectful bow. “My name is Mitsuo Sanaka. I am a friend of Creed’s. I’m here to help if I can.”
Leona shook her head like she didn’t have time to wonder at my relationship to Sanaka. “Can you help him?”
Smiling patiently, Sanaka said, “Unfortunately, when a soul is gone, it is gone.”
“He’s right,” I said, staring at the door, wondering why Sanaka hadn’t opened it yet.
“So what do we do then?” Leona asked. “Leave him like this?”
Sanaka didn't answer as he waved his hand by the front door. A second later, the locks disengaged, and I pushed the door open, going inside, wondering vaguely as I did so why I was even there in the first place. I should have just got dropped off by a nice, comfortable dumpster and waited for nightfall so I could begin my new life as a ghoul.
"Look at him, for Christ's sakes," Leona was saying to Sanaka, her frustration and concern for me getting the better of her now. "He's like a goddamn zombie. Are we just going to leave him like this?"
Sanaka stood in the center of the living room just as Blaze entered from the kitchen. Blaze stopped and stared at me as he growled slightly, knowing I wasn’t the person who had saved him from imprisonment. He looked at Sanaka as if for an explanation. “His soul is traveling through the Astral Plane as we speak,” Sanaka said for Blaze’s benefit, as I sat down in one of the armchairs to stare dead-eyed at the floor. "Soon it will merge with the River Of Souls before being sent to the Realm of the Dead.”
Blaze made a small mewling noise in his throat before padding cautiously up to me and rubbing his head lightly against my leg. Then he licked my hand, making another mewling noise before walking away again. I just about understood his sadness, but I was largely unaffected by it.
“Can’t you just get his soul back?” Leona asked, standing by the side of my chair.
"It is not that simple," Sanaka said. "There are millions of souls in the Astral Plane. It would take too long to locate Creed's. He only has a short time left before his physical form atrophies, shutting out the possibility of his soul being able to return and enter his body ever again."
Leona sighed sharply. “What fucking good is magic if you can’t use it in times like these? So that’s it? Creed is just a fucking zombie now for the rest of his life?”
“A ghoul,” Sanaka said, as infuriatingly composed as ever.
“A fucking ghoul then,” Leona spat. I could feel her anger and frustration building beside me. Not that I was flattered by her concern or anything. I was busily slipping fast into a twilight world where normal human beings (ones with souls, that is) were becoming like ghosts to me, as if they weren't there at all—as if I weren’t there at all. Whatever the case, the effect was the same: complete alienation.
“There is someone who may be able to help,” Sanaka said. “Something. The demon that Creed summoned. It will have the power to get Creed’s soul back. Whether it will do so or not all depends on Creed.”
“How?” Leona asked.
Sanaka smiled patiently. “On what Creed is prepared to offer it in return.”
36
Return Of The Demon
SANAKA PREPARED EVERYTHING for the summoning ritual in the basement, electing not to procure any John Doe’s for the ritual, figuring Baal wouldn’t be expecting any offering this time around. Except, of course, what had been required as payment versus the actual payment I have. It remained to be seen whether or not the demon would be happy with the one soul I had stolen for him.
While Sanaka was down in the basement, I sat in the living room, staring at the floor like a zombie in between meals. Leona sat in one of the other armchairs, saying nothing, occasionally checking her phone as she got updates from Brentwood on the island siege. By that point, I didn't even care if I got my soul back or not. I was that far gone, feeling nothing but the hunger growing inside me. A hunger for meat. A hunger that would soon become all consuming and insatiable, becoming my only raison d’etre. I still wasn't sure if ghouls were partial to live meat in the form of people. They’ve been known to attack animals, such as cattle and horses, leaving most people to believe that the animals were the victims of Satanists or aliens. In reality, it was just ghouls having a munch. Whatever the case, Leona was looking more tasty to me by the minute, her firm, pale flesh causing me to salivate like a dog that hadn't eaten in days.
“You all right there, Creed?” Leona asked as she looked at me strangely. “You don’t look so good.”
I growled at her then. Yes, growled, like a fucking animal.
Leona stood and told me she was going to check on Sanaka. As she went to walk past me, I grabbed her arm and pulled it toward my salivating mouth. “Creed!” she screamed, then punched me hard in the face, causing me to let go of her arm. “What the fuck?” She backed away from me, her hand going to one of her Berettas, ready to draw on me if she had to.
I growled at her again, and snapped my jaws at her.
“Stop it!” Leona shouted angrily. “Settle to fuck down, Creed, or I swear I will shoot you!”
Her words somehow cut through the foggy haze in my mind, connecting with the semblance of humanity I still had in me somewhere, but which was fast diminishing like a candle in the darkness only seconds away from burning out completely. Another small growl left my mouth before I settled back in the chair and began staring at the floor again.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Leona said, her voice at a normal level again. “Don’t try to eat the damn wolf while I’m gone.”
No chance of that. Blaze was staying well away from me, lying in the kitchen somewhere, I think. The wolf wasn’t afraid of me exactly, but it was afraid it would have to hurt me if I tried to attack it in any way. Ghoul or not, I was still Blaze’s
master and thankfully the wolf respected that.
Leona returned a while later with Sanaka and they both took hold of me and led me down into the basement, which I let them do without protest. Lucky for them, I was going through another semi-catatonic phase, the hunger in me subdued for the time being. In the basement, they pressed me down to the floor, and I sat there in silence while they discussed what to do. Sanaka eventually came to the decision that he would summon the demon as I wouldn’t be able to do it. It could have been done without magic of course, but given the state I was in, I would have been lucky to be able to utter a single word; never mind an entire evocation in an ancient language.
So Leona (electing to stick around for the ritual this time) stood over me, guarding me, while Sanaka sat just outside the magic circle and went through the ritual. Sometime later, the room began to shake like a minor earthquake was happening. The temperature in the room dropped, and then I heard Leona take a sharp intake of breath before saying, “Jesus Christ.”
"What is this?" Baal’s voice seemed to cut through the fog in my mind, and I looked up to see the monstrous figure standing inside the summoning circle.
Sanaka kept his voice respectful, his head slightly bowed as he addressed the smoldering demon, its orange eyes blazing. “I summoned you on Creed’s behalf,” Sanaka said, gesturing to me. “He has done what you asked.”
Baal growled at Sanaka, then looked at me, his head moving from side to side as he did so. “You are soulless, Human,” he said.
I stared back at Baal like he wasn't even there, the fear I felt in his presence once before now a distant memory. Baal growled and then turned his attention to Leona. In a flash, the demon crossed the room and wrapped one massive clawed hand around Leona's throat. She half screamed in fright as the demon's face came close to hers. "A delectable specimen," Baal said, almost to himself. Then he made a noise that was halfway between a growl and a moan of pleasure as he thrust a long, pointed tongue out of his sharp-toothed mouth and licked Leona's face, leaving a trail of slimy saliva on her skin. All credit to her, she hardly flinched, even though she must have been terrified.
When Baal released Leona, he turned and crouched down beside me. “There is nothing left of you, wizard,” he said, looking at me like I was just a useless piece of meat, which I kind of was.
The demon stood up and walked slowly toward Sanaka. “I want the souls I was promised. Or I take yours instead, wizard, as well as the girl’s.” Baal looked around at Leona and did something that could have been a smile or a sneer. “I might just take it anyway.”
Sanaka asked Leona for the box, which she warily handed over to him so he could give it to Baal, which he did. Baal held the box for a moment, which looked no bigger than a matchbox in his enormous hand. “Not the one hundred souls I asked for.”
"No," Sanaka said. "Just one soul, but worth much more in terms of currency."
Baal growled but seemed satisfied nonetheless. “The curse will be lifted.”
“There’s one other thing,” Sanaka said.
“You want me to get his soul back.”
Sanaka nodded. “Yes.”
Baal stared over at me while he considered Sanaka’s request. “If I do so, you will be in my debt, Creed, and it will be a large debt, I warn you.”
“Very well,” Sanaka said on my behalf, as I was obviously unable to respond myself. “He doesn’t have a choice.”
The demon vanished from the room then. Leona started rubbing at her face like it was covered in some diseased substance. “It fucking licked me,” she said. “Can you believe that? It was disgust—”
Baal reappeared in the basement again with a glowing ball of light in one of its four hands.
My soul.
That semblance of light left in me seemed to react to the presence of my soul in the room, reaching for it, pulling me to my feet like it were the puppet-master and I the lowly puppet. The demon came up to me, held the soul in front of my face, its luminescent beauty contrasted against the clawed hand of the monster who held it. Then without warning, Baal shoved my soul back into my body, his hard hand impossibly entering my chest, sending me staggering backwards into the arms of Leona, who caught me before I fell. It was the closest I had ever come to experiencing rapture.
As soon as my soul was back inside me where it belonged, a warmth began to spread through me as the light of my soul filled me up again, bringing with it an orgasmic sense of relieve as my humanity was finally restored. Then to add to this influx of joy even further, my magickal powers returned as well, like a cascade of water coming off the top of a mountain to replenish a dried out river bed. It was glorious.
A smile spread across my face, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief, knowing I would never feel the likes of that again, basking in it until I remembered there was a massive demon still standing in front of me. “Thank you,” I said, standing on my own now. “I am in your debt.”
"Yes, you are, wizard," Baal said. "And don't forget it." The demon flashed his sharp teeth at Leona before backing into the center of the room.
“Before you go,” I said, knowing I was pushing my luck, but in for a penny, right? “I could use a lead on the person who started all this.”
Baal shook his head. “Humans,” he said. “Nothing is ever enough.”
“I’m in your debt already. A little information can’t hurt, can it? Besides, you hardly want this world coming under new management, do you? What would happen to your playground then, with no souls left to torture? Surely it’s in your best interests to help me stop what’s about to happen…”
“Leave it, Creed,” I heard Leona mutter behind me.
“I don’t need you telling me what my best interests are,” Baal said. “But there is no denying you have a point. I’ll see what I can do. But in return, I want this person’s soul. Or I will take yours instead, wizard."
“You drive a hard bargain, but it’s a deal. So when—”
The demon vanished before I could finish.
“Jesus, Creed,” Leona said, coming around to face me. “You really know how to push your damn luck, don’t you? Oh, and by the way.”
“What?” I asked.
She punched me in the face then, and I fell over.
37
Mindfuck
"WHAT THE HELL was that for?" I asked, one hand clamped over my smarting nose.
Leona stood with her hands on her hips staring at me, a different look in her eyes now. Before when she looked at me, she would often come across as guarded, like she didn't want to fully reveal herself. But as she looked at me then, her blue eyes seemed more naked now, her true self revealed in them. Clearly, her memories of me had returned now that my curse had been lifted. "You know what that's for," she replied casually, her tone suggesting that I fully deserved the violence she just wrought.
“I don’t—” Then I remembered. “The restaurant. The night before all this happened.”
“I told you never to stand me up, Creed. You left me hanging.”
“In my defense, I was working. I just forgot to call to let you know.”
She stepped forward and kissed me, more passionately than how she kissed me the other day. “This is very weird, by the way.”
"What?" I asked, so glad to be back to normal. So glad to have my girlfriend back, even though I did enjoy the time I spent with her when she didn't know me as well.
“It’s like I’ve been hanging around with a different person the last few days, or like someone pretending to be you.”
“I imagine it’s a bit of a mindfuck.”
“Mindfuck. Yes, that’s exactly what it is.”
“I must agree,” Sanaka said from behind Leona. He was stood patiently looking over at us. “A strange sensation indeed.”
“Well, it sure is good that you both remember me again. Think about how weird it was for me, knowing everything while you two didn’t even remember me. That was a mindfuck.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Leona said. “You al
ways get it harder than everyone else, don’t you?” She was smiling as she said it.
Before I could reply, Sanaka said, “I must go now. I have my own business to take care off.”
“Anything I can help with?” I asked.
He shook his head, a more knowing look in his eyes than before. “You have a killer to catch.”
“Yeah, thanks for reminding me.”
Sanaka smiled once more then vanished as he teleported out of the room.
“So what now, Creed?” Leona asked. “I seem to remember a guy I met a few days ago at a murder scene who compared going down on me to deep sea diving, something about being unable to come up for air. You want to go diving now, Creed?”
My jaw went slack. “Now? I mean if you want, I don’t really…I’m not—“
Her sudden laughter cut me off my fumbling reply. “You should see your face. You look like a terrified virgin whose girlfriend just asked if he minded her bringing a friend around to play.”
I shook my head. “You’re a cruel woman, Lawson. At least give me a chance to get back on form before you mention the dirty deed again.”
“All right,” she said, having finished laughing at my expense. “What do we do now then?”
“Well,” I said, still shaking my head at her. “The other me, the one who brought up the deep sea diving at a murder scene a few days ago, has already been assigned to you by Brentwood. I'm sure that still stands unless Brentwood has suddenly remembered that he hates me, in which case I'll get a phone call soon telling me to stay away."
"He thinks you're unpredictable and he doesn't like that."
“I know.”
“Though I think he’ll keep you on this. He wants this killer caught.”
“I think we all do.”
“You think that disgusting demon will come through with a lead?”
“It licked your face,” I said, unable to keep from smiling.