by Paul Sating
Ralrek lifted an arm, pointing. Between the Children's Museum and the strangely colored and shaped metallic building, there was a large open play area. Younglings ran around, laughing, playing foreign games, and climbing over structures apparently built for creatures their size.
"They're so loud," he complained.
The cacophony created by the small mortals was grating, and this might be one of the few times I agreed with Ralrek. I would not tell him that.
"They're just having fun," Bilba said.
The corner of Ralrek's mouth pulled down. "Fun is annoying."
We dodged the human children and avoided eye contact with the adults. As we approached the museum, I couldn't ignore how strange it was to be in their midst. Even without a visual difference between us, we were still different. While our supernatural nature enabled us to understand human speech, it didn't help us understand their culture or world. As inconspicuous as I was trying to be, I still felt like I was walking around with a Hellfire sign above my head announcing I didn't belong.
"That is grotesque." Ralrek gestured toward the museum with the upward flick of his head.
The metallic exterior was separated into three large pieces of individual construction, which looked like a giant blacksmith had only halfway formed them into these rounded, asymmetrical forms before moving on to other work. The building on the left was silver and looked like the most malformed thing I had seen since my mother's hair when she and father fought years ago. After they finished yelling, she drank too much wine for someone her size, sleeping on the couch and waking up to a mass of tangles that took her hours to fix. The rich purple building jammed in the middle was, ironically, the most symmetrical of the trio. Its rich tiles sparkled in the dulled day. The blue building on the far end featured three tube-like projections that didn't appear to serve any function.
"Well, that doesn't look too bad. It's not too big," Bilba said, horizontally waving a hand at the structure. "I don't imagine it would take too long to find him."
"That's assuming he's even here," I said.
Bilba faced me. "Why wouldn't he be? The brief said—"
"That this is where we needed to start our search," I replied. "That doesn't mean Aries is here. I highly doubt he hangs out here every minute of every day, even if the humans allowed it."
"Let's just get in there already. I'll corner one and get an answer out of him if I have to," Ralrek said.
We were at the door now. My hand rested on the handle, pausing before I pulled it open. "Tact would be a better idea. Plus, we need to be low key, remember? Don't make this harder than it already is."
Ralrek crossed his arms and lifted his head slightly. Inside, I faltered. Just for a second, but it was there; the typical reaction I had to this tall jerk. I hoped it didn't transfer to my face.
"Sure, as long as you don't pretend you have authority over me. I don't care what Beelzebub said, I know what I'm doing and you need me."
I had a burning desire to punch Ralrek in the face right there and then. But I never would. Plus, the dumbass mentioned a major demon's name in public. No human was within fifteen feet, but that didn't excuse sloppiness.
"Listen, I'm not interested in getting into a biggest dick contest with you—"
"You'd lose anyway," Bilba snickered. I ignored him.
I pulled my gaze away from Ralrek, relieved to have a new target. "Why do you always become an ass when he's around."
Bilba flinched.
I was still looking at my best friend, speaking to both but internally targeting my message at the group's trouble maker. "We have rules. Breaking them or even pushing their boundaries will only slow us down, which means delaying the mission. And I'm not interested in having my return home put off any longer than necessary. Plus, you both know the Council's expectations. Are you willing to risk letting them down and never getting another assignment from them?"
Ralrek reached across me and yanked the door open. "Whatever," he said as he disappeared into the museum.
Once inside, I had to restrain myself from stepping back. Outside, the building appeared to be average size for a museum. We definitely had grander buildings in Hell, even museums, and we had a quarter of the space of the Overworld. But the exterior provided a false sense of the immensity of the interior. Inside, the museum was dark and, for a second, I lost hope that Aries would be easy to find even if he was here. Dozens of humans blended into a sloshing mass in the poor lighting.
"Whoa, this is cool," Bilba said in a breathy exhale.
"Come on," Ralrek said, moving forward through the mortals, forcing one father to pull his young child out of the way. I shook my head and wondered how long it would be before I needed to do damage control. As it was, my first interaction with a mortal was to apologize for my partner's audacity.
We moved through the halls and exhibits, taking in as many of the artifact displays, paintings, instruments, and historical outfits as we could. There was even an entire era dedicated to slasher movies. Part of me hoped Aries was slumbering in there so I could hang out at the display of the mask of my favorite murderer.
As we moved through the halls, humans milled about, smiling and pointing, the little ones exclaiming through shouts and benign shoving to get a better look at things they weren't allowed to touch. Many of the adults with children looked exhausted, even though it was still early, convincing me that human children were as rambunctious as our species.
One exhibit was especially crowded. This musician was a tall, lanky black man with a head covered by a mass of tiny, loose-curls. He played his guitar upside down. I had only tried to pick up the guitar once when I was about three thousand. Mother paid for lessons and said it would be good for me to have a hobby. Father griped about the noise I made. But I could not blame him; I was so bad, even I hated hearing myself play. To play a guitar upside down? I could not even imagine the noise this human named Jimi made. Apparently, human musicians are odd creatures.
Bilba rotated his head up and down, left and right, mouth agape at the artistry on display. "I don't know where to start. We've been searching for twenty minutes already."
I had to admit it was a baptism by glory. Hours ago, we'd only ever seen mortals in movies brought back from the Overworld. Now we were trying to find a single demon in the middle of hundreds of them. They smelled different, a conflicting mix of lemons and flowers. The way they moved was strange, never congregating near one another and shooting different groups exasperated and frustrated looks from time to time.
"Me either," I admitted. "But the brief mentioned something about a guitar tower, so let's find that."
We continued walking, enjoying the sights as we moved, without rhyme or reason. The museum was a maze of passageways, small and large, and seemed to extend as we walked. A few times we ended back in lobbies we'd already searched without taking the same path. In such a convoluted setup, it was easy to get lost. An older male asked if he could help us and Bilba saved the day.
"We're looking for the guitar tower," he said.
The old man smiled kindly. "Ah, yes. Everyone loves that feature. Here's where you want to go," he said as he pulled a map from his vest pocket and unfolded it. A map of the museum. Genius! Placing an 'X' and circling it, he tapped it with his spotted finger. "The guitar tower."
"Thank you," we said in unison and moved away before he thought to ask questions. Even with the map, we retraced our steps too many times for subtlety. Before long, one of these humans would start asking questions of us.
"We're never going to find him," Bilba sighed after another loop.
I scanned the crowd. "It's not as much about finding him here, Bilba, but uncovering information about him, his whereabouts, tendencies, things like that. I doubt they—" unlike Ralrek, I planned on being careful around the humans and not name the Council, "—would have us begin here, without justification. Keep your eyes moving."
"None of them look extraordinary to me," Ralrek said.
"Great," I
said with a pleasing dose of sarcasm. "That's helpful. Can we please keep going?"
We used the map to guide us to the guitar tower. My chest tightened in apprehension. It made sense for Aries to be near the instruments he loved, but what did it mean for our mission if he was not there? I could placate Bilba and Ralrek with reminders of our purpose, but I could not do the same for myself.
We reached a spot where the ceiling above the floor opened, reaching higher. An open walkway allowed observation of the feature in the middle of the large room from above.
A tower of guitars of various shapes, sizes, and ages looked like a gigantic dust devil of stringed instruments. The column was narrow at the bottom and expanded as it reached toward the ceiling. Guitars covered every square inch. I didn't understand the significance of it but had to admit that it was grotesque enough that I swore Lucifer was the master designer.
"I don't see him," Bilba said.
I didn't either, but I also did not expect him to be wearing a sign to help us locate him either. "I don't think he's hanging around in the open. We know that he's established in the music circles around here. Maybe if we find another musician, we can get a clue to where he is, if not here."
With so many humans around, discretion required caution while we sought anyone who looked like a musician.
Agreeing to split up and check back in with each other in fifteen minutes, we went in search of the ancient demon. That's when I found an exhibit called Nirvana. The name was ironic, considering the circumstances. Even the young humans in the pictures looked anything but blissful. Humans, such a complex species.
Near a drinking fountain, I spotted an older man with long hair resembling Aries from the vision cast by Seraph in the Council chamber. I watched from the safety of a display until he finished drinking. Not Aries.
Just before we were to reconvene, I spotted another older man with alabaster hair. It was not as long as Aries's image, but hiding from the Council's spies might have forced him to cut it. That would have been an easy fix. Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I tried to appear disinterested in the man while absorbed by the displays as I crept closer. When I was on him, I snagged his arm and spun him.
"Arie—" His name dropped off. This man had brown eyes and a full mustache and beard.
He lifted the rolled program he carried. "I'll bash your head in. Get away from me. Get away."
I let go, aware heads were turning in my direction. "I'm sorry. It was a mistake. Wrong person."
I could not get away and back to our rendezvous point quickly enough.
"I'm getting hungry," Bilba complained when we were together.
"When aren't you?" Ralrek said.
Bilba didn't defend himself.
"Knock it off," I said.
"Just having a bit of fun." Ralrek narrowed his eyes at me.
"Let's grab food then. Easier to figure something out on a full stomach," I said. As we made our way to the food court, I kept an eye out for anyone who might have thought I was acting in ill fashion toward the man I'd mistaken as Aries.
I took one look at the number of people crowding the court and at the amount of food crowding their plates and suddenly understood the true meaning of the Third Circle of Hell.
"This is awesome!" Bilba surged toward the line.
It took us another ten minutes to get our food and when we finally sat at the table, we stuffed our faces, mimicking the gluttonous humans all around us. When we got back to our search, we did so with distinctively less energy. Digesting the human food felt like dumping five gallons of water in my stomach at one time. Maybe it was the heavy meal, but I no longer felt sharp, like a thick blanket laid over my brain.
As Bilba complained about his stomach—eating four slices of greasy mortal pizza will do that to a grown incubus—I noticed a man over his shoulder.
Through the crowd of mortals large and small, the old man had long hair that fell to his waist. He was shambling on the other side of the crowd. Another case of mistaken identity? Another embarrassing, possibly problematic confrontation?
As I looked closer, drawn by suspicion, I blocked out the disruption of humans crossing between us. The old man was thin, looking frail, and he walked with a slight bend. As he moved past, his eyes caught mine. Eyes that were the color of ice.
Aries!
I slapped Bilba out of instinct, a jerky reaction to the sudden epiphany.
"Ow! What did you do that for?" he asked as I pointed.
Before Bilba or Ralrek could pick out my target, Aries's eyes widened at my pointing finger. Those icy eyes flashed with … something. Anger? Despair? Paranoia?
And he caught me off-guard, unprepared. In a flash of youth and exuberance, Aries hitched his stride and sprinted through the crowd of humans away from us.
12 - Seattle
Chasing anyone through a crowded building is not my idea of a good time, but chasing an elderly demon through a sea of humans while pretending to be one of them was simply creepy. The confused and angry glances didn't improve my perception of what we were doing.
Aries was within my grasp.
We might have just arrived in the Overworld, but it appeared possible we could return to Hell within a day. The only thing left to do was stop the Founder from dodging through humans long enough to get my hands on him. As I leapt around humans big and small, thoughts of our return pinged around in my brain. Honor, for me and my family, restored.
"Come on!" I shouted to my companions behind me.
Ralrek was closer than my best friend, avoiding humans more slowly and with greater effort than I required. Bilba took longer. In fact, I barely picked him out of the crowd during my quick glance backward. He was already out of the race.
It was easy to make out Aries in the throng of mortals because of the way his long white hair whipped as he ran. A Founder, Aries had to be at least a hundred thousand years old, yet he moved with the ease of someone a third of his age. He was fast and agile, but I was faster and vastly more agile. The distance between us was closing.
Ahead by thirty yards, he had the advantage of knowing the landscape. Bilba said the mission brief detailed Aries's many visits every single week to this museum. He would know it as well as a young demon hitting puberty knows his … well, you get my point. Turning a corner, he disappeared from my sight. I used it as my opportunity to check on my partners. Ralrek was falling further behind, and the crowd had swallowed Bilba. If bad crap went down with Aries, I was now stuck alone or, best case, getting backup only from Ralrek. This was turning out very badly.
I stayed too long, hoping Bilba would appear miraculously in the throng. He didn't, and Ralrek not only caught up, he took the lead. Something inside pushed me forward again. I didn't feel comfortable that he might get to Aries first. It spelled trouble; I knew without knowing why.
I rounded the corner and closed the distance, overtaking Ralrek. I was gaining on Aries again, though it did not appear he was slowing. Part of me wanted to tackle him if I got close enough, simply to see if he was out of breath. We needed to end this quickly, but discreetly.
I spied Aries just as he turned another corner. We were gaining the attention of too many humans now. The first problem I noticed was a woman who pulled her child against her hip as I sprinted by—even though I smiled at the tiny human, I might add.
Another man, in his middle ages with a receding hairline so poorly covered by the way he styled his hair he should have been embarrassed to leave his house, scowled. "Slow down, asshole," he snarled as I passed him.
"Damn kids," another griped, this time from a tiny, old lady in a pink dress.
The attention was outpacing me now; ahead, humans were drawn by the chattering and griping of those we had already sprinted by. I was now being watched before I reached the separated people, and that would give them a chance to memorize my face and report details to whatever authorities this museum had.
So much for discretion.
A uniformed man in a blue top and blac
k pants shouted, "Hey!" He detached his radio from the epaulet it had been clipped to, and requested help while moving in our direction. By his rickety movements, I knew he wasn't a threat to catch me, but if the museum had more, younger versions of him who would join the chase, I was in big trouble.
Rounding the corner into a smaller room packed with more humans, I found myself back at the ironic Nirvana exhibit. Several of the mortals shot me nasty looks.
We made it through that exhibit without human authorities troubling us and into another smaller area.
Aries bolted through a pair of men, breaking their hand hold on each other, bounced off the wall, and surged forward again. The maneuver separated us. Doors slammed open as Aries fled, but I was through them before they closed. That's when I found myself in a large room with a thirty-foot ceiling, which was rounded in the corners to present a dome–like appearance. Purple overhead lighting and spiral artwork hanging from the ceiling created a relaxed atmosphere. The room was narrow but long and empty. My nightmare had come true, I was alone with Aries, the bitter runaway.
Though he was on the other end of the room, I sensed the true threat he was now. Beelzebub's confidence about my immunity to any spell Aries cast was lost on me right now.
"Please stop, Aries … sir. Please." My words held a slight echo.
The demon on the opposite side faced me, his arms dropping to his side, face blank. He stared at me. Ralrek's footsteps echoed behind me, closing in, and I exhaled in relief. I didn't expect Bilba, not for a long while.
Ralrek panted as he stood by me. "You sure that's him?"
"He sensed us. He ran."
Without taking his eyes off the Founder, Ralrek whispered. "You pointed at him like a stalker. What did you expect him to do?"
Valid, but I was not going to tell him that. "He fits the brief's description and pictures. Also, he looks just like the demon Seraph showed me. Who else would it be?"
"So what do we do now?"
I stared at the demon, wondering how powerful he was. Overhead, barely audible music played, failing to dilute the tension. The last thing I wanted to initiate was a scuffle because I would end up on the wrong side of dead. Beelzebub was clear, Ralrek and Bilba, if he every showed up, could be hurt or even killed. That was not a risk worth taking, even for Ralrek. And this was an open room; a human could stumble into this silent confrontation at any moment, depriving us of the chance to even talk this out with the ancient demon.