Minor Demons

by Randall J. Morris

  “Medic, it’s just us. We’ve discussed lots of things when I got injured when I was little. You can’t give me your opinion now that I rank first after two of the trials?”

  “I never said you ranked first.”

  Shadow grinned.

  “Damn. Well it was worth a shot.”

  “To answer your question, yes. My job would be much easier if I knew all that the angels know on the subject. In fact...”

  The medic looked like he was weighing whether or not to continue with what he was going to say.

  “Never mind.”

  “No. What?”

  “I do know a little about the healing methods of the angels.”

  “How?”

  “That’s really none of your business.”

  Shadow thought for a moment and realized the likely source of the medic’s angelic healing knowledge. He had known his father and uncle for a long time.

  “My father taught you. Didn’t he?”

  The medic looked shocked.

  “How do you know that? He didn’t exactly teach me, but...”

  The medic crossed the room and pulled a black key from his cloak. He opened a dark chest tucked away in the corner of the room. As soon as it was open, the chest exuded light. The medic reached in and pulled out a glowing, white book. He handed it to Shadow.

  “Healing in the Trenches of War by Gabriel. Abaddon gave it to me a long time ago. No one knows that I have it and I keep it locked in that chest except when I’m reading it. I know that your uncle suspects that I have something that I consult to aid in healing but he’s never asked about it. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he knows about it though. Cain and Abaddon are brothers, after all.”

  “So you use the angel’s methods to heal demons?”

  “Not exactly. I have adopted their techniques and made them... well... I’ve made them appropriate for Hell. I never even read the chapter on light healing. Light healing in Hell would bring a swift death for the healer, which is kind of ironic. This isn’t exactly their top quality healing, either. This is improvised angel healing for when they’re fighting demons. Still, it’s better than anything we have.”

  Shadow handed the book back to the medic and he locked it back in the chest.

  “So do you think my father was a traitor?”

  “Not at all. For all I know, Abaddon stabbed Gabriel himself to get this book. And what did he do when he got it? He gave it to a demon to learn from so we could use it against the angels. Abaddon was no traitor.”

  “You’re alright, Medic.”

  The medic laughed.

  “Not sure what I did to deserve that. I just look out for those that look out for me. It’s selfish... but it’s the only way demons can build a network of trust. No more digressions, Shadow. I came here to check on your hand. How is it feeling?”

  “A lot better. What did you do to it?”

  “An angel trick that I... modified. The wrapping is dipped in liquefied human souls. I would only ever do this for you and your uncle with the shortage of souls we’re seeing in Hell right now, but I guess the fight you just went through earns you part of the soul of a wife murderer to help you recover.”

  Cain entered the room and the medic bowed.

  “I’d say it’s earned him a little more than that. Wouldn’t you, Medic?”

  “Of course, General Cain.”

  “We’re going to have a drink. Care to join us?”

  “I have matters to attend to on earth. People to be poisoned. Rain check?”

  Cain produced a wine bottle that he had brought in under his cloak.

  “This is the soul of a Christian pastor. He got it into his head that his entire congregation needed to be purified. One Sunday, he just locked everyone in the church and burned the place down. Fifty-seven people were in attendance that week. All of them died. I’ve had it aging here in this bottle for a just under two hundred years. You sure you want to take a rain check?”

  The medic opened his desk drawer and produced a shot glass.

  “Alright then. A shot for the road?”

  Cain laughed and poured the medic a drink. The medic drank it in one gulp and shivered.

  “Holy hell, Cain. They don’t make them like that anymore. Shadow, I’ll be watching the rankings announcement tomorrow. I’m sure you’ll be joining the ranks of the minor demons, so welcome. I’m sure you’ll rain down hell on the earth.”

  “Thanks Medic.”

  The medic bowed and left the room.

  “Uncle, what’s the medic’s name?”

  “Fuck if I know. I’ve just called him Medic for several hundred years now. It’s um...”

  “I was just curious. I’ve always just called him Medic too.”

  “Shit... now it’s going to bother me. Bi... something. It’ll come to me. That’s not important right now.”

  Cain pulled two beer steins from his cloak.

  “Took you long enough to beat that kid after my fight with Lucian. I was beginning to worry.”

  “Hey now. I won that fight twice. What more do you want from me?”

  “I’ll admit the first time was impressive. You remembered that the little guy got him in the ankle. Nicely done.”

  “How is Leech?”

  “Well you know that Baal has several minions attending to him. He doesn’t have anyone as skilled as our Medic. What the hell is his name? It’s really bothering me now...”

  “Uncle...”

  “I had the medic drop by and take a look earlier. He’s going to be out for a while longer but the medic thinks he’ll come out of it. He sure can take a beating, that little guy.”

  “We need to talk about that too. I’m not very amused that you decided to have him risk his life to soften up Nightmare for me.”

  “Well it worked so I really don’t give a shit if it amused you or not.”

  “I worked hard to train him up and keep the other demons-in-training off his back. He’s still ranked fourth, I’m assuming? He might even get a minor demon offer.”

  “That’s enough of that. He’s gonna pull through and this is supposed to be a celebration.”

  Cain poured both of the steins until they were overflowing.

  “Drink up. The medic was right; we don’t get souls like this very often anymore.”

  “One of your kills?”

  “Yup. I was a lot younger when I brought this crazy motherfucker down to hell. Some of his congregation had joined in on his ‘purification’ and had become murderers themselves. We brought a shit ton of corrupted souls to Hell that day.”

  Shadow took a drink. It tasted amazing, much better than anything he had tried up to that point. The corruption seeped into him and extinguished any trace of the light that the angel’s blade had brought to him in the past few days.

  “Wow. Good stuff. No wonder you’re a major demon.”

  “Oh it took a lot more than a good bottle of corrupted preacher, Shadow. A hell of a lot more. Besides, I was already a major demon when I brought the preacher down here.”

  Cain took a drink.

  “Wow is right. I really was a badass. Well here’s to Leech, the medic, and the crazy preacher in this bottle... and since you’ve moved to first place in the rankings, here’s to you Shadow.”

  Shadow smiled and they hit their mugs together, spilling all over the floor.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Any advice before I go in today?”

  “Yeah. Win.”

  “Anything besides the obvious?”

  “Ok fine. I know I’ve told you this before but it’s especially applicable right now. Most people are one good push away from a major sin. You need to find their major weakness and give them the push that justifies them crossing the line that they haven’t crossed yet. Once they decide to murder, it doesn’t take much to make them into a mass murderer. With all the publicity murderers get today, some arrogant assholes are at an all-time low and just want to go out famous. Some of them think they’re making some g
ross wrong in the world right by killing random people. Whatever bullshit you can convince them is a good enough reason will actually become a good enough reason for them. They won’t be able to see you because you haven’t had enough time to establish any kind of bond so it’ll just be ideas that you implant in their heads. Make sure your ideas are heard louder than their own thoughts. If you can do that, you should be fine.”

  “What was it like for you?”

  “My temptation trial was with Cain, the human, thousands of years ago. The Dragon told me what to do but I’m the one that got him to murder his brother. Your father was there with me. We tag-teamed that guy until he was so jealous of Abel that he just had to kill him.”

  “My mom won’t tell me about her trial. I know she had an actual temptation trial because she’s a hell of a lot younger than you guys.”

  “Your dad was watching the trials when she went through. I told him she was way too young for him since we’re thousands of years old, but you’re old man didn’t really give a fuck what I thought. It didn’t turn out well... and now I have an inquisitive, nervous little bastard for a nephew.”

  “Fuck off.”

  Cain laughed.

  “You deserve to be in first place. Do what comes naturally when you’re in there with the fake human. It’s worked out well for you so far.”

  “Anything else?”

  “...Bifrons.”

  “What?”

  “I just remembered. That’s the medic’s name. Bifrons.”

  Shadow laughed.

  “It’s really bothered you until just now, hasn’t it?”

  “Yes it has. Now I remember why we just call him Medic. Bifrons is such a ridiculous name. His parents were stoners, so I guess it makes sense.”

  Shadow got up, added all of his weapons to his belt, and reattached his cloak.

  “Well thanks for that. That’s what I needed right before my final trial. I was dying to know what the medic’s name was.”

  “Glad I could help.”

  Shadow grinned, shook his head and headed towards the temptation trial.

  Baal arrived shortly after Shadow and called for everyone’s attention.

  “The major demons haven’t been able to meet yet to appoint a new instructor for the demons-in-training so I will be administering the last trial today. You all know how this works. You’ll enter a room with a file. You can read the file as many times as you want within a reasonable amount of time. When you’re done, you’ll ring the buzzer on the wall by the door and enter a simulated world where you’ll have a human waiting to be tempted. Before we start all of that, let’s go over the current rankings.”

  Baal held out his hand and one of his minions placed a scroll in it, bowed, and left.

  “In first place, Shadow.”

  Everyone cheered. Shadow wasn’t counting on that kind of reaction and since he really didn’t care to be popular he just nodded and gave a brief wave.

  “In second place, Nightmare.”

  There were a few boos but they were drown out by the applause and cheering. Everyone else in the top ten had held their place but Shadow noticed this time that Valefor and Andras were both ranked in the top ten. Apparently their losses in the death pit didn’t mean as much since they were defeated by Shadow and Leech.

  Shadow was listening to the announcement of the order that they would enter the temptation trial when he felt something poke him in the back. He spun to see what it was and drew his sword. Leech was standing there grinning at him.

  “How are you, Shady?”

  “Leech, I’m not gonna sugar-coat it. You still look like shit.”

  Leech’s eyes were so swollen that he could barely see out of them. He walked with a crutch and his leg still looked pretty bad. His throat still carried the bruise he had received when Nightmare crushed it.

  “I hear you beat Nightmare in the finals.”

  “I did.”

  “Look, Shadow. I’m really sorry. My new armor and weapons really went to my head and I should have realized that Nightmare was out of my league. At least I softened him up for you a little.”

  Shadow remained silent.

  “Don’t be like that, Shady.”

  “I’ll let you hang around me but you’ll need to earn my trust back. I value loyalty and you just completely lost my trust with that little temper tantrum you threw before the semi-finals.”

  “Ok. I’ll find a way to earn your trust back. In the mean time, will you at least tell me how you kicked his ass? I want details. I hear the first time only took about thirty seconds.”

  Shadow smiled.

  “It was pretty quick. I took out his legs and knocked him down.”

  “See? I knew you were a sweep the leg kind of guy. That’s why I landed that strategic blow on his leg.”

  “You hit his ankle. There was nothing strategic about it. You have bad aim with a blade.”

  “Agree to disagree, Shady. Agree to disagree.”

  Shadow wouldn’t admit it, but he was glad Leech was back.

  “What happened after that?”

  “I said, ‘Fuck you’ and stabbed my sword down at his throat but one of Venom’s summoners pulled him away. They didn’t pull him from the death pit, just ruined my kill.”

  “Baal told me he had to stop a fight between Lucian and your uncle. How pissed was General Cain?”

  “Pretty pissed. He killed Venom and his summoners. Satan took away the new middle demon of torture position that your father was being considered for.”

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  “Not a big deal? I thought you wanted your dad to get a promotion. Didn’t you say he’s been a minor demon forever?”

  “Yes but they’re considering him for the demon-in-training instructor. That’s still a middle demon position and he would report directly to the Dragon. Of course, he would still be loyal to General Cain so killing Venom was a pretty smart move overall.”

  “How was it staying with Baal?”

  “I dunno. I was knocked out for most of it, remember?”

  “Ok, I’ll be more specific. When you were awake, what was it like being in a department like idolatry?”

  “Well it’s true what they say. Baal parades himself around like a god and everyone that works for him definitely treats him like one. When he’s in his official armor, he’s pure gold. Gold cape, gold helmet, gold scythe. He would make a nice shiny angel if he wasn’t so vain and... well... a demon. He was pretty cool to me though. He dropped in a few times to ask what my plans are after the trials, who my father is, and where I learned to fight. He’s definitely a lot less scary than your uncle.”

  “I’m not sure if anyone told you, but Baal pulled you out of the fight with Nightmare when Venom refused to. He was pretty mad about the whole thing. Any idea why?”

  “Well...”

  “Leech, don’t keep secrets from me anymore. It’s annoying.”

  “It’s just a suspicion. I don’t know for sure... but I think he’s trying to recruit me. I think he wants me to become a minor demon in his department after the trials. I guess he figured that you and Nightmare will join Cain and Lucian. He doesn’t want Lilith because he doesn’t want anyone in his department that draws more attention than he does. That leaves me in fourth place as his best potential pick from the top ten.”

  “Interesting. Maybe we can leverage that against him later. You should head back and go see the medic again. Get some rest.”

  “Sorry, Shadow. I’m doing the temptation trial.”

  “This really isn’t a time to try to be brave, Leech. You’re having a hard time just standing there.”

  “How much use do you think I’m going to be if I drop from fourth place? Cain will tell you I’m a waste of your time and Baal will want nothing to do with me. The temptation trial is all talking and suggestions anyways. Maybe I can at least get the guy to commit suicide.”

  Shadow grinned.

  “If anyone can talk until everyone listenin
g wants to kill themselves, it’s definitely you Leech. Just don’t overdo it. Remember what happened to your throat.”

  “I’ll be fine. Do you have a plan?”

  “Based on what kind of person I get, yes. I have several plans. I don’t really trust you though so you’ll just have to hear about it when I get out.”

  Leech hung his head in shame.

  “Alright. Well, I have faith you’ll keep your first place spot.”

  “Thanks. Let’s go watch.”

  Leech and Shadow watched the final trial and many of the demons-in-training were lucky if they could get the human to steal from the grocery store or get into a fight. Once the top ten started entering the trial, the sins became a little worse. Valefor talked his human into robbing a bank and then pulling his gun on the cops. He was shot down. Andras talked his human into using an Ouija board and eventually summoning Andras to earth. It got to the point where the human could see and hear him. The guy went crazy and ended up in an asylum. He slit his own throat as soon as he was able to get his hands on a razor.

  When it finally became Leech’s turn, he looked at Shadow.

  “Any advice for me?”

  “Just about everyone in the top ten has only pulled off a single kill. If you match that, you should keep your place. I know I joked about it earlier, but playing to a person’s annoyance may be your best bet. It won’t be easy, but turn an annoyed guy into a guy who fights when he’s annoyed. A guy who gets into enough fights will eventually pick the wrong fight and he’ll get killed. That ends your human’s life and keeps you in fourth. I wouldn’t swing for the fences on this one. You’re injured and it’s unlikely you’re going to pass Lilith no matter what you do. Your goal going into this should be to keep your spot, nothing else. Fourth is very respectable.”

  “Maybe I’m going crazy, but that all sounded pretty good. I think I’ll listen to you on this one, Shady.”

  “Well that would be a first. Good luck, Leech.”

  “Thanks. I’ll need it.”

  As Leech hobbled towards the final trial, Baal nodded. No one else had received any sort of acknowledgement from Baal. Leech nodded back, glad that he was receiving the attention he felt that he deserved. Maybe Baal’s interest would lead to an easier time in the temptation trial. He hoped Baal had realized that he needed a fake human that he could crush with annoyance.