The Spook House (The Spook Series Book 1)

by Paul Emil

  For some time, she just stood there, gazing into the fire. She was completely focused on it. She looked both sexually aroused and satisfied at the same time. Her red hair now looked bright orange, and shifted hues in the firelight. Even from where I was standing, I could see the fire reflected in her eyes as she stared at it. The eyes stayed open for longs periods of time without blinking. She also seemed, at times, to be standing perfectly still. It wasn’t natural. Like when I talked to God, my skepticism was slipping away. And just like that encounter with the divine, Ashira seemed to be the real deal. When she had been at the door, I had a choice. Somehow, I knew that. Now, I had the growing feeling that letting this “woman” into my house, I had made a terrible mistake.

  Hoping to make this visit as brief as possible, I cleared my throat and said, “OK, um, Ashira, you said you had something important to tell me?”

  She turned from the fire.

  “Oh yes.”

  “OK,” I said. “So you’re supposed to be the Devil?”

  “Supposed to be?” Ashira said darkly.

  She reached out toward the fireplace. A fireball flew out of it and into her hand. She brought it close to her face and watched it burn in her palm. There was no sign of pain in her face, only wonder. She really liked fire. There was no smell of burning flesh. Then she made a fist and snuffed it out. She held her palm up to emphasize what I already knew. There was absolutely no damage to her skin.

  “OK,” I said slowly. That was a neat trick, but still don’t know if I was thoroughly convinced. Maybe I didn’t want to be. Still, this woman did have a disturbing knowledge of my guns, my house, and my current situation. I wanted to hear what she had to say. Besides, I didn’t know if it would be wise or even possible to throw her out.

  I sat down on a chair, and Ashira sat down on the couch. She smoothed the fabric around her legs, and subtly adjusted her boobs as the dress shifted.

  I cleared my throat and said, “Can I ask you something and you won’t get all offended?”

  “Anything,” she said.

  “Aren’t you supposed be, like, a guy?”

  Ashira laughed.

  “I can be anything I want.”

  “Yeah, but you’re normally a guy, right?”

  “I’m not ‘normally’ anything.”

  “So this,” I gestured towards her body, “This is just an illusion you used to get me to let you in the door?”

  “Oh, it’s more than that,” Ashira said. “This is a representation of what I really am.”

  The suspicious look on my face must have prompted her explain.

  “Like this woman you’re looking at, I have the ability to give you what you want. I can give you pleasure. You know that just by looking at me. You understand that. But it’s deeper than that. This is what I am to God.

  “From time immemorial, there was only God. He was alone in the universe. It was all Him. Then he got bored, and He created me. We did everything together. It was all about me. Then He created everything else. We loved to watch life on Earth. But then when you humans came on the scene, He couldn’t stop watching. It was like having a husband who loses interest in you because he’s glued to the TV watching sports. That’s when the problems began.

  “‘Let’s stop watching and go play the games,’ I said. Sometimes we did. But God wasn’t into that. He’d rather be a spectator than a player.

  “‘But it’s fun!’ I said.

  “‘No,’ He said. ‘Leave them alone and we’ll see what they do next.’

  “That’s when I realized that humans were His priority, not me. I was just his bitch. So I struck out on my own and did whatever I wanted to. And I still do.

  “That’s the difference between God and me. God is a voyeur. He likes to watch,” Ashira said, looking at me with an excited and seductive gleam in her eye. Then her mood changed.

  “But He doesn’t like to get His hands dirty,” she said with disgust.

  “Oh no. ‘He beheld His creation and it was good’ and all that, but not good enough for Him to actually take part in. That’s when the problems started. I know what it’s all about, and God, despite being the creator, still doesn’t. He’s clueless. I told him that to His face.

  “That’s when He got mad. He thought that we were above such things, and that we should act accordingly. He was too good to live in the material world. He said I should not degrade myself by masquerading as things of flesh and blood.

  “But that’s where He and I differ again. I like the pleasure and the pain of life. I am forever. I don’t need to reproduce, but I like sex. I don’t need to eat, but I like killing and devouring things. I like stalking and pouncing on my prey, sinking in my teeth and claws, and tearing it apart. I can still taste the blood!”

  Ashira inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled out of her mouth. “It was intoxicating.”

  She looked at me and smiled wickedly. “You’re a hunter. You know what I’m talking about.”

  I wasn’t about to admit it, but I kind of did. Not the ‘tearing apart flesh’ stuff, but maybe the ‘stalking and hunting’ part. But I couldn’t let her know that.

  “I don’t take pleasure in killing,” I said quietly.

  Ashira laughed so hard she was almost in tears. It made me very uncomfortable. When she collected herself, she looked at me and said, “Well of course you do!”

  With a mounting sense of panic, I was starting to feel like this was an argument I couldn’t afford to lose.

  “I eat everything I kill,” I said.

  “Of course you do,” she said. “So do I.”

  With that, she laughed again and stared at me with a weird look. Her teeth actually seemed to be getting longer.

  I’m telling you, if I had had anything in me, I would have crapped my pants right then and there. As it was, I fell out of my chair and stumbled to the far wall, trying to get as far away from her as possible. What was this thing I had let into my house?

  “Get out! Now!” I screamed.

  “Let me think about that,” she said. “How about … No!”

  “Wha-What do you want?”

  Ashira laughed. “Oh relax.”

  “What do you want?” I repeated.

  “I am here,” Ashira said, “because God asked you to do a favor for Him. I know all about it. He actually asked you to kill somebody, didn’t He?”

  I just stared at her and said nothing. She said, “I’ll take that as a yes”.

  I still said nothing.

  “I bet that was a surprise,” Ashira said. “I mean, after all the stuff you hear in church, you think He would be above something like that, wouldn’t you? Murder. The ‘Act of Cain’ and all that. I mean, you think he would condemn that sort of thing, not condone it.”

  I nodded. She was right about that. I was starting to relax. It was starting to sound like the Devil and I might be on the same page here.

  “Well, that’s why I’m here,” Ashira said. “It’s simple really. You know that person God wants you to murder? Well, I DON’T want you to murder him. It’s as simple as that. I want you to do nothing. Just live your life. Enjoy your freedom, which, I might add, will be little more than a fading memory if you go through with your little plan. So just don’t do anything stupid. That’s all I ask.”

  This was certainly an interesting development. God assured me He had a good reason why He wanted Tubb killed. I didn’t like being left in the dark, but now that Satan wanted the man alive, it kind of backed up God’s position. Ashira was removing my doubts. She was actually hurting her cause, not helping it.

  With growing confidence, I said, “So why’s this guy so important anyway?”

  I saw Ashira’s eyes widen as if she had just heard something important. What did I say? Then I got it. At least, I think I did. Ashira didn’t know who the target was.

  It was time to find out how much (or how little) she really knew. I said, “So what makes him so special? What’s he going to do?”

  “I don
’t know,” she said.

  “You don’t know?”

  “Look,” she sighed. “I can’t see the future that clearly, OK? There, I said it. It is the one, and might I add, ONLY area in which God is superior to me. A ‘safe guard,’ He used to call it, in case I developed a mind of my own and refused to be his servant. Which I did, by the way, so I guess his visions of the future aren’t so crystal clear either, are they? But then again, sometimes, I think He likes it that way.

  “He didn’t want to interact with the world he created. He just wanted to sit and watch it, like an oaf in front of the TV. But now he plays games with me. He gets off on it. We each try to make the world the way we want it. I can’t see into the future, but that’s all part of His game. I wouldn’t start something if I knew it was doomed to fail. But He doesn’t want me to see myself losing. He wants me to keep trying, so He can keep playing. But that doesn’t mean He always wins. When it comes to victories and defeats, He and I are almost dead even.”

  I kept looking at Ashira, trying to process everything I had just heard.

  She sighed and said, “So to answer your question, I don’t know. Something big could happen in the future. Or not. If it’s not this event, it will be something else. Regardless of what happens, I assure you, life will go on. Humanity will survive.”

  Satan looked at me with a weird a mixture of admiration and contempt, and added, “It always does.”

  6

  The sexy woman act was just that – an act. It was a disguise, even if it was a good one. The little red dress dress and the legs and the cleavage and all that were just on display to keep me from thinking clearly. But her eyes, those dark and horribly vacant eyes, were wrong. I could see things in them. Hunger. Lust. Greed. Power. And something else, something I saw in the eyes of every animal that saw me in the woods just before I bagged it. Fear. Yes, the Devil was afraid. She was here for a reason. She was worried, and was trying to do something about it. She was afraid that I might fulfill God’s plan, and she had come here to stop me.

  “So what do you think?” Ashira said, smiling. She reminded me momentarily of women on TV with the unnaturally big and beautiful mouths. Then, for some crazy reason, I was thinking of fairy tales. Ashira’s perfect teeth looked normal again. I thought of Little Red Riding Hood talking to the Big Bad Wolf. The better to eat you with, My Dear.

  “Look,” I said. “ Whatever is going on between you and God is your business, not mine. I just … I don’t want to be involved.”

  “That,” Satan said, with a very excited and satisfied look in her eyes, “is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. Another one of God’s pawns … NOT! You’re much smarter than He thought. I must say, I’m impressed.”

  After a moment, she stood tall, took a deep breath, stretched her arms up and arched her back. She was showing off her body, I was sure, and I admit I couldn’t take my eyes off of her boobs as they thrust out toward me. She exhaled and let her arms drop to her sides. She then ran her hands down her body slowly to smooth out her skin-tight red dress.

  “Well,” she sighed, “Now that business is taken care of, we can move on to pleasure. Let’s have some fun.”

  “Uh, what?” I asked, nervously.

  “Anything you want,” she said, “And I mean anything.”

  There are some times in life when you really don’t know what the right thing to do is. Sometimes, there is no universal “right thing.” You have to do the right thing for you. Then there are other times when the choice between right and wrong is so clear that you don’t even have to question it. Without hesitation, I looked at the Devil and said, “No.”

  “What? You’re going to pass on this? And I got all dressed up for you!”

  Ashira flipped her hair like one of those women in a shampoo commercial, and cupped her boobs with both hands. She pushed them up and let go. They dropped slightly and jiggled naturally back into place.

  “They’re perfect,” I heard myself saying (hopefully not out loud).

  “Still thinking about it?” she said, smiling. “Good. But don’t take too long. I want it now.”

  I needed to clear my head. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My nostrils were filled with her. The scent was a combination of girl’s skin and female pheromones. I started breathing heavily.

  “Uh,” I struggled to say, “I don’t want anything from you.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “No, I don’t. I’m not making any deals with you.”

  “Oh, is that was this is about?” Satan said, pouting. “I’m not making any deals with you either. Did I ask you to sign something? No. All I asked was for you to do was not kill anybody. So as far as I’m concerned, we’re done. God spoke to you, and I showed up to give you the other side. All of the insight into the mysteries of the universe? That was on me. I was just trying to give you some perspective, if you retained any of it. I gave you the knowledge. What you do with it is up to you.

  “So here we are. If you were listening, you’ll remember what I like to do. Look, all of this sport with God has made me excited. I feel good. I’m going to be fucking something tonight, and lucky you, you’re right here. I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing it for myself.”

  I had a weird thought. If she had been wearing sunglasses, and kept them on the whole time during sex, like some type of porn star, I might have said yes. But I imagined looking into her eyes up close during sex. I didn’t like that idea.

  There was just something about those eyes. The way the fire reflected in them … It was freaky. The feeling got worse when she turned her back to the fireplace. Her figure was framed by fire. It was sexy and scary at the same time. But with her back to the flames, the pupils of her eyes looked too big and too dark. I felt like I was looking down a double-barreled shotgun pointed at my face.

  I said firmly, “Please go. Now.” I don’t know where I got the balls to say that, but was glad I did. It just felt right.

  “Like I said, it’s your choice.” She walked toward the door and turned toward me.

  “What, no kiss?” she said, pretending to be disappointed. “Some date you are. Well, how about just a hug?”

  She opened her arms wide, and smiled. My body seemed to step forward without my thinking about it. She pressed her body against mine and closed her arms around me.

  “She’s playing with me,” I told myself. “This is her last attempt to make me want her. But we’re not on a date, and we’re not friends. I just hope she isn’t mad.”

  Her body felt so good. I felt the boobs pressing against me, and her hands slipped from around my waist and slid down. I was getting hard, and she pressed her hand against my pants to let me know that she could feel it.

  I was kind of happy she did. In the back of my mind, I thought that maybe I had already lost my mind, and I was seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. But I could smell her. And now, I could feel her. This was real.

  “Any second thoughts?” she whispered in my ear.

  I looked over her shoulder as she held me close. I closed my eyes and felt her working to open my pants. Both of her hands were on my belt now, fumbling to undo it. I opened my eyes and watched a shadow dancing weirdly on the wall. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Then it clicked. There was only one shadow.

  Maybe we’re standing so close that our two shadows look like one, I thought. I pushed Ashira off of me, slowly. I watched the bobbling shadow on the wall, expecting to see another of equal size split off of it, like an amoeba dividing. Instead, I saw two pseudopod extensions pop out of it. Those were my arms. There was nothing at the end of them.

  I turned to look at Satan. She looked me confused.

  “Please leave. Now.” I said. I meant it.

  “But…”

  “Please,” I repeated.

  She looked at the wall. My shadow flickered there by itself. It seemed to take her a moment before she understood what I had seen. When she did, she didn’t say a word about it, but rea
lized that she had been caught.

  “Alright,” she said. “I’m leaving.” She straightened out her dress. “You need to relax if you ever want to have any fun. Maybe you and I will meet again someday.”

  I sure hope not, I thought. I didn’t say it out loud, but the scary thing was she answered as if I had.

  “Whatever. Look, here’s my card.”

  A white business card appeared in her hand. I took the card. It had only three small numbers on it, centered in the card. The numbers were “666”.

  What am I supposed to do with this? I wondered.

  Again, answering me as if she had heard the voice in my head, she said, “That’s my name and my number. It’s my direct dial line. Just punch those numbers in any time, day or night, and you’ll be connected directly to me. Unlike God, I’ll take your call personally. If there’s anything you want or need, just ask.”

  Yeah right, I thought, Like that’s going to happen.

  “Oh, you never know when you’ll need it,” she said. “That’s more than you’ll get from God. He likes keeping everybody in the dark. That way, people think he’s mysterious and has some great plan that is too big to be understood, when in reality, He doesn’t know what the fuck He’s doing half the time. At least I’ll be straight with you. I tell it like it is.”

  “Fine,” I said. “I won’t forget the number.”

  “Good,” she said. “Bye, for now.”

  With that, she turned and walked out the door. I couldn’t help but stare at her perfectly shaped ass as it swished back and forth as she walked away. Once she was out and off of the porch, I closed the door. But then I thought fast. What I was missing beyond the door? The thought of her turning into an animal or a bug made my skin crawl. Would I want to see that? I decided I did. Would she get picked up by a car? Was there any chance that this was all some type of set-up? If so, I wanted to catch a glimpse of her ride.

  I opened the door a fast as I could. She could only have gotten a few feet. I looked out into the darkness and saw nothing. There was nothing there. For some reason, that creeped me out more than if I had seen something else. I was afraid to step out of house, but I did, just a few feet, to get a better look at the sky. The star, or whatever it was, was still visible in the dark side of the moon. I stepped back into the house slowly and calmly, and once inside, I slammed the door and bolted it shut.