Sinister Grin Press
MMXVI
Austin, Texas
Sinister Grin Press
Austin, TX
www.sinistergrinpress.com
December 2016
“Blue Demon” © 2016 David Bernstein
This is a work of Fiction. All characters depicted in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without the publisher’s written consent, except for the purposes of review.
Cover Art by Matt Davis
Book Design by Travis Tarpley
For Adam, the best brother ever.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Matt Worthington, Tristan Thorne, Travis Tarpley for running such an awesome publishing company. Working with you guys has been truly wonderful. Big thanks to Kristopher Rufty for supporting me and being a good friend. Thanks to Matt Davis for producing a great kick-ass cover. And finally to Sandy for always making my work shine brighter.
Chapter One
Dan eyed his wrist watch as he paced back and forth in the manager’s office of the Boheem Woodworks building, waiting for his replacement to arrive. It was already two and a half hours past his quitting time. He was the day manager—came in at nine a.m. and departed at six p.m. Occasionally, he’d have to stay an extra ten minutes or so to go over paperwork with the night manager, but that was it. Today was supposed to be no different. Then twenty minutes before it was time to punch out, Jimmy Sanders, the night manager, had called in sick.
Dan understood that things happened, that people fell ill and ran into unforeseen problems, but calling out at the last minute was complete and utter bullshit.
He hadn’t thought that he would be able to get anyone to come in on such short notice. He would have to pull a—much dreaded—double shift, but lucky for him Craig Newbower was available.
“I don’t know, Dan,” Craig said. “I had plans to stare at the wall all night.”
Dan hadn’t been in the mood to play around. He needed to know if the guy would be able to work. The man was his last chance to have the night off.
“I’m supposed to be with my wife and kid tonight,” Dan said.
“Sounds important. Let me think…”
“Please,” Dan said. “I’ll owe you one. Hell, two.”
“Okay, I’ll do it,” Craig said. “I could use the hours anyway. But you’re still going to owe me, Danny boy.”
“Fine, whatever. Just get your ass over here, now.”
“Hold your horses, Danny. I’m in the middle of dinner, and with a lady.”
“No, you’re not. Now quit screwing around.”
“Seriously, man. I’m on a date.”
Frustrated, Dan closed his eyes and ran his right hand through his hair. He inhaled and let the breath out slowly. “So when do you think you can make it here?”
“The waiter just brought us our meals, so let’s say, in an hour?”
“Okay, but please try to be here sooner.”
“Will do, Danny boy, will do.”
Dan wanted to throttle Craig when he finally arrived at the factory. The man stank of cheap perfume and wine. Instead, he forced a smile, clapped him on the back and thanked him before hurrying out of the building.
He yanked open the door on his Toyota Camry and was racing away from the property moments later. As he sped down Orsmill Road, he was trying to decide whether to take the highway or stick to the back roads. He chose the latter, guessing they’d be quicker, especially if there was traffic on the highway.
Tonight, he and his wife, Jackie, were planning a surprise for their nine-year-old son, Calvin, who they almost always called Cal. The kid had had a rough time with school last year. His grades had been a notch above passing. The principal and guidance counselor had suggested that Cal be held back, but Dan and Jackie said they would get him a tutor and would make sure to work with him. He was a smart kid who simply needed a little more focus and extra help. So far this year, Cal was doing really well, getting mostly As and Bs on his tests. The parent teacher conference last week was a complete one-hundred-eighty degree turn around from last year’s. His teacher said Cal was doing wonderfully. As a reward for his hard work, Dan and Jackie wanted to give him a little something special. They weren’t sure what that might be, so they asked Cal what he wanted most.
“A Blue Demon action figure,” Cal had said.
Blue Demon was a cartoon from twenty-five years ago. It had been Dan’s favorite when he was younger. It had only lasted three seasons, but it was awesome. A few years ago, one of the companies that owned the rights released the show on DVD, putting all three seasons in a box set. Dan purchased it, hoping to relive a bit of his childhood. He’d hoped his son would like it too.
Cal didn’t like it, he loved it. It quickly became his son’s favorite cartoon. Dan and Cal watched the episodes together, usually one a night and more on the weekends. It didn’t take long before they’d watched all the episodes. The only “sucky” thing, as Cal put it, was that the show ended without wrapping up a few situations. It had been cancelled, leaving the viewers to wonder what had happened. Blue Demon was a deity that could be called upon to defend people in need, to right injustices and to make sure the people of the land it watched over were protected. There had been a case where a gang of evil men had invaded a city and killed the king and took over his castle. The viewer never got to see what happened, though one could guess Blue Demon killed them all and saved the town, like he always did. Still, it was frustrating not to get an official ending. But an even bigger cliffhanger involved Blue Demon’s nemesis, Red Devil. At the end of season two, Blue Demon had banished his evil brother, Red Devil, to a prison on the ethereal plane, a place no being had ever escaped from. But at the end of season three, Red Devil escaped and wound up back on earth and was ready to join forces with the gang of evil men.
Despite those things, Cal still loved the show. And having watched it again all these years later, Dan hadn’t realized how violent it was for a kids’ cartoon. Blue Demon often killed his victims in the manner of which they had caused others’ deaths—beheading, ripping apart, drowning, burning and so forth.
Cal had continued to watch the show, over and over, never getting bored with it. Dan would sit with him on occasion, relishing the time with his son, knowing the boy was sharing a part of his past with him. It was times like that, he knew, that Cal would cherish later on in life. Sure, they did other things, such as playing catch and tossing the Frisbee, but this was special in a different kind of way. Maybe Blue Demon could become something Cal shared with his son one day and keep the tradition going.
After seeing how much Cal enjoyed the show, Dan went out and purchased another box set in case something ever happened to the first one—like Cal wearing out the discs, if such a thing was possible.
Cal often talked about the possibilities—going into infinite detail—of what would have happened if the show had continued on for a fourth season. Then one day, the talk turned into action. The kid sat at his desk and began drawing his own Blue Demon comic. He wrote storylines too, and soon he had his own continuing tale. He showed his friends, who liked it enough that they wanted to watch Blue Demon as well. They all wound up enjoying the show, but nowhere near as much as Cal, who was a devout fan. Almost rabid. Dan knew this was because the show was theirs, something father and son shared, and he was thrilled that Cal could be a part of his childhood.
So Cal had wanted a Blue Demon action figure. Dan hadn’t even known such a thing existed. It hadn’t been around when he was younger, for he would’ve gotten one for sure. His son had told him that there was one on eBay, and
when Dan checked, he found out the kid was right. The giant auction site had only one listing for the action figure, and when Dan saw the buy now price, he almost chocked on his tea. The seller wanted a thousand dollars, plus ten dollars for shipping. He quickly searched the internet for another place to buy it, but couldn’t find it anywhere.
After doing a little research on the web, including reading the Blue Demon Forums, he had learned that a very limited amount of the action figure had been produced, and an even smaller amount had been sold to the public.
The toy had been released in conjunction with the DVD, but only offered for purchase through the company’s website, unlike the DVD, which was available in chainstores across the country and in online revenues such as Amazon.com. The Blue Demon action figure hadn’t been publicly advertised, leaving many fans unaware of its existence. Only later, when a few popped up for sale online, had people scrambled to buy them. The demand was great, the show having a strong cult following, and the price of the action figure skyrocketed.
There was no way Dan could afford to spend a grand right now, let alone, on a toy. Adults were crazy enough to spend that kind of money on such things, but a kid wouldn’t know how to appreciate it. Cal would play with it, scuff it up, maybe even wind up trading it to a friend for a few bucks or for some other kind of toy. In a few years, Cal might outgrow the whole thing—find action figures childish or simply silly—and the Blue Demon action figure would be forgotten at the bottom of some drawer, or worse, lost.
Neither Dan nor Jackie had the heart to tell Cal that it didn’t look like he would be getting a Blue Demon action figure. The kid would be so disappointed. But there had still been a few days before the night they were going to celebrate Cal’s grades. They decided to wait until then to break the disappointing news, in the event they still hadn’t been able to acquire the elusive collectible.
Dan had continued to search the internet, day after day, but to no avail. He’d asked his son if there was anything else he wanted besides the Blue Demon action figure, and the kid said “not really” and then frowned.
Dan understood that Cal would be disappointed. At the same time, knew that his son would get over it. Regardless, it didn’t make him feel any better about letting Cal down. He loved his boy and saw how hard he had worked at getting his grades up. He wanted to reward him with something special, and it seemed the hard to find collectible was it.
Then one day, when Dan was on his way to his boss’s house for an impromptu meeting of management, he passed a comic book store. He’d seen the place before, but he had never paid it much mind until then, realizing such stores sold collectibles. It was a long shot that it would have a Blue Demon action figure, and if so, that it would be cheap enough for him to purchase, but he had to take a look.
After the meeting, he headed over to the comic book shop. The place was, as expected, wall-to-wall with comics, the walls themselves plastered with posters of superheroes and villains in various poses. The store had everything, from DC and Marvel, to Variant and smaller named companies on display, as well as Star Wars and Star Trek products. Every comic but the new releases were in protective plastic sleeves. The store was well-kept, clean and organized.
To either side of the cash register were the glass display cabinets where countless superheroes and supervillains took up space. Figures stood in various poses performing some kind of action, like hurling a fireball, swinging from a web or flying over the Empire State Building, as well as numerous other activities.
Starting at one end, he perused the collection. He attempted to move fast and find Blue Demon, but was finding it difficult not to admire the intricate craftsmanship of the pieces. Seeing the price tags gave him pause—amounts ranging from a hundred dollars to as high as eight thousand dollars. Damn, he was glad he wasn’t a collector of such things.
The old man behind the counter was reading a newspaper. He’d said hello when Dan first entered, but nothing since. He was bald on top, with a white cloud of gray hair around his head. Glasses sat perched near the end of his nose. “Can I help you with anything?” he asked, not looking up. The man clearly knew a just-looking customer from a buying one.
“No thanks,” Dan said. “Just looking for now.”
Dan had wanted to ask him if he had a Blue Demon action figure, but he didn’t want to hear no just yet. He still had a number of figures to look at and wanted to hold off disappointment for as long as possible.
When he came to the last section of cabinets, he saw a blue figure from the corner of his eye. His pulse quickened. His palms were moist. He didn’t want to look, to find out it was some other superhero. But his eyes had a mind of their own. They darted past orange, green, purple and red figures and stopped on the blue one.
Elation fell over him at the sight of the Blue Demon action figure, with its light and dark colored flesh, large bat-like ears, fangs and claws. It was hard to fathom how such a fearsome-looking creature fought on the side of righteousness. He could hardly believe he was seeing the nearly impossible-to-find toy.
Dan’s face must’ve revealed that he’d found something of interest, because the store clerk said, “Fan of the Blue Demon, eh?”
“When I was a kid.”
“The legend or the cartoon?”
“Legend?”
“Yeah,” the old man said. He put the newspaper down and pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. “The television show was based on a legend. The Blue Demon was said to be a deity of some lost tribe of the Amazon. It would be called forth to protect against invaders and exact vengeance on anyone who harmed the tribe, doing to them what was done to the victims.”
“Kind of like the television show,” Dan said.
“Yup.”
Dan didn’t see a price tag on the figure. He wanted to ask how much it cost, but didn’t want to let the guy know how badly he wanted it. He looked for wear on the thing. For dust that might’ve built up along its massive shoulders or angular head, revealing how long it had been standing around. The figure and case were spotless, like the rest of the store. Having stared at the thing long enough, he moved on, acting like he was continuing to browse.
After checking out most of the store, walking casually, hands in pockets, as if he were simply wasting time while his wife was getting her hair done at the salon next door, he came back over to where the Blue Demon figure stood.
This was it, he thought. The moment of truth. He hoped the price wasn’t going to be too steep. Maybe the guy selling it on eBay was a nut job, only willing to sell it if he snared the right sucker, a real die-hard collector. Maybe the going price was only like a hundred bucks or something close to that, though he highly doubted it.
“I can’t get over how much the toy”—he said toy, hoping to show his un-collector status— “looks so much like the cartoon figure. They did a bang up job.” He paused, waiting to see if the old man would respond. The guy had gone back to reading his paper and said nothing. “How much are you asking for it?” Dan held his breath.
“Five-hundred,” the old man said.
Dan exhaled and felt his heart sink a bit. The price wasn’t nearly as high as the eBay seller’s, but it was still a lot.
The old man put his paper down again and came over to where Dan was standing. “It’s got quite the cult following, the cartoon does. And they made so few of the Blue Demon action figure, sold an even smaller number. Collectors will pay a hefty price for it, if they can find it.”
“Have you had it long?” Dan asked.
“Nope. Bought it last week from a guy who needed the cash. I haven’t gotten around to putting it up on our website yet, but I’m sure it’ll go fast when I do. They aren’t the most expensive collectible by far, but that show has its die-hards.”
“Five-hundred isn’t considered a lot?”
The man chuckled. “Nope. I’ve got collectibles that range from fifty dollars to as high as eight-thousand.”
“Eight-thousand?” Dan gasped. “Damn,
I’m glad I never got into this sort of hobby.”
Dan stared at Blue Demon and rubbed his chin. Five-hundred dollars was just so much for a damn, molded piece of plastic. But it meant more than that to some people, and he knew it.
“Is that the best you can do, five-hundred?” Dan asked. “I mean, it’s for my son. He’s only nine.”
The old man shifted his weight from the right leg to the left. His lips pursed as he brought a hand to his mouth. His forefinger began tapping the flesh below his nose. He appeared like a man in deep thought. Finally, he asked. “Nine-years-old?”
“Yeah. It’s my son’s favorite show. Heck, it was mine too. I used to watch it when I was a kid. I had no idea they released the DVD until two years after the fact. I bought the box set online to reminisce. My son wound up watching it and loving it. Like I said, it’s now his favorite show. He even wrote his own comic books, you know, to give the show an ending.”
The old man chuckled. “You don’t say?”
“This would really make his day. No, his year. But five-hundred is just too steep.”
“I don’t know…” the old man said, shaking his head.
Dan had to have it. Finding the action figure the way he had was fate. It was meant to be his son’s. He wasn’t rich, not by far, and he had bills and a mortgage to pay. Jackie was on unemployment and only had a few months left, having lost her secretarial job at the law firm after the business closed its doors. But, his son deserved something special.
Time crawled. The old man was working him. Really drawing the negotiations out. His palms were slick with sweat and he needed a drink of water. He stared at the store clerk, who he guessed was the owner. He couldn’t read the man. He needed to beat him to the punch.
“Four-hundred,” Dan said. “I’ll give you four-hundred.” There, he’d made the offer. Maybe he should’ve waited to see what the man would’ve said. Shit. Had he screwed up, ripped himself off? He should’ve walked out, then came back in. Seen if the old man would’ve lowered the price at that point.
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