Kiss of the Demon Girl

by Eddie R. Hicks

  I heard the clank of the door unlocking, and the slow turn of the door handle.

  It opened.

  The pizza was exchanged for money.

  Then the door closed.

  That’s it, that’s all.

  Anticlimactic didn’t begin to describe how I felt. Well at least I didn’t have to burn the place down.

  I saw nothing out of the norm during the delivery of the pizza, just a normal couple living there that wanted a pizza. I remained on the floor awhile longer as I searched for clues, something, anything, that didn’t seem right. This building was important to the attacker and I was on the inside past the security. I couldn’t leave just yet, I’d be giving up the chance I had right then to poke around.

  I heard machine gun fire discharge, turned out it was someone watching an action movie with the volume turned up. Further up the halls I heard screaming, upon pressing my ear against the door I heard another couple having some crazy and loud sex. He was giving it to her hard, fast, and rough too, holy fuck I was jealous. Otherwise, there was nothing of interest. I had to leave, not just because I needed to return to work, but the security cameras… I only made like eight passes through the hallways during my search, at best someone was going to find that to be suspect, at worst, more material for the cops to continue their investigation into me.

  My finger went to summon the elevator, the beastly force within me responded negatively to my actions. It wanted me to stay, it was… fixed on something within the condo. Like a beacon pulsing, with the intent of a person of importance to zero in on it, that person was me. The elevator doors opened, and I entered. My finger hovered next to the ground floor button for a solid five seconds. The beast, the powerhouse of my talents did not want me to push it.

  Something called out to me, it felt like a voice, an urge, a burning desire to travel to the penthouse suites.

  Penthouse.

  Penthouse.

  She’s waiting for you.

  Well, that settles that.

  The long elevator ride took me way up to the top suites. As the doors parted away, I looked around. I was about to enter an area I had no authority to enter especially in a high-end place like this. The people up here must be worth millions, celebrities, corporate executives. I’m surprised there wasn’t any security patrolling the halls, at least none that I saw as I strode away from the elevator.

  I felt the source of the voice, lure, whatever it was. It was emanating from a suite near to the elevator; like literally right next to it. My talents began to work like radar directing me to it. I approached and debated if I should knock on the door. What would I say? Hey, I got some weird magical powers and voices in my head that told me to come here, oh ignore the pizza delivery outfit.

  The door opened during my musing, as if it were working on its own.

  What in the actual fuck.

  I looked into the suite as the door opened wide to let me in and gleamed at the nighttime New York skyline from a wide window. White and grey couches and sofas were parked in the middle of the open concept suite, resting comfortably over a carpet of a similar color. I entered the suite, might as well, right? Don’t want to be rude and turn away after someone… or something took the time to let me in.

  The lights were on, along with soothing lounge music playing from the stereo system, someone was home. I got a closer look of the suite as I ventured deeper in, there was a rooftop patio, separated by wide and towering glass sliding doors. There were pictures on the wall many of them were glamour shots of Lexi Hartridge—

  The door slammed shut, its thumping noise caused me to spin around on my heels to face it. A petite skinny figure stood within the darkness that enveloped the main exit to the suite, no doubt the person that opened the door for me… having known somehow that I was there.

  Yep… this isn’t creepy at all. Nope.

  The figure stepped away from the shadows and into the lights of the suite. The yellow glow from the lighting slowly drenched her body, highlighting all too familiar features. A revealing black nightgown, long shining red hair, soaring high cheekbones, grey eyes that peered right into my soul, it was none other than Lexi. Why the hell would she want me in her place?

  “I’m glad you could make it,” Lexi said to me in her soft and alluring voice.

  “Uh… no problem?” I didn’t know what else to say. I wasn’t invited, just had a desire to enter fueled by my search for the truth.

  Lexi walked past me, and tugged on my hand, guiding me to the living room. She sat next to me having offered me a seat. Damn these were some nice chairs too. My heightened sense of awareness diminished the longer I remained in the suite. This condo was by no means a base of operations for my attackers, more likely the location for another person they planned to attack… someone like her.

  “I’ve had a hectic day, lots of planning and rehearsals for the concert coming up,” said Lexi. “Can’t wait until it’s over, I’ll be taking advantage of some much-needed rest time and moving onto an important project.”

  “That’s… great?” Seriously, why was she telling me all this? She spoke as if we knew each other.

  Lexi stood up and brushed the side of her hand across my face. It felt, different, like the warmth within her hands was absorbed into my body and tingled parts of my neck from the inside. “Would you like something to drink?” she offered.

  “I’m good, thanks.”

  She moved out of sight for the time being. During which I scanned the suite more, expensive furniture, amazing layout, breathtaking view of the city. It was hard to believe that she was the only one that lived here, especially at her youthful age.

  My phone rang. The caller display revealed it was Mario calling, probably wondering how much longer I’ll be. I should be on my way back by now, not sitting here with the songstress of New York. My thumb hit the ignore call button, oops. I noted the time before slipping my phone back into my pocket. Lexi returned with a green-tinted bottle of wine in her hands and poured herself a glass of the expensive beverage.

  She sat on a chair across from the coffee table of a weird design with the filled wineglass cupped in her hands. She made the glass swirl and took in the aroma of the drink. “Are you sure you don’t want anything?” she asked.

  “I gotta head back to work… so.”

  “You don’t have to,” she softly spoke. “You really don’t.”

  “My landlord says otherwise.”

  She crossed her legs and sipped the drink. Damn, I really wish I could stay, I could use a drink. She pushed the glass away from her lips, placing it onto the table before us. “You don’t know who I am do you?”

  “Lexi Ha—"

  “I mean, who I am.”

  I didn’t know how to answer that, hell, I didn’t know how to answer that about myself. I shrugged, it was the only response I could think of at that time. “I take it Lexi is just a stage name then?”

  She smiled and glided her index finger around the top rim of her glass. “You could say that.” I grimaced. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t understand why I’m here.”

  “Or what lead you to come here for that matter. Don’t worry, Reika, everything will make sense soon now that we’re here. I’m glad you didn’t leave when you felt like doing so after delivering the pizza, I was starting to think you were at one point.”

  Either she somehow tapped into the security cameras, or she sensed my presence much like how I was lead to this floor and suite. Perhaps she had a set of talents like I did, if so it would have explained a lot.

  Except for one thing.

  “How do you know my name?” I asked and eagerly awaited the reply.

  “We’ve met, don’t you remember?”

  “The hospital visit…” I mumbled, having briefly remembered that encounter. “Sorry, I was doped up on some crazy meds at the time.”

  “More happened that day, things most of the world doesn’t know about.” She licked her lips in a strangely seductive manner t
hat would make anyone, man or woman, cream their pants. “Yet.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “You listen to my music, right?”

  “A few songs, yeah.”

  “Which is your favorite?”

  “Enlightenment.” Okay it wasn’t my favorite, but it was the only one I remembered the title of.

  “Are you going to my concert next week?”

  “Well no.” I can’t afford tickets; I got rent and a fixer to pay.

  She arose from her seat and neared the coffee table. Her hands scooped up a brown enveloped that had laid on it, the necklace she wore dangled and swayed back and forth around her neck. “You are now,” she said, offering me the envelope. “I’ll sing it to you, personally.”

  “Thanks?”

  “Just don’t be shy to join me on stage afterward.”

  I took her gifts, looking at the envelope, struggling to make the connection between my last attacker and this place as I got up to get the hell out of there. I didn’t notice her sneak up behind me as my hand went for the door, her lips gently pressed against the back of my neck, the pleasure areas of my brain began to flare up for some reason. I looked back at her slowly with a wincing smile and saw her waving goodbye to me. I bolted seconds before my face flushed. I’m sorry; there was just too much fucking weird and creepiness coming from her. And the worst part? I was no closer to finding out the truth behind my attackers after all that.

  I rode the elevator back down while my hands tore open the envelope, dumping its contents into my other hand. There were two front row tickets to her concert at Madison Square Gardens, and a necklace, one that I placed in the palm of my hand to closely gaze at. It looked exactly like hers, a circle with a horizontal bar within the center of it. The middle part of said bar had a vertical one. Something that resembled a cross was on the two ends of the horizontal bar and on the top part of the vertical one… yeah, weird ass design.

  Well, at least Ryan and myself had the answer to what our next date will be. And he did suggest we make noise, screaming amongst raving fans at front row seats would be the perfect way to do that.

  My phone rang yet again, Mario calling.

  Yeah, yeah, I’m coming back now.

  Chapter Five

  I made it back to the pizza joint in one piece, shaken up by the weird experience, but otherwise fine. I snuck in through the back door and slithered my way into the kitchen as if nothing happened, hoping Mario hadn’t seen me walk in. Even then, it looked as if the main rush of orders for the night had long died down, they were probably in decent shape without me.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” Mario’s voice raged toward me from behind, son of a bitch.

  I faced him and put on my best it’s not my fault face. “Traffic.”

  “And you couldn’t call me back? Or text?”

  I maintained my not my fault face. “Now, now, driving while texting is frowned upon—”

  “Cut the bullshit, driving or not, you should have been back by now. I had other orders that needed to be delivered.”

  “Well give me them,” I offered. In truth I didn’t give a fuck, but I had figured stepping up to take on the job would make me look good since he was calling me out.

  “Nick took care of them and managed to come back before you did.”

  I was stuck. He wasn’t buying the traffic excuse, I couldn’t blame him. Yeah, the traffic was bad, but it wasn’t bad enough for me to be waltzing in here this late. I was late because Lexi invited me into her place, period. But what the hell was I supposed to do? Tell him the truth? Tell him that my mysterious powers lead me to her because I was searching for the assassins that have been stalking me for the past month?

  “Like I said,” I reiterated. “Traffic was bad, what the fuck do you want me to do about it?”

  He sighed loudly as his index finger aimed over to the back door I slithered in from. “Go home.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

  “Get the fuck out of my sight. I don’t need you tonight.”

  That greasy asshole cut my shift early. As much as I hate this job and welcomed the newfound free time and escape, this was a loss of income. I get paid by the hour, losing five hours of my shift was going to hurt when payday came. I needed that cash to pay rent, now it looks like I’ll have to dip into my saving account to pay it, which means less money to feed Jim.

  Fuck my life.

  I had nothing more to say to Mario, and so I just grabbed my bag and left out the back door. The cold autumn evening air once again embraced my body as I stepped outside. Ryan sat on an over turned milk crate, his cell in one hand and an unlit cigarette in the other. This reminded me, I could have used a smoke myself.

  Ryan’s head tilted upwards as I stood next him, my hands rapidly patted around inside my backpack searching for a pack of smokes. “Shit you’re back, was starting to get worried.”

  “I got sent home early… so I won’t be around much longer.”

  He grimaced. “Again? You know this is strike two, right?”

  “I’m aware of that.”

  I found my smokes. I put the package to my mouth, my lips gripped onto the selected cigarette as I pulled the pack away from my face. I snapped my fingers, and just like magic, my talents lit it up. Ryan smiled and extended his cigarette toward me. I shamelessly snapped again lighting his up, he loved it when I did that.

  Ryan was the only person that knew of my talents. We got super drunk during our first date awhile back, during which I did the very same trick to light our cigarettes as I just did for him. It led to him challenging me to do more tricks with my talents, stupid stuff like shattering a beer bottle with flames. Cat was out of the bag at that point as the old cliché goes, he knew I was a freak and didn’t care. That’s why he was such a great guy to be around.

  There was a quiet moment while we puffed on our cancer sticks, he broke it by gesturing at the necklace Lexi gave me. “Nice, where did you get that?”

  I held the necklace in the palm of my free hand, glaring at its weird design, it was warm to touch. “Ah, don’t worry about it.” Him pointing out the existence of the necklace prompted me to remember another exciting detail from my unannounced detour. I produced the pair of tickets out from my bag, waving them before his face in a teasing playful manner. “And don’t worry about how I came across these either.”

  He snatched one of the tickets from my hands and closely examined the authenticity of it. “Holy shit, are you for real?”

  “You and me, what do you say?”

  His eyebrow rose, his face twisted, and his eyes looked nowhere near me. The sign a man is hesitating. Ryan was not exactly a huge fan of Lexi. I became worried that he might straight-up say no, he was, after all, a fit and confident man, he could have any woman he wanted, he didn’t need to waste his time with me. I needed what little normalcy I could get in my life, I need someone like him to make it happen.

  He gave his answer. “Yeah, I’m down.” Fuck yes. “Shouldn’t be hard to get our shifts covered. I know Patrick and Greg need more hours.”

  “And Luigi would rather not have me around.”

  We shed some much needed hearty laughter at my comment before we went our separate ways for the night. I leaned in toward his face, and placed a gentle kiss goodbye on his cheek, then I went to my car. My footsteps woke up the stray cat as I approached my parking spot.

  “Hey, don’t forget to feed it since I’m not gonna be around tonight,” I called out to Ryan.

  The cat stretched its body, meowed, and came striding over to me, using its natural ability to be… too fucking cute. I lowered myself to face it, guiding my fingers across its fur coat. It returned the favor by rubbing its body against my leg, either that, or it just wanted to feel more of my body heat, it was getting chilly.

  “Get a room,” Ryan heckled from behind.

  “Fuck off.”

  He began to chuckle. “Seriously, take the damn thing home with you, winter is suppos
ed to be rough this year.”

  I couldn’t say no to that, it was Ryan suggesting it after all. Compassion, emotional niceness, that’s what non-gangster guys like to see in girls these days right? After twenty-nine years you’d think I’d know, but I don’t, was too busy riding men that got out of prison or were on their way to it.

  I wrapped the cat within my arms and stood up, Ryan’s eyes gave me an approving stare. The cats soft purring gave me its approval as I made my way to my car, bidding Ryan a farewell for the night.

  I arrived home sans shady stalkers. I was still salty at getting cut early from work if me throwing my backpack across my living room wasn’t a good enough sign. If I had known this was going to happen, I would have said fuck it, and stayed a bit longer with Lexi. Yes, the experience was creepy and all… but she did have booze. Booze makes any situation better, especially if we’re enjoying it in New York’s finest penthouse.

  The cat leaped out of my arms and pranced its way into my living room. Never saw a creature like that have such determination, must have really missed having a warm home to come to. It crawled over my trash dump of a home, not giving two shits about the junk on the floor until it came to a dramatic stop inside my room. I followed behind my new roommate and locked my eyes upon what it saw, my katana sword hanging off a display above my bed.

  It was about the only damn thing I had in my place that looked nice enough to show guests… assuming they didn’t run away from the chaos they had to cross to get into my room. I hung it with pride and gave it a nice long look before I leaped into bed every night. That blade was the real deal too, finely crafted, razor-sharp, Japanese steel, more than capable of cutting a man’s head off with one hard strike across their neck. Shit like that wasn’t easy to come across here in New York, my grandfather went through a lot of trouble, not to mention hard cash to give it to me on my eighteenth birthday.