He got the bus back to the flat, knowing one of his flatmates would be in bed still and the other on his computer. He checked his messages in the hope some employer had got back to him but there was only the usual junk and an email from a cousin he hadn’t seen since he was ten. He seemed to remember he’d let her doll get run over and she hadn’t spoken to him since.
Hi,
I’ve just finished reading this amazing book and thought it might be a good one for you. The parental units have been talking and Mum mentioned you were having difficulty getting a job, the family grapevine huh?
Anyway, I didn’t have a job for ages after college and someone gave me this book, it’s amazing and does make a difference, I mean REALLY!
Just click the link and you can download a copy, it’s totally worth the money and I swear if you do everything it says you won’t regret it!
You owe me a doll!
Good luck
Stephie xxx
Great, she thought he needed a self-help book, he clicked the link. And left it to download as he got off at his stop.
Task: Did you ever just want something because it was there? Well, today you’re to go into a shop and buy every single one of an item off the shelf. Regardless of whether someone else wants the same thing, it should be something you can eat or drink.
Pay for your purchases and then, in full view of everyone, consume as much as you can before you throw whatever’s left away. Do not give any away.
Jason’s wicked streak came from having four older siblings. It was showing signs of stepping to the forefront as he contemplated his task. He had nothing else to do. Thoughts were turning to the local newsagent, where the pic ’n’ mix always had lines of kids, he began to hunt for the money he would need.
Nervous about the fact this book claimed he was already playing, and his soul would be forfeit if he changed his mind, he raided his rainy-day jar. Then checked the DVD boxes where he hid notes so his flatmates couldn’t ‘borrow’ them. The longer he remained unemployed the smarter he’d gotten about money.
When the first group of students came in he went to the counter with a drink and asked for the jar of astro belts. Every kid turned to look at him.
‘What are you doing mister, I wanted some of those!’ the tallest one said.
‘Me too,’ a girl chimed in.
‘I need them all,’ he said, trying not to apologise.
He handed over the money and taking the jar and his drink went outside. Another group of students stood waiting for their turn in the shop. Unscrewing the lid from the jar he chucked it in the nearest bin and pulled out the first Astro belt.
A few passers-by looked at him oddly as he stood stuffing belt after belt into his mouth, chewing and smiling through the pain of the excess sugar. He’d forgotten the way the sugar made his mouth feel, and he was at the point where he’d eaten too many. But he kept going, even though he couldn’t feel his lips anymore and he’d bitten the inside of his cheek more times than he could count. He was more than two-thirds of the way down before he started to wish he could take the rest home for later.
The kids from the shop were now standing cheering him on, the whole experience quite surreal. He managed to stuff another two in before feeling he might throw up and, with a final sad look at the jar, chucked the rest in the bin. The kids roared in annoyance.
Pulling the chocolate milk drink out of his pocket, he began to glug it down. Relief was short lived, as the milk hit his sugar lined stomach he could feel the threat of its return. Not wanting to puke in front of the school kids he chucked the rest of the drink in the bin. Then began the slow, uncomfortable walk back to the flat.
He made it through the door and ignored his flat mate’s loud protests from the bath as he collapsed over the toilet and retched. His flatmate clung to the edge of the bath watching him with a look of absolute confusion.
‘Was that blood?’ he asked.
‘Astro belts,’ Jason managed to splutter. ‘I did it!’
‘Yeah? Well get out of the bathroom you knob!’ his mate yelled throwing the flannel at him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: MAËL
Dinner was strange. Heavy and encapsulated. Thick slabs of honey glazed roast suckling pig, sweet apple sauce, crunchy roast potatoes and sweet roasted baby vegetables. The table cloths were dark, as were the plates and cutlery. Flowers of deep reds and greens trailed ivy down vases and across the tables. When dessert came, Mike was reminded of the paintings of Greek gods.
They talked as they ate, told stories to amuse each other. It seemed Lush spent her days luring men into playing a game. Mike wasn’t quite clear on what that game was, but it sounded familiar. She was very seductive and he could imagine many men coming under her spell.
Heavy bowls of deep red berries and black grapes, sugared and glazed. A thick sauce for dipping, or heavy cream if you preferred. And jugs of mead. By the time he finished eating he felt heady and warm. Like he could conquer worlds, or perhaps the nearest bed.
The laughter was booming as they moved from the dining room to the talk. There was no waiting and no seating. Once they were all enclosed, the curtains were drawn, the doors sealed tight, T.G. Master took the stage. His heavy red brocade coat gave him an austere, yet brooding appearance. Between oldie time speech giver and narcissistic older teacher.
Mike’s head was swimming. It felt like a concert. Sweating bodies heaved around him, moved and swayed as if music played. It was a while before he became aware of it in the background, a heartbeat, a seductive promise of better tomorrows and long nights.
‘Through the ages, people have been made to bow down before those with more money and power. They have been made to accept servitude disguised as freedom. They have been told that this is how people live and survive. That the only way for a healthy, happy, comfortable life, is to follow the rules, do as they are told, and live within their pigeon holes. Pigeon holes they practically picked for themselves. But they knew no better.’
He paused for the cheer from the crowd. Mike’s head swam.
‘With this book, we will free them. Free them from the lies they have been fed. Allow them to grow and become the creatures they were always meant to be. Give them the freedom to have whatever they want, become rich, respected, sexy, whatever their hearts desire. Whatever it is they long for, lust after, dream about. They can have it. This book is the vessel through which that will be accomplished. You are the messenger. You carry the promise of a new life, a new way of living right into their hands. You give them the freedom they so richly deserve.’
There was cheering and clapping and the music grew as the author left the stage. Somehow Mike found himself with a bottle of drink in his hand, and a happy, gyrating Ginger by his side.
‘It feels so good to be part of this, doesn’t it? To be the heroes for once?’ she laughed and twirled, and Lush laughed and twirled with her before pulling an eager but not so coordinated Greg into a swaying seductive dance. Mike got the feeling Greg would get laid tonight.
Mike’s legs went from under him and it was the crowd that prevented him from falling. His head was swimming. Ginger caught him under one arm, and Greg under the other. Lush looked shocked.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked, taking the bottle before he dropped it.
‘I don’t feel well,’ he told them. ‘Sorry, guys I think I need to go lay down.’
‘Sure, no worries,’ Greg said, helping him regain his balance.
‘I’ll get you to your room,’ Ginger offered. ‘Would you guys mind letting HIM know what’s happened?’
Mike didn’t even notice the inflection, his head spun. He began pulling Ginger away from Greg and Lush. Greg watched, concerned. But Lush pulled him back into the moment. Whispering in his ear and moving against his sturdy frame.
CHAPTER FORTY: WHITE
Eric sat waiting, as he always did, for the woman in the red dress. She always wore red. The first day he laid eyes on her she’d been wearing the most beautiful red ba
ll gown. He hadn’t been able to believe his eyes when she went to clean the gents’ toilets.
He had no idea how to approach her, she seemed otherworldly, like a green-eyed goddess trying to fit in on earth. He was terrible at this kind of thing and a hopeless romantic. He thought seeing her on that morning, wearing that dress, had been a sign. He’d been asking for one, he’d begged and pleaded with whatever god was listening to bring love his way and then he’d seen her.
It was the day everything changed.
She smiled at him as she emerged from the toilets. Surprised when she began to cross the square towards him, smiling he tried to surreptitiously check his breath and straighten his tie.
‘Hello,’ she said.
‘Hel...Hello,’ he forced out. Perhaps she had wished for him too.
‘You’re here every morning,’ she continued. ‘Are you watching me?’
‘I work here,’ he said ‘but I saw you in the beautiful red gown and I have to admit I’ve watched you every morning since.’
She smiled ‘I don’t mind you watching me. I’ve been watching you too. I hoped that perhaps you’d like to meet for coffee?’
‘That would be lovely,’ he said, spying his boss out of the corner of his eye.
She giggled and he was stunned when this beautiful woman raised up on her tiptoes to give him a brief kiss on his cheek. She brushed his hand with hers before glaring at his boss as if he’d deliberately interrupted them. Then with a twirl and a whispered ‘Till tomorrow then’, she dashed off across the square.
‘Well, well, finally got a girlfriend, have you?’ his boss asked. ‘I thought you were going to be a virgin forever! Don’t be canoodling in front of the offices though, it’s bad for business.’
‘What?’ Eric asked, stunned by the word canoodling.
‘Just keep it somewhere private, no need for clients to see,’ his boss continued.
‘What clients? You’re supposed to get us clients but I do all the ringing around. The ones off the street come in with petty complaints.’ Eric had begun ranting. ‘You’re never on time, your suit is a size too small and there are more empty food wrappers on your desk than in any of the bins in the room.’
‘Jeeze you’re starting to sound like the wife!’ his boss replied. ‘You get a girlfriend and think you’re it all of a sudden? The big man? Well, you do my job then, I’m going home ill, I’ve got indigestion from all the shouting.’
Eric was surprised at his boss’s swift exit, especially as he had no real idea what it was his boss did. It couldn’t be that hard though, could it? He’d start by tidying up the office so it was presentable.
Two hours later, his boss’s boss showed up and pretended to be a client.
He let Eric attempt to bluff his way through the conversation before telling him he was the managing director. They’d been trying to decide what to do with this particular office but after Eric’s tirade, they’d decided to let Eric go and close it down. The managing director escorted him from the building with his few possessions and then returned inside, turning the door sign to ‘closed’.
Eric couldn’t understand it, the one time he’d spoken back to his boss and he’d been fired. He was too stunned to think straight. He turned towards the gents’ toilets in case the woman was still cleaning. He wanted to see her smile again in the hope it would lift his mood. All he found was a wrapped package propped on the sink. His name in large letters on the front. He frowned, wondering how she knew his name; he was sure he hadn’t told her.
He picked it up and un-wrapping it discovered a book. It was a strange title and he wondered if it was about soul mates and she was trying to tell him something. He pocketed it and made his way home.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: MAËL
Mike collapsed on the bed, he couldn’t be bothered undressing or getting under the covers. He didn’t have the energy, and every time he tried to move his head spun. He felt the first shoe pulled off and heard it drop to the floor. Followed by the second a moment later.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
‘You can’t go to bed in shoes and a suit you need to wear tomorrow. If we can get it off, you I can send it to be steam cleaned,’ Ginger said. It sounded logical.
He let Ginger roll him about, pull things off, but objected when she reached his underwear.
‘They don’t need steam cleaning.’ He smirked.
‘Can’t blame a girl for trying,’ Ginger said softly. ‘You all incapable of doing anything to stop me.’
‘What?’ he raised up, just in time to collide with her mouth. Her eyes grinned wickedly as she left the contact there a moment. He didn’t move away either. He wasn’t sure why.
Then she moved her lips, over his, pushing him back. Eyes still gazing into his, daring him to make her stop. He’d never noticed how big and greeny-blue they were before. Outlined in thick black kohl. Her skin so creamy, soft slender ringlets of red hair falling to tickle his face. Her hand on his bare arm, chest, then the mattress beside him as she moved her lips more firmly. He found himself responding.
She pulled away to look down on him.
‘Stop,’ he gasped, unable to clear the fog from his brain. ‘You have to stop. I have a girlfriend.’
‘So? You don’t want me to stop.’ She smiled and removed her figure hugging top, throwing it to the floor. Revealing the red silk beneath.
‘It’s not right.’ He tried again. ‘I love her.’
‘It’s not wrong,’ she responded. ‘It’s not like your immortal soul isn’t already going to hell.’
‘What?’ he was beginning to wonder if he’d been drugged.
‘You’re a Demon, your soul belongs in hell. You can commit any sin you want, even the mortal sin of lust, and never have it change where you end up.’ She was laughing softly, running the hard backs of her nails lightly across the soft skin of his stomach. It quivered in response.
‘I know that. But…’ he was having trouble thinking. ‘It’s disloyal.’
She laughed and laughed and laughed. And as she laughed the movement did things to him. Her thighs against his hips.
The darkness responded. He tried to fight and lost.
He rose, wrapped one arm around her waist, the other supporting him on the bed. And pulled her tight against him. If she wanted this, it would be something she would never forget.
‘Oh,’ she sighed against his insistent lips. ‘I…’
But whatever she was going to say was lost to the images pushed into her head. Other places, other times, as they twisted and turned with each other. He turned her onto her back and pushed down onto her. His dizziness subsiding with the darkness in charge. But the darkness lived in the moment, for the feelings, for the sensations, for the pleasure. The darkness had skills. She shivered at his touch. The heat that burned into her skin against the cool night air sent droplets of sweat running in rivulets down her skin.
She groaned into his mouth, into the darkness. And the darkness accepted the sacrifice and plunged into her. Merged. Pulled her up from the bed, arm tight around her waist pulling her close, his other hand in her tangled hair forcing her lips to remain in firm contact with his. She’d thought to have control. He took it from her. Her scream began in his mouth, and only when he was ready did he allow her to release it. Never once letting her give up her human form.
Lying side by side, sweat cooling on their skin, she breathed long and deep, trying to replenish the breath she had lost. The dizziness had gone, and little things were beginning to click together in his mind. The darkness was smart. It saw connections Mike would never see without it.
She rolled onto her side, towards him, reaching out to run a hand down his immobile arm.
‘I’ve never…that is, I never thought it would be like that.’ She paused. ‘With you.’
‘Get out,’ he said; his voice restrained but clear, demanding, forceful, dangerous.
‘What?’ she moved as if he’d burnt her, which he had, hours earlier.
‘Get out. Don’t come back.’ He turned to look her in the eye, made sure she could see he meant it.
She didn’t say another word, just gathered up her clothes and fled.
There’d been something in that drink. She’d bloody drugged him, or somebody had. Probably planning it since she’d come down to the beach. Maybe she’d been put up to it, maybe she hadn’t. He sat up on the edge of the bed, sheets damp with sweat. Then got up and went to the window. On the patio, three floors below, he could see his colleagues still partying. He turned away after watching a dishevelled looking Ginger run out of the patio doors and up to the tall man lording it over everyone from a central oversized wicker chair. He smirked, maybe it was her daddy.
Mike turned on the shower and stepped beneath its hot stream. He hadn’t realised the level of Demon involvement in this self-help book. He knew it was a Demon company, but that speech seemed to imply more than the usual eat well, sleep well, accept your inadequacies and work with them kinda crap. And for some reason, his darkness had remembered the gist of it. He was trying to remember the exact words when he heard his door being kicked in.
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