The Soul Game

by McQueen, K. T.

  The property was maintained by a groundskeeper and handyman who lived in the gatehouse, with his wife. The groundskeeper brought him a sandwich and a fresh flask of coffee at lunch time, then left him to his own devices. The couple were middle aged, half Demons, who wanted a simple, uncomplicated life. They’d been a perfect choice and he paid them well. Just like his mother had.

  At some point, he was going to have to tell Joy the truth, or at least part of it. He worried that she wouldn’t want to be with him after she found out.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE: PINK

  Joy wondered why her life had got so busy when there was another knock at the door. She’d tried to get another nap after Stan had left. Somehow she’d agreed to another double shift and needed the sleep to make it to the early hours. Looked like she’d be doing it on caffeine alone.

  ‘Hello?’ she said to the attractive redhead on the other side of the door.

  ‘So you’re her, are you?’ Ginger said drifting past Joy into the apartment. ‘Not very big, is it?’

  ‘Who are you?’ Joy asked, not releasing the door to follow her.

  ‘Ginger, Mike’s probably mentioned me.’ She ran a finger along the counter top. Joy narrowed her eyes.

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Oh.’ Ginger turned back grinning nastily, startling Joy. ‘I’m his point of contact at work, his support team. We were together at the company holiday.’

  ‘Holiday?’ Joy asked confused.

  ‘Yes, holiday, huge hotel with a pool and bar, by the beach. We had feasts, and parties, and lots of time to get to know each other.’ She smiled but it had a hint of forced friendliness.

  ‘I thought it was team building and talks.’ Joy let go of the door and heard it fall shut.

  ‘Oh we did a bit of that, just for show – you know?’ she said over her shoulder. ‘Anyway, is he about? I wanted to continue what we started.’

  ‘No, he’s in the city.’ Joy was feeling wrong-footed.

  Ginger turned to stare at her. A look that suggested she was trying to determine whether Joy was telling her lies.

  ‘So you don’t know where he is then?’

  ‘All I know is he went to the city.’ She folded her arms across her chest. ‘Now, I think you should leave.’

  ‘Oh, yes, no reason for me to be here if he isn’t. I’ll call him.’ She smiled happily, putting Joy even more on edge. ‘We had so much fun whilst we were away.’

  She left Joy, standing in the middle of the apartment, not sure if she’d just been told Mike had cheated on her. She tried to call him but got no answer, so left him a message. Then she made a strong coffee and got ready for work. She wasn’t going to think about it, she wasn’t going to jump to conclusions. She’d let Mike tell her. She wouldn’t be the crazy girlfriend.

  As she sat with her coffee, pressed uniform, hair carefully arranged, she pulled a copy of the self-help book from the box and began to read. Maybe if she understood what all the fuss was about.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX: BLACK

  Task: Ah black, how gorgeous you are today, pity that person you fancy is taken, how are you at flirting?

  Today you must flirt with someone you fancy but know is already taken and get them to be suggestive about what they want to do to you. You want them to believe they have a chance with you. You want others to envy you.

  She was furious at the previous day’s encounter with her ex. So, furious she was contemplating not bothering with today’s task. It was only a book, wasn’t it? A fucking game designed by some nobody to make regular people damn their own souls. It was probably all lies anyway. Made up bullshit. She wasn’t feeling gorgeous. And the only person she wanted lately was Conner but he wasn’t taken. The whole thing was stupid. She didn’t want her ex back and she didn’t run into too many people anymore.

  She got showered and dressed. Made her way to the bus stop. The church would hold some delights to fill her cupboards. That thought alone made her pause. She’d been able to pay her bills this week, even buy drinks and take out. Yet she was sure she hadn’t had any extra money. She didn’t have enough to buy all the food she would need for the month but maybe next month she wouldn’t need to go to the food bank at all.

  She puzzled over it. Tried to work out where every penny had come from, and gone too, but no matter how many times she went over it there was just no figuring it out. No one was complaining that she hadn’t paid something, no one was knocking on her door asking for the money she owed. But still, she wondered.

  The church doors were propped open. The food bank was held in the meeting room, just off from the kitchen. You had to go through the main doors and along to the left so everyone who saw you knew where you were going.

  She felt cold as she walked through the doors. As if someone had just given her a wet willie. She shivered. She’d never felt out of place in church before. How strange.

  ‘Hey Malcolm how’s it going?’ she asked.

  ‘Not bad, not bad. Just setting up. Fancy helping?’ he said from behind one of the long tables.

  ‘Sure.’ She helped organise all the available food into boxes and bags.

  People came in to collect their share. A few stuck around for a bit of a gossip but most avoided Kelly. She didn’t mind. As it began to get dark Malcolm asked if she was planning on staying the night.

  ‘Wow, no, I best get going.’ She grabbed her box and Malcolm perched a second one on top. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘You’ve worked really hard today. I have no idea how you keep going but I applaud you for it.’ His smile seemed genuine as he let her leave through the back door. ‘Take care now.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She was plunged into gloom. There was something eerie about the back of the church.

  Walking out of the carpark she glanced up at the steeple and imagined she saw something clinging to it. Shaking herself she walked to the bus stop.

  On the bus, she recognised an old-school friend. Well, he’d been a friend, she had no idea how he felt now. She’d always had a sort of crush on him at school. He’d settled down with his girlfriend almost as soon as they’d graduated. And not too long afterwards out popped their first child. Kelly was sure it wouldn’t last but they were still together.

  ‘Hey,’ she said sitting across the aisle.

  ‘Hey Kelly, long time no see! How’s it going?’ he asked as he moved across the aisle to sit behind her.

  ‘Not too bad,’ she said.

  ‘That’s good, I saw what your ex did. I didn’t believe a word of it.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Of late she was surprised anyone talked to her about anything else.

  ‘I mean it certainly raised an eyebrow or two, and prompted some very strange dreams, but I didn’t believe those things of you.’

  ‘Strange dreams?’ she asked, turning to look at him, remembering the task she had to complete.

  ‘Yeah, very strange. Made me real uncomfortable.’ He grinned sheepishly. ‘Especially when I woke up.’

  ‘Oh yeah? Bet Hannah wasn’t too pleased.’

  ‘I never told her,’ he said.

  ‘Thought you two shared everything.’

  ‘We did once, but the longer we stay together the more I’ve learnt some things are better left unspoken.’

  ‘Like whose turn it is to do the washing up?’ she asked

  ‘Yeah, something like that.’ He looked down at his feet. ‘If I hadn’t been with Hannah I would have asked you out.’

  ‘I’d have liked that,’ she told him. ‘But you and Hannah were thick as thieves. Wasn’t anyone getting between you two.’

  ‘True. I sometimes wonder if I should have had other girlfriends before making a family.’

  ‘Haven’t you ever strayed?’ she asked.

  Lights flickered outside the bus, she could have sworn she saw a shadowy figure alongside the window, long claws dragging along the glass. She shivered and hoped he hadn’t noticed.

  ‘All I ever wanted was to kiss you.’

  ‘What?’ She was brou
ght back to reality.

  ‘I wanted to kiss you so bad sometimes,’ he was looking at his shoes again.

  ‘Did you want to do anything else with me?’ she leant towards him, sharing secrets.

  ‘I thought about you sometimes, at night, in my room,’ his neck was going red as she reached over to touch his arm.

  ‘I thought about you sometimes too,’ she said. She probably had. Like what the wedding would be like and where they would go on a honeymoon.

  ‘Yeah? Maybe we were thinking about each other at the same time.’

  She smiled at him, ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Hey, it’s been great talking to you again.’ Well, that was a sudden ending ‘But this is my stop.’

  ‘Do you want to kiss me now?’ She asked him rather brazenly.

  ‘Yes, but I won’t. We might be spotted and with everything that’s been said about you…’

  He left the sentence hanging as he made his way off the bus. Ouch, that hurt. He gave her a little wave before turning and hunching his shoulders against the night.

  Task: You must get others to want what you have. Perhaps they will try to take it from you, or must go and get one for themselves.

  A complication will arise, each of you will be given an extra task. Each of you will be asked to do something you won’t want to do. You will be given a sign, a note, a letter, a message, to tell you what you must do. Keep your eyes peeled.

  ‘Fuck’ she thought as she read the next task. It had been made clear that no living soul would envy her anything, how was she meant to do today’s task. What did she have that other people would want? She put the book down and curled up under the duvet. She was about to lose her soul because she had nothing anyone else wanted. She lay back in the bed, falling into the strangest dream.

  She woke uncomfortable but certain, making breakfast and eating in front of the fire. She was going into town again. She had something no one else had, well no one she knew anyway. She had freedom. She was free to do as she pleased because everyone had already judged her. She was going to misbehave because that’s what was expected of her.

  The bus pulled up in front of the cinema and she climbed out. The latest Shades of Grey movie was out. She walked into the cinema, bought a ticket, and got a huge bucket of popcorn. There were one or two couples in, she suspected they hadn’t been quite as obvious as she had been when she bought her ticket but she recognised one couple.

  ‘Denise, hey Denise. Hi,’ she called, waving. ‘It’s Kelly, from school, remember me?’

  She was gratified to see them slink further down just as the movie started.

  ‘OMG that was brilliant, wasn’t it?’ she asked flinging her arm around Denise as they walked into the foyer. ‘That bit in the car! You guys will totally have to try that. Right, I’m off to the sex store, you want me to pick anything up for you?’

  One or two of the other patrons glanced over as Denise and her boyfriend tried to shrug Kelly off.

  ‘Who is she?’ The guy asked as Kelly waved at them. She didn’t hear Denise’s answer, but it didn’t matter. She called hello to various people she vaguely recognised. Some smiled back, one or two called suggestive things which she replied to happily, she left an old couple laughing at some youngsters who thought they had the best line. They were wrong. She had the perfect comeback.

  She all but danced around a group of teenage girls daring each other to enter the adult store.

  ‘Come on ladies, don’t be shy,’ she told them, greeting the store assistants like she went there every day.

  ‘Honey this is the only store in town where you are good for business!’ one of them answered. ‘We’ve been waiting for you to come in.’

  ‘Figured I might as well check out what all the fuss was about. Haven’t used anything my ex said I had. Just been to see fifty shades and there are one or two things you can explain to me.’ She could see the girls outside staring in. It wasn’t long before they were creeping into the store.

  ‘So butt plugs,’ Kelly said. There were a few titters.

  ‘Sure, right this way. You want to see the fifty shades one?’ the store assistant, Gladys, asked.

  ‘You have a fifty shades one?’

  ‘We have one exactly like the one in the film.’ They moved through the store.

  ‘Baaaah’

  ‘Oh shit,’ went one of the girls, her face almost matching her lipstick. ‘How do I turn it off?’

  Her friends moved away.

  ‘She’ll keep pressing it, trying to turn it off, it’ll just keep baah-ing away till she stops,’ Gladys confided to Kelly.

  ‘Poor thing, and after she plucked up the courage to come in here in the first place.’

  ‘She’ll be the one that comes back. She was curious you see. But she’ll come back without her friends. If we’re feeling a little mean one of us will go press the pants.’ The pair laughed and Kelly spent a rather pleasant afternoon asking the most ridiculous questions about sex toys.

  She felt she ought to buy something after spending so much time in there. They had her take a selfie with them for their wall, which seemed nuts. They had a few photos with various people, and a gimp she was sure she recognised. She made a couple of purchases, ridiculous stuff, and had them post it all to her ex’s house. She only wished she could see him open it. The staff were so pleased she’d come in they gave her a free box of chocolate willies. She’d thought no one would ever be pleased to see her again.

  The wind picked up as she reached the bus stop and a sheet of paper plastered itself to the side of the shelter.

  Go home to your parents. Take the copy of the book you’ll find on the bus’s back seat. Tell them you forgive them. Give them the book. Go to your old room and get your Nana’s necklace. Then you must walk out without saying another word and never return.

  TGM

  She gave a little sob. She’d forgotten about her necklace. It was the only thing she got after Nana died. Her Nana would never have behaved the way her parents had towards her.

  She went straight to the back seat. It wasn’t until she was almost at her destination that she realised she hadn’t even paid her fair. But as she went up to the driver she could only see a black mist swirling behind the plexiglass. She fled, almost falling from the bus as the doors opened. Pounding down the path towards her parents’ terraced house, the little porch light on as it always was.

  She hammered on the door, still frightened, but her Father’s face threw those thoughts right out of her head.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded.

  She shoved past him into the kitchen where her mother was. Then waited till he followed.

  ‘We don’t want any of your nonsense here young lady. Gives us a bad reputation having people know you’re our daughter.’

  ‘I forgive you,’ she told them slamming the book on the table. ‘I forgive you for the way you’ve treated me. I forgive you for all the awful things you said to me, and I forgive you for not believing me.’

  She left them there, her father spluttering, her mother on the verge of an emotional outburst. Her mother had always been one for drama.

  Her room had been changed into a study. Well bollocks to them, she thought, opening the built in top cupboard and feeling for the groove. Hung on a little nail was the necklace, just where she’d left it. She dropped it in her pocket then rushed down the stairs and straight out the front door.

  She couldn’t deny the tears spilling down her face but her parents didn’t need to see them. She would never be going back. The note said she couldn’t. But she realised as she reached the bus stop she’d been harbouring a hope that one day they would make up. She sobbed as she stepped onto the bus and trickled change into the slot, barely glancing up at the driver before finding a seat.

  She was the one who’d done it. She didn’t have to; she could have made the sacrifice for her parents. What kind of person was she? Perhaps the kind that had their own best interests at heart.

  A shado
w loomed as they went over the bridge. At the same spot she had stood only a week ago. She had done something nice for them before she left for good. She had given them the same opportunity she’d had.

  She would go home. Stoke the fire, make some tea, then take a long hot bath and listen to the rain.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN: ABADDON

  Trapped in the pits the creatures fought and screamed. They’d been there an eternity, they wanted to be free. The old ones had promised them a job to do and they yearned for the moment they would be released into the world.

  Their jailors walked the narrow pathways, looking down into the depths and marvelling at how similar these creatures were to the humans who would not accept their descent. Each filled pit screeched and scrabbled to get free, to come to terms with their new home, to accept how they came to be there. The lowest of the low. When getting free was so simple. All they had to do was admit their sins.

  The warden, Dommiel, came around, hand selecting the strongest looking ones, the scariest; bringing them up to the pathway and guiding them to a secondary waiting area for instructions. The warden was pleased these creatures had been given the chance to ascend. Anything to keep their ruckus from his level. He hated the constant screeching. He’d taken to wearing headphones and listening to endless audio books just to block it out. His wife hated the nights he woke in a sweat, convinced he’d fallen into the pit.

  The humans, though, they were so stubborn. So, convinced they were in the wrong place, wouldn’t accept that they had committed a sin. They’d argue for hours about how the thing they’d done, whatever it was, hadn’t been an actual sin, more like a misdemeanour and if they could just talk to God – or perhaps one of his angels – they were sure they would be given a pass and sent straight to heaven.