“Now you’re going to blame me for those murders? Are you kidding me? Do you know how crazy that is?” Grim’s voice actually became a little shrill.
“And yet it’s one hundred percent true. I mean, the rumors that Death was getting a replacement. I just had to see it…well you…with my own eyes, or I guess to be more accurate, I should say with Marcus’ eyes.” Simon laughed.
“What?” Grim looked as confused as the rest of us.
“Oh come on, you haven’t figured it out yet? You were the next big thing Joseph. When we started hearing the rumblings about Death being replaced, everyone just wanted to see. Of course, we were the only ones brilliant enough to figure out a way to be your roomie.” Simon was smiling, beaming with pride. It turned my stomach.
“We?” Janine asked.
“Oh, we’re sorry. I guess we’ve never been properly introduced. My name is Legion, for we are many.”
Grim snorted, “Sure you are, and I’m Honest Abe.”
“You shouldn’t doubt us, Joseph. For all our efforts to see you, the least you can do is acknowledge us. We were curious what you’d be like. You were…surprising.” Simon grinned.
“Surprising…how?” Penny asked.
“The original Death was many things. The one thing constant was his character. Joseph’s predecessor served his own interests, but followed the letter of the law exactly. Joseph serves his master completely, but breaks more of the rules than he follows. It’s…confounding.” Simon’s face actually showed confusion. “Why? Why is it that you can break so many rules, and yet he still chose you to be Death? It makes no sense. You’ve committed horrible sins, and yet you are somehow rewarded. We simply disagreed with God’s place for you disgusting monkeys, and we’re cast out for eternity. Tell me…is that fair?” Simon growled, and a real anger flashed in his eyes.
“God only asks us to do two things, love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and love God completely with our hearts, mind, and soul. Doing those two things satisfies all the laws and regulations ever given as far as God is concerned, but more importantly, if you have faith in him, then he credits it as righteousness. I have faith in him, much more faith than in myself, and that’s all I ever need.” Grim’s eyes slowly became calm and peaceful.
But Simon only got angrier, “It’s all lies, you know. In the end you’ll be cast down with us, and we’ll all take turns chewing on your soul. It’s in the bible so you have to know that’s how you end. Trapped in the lake of fire with us for eternity, and we’ll have so much fun with you. It’s all in Revelations, my good friend. For all your efforts, all your service, you’ll be burning forever right there with us.”
“If that’s what my Lord desires, then so be it, but I have an alternate theory. Death is a title. When my time comes, then it’ll be the mantle of Death that is destroyed. It’ll be my powers, and my title that are destroyed, and I’ll just be…me. Either way, if serving God pisses off assholes like you, then I call that a win-win situation.” Grim laughed, but there was nothing happy in his voice.
“Really? You think God cares that much for you? Let me tell you a little secret then, boy. If he loves all of you so much, then why are we allowed to roam free? Why have we been allowed to wear Marcus here like a suit for almost his entire life. He’s still here, you know. We kept his soul in here so that we could play with it. His Daddy used to bounce him up and down on his knee when he was a baby, but when Marcus got a little older…well Daddy made him bounce up and down on something else entirely. You know he begged for someone to make it stop, and we answered his prayers, and we made him just like his dear old dad. Ha-ha, oh the irony! We’ve been with him ever since. Would you like to see him? I mean really see him?” Simon asked.
Before any of us could answer, Simon’s face changed. Instead of the malevolent cockiness we’d seen before, there was nothing but a frozen scream. No sound came out, and Marcus’ eyes were glazed over in complete terror. It was the stuff of nightmares. Then as fast as the change came, it went away.
“Little fella just can’t hold his water.” Simon said, and gestured to his crotch. He’d wet himself.
“Let him go.” Grim growled.
“What? Like you really care? Where were you when Marcus here was getting sodomized nightly by his father? Oh wait…that’s right…you buggered this poor bastard more than a few times yourself. Do you want to know a little secret? Every single time you were with him, we made sure he was thinking of his dear old Papa. His agony was…delicious, but he has served his purpose. I mean, we got to know you…intimately. Besides, there’s not much of a soul left in the poor guy. We just wanted to let you know that we have our eye on you. We expect big things. Big, bloody, gory things in your future, and then when it’s over we can both roast together in the fiery lake. Oh Joseph, we’ll be roomies again! Won’t that be fun? Now, our time is almost at an end, but you know that don’t you? You can already hear that cute little song playing away, or is it getting drowned out by the noise of everyone else’s death song.”
“You know what’s about to happen?” Grim hissed.
“Of course.” Simon laughed.
“What’s going on, how can we stop it?” Grim asked.
“We’ll make you a deal. Drop to your knees, and beg us to tell you what we know. If you do that, then we’ll tell you almost everything.”
Grim recoiled in disgust, “Why would you want that?”
“Bragging rights, of course. We mean, do you know how big we are in Hell now that we’re able to say we buggered Death? Do you realize how big we’ll be when everyone down there knows we made you drop to your knees and beg us for help? We’ll be a fucking celebrity. We’ll be hell’s equivalent of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Honey Boo Boo. Even Satan himself can’t say that he’s done any of that.” Simon gloated.
Grim dropped to his knees without even the slightest hesitation, “Please tell me what’s going on. Everyone around me is nearing death, and I don’t know how to stop it.”
“Say pwetty pwease. Like in a small child’s voice.” Simon stood tall and proud.
“Pwetty pwease.” Grim begged, and he did his best to sound like a young child.
“Oh, fine. The Darkness is planning on making an example out of you for the rest of the world.” Simon grinned.
“Who is The Darkness.” Grim asked.
“Us, of course, and anyone that serves our dark lord Satan. The best trick Lucifer ever played on you monkeys is getting you to believe that he doesn’t exist. That being said, whenever something tries to poke its head up to show the world that there is more to it than what most humans believe, well that puts Lou’s trick in jeopardy. I mean, once the world believes in vampires and werewolves, is it really that much of a leap before they are believing in devils and demons? If they believe in devils and demons, then it’s barely a skip to believing in angels, and if you believe in angels, then it’s just another tiny step before you believe in God. Most people don’t believe there is a Satan, and so how much easier is it to believe that there isn’t a God? Now you people stuck your heads up, and so my lord has given the order to crush you like flies as a public example to everyone else to keep their heads down. So we’re doing it on an epic scale.”
“But what are you doing? How do we stop you?” Grim pleaded.
“Sorry, but that’s all I’ve got to say on this. Now if you were willing to make me a trade. Say, your soul?” Simon smiled coldly, and his face seemed almost reptilian.
Grim shook his head, and Simon looked genuinely disappointed, “Well, Joseph it was fun. Really…I have enjoyed our little tête-à-tête, but I have to go. Before I go, I just thought you should get to say goodbye to Marcus one last time.” Marcus returned to the forefront. The silent scream returned, but now his eyes were begging, pleading for rescue. Before we could do anything, Marcus’ head turned swiftly, and made a definitive crack. His body slumped to the floor, his face pressed against the Plexiglas. Two dead eyes stared up at us.
Chapter 19
We all agreed that we’d stay until Katy could get her parents out of the sanitarium. The man in charge informed us that the earliest we could get them would be seventy-two hours, and even then we could only take them if we had another care facility for them to go to. The drive back was…unpleasant. When we arrived, we walked past the front desk. There were a half-dozen people standing there complaining about the hotel being haunted. I cringed a little. I should have never built that EMF pump. Now the hotel guests were being haunted. Could this day get any shi…could it get any worse?
We rode the elevator up to our floor. Katy walked out and said sadly, “Thanks guys, for everything. I’m going to go search online for somewhere to put my parents. Do you guys mind if I borrow the van tomorrow to go visit them?”
None of us had any problem with it. Janine asked if Katy would like any of us to go with her, but Katy shook her head, “No, I’d really just prefer some alone time with them. It’s nothing personal, but it’s hard enough without having your friends watch, too.” Then she went to her room.
Janine drifted off to resume the ghost party. I’d turn the pump off in the morning. Right now I was just too beaten down by everything to care. We all shuffled towards our rooms.
“By the way, how did your date go? I mean, up until we ruined it.” Niki asked.
Penny turned, and her face was so sad, “Several of their animals had nervous breakdowns, and so I’m no longer welcome at their zoo.”
“That bad?” Danika asked.
Penny looked ready to cry, “A full grown lion wet itself and then tried to climb out of the cage to escape. It hurt itself getting away from me.”
“Yeesh…I’m sorry. Did anything go well?”Niki asked.
“Well, I think Grim enjoyed his steak.” Penny’s voice was sad.
“Yeah, about that.” Grim looked a little green. “I think it’s ready to come back for an encore.” I heard, actually heard, his stomach burble as its contents were getting ready to find a way out by any means necessary. Grim ran off to the nearest room.
“Well, I’m going to turn in.” Penny said.
“You’re not going to check on him?” I asked.
“No.” Penny’s voice was stone cold.
“Why?” I asked.
Penny sighed, “Vampires don’t really do that whole bedside manner stuff.”
“But girlfriends do. Now get your butt in there and look after my brother.” Niki grumbled.
“I…can’t.” Penny’s expression was nervous.
“Why?” Niki spat.
“Have you ever watched a nature show?” Penny said nervously.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Niki grumbled.
“One constant is that the predators typically look for the weak. They hunt the sick, the lame, the dying, and anything that might make their food a little slower, weaker, or easier to catch in general. Niki, I love your brother. I want him to get better, but I can’t be with him when he’s sick. I’m an apex predator. Seeing him sick triggers instincts in me that aren’t healthy for him, and as much as I want to be there…I just can’t. Grim knows it, and he understands.”
“What you’re saying is that you’ll bite him?” Niki sounded confused.
“Bite might be the least of his problems. Food and sex are so closely intertwined with vampires. So while I might bite him a few times, I’m really more concerned that I might be in a mood to do things to him that his body really shouldn’t be participating in until he feels better.”
“Oh my God! Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” I asked.
“If you think I might be concerned that I would hump my man to death? Yeah, that’s a pretty big concern, and its one I’d like to avoid at all costs.”
“Well, at least Grim would die with a smile on his face.” Danika laughed.
“No, he’d die from blood loss, and massive dehydration while he vomited and shat himself to death. There’s nothing sexy about it, and it’s just gross, but instincts being what they are…I’ll be in my room alone tonight.”
“Grim shouldn’t be alone. We can go hang out with him until he feels better.” Niki said.
“No, you two should go take some you time. You’ve both certainly earned it. I’ll hang around with the big lug. Let me just go get a few things, and change into my night clothes.“ I said, and my words were barely out of my mouth before Niki and Danika were off to their room. I guess, considering how the night had went, those two were planning on some serious couples time.
I wandered to my room and started getting dressed when I heard a soft knock. “DD?” It was Penny. I carefully opened the door. I wasn’t completely dressed yet. My twins were exposed for all the world to see. In fact, I was still trying to find my Winnie the Pooh nightshirt. Pooh was dressed like a pimp, with Tigger dressed like a hooker. It had a caption that read, “No money, no honey.”
Penny stepped in holding the picture frame I made for her. “Can I borrow you for a moment?” She asked. I nodded, and Penny showed me the picture. It was her family dressed like they were from the nineteen eighties. Penny had full on nineteen-eighties hair. It was big, and it was…a little scary actually. Her father was actually wearing a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans. They looked so out of place with his expression. They just didn’t suit him at all. So there were still some bugs to work out.
“Can you please set it so that it is just the original picture?” Penny asked.
“You don’t like it?” I felt my stomach tighten nervously.
“No..no…I love it. I just-“Penny’s shoulders slumped. “Can I talk to you about something…personal?”
I froze for a moment there. Penny never really talked about anything personal. She might say a few things here or there, or maybe hint at something, but to just directly talk about herself. That was new, and I actually considered pinching myself to see if I was dreaming. “S-sure.”
“That painting you saw. The one that you used to make this, was one of the last times that my family resembled anything remotely happy. There weren’t a lot of happy times, and by most people’s standards this picture wasn’t one of them, but it was as close as we usually got to being a happy family. Seeing them change through history, it kind of reminds me that we have never been the family I’d hoped we’d be. There wasn’t really much love in our family, and some of the things that happened after father changed…well we never could have been a happy family after his change.”
“I’m sorry, Penny. Here, you just hit this button, and presto.” The picture returned to its original look. Penny smiled, and then leaned in to give me a soft kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you.” She said. My cheek still burned from where she kissed it, and my nipples started to grow painfully hard. So I made a desperate dash around the room in search of my nightshirt. When I finally found it I tossed it on so fast that it rubbed against my very sensitive nipples. Ouch! When I turned back around Penny’s expression was that of a cat that just caught the canary.
“Well, someone was glad to see me.” She laughed.
I turned six shades of red right then and there. It was so embarrassing. Penny walked across the room, and without thinking, I backed away. It was a terrible mistake on my part. Penny was already probably feeling frisky from just knowing Grim wasn’t in top shape. His illness had her already in a predatory mindset, and now I was trying to escape. Penny stalked me until my back was pressed against the wall. She closed in and pinned me. She was so strong that I couldn’t even budge her a little. It was then that she kissed me. Oh God, it was…perfect.
I felt her tongue dance in my mouth. She teased, and explored me with it. I couldn’t even form a coherent thought. Then her hands started exploring. She slid a hand up under my shirt, and found the small of my back. I felt her draw me closer while her other hand slid up my shirt, and began teasing a nipple. I moaned and reflexively pressed myself against her thigh. I felt myself getting wet. I moaned again when she shifted, and began grinding her h
ips between my thighs. Before I could really process what was happening, I had both hands clamped onto her firm, sumptuous derriere. I pulled her in closer, and then groaned in pleasure as Penny stroked my nipple with her thumb. I was going insane with desire.
Penny suddenly froze, and pulled her hands away. I however was still kissing her, my hands had moved from her perfectly heart shaped fanny and were now in full-on groping mode. One hand had a tender hold on one of her breasts, and another hand had slipped between her thighs and was now rubbing against her body armor. “DD? We have to stop. Please. Grim needs you more than I do right now.”
I was genuinely impressed that she could form words so clearly with her mouth full of my tongue, but I guess after you’ve had Grim’s manhood in your mouth, then a tongue isn’t that hard to negotiate around, and now I have that image stuck in my head. I felt myself go from being moist to practically flood status in the blink of an eye. It was embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as the fact that I was still pawing at her like a drunk football player the first time he got some girl in the backseat. Penny slowly peeled herself off of me, and I could see by her expression that she wanted me every bit as badly as I wanted her. “Grim needs you, please go look after him, and lock the door behind you because right now all I want is to ride you both until the sun rises. Grim needs rest, and care. If you need anything, anything at all, then call room service, and do not step out of that room because I can’t promise I won’t be waiting for you. Between Grim, and…well you, I’m having a hard time controlling my instincts tonight.”
Midnight Squad: The Ties That Bind Page 32
