by Bryan Smith
Shit!
She stared at the lights for several long moments, willing them to move.
They did not.
Then the one on the sixth floor descended to the fifth floor.
And stopped again.
Kayla let out a screech of frustration and abruptly gave up on the damn elevators. To her right was a TV lounge with sofas and chairs. She charged through the lounge at full speed, pure luck and fast reflex allowing her to leap over the suddenly outstretched leg of a girl seated in one of the chairs.
Bitch tried to trip me!
It was true. There was no way to misinterpret what had happened. The giggling of the girl’s friends was further confirmation. Their hatefulness enraged Kayla, but she had no time for an angry confrontation. Not with the devil on her heels.
After passing through the lounge, she arrived at a closed steel door. She yanked it open and started up the stairs. She was getting to her room one way or another, even if it meant sprinting up ten fucking flights of goddamn stairs. She passed a couple of lesbians making out on the fifth floor landing, but otherwise her exhausting journey up the stairs passed uneventfully.
She threw open the door at the tenth floor landing and stepped out into the familiar hallway of her own floor. It was empty. Some folk song she didn’t recognize emanated softly from behind one of the closed doors lining both sides of the corridor, but otherwise all was quiet. A rush of almost overwhelming relief nearly made her swoon. She felt like an ancient religious pilgrim arriving at a holy place after a long desert journey, an impression accentuated by the weariness in her muscles and by the sweat that continued to stream so profusely from her body. She was breathing hard as she reached her door. All she wanted to do was get inside, lock the door, and throw herself down on her bed for a while. She could start packing and figure out what to do next after she’d rested a little.
The lights were on as she opened the door and stepped inside.
She groaned when she saw who was sitting on her bed.
The doorknob slid away from her trembling fingers as the door shut, apparently of its own accord. But that was mere illusion. She knew the man on her bed had caused it. It was just another little piece of magic pulled from his bottomless bag of tricks.
The devil smiled and retrieved something from the floor as he stood up.
He held out her backpack and said, “I thought you might like to have this back. Aren’t I thoughtful?”
6.
Kayla didn’t bother screaming this time.
There was just no point. The devil’s expression was smug. He tossed the backpack on her bed. “Maybe you should have a glass of water, Kayla. You look like you’re about to pass out.”
She hated to admit it, but he had a point. Sweat was stinging her eyes and she was still gasping for air. There was a sink and a mirror set against the wall next to the bathroom door. She went to the sink and turned on the cold water tap full blast, then she bent her face toward the sink and splashed water on it. She then formed a cup with her hands and allowed them to fill with water. She drank it all down and filled her hands again. Once she’d had her fill, she turned the water off and yanked a hand towel from the hook next to the mirror. She was breathing more easily as she began to pat her face dry, but her body stiffened as she turned her head slightly to the right and caught a reflected glimpse of something disturbing.
She dropped the towel in the sink and turned slowly away from the mirror. The two sides of the room were separated by two large, tall desks that also functioned as a privacy partition. Her roommate, Sheila, a sophomore from Memphis, was lying sprawled across the unmade twin bed on her side of the room. For an agonizingly tense moment, she was sure the devil had murdered the girl. Her eyes were open and staring straight up at the ceiling. They looked empty, like the eyes of a corpse on a morgue table. Not that she’d ever seen such a thing, but she imagined this was exactly how it’d look. But then Sheila’s chest rose and fell gently as she drew in a lazy breath.
Sheila’s clothes were scattered across the floor by her bed.
Kayla allowed herself a moment to steel her nerves, then she turned to face the devil. “What have you done to my roommate? And why is she naked?”
“I have induced a state of semi-consciousness. A kind of trance. She is awake, yet her mind has essentially been shut off.”
“Please don’t tell me you’ve turned her into a vegetable.”
“Hardly. I don’t wish to harm Miss Compton. What I’ve done merely assures she won’t be privy to any details of our discussion. As for her state of undress…” His soft chuckle ushered in a new level of creepy. Ugh. This creature’s ick factor was off the charts. “I was here in an instant after you took off running again. After all, where else would you go? I had some time to kill and so I compelled Miss Compton to remove her clothes.” Another of those opposite-of-delightful chuckles. “She has a nice body. I was well entertained.”
“You’re disgusting.”
He made a sound of mock offense. “Oh, I am cut to the quick.” Yet another chuckle. “Actually, honey, ‘disgusting’ is part of the job description. I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“Don’t call me ‘honey’, you fucking pervert.’
He laughed. “Again with the praise. You’re making me blush.”
“Did you rape Sheila?”
“No.”
Kayla studied his face for several moments and detected no signs of deception. But that didn’t really mean anything when you were dealing with the devil. He was a being ancient beyond human comprehension. And such a creature could likely make you believe he loved you even as he was slitting your throat.
Still, despite her nudity, Sheila didn’t appear to have been violated.
So maybe, just this one time, the devil had behaved honorably.
She thought about the clothes scattered on the floor.
Make that semi-honorably.
“However, if you would like, I could compel her to engage in a three-way sexual encounter with you and I once I bring her out of the trance.”
“No.”
The devil smirked. “Oh? And what happened to your sexual desperation?”
“Eternal celibacy is preferable to whatever sick shit you have in mind.”
His smirk deepened. “Come now. Sheila’s an attractive girl. You admitted you’ve propositioned women in recent weeks. And I’m well aware of your opinion of my physical appearance. Setting aside your fear of me, can you honestly tell me some part of you isn’t at least a little turned on by the idea?”
Kayla opened her mouth to utter a reflexive denial, but no words came out.
Because now she was picturing it in her head.
The writhing mass of sweaty, nude, hot bodies.
Damn. He’s right.
She forced the image from her head and glared at him. “Can we please cut the shit? I’m not running off again. I know I can’t get away from you. What do you want with me?”
The devil grinned. “So now you want to get down to business, eh? You know, we could be done with this and moving on by now if you’d simply heard me out at the park instead of running off in a huff.”
She held the devil’s gaze as she spoke with as much phony sincerity as she could muster: “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m listening now.”
“Humility suits you, Kayla. Always an attractive quality in a human. Unfortunately there’s often a lot of unnecessary heartache ahead of embracing it, but you are imperfect creatures, so I suppose I have to forgive you your foibles.”
Kayla wanted badly to snap off a snarky retort, but she held her tongue.
The devil at last seemed to grow weary of teasing her and said, “In the park I said I could tell you why people have shunned you these last few months and explain how you might reverse the situation. That was the absolute truth, Kayla. You see, I caused this to happen. I am the reason you repel anyone you encounter simply by being around them. I put a spell on you, as the old song goe
s.”
Kayla had no idea what song he was referring to--no doubt it was something from long before her time--but she believed the devil was telling the truth. It sounded crazy at first blush, but in the context of everything else she’d experienced on this insane day, it made perfect sense.
“You son of a bitch.”
The devil spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders. “I make no apologies for my deeds. I’m the devil. This sort of thing is just what I do.”
Kayla recognized that there was a ruthless but undeniable logic in that statement. So she decided to hold any further recriminations in reserve for now. “Fine. You put a spell on me. You said you could reverse it. How?”
“Aren’t you interested in knowing why I did it?”
“Not really.”
“Not even a little?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Kayla sighed. “You mean to tell me whether I want to hear it or not.”
The devil smiled. “Oh, absolutely.”
Another sigh. “Get on with it then.”
The devil got on with it.
7.
“Do you remember a girl you knew in your freshman year of high school named Rebecca Galbreath?”
Kayla giggled.
The devil’s expression was flat, unreadable. “Something funny?”
“Hellbreath.”
“Excuse me?”
Kayla suppressed another giggle. The mirth was instinctive, unthinking. She couldn’t fathom how that pitiful girl was relevant to her current plight, but obviously there was some connection. And judging by the devil’s guarded demeanor, it wouldn’t do to seem overly amused. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I haven’t heard that name in so long. ‘Hellbreath’ is what we used to call her.”
The devil’s eyes narrowed some as he nodded. “I see. How…creative.”
“Anyway, that was forever ago. I don’t think I saw her again after that year. What’s she got to do with me?”
“Would you like to know why you never saw her again?”
Kayla was almost beside herself with exasperation. “I’d like you to get to the point, that’s what I’d fucking like. You’re drawing this out on purpose. This is a fucking game to you. You’re enjoying it.”
“Again, I’m the devil. Of course I’m enjoying it.”
“Fuck you, man. I’d give anything to ram a rusty trident all the way up your evil ass.”
“That almost sounds fun. Not to mention kinky.”
Kayla folded her arms beneath her breasts and glared at him. He would go on bantering with her in this manner all day if she let him. She had to stop responding to his provocations.
He sighed after a few moments of silence. “Very well. To the crux of the matter, then. Rebecca Galbreath and her parents moved to another town the summer after your freshman year.”
Kayla frowned. “And that’s why I never saw her again? How…anticlimactic. The way you built that shit up, I was expecting some crazy kind of drama.”
“I left out the part where she killed herself before the start of the next school year.”
“Oh.”
A knot of dread formed in Kayla’s stomach. It seemed hotter in the room now, stuffier, like being in a sauna. She felt like she might puke any second. She tried to tell herself this was still aftereffects of her mad dash across campus. Her body had been pushed too far, that’s all.
Only she knew that wasn’t the truth.
She’d been fine until a moment ago.
She curled her hands into fists and willed her stomach to settle. “Are you saying I’m somehow responsible for that stupid bitch offing herself?”
The devil smiled. “You would disagree?”
“I didn’t do shit to her.”
“You mean you didn’t cause her any physical harm. You didn’t beat her or dump pig’s blood all over her like in that wonderfully amusing Brian de Palma film. Correct?”
“Exactly what I said.”
The devil made a tsk-tsk noise and wagged a forefinger at her in mock disapproval. “No, Kayla, that’s not true. You said you didn’t ‘do shit’ to Rebecca. While it is true there was no physical component to the bullying she endured from you and your friends, the lot of you did taunt the poor thing mercilessly for a period of months. To a certain degree, you were just ‘going along with the crowd’, as they say, but it would be letting you off easy to leave it at that. In truth, you were the ringleader. Weren’t you?”
Kayla’s eyes misted. “I was a kid. It was stupid and mean. You think I don’t know that? But that’s life in fucking high school. Some kids get picked on. It sucks, but it’s part of the natural order.”
“Are you saying she deserved all that verbal abuse?”
Kayla stamped a foot on the carpeted floor. “No! That’s not what I’m saying at all. And don’t play games with me, you demonic piece of shit. You’re the fucking devil. You know what I’m saying is true. You’ve seen more real evil up close and personal than anyone else ever. You know damn well one kid saying mean things to another kid’s not in the same league as dudes who torture for kicks or serial-kill the shit out of some hookers. You know that.”
The devil shrugged. “Are you suggesting your behavior was some innocent youthful folly and nothing more?”
“You’re twisting my words.”
The devil eyes gleamed brighter as his smile broadened. They might even have turned red for a millisecond. A chill spread through Kayla’s body. The air around her felt charged, as it would in the moments prior to a powerful electrical storm. Something bad or deeply disturbing was about to happen. She felt that as clearly as she’d ever felt anything.
Then the devil’s mouth opened and his lips moved, but it was her own voice that emerged: “You’re the ugliest, most disgusting piece of vomit I’ve ever seen. I bet your parents have to hang raw meat around your neck just to get dogs to play with you.” Kayla felt sick as she listened to the hateful speech. It was like hearing a recording. She guessed it sort of was. The voice was undeniably her own, but less mature, higher-pitched, almost shrill. “You smell like garbage, Hellbreath. Do you bathe in a fucking sewer?” There was a pause in the venomous oration as the devil’s mouth emitted girlish laughter. Kayla remembered it too clearly now, how her friends had giggled and egged her on with their oohs and ahhs. “Why don’t you do the world a favor and throw yourself under a bus? You’re too ugly to live.”
Kayla sniffled and wiped moisture from her cheeks. Her voice was soft as she said, “I didn’t know any better. I was just a kid.”
“It was just four years ago.”
More tears. She wiped them away again, this time in agitation. “Fine. I’m a terrible person. So that’s what this is about? I’m being taught some kind of fucking lesson? But why me? That kind of shit goes on every day everywhere in the goddamn world.”
“Indeed. It’s very common. Mundane, even.”
Kayla shook her head. “Great. You agree with me. So, again, why me?”
“Days before she killed herself, Rebecca poured her heart out to her father. She told him everything. All the gory details. It wasn’t all about you. A lot of your classmates teased her relentlessly. But you did play kind of a starring role in the girl’s account of her ordeal. Apparently you had a knack for expressing yourself in cruelly creative ways well beyond the ability of any of your peers. Your words made the biggest impression of all. And after Rebecca slit her own throat with a carving knife and bled out all over the kitchen floor in her parents new home, all her father could think of was getting back at you. He didn’t care about the others. You were the symbol. The wicked face of his daughter’s overwhelming mental anguish.”
Kayla’s eyes were dry now. This devil-as-reality business was still new and all, but she was a smart girl. She could see where this was going. “Let me guess. He made a deal with the devil.”
“The man did his research. He spent a lot of money tracking down the world’s foremost occult exper
ts. Not the charlatans that are well known and easy to find. He wished only to consult with those who truly knew their business, who had real knowledge, and such men are not easy to find in the modern world. It’s fair to say few men in recent history have expended so much effort to contact me.” He smiled. “Some fascist types many decades ago were the last to go to such trouble.”
Kayla grunted. “That’s stupid. It would’ve been so much easier to hire someone to kill me.”
The devil’s eyes twinkled. There was another fleeting flash of red. “Oh, he considered that option briefly, but it wasn’t an elegant enough method of revenge for Mr. Galbreath. He procured the knowledge he needed. He summoned me. A deal was struck, as you guessed. He traded his soul for my services.”
“So people really sell their souls, like you hear about old blues guys doing?”
A stiff nod. “Oh, yes. Not so often anymore. This is a more cynical age. Not as many people believe in me. But it does happen on occasion.”
“And this shunning thing that’s happened to me, that’s so I could experience what it was like for his daughter?”
“That’s the gist of it, yes.”
“Great. Awesome. Well, I guess I get it now…but there’s one thing I still don’t understand?”
“Yes?”
“Why are you telling me any of this? Was it part of the deal? You know, to sort of rub it in my face, so I’d know exactly what was happening and at the same time realize there’s not shit I can do about it. And maybe then I’d get so desperate that I’d take the same way out his daughter did. Is that close?”
The devil didn’t reply immediately. His expression turned shrewd and appraising, with a hint of something that might have been admiration. Then he was smiling again. “In fact, none of that was part of my deal with Mr. Galbreath. I have to hand it to you, Kayla. What you suggest is far more diabolical than anything he suggested. He wanted you to be shunned. That was the extent of what I agreed to do for him.” He chuckled, his eyes shining with genuine amusement. “I do like the way you think. You’ve got a real feel for this line of work.”
