Divine Fraud

by Thomas Green

  I dropped the cigarettes and candy bars next to the kitchen sink and headed straight to the bathroom. Blood and sweat glued my clothes to me. The tiredness settled in and I barely managed to peel the clothes off me. The bandages the Church’s medics put on me shared the same fate and I went naked into the shower. I turned the temperature to the coldest setting and let the icy water soothe me. My body burned from strain and most of me would soon start swelling. I needed to put myself into a barrel filled with ice, but I didn’t feel like getting that energetic.

  The music wasn’t deafeningly loud anymore, and feeling a piercing gaze on my back, I slowly turned. Evelyn stood five feet away from the shower stall, munching a candy bar, her orange eyes fixed on me. Her two pet cobras coiled by her sides, both reared up and hissing.

  I put on a smile. “Hi.”

  “Hi? Is that what you say after disappearing for three days?” Her voice was sharp, intonation like a bombardment.

  For some reason, this made me flustered. “I sent you a message telling you I’d miss the dancing classes.”

  “That was Wednesday afternoon. Now, it’s Saturday three a.m. There’s a lot of extra time in-between, isn’t there?”

  I rubbed my face with my palm. I didn’t have the right mood or the strength for this. “Look, I’m sorry, but I’ve been busy.”

  “Getting killed, apparently. Do you think your old scars help you hide the new wounds? Do I look blind, hmm? Get out of the shower.”

  Reluctantly, I stopped the water, left the shower and dried. Evelyn observed me, tapping her foot to a rhythm only she could hear.

  When I finished, I wrapped the towel around my loins and smiled. “Look, I’m fine, no need to overreact.”

  She pointed at the door. “On the chair, now.”

  ‘Since when does the pet get to order you around?’ Lucifer asked, annoyed.

  This way is easier. I obeyed, left the bathroom and sat down on the back-less chair she prepared by my table. As I passed the room, I noticed a set of jars and vials lying on her table and hoped nothing would explode.

  Evelyn stopped the microwave and took out a plate with a beef steak and potato puree. She sat it in front of me while handing me silverware. “It’s from yesterday. If you want something fresh, come on time,” she snapped and moved her chair behind me.

  I gulped dryly and grabbed the knife and fork. Evelyn’s cooking always looked spectacular, with the steak perfectly oval and the puree beautifully arranged and decorated with cherry tomatoes. The trap lied in her cooking by the heart. Given her unusual tastes that could result with… creative recipes. And by that, I mean I once spent three days in the hospital after eating her lasagna.

  But I liked having a warm meal and dug in. The steak was sweet as she apparently mixed up salt with sugar and the puree contained so much habanero sauce it made me sweat and cough. I liked the meal.

  In the meantime, she tended to my injuries. Okay, I’m not sure if tended was the correct word since she put her balms on them, which had about the equal chance of causing an infection and cleaning the wound.

  I felt good though, warmth in my chest and overall relaxed. My wounds, especially the cut shoulder, burned as she poured a dark-blue liquid over it. That made my lips curl up since I interpreted it as a signal it did something. I ate the meal and she half-covered me with a dozen various creams, lotions, balms and whatever else she had in the jars.

  “You know…” Evelyn spoke after I finished the meal, her tone uncharacteristically soft. “You don’t have to keep doing this. We can live on less money.”

  Could she? Even if yes, it didn’t matter. I shook my head. “I don’t think I can ever do anything else.”

  “Why?”

  I didn’t need to see her to catch the sadness in her voice. She was worried about me, and selfish as I was, I liked that. “I don’t know… just feel like I can’t.”

  “Liar.” She chuckled. “You love it, don’t you? You’re so addicted to this life you don’t want to even think about doing anything else.”

  She knew me far too well. Yeah, doing anything else felt boring even at first glance.

  ‘And you still insist on making your life harder by refusing to murder,’ Lucifer remarked in my mind.

  My mouth’s corner twitched. I’ve been wondering when you’d try again.

  ‘One murder, that’s all it would take for us to merge.’

  “He’s talking to you now, isn’t he?” Evelyn asked softly.

  “Yeah. How did you tell?”

  She grinned. “I can always tell.”

  And my life would be easier if I knew how so I could fix whatever muscular twitch gave me away. “Do you think I should do it? Murder someone so we could merge?”

  Evelyn laughed ironically. “That’s just a matter of time.”

  “No, I’m not doing that. If only to piss him off.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” She leaned into my back, her breath softly stroking my skin. “You think it was an accident that you ended with Lucifer’s soul? A play of chance? That’s not how fate works. You are destined to merge with Lucifer, whether you like it or not.”

  I raised my chin and clenched my muscles. “Never.”

  “Keep being stubborn all you want.” She hugged me gently. “It won’t be a big, long decision, anyway. One day, you will have something over which you’ll murder. And then you’ll do it in a split second, without hesitation, or long internal discussions, or caring about what it would make you.”

  No, I wouldn’t. I fished out my phone and pulled up my laptop. Evelyn rose, put the music back up and took the empty plate. With the volume back up on her hi-fi tower, she returned to her dancing practice. I moved the photo of my assassin onto my laptop and started searching by face recognition. Yeah, image search served me well in the past and it didn’t fail me this time either. After a few tries, I found a ten-year-old picture of some Japanese smelter’s employee. The image fit, and the name read Yoshiro Tsukoyomi.

  I put the surname into Google and got to the Wikipedia pages of the Japanese moon god from the Shinto religion. Okay, I fought a demi-god today. Last year, Evelyn threw over two hundred crystals containing souls of the old gods into a portal that randomly scattered them across the world. They were called gods back then but were really just powerful mages who channeled aether from the Void, which greatly expanded their life length. If a compatible person ate the crystal, he would inherit the power of the god. Or die or get stuck somewhere in the middle, like I have with Lucifer. Yeah, I ate his soul crystal. Back then, it looked like a great idea as I didn’t know about the dying part and thought I’d just shit it out the next day.

  Still, this was the first new demigod I’ve met. What were the odds of his companions also being demigods? Hundred percent, I estimated. So, this was the revived Shinto deities settling whatever beef they had with Musashi and his Yakuza. Great.

  Nausea washed over me. I closed my laptop, stumbled to my feet and made way to my bed. The bedroom was smaller, rimmed with wardrobes and two separate beds. Evelyn’s queen-sized, custom-made bed with silk duvets and my wooden bed I bought discounted from Ikea.

  I closed the door and crashed into the bed. Not even a minute later, the door opened, and Evelyn stepped inside.

  She struck a pose with a raised arm and stretched legs. “So, what do you think?”

  My eyes slid over her thin, silk night dress. Hanging from her shoulders, it softly wove over her curves before ending at her hips. She wore nothing else.

  I sighed, my heart sinking. “My strength slips daily. Sorry, but I can’t.”

  “It wasn’t so bad the last time we tried.”

  “What part of me dislocating both your hips wasn’t bad?”

  “What came before.” She slid into the bed, pressing her warm chest against mine.

  “Come on, now, you know I can maul you to death if I have a nightmare.”

  “Then you better have good dreams.” She pushed herself up to kiss me.

>   My mind blanked as her soft lips pressed against mine.

  “And my bed is defective, so I have nowhere else to sleep,” she whispered as she made herself comfortable on my chest.

  “What’s wrong with your bed?”

  “You’re not in it.”

  Chapter 6

  I SLEPT GREAT. My whole body felt stiff and my mind was clouded when I opened my eyes. Evelyn still lay on my chest, softly breathing with eyes closed. Her sleeping schedule was an absolute mess, mostly because of me, so she usually went sleepless for long periods of time. And then she slept for at least half a day straight.

  I lay still for half an hour, bathing in her cinnamon smell, wondering if we really couldn’t live a normal life. The thought felt strange. I didn’t know what I should do. Even if I got a job for the Church, it would be what I was already doing, just with better hours, less dangerous, less pay and a lot less exciting.

  And I didn’t think she would end up happy either. The thing with changing oneself was that it was easy to change what the other person liked. We didn’t meet in a bar. We met because I was hunting her down and did so successfully while she was trying to kill me.

  She wouldn’t want to stay around me if I didn’t come home bleeding at least a few times per month.

  Or perhaps she would, and I was too blind to realize.

  Gingerly, I slid from beneath her and tucked her into the duvets. The second I left the bed, her two cobras coiled into the sheets to replace me. I grabbed fresh clothes and left the room.

  I ate whatever leftovers I found in the fridge. My body was stiff but the wounds barely ached. Whatever Evelyn put on me was effective. I smiled and turned on the tracking app on my phone, viewing the history of the trackers I put on the assassin.

  Both trackers were still active. Perfect. They were in Mariners Harbor on Staten Island.

  I took a quick shower and then had a silent stare down with the cross necklace I left on the bathroom sink. Never before would I have considered wearing it, but the longer I looked at it, the more significant it felt. I put on the necklace, twitching when the cold silver touched my body. I cleaned my guns, donned my hat, arranged my tie, and headed out. Time to end this goose chase.

  The Shinto demigods’ hideout wasn’t a random place. The two-story wooden house stood in a large garden with no trees. There was no angle from which I could approach unseen. And there was a security camera on each corner of the roof. The house was last in the row with a marsh park to its left, road and sea behind it and thus only two neighboring houses.

  I looked up at the sky. The clouds hung dark and heavy, but the air wasn’t wetter than New York’s usual, so I wasn’t going to get lucky with rain. The street wasn’t busy, but one car every five to ten minutes was troublesome enough. At least the surrounding houses seemed empty, their owners apparently out of town for the weekend, judging by the lack of activity and parked cars.

  Since the Shinto demigods haven’t moved in six hours, they were likely resting. I had time for preparations. I bought a baseball cap, a white and blue sports jacket and ordered three large pizzas. After getting the delivery, I stowed my hat and jacket into my backpack and hid it in the nearby bushes. The hiding spot wasn’t great, but this wasn’t going to take long.

  The one thing I regretted was being unable to take my guns. But those would be noticeable and too suspicious. I waited for a car to pass, lowered the cap’s peak into my face and approached the fence gate. As I stepped to the gate, I pushed aether into my eyes and into my left hand, forming an offensive pattern.

  Acting as if I was opening the gate, I hit the lock with my fingers. Metal clanged and the lock shattered. I passed through, acting as if I was delivering the pizzas and I didn’t see the bell next to an unlocked gate. My palms started sweating and I licked my lips. Nothing moved in the house.

  I stepped to the door, pressed the doorbell and shouted, “Pizza delivery!”

  Okay, I probably overacted that part. Half a minute passed, and I kept pressing the bell, enjoying the constant sharp ringing.

  “We haven’t ordered any pizza,” a male voice, different from the assassin, replied from the inside.

  I let go of the doorbell. “I’ve got three large pizzas here for Mr. Toshikawa. At this address.” The name was fake, obviously.

  “Go away. We haven’t ordered anything.”

  “The order is prepaid. This is the address, so I have to give it to you.”

  The lock rattled and the door opened slightly with a gray-haired, young Japanese man looking at me. We exchanged a short glance and he stiffened, eyes widening. Misty gray aether filled his body. He sprung to close the door.

  Too late.

  I bolted forward, hitting the door with my shoulder. He was ready with his aether already molded, but the impact still threw him off. I let go of the pizzas and slammed the door shut.

  The hallway was narrow with wooden doors by the sides and stairs at the end. Dark brown wood formed the furniture and contrasted with the white plaster covering the walls.

  This man wore a looser outfit of khaki pants and a hoodie, but Kevlar combat armor showed under the cloth. His shoes were strange, something like rollerblades, but fully steel with two large wheels beneath each foot.

  So that was what made the straight line in the plane’s carpet. With a smirk, I charged. He pushed aether into the rollerblades, which started humming, and he spun with a kick. A blast of wind flew at my face. I ducked, stepped in and punched. He used both hands to block. Not enough. Air blew out of his lungs and he flew backward.

  Yellow aether swelled in my left peripheral vision. Instead of following through, I leapt backward. The wall next to me exploded and a blast of flame scorched the hallway, charring the white walls.

  A woman stepped into the hallway. She wore a combat suit same as the men, had long, black hair tied into a ponytail and held a rune-covered katana in her hand. She shouted something in Japanese and the man with rollerblades bolted upstairs, gliding above the surface.

  I didn’t need to understand the words. She told him to grab the wounded man and that she would stop me or something along those lines. Not like I cared.

  I bolted forward. Her aether stretched out, covering the hallway and through the hole in the wall that led to the kitchen. She molded aether into her blade and swung before I got close. A sharp blast of flame left the sword in the direction she cut.

  By bending my body sideways, I dodged and closed the distance. I swung my fist. Her aether flashed, she disappeared, and a fridge appeared in her place. I hit a fridge, my fist bending in the door.

  I glanced through the hole in the wall and saw she stood where the fridge was a split second ago. Impressive. She quickly formed a set of patterns with her hands, took a deep breath and unleashed a torrent of flame. If I dodged to the side, the fire would scatter over the wall and envelop me.

  And so, I leapt forward, rolling sideways. The flame hit my shoulder and calf, searing my pants and skin. The blast set the hallway’s furniture ablaze.

  She formed another set of patterns and slashed with her sword again, this time sending a blade of pure force at me. I sprung up and leapt aside, watching the blade cut deep into the concrete wall behind me.

  “What do you want?” she asked, lowering her blade in front of herself in a combat stance.

  To use that much aether this quickly required her to take a break to refill her body. And to buy time for her friends. But I needed information. I stood straight, hiding how blinding the pain from the burns was. “You murdered someone you shouldn’t have. How’s your friend’s shoulder, by the way?”

  She spat out a curse I didn’t understand and readied to strike. “You will die for that.”

  I wish I got a hundred bucks every time someone threatened me. Since I wasn’t done rearranging aether around my body, I said, “Girl, flames, has a friend named Tsukoyomi… you’re Amaterasu, aren’t you? And to fill the trio of the old Shinto gods, your second friend is Susanoo, right?�
��

  “What the hell do you…” she narrowed her eyes. “You’ve got a divine soul too, don’t you? Why do you fight us then?”

  I wouldn’t call Lucifer’s soul divine, but I didn’t want to argue. “Why shouldn’t I?”

  “Because we will change the world in your favor.”

  “How so?”

  Her eyes shone with inner light and her voice increased in both cadency and volume. “The Hand of God are self-appointed tyrants. Their world order is only concealed oppression of everyone and everything. Nothing can change unless they fall.”

  And they wanted to overthrow the system, like Neo when he fought the Matrix. Too bad the system has already hired me. I clapped my hands, formed the symbol I remembered from her friend and put my palm on the wall.

  My aether burst through the concrete and made the wall near her explode, sending a shrapnel at her. She bolted backward, dodging while forming a set of patterns with her fingers. I watched every move and formed the exact same pattern, also copying the way she moved her aether through her body.

  She slashed her sword and I my fingers. We both released a blast of pure force. The two spells crashed midair. Her spell may have been the original, but my copy was almost perfect, and I put in a lot more aether. My blast shattered hers and hit her across the chest, bending her armor, making her shout out in pain.

  She spread her aether through the room, formed a set of patterns with her fingers and blew out a blast of fire. I did the same. Flame filled my vision as the spells clashed with a thundering explosion.

  I spun to verify she indeed switched her position with a dishwasher that stood behind me. Water burst from the suddenly disconnected pipe. She formed a finger pattern and the water shot at me like bullets. I stretched my aether the way she did and tried switch my position with a cupboard.

  That didn’t work and the water bullets hit me in the chest. They weren’t hard enough to cause deep wounds, but they still hurt. Oh, she was good. She figured I was copying her spells using my sight, so she went for a spell that made me lose track of her. Next, her position-swapping spell apparently required some object she carried, so I couldn’t copy it and the water spell followed the same idea since there was no water for me to use.