Lucifer's Game

by Rachael Tamayo

  He smiles a slow, wicked smile.

  “Baby, I can do more than that. I can make you want anyone. I can make you come without even touching you, but where is the fun in that?”

  I narrow my eyes. “I don’t believe you. How are you solely responsible for all the lust and depravity in this world?”

  He laughs. “Sit down.”

  I sit down. He stands before me, crossing his arms over his bare chest, staring intently at me. His eyes almost glow as he tilts his head to one side.

  That’s when I feel it, the fire, deep inside me. Arousal, hot and heavy. It makes me squirm and clutch the blanket tighter with both hands.

  “Feel me yet, baby?” he whispers.

  I gasp, the sensation as if he’s suddenly inside me, the fullness, and the stroke, deep and hard, and in perfect rhythm to building arousal. I whimper, my eyes rolling back, my legs falling wider on their own.

  “What is happening?” I moan.

  It feels amazing. It’s like he’s there, inside me, but he’s three feet away watching me fall back and fist the sheets on the bed.

  “I’m fucking you like a demon.” He laughs.

  I can feel it coming. It builds and builds as I open my eyes, he’s watching me. I come with a shout, arching off the bed, begging for more as it rolls through me and I writhe under watchful eyes.

  When I open my eyes, he’s crouched over me, his wings spread wide.

  “Believe me now?”

  I swallow. “How come I never saw…?”

  “Because you are in the realm of the angels. The Shadows. I brought you here to my house so as not to overwhelm your senses. Once I take you out, you will see the world as God does, as angels and demons do. Your husband won’t find you here.”

  That’s when I feel it, the calm starts to fade slowly. Andrew.

  “What do you mean?” My voice carries alarm.

  “I mean you are hidden to the eyes of man in this place. This is where we live, hidden. You can’t see our wings or our eyes in the other world. He can’t see you, or find you here. And you can’t get back without me.”

  I swallow, gazing up into yellow eyes. “Am I a prisoner?”

  Andrew will be panicked. He will think that I left him. Tears threaten my vision as I try to look away, the sickness of everything slowly pouring into my gut.

  Devin turns my face back to his, forcing me to see him.

  “Yes. You are mine. Your fear won’t last.”

  “But I’m not yours… I wanted Andrew; he’s going to be-”

  He squeezes my face, roughly. “Fuck Andrew. You belong to me now. As soon as I got my dick inside you, you were mine. I wanted you and I will have you.”

  I hold my breath, unsure of what to do. This has to be a dream. It can’t be real. Devin is a demon?

  “So does that mean you control all lust?”

  He straddles my hips, placing his hands on either side of me. “No. I work outside of love. I can’t control that. But essentially, I am sex. It’s a myth that the Devil and his minions are responsible for all this sickness in this world. All we do is whisper in your ear and generate flame where there was already a spark. The human mind is so much more twisted and sick than it gets credit for. Why do you think Christ had to show up all those thousands of years ago? It wasn’t to wash the world free of demons, it was to give you stupid humans a way to run and hide from your own empty, diseased souls. We work with the equipment we were given.”

  I don’t know what to say. I want to cry, but frankly I’m a bit paralyzed. As my senses start to return, I find my hearts slow, thick rhythm picking up speed. Sweat forms on my skin and I swallow, but find my mouth dry. Unable to comprehend this new reality that I’ve found myself in, I just blink up at him.

  He bends, placing his lips close to my ear.

  “I want you. I can taste you, but that will come later. Get up, he wants to see you.” He bites my ear.

  “Who?”

  “The Prince of Darkness, sweetheart. Xander.”

  I turn my head and meet his eyes. Xander?

  “This isn’t real, it can’t be.” Maybe if I keep saying it, I will finally wake up from this… whatever this is.”

  He touches his soft lips to mine. “It’s very real. Let’s go.”

  “Shouldn’t I be afraid?” I whisper.

  “You will be.”

  ***

  Andrew

  I can’t reach Cora. After all the bullshit that’s happened, I probably shouldn’t be worried, but I am. When I get home, or back to Eric’s house, she’s not there either. Eric suggests that maybe there was some CPS emergency, which happens sometimes, so I try the office as I navigate the evening traffic in the direction of her office. No answer.

  When I get there, her car is in the parking lot. Relief floods my veins. Thank God. She’s still working. The office door is unlocked and there is one woman sitting at a desk on the phone with a file open in front of her. She waves at me, recognizing me, despite the fact that I never come to see her at work. Of course, I plan to change that.

  “Hey, what’s up?” She smiles.

  “Just looking for Cora, I haven’t been able to reach her all day. Is she out on some case or something?”

  Her smile fades. “No, um… she never came back after that guy came to see her today.”

  My stomach rolls.

  “What guy?” As if I didn’t know.

  “That blonde. He came to take her to lunch and they talked in her office for a minute, then she walked him out. She told me when she walked out that she would be right back, but she never came back.”

  I frown. “She never came back?” That can’t be right.

  “No, I even went to look for her. I called her too, she never did answer. You might call him, I don’t know.”

  Call him. If only. I scratch my head. She wouldn’t have left with him, not after everything, would she?

  I’m torn between praying that I’m wrong, being worried that she’s hurt, and hoping that she was in some accident just so that I don’t have to pray that she didn’t run away with… him.

  Cora would never do that to me.

  But she did.

  Cold settles into my stomach, and I tell myself that there is another explanation. She wouldn’t come home just to run off again.

  Would she?

  My next stop is Marilyn’s apartment. Returning to the parking lot where I saw them together in every sense of the word, forces me to swallow unpleasant emotions. If I knock on this door and she is here with him that will end up being the end of Cora and I.

  That won’t happen. I know she wouldn’t just abandon me without a word after begging me to come home.

  But what if she did?

  I shake the doubt away as I pound on the door. It flies open. I’m hit in the face by the smell of skunky weed and shocked by the sight of my wife’s usually, immaculately ‘put-together’ friend. I’ve never seen this woman without her hair done or make-up on. Her hair looks like it hasn’t been washed, let alone combed. She has on a dirty tank top and yoga pants, blows out her drag from the joint clutched between her fingers into my face.

  What the hell happened to her?

  “Hey, have you seen Cora?”

  She leans in the doorway.

  “You mean since you tossed her around the parking lot the other day? I saw what happened.”

  “Please. She was…” I stop. Why am I even arguing with her about this? I shake the thought away. “Anyway, I can’t find her. Have you heard from her or anything? We got back together.”

  She raises an eyebrow at me. “Is that so? And now you can’t find her.” She laughs. “No, I haven’t seen her. Have you checked with her boyfriend? I hear his dick is-”

  “-Look I don’t care about him. That ended. I am worried about her. What is wrong with you?” I’ve known this woman for as long as I’ve known Cora. We didn’t always get along, but she’s never acted like this.

  What has come over her?

 
; “You can come in and check if you want. She’s not here.”

  “Do you have that guy’s number?”

  She shakes her head and calls over her shoulder. “Hey, Xander?”

  A guy about thirty pops into the doorway. He looks clean cut enough, nothing like she does. I wonder what he sees in her, being in this state.

  “What?”

  “Hey, this is Andrew. He’s looking for Cora. He wants Devin’s number.”

  The guy pushes past her and extends his hands to me. Confused, I accept it.

  “Nice to meet you. Who are you?”

  “I’m Xander. I’m friends with Cora and Marilyn. Devin is my buddy. I’m sorry about all the mess between you three.” He frowns at me.

  I have no idea who this man is and why he seems to know my life.

  “So you know what’s been going on?”

  He nods. “Yeah. I’ve heard. I haven’t seen Cora today either.”

  “So, can I get this guy’s number?”

  He runs his hands through jet black hair as he considers my question.

  “How about I get him on the phone? I’d hate for him to come kick my ass for passing out his number to a pissed off husband.”

  I roll my eyes. “Whatever.”

  He pulls out a phone and dials, hands it to me.

  It rings and rings, there is no answer. I hand it back to him.

  “He’s not answering.”

  “Well give me your number and I’ll see if I can reach him. I’ll call you.” He starts adding my name to his contacts.

  For a second I question it, but I need to know where she is. Who really cares if he smokes a little weed with Marilyn? It’s not like I didn’t try it years ago. I rattle off my number and he inputs the numbers, hits save.

  “I’ll let you know something. Hey, you want to come in? Take a drag? Might relax you a little.”

  I shake my head.

  “No, thanks.” I have half a mind to go in and check on her. I’ve never seen her act like this, but my first priority right now is finding Cora. I’ll worry about Marilyn when this is all over, if it ever is.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Cora

  My emotions are a mess as I dress. I don’t pretend to understand, or accept that this is reality. It can’t be. There must be some other explanation for this.

  Surely, I’ll wake up and this will be a dream.

  So far, it hasn’t happened. He’s waiting on me and I’m just sitting here in the clothes I worked in, staring at my shoes, wondering what will happen when we go wherever it is we are going. He says we are going to see Xander.

  But Xander is the Devil. I can’t make my brain process this.

  I want to go home.

  Devin burst into the bedroom. Now his wings are hidden and he has on a long sleeved tee shirt.

  “Are you ready?”

  I pull my shoes on. “Yeah. I suppose. Where are we-?”

  “You will see.”

  He grabs my hand and drags me out the door.

  When we step out of his apartment and into the outdoors, I suck in a shocked breath. It’s so much darker than I expected. The swirly, smoky atmosphere is everywhere; the sky is a scorched color.

  “What time is it?” I ask, softly.

  He looks at me, still walking.

  “Time has no meaning here, but for your benefit, it’s close to five.”

  “Why is it so dark?”

  “Xander will explain. This is what it always looks like. You just never saw it before.”

  I swallow, taking in everything. The world looks the same. Cars, buildings, traffic. Nothing seems out of place.

  “Why is that person shining?” I motion to an old man sitting on a bus stop bench. He exudes a bright, white light that illuminates everything around him.

  Devin glances at him. “His soul belongs to the Most High. They are the only light in this world.”

  The verse from my childhood Sunday school echoes in my head, something about being the light of the world. I never imagined that it was literal.

  “So it’s dark like this all the time, except for the believers?”

  He nods. “True believers, yes.”

  In the distance, I see others with wings, white and beautiful like Devin’s.

  “Are those demons, too?”

  He looks over. “You won’t be able to tell from far away. Angels and Demons look the same from a distance.”

  Angels and demons look the same? I have so many questions, but I bite them back.

  We walk all the way to Marilyn’s apartment, which should have taken longer but seemed like just a few minutes.

  “Why are we here?” I ask, as he drags me up the stairs to her door.

  “Xander has been hanging out here.”

  He doesn’t knock, which startles me. Opening the door, he just walks in. Marilyn sits on the couch in a worn tee shirt and panties, a snuffed out joint in an ashtray, and a line of cocaine on her glass coffee table. She’s staring down at it, as if deciding. I jerk away from Devin and rush to her.

  What’s happened to her? She in no way resembles the woman I’ve known since we were teenagers in high school. Ever since we met these guys in the bar weeks ago, every time I’ve seen her something new is different.

  Xander. Fuck.

  The reality of what Devin’s told me coupled the sight of my friend staring down a line of blow ensures me that this dark world around me is very real, and my friend has been screwing the devil himself.

  He’s done this to her. God, why wasn’t I able to put all this together before now? What if it’s too late?

  “What are you doing? You’ve never done drugs. What about your job? Your life? You’ve always cherished your health and appearance and now look at you? What are you doing?” I reach for her, but discover that I can’t touch her.

  She can’t hear me. Tears spill from my eyes as sobs break from my throat.

  “Stop!” I scream the words. She leans back, her dead eyes on the white powder. There is no acknowledgement of my presence.

  “Why can’t she hear me?” I try again to touch her, it’s like there is an invisible barrier stopping me.

  “Because you are in the Shadow Realm. She can’t see or hear you. You’re human, so you don’t have the power to touch her or anyone else.”

  I turn my wet eyes up to him.

  “So stop her, please. She will ruin her life, everything she worked so hard for. You don’t understand.”

  He shakes his head, laughing.

  “I know. She pulled herself up from nothing. Struggled and worked through college, all that. I’m aware. She’s attached herself to Xander. She’s in his hands now.”

  I swallow. Salty tears run over my lips.

  “She doesn’t know though, she thinks he’s just a man.”

  A hard knot settles inside my gut. I’m going to wake up any minute now. But it’s not a dream. I’m panicked as I stand before my friend, watching her lean over and snort her life’s work up her nose, and I can’t stop her.

  “So you believe now?” Devin’s deep voice pulls my eyes from her.

  I had sex with a demon, too. A real, honest to God demon. No wonder I could never resist.

  I nod. “I do. Please, help her, for me?”

  He rolls his eyes. “Help her? You must be kidding. Her decisions are her own. Don’t blame anyone but her. Like I said, you will understand. Come on.” He drags me away from her, down the hall.

  He opens the bedroom door where Xander sits on the edge of the bed. He has on jeans and a black tee shirt, and when he lifts his eyes to mine, I get a chill deep in my bones.

  His eyes are black. Not just the color, but it’s as if I’m staring into an abyss.

  He smiles slowly at me, and I all but stop breathing. He is the Devil. Darkness comes off of him like waves, like the tide laps at the beach. I feel it hit me as Devin pushes me further into the room.

  I don’t know what to do, or where to look. The evil wraps itself around me
and sinks into my skin, making me feel cold, yet somehow the terror seems muted. I thought that I’d be more afraid.

  “Sit.” He pats the bed beside him. His voice is the same, but somehow darker.

  Frozen, I don’t move. He grins at me, laughing.

  “I don’t bite.”

  I look up at Devin, and he nods. What choice do I have? So, my feet move, while my brain is paralyzed.

  “Cora, are you afraid?” he asks me, bending to look into my face as I sit.

  “Yes.”

  “Fear is a healthy, real emotion. It’s okay to be afraid. But you don’t have to worry, I think of you as a friend, Cora.”

  He says my name and I can’t help but think of a snake. The Garden of Eden, tempting Eve. Watching Christ hang on the cross. Tempting Judas.

  Oh My God. I’m sitting beside the most powerful evil in the universe.

  I swallow, my brain numb, unable to process my situation.

  “You have questions.” It’s more of a statement.

  I can only nod.

  “First off, let’s get one thing out of the way. I’m here for you, Cora. You can talk to me about anything. I’ll never judge you or make you feel bad for your actions. Don’t go against me, and I’ll do anything to protect you. Understand?”

  Anything to protect me. Wasn’t expecting that.

  “Ask me your questions.”

  I swallow, looking away from him to Devin. He’s watching me from where he leans on the wall.

  “Where am I?”

  Xander glances at Devin, then back to me.

  “Did Devin explain anything?”

  “Not much. I don’t understand.”

  “When our kind were tossed out of Heaven, we were banished to Earth, not to Hell like many think. What you are seeing is the real world, so to speak. You have been given a great opportunity here, Cora. You are seeing this world as God sees it. You’ve been given the sight of Eve. A rare gift.”

  “The sight of Eve?” I echo.

  “Yes.” He touches my leg. With the touch comes a strange sense of calm, washing over the heart pounding panic that has been choking me. “The realm of angels and demons, we tend to call it the Shadows. Where we hide, cloaked. Most humans could never handle seeing things as they really are, you must realize. The darkness, the angels, and demons. Your emotions might be strange and mixed up here, but it will stop. You will find that you are calmer, more accepting of things that might have bothered you before. That’s because of where you are. In a short time, you will understand.”