Of Daughter and Demon (16 page)

I love you, Alice, and it’s over.

“Is it Harry?” a voice asks from behind
me.

I knew before I even turned around who it
would be, I recognized the voice. It was Cain.

“We have a lot to talk about, Mr. Mitchell,”
he says, walkin’ toward me. He puts his arm around my shoulder and
we start to walk, as he talks to me I realize I can see through my
feet when I look down, and I look up just in time to see the wall
we walk right through, and through all a this Cain just keeps
talkin’, and soon we walk through another wall, an’ another, and
then I look down again and realize not only can I no longer see
myself, but we appear to be walkin’ two stories off the ground,
like we’re floating, walkin’ on air. None of this bothers me
though; I’m calm, peaceful. I know he has somethin’ to do with
that...and maybe, so did Alice.

“He was right, Harry. You would make a great
Hunter. But nothing could ever bring you your daughter back, you
know that, right? Dead is dead.”

“Yeah, I know.” I feel a little emptier
havin’ admitted this, cuz there was still some hope in me, foolish
and useless or not, that there might somehow be a way for me to be
with her, and there is, only I gotta die to do it. For a long time
this didn’t seem like a bad thing, in fact it seemed like the only
thing, a good thing, the thing I was meant to do. For the longest
time, for a little over four years, a part of me was wishin’ to be
dead. A part of me was dead, my heart.

“You didn’t kill Valentine, you know,” Cain
says. “Not really.”

“He turned to friggin’ ash, how not dead
could he be?”

“You saw what he did with the bullet, Harry.
If we weren’t between levels like this your hand’d still be
numb.”

“You gonna tell me what you mean? Cuz I think
I might be able to add something to the conversation if I knew what
the hell it was we was talkin’ about.”

I couldn’t see Cain anymore than I could see
myself, but I could feel him smile.

“All the worlds are divided into levels,
Harry, simple as that. All you did was kick Valentine out of this
one. Not even for good; he was able to send part of himself
somewhere else before you shot him. He’s escaped us before. But you
could find him, Harry. You could do things I could never dream of.
You’ve been watched, observed, and I’ve been sent here to make you
an offer. They could make you more like me, you know, a man the
normal rules don’t apply to.”

“Like I could see in people’s heads and
all?”

“Exactly. Even more than that though, being a
Hunter, you’d have powers of which I could never conceive.”

“I don’t get it. How can both you and that
Valentine fella both want me to do the same thing?”

“If you’d have gone with him, you would have
ended up hunting beings like me, beings that work for the White.
Valentine, he’s
evil
, Harry. Worse even than that demon you
killed, it’s hardly even a comparison. It’d be like judging a wasp
against Ted Bundy. But if you accept the offer I’ve been sent to
make, the first thing They’d have you do is go after Valentine. You
could hunt him through every level of every world and kill him over
and over, and when you got him on every level, he’d really, truly
be dead. He’d be erased from existence.”

“Erased from existence,” I said. If anyone
needed erased, it was fuckin’ Valentine.

“Or,” Cain said, “You could stop today, and
forget about him, and me, and levels, and demons, and just go back
to living your life.”

“But you know I can’t do that.”

“I don’t know any such thing, Harry. All I
know is what I’m told, and I was told to make you this offer. They
want you to think about it, tonight, and when you wake up in the
morning, They’ll know what you’ve decided.”

“I can’t just let him go, though, not after
what he done to Alice, what he got Angie to do.”

“Well, Harry, that’s up to you.”

I felt him go, and felt myself come back down
to earth, right outside my bar in fact. It feels good to be whole
again, solid. My hand ain’t numb no more, but it was pins and
needles like you wouldn’t believe. My left arm’s almost back to
normal. I look down at both my hands, and wonder if the left one,
when it’s done growin’, will look the same as the right. As of now,
the left one looks young. I spose it
is
young; it’s brand
new. There ain’t no scars or calluses or lines from working hard or
just bein’ old, not like there is on the right one.

I don’t know what time it is, and I don’t
care. I walk in the bar and there are three or four people sitting
in booths, two more playin’ pool, more than I ever seen in the
place in a long time. I call out for ‘em to finish up their drinks
and get out, tell ‘em the bar’s closin’ ‘til tomorrow night. No one
really complains, they all clear out pretty quickly like they was
just waitin’ for me show up and ask ‘em to leave. Soon all that’s
left is me and Fifties Chick, the bar between us, I’m starin’ into
her eyes and she says somethin’ like, “Oh Harry,” and runs around
the bar, throwing her arms around me and cryin’, sayin’ she thought
for sure this time I was dead just cuz I said before this would be
the end of all this nasty business.

“Shhh. I ain’t dead. I’m right here.”

“You promise me you’ll never leave again,
promise me.”

I wanted to, but I didn’t wanna lie. Instead
I asked her to come upstairs with me, we shut off the lights and
lock the bar, then walk up the stairs to my apartment and soon
we’re kissing, then we’re on my bed and she’s layin’ there naked in
the moonlight, just like an angel she is, an angel with no wings
an’ no halo, an angel who is smilin’ up at me. Her skin is soft and
perfect like a flower, delicate but strong, I’m awkward an’ ugly
next to her, like a bad wood carving of a dumb lug who got lucky,
that is until she takes me in her arms and then I don’t feel
nothin’ but happy.

“Make love to me, Harry,” she says, and I do,
and it’s long and slow and wonderful, like it’s never been with
anyone ever before.

Afterward she lies sleepin’, and I watch her
for awhile, smoke a cigarette, feel like cryin’ cuz I know what
tomorrow will bring, and that I have to do this for Alice, for
little Alice.

Then I’m asleep, only I don’t ever remember
layin’ down, I’m still holdin’ the cigarette I was smokin’, but I
must be asleep cuz Alice is there. She’s eight years old, just like
she would be if she hadn’t been kilt, and she looks happier and
healthier than ever. Her hair is long and blonde and in two little
pigtails, she’s wearin’ a pair of white overalls over a long-sleeve
pink shirt, the same color as the ribbons in her hair. Alice an’ I
are in this little white gazebo just like the one in the park near
our old apartment that she used to love so much, and I realize
we’re in the park, too, except it goes on for miles and miles, as
far as I can see it’s nothin’ but smooth green grass like pool
table velvet and playground equipment. Far away you can hear other
kids laughin’ and playin’, but it’s odd, cuz this is the only park
I been in where I didn’t hear no little kid screamin’ or cryin’ or
bein’ the general pain in the ass kids can be.

“Daddy!” Alice says, and she climbs up next
to me on the bench I’m sittin’ on and hugs my neck. I hold her
tight, so tight I’m afraid a crushin’ her but I can’t let go, I
can’t and I won’t ever let go.

“But you have to, Daddy.” She leans her head
back and I’m still holdin’ her tight, and she looks me in the eyes
.

“Nope. Sorry pumpkin, I’m holdin’ you forever
an’ ever an’ ever.”

She laughs and I start cryin’, tears a
nothin’ but pure joy an’ happiness run down my cheeks at the sound
of her laugh, somethin’ I never thought I’d hear again.

“Walk with me!” she says as she jumps off the
bench and grabs my hand, she pulls and laughs as I pretend like I’m
stuck to the bench and that only she can get me free, finally she
does, and holdin’ her tiny little hand in my big old mitt we walk
through the grass.

“I miss you so much, Alice,” I say.

“I know, but you don’t have to anymore. I’ll
always be right here, and by the time you come back I’ll be ready
to leave and grow up and you can be there like you want to be.”

“I can’t go again, Alice, I can’t leave you
here. You won’t be safe all by yourself!”

“You’re funny Daddy! You know I’m safe here.
Nothing bad can ever happen here. Not ever.”

“It might be a while before I can come back,
baby. I still got some work to do.”

“Not the kind you think. You did all of that
kind of work that you need to.”

“He’s still out there, Alice.”

“I know, Daddy, but I know there are other
people that will find him. They don’t need you.
She
needs
you.”

“Who?”

“
Daddy
! You know who. That lady.”

“Fifties Chick?”

Alice laughed. “She’s nice, but she has a
funny name, huh?”

I smile at her. “Yeah, I suppose it is a
little funny. You think she’ll tell me her real one?”

“Mmm-hmm. She can’t wait to.”

“Do you know it?”

“Yup.”

“But you can’t tell me?”

“Nope. Not supposed to.”

“That’s a good girl. You always was a good
girl, Alice, and I’m sorry I let what happened happen to you.”

“I never blamed you. Only Mommy.”

“Well, I’m sorry about that too.”

“She told you that you weren’t really my
daddy.”

“Yes, she did.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Baby, I was there when you was born, and
ever since I ain’t done nothin’ but love you. If that don’t make me
your Daddy, nothin’ will.”

She stopped walkin’ and pulled my hand,
pulled until I knelt down an’ was eye-to-eye with her. “Don’t tell
them yes, Daddy. You think you have to for me, but you don’t.”

“You won’t think I’m givin’ up on you?”

“You’ll be giving up on yourself. I’m dead,
Daddy--”

“Don’t talk like that--”

“Da-
ad
! I know everything now. I know
I’m dead, I know someone killed me. But
you’re
not dead.
We’ll be together when you are, but until then you hafta be with
her.”

“Why is that so important to you, Alice. You
never even met her.”

“Because I always wanted a little
brother.”

“What?”

“I love you Dad.”

“I love you too, Alice.”

“I’ll always be with you, OK?”

“OK.”

“OK what?” Fifties Chick asked. I’m awake
again, now it’s morning, almost afternoon judging by the light.
We’re layin’ in bed, it’s soft and warm and her hair’s a little
messed up. She stares at me and her eyes get wide again.

“My god, Harry, look in the mirror.”

There’s somethin’ in her voice that tells me
don’t ask any questions, just do it, I walk to the bathroom and
notice both my arms are back to normal. I stare at myself, my
reflection, at the black hair on my head, at how thick it is, at
how there ain’t so many lines on my face and no bags under my clear
blue eyes. I ain’t sore or nothin’, I feel great. I’m younger,
maybe twenty-five years younger than I was last night. Younger than
I am in the pitcher of me and Alice and Angie that I have next to
the bed. Fifties Chick comes up behind me and puts her arms around
me, looks at me in the mirror, hugs me and kisses my shoulder.

“OK what?” she asks again.

“OK, I promise you I’ll never leave you
again. But on one condition.”

“What?”

“You gotta tell me your name.” I turn and
tickle her, she laughs and pushes me away, I chase her back to the
bed and jump in with her and we roll around wrestling. Finally I
let her pin me, and she leans down and whispers her name in my
ear.

END

If you liked this title by Elias Anderson,

read his book,

by following one of the links below:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Born in 1978 in the
wastelands of southeastern Montana, Elias Anderson was moved to
Colorado at the age of six weeks. He spent the next 21 years in
various parts of the state until relocating to California and
Oregon, only to settle back in Denver with his wife and two
daughters.

His professional writing experience ranges
from staff writer and reporter for the Coastal View News
(Carpinteria, CA) to food critic, freelance copy writer, and
editor. He has published poetry, articles, essays, and short
stories in a variety of hard copy and web-based publications