“You're
a ghost,” she said.
Great,
I thought,
thanks for
stating the obvious.
“Yeah,
I kind of came to that conclusion, too,” I said, my voice
rising an octave and my hands beginning to shake. I could feel hot
tears streaming down my cheeks. Apparently, I could still cry.
“There's
no need to be so upset.” I turned towards the voice and saw
Levie's cousin, Lunen, standing several feet behind me. He was
holding a gnarled wood staff in one hand, his hair covered by a
cloak. The image reminded me somewhat of a grim reaper. I swallowed
hard and tried to push the idea out of my head.
“What
are you doing here?” I asked. Lunen's mouth turned up at the
corners, but I wouldn't really call it a smile. His purple eyes were
mesmerizing. I tried to look away when I heard Helena and the sphinx
crunching across the rubble, but his gaze held me.
“You're
going to come with me,” he whispered, his voice low and
melodic. I could feel myself succumbing to his glamour. I admit, I
was a bit surprised. It was the first time it had been used on me
since I'd signed the contract and been successful. Either the
Devil's magic had finally worn off, or demons did it differently.
Either way, I didn't resist when he reached for my hand. I expected
his to pass right through me like everything else had, but his
fingers were smooth and cool where he laid them across my arm.
“What
are you going to do with her?” Helena asked from my right. I
couldn't turn and look at her so entranced was I in Lunen's magic,
but I could hear the guilt in her voice. “What are you going
to tell Levie? He'll kill me.” Lunen looked up at her sharply,
hood falling from his head and pooling around his shoulders. His
hair was silver, and it was drifting in a breeze that I couldn't
feel. Even though his eyes were no longer on me, the magic had
already taken hold, and I was frozen in place.
“I'm
taking her to my father.” Oh yeah. I guess I was going to
Hell. Great. The enormity of the situation hit me like a freight
train. I gasped, and the spell broke. It was almost tangible, like
water being poured over me. I collapsed to my knees in the dirt. A
wail escaped my throat and echoed around the strangely empty street.
In the panic I had been in, I hadn't even given a second thought to
the fact that we were in the middle of a shopping district and not a
single shouting person or cop car broke the silence. It was just the
four of us, but I was getting to the point where I no longer cared.
Lunen
and Helena had stopped talking after my dramatic display of grief.
They exchanged glances and then stood by patiently while I sobbed
into the pavement. The sphinx trotted up to me and tried to nuzzle
my side, but its body went right through me. This only made things
worse. My sobs became hysterics, and I curled up into a fetal
position, pulling up the hood of my coat in an attempt to hide. The
moments dragged by without anyone saying anything, and I began to
wonder if they were even still standing there. Feeling just a bit
foolish, I pulled the faux fur away from my eyes and glanced up.
“An
apple is still an apple, even when it falls far from the tree,”
the sphinx mused unhelpfully. Whatever that meant, it didn't sound
like a compliment to me. I jerked the hood back down over my eyes
with a huff. I heard the footsteps coming towards me but didn't
expect the light that began to coalesce around Lunen's booted feet as
he stood inches from my face.
“Ginger,”
he spoke calmly, soothingly. I relented and removed the hood again.
He was staring down at me, his eyes catching mine again instantly.
“Just stay where you are and try to remain calm.”
“Calm?”
I practically spat at him. “You remain calm on the day you
die, and we'll see about that.” Lunen smiled coldly and
twisted his staff around 360 degrees then slammed the base into the
ground. I sat up as the rubble around me began to rise.
On
second thought,
I mused,
we're sinking.
Lunen and I were
descending on a small circle of red and orange energy. Helena waved
sadly at me as we sunk out of sight, the sphinx sitting stoically
beside her.
I
didn't have to ask where we were going. It was rather obvious. I
groaned and buried my head between my knees. I may have been along
for the ride, but that didn't mean I was going to enjoy it. Luckily,
it didn't take long for us to arrive at our destination. In fact, we
were there in less time than it had taken me to originally set up the
spell needed to use the bathroom mirror as my portal. As soon as we
had come to a complete stop, I lifted my head and glanced around a
somewhat familiar room. The waiting room with the blue
indoor-outdoor carpeting. The one where I had first met Levie. My
heart squeezed, and I pushed the feelings away, something that it
seemed I had become quite accustomed to doing lately.
I
stood up and surveyed the room. Nothing had changed décor
wise, but the desk was empty. Apparently, they hadn't found a new
secretary yet. Or administrative assistant I supposed I should say.
I almost smiled at the thought, but that smile soon became a frown
when Lunen opened the door to the hallway I had gone through before.
I sighed and slipped out of my coat, dropping it to the floor. Ghost
or no ghost, I was sweating like crazy.
“My
father would like to speak with you immediately. There's been a
problem with your contract.” My contract?
“But
we broke contract,” I mumbled, my thoughts a whir. But if we'd
broken contract, then I shouldn't have even been there. I looked
Lunen in his purple eyes, daring him to glamour me again. He just
stood silently and waited for me to get my thoughts in order. “Why
am I here?” He sighed and reached into his robes, producing a
tidy scroll.
“I've
just been granted a new position in the company. My father's erased
my previous transactions from the record as a bit of a reward. I'm
his new ... errand boy.” Lunen's lip twitched with
displeasure. “My first all important task was to come and
deliver these papers to be signed by you, thereby nullifying any and
all involvement you may have had with the company. However, you were
inconveniently dispatched by the lovely Liam's car bomb. This means
that, upon your death, all parties involved are hereby required to
honor the terms in the
original
contract.” I stared
back at him, not quite understanding. Lunen adjusted his grip on his
staff and took a step towards me. “There's a problem, Ginger.
You weren't supposed to die until you had received all of your
wishes. You still had two left. This creates a bit of a problem for
us.” I couldn't believe it. Maybe there was someone watching
out for me. Someone who had conveniently gone missing during the
whole explosion thing, but hey, I could forgive and forget.
“Then
I wish I were alive and whole again.” I said it without
thinking clearly which was of course, dumb. But I was desperate. I
closed my eyes and waited. The clock on the wall chimed, and I
opened my eyes to find Lunen, face full of pity. It pissed me off.
“What's your problem?” I snapped. “And why isn't
it working?” Lunen sighed and glanced at the clock.
“We
need to hurry or we're going to be late.” The pity melted a bit
to reveal just the slightest hint of fear. “And he doesn't
like late.” Lunen grasped my wrist and began to drag me down
the hall. I stumbled after him, confused.
“Why
isn't it working?” I pressed again as Lunen knocked on the
Devil's door. Vae opened it immediately and ushered us in. Lunen
ignored me as he pushed past her and opened the metal doors to his
father's office.
“I
don't fucking believe this!” The Devil's voice came crashing
out at us. “How could you let this happen?” There was no
answering voice, and when I glanced around Lunen's broad frame, I saw
that he was on the phone. “No, I don't care if he hits a
hundred thousand. I'm the CEO of this company and I'll – ”
A pause while Lucifer waited for the person on the other end to
speak. He saw us and gestured us in with a violent wave of his hand.
“I've got to go,” he snapped. Another pause. “No,
I said I've got to go!” He slammed the phone down without
another word and slid off the edge of his desk into his chair. He
reached up and began massaging one of the tiny horns that protruded
from his head. “Sit down, now.” I didn't argue, just
slid around Vae and Lunen and plopped into the nearest chair. A
leather wing back which was actually quite a bit comfier than it
looked.
The
Devil steepled his hands atop his desk and sighed. Lunen and Vae
remained standing, and there was an awkward bit of silence as Lucifer
collected himself. He lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
“Why do these things always happen to me?” he asked. I
assumed he wasn't speaking to anyone in particular so I kept my mouth
shut. “I have a useless nephew, a useless son, and now this.”
He gestured absently at me with his cigarette. “And now the
board is after me for – ” The Devil had stopped, his eyes
glued to my lap. I looked down and realized that I was holding the
genie's bottle. How it had gotten there, I had no idea, but my hands
were clenched around it as if my entire life depended on that little
piece of glass.
“What
the hell?” I queried at the mysteriously appearing bottle. The
Devil scrambled up from his desk and came around towards me. Little
spouts of flame burst up in random places from the carpet as his
excitement filled the room.
“Where
did you get that?” he asked greedily, hands questing towards
me. I pushed myself as far into the chair as I could get, hugging
the glass to my belly.
“You
can't touch it,” I declared, sounding far more sure of myself
than I felt. He
was
the Devil after all. “I might need
this.” Lucifer pulled away from me with a raucous laugh.
“Oh,
I highly doubt that.” He sneered at Lunen. “What did you
tell her?” Lunen shook his head.
“Only
the obvious, sir.” The Devil harrumphed and stabbed his
cigarette into the ashtray as if he imagined he was crushing me right
along with it.
“Ginger,
my dearest client,” he purred. “Did you ever get around
to reading the whole contract?” Right. In the future, I
really, truly was going to start reading the fine print on things.
Seriously. This time, I meant it.
“Uh,
well, you see there was this whole
thing ...
” I
lifted the bottle to the light, the swirling pinks and reds of the
glass catching the light of the Devil's flames and casting them
across the skin on my hand. I couldn't help but notice the covetous
way his eyes followed it. There was something going on here that I
wasn't quite getting. “I didn't really get around to that.”
The
Devil nodded and snapped his fingers. Vae glided into the room and
presented me with a very familiar scroll on a silver tray. I took a
deep breath and picked it up gently. Untying the tiny white ribbon
that bound the parchment, I was suddenly struck breathless by the
thought that this bit of paper would determine the fate of my soul.
I unrolled it slowly and stared at the black cursive print.
“Section
14, paragraph 3, line 12. In the event of the wisher's demise,
whether from old age, accident, or intent ... ” I stared
at the lines in front of me. It wasn't quite what I was hoping for
but it would have to do.
“So
I get one year back on Earth to make my last wish or it's null and
void, and I still end up here ... or ... I can wish for a
worker's permit here and now. What the heck is a worker's permit?”
The Devil waved his hand dismissively.
“Who
cares about that? I'm willing to offer you an even better deal.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I
want to know what a worker's permit is.” He ignored me.
“I
feel bad for you, Ginger. I do.” He didn't sound like he felt
bad. He sounded sleazy, like a used car salesman. “We had
that little deal that was going to get you off free and clear and
remove all liability off of the company's shoulders for your
ridiculous wishes. But here you sit, your body burned to a crisp.”
Gee, thanks for the reminder. I shifted in my seat and scowled. “So
I'm willing to offer you another deal. Take it and I'll give you
this offer, one last time. You know how lucky you are? Most idiots
agree to sell their soul and never get a chance to undo that grievous
mistake.” I wanted to shout that he was the one who sold me the
deal in the first place, but I decided to sit quietly and listen.
Why not? What did I have to lose? At that point in time, absolutely
nothing. The Devil pulled a cigar out of a mahogany box and put it
between his lips. “Our Recall and Collections department is on
strike.” The Devil stood abruptly and sauntered over to Lunen.
Throwing back his son's hood with a scowl, he turned around to face
me again. “That's why I took this idiot – and his fool
cousin – back. Just agree to work with me until we can get the
genies off their labor strike, and we'll call it even.” Bingo.
“Labor
strike?” I knew I sounded cocky, but I couldn't help it. It
felt like I suddenly had the upper hand. “Is that why you
can't undue the wishes?” What a ridiculous notion, but one I
was sure that I could twist to my advantage. “Why would I be
any better at that than you? I don't know anything about genies.”
The Devil ignored me and poured himself some scotch from a lovely
little decanter in the shape of a woman screaming and writhing in
agony. How nice.
“Look,”
the Devil said, turning to me with a grin. “I already have the
contract written up. Just sign and dot and voilà,
you're done. Finito.” Vae glided up to me again bearing a
second tray and scroll as well as the needle that I had used before
to prick my finger. I picked up the contract and unrolled it. It
certainly looked legitimate, but I still didn't understand why they
didn't just snatch the bottle from me and make the genie do what they
wanted.