Souls - XVI

The house is dark, darker than I remember it. The wood that makes up the home is vibrating, trying desperately to escape the confines of it’s structure and flee the source of that voice at the front door. When I exit the bedroom I assume that Mary will be waiting for me at the stairwell with wide eyes, but she isn’t. She isn't anywhere to be seen. I put my hand on the cold bannister and make my way down the foreign stairway. 

There’s the front door, suddenly much more terrifying than it should be. The adage, “When one door closes, another door opens.”, pops in my head out of nowhere. I have a feeling that when this door opens, all the other doors will slam decidedly shut.

I open the door, I am not prepared for what’s behind it.

It’s my dad.

His eyes glossy and grey with death, his hair matted with the dirt we just threw over him, and his jaw hanging loosely by the stubborn tendons not damaged by his self-inflicted gunshot.

The voice rings out, the jaw can’t move but the voice is as clear as ever. It sounds like it’s coming from inside me. 

“I’m sorry about this, I’m sure this is quite the sight and a bit of a shock, but this was the only ‘vehicle’ available to me in the general area.”

Lucifer had possessed my dead father. Real class act. 

My father’s body lumbered inside, creaking with the unnatural movement forced upon the rotten joints. The body flops down in an oversized chair by the fireplace.

“Sit, sit.”

I do as I’m told. I sit across from Lucifer and the rotting body of my father.

“I’ve gotten your message and I must say, I find it troublesome.”

I must be in shock, I am listening to Lucifer and my body is calm and at peace. I glance up the stairway.

“Oh don’t worry, your daughter won’t hear a thing. Snug as a bug up there, for now.”

I didn’t like the sound of the last part of that.

“Do you still have the cargo? You haven’t done something foolish have you?”

He’s talking about the soul in my pocket upstairs. I nod my head, “Still have it.”

“Listen, I know you know the rules. You know I cannot kill you, nor can I take your soul without consent, I can, however, inflict quite a bit of unpleasantness upon you.”

My father’s stiffening neck groans as his dead eyes look to the stairs and up the stairs. 

“Why even lead me here? Why my dad? I was willingly on my way.” I think I see the muscles around his jaw try to smile.

“I work in mysterious ways.”

He pauses and looks back the fireplace.

“I wasn’t even sure your daughter existed, finding your father was a happy accident. Call it professional curiosity on my part. You aren’t normal, in fact you are the only one with your gift I am aware of. Pardon me if I was interested in your lineage. I was stirring the pot.”

“I won’t take her soul. You had to know that.”

“Consider yourself my Job, we just didn’t get very far.”

  

For some reason, perhaps it is my daughter sleeping upstairs, maybe it’s staring into my dead father’s eyes, or maybe it’s just something inside me, I decide to be defiant.

“I don’t serve you, I don’t worship you, I work for you because I need a job and job’s are currently hard to find.” I stand to leave. “You can show yourself out, put my dad back in his final resting place.”

The hanging jaws clicks as Lucifer laughs.

“Don’t feign bravery. I could make a deal with your daughter, I am known to be persuasive. We can see if she shares your gift.”

I stop and sit back down.

“Anything, just don’t make me hurt her. I’ll head to Arizona in the morning. I’ll deliver it on a silver platter if you want, just leave her and her soul alone.”

“You were so interesting, I was legitimately interested in how you would respond to my message. This…well this has been so very disappointing. Boring and predictable humanity.” 

My father’s body lurches forward out of the chair and lumbers to the front doorway. As he drifted into the shadows and back to my father’s grave he spoke with the tone of a disappointed authority figure. One who had hoped for more, but knew they were foolish to expect it. 

“I will have Melissa draft up the agreement, but I will leave your daughter alone. The only condition is the predictable one: sell me your exceptional soul.”