Sold My Soul

Two things happened at once.

The man with the gun turned towards me and fired, and Brian was on his feet in the same second, jumping in front of me.

Now I’m no expert, but from what I’ve seen on my beloved crime shows, when someone gets shot point-blank in the chest, they’re going to be thrown backwards, at least a little, from the impact. There’s going to be blood everywhere. There will be a bloody hole in their chest, and a significantly larger one in their back. In short, they’ll be dead.

So how the fuck was Brian still standing?

Considering the looks on their faces, the other three men were wondering the same thing. Unlike me though, they weren’t shocked speechless.

“What in the fucking hell is this?!” the man with the gun yelled, taking aim again. I cringed as two more shots rang out. When I opened my eyes a second later, Brian was still standing in front of me, no gaping holes in his back. I glanced down at myself, not quite believing what was going on here. Still all in one piece.

“Cops’ll be here soon, I imagine.” Brian said, in such a way that I could tell he had his little trademark smirk on his face. I really love that look. However, now is not the time to be thinking about that.

“This ain’t over.” Baldie hissed, apparently agreeing with Brian before gesturing to his two companions. And just like that, they were out the door, their footsteps quickly fading in the stairwell.

Adrenaline rush gone in an instant, I sank back down onto the couch. “What the hell is going on?” I mumbled weakly, head in my hands.

“I can explain later. Here, you need to untie me. Then -”

“You should be dead!” I said accusingly, the events of the last few minutes were quickly becoming more and more surreal. “Why the fuck are you alive?!”

Brian frowned. “Try not to sound so disappointed with the fact I’m not dead, yeah? Now please untie me, we have to pack. We can’t stay here. And I promise I’ll explain once we’re out of here, okay?”

Not sure what else I could do, what with some apparently immortal guy standing in front of me, I did as he asked. He rubbed his wrists for a moment, trying to gain back some feeling before holding out a hand to help me up. “Thanks.” he pulled me to my feet and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. Weird, I don’t even remember the last time he did that. “Five minutes, okay Babes? Then we need to be out of here.”

“Sure...” I was still half convinced I was dreaming. Never one to wake up mid-nightmare though, I went to our bedroom and pulled my suitcase out from under the bed. “So...when are we gonna be back?”

“No idea. Maybe never.” Brian was busy throwing clothes into his own bag, having just finished washing the blood off his face. “I sure hope we can come back before never though.” he grinned a little. I didn’t bother to reply to that. But then another thought hit me.

“Why aren’t there any police here by now?” I glanced over at him, and frowned when I realized there was no cut, or any mark at all, on his forehead.

“There won’t be any coming.” he zipped up his bag. “Hurry up, I’ll be in the other room.”

Five minutes later, with two suitcases full of clothes, toiletries, and anything else I had deemed necessary, I was sitting on the couch again. “Ready.”

“Let’s go then.” taking one of my bags, Brian headed out the door without a glance back. I guess I’m the sentimental one in this relationship, because I looked over our apartment one more time, feeling a little sad. I can’t count how many times I complained about this place, but now that we’re apparently leaving...

Grabbing my purse from the counter, I followed him out, locking the door behind me.

Outside, the sky was overcast and the wind was a little chilly, making me wish I had worn something more than just one of Brian’s old Motley Crue hoodies. I was surprised to see we were headed towards my car, which, to put it nicely, was a piece of shit compared to Brian’s.

“Why don’t we take your car?” I asked, stopping beside him.

“Can’t. They know what mine looks like.” he held his hand out for the keys.

A few minutes later, we were on the Pacific Coast Highway headed towards Los Angeles. “Okay, explain. Now.” I had waited long enough to know what the hell was going on.

“Are you hungry?” he asked instead, turning off the highway when he saw a Denny’s.

“What? No!”

“Well I am.” he stopped the car in the almost deserted parking lot and cut the ignition, but made no move to get out. He actually looked nervous again.

“Brian Elwin Haner, if you don’t explain what the fuck is going on I’ll -”

“Fine, fine, just don’t use “Elwin”.” he frowned. “I fucking hate that name...”

I crossed my arms. “Well?”

“I...maybe...made a deal with someone I probably shouldn’t have?” he mumbled, staring out the windshield and tapping out a rhythm on the steering wheel with one hand.

“Well obviously. Or were those guys back there just some new friends?” I snapped, quickly running out of patience.

“No. Not them. A demon.”

That one threw me for a loop. “...excuse me?”

He took a breath before launching into a hurried explanation. “I got caught up in some mafia-typed gang shit. They have contracts and stuff, the whole nine yards. I just had to work with them for a year, and then I’d be off the hook. I thought I could save up enough money for you to go back to school and everything. Thing is, I never really knew what “working with them” involved...” when I didn’t say anything he continued. “So I realized pretty quick there was no way I was gonna make it through a year. And I didn’t wanna die, I was willing to do anything not to...and I guess, someone knew that.”

If I hadn’t seen Brian get shot three times and walk away from it without a scratch, I would have slapped him for being such a fucking idiot. I have always had an agnostic view towards religion at best, so talk of demons and whatnot never went past comparing horror movies and documentary TV shows. He was rather pale just talking about it, so I reached over and grabbed his hand from the steering wheel and held it with both of mine. Without his repetitive tapping, the car was deathly silent. I cleared my throat. “So...is that all?”

He laughed humorlessly. “I wish. To make it short, I traded my soul to a demon. Mephistopheles to be exact. For six hundred and sixty six days, I’m basically immortal. As long as my “anchor” to earth is alive, I can’t die. But I didn’t even get to pick who it was. Any shit that goes down around me, like earlier when I got shot, won’t attract any “outside” attention, like the police or whatever. And at the end of the time period, if the anchor and myself are still alive, then I’m home free. Soul back good as new, and life goes on. Guess I got lucky, having a somewhat compassionate demon take my soul.” despite the half-hearted attempt at humor he looked like he wanted to cry.

Personally, I wanted to break down and sob. But if Brian could manage to keep it together, then I sure as hell had no reason not to. “So...who’s this anchor? Someone we know?”

His hand tightened around one of mine, and when he finally looked over he was blinking back tears. “It’s you.”