The Demon Dealings

I don’t know what I was expecting but it sure wasn’t what I got when I got home from school.

My mother accosted me as soon as I got home and is has been the Spanish inquisition ever since. I mean I can see where she’s coming from. A daughter out all night, she doesn’t hear anything from me and then all of a sudden; wham, bam thank you ma’am, I’m home with a nice little chunk taken out of my face.

And it would have been quite the sight if my ass weren’t the one getting reamed for it. And when she finally calmed down I managed to get… training. Lots and lots of training. Every day that week and then some. The only thing that changed was when dad brought people over for dinner one night. While I was relieved to get a break I was not happy to see his so called guests.

Now, if you have gathered any information at all about my mom, I think you would be able to guess that she freaked out. She did not know what to do. She was not prepared to serve one extra person dinner let alone three.

Because my dad didn’t come home for dinner often (in fact that was the first time I saw him that week) mom was annoyed for the lack of warning. So we ordered take out.

And that was not the end of it. Apparently the people that my father invited over were a big deal so my mother, being the mother that she is nearly had a heart attack because the house was "a mess." You know that thing that mothers do when there is a throw pillow or a blanket out of place? My mom did that... it was a mess because I left a cup on the counter.

Always my fault.

Not only that but her hair was a mess and she was not dressed properly. The list goes on. Of course she didn’t listen when I told her she was dressed nicely, mostly because she was wearing a skirt…

I on the other hand.

Let's not talk about that, on to the guests.

I had a slight heart attack when my father came home with Spiros in toe. He along with a woman whose name I found out was Lorna, were here on some sort of business with my dad. To say I was suspicious was an understatement.

“Natasha… what happened to your face?” My dad had finally noticed the scabs on my chin.

“Uh…” Lucky for me the doorbell rang. “FOOD!” I cried and ran for the door.

After the food had arrived we sat down at the dinner table passing around the Chinese takeout my mom had ordered.

There was a moment of awkward silence when we first started eating only to be broken by Spiros, “Natasha, your father tells me you’re a senior in high school?”

“Yeah…” I said slowly not really pleased to still have to deal with high school.

“What are your plans for after graduation?”

“College, hopefully.”

“She wants to go somewhere out of state.” My mother interrupted. And somehow the conversation shifted. I stopped paying attention after that until it dawned on me why they were here.

He’s here to make a deal. He has to be. I glared at Spiros conspicuously.

“So, what’s this business thing you and my father are here to talk about?” I interrupted the conversation. “Are you guys closing some sort of deal?” I insinuated not too subtly.

"Natasha!" My mother's outrage was quite apparent and it took a lot for me not to roll my eyes at her.

"Yes, yes I am." Spiros was not shy about it. A quality, I'll admit, I liked about it.

"If this has anything to do with me, count me out. No deal. You can just forget it right now." I wanted to say, but I didn't. I hoped that my father hadn't spilled the beans about my... talents to Spiros, or anyone for that matter. "Big shocker." I said instead.

"Natasha! Go to your room." If looks could kill, I'm sure I would be dead twice and my father about 12 times.

And that is exactly what I did. Because she didn’t ground me or tell me not to go on my computer I pulled up Google and began searching demons. I began compiling data figuring if something occurred multiple times it was more likely to be accurate than not.

Apparently there are three categories of demons; the hell demons, dimensional demons and earth demons. Hell demons would be the worst kind of demons if they weren’t stuck in hell. They would be demons like the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the seven deadly sins.

Dimensional demons are a little different, they move between dimensions to collect souls of those who have made deals when it is their time, or if they’ve broken their deal. If you haven’t made a deal you will not see them. They are basically the retrievers for the Earth demons, or the demons who actually make the deals. They’re sly tricksters and the weak minded are easily preyed upon by the Earth Demons.

Their power to travel between Earth and Hell makes them forces to be reckoned with. I made a mental note to run if I ever can into contact with one.

This leads us to the last category, Earth demons. Earth demons are the face of demons; they make the deals and seal them. They’re basically recruiters and there are many different subcategories of Earth demons, each varying in power and ability. Examples are ghosts, banshees, incubi and succubae... the list go on.

If I had to guess, Spiros fall under the Earth demon category. But what type of Earth demon was he? And how was being a light walker demon different from being a dark walker? And if this was true was it a demon that lured Jane in and made a deal with her? Was that why she was gone?

There were too many questions and not enough answers.

So I decided to do the only thing I could think of. Grabbed my stuff and went out the window hoping that my mother would not come in to check on me.

I went out back, behind our property hoping that no one could see me.

“Matheas?” I whispered loudly, feeling completely ridiculous as I did so. “Matheas.” I said louder. “This is ridiculous.” I muttered after a moment of silence.

“You called?” he was suddenly leaning up against a tree right in front of me.

“Shit.” I muttered, “I’m looking for my friend and I need you to take me back to the place I found you.”

“Woha babe, slow down there. What are you going to do for me in return?”

“You know what? Forget it.” I huffed and turned to leave.

“Wait, wait. I was just kidding.” He held up his arms in surrender. “I’ll take you there. Come on.”

I didn’t talk to him the whole way. I wasn’t sure what to say so I said nothing at all.

When we got there the sun was setting and there was no sign of Jane, or anyone for that matter. But I didn’t let that discourage me. I hid in the undergrowth outside of the small clearing, covering myself with branches and leaves so that I was invisible to everyone but me.

“You can go now.” I told Matheas who was hovering.

“Ah but this was just starting to get good.” He teased.

“Yeah well, this doesn’t involve you. Hell, I don’t even know why I called you in the first place. I don’t even know you.” I glared at him slightly.

He wasn’t affected, “Ah, but how are you going to find your way home?”

“I’ll manage.” I muttered.

“Whatever you say your highness!” He saluted me and stood. “I’ll be around.” And with that he left me, laying there in the brush waiting for someone to show.

I was falling asleep by the time that anyone showed up and almost blew my own cover by jumping slightly in surprise.

“No one is here yet.” A man, small for his age commented to his friend.

“Yeah well they’ll be here.” The other man said.

I didn’t even have to wait five minutes for a woman and two men to show up. She kissed each of them and for a second I thought something weird, really weird was going to happen. But then they started talking.

“It’s good to see everyone back here together.” A large hairy man said to the group.

“What is this all about? I thought she said that all we had to do was wait…”The small man was a little angry, it was almost comical.

“Yes and the time is almost here. She has brought us here to give you a message…”

“I thought she said this was supposed to take more time.” The woman commented.

“It was, but things have… advanced. There are enough dark walkers to take over.” The man was smirking and I almost gasped.

Take over what? I wasn’t sure. So I continued to listen.

“Our covens need to be ready with defensive traps. The humans won’t know what hit them and the light walkers will be powerless to fix this.”

“What does she have in mind?” I stopped listening at the woman’s words.

What the hell were they trying to take over? And why would humans be involved? Whatever it was I knew it couldn’t be good. So I did the one thing I could think of that I could get answers from. The only sure fire method to confirm my suspicions.

I searched the big guy.

The image was blurry at best. I wasn’t exactly sure where we were or who we were talking to but it was a woman and she seemed vaguely familiar to me somehow.

“We need to get rid of the dealer.” He said somewhat confidently to her. “Lorna, he’s too smart to get rid of directly…” he trailed off.

“You know I can’t interfere in this.” She hissed.

“I thought you’ve been… interfering the whole time.” He said slowly.

“Planning and interfering is not the same thing.” She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you were smarter than this.”

“Why do you want this anyways? I thought demons needed humans to cooperate to make deals and it’s much easier when they’re naïve about what they’re dealing with.”

“We’re changing the game. I’ve found another way to collect souls.” Her smirk sent shivers down my spine even though it was a memory and not reality I was seeing.

“That is why we’re taking over... to collect souls.”

“Very good! You’re finally getting it.” Her smile remained creepy.

“So what is it you need us to do?” the man asked her.

“We’d like the girl. She can do more than she knows.” I almost expected her to cackle evilly but fortunately she didn’t. “And you don’t need to worry about Spiros I have it under control. I know a way of dealing with him without interfering.”

The memory faded as I drew out of it. So they wanted a girl, who may or may not have been Jane and they were going to take out Spiros. As for what they were planning it was foggy at best and I knew I needed to do some detective work to figure it out if we wanted any chance of stopping them.

Lovely.