I crack open the bottle of Jack and have a drink to him.
Like most nights, I wonder where Alice is and if she knows or cares what’s going on down here. Parking in the afterlife must have gotten really shitty after a million new souls shot up there the other night. She must have noticed that. Maybe one of the Drifters who isn’t too pissed at me for ripping out his or her spine will tell Alice it was me who set them free.
Right. And maybe Mason has an ice-cream truck and is handing out Popsicles in Hell.
I wonder if Lucifer made it back to Heaven and if his old man let him in?
Things are going to get bad. I can feel it. The parts of the angel that stuck around after Candy cured me can feel Heaven and Hell twitching, like rabid dogs just starting to foam at the mouth.
I don’t want to be the new Lucifer, but I really want to kill Mason, and if I have to wear red underwear and carry a pitchfork to do it, I will.
I wonder if Aelita will come Downtown or if I’m going to have to backdoor my way into Heaven to kill her?
I manifest the burning Gladius and it lights up the Kissi realm for a million miles. What a dump. It looks like someone built the Matterhorn Ride out of fly eggs and shit.
Stars wink overhead. Did they change when I switched on the sword?
I get out another cigarette, light it off the Gladius, and let the world go dark.
I flick ashes into Mason’s failed kingdom.
I’ve talked shit my whole life and, except for Alice and Vidocq, pretty much done everything on my own. Luck and hoodoo pulled me through, but that’s not going to work this time. Not if Downtown catches fire and Mason or Aelita bring the heat up to Heaven. I can’t bluff and bullshit my way through that. I need backup. But I might have killed off the only things in the universe crazy enough to go head-to-head with the armies of Hell and Heaven.
Or maybe not. A lot of Kissi went spinning out into space when I ripped this place open. Kissi are almost angels, so floating around in the dark shouldn’t hurt them. They’re probably just shy. Or they found someplace better to feed. I’m not going out after them. They’ll come to me eventually. I’ve got the deal of the century. And even semi-angels want revenge. Everything alive wants revenge.
I hit the MP3 player. Skull Valley Sheep Kill echoes off the walls, doing a burning cover of “Johnny Thunders.”
I let the bass rumble in my chest like a second heart.
I smoke the cigarette and then another.
I have a drink.
I listen to the music.
I sit in the dark and I wait.
>“Yes, it’s me. Sorry I can’t be there in person. This is the best my little homemade key can do for now.”
Then a Nahual beast man steps up.
“Trust me. I’m working on new and better keys all the time. And with Lucifer taking a powder, it makes my work that much easier.”
A civilian in a T-shirt with a software company logo on it crowds in.
“I hear you fed a whole family to golems the other night. Good for you. We were always more alike than you and Alice wanted to admit.”
The girl in the leather jacket that Spencer Church tried to bite the other night opens her mouth.
“I wish I’d been there to watch you feed Mommy and the boy to the zeds. How long did it take to eat them?”
I grab the girl.
“Druj or not, I’m going to kill you. Hard.”
Marshal Julie again.
“You know where I am. I’ll leave a light on for you.”