could save you when you were alive and I didn’t. I figure getting you out of that hole might make up for that a little.”
“Maybe it will,” she says. “Have your friend talk to the girls.”
“I will. See you around, Cherry.”
But she’s already gone.
I throw the rest of the cigarette into the hole and start back inside when my phone rings. It’s a blocked number. Sure, why not?
It’s a man voice this time.
“I haven’t seen it myself but I hear you ruined Lucifer’s armor.”
“God dinged it with a thunderbolt. I put a few bullet holes in it. It gives it character. Like scars.”
“From what I hear, you must have some new ones. Did striking yourself with the Gladius leave a mark? Did King Cairo shoot you in the face? Are you terribly disfigured?”
“I’m not Lucifer anymore. I thought that would get me off the hook with your bullshit.”
“You hurt me. You’re not on the hook. These are fireside chats while I bring you news from far away.”
“Thanks, but you can shove your news. I’m done with Hell. I don’t care anymore.”
“I hear you broke the priest. Poor thing. They’re so delicate, aren’t they? So confident in your world but they come apart so quickly down here. Still, it’s nothing for you to worry about. A mad priest. It’s like a gothic romance. Add his to the list of lives you’ve ruined. But the priest is still walking the Earth, isn’t he? So he’s only half a demerit. God must be very proud of you. You keep filling our houses with new playmates.”
“Here’s my final thought to you. Kill yourself. All of you Hellions should kill yourselves. Or murder each other. You’re Muninn’s problem now.”
“How long will it take you to break your new girlfriend? What’s her name? Something sweet and simpleminded. Does she know how gruesome you can be?”
“I told her all about what happened in Hell.”
“And she’s still with you? She must be an exceptional woman.”
“She is.”
“So was Alice, I suppose. You do seem to go through a lot of them. Exceptional women. Murder isn’t your greatest sin. It’s being as careless with others’ lives as you are with your own. You need to watch that or sooner or later all that will be left are women who’ll run from the very sight of a monster like you.”
“If you’re calling to threaten me, hurry up. I’m going inside and I won’t be able to hear you being scary.”
“I’m getting better with bodies in your world. I can do more than talk now. Soon I’ll walk and drive and look just like anyone else and I can pay you a visit.”
“You better get to it, Merihim. When the Angra come back, you’re as fucked as the rest of us.”
“Clever guess.”
“That’s exactly what it was. Don’t make me tattle on you to Muninn.”
I hang up and head back inside.
Candy is dancing to Les Baxter’s “Balloon Waltz” with Vidocq. I cut in and he graciously takes a powder just like a real Frenchman. I have no idea how to waltz but I can count to three and I can rock back and forth, and with the bar so packed, that’s pretty much
