But I sense there’s a puzzle piece in front of me, one of the edge pieces that tells you how everything fits together. And Cairax hasn’t seen it. There still might be a chance to get out of this.
Your cries shall ring out through the Abyss for ten times ten generations. My hands shall deliver unto you every pain and affliction and violation that has ever been known to man or beast. It will take you ten thousand years just to reach the brink of oblivion, and another ten thousand to fall in. And every moment of that time, my sole purpose shall be to make it worse for you.
I realize what he’s missed. Or maybe what he didn’t want me to notice. We’re still here. Still trapped in a mass of rotting tissue by a short-circuited spell inked into my skin.
I manage a chuckle and Cairax glares at me.
What aspect of your future is so pleasing to you, dearest Maxwell?
“It’s your future, too,” I remind him. “And we’re not there yet, are we? It’s been, what … six months? Maybe seven?”
I feel the smile on his face. It’s a terrifying expression, even when it’s just a mental construct. Did I miss something else? Some detail that slipped past me? I decide to press on.
“Over half a year since we died,” I say. “And no one’s shot us in the head or disposed of us somehow. We’re still both trapped in here. How long will you be able to keep this up? A year, maybe?”
He laughs. I want to drink bleach to clean out my head from the sound. His laughter just gnaws away at my essence, at my fabric of being.
Dearest little Maxwell, he tells me, we have only been here together for a day now.
And then he makes me start screaming again.
I don’t know how long it’s been. The rest of the day? Weeks? Months?
The only things left in my mind are memories of pain, and memories of memories of pain. There’s no space for anything else. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t constant agony racking every inch of my body and mind. I’ve lost all concept of what order my life happened in, because it’s all dependent on the pain.
At some point, Cairax gets bored and decides to let me breathe for a few minutes. It’s like pulling a burn victim from a fire and leaving them sitting on the ground. I’ve hit the point the lack of torture isn’t any better than the torture itself. Even with the pain gone, I writhe and flail from a thousand aftershocks. I have an excess of agony to process before I can think.
Ahhh, the exquisite torture you have to look forward to in the Abyss. The eons we shall have together before your soul is rent and fed to the lesser reavers. And then …
“And then what?”
Cairax Murrain turns to me.
I’ve said the words without thinking. Now I need to think fast. “Then what?” I say again, trying to buy myself an extra moment or two.
And then I see it. It’s like magic. Magic isn’t on the surface, it’s the ninety percent below water. I know how I’m going to get out of this.
“There isn’t going to be anyone else,” I say. “I’m the last soul you’ll ever get.”
His spines rustle like a buzzard ruffling its wings.
“I was right before. We’re still in here. No one’s put us down. And considering we’d be pretty damned dangerous as one of the walking dead, I think it’s because there’s nobody to do it.”
Cairax stalks around me. He’s angry, but the anger’s not directed my way for the first time in … well, a long time.
“If we ever make it out of here,” I say, “you’re going home to a dwindling kingdom in the Abyss.”
Your prattling tires me, dearest Maxwell. Your screams are such better company.
He raises a claw to begin again.
“Wait!” I shout. “Wait! What if we made a deal?”
Your gall is beyond measure. The jailer is willing to bargain when his prisoners free themselves and rise up against him. What could you possibly offer that could serve as compensation for the dishonor you have brought upon the name and title of Cairax Murrain?
But he’s amused now. Interested. He thinks it can see where I’m going, but it wants me to say the words. That’s how these things always go. Even when the deck’s marked and they’re holding all the cards, demons want it to seem like you’re the one with the strong hand, you’re the one controlling the game.
“The world,” I tell him.
And there it is. A steel wheel, five-high straight flush. I can’t think of anything he could have to beat this. This is how desperate I am. That I’d try this game with these stakes.
Cairax is caught off guard. At this point, most losers are promising to sacrifice six hundred and sixty-six people or some such idiot payment. It’s where some of the world’s best serial killers have come from. The demon’s annoyed and interested I’ve offered him something else. Considering the circumstances, I hope he’s more interested.
The rustling spines settle down. His talons tap together.
The world, as you have pointed out, is empty. It is devoid of all but the soulless ones.
“It’s not empty,” I say. “You and I both know that. There’ll be survivors. Only a few millions, but they’ll be there. And they could be all yours. Every living soul on Earth. It could be the Black Death all over again.”
He makes a dry sound like the death rattle of a snake. He’s sighing with pleasure at the memories.
And, assuming your terms were pleasing to me, what would we need to do for this, dearest Maxwell?
“Once this body is destroyed, the Marley will operate correctly. You’ll return to the Abyss, I’ll remain on Earth as a bound spirit. I can begin working to prepare a body for you. Depending on who survives, I may have the perfect one for you.”
Or perhaps you will flee
