Semua Bab Damned Straight to Heaven: Bab 51 - Bab 60

NickI feel Louie’s hand on my arm. He ain’t left yet. He pulls me to my feet. “Want me to throw him in your trunk?” he asks of our bishop, as Sicillio finishes his last prayer over Father Evans – the thrall he put down himself. “Me and Ben can taxi him over to the chapel too, if you ain’t got space.” “There is no need for further use of force,” Sicillio commands. “We do not throw those seeking redemption in back of a trunk. He can sit in the back.” He even goes so far as to cut free my hands, holding my eyes and giving the firm, benevolent nudge, “Go on.” I wander over to the Chrysler, pull open the unlocked door, and sink down in the backseat, right next to the mayor. “I shouldn’t have betrayed him,” Ross is muttering to himself, shivering and rubbing at his arms. “Why did I betray him? And Daniel…” He cocks his head, glossy eyes staring straight at the seat-back like it’s got the memory painted right on its surface. “Daniel was so happy. I’d never seen him so happy… Why would Je

ChristianIt was not far from daybreak by the time I exited the police station with my newly acquired stash of demonic drug. I ordered one of my freshly turned thralls from the morgue to drive me to St. Christian’s Cathedral, since I’ve no idea as of yet how to operate a vehicle.It seems a rare skill in general in this city. My waiter friend doesn’t drive, too broke to even afford the purchase of a car, and Daniel had chauffeurs throughout his childhood and so never learned himself how to work these noisy mechanized replacements for the classic horse and carriage.Perhaps Nico could teach me how to drive… The thought makes me smile. He hardly has the temperament to make a good instructor. He’s surly and impatient as they come. I would likely be distracted the entire session anyhow, with that body leaning over me, his intoxicating scent flooding my nostrils. I’d be egging him to pull over so we could have sex right there in the back seat, under the stars… I’m cementing the plan in my

ChristianI go racing down the steps, taking them two at a time. I round the corner, and I instantly see Nico, laid out on the floor of a locked cell. The sharp tang of iron assailing my tongue is mostly from his back: an oozing mess of raw, bloody flesh criss-crossed with what must be at least a hundred, brutal lashes. He’s breathing still – a ragged, stuttering and most alarming sound, but his eyes are blank and unseeing.Most disturbing of all is the winged shadow bent right over him, clawed fingers extending right into his skull. “Incubus.” a demon of nightmares and warped reality. It raises its head – a mass of buzzing darkness. It doesn’t have a mouth, but I can somehow feel it smiling at me, a leering, evil grin. I can’t exactly drag it off my comatose enforcer. The creature has no substance to it. It’s nothing but shadow and negative energy. Too bad I’m not an exorcist. I can’t even handle holy water. Still, I can drag Nico from this cursed place, and even should this demon fo

DanielMy father wasn't there at the hospital the day I was born. He never cared about me. All he cared about was the scandal I caused him – seen playing in the yard wearing Jessi’s pilfered skirt or mother’s pilfered high heels.Mother said it was all harmless – Father divorced her before I turned six, married a classy, blonde twenty year old much better for his political campaigning.You’d think mother would have taken me and Jessi along with her when she left town...She didn't. We never saw her again.I still kept some of her things as mementos long after she abandoned us, but I stopped treating them as costumes.That isn’t to say I stopped acting out. I never fit in with the other boys, so I’d hang out with Jessi and her friends, play along in their fashion shows until father got so angry, he stopped allowing us to have guests over.The older I got, the angrier he got, burning my things and using the belt on me… That didn’t set me straight. It made me consciously want to cause hi

NickI left the ring at home. I’ll need to swing by the place before heading to this swanky gala Bertinelli arranged for the mayor, the black-tie venue where I’m supposed to propose to his knocked-up daughter.I can think a little clearer once I’m inside Lis’s car, away from the church and Sicillio… Lis takes the wheel without even checking if I feel up to driving, leaving off the radio and humming a tune beneath her breath as we rip off down the road.She seems straight-up giddy, but maybe she’s just trying to keep cheerful for my sake. I feel... detached, from everything, but my body's poised with shoulders tensed – clammed up rigid like a corpse. It really did feel like an eternity in those cells, a full life-sentence of beatings, imprisonment, loss of appetite and majorly fucked up dreams...Maybe a regular mook would believe those to be ordinary nightmares. Not me, not the longer I reflect. I know a demon when I see one. Exhausted and muddled as my thoughts are at the moment... I