Page 6 of One Hell of a Deal

We have been driving for a few hours, and I have no idea how much longer the trip will take. He looks almost as tired as he does grumpy, but I guess that makes sense. Turning to thewindow, I notice the sky seems lighter, and excitement bubbles within me. I’ve never seen the sun before.

“What the hell are you so happy about?” The break in silence catches me off guard. I didn’t realize I was smiling, but I'm relieved to be asked a question.

I point up ahead. “I’ve never seen anything other than a black sky. This is gonna be amazing.”

He scoffs at me. “Don’t demons prefer the dark?”

“We have only known the dark,” I say, trying to ignore his condescending tone. “You act like I’d made the choice to be a demon.”

His face crunches, and silence returns for several minutes. I watch his expressions shift from hard to soft, like he’s deep in contemplation, and I wish I could read his mind. I wish he would say something.

Twenty minutes pass before he finally does. “I plan to drive until the early afternoon. We can get food and a room somewhere in Virginia to get some sleep for a few hours.”

I nod and lean forward, noticing the sky, turning slowly from grey to a soft blue. A flash of orange draws my attention toward my window, and the scene unfolding makes me gasp. Vibrant reds and blues are trickling up into the sky from a bright point on the horizon. It’s like a fire is painting the world with light, and it’s so beautiful that I forget to breathe.

“Look at that,” I say out loud without meaning to.

He softly laughs through his nose. “The sunrise is beautiful. But seriously? You’ve never seen the sun? I just assumed you were a human before you became a demon. I guess there is a lot I don’t understand.”

I smile at him, slightly relieved that the tension in the car has slightly softened. “If I have seen the sun before, I have no memory of it. They told me that I was a human once, but I can’t remember that either. I don’t know what I did to end up in hell, but I think it must have been something pretty horrible. I wish I could remember.” I laugh, and he shoots me a befuddled smirk. “At least if I knew what I did, I could be careful not to repeat it this time around. It would be nice to avoid going to hell again.”

His face drops into a frown, and he grips the steering wheel so hard that I can hear the leather groan. I shouldn’t have said that. His best friend was just dragged to hell, and he is bound to a future there soon enough.

“That was a dumb thing to say,” I whisper. “I’m sorry.”

His face and grip on the wheel soften, but he doesn’t look at me. “Whatever. Let’s go back to quiet time.”

I blow out a sigh and drop my forehead on the window. “Right. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

The truth is, at this moment, I don’t mind the quiet. I’m content to gaze at the sky, brightening by the second. I want to stare directly at it, but when I try, it burns my eyes, so instead, I close them. My eyelids absorb the light, glowing within, and my face starts to warm, draped in a blanket of light. I know this is only Earth, but right now, it feels like Heaven to me.

Chapter Six: Max

Daphne is an odd duck, but I guess that’s to be expected. She didn’t sleep at all but quietly flipped through the channelson the hotel room TV for five hours as I slept. She was mesmerized by the flickering boob tube having never seen one before. We ended up getting fast food to save time, and she groaned in delight with every greasy bite from her burger and sip from her cola. It was entertaining, but I was careful not to react in any sort of positive way. The last thing I need is for her to think we are friends.

I plan to get her settled and out of my life as quickly as possible. But I can’t deny that I’d love to watch her consume something decent. If shit food makes her moan in delight, some high-quality cuisine may explode her. I wouldn’t want to miss that.

She finally dozes off around midnight, and it’s three in the morning by the time I exit the tunnel, into the city, and gently tap her shoulder.

She sits up and rubs her eyes. “Are we here?”

“Just a few minutes,” I say. “Thought you might want to see the city while the streets are, for the most part, empty. It’s packed with people and bumper-to-bumper traffic almost all of the time. So, this is a rare opportunity.”

She leans forward and her mouth drops open. “There are so many lights. Do you see that? These buildings reach up into the clouds. How do they not fall over?”

My resolve to remain indifferent to her starts to melt away. She seems more like an innocent child than anything resembling her demon origins, and despite my inner protestations, I am bemused.

She blabs a ton of observations and questions, without leaving me time to answer, as I drive slowly through the deserted streets.

“Is that a homeless person? That shop has the world's best coffee! Look at the size of that TV on the building. Do you work in one of these towers? What is the smoke coming up from the ground?”

A laugh escapes me, and she turns and smiles at me, her face still stretched in awe. “What? This place is crazy.”

“So, you really haven’t seen much of Earth, then?” I ask.

“All I’ve seen is hell’s fire chambers, and the boring ol’ crossroads. Other than seeing cars and the building with the blue light, my experiences have been, shall we say, limited.”

“This must be wild for you.”

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