“Wake up!”
The water hit his face, cold and hard, snapping him back to consciousness. Curran opened his eyes, trying to clear them. He tried to move, but he was bound to a wooden chair with his hands behind him. He flexed his wrists but the knots seemed sound. His feet were at least free and he stretched his legs some.
Darius stood before him, draped in long black robes covered with archaic symbols stitched in red thread. “Did you sleep well?”
Curran spat some of the water out. “How long have I been out?”
“A few hours.”
Curran frowned. “What time is it?”
“Eleven-thirty.”
Curran glanced around. He could still see the sarcophagus. Was Lauren still inside it?
“So, you’re ready at last, is that it?”
Darius nodded. “It’s been a long time coming. I’m looking forward to seeing all my work come to fruition.” He moved closer to Curran. “Aren’t you?”
“Not particularly.”
“Just the sort of sentiment I’d expect from someone who has no idea what I’ve been working to accomplish.”
“I know what you want to accomplish,” said Curran. “You want to bring the Devil back to life.”
“No. Not back to life. He’s never been dead, don’t you see? He just can’t physically exist on this plane. I will change that.”
“So, what, you’ll have the Devil walking around in public? What kind of plan is that?” Keep him talking, thought Curran. Maybe he could figure something out.
“He will return to take control of this pitiful human existence.”
“Oh great, just we need: another leader who doesn’t know how to lead.”
“Humor is not one of your strengths, Curran.”
“Really? Shucks. I was hoping for a spot on the Late Show.”
Darius leaned closer, his foul breath making Curran wince. “Do you know how long I’ve followed your progress?”
“No. But I assume you’re going to tell me.”
“Don’t you remember our conversation from the other night? His smile widened.
He’s enjoying this, thought Curran. But at the same time, he couldn’t stop the deja vu washing over him again. Something did seem familiar.
Darius didn’t wait for him. “Ever since Dallas. About a year in to the investigation. Remember that? You were so obsessed with me. You tried so hard. Worked so long. All for nothing, wasn’t it?”
“Not for nothing, no. I did my job.”
“If you’d truly done your job, you would have caught me.” Darius chuckled. “I remember watching you right after you got bumped out of the Bureau. I watched you loaf around for those six months following your termination. You hung out in bars, in strip clubs, depressed. Lonely. And yet you never succumbed all the way to the basest form of human existence.”
“No.”
“And then you came north. Back home. To Boston. I was surprised they hired you on at the Boston Police Department, but then I suppose a resume that includes work for the FBI looks pretty impressive to a lot of people, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“When I learned from my master that Boston would be our final city, I could scarcely contain my delight. Seeing you again outside the nightclub a week ago was like a homecoming for me. We’re like family, you and I.”
“Darius, you’d be the side of the family I’d try to deny existed.”
“I’m sure I would be.” He smiled. “It might make for some interesting holiday dinners, though, wouldn’t you think?”
“Oh yeah. Especially before you ate everyone.” Curran struggled against his knots.
Darius pointed at the chair. “You are exactly where you’re supposed to be. Do you know that?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Darius shook his head. “Still so unaware.” He sighed. “I’ve been baiting you ever since I came to Boston. You didn’t see any of it, though apparently. The button? Our conversation in my store? None of that led you to believe I knew exactly how to play you?”
Curran hated to admit it. “No.”
“Amazing.” Darius rubbed his hands together. “I thought for sure you would have seen through something.”
“So, I’m stupid.” Curran flexed against the knots again. “You know I can’t let you get away with this.”
Darius chuckled. “Is that a line they teach all law enforcement types to say? I mean, really, everyone says it, even when his or her situation is so obviously poor. There’s no way you can stop me, right now. I have the advantage.”
“That’s your opinion.”
Darius came even closer and Curran watched his face change for just a moment into something his worst dreams couldn’t imagine. Then his face resumed its human appearance. He grinned. “Have you fought many demons?”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
“What have you done with Lauren?”
“Ah yes…the lady friend.”
“Where is she?”
“Do you love her, Curran?”
Curran frowned.
Darius smiled. “No? Funny, I rather thought you did. Especially seeing how much time you two spent together. Rather interesting considering the lady is about to become a nun and all. And here you go corrupting her. Tsk tsk. Not sure how well that will go over with your mighty mighty God.”
“I think he’d understand.”
“You think your God would overlook your transgression merely because the woman happens to be attractive?”
Curran frowned. “How about taking these ropes off of me?”
Darius laughed. “Not a chance.”
“Come on, Darius, let’s settle this like real men. No guns, no badges, no divine wrath. We’ll get down and dirty. Right to the end. Best man wins. What do you say?”
Darius shook his head. “I’m not a real man, Detective. And I’m afraid the advantage in such a situation would be mine all the more. Just ask your friend Kwon.”
Curran bit back the surge of anger. “Tough to do considering you killed him, asshole.”
“For a human, he managed to surprise me a bit.”
“You mean the tooth.”
Darius nodded. “A martial artist, isn’t that what you call those types?”
“I called him my friend. But I suppose that concept is foreign to you.”
“Purely a mortal concept, yes.” He walked over to the sarcophagus, running his hand along the wooden edges of it. “Isn’t this a nice piece of work?”
Curran chewed his lip. “Where’d you get that? The Museum of Fine Arts’ Egyptian Collection?”
“This isn’t Egyptian, you unschooled fool. This is much older than the Egyptians. This one dates back almost a thousand years before the Nile dwellers.”
“So what?”
“This is where my lord will rise. Be reborn on to this plane. Right in here.”
Curran sighed. “And how do you intend to go about doing that?”
Darius eyed him. “Not a believer yet, are you, Curran?”
“Something I’ve been struggling with. I mean, you’ve given me a lot to think about over the course of these past years. But I’m just not entirely convinced this is real. For all I know, you could just be some raving lunatic who thinks he talks to the Devil.”
Darius slapped him across the face. Curran’s head snapped away. He came back tasting copper blood. “Well, put yourself in my position, Darius.”
Darius folded his arms. “Haven’t you figured any of this out? Any of it?
“Don’t know. Why don’t you tell me what’s been going on and I’ll see if it makes any sense to me.”
“What have you discovered about the people I’ve killed?”
“Nasty bunch of folks,” said Curran. “Most of them are the most evil people I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing about.”
“Most?”
“Well, not all of them counted. The little mouse, the two nuns, Kwon…” His voice trailed off. He’d almost said Lauren. Was she already dead?
“No,” said Darius. “Her role in much more important than you realize.”
“Get back to your victims. Why kill the evil ones? Why not leave them be, why not let them continue creating havoc?”
“All of them are evil,” said Darius. “But not just evil in actions, their very souls are tainted by evil. They breed evil. Their every thought is of evil.”
“How is that possible?”
“Everything exists in balance in our universe. Without good there can be no evil and vice versa. To assume that every single person is inherently good is an atrociously arrogant philosophy. If everyone was inherently good, there would be no evil.”
“Unless evil is a learned concept.”
“But it’s not. No more than good is. And so, for all those inherently good souls, there are also inherently evil souls. In each generation, in every age, there are souls that are blacker than night. They exist to help balance out the good.” He smiled. “And sometimes, they exist for a more special purpose.”
“Bringing the Devil back.”
“It’s been written about throughout the ages. Most religions know about it. That’s why they preach being good so fervently. And for the most part, the evil souls tend to fall through the cracks.”
“What a shame.”
Darius smiled. “Tell me Curran: when you were a little boy, did anyone ever tell you that Satan looks for a reason to come into our lives? That he looks for the small beginnings of evil tendencies and then exploits those tendencies?”
Curran’s mind flashed back to Church. To the smells of the frankincense, myrrh, and other incense. He saw the priests. He saw Joey. He saw the fear. Felt the fear, the urge to vomit as he witnessed his friend being raped. He saw the look in the priest’s eyes as he came for him, hands outstretched.
“Yes.” Darius smiled. “Taste your fears all over again. Almost as if they’re happening right now.”
Curran’s mind drowned under the wash of terror gripping him. No! Run, Joey! Run! His eyes felt hot. Tears ran out of them. He sobbed. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t get away.
He could hear Darius chuckling. “You see? You do know what real evil is.” He clucked. “Enough.”
Curran’s mind cleared. The images disappeared.
“I can manipulate you as easily as I breathe, Detective. Your mind is an open book to me.” He looked at Curran again. “Satan lives best through the evil of others.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
Darius eyed him. “Ah, yes, that missionary fellow. Westerly.” He smacked his lips. “Troubling sort. I had to take care of him as well.”
“How many have you killed over the years?”
“Since I’ve been among you pathetic humans? Too many to count.” He shrugged. “Anyway, with each evil deed, my Lord’s presence grows stronger. It draws him.” Darius checked one of the candles and then his watch.
“The problem,” he continued, “is that the focus is scattered. My Lord does not have the ability to simultaneously concentrate on exploiting the evil associated with millions of potential evil people. He could not capitalize on that evil and come back here.”
“Which is his real goal.”
“Naturally.”
Curran nodded. “Makes sense.”
“But, if it was possible to harvest the evil souls of people and gather them in one place, then Satan would be able to open a doorway on to this plane.”
“And you, uh, ‘harvested’ these souls.”
“Like you said, my victims have all been evil.” Darius looked proud. “I am the Soul Eater.”
“So, what do you do with the souls once you get them?”
“I cannot,” said Darius, “hold onto them. I am merely the facilitator of them leaving the body they formerly inhabited. As you no doubt noticed when you unclasped the locks of the sacred vat, it smelled revolting.”
“That’s one word I might use to describe it.”
“It is almost one hundred years worth of vomit, I’m afraid.”
“One hundred years? I thought you’ve been around for eons.”
“I have.” Darius turned away. “Success, however, has only been a recent occurrence in my existence.”
Curran frowned. What did he mean? Had someone else battled him in the past? Had someone else managed to destroy his vat before? How had they done it? Maybe he could be beaten. Curran cleared his mind, aware that the demon could see into it.
“You vomit into that vat and store it?”
“It’s not vomit in the sense that you know it, although it smells just as bad. This vat contains the souls of everyone I’ve killed over the past century.”
“In other words, the evil you ‘harvested.’”
“Exactly.”
“Some hobby you got there.”
Curran tested the ropes again by flexing his hands, hoping Darius wouldn’t notice. “Well, tell me this: if you needed to get evil souls, why have you only killed in the United States? Are you saying we have a monopoly on evil people here?”
“Not at all. Evil spreads itself equally throughout the world, just as good does. Remember the balance we spoke of.” He smiled again. “I spent time in other regions of the world. I harvested there and eventually it was time to come to the United States.”
Curran kept flexing his wrists. Was there some give back there? “So, where is Lauren? Or did you kill her already?”
“Kill her? Me?” Darius shook his head. “I would not presume to do such a thing. As I said, her role in this whole process is very important.”
“Is it?”
“Oh yes.” Darius walked back to the sarcophagus. “You see, while the focus of evil souls is one of the largest components of the process, there is another that is almost as important.”
“That being?”
“The host body.”
“Host?”
“It was written thousands of years ago that the host body must be one who is inherently good. They must have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to refrain from evil actions, though they may have indeed been tainted by it in their past. Perhaps they have been scarred. Perhaps they were brutalized in some fashion. And yet, at every turn they are able to rise above the temptation to do evil back, to get any sort of revenge. They adhere to the principles of good no matter what.”
“In other words, they’re role models for the rest of us.”
“For the rest of you,” spat Darius. “I myself would have no cause to consider them as a role model.”
“You’ve made that abundantly clear.”
“Have I? Good.” Darius patted the sarcophagus. “Your friend Lauren. Your…lover, as she became, is one of the most benevolent souls in the world.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“I am about to,” said Darius. He crossed the room and unclasped one of the seals on the vat.
Curran frowned. “That’s gonna stink this place up to high heaven.”
“Tragically, yes, but it will only be temporary.”
“Temporary?” Curran found it difficult to believe fermented vomit would smell only for a short time.
“Long enough to pour the contents out into the sarcophagus.”
“Why would you do that?”
“You wanted to know what I’ve done with Lauren.”
Curran felt his stomach churn. “Yeah.”
“She is in the sarcophagus.”
“Still?”
“You saw her when you first came in, yes?”
“Yeah.”
“Before you realized I’d simply thrown my voice so you would sneak down here and I could come up behind you and disable you.”
Curran sighed. “Right.”
“You did better on the stairs, by the way, than I thought you would. Especially since the third one from the bottom always creaks a terrible amount.”
“I’m thrilled you approve.”
Darius unclasped the other seal. “Honestly, the smell is pretty nasty. But like I said, it will be over fairly quickly once I start the ceremony.”
“Let Lauren go.”
“I can’t do that, Curran.”
“Let me take her place.”
Darius laughed. “You can’t be serious. Your soul is as gray as they come. There is some good in you but there is also some evil. You’ve been scarred before and you hid your resentment deep down there, never working through it. You harbor animosity toward people who have crossed you in the past. You have a lot of issues, Curran.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Your soul is not suitable.”
“And Lauren’s is.”
“Oh yes. Like I started to say before, the evil souls I have gathered must be allowed to inhabit the body of a benevolent soul. In that environment, the evil souls will feast on the goodness of the host body, a sort of spiritual feast, and at that point where the last vestige of good is destroyed, then and only then can Satan come back and inhabit the body.”
“You’re telling me that Satan will be walking around in Lauren’s body?”
“Exactly.”
Curran frowned. “So why am I still alive? Why not just kill me now?”
“Ah, yes, well, you too play an important role in all of this.”
“Yeah?”
“In much the same manner that the evil souls will feast upon the good soul, so too will the physical need nourishing.”
“Nourishing.”
“Yes, my dear homicide detective. You see, you are the first meal that Satan will enjoy when he finally enters this plane. You are to be his midnight snack.”