The Contract Saga, BOOK 1: Story of a Mask

CHAPTER 2

Money is number and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your serch for happines will never end.

365 day 'till next cleanse

In that moment I realized that I was standing in the middle of the street and started again to move. After a minute or so I reached the end of the road. 

And there, in all its glory, was... a bar. Yes, just that, just a bar. But it was the best bar in the whole city or, at the very least, it had the best cofee I had tasted in my whole afterlife.

I went inside and a bell on top of the door rang. The place was still empty, apart from the owner, who was cleaning some glasses behind the counter. The scenery gave the idea of one of those old western films: a stranger enters a bar full of people and the barman looks at him from the counter while cleaning, except there were no customers for now.

The owner looked at me and, neraly instantly, recognized me and smiled, putting down the glass. I walked towards the counter and sat.

-Good morning Mr. Poker Face. The usual?-

-Yes.- I answered -I'm happy to see that you survived another time.-

-I'm tough-skinned.- and gave himself a playful punch on the arm. We both started to laugh, considering the fact that he was a scorpion demon. His exoskeleton was the color of burned earth and, sometimes, one could get a glimpse of his stinger. I still had to understand, after so many years, if it was actually poisonous. The best answer I had managed to get was something of a pun: "Did you ever hear of a big scorpion being poisonous?"

-And you? What did you do during the whole extermination?- he asked.

-I slept in my home during the whole thing.-

-You seriously didn't hear anything?-

-Absolutely nothing. The walls of my house were made soundproof for a reason.-

The owner smiled and said: -You're one lucky bastard.-

-No Albert- that was his name -I'm just a demon that has passed thirty years in this hole and I know how this world works. If not, this wouldn't be one of the few "free zones" of Hell.-

Albert fell silent and grunted in approval. Then he placed a cup of cofee and a small plate with a brioche in front of me. From a pocket I took a 20 dollar bill and placed it on the counter saying: -Keep the change.-

Albert took the money and huffed shaking his head.

-Why do you always pay with more money than needed?-

I didn't answer him immediatily. First I took the cup of cofee and raised it to the mouth of the mask. Then I tilted it a little but the liquid inside didn't fall on my lap, as anyone would expect, no, it slowly disappeared from the cup and reappeared inside my mouth.

I put the cup back down on the counter and asked: -Albert, please, could you remind me how many years you've been here in Hell?-

-Eleven, and stop acting like you don't remember because I know for sure that you never forget a thing.-

-Good. It's eleven years that you're down here, and it's eleven years that I come here in this bar and buy myself a cup of cofee and a brioche. And it's eleven years that I pay you with twenty dollars and tell you that you can consider the change as a tip for your hard working. What makes you think that this will change anytime soon?-

-It's not that. Look, you're the boss in this area of the city and, as you said, it's only thanks to you that it's considered the only "free zone" of Pentagram City. There are no Turf Wars here, no assassins, no drugs, just say one negative thing and it's not here. Was it for me you wouldn't even pay for your breakfast.-

Again I didn't answer him immediatly. I stayed silent the necessary time to munch on a piece of my brioche and drink another sip of my cofee. Then I said: -As for your first statement, in Pentagram City there are other two "free zones", the first being Dr. Eugalp's hospital "The Crow's Nest" and the second being the area near Lucifer's Palace. And, about the money, it's a matter of respect. I may be the boss here but that doesn't mean I have to take advantage of my position. I have no economical problems and I can allow myself to pay you a little more, even more so if you use the extra money to upgrade your businnes.-

That said I returned to my breakfast. Albert placed the money in the registershaking his head. From under the counter he took a remote and turned on the TV. The channel showed the "666 news". I didn't even bother watching considering they were talking about the usual s**t: turf wars. It wasn't something that mattered to me. I had long since make clear that this place was mine.

In that moment many demons entered the bar. Some sat at the counter while others sat at the tables. Some of them were residents from my zone.

Out of the blue someone sat beside me. I turned towards the demon to see who was he. Or, more precisely, she. The demon had bright red hair with some yellow stripes. Her eyes had a yellow sclera and a red pupil. The skin of her face was white, which was a normal thing for demons actually. She wore a T-shirt with a pentagram drawn on it, a pair of jeans with tears on the knees, a pair of sneaker and a pair of elbow lenght plastic gloves.

I recognized her, she was my house mate and colleague, Anya.

She called Albert and ordered a cofee and a focaccia bread. Then she turned towards me and said: -Good morning.- and smiled showing her sharp teeth.

-Good morning "log-sleeper".-

She faked a frownand said: -How dare you? Yesterday you gave me some sleeping pills saying to take them if I had troubles sleeping.-

-I don't really recall that part.-

-Really?- she smiled again -Well you did. You litterally said "Here Anya, take these pills to sleep well.- that last sentence she imitated my voice perfectly, which, in a way, gave me the chills. She was a "voiceful" demon and she had the ability to imitate every voice she heard, but, at the same time, she wasn't able to use her original voice. That was the sentence for those that gave false testimony while alive. Well, at least I couldn't say that the boss up there didn't have some fantasy.

In that moment Albert arrived with Anya's order. She was about to take her money when he stopped her saying that it was "on the house". That said he turned towards another client without giving her the time to reply. She turned to me with a questioning look on her face. I didn't answer, I just leaned my head on my hand and shook it with a sigh of fake desperation.

I was still sitting like that when my ear caught Katie Killjoy, the anchor of the "666 news", say that the princess of hell herself was going to give them an exclusive interview about her new "passion project". From what I could remember I had always hated the anchor, she was so fake, she wore a mask but you could easily see over it, see what she really was, a sadist. Nonetheless what she said interested me.

Then I felt something, or, more precisly, someone, poke my shoulder repeatedly. I turned around and saw Anya ready to poke me again with her pointer finger. She stopped immediatly and said: -You were, like, in trance.-

-I wasn't. I was listening to the TV.-

-Albert, call the police, this one isn't Poker Face, it's someone who is trying to copy him.-

-Stop it Anya. They were saying something interesting about the princess.-

-Oh, sorry. You can stop Albert.-

The barman already had his phone near his ear. He looked at me with an excusing look and put it down. I huffed but, under the mask, I was smiling. It was moments like this that gave me the energy to not surrender to life every day.

In that moment the commercial break ended and on the screen reappered Katie Killjoy and Tom Trench but, this time, sitting near them, was Charlotte Magne, Lucifer's daughter and princess of Hell.

We still not knew it but, in that exact moment, everything was about to change.