Demons and Magic

CHAPTER 17: A Soul Gone Rogue

Castiel stared at her with pity in his eyes.

Alastair stared back at him with a look that she might stab him in the face.

“You know—”

“Hold that thought,” she interrupted before he could even start preaching at her and pointed at his clueless face. “I know that look. And no, I’m not gonna let you baptize me.”

Castiel just blinked, not even sure where she got that idea from, and opened his mouth to say something but Alastair had already held up one hand.

“I don’t wanna hear it, alright?” she said and let her finger glide from the direction of his face towards the solitary object in the room apart from the bed. “And what the f*ck is that?”

Castiel’s eyes followed the direction to which Alastair was pointing and almost immediately, his face had turned alarmingly pale.

On one corner of the room stood a framed image of Jesus Christ with a small rosary dangling on one side — an unforgivable abomination that even the demons could never do.

“That … ” he started explaining and stood up, still pale as ever. “ … that’s … that was given to me by Mrs. Pratchett. I do not wish to hurt her kindly heart by refusing the gift, so I—”

“And why would she give that to you?”

“Well, we had a talk. You know, when I moved in here last night? I expressed to her my love of the creator — our creator — and she gave me that.”

“And you displayed it?”

He nodded.

“Brilliant.”

“Really?”

“Brilliant impression of an i***t. If you go home — or if you still can — Michael would no doubt be preparing a pitchfork just for you. That’s just ridiculous. Jesus Christ isn’t even white!”

“Yeah, well—”

“Are you really an angel?”

He wanted to say something but just decided to keep his mouth shut instead, his eyes wandering around the place as he tried avoiding Alastair’s judging gaze.

“Oh well,” she said, deciding that the argument was one that she’s only half-interested to win. “I just wanna remind you to be your angelic self. Wouldn’t want you kicked out of heaven, you know? Because by then, you’d have to stay in Hell and personally speaking, I don’t really want you as company.”

Castiel’s expression dropped and he gritted his teeth, scowling down at Alastair who, compared to him, was pretty short. “Don’t worry, Alastair. If I were sent in Hell, it would be because you have messed up so bad that they want me to deliver the punishment personally.”

Alastair just chuckled and sneered at him. “As if.”

···

By the time the clock struck six in the afternoon, the rain had finally stopped and Alastair, in her immense boredom, had already conjured up a chocolate fountain inside Castiel’s room and had even made it rain marshmallows.

Unfortunately for the poor angel, the ants living in the attic had already made its way towards his room so now he was left with the misfortune of having an entire ant colony right to his face.

“Alastair! You three inch fool, you better get rid of all these right away!”

Alastair just laughed at his misfortune and made his way towards the hallway, steering clear of the room that now resembled a forest made by Willy Wonka.

“You’re powerful, aren’t you? Why don’t you get rid of that yourself?”

“You know that I cannot use my abilities without the consent of the Lord.” Castiel tried making it all vanished again one more time but nothing happened. “Now, get rid of this before I toss you out the window.”

“Shame. You shouldn’t have given up on your Celestial abilities, then.”

“I traded it for you! Because if you weren’t such a clotpole, Lucifer would’ve already been found and the mess that we’re in wouldn’t be like this!”

“Excuse me,” Alastair bit back a laugh, her lips stretching into a smile, “the mess that we’re in? Because it almost seemed to me that you’re the only one in that mess—”

“I’m not talking about this mess Alastair! I’m talking about all those lost souls!”

“Lost souls?” Nathan interrupted and leaned on the doorframe of his room as he crossed his arms. “You two seemed to be in a really deep conversation. Talking about lost souls, are we? Soulmates and such?”

Alastair’s face scrunched up in disgust. “What the hell are you on to now?”

“Me? Oh, nothing.” He laughed and started sweeping the floor with his slippers. “I was just thinking about what I would be having for dinner, is all.”

In an instant, as though the word ‘cook’ was an off switch, Alastair’s face brightened up. “Cook shrimps again. You know, the one you did last week? That was brilliant.”

“Oh, it was, wasn’t it?”

Alastair nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, I think I’ll cook that one. But I’m afraid you can’t eat it.”

As fast as it came, the smile on Alastair’s face vanished and she scowled. “And why not?”

“No particular reason.” Nathan smiled and pointed at Castiel who was only listening in silently on their conversation, his grin wide. “Why don’t you go and eat with him, huh? He might know how to cook your favorite shrimps.”

Alastair was about to open her mouth to say that Castiel is a dollophead who probably only knows how to pick his own nose when all three of them heard laughter coming from Joshua’s room.

In a swift bustle of movements, Joshua groaned in pain when Alastair’s slipper hit him square on the forehead.

“That ought to teach you never to eavesdrop again,” she said with a satisfied look on her face, probably also clapping herself in the back for making that impressive shot.

Joshua still groaned as he massaged the spot where Alastair’s forehead had hit him and closed his door so he could probably cry in private. The door next to his, though, had opened and Keiffer peered at his direction with a curious look.

“What? You want to follow his path, too?” she tried intimidating him, but Keiffer only pointed at the huge earphones stuck on his ear, signalling her that he can’t hear anything even though it was obvious that he can.

Alastair just scowled at him and watched in silence as he closed his door, still, at the last minute, looking at them through the gap on the door.

“You really should be controlling that temper of yours,” Castiel said, and Nathan nodded.

Although when Nathan realized he had silently agreed with the golden git, he immediately tried to cover it up by acting interested on the ceiling that looked anything but nice.

“Now, as I was saying before that—” Alastair’s words were immediately cut short when she felt the same familiar burn on her arm, this time, it was glowing red.

The first one — blue — she understood was because Castiel had assumed the form of a human being which would normally alert those of the same Celestial origins. But since this was red, there can only be one explanation of it.

And neither Castiel nor Alastair was gonna like it.

“Sh*t,” Alastair cursed and covered it up with the sleeves of her shirt, frantically looking everywhere for any signs of an otherworldly entity.

But apart from the two of them, there seems to be no other supernatural being around.

That is, until she looked out the window to where Warren Castillo’s flat was.

Just behind a pair of dark-colored curtains, they could make out two red dots in the form of eyes that were unmistakably looking back at them. Underneath it was a small line that, the longer they stared, the wider it gets.

It was almost as if it was smirking at them.

Until they realized that it actually was.

Alastair and Castiel wasted no time and dashed down the staircase with Nathan hot on their heels, his fear reflected in his dark brown eyes.

“What was that?” he asked in between breaths as the three of them made their way across the street and into Mrs. Kendricks’ apartment building.

Both Alastair and Castiel ignored his question and scrambled up the narrow staircase towards the room where they saw the rogue soul looking back at them from a glass window.

Without even thinking of knocking, Alastair kicked the door down and barged into the room with the prospect of catching her first soul. They were, of course, greeted with a series of curses, a high pitched scream, and a swinging of a broom that had landed on Castiel’s huge ass forehead.

“Ow!” he groaned and took hold of Nathan who only dodged his grip, making him fall flat on his face down on the dusty hallway floor.

“Where is it?” Alastair asked, more to herself than them, and rushed towards the glass window where they last saw the pair of eyes.

“Alastair?” Warren, who they just realized was the one who made a high-pitched scream, squeaked from behind his couch and instantly stood up, not wanting Alastair to think that he just hid in there all the time like the coward that he is.

“Where is it?!” Alastair asked again, her voice growing even louder, reflecting her frustration.

She opened all of the rooms and had even made sure to check the closets and bathrooms for any signs of the evil entity. But apart from Warren and his two equally stupid friends, no one else was in there and the spirit had most probably already escaped.

Unless of course, it had already possessed one of them.

Alastair turned abruptly towards the three of them that nearly made them all stumble on themselves as they tried taking a step back.

She narrowed her eyes at each one of them and started closing in the distance, making the other two completely shake on their own two feet.

Warren was the only one walking forward. “Al? Is everything alright?” he asked but Alastair was only staring straight at him.

Well, not exactly him. More like his eyes.

When she didn’t see anything weird, she turned her attention back to the other two instead and ran after them, making them cry out a series of curses as they scampered away in completely random directions.

“You’re nuts!” the guy with the buzz cut said and slid down the floor when he realized that he has already been cornered.

Alastair scoffed at him and ran after the other one who was now begging for mercy from the Lord, his cheeks wet with tears. When she was contented that the spirit really was gone, she stood up and sighed in irritation, giving the place one last look before signalling towards Nathan and Castiel that it was all clear.

Warren just blinked at them, unsure why she had suddenly gone completely crazy all of a sudden and watched as they all went out the door as if nothing had happened.

Alastair was still bummed out. After all, she had a reputation to uphold and Castiel being able to catch more souls than she can is not something she was proud of.

“Hey, Al?” a voice called out from behind them as they made their way towards the staircase, and Alastair turned.

“What?”

Warren smiled at her. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, f**k off, will you?”