Deathwish
Joshua pulled the abused cellphone from his pocket, looking at the dull screen and then at the locked door of his motel room. It had been a whole two weeks since Michelle had left him, and he was far from just beginning to worry about the girl. He was hysterical now, and Richard was barely able to keep him in the room. Richard, his roomy and as of late, his enemy, had been watching Joshua grow restless when she didn’t turn up.
Neither of them knew that for her to come anywhere near them now would be a death sentence. Quietly she had slipped from bedside to bedside many, many nights now, possessing the local whores off the streets in order to sip from the souls of the thugs and streetlife, and the occasional delicacies the richer men provided. Steengthening herself to fight Pero.
No, Joshua was convinced that Pero had kidnapped her off the street and it was his fault for dragging her into this war. The papers were still stashed with Richard in the thick wooden box. Incriminating papers that would get Pero, the crime lord of Los Angeles, locked away. For good this time.
Quickly he glanced around, noting that Richard had gone out for a smoke by the pool. He dialed the number to Pero’s own bedside phone and damn the man if he was busy fucking some whore. He needed to know where his girl was and now.
The dial tone clicked and buzzed until Pero picked up. “It’s traced, congrats you dumb fucking deadman!” he growled, slamming down the phone. Joshua hung it up and went for the door, dropping it as he slammed his fist on the door.
“Richard! Come now, fuck… Richard?!” he roared, leaning back against the wall and running a hand back through his hair. Pero didn’t have her or he would have tormented Joshua. Pero had the cops, waiting for this. Pero was in on whatever it was. Richard busted in the door, waving his arms and nearly slamming the knob of the door into Joshua’s gut in his rush.
“Whoa, whoa, who’s dyin’, what the feck is goin’ on Josh?” he groaned, looking over to him, his unusual accent thicker as he became more frustrated. “Ye’re gonna wake the fucken’ Devil o’ of these days!”
Joshua pushed him back and closed the door, his breathing hectic as he pointed to the phone, money and the infamous box. “Gather our shit up, we need to leave – tonight- because Pero traced my call…” he gasped, makign Richard’s lips go wide, the cigarette dropping onto the blankets.
“Fuck!” Richard said sharply, “You din’… yes you did. Josh ye stupid boy! You call’t Pero, you dumbass and now he’s on us!” he said, jumping off the bed as Joshua noded. Within five minutes they had everything packed in the car, the key was taped to the back of the locked door as they sped out of the parking lot.
Richard kept glancing over to Joshua, the car’s windows up as they took the best lit streets. “Was it worf it, eh Josh?” he asked softly.
Josh sobbed and hld his temples. “He doesn’t have her.” He whispered, shaking his head. “Michelle’s in the gutter somewhere and it’s all my god damn fault.”
Richard tapped the brakes as his eyes shot over to Joshua, making the bus behind them screech on its brakes and honk.
“It was then.” He gently answered, turning them off to a brightly lit carpark. “So ye knew yer sweet’art is safe.”
Joshua groaned and slammed a fist into his thigh, shaking his head and gritting his teeth. “But Pero’s flushed us out again. And he can track the phone, but how … he knew we were in that room. Cell phones can’t be tracked like landlines…” he blankly deliberated, relaxing. “He knew all along. And he knew Michelle was gone, knew that we wouldn’t leave until we had her… and he was bluffing that he had her to bring us in.”
Richard looked over and grinned. “Ah, then thanks to ye, fer getting’ us outta harms way. And thanks to yer smartass girl. Make sure I getta thank her someday and apologize for calling her a whore.” He said, chuckling. Joshua, for once, chuckled with him, the dark circles under his eyes seeming to fade the slightest bit.
Michelle wiped her lips with the corner of a blanket before leaving the bedside, bumping a candle to light the place on fire. As she willed the cloth into being with her strong mind, a white gown covered her corporeal body until it faded into that of a ghost with long, black tendrils for wings. She drifted up through the roof and out to the night sky, spreading the curled tendrils and soaring back towards her nest.
As she touched down on the landing, she sighed. She hadn’t counted the amount of time had passed since she had been transformed, but she was almost strong enough to kill Pero and to contact Joshua. Killing the deepest pit of courrption in the city would deeply taint her, and make her hungers vicious. After all, that’s what kept her going, feasting on the evil, transmuting chaos and corruption to order and goodliness.
Michelle smiled softly as she slipped into her private room, away from the two servant maids left to her by Camangelo. She need privacy to think about this. She had to know, when and where, she could time it all out to make it easier to kill the man. How complicated it seemed for only one body, but well worth it.
Pero walked out from behind one of the brightly lit cement pillars clapping and smilign under the black hood. “Good job, nice show.” He grimly commented. He had, indeed, been tracking Joshua and Richard from the hospital. He had, however, lost tabs on Michelle when she seemingly vanished from the face of the earth.
Richard turned pale, and Joshua stiffened as more thugs closed on the car, slashing the tires and plugging the exhaust. They both exited the car, but then a cold wind whipped up. Something was amiss about Pero, normally the cocky man would walk anywhere without fear. Why was he now hiding his face?
Lilithia watched, still planning his demise. She would not let him hurt Joshua, but until she could make her move she could not interfere. She phased through the car, taking the box and the money. Pero would gain nothing.
She knew they would feel her, but as she locked their guns up with the pangs of her deepest chaos, she turned and stepped through the Blackdoor with confidence. No gain, no murders.
Joshua and Pero looked around but then Pero threw bck the hood. “Bind and gag them, search the car then mar and burn the damn thing.” He said, turning. No elborate murder schemes tonight, both Richard and Joshua noticed. Pero was uncomfortable in his own city.
Later that night, Pero picked up his phone, calling the cellphone that had been left near the bunred out shell of Richard’s car. He left a terrifying message, at least terrifying to the normal populace.
“If you don’t bring me the box, he dies at midnight.” He said, calm and coolly. Surely she’d be smart enough. But however she had gotten the box in a hand off had escaped him. He’d seen everything, and there were no fake copies of that box. He was afraid, afraid because for once he didn’t hold the better hand of cards at his own table.
Michelle looked on in concern as the phone rang. She had revisited the scene to ensure her slight intervention had done nothing, and indeed, it hadn’t. She listened to the ominous message and laughed. Pero couldn’t kill a man wo had the protection of the single most powerful demoness aside from Lucifer’s own minions.
She laughed all the louder as she picked up the phone and crushed it in a single hand, though anyone watching would have thought that it imploded of its own accord.
“A man so hated by the Countess of Black would do well to watch his back.” She whispered cryptically., dropping the phone, or what was left after it had been ground into sand. Yes, soon she would be able to turn the tables and knock every single thug from the face of the earth in her city.
