LYFT

There aren’t too many moments I can recall feeling absolute pride in my work, Now, granted, I’ve only been recently promoted, but sometimes fate just knows how to create that moment of instant understanding, and present itself with maddening clarity. It’s one of those moments one will never forget, and trust me when I say, things doesn't always go as planned. I am fully aware that failure is a non-tolerable infraction in my business. I have yet witnessed the fate of the previous recruits that hadn’t lived up to our Boss’s expectations, but I knew I would never succumb to the same fatal outcome of my predecessors. I've generally found it difficult believing in silly notions such as coincidence, and serendipitous outcomes. Those were lazy options often suited to appease the weak minded. Yes, it’s true, that was my thinking for as long as i can remember. But I must say…. That all went out the window when I met William. “My friends call me Bill, for short”, he would later share with me.

Sometimes I was fortunate trying different methods to help achieve my goals. My latest was simple. I copied and printed the logo of the two most popular rideshare programs and made nice shiny placards to place on the dashboard of my 2020 Toyota Camry. For me, it was a new car. However, the actual owner would later describe it as their stolen 2020 Toyota Camry by tomorrow morning’s police report. To which, by tomorrow morning, the car will no longer be needed. So, as the kids say… “whatevs”

Usually, between 1:30 and 4am Friday or Saturday evening, picking up unsuspecting inebriated young adults becomes far less challenging. Now, granted, most of them paid attention to the minor details such as… name of the driver, type and color of car to expect upon arrival, etc. But once in a while… you will come across someone that overlooks such details and would comfortably submit themselves to the backseat of an unknown driver, and to their dismay, an unexpected outcome. This is how I met William. Or rather… Bill, for short.

To my pleasure, it was a relentless downpour in Los Angeles the night I met William. I drove around the heavily soaked and dreary city within the common popular areas that generally spewed out the late evening drunken crowd through the front doors of soon-to-be closing bars and restaurants. The sidewalks were littered with discarded youth and stumbling former patrons, that were desperately seeking shelter by standing under random building overhangs trying to avoid the downpour. It was a delightful sight witnessing such utter chaos amongst this group of highly intoxicated beings. These situations were perfect for making my job much easier, and lo-and-behold, it was the heavenly rains that ironically provided me with the upper hand to finding my next ‘project’. Though several of the late night over doers were ripe for the pickings, I still haven’t come across The One yet. I was a patient employee. By no means did I want to screw this up. My goal was to be sitting on the same floor as ‘The Boss’. Nothing else mattered.

After an hour and a half of driving around with no one mistakenly waving me over to pick them up and drive them to their next destination, I turned into a one-way alley and it was then when my night had suddenly changed from a night of searching, to a night of glorious destiny.

I drove slowly towards a man standing at the backdoor of a closed bar. The backdoor had an eave that protected him from the rain, and yet he still appeared to be soaked. As I drove close to him, I noticed a certain sense of desperation at how he waved me over to him. He looked pathetic and wet.

As I drove up closer to him, he rushed out to align himself with my passenger window. He was a decent dressed young man. Perhaps between the age of a fresh 27 or an early 28, but no more or less. I lowered the passenger window from my side. The first thing I noticed of him were his eyes. Even though the night was infiltrated by the pummeling rain, his troubled eyes still trumped all thoughts of any potential weather-related concerns that were forewarned by every meteorologist throughout Los Angeles County.

“Jackpot”, I thought.

“Hey, can you give me a ride? I’m not sure what happened to my original LYFT driver”, he asked while holding his soaked blazer over his head to prevent rain from falling onto his face while speaking.

His voice sounded muffled by the rain pouncing on everything outside of my temporary new car. The look on his face reeked of desperation. But, to a trained eye such as mine, I was able to tell that it wasn’t only desperation that plagued this young man. His eyes also revealed a small sense of unwelcoming fear and uncertainty.

Again, I think to myself… “Jackpot!”

“Sure. Come in”, I said with a very charismatic smile. For a second, I worried the smile might’ve been a bit too much, but the concern was quickly thwarted once he jumped into the backseat of the Camry without hesitation.

“So, where we off to this evening?”, I asked. “I need to put in an address for directions.”

“Oh yeah, shit, sorry about that. Already forgot that you don’t have that info.”, he replied. Looking in my rearview mirror, I can see him reaching inside his soaked jacket to retrieve something from the inside pocket. He pulls out a damp small piece of paper and unfolds it. He gives it a quick look, perhaps to ensure that it’s legible enough for me to read. Then reaches out to hand it over.

“The address is on there,” he said. “I know it’s a far drive, but I promise I’ll give you a hefty tip for your time.”

He offered a tilted grin to assure me he wasn’t full of shit.

“Pathetic,” I thought to myself.

I turned to take the paper and immediately noticed his wet hand. His knuckles were bruised and slightly swollen. The back of his hand revealed several deep scratches, possibly indicative of fresh defensive wounds. I casually grabbed the note, offering no sense of what had just come to my attention. I typed the address into the search box of Google maps on my phone.

I directed my attention to the rearview mirror to address him. I hadn’t notice earlier while he was standing outside due to the jacket over his head, but now I can see similar recent scratches around his neck, along with small blood droplets around the collar of his white shirt.

“Shit, you weren’t kidding.”, I said with a not too surprising tone, showing I was willing to move forward with this, now all of the sudden, very fascinating journey.

“Says arrival will be about an hour and a half from now. I’m guessing maybe a little longer with the rain and all. That’s ok with you?”, I asked still looking at him in the rearview mirror.

His head was turned to the side facing towards the area where he previously was standing when I arrived. He then turned his attention to the rearview mirror and met my eyes. The reflection of our eyes stared at each other for a few seconds. Neither set of eyes blinked nor wandered. My skin tingled and my heartbeat thumped a little faster. This was not a reaction due to fear. In fact, it was the very opposite. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was for this night to present itself the way it did. To say I was excited would be a vast understatement. This was the moment that would define me and thrust me into the upper tier of my Boss’s trusted circle.

He finally blinked and gave a crooked grin while still staring at the refletion of my eyes and said, “Yep, that’ll be just fine with me.” He buckled up then asked… “Hey, by the way, what’s your name? Figured it’s a long trip, might as well get to know each other, right?”

I put the car in drive and started moving along the mapped out directions on the GPS..

“The name’s Seth,” I lied. “And you?”

“I’m William. My friends call me Bill, for short.”

The steady downpour blanketed the city with such ferocity that it became the substitute for conversation. Neither one of us said a word since departing the alley. We both seemed content of sparing each other of casual talking nonsense. I had no intention of driving Bill to the address on my map, nor was I going to have him in my car for an hour and a half. Little to his knowledge, his night was soon ending. I began driving the highlighted path on the GPS to show that we were following the directions in case Bill happened to take a peek at the map. The map showed an alley a couple of intersections away. Figured this would be the area to end our evening together.

“Hey, Bill, I really need to pull over to take a leak before we get onto the highway. Cool with you?”, I asked making it seem more of an urgent matter.

I looked at the rearview mirror to see if he acknowledged me, only to see that his eyes were already staring back at me. I could’ve sworn they were blue earlier, but I must’ve been mistaken. Now, they looked like black orbs without pupils. He offered another sly smile, his voice different from before.

“Do as you must”, he hissed.

In pure irony, I scream out “Jesus fuckin Christ!”

Abruptly, I steered the car towards an empty parking lot. Misjudging the driveway’s entrance, the car’s front right tire smashed into the curb. I inadvertently pressed down hard on the accelerator, causing the car to swerve and crash into a guard post at the end of a wall near the entrance of the driveway. Instantly, my torso was pressed into my seat due to the deployment of the airbag. Though I was still stunned, I looked into the rearview mirror only to see an empty backseat. Bill was gone.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!”, I blurted out.

I stepped out of the vehicle and immediately began scanning the area for goddamn Bill. Which, I’ve gathered by this point, Bill wasn’t his real name. “Touché, Bill.”

I quickly made my way to the trunk and popped it open. I unzipped the large duffel bag and retrieved my two daggers, each with a 12” curved blade similar to a long claw. These razor-sharp blades were exceptionally crafted, intending to disembowel any opponent with extreme ease. Though these daggers were centuries old, I’ve only owned them just shy of a century. And, I have yet to actually use them in battle. They were given to me as a gift by my ‘Boss’. It wasn’t common to receive items first hand from 'The Boss'. He usually, and understandably, has little time to engage with us peons. I thanked him profusely like a grateful servant. I remember Him telling me I would know when to use them. So, I’ve carried them with me every day without ever needing to use them. For as long as I’ve been searching for the wretched souls deserving of such fate, I’ve yet come across a single one. Until tonight. Until fuckin' Bill.

The rain held a steady intensity that muffled any sounds I needed to hear in the distance. I moved away from the car and walked slowly towards a lit light-post in the center of the parking lot. Just as I reached the light-post, a whoosh sound flew past the right side of my head. I twirled around and swung the dagger, held by my right hand, towards the sound. To ensure my left side was protected, I quickly swung the dagger in my left hand, hoping to counterattack. I suddenly felt slow and pathetic after realizing that I was swiping at air and rain. To my surprise, for the first time in my life, a feeling of dread swarmed over me shortly after feeling the sudden sharp pain that ripped across the right side of my face. Though the rain was heavily beating down on me, I knew blood was seeping from the fresh gash on the side of my head. Unlike rain, this was thick and oozing. With no time to prepare for another attack, a sudden crash fell down upon me from above.

I landed hard on the pavement, which freed both daggers from my grip. And within a blink of an eye a body jumped on top of me, pinning me down firmly. The excruciating pain was enhanced when I coughed up blood due to my broken ribs. Though my vision was blurry, I was still able to see Bill’s face hovering over mine. His eyes were like black holes that held two tiny red circles in the center. It was a menacing look, I’ll give him that. His weight was immense, giving a false expectation of his actual body frame. It could’ve been a possible toss-up between choosing him or the weight of the crashed Toyota of which to choose to sit upon my chest.

He gave the same familiar sly smile and, without turning his gaze from me, grabbed one of the daggers that landed beside me. I thought of my 'Boss' at the moment and feared He'd be…

“Oh, you’re thinking about your Boss-man now, are you?” he said with such casualty.

“Ohhhhh, Seth,” he mocked. “You have no idea, do you?”

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, as if gathering his thoughts.

“You see… Seth”, he said the name sharply. “What you haven’t been able to accomplish, I have. I've killed many of your kind while you’ve spent over two centuries under the control of your "Boss". I heard he even gifted you with these daggers some time ago, is that right?”

He held the one dagger in front of my face as if he was displaying it to a customer.

“Hmmm, nice. But not much help now, are they?” He paused, then without hesitation slammed the blade down into my right shoulder. The sound of the stormy night intensified which muted my gurgling screams.

“So, here’s a fun fact for you, Seth. And what a great name, by the way. The bruised knuckles you saw, the scratches and all that shit, yeah… not real. I wanted you to see them, Seth. By the way, I’m going to keep calling you by that bullshit name you gave yourself. Oooh, how clever you think you were.” He snickered, then paused for a beat and continued.

“Anywho… I know you’re a recruiter, Seth. So, I needed to lure you out. I wanted you to think I was a murdering dirtbag. And you, sooooo eager to please your 'Boss', fell for it. You’re a piece of shit, Seth. And so is your 'Boss'. You’re a typical soldier of Hell. You’re the lowest of the scum that lies under the nether region of your Boss’s realm. Your Prince of Darkness, your Belial, your Mephistopheles, or whatever the fuck you want to call him, he’s nothing but a lost demon that will eventually fall.”

“Then just fuckin’ kill me!”, I screamed at him and spat a glob of blood and saliva at his face. Bill never turned his head from staring at me. His eyes were affixed to mine and nothing would distract his attention from me.

“Kill you??? Oh, hell no. Aaaand, yes, pun very much intended. You see, there’s something in you. I heard it. Earlier. So, I’m going to bring you back to MY Boss, and let him make that decision. Not too often that a hell demon says ‘Jesus fuckin Christ’ in a moment of a crisis. That, my friend, was some pure, unfiltered shit. I literally laughed out loud. Besides, your 'Boss' wouldn’t be too pleased knowing that you spewed out a Holy name. Tsk, tsk, Seth,” he teased waving his forefinger side to side.

I couldn’t keep my attention on him much longer. I was weakening by the second from the blade embedded deep in my shoulder. Each dagger was infused with natural elements only found throughout each of the Nine Circles of Hell: Greed, Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Heresy, Treachery, Fraud, and Violence.

Bill, apparently, was well-aware of this, which explained why he didn’t drive the one dagger into my heart. It would’ve killed me instantly. So instead, he drove it into my shoulder.

“So, I guess you know what’s next, don’t you?”, he asked.

I spat in his face again just before he drove the other dagger into my left shoulder.

Several years have passed since last seeing Bill. I’m a prisoner now, as Bill said I would be. The two wounds in each shoulder will always serve as a reminder of my failure. The rest of my life will be filled with eternal agony as my final existence. I don’t know. It depends on whether Bill’s ‘Boss’ wants to keep me or destroy me or perhaps, even recruit me. Only time can tell.

I’ve had, and will have, time to recall every moment of my past. It may be another century or so before I ever see or speak to anyone again. Perhaps longer, who knows? All I’ve been given is something to write with and write on. I’m not sure if anyone will ever read these words, but if it happens, just know that my old Boss never tires, and He will never stop.

I have nothing but time to add to this, so I don’t want to rush it. There will be many more lessons I will share. But, the one thing I will say to you now is… good luck to you all.

Seth