Hunter

Smoke swirled up from his cigarette and disappeared into the clear evening sky. He shifted the weight of his body to accommodate the pain in his knee. He watched as boats lazily drifted in and out of the marinas all the way to the bay and ocean beyond. He preferred this view from the bridge, especially when it came time to meet. The other side saw only boats nestled between docks and the water disappearing into the woods. Living a life full of traps and stealthy movement made closed off spaces like harbors feel even more claustrophobic. If he had to be near it, at least his back could be to it with a view of freedom to distract him.

Down below, passing beneath him and into the harbor, he heard drunk laughter coming from one of those cruising boats. He looked down with disgust as he observed two couples dressed in faux-luxury bathing suits and polo shirts, wrist watches and perfumes, fillers and hair-thickening shampoos. He didn’t have to be close to them to sense all of this. It swirled up to him like the smoke of his cigarette swirled up to wherever God might sit to observe the appetites of this modern world.

“Busy judging, are we?” came that raspy, all too familiar voice from beside him.

His nostrils filled with the smell of urine and booze and rotting teeth. He looked up at the sky, realizing that their appointment had arrived. “For once you’re not late,” he said, flicking the cigarette butt away and breathing through his mouth.

“Oh, come on, Jay,” his new companion leaned into him, his hot breath enveloping Jay’s face. “Why don’t you look at me?”

Jay pushed him off his shoulder and limped away, wiping his wincing face as if it would help rid him of the stench and the pain of his movement. “You’re disgusting, what is this?” he said, looking him over and gesturing to his putrid appearance. “You usually have a little more…” he lit another cigarette, then gestured at the homeless man. “I don’t know. You’re disgusting.” Jay bit his tongue before letting anymore thoughts out.

“Jay, Jay, Jay,” the man crooned, almost sashaying towards him while itching his matted hair and flashing a rotting grin. “I love how you squirm. But you have no authority over me, you don’t get to tell me to go home and change like one of your whores. Silly little Jay,” he teased as he got close and personal. “Can’t choose a side,” he spoke with a lilt in his voice. “The rich or the poor,” he straightened Jay’s collar, “the dead or the living,” he leaned in close to his ear, “which do you hate more?”

Jay writhed inside of himself as the homeless man swayed in front of him, his dirty hands resting on Jay’s hips as if in a slow dance, his mouth uncomfortably close to Jay’s face, breathing all over him. He used Jay to hold himself up, causing Jay to gasp in pain. He knew what he had to do, to get this over with, but this disguise was beyond the pale. “I can’t do it,” Jay whispered hoarsely.

“Oh no, darling,” the homeless man looked into Jay’s eyes. “You can. You just don’t want to; you’ve gotten so cocky.”

Silence passed between them as Jay tried to rally himself. The longer he waited, the worse this encounter would get, the worse his pain would get. The price had always been the same, but it had never looked this awful.

“Go on, Jay,” the homeless man brushed his runny nose against Jay’s and cradled his head in his hand. “You know I never take what’s not offered to me.”

Before he could think much longer, Jay grabbed the man’s hips and slammed his lips against the chapped mouth that had been mocking and jeering at him. He could feel bile running from his stomach as his mouth filled with the taste of tobacco and halitosis, his nose with the stench of human urine and feces. The man laughed into Jay’s mouth when he tried to pull away.

“Aw, Jay, you’re no fun,” he pouted with his rotting mouth, but laughed with his gleaming eyes.

Jay spat on the ground as he watched the man’s eyes glow more and more like headlights. This was what he had been waiting for. The adrenaline rushed through his body with excitement, almost pushing the vomitous memory of his price from his mind. But before he could feel the relief that he sought, the glowing receded, and the man began to laugh uncontrollably.

“Master,” Jay growled through gritted teeth, hating the feeling of being teased like this, of his knee continuing to ache.

The laughter continued, doubling him over in spasms, poisonous drool escaping his mouth onto the sidewalk. “I like to call this one ‘Old Scratch,’” he giggled uncontrollably, showing himself and his disguise off. “Call me whatever you want, you’re not getting drunk tonight.”

Jay seethed and limped toward him. “We have an arrangement, Devil,” he tried to control the tone of his voice.

The Devil smiled. “Yes, so we do, but someone thinks we’re equals and, well,” he paused, studying the angry face before him. “It’s not me.”

Jay pushed him away forcefully, but the Devil only smirked. He knew Jay to be tough, that was why he hired him. But no employee likes to go unpaid. He pulled out another cigarette.

“You’re lucky those won’t kill you,” the Devil leaned against the bridge beside him.

Jay noticed that the smell had gone, delivering sweet relief. “They will if you don’t pay me.”

“You didn’t think you would get away with what you did, did you?” the Devil raised a crusty eyebrow. “You thought I wouldn’t find out? Honestly, Jay, I thought you were smarter than that.”

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

“Well, it is. And now you know. That knee isn’t going to behave itself and you might end up with a few more grey hairs for this next job, but if you do it right,” the Devil held up his hands as Jay rounded on him at the image of mortality, “I’ll pay you handsomely.”

“Define handsomely, you ghoul,” Jay could hardly control his rage.

“No spoilers,” the Devil grinned.

Jay took a long drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke into the Devil’s face, only for it to part ways around the homeless apparition like a stream round an obstacle. He took a slow drag and worked hard to pull the reins tight on himself, lest he further his punishment. “What’s the job?” he asked, getting back to business.

“Good boy,” the Devil smiled. “There’s one not far from here. I’m giving you until dawn to get him to me, or else you’ll find yourself in the same straits.”

“A bit harsh, don’t you think?”

“Not even a little. Fair is fair.”

Jay thought for a moment, enjoying the illusion of some control, the feeling that maybe he could say no if he wanted. He watched the boats moving down the water with little to no sound. The town was going to sleep. The breeze was cooling. His knee throbbed with pain, and he looked at the Devil whose eyes were glowing softly.

“Don’t wait too long to decide.”

“Fine,” Jay finally said.

With that, in an instant, a downdraft of wind sent leaves rushing into the street and the Devil disappeared. Jay squinted as the wind died down before looking at the vial of dirt and the paper suddenly in his hand: neatly typed coordinates for where to find his next target.

“Fuck you, Scratch,” Jay raged, dropping the cigarette on the ground and putting it out with one step toward the other side of the bridge.

The moon was bright as he drove to the designated location. Passing through fields at first, he could see everything in the October midnight. He took his final turn onto the last road which dipped him down a hill and into the trees. Jay shook his head to himself. Sometimes he wondered if stereotypes were bought into because everybody wanted to be the same, or was it because everyone thought the same way when they were afraid? People afraid of dying buy boats and surgery and overpriced clothes. People afraid of hell-

“Fuck!” Jay almost lost control of the car as he swerved to avoid a fawn in the road. He sat for a moment and took deep breaths, looking to see where the animal had gone, but it disappeared. Without warning, the car suddenly shut off and a deathly quiet took over the stretch of road. Jay looked around for a moment before realizing what was happening. He decided to take the bait.

He reached over to the glove compartment and slipped the vial of dirt carefully into his pocket before getting out and pretending to inspect the car. He did his best impression of an innocent driver when he felt the frigid air swirl around him. He turned slowly and there, standing before him was-

“Dane?” Jay said incredulously.

“Jay?” the figure replied, stepping out of the shadows to reveal a silvery, opaque version of a young man Jay once knew.

“What the hell…” he trailed off, feeling a cold dread taking over the pit of his stomach.

“Jay, you’ve got to help me,” Dane hissed, his face contorting in desperation.

“What are you…” Jay ran his fingers through his hair. He could not believe his eyes, nor convince himself of what he was seeing. “I don’t understand.”

“Jay, I know he sent you; I know why you’re here, but you don’t have to do this. Please, I can explain,” Dane pleaded. “You’re my only chance to make this right.”

Jay fell onto the hood of his car baffled. He looked at his old friend with enormous fear mixed with grief. “What did you do?”

“Me? What did I do?” Dane almost yelled in exasperation. “It’s all one big misunderstanding!”

“Go on, then, explain it to me,” Jay glanced over his shoulder at the sky, wary of the rising sun. “We don’t have much time.”

“Jay, it was a little thing. I swear it, he didn’t have to react like this. He didn’t have to kill me,” Dane begged almost in tears.

“Yeah, well, he did, didn’t he? You’re a ghost now and I’m here to collect you,” Jay grimaced at himself. At once he wanted to fall in league with his friend and help, but at the same time he could barely look at what he had become. “I don’t want any part of this, you have to come with me,” he said definitively and put a hand in his pocket to retrieve the vial.

“Wait!” Dane held his hands up and dropped to his knees. “Please,” he whispered. “We were both hunters. Give me that much pity. For an old friend, give me that much.” Tears slipped down the ghost’s blank facial expression. The mix of thick emotion and desperate control broke Jay’s heart and he pulled his hands out of his pockets.

“You know how he is; I have a deadline. You get ten minutes.”

“Thank you,” Dane said hoarsely. “Thank you.”

Jay shifted uncomfortably, realizing his position was not one he particularly enjoyed.

“Lucifer sent me on a tough job. One of those mothers who dies in labor, two ghosts in one and you have to catch them so carefully,” Dane bit his lip. “I was a new ghost hunter at the time, I wasn’t used to being drunk and doing the job and no one teaches you this stuff.” Dane paused, studying Jay’s face. “Well…I lied.”

“You what?” Jay’s eyebrows shot up practically into his hairline.

“I lied to him,” Dane almost sobbed. “I brought him two ghosts, and I guess he assumed I did it on the first pass, but I didn’t. The child disappeared in a flash, just gone. Slippery old thing. And the mother…she wouldn’t come with me; she was so heartbroken. The idea of sending her there after what she had been through-”

“We don’t show mercy, Dane,” Jay said through gritted teeth. “That’s the job. Ghost hunters don’t show mercy. We deliver, we get drunk, we go on the next job. That’s the deal. That’s how you stay alive!” he almost shouted.

“I know,” Dane began openly crying. “I left her there in the nursery. I found a couple others outside and took them to him instead. He got his two ghosts, I never did it again. They were a couple losers draining society anyways. They were going to die sooner or later!”

Jay looked at him with shock. “You killed a couple people to justify letting that woman stay here mourning her child forever?”

“I didn’t know what to do,” Dane sobbed.

“Finish your fucking story,” Jay lit a cigarette, trying to hide his disgust.

“He figured it out and said I had to make up for it,” Dane tried to control himself.

“How?”

“I have to sit here and collect five ghosts before my time runs out.”

“How much time do you have?”

Dane froze and glanced at the sky. Jay’s skin began to crawl as realization began to set in.

“Jay,” Dane said, his voice deathly still. “Did you see him tonight?”

“Yeah, why?”

“What did he look like?”

“A homeless man. Fucking awful,” Jay shuddered at the memory.

Dane nodded. “That’s how he came to me when he decided to punish me. Jay,” Dane said with urgency. “You’re in trouble.”

“No, I’m not,” Jay scoffed.

“You didn’t get drunk, did you?” Dane asked softly.

Jay froze. “How do you know?”

“That’s the first step. He shows up in that awful get up, calls himself ‘Old Scratch’ as a joke, then he won’t pay you. Jay, he won’t pay you until he gets what he wants. I had to kill five people on this road. What do you have to do?” Dane’s lip began to quiver.

“Have you killed them? What, with little fawns in the road?” Jay countered. “You failed. I’m not going to pay your price.”

“No,” Dane wiped his ghostly face. “I’ll pay my own price.”

Before Jay could understand, Dane launched himself at him and gripped his throat. The pain in Jay’s knee took on a new life of its own and seemed to spread over his entire leg as he fell backward onto the hood of the car. His eyes bugged out of his skull as Dane pressed his thumbs onto Jay’s windpipe.

“I’m so sorry, Jay,” Dane wept. “I’m so sorry.”

Jay writhed under his grasp, desperate for air, before black spots began to consume his vision. Soon enough, he lost touch with the world altogether.

The passenger door of the car opened. Dane stepped back and watched carefully. Slow claps came from the dark figure as a feminine voice said, “Well, well, well,” clap, clap, clap. “I am impressed.”

Dane gulped as the moonlight illuminated the woman before him. Her hair cascaded down her back and her teeth gleamed white like the stars. “Thank you,” Dane replied, hoarsely.

“You really were desperate not to spend eternity with me,” she smirked as she looked over Jay’s dead body. She reached between her breasts and pulled out a similar vial. “Collect the dirt,” she said sharply.

Without hesitating, Dane did as he was bade and brought it to her. Jay’s face was drained of all color, his mouth wide open still desperate for air. She opened the vile and held it at the edge of his lips, like she wished for him to drink. The vial filled with the silvery blue mist that Dane had been transformed into. In almost an instant, the body looked completely drained, and the vial was returned to its place.

“Alright, Dane,” she smiled. “Would you like your prize?”

Dane nodded his head, still speechless. She stepped forward and pressed her body into him, locking her lips to his. She tasted like wine and honey as his hungry hands tangled into her hair and gripped her body. Their tongues danced and he felt himself melting into her, when suddenly he realized he could not remove his tongue from her mouth. Panic set in and he opened his eyes to see the glowing headlights he had been so desperate for the last time he encountered her. His mouth began filling with dirt and he gagged.

“Swallow,” came the dragon voice that truly belonged to his master.

Obedient and terrified, he fell to his knees, eyes wide, hands gripping her hips as he tried to swallow the dry earth. Almost out of breath, she released him, and he choked.

“What did you do to me?” he gasped with a ragged breath.

“I brought you back,” she sneered, holding up the empty vial that had been concealed in Jay’s jacket. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

He nodded his head, still catching his breath. His eyes were consumed with her beauty, but his body was exhausted from the long ordeal.

“I will say you don’t really deserve to be brought back,” she frowned.

“But I did it,” he faltered wincing in pain. “You said five ghosts or Jay. I gave you Jay.”

“Yes, but who gave you Jay so you could give him right back?” she grabbed him by the hair and tipped his head back.

“You always give us the ghosts you want,” he countered, trying to hold himself together.

“True,” she contemplated this. “Fine,” she pushed him to the ground.

“You know what they always say. Better late than never, right?” he tried to laugh through the pain. “Hey, what about payment?”

“Oh no, Dane,” she smiled. “You don’t get drunk this time,” she swayed her hips as she walked back to the car. “You know what they always say. Better alive than dead, am I right?”