Selling Advice

I pushed my cart, a little miffed. People need to stop freaking out after hearing things they didn’t like hearing. The men- they looked more like boys- struggled in the trodden dirt of the clearing. One of them was an odd fellow, shivering in the middle of summer while on a ‘walk’ in the woods. I only used this path because it was smooth. I shook my head and walked along, pushing my cart. There were few people that could deal with listening to their fates and stay sane which is why I sell advice instead of fortunes. I glanced back to see them circling each other, more animalistic than before. I looked a little closer and saw that the knives that they were so quick to pull on me were still sheathed. And when their heads turned towards me in unison, I realized I had lingered for far too long. I put some steel in my spine and turned around, calling, “If you want to be rid of your demons,”- I spread my arms in a wide shrugging gesture-“you must rid yourself of the poison you shove deep inside yourself.” I turned around, both men staring at me hungrily. “But first you should probably eat,” I laughed to put them at ease and turned around, hands firm on my cart. Fast footsteps approached me, and day went to night, much too sudden. I felt hot breath on my neck and swearing and praying from the other man, who scrambled away. I started walking but something sharp and hard was placed against my neck. Now he brings out the knife. I swallowed and my thoughts flowed out with a trickle of blood.

She was looking for her brother. He had gone missing after coming to see me. I told her which way he had gone but the sun was setting. Her hair shone in the light and her face was screwed up with worry. The same face I see when I get home too late.

“Face me.” A command given by a deep voice, laced with irritation. I turned and the blood in my face drained. There was no longer a man standing in front of me. There was a wolf with eyes that reflected the forest around us, except it was on fire. He came closer, on all fours, his head level with mine, 6 feet off the ground. When he bared his teeth, one elongated canine was red at the tip. He circled me, nudging me away from the cart. Then he cocked his head, as if listening closely. “Yes, of course milord.” He bowed to someone behind me. I caught a glimpse of him in the wolf’s eyes. A man shrouded by fire and molten rock. A man with a tail and horns. Bleached teeth set off by ebony lips. His red eyes glowed; he had hellfire for irises. Even a reflection of his face made my knees give out. I watched the reflection of the man disappear as the wolf looked down at me. He lifted one paw and knocked my head to the ground. My surroundings disappeared, replaced by another memory.

We walked in the same direction for half an hour but there was nothing to be found. It was dark by the time we found him. I spun her away from the scene as fast as I could. Her brother had been speared through the heart and left to die for a few days, judging by the smell. I walked her back home and helped her father bring him home and I watched the funeral the next day.

I woke, a gag in my mouth and someone pushing my cart. I tried to move and fell over, hands and feet bound. The cart stopped and light flooded in as a man lifted the tarp. “Always thinking about the missus, aren’t you?” He gave me a wicked grin, “don’t try to get out.” He reached in and bashed my head and when he pulled his arm, he pulled a memory as well.

My haunts stayed the same annually and so I ended up in her town every year at the same time. I always made sure to visit around the date that we found his body. This was the year that she took me on a walk, asking me why I left flowers in the exact place we found his body. The year I said I thought she would be coming through here and if his sister cared that much about him, he deserves the attention and the care. Her eyes were brimming with tears and this was the day she told me she wanted me to stay. She wanted to get to know me.

“Bound by rope straight from hell,” the wolf pondered, “most men would struggle but you know when to save your energy.” He threw some more logs on the fire that I was now bound in front of. “You got a girl at home to see to so you’re keeping your wits.” He looked at me with something akin to tenderness in his eyes but then it hardened, and hellfire reappeared. He started tugging at a belt that was wrapped around his arm and as the sky darkened slightly, his fur pulled back into his body, his limbs shortened, and his snout pulled back into his face. The belt was on the ground and there was a man in front of me instead of the wolf. He reached down and pulled a stick out of the ground. There was meat on the end. He pulled out his knife and cut the rope restraining my hands. When I looked closer, I saw he had wrapped the rope around each hand separately and then used another piece to keep them together. He saw the question in my eyes, waved the knife and took a bite of the meat I refused to pick up. “Rope from hell. You can’t cut it even if you can manage to get away from me.” He picked up another stick and stuck more meat on it. He yawned and I caught a glimpse of those canines, longer than they should be in any man. He handed me the stick. “Eat.” I cautiously took a bite and he stayed silent for the rest of the meal. By the time I finished the last bite, he watched me fall over as more thoughts drained out of my head.

She rubbed her oversized stomach, looking at me with concern. “How long will you be gone this time?” We needed the money. “Only a few months.” I wrapped my arms around her. “I’ll be back in time.”

I woke in a chair this time, near the mouth of a volcano. I thought only of my wife. The man in front of me was not the wolf. This was the devil sitting in front of me. He simply watched me sweat. I was out of time; I was never going to see her. “She’s gone, in case you cared.” He held up a hand and in the flames was a cottage and a woman with a baby in her arms, burning to ash. I hung my head, waiting. I asked for 10 years that day those people came for me. I asked for 10 years and for them to go after my last client, who had become a nuisance. The only one who listened was the fiery one himself. He came closer and whispered in my ear, “she knows what you did,” a finger dragged along the curve of my chin. Those years were over. The wolf was prowling nearby. “May I take him, master?”

The devil had some twisted sense of remorse and allowed me to see my wife arriving at the gates. She was talking to someone I would never be allowed to see. “Where is he?” I felt my stomach drop as I heard crying near my feet. Her voice grew louder as she begged “Where is my child?”

His fire was everywhere. He leaned back in his throne and mused aloud, “blessed or cursed, he’ll never know.” He pinned me to the spot with his eyes of fire “Couldn’t you have given yourself any better advice, seer?”