32. Dark Gospel
Chapter thirty-two
Dark Gospel
Nicodemus
Decimus chose our old bookstore to return to, which was the last place on Earth I wanted to be, but I had freedom to traverse the Realms freely and didn’t want to rob him of his slice of fresh air.
We walked side by side down the bustling streets leading to the store, which stood as a private beacon of hope.
The neon OPEN sign flickered from a faulty bulb that had needed to be replaced since I put the damn thing up, but we all collectively refused to do so.
Petra texted me saying that the place was ours for the evening, and since I had a key, I let us in.
Decimus flicked his intriguing crimson eyes around the entryway, which now held tables for guests to enjoy espressos that Petra whipped up at the main counter.
I let him gather his bearings and set to work fishing our hot dogs and bottle of whiskey from the bag we had collected on our way here.
It was a meal we shared often during our time on Earth and made me smile a little when I plucked a coleslaw-covered french fry off my own hot dog.
I popped the plastic tab on the whiskey bottle and poured a full glass, not a quarter, not even a reasonable half, which I then threw back immediately.
Decimus watched me do this with a solemn frown, and once I was done, I slammed the glass down and heaved on the burn cascading through my chest. “Fuck, that might be better than sex,” I huffed out.
“How could anything be better than sex with the God of Life?” he joked as he pulled a chair out for himself and plopped into it, kicking his long legs up on the table. “Or does Goldie-eyes got a shrimp for a dick?”
“Hardly,” I laughed as I sat across from him, “but that’s a conversation for another time.”
“I could use a good dick right about now.” He poured himself a tall glass as well but chose to sip it sensibly. “It’s been, oh, Gods knows how long since I got some. Whatever a year for you is in our years: that amount of time.”
“Does time work different for each Layer?” I asked as I plucked more fries up and stuffed them into my mouth greedily.
“More on a case-to-case basis. Your Dad’s cell is set to its own time limit, programmed by the almighty king of douches.” He bit into the end of his hot dog and hummed happily at the familiar taste. “For us, one week you time is usually a year in our Realm.”
“I see.” I nodded to the bar across the street, where a pack of young girls had emerged after a drinking party. “Go find yourself a nice hookup while you’re topside.”
“Ain’t no one gonna be as pretty as Nicodemus Crawford,” he lightly chuckled, though his comment was lackluster. I didn’t say anything back, so he redirected himself. “Besides, I’m looking for something a bit more concrete.”
“You? Concrete? Settling down? Are those words that even form in your dictionary?”
“Har, har, jackass.” He kicked my arm in the middle of me taking a bite, which made me nearly miss the bun and spill everything all over myself.
My glare made him snort a good laugh. “As a matter of fact, I am looking to settle down, officially, but it’s hard to meet people down in Gehenna.
We’re not allowed to mess with the souls, as I’m sure you know all too well, and the only non-soul people are the other rulers and Demon Hunters that come and go. ”
“Why don’t you try your luck with one of the Demon Hunters?” I prompted.
He rolled his red eyes. “Been there, done that. None of them exactly want to stay locked up in Gehenna for eternity.”
“Ah, yeah, probably not a great dating profile.” I slid my elbow onto the table and cupped my face in the palm of my hand. “You know, there is a certain someone who has been quite distraught over your death.”
“Who the Gehenna would that be?” he snorted.
“Emmeline.”
I had obviously hit a tender spot, because the moment I said her name, he tensed up immediately. His face contorted into deep-seeded pain, and he moved to hide it in the collar of his shirt. “Emmie, eh?” he murmured.
“She blames herself for you dying. Called herself a ‘bad omen’ because she’s lost so many people in her life. I honestly feel awful for her.”
He flicked his gaze back to me, worry deep in his face. “She can’t blame herself! How was she supposed to stop Pandora?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” I snorted with a shrug.
He slid back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, watching the fan above us whip in a circle. The blades were going so fast that they were near invisible, and that mesmerized us both for a minute. “She has no business being in Gehenna,” he finally said.
I poured my second glass of whiskey, this time only half. “She’s going to be my second-in-command Demon Hunter, actually, so she’ll be down there a lot.”
Decimus burst forward, so fast that I nearly dropped my glass. “What? No way!”
“She classified as a Demon Hunter, and she’s a damn good one at that.
She led her class right into the middle of that fight with the Horsemen, so she’s definitely solidified a spot.
You two will be working together more often than not.
” I sipped my drink obnoxiously. “That means you could attempt to make things work?”
He shrugged me off. “She’s never going to want to date a demon, a literal demon, by the way. Besides, I played way too many games with her…” He shrunk under my heavy glare. “I guess I’m known for doing that, though, eh?”
“Among other things.”
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Enough about me. Are you doing ok, after what happened downstairs? That had to be rough, dude.”
When he brought Dad back up, the pain I’d been suppressing crawled right back to the surface.
It was a pain I had felt many times in life, and one that consumed me when I lived on Earth.
It was as familiar to me as my own voice, and when I felt it latch onto me, I did the only thing I could do to satisfy it: I drank.
I downed my half glass, then another, and by the time I got to my third, the entire world was a blur.
I could taste nothing but burning, sickly sweet alcohol on my tongue, a bitter reminder of what I was trying to drown out.
It felt loose and wet going down my throat, but had a metallic-ness to it, like I’d swallowed copper.
Decimus was worried by my consumption, and eventually placed his hand on the top of the bottle. “You’ve drunk nearly the entire bottle, Nick. Enough.”
“Who are you to tell me when to stop…!” I drunkenly stammered, barely able to keep my head upright. “I’m an a-adult!”
“An adult who can’t turn to liquor to get him through the rough patch of his life.”
“And what the fuck do you know?” I snatched the bottle from him and tipped it back until I had successfully finished it off.
Remnants of the whiskey slipped down the corners of my mouth, which I wiped away crudely.
“Do you have any idea what kind of responsibility I have on my shoulders? Do you know what it’s like to be the person every FUCKING being in the world turns to when things go to shit, but you’re not strong enough to stop it? ”
“I think you’re strong enough…?”
“You! HA!” I bellowed.
He frowned heavily. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You wouldn’t be dead if I just did my fucking job!
” I yelled, throwing my hands up. The bottle slipped from my loose grip and cracked onto the floor, shattering into a million pieces.
Decimus flinched from my words and the glass.
“But no… us Gods have to have our ‘stipulations’,” I put air quotes around the word, “cause Erasmus and Endymion are two fucked up fucking fuckheads who can’t do anything fucking right! ”
“That’s a lot of fucks,” he said to lighten the mood before reaching out to grab my hand and try to bring me back to Earth.
“Nick, I don’t blame you for what happened with Pandora.
Does it suck, yeah, of course it does, and do I wish I could be alive again, sure I do, but that doesn’t mean you did this to me. ”
“Everyone I associate with gets targeted! She’ll probably massacre all my Elite Elementalss while she’s at it!” I slurred before my head hit the table with a loud thud. Decimus lifted my hair to see if I had passed out, but I was staring forward emptily. “I just want to die.”
“You tried that, and it didn’t go as well for you,” he reminded me.
I swished my hand at him. “Let me wallow in my own sadness for a bit, would you?”
“Sorry to push your luck, Freckles, but I ain’t letting that slide.
I’ve never let you fall to your self-pitying sessions, and I ain’t doing it now.
” He sandwiched his hands under my head and wrenched me upright, then held my face to make sure I was looking at him.
“You gotta keep it together, dude. You’re right: the whole world does rely on you, and that means you have to keep it stable. ”
“Why me?” I pathetically wheezed, “Why does everything have to be on me?”
“Cause you’re the lucky duck that those idiots picked for the job. Someone had to do it, after all. Personally,” he made sure I was stable before letting go of my face, “I would enjoy being the ultimate power.”
“You think so?” I murmured unsurely.
“I would like knowing I’m the one in control. I think you don’t give yourself enough credit or utilize your powers enough.”
“How so?”
“Dude, you’re the most powerful God to ever exist!” He threw his hands up and leaned back in his chair to yell, “Fucking do some cool shit and prove that to everyone!”
“I try, Decimus, but I can’t do much until I’m a real God…”
“Says who?” he scoffed, his boots hitting the floor hard when he propelled himself forward. “You sealed Pandora in that coffin, didn’t you? Hunt her ass down and do it again!”
I rolled my lips loudly. “Do you know how long it took us to find her the first time? Not to mention, she had to give us her location for us to even track her.”
“Why did it take so long, though? Was it because you couldn’t find her, or because the Gods wouldn’t let you go find her?”
His comment piqued my interest.
I tilted my head at him curiously. “That’s a valid point.”
“Think about it.” He took his glass and sipped it carefully but drank a good portion of the whiskey when he did this. “Imagine if you and I were on the case, like the good old days? We would find that bitch in a heartbeat!”
“You just want out of Gehenna,” I accused with narrowed eyes.
He scoffed and waved me off. “Nick, I know the job I took. I’m not trying to weasel out of anything. I’m being really serious right now. We could find that bitch faster than anyone! If we put some feelers out to our old contracts… I imagine someone must have seen something.”
“It’s not a bad idea…” I admitted with a sigh through my nose. I began to kick my leg as I pondered what to do next. Decimus waited eagerly, his eyes wide with curiosity and attentiveness. Finally, I shrugged. “Let’s see what we can do. How much free time do you actually have down there?”
“More than you think. Beatrix always tells me to go out for the evening and get some air, but I get nervous with everything going on. I don’t want to seem disobedient, ya know?”
“You? Worried about disobedience? Seems Gehenna has done some good for you,” I joked with a wink.
He chuckled loosely. “It’s not a position I enjoy, admittedly, but it’s where my ducks lie. I know, now, to keep my mouth shut. My mouth is what got me in this position, after all.”
“It was more than your mouth, but I see what you mean.”
Decimus grew incredibly quiet all of a sudden, so quiet that it was unsettling. I raised an eyebrow at his silence, and this made him exhale loudly. “Nick? Can you be honest with me about something?”
“Of course.”
He trailed his finger along the inside of his glass, watching the liquid spin inside. “You didn’t lie to me, about being Gehenna-bound, did you? It wasn’t payback for what I did to you?”
I sat up straighter. “I would never do something so cruel.”
“I just… I feel like, I mean… I know I was cruel and all, but was I that bad? Was I really meant to go to Gehenna for being… for not… keeping my hands to myself?” he weakly asked.
I blinked once before realization hit me. “I… don’t know, Decimus. I mean, your soul was pure black, which means you are one hundred percent destined for Gehenna. My dad and I were certain about the state you were in.”
“I see.” He rolled his thumbs repeatedly as he thought of how to ask his next question. “You don’t think… Peregrine did something, do you? Could he, even, do something?”
I made a sound of disgust. “Peregrine might be powerful, but-… well now, wait a moment here.” I played with the zipper of my jacket as I thought to myself. “He always says how important I am to him…”
“That’s what I was hinting at. Did he, maybe, damn me because of what I did to you?”
“Sounds like we should find out,” I snorted, standing immediately.
Decimus shot up and grabbed my arm to shake me. “No, wait!”
“Decimus, I am not letting this slide, not for a single second. If he played with one of my souls…” my voice darkened to my Grim voice, “then he will face consequences far greater than what he thinks he can dish out.”
“Let’s just think for a second, ok? We need to keep alliances where we have them, especially if we are going after Pandora. Peregrine needs to keep things in line in Gehenna while we deal with our topside crap. I can handle my job for the time being, especially if it helps the cause.”
“I cannot just let this go!” I fumed.
He took my shoulders and made me look him in the eye, where tears were collecting along his lash line.
“I understand your anger and feel it just as if not more than you, and I appreciate your willingness to protect me, but we need to keep clear heads here. We need stability in any way we can have it, and me having guaranteed time to help you with Pandora is a necessity. Besides…” he brought his voice down low, “Peregrine is in control of your dad right now. Do you really want to piss him off?”
I simmered down to a tolerable temperature to his relief. “I see what you mean.”
“Good.”
I gripped the hands he had on me firmly as I made my next promise. “I swear, Decimus, that if there has been any injustice brought on to you, that I will fix it. I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
“I’m surprised you want to, after all I’ve done…” he admitted.
I smirked half-heartedly. “At a base level, it’s my job to correct mistakes made by Purgatory. On a personal level, I owe you for all your help on Earth, and for you helping me with Pandora.” I held my hand out. “Maybe we can start over, if you’re willing to be a better person.”
“Keep your shit together and it’s a deal,” he teased.
“I can do that.”