Devil's Advocate

Kenneth finally properly introduced himself after they established how stupid it was for her to just march up to the bank without a plan. Which Angelique agreed with. She had no idea what she would have done assuming Scott had shown up. She supposed she just wanted to have a look at him. What she would have done if he had seen her was anybody’s guess. Briefly she wondered if the devil could see her, and what he would think of her fool hardy behavior. An image of him rolling his eyes caused her to grin briefly. First thing they determined was that they needed some form of weaponry. Angelique suddenly stood and took off down the hall to her bedroom, where she strode purposefully over to the dresser. She opened the top drawer and immediately noticed quite a few things missing. She made a face as she felt her stomach turn.

“Something wrong?” She jumped when she heard Kenneth’s voice. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching her with guarded neutral eyes. She nodded, giving him a smile.

“Yeah. My favorite pair of underwear is missing.”

“Gross.” He answered with a face of his own. “But I get the feeling that’s not what you came in here to check up on.”

“No.” She pulled out a bright pink triangle shaped case, pleased to feel some weight to it. Unzipping the case, she pulled out a small silver handgun. She bought the thing when she first moved out on her own after college, to make herself feel safer. A lot of good the damn thing did her the night she died. Angelique shrugged the thoughts off and took out the clip, checking to be sure the thing was still loaded. She left the safety on. A glance at Kenneth revealed he was impressed.

“What is that, a Glock?”

“Yeah.” She answered with a shy smile. “It’s small but should serve my purpose.”

“Our.” He corrected her with a burst of conviction. She shook her head.

“See, here’s the thing.” She said, feeling an awful lot like she was about to turn him down for a date instead of tell him he was not helping as much as he thought with committing a murder. “I agreed to let you help, which I don’t think violates the terms of my contract. However, the one thing I know for sure is, he must die by my hands.”

“So then, how can I actually help?” Kenneth didn’t sound angry at being told he didn’t get to play with the big dogs, to his credit. Just genuinely confused. Angelique was almost immediately put a bit more at ease. “Like, if you had to stab him, could I hold him down? Would that count as your kill?”

“Huh. You know, I’m not sure.” She put the gun back in the pouch and laughed a bit, zipping the case. “Lucifer wasn’t exactly clear on that one.”

“Too bad you can’t just call and ask him.” Kenneth chuckled and stepped aside, letting Angelique lead the way back into the dining room, where she stuck the gun in the pouch in her laptop bag. She pulled out the glass tumbler and held it up for him to see.

“Actually, I guess technically I can. If I break this, the devil shows up and grants me a favor like some sort of demented all powerful genie or what have you. So I could break it and ask him but as he said, I only get the one favor.”

“Well.” She could tell he was thinking of something to say. Probably something not silly. In the end he settled on, “At least he was willing to help that much.”

“Yeah.” Angelique couldn’t help herself; she laughed as she put the tumbler back in her bag. “Thank goodness for small miracles.”

“I think it’s a faux-pas to mention miracles when you’re playing on the devil’s team.” Kenneth mused to himself. Angelique laughed again.

Their plan was simple. When the sun was starting to set, Kenneth would call Scott and ask him to meet him at the park. Angelique would be hidden near some bushes by the creek. Once Scott showed up and Kenneth gave the signal, Angelique would shoot him. Super simple, and after several minutes of assessment it was determined there’s no way it wouldn’t count as her kill. With the plan in place the only thing left to do was kill some time, pun not intended. Kenneth suggested they go get something to eat, which made Angelique realize something she hadn’t thought about yet.

“Huh. I haven’t been hungry all day.”

“Oh, shit.” Kenneth looked incredibly apologetic, which made her smile a little. “I forgot. I mean. Do you eat?” That was a good question. She thought about it, trying to assess if her not being hungry had to do with her nerves or if it was because she was dead. Her hands even moved to her stomach, pressing on it slightly to see if it triggered any response. Nothing. Shrugging she turned back to the conversation.

“I have no idea if I need it or not. But! Better safe than sorry. Let’s go grab a bite.” She said with a smile. After a brief debate and a quick walk to the bank to get Kenneth’s truck, they settled on fast food. Kenneth drove them through a drive through, ordering them both burgers and fries and soda. After parking at the back of the parking lot, he handed her a burger, peeking at her while she took a bite like he was trying not to look like he was curious about what was going to happen. Angelique resisted the urge to roll her eyes and took a bite. It was well made, and tasted good, but it was almost as though the volume was turned down on her taste buds. The taste was muted. She took a drink of the soda and nodded. Definitely muted. Considerably less enjoyable than she remembered food being when she was alive. Perhaps that was just part of being dead but not, or whatever the hell she was. If life was too enjoyable she’d stray from her mission. She silently thanked whoever was listening that food didn’t taste as good as it usually did, and turned to Kenneth, who stopped trying to be subtle and was just watching her with a deep fascination. She shrugged at him.

“Don’t think I need it.” She said, taking another bite. “It doesn’t taste as good as I thought it would.”

“Well, it is definitely on the lower end of the good scale anyway.” Kenneth answered, visibly relaxing and taking a bite of his own. He continued with a mouth full of food, “Still pretty good.”

“Eh.” Angelique made a face at his eating habits and took another bite. “It tastes like it’s too subtle. Like the taste should be louder if that makes sense.”

“Yeah. Muted.” Kenneth chewed the rest of his bite and swallowed before he continued speaking, much to Angelique’s relief. “Yeah, that makes sense. Like when you have a cold.”

“Exactly!” She smiled at him, ate another couple of bites and then set it to the side. She didn’t even bother with the fries. She wanted to remember them as they were, with their non-muted super fattening taste. Kenneth however had no such qualms and continued to inhale his food like an animal. On one hand, Angelique was disgusted by his eating habits. On the other…it was almost endearing. Humanizing. She briefly wondered what some of Scott’s humanizing traits were. How did he eat, or sleep? Did he snore? Did he have any pets that he took care of? She didn’t read those details in his file, merely skimmed over his home life. She briefly considered taking it out to look and see who he would be survived by, besides Kenneth. Like parents or something. The thought of his mother getting the phone call about Scott’s death made her more upset than she realized it would.

“What are you thinking?” Kenneth asked her. Angelique looked at him, and for a brief moment considered telling him she was backing out. Instead she gave a half shrug and attempted to strengthen her resolve.

“I think that I’m thinking too seriously about this.” She told him. He leveled her with a harsh stare.

“Don’t.” he said sharply. She almost recoiled, and was very proud of herself for that being an almost. “You can’t afford to be thinking like that. Your soul is at stake.” Now she almost laughed. He sounded like a hero in a bad action movie. But the more she thought about it, she realized he was right. She needed to remember what she stood to lose. Her life was already forfeit. There was only so much more she should be willing to give up. She nodded at him. She was looking at this with a humanity spin on it. But she wasn’t human anymore. So really, there was no reason to act like it.

After a while of awkward small talk and more bad manners while Kenneth finished his meal, the sun began to set. Angelique didn’t want to wait too late to set up so they drove out to the park with a vast amount of silence between the two of them. Kenneth called Scott as they parked and asked him to meet him there in fifteen minutes, and Angelique watched the file until he made the decision to come to the park. Kenneth immediately demanded answers as to how that was possible, but she just shrugged. She didn’t know either, she just knew it worked. He finally let it go. She pulled the gun out and hid it in her pocket as she stepped out of the truck and got into position. She situated herself behind the bushes in a perfect hiding place without anyone seeing her. She took out the gun and took a deep breath as she flipped the safety off. This was it. The moment. All in all it had been surprisingly easy to get to this moment. She was almost disappointed that it had not been more challenging. And yet, despite being very confident the journey was about to end, she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread buzzing at the back of her skull. She carefully shook her head and chalked it up to nerves.

Dusk fell, and Kenneth was just turning around to tell her something when Scott showed up. Angelique felt her breath catch in her throat. That was him. He looked just like the picture in the file, if the picture was able to get sick. His eyes were sunk in a little and bloodshot, and even in the dimming light he looked pale. His hair was wispy and looked brittle, and there was something that the picture did not show: faint track marks up and down his arms. Angelique felt slightly less bad about what she was about to do.

Scott strode purposefully over to Kenneth, his eyes haunted and darting frantically. Angelique gripped her weapon tighter as he reached Kenneth, and by extension her. She found herself holding her breath. To Kenneth’s credit, he didn’t give her away at all. He didn’t flinch or move in front of her in a protective way or anything at all that would indicate she was in the bushes. The man had an amazing poker face. He held his ground while Scott came over, standing square in front of him with a look of pure rage on his face.

“You wanna explain your damn phone call earlier?” Scott all but growled the words. If Angelique wasn’t already holding it, her breath would have caught in an effort to hold back a gasp at his tone. His voice was not one she would associate with a killer. He had an almost gentle type voice, even when it was hissing in anger. And it was a higher pitch than she had anticipated. She would have laughed if the situation was anything less than the one it was. Kenneth lifted his hands in surrender.

“Easy, bro.” he said, and Angelique again applauded his ability to remain completely calm. His voice didn’t waver, or crack or even raise. “I figured it out. Blonde bimbo was just trying to make a buck.” Scott visibly relaxed.

“She was blonde?” he asked. Kenneth nodded, putting his left hand in his pocket. Angelique kept her eyes on his right hand, which rested by his side.

“Yeah. Blonde, scrawny, and kind of ditzy.” Scott laughed, and Kenneth moved his right hand to his pocket. That was the signal. Angelique took aim, taking one last calming breath. Her hands shook. She stopped paying attention to their exchange of words and squeezed the trigger, shutting her eyes. The sound was deafening. Her hands moved back of their own accord and her ears were ringing as her eyes flew open. She had missed. The bullet had grazed Scott’s arm, and Kenneth had dive bombed out of the way. She stood up, taking aim again and squeezing the trigger once more. Scott’s eyes widened but a soft click sounded, causing Angelique to panic. Shit. The gun was jammed. She didn’t think first, just lunged at him. Scott moved surprisingly quickly for being an obvious tweaker. He caught her and they rolled, her trying to get her hands around his neck and he deflecting her attempts. She managed to smack him once in the side of the head with her gun, but the bloody welt it left behind didn’t seem to phase Scott in the slightest. He punched her and she felt her lip split. Her hand flew up to her mouth as a burning sensation seeped from the cut. Her hand fell away, fingers bloody. She could feel her skin stitching itself together as the burning sensation grew stronger.

“Holy God.” Scott breathed the words, having stopped their struggle to watch her body recovering damage.

“Wrong team.” She said, lunging to smash the gun in his face. Scott flipped her over using her own momentum, pulling a knife out of his pocket and stabbing Angelique in the chest with it. She gasped, pain screaming through her body.

“Heal from that.” He spat at her before standing and running, the sound of sirens getting closer. She could feel that burning sensation through her chest like it was eating her from the inside out as she pulled the knife from her chest. Kenneth suddenly appeared in front of her, helping her to sit up.

“I have to get you to a hospital.” He told her. She shook her head, moaning in pain as she could feel her body already healing the damage.

“Just get me out of here.”

“Angelique---“

“Just do it!” she screamed, the end of her words fading out on a moan of pain. Kenneth hesitated for only a brief moment before scooping her up in his arms and running off towards his truck. He got her situated in the passenger seat before jumping in and tearing out of the parking lot. Angelique allowed herself a moment to give into the pain that was ripping through her as she finally registered they were in the clear. Passing a set of 3 police cars with lights and sirens blaring was the last thing she saw before she passed clean out.