Had I known the devil would have taken a blowjob, I might not have offered him my soul.
I took a long, steady drag off the stolen cigarette as I stared down the service alley two doors down from Luscious, the escort bar I wasted my afterlife in. The booming music was audible from here and I rolled my eyes already dreading the night ahead.
“Hey Siri,” I said, overexaggerating each syllable so the dumb bitch understood me.
“Mhmm?” My posh phone answered in a British accent.
“What time is it?”
“It’s nine-oh-four in the evening.”
“Perfect.” I inhaled, held, and exhaled smoke. “Right on time.”
St. Louis, the city I called home, was getting ready to hit its prime time for bad decisions. Sludge covered the masonry and piles of trash were swept off to the side, looking every bit as drab as I felt in the dying yellow light of the alley. It really highlighted the homeless feel I was going for with my dirty ripped jeans that showed just enough thigh to feel the night, but not the cold.
“Drab is a bit mild,” I murmured to myself and took another round of bitter nicotine into my lungs. “Horse shit may be a better description.”
My phone buzzed in the tight pocket of my pants. The vibration tingled my leg before the chorus of “Take Me Home Tonight” by Eddie Money echoed off the alley walls.
“Shit,” I groaned and stuck the butt of my cigarette between my lips as I fought to slip my fingers into the pocket. “God why do I wear them so tight?”
I was too irritable for bullshit tonight. Grime matted sections of hair that I’d just washed, a film of unknown substance was on my hands…
“What?” I answered with a muffled bite.
“Where the hell are you?” A gruff voice grumbled over the other end of the line. “Your shift starts in ten. I told ya last time, and I won’t tell ya again. If ‘yer late, ‘yer out.”
Sometimes I thought my boss said things like that to make himself feel threatening, when we both knew he wouldn’t fire me. I was a veteran stripper. Mostly reliable. Even if I was late, I showed up.
The only answer I could think of was that killing my vibe brought him joy.
“Shut up, Vinny. I’ll be there when I get there, and you’ll live with it.”
“Dany, I swear to God,” he sighed as if he were using therapeutic methods to deal with me. Which, in turn, brought me joy. I supposed that made us even.
I pushed my sneaker playfully into the mushy mass under my feet. “I told you I’d get there hoss cat, don’t worry about it.”
I hung up before he could reply, truly missing the good ol’ days when there was satisfaction slamming a flip-phone closed rather than pressing a stupid ass button.
“Idiot.”
I braced myself to stand and leave but, in the moment between decision and action, I paused for one intrusive moment of reflection while staring at the dead man sprawling at the bottom of the steps. For thirty years I’ve been fulfilling my bargain with the Devil, and each of those passing years took a vital piece from my dying humanity. I became more and more numb, slowly morphing into a shell without a soul. Sometimes I wondered how much longer it would take until there was nothing left.
Then I remembered the night I became a mistress of Satan and grinned. I’d been ripped from my life, hand delivered to hell, and came out stronger than ever. Being offered an eternity of torturing the worst of mankind was not an offer a girl like me would turn down.
After all, I deserved vengeance for my death.
I pulled the last drag out of my dying cigarette before stubbing it out on my naked thigh a few times until a psycho looking smiley face winked up at me through the bubbling skin. The acrid smell of burning flesh along with the sting of the burns sent a shiver down my spine as I tucked the bloody pack of Marlboro’s back into the rapist’s pocket. His touch still lingered on my skin along with the acrid smell of halitosis burning my nose hairs.
He deserved what I gave him. The part of his esophagus I’d ripped out probably disagreed, but I didn’t give a shit.
A small tingle wrapped around my wrist, and I watched as one of three inked black lines disappeared. A single red line sitting above them all stared back like an omen.
My teeth ached from the clench of my jaw. When the time came to pull the trigger, to fulfill the end of my bargain by killing the man who’d ruined me, I’d be fucking ready.
“Take me home tonight!”
“Fucking Vinny,” I sighed and threw the naked butt on top of the cooling body beneath my feet. “Thanks for the smoke, bud. And…” My knees creaked a little as I knelt to scoop his eyes from their sockets. After a tear and a pop, they were out and situated in the ring box I’d pulled out with his cigarettes. “I can’t believe you were going to rape me and then go home to propose to your girlfriend.”
