ANGELS IN ALLEYWAYS
By: Rachel Kramer
09/05/09

Happy reading!!


DRINKS ON ME

I invoked all the confidence I had in me and strode across the musky room to take a seat at the empty barstool. Sure I had an ID that confirmed I was twenty-two if anyone asked questions but to avoid that I had to act the part. Being seventeen, this was my first bar related escapade, and it was nerve-racking to say the least - on top of everything else that had happened tonight! Not that I condone underage drinking, but I really needed a shot...or five for that matter.

"What's your poison gorgeous?" The burly bartender asked me, leaning intimately over the counter. It was almost hard to hear him over the roar of the patrons.

"A shot of tequila, please."

He nodded, pulled out a shot glass and slammed it down in front of me. With a half filled bottle, he poured some of the contents into my once empty glass.

Greedily, I grasped the prized chalice and threw the liquid back into my mouth. It burned on its way down but I didn't gag or cough. I would have patted myself on the back for being able to handle my liquor, but no doubt I'd only look like a crazy person. "Another please."

The bartender eyed me skeptically, but poured another shot anyway. Who was he to complain? He'd only be getting a bigger tip at the end of the night as my bill racked up. And oh, would it rack up!

"Rough night?"

I nodded as the warm substance coursed through me with my second gulp. "You have no idea," I murmured.

The bartender's face showed understanding, but he didn't really understand. There was no way he could have. I had lost everything today. My world was crumbling as we spoke.

The too fresh memory of what I'd witnessed less than an hour ago played once again in my mind like a broken record. Earlier this afternoon I had entered the apartment which my sister and I had shared to find her possessed. And yes, I mean it in the most literal sense. Like Regan from the Exorcist possessed. A demon had tried to track me, as revenge I supposed, but found my older sister instead. Her body was twisted like a pretzel on the living room floor soaked in her own blood. She had taken a kitchen knife to her flesh, trying to carve obscenities on any part of her body she could reach.

"Katya! No!" I shouted, shear fear griping me.

Katya didn't answer my pleas however. Instead, the demon inside her did. He looked up at me through her lashes and her usual topaz eyes were now a soulless deep black. One of the most menacing smiles I've ever seen played across my sisters lips. A lump formed in my throat. Not my sister, I thought. Please, not her.

"Hello Viktoriya. It'sss a pleasssure to finally meeeet you." The voice that escaped Katya held none of its familiar tone. The sound slithered in the air, high and sharp. Pure evil clung to those words. I had to fight against the panic and wave of nausea that hit me as I starred in horror at Katya's condition.

"You are not welcome here!"

The demon ignored me, "I thiiink I like it in thisss body. Maybe I'll ssstay..."

"Like hell you will!" It was a wonder the neighbors didn't come over to complain about my shouting.

A maniacal laugh pierced the air, "Don't worry Viktoriya. Your world sssickenss me. I just caaame to give you a liiittle message. Theeen, I'll be on my waaay."

God, I just wanted the demon to go now! "What's the message?" I asked trying to sound brave and remain patient, but that was almost too difficult. What I really wanted to do was run over to Katya and take that damn knife out of her hands. She had practically butchered herself!

"Ssstay away from oour kiiind, huunterr!"

With those last screechy words, the demon in Katya plunged the knife straight into her chest. I leapt forward as soon as I saw the intended gesture. Everything had happened in slow motion then and it seemed the demon was the only thing to remain unaffected by the time delay. I hadn't been fast enough to stop the blade as it tore into her flesh and ultimately her beating heart. I broke into heaving sobs as Katya's body slumped to the living room floor. Dead.

The bartender's voice broke my waking nightmare, "Jeez, lady, you alright?"

That's when I felt the hot tears streaming down my cheeks. Quickly, I wiped them away, "Yeah. Fine. Just a broken heart." It was true, my heart was broken. My sister who had become my world was dead. There was nothing in this world I would miss more now. The bartender probably thought I was talking about a guy who'd broken it. Maybe that was true too. The demon had been male after all. But he was as dead as my sister now. Before I'd left the apartment I had made a promise to myself. I would find that demon and make him pay for what he'd done.