Paradise Made

Twelve: The Man in the White Suit

 On the way off campus, Clay and I poured over the little map on the phone screen. It had been colour coded, like a typography map, with red being the most troublesome areas and blue being completely void of demon activity. On the map of downtown Sumar, the only blue areas were churches. Even green was rare. The picture was all shades of yellow, and orange, and red.

“There,” I pointed to the screen, “right down town. That's where the red gets really dark, like blood.”

“That's where we should start looking,” Clay said, trying and failing to conceal the fear in his voice.

There were a couple other isolated patches of deep red, but the shopping area of down town was definitely the heaviest with them.

“I wonder if whatever caused this is still there,” Clay mused.

I didn't know if I should say I hoped so, or that I hoped not, so I just stayed silent. Downtown was only a ten minute walk from SU campus, and the weather had improved greatly since that morning. The sun was shining and crowds of people were out and about.

We decided to start in St. Andrew's plaza. The city's tallest buildings encircled it, high class stores and cafes lined it on street level. Beside us a multistory Hollister loomed. If the gates of Hell were going to be somewhere...

Clay and I decided to split up. We weren't sure what we were looking for, but we figured we'd know when we saw it. The plaza was quite large by itself, then the side streets were just as busy, and just as blood red.

I tried to stroll casually through the crowd. There was a group of tourists sitting by the fountain. Some teenagers were on the other side, a couple of boys playing on their skateboards. There was nothing sinister, nothing terrifying. But then again, any of these people could be demons. Jessie's words rang in my ears. The demon had said that I had met demons before, that I just hadn't known. And I had heard now, from multiple sources, that Sumar was absolutely teaming with them.

There were a couple of cafes on this side of the plaza. They all had outside areas, which were all packed. I scanned the diners as I passed. I got a call from Clay, reporting a smashed window and some graffiti. It was probably unimportant, but Clay was excited greatly by it. It was the only thing either of us had managed to find so far.

The next cafe was the nicest of the lot. It had an eating area located in a courtyard, right between two of the skyscrapers. Peering through the wooden gate that cordoned it off from the sidewalk, I noticed something strange. It wasn't half as packed as it should have been. Opening the door, I noticed that half the eating area was packed with people, eating their lunch. But the other half had empty tables, and I knew that it couldn't be from a lack of business. Right in the centre of the empty area, sat one used table. Two men sat at it. The closer one wore an absurdly expensive white suit, brown hair slicked back.

The other, I had to take another step to see, under the shade of the umbrella. And when I did I could have screamed in frustration. The second man was less of a man, and more of an boy, distinct because of the mass of blond curls on his head.

Not again.

I was about to find somewhere to hide, and observe in safety, when Pen looked up. His eyes met mine, and they widened. There was no anger, but I could read his emotions clear as day. There could be no argument, he was terrified.