The Devil's Assistant (Watty Awards Finalist 2011)

Devil's Assistant [20]

I was never a religious person but the fact that I had stood there and just spoke to God in a manner of speaking; I felt a hysterical giggle escape my lips. There was the incredulity but also the guilt whirring around my mind, most people believe without knowing, they have blind faith in Him and yet here I am, a sceptic all my life and now I know he’s real but yet I still have a hard time believing.  If that doesn’t warrant guilt then I don’t know what will. It kind of feels wrong in a way.

Shaking such thoughts from my head, I took my place standing next to Calantha while giving her a smile before turning to watch the events unfolding before us.

The room dimmed as the orange man backed up to the far end of the hall where three other men were waiting and down the end closest end to us there were also four men. Well I was assuming they were men by their build but with this rare and wonderful race of people it was often difficult to discern if they were men or women. I had wrongly assumed that a person with boobs was a woman and the gruff reply I got back was enough to make me keep my mouth closed and wait before I made judgements.

A loud thumping echoed across the room from somewhere in the crowd. The drumbeat and the lowered lights added a strange intensity to the atmosphere that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I could feel my own heart altering its rhythm to match the pounding of the drums. My fingers tapped against my leg in time with the beat  as my eyes tried to pierce the darkness around me. The movement in front of me was more felt than seen. Several figures whipped past me, only a vague outline in the minimal lighting. I turned my attention to Calantha to ask what was going on but a hand was just slapped over my mouth and my attention was brought back to the blackness.

The tempo of the drumming suddenly picked up and then with a sudden clang of a gong 8 flaming figures were illuminated before me.  A lot of people whooped and cheered before settling into appreciative silence. It was as electrifying as the display before us all. The moving men of flame wove around each other in an intricate and deadly dance, the movements so precise and entrancing that I could barely keep up with the story that was being told by them all. My eyes were drawn to one man in particular. He seemed to be the leader of the group, his moves bigger, larger, brasher than the rest but because of that, more beautiful. It was a terrifying display and when I saw all of them branching off and pulling people from the audience I watched in awe as their new partners fell into an easy routine, a give and pull of intricate movements that told a story as old as time, the story of lovers. I felt tears form in my eyes as the sights before whilst Calantha whispered under her breath.

“Please let him choose me,” she repeated over and over like a mantra and I saw why. One of the flaming men was walking along the rows, hands of several people stretching out towards him and all of the power radiating out of his very being like he was his own sun, his energy bathing others in his beauty. This must be the infamous Donalbain.

He reached us and paused before Calantha. He looked between the two of us and cocked his head to the side before outstretching his hands to us. “Would you ladies care to dance?” His voice was unreal, there was something to it that you could just imagine him as a deity of love or sex, he just seemed to ooze that kind of aura.

Calantha immediately reached out and grasped his hand but I kept mine to myself and shook my head frantically.

“No, I don’t know how to dance,” I paused and stared over his shoulder at the others. “Definitely not like that anyway.”

Donalbain and his flaming head of hair didn’t take no for an answer, he wrapped an arm around my waist and hefted me off of my feet and carried me into the centre of the room whilst hanging over his shoulder.

“You should have known milady that I do not take no for an answer.” I could hear the smile in his voice and wanted nothing more than to bite him or hit him really hard but I refrained…barely.