Necessary Evil and the Greater Good - A novel

Necessary Evil and the Greater Good - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Battle Royale

Leviticus and Mestoph were in another one of their hypnomancy meetings, only this time they had included everyone else in their little group.

"Yes, I'm a Demon," said Mestoph. "I do bad things for a living. Lying is one of them."

They had gone around in circles for the last ten minutes over what was a very minor detail when it came down to it. No one had any objection to his actions thus far, although only Leviticus knew all of them, but they now questioned his motivations. "They" meaning mostly Marcus. Mestoph now realized that Stephanie had been right to withhold that bit of information. He couldn't help it that he was the spawn of the greatest demon in Hell short of Satan—a detail he was most definitely not sharing with this group. He did the job he was born into, as much because of expectations as the fact that there wasn't an alternative. The only reason his father Mephisto had been allowed to retire was because of his eons of top-notch work and the fact that he had a successor in Mestoph. It didn't matter if the successor was more interested in sipping Mai Tais at a tropical resort.

"What the Hell do Mai Tais have to do with it?" asked Marcus.

Mestoph looked up, startled. He had been lost in thought and didn't realize he had been talking out loud. He really hoped his propensity for fruity cocktails was the only thing he had let slip. He began mumbling something about life being like a Mai Tai, trying to cover his slip, when Stephanie spoke up.

"What does it matter which side of the tracks he comes from? I'm a barista and you're a computer nerd; what gives us the right to judge him? Maybe being a demon is what allows him to make the hard decisions. He did what had to be done."

Marcus opened his mouth to make a counterpoint, but none came to mind. That was about the time the guilt finally hit Mestoph. The demon looked at Leviticus, but the Angel was staring at the ground. He had been noticeably silent, and Mestoph thought he understood why. Leviticus was still an Angel, and everything they had done was against his nature. Even if it was a nature he tried desperately to shrug off. Leviticus hadn't said anything about it, but this had to have been eating at him from the beginning, the whole using humans for their own gain.

Guilt was a new feeling for Mestoph, and it hit him hard. It was with equal surprise and confusion when he realized he was crying. He wasn't even sure what it was at first; after all, real demons don't feel guilt and they certainly didn't cry. He marveled for a moment at the emotions that washed over him. He observed it like a rare animal in captivity; the way the tears formed at the corner of his eyes, and then when they were heavy and full, the tears hurtled down his face and dripped off the edge of his chin into a blooming splotch on his shirt.

"We used you," Mestoph sobbed.

This was met with silence, except for the rushing off blood in Mestoph's head. Leviticus stared wide eyed at him while the humans looked confused. Stephanie looked like she was about to speak, but Marcus held up his hand to keep her silent. He didn't want the moment to fade; he felt he was about to be vindicated in his anti-Demon argument.

"There was never a conspiracy to kill you. We used you to get something we wanted, and things just went horribly, horribly wrong," said Mestoph.

Marcus and Stephanie looked at Mestoph and then Leviticus. Leviticus didn't say anything, but he couldn't look either of them in the eye and had a guilty grimace on his face. It was as damning as a confession. Finally, Leviticus sighed and spoke up.

"Mestoph, I think it's time we got some help. It's gone too far now, it's time to end it," he said. "Teleport out of here and summon the cavalry."

Mestoph flashed a car salesmen smile, but it faded to the look of a kid who had been caught with his finger in the cake. "Uh, yeah. I've been meaning to say something about that."