The Red Eyed Favor

“Don’t touch my radio” Katie snapped.

The demon in her passenger seat was fiddling with another dial. He jerked his hand away as if she’d rapped his knuckles with a ruler; like he was a naughty catholic school boy.

He let out a petulant whine.

He hadn’t stopped messing with EVERYTHING since the moment he’d stepped foot into her vehicle. He just continued to fidget with his overly long pale hands; pushing buttons and tugging on snags in the upholstery.

Too pale, she decided.

He mumbled a haphazard apology, and she felt her fingers grip the steering wheel tighter as she counted to ten; an old trick her Grammy had taught her. Counting to ten was like a husband who put his gun on the top shelf when he had a short wife. If you pissed her off enough, Grammy would say, she could still shoot the husband if she was mad enough, but the husband had time to skedaddle while she dragged a chair over to the high shelf. Counting to ten was just mentally dragging the chair.

He rubbed at his hand absently as if she had smacked him, and craned his neck to look at the landscape of west Texas bathed in the hues of early twilight; violets and navy blues swallowing up the fiery oranges and reds. Little pinpricks of stars were already visible.

Ugh, even his shoulders were knobby and sharp, she groused. His left was digging into her right.

The silence was oppressively awkward. Why was he even coming with her? She didn’t trust him. A demon could never be trusted, right? Why did she care if the silence was awkward?

“Do you like this song, Little Witch?”

“Hmm?” His sudden question snapped her out of her thoughts. She didn’t even think to be irritated at the nickname.

He didn’t try very hard in hiding his amusement. “The song, Little Witch. Do you like it?”

Katie frowned and nodded absently, “yeah, sure.”

He couldn’t repress his chuckle. His inhumanly deep voice...like a high quality sound system.

She pursed her lips. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing" he said thoughtfully with that weird accent as he rubbed his forefinger across his chin. Despite his thin frame, his guttural voice had the bass tones of a much larger man. Sure, he was tall, but his deep voice just didn’t match his body. “Just humans in this day and age baffle me.”

The small car was filled with silence for a few more moments until Katie’s curiosity got the better of her. “How so?”

He glanced back, his red eyes glittering with mirth. “It baffles me that people actually call radio static music. Even more so, when they claim to like it.”

The demon chuckled softly as Katie stared ahead, blinking dumbly.

Damn it, he was right. It was just static coming out of the speakers. They had driven out of range of the pop station she’d had it on since Dallas. Her lips twisted in irritation; stabbing her finger at the ‘off’ button. He attempted to snicker discreetly behind his hand, but the stale air inside the cab hummed with the sound.

Jesus, was the car vibrating from it? Katie ever so slightly shifted away from him as she could manage without it being noticeable.

Those cherry red irises flicked to her retreating shoulder anyway. Lightning quick, like a serpent’s head turning towards movement, but he said nothing. Worse, his expression gave nothing away. She couldn’t tell if she’d just offended him, or if he was amused…

Moments ticked by in an awkward standoff only made so by one of them.

Her.

The demon seemed content to stare blindly out the window at the passing scenery. However, he slowly reached over and gently pressed an elegant finger to the ‘scan’ button. How he knew what the ‘scan’ button did, she didn’t know.

Elvis started singing about what wise men say, and a flick of his finger disengaged the scanner.

He was such an analogous mix of ancient eldritch horror and the common sense of a modern day man. Katie was reminded of seeing, in real time, him learning modern English just by her yelling a few English phrases in terror at him just mere moments of him being freed.

So, sure, why not? Why not be able to understand the nuances of a car radio whilst simultaneously not being able to grasp the fact that Katie was not, nor ever was, a witch?

She sighed as he went back to playing with the knobs and dials on the dash. She figured if she just put up with it for a bit, and gave him time to figure it out, he would settle down eventually.

Maybe…

They rode again in silence for a few moments listening to Elvis lamenting about his fools rushing in. At least it wasn’t country music. Her ex refused to listen to anything else. She hated country music so much that it was a physical irritant down her spine.

Elvis faded out and the first chords of Davis Bowie’s Heroes filtered through the speakers. The demon jerked forward with his head tilted slightly with the coiled grace of a viper.

“I take it you like Bowie?” she glanced over at him, curiosity brimming.

He shrugged, but his eyes were unfocused as the music seemed to wash over him. “The melody seems...familiar to me.”

More silence.

The Starman continued to serenade, and Katie glanced over again. The demon’s eyes were closed. His head was tilted, and the most serene expression she’d ever seen was painted on his face. Was he...was he tapping a foot to the beat as well?

At that moment, she was struck by how much the demon resembled the famous singer; wondered how she’d never noticed it before. Katie loved Bowie. Grammy would play his vinyls while they cleaned the house on Sundays.

Course, they didn’t look exactly alike. One immediately didn’t think of Bowie when faced with red eyes and talks of soul contracts. Still...the thinness, the pale skin, even the sunken cheek bones were spookily similar. Bowie had had the arresting blue eyes with the one blown pupil, yes, but the demon’s red eyes had the same effect magnified.

She focused back on the road. The song ended and another began. Then another. She didn’t think he was sleeping, but his eyes remained closed.

Could something like him even feel such a human sensation as serenity?

“What are you staring at, Little Witch?” he asked suddenly, eyes still shut; a smile stretching his thin lips.

“Nothing” she said too quickly; fingers tightening once more.

“Oh, I feel you’re staring at more than nothing” she could practically hear his smile broadening in his gravelly voice. “I’d offer more than just a penny for your thoughts.”

“You’d be the expert on that, wouldn’t you? The worth of thoughts and value of peoples’ emotions...I mean-,” she corrected. “That sounds fantastical and fairytale like at any rate…”

He chuckled softly, but not soft enough that she still couldn’t feel it.

“I see where you would think that, but no. Demons only deal with souls. Thoughts and feelings are the Fae’s territory.”

“Fairies are real too?”

“Of course, Everything and nothing is real in the same breath, Little Witch. Don’t you know that? Now , don’t evade the question, what’s on your mind?”

“I don’t want to say.”

“Ah, well then, who am I to meddle with your free will?” he shifted as straight up in his seat as he could go without his head brushing the roof, unperturbed. “May I take a leaf out of Fae's book and barter for it? I can offer you more than a penny, I assure you.”

Her lips twitched. “You’re already in my debt, and you want to dig yourself deeper?” she shrugged suddenly; giving in. “Fine, I guess, but I’ll give you a freebie...I was just thinking that you look eerily similar to this singer of that song you liked-”

“How do you know I liked it? I could have simply picked it because you liked it.”

“You could have, yes.” she said, rolling her eyes. “But that wasn’t why you picked it.”

He said nothing, and when she glanced back to see his face that was now cast in the shadowy light from the dash gauges. Light and shadow seemed to battle across his face; slashing it in half not unlike David Bowie’s lightning bolt.

“You are right.” he started tapping his fingers against the leg of his expensive suit pants. He never seemed to be able to stay still for very long. “I picked it because I liked it. As I said, the melody is...familiar to me.”

“How is that possible? With you being locked away for so long, I mean?”

“You know, I don't rightly know.” his finger tapping slowed as he frowned, but it didn’t stop. “I wasn’t what one would call lucid while in there. It’s like floating in the void...you are nothing. You feel nothing...but...the witch who bound me…” he swallowed, making her wonder at the history there, “the one who bound me did so by binding her own soul to the spell. That means that the spell remains intact as long as her blood pumps freely on earth-her descendants. As the bloodline got weaker, perhaps so did the spell’s power. As it waned, I might have been able to absorb what was happening outside of my prison. Perhaps whoever in the witch’s lineage was in possession of the book played it during my slumber.”

“Here’s hoping, anyway. Easier to be on the road with a modern, informed demon.” she said, attempting to smile. She wasn’t good at this; at talking. Well...having said that, she wasn’t that great at dealing with anything.

How long had it been since her ex had left her in that shit apartment she couldn’t afford to pay for on her own? How long had it been since she’d found out he’d left her for another? The same woman he’d fucked in their bed, the one they’d bought with her paycheck? How long had it been since she had felt anything but anger and pain, and was able to talk about it?

Katie shook her head, shook the feelings of bitterness off. They did nothing productive.

“Yes, Little Witch, here's hoping.'' He reached over and patted her leg a tad awkwardly before retreating quickly to his side of the car again.

They drove for the next few hours in silence again. Until Katie’s eyes started to get heavy and the lines of the road started to blur.

Keep awake. Keep going...couldn’t stop.

She rubbed her eyes hard, and the road came back into focus once the spots left.

See? She could do this. She was strong. She didn’t need to stop.

***

“It’s time to stop, Little Witch.”

This time, his deep baritone voice didn’t disturb her, but rather seemed to calm her, pulling her deeper towards sleep. “Let us get off the road and get some rest.” he said, almost crooning.

“Yes, let’s” she mumbled, and her head sank back into the hard, ripped headrest. It felt better than the finest goose down and Egyptian cotton.

She was taking an incredibly long time to blink, it seemed.

Somehow, she made her way to the next exit that had a motel just right off the highway. As if by magic. She felt drunk as she made her way into the parking lot. Were her hands even on the wheel anymore? She couldn’t tell nor could she bring herself to care as warm syrupy sleep beckoned her.

Apparently, they’d made it just in time. Any longer, and she’d have driven right off the road.

She tried to focus; to open her eyes wide enough to get out of the car to get a room with two beds, but they closed rather than opened. All she heard was the demon clucking his tongue and murmuring, “poor, tired, Little Witch...” before another wave of sleep crashed over her.

The next thing she knew was the driver side door opening and pale hands, glowing in the moonlight, reaching to unbuckle her seatbelt. She became marginally awake, mumbling the question, “what do you think you’re doing?”

“Putting you to bed, you exhausted ninny.”

“Hmph” she blew a raspberry in the general direction of his face. She felt those dry, warm hands slip under her knees and behind her back as she was lifted up, as if she weighed nothing. “What?” she managed while looking blearily around her.

He somehow adjusted her in his arms to tuck her head back against his chest, patting her cheek gently. “Hush, Little Witch. You don’t have much mental acuity right now. Might hurt yourself.” he gave one of those soft, deep chuckles that were quickly becoming familiar. She heard a keycard panel beep and a heavy door open and then close. Funny, she didn’t feel the demon’s gait, though. It was so smooth and sturdy she might as well be in zero gravity.

Soft pillows touched under her head, and she sighed in relief. She tried to curl into a ball like she usually did but her feet, no, her ankles, were caught on something.

No, someone had a hold of her ankles.

She frowned with her eyes closed and tried to kick herself loose. Her foot made contact with something soft. She heard a rough grunt.

“Easy. Just getting these shoes off.” he coughed a little as he spoke.

Huh, she didn’t know demons coughed-she wondered what he was allergic to. The thought passed almost dreamlike through her mind before she could catch it.

She’d have to ask him in the morning.

Katie snuggled into the sheets once her feet were free. Someone tucked a blanket over her shoulders. That was the last sensation she was aware of before she leapt into the void.