Cardinal Vices Series: The Coming of Pride

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

My attention is immediately jerked to the backyard when there’s another crash.  I walk behind the house to investigate.

“What’s going on here?” I ask when I see a man with his back to me, scrambling to pick up the pieces of what looks to be flower pots.  Next to his feet lies a rusted looking rake.  Upon hearing my voice, the man shoots up and turns to face me, adjusting his glasses promptly.  My blood runs cold when I realize that this is Tom, the clerk from the bookstore who also seemed to be romantically involved with Dalitha back in the day.  “What are you doing here?” I demand.

“I, uh, I was doing some yard work for, um,” he stumbles, pushing his glasses up, “I usually come here to make sure this place stays tidy,” he finally gets out.

“Why?” I ask, “Do you live here?”  That might create some problems.

“Uh, no I don’t, b-but I know…” he stops speaking and looks back towards me, “What are you doing here?”  I freeze, not having expected to have to explain myself.  I never came up with a cover story.  I could just lie, but messing with this guy might just be too hard to pass up.

“Actually, my friend Dalitha sent me here,” I tell him, wondering what kind of a reaction I’m going to get from him.  His eyes widen slightly at her name.

“You’re a friend of D-Dalitha?” he asks, his breathing starting to shallow.  I nod in reply.  He looks down at the ground with a look betraying his conflicting emotions.  I can almost see the questions floating around in his mind, yet he seems unsure of how to ask them.

“So do you always come here just to clean?” I ask, continuing the conversation.

“Yes, I um, I want to make sure the place stays nice for… if she comes back,” he explains, his voice trailing off at the end. 

“What makes you think she’ll come back?” I ask.  He sadly lowers his gaze, a flush of pink spreading on his cheeks.

“I don’t know,” he admits.  He stays quiet after that, so I take the time to study this human’s emotional state.  I observe his facial expressions, his body language, trying to figure out why he would care so much about Dalitha, at the same time trying to figure out why Dalitha considers him so important.  He’s just a plain looking, self-conscious, stuttering human who runs a bookstore.  Humans like him are everywhere on this planet, so why him?  “Are you… are you one of what Dalitha is?” he asks, carefully wording the sentence, “are you a demon?”  At that I burst out laughing, obviously startling him.

“I am not a demon,” I laugh, “I’m the one who bosses them around!”

“You’re a devil?!” he asks in shock before subconsciously taking a couple steps back.

“Well don’t look so surprised,” I tell him at the tail end of my laughing fit.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, what are you doing here?  Don’t you have your own business to take care of back… down there,” he asks.  Ah, this guy is so funny.

“Nope, I’m actually sick of the literal hell I have to put up with in a place that I’m supposed to have some influence.  My brother’s are idiots, the demons I work with are idiots,” I pause, “Honestly, everyone in Hell is an idiot with the exception of Dalitha… and me of course.”  Tom looks blankly at me.  I sigh, “I’m pretty much here because I’m sick of my brothers haunting my every move.  I want to be in control of my own life, so I suppose being human is a pretty good start.”

“So… this is permanent?” he asks.  I just shrug, I honestly have no idea how long I’ll be in the human world, or whether this is permanent or not; but I figure it doesn’t really matter as long as I never have to deal with my brothers again.