The Sound of the Bell

"Show me what I have to do."

There was no response.

"Okay, you want me to figure it out. Okay ... umm. The charity ... I'll get rid of those two and ... and I can double it ... no, triple it ... more, if needed. Think of how many kids that would help, kids who'd just end up on the streets if I didn't." Luke was babbling, but he didn't care. Anything to avoid this fate.

For the first time since it appeared, Luke had the sense the spirit was uncertain.

"I'll fix all of it. I swear! As God is my witness, I'll become a new man and fix everything. The charity, like I said. I'll make sure Abascal gets the best care, and I'll never do that to a man again. I swear to God, you'll see."

As it had before, the apparition's head tilted at his invocation of God. The moment drew out unbearably. Then its hand rose again, not in the motion to transport him, but to point at the newspaper.

His heart thudding wildly, Luke peered at it again. His heart clenched as he saw the headline unchanged, but wait ... the picture was different. He looked at the top of the page and blinked his eyes to bring it into focus. He couldn't. The date was unreadable. A sign! His future could be changed.

"Oh, spirit, thank you! I swear you'll see."

He heard the now-familiar clang of a distant bell and the blackness took him. When it cleared, he was in his living room. He stumbled to the bar for a scotch. The first went back in a quick swallow and he reached for the bottle again.

"Unnerving, isn't it, meeting that one?"

Luke whirled at the voice behind him. Stephen rested in the leather chair, a drink of his own in one hand and the newspaper that had fallen unnoticed from Luke's in the other.

The silver eyes peered at him from a domino—this time one that was white glitter instead of the black that went with the costume Luke had glimpsed earlier. It was complemented by tight white leather pants and two white leather straps that circled his shoulders.

"Cheesy, huh? And the wings are a little clipped so I'm not slamming into everyone in a crowd." Stephen turned a shoulder to reveal two feathered appendages attached to the straps. "But it wouldn't do to wear the same thing to two parties. Everyone deserves individual attention."

Despite Stephen's comment, Luke didn't think the costume looked cheesy. Even the sculpted bare chest looked right somehow, like the man fit the look or the look fit the man.

"So, interesting newspaper." Stephen waved it.

"I've learned my lesson," Luke said.

"Have you now?"

"Yes. I'll do right by the kids. I'll rip out the rotten wood like those two assholes, and I'll up the ante. The O'Grady Awards will help hundreds of kids."

Luke turned back to the bar for that second drink, his mind already working on where he'd find a few more million or so for the charity. He'd promised no more maiming fighters. That made it difficult. Those kinds of beatings brought out the bloodlust in the crowds, and bloodlust meant money.

And Caitlin was going to cost him some more. Another waste but she still had to go. There was no question after what he saw in that café. But maybe he'd better play it safe—the memory of the specter who had just left made his hand tremble while he poured. It'd be safer to deposit a little more of the green so that Caitlin's share was closer to what the prenup promised.

He shrugged fatalistically. If she wanted to blow it on some trophy dick, well, that was her lookout. Luke could console himself with that masseuse with the killer ass. She was a firecracker in the sack. She'd be good for a decent run before he'd have to do something about the stars she already had in her eyes.

He turned back to Stephen. "It'll take me a while to raise all the cash," he said, "but I promise I'm good for it."

Stephen was still studying the front page. Finally, he looked up. "A man should keep his promises." He stood and carefully folded the paper, tucking it under his arm. "Well, I have parties to attend. We'll meet again eventually."

Luke faced an empty room.

Appearing in his room would have been more direct, but I wasn't interested in shortcuts or efficiency. I meandered through the hospital, smiling at the professionals and nodding in a commiserating fashion to those suffering or visiting with the ill. I loved hospitals. Everyone was so... earnest.

No one returned my smile or nod. They never did. Stopping outside his door, I reached again to my interior pocket, retrieved the velvet bag and ran my thumb along the mask in its dark, dark grasp. Today I walked of my own accord but most of my existence was set, ordered and under the control of others. During those times all I had were my memories.

Masquerades under candlelight, soirees in gardens lit by the gibbous moon, revelries along the Rhine during a time when my will was still my own. The memories sustained me.

Slowly pulling loose the mask, I carefully slipped it on. Not a hair out of place, not a wrinkle in my suit, my calling-card mask in place, I entered the room. Above all else, I was a professional. My meticulous attention to detail wasn't for the subject, it was for myself. To offer anything less would be to insult who I was.

In my long existence, I'd seen too much suffering to be moved by Mr. O'Grady's plight. His head covered in bandages, Luke could still perceive me if he tried. There are some spectacles that no obstructions could block. This suffering would be over soon.

"Mr. O'Grady, it is time to go."

He shivered slightly at my voice but remained where he was.

"Mr. O'Grady, this will be our last walk together. Listen to my voice and rise."

There was a blur just above his skin that outlined his body. The blur began to agitate and roil, as if someone had found a way to boil a fog. With a popping you could feel but not hear, O'Grady exited his body, rose and stood on the ground in front of me. He wore a cheap suit that I'm sure meant something to him at one time in his life, maybe it was what he wore to sign his first contract.

"Whaaaat?" He struggled to find his voice, as they all did when they first lost all connection to their body. "Whhhhyy... Why...Why? I was, it's not supposed to be like this. I learned my lesson! There should be, I don't know, time. Some time to set things right."

He kept looking around, as if something in the hospital would explain this cruel reality. I began to walk and he followed, as I knew he would. The newly departed always imprinted on the first entity they encountered.

"Time? You've had decades, Mr. O'Grady. Your life has been an endless series of choices and options. You could have made a better, bolder choice hundreds of thousands of times. I waited for you to do so. I pleaded and urged you to do so. You were satisfied with the quotidian when you could have had greatness within your grasp if you merely tried. Sadly, your Earthly struggles are over now."

As we approached the end of the long hallway, Luke saw the elevator and finally gave up. The end of this stage of existence was nigh. As the doors slid open, he turned to me.

"Thank you, angel. I... I haven't been the best of men. You've been better to me than I could have expected. Before we depart, is there any way for me to thank Mariel for praying for me for all these years?"

Placing my hand on his back, I ushered him into the elevator.

"I believe that there have been a few grievous misunderstandings. Mariel wasn't praying for you. She was praying for justice. And me? I haven't been an angel in a long, long time."

Reaching out a finger, I pushed the button for sub-basement.

"Such a disappointment. Did you really believe that I wanted you to lead a sanctified life? Was that the change you imagined I was looking for? You had gifts O'Grady! True talents. I've been there every step of the way, waiting for you to leverage those gifts. You bribed boxing judges when you could have bribed politicians and increased misery a hundred-fold. You bought announcers when you could have bought op-ed pieces and shaped the future."

I could hear my voice change, becoming guttural, scraping along the ear like sandpaper over an open wound, soft, painful and raw.

"I brought you three guides that showed you how weak you were, had always been. Had you listened and learned you'd still be in that bed healing. I'm your guardian... well, not angel, that's for sure. I've watched you squander what you had. You could have been great. Instead, you were tepid, a middling evil. Such shall be your reward. Where you could have been a king, you shall instead be a gnat. A servant to all.

"All I could do was whisper and suggest. We can't interfere directly unless given sanction. Her prayers were answered. I was given a release from my restrictions. I nearly screamed from the mountain tops that you should improve yourself. Destroy the enemies you were shown. Cut weakness from your life. Did you?"

My teeth grew ragged and pointed as my tongue narrowed. We gained speed as the elevator plummeted.

"DID YOU? No, you still walked your middle path of qualified evil. A simpering bag of flesh and bone trying to appease a higher power with empty promises instead of reaching out and TAKING YOUR FUCKING DUE!"

As my suit began to smolder and burn, my skin blackened.

"Such a disappointment. My time invested in you was a waste. This is your first day of eternity, O'Grady. Spend it remembering what you could have been here. We all serve something in Hell, but you will serve all."

The elevator slammed down and the doors slid open. I pushed him out into the stygian shores as his screams tried to overpower the echoing voice announcing his arrival.

"Ladies and gentlemen in attendance and to the billions watching throughout Hell, this is your main event of the moment! Your judges for the evening are Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus. Your referee is the esteemed Stephen Peccatum. And now, stepping into the ring of blood and fire, give a warm welcome to Luke O'Grady!"

With thanks to the Alaskan Alligators for their support.