Satan's Debut

Danny gets more than he bargains for when he sneaks out of his house and visits Stonehearst Cemetery.

Satan’s Debut

By Gabrielle Esposito

His parents were at it again, screaming at each other in that tired, hoarse way. He didn’t think it would last long--it never really did. But he wanted to be out of the house before they stopped. Recently they had gotten into the habit of making love after they came close to ripping each other’s eyes out, and when they did that stuff they seemed to forget he was even in the house. He could hear them--doing it.

    Maybe one of these days, they would just finish each other off so he didn’t have to hear it anymore.

    He crept out from one of the long shadows that clouded the hallway and peered at them from behind the wall.

    “I can’t f*****g stand it.” His mother, throwing a dish in the sink. It shatters. Another one down, three ceramics left. “This place is a wreck, you’re home all day and you can’t do anything to f*****g fix it?”

    “What the hell do you want me to do? I’m trying my best, the market is just s****y right now. I know I can make it, give me a chance.”

    “The market’s been s****y for three years? I don’t think so.”

    “What do you want me to do? You said do something you love.”

    “I meant something that brings in money, something that will send Danny to college.”

    “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. Be more specific next time then,” said his dad. Danny hung his head. He’d been a lawyer once. Danny remembered how he wore suits and carried that brown leather briefcase, his head always bowed just like that.

    There was finally a lull in the shouting, and Danny took his chance, stepping into the light. He had dried his eyes and was feeling like he was holding his head high enough not to let them see how their fighting cut into him.

    “Hey, um, guys?” His mother’s gaze first, followed by his father’s. Panic flashed in their glassy eyes. Plastered smiles were spackled onto their lips. Right on cue.

    “Hey sweetie. Want to have something to eat?” His mother turned to grab a plate from the sink, remembered the broken glass and then walked over to the cabinet. Danny caught her hand before she could open it.

    “Actually mom I was wondering if it would be okay if I went out with a few of the guys. They were talking about going to Comic Strip and then to the diner.”

His mother bit her lip, lost in a wave of thought. Her hand still suspended in the air reaching for a cabinet that didn’t need to be opened. How pathetic.

    “I think that would be fine, dear. Don’t you?” said his father, not looking up from his thumbs. Danny was used to it. So much time had passed between glances from his father, he wasn’t sure what color his eyes were anymore.

    Danny’s mother lowered her hand, finally taking a bite of defeat. By the look on her face, Danny could tell that it tasted bitter.

    “Sure, that’s fine. Be home by eight. Take some money, there you go. Remember to call if you need anything!” said his mother.

    Danny was already walking down the hall, the twenty in his pocket. He gave her a thumbs up just to make her feel better but was caught up in the excitement of getting out of the house. Danny slammed the door harder than he meant to, and the Christmas wreath shook. A ribbon fell off of it. He didn’t stop to pick it up. He didn’t stop for anything, not the lights telling him he couldn’t cross the street yet, or the buzzing of his phone. Someplace quiet. A place where he could think. That was what he craved and he knew exactly where he could find it. The place where he went when he needed to get away from the world.

That was why he only let up on his pace when he saw that black metal sign hanging between the stone pillars.

Stonehearst Cemetery

    Danny pushed the gates open, listening to the scream of the hinges. Danny shut them behind him, knowing that their cries would continue every time the wind picked up if he left them open. He thought they liked to be silent, out of respect for the dead.

Danny picked his way down the path, the stillness chilling his skin. It wasn’t the air, it was the serenity. Here was where he felt at peace. He hated the world of the living, always looking down on him because he was small and young and useless. At least here, having a pulse mattered.

He sat down in a bench across from Elmer Wicket, whoever that was, and took out his phone. Three messages from his mom, asking him if he was all right. He wouldn’t respond now. He was a half hour gone, they were probably still busy threatening divorce papers. Danny sunk lower on the bench, the wood freezing right through his shirt. He hadn’t taken a jacket, had been in too much of a hurry to think about it. Now he was regretting it. He grabbed his fingertips with alternating hands and blew into them, trying to get some feeling back.

“It’s cold out tonight, isn’t it?” Danny threw a glance to his left. A man was standing a little ways from the bench, looking like he was just as cold if not colder than Danny. He was clothed only in sorry excuses for rags. By the looks of it, he should have frozen as soon as the sun went down. For his sake, Danny almost wished that he had so that he didn’t have to feel the bitter winter.

“Freezing.” Danny studied the man for a second, trying to see if he was trouble. Then he realized that he didn’t care what happened to him and scooted over so that the man could sit.

“Thank you.” The man eased himself down, squinting as the pain flared up his old joints before sighing into the seat. “What are you doing out here so late?”

“It’s only six.”

“But for you’re no more than, what, eleven? Twelve?”

Danny looked at the man, closer than he had before. He tried to detect a malice in his form, tried to see if he should excuse himself and maybe run for his life (guess you do care what happens to you, eh buddy?). But he didn’t mind being there with him, not really. Danny couldn’t see anything wrong.

“I’m thirteen,” said Danny.

“Ah.” Silence. Growing. Growing. Then, “When did you turn thirteen?”

Without thinking, Danny replied “Halloween.”

    The man gave a hoot that shattered the graveyard’s peace and a toothy grin that was in need of a dentist. It made Danny’s insides churn.

    “That so? That’s why you got a sort of wicked look to you?” Danny’s eyebrows wrinkled. He had never heard that before. Always the laugh and always the smile at the date, but never, ever had he been called--

    “Wicked? What do you mean?” said Danny.

    The old man was still wheezing a tired laugh, bending over his crooked knees to catch his breath. He came up for air. Needing to know what the man meant, Danny grabbed a hold of his arm. He expected to hit skin over bone, but felt instead thick strands of muscle.

    Now the man quieted. The stillness once again returned to the place of the dead. Danny saw his eyes for first time. The color penetrated his soul. They were a swimming violet, not a muddy combination of green and brown, but a pure, shocking color. And they seemed to glow in the bone white light of the moon, they seemed to pulse along with the rays of light beaming down on Danny and the man.

    “You’ve got this--” Danny’s voice trailed off and died, like the people lying still in their graves.

    “A wickedness too, you might say.” The man spoke with a cool sort of confidence now, like he was getting hyped up for some big reveal. Danny frowned. The man suddenly didn’t look so helpless and Danny felt his heart spike in chest. Something was different, something had changed. As if his crippled exterior was nothing more than a facade.

Dangerous? Maybe. Danny relaxed, tried to play it off like he wasn’t afraid.

“What are you?” said Danny. Honest, childlike innocence. The man’s eyes burned bright, feeding off of it.

“I’m your salvation, should you choose to take it. See, you’re one special case. Most people can’t see me, Danny. But you can. You were born on my day.”

“Halloween?”

“All Hallow’s Eve. When the dead come back to life. You’re a child of mine, Danny.” The man moved to wrap one of his arms around him. Danny flinched against it, but let the man do what he wanted.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before,” he said.

“Of course you didn’t. I didn’t let myself be seen until now, when you were alone and in need of some company. You see Danny, I want to help you.” Danny’s skin prickled. He couldn’t figure out why until he looked up to see the man staring down at him. He was so close he could feel the heat of his breath. There was a sour note to it, just like--

“I had some meat tonight, that’s what you smell.”

Did he just--

“Yes, I did, but please pay attention. Listen, I know that you’re hurting. I’ve been watching you. I watch all my children, but you in particular. I want to help you most of all.”

“You do?”

“I know that I could. All you have to do is say the word, and both your mommy and daddy will stop fighting. They’ll stop ruining everything. Don’t want to grow up stunted and mean, do you?” Danny wrinkled his nose. The man was right, he was growing up into an emotionally twisted kid. Just last week he caught a centipede and had pulled off all of it’s legs, just for the hell of it. It had given him a sick thrill.

“How does it work? What will happen to them?”

“Oh, nothing that they don’t deserve. You won’t miss them, I’m sure of it. All I need is one little, itty bitty piece of you. It’s the thing that leaves when you die, I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Haven’t you?” Danny screwed up his face as he thought, took the opportunity to look away and escape the gaze of the man. He was hating this, he just wanted it to be over.

“Still no answer yet?” said the man. “The one you’re thinking is correct.”

“So it’s your soul?”

“Bingo! See? Smart, I knew I liked you. Yup, I just need your soul, and the best part is, you won’t have to give it to me for a long, long time.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” A big, cheesy grin, then the man’s eyes shimmered and he turned away, thinking.

“What?” said Danny.

“Nothing, nothing. But you know, if you did want mommy and daddy to stop, I mean, like, really, really make them stop, you could give me your soul now.”

“But wouldn’t I die?”

The man let off a long crow of laughter that bounced off the gravestones and slapped Danny in the face. He pulled away from the man to save his eardrums, but he just got pulled right back.

“Die? Nonsense! I wouldn’t let one of my children die.”

“I’m not your kid.”

“Oh, but you are.” Deadly serious, those violet eyes pinned on Danny. Nowhere to go. “So, what’s your answer? Would you like to be saved from the pain and suffering that is adolescence? Would you like to take vengeance for yourself? Because I can give it to you. Harp on it for a while.”

The man released him, and Danny got up from the bench. He meant to run right there. He shouldn’t have started talking to the stranger in the first place. But images of times past flashed through his mind.

His mother sitting on the steps of their house, crying with a red welt throbbing on her cheek. His father in his office, flipping off his mother every time she walked past. Together in the kitchen, both their faces red. Danny, lurking in the shadows, trying not to cry. Tonight, when his mother broke the dish. How badly Danny wanted to knock them both around, the selfish b******s, screaming at each other while he was home. The sting of tears came when he wondered if those sharp shards still be lying in the sink when he got home. The cold realization that he would never be able to change anything hit him hard. But sitting right in front of him was an opportunity. If it was true, maybe, just maybe--

Danny felt his chest beginning to tingle, like he was nervous and butterflies were flitting around in his stomach. The feeling began to spread. It intensified when the sensation hit his shoulders and his arms. The tingling didn’t tickle anymore. It was beginning to feel more like a bunch of ants crawling over his flesh, their exoskeletal legs stabbing at his flesh. Danny began running his hands over his body, trying to stop the awful buzzing. His touch only made it worse. It was as if the sensation had infected his body.

“Are you doing this to me?” said Danny. He was wriggled around, trying to stop the painful prickling.

“No,” said the man. “You did this to you.”

Danny felt a tiny tear in the left side of his chest. His eyes widened when the ripping wouldn’t stop. He was coming apart at the seams, and the pain, God, the pain was practically eating him alive, killing him and the world, the world that he hated so much, was losing it’s light. Danny felt weightless, maybe he was falling, maybe he was flying, but either way he was reaching an end to his journey.

He hit rock bottom. Or he hit the top of the sky.

Danny saw the man above him, a looming face suddenly full of life. Danny tried to speak. The man put a finger to his lips. They smelled like iron.

“Shh. It’s OK. You didn’t have to tell me. I knew your decision already. And now you can go forth and not worry about whether you are too small or too weak. I have taken your soul, and you will find no chains holding you back. Nothing will hurt you, nothing will bind you. Rest for a moment. Your body is dying. But when you wake, you will find your way back home.”

The man’s finger lifted from his lips, and came up to shut Danny’s eyes. Danny let him, because he was too weak to do anything else.

………………………………………………………

The man was right. Danny did wake up. He was still laying on that path of the graveyard, not really sure if it was the same night or if he had slept all day into the next night. It didn’t matter.

Danny was hungry. Starving, actually. That was what mattered. He knew exactly what he wanted for dinner.

He was clumsy as he tried to stand, had to use the bench to stand up. His spine had turned to jelly. But he had gained a predator’s vision, and the night was clear and Danny’s senses were tingling. His nose itched with new smells. His skin prickled each time he felt the wind. He could feel every individual fiber in his jeans and shirt.

Most of all, he could feel the hunger gnawing at his stomach.

Danny lurched forward, a grin on his face as he felt the muscles in his legs strain to hold his body. He knew with each step he took, he was closer to food. He passed the gate of the cemetery, and felt like he was leaving his home. He looked back for a moment, tried to imprint the gate into his mind. He lost the thought a second later. It was overridden by the intense growling of his stomach.

Danny was carried through the streets on unsteady feet. He leaned his shoulder against the buildings to keep himself from falling down. His shirt was full of tears by the time he turned onto his street. He saw his house sitting there, the windows dark aside from his parent’s bedroom.

His parents.

Danny’s stomach gave an ugly growl.

He walked towards the house while his sluggish mind wondered about what he was going to eat first. Danny leaned against the rail as he walked up the steps. He was starting to feel sick, feverish. A cold sweat had broken out on his forehead. When he reached the top of the stairs, he caught a glimpse of himself in the window. His skin was a ghastly shade of gray, and the flesh around his eyes was near black. The sight almost phased him from his hunger. With a grunt, Danny opened the door with weak fingers and pushed himself inside.

    As soon as he walked in the house, he could smell the evidence that his parents were here. Danny caught the scent of lust mingled with hate coming from their room. His stomach screamed at him again. His stomach grumbled, and he moaned along with it. His feet dragged him across the floor, occasionally getting caught on the carpet. He pulled himself along until he was standing outside his parent’s bedroom. The door was open a crack, and Danny could see his mother’s naked shoulder peeking out from the white comforter. His black tongue darted out to lick his lips.

    Danny wedged himself in between the door and sidled into the room. The scent was stronger now, and he could feel his mouth watering. A trickle of drool dribbled out from between his lips as he stood over his mother. A drop of his saliva dripped from his chin and fell onto his mother’s creamy skin.

    She stirred and turned her sleeping face towards him. The blanket slipped just enough to reveal the soft curve of her left breast. Danny could hear heart beating underneath that mound  flesh, could see her chest moving in time with each pulse. Delectable.

    Danny saw his hand reaching towards her. He was suddenly hit with the murmur of a  memory: he and his mother playing on the swings; she pushed him higher and higher until he laughing and smiled. It seemed wrong that such a memory was even there and Danny shoved it aside. He was too hungry, too bent on his goal to be distracted. He grabbed the edge of the blanket and tore it off.

    His mother’s eyes flew open. Her mouth widened into a scream, but Danny had sunk her teeth into her chest long before she managed to get it out.

Author's Note

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