“Please take a seat,” Charles invited. “And have a nice drink to commemorate the reunion.”

Charles raised a hand and a small rumble shook the floor near my feet. A matching chair to Charles’ slid up from the ground. A small stand grew beside it. A glass half-full of whiskey appeared atop a coaster. I tapped the upholstery and narrowed my eyes.

“I didn’t realize that you had died, Charles,” I commented as I picked up the glass. I sniffed it once before I took a healthy sip of the whisky within and allowed the burn to linger within my throat. “No one ever told me. If I had known, I would have sent your family a bouquet. Not that I would know where to send it anyways.”

“Don’t worry, your gifts would have been unwelcome to my weak-hearted wife.”

“Of course, the girls I taxied to your parties were your way of professing your undying love for her. What did you in? I hope it was poetic.”

“Quickly and without consequence. An aneurysm, I believe,” Charles explained, ignoring my inflammatory language. “I was in my penthouse, reviewing some new contracts before bed. My favorite Yo-Yo Ma record was playing a beautiful lullaby for me. I stood up and felt a short, sharp pain behind my eyes. Then, darkness. Whether I passed out or died instantly, it did not matter. My eyes did not open again until I was already deep within the stomach of Tartarus itself. I suppose that means that my attempts to get you a retrial were not pursued by my children.”

“You were attempting a retrial for my case?”

“Of course, you hadn’t said a single word about me and accepted your judgment dutifully. Others pour their hearts out in an instant. I wasn’t going to get you out of that cell for at least twenty five years. But, I was going to get you out alive with a nice deposit in your name so you wouldn’t die hungry. Not that it matters anymore. Haven’t you been rewarded with something far greater now that you’ve died?”

Charles extended his hand. Small black tendrils writhed atop his furry palm. They lashed against his skin with loud slapping noises, but were kept weak enough that they didn’t break through his skin.

“I watched your performance on the Hell Express,” Charles continued, withdrawing the tendrils back into his hand. “As soon as I saw your profile, I knew it was you. The replays of your escapades at the lower levels made it so that there was no doubt in my mind. I saw too many photos of your handiwork to mistake it.”

“I also could not possibly mistake your mannerisms, masked by a goat’s features as they may be,” I added.

Charles only nodded in response.

It was bizarre. I had never talked much with Charles. Our discussions were often through intermediaries like Jamie; always as orders. The only other time we had spoken was at a dinner party that I got invited to. I was just starting to make a name as a hired killer and Charles introduced me to several clients wearing the half-masks of animals. But, I only knew that he did such an act to continue to elevate his own status.

Yet, here we were; speaking as though we were good friends in our previous life. Though, there was something bizarrely comforting to meet someone from my previous life. It was confirmation that I was once alive, that I was once a person.

“I always knew that Charles wasn’t your real name,” I chuckled as I finally took my seat. “And now I know that you do not remember my name.”

“Charles was a business name,” Charles explained. “A name that led to no one and nowhere. Yet, when I awoke without a name, the name Charles came naturally as breath. What better name to use than the nom de guerre I took to engage in the very evil that brought me down here? What of you, what inspired Ishmael?”

“I read Moby Dick before I was executed,” I answered plainly.

A deep laugh exited Charles’ lungs. He wiped away an invisible tear with one of his furry fingers. He tapped the rim of his empty glass twice. It slipped into the table beside him before reappearing refilled.

“You really are a car with two gears, aren’t you?” Charles admired. “I remember seeing the first photo of your dirty work from Terry. I believed I had found another mindless beast to unleash upon my problems. But then I spoke to you more after. I remember how eloquent you were anytime we did have the chance. Those two realities never made sense to me. Perhaps I was the one that stole a bright light from the world and doused it in blood. Those are the crimes that the box mentioned most, the crimes against children.”

“Your jobs made a possibility a certainty. You didn’t make me love killing, you only made it possible for me to learn I did. It doesn’t seem that you’ve changed much either, Charles. This enterprise doesn’t feel too different from the one you had in life. Old habits, eh?”

“For every man like you and me, there are scores of sinners that lacked the skills or the fortitude to continue to descend into their true nature,” Charles said in a matter-of-fact tone like it was an undisputed truth of nature. “They serve as nothing more than the pavestones to keep our shoes clean. The same simple tricks and manipulations that destroyed them in life work just as well in death. Even better.”

“Right,” I replied tersely, his candid description including my life as well.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“You know what I say is true, I know what extortion you pulled on those folks trapped in tar. Contracts are longer than a lifetime. You can punish them however you see fit and they will always return in perfect health. And there is no way to dodge payment. It’s as the system itself conspired specifically for demons like us to succeed. The speed of my ascent is only confirmation that my strategies were correct.”

“Is this meeting just a way to relive a few memories?” I asked. “If you don’t recall, I was essentially your slave.”

“Not for all of it,” Charles argued with a chuckle. “You clawed your way out of that dank hole in an impressive fashion. But, you are right, I did not call you here just as a chat between two people who knew each other in life. I have interest in recruiting your skills for a job that you are well-acquainted with. I need you to kill someone for a client of mine.”

image [https://i.imgur.com/fkxxfb1.jpeg]

Quest

The Disloyal Student

The is a master of martial arts who lives on a mountaintop. He shares the teachings of his demonic master and his arts to the students that he recruits. One such student was deemed unfit and denied that education. They wish for the master to be killed, his school destroyed, and his scrolls seized.

Reward: One Million XP (300,000 XP provided upon acceptance) and a gift from Charles.

“How nice, a deposit,” I commented, licking my lips. “When have you ever been so generous?”

“Consider it the smoothing of any hard feelings that you may have developed for me in life,” Charles replied. “You can run off with it if you want. But you should understand from my clients that all decisions carry unique consequences.”

I read over the quest several more times. It felt like I was a sea captain approaching a rocky shoreline in the pursuit of treasure. Charles hadn’t changed at all. If anything, he grew worse. Becoming his dog now was not my idyllic version of the afterlife. But, I didn’t decline the offer. Not yet.

“If you’ve watched me on the train, you must also know that I will make ten times as much just by lying low in a kill-free city for a short while,” I replied. “Why should I go run errands for you so soon?”

Charles sighed. Colorless mana spilled from his nostrils and formed a cloud that hung around his chair.

“Please don’t feign ignorance with me,” Charles requested. “We both know that there are many ways to kill someone and I also know that you are too impatient to have waited to accumulate funds before reaching here. You are destitute and without connection in a place that overwhelmingly wants you dead. I believe that you have the skills to be able to evade your hunters, but I don’t believe that you have the mindset to do so. It would only be a matter of time before you swipe for an exposed throat.”

I sharply exhaled. A meeting like this was a double-edged sword. Charles knew my tendencies better than I knew his. Somewhere, subconsciously and infuriatingly, we had already shifted back into the familiar role of master and subject.

“Not to mention that they have other targets they can pursue to flush you out.”

“I have no one like that,” I refuted sharply.

“I see you, you soft-hearted fool,” Charles said with a mocking laugh. “We all saw who you spoke to on the platform. You are a good man with an addiction to violence and a dullness in your empathy. That’s why you sloppily murdered that small time dealer and fucked yourself in the investigation. Your drug-addled girlfriend couldn’t keep herself away from a heated spoon or a needle and you had to do something about it. Why do you keep allowing yourself small cracks for unwelcome guests to wriggle their way in?”

I clenched my teeth. Were any of their lives or safety worth more than ten million XP? If they became a burden, I could just leave them to their fates. Perhaps, I could save them later and spin a story to earn further respect and dependence.

Capitaine I would cut loose without hesitation. They had only just reached tolerance. Vendetta was a former employer that could manage herself.

But Yoshitsune…

Annoyance bubbled in my mind. It should have already been a quick and decisive choice to cast her aside. A single night together shouldn’t matter. There were other women that I saw between the times that I was with Miranda. None of them ever mattered regardless of their kindness or their affection or their body. It must be a sense of mutual loyalty. It was the only explanation that I permitted myself.

“You are offering them protection?”

“I will not go so far as to prevent their deaths, but I will keep their corpses from falling into the hands of your enemies. Is that what you’d like?”

Charles’ eyes glowed like coals as they watched every single detail of my body. I could feel him searching me for any tell, any way to discern information from me for free.

“Please do so,” I replied. “And that’s only if I accept.”

“Right, only if you accept,” Charles agreed with a knowing nod. His eyes dimmed and he leaned back into his chair. This time, he summoned a cigar and held it up to his mouth. The end caught fire on its own. “What other conditions are you going to bray about before we reach the inevitable?”

“Tell me more about the gift,” I requested. “And I’m not interested in weapons.”

“I’m well aware of your combat preferences. There is something that I’m looking for but I don’t want to tell you in case I get your hopes up for nothing. If I find it, that will be your reward. If not, I will provide you with some high quality Sin-gots and access to my own blacksmith so that you may smelt yourself again. Why? Is there something that you had in mind?”

I scratched at my teeth with my claw before running my teeth along the surface. I leaned forward in my chair and smiled.

“What if I asked that we fight?” I wondered innocently. “No better way to settle potential hard feelings than a friendly brawl. I know that I would feel a lot better if I landed a few shots on you.”

Charles smirked at my statement. The glow of his eyes intensified and the cloud of mana returned. Something squirmed beneath me and I hastily hopped from my seat. On the upholstery were the numerous black tentacles that covered Charles’ hand.

More and larger tentacles of shadow extended across the four walls of the room. The very fabric of the structure was torn apart. Now, all that surrounded me was shadow and the two burning coals inside of Charles’ head. The wisps surrounded me, rising up my legs and encircling my torso. But not damaging me. It was no more than a stranger at a gas station flashing a gun at you before trying to steal your car.

This was a very large gun.

“You should know me better, Ishmael. You are either my friend, or you are a casualty. What are you going to do?” Charles demanded. “Do we have an agreement or not?”

“I need a moment to think it over.”

In an instant, the room returned to normal. The tentacles disappeared without a trace and Charles was calming sitting in his chair. He motioned at the door. Dutifully, the metal doors swung open to allow me to leave.

“We’re in an eternal afterlife, take all the time that you need. I’ll be waiting.”