Sam led Billy through the plantation's manor house. Everything about the place put Billy on edge. The place was modernly decorated and filled with all the latest in technology, but something about it still felt old and wicked. Every room and hall they passed was empty, but there always seemed to be something moving, always just beyond the edge of Billy's peripheral.
"This place gives me the creeps." Billy told Sam.
Sam chuckled without real humor. "You're a ghost now. Don't tell me you still don't believe in haunted houses?"
"You mean you deliberately bought a haunted plantation? Why would you do that?"
Samhain sighed sadly. "I had hoped that I could help some of the souls here. But the longer a soul lingers where it shouldn't be, the longer it takes to return from the void. Sometimes all that comes back is the worst parts. The hunger, the ambition, the raw animal instinct to survive. The parts of you humans that fight. Those are the only things that survive in the void that long."
"So they're stuck here forever?" Billy asked, spinning in place, but still never getting a clear shot of whatever was house with them.
"It may take a few decades, but eventually more of their old personality, their old memories will return to them. You've been dead for just over eight years, and you can't remember half of your life. These people have been trapped here for two centuries."
They entered a large white kitchen. Every surface was white, the countertops, the cabinets, the floors, the appliances; and everything was sterilely clean. Sean and Lindsey were there, staring into each others' eyes. Plates that had been scraped clean were placed in front of them on the table. Billy could just make out the last remnants of some sort of thick gravy.
Samhain pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and tossed them at Sean. Sean snagged them out of the air asking, "What's this for?"
Sam replied with a few short gestures. Billy had no idea what Sam had said, but whatever it was had both Sean and Lindsey gaping open mouthed at Sam like he was... well, an angel fallen from heaven.
Sam signed something more that Billy caught none of, then went through a door and down a set of stairs off the kitchen.
"What did he give you?" Billy asked, the second the door closed behind Samhain.
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"A new way to ride. One that distances us as far as possible from that fiasco with the van, and a very generous one."
He jingled the keys in the air in front of him. "He gave me the keys to his yaaaaacht!" Sean sang in a high falsetto.
"Okay, but we have to drive to get to his yacht right?" Billy asked.
"Lifestyles of the rich and the famous, buddy. Out back there is a specially dug tributary that feeds into the Mississippi river. Twelve miles long, all so that the rich prick who used to live here could park his yacht at home."
Sam returned just moments later with something wrapped in a black cloth. He set it on the counter between them, and Sean's ecstatic mood faltered and cut off.
"You need to take him to see Bune." Samhain signed to Sean while speaking aloud for Billy's benefit.
Sean and Lindsey both blanched.
"You can't do it yourself?" Sean pleaded.
"With a few years of hunting I probably could. I don't have that kind of time. Bune could do it overnight."
"Bune would sell him over on sight." Sean replied, gesturing toward Billy.
"That's why I gave you this." Sam said.
He opened the cloth to reveal a knife. It had a simple but ancient-looking wooden handle, and a long sinister curved blade. Billy felt a deep sense of unease as he looked at it. Sean gagged.
"What is that?" Billy asked.
"One of the flaying blades used by the inquisitors. Circa 1521, payment to Bune for your safety. This should match or best any payment that he might get for turning you over."
"Is it valuable then?" Billy asked, to his lack of eyes it looked dull and brittle.
"Maybe worth a few thousand dollars to an enthusiast. But to a demon, its damn near priceless. Years worth of innocent human suffering went into that blade. It took hundreds of lives in slow agonizing fashion, a sadist's wet dream."
"Wait." Billy said, catching up at last, "You are sending me to see a Demon, an honest to God demon? I thought the point of this whole fucking enterprise was to keep me out of the hands of the demons!"
"I'm paying him not to." Sam said, wrapping the knife back up and placing it in Sean's reluctant hand. "It's the most help you will receive anywhere on this continent, I can promise you that."
Sean stood and signed something to Lindsey. She stood too, and crossed the kitchen to give Sam a hug. The two had a short conversation in sign language followed by another long hug. When the hug broke apart, Sean took his turn giving Sam a hug.
"Thank you for saving my ass. Again." Sean said.
"Just bring back my boat. I'll have replaced your van by then, and I'll probably have a dozen jobs for you too."
Sean nodded, and he and Lindsey left the kitchen. Samhain turned to Billy.
"Either way it plays out, we won't be seeing each other again."
The fallen angel put out a hand, as if to rest it on Billy's shoulder, and to Billy's astonishment he actually felt it resting there, exactly as it should have felt were they both flesh and bone humans. It was the first thing he'd felt since awakening from the void.
"Good luck." Sam said.
He withdrew his hand and the feeling faded. It left an impression though, like the throb of a day old burn. Without another word, Samhain turned and left the room.