CHANDLER, ARIZONA - AUGUST 17, 1986

Jim Kovak pushed his way out the door and slapped his demon in the face.

She could have taken it, but she knew better. She fell to the ground and let him step over before she started to beg. She grabbed the cuff of his jeans and begged him to come back, but Jim wasn’t listening.

The rage was on him, and there was too much whiskey between him and the world. He stomped to his truck and roared off. Murder lingered behind him like dust. The demon slipped dimensions and followed him. Tears flowed down her face and formed a chain of tiny spheres in the gray.

The sign in front of the trailer park used to say Stardust, but the A fell off six years ago, and the D buried itself in Mabel Taylor’s roof during the big storm. Today, the sign would be destroyed, and it would never be replaced.

Jim stumbled as he stepped out of his truck, but he didn’t quite fall. The door to Maria’s trailer was locked, but one good kick took it off the hinges. Jim’s eyes were blurry with tears, but he could find his way around here in the dark. He lumbered down the hallway, using both hands to steady himself against the walls.

There was music coming from her bedroom, a powerful beat, with lyrics in Spanish. The door was open, and Jim could see something moving inside.

He kicked the door wide and saw two forms on the bed. Maria was sitting upright with her body arched toward Heaven. Her hair hung in black curls all the way down her back. Her mouth was open, and her eyes were closed. Her breasts were pointed at the sky, presented like an offering to some pagan god.

And then he saw the man underneath.

* * *

Maria didn’t hear Jim kick her door down. She was lost in the music, lost in the heat. She didn’t see him until he opened the bedroom door.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Jim always said he could do magic. He would stomp around the trailer and bellow about power and destiny. He said he was the most powerful mage on Earth. He said he wasn’t afraid of angels or demons or cops. He said he could kill a thousand cops. He said he could have anything he wanted, but all he ever wanted was another beer.

Maria didn’t believe him. Jim said a lot of things when he was drunk. But when she saw him standing in her bedroom door, his body was glowing with an evil red light. It covered him head to toe, leaking from his eyes and mouth. Jim Kovak looked like the devil himself.

Maria saw that light and believed everything, right before she died.

* * *

Jim’s magic came from the sky like red lightning, cutting through the roof like tissue paper, striking Maria square in the chest. It blasted through her body, down through the bed and the floor and the foundation underneath. The man beneath her turned into a pile of burned meat. Jim could smell cooked flesh, mixed with the scent of Maria’s perfume.

Maria went still, and the magic left him all at once. By the time he got to her bedside, Jim was just a man again. Dizzy and sick, he couldn’t remember where he was. Maria’s face was frozen, locked in a permanent expression of surprise. Her eyes were still open. Jim grabbed her face and stared into them, shaking her to try and make them blink.

Her face was hot, like she had a terrible fever. Jim tried to stroke her hair, but he used too much force. Her body tipped over and fell to the floor. Jim was amazed at how light she was, like she wasn’t even a person anymore.

Jim couldn’t face what he’d done, but he knew he had to leave. He staggered into the sunlight, blinking and coughing in the smoke. The world was on fire. Trailers were burning in all directions. Thick black smoke made columns in the air. The ground was covered with bodies. Some of them were trying to crawl away.

Jim hadn’t cast a spell in years. He was sloppy and drunk and out of practice. He tried to call one lightning bolt and got thirty.

Jim looked to his left and saw a line of survivors, huddled against the wall of a big trailer. They were staring at him, pressed against each other like they were trying to hide in plain sight.

These people were alive. Everything Jim loved was dead, but these people were alive. No one should be alive today. Maria was dead, and they should be dead, too. The power surged, eager to help him kill them. Then he heard the sirens and collapsed, sobbing and defeated in the dirt.

The police found him in Maria’s trailer, trying to shake her body back to life. His demon wept as they took him away.