Halfway to Hell

Halfway to Hell Chapter 12

TWELVE

'Let me get this straight.'

            'This should be good.' Eddie grinned and spread his hands in a 'go ahead' gesture.

            'All those blackouts I've been having?'        

            'Call it teething troubles. It's what happens when two time periods merge. You'll settle down.'

            'Uh-huh. And that weird noise I keep getting on the radio?'

            'It's called rock music. Kid name of Hendrix. He'll be really big in ten years or so. Your time that is. For me he's already been and gone.'

            'And that gas or whatever it was that knocked me for a loop on the street?'

            'Pollution. It's a real bitch, but you'll get used to it.'

            I traced the droplets on the side of my beer glass with my finger. 'And you're not really Eddie?'

            'Nope. He was just available. Kinda like him though. He's a good fit.'

            'So if you're not Eddie?'

            'You wouldn't understand if I told ya. Just think of me as a guy who greases the wheels.'

            'And this?' I tapped the newspaper, the one that told the world about my imminent demise.

            'All true,' he said.

            I thought about that for a while. 'Eddie,' I said, 'you are crazier than I am. And that's saying a lot.'

            'I know it's a lot to take in, but let me lay it out for ya one more time. You're a nice guy, Mac, but you are a bad person. You've done some terrible things in your life and you are going straight to Hell, make no mistake about that. But this,' he pointed to the paper, 'this you didn't do.'

            'At least we agree on something.'

            'Not that it matters. Innocent people get framed all the time and the universe could give a shit. But this guy, the one who stitched you up, he used real bad magic to do it. Carried on doing it too. Now, in real time...'

            'And that would be?'

            '2017, like I told ya.'

            'Right, 2017.'

            'Anyway, by now he's so powerful, he's gonna do something that will upset the balance of good and evil in the universe forever. And that can't be allowed to happen.'

            'So why don't God or whoever just swat him like a bug?'

            'That ain't the way it works. You get one God stepping in and before you know it, they all want a piece of the action. Real Armageddon stuff before you could blink.'

            'One God? There's more than one?'

            'It's complicated. Let's just keep it simple. The Powers That Be can't be seen to be getting their hands dirty, so, they need a fall guy. Someone to take the rap if it all goes wrong. That's where you come in.'

            'Why me?'

            He tapped the paper again. 'Because this is where it all began. You were the first domino to fall. You got a chance to put it right.'

            'Swell. Just tell me who the sucker is and I'll put a bullet in his head. Problem solved.'

            Eddie shook his head. 'I keep tellin' ya, it don't work that way. This is your future, remember? Everything that's about to happen to you has already happened. Nobody thought it would get this far. But now it has, something's gotta be done about it.'

            'And I'm the guy to do it?'

            'Right. Now you're catching on.'

            Right about now I was convinced this was all a bad dream and I was gonna wake up any second. I waited but nothing happened. 'And what exactly do I have to do?'

            'You take away his power. Everything that happened after you died, everyone that he screwed over, every poor slob that he used to climb the greasy pole, those are your clients. They'll come to you, seeking retribution. You take on their case and if you succeed, that's one more nail in his coffin.'

            'And if I don't succeed?'

            Eddie shrugged. 'Then you fail and you go straight to Hell along with the rest of the universe.'

            'What's in it for me?'

            'Jeez Mac, you're not exactly in a position to bargain you know. But, okay, if you succeed, the slate's wiped clean. You get to redeem yourself and get a shot at Heaven after all. You also get the girl.'

            My ears pricked up at this. 'What girl?'

            'What girl, he says! What girl do you think I mean? Delores.'

            My heart was beating faster at that. 'But if this is 2013,' I said, 'she'll be dead by now or in her seventies at least!'

            'Not for you it isn't,' he said. 'For you it will always be 1956. And if you do your job, that's when the clock starts ticking again.'

            He almost had me convinced. 'Okay,' I said. 'When do I start?'

            'Soon as we get the formalities over with.'

            'What formalities?'

            'Everything has to happen just as it did or else this whole thing doesn't work.'

            'So?' I was beginning to get a real bad feeling about this.

            'So, you get framed for three murders you didn't commit. You get tried and found guilty. You get the chair. Then it begins.'

            'You mean I have to die first?'

            'Sorry, Mac. It's the only way.'

            I caught some movement out the corner of my eye. I glanced toward the door and saw Sullivan and Rafferty and some blue coats trying to look as though they didn't exist. I turned back to Eddie.

            'They picked you up in O'Malley's,' he said. 'It was in all the papers.'

            I shot to my feet. The cops began to move in my direction. Eddie grabbed my arm.

            'Don't run, Mac. You'll only make things worse.'

            I snarled and jerked my arm free. If what he had told me was true, I was a dead man anyway, but it wasn't in my nature to go down easy. I grabbed up a chair and swung it at Sullivan. He put up an arm to block the blow, but he went down anyway. As Rafferty and the other cops got tangled up trying to get around him, I hit the back door and was out in the alley in two seconds flat. I could hear shouts behind me, but I didn't look back. I ran. I had no idea where I was going, but it didn't matter. I ran until I couldn't hear their voices any more. Only then did I stop and ask myself, what the hell am I going to do now?