Devil's Soul

Chapter 16 (why you shouldn't fall asleep in a beanbag chair)

After the night of partying, I woke up in a beanbag chair. On the beach. The beanbag chair part wasn’t too unusual. I could fall asleep basically anywhere. I often slept over at Omega Chi after parties or long nights of studying. Sometimes I slept on the couch or on Chung’s floor, and sometimes I fell asleep on the beanbag chair. Chung always slept in his bed, but Abhinav normally slept in the same room as me. Last night, we had both snuggled into neighboring beanbag chairs.

So waking up in a beanbag chair did not take me by surprise. It was the beach part of the situation that threw me off. This didn’t even look like it could be a Massachusetts beach. The water was too blue and clear. And there were palm trees. That was pretty much a giveaway, right there.

I shifted forward in the beanbag chair to get a better look at where I was.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” the Devil asked, causing me to launch myself out of the beanbag chair in fright. He’d been standing behind me, admiring the ocean. He looked like the same middle aged man that I had last seen him as, with his peppered hair and air of sophistication, except this time his eyes were bluish green, like the ocean. Before, his eyes had been brown.

I looked from the Devil, back to the ocean, unable to resist following his gaze. “Where are we?” I asked, turning back toward the Devil. We had the beanbag chair between us, but when I asked him the question, he stepped around it so that he would be closer to me.

“Don’t you think it’s better to admire the beauty without the prejudice of knowing where we are?” He placed his hand on my shoulders and gently guided me to face the ocean. He continued to stand behind me, with his hands resting on my shoulders as we admired the ocean. “This is a gift, Mavis. Most people don’t get to look upon the world with unbiased eyes.”

He seemed so genuine that even though I didn’t completely understand what he meant, I felt obligated to appreciate his gift. I watched the ocean sparkle as it ebbed and flowed, producing a lovely melodic tune. I stepped out of my flip flops and strode forward, letting the white sand fill the crevices between my toes with every step. The Devil’s hands slid off my shoulders without protest, as I walked away from him.

The closest I had ever come to visiting a place like this was my beach trip to Virginia, and Virginia hadn’t seemed quite as magical as this place did. This beach just seemed so foreign. It was completely different from anything I had ever experienced.

“’Beautiful’ doesn’t do it justice,” I murmured.

The Devil’s hearty laugh startled me out of my reverie. I hadn’t realized that he had re-closed the distance between us, but now I saw that he was standing just behind my left shoulder. “If you are always this appreciative of gifts, I just might have to bestow them upon you more often.”

I didn’t respond to that. I didn’t think that I wanted to receive more “gifts” from the Devil because they weren’t all likely to be this pleasant. They would probably come with strings attached. There was probably a string attached to this one, too.

“Why are we here?” I asked, deciding that this was more important than knowing our location.

“You’re all business, aren’t you. Why don’t you relax a little? Go splash in the water. Build a sandcastle or something.”

I turned around so I could face him and raised my eyebrows. Did he really expect me to run off and play on the beach, as if I belonged here? I had responsibilities back home. My friends didn’t know where I was. I couldn’t be here.

The Devil held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I won’t force you into anything. I just thought you might like the chance to take a break from your life.”

The offer was certainly tempting, but I didn’t trust the Devil. If nothing else, hanging out here for a while would certainly burn my pale New England skin. I was sure the Devil hadn’t thought to pack sunscreen.

“Forgive me if I don’t trust you,” I said, crossing my arms. I didn’t think I needed to keep my mistrust a secret from him.

He put his hand over his heart. “Ouch, Mavis, that hurts,” he said, taking mock offense. Then he smiled. “I knew when I saw you that I’d found myself a smart one. But just for the record, the beach offer was no trick. I know you’re eager to talk business, though, so I won’t push the issue. Let’s take a walk.” He began to walk down the beach, and I followed, not really feeling like I had a choice. “So. How do you like Desmond?”

This question caught me off guard, and I almost tripped over myself as thoughts of his British accent entered my head. I shook those away. “Uh, I don’t know,” I said intelligently.

The Devil smirked, convincing me that he had sent me a guy with a British accent on purpose. He must have known what it would do to me. “Desmond is my best demon, so I expect you to learn a lot from him, especially when you have such great potential.”

“Why is he so great?” I asked. Aside from his British accent, I didn’t understand what was so special about him.

The Devil grinned mischievously. “I suspect that you will find out. Just don’t expect him to show off to you right away. Desmond is a modest boy.”

I wasn’t sure if the Devil was being serious or not. Desmond had not struck me as the modest type. “Okay…Can you at least tell me why you think I have such great potential?” I had trouble believing that I, of all people, had potential for being a great demon. Or maybe I just didn’t want to believe it.

“Your soul was very pure,” he said, which explained nothing to me, and I got the sense that he was leaving out a full explanation on purpose. “Well, I just wanted to make sure that you are ready to let Desmond teach you. Since you don’t seem too resistant, I’ll let you get back to your friends.”

We stopped at the bottom of some primitive stone steps that led up a hill and away from the beach. The Devil gestured for me to continue up the steps. I gazed at them cautiously. I had left my flip flops by the beanbag chair and these stairs were lined with cacti.

“Go on,” the Devil prompted.

I embarked up the stairs, being careful to avoid the cacti. The stairs were hot, as they’d been baking in the sun, and with every step, I quickened my pace, eager to reach the top. When I finally leaped to the last stair, I was not standing on top of the hill, but at the top of the staircase leading to Omega Chi.

I glanced around me. No sign of the Devil. Or my flip flops. Or the beanbag chair. I hoped they would be inside.

Nope. I found the beanbag chair that Abhinav had slept on, but mine was missing. Abhinav was missing too, but I figured that was due to a less mystical cause.

Just as I decided to go seek out Abhinav and Chung, I heard their voices coming from down the hall. “I don’t know,” Abhinav was saying. “She was there last night, but when I woke up, both she and the beanbag chair were gone.”

“Maybe she went home,” Chung suggested. “But why would she take the beanbag chair with her?”

“Hey, guys,” I said, when they entered the room. They both stopped when they saw me. “Bad news; the beanbag chair is on a beach somewhere. I think we will have to tell your frat brothers that some drunken idiot stole it.”