In the Shadows

Up Close and Personal With the Devil

Robbie's eyes meet mine and all he can do is continue to be professional while I spin a web of lies on what kind of life I had growing up with Robbie and what kind of shenanigans we'd get ourselves into because we were just kids. Once the Reyes man's coworkers begin to shuffle around us, I begin to talk about our nostalgic times together back in the day by referencing that I attended Garfield High with Robbie and used to hang out with him. In reality, our nostalgic time together was our battle in the junkyard.

I could see Robbie's facial expressions tighten as if he's worried I'm gonna slip up and get him caught even though all I'm doing is reconnecting with an old "childhood friend". Robbie begins to work on my van and I just start to make small talk. It's not every day you meet a man that claims he made a deal with the devil. I was able to confirm that some of the deaths that the devil within him caused checked out.

"I told you," Robbies starts, " it's vengeance".

That statement makes me chuckle. " Well 'vengeance' seems to put you on the same track as me. Tell me what you know," I demand. Reyes keeps trying to cut the conversation short as well as the time we're spending together. I can already tell that he doesn't know what to do, everyone he's fought, he's killed. They were never meant to survive. Robbie just keeps telling me they got what they deserved.

Since he won't fill me in on what he knows, I start by telling him what I know. About the watchdogs and Inhumans. Then Robbie brings it up again. The deal with the devil. "He was the only one selling. You know?". I was baffled to hear the words that were coming out of his mouth, he continued to talk and every word he said seemed to be oozing with confidence. It made me want to push his buttons, get under his skin, reveal a weakness, or at least get a reaction.

That's exactly what happened when I brought up his little brother, Gabriel.

"Now," Robbie begins while seething in anger, "you shouldn't have mentioned my brother". Thus entails round number two of our battle. The fight could have gone better if the pain in my arms weren't there. I've been neglecting my body and I become more aware of that when Robbie hits me with a broken piece of the car, enflamed, and then knocks me out. I don't know how I'm going to hide these injuries from Andrew and Phillip.

I wake up tied to a chair in the office of the repair shop, Robbie standing in front of me. I try to wiggle myself out of the ropes but pain consumes my left arm. " I've seen a lot of breaks. Your arm is fractured, not broken", he informs me. "Keep trying to bust out of that, I can't guarantee that it'll stay that way".

Robbie starts rummaging through this box in front of him which leads me to question him. "Looking for proof," he answers. " You know who I am, which is a problem. For both of us. A problem that has to go away".

I ask him if he really believes that I'm not afraid to die. The Reyes man shakes his head. " I think you want to, I think you want it. No doubt, you got a death wish" he clarifies, "coming back to find me, after I let you live. You told me not to. Said you deserved it, I'm just looking for proof that you do".

Our conversation continues as he tries to interrogate me. Asking me to inform him of what kind of ghosts are haunting me. As if I'd open the door to my closet full of skeletons and pain, I locked that closet and threw away that key. If I ever open up about those skeletons, it's going to be to my boys so that I can keep my promise to Lincoln and atone for all the deaths I caused, for his death. " Haunting me, I begin to ask, " this coming from the guy who thinks he's possessed".

"I prayed for vengeance. I got it," Robbie rebuttals. "You, fighting to right every wrong, all the while begging to be taken out. Seems to me your thing is serving penance". Reyes's words start to get under my skin as he goes through my things, then suddenly he finds my journal with one of the only remaining pictures I have of Lincoln that I always take with me. "We're not so different, you and me. Yeah, you just feel bad for the dead in your wake. I don't feel anything".