Ghost Driver

"I still want that, Terry," I whined. "I just lost sight of it for a minute. You don't know what it's like sitting here day after day, night after night with nothing to do. And then Michael came along, and he had so much money and..."

"You could have tried getting a job to help out," he said. "Or you could have gotten a dog. Do you think it's easy going to school all day and then heading off to work until midnight and then coming home to try to study and do my homework? Does that sound like fun, Darleen?"

"I guess not," I said.

"Do you know why Michael always has money? Darleen you can't be that stupid. You know Mike sells drugs. And you can't be dumb enough ... Well maybe you are. You know Mike has always been jealous of us. He was jealous of me because everybody in the old neighborhood is always talking about how great it is for me to go to college. And he was jealous of us because you and I have always had each other Darleen. We didn't have much, but we had love."

"We still do, Terry," I whined.

"No, Darleen," he spat. "You're Mike's now. Good luck with that. Didn't you hear what he was trying to say? He didn't want you. He just wanted to try you on like a pair of those expensive shoes he wears and then throws away. I hope you fit HIM better than his shoes, Darleen. You don't fit me anymore."

"Terry, you can't just walk out on me," I screamed. "We're married."

He just glared at me as he picked up a few pieces of clothing that he'd dropped. "My next check will go to get a lawyer. You can have this place. I'll find somewhere to stay, when the papers are delivered, just sign them, Darleen. It should be pretty easy. We've been married for less than a year, and we don't have shit. We even rent this place."

And then he was gone. I knew at that moment that I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I had thrown away everything I had always wanted and for nothing. It was all so clear. Michael had never in his life had a steady girlfriend. He usually had several women that he was fucking. And he used and swapped them out regularly.

Mike had only wanted me to prove that Terry didn't have anything on him. He wanted everyone to know that he could take something from Terry. That was why he bought me clothes and took me to places. Terry only had one thing that mattered to him ... ME ... and Mike wanted to show everyone that he could take me from Terry.

Over the next few days, things got even crazier. Mike was in the hospital for a long time. He had several operations, but they were never able to put his face back the way it was. They did the best they could but his nose didn't look the same, and he would always have scars.

He also kept changing his mind about me. One day, he refused to see me and the next he acted like I was his one true love. But the changes in him went deeper than his looks.

Mike had always been your friendly neighborhood-type drug dealer. If you owed him money, he cut you off until you paid. But he changed. He hired a body guard and then two, who followed him everywhere. People who owed him money started disappearing. There were rumors that one or two of them had been found dead.

I made sure that I was home most of the day. I wanted to be there if Terry showed up for any reason. But he never did. I got tired of waiting for him to come home so I started showing up at his school. The first time I did it, I almost caught him. But he got into his class and closed the door behind him as he entered.

He was in a large lecture hall, and he vanished after the class ended. There were multiple doors, and he left through another one. After that I was never able to get into the engineering building. Terry reported me to security as harassing him.

I gave up. I realized that I was the one who screwed up. I had to wait for Terry to be ready to come back to me.

But while I waited, my life went to hell. My mother told me every time I ran into her, how stupid I had been. She told me that I had given up a man who loved me and had a future for one who didn't care about anyone at all and had no future. Everyone knew that drug dealers didn't live very long. The lucky ones went to jail. The rest went to hell.

At the same time, Mike was constantly asking me if I'd seen Terry. All at once, everything started to fall apart. I lost the house because without a job, I had no way to pay the rent. With no other choice, I had to move back in with my mother. On the first night that I was there, I discovered that my mom was playing her own games.

I found a familiar pair of running shoes under my bed. I immediately freaked out and confronted my mother.

"Of course, course I let him stay here," she hissed. "He's like the son I never had. And he was hurt pretty badly by what you did. But as soon as I told him that you needed to move back, he left. I have no idea where he's staying, so don't bother asking me."

My own mother hid my husband from me. Before I could tell her how angry, I was at her, the doorbell rang. I yanked the door open, expecting to find a Girl Scout selling cookies or a Jehovah's Witness.

I was ready to tell the scout where she could shove her fucking cookies or give The Jehovah's a performance they wouldn't want to witness. But standing in front of me was neither.

If Barbie was real, she'd look just like her. She was dressed the way I wanted to dress when I grow up. Her long pretty blond hair looked as if she had her own personal stylist who followed her around redoing her hair every time a strand got out of place.

She stood there perched on heels that most women would need a ladder to get into and then would be unable to walk in. She looked me over starting at my face and was bored before she got to my knees. She cracked her gum several times and asked me who I was.

"I'm Darleen Slade," I said. "Do you need to see my ID?"

"That would be perfect," she said. I showed her my license, and she handed me a stack of papers. She turned effortlessly on those towering shoes and left without another word. I almost expected her to get into a life-sized replica of Barbie's dream car.

I looked into the papers before she got to whatever car she was driving and nearly collapsed. I'd been expecting to get papers from the guy we'd rented our house from. In order to legally evict me, he had to serve papers on me and then give me thirty days to vacate the house.

My heart almost stopped as I realized that they were divorce papers. Tears filled my eyes. My heart nearly stopped. An image of my wedding flashed in my mind. I remembered him swearing to stay by my side until death do us part.

My mom tried to comfort me. She was sure that we would never complete the divorce process. "He loves you, Dar," she said.

The next morning things got even worse. You see the next morning I discovered I was pregnant.

* * * * * *

Callie

"Did you see that detective?" he asked me. "I want her."

"Why," I asked. I was becoming annoyed. Having my own demon wasn't much different from the rest of my life. It was worse than having a puppy. In the first place, I somehow screwed up; Pythius was, as expected, a very small, and a very weak demon. He was lizard-like and not very forceful.

The problem was that somehow my spell allowed Agravon, another demon to piggy back onto the summoning and come to our plane with him. Agravon quickly got away from me. He ran out into the streets and killed the first man he came across. He then took over the man's body. In order to disguise the crime, I had to help him dispose of his own demonic body.

From then things were spiraling out of control. It's gotten to the point where I'm no longer sure who controls whom. At first, things were good. Even though I knew that he'd murdered a man to get the body he was in, the thrill of having not only a boyfriend of my own, but an attractive one was too good to pass on.

When he wanted to explore his new body's urges and cravings, I was on board with it. First, we sought out his weaknesses and limits. He had me cut him. It caused him a lot of pain and except for the blood being green; he was no different from a normal person. The cut didn't heal on its own because it was too big, so we had to stitch it.

He was also no stronger than any other human of his size and age. He could lift about a hundred pounds, but not much more. He also couldn't run very far or very fast. We determined that in terms of durability or vulnerability and in other physical aspects, he was a normal human being. It was probably due to the fact that he was wearing a normal human body.

He enjoyed food and tended to over eat. He also enjoyed liquor of all kinds and got drunk almost every night. When we got to sex, I was apprehensive. It somehow seemed wrong to give my virginity to a creature that wasn't really alive or human.

The problem was solved in typical Agravon fashion. We went out and found a woman for him to have sex with. He took her in every orifice multiple times and then killed her.

The biggest problem wasn't the murders. It was his growing needs. We saw a car. It was one of those Italian exotics. I think it was a Feramborghini Carrerra or something like that. Anyway, he went up to the guy who owned the car and told him that he wanted it.

I think he expected to have some kind of power over the guy. The guy was bigger and stronger than Agravon, and he beat Agravon's ass. He left him beaten and bloody there in the street. The funny thing about it was that although it was painful for Agravon, he was actually stronger after it. He had also seemingly grown taller and slightly thicker.

It took us a few days to discover the reason. But once we did he was off and running. Agravon fed off of chaos and violence. He started arranging and facilitating more and more violent and chaotic events. He enjoyed sitting there on the fringes of those events and absorbing the energy he got from them.

As he grew stronger, he began attracting others to him and some of them, like him wasn't exactly human. They were all very good at playing human, but there was something just not right about them.

I think they all knew that I was the reason he was here. And I think that he knew that if anything were to happen to me, his presence in this plane would end.

The riot at the store was only the beginning of his plans. Agravon wanted to take over. He wanted the world. He was starting small, but his power increased daily. I began trying to imagine the horror that a world ruled by Agravon could bring.

As his power increased, so too would his minions. He studied the power levels of other demons. As his power increased he intended to summon others, who were weaker than he to this plane. That, I now see, was the main reason for keeping me around. It would be my job to bring them over. I wondered what would befall me when he was strong enough to do it himself.

As we prepared for another of Agravon's endless incidents, I was afraid. Just after dark, a woman appeared. She was very pale and in her fifties. As she approached me, my fear grew.

"You needn't fear me sorceress," she said. "Your place in history is assured. I am not stupid enough to arouse the wrath of our host. I am here to enjoy the evening and what comes next, not to end it."

I only understood about half of what she said. I got the part about not being afraid. But after seeing her in action later, my fears only increased.

* * * * * *

Terry

After leaving the parking lot and Detective Grayson, I had lost sight of the couple I was trailing. There was something off about them. They appeared to be human. I was supposedly trailing two minor demons. One of them was a chaos demon and could be expected to do the kinds of things the couple had done back at the store. But neither of the demons I sought was human or had a human form.

There was also the matter of discovering exactly how they had managed to escape to this plane of existence. They really weren't big on escapes from down there. I guess I couldn't blame them. If the word went out that someone had managed to escape, everyone would try it.

I had a few hours before dark. Looking for the pair in the daytime was a waste of my time. I got into my car and drove to a place that I wasn't supposed to go. I was supposed to stay away from places and people connected to my former life. For the most part, I had. But lately I'd been allowing myself one indulgence.

I drove to the park and hoped. I parked close enough to the playground to watch the kids there, but far enough away that no one there could really make out who I was.

I wasn't interested in the screaming seven and eight year olds. I watched the smaller section where the moms watched and played with one and two year olds. There was far more parental involvement there. I watched for hours before she showed up. I could spot Kathy from a mile away.

She looked like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. But in reality, all she did was push a stroller. She moved to the same spot she always sat in. The bench there was low enough that she could reach Terri in an instant. She put a blanket down although the grass there was really soft.

Then she put her wiggling granddaughter down on the blanket with a favorite toy.

"You should go over there and see her up close," said a voice just over my shoulder.

I started to turn but I already knew who it was. "No sudden moves," she hissed.

"Detective, you don't seem like the kind of woman to gun a man down in cold blood. You also don't seem like the kind of woman to shoot someone in the back," I said. "I like to look people in the eye when I talk to them that's all. I'm just turning around so I can see you."

"Why are you here?" she asked. "And don't try telling me you're shopping this time."

"Detective did you follow me?" I smiled. Her face turned red for a second making her look even more beautiful.

"I wanted to see if you were lying to me," she said.

"Maybe I just put my shopping off for another day," I said.

"The old woman over there," she said gesturing at Kathy. "She seems a bit old for you."

"She's not that old," I said. "She seems to be in her forties. She's still pretty. She has a nice body too. And maybe I just like older women. Is that a crime?"

"Maybe it's not the old woman you're interested in," she began.

"Detective, I assure you that I am not a child molester or a pervert," I said.

"I never said you were," she sputtered. Her face turned that same shade of red.

"You ... Waited out here for hours," she said. "You just sat there on the hood of your car until they showed up. The second she put that little girl down on that blanket your face lit up like a kid at Christmas time."

"Well ... She's a cute kid," I said.

"My BIBSD is going off," she smirked. "That's my ..."

"Built in Bullshit Detector," I finished for her. "Detective, I'm not lying to you. She really is a cute kid."

"I know you're not lying," she sputtered. "But you're not telling me shit. There are too many coincidences between you and my case and ..."

"Detective, I assure you; I had nothing to do with the riot at the shopping cen ..." I began.

"That's not my case!" she spat. "It's just something they assigned me to look into. I'm trying to solve a murder."

"What murder," I asked. "Are you accusing me of killing someone?"

"No Dammit," she sputtered! "I'm not accusing you of anything. I actually get the feeling that you, and I are after the same thing."

"Detective, I am not the least bit interested in seeing a murderer go to jail," I smiled.

She walked closer to me and sniffed. She looked at my face again. She looked at it so closely that I could feel her heat on my skin.

"So who are you?" she asked again. "Are you a long-lost step brother? ... A cousin? His best friend? What is your connection to Terry Slade?"

I laughed hoping to stall for time. "I read about that case in the papers," I said. "He was an engineer. He'd just graduated from college. It was almost exactly a year ago. In three days, it will be a year, right. Last year on Halloween night, he drove off a cliff. The papers said that he'd just bought himself a hopped-up Mustang, and they think he lost control of the car and took a long assed fall. That doesn't seem like murder. It seems like an accident." She looked angrily at me.

"Detective, I think I can solve your case for you," I said.

"You can?" she asked. "What do you know?"

"I know who killed Terry Slade," I said, trying hard not to smirk.

She pulled out her notebook and pencil then. "Okay, who did it?" she asked.

"Gravity," I smiled. She got so angry that the tip of her pencil snapped.

"Okay, asshole," she spat. "Let's get serious. You are the same size as Terry Slade. You have the same face as Terry Slade. Your features are different, but I've spent so much time watching videos of the man that I can see you have the same facial expressions. You even feel like Terry Slade ..."

"How the hell would you know what he felt like?" I asked.

"I met him once," she spat. Suddenly, time stood still for me. I really looked at her face, and I was sure that I had never seen this woman before. She was too pretty to be forgotten. And that tall, thin, but curvy body was the stuff of dreams. I was sure that I had never seen this woman before a few weeks ago.

"It was a long time ago," she said almost on the verge of tears. "My mom and dad split up when I was a kid. My dad's new wife was an older woman. He only married the bitch because she had a lot of money. She also had a son. He was a couple of years older than me and when you're twelve, a ten-year-old seems like a baby. I only had to see them once or twice a year when my dad got his custody visits. Most of his friends laughed at me, and I wanted nothing to do with them. I only had to be around them for a weekend once or twice a year anyway.

But on one of those weekends, I took a tumble. While my step brother and most of his friends split their sides laughing at me, one of his friends ran over and picked me up. He got some paper towels from the kitchen and cleaned off my scrape. He wiped off my tears, stormed over and demanded that my step brother and his friends stop laughing or else! He even went and got my step-mother. That was my one-time meeting with Terry Slade," she said.

"I looked forward to seeing him again when I went back to visit my dad," she continued. "But he didn't come over. When I finally asked about him. My step-mother told me that he didn't come over anymore. I asked my stupid step-brother about it, and he told me a lie. He said he didn't want to be friends with him anymore. I found out the truth from one of my step brother's friends almost a year later. I had been the reason Terry stopped being friends with my step brother. Terry thought my step brother was an asshole for caring more about impressing his friends than taking care of his own sister."

"Detective that's a great story," I said. "But what does it have to do with me?"

"YOU," she screamed at me. "You have something to do with my case. There are too many fucking coincidences. You look like him. You talk like him. You feel like him. You're driving a car that except for the color is exactly like Terry's Mustang. I'm not just talking about the same year of Mustang. You have the exact same modifications. I spent more than three months studying Mustang modifications. Did you know that Mustangs are probably the most customized cars in the world? There are hundreds of websites that focus exclusively on Mustangs. It's very rare for two guys, even when they're in the same club to do exactly the same modifications to their cars. How do you explain the fact that your car is exactly like his?"

"Uhm ... coincidence," I spat, "Or maybe good taste."