It's almost pitch dark when I woke up. Distressed and torn from a deep sleep, I try to get my bearings. My bed. My thumb stuck in the book I was reading before falling asleep. Did this wake me up? My throbbing thumb, was that the reason? It's still dark, the reading light is turned off and I'm sure I didn't do it. The alarm clock has been turned off too.
Power failure.
No light flows into the room from between the gap between the curtains. My pounding heart calms down. Power failure in the whole street.
So, go to sleep again without reading? Or get a candle. Fretting, I turn my head to the door. Do I have candles someplace?
A reddish glow penetrates the room from under the door. Why is that door closed? I never closed it. Reddish... Fire! My apartment is on fire!
I swing my legs out of bed, but just as quickly back in again. Carefully I put a hand near the ground. No heat... Which means the fire is here!. Maybe my living room. Or my kitchen. Did I forget to turn something off? The oven? The television? I hadn't turned them on at all. I had bought a take-away from the Chinese. I had listened to music on my laptop.
Damn it! The Fire Department! Call them, below me they have children! Call and wake up those below me, then get out.
My phone is in the living room. So I swing my legs out of bed and walk to the door.
Had I not seen something on TV about flash-overs? When oxygen suddenly gets to a fire, there is an enormous flame along the ceiling. Therefore one has to open a door while crouching on the floor and to the side of the door, wood gets hot before it burns. Paint even more so. The door-handle is made of metal. That will be boiling hot. It will tear the skin off my hand. From my armchair, doing it's duty as interim storage for clothes, I pluck a sweatshirt to wrap around my hand for protection.
No heat radiates through the gap. Carefully I move my hand over the door. The wood is not hot. It smells like slightly roasted almonds, chestnuts and charcoal. I've never heard about a fire smelling of these things...
Low chuckling sounds in my ears.
No time to get hysterical. Check. In the kitchen, in the living. Call the Fire Department!
The giggling sounds anew. Damn it! That's not me! Someone is here! Burglars!
I stand by the door, wanting to pull it open. Damn it again! I sleep naked. I will not show myself naked at those turds. I pull the sweatshirt in my hand over my head. Todays jeans, quickly I slip into them, cautious I close the zipper since, contraire to the fashion I like my hair. Again I hear the annoying giggle.
From my desk I take, with my right hand, a ruler, better than nothing at all. With my left hand I grab a dictionary.
And how do I open the door now? The ruler in my mouth. Slowly I push the handle down, opening the door only a crack. I take the ruler in my hand again and stand still to the side of the door. Carefully I push it open with my foot. What if they have a gun? Remain to the side, behind the wall. And how can I see what is going on in my living room?
The mirror my godson has made me for Christmas! The ruler back in my mouth, using my right hand I take the mirror off the shelf. Holding it at the gap whilst angling it, it shows me what is happening in the room. The shine is centered around the couch. A man is sitting there, totally at ease, his back against the armrest, legs stretched out on the cushions, my laptop on his lap.
My laptop! He is browsing through my laptop! The old one! Which I use only for my stories.
Quietly I sneak two steps into the living room. Place the mirror on the dresser. Take the ruler out my mouth.
"Hey you! What are you doing here? "
"Reading"
"What? Damn it! Put it down and get out of here! "
"No, Wicked Girl"
No what? What girl? A girl I was a long time ago. 49 now... 'Wicked'?
"Get out, damned!"
"Damned for all eternity?" He looks quizzically at me. The cheek! It seems as if the shine emerges from two places on his forehead, almost covered by his hair.
"That doesn't interest me. Get out, now! "
"You can not condemn me. The curse will reflect back at you. And you do not want to be damned for all eternity. "
"Who the hell are you?"
"Call me Luke."
"Luke?"
"Luck is a tiny bit off."
He looks delicious. Could easily get a starring role in one of my stories. Black, shoulder-long hair, sharp-featured face. Black shirt and pants. A muscular, long body. The crotch of my jeans is a tiny bit damp.
"Daaaa...Daggers! Get out! "
He just shakes his head.
"No, wicked girl. Even now you think about sex. I can smell it. As I could smell the fear for your pubic-curls before. And the decision to save those below. Even if you can't stand them. You do know that they call you the Witch and a withered old maid, if they think you cannot hear them? "
"I know. The brats are not as careful as the parents."
He glances briefly at me, chuckles and calmly browses through my files. Giggling once, clicking his tongue.
"Jesusmaryandjoseph! Get out! "At the 'Jesus' he flinched, nearly undetectable but he did.
"Keep the Son of the Old Man out of the game. He has the same opinion as the Old Man on this matter. Both are not pleased. "
"Daa...ggers and dragons! Get out now! "
"No. You're a bad girl. Mocking everything and everyone. Even the end of the world. You are sarcastic. "
"Sarcastically I'm rarely. At most satirical. " I can't believe I am defending myself!
"Satirical! Satire: "caricature. Persiflage. Satirical poem. Criticism. Jibe. " Want more? What does that book you are holding on to, say? Satire: "the art form to criticizes people or events by exaggeration, irony and biting sarcasm, to expose them to ridicule, to flog them with sharp wit."
"My wit isn't that sharp. Sometimes not even good. Ironic, I am sometimes. Only many do not understand it. And I'm not biting. "
"You amuse me, Wicked Girl"
"Well, then I'm happy. Lucifer won't have much which amuses him." Where I took the courage to say this I do not know. Perhaps because he has not dragged me to hell yet? The ruler I also put on the dresser. It wont help me against him anyway, I'm afraid. The same for the dictionary. I put it beside the ruler.
"You think so? Much amuses me. The Old Man sent me away because He always gets a jolt when I laugh. He does not like that. Being jolted. Neither does He like sarcasm."
Okay. I stare at him. Once in a while he glances at me, keeps on reading.
"Well, will the world end at 21.12. 12?"
He laughs out loud. With an even deeper voice as before, he "Ho ho ho's" like Santa Claus. These are alternated with much higher "Hahaaeh" and snoring breaths to get started again. I almost join in the laughter. At the last moment I can stop myself and wrinkle my forehead instead. With three big steps I stand in the middle of the room.
"Stop. That. Now!"
"You dare to command me!?"
He has stopped hooting though, as well as my clothes with being existent . Fine ash forms a ring around my feet. My mouth is wide open. I forget to close it since my body is changing. It stretches out a little bit, my breasts are getting a touch smaller, and a lot firmer, my stomach changes to a tummy, my thighs get slimmer, my buttocks crispier. My pubic hair gets dark again. My appearance has reverted to how I looked in my late 20s, early 30s. And all my clothes in 44 I discarded four years ago definitely. My teeth clatter loud against each other as I close my mouth.
"What did you do? Change it back! "
"Tsk, tsk still commanding. Punishment has to be, Wicked Girl. Or not so wicked girl. Like what I see."
That he likes what he sees, I can see too. A significant bulge appeared in his pants.
"What punishment? You'll make me 70 now or what? Change it back! "
"Nope"
Very dry this 'nope '.
"All the saints in heaven! What do you mean with 'nope'? "
"If I reveal, then I reveal. No way back now. Real you is 20 years younger. That's how I like it. "
I see. The bulge has grown.
The lights on his forehead had increased for a moment. He then ran his hand over the two points and it was the same glow as before.
"Something less cryptic would be great! What do you mean, reveal? '"
"Your I. Who you are. "
"Of course I am me! Who else would I be? "
"Your real self. That's what I reveal when I reveal. "
Slowly, I begin to understand what he means. "If someone does monstrous things you reveal a monster? A witch looks like one and a pig, too? "
"Yep"
"Okay, and then?"
"If the Old Man wants it, I take it with me."
An ice-cold shiver runs down my spine.
"When do you know what he wants?"
"Pretty soon."
"Holy Anthony! Tell me! "
"Of Padua? Do you want that he comes here to tell you what the Old Man wants? Messages are not really his job. Or are you in love? Did you lose something? But there will be a brawl when he comes. We do not like each other very much. "
Completely baffled I just stand there. My jaw dropped again. "He?" Is all I can say, before I close my mouth again.
"The Paduan. Has he to come? " He asks it very patiently. "He doesn't understand humor though. I've never seen him laugh. He takes his all his patronages very seriously. Surely he won't forget he does duty against diabolical powers too. If he comes here now it will end in destruction. Should he come or not? "
Slowly I shake my head.