Exeunt Demon King (5 page)

“
What happened to him?” asked Parkin.

“
What? After he exited the other side of the Maw? Why, he was
shot through the star trap and showered over the entire stage and
the first three rows of the audience in a hail of desiccated body
parts. The parents were not impressed.” Cabal examined the bottle.
“Oh. We’ve run out of brandy too.”

“
I’m very sorry, Cabal.” Parkin pulled himself up from his
slump and stretched. “I’ve drunk you out of house and
home.”

“
Oh, not at all.” Cabal was more than ready for bed. He felt
like he was going to be sleeping a long time. “It’s been enjoyable,
I suppose. In a cathartic sort of way. I don’t get many
opportunities to discuss my work.”

“
No, I imagine not. It’s been interesting. Horrible, but
interesting.”

Cabal
saw him to the door. Parkin stood on the doorstep and drew on his
gloves as he looked into the black sky, the stars twinkling as
harshly as glass splinters in the freezing air. “Goodnight,
Sergeant Parkin,” said Cabal, stifling a yawn.

Parkin
took a step forward and enjoyed the sound and sensation of the
freezing snow crunching under his foot. He checked his watch and
raised an eyebrow. It was past midnight. “Merry Christmas, Johannes
Cabal,” he said turning. But the door had already closed and he
could just make out the clicks of the bolts being thrown. Moments
later, the downstairs lights started to flicker out. Parkin smiled.
“I hope you have a Merry Christmas one of these years, Cabal. I
really do,” he said to himself. Then he turned his face to the
direction of the village and started the long walk home, a home of
warmth and of family.

THE
END

Author’s Afterword

Hello. I
hope you enjoyed the story.

I have no idea why I’m so fascinated by the theatre. I don’t
go very often (although I would like to), I’ve never really acted,
I don’t come from a theatrical family. Yet I keep going back to it.
I’ve a new series character Richard Malengine who’s a Victorian
actor turned master criminal (his first published outing is in
the
Schemers
anthology from Stone Skin Press, plug, plug), I’ve set a
couple of scenes in roleplaying games in theatres, and here we have
Johannes Cabal, hardly the most frivolous person, running around in
tights and greasepaint. I can’t account for it; I’m just fond of
the theatre for some reason.

This was
the second Cabal to be published and its venue was the same as the
first, “H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror.” It has significance
because it indirectly led to the publication of the Cabal novels,
by a strange and unexpected path by which it was liked, generating
an interest in a full novel, which led to it gaining the interest
of an agent, who passed it onto another agent, who took me on as a
client, and who sold the novel to the publishers. If you’re reading
this because you enjoy the novels, the path to them really started
with this story.

JLH,
November 2013

The Johannes Cabal Stories

(In Publication Order)

“
Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day”

“
Exeunt Demon King”

Johannes
Cabal the Necromancer

Johannes
Cabal the Detective

“
The Ereshkigal Working”

Johannes
Cabal: The Fear Institute

“
The House of Gears”

“
The Death of Me”

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