Heller’s Decision (30 page)

It went as badly as everyone
expected
, yet still
dreaded. Reverend Joshua was heated, belligerent and intolerant.
Malefic was insultingly calm, condescending and seriously
hair-raising. I noticed Trent eyeing his glass of water nervously a
couple of times when the Reverend thumped his fist down on the
desk, accusing Malefic of being a heathen
devil-worshipper.

“
Yes, I am, old man,” Malefic said with
insolent patience. “What is your
long-winded and exceptionally dull point on this
matter?”

“
What is that book you carry with you
everywhere?” Trent hastily interceded, keeping one eye on the
glass
of water and one
on the clueless station security man, who been summoned before
filming started and who stood off the side picking his nose and
examining the results with relish.

“
This?” asked Malefic, well aware of what
Trent referred to, but brandishing his old wrinkled book. “This is
the
Grimoire
Malefic
. My own
creation.”

“
Perhaps you can explain what a grimoire is
for our viewers who may not know?”

Malefic laid his hand on its cover and
caressed it. “It contains all my rituals.” He lowered his voice.
“It is said the cover is made from human flesh.” Trent reeled away
from it and Malefic chuckled. “But of course that’s
nonsense.”

“
Not to mention illegal, I imagine,” Trent
said, keeping a close and cautious eye on him.

“
It’s a book of the devil. Filled with
Satan’s instructions,” opined Reverend Joshua.

“
Shall I read some to you?” Malefic asked
him, his black-painted fingernail flipping open the
cover.

“
No! I don’t want to hear
the evil words of Satan.” The
Reverend appeared genuinely shocked and frightened at the
thought.

Malefic
lazily turned a couple of pages with his finger,
his eyes on the Reverend all the while. He stopped at a page that
seemed to suit him and started reading in a language I didn’t
recognise. Maybe it was Latin, maybe something even
older.

“
No! Stop it!” demanded a clearly rattled
Reverend Joshua, his face paling. He appealed to Trent. “Make him
stop. Make him stop.”

Malefic continued reading, his voice measured
and calm.

“
God! Oh
God! My Love and my Light. What’s he doing to me?
Make him stop!” Reverend Joshua clutched his throat in panic. “Oh
God, make him stop! I can’t breathe!”

Trent looked over at us and raised his
hands in an urgent
what the hell do I do now
gesture. Reverend Joshua gurgled a couple of times
before slumping over the desk, unconscious.

Trent jumped to his feet. “Cut! Cut! Get
an ambulance. Someone get a fucking ambulance here now!” He glared
at Malefic. “And you just shut up. Shut up with all that crazy shit
you’re sprouting!”

Malefic closed his book
and sat back in his chair, totally
nonplussed as everyone else ran around in panic. Viv loosened the
Reverend’s tie and collar while ringing for an ambulance. I stood
around uselessly holding a glass of water that nobody wanted or
needed or had even asked for. The security man looked as though he
was about to faint with the stress. Brady yelled at someone on the
phone. Trent remained at his desk, shell-shocked, edging away from
Malefic and hovering over the Reverend.

That night we ran with the boob
reduction story. Trent wasn’t
his usual exuberant self, a fact noted by several TV critics the
next day.

As soon as the show wrapped
that night, I escaped the
station using the fire stairs and a side door so that I didn’t run
into anyone – especially Brady. The looks he’d thrown me later
during the filming of the live links for
People’s Pulse
had made me wonder if I needed to call
Heller for protection to get home safely. I wasn’t entirely
confident I’d even have a job to return to here
tomorrow.

The parking lot wasn’t well-lit and
because I’d arrived later in the day, I’d had to park at
its extreme edge. The useless
security officer had pissed off to parts unknown – probably to play
with himself in the bathroom – so I felt a little nervous making my
way across the bitumen. I started thinking that having Heller there
for protection wasn’t the worst idea I’d ever had. And believe me,
I’d had a few bad ideas in my time.

When I reached my little car, the first
thing I noticed was the flat front tyre.
Oh great!
It’s just not my
day
, I thought with
resignation. I kicked it in utter frustration before locking myself
inside the car and ringing Heller. After my last tyre-changing
experience, there was no way I was going to risk doing it myself
again in the dark with nobody around.

“
Make sure your doors are locked, my
sweet,” was the first thing he said to me when I finished
explaining my predicament.

“Absolutely,” I assured him.

“
Check again, please.” I checked the locks
again.

“
Yes, they’re
all locked, Heller.”

“
Don’t open them for anyone. I’ll be there
as fast as I can.”

“
Thank you,” I said, trying not to sound
more weak and pathetic than I felt at that moment. I brimmed over
with gratitude that I had someone to ring for help, even if he was
over-protective at times and embarrassed me to death at
others.

I turned on the radio
softly and snuggled down in the driver’s
seat, preparing myself for a lengthy wait. I checked my phone and
answered a few texts from Daniel and Niq, singing along to the
radio for a while.

A sharp rapping on my window made
me
straighten up,
shrieking in terror.

Malefic stared
in at me.

Chapter 20

I wound my window down a bare inch. “What do
you want?”

“
You appear to need assistance.”

I couldn’t help myself. This person would
probably cost me my job. “You have a spell for changing tyres?
Because excuse me if I’m wrong, but I’m not really imagining you as
a mechanical kind of guy.”

“
I don’t do
‘spells’, Matilda. I perform rituals.” He shrugged
one shoulder. “I thought you’d done your research on
me.”

I shrank back. “Nobody calls me Matilda.”

He cocked his head to the side and considered
me. “I think one person does. He’s on his way now. I’m interested
in meeting him.”

“Why?” I asked suspiciously.

“He has power. That always interests me.”

“Leave him alone.”

He chuckled. “I’m not going to
hurt
him, Matilda.”

“
Stop calling me that and
g
o away!” I said,
seriously freaked out. How could he know any of that information? I
tried to wind the window back up but the electric button stopped
working. I jabbed it anxiously.

He leaned
in closer. “I want what he wants.”

“
I don’t know what you mean,” I said, not
wanting to engage him.

“I want your light.”

“
What the hell are you talking about?” I
desperately pressed on the window button again.
Hurry up, Heller!

“
Your light. I want it.”

“
Well, I sort of need all my light. I don’t
have a ray to spare. Sorry.”
Jab, jab, jab.

“
I will give you something in
return
, of course. But
you must gift me a lock of your hair.”

“
What could you possibly give me that I’d
want?
” I asked, my
finger paused on the window button, curious despite
myself.

“My seed.”

Okay!
Ick!
“I get quite enough ‘seed’ from my boyfriend
already. I don’t really need any more, thanks for the offer
anyway.”
Jab,
jab.
Why
wouldn’t my fucking window close?
Of all nights!

“
Do you understand
the honour I’m proposing to you?” His
acolytes, lurking silently at his shoulders nodded in
agreement.

“
Yeah, but like I said, I have more than
enough seed at the moment to suit anyone. I’m really not in the
market for any more. It would just be greedy of me. And to be
honest, you’re not really my type.”

Headlights shone in the distance, moving
closer.
Oh,
thank God
, I thought,
even happier a minute later when a vehicle pulled up next to mine,
and a familiar silhouette emerged from the driver’s
seat.

“
Heller,” I breathed to myself, getting out
of the car and never so glad to see him in my life.

He muscled up to Malefic, instinctively
detecting my fear of the man. “Yes?”

“You’re even more impressive in person than I
ever imagined.”

“Do I know you?”

“Everyone knows Malefic,” he smiled.

“I’ve never heard of you and your
conversation with Matilda is over.”

“
Rather p
rotective, aren’t you?” he chuckled. “I was merely
outlining a business proposition to Matilda –”

“Don’t call her that. She doesn’t like anyone
using that name except me.” Frankly, I didn’t even like Heller
calling me that either.

Malefic smiled again. “A simple business
proposition. Unfortunately, she’s not interested. Shame. It would
have been mutually beneficial.”

“Your business with Matilda is finished.
Don’t let us hold you up from leaving.”

“
Hmm, s
ubtlety isn’t really your strength, Mr Heller.”

“
I was being subtle, but I could be much
more direct, if you’d prefer. It would be my pleasure.”

“
I’m sure it would. But I prefer to fight
my battles in less brutish ways.” He laid a hand on Heller’s arm,
closed his eyes and chanted some words in t
hat same (or another – who knew?) archaic
language.

Heller looked down at his arm as if a
particularly large and hideous insect had landed on it. “Get your
hand off me.”

Malefic opened his eyes and frowned at the
lack of effect his words were having on Heller. He closed his eyes
again and stepped up the chanting, faster and louder.

“
I said, get your hand off me,” Heller
repeated in that dangerously polite voice that you’d be strongly
advised to heed if you wanted to live to a ripe, old
age.

Malefic opened his eyes again, petulance
rippling across his face. “Why is this not working on you?” He
suddenly lunged towards me and laid his hand on my shoulder,
chanting again.

“
Oh!
” I cried out as I felt something dark and ugly
slowly unravelling inside me, tendrils of it spreading from my
shoulder down into my very veins and cells.

Heller roughly yanked me from Malefic’s
touch, sheltering me behind his comforting bulk. “Touch my woman
again and you won’t need to plan what you’re having for breakfast
tomorrow or any other day.”

Thwarted and peevish, Malefic turned to
lay his hand on one of his acolyte’s shoulders, speaking what
sounded like the same words. She gasped several times, her eyelids
fluttering and back arching. She swooned to the ground in a faint.
Malefic turned back, his features loaded with triumph.

Heller put his hand on my back and gave me
a little push towards his vehicle. “Come along, Matilda. I don’t
have time to waste on these ridiculous people and their childish
games. I’ll have one of the men come back here tomorrow to change
the tyre and bring the car home for you.”

Without sparing them another word or even
glance, he
ensured I
made it safely to his vehicle and we sped off. I watched the trio
receding in the side mirror, trying to get my mind around what had
just happened to me.

“I felt something when he touched me, Heller.
I really did. It was cold and evil and it started creeping through
my body.” I shuddered. “I never want to set eyes on that man again.
He frightens me.”

“
He’s not frightening, my sweet. He’s a
charlatan. He uses mind tricks, dramatics and illusions on
vulnerable young minds. And probably drugs too, when he has the
chance. Did either of those women with him strike you as being
particularly sharp?”

“
Not really. D
id he not affect you at all?”

“
No. I was trained to recognise people like
him. My mind isn’t susceptible to his tricks.”

“
You’ve been trained to do everything. Do
you think I’m weak-minded?” I asked, depressed that I’d convinced
myself I’d felt something at Malefic’s touch.

He took my hand and squeezed it. “Of
course not. You’re a very smart young lady. You are just
inexperienced with people like him. You also have an active
imagination.”

“
What about Reverend Joshua?”

“
He’s already a very superstitious man.
He’s predisposed to believing in great evil.”

“But there is great evil in this world
sometimes. You can’t deny that.”