Embracing the shadows like an intimate friend, Belle slipped through the human city of Johannesburg. She’d spent days first on a train and then on an airplane getting there. Staying unobtrusive and lowering her power to nothing was her secret superpower. The other hell princes overlooked her, at times even forgot she was there, but what had begun as a weakness had become her strength. No being saw her or perceived her unless she chose to let them do so.
Since she traveled as a human from the remote hell gate that opened into her demesne, with her power signature impossible to detect, not even Gabriel would know she was on the earth plane. And for her purpose, being invisible suited her perfectly.
She rented a car from a pretty human woman and activated the GPS. If the others detected her, they would try to stop her, and she couldn’t allow that. All through this crisis, she had stood toward the back of the greenroom and watched the other supernaturals plan and discuss, take on various challenges and put plans in motion. As she listened, she had waited for the task she could identify as falling to her and her unique talents.
“In seven hundred and fifty meters, take a slight right to merge…”
The GPS would help her traverse the human realm in lieu of using her power. Were she to unleash her wings, she would follow the steady pulse of dread northeast of the airport where she had deplaned an hour ago.
Flipping on the radio, she let the chatter of human voices soothe her. The man beside her on the plane had chatted to her through their long flight. She’d heard about his three little girls and the wife he was excited to be going home to after a long business trip. Entering the earth plane had been the one moment of possible discovery, but with all attention focused on Eddie’s hell gate, it had been a calculated risk. And calculating risk was another of her closely guarded skills.
She had often slipped onto the human plane and mingled with their lives. Humans had a passion for existence that fed her hungry soul. Her trips to the earth plane were a visceral reminder of her purpose and the reason for her creation.
She was counting on her ability to move like a ghost amongst them to delay even the discovery of that mist. The same mist surrounding her demesne that would delay the other hell princes until she was done. Opening her car window, she let the breeze blow through her hair. She felt free on the earth plane in a way she never did in hell.
For this beautiful plane, for all those humans who had shared small parts of their lives with her over the eons, she would do this now.
Life. It pulsed everywhere, thick like the blood in a glutted tick, and Pestilence followed. So much life, it nearly overwhelmed their long dormant senses.
A dog’s bark split the quiet night as they reached the outskirts of a small settlement. In the dwellings peppering the roadside, they sensed the humans going about their nightly routines. Pestilence did not concern themselves with the details.
On some rudimentary level, they had an understanding of the routines and rituals of human existence. Beings that were birthed, existed, and then blinked out in a mere glimmer of Pestilence’s existence.
The low growl of their engine grew louder as they rode beneath the awning of a service station. All the knowledge they needed to function on the earth plane in this time was now theirs, and through them, their siblings. Being the first, Pestilence would pave the way for their siblings.
Yawning, the sleepy attendant ambled toward them. “Full?”
“Yes.” Pestilence swung their leg over the bike and dismounted. They stumbled and their shoulder brushed the attendant’s. “Sorry.” They grimaced. “Long ride. My legs are stiff.”
The attendant accepted their apology with a nod and pulled the hose from the pump.
Inside the attached convenience store, four life forces glimmered, and Pestilence headed for them.
They found the first by the drink cooler to the right of the entrance. They reached for the fridge handle at the same time as the human. Their fingers touched and the human drew back with a sharp frown.
Pestilence smiled and stepped back. “You first.”
“Thanks.” The human stared at them. Uneasy, sensing something alien and ancient but unable to articulate why. Pestilence looked like one of them, moved and spoke like them, but humans instinctively sensed their otherness.
The next life source stood with a third, a youngling, and spoke in a hushed voice, “I said no more chocolate.”
“But, Mom.” The youngling screwed up their face. “I’m hungry.”
“If you’re hungry, there are apples in the car.” The mother threw them an expression half exasperated and half fond.
The youngling glanced at them and sighed. “But I’m not hungry for apples.”
“Excuse me.” Pestilence eased past the pair with a smile. The lightest touch against the mother’s arm, a nudge of their ankle against the youngling’s as Pestilence made their selection.
At the cash register, a tired salesclerk managed a wan smile. “Late for a ride.”
“Yes.” Pestilence handed over the money now soaked with excretions from their palm. “Got a long way to go. Wanted to get a head start.”
“Right.” The clerk added the money to the register where it would nestle amongst other bills, bills that would be passed to another customer. “Well, you’ll beat the traffic all right.”
“I like the quiet.” Pestilence shrugged. “Helps clear my head.”
“I hear you.” The clerk bagged their purchase and handed the bag to them. “Go well.”
Pestilence smiled. “Stay well.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Somewhere in the US
Helmet-hair aka Marcia placed both hands on her desk and threaded her fingers together. “I don’t need to tell you, Bob, how disappointed we are.”
Focusing on the downtown view outside her window, he rather thought disappointed was putting it mildly. What they were was flat out fucking panicking.
Their senator had been annihilated by a full media contingent. The memes were making themselves and multiplying over social media.
Bob had stood at the back of the press conference and relished every moment he had wrought and was still basking in the ensuing scramble. So much of his life had been dedicated to this inane crap, but now he was free.
The little gray man had struck, and his blow had sunk the ship. It was almost biblical in its beauty. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
