22 DAYS BEFORE THE REMATCH IN HALLOWSVILLE

  Daemon said the next time he and I saw each other, it would be my last time alive, so I loosened my grip on the steering wheel, ready for anything. But the only battle I was interested in was a battle of words.

  Then again, the overwhelming pressure that enveloped me paired with a glare that would make a polar bear sprint the other way told me he had a different goal in mind.

  He was wearing a fancy, black suit, so perhaps a civil conversation was possible. The eyepatch he had on to go with it had me worried though. “Daemon, long time no s-”

  “Say my name with respect.”

  The man’s words didn’t destroy my sentence.

  The lack of a mouth did.

  I rubbed where it used to be and only found a smooth layer of ooze. All I could do was let out muffled yells.

  The best way I could describe Daemon’s powers was “random shit, go!” Even Sunshine had trouble figuring out what it was.

  The leader of the Radius glanced at the backseat with a disgusted expression. “I see the boy is already bowing down in my presence, and yet I have a strong feeling he was actually trying to hide from me. Hey, Kofi, next time you should turn your aura off. I could sense your bloodlust from a mile away.”

  I tried getting Daemon’s attention by pointing at where my mouth used to be, but I soon regretted the attention given to me when his burly hand wrapped around my neck.

  My arms stayed by my side while the man pulled me out of the vehicle, destroying the door in the process. Kofi never helped me. He didn’t even get up to peek. Even if I could speak, a “get the hell off me” would only increase Daemon’s hostility.

  “You have a lot of nerve, boy,” Daemon spat, slamming me down on the concrete. “Coming down to my territory? Where is Jesus Hernandez? And what is this disgusting form you’ve taken? Explain!”

  My back hit the stairs of the shabby blue house next, though I was less worried about the pain and more relieved at the fact my mouth had returned.

  Smirking, I asked, “You mad ‘cause your plans failed?”

  Daemon closed the distance and grabbed my neck once more. “Do what you are told to do.”

  “Look, I figured out what your plans were through that Horse Head fuck and my daughter,” I said. “I’m sure you already know all the details of what happened in Hallowsville from him, so I won’t tire myself out with that explanation. As for your appearance, let’s just say I revived in a different way than usual.”

  He scanned my body for about a minute, and then his eyebrows raised. “Your Radius Ability… it’s not there anymore.” Letting go of me, he backed away a few meters. “What. The. Fuck Happened?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered, standing back up. “But what I do know is that you can’t kill me or my daughter unless we find a way to fix that problem. So don’t lay another goddamn finger on me, asshole.”

  The man’s eye bulged. “The devil child as well?”

  “Why the hell are you so shocked?” I asked, noticing the door to the shabby house was open. There was a coffin inside. “Didn’t Jesus bring you up to speed? I was assuming he had something to do with my missing powers.”

  “No, he didn’t.” Daemon pushed me out of the way and walked up the stairs. “We should discuss this more inside.”

  “Sure,” I said, following him into the house. I would’ve gotten on his ass for that disrespectful shove, but being calm and collected was gonna help me more in this situation. We sat down at a small table across from each other and he offered me a drink of water.

  If that was supposed to be a joke, then I wasn’t laughing.

  “You said Jesus didn’t tell you anything about what happened, right? Why’s that?” I questioned.

  “I don’t know, but there is a lot at stake for that perverted bastard,” Daemon said in a low, rumbling voice. “If he’s withholding information from me despite that, then he must not be worried.”

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  I put both my hands on the table and clasped my hands. “Is it about his son? He told me that his boy went missing a while ago, and that you guys had something to do with that. You know where he’s at, don’t you? That’s what kept Jesus working with y’all?”

  “For us. Not with us.” The man took a sip from his beer that he brought out before I sat down. He didn’t strike me as someone who drank that. “If he already knows where his son is located, then that means he has no reason to work for me anymore. Either that, or someone else has the same exact information that the Radius does, but has better benefits.”

  I pondered that last statement for a bit. Then, I remembered the conversation I had with Michael Corleone in that basement, and it all began to click. “He flipped on y’all pricks. Fucking Corleone Family.”

  Daemon squinted at me.

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding, sitting back. “It just clicked for me.” I began my explanation.

  Before our small group entered Hallowsville, Horse Head instructed Emmy, the teleporter guy, and I to go down to the basement Jason’s mother was in. But what we didn’t know was that Corleone already knew we’d be there, planting a bomb that erased the power boost I got from Consequences, along with the Afro Guy’s head.

  Those were two things that Corleone would only know about if someone had leaked that info to him beforehand — someone like Jesus.

  Upon hearing that, Daemon crushed his beer bottle with one hand, his long, black hair dancing like a raging fire. Something about that was really satisfying to me. All this time, I viewed the Radius leader as an unstoppable monster with unimaginable power. It was hard to remember he was just a regular dude who happened to get mutated by the bombs like me and everyone else with a Radius Ability.

  Strangely, I imagined all the jobs he could’ve possibly been working in the Old World. Daemon gave me accountant and lawyer vibes, but he did also remind me of my high school principal. They shared that same perpetual stern look.

  “If that bastard fully flipped, my entire operation would go down in the mud.”

  “Aren’t you, like, overpowered as hell?” I asked as he stood up and slowly walked around the table. “Just beat him, man.”

  Daemon stopped, and then gave me a “are you fucking stupid?” expression. “I know that slimy man Michael Corleone is trying to recruit Zoorhees into his ranks. If he could successfully bring in The Devil and the Mad Man of the Apocalypse at the same time, then it won’t be just bad for me. It’ll be bad for you.”

  “Yeah, no shit. All of those assholes want Sunshine and I’s head.”

  “Hernandez and Zoorhees’ Radius Abilities have enough potential to change the world in ways that I, and your devil child, and you also have.”

  “The Holy Trinity.”

  Daemon went from a “are you fucking stupid?” look to a “are you really fucking stupid?” look. “The Holy Trinity involves the three persons of God. I mentioned five people just now.”

  “Trinity means only three?”

  “Yes, three. You don’t know what the word trinity means?”

  I shrugged.

  Daemon sighed, walking back to his seat. “You remind me of this one student I had back in the day. He would always skip class or school altogether.”

  While I was someone who skipped a lot, I was pretty offended he got that comparison from not knowing what one word meant. “So, getting back on track, Jason and Horse Head paired with Corleone’s planning could really screw you in the ass. Unless… you get my daughter and I to handle your little problem.”

  “You two are useless without your abilities.”

  “Then tell us how to get them back.”

  After glaring at me for a few seconds, he sat back down. “I’m sure Hernandez has already told you the origin of our powers, but did he tell you how they’re tied to personalities and emotions?”

  “Uuuh, maybe,” I said, shaking my head slightly. “I don’t remember, to be honest.”

  “What do you mean you don’t remember? You have to remember these things.” The man began tapping the table furiously. “Sometimes, when a person loses sight or forgets who they are, or they lose something or someone important to them, their Radius Ability vanishes.”

  I grimaced. “Permanently?”

  “Temporarily. The only way to get them back is to either reverse what it was that broke you, or find something else to fill that empty hole. Tell me what happened in Hallowsville so I can suggest ways on how to fix it.”

  If that’s all it took to get my energy absorption back, then it should've been there the moment I was resurrected. I mean, that conversation with the kid version of me that could be summarized as “fuck what happened in the past and love yourself” was some life changing stuff.

  And if this body of mine wanted me to forgive Sunshine, then it could go screw itself.

  Actually, scratch that. That sounded like an image I didn’t wanna see.

  So what the hell else happened in Hallowsville? I fought that couple, saved a dog from getting torn to pieces, fused with a green woman, ran away from both Jason and that Flame Radion.

  It stung a lot remembering that moment of cowardice I showed. When I was younger, fighting was the only way to solve problems in my neighborhood — even when you didn’t need to. I would fight, and if I couldn't win, I’d surrender peacefully.

  But running? In the words of Uncle Rick, running was a pussy move that only people with pussies died. Pretty sexist comment, but the nineties were a wild time.

  Incinivon was the first person to truly make me run for my life, and that made me wanna melt.

  My uncle taught me the basics of amateur brawling months after my mom died. I recalled one day he told me, “Kids are assholes, so they’re going to use anything shitty that happened in your life to roast you. You should do the same, but never make it about family. Family is always off-limits.”

  Not even a couple hours passed after he said that, I was already stomping on a boy for tying a rope around his neck and laughing at me.

  How was I gonna protect my family if a guy I knew for a couple minutes had me looking like a frightened deer?

  Although, beating Incinivon to get my powers back was a risky move. Plus, I didn’t even know where he was.

  There had to be a different way.

  “Don’t worry about it. I know how to fix it,” I lied, caressing my beard.

  I didn’t trust Daemon enough to tell him any of the other specifics of what happened. Who knew what plans or countermeasures he could make up with that kind of information. And the fact that had to ask me about it meant that without the trackers or Jesus, he had no way of knowing what we were doing.

  “What you should know is we plan on fighting Jason in Hallowsville again, and we’re currently getting ready for it.” I stood up, extending my hand to him. “In exchange for my daughter and I taking down Jason for you, your Underground Radius won’t attack us that day.”

  “Hmph. You could have implied that we had a temporary partnership considering I didn’t crush you where you stood. No need to say it outright. It’s redundant.”

  “Sure, man. You gonna shake my hand or…”

  “I don’t shake the hand of the weak,” Daemon said, walking to the coffin.

  Well, screw you too.

  The man took a lighter out of his pocket and lit the six candles that were around the coffin. After that, he got on his knees, clasping his hands and bringing them to his face.

  “Someone die recently?” I asked.

  “No, nine years ago,” Daemon answered without looking at me. “My wife. It’s the anniversary of her murder today.”

  Time froze for me in that instant. The door was wide open, but the desire to leave was no longer there.

  My body moved closer to Daemon until eventually I sat down next to him. “Mind if I sit with you?”

  “You’re supposed to ask that before you sit, fool,” he said with an annoyed tone.

  “This is weird coming from me, but I’m, uh, sorry for your loss.” I made sure that didn’t come out as disrespectful. “I lost my wife too.”

  We stayed quiet for a while, and I expected that to be the end of our conversation.

  Then, Daemon spoke. “Her death was very abrupt for me. Ever since that day, the hole in my body wouldn’t go away. No matter how many years have passed.”

  So the dead can cause those holes too, eh? If that was the case, then I had an idea on how to fix my Radius Ability problem.

  I clasped my hands and brought them under my chin. “Mind if I pray with you? I’ll pray she’s having fun up there in paradise.”

  The calm look he gave me put my body at ease.