Soul Guardian

Chapter 25: Temptation

As they were walking to the car Bael realized something. For once in his life he didn’t care if he was being played. He didn’t care if some cosmic power was toying with him by putting Six in his path. All he cared about was giving her the best possible life he could and that meant preparing her for a life without him.

That gave him five months to get her trained, to teach her all he could so that whatever came she would be ready. Bael tossed their bags into Murphy’s back seat and spun on his heel. He looked down into Six’s eyes with a hint of mischief rising at the corners of his lips.

“How would you like to learn magic, real magic?” He asked, his glasses sliding down his nose to reveal twinkling sun gold eyes like stars trapped in amber. The air around them thickened and congealed until it froze solid. Six looked around in wonder, the world was a tableau. Nothing moved. Nothing even breathed.

Bael rested a hand on her shoulder. “I can teach you all of this and more... if you want.”

She turned to look up at her foster father but there seemed to be two of him now. One was the Bael she had always known, the silly goat man with crumbs in his beard and eyes full of childlike wonder.

The other was someone she had never seen before, Bael-Sharoth the Baron of hell, lord of torment. Pure power radiated from him as he stood there in the mall parking lot. That was when she understood, truly understood, who and what her foster father was.

“I think I’d rather go get some ice cream instead.” Six stammered, getting the feeling in her young mind that she was at a crossroads. No, more like a precipice. She was standing on the edge of something deep and dark that would swallow her whole if it could.

“Are you sure?” Bael-Sharoth asked, every word dripping with temptation. “I can make you powerful enough to move mountains. I can show you how to influence those around you so that they adore you unquestioningly. You’ll never want for anything, ever again.”

Unwittingly Six felt herself wondering what that might be like, to be truly in control for once. There would be nothing she couldn’t do. Nobody she couldn’t save. Some would resist of course, but she could deal with them. For their own good. With power like that she could change the world for the better. Maybe even...

“Ah yes, I see what you want.” Bael whispered. “You want the power to save your family. Say the word and I’ll bring them back to you. You can be together again, if that’s what you really want.”

Suddenly Six was back in an old station wagon with her mom and dad in the front seats and her siblings to either side of her. In just a few minutes dad would swerve to avoid something in the road and then together they would fall tumbling down the side of a cliff and into the ocean.

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“I can bring them back. Just say the word.” Bael repeated from behind her. “Of course if I do, someone else will have to pay the price.”

Did she really care if someone else got hurt? This was her family, her chance at a normal life without the foster system, without satanic cults, without Bael and Maharet

There was the sound of something rustling followed by a crunch and just like that the spell was broken. Six turned around indignantly. “Are you snacking during my moral dilemma?”

“Tempting mortals makes me hungry.” Bael shrugged and offered her the bag of chips. “Apparently they’re called Cool Ranch Doritos and I must say, they’re really quite good.”

“Alright alright, I’ll take a few.” Six grabbed a handful the size of her head. “But that doesn’t let you off the hook.” She warned.

“There’s sodas back here too, you know.” Bael rummaged around in the cooler. “What do you want, lemon lime Slice or Coke Classic?”

“Slice, please.” Six crawled over the back seat into the cargo area and sat down next to Bael, who had gone back to his usual crumb covered good natured self.

She sipped her soda and watched as her father silently drove his family towards oblivion. “Bael, why don’t any of them say anything? I mean, can they hear me? Can I talk to them?”

Bael sighed. “This is just a memory, your memory. Unfortunately you can’t remember their voices so I can’t make them speak. You were so young when they passed away that I’m afraid you’ve forgotten what they sounded like. That’s one of the first things that you forget, the sound of someone’s voice. But there’s something there… if I can just find it.”

He closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to find a distant memory so long forgotten and buried that Six had no idea she still carried it. In the front seat of the station wagon Six’s mother started to hum. It was so familiar but no matter how hard Six tried she couldn’t remember the words. There was only that meandering melody, the same melody her mother used to sing to her when she couldn’t sleep. She must have heard it a hundred times but it had been so long that it had faded away to almost nothing.

“I’m ready to go home, Bael.” Six said with one last glance towards her family. “They wouldn’t want me to bring them back if it meant someone else got hurt, or at least I’d like to think that they wouldn’t. But I think you already knew that.”

“You always were a smart one.” Bael tousled his daughter’s hair and in the blink of an eye they were back in the parking lot standing next to Murphy. “I needed to be sure you were mature enough to understand the consequences of your actions before I started teaching you, that you wouldn’t be tempted by a power that would ultimately consume you.”

“Could you really teach me to move mountains?” Six asked incredulously. “It doesn’t seem possible.”

“Oh that one’s easy, just convince someone there’s coal underneath it or that it’s a really great place to put in a freeway, you don’t even need magic for that. Well, you need people skills, which are a kind of magic, but you get my point.”

Six gave a sage nod. “I was thinking… we should get some ice cream before we head back. With sprinkles.”

“Only if we can add in brownie bites.” Bael countered.

“You drive a hard bargain, but I think it’s a deal.” Six said.