Bluffing the Devil(16)

"What was he doing?" I asked nervously.

Rey huffed a bit before explaining. "He was an assassin. His newest target was a child and he refused the job after he was already given details, so the one who hired him had to keep him quiet."

"But he didn't kill that child!" I realized my defense for him was weak, but I had nothing else to go on or say.

"Had he ran from his killer and saved the child, he would have cleansed himself of his previous sins and therefore been worthy of Heaven."

"So your saying Heaven and Hell work on a checks and balances system? You can be the most evil person in the f*cking world and bake cookies for someone, and then be accepted into heaven, but if you forget the cookies in your car, you still go to Hell. Yeah, that seems fair. I've been told my entire life that if you accept God into your heart, that you are forgiven of all of your sins." My voice had started to rise, and I was becoming frustrated more by the second.

"Please try to calm yourself a bit. I assure you, I have a point for this. Watch," he directed my eyes back to the vision. It had changed scenery. Next I saw the Devil screaming and fighting with Devin. He sat in a chair, much like I sat in only the day before looking very uninterested in her antics. She was throwing her hands around and shouting, and he simply looked at her as if she was explaining quantum physics, and he was late for football practice.

"Why is she so upset?" I chuckled seeing how he was acting. The look on his face was priceless, and I'm sure I've looked at people like that a few times myself. "He doesn't want to be her bitch, so she's throwing a hissy fit? Huh, who would have known, even the Devil is a sniveling little she-monster."

"Precisely, he was finished with being a bad person, and had already decided to change his life before the day he died. He had made a plan and had asked God to forgive him for all of his sins. He had apologized to those he could and had plans in place to right as many wrongs as he could, but then he was taken suddenly. She assumed he would just go right to work for her, but he wasn't having any part of it. God gives people free will, the Devil can’t take it away. No matter how hard she tries, she is not stronger than him. Due to their rules and how things have been playing out for the last twenty-something centuries, he has to go along with some of the things she does in order to keep the balance right, but he often has more victories than she realizes. And Devin is one of those victories."

My heart began to swell. Not only did my love go to heaven for being such a good man, my Dream Man had also found a way to thwart the Devil's charm, and still win in some way. My father might not realize it, but I truly did have good taste in men.

"Okay, so if he won the victory, where is he now? I don't understand this part. I see him in my dreams all the time."

"She uses him in a similar way as she uses me. Before I died, I had turned my life around also. I was about to ask the girl of my dreams to marry me, I had stopped being a thief and a petty criminal, and was taking classes to get a business degree. I wanted to make a good life for her and died just as Jamison did, out of pure bad luck and stupidity. The Devil swooped in and used her loophole to trap me, but wasn't thinking about my newfound love of God and goodness. I wasn't planning on letting evil taking hold ever again. I have been doing little schemes, and punishing evildoers for a long time now. I don't see it as a bad thing what I'm doing, which is why when I was tasked with hurting you, I simply had to do something to change it."

"Ok, so then what's Devin's job?"

He paused and his eyes met mine. His hesitation made me more nervous than any of the rest of the conversation. I wasn't sure why, but I was scared to hear the answer.

"He invades dreams."

"So he goes to a lot of people's dreams?" I asked, not fully understanding why my heart was sinking again. Maybe it was his job to go into dreams, give women a good time, and then leave them. Maybe I was just a game or a job to him, and didn't really mean anything. Maybe I'm an idiot.

"The Bible says that God talks to people in their dreams, right? That they are supposed to be premonitions of good things to come, a recollection of memories and happy events, or to help steer you to make better choices. Well, the Devil figured that if He could do it, so could she. So she sends Devin into dreams to push people to do things. When people are stressed out or have bad things going on in their lives, they tend to dream about them. Devin find outs what people are planning, what bad things people are up to, what is going on in the world of evil so she can control more things. Then she can use people like me to exacerbate situations, and push them to their limits. Then, she comes in, earns their loyalty by giving them an easy way out or a quick fix, and continues to grow her army. Typically, she exchanges things for service. Almost like a drug dealer, but with a much higher price."

"What does that have to do with me?" How the Devil could be interested in me was beyond my reasoning. I’m nobody, just a random girl from a little place who decided one day to try something new. I don't have fancy things, a high profile job, money, or anything that I would assume that would get attention from such people.

"You, I'm not sure about. From all I have seen and gathered about you, you’re a pure and good soul who has suffered with loss, but that's about it. The only connection I see is, she wanted Jamison because of his powerful soul and was denied that, so maybe trying to "win" you is a bonus for her or something? That and Devin asked for you."

"He… what?" From all that I had seen and heard, Devin was a real person. I wasn't just imagining him. Not only was he familiar with me on a physical level, which made me blush just thinking about that standing this close to Rey, but he was trapped somewhere and being used. Then I’m just told that he asked for me. Whatever that meant, I didn't even care at that specific moment.

"She sent him into your dreams to plant evil and bad thoughts, suspicion against your friends and family, to teach you how to cheat during poker, and many other things. None of them seem to take hold. So she asked him to woo you and step up his game, but apparently when he touched you, something happened to him. He's getting weaker by the day and refuses to do anything more for her."

"Weaker? Is something wrong with him?"

"No one understands what is going on right now," he admitted. "Usually her anger and rage is enough to keep us all going. It's as if we are connected to her, and she feeds us with her hatred and other negative emotions. He and I have both turned our backs on her though and are trying to find ways to be released from our service. This is why you see me drinking and I am always hungry. The liquor keeps her from being able to control me, and the food is the only thing that keeps me going physically as her power isn't transferred to me while I'm ‘misbehaving’, as she would say."

"Where is Devin now?"

"Trapped, but I don’t know where."

Worry struck me. Trapped and sick? Surely he wasn't suffering and I was just going to leave him there! "I can dream and be with him almost instantly."

Rey's eyes widened. "Oh really, that simple huh, no wonder she is so frantic."

"Yes, it was a shock to me at first, when I thought it was just a dream. If he is real and I can just close my eyes and go there, does that mean something? If she is "frantic" as you say, maybe that's because I can save him?"

"I am honestly not sure, but I think you should find out. I know I’m not a good person and I know there’s no saving me, but there has to be something that can be done to save or protect you from her. She plants people all over the place. You have to be careful. Don't trust anyone new. Stay to yourself also. Don't let anyone change you, or get to you. We’ll figure this out."

"Aww, you said "we", how nice. Does that mean you are my sidekick now?" I asked with a slight giggle.

"That means you are my sidekick, yes. Now, I command you to wear the tightest leather outfit you can find. I would say preferably with sexy heels and a whip, or some other torture device." When my eyebrows quirked up and looked at him, a sheepish grin went across his face.

"Are you almost finished with that inappropriate fantasy you just spit out at me?"

"Well, no, I'm not finished, but I will save the rest for later," he offered with a lecherous grin. "What do you want from me? Have you seen yourself lately? You're sexy and it's been a while."

"So kind of you, truly. "It's been a while" is what every girl wants to hear when someone is coming on to them," I said, and finally burst out laughing. "Wait a minute, why has it been a while? It's not like you're a bad looking guy. You're just not my type."

"What does that mean? That sounded dangerously like "It's not me, it's you," Gee thanks! What's wrong with you, woman? You don't like sexy, dark, tall, Latin, villain-types? I'm bringing my best stuff here."