Tanner sat in the dark, watching the news as Yuri came home, bypassing the kitchen and heading to his room in the attic, trying to outrun the tiny footsteps without looking like he was evading. He closed the door most of the way before being stopped by a hand, and letting out a sigh of annoyance. Tanner opened the door and stared accusingly.

  “Did I violate curfew, Officer?” He sarcastically gruffed at her.

  “We don’t have one, but you apparently had a good date night. You were gone for hours. What’s in the bag?” she asked.

  “Presents for orphans. I run secret charity. Why do you care?” he said trying to shut the door.

  “Very funny. But this group has trust issues for a reason, and you took tools and a bag for a date, and then hours later a concert gets shot up, and shortly after, you come back from your date with a heavier bag.” She said flashing a very custom hand made knife. “You wanna explain what’s in the bag?”

  “Let’s go for a walk outside.” He insisted, opening the door and being blocked by her step.

  “Right, so you can kill me outside the house and hide the body in the pond. I’m that stupid. You’re still working for Nadja.”

  “That bitch who shot me for doing my job, and left me broke and homeless in America, didn’t even give me a fucking fake passport to go home? The bitch who tried to kill me outside the courthouse job? Not likely. You want truth, we go for walk.” He insisted.

  “Make it make sense.” Tanner insisted back.

  “I’m trying to, but I don’t want everyone else knowing the truth. Just because I’m not stabbing you all in the back doesn’t mean I’m not up to something personal and I prefer to keep it quiet. Search me, I have a knife in my left boot, and a 9mm in my right jacket pocket. Take the bag, put a gun in my back, and we will go for a walk. If you don’t like what you hear, you kill ME and hide the body. Yes?” he shrugged.

  The night air and sound of bugs cut through the awkward silence, as the church in the background, a few windows lit, got far enough for comfort. Tanner nudged him with the gun.

  “Okay we’re alone, the pond is downhill so you’ll roll easier. Why are you working with Nadja and why should I not just kill you?”

  “I’m not working with Nadja. I just went out to kill Nadja, I failed. I got a tip from a contact that she was going to hit a concert, I wanted to take her out as she left, catch her off guard. I don’t know how she got away. I thought I had the best exit covered.”

  “Bullshit. You would have told us, and we could have moved as a team."

  “No, you would have taken lead and told us to kill her but not to hurt your preacher, who you are still in love with. Rowan is the selfish prick and Alexander is idiot, you are just foolishly in love. He would have noticed one of us, and killed us all, or everyone but you. Maybe she would have killed you, best case someone would have killed her by luck and robbed me of the satisfaction while we all risk our lives. You are good girl, with leader potential, but not ready to take on Nadja, you are easy to track and not a true leader yet. I saw an opportunity to kill them both quietly and without warning, and you would not have let me kill Mike. Mike is dangerous. Mister Black is even more dangerous, and 4 armed amateurs with all exits covered, is easy to notice. One man in the dark with a 9mm is easy to miss. I was going to kill them both.” He sighed.

  “Even if you’re telling the truth, and I believed you, I can’t let you kill Mike. And I don’t believe you. If she can turn Mike, she can turn any man, and you worked for her. You’re still in love with her and working for her. I found the cash under your bed. I trusted you. Explain why you’d be immune to her charms and where the money is coming from? Explain why you were out there keeping this a secret?” she asked.

  “The money I have been saving is to get home to Russia. I have pulled some favors and done some favors for it, jobs you would find questionable, maybe not approve. I have something in Russia worth more than this group that I would kill for, and you wouldn’t understand. Men like me have a reputation to keep, and we get killed for secrets like I have. Your preacher killed innocent people to take a hostage tonight, is that really the man you love, who is fucking that demon behind your back and telling you to stay away? Death is his only release now. He deserves it for what he’s become, and you are too weak to see it, and we will all die for him, if you cannot see that. Love makes you do stupid things. So I will leave and go back to Russia, survive this game, but I need money to do that and don’t have it. Nobody can know this, I am trusting you with not just my life, but someone I care about.” He said, getting out his wallet and taking out a folded piece of paper, a photograph of a man standing next to him.

  “Your brother, Nikolai… You mentioned him once before when I saw that picture in your room. Why is he on the run? Why is this a big secret?”

  “Nicolai is not my brother. I have no brother. Nicolai is old military friend. You want to know why Nadja’s irresistible charm did not work on me, why I cannot be in love with her? Because I am in love with Nicolai. If I went home, she would have men waiting to kill me, and him. She does not like men she cannot control. She is a demon of temptation, what use is a man who cannot be tempted by a woman? What use is a man to her who cannot fall for her? I need her dead before I can go home to him, I need to kill her myself because she has my soul. I need money for passports, and I need your blind love for the lost preacher to not get me killed in the process.”

  “She’s not a demon with your soul, that’s just your vengeance and superstition. Fuck…and I’m guessing the Russian hitman brotherhood is under her spell and not the biggest fan of gay men in their society. How do I know any of this is true? How do I know that’s not just your brother, and you made that story up to cover your ass when I found out you were still on her side? How do know anything you said is true?” she asked.

  Tanner sighed and flipped through the stack of love letters written in Russian, the pictures of them together, holding each other in a way brother’s wouldn’t, old passports and photos with different last names on their IDs and an older photo of them in what looked like high-school. She picked up a strange piece of very old parchment with religious symbols, a wax stamp, and a Russian signature in what looked like dried blood.

  “Shit.” She sighed. “She really convinced you she has your soul. So you’re really trying to get back to your boyfriend in Russia, and she completely screwed you over and could probably have him killed if she knew who he was.”

  “She knows what I am, but she doesn’t know about Nicolai, and he’s alive because she does not know. I don’t want to be part of American hitman club or warrior for god. I have a life to go back to. This becomes void ONLY If I kill her myself. This whole group is temporary alliance until I could kill her and Mike. If you really love Mike, you will understand what she does to men. She killed him already and whatever monster Mike was keeping tucked away inside, is now under her control and all that is left. His soul is suffering, He has contract too. So…I will kill him or die trying. You will kill me for this, and she will kill you for the fun of it. We all lose, and we lose everyone. Or you can see that this is freeing him.” He said as tanner sniffled back a tear. “Cry for your lover, because he is dead, heal, be strong, and if Alexander makes you happy, be with him and be happy. Let me kill Mister Black and Nadja and go home before I lose what I love as well.” He sighed. She hugged him and cried a little, choking it back and nodding.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “You’re right. He’s just murdering innocent people. That’s against everything Mike stood for and the very thing he tried to get rid of in this world. He taught me everything, and then one day he wasn’t Mike anymore. I just don’t know how to see him alive and breathing and not think he’s in there somewhere…but even if he is. He could never live with what he did under her control. What is she? Is she like, the actual devil, for real? Mike wouldn’t do what he’s doing, and yet he’s doing it, and she did that to the best man I know. Yuri, nobody is that hard to kill. Nobody is that seductive and that tempting, no woman could pry Mike away from me and everything he cared about.”

  “Unless he sold his soul to protect you. Unless he loves you so much he gave himself away to keep you safe.”

  “What the fuck, Yuri?” she sobbed in a panic of shock and disbelief. “Are we actually fighting the literal devil here? Revelation speeches, satanic symbols in blood and Mike releasing internet videos talking about the end of days and the apocalypse… Are we actually up against something that isn’t human?” she asked, growing cold.

  Mike staggered to the kitchen of the cabin, sweating and covered in blood, his bare chest covered in handprints and nail scratches. He brushed his soaking wet hair back out of his eyes and struggled to breathe as he leaned on the marble countertop, a knife in his hand and his heart pounding. He shakily grabbed the vodka and chugged a few swigs to get his breathing calmed.

  “I swear…one of these times there’s going to be two dead bodies in this cabin, and nobody’s bringing me back.” he sighed in the moonlight. He felt a swell of strange guilt wash over him, like he lost something he missed. There was no response in the silence as he caught his breath, staggering with exhaustion, naked and borderline delirious as his heart struggled to return to normal speed. He stared at the wall, too afraid to turn left, the blue of the moonlit lake to his right through the window and the orange glow to his left of candles and blood. His eyes avoided the blurry peripheral image of a naked woman with red hair, hanging lifelessly from the wrists, on a wooden cross in the next room. He waited for her to move, patiently, as his heart beat faster and nothing happened. He froze in place, unable to turn away from what he did and unable to face it, hoping he would just wake up, next to her in bed and having a bad dream. He waited too long, and staggered to the back deck, grabbing something casually, as he stepped out into the grass and walking to the edge of the water to wash his shame off. He looked down at the human heart in his hand, surgically severed and fresh. "Goodbye Nadja." he whispered, throwing it as far as he could into the lake.

  He stepped into the cold water and plunged his face into it, clearing the blood and rubbing his hands over his face as the grip of hands even icier than the water locked him in place. They pulled, sending him into a panic and holding him under. The strange hands of death were stronger than he could resist or even budge, and suddenly he was at peace, realizing if he died at that moment, it would all end, and he would be free, and his heart slowed, the hands pulling him back out of the water. He gasped for air like an unholy baptism, streaks of red hair draped over his shoulders as the body held him tightly, hugging him and playfully biting his shoulder. Cold as ice.

  “I’m sorry.” He sighed softly.

  “For what…leaving me all alone to go for a swim? Were you planning to swim away?” she chuckled, the familiar Russian accent and strange lisp, befitting a forked tongue’s hiss in his ear.

  “I’m sorry for what I did in there. It started as playful sex, and then I lost control.” Mike breathed.

  “Don’t you dare.” She snarled, “Don’t you dare feel sorry for having a good time. I’m not something you can just accidentally kill, Michael. Even if you tried, you couldn’t do anything. Why do you think we’re standing here together?” she whispered.

  “Why do I keep trying to kill you?” he asked, ashamed and too tired to fight.

  “Because you enjoy killing. We both do. You love me, and you love killing, and I am your only undefeated prey, so why would you not? You need to kill, and I love that about you. It’s why I chose you. How dare you stand there and act like we did not both enjoy that, the foreplay, the struggle, the sex, and the kill. Are you sad because you thought I was not coming back this time, or sad because you enjoyed doing it, hoping I might not? You hate yourself right now because you gave into me, and because you keep trying to end it. Don’t be so scared, Michael, I’m not something you can kill. I’m something you can truly let go with and be your worst with.” She hummed, nuzzling his neck. "And you grow stronger every time you do."

  “That’s what scares me. Either I’m stuck with you for eternity, or I succeed and lose you for eternity. You’re a therapeutic kill better than the rest, one that doesn’t force me to take a human life. I don’t know which is worse, but I hate that I can’t stop trying it.” he admitted. “And part of me thinks I’ve finally just gone insane. Maybe I dreamed all of this. Maybe you’re dead in there, and I’m just imagining this last part, standing in the kitchen refusing to turn left and see what I did, or talking to myself in the lake” He said, peering out across the lake into the darkness and seeing the little dim red dots moving around the shore. Little warm things breathing and moving around in the night.

  “Da, Michael. You’re just crazy man. I’m already dead. You’re in a padded room by yourself. And never made it out of the courthouse on your own feet. Or maybe I don’t exist. Have you been shooting at your reflection and planning missions alone, Mister Black?” she whispered with a giggle.

  “You’re just fucking with me. Tanner saw you, the cops saw you, I didn’t smuggle in 2 guns by myself, or fund my own projects. I suppose The Russians just like me and keep doing me favors for the hell of it. I’m crazy, but I’m not gullible. Everything in the last few hours may be a drunken blur and up for debate, but you can’t fool me that far back. If you want to torment me, you need to know when to stop, or you ruin the believability. You could have stopped with I’m already dead, hanging in the cabin and the guilt broke me, and drove me to the lake to drown myself. I would have no logical reason to doubt that.” Mike muttered.

  “Michael, I love when you’re insane and violent, but if I don’t torment you back after what you just did, then we’re not playing fair. If I kill you, you don’t get back up. If I let you have all the fun, then I’m not the monster you thought, and what a disappointment that would be. I have to torture your mind a little. Hold you under long enough to make you wonder if I might keep you under, but not enough to drown you. Of course, I’m real, but the fact that you have to ask, that is the part I enjoy the most. That part you enjoyed the most is already over, and don’t worry, I’ll clean the blood for you. You just cool down and don’t have a heart attack on me. Watch the wildlife. I know you can see them scurry. Do any of them glow bright enough to hunt?”

  “I’ve had enough killing for one night. I’m going to go to the workshop and tinker a while. Can you do me a favor?” he asked.

  “Da, Sage?” she asked.

  “Kill her for me. Make it painless. We’ve scared her enough. Make your point if you have to, blindfold her, headphones, bullet to the head.” He said, feeling the swell of regret again.

  “So soft is that heart of yours. You can record your speech later, I will do the execution and disposal. We can simply edit the recordings together. Go play with your tools, sharpen your toys, and finish Azazel.” she hissed like an order given, like she was hypnotizing his weakened mind.

  “Azazel is nowhere near finished. Don’t expect it any time soon. I need to clear my head. I need to calm myself down and return to sanity if I’m going to recite another speech for the public. I’m in no shape to preach right now.” He finished, slowly breaking her loosening grip and heading to dry land. He tried not to look at the blood on the walls through the open door as he made his way to the garage. He looked back at the water, the dim red glowing smudges of wildlife moving about, and the icy cold female form walking to the cabin doors, pitch black as shadow, even against the cool dark ambient night. It glided to the door, resembling a human only as she stepped into the cabin’s light and the horns vanished, now just a pale nude body, alive and breathing and stepping inside. He couldn’t help but wonder to himself if he could imagine a more attractive woman, would she have always looked that way, or does evil have a single form it reverts back to, by default. Was this evil thing beautiful because she took the form he wanted, or was what he always wanted just the form of evil? Was that body once just a little Russian girl with a soul and a heart, waiting to be possessed and infused, or was Nadja Morozov Ivanova created in a ritual of intention, and born with horns and teeth. Whatever she was, if anything human was ever there, it was long gone now. A window into his own future, perhaps. Maybe some day someone would wonder the same of him. Was Mike ever a human being, or was he just created like this? He stepped into the garage and the door shut, the faint sound of a gunshot and a flash from the cabin’s far north side, followed by the hum of machines from the south side.