a bright red velvet blazer, a red shirt and black trousers tucked into cowboy boots. A straw cowboy hat sat perched on his head. He was overdressed for any occasion, but in this situation, his clothing appeared even more absurd. The combination of his attire and physical build gave him the look of a menacing rodeo clown.
But I knew instinctively that there was nothing silly or good-natured about him and I also knew our meeting was probably not a coincidence. The figure in front of me was a demon. I could feel him trying to trip me, to flood my mind with despair. Maybe if he’d dressed like another runner in the park I would have been caught off guard. But his gaudy costume had alerted me immediately. I stopped directly in front of him, prepared for anything.
“Olivia,” the thing purred. “We share a common connection. Stoner Halbert sends his regards.” Ah, so this was Stoner’s demon, I thought privately, wondering how he managed to stay anonymous with such outlandish taste in fashion.
“I’m not sure you can call it sharing,” I said. “But I know Stoner. What does he want?”
The demon smiled, revealing a set of very brown teeth. “He wants you to know that there will be another candidate in the race for Seat 15.”
I’m not sure why, but his involvement didn’t surprise me. Stoner Halbert was after my life, mostly because he thought it was easy to take. But he didn’t know what I’d been up to these last few weeks. He didn’t know about the Council. The fact that I was even able to hold this conversation was proof that Elsa had saved my life.
“You tracked me to the park on my run to tell me this?” I asked. “Why not hold a press conference and make an announcement like other candidates?”
It was a little childish of me to spar verbally with a demon—essentially a bag of bones with bad intentions. After my quip, the demon became angry and I felt the full force of him against my skull. I knew I could hold him off for a while, but not indefinitely, and I began to wonder what would happen if I tried to run past him. In the end, I decided to take a different approach, in the hope that I could cut our visit short.
“Listen,” I said cordially. “You can tell Stoner that I have received his message and that I said may the best candidate win.”
This seemed to take his temperature back down to normal.
“OK then,” I said, “if you don’t mind, I am going to go now.”
Once again I was treated to a smile and the demon pivoted his body so that I could pass on the sidewalk. I slipped by the big red one gingerly, thankful that I noticed a path leading up a hill back in the direction of my house. Curtailing my run and heading directly home to avoid any more trouble seemed like the best idea. I ran at a brisk pace toward my house, glad that I had slipped a key in my pocket.
Now that I had managed to put some distance between Halbert’s messenger and myself, my adrenaline kicked in, causing my hands to tremble as I put the key in the lock to my front door. I closed the door behind me and leaned against the wood to catch my breath. Elsa was not home. She had been staying away for longer periods of time, and I was beginning to wonder whether my roommate would be moving on shortly.
Staring down a demon is tiring business. Feeling depleted, I went upstairs and took a warm shower to calm my nerves and heat up my bones, which felt hollow and chilled from the encounter.
Once I was dressed, I returned to the kitchen to make myself a cappuccino and plopped some bread into the toaster. While I waited for the toast, I checked my phone for messages. I had several texts from William, reminding me that we were supposed to go out tomorrow night. I smiled and texted him back that he could pick me up at 5 pm I had a second set of texts from JP asking me to call him. I clicked through on the number he’d sent, which looked to be his cell and within a few seconds he picked up the call.
“JP, it’s Olivia,” I said.
“You got my texts?” he asked.
“That’s how I knew to call this number,” I said. “So what’s up? Are