Demon Fare

Chapter Six

Chapter Six 

“Is everything okay, Mr. Paine?” Gerald asked. “It’s probably nothing more than another drunk passed out on the stoop.”

“Maybe you should roll down your window to get some air,” Julia suggested.

Mystic did the honors and a brisk rush of winter air dried the sweat beaded on Henry’s forehead.

“Did you see that?” Gerald pointed at the window. “He didn’t touch the lever. Is that an automated feature as well?”

“Uh…" Henry’s throat went dry. “It’s, uh, my cab. It’s possessed by a Vox demon.”

Julia and Gerald went silent.

“Okay, then.” Henry swallowed. “Have a nice night.”

Gerald left the cab and paid the fare, adding a generous tip. “Thank you, Mr. Paine. And we’ll be calling your nephew soon.”

When Julia joined Gerald on the sidewalk, she gazed into the crowd and her eyes widened. She yelled, “Trudy? Trudy! Are you all right?”

A woman wearing a long camel hair coat and a woolen scarf tied around her head shuffled over to Julia, her oversized house slippers scuffing across the pavement. Her face looked haggard and her eyes bloodshot. “Oh, my God, Julia. It’s Mia!”

“What about Mia?” Julia wrapped an arm around her friend and pulled her close. The woman named Trudy was visibly shaking.

Trudy shook her head. “If I’d known she would react this way, I never would have…" Her voice dissolved into sobs.

Henry heaved a sigh and switched off Mystic’s engine. Julia had said her neighbor had a demon named Mia. Another demon causing trouble on the same night? This was no coincidence. Something was up and he wondered if similar incidences could be cropping up elsewhere in the city.

Henry stepped out of the cab. “Maybe there’s something I can do to help.” He strode to the sidewalk and stood beside Gerald. “I have a way with demons. It’s my nature.” He smiled and Julia smiled back.

“I’m beside myself, and the police are absolutely useless.” Trudy gazed at Henry with pleading eyes. “I thought Mia and I were friends, but when I brought home a new coffee percolator, she got really upset.”

“Jealous?” Henry asked.

Trudy frowned. “I don’t think so. I told her it was hers to operate, but she refused. She stubbornly stayed inside the old one.”

Henry waited for her to go on. After a long pause, he asked, “So what happened?”

“I punished her for disobeying me.”

Punishment was a good thing when it came to disciplining demons. They liked being punished. “How?”

“I put the old percolator in a box and stuck it in the pantry.”

Which meant poor Mia was without sunlight. “For how long?”

“About a week.”

No wonder the demon was upset. But upset enough to cause the kind of trouble that would bring the cops? “And then what did you do?”

“I brought the box out of the pantry and told Mia I was giving her another chance. She set fire to the box. Then she got inside the new percolator and broke it.”

He still didn’t see why the cops were involved. Henry gave Trudy a questioning look and the woman broke down into tears again.

“I want to help you,” he said, “but I need to know—"