The City and the Devil
A short story
No one knows how they got here — the city. It could be a dream, a nightmare, it could be hell. There are no answers here, and the questions die before they’re asked.
It isn’t earth, that much is true.
On earth, the sky is a constant reminder that things are changing. Cloudy, sad days are followed by sunny ones. Hot, dry days are followed again by the rain. Things begin, and things end. Not here. Not here in the city.
There’s hardly any difference between night and day. It isn't noticeable until one changes into the other. Especially day into night.
I couldn’t tell you if the stars come out, the skyscrapers block out the sky and I never have the time to look high enough.
When night falls, the shadows climb out like the cursed hands of the damned, smothering, silencing, squeezing. The few lights in the city tend to go out before you reach them. They aren’t where you’re going, anyway. It’s better to stay in the dark, where nothing can see you unless it feels you.
They say even blood runs black in the city— the color died long ago.
There’s no time to stop and take in the horror, you’ve always got somewhere to be, somewhere to go. But you never get there, no one ever does.
The city is a land forever in-between. There are concrete sidewalks, and asphalt roads, but all the buildings are vacant. No one stops here, but no one ever leaves, either.
Maybe we all walk in circles, I don’t know. There’s no time to consider, anyway, I’ve got to keep moving.
Nothing is defined, in the city. That’s what makes it what it is — that it isn’t anything. It's where the blood goes between heartbeats, where the air goes between breaths, its where the mind goes between dreams. It’s the static on the television, between the channels.
There’s no time to lose hope. There’s no time to gain it either. We’ve got places to be. And they aren’t right here, that’s for sure.
We must have just arrived at the building when I lost her. I was holding her hand, taking her with me — I couldn’t just leave her there.
We were standing at the double-doors, shrouded in the black heart of the city. It was gray out, but more than usual, I think.
Something reached out from the gutter and took her, its white hand had caught the light. The thing took my daughter.
It flew, and I gave chase. I followed her screams, around corners and down alleys, each one looking the same as the one before.
I could feel the wind on my face… I’d never been sure if there was air in the city. But now, running through it, pushing aside its cold form, I could feel it. Yes, even here there was air.
I’d followed her screams all the way there, to the city’s grand hotel. I was surprised to see it. I thought — so, I guess there was a place to be, here. I guess the city wasn’t all just in between.
I came in through the front door, expecting them, but it was empty. No one was here. I had to keep moving.
Stairways rose to meet me, twisting and turning. The walls hid many elevators, churning, hoisting unseen bodies ever higher. The hallways fell before me, I ran them for hours, like a coin finding its way to the bottom of a well.
I had to find her.
That’s when I saw him, peaking around a corner, the devil himself. Striped pajamas or a pinstripe suit, or draped in an onyx veil, I couldn’t put my finger on his appearance.
I chased him, endlessly, and finally, up to the top floor. It was a great glass dome overlooking the city. As high as we were, I still couldn’t see the city’s edge. He just stood there, smiling.
I pulled a piece of rebar from a nearby pile of rubbish. Yes, even the highest room in the city couldn’t escape the unending mounds of black garbage.
I did his head in, the devil. He laughed as I killed him.
They had been right, his blood was black and gray, just like everything else in the city.
I’d forgotten my daughter, I’d forgotten the streets below, and even as my hands were stained with soot and blood I prayed I would forget the damned city.
Some time lapsed, and I found myself on the roof of the dome. The sun must have risen, and for the first time since I’d been in the city, I could just make it out, lighting the clouds overhead.
The devil sat beside me, uninjured. He hadn’t even a single mark on his wicked face.
We spoke. We shared stories, and we remembered the world outside the city. We got to know each other in that time, there on the roof, the devil and I.
In the end, the sun broke through the clouds. The faintest colors returned to the landscape, and then I awoke.
