Songs from the DARK Jukebox

A-4: Under the Milk Way
By
Kiix

July 19,2009
Word Count: 2074

I sleep with dead people. Ah, maybe I better clarify that. I sleep with a ghost. No, that doesn’t sound any better. Just forget I said that and I’ll start over again.

I’m gifted. My father calls is cursed but then my whole matriarchal side of the family is so talented. If he thought it was so bad why the hell did he marry Mom and start seeding the fertile fields. I have seven sisters. We all have the gift in various degrees. The gift is paranormal abilities. Fortunetellers Mediums. Psychics. Gypsies, tramps and thieves. Out of all of kids, I am the most talented. I know my sisters used to be jealous and you know how girls can get. Just ramp it up a bit for it to be sisters. But that was then...they’ve seen the shit I’ve had to put up with and they really downplay what they got.

Ever since that movie about the kid that sees dead people came out, I don’t get the wary looks from people now. I’ve got groupies. The only problem is they aren’t alive.

The first time it happened, I really didn’t know what the hell sex was. Just because someone leaves this physical plain it doesn’t mean they automatically get angel wings and halos. If they were pedophiles in real life, they were the same monsters in death. Actually they were worse because now they could touch and do what they wanted because no one could stop them. Or so they thought.
I must have been all of eight years old and I was nervous wreck. Grandma had shown me how to protect myself with personal and universal energies but I wasn’t talented enough to be able to hang onto it while I slept and that was when Icy Hands would come. Pervert would touch me in places that were private and secret. I knew he hovered around me all day but my protection kept him at bay but at night. At night, I was at his mercy and the pedophile had none. I was eight years old and i was drinking black coffee like it was going out of style. Grandma knew something bad was happening and she did something about it. Damek came to me then.

Damek is an angel. Well to my eyes back then. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I thought he was my saviour. I actually think he’s a demon but he’s got a white glowing collar so I think he’s someone’s pet now. I know Grandma’s powerful but to bind a demon, I don’t think so. I found out later than...well, that’s getting ahead of myself.

Needless to say, when Damek showed up one night when the coffee wasn’t enough to keep me awake, he scared the crap out of me. I mean I was eight. He was a freaking giant of man. His hair was coal black and shiny. His eyes were unlike anything I had seen, the whole of his eye were mercury, shifting and shimmering mixing between silver and a whiter shade of pale. He had the body of a rower, wide in the shoulders, narrow at the hip. He was dressed in an Egyptian style toga or kilt. The scary part was he had a sword. It was taller than I was and about as wide. When Icy Hands showed up for his grope special of the day, Damek chopped his forearm off. Icy Hands howled and rolled on the floor of my bed room.

“Watch and Learn.” Damek stood at the foot of my bed, sword point on the floor and gestured to the screaming ghost. It’s body was dissolving from the sword cut up. “Fear is like a skeleton key. It will open any barrier. You are living. That thing is not. It had its chance now it wants anything scrap of warmth it can find. You draw it to you with your fear. Even now more crouch in the darkness waiting to get to you because of the power that runs in your veins. Take it.”

He shoved the sword at me. “Take it!”

I grabbed at the hilt. I expected it to be cold. I expected it to be heavy. It was about my physical size at eight years old and I could hold it like it was a piece of paper. “Take his black heart. Send him to the hell of his making. Do this and you will save countless other children who cannot see the devils who come for them in the night. Do it now!”

I didn’t question him. Thinking back on it now, I probably should have. A life is a life, but then, Icy Hands was nothing more than energy. I stabbed the screaming thing through the chest. For the lack of a better description, the sword sucked his heart and soul into it like a straw. Nothing at all as fantastical like Ghostbusters and their traps. The silence was beautiful.

Damek took the sword back but in exchange he extended a small dagger that glowed the same metallic sheen as its bigger brother. “Those that crowd around you are for the most part gentle souls who have lost their way. It is your duty to show them the way home. I said most, not all. When you find a malevolent soul, do not hesitate in sending it to the hell that is waiting for it. They have earned their reward in their lifetime. They seek to avoid payment for their misdeeds.”

I wasn’t frightened of this creature. I probably should have been but nothing evil emanated from him. He knelt beside my bed and slowly reached out and cupped the side of my face with his hand. “You do not need fear the dark any more. The dark is nothing to fear. Those that lurk in the darkness now know that they have to fear you. My Nightlight. You shine so bright, the moon pales in comparison.”

“Who are you?”

“I am called Damek. I am your servant. Call out to me, day or night and I will come to your side, be it whatever reason.”

“Why did you help me?”

“It’s in the contract.”

“Contract?”

“It is nothing to worry about my Nightlight. Just know that you are no longer alone.”

“You’re my guardian angel?”

“If you want to call it that...keep my dagger with you. It will keep your sleep peaceful.”

“Will you stay?”

“Yes, Nightlight.”

“My name is Winward. Everybody calls me Win.” Considering all that I have seen and endured even as an eight year old, I was starved for a strong male presence in my life. I feel asleep for the first time in a long time at peace and unafraid – all the while clutching a demon’s hand.


I looked up into the night sky. The stars were bright and shone with a brilliance that those in the city just didn’t see. Twenty years have passed since that night. I was a child then. In the scheme of things, I am still a child. I am just a blink in time’s plan. I am called the Kiss of Death. Not really flattering but it is rather descriptive of what I do to send those lost souls on to their little slice of heaven. I merely have to brush a spirit to open a gateway but most prefer a gentle kiss on the forehead to send them on their way.

Tonight is just so radiant. Not a cloud in the sky. Nature was singing with life and verve. A smile broke my lips. Today was a good day to die.

The night Grandma died, she came to me. She begged forgiveness for her sin against me. I was all of seventeen and didn’t know what she was talking about. She spoke of favors called and owed. The light came for her, fading her as she cried out to me for forgiveness. I gave it to her and then she was gone. It would have been petty of me to withhold it. She had done more good in her lifetime. The scales would have been balanced wrong if she was barred from the Light just because of one indiscretion. As was her right as matriarch of the family she had given me in pledge to a demon for his assistance. The contract was signed and a term was agreed upon. Twenty years. Twenty years to the day.

Damek was coming to kill me tonight.

I laid back down in the grass and pillowed my head with my hands. Icy Hands didn’t keep his hands only on boys. Amelia and Rosalyn had been molested by him. My soul was payment for serves rendered. I took a deep breath enjoying the scent of night. Running wouldn’t save me. Damek had done me good service over these past twenty years. In more way than one.

I had a demon lover. Damek was my first and only sexual experience. Ever since Icy Hands, physical contact with live people was abhorrent. I thought I was going to remain a virgin forever then my guardian angel came to me. By the time I was nineteen I was taller than him. By the time I was twenty-two I was broader and more defined. One kiss from him still brought me to my knees.
I just laid flat on my back under the milky way and waited.

It wasn’t long before I felt his presence. He came towards me, his sword in the sheath and his eyes glowing that molten silver that was so entrancing. Something was different. I squinted. The glowing collar was gone from his neck. The contract was fulfilled on his behalf. I sat up and waited for him to come closer.

“Winward.”

I shifted and knelt before him. I pulled the dagger out of the side sheath and laid it across my palms offering it up to him.

“Win...”

“Make it quick.” I closed my eyes and took a bracing breath.

I got yanked to my feet by the back of my neck. I slammed into his chest and looked down slightly into his eyes. I was...wait. I was glowing. I turned my head slightly and found myself laying on my side in a fetal position.

“Quick enough for you, Nightlight?” A slow smile crossed his lips and the back of my head was urged forward. I met his kiss finding it strange that it felt just as real as it all those other times. “We have been intermingling our souls since the beginning. You have no idea how long I have waited for the contract to be up.”

I actually felt a little hurt. His hand came up and ruffled the side of my hair. “I meant, I have wanted to own you for so long.” His hand trailed down my face then tapped at the side of my neck. It gave a dull thud. What the hell? There was a metal collar around my neck.

“That is the sign that for the next twenty years we are bound together. I plan to make you never want to leave my side.” He kissed my knees weak.

“As your toy?”

“As my partner. You have been a pathfinder, Win. Now, you will assist me as a soulkeeper. You have been ushering single souls to their rest. Now, you will help me gather and guide flocks.”

I blinked at him. “You’re Death?”

“There are more than one of us and tonight, you have joined our ranks as a journeyman. Take my hand, Winward. Know that I will never abandon you or leave you alone in the dark. Fear no evil for thou art with me.”

His silver eyes glowed brighter. He held his hand up and out to me. I stepped forward and laid my palm in his. “Forever.”

“And ever.” I leaned over and pressed a kiss to his lips. Damek has been with me for so long. As a friend, as a father figure, as a confidant and finally as a lover. I never knew what I was looking for out in the world. I just reacted when spirits came to me. Under the Milky Way tonight, I knew what I had found.

“Damek.”

I was Death’s love.


-30-


UNDER THE MILKY WAY – The Church