The Devil's Apprentice by Patrick Stewart (polar express read aloud TXT) 📕

closed in his face as she leaned against the mirrored wall, smiling sweetly. Annoyed, Alex rushed down the stairs. He took four or five at a time. He felt really good physically. Like he could run forever and not break a sweat.

Karen was down before him. She waited by the side of the pavement with her curvy as resting on a silver Lamborghini Aventador. Alex had only ever seen one of those in pictures.

“Nice car. Did you steal it?”

Karen rolled her eyes. “Another perk of being a Demon Hunter, we have a never depleting bank balance.”

“...never depleting?”

Karen smiled. The door of the Aventador opened upwards. She slipped in. The door closed. The window slid down. “Are you coming?”

Alex walked around the Lamborghini. Coming to the passenger side, he stared at the car, admiring it. Despite the things he had seen the past week or so, angels, demons, the bloody devil herself, this car still took his damned breath.

A little giddy, Alex opened the door and climbed in.

* * *

It was past seven when they arrived at the Red House of Satan. The sun had lost its heat, but it was still bright outside when Alex stepped out of the Lamborghini. He stared down at the car fondly. The highlight of his day. He had a feeling it was going to go downhill from this point.

Behind him was the monolithic monstrous structure of red stone that rose up a hundred floors. Alex climbed up the black steps and walked under the white pediment bearing the face of Satani. He wondered if the devil was in or if she was back in hell. Was this her main home on earth or was it just one of many? It struck him how little he knew of the devil’s arrangement.

They walked through the lobby and up the stairs that led to the elevators. Karen pressed the button for the seventh floor. The doors opened to a foyer. Ahead was a corridor with doors on both sides. Burning torches lit the place in a dim red light. Karen opened the first door on the left.

The walls were covered in burgundy panels. Above was the appearance of a skylight, but the colour shining down was red. The walls were covered with weapons - swords, daggers, axe-like blades, spears, bows with quivers full of arrows.

It was an armoury.

Away from the walls on hardwood boxes with intricate carvings resting on hooks were an array of swords looking very much like a museum display. There were mannequins too, each covered in every type of body armour imaginable.

“Anything take your fancy?” Karen asked.

There was a lot to take in, a lot to choose from. It might have been easier to have just given him a sword, or maybe a gun. They didn’t have those here. In fact, there were no modern weapons at all.

“The best way to kill a demon is to decapitate it,” Karen said. “Hard to do that with a gun.”

Alex glanced back at her. “Can you read minds?”

“No, and I’m glad for it too. After a while, all you Demon Hunters want to do is fuck or fight.”

Alex turned his attention back to the weapons on display. He didn’t want to be a Demon Hunter. Yet here he was, back in the Red House of Satan, collecting a weapon made for Demon Hunters. He was doing it for Jessica, he told himself. After that… He didn’t know what he would after that, but it was a worry for another time.

He walked along the wall, glancing at the weapons attached with tenterhooks. A longsword caught his eye and Alex stopped in front of it. It was simple in design. The blade shiny, the grip leather, the pommel large, the guard thick.

Alex picked it up. It was heavy, but it felt good. “What do you think?” he asked, turning with the sword in hand.

“Big sword. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to compensate for something,” Karen muttered.

Alex glared at her. “What’s wrong with the sword?”

“The choice of weapon usually complements the Demon Hunter. Big sword means big hulking brute. Disappointing.”

“Not here to please you,” Alex shot back.

“You’re right. Let’s go, Conan.”

Alex stared at her, not sure if that was an insult or a compliment. Deciding it was the former because Karen appeared to be in a bitchy mood, he slashed at thin air, trying to get a feel for the weapon.

The weight was a little on the heavy side but it still felt balanced in his hand. Knowing very little about swords, Alex wondered if that was enough? A balanced sword was a good thing, right?

Alex wasn’t sure why he suddenly threw the sword. It wasn’t a dagger. But that was how it sailed across the room. The sharp point buried itself into the wall. It was then did Alex notice how on that part of the wall there were no panels, nor was the colour burgundy.

The colour was a dark maroon. There were small golden circular handles attached to it. It was a cupboard. One door was ajar.

“Sorry,” Alex said quickly, worried about the damage he’d caused.

Karen ignored him. An eyebrow raised, she stared at the wardrobe. “In my hundreds of years here, never once did I know that was there.”

Alex already knew she was old. Demon Hunters could theoretically live forever. But hearing Karen say it out loud, he felt strange. He was crushing on someone old enough to be his great great grandma. Crushing on her? Alex wondered why he was surprised that he fancied Karen some. She was incredibly hot. She seemed laid back too. Every guy alive would crush on her.

His thoughts moved towards the wardrobe he’d just impaled with the sword. There were intricate carvings all across the door. They both approached it. Karen