The Devil Stood Up by Christine Dougherty Page A

of the way down. Kelly flicked on her lights as they curved onto the Vine Street Expressway, merging with the traffic.
    “Just anywhere in Center City?” she said. “Are you sure?”
    The Devil nodded, knowing she could see his profile, at least peripherally. He had disengaged from her thoughts/feelings/being and was concentrating on his mission. He kept Thomas Evigan in the forefront of his mind and began to quest.
    “Listen,” Kelly said, exiting the sunken expressway and emerging into almost full dark. They were in the city now and she piloted the car absently, heading to Market Street and the middle of downtown. “I can stay and help while you search. You might need a driver, someone to help you get around.” She glanced at him again. He was very still, looking out the front windshield, but, she got the feeling, seeing nothing. In the past half hour, she’d felt an almost physical lessening of him, as though he was taking himself away even as he sat next to her.
    “What do you think?” she asked. “Do you want me to stay?”
    He looked at her then, his eyes clearing as though coming awake from a dream. He tilted his head like he was surprised to see her.
    “Stay? No.” he said, and turned from her. “This is not for you to be a part of.”
    “Why?” she asked, the hurt evident in her voice. “All I want to do is–”
    He shook his head. Once left, once right and she was reminded of him using that gesture with Roger.
    She pulled into an alley off Market and pulled to the side, where service vehicles parked.
    “I just want to help,” she said and though she was afraid, she put a hand on his arm.
    He turned to her again and she saw a brief flash in his eyes, not of anger but of something that made her unsure…was it sadness she saw?
    “Kelly, you’d be putting your mortal soul in jeopardy. I can’t let you.”
    Another thrill of fear coursed through her and she felt her soul like a vulnerable, living thing inside her that required protection. She nodded.
    “Okay, I understand, but…” she blushed and he could not see it, it was too dark where they sat, but he knew it anyway. “Call me then, I guess, if there’s anything I can do. If you need a ride or anything.”
    He felt her smile, small and sad. And it tore into him. He put his hand on his door handle, almost as if, in self-defense of his feelings, he’d need to make a fast escape from the car.
    “No,” he said. “I won’t call. You’re out of this. I shouldn’t have asked even as much as I have. I shouldn’t have involved you to this degree. I…I regret–”
    At his words, she’d felt herself growing sadder, but when he said that he regretted her, her head snapped back in surprised misunderstanding.
    “You regret it?” she said, hurt threading her voice.
    He reached for her hand.
    “I don’t regret you, that’s not what I–”
    Kelly had turned to face him, twisted with her back to the window. Even as he reached forward, conciliatory, her door burst open behind her, bending in a screech of tearing metal, all the way back to the front tire.
    Kelly was pulled out into the night.
    In one smooth motion, the Devil grasped his own door handle, depressed it and rolled from the car. He landed on the balls of his feet and forcing this body beyond its abilities, he sprang up and onto the roof. He reached up and his hand grazed the underside of Kelly’s shoe as she was pulled into the sky.
    An eerie, shrieking laugh split the night air and echoed back and forth between the building walls. Kelly continued to rise, struggling, reaching for him, her face a frozen, white, fearful mask. At the level of the fifth story, a balcony jutted out into the dark. Kelly was flipped up and over onto the balcony, disappearing from the Devil’s sight.
    Standing on the balcony’s stone railing was another demon.
    The Devil stared up, making his own face a mask. Then he waved.
    “Hello Lillith,” he said. “It’s nice to see you again.”
    Lillith,