Chapter 22 Part 1 – Call for Obstruction

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So far, Barry has signed his soul into servitude to Satan on Earth. He desperately wants out of his contract, but Margery, his demon boss, tortures him with her magical cigarettes when he refuses to follow orders. She’s forcing him to transport concentrated evil energy from Denver to Trinidad, Colorado, where demons dump the substance down air shafts into an abandoned coal mine. It’s forming a rift that will soon open The Gates of Hell and spill Hell’s refugee camp onto Earth.

Knowing how bad life will be for both humans and demons once the gates open, Margery and senior driver Vern ask Barry to help plug up the air shafts. He agrees until he finds out they plan to sacrifice innocent children down into the hell hole. To get Barry back on board, Margery contracts Nina, his love interest. She promises to release Nina from servitude and give her to Barry if he follows through on the plan. Otherwise, Nina will suffer.

Barry has no choice but to transport a box truck full of kids to Trinidad. On the way, Trisha, an Angel’s Apprentice seizes the truck and agrees not to kill Barry if he turns informant for the angels. Barry agrees, but Vern was not so cooperative and Trisha kills him. At the Trinidad warehouse, Trisha calls Barry outside and tells him there were no kids in the truck. They believe Vern and Barry were decoys and the kids were transported in the vans. Since Margery’s plan to sacrifice the kids to close the Gates of Hell is back on, Barry finds a map of tunnels Trisha and the White Warriors can use to get on the Bellow’s Ranch and save the kids.

The Courier Series is about Barry White, a twenty-something computer geek with an overbearing mother, no prospects of finding a girlfriend, and an unemployment record that’s made him pessimistic he’ll ever be happy.

In Call for Obstruction, Barry has just lost his fourth jobs in the past year due to corporate downsizing. Desperate for employment, he jumps at the first position he’s offered over the phone, driver for OTG Courier Services. Shortly after meeting his new boss, a tiny yet fiery old lady named Margery, she coerces him into signing a questionable employment contract he soon regrets.

The Courier was originally written as a twitter novel @TheCourierNovel in 2009, and the same year it won the Annual Textnovel Writing Contest. Later parts of the story are still tweeting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

W. J. Howard lives near Denver and writes horror, fantasy and sci-fi with a bit of comedy mixed in. Wendy is also the Co-op Manager for Visionary Press Cooperative, leading an innovative way to publish.

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“How’s the air?” Oscar says when he sees me walking back into the garage.

I grunt and pull the door closed, then pick up my pace to avoid any additional questions. My only concern right now is Nina’s condition after a run in with Margery.

“Stop,” he says while waving a fist-sized grey sack by the drawstring. “Margery needs us to get her something.” He throws it at me.

It clinks as I catch it, like it contains metal or coins. “What does the hag want now?”

“Something to make your girlfriend behave. She tried to run away,” he says. “Takes two to carry it.”

This can’t be good.

Oscar leads the way outside, through the main garage door and to the right, around the building. Grasshoppers jump away from us as we approach a patio with tall brown grass and wild sunflowers growing between cracks in the cement. There’s a picnic table, missing the bench seats to one side and two vintage soda machines against one wall of the building. It smells like rotting trash even though no one would ever come back here to eat. I can almost see Margery and Vern here thirty years ago, smoking and plotting to close the Gates of Hell the last time.

“Put the coins in the blue machine,” Oscar tells me.

“All of them?”

He nods.

I untie and spread open the sack. It’s filled with gold coins, stamped with an old man riding a crocodile. “Dang, that’s some expensive soda. What kind of money is this?”

“Not money. An offering,” Oscar says. “Put it in the slot.”

At first I approach the machine, but question why I’m blindly following Oscar’s directions as I reach to pull a coin out of the bag. I turn and tell him, “No.”

Oscar gnashes his teeth and rushes at me. He takes ahold of the collar on my t-shirt and twists it until it’s restricting my breath. Then, just as quickly, he lets me go.

I take a few steps back and cough, clutching my neck. “What the . . . !”

“I apologize. You deserve an explanation,” he says while he stands up straight and composed. “The coins are an offering to Agares, head of Eastern Hell. He is the old man, pictured on the coin. If he accepts, which he will, he will dispatch the essence of one of the demon in his charge. It will dispense there.” Oscar points at the slot where a can of soda would normally fall. “Margery means to posses Nina with the essence to control her.”

“You mean like the Exorcist?” My eyes widen. “And Margery expects me to go along with this?”

“You go along or Nina goes to the ranch, and she won’t come back.” Oscar unzips his coveralls down to his belly button. He points at a bumpy star shaped scar below his breastbone. “Insertion is quick, and I do not remember the pain.”

“You’ve got a damn demon in you?” That would explain a lot.

“No. It was removed because I behave,” he says. “Nina will learn too. Now insert the coins or I tell Margery you chose to send Nina to her death.”

“Wait a minute. What do you mean, Nina will learn?”

“Agares’ demons make runaways return or stops them from leaving. It’s the same type she put in me. Same type Margery puts in most drivers who try to run.”

“The same demon?”

“You don’t listen. Same type, not same demon.” Oscar’s frown tells me he’s irritated again. “Put in the coins.”

I pause.

“Now!” Oscar lunges at me again.

I jump forward and start putting in the coins. “This is insane, Oscar, buying demons from a vending machine.”

“Wait until you see the essence.”

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