Stage 8: Repairing the Sky and Similar Feats of Strength

I used to wake up in my apartment around three o’clock in the afternoon due to my usual late-night sessions of talking with Skully and Aylese. It had been a few months since I had been placed on disability so I didn’t have to work, but I always felt there was something missing in life, like I needed to do more with my time instead of playing “EverQuest” and wondering what I would order for dinner that night.

The delivery driver at “Wok Fu” knew my voice whenever I called so maybe it was time to try somewhere else.

We got dressed and walked out the apartment, on a mission to do something in my life.

“Maybe you should get a part-time job?” Aylese said as we walked past a strip mall on the other side of the street.
“He can’t,” Skully replied as he lit a cigarette.
“Maybe something under the table? Yard-work or maybe dog-walking.”
“I could do some handyman work,” I said.
“Not a good idea,” Aylese stated as she shook her head. “Forget I mentioned it.”
“No, it’s a great idea,” I replied as we walked past a group of teenagers. “I have the time and some tools, why not?”
“Who you talking to, Looney Tune?” A voice shouted from behind us.
“Ignore him,” Aylese warned me.
“You ain’t on a Bluetooth. Are you getting to God?”
“You’re about to talk to death,” Skully threatened.
“No, we’re not doing anything. We keep on walking.”
“Hey, psycho!” I felt a sharp pain in my back, like a knife. I stopped and then had two teenager by my side and one in the back.
“Got any cash on you, schizo-man?”
“Sounds like a superhero title,” the teen on my right said. The one on the left kept shifting his eyes back and forth.
“Now what?” Skully asked.
“Butterfly knife blade. May be dull, maybe not.”
“Your money, now, crazy dick!”
“Moitak larshat ku xalathom!” Aylese yelled.
“Ahh, I love those magic words,” Skully yelled a she removed his cloak and drew his scythe.
I ran forward and tripped to the ground as Skully rushed the guy with the knife. Aylese there her dagger into the guy who was on my right. The one on the left ran towards me and I grabbed his leg. He toppled to the ground screaming.

Skully slammed his blade into my attacker’s face with a disturbing “thud”
Aylese walked up to the other guy now hung on the side of the building. She reclaimed her blade and then looked at me.
“What about him?”
“I think he’s knocked out.”
“Should we finish him off?” Skully asked as he dislodged his scythe from the dude’s skull.
“Sidh,” Aylese replied with a bow to Skully. “We should head home.”
“Should we take their money?”

I sat at the kitchen table in front of a lot of crumpled bills while the evening news played.
“This is a Channel Six News exclusive. A teenager says he was attacked by a man and claims that man was possessed.
“Possessed?” Skully screamed. “That is so wrong. Who writes their cue cards?”
“Shhh!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll shush. I swear if he calls me satan!”
The reporter continued: “The victim told Channel Six News ‘The dude was spitting out satanic words!’”
“Are you freaking kidding me!” Skully said as he slammed his scythe on the table.