A Heart Too Sinful Even Karma Cannot Claim

When my yelps grew muffled, I tried squirming and wrestling away.

“Ugh, hey! Ow! Cut it out!” hissed a familiar voice. “It’s me! Maria!”

I froze and gaped at my friend. “Huh? M-Maria?! What—”

She pressed a finger on my lips and shushed me. “Don’t be so loud! Those guys are gonna hear us!”

“Oh? Who?” asked the scarecrow, hovering over our hiding spot.

Maria jumped. “Eek! Wh-Wha—?! Wait, it’s you!” she said, pointing at Crowley with a shaky finger. “Blanche, why is that monster with you?!”

“How rude! I used to be a normal lad ages ago, y’know!”

“H-How would I know that?!”

Before the banter heated up, I interrupted and briefly explained our situation to Maria, which she still struggled to digest. By the time I brought her up to speed, she shook her head in denial.

“You’re insane, Blanche!” she said.

“Hey, it's thanks to him that I survived this far!” I said.

“But you shouldn’t be making deals with these… these things! Who knows if they’re gonna take your soul at the last minute!”

“You really don’t like me, huh, lass? I wouldn’t stoop that low!” Crowley stroked his chin. “Maybe…”

Maria stared at me and pointed at the scarecrow. “You see where I’m getting at?”

I rolled my eyes and heaved a weary sigh. “It’s fine, I trust him. He saved me plenty of times already.”

Maria frowned and shook her head again. “Blanche, you’re not beating their allegations at all.”

“What allegations?”

A wave of shrills and groans quickly grew closer to our hiding spot, prompting us to stop our conversation and duck our heads. I also dragged Crowley into the bush with us in the process, and the three of us carefully watched as a swarm of spirits hovered closer to the entrance of the house, loud and furious.

Maria’s gaze was glued to the sky, but I, on the other hand, turned pale and hitched my breath as I focused on Ray, quietly standing at the center of it all, almost as if he was under a trance. Without realizing it, I hastily stood up right before Maria snatched me and pulled me back down.

“Maria, what’s going on?!” I hissed, pointing at Ray. “What happened to him?! Why is he… well, spacing out like that?!”

“I-I don’t know! He was already like that when I found him! He’s been… saying things…”

“Like what?”

She bit her lip and looked away.

I squinted at her.

That anxious gaze. The way she muttered under her breath. The way she gripped her arms.

…I had a hunch that I knew what she was talking about.

I switched my focus to the scarecrow casually chilling out behind me and asked, “Crowley, how can I get rid of those spirits?”

He playfully smiled. “Heheh, you can wait it out until Halloween ends, exorcize them, or become a witch and eat them.”

I spared a split-second glimpse at my phone—it was barely a quarter past eleven. We could wait it out, but there was still that problem with my bargain of keeping Crowley entertained. “How do I exorcize them?” I asked.

“Hah! You’ll need years of practice to get rid of all these angry spirits! Unless…? Are you secretly an exorcist by any chance?”

Far from it. I groaned in frustration and shook my head. “Okay, fine, how do I become a witch?”

“How to become a what?” asked Maria.

Crowley’s wicked smile returned, but unlike the previous expressions, his face now was one filled with anticipation and raw malice. “You simply have to finish your original plan,” said the spirit.

My gaze grew dark, and I tossed him a light, understanding nod. “I hope you’re still holding the end of our deal and help me out on that.”

“But of course, partner.”

“Huh? What do you guys mean by that, Blanche?”

I ignored her completely and stepped out of the bushes, marching toward the swarm of spirits. Maria tried to run after me, but rather than getting stopped by Crowley, the scarecrow crept behind her in silence.

“Hey, Blanche, wait up!” shouted Maria. “Seriously, what’s gotten into you?! Don’t tell me what they said was all true?!”

I gripped my fists, staring at the swarm and hearing familiar wails. At that point, everything finally clicked, and I slithered a hand toward my handbag. “Hey, Maria? What did they tell you about me?”

Maria bit her lip. “They said… that… th-that…”

I glanced over my shoulder. “That what?”

“That… that it’s all… your fault. They’re the girls who went missing from our school, and you’ve killed them. I-Is that true…?”

I smiled.

Maria shuddered and stepped back, only to get her shoulder snatched by a brown claw. She looked up, gawking at the scarecrow sneering back down at her.

Before she could scream, I whipped out my taser and fired at her.