Eddie drops his arms, lowering the music a bit. “I’m sorry things got so heated back there,” he says. “It’s not usually this hectic.”
I nod. “Yeah, you mentioned that.”
“It’s almost two in the morning,” he continues, scrunching up his face a bit. “Usually it’s over and done with by now.”
“So you’ve worked for the devil before?” I ask.
Eddie furrows his brow. “What?”
“Your deal with the devil,” I press.
Eddie pauses, then relaxes his face. “Oh, yeah,” he replies.
He extracts his folded piece of paper. From the corner of my eye I can see him staring at a list of around ten names with information boxes next to them, noting that the top two feature check marks in dark pen. The third name has a line through it now.
Eddie remains like this for a good while, perfectly still in a way that makes me deeply uneasy.
“Everything alright over there?” I finally ask. “Still headed to the farm?”
Eddie doesn’t move.
“It’s too far,” he says. “This wasn’t the plan. We should’ve just stayed by the motel. We’re already behind …”
“That’s a crime scene now,” I remind him.
Eddie just shakes his head, then gazes out into the night. Suddenly, he erupts with a single, powerful shriek. It’s so loud that I flinch, nearly tugging the steering wheel and veering off into a ditch. “Fuck!” he screams at the top of his rattling lungs.
Eddie jerks forward. His back moves up and down as he hunches in the passenger seat, breathing heavily. “I can feel it coming,” he grunts. “We’re late.”
“We’re almost there,” I say, trying my best to remain peppy and unfazed.
“We’re not almost there,” Eddie murmurs, barely audible. He points a few yards ahead. “Turn.”
“Here?”
“Turn,” he repeats, and it suddenly dawns on me that I might’ve just disobeyed a direct instruction, blowing my cover.
My veins run ice cold at this realization, but Eddie seems too distracted to notice the discrepancy. At least, he hasn’t acknowledged it.
I take the next left where Eddie instructed, slowing down as we find ourselves on a dark desert lane. Ourroute was already off the beaten path, but this particular area is even more disconnected from the bright lights of Palm Springs. The twinkling city has grown dimmer and dimmer behind us, fading away as we’re enveloped by endless plains of sand. At some point, this swath of land will likely be developed into another massive residential oasis with sky-high HOA fees and a soul-crushing water bill, but for now it’s nothing but a lone road slicing through dirt and sparse patches of yellow brush.
My heart slams in my chest, galloping with such intensity that I start to wonder if Eddie can somehow hear it. His abilities are so strange and uncanny that I wouldn’t be surprised.
“Park right up here,” Eddie continues, motioning ahead.
I follow his instructions, gradually slowing down and coming to a stop at the curb. The glow of our vehicle is a tiny yellow spot in a vast ocean of night, miles and miles from any safe harbor.
Despite the utter terror pumping through me, I maintain the facade. I smile like my life depends on it.
“What’s up?” I question.
Eddie lets out a long sigh. “I’m afraid our evening is coming to an end, sport,” he says. “I think it’s time, whether I’m ready or not.”
“But I’m having so much fun,” I counter, somehow maintaining character.
Eddie hesitates. “Yeah, me too,” he says. “I don’t usually get attached like this.”
“What does that mean?”
