The Chase: an AM Darkness Series tale...
Happy Friday the 13th 🤓🤘
Friday, June 13, 2025
Heather looked back at the two mean girls chasing her. She could barely see them through the blinding rain. Susan and Lydia were among the most unpleasant girls in school. Not that Heather thought she was some kind of angel, but still. These girls lied, cheated, stole, and beat people up! Seriously, they were the worst.
Heather slipped on the wet concrete and fell into the guard rail, sliding until she splashed down into the water at the bottom of the diversion channel near San Pedro Avenue.
“Oh shit!” she said. Heather managed to grab onto a pile of trash and escape the water. She climbed out of the channel.
Susan was the first to arrive and grabbed Heather by the hair, smacking her in the face. Lydia joined her and kicked Heather in the side.
“You thought you’d get away with it, didn’t you?” Lydia demanded.
“Oh come on,” Heather pleaded, “James wasn’t going to give two craps about either of us so what does it matter?”
Susan wrenched her head up, torquing Heather’s neck, glaring, “If Lydia says you fucked up, you FUCKED up!” She smacked her and pushed Heather into the guardrail.
“The question is, what are we going to do about it?” Lydia looked at Susan.
“I guess we could toss her into the ditch?” Susan suggested.
Heather looked into the raging waters, “Oh hell no…” She smacked Susan in the crotch. “I just came out of there!”
Ghoul Central Command, 4 seconds later.
Chuck was chilling on his flower couch, waiting for the LIVE chat to begin. It was an easy enough gig, and Chuck had worked it for a few hundred years. You wait for someone approaching limbo to make a poor choice, and then you intercept them in the Real Realm, slowly talk them into making more poor choices, embrace the flawed path, and collect the commission on their soul.
Issue was that it was getting harder to become an agent for the new generation. They were such assholes! Most of them fell into sloth, greed, gluttony, or lust without so much as a nudge. Chuck was better off eating chips all day.
“Charles E. Wray,” the chat began, and Chuck looked up. He stretched, spitting into the corner and smacking his lips as he answered. “Let’s see what they have in store for me…”
Chuck saw the supervisor in the back of the office, looking just as devilish. However, he was ten times Chuck’s size.
“Charles E. Wray,” the supervisor announced, “You…are…up for your last tour this week and, wouldn’t you know, it falls on Friday the 13th? Well, this is some fun news!”
Chuck looked back with an almost wounded glance, “Do we have to?”
“Welp,” the supervisor said, “Unless you want to piss off the higher ups, I suggest being a good sport!”
“Damn it.”
“That’s the right attitude. Ok, let’s see. Ah, yes, that’s her name: Heather. She’s five feet, one inch tall, she lives in a ‘beligured financial district in New Mex…”
“Doesn’t that mean a poor town?” Chuck interrupted.
“Woah, woah, we really don’t want the PC police down here! Trust me, those guys are the pits. As I was saying, she’s got some issues and requested ‘assistance.’”
“And that’s me…”
“And that’s you.”
“Great. Let’s get this shitty assignment going.”
Heather opened her eyes and saw this wicked creature with wild, black hair and jagged, turquoise colored eyes looking back at her. He’d just pulled her from the raging waters and taken her to the top of the diversion channel where they sat. She had no idea what to think and couldn’t scream if she wanted to.
“Yeah, you can’t scream and you know it,” the fiendish being said. “Ghoul Agency takes care of all that before they drop me in.”
“Ghoul Agency?”
“Yeah, so the thing is, just before you were tossed into the water there, you made a plea for some help. But you forgot to say, “Dear God,” first and so…here I am.”
It showed its teeth, like it was attempting to smile. She guessed the being’s intentions, and they weren’t great.
“Yeah, I want your soul,” it said.
“How are you reading all of my thoughts??” Heather demanded.
“The human mind is a big ole electric transmitter, and I am tuned into the frequency…since you want to know. Just taking advantage.”
Heather leaned forward, placing a hand on her head. “This hurts,” she said.
“Yeah, well, you nearly drowned.”
“Hey, wait a minute, explain this in full to me…cuz you look like a real…”
“Demon?” Chuck said.
“I was gonna say asshole, but OK let’s go with that.”
“You ever heard the phrase, careful what you wish?”
Heather nodded.
Chuck stood and beckoned her to rise. “Walk with me.”
They strolled along the diversion channel, and he began laying it all down for her. Above, below. The good, the bad, and the truth about everything. Heather took it pretty well.
“So I’m never going to have a good ‘credit score’, am I?”
“Pretty much. But there’s something else to worry about,” Chuck said.
“Like what?”
“You’re soul and a lake of eternal fire…for one.”
Heather shrugged, “I’m sure that’s supposed to sound super scary and all, but seriously, you have any idea how difficult it is to be sorta popular, craving validation through trouble making and learning it’s not much of a reward after all…cuz of my soul?”
Chuck looked concerned, not for Heather or her well-being, not even for his sanity, but for his understanding. It had been a few years since he’d managed his last client, and he knew he was a little rusty. Heather was well aware and could swing either way at any time. She might choose good. This made it tricky.
“You know,” Chuck said, “it’s been nearly a millinea since I’ve been doing this and you’re twisting my head.”
“Like how?”
“That you need validation about your soul.”
“Soooo, this is a problem?”
“It’s a concern! You know all of life requires a balance, don’t you? Things get out of whack, and there’s a situation that might cause the Big Uneasy.”
“What on earth is that?”
“No, dumb-dumb, it won’t happen on earth, it’s an event in heaven. God could be proven wrong, and this can’t happen as he is the creator of…well, time and space and all things.”
Heather thought about it as they stepped near the road, as traffic passed by. There was a group of people walking toward the diversion channel. “
“Wait a sec,” Heather said. “Don’t you need to…”
“Hide or cover up?”
“Yeah.”
“No. They can’t see me. Basically, only you can see me right now. I’m a ‘next level’ being, so it requires permission. They can’t see or hear me unless I’m on their ass about something.”
“So, you’re on my ass about something?”
“Yeah, you asked for it.”
“For what?”
“OMG, you asked for help, you ninny!”
“This hasn’t been helpful…”
Susan and Lydia had walked to a large gas station and a group of souvenir shops near the highway. Chuck and Heather are hanging back, watching the girls search for things to steal. They’d just ordered a few sandwiches from a nearby shop and refused to pay. Just walked out with the food and ate while sitting roadside.
“You know…these shit heads are worse than you,” Chuck said.
“I’m not a shit bag!”
“Well, you did pick on little kids as you got older.”
“OMG, everyone does. You’re basically a soul thief, and you’re judging?”
“I’m saying there might be a reason why we are who we are…you know?”
Heather shook her head. She was kinda done with Chuck’s stories, and she wanted him to know it.
“You know, there are a few ways we could go about this,” Heather said. “But we should check if they’re safe or not.”
“Doesn’t matter to me. I can’t be injured.”
“You know, Lydia is a religious nut.”
Chuck took his attention off the girls. “What are you getting at?”
“Well, what if she does something like a blessing or says a prayer or something like that?”
“She doesn’t have any instruments of God on her, so it makes no difference if she did say a prayer. Kinda look like shooting a deer with a pellet gun. It stings, but it wouldn’t cause any damage. Feel me?”
“Well, what if she had a cross necklace you can’t see?”
Heather collected a few sticks from the dirt nearby. She pulled them closer to her as Chuck looked back at the girls.
“I’d be able to sense it, lady,” Chuck pointed to Susan and Lydia. “Besides, they’re only into religion for what they can get out of it. Or at least, that’s what they’re thinking. Not the meekest bunch you know?”
“But if she did have something…”
“If she had anything that could hurt me, I’d know about it,” Chuck said. Heather fixed wood into a cross and held it behind his back.”
“And once I feel, ARRGHHH!!!”
Chuck howled in pain as the cross forced him to fall into the ditch. Heather giggled as he tumbled down the side of the channel. It was strange, but Chuck just sorta rolled with it, like he was a tumbleweed. All of a sudden, he stopped mid-roll and hovered back to the top.
Heather’s jaw dropped.
“Why’d you do that?!” Chuck demanded.
Heather covered her mouth in shock, “OMG, you were howling SO loud!
“That was a damn joke to you?! This stuff burns me, lady! Ugh, I can’t believe…”
“I know, but it didn’t hurt…”
Chuck held up his hand and zapped her butt with a bolt of electricity. She yelped and leaped.
“See how you like it!”
“That was a DICK move!”
“You know what,” Chuck said, “EFF this!” He snapped his fingers and disappeared, jutting across time into the other realm, and sank into his dark place.
“I’m done with this shit…”
Chuck’s phone rang.
“Ugh,” he knew he had to answer.
Chuck clicks the green button, and a screen is projected in front of him. His supervisor, now in human female form, starts in on him immediately. “Well, shit head, I thought we were a little better than this.”
“How do you mean?” Chuck doesn’t want to look, so he keeps his head down. The supervisor had been watching from the worldly realm.
“Heather is making enlightened developments! This is NOT how it’s supposed to work.”
“This kid is intense!” Chuck said. “She’s a terrible listener, she’s all over the place AND…”
“Look, the assignment is the same as it’s always been and will always be. You have to get them to RELENT, or their soul is not in play! And you’ll be fired…again.”
“Fukin…FINE,” Chuck screams. “FINE! FINE! FINE! I’ll do it. I’ll fukin…”
Chuck is whisked back to the Real Realm again, at the same time he left. Heather hadn’t moved an inch, and she snapped out of it.
“Alright, kid,” Chuck started, “Here’s how it’s gonna work. We’re gonna get our grubby hands on those turd burgers, Susan and Lydia, and make them pay for your anguish, got it?”
Heather looked confused. “Where’d that come from?”
“Yes or no, damn it!”
She nodded.
Susan was preparing to steal some clothes from a store near the sandwich shop. It was a large tourist trap, easily compromised with no oversight. There was usually only one person at the register, and one person stocking items. It was a free-for-all.
“So,” Lydia grabbed a few items from the garment racks. “If, let’s just speculate, we won’t assume what happened. But, if we did manage to unalive Heather, what kind of trouble would that get us?”
“Fuck am I? A lawyer?” Susan answered.
“Well, I think it’s pretty damn important.”
“You know what’s important? Not talking about it! Now look at these chonies. Go try them on.” She held up the underwear.
Susan had a point.
Lydia took the underwear and decided they were worth stealing. She’d simply put them on under her own, and that would get her out of the store. She doubted they had cameras back there anyway. Lydia hurried to the changing room and began executing the plot.
Worst part about this plan, she thought, is having to strip down. I always look so FAT. Ugh, I hate it.
It didn’t take much time before things went into motion. Lydia was nearly stripped down when she looked in the mirror and could have sworn her thighs were expanding. The more she looked, the more Lydia realized it wasn’t just her thighs.
“Oh, my God!”
Susan could hear her from the other side of the changing area. She walked over and knocked on the door.
“Are you alright, lady?”
Lydia crashed out of the changing room, screaming, shoving Susan aside. They both realize she’s nearly naked and yell at each other over the revelation.
“Come on, lady!” Susan says, “Get a grip! Hey, Imma go in there and try on this shirt.”
Lydia hurried back into the dressing room and put her clothes back on, embarrassed by what had just happened. Susan was shaking her head.
“You’re lucky we’re friends,” Susan moved aside so Lydia could get out of the dressing room. “Cuz I would put that on America’s Funniest.”
Susan closed the door behind her and took off her shirt. All she had to do was slip into the new one, put her old one over it, and walk out. Easiest thing in the world. And the best part was the distraction Lydia had just made! Susan could claim her friend was off her medication. No one would suspect a thing. She slipped the new shirt over her head and maneuvered for the arm holes.
But they weren’t there. She couldn’t put the damn thing on. Susan decided she’d take it off and try again. But it wasn’t coming off, no matter how hard she tried. She was trapped.
“Shit!” she screamed. “I’m claustrophobic!!”
She continued screaming and scrambling until she fell out of the dressing room. Meanwhile, Chuck and Heather were laughing their heads off from the other side of the store.
“This can’t be a healthy thing,” Heather said.
“Oh, live a little,” Chuck wiped the orange tears of laughter from his cheek. “You know, we REALLY need to do something to get back at them. Something that’s utterly terrifying. Something that they’ll never recover from. Something proportional to what they did to YOU.”
“Like what?”
“How about…well, what do YOU think we can do?”
“Maybe we can trick them into thinking they’re falling?”
“Really? Every toddler’s nightmare since birth? Can’t we get a little more creative than that?”
“Hey, I’m not a terrible person! Why does someone think of these kinds of things anyway?” Heather pointed to Chuck. “You come up with something to get back at them!”
“And you’ll go along with it?” Chuck was baiting her. Waiting for Heather to approve. The slightest confirmation would seal the deal.
Heather took a few steps, “I dunno Chuck, it just feels like this is a little…”
“A little what? What could be wrong with some ‘eye for an eye…” his tongue sparked, releasing a small burst of flame as Heather watched, astonished.
“OOOk….” Heather said, “What exactly was that?”
“Oh, never mind that!” Chuck snapped, more flames shooting from his tongue.
“Fire and brimstone much?”
“How the hell do you know about that? Fire and brimstone haven’t been taught in schools for more than three generations.”
“YouTube.”
“Oh bother…Just follow me, would you? Let’s get some of the good stuff going…”
Susan and Lydia were sitting on the curb, just outside the highway stop. They’d decided to take a break from all the craziness.
“I guess it was all in our minds,” Susan started, “But truly, there had to be something about that place. I mean, when does that kinda shit happen to two people at the same time? Never! Right?”
Lydia shrugged, “I dunno. I’m just glad it’s over.”
“Hope it’s over. Hey, you ever seen that one movie?”
“Might need to narrow it down a bit.”
“The one with the semi truck in it…and the Goblin face. It was a Stephen King book or something.”
Lydia’s face lit up, “Maximum Overdrive! Bad topic near a truck stop! It was about a semi that…”
They both heard a blaring horn behind them as a massive tractor-trailer pulled out onto the road and began barreling toward them, dark black soot pouring from its exhaust stack. They both started screaming.
“Move, bitch. Run!” Susan pulled on Lydia’s arm as they both stood. The orange face on the semi looked like it was laughing. They didn’t recognize it was Chuck’s likeness, but it was frightening.
“Take the wheel!” Chuck demanded. “Come on, steer this damn thing!”
They were both sitting in the cab as the semi was picking up speed. Heather was in the passenger seat, bouncing as they fell over the curb where the girls had been sitting.
“No!” Heather refused. “This is NOT what I signed up for. In fact, I don’t remember signing anything.”
The girls were running frantically as the semi closed in.
“I know!” Chuck said, “That’s the issue. You’re not committing. This is the most non-committal assignment ever! Most have already decided their fate at this point. Why this is happening, I can’t tell you, BUT it can’t be good. I need to get my wings and you’re making it impossible for me!”
“Wings?? What are you some kind of…”
“So, Chuck,” the supervisor started. “It should’ve been better news. But, now, it really doesn’t look to be that great. Does it?”
Chuck rolled his eyes. “No.”
“I know it’s been a while since you’ve had to work with a creature as foul as a human teenager, but today wasn’t your lucky day.”
“Sure wasn’t.”
“Let’s see. She discovered you were a ghoul, determined you had nefarious intentions, and then, after all was said and done, wished you well. Which makes it impossible to perform your task and even keep your spot on the roster!”
Chuck grumbled as he knew the mites would be swarming him soon to set him up with his new attire. The last thing he wanted to do was sport a dress for the foreseeable future, but it definitely didn’t look like he had a choice at all.
“She called me a damn angel!” Chuck said. “Who the hell does that?”
“You know, I’m sad,” the supervisor said. “I kinda liked following all your exploits, but this one was especially brutal. This kid doesn’t even know how to use the Word, and meanwhile she’d dethrone one of the great evil ones of our time.”
“Can we just get on with it?”
The supervisor looked at him, chuckling, “Oh no. Now we must certainly relish in the pain. Let’s replay when she was running after you…just as the truck crashed because she refused AND jerked the wheel. Didn’t even have to tell her she wouldn’t die because everything was a projection. Funny times!”
They both watched the screen. “This is embarrassing,” Chuck said.
“It is. It really is. But we can post to it on Ghoul Social. There we go. Now everyone can watch…”
In the end, Heather is being pulled out of the drainage ditch by fire and rescue, whom Susan and Lydia called after they felt guilty. It’s funny, but sometimes all that hard work to be bad…and being good, is just a little easier. Sorta. Till next time, my lovelies…