Nakoma

The demon, Colt he called himself, paces around the inside of a painted circle on the floor inscribed with different symbols. But he didn’t seem particularly angry, which surprised me.

“This thing attacked you?” I ask Martha. She nods.

“I know he doesn’t seem dangerous right now but a demon is a demon,” she says. “If we let him out of that trap all of us would be dead in seconds.” George solemnly nods.

“I wouldn’t say that…” Colt mutters. “I like to think I’m pretty mellow…” The two Saints ignore him.

“Moving on,” George speaks up. “Nakoma, are you aware of what a Saint’s Sight is?” I shake my head. Saint Sight huh? Sounds like a wicked superpower. “Well, it’s an ability all Saints have,” he continues. “With the power of God’s sight, Saints can see the true names of demons and angels alike. It’s easy to use once you learn that you have it.”

I study the demon before me. So if I use this Saint power I would be able to see his name?

“But we already know his name,” I argue. “He told us.”

Martha sighs, “A Demon’s name holds much power over them. So Colt isn’t his full name, he wouldn’t want us to learn his full name.”

“What kind of power?” I ask.

“I’ll show you,” George volunteers. He shuts his eyes for a moment and when he opens them I stagger back with amazement. A cross of eerie blue light glows in front of his eyes and the demon hisses and backs as far back as the circle will allow him. The light from George’s eyes is so bright that it engulfs the entire room in a light cyan glow.

He fixes Colt in his gaze and speaks. “Coltsugomalum.”

Colt’s body tenses up and he freezes, as if he’s paralyzed by the sound of his name. Maybe that was the power a name had? But George continues.

“Coltsugomalum,” he repeats. “Sit down.”

Immediately he drops to sit in the center of the circle.

“That’s pretty badass,” I muse. George cracks a smile and nods.

“The effects are temporary but when in the right hands they can be more than enough.” The glowing light vanishes from George’s eyes.

“Hey, Nakoma,” Martha chimes in. “Maybe you should give it a try.”

I take a step back from them, “I have no idea how to even do that.”

Martha smiles patiently. “It’s easy. All you have to do is call upon God to give you his sight then focus.”

I’m beyond nervous but I take a few steps closer to the circle. Colt looks up from me from where he’s still sitting, he looks kind of nervous too.

“Does it hurt him?” I ask.

“Probably,” George responds. “The light does take on the form of a cross and it’s powerful energy straight from God. It’s only natural.” Well damn, I kind of felt like a dick for using this kid as a guinea pig. But he was a demon and probably had hundreds of years on me. I’m sure he would forgive me, right?

“Alright,” I swallow. “Here goes nothing.” I close my eyes. Hey, God, it’s me, Nakoma. I call upon you to offer me, your humble servant, your sight so I may learn the identity of the demon before me. Or something... A warm feeling courses through me, like sitting in front of the fireplace on a cold winter’s night. It starts in my toes then swirls up to my eyes. As it grew hotter, I found it strange that it didn’t burn or frighten me. I remained calm and felt safe in the warmth of the Lord. In fact, I had never felt closer to God than in this very instance. But I know that I cannot remain in this bubble of warmth forever. Slowly I open my eyes.

Everything is illuminated with a gentle shade of blue; blue like the clear skies on a summer day. I focus on the demon who shrinks away from my gaze and spot a collection of letters above his head. C O L T S U G O M A L U M. But then I notice something else about him. Another set of letters are floating over his chest.

My blood runs cold as I read them. L U C I F E R.

Still holding Colt in my gaze I ask, “What’s with the name over his heart?”

“Over his heart…?” George asks. I can only assume he didn’t see it.

“Yeah, it says Lucifer,” I report.

My Saint companions are silent for a moment. “It must have something to do with your Saint ability,” Martha speaks hesitantly. I think it over for a moment. I was the Saint of Unrequited Love, so my ability must have something to do with love, right?

I suddenly feel a bit dizzy. I shut my eyes and the warmth vanishes suddenly, leaving me cold. I open my eyes and the glow of summer skies is gone leaving me in a dimly lit dungeon.

“Now,” George starts. “Before we send you off, we have a few gifts.” Martha nods and walks over to a box on the floor. She picks it up and sets it in front of me. I remove the lid and find a large book and seven matching collars. I pick up one of the collars and examine it with interest. It’s black besides a silver cross in the middle of it engraved with characters I don’t understand with a devil’s trap in the center.

“What are these?” I ask.

“Those are for the Seven Deadly Sins, and you,” George explains. “They’re powerful tools that bind the demons to you. You control the flow of their power, making it so they cannot harm you and have to do your bidding. They were based in theory off of the Ring of Solomon.”

“You wear one of them, this one,” Martha pulls out a collar from the box. It looks identical to the others except for the characters are different. “And you put the others on the sins. They’re powerless unless you will it otherwise. But once you put it on, don’t ever take it off.”

I snap the collar around my neck and set the one in my hand back in the box. A shocking feeling ripples through me like an electric current.

“We’ve already collared Colt here, who just so happens to be Envy” George informs me. “You’re just going to have to put them on the six other sins.” Sounded simple enough. I had a feeling that it would not be as simple as it sounded, but I decided to burn that bridge when I got to it.

“And what’s with this book?” I picked up the thick dusty tome. The title was worn away by time and it seemed to be bound in leather. Fancy.

“That is a book containing what information we have about the Seven Deadly Sins,” says Martha. “There’s a ton of blank pages though. But we hope it proves to be useful to you.”

“Thank you.” I yawn.

“It must have been a long day for you,” George says softly. “You can set off tomorrow. We’ll take you to your room now.”

I nod, that sounded good to me. I look back once more at the demon as I’m led out of the room. He looks… sad. And that pitiful look, like a puppy left out in the rain, would haunt me for the rest of the night.

***

The next day I sat freshly clothed in a room with Martha, George, and Colt. The demon sat quietly in a chair, occasionally shooting fearful looks at Martha. The large book never left my lap and I kept a firm hand on it as I were protecting it from something. In between the four of us was map spread across a table. There were a few locations circled in red.

“Alright, so the next step is where the two of you should be heading to start your Sin search,” Martha excitedly states.

“And that’s where we come in,” George rose from his seat and walked over to the map. “Martha and I monitor demonic activity based on reports from around the world. Right here are the places with a sudden spike in demonic activity.”

Circled on the map was Portugal, Japan, and Ireland.

“Now,” spoke Matha, “Ireland and Japan always have high rates of unusual activity, but they’re more likely sin related than Portugal.”

“If I were you I would hit Ireland first since there have been more reports in the last week than Japan,” George suggests. I sit and take in all the information. The two of them must be really busy people to be sorting through reports from around the globe. It sounded exhausting. I look over at the snowy haired demon.

“Looks like you and I are going to Ireland,” I say to him. At this he makes a displeased face, but he doesn’t comment on it.

“We’ve already bought your train and boat tickets. You’ll take a train to France then a ferry from France to Ireland. I suggest you make yourself familiar with that book to pass the time.”

“Thank you, George,” I smile at the Saints.

“We also make sure to pack clothes, maps, snacks, and funds for you so you can make the trip,” Martha adds to my relief. “But if you ever need anything else, the number to reach us is in your suitcase.”

I thank them again and hurry on my way.

***

On the train, sealed away in a private box, I look over to my demon companion. He looked a lot more normal since we stepped outside. His ears were normal, only a slight point to them, and his tail was hidden in his pants. “So Colt, why’d you attack Martha?”

Colt looks offended. “I didn’t even get to attack her,” he whimpers. “I just politely asked her for her soul then she ran at me like a crazy woman and punched me really hard.” His cheeks puffed out in a pout.

“Why did you want to steal her soul?” I ask him. He looks uncomfortable for a moment.

“Well, my Dad’s really sick,” he mutters. I remember a passage from the book I had started reading that the Devil was the father of the Seven Deadly Sins. So Lucifer was sick? I had no idea that the Devil himself could get ill. “And Dica told me that Dad needed a Saint soul to get better… So I found a Saint.” Devastation crosses his eyes. “And now it looks like I really messed up…”

“Lucifer’s sick?”

Colt nods. “Really sick… so sick everyone keeps saying he’s gonna die and well, I already lost my mother…” That struck a chord with me. I knew too well what it was like to be motherless. When I was younger my mother passed away, my father said it was of illness but I was too young to remember the details. In fact, I could barely remember my mother’s face.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I give him my condolences. “My mother passed away when I was young so I suppose I understand how you feel.” The boy’s eyes fill up with tears.

“That’s horrible,” he exclaims. “I’m so sorry you have to know what it’s like.” Suddenly he pounces on me. My immediate reaction is to throw a punch but I stop. He wasn’t attacking me… He was hugging me. He continues to repeat his apologies while buried into my chest. Unsure of what to do, I pat his head reassuringly.

“It’s okay,” I murmur. “It’s all in the past now… You’re okay…” He seems to take comfort in my words and he stops sniffling. The image of a small white puppy immediately comes to mind when he looks up at me with watery golden eyes. His eyes are… innocent… and sincere, hardly demonic at all.

“Thank you, Nakoma, you’re really nice.”

I smile at him. “You’re welcome. Hey, wanna look through this book with me? I’m sure there’s a whole chapter dedicated to you.” He looks excited by my suggestion.

“Sure! I’ve always wondered what humans write about us.”

I pull the book out of my bag and set it on my lap. I flip through the pages until I see “Envy” written at the top of a page. “Here we go,” I announce before I start reading. According to the book, Envy is one of the most spotted sins along with Pride. Apparently the two of them tend to fight using Earth as a battlefield.

“Violent, aren’t you?” I ask him. He shakes his head.

“That was probably written about the Envys before me.”

“Before… you?”

Colt looks at me. “If a sin dies, they’re reincarnated for a lifetime as a human before being reborn as one of Lord Lucifer’s children,” he explains. “Before I was the Colt you know, I was a human, and before that I was a completely different Colt.”

“And you keep the same names?”

“Yup, every time I was born to my father he named me Colt.”

“How does he know?”

“Dad just knows these things,” he shrugs. “The birthmark helps.”

“Birthmark?”

He points to an illustration of a snake in the book. “Right there. It’s the mark of Envy.” To show me, he rolls up a sleeve of his dress shirt to reveal a birthmark on his left arm. It looks exactly like the picture; a winding serpent up his arm.

“All the sins have one,” he says. “They’re in different places.” It looked like I wouldn’t need this book after all since I had the Sin Encyclopedia sitting beside me. I wonder if his knowledge even surpassed the books. I skim through the rest of Envy’s part in the book and flip back to the first sin mentioned: Pride.

“Dica…” Colt whispers harshly.

Dicaxstupriculus, was apparently the full name of Pride.

“Dicastupriculus….” I give a try at pronouncing it.

“No,” Colt shakes his head. “The X makes a ‘kes’ sound,” he corrects me.

“Dicaxstupriculus,” I repeat to which Colt nods happily.

“There you go.”

“Um, speaking of languages, I’ve noticed that you have a funny accent sometimes… What language do you natively speak?”

“Oh,” he perks up. “In Hell we speak Latin.” And here I thought Latin was a dead language.

“That’s cool,” I mutter, turning my attention back to Pride. So Pride’s symbol was the sun… which could be found on their chest. Pride was also the most spotted sin, usually to make deals with humans. I continue reading as the day carries on. Colt seems oddly quiet until I finish the part about Pride and move on to Wrath, then becomes chatty once again.

“I’ve always wanted to meet Wrath,” he says bubbly. “But apparently she doesn’t live in Hell like everyone else. She prefers Earth.”

“Huh, I wonder why that is…?”

“According to Dad she doesn’t like some of our siblings, and I guess I understand, there are a lot of us.”

“Yeah, six siblings would get annoying,” I agree. Suddenly Colt starts laughing.

“Six? There’s more than just the Seven Deadly Sins! I have hundreds upon hundred of brothers and sisters. Dad really likes having kids I guess.”

I’m taken aback by the comment. Hundreds? Or thousands? I guess Lucifer really got around. I mean, he has been around since the dawn of time so I suppose he gets bored pretty easily… I shake away the mental image.

I would love to take a nap about right now but we’re almost to the dock and I can’t risk sleeping through our stop and I wasn’t about to trust a demon to wake me up on time.

“Hey,” he taps my shoulder. “Are those the docks over there?” He points out the window. Suddenly his tail pops out and starts wagging happily, once again reminding me of a dog. “We’re almost there!”