As Hot as ..

As Hot as Hell

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As the Webster’s house across the street became engulfed by the flames, George Smith squatted on the curb and pondered his predicament. Harry always told him that he could do anything once he set his mind to it and Harry had been right. Too bad it had killed him.

George and Harry Crose met several years ago when they had been cellmates in Stateville Prison. Harry was a “talker,” continuously spewing out patter as he did tricks with coins and cards. Harry told George that he was going to be a big-time winner when he got out. Harry studied all the books on how to beat the odds at gambling. When George mentioned all the problems of security at the casinos, Harry told him that he had set his mind to it and once he’d done that there wasn’t nothing that he couldn’t do.

After getting paroled last winter, George took the job offer from his cousin who owned a discount shoe store at the new mall. George earned enough money to afford a decent, cheap apartment and was living up to his parole restrictions until Harry showed up. Harry asked to stay with George for a little while, telling George that he would be a partner when Harry got hot and made his big score. George agreed, but Harry had to help pay the bills and rent.

One night Harry brought a woman home with him. Her name was Maxine Billings, but she called herself Maxie. She was an astrologer and told Harry that she sensed something special in his aura. She also told him that he had ESP and soon Harry began getting into the occult. He got a library card and borrowed books on witchcraft and spiritualism. Harry never did look for work and when his horoscope predicted something bad would happen, he wouldn’t leave the couch all day.

One evening George came home to a séance with a group of Maxie’s friends. They were sitting around the small kitchen table holding hands while Harry was trying to connect with a spirit guide in the next world. Nothing seemed to be happening, so George told them all to go somewhere else or go home, he wanted to sleep. After the séance ended, George told the two of them that he didn’t like the occult stuff. Maxie told George that if he didn’t like it he could move out. George reminded her that this was his apartment, but kept his mouth shut after that.

Harry and Maxie ignored George’s wishes and decided to go into the séance business and make big money from people wanting to contact their dead loved ones. And Harry finally did begin making some money, though not by contacting the spirit world at first. He offered George a small share of the profits to dress in an all-black costume and pull strings to make things move. Though he knew it was wrong, Harry took the extra money; Harry and Maxine weren’t paying their share of the bills.

Then about four months into the charade, things changed. The voice that came from Harry during the séance wasn’t the one he always used. When George asked him about it, Harry told him that he didn’t remember anything. George got scared and wanted Harry to quit the séances. He asked Maxie to help, but she got crazier than Harry. She said that Harry had found the “doorway to the other side” and called her friend, a psychic named James Carter.

Last Friday night Carter and a friend of his named Webster showed up at the apartment wanting to see Harry. When Maxie brought him out of the bedroom where he’d been reentering the trance again for the last few days and nights, Harry looked awful. He hadn’t been sleeping at all, nor had he changed his clothes. Webster didn’t think that Harry was anything like Maxie had told Carter and said so. Harry started ranting and raving about his power, claiming that he could prove that he had the ability to talk to the spirit world.

Webster said that Harry could only do those cheap old parlor tricks that would only convince someone who already wanted to believe and he would fail at those, too, under normal conditions. Harry told Webster that he could conjure up the Devil himself for Webster to talk to. Webster could ask the Devil any question he thought of and the answer would come through Harry’s mouth.

Webster offered a bet of $100,000 that Harry couldn’t conjure the Devil or anyone else from the other side. If Harry failed he had to put an ad in the local paper admitting he was a phony. Harry took the bet and everyone agreed to meet at midnight at the Webster’s house.

George, of course, was talked into going along, though he knew the whole thing would turn out bad. Yet, Harry had always said that once he set his mind to it, there wasn’t nothing that he couldn’t do and George believed him.

When they got to the Webster’s house, they went directly into the study. Harry noticed that the room had barely enough room for all six – Harry, Maxie, George, Carter, his wife, and Webster – and said so. Webster snored and laughed and told Harry that size meant nothing, because he couldn’t do it anyway.

Harry drew a pentagram on the bare wooden floor, then stripped off most of his clothing and sat in the middle of the diagram. He placed Maxie behind him, the Carter’s at his left, Webster at his right, and George directly in front of him. George had his back to the door.

Harry closed his eyes and began rocking and chanting in a strange language, one that George assumed he’d learned from one of those books he got from the occult bookstore. After a minute or two, Harry started calling, “Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer come! Appear to me! I command your presence in my body with the ancient words of Zaran!” Then he began another chant, using that same strange language.

Suddenly Harry stopped talking. His face turned red, like he was getting a sunburn, except that it was past midnight and there wasn’t enough light in the room to burn anything. As Harry turned redder and redder, the room grew hotter and hotter. And then wisps of smoke began coming from his hair.

Right then, George realized that he should have stayed home, but he had to see if Harry could really conjure the Devil. Then Harry started glowing.

George inched away, trying to get closer to the door, but the others were just staring at Harry. They couldn’t see what was happening like George could. Just as George was about to tell them to run, Harry suddenly opened his eyes. George had to squint because of the intensity of the light from them.

Harry crackled, sounding like a piece of steak placed on a hot grill. His skin began turning dark, then black and crispy. The skin began popping and flaking off, Harry’s eyes melted and ran down his cheeks, and his lips pulled back in a scream that never got out. Harry sat there with his mouth wide open, but only his teeth weren’t crisped beyond recognition.

Then a horrible odor filled the room and a voice began talking through Harry, a voice that George would never forget. It sounded like it came from millions of miles and millions of years away and rumbled like a thunderstorm. Through what remained of Harry’s mouth, the voice said: “You summoned me with the ancient words and I have come.”

George stood up and ran, but Harry lit up like a flare and George felt as if he’d been struck by a blast from a blistering furnace. He managed to crawl to the telephone in the kitchen and call the fire department before he escaped the house.

As he waited for the fire trucks to arrive, George sat on the curb and watched the house burn and pondered his situation. He didn’t know exactly what to tell the police or what to leave out, so he decided to tell the whole truth – that once Harry set his mind to it, there wasn’t nothing that he couldn’t do. Only George didn’t think that Harry realized that since Satan lived in Hell, he would be as hot as Hell.

END

1410 wds