O’Toole House Chapter 16
Gabriella was pretty certain that Father McEnerney was going to get them thrown out of the library study room. “A DEMON DEAL?” he demanded, standing next to Nick Bana’s seat and towering over him with righteous fury. “You made a FUCKING DEMON DEAL?”
She’d never heard him swear before. And based on the look on Bradley’s face, this wasn’t a common occurrence. “I know,” Nick said desperately. “I know, it was stupid.”
“It was so far beyond stupid,” Father McEnerney said. “Have you never read Faust? Or, I don’t know, watched a single horror movie in your life?”
“I didn’t think it was real. And then he got me to sign a contract, I couldn’t get out of it.”
“Of course the demon made you sign a contract.”
“No, I mean my friend did. We got drunk and I signed it and when I told him I wasn’t going to do the deal, he said that if I broke the contract, he’d ruin me. This was a few days before, so I felt like I had to.”
“Ah, so you signed two terrible contracts. Do you do that a lot?”
Nick Bana looked terrified. Bradley, on the other hand, looked happier than Gabriella had seen him in weeks. Father McEnerney sighed. “Were you coerced into this demon deal?”
“The contract I signed with Tom.”
“I don’t know if that’s enough to count as coercion,” Father McEnerney said. “You had options. And several days in between. And a contract written by a drunk college student, signed by another drunk college student, is not going to hold up in a court of law. So yeah, you were pressured into it. But there were options.”
He sat down in his chair, studying Nick intently. “Alright,” he said. “This isn’t a common situation, but getting out of a deal is even less common. You said both other men involved are dead?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re two weeks out from your deadline and just now looking for help?”
“I know!” Nick exclaimed again. “I thought maybe I could figure it out myself. And when I couldn’t, I thought maybe I could just get what I needed from the deal and at least leave my family with a stable home when I’m gone.”
Father McEnerney jotted down a few notes on the legal pad he’d brought with him. “Right. Alright, here’s what I can do. I’ll see what the Foundation has for information about previous cases where someone got out of their deal. I know of one, so I think if we have any chance, it’s going to be something within the contract itself. Do you still have a copy?”
“No.”
“Are you-”
“I didn’t get one,” Nick said quickly, before Father McEnerney could erupt again. “It was a demon! It was paranormal, it all disappeared in a flash!”
“Right,” Father McEnerney said again. “Try and get one.”
Nick looked like he was about to ask how. And Gabriella had to admit she was curious about that too. But Father McEnerney continued talking.
“So, in the contract, each demon sets their own specific terms. It’s different in every case. But history shows us that both sides have to fulfill the terms of the contract. And maybe we can argue that the demon hasn’t fulfilled its side. That’s a big ask, and I have no guarantees that it’ll work. But if we can put up a convincing enough argument, then the demon won’t be able to take your soul.”
“What’ll happen to me if it does?” Nick asked. “Where are my friends?”
Gabriella paused, aware of the implications of Father McEnerney’s answer. “I don’t know,” he admitted, his voice a little gentler now. “Nobody alive does. I’m sorry, I wish I knew. I can pray for them, and for you, but there’s nothing I can do for them beyond that. And very little I can do for you.”
Gabriella swallowed hard and hoped no one noticed. “You’re going to try to get that contract,” Father McEnerney said to Nick. “You’re going to find the terms and we’ll see if maybe we can get you out of it that way. There’s no brute force way to break a demon deal. Deals are trickery and you need to work within those confines. If – and I do mean if- it works, your connection will be severed when the deadline lapses. I’ll cleanse the house and it’ll be gone.”
They’d had to quickly protect the space they were using right now so that there was less chance of the demon being able to get in here with Nick. Father McEnerney’s movements when he arrived had been so automatic that Gabriella figured he probably did them in his sleep at this point. But it was enough to keep them safe until they left the safety of this room. Which they were about to do.
“I need to go,” Father McEnerney said. “I have two more cleansings to do today before I go home. Gabriella, Bradley, stay in touch please.”
And then he was gone. There wasn’t really anything else to say beyond that, so Gabriella got ready to leave too.
***
The medbay was about halfway clean now and Gabriella was feeling pretty satisfied with it. There was still junk all lined up along the side of the house and Bradley hadn’t heard back about a dumpster, but the solution came to her as she dumped a box of damaged medical supplies in the trash bin.
Reese likely wouldn’t get money for any of this junk, but she could still hire him to haul it away. And he knew what the Foundation was, their whole family did. So no awkward explanations were necessary.
“Still no word from McGovern on your dumpster,” Bradley said as Gabriella was gathering her things a little while later.
“Forget it, my cousin has a hauling business. I just asked him.”
Bradley looked at her. “What?” she asked, glancing at her phone.
“You can just casually ask your cousin, who happens to own a hauling business, if he can help?”
“I mean, I haven’t heard back from him yet, but he told me the other day that he’s doing this now.”
“But you can just ask?”
She was about to ask what was so weird about it, but then her phone buzzed.
REESE
Gabby! Yeah, tell me what’s there
“This is him,” she said, holding up her phone as though Bradley was going to shake hands with Reese through it.
She sent another message and of course he said he’d do it free of charge. But when she told Bradley, he shook his head.
“No, tell him to give us his rate and I’ll pay him.”
“What?”
“He’s doing his fucking job, right?”
To be fair, she’d been calculating how she could get him to accept an unusually large tip if he wasn’t going to let her pay. “Let me call him real quick,” she said.
Reese picked up with a loud, cheerful greeting. “How much do you generally charge?” Gabriella asked.
“For my cousin or…”
“This is my job though. They pay me to be here.”
“Are they paying me or are you?”
Bradley motioned for the phone. “We’re trying to get them to, but they’re not responding,” she said. “But it’s for…”
Gabriella hesitated. “Look, I can’t give a lot of details, they aren’t mine to give. But it’s for the doctor who helped James.”
“Then why the hell would I charge?” Reese laughed.
“Because the Foundation should pay you.”
“James getting better so I can kick his ass next time me, him, and my brothers play basketball will be payment enough.”
“Can I talk to him?” Bradley asked.
Was he about to establish a new cousin to fight with while he waited for James to come back? “I’m putting you on speaker real quick,” she told Reese, then hit the button and held her phone between herself and Bradley.
“Here’s what’s going on,” Bradley said. “Gabriella emptied the room so that this doctor can move in sometime before the end of time. So yeah, she did it at work, but not on the clock. They won’t get back to me about a dumpster for all the shit that was in there because they’re all fucking useless. And if your work is going to haul junk for our work, then we need to pay you. And if you’re not going to take your whole rate because you’re a McManus like the rest of them, then how about I’ll pay you half for now while I fight them to pay your whole rate, and we stop the world’s worst negotiations now?”
There was a pause. “What’s your name?” Reese asked.
“Bradley.”
Reese laughed. “Ah,” he said. “Alright, deal. I can come by anytime this week.”
“Is it going to be you and Ricky?” Gabriella asked.
Reese scoffed. “That motherfucker would snap in two,” he said. “I can handle it.”
They set it up so that Reese would come by in a couple days, then Gabriella texted Amelia immediately so she wouldn’t forget.
“I’m going to go over to James’s,” she told Bradley once she was done. “If you need me, I’ll be right over there.”
“I won’t, but okay.”
