Demons Beside You

The car came. It was still Vincent.

“Want to come?”

“No,” Blackie answered. “I want to walk around and see if there’s any new prey.”

Blackie didn’t tag along this time. It was truly stressful to have a Grim Reaper around. This was a real Grim Reaper—a demon who hunted for souls.

By the time they returned to the motel, it was already 3 a.m.

Chen Zhao was extremely tired. He took a quick shower and went to bed. When he felt the two *ssholes, Beelzebub and Raymond, in bed, anger suddenly rose up in him. He was toiling outside to make money with his life on the line while these two were sleeping on his bed.

Raising his hand, he tossed Beelzebub and Raymond out through the window.

Chen Zhao didn’t get up until noon the next day.

The job last night had been dangerous, but the payment was quite hefty. Chen Zhao went downstairs and gave Ethan his commission.

“Chen, it’s a joy to work with you. At least you won’t fool me. The people I worked with before, they always tried to fool me with all sorts of excuses. I knew that I had a good eye on you.”

Ethan was also happy after getting the commission of six hundred dollars.

“Want one? My treat.” Ethan took out a hand-rolled joint, but Chen Zhao shook his head.

To people here, it was as common as a life necessity. Chen Zhao didn’t plan on acting like a saint and telling everyone he met to stop doing drugs, but he would never touch that stuff.

As a doctor, he had to keep his mind sharp at all times. He rarely drank alcohol, let alone weed.

“I’ll pass. If you want to treat me, treat me to a meal. That’s more realistic.”

“Never gonna happen.” Ethan pulled a platter of hamburgers out under from the counter. “Freshly made, same price.”

“Petty.” Chen Zhao picked up a hamburger to eat and also got a drink from the fridge.

“Did you run into danger last night?”

Chen Zhao turned more serious and nodded. “You better get me a higher price for jobs like that in the future. I risked my life for it. I won’t accept it if the price is too low.”

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. You’ve made a few thousand dollars these days though. You should give yourself a break and relax a bit.”

“What can a few thousand dollars do? I don’t even have enough for a car.”

“Do you have a license?”

“Uh…I plan on getting one.”

“Go and walk around. Get to know LA. This is the City of Angels. You might find a beautiful girl at the next corner.”

“How old are you?”

“Fifty-three.”

“How many beautiful encounters have you had in the past fifty-two years of your life?”

“You won’t believe me, but when I was young, my body was more perfect than Schwarzenegger. My pecs—”

“Schwarzenegger is 72 years old now. You tell me your body was better than his when you were young? What kind of range of age are you talking about? He won Mr. World when you were born.”

“Man you killed all the fun.” Ethan walked out from behind the counter with a huff.

How could one kill a conversation? Just expose their bragging.

“Watch my store for me. I’m going to find my beautiful encounter.”

There was nothing to do, so Chen Zhao just sat at the counter and helped Ethan watch the store.

It was early October, but LA was still thirty degrees Celsius. There was no air conditioning in the lobby of the motel; there was only a small fan. Just as Chen Zhao was about to doze off, a hand knocked on the table.

“Wake up.”

Chen Zhao opened his eyes and saw a man and woman all over each other.

“Give me a room.”

“Fifteen dollars, thank you.”

A legitimate hotel required IDs, but a motel like Ethan’s didn’t. Anyone could stay here as long as they paid.

After the couple got their keys, they went upstairs while hugging and touching each other.

Chen Zhao found the way they walked a bit strange, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. These liberal men and women were everywhere in this country anyway.

Chen Zhao didn’t overthink it. He continued sitting there and playing on his phone. Just then, his phone rang. It was Gerlyn.

“Hey, Gerlyn. I’m free today—”

“I’m not calling for a date.”

“You hurt me.”

“I need your help.”

“For what?”

“Can you bring your tools to 103 North Koda Street?”

“You know what I do, right?” Chen Zhao asked tentatively.

He and Gerlyn were very close now. After all, they’d already seen each other naked. However, Chen Zhao still had to be sure if Gerlyn was going to get him arrested.

Of course, Gerlyn wasn’t responsible for his area.

“I know. I promise nothing will happen to you.”

“Then, sure.”

After Chen Zhao hung up, he called Ethan to come back and watch the store. However, Ethan said it wasn’t necessary. He could just leave.

Chen Zhao took his medical kit. Raymond and Beelzebub also followed him.

“Gerlyn, I’m here.”

Gerlyn soon came out and led Chen Zhao into a room. As soon as Chen Zhao entered, he saw a bunch of police officers and grew nervous.

“Gerlyn, what’s going on?”

Right then, a tall officer, at least 1.9 meters tall, walked over. “Gerlyn, is that the doctor you mentioned?”

“Yes.”

“Is he safe?”

“Don’t worry. There won’t be problems.”

The officer patted Chen Zhao’s shoulder. “Brother, help me save someone and I promise no police around here will give you trouble.”

“Can you show me the patient?”

The policemen led Chen Zhao to a room covered in blood. There was a wounded man lying in bed. He was also a police officer and had a bullet wound in his abdomen.

“Why didn’t you get an ambulance?”

“None of your business.”

Since they clearly didn’t want to talk, Chen Zhao didn’t ask. He took out his tools and worked on extracting the bullet, disinfecting, and patching up the policeman.

“Okay, it’s best if you don’t do intense exercise for seven days. Eat mainly lighter foods too.”

“This is your payment.” The tall officer gave Chen Zhao two hundred dollars.

Chen Zhao hesitated but still accepted the money.

“I’ll see you out,” Gerlyn said.

After leaving the house, Gerlyn had Chen Zhao enter a police car. Chen Zhao didn’t ask, but after a period of silence, Gerlyn told him the truth.

“Are you wondering why my coworker didn’t go to the hospital?”

“Judging from the bullet I’d extracted, it should be nine millimeters. This kind of bullet is usually for police guns, such as the p226 pistol. This means that the patient was most likely injured by a policeman’s gun. It might have been a lost gun. If he went to the hospital, they would leave a record and track the bullet. It would be easy to see that it came from a police gun.”

Chen Zhao wasn’t sure about the specifics, but he could figure out the general idea.