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hurried over to Betsy.
    “Seriously? That guy?”
    “Jesse is a marvelous pilot. He’s flown all
over the world and hasn’t had a single accident. He can get through
storms of any magnitude. I trust him with my life.”
    “I guess you kind of have to, right?”
    “He does have a streak of color to him.”
    “I’m just a little nervous. Is it really
safe for us to fly with a demon gunning for us? It’s obviously
getting stronger.”
    “It’s a risk, but if we drive it would take
longer, giving the demon more time to get even stronger, and this
all will have been for nothing in that case.”
    “Good point. It’s not far, right?”
    “By plane? No. A few hours. Maybe less the
way Jesse flies.”
    “Don’t try to make me feel better.”

Chapter 9
    Burning Man

    The plane ride was relatively smooth, save
for a few wind shears along the way. Jesse seemed to fly as though
he knew he had passengers, but still wanted to go ‘Top Gun’ despite
that fact.
    The state of his plane wasn’t much better
either. It seemed good old American engineering could keep the
plane in the air, but was unable to keep the exhaust fumes from
seeping in. Ivar and I had to keep our hands cupped over our faces
for the entire flight. Jesse didn’t seem to mind, but by the way he
acted, I figured all the damage that could have been done to his
brain had already been done.
    We landed at a small airport that was just
stuck out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by desert. It wasn’t
much of an airport. Just two terminals and from the condition they
appeared to be in, not many employees.
    As we taxied across the tarmac, I saw only a
few other planes, no bigger than Jesse’s. When we finally came to a
stop, the door flew open and I dashed out. As I did, the air nearly
blasted me back. The sun was beating down and heat was radiating up
from the ground. I could sense the aroma of livestock nearby but I
couldn’t see where it was coming from.
    “Where are we?”
    “Just a few miles north of a small town
known as Diablo Luto.”
    “Great. Couldn’t we have gone all the way to
Hell?”
    “Did you think at all about the demon?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And we weren’t attacked. The potion must be
working then.”
    “Woo hoo. Let’s just get out of here.” I
turned away and started towards the entrance to the nearest
terminal with the hope they had air conditioning or at least a
bar.
    “I’d think you’d be somewhat happy about
that.”
    “I am. Don’t get me wrong, but who cares?
It’s a band-aid. I got this demon off my back, fine, but like you
said, I could still be cursed for the rest of my life. I’m going to
have to keep looking over my shoulders until the day I die.”
    “The One could still be able to cure
you.”
    “Maybe we should just stop here. I should
just let the damn thing kill me. I’d be better off.” I walked into
the terminal. The air was barely cooler inside. I felt Ivar place
his hand on my shoulder. I looked over to see him actually smiling
at me.
    “Sometimes our faith is rewarded.” He pushed
past me toward a small desk that had a sign over it that said ‘car
rentals’.
    Ivar was able to rent out the last car that
was available. A beaten up, rusted out heap of junk shaped like a
jeep. It was covered in a thick layer of dirt and mud. The seats
were torn and blistered with only some loose rope serving as seat
belts.
    We got in and Ivar started the jeep up. The
engine sounded like it had a cat stuck inside of it and smelled
like it too. Ivar drove the truck out into the desert. I noticed he
chose to bypass the main road, which looked to lead to a small
cluster of buildings a few miles away in favor of an arid landscape
that seemed to go on forever. We bounded over sand dunes as I
gripped the seat to just keep inside the car as it tumbled across
the burning sea of sand.
    “You do know where you’re going, right?”
    “I’ll know where we need to be when we get
there.”
    “A simple ‘no’ would be