Chapter Fifty-Three: Piled On Plate:

By the end of spring, I had my work cut out for me. First, there was the escaped souls. We started off with that first one. We ended up tracking it all the way to Germany. I myself went to bring it back. This soul was a German soldier. He didn’t want anything to do with the War. You know something? I don’t blame him. But a job is a job.

I traced the soul to a bar. It was closed at the time. I blended in with the crowd with ease. I couldn’t look like a nice tourist. I looked like a lowly soldier instead. I appeared in the bar next to him. He didn’t look up at me, but he could tell that I was there.

“Let me have one more drink,” he said. I shook my head.

“Sorry,” I said. “But you have to go. I don’t make the rules, kid.” I held out my hand.

“Come on,” I said. The soul finished the drink and followed me back to my kingdom. And that was one of the easy ones.

I don’t remember how many of them escaped. I do know it took about four to five years to track them all. This time, I stayed on all of my subjects. Most nights, I slept in my office or the War Room. I barely had any time for my wife and children. It didn’t help that Madonna became pregnant again.

Oh yes. That happened. Here’s how.

After I managed to track down the third soul, I just needed a night off. Beelzebub tried to talk me out of it.

“I don’t thing this is good idea,” he said. I glared at him. I didn’t need to say anything. Beelzebub put up his hands.

“Okay, okay,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Good night, my lord,” he said.

“Good night,” I said back. I bowed my head and walked out of the door to the War Room. It felt good to go back upstairs. I tried to push the thought of having to go back so soon. Don’t think. Just get home and sleep. That’s when another thought crossed my mind. Madonna had to go back to Heaven soon. No way. I couldn’t lose the one thing that was keeping me sane through this period of my life. There would be only one way to do that.

I made it back to my palace. The boys were already asleep. I stood in the doorway, watching them. Such sweet boys. I barely got to see them anymore. They probably didn’t recognize my face anymore. I will have to make time for them sometime soon. I quietly backed out of the doorway.

I made my way back to my room. To my surprise, Madonna was already sitting on our bed. I could see her empty expression in the darkness.

“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked. My wife shook her head. I walked over and kissed her on the lips. She kissed me back. Despite being tired, I still had enough in me to sleep with her. I gently pushed her onto her back. Madonna didn’t push me off. She didn’t say a word either. I broke off the kiss and looked her in the eyes.

“I don’t want to let you go,” I said. “Please stay with me.” Madonna didn’t speak. She never does when I plan to try and keep her with me forever. You can already guess where this was heading.

I heard a knock on my office door.

“Enter,” I said. I looked up to see Madonna standing in the doorway. She held her three-month belly. A confused look came over my face.

“Baby, what are you doing here?” I asked. Madonna closed the door behind her.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she complained. I lowered my pen.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. She rubbed her stomach and shook her head.

“Ah, come here,” I said. Madonna slowly walked over to my desk. I held out my hand. She took it without saying a word. I could see the sadness in her eyes. I had a guess about what she was thinking. Maybe I could let her see her friends for a day. Just couldn’t let her go. What made it worse was that I knew that I couldn’t keep her here forever. I will eventually have to let her go. I don’t want to do that. I was going to have to fight to keep with me as long as I could.

But right now, I had to deal with these new entries and missing souls.