Free The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) by Rita Stradling Page B

asura's middle face, then each other.
    The
Oni opens its devil’s mouth and speaks in a low, gruff voice,
"Yes, we don’ not want any party-poopers.”
    "You
try and poop in my party again, I will kill you," the asura
says.
    If
there's a list of the worst times to laugh, while being threatened by
a homicidal three-faced, six-armed she-monster is probably right up
there on top of the list. I bite the inside of my cheek, hard.
    The
Oni lumbers out of the doorway and music blasts out so loud that it
could be used as a weapon, not to mention that it’s some
American pop song that was overplayed three years ago.
    “ Move,”
The Oni bellows.
    The
asura shoves Cassidy ahead of her and keeps me behind, the descent is
awkward because Cassidy and I refuse to let go of our held hands. The
asura restrains me with two of her hands and watches me by her
right-face. Not that I could escape with the Oni, a wall of pestilent
flesh, following way too close behind in the stairwell. I try to hold
my breath because I would take open-sewer over Oni any day of the
week; talk about body odor, only possible description:
ugh-guhh-ughhala, which coincidentally was the same sound that the
Oni makes as it descends the stairs. The smell is so bad I’m
considering suicide by tripping in front of Oni (which would be an
awful way to go), when the stairway ends. We’re emptied into a
gymnasium sized room and I’m assaulted with so much more than
eua’de Oni.
    I’ve
been to a demonic party, I’ve seen demonic hordes break out of
the earth and drop from the sky like monstrous birds—this is
something completely different. Hundreds of multicolored creatures
bustle around a giant center-ring in the gymnasium. That’s what
really stands out, the colors, like the Indian tapestries I saw in an
art exhibition once. But most of the creatures look distinctly Thai-
with their sharp headdresses and golden armor.
    I’m
sure many of the creatures are asuras, with their distinctive three
faces and six arms, but they come in every color. And there are other
colorful demon-like creatures, tall, skin a bright red, green,
purple, blue, or other colors, these are the ones dressed in gold
armor with giant golden headdresses.
    Other
colorless wrath-like shadows drift from place to place; these dark
ghosts seem to be avoided by the rest.
    The
colorful creatures play instruments, pass money back and forth, some
even fight amongst themselves, but most of them are shouting at the
center ring. In a roped off square on the raised center, two bright
blue humanoid fighters face off.
    One
blue man kicks the other in the face; his opponent flies back, then
springs like a lizard, twisting and kicking the other man in the
side.
    “ You’re
taking us to a Muay Thai fight?” I ask, glad that I know what Muay
Thai is. I’d never thought I’d think this, but… Thank
you, Albert, for constantly having the sports channel playing on the
only television in our Victorian mansion .
Either the Oni trudged away or my olfactory sense just straight
quit-because suddenly I can breathe without thoughts of
self-impalement.
    The
asura’s right face smiles down at me (or at least I think it
does because its teeth are pretty much perma-bared), saying, “ Singto is
here to fight; I will place a big bet on her.”
    “ And
me?” I ask.
    “ Not
fight, no,” the asura’s right face says before it joins
its other faces in staring at the center ring. I remember Cassidy
saying that the asuras are what they are because of their
single-minded pursuit of the baser aspects of life. The asura’s
attention fixes almost wholly on the fight, as the other asura was so
easily distracted by the idea of hurting a stray dog… I need
to use this.
    But
I know my idea has come too late when the Oni wakes the asura from
her stupor by yanking Cassidy out of the asura’s grip. As
Cassidy and I are holding tight to each other’s hands my arm
threatens to rip out of its socket. I can’t help it, I scream
and