I’m a college dropout, I live at home with my mom and stepdad, and yes, I do work to help pay for the bills. I am not a mooch by any means, my mom had taught me that hard work goes a long way, unfortunately my job doesn’t pay for all the loans I took out on my college, and the money I owe my mom for paying some of my tuition, I feel bad. I don’t live in a small town, actually I live in a city anyone could get lost in, which means more crimes, and all the more things one person could either do crimes or end up as the next victim being broadcasted on the local news.
There’s absolutely nothing special about me, if you met me on the side of the street, I’d look like your average beanstalk skinny guy who wears grudge band t-shirts, messy black hair, and looked like I have insomnia. My schedule is pretty much as simple as it gets, I got to work at the diner that’s a few blocks away from my neighborhood, it mostly serves truckers and some locals.
I work until my shift is done or if someone doesn’t show up, I end up doing a double shift, I go home and crash. My mom bought her house in a really good neighborhood, which means, she attends the usual book clubs, and goes to the local golf club with the high end more wealthy people.
Unfortunately, these people love to gossip about anything they find worthy interesting, one of their most worthy gossips is me. now I’m not boasting about me being popular with my parents’ friends, it’s the opposite, I’m an embarrassment to them all. because I didn’t finish college and I moved back in, somehow it got twisted into me being a mooch, have a mental illness, and I steal from my parents apparently.
But I don’t let them get the better of me, I mostly ignore them, they want to talk about me, that’s fine by me. but if they start things with my mom, you’d bet I’d jump in and defend her. I bring this up because when I work at the Molly’s Diner, sometimes they like to come in and start some shit with me, just to get my reaction. Look, I am not a violent guy, in fact, I was the kid in school who got shoved in lockers if I could fit, head dunked in toilets, and one time was duct taped naked to the school’s flagpole.
I run from a fight; I don’t like fighting. I’m passive, but if it came down to it, I’d have to use my fists. But somehow, I found myself in the misfits, which also brings to why the high-end wealthy stay at home moms pick on me. my friends aren’t exactly fitting image. The four friends I hang out with aren’t considered the most appropriate people. in fact, my mom has band them from coming to her house because the neighbors were asking if I ran drug ring. I’m surprised they hadn’t called the cops on them for that suspicion alone.
As of lately my life changed upside, I don’t know if it was for the better or worse. it was the usual afternoon turning into the night. I had just got done with my shift when my friends showed up out of now where. The manager has pretty much given me the keys to the place, and I lock up every night. So, when Esme and the other came bursting through the front door drunk, I knew I had to get them out. I argued with them they could get drunk at the cemetery or the peer. But they didn’t.
Esme is goth, she’s decked out in black and tattoos, her hair dyed an electric hell fire. She held up and old leather-bound book, “I want us to summon the devil.”
I knew the moment she said that it brought a chill down my spine. Esme has had this obsession with the demon world, ever since her brother was exorcised by the priest for having a demon, which I don’t think he was possessed, just had some mental illness. She has had this obsession with the culture of it. which I know for a fact she would indeed try to summon the devil. “No thank you. You guys need to leave, I don’t want to lose my job over this.”
I’d rather lose it on my own terms.
Raid, who is just a foot shorter than me glared at me. he’s a bit more built than I am, he used to play football at school, but he got busted with steroids and was since kicked off our high school team. “Seriously dude, I want to prove to her that demons aren’t real.” Raid was not stupid by any means, unlike the usual idiot jock, he wasn’t. although getting caught with drugs, was up there.
I let out a sigh of frustration. “Not at my work you’re not.”
“Oh c’mon, who’s going to know that we did this here?” Marrissa said puckering her bottom lip out, she wore her usual heavy makeup, pink turtleneck sweater and low riding jeans. Just because she had a pretty face, she had a nasty attitude. “You promised to hang out with us, but all you do is work and work. we never get to hang out.” she stomped her high heeled foot on the floor.
I sighed again, rubbing my temples, “I want too really, but not here. we can do it at our usual spot.”
Stoner snorted, “because your too busy with your work, our spot was demolished.” Stoner wasn’t his real name; you can guess why we call him that. he wore the typical beanie, overly huge clothes, and a joint hanging out on the back of his ear. Our usual spot was down in the industrial area, some abandon warehouses. There was one in particular we hung out at to sometimes get high.
Tightening my hand on the front door, I said through gritted teeth, “my work is work, not a hang out spot. Let’s find a different spot.”
Esme smacked my forehead with the book in her hand, “we can do it here, can’t we? We’ll clean up afterwards….” She fluttered her big blue eyes at me.
I thought about it, I really, really don’t want the backlash from this. my boss Maggie, has been very generous with me lately. Including she had offered the apartment upstairs from the diner to me just a few days ago. I had been wanting to move out of my parent’s place, mom had been getting on my nerves as of lately, nagging me about everything. and I mean everything. Maggie was giving an opportunity of a lifetime to get out of my parent’s nest, and here I was letting my friends possibly ruin that for me.
For what? A hang out?
“Fine,” I hissed. “But only thirty minutes, and then you guys are gone.”
“Deal,” Esme said with a wicked smile.
“Thanks bro,” Raid said, he slapped my back nearly knocking me over.
“you’re the best,” Marrissa hugged me and kissed my cheek probably leaving a red kiss mark there.
Stoner gave me a thumbs up and they all came in. I closed the door locked it, and flipped the sign from open to close, I flicked the main dining area lights off. I had them follow me down into the basement, passed the supplies of food. There was an area down here that we could just hang out at, but as I said thirty minutes. This was not a joke. I hadn’t hung out with my friends for nearly three months, it wasn’t on purpose. But I had to focus on making my mom happy and keeping me out trouble.
The moment I showed them area, they set their backpack down and started pulling out snacks and beer, I knew by this, it definitely wasn’t going to be thirty minutes. Raid opened a beer and handed it to, obligated, I took it. this did feel like old times though. All of us just hanging out because we had nothing better to do. but I can already tell they were already buzzed, I felt slightly peer pressured, to be honest I didn’t want to do any of this.
Esme pulled out weird stuff from her backpack, candles, and a list of other weird things, like lavender, chalk, a lighter, a jar full of red liquid, another jar of nail clippings, a bundle of brown hair, a vial of clear liquid, and so on.
“what’s all that for?” I asked taking a sip of my bitter beer.
She smiled her black lips at me, “this is to summon the devil of course. The book listed all these ingredients to do so.”
Raid rolled his eyes, “so she says.”
She glared at him; I cleared my throat to ease the tension. “So where did you get that book from?” I set my beer down on the nearby box.
She picked up the white chalk and opened the book where she had a bookmark at, “at an antique bookstore in downtown. they just opened, I was browsing and suddenly I felt this book calling to me. I bought it and read it, there are all sorts of demon summoning in here, like you can summon a demon to possess someone or give someone bad luck, or even cause a plague. Then the devil himself, he can grant any wish you desire, that’s his powers. He grants what you desire, so I thought we could all wish for something we desire. I read on an online forum that it works.”
“I’m wishing for money,” Marrissa said with a wishful look in her eyes.
Raid snorted, “if its true, I’d wish for my football career back.”
Stoner smiled as he lit his blunt, “I’d wish to have endless supply of weed.” He giggled as he took his first inhale of his blunt, I could smell the weed strongly. My boss is going to ask questions, I already know it.
I watched as Esme drew a pentagram in white chalk on the floor, and at each point she put a candle at, then she put the bundle of hair at a far corner, then the clippings, and the vial, and so on. until each item was at the desired spot. She opened the jar of red liquid and used her finger to paint another sign in the middle of the pentagram. Then set the jar of red liquid at one of the corners.
“What is that red stuff?” I asked.
“Blood,” she said casually, and I froze. “it’s pig blood, I bought it, the spell requires a virgin’s blood or sacrifice, but I talked to some people on the forum, and they said an alternative is pigs’ blood.” Esme opened the book wide, and turned to us, “okay we all now have to put things in the middle of the pentagram we all find personal in our lives. anything we’d rather die without; I’m putting in my brother cross he gave it to me before he died. Who’s next?”
Raid reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper, “this is a letter of recommendation before I got kicked off the football team.” He threw it in the middle of the pentagram.
Marrissa pulled out a tube of red lipstick. “I stole this when I was twelve and it’s the first lipstick I ever wore, I never go anywhere without it, it gives me good luck.” She puts the lipstick in the middle of the pentagram as well.
Stoner pulled out a little stuffed lion, “I’ll see you later little dude.” He didn’t say where or why he held on to it. he walked back to the group, and everyone looked at me. I literally had no idea they were coming, how was I supposed to be prepared to bring something sentimental value?
“Uh,” I said, I reached into my pockets and pulled out my wallet. Slowly I pulled out the baseball card that is worth ten thousand dollars, that’s the only valuable thing I had. my real dad was a baseball card collector, considering he was a baseball player himself before he had to retire because of an injury, which ended up killing him later in his life.
“I have this,” I said setting it in the middle of the pentagram. “My dad gave it to me as a birthday present before he died a day later.” I cleared my throat trying not to get emotional about it. look. I loved that card, not because of whoever was the baseball player it was, or because of the value. But my dad cherished it and he gave it to me.
“That sucks,” Stoner said and patted my shoulder.
Esme then started to chant, “everyone chant with me until the devil arrives.” She said and we all huddled around her book and read the chanting script. It was in Latin, I knew what it said, I had studied Latin in college, and I didn’t like the script at all. as we chanted.
That’s when I noticed, all our valuable started to melt as if something hot was boiling it alive. slowly the candles flicked, and the chalk started glow. It was as if the room went darker and darker, black smoke started to rise out of the pentagram. As if someone was setting of a dry ice machine, we all kept chanting until we saw the middle of the pentagram turning into a black liquid and slowly, we saw a head arising out of it. the man arose out of the black sludge and looked perfectly fine.
A tall, impossibly handsome man stood nest to me. his slicked back hair was pitch black like a raven feather, eyes dark as obsidian, and wore an expensive designer suit, it wasn’t like the wannabe suits I’ve seen my mom’s friends wore, this was top of the line suit that would make any wealthy man drool. We all stood there staring with our jaws slacked, I couldn’t believe it actually worked. Even Raid looked like he was ready to piss himself. By this time, we all stopped chanting.
The impossible handsome man surveyed us all, with an irritated sigh, “how may I be of service?” the lilt his voice sounded European, almost on the British side. But I could hear almost like Transylvanian accent. He folded his arms across his chest, he looked really annoyed, probably has people summoning him all the time. glancing at Esme, she seemed too shocked to say anything, we all were.
“Hello sir, your majesty, I um, I’m Esme, and this is Wallace, Raid, Marrisa and Stoner. We all would like to wish something we desire.”
“This is what I assumed,” Mr. Handsome shrugged his shoulders, he then snapped his fingers and suddenly five contracts appeared in front of us all on the floor. just one parchment each with a pen. “In order to get whatever, you desire, you must sign a contact that states you will in exchange give me your souls that is worth it. you may write down what you desire and toss it to me or tell me out loud if you want the others to hear what you want, choice is yours.”
A little notebook appeared beside each contract so we can write down our wishes, all of us looked at each other nervously. slowly Esme was the first one, she got on her knees and picked up the notebook wrote her wish and folded it and suddenly it flew out of her hand towards the Devils hand, and he opened it, his dark eyebrow lifted in curiosity, and he nudged his chin for her to sign the contract.
“What does the contract say if I sign it?” Esme asked.
“You can read it, I’m sure humans this era can read. But simply it states, you can get whatever you desire as long as you pay with your soul in mind. Nothing is free my dear. I will far warn you all, once you sign it, the deal is done. but please be specific what you desire, like anything else, if you don’t ask what you really want, then there is a high possibility that it won’t go the way you want.”
“Sounds like you’re tricking us,” Raid said narrowing his eyes.
“Not at all,” Mr. Devil said with a smile, his teeth reminded me of a shark, all white and pointy. “I am warning you, if you aren’t specific with your desire, you could get the opposite you want, keep that in mind.”
“What if we don’t want to make this wish,” I swallowed loudly.
The Devil let out a sigh, “then you’ve wasted my time,” he simply said and glanced down at our contract, Esme finished signing hers and the parchment flew towards him, and he rolled it up. “Esme Newell your desire will be granted within twenty-four hours. Enjoy.”
Her eyes glittered with excitement, I wasn’t sure what she asked for, but I knew had to be something dark. Raid got on his knees and wrote down what he wanted on the notebook and folded the paper, and it flew to the Devil’s hand. Without another thought Raid signed the contract and that too flew to the Devil and just as before he rolled it and said the same thing to Raid using his real name.
Marrissa followed suit and so did Stoner. Until it was just me standing there, staring at the contract, everyone stared at me. I felt like I was being peer pressured to do it. slowly I went down on my knees, I didn’t have anything I wanted, well not true. I wanted my dad back, I wanted my college loans paid off, I want money, I want a house of my own. there is so much I wanted. But as I picked up the pen and clicked it, I felt a stab of pain in my thumb and noticed my blood filled the pen’s ink. Something in my stomach told me don’t be greedy, wish for something simple
So, I did.
I wrote on the paper: I desire my mom to stop nagging me about everything. and folded the paper and it flew to the Devil’s hand, and he opened it. the edges of his mouth quirked, and I signed the contract, I briefly saw at the bottom I could do a refund if I don’t like what I got. I kept that in mind. And the moment I was done signing the contract it flew to his hand.
“Wallace Roller your desire will be granted within twenty-four-hours. Enjoy.”
And just like that, the Devil slowly sank back down in the black sludge until he disappeared, the smoke had dissipated, and the candles all flicked out leaving us in the dark. I slowly made my way to the light switch and turned it on. to see everyone grinning happily, Raid apologized to Esme for being an ass. Something in me told me this might be the last time I see my friends. Something didn’t feel right, I didn’t want to ask what they wished for, it wasn’t my business.
We spent another thirty minutes hanging out and talking about old times, I think we all were thinking the same thing. This might be the last time we all see one another. it felt that way to me. to be honest, I really did miss everyone. I missed hanging out with my friends, missed doing stupid things with them. but I’m twenty-three years old, it was time for me to grow up. I couldn’t be acting like a rebellious teenager anymore. I had to take responsibility for my own actions. We all said our goodbyes, I cleaned up after my friends and headed home for the night, wondering how my mom would stop nagging me about everything.
* * * *
I woke up the next morning with my stepdad Charlie shaking me awake, telling me we had to get my mom to the hospital immediately. I slowly groggily woke up, confused what he meant. Scrubbing my face, I followed my dad downstairs to the kitchen. I froze. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. my mom’s face was soaked in her tears, but that wasn’t what caused me pause. It was what she didn’t have on her face anymore. Her mouth. it was gone. it was as if her skin grew over her mouth and she didn’t have one at all, she couldn’t utter a sound, she was having hard time breathing as she was breathing through her nose and tears ran down her face.
“Wh-what happened?” I asked feeling guilty. I knew, I knew this was my fault.
Charlie shook his head as he grabbed the key for the car, “I don’t know, I woke up with her shaking me awake, she was like that.” he pointed. “I tried to cut her mouth, but it was like I was cutting into real skin, so I stopped. And it healed like that,” he snapped his finger. He stared at me intensely, “do you have anything to do with this?”
I took a step back, angrily glaring at him. “Why the sudden am I the bad guy?” I folded my arms over my chest. “How would I do this? do you think I summoned Satan and asked him to seal up my mom’s mouth or something?”
Charlie hesitant and shook his head and let out an aggravated sigh, “your right, that’s ridiculous. Let’s just get your mom to the hospital and see what the doctors can do? yeah?”
I nodded I kept my mom calm, but she was still crying in distress, I couldn’t believe telling Charlie I did this, and he didn’t believe it. I mean if I were in his shoes I wouldn’t either. It all took us about thirty minutes to get her to the hospital another thirty for the doctors to get her admitted and another four hours of testing her of every known disease to make her mouth just simply be gone. I had to call in to work, Maggie was not happy, but what could I do?
Charlie thinks I’m an asshole anyway. I didn’t want him to think I had anything to do with this. which I did. as we were in the waiting room, I had my hands buried in my hair, staring at the tiled floor with a lukewarm coffee sitting beside me. I kept thinking how I was going to reverse this. slowly I looked up to see my mom’s doctor approaching Charlie and me.
“Charlie, Wallace,” he said in greeting. Doctor Rosswell lowered his clipboard. “So, we’ve ran every test, including getting her mouth x-rayed as well. we looked at the x-ray, and it seems like the skin had not only grown over her mouth but all inside, if we do try surgery, it simply won’t reverse it. she’d have to have her entire mouth surgically done, which could take years to fix. There is no disease that could cause this, or anything she used. Sometimes weird things happen and there is no explanation for it.”
“So, what do you suggest we do?” Charlie growled in anger.
“Well so far, we can put a feeding tube in her so she can eat and put in an IV so she can get the nutrients she needs for now. this might be a permanent situation until we can start surgery, of course we are going to need an answer by the end of the week if you want to go ahead with surgery or keep her on a feeding tube and IV for the rest of her life.”
I balled my hands together, “is there anything else that can be done?” I asked.
“No, unfortunately this has never happened before, or we never had a case like this before, but if you do wait for a week, I’ll consult with other doctors from other hospitals if they had dealt with something so bizarre, and as I said you two need to make your decision. Talk with your mother, er, she can write down what she wants to say, but there is no guarantee that surgery will fix everything, I’m sorry.”
This was my fault, I had to fix it. that means I had to summon the Devil again. Doctor Rosswell left us to talk. Charlie glared at the doctors back and turned to me, he didn’t say anything, he went into my mom’s hospital room. I knew right then and there what I had to do.
That entire week, Charlie and my mom decided surgery wasn’t the answer, I gathered the supplies I needed to summon the devil. That Friday I made sure no one wasn’t at the diner after ten o’clock. I locked up and drew the pentagram on the basement floor, just as Esme did, I memorized exactly what she did, I’m happy that I watched her and didn’t get drunk slowly I put everything she had done, the only thing I didn’t have was the pig’s blood. I couldn’t find any place that sold it, so I used my own blood. I cut myself and did the same sign in the middle of the pentagram and squeezed blood next to the candle.
Sucking in my breath I lit every candle, and pulled out another valuable, it was a photo of my father and I, the last photo before he died. I set it in the middle of the pentagram and stepped back and started to chant the same Latin words. Even though as I did so, I felt a chill ran down my spine, I knew this twisted feeling in my gut won’t go away, until the lights flickered off, the smoke filled the room. the pentagram glowed as the candlelight flickered.
Slowly Mr. Impossible Handsom slowly arose to the ground through the black sludge, and when he set his black obsidian eyes on me, he grinned. That grin only caused me stress, he fixed his cuffs on his suit, his cuff links were the same pentagram I drew on the floor. the metal glittered in the dim light the light flickered across his face causing shadows to make him look even more sinister than he looked.
“Well look what we have, didn’t like how your desire turned out?” he asked with a knowing grin on his face.
The four walls that surrounded us, with boxes of dry food for the restaurant caused me to feel a bit more claustrophobic. I felt as if I was trapped in a corner with the most sinister creature of all time, a month ago I would have laughed at someone if they told me they summoned the Devil himself to ask for a wish.
The basement wasn’t that luxurious, no one really came down here unless they wanted to get some stuff for the kitchen. Near the far wall was boxes for decorations for each holiday, I was mostly the only one who came down here to grab a secret cigarette a time or two. The only light was a light bulb that hung from the ceiling, and it had flicked off with the devil arrived.
I shoved my hands into my hoodie, I was nervous, I didn’t want him to see how badly I wanted to beg him to reverse the effects on my mom. Granted, she wasn’t going to nag me anymore without a freaking mouth, but that wasn’t what I signed up for. I just stood there, blinking. I didn’t know how to ask for a refund. But I knew I had to say something soon or he might think I’m mental in the head of sorts. It still baffled me how real he really was. “I, uh…”
“I know why you summoned me once again.” he lifted an eyebrow as if he was expecting me to give him the answer or ask him the question.
I looked down; my sneakers were so badly worn down I could wiggle my big toe out of the top of the hole in it. my hoodie had holes all over, if anyone looked at me, I’d look like I’m homeless, I don’t go out and buy clothes, I don’t have the money for that. my mom had wanted to take me out clothes shopping, but I denied it, I didn’t want her to feel like I was a burden on her.
she didn’t have that much money to spend on me, hell she’s still working and she’s nearly in her mid-forties. I have always been stubborn, even Charlie elected to help me out. I told him to piss off, he wasn’t my dad and never will be, I don’t care if my mom remarried whatever made her happy, but I wasn’t going to be all dad and son with Charlie in a million years. He couldn’t give a shit about me unless he wanted to impress my mom. How sad was it, that I asked the devil to shut my nagging mom up when I should have asked for new clothes?
“Well, I am waiting.” He spoke.
I lifted my head and cleared my throat, I had to do this for her. whatever it took to get her back, I’d even take on the no mouth, I don’t talk much. I took in a deep breath and said, “I would like a refund.”
The devil smirked, “ah I see you noticed that in the clause of your contract before you signed, of course I can give you one. is there a particular reason? although I’d give you a refund no questions ask, of course, you only get a refund during the week of the transaction. I’m assuming you didn’t fully read the refund, correct?”
I nodded, “I didn’t like the outcome.”
“I said to be specific, didn’t I?” he sighed and snapped his fingers. “There you go, your soul returned, your baseball card as well.”
My palms began to sweat, didn’t he put my mom back the way she was? I didn’t care if I got my soul or baseball card back. I wanted my mom back to normal. I felt the baseball card back in my pocket, I pulled my hands out and wiped them on my pants. “And my mom?”
The devil lifted an eyebrow, “your mom? Oh yes. I’m afraid the refund only states I can give you back your soul and the sentimental valuable item you offered to summon me previously. Getting your mother back to her original state is far different. You can either set up another contract deal and wish her back, but there isn’t a guarantee she will go back to normal. Option two, you work for me for a certain number of hours, human’s call its community hours. Once you’ve worked it off, I can simply erase the desired request and it will put your mother back to her original state before you made your wish.”
“Excused me…?” community hours? Did I look like I work for free?
He shoved his hands into his suit pants and stared at me as if I was stupid at what he explained to me, suddenly the contract I had signed appeared in my hands. I slid my eyes down the contract with everything detailed to whatever I desired was what I requested, and at the bottom was the refund I agreed to. that I can get my soul and sentimental valuable returned if I asked for a refund within the week’s transaction.
The effects of the desired request will remain in effect, unless I do another deal and could returned the effects of the first request but its not guaranteed and that a human is allowed on soul return each lifetime. It also had option two detailed that because of my last request I would have to work for the devil for about 8766 hours in order to cancel my request and reset it back to the original state before the request. My jaw nearly dropped.
“Given by your reaction, you know how much time you’d have to work for me in order to cancel your request.” He let out a sigh and the contract disappeared out of my hands. “If you want, I can do another contract to sign for whatever you choose.”
A green folder appeared in his hands, and he opened it, somehow, he acquired glasses that were set on the bridge of his nose making him look a big older than he looked. Well, I’m assuming he’s ancient. “This is your file, Wallace Roller, age twenty-twenty three. Your current home is your mothers house in the suburban area in Knoxington court, you live in the attic of your mothers’ home. How sweet, but unfortunately, it’s because you dropped out of college and your girlfriend kicked you out of her apartment and changed the locks, three months ago. And I must say you have quiet a debt to pay off with your mother, and girlfriend and your college, and a certain bookie.”
“I, well, that may be true,” I stammered, I was horrified that he knew my debt, that I couldn’t pay everything off to everyone. he literally had my file in his hand about my entire life. “It was a shared apartment.”
“No, it was hers. You moved in; she didn’t put you on the lease. Your file indicates that you barely paid her for any of the rent and utilities and is the reason why she locked you out. you owe her fourteen hundred, if the math is right.”
I groaned. Which is why I’m working in this crappy diner.
“Which brings us to where you are in your current life, this job. Barely pays you enough to pay the rent your mother graciously had lowered because you are her son. in all human reality you should be paying your entire paycheck to her to even pay the rent that is actually due.” He tsks. “Well, if I add everything together with your student loans, your mother paying for some of your tuition, your girlfriends rent, and the bet you took on a horse, you owe about 1.5 million dollars to them all.” his eyebrows rose, I shifted uneasily. “And you requested for your mother to stop nagging you, you could have wished for two million dollars and all your problems would have gone away.”
Thank captain obvious, I know what I could have done. and I screwed up. I knew I was a screw up. I didn’t think the wish would come true, I thought it was some gag Esme made up until I woke up. I still didn’t believe he was the devil until now. and even now, I still can’t believe he was.
Mr. Devil flipped another page. “Let’s see your education; completed high school you were an A student. You went out of state for community college and dropped out after two years for a philosophy degree. Well by all means you are not stupid in intellectual sense, but common sense completely an idiot.” I wheezed when he said that. “Despite you doing drugs and drinking for five years between jr. high and high school.”
He shook his head casually, “well if you do agree to work for me, I know the perfect jobs for you.”
I cleared my throat, “why would you think I won’t make another deal and sell my soul again to right my wrong with my mother’s condition?”
“Because you are smart. And you’d rather work the community hours to erase the request you made instead of taking another chance. Let’s not forget you aren’t as stupid as you show. so, this comes down to whether you want to erase the request or make another deal. If that is what you wanted to do. I am not going to turn down what choice you make, but I know which one you’d rather take.”
I glared up at the ceiling and he was right. I’d rather do the community hours, “fine, I’ll take the community hours of 8667 hours, do I have to sign another contract with you?”
“Deal with enough demons and humans, it’s always good to keep paperwork and contracts in order. I won’t take your word, so yes, a contract is in order.” He snapped his fingers and a contract appeared on the floor with a pen. “This contracts states, you will work for me for the next 8667 hours roughly one human year. to atone to what you requested, in order for your request to be erased by me. you cannot deny any job I give you, and each errand I send you on, must be completed. No matter how many hours it takes to get each errand done. once your hours are worked, you will no longer have to do as I say.” he said as he closed my file and it too disappeared in thin air. “Your soul is yours now, but understand this, if you die during one of these errands I will not intervene, which means I cannot help nor heal anything that breaks or worse. do understand and agree to these terms?”
I kneeled down and took the pen in hand, I clicked it with my thumb, as before it took some of my blood with a needle. I flinched and hovered the pen over the dotted line. I looked up at the devils, “once I’m done, I’m done. is that clear?”
The devil smirked, “a deal is a deal. I never go back on my deals, my contracts and word are sealed, no one breaks contract with me unless they want to see the consequences of their actions.”
I nodded and signed the contract the minute I got done, not letting my blood dry, the contract disappeared instantly along with the pen. The devil smiled wide showing off his teeth. “So, what now? I have to wait until I’m done working then my mom goes back to normal?”
“Yes. Exactly, you can’t simply just hope she’d go back to normal after you signed that contract. After your done working for me, she’ll be back to her original normal self.” Ther was a glint in his eyes. “I do have an errand for you right now.”
I stood up and shoved my hands into my hoodie, “fine, whatever it is, couldn’t be that bad, right?”
He laughed. “Humans are such odd creatures. Greedy, I made a deal with a man along time ago, he didn’t hold his end of the bargain. So, I need you to retrieve something of mine from him. a guitar, you’ll know its mine once you see it.” he said as suddenly as my phone buzzed. I pulled it out to see everything on this man he was talking about was there. his address, his name, and the deal they agreed on. “Ah good you got the information. You have four hours to get my guitar back or I’ll tack on more hours to your community hours.”
I snorted, “and how do you suppose I get it back to you? By sending it to you in the mail?” I pointed at the pentagram.
He laughed, “your funny,” he sighed. “Just call me on that number and I’ll come and pick it up from you. Simple as that. this pentagram silly thing, is to ensure I don’t hurt you. That’s why its here, your friend Esme didn’t read that part in her little book of demons.” There was a little twinkle in his eyes.
“Speaking of what happened to my friends?” I asked.
The devil smiled, “you should look into that yourself, if they didn’t like their outcome, they could have done what you did. in any case, good luck on your errand.” And with that, he sunk down in the black sludge and disappeared. The candles flicked out and I was plunged into the darkness. I turned the light back on and cleaned up the pentagram and everything else. As I was doing so, I noticed something on my wrist. I pulled my sleeve up to see a tattoo I don’t remember having stamped into my skin. It was one big circle and then a smaller one inside it, then it had a pentagram within the pentagram was an image of devilish goat, and on the outs circle where each point of the star pointed was some type of Latin word.
I think the devil branded me.
I better get started on getting that guitar, hoping its not going to cost me much, perhaps I could buy it from this Albert guy, the one who made the deal with the devil just as I had done. now I’m the devil’s errand boy. Fantastic.