This weeks prompt was to write a story under 900 words where you make a deal with the devil. Hundreds of cliche crossroads stories came to mind and I smothered them all swiftly, deciding to take a more...philosophical route I suppose. Enjoy!
What The Hell?
When all was said and done, he appeared. Not in some grand flash of
brilliance. Not in the way you'd expect from a B level horror flick
with clouds engulfing all remaining moonlight and the ground rotting
beneath you. No flames. No huge pit suddenly appearing in the ground
with him climbing from it in some flaming brilliance.
Nothing. He stepped in from just outside my peripheral vision as if
he'd been standing there the entire time. Ever noticed how Batman just
pops up on people? Yea, something like that. For such a serious
occasion, he was dressed quite casually: Khakis, loafers, and a shirt
that read "SOMETHING AMAZINGLY CLEVER AND POSSIBLY IRONIC". For nearly
extinct plants, old family photos, and a bit of my blood, I was at
least expecting a shirt and tie.
"Can we take a seat over here?" His voice was surprisingly subtle. A
"sweet talk you right over a cliff" type voice. I found myself walking
over to two conspicuously placed chairs on the side of the road with a
table in between. They definitely weren't there a couple minutes ago.
Sad that it took the unexplained appearance of furniture to do so, but
I began to believe this is the real deal. We both took a seat and a
woman in waitress wear you'd catch in an early 80s diner walks up to
us.
"Coffee please." The coffee began to form on the table as the waitress
wrote it in her notepad. He stared at me with a smirk as the waitress
turned and waited for my order.
"Nothing, thanks." The smirk immediately disappeared as the woman walked away.
"Not impressed?" He grabbed his coffee and sipped, watching me over the rim of the seemingly well aged black mug.
"Why not simply make the coffee appear? Why the waitress?"
"I'm a fan of the era. Believe it or not I don't get to make this trip
often, so allow me to indulge a bit." He placed his cup down on the
table and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs matter-of-factly.
"Fine, whatever. Can we get to business?" That brought that devious
smirk right back. A black journal appeared in his hands along with a
pen and he prepped himself to write.
"What can I do for you Carmen?" When he spoke my name it was as if it
was amplified in my mind. It seemed to echo around and around for a few
seconds.
"I actually don't want to make a deal." He looked up from the journal, letting his pen-equipped hand fall to the armrest.
"Don't think I don't appreciate the effort, I love an impromptu
vacation, but what am I doing here then? It must have taken you a few
months to find everything to bring me here, not even counting the harm
to yourself. I can't imagine you simply wanted to be blessed with my
pleasant company."
"I have a theory." His journal snapped shut, he legs uncrossed, and air exited his lungs in a huff.
"As does everyone." He lit a cigarette I didn't even catch him materialize and then crossed his legs again. "Speak."
"Its that easy?" He cut his eyes at me and a sense of dread fell over
me. The feeling grabbed hold of my lungs and my breathing stopped. I
began to sweat from my brow and my hands suddenly became clammy. Then,
he looked away and the feeling passed.
"I'm not exactly booked in a five star suite sweetheart. You went through the trouble. I can spare a few minutes."
"Well, I believe there's truly no definite 'evil' to 'good' when it
comes to God and his angels." I paused, watching his face for any
reaction. When it seemed there would be none, I continued. "I think God
developed a plan to sway the good in people after realizing, when left
to their own devices, their curiosity would develop into greed and
chaos would ensue."
At the last sentence, he brought his eyes to level with mine and held
his cigarette at bay. "That's quite an interesting theory, to be sure.
You'll be proud to know that its a first for me personally. I'll have
to ask around when I get back."
"I'm not done."
"Oh I figured. What was this 'plan'?"
"Somehow, it came up that there must be a counter to God. Most likely,
Lucifer, the most selfless of the angels, decided he'd play the role of
all encompassing 'evil'. This way, humans have things to place faith in
and place blame upon." I noticed a slight flinch in his smirk and
continued on. "Angels come down to earth and influence us with
contradicting stories and texts, essentially scaring most straight.
Earth itself is the true Hell."
"The Bible?" He asked as he lifted the coffee to his lips.
"There are better stories written than that." He laughed at this
suddenly, wasting some coffee on this shirt. As he attempted to wipe it
away I caught the tail end of his muttering as he said '...get a kick
out of that'.
"Well, that's quite the cute theory but I only deal in deals. I'm not an information broker. Today at least."
"Make me a deal then." I gazed into his dark eyes and he returned my
gaze, showing no kind of emotion. There was a long pause that lasted
maybe only a few seconds but felt like hours.
"If you're wrong. I kill you here."
"I've got nothing to lose in this world. Deal."
"Then we must shake on it." We both stood and the coffee cup and
furniture disappeared. I held my hand out to him, my life being weighed
against the validity of a theory I'd spent years pondering over. I'd
given up on life long ago, this was all I had left. I truly have
nothing to lose.
He took my hand and yanked me in close with a devious grin on his face.
He took his free hand and ran it through my long black hair. I closed
my eyes and held my breath, waiting for one of those cliche movie
moments to happen. Fire, brimstone, darkness. He let go of my hand and
I opened my eyes to the 80s waitress.
"Change your mind about ordering sweety?"
