Prompt: You meet the Devil at a crossroads at midnight to sell your soul. In exchange, he will grant you anything you desire. After you make your request, the Devil is taken aback. After a long pause, he says, “I don’t typically do this but are you sure you want to sell your soul for THAT?”
“Yeah, that’s all I want,” she said.
He glanced with dim ember eyes at the stop sign, the road, the night sky. Looking anywhere but her pale face, her blue, bleary eyes. “And you’re certain? For your God given soul? Eternal damnation?”
Clouds passed. Moonlight blanketed the rolling country land. His flesh still remained the smoldering scarlet, as though the light avoided his body.
“Yeah, it’d be nice for a change.” She rubbed her arms. The chill was settling in, despite the winter coat.
“For how long?” he spat.
“How long?”
He turned to her, hands shoved in suit pockets. “Yes, how long? Days? Weeks? Eons?”
She looked into the distance, nibbling on her lower lip. Honestly, she didn’t know. She hadn’t had it for so long she couldn’t even remember how it felt. Did it matter? she wondered. Not really, no. She lost her job because of it. Marriage, too. The kids they would’ve had only a daydream now. Their house was on its way to foreclosure, and she now stayed with her parents.
She blinked away the stinging momentarily. The cold always made them hurt worse. “A week,” she said, then: “No, two! Two weeks.”
“Are you certain?” he asked again, flatly.
She nodded. “Absolutely.”
He neared her, raised her black-nailed hand towards her face.
“Wait!”
He stopped. “What?” he glared.
“Will I be brought back home? I don’t want to do it here.”
He grinned, revealing sharpened teeth. “Of course you will. I’m not an asshole.”
“Oh, okay, great, then go ahead.”
He placed his fingers onto her eyes, drew her eyelids down. Warmth pulsed through them, beat like her slowing heart in her head. Unfamiliar drowsiness breathed down her. Her fingers and toes tingled, her skin prickled. Tears seeped out from closed eyes. She couldn’t help but to smile.
Finally, she thought. Finally I’m going to be able to sleep.
Read my previous prompt, “Heavenly Abyss”
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Micah Castle 