Back and There Again.

The butler (slash limousine driver) ambled to the side of the door as he quickly opened it, holding it steady as the lady of the manor at which he worked quietly slipped into the back. Slamming the door behind him with a loud thud, the driver took his place at the front of the limousine, in the driver’s seat. They immediately began a slow but steady journey down the long, winding road that led away from the tremendous estate in which they both lived—in entirely different areas, of course, him being a servant, and her being a master of the estate. Continuing down the road in front of the manor, the driver glanced back at the young girl, who was entirely self-absorbed due to some apparent concern that had been troubling enough as to stifle her into complete and utter silence. A disturbing scene for some, but the driver was quite used to it.

“My lady, are you certain there is no way in which I may be of service to you? You look so distraught, and while the other servants may not notice—or care to, for that matter—I am very much concerned about your well-being. I am sure that I can help you, if only you will let me in. Madam, please, let me be of assistance to you.”

The driver voiced.

“Thank you for the concern, Fredrick, but I assure you that I am fine; just take me to school and return to your duty. Please.”

The lady replied sharply.

The route the limousine had been traversing for quite some time now was left far behind in the rearview mirror; the vehicle had detoured a great deal off its original course, at this point, to the extent that the girl could not help but shift her eyes nervously in worry.

“Fredrick, where are we going? The school is in the opposite direction… What are you—“

“Milady Elizabeth, you refuse to allow me to aid you, because you think that there is nothing I can do for you. Given the circumstances, that would most certainly be a correct assumption for most; but I am not like everyone else. I can help you. You are afraid, and you are even rather frightened of what might happen to my job if I were to stick my head in where it does not rightfully belong. While it is a sweet sentiment for you to have for one such as I, it is ultimately a wasted one, all the same. I assure you, I can take care of myself.”

“Enough of this foolishness, Fredrick! Turn the limousine around and take me to school, now!”

“I am afraid that I will have to disobey your orders, just this once, Milady.”

As the limousine arrived at its newly established destination – a barren field, in which nothing lived – the two stepped out of the vehicle and assumed opposing positions in the center of the field.

“Your father is not a powerful man by my standards. Most certainly, he wields a considerable sum of influence in the world of men, but I am not bound by the confines of a human being. The sway of his influence and the power he possesses in society does not reach me.”

“What outrageous madness do you speak? Why have you brought me here? Surely, you understand the consequence of what you are saying. My father… my father will have your head! He will make everyone you know miserable! Your family… you can’t help me, Fredrick.”

“Then… it is a good thing that I possess nothing even remotely similar to “family”… I knew that the reason you would not accept assistance is solely that no one could help you. Your father’s reach extends too far for most men to safely transverse through. You are wise in that way, in your words, in your thoughts. However, you never did give up looking for a way out. No matter. I will have to demonstrate to you a modicum of what I am capable, and maybe then you will understand.”

The demon jerked his palm in the limousine’s general direction, and as his hand gently glided across the air in graceful swipes, the windows shattered into tiny fragments; the shrapnel constructed from the jagged glass fragments flowed freely as they struck the limousine fast and hard. Soon, the limousine itself jerked off the ground it sat upon, lifted by the same invisible force that had commanded the glass to act as projectiles. It was not long before the limousine was in flaming pieces, tattered to the extent of being unrecognizable as what it once was. His power entranced her; the horrendous, destructive nature of the actions quickly faded away as they were erased by a sense of wonder and bittersweet fascination.

“Will you let me show you everything I am, and everything you will face, should you accept to forge a contract with me, so that I may help you? You will know everything of my nature, my very self. It will be as if none of this had ever occurred to him, and he will treat you entirely different. I will make everything “right”.”

When she agreed to learn of this strange demon, he ripped from her mind the memories of her past and everything she had felt within it, and in return, all knowledge and information about the demon’s true nature was forced into her head. She fell to her feet as the vast accumulation of information poured into her brain – and as a remarkably lesser amount was siphoned out from her – her mind struggling to process such complex and titanic amounts of data.

With that, she knew. She knew that helping her was but a trifle for him, and that he was more than willing to extend a helping hand to her. Why, exactly, escaped her. But it did not matter. At this point, she would do anything to escape the clutches of despair, even strike a deal with a devil.

His eyes glowed, like two puncture holes on the side of an incinerator. From nowhere he produced a scroll fashioned of parchment from an age long-since finished. On that scroll was a great deal of writing, with a discernable line at the bottom, and an x to one side; no doubt, where a signature would be placed. Still, it was not as it seemed. She had thought that the contract would be signed, but it required something different from what she would have imagined; a clean stroke of blood across the top-border of the line to seal the deal.

As the deal entered its finish stage, the white in the demon’s eyes shone, saturated by the crimson hue flooding over from his pupils.

“Blood is the currency of the soul, and in my contracts, binds the soul of the contractee to me. You shall grow old and live a life of ordinary happiness, as you have wanted for so very long, before you will die of whatever natural means come you, by no hand of mine. When you expire, I will come for that high-quality soul you possess. Until then, I bid you adieu, Milady.”

From that day forward, Elizabeth never saw the demon again. Her father ceased his drunken and abusive behavior, and treated her like a princess. No longer did she suffer his violent rages and drunken rants. No longer did she endure his emotionally abusive belittlement. No little did he force himself on her. Her life was just what she had always wanted it to be. It was nothing special, nothing horrid, just an average life that was hers, and hers alone, to shape.

She did meet with the demon once last time before her passing. True to his word, the demon arrived at her deathbed, but to her surprise, he did not come to take her soul that was rightfully his; he came to give it back, to shatter the bond of the contract as if it had never been. Elizabeth passed away shortly after, from natural causes, with the last sight she ever saw being that of the demon consumed in a fit of maniacal laughter. He dispersed shortly thereafter as a mass of imaginary iridescent letters and numbers. Why he did what he did remained a mystery to her. The demon that was very much unlike a demon.