Devil’s Bargain

“I can help you.”

The voice in the darkness was a shock, though not much could startle me anymore. Not after I had unlocked some macabre and satisfying piece of me.

The voice belonged to a creature of the night, a soft-footed being of shadow.

I was on my knees, my sins before me. Pebbles hurt my skin; salt spray covered my dark skin. The beach and moonlight had only me and my sin for company. Good.

“Why would you help me?”

My eight-legged whisperer sat squarely on the shoulder of my sin. Its white eyes held no judgment; only promises.

“I am privy to many secrets, and will continue to be for centuries more.”

My heart beat faster.

“Then you know what I have become.”

“Yes, I do.”

“And you would still help me?”

“You are no more to blame for your actions than I.”

I knew this creature. I had seen him in my dreams and I knew what he would want.

“How long?”

The king of darkness began to spin a web over my sin. It will take him time. Bodies aren’t little.

“Until I say so.”

My mind a devil’s perpetual playground or moral retribution?

“Do it.”

The power of the bargain slammed into me, choking me into oblivion.

But not before I stared into a corpse’s face so much like mine for the last time.