demon

"You said you'd help me win her over."

 

As I closed the door, the lone candle flickered and the shadows danced in response. "And so I have! You think you would have been successful with nothing but the clothes on your back? She would simply ignore you like any other beggar on the street. You need wealth. Power. One thing leads naturally to the other, and together they lead to everything you desire..."

 

"That's not the deal, and you know it. You don't get what you want until I get what I want. And I'm ready to call this deal off."

 

Darkness weighed down upon him for several long moments, smothering him with its embrace. The voice turned into a quiet hiss. "Then /have/ her, you fool. She is already waiting for you in the garden." The candle snuffed out and the darkness shone with new brightness.

 

I stood and returned through the open door with a brisk stride. She was here? How did she know I'd be waiting? What was I going to say? What could I say? I-

 

The garden was empty.

 

"You /lied/!" My whispered shout was muffled by the untended overgrowth, but I knew he'd hear me all the same.

 

"No, she's here. She's been waiting ten long years, waiting for you to remember her." There was undisguised glee to the voice, relishing in my confusion. "You remember, don't you? Such a /grand/ little evening, such a /tragedy/ when she so abruptly left. Everyone wondered... but you needn't have, you should know exactly where she is."

 

Already my surroundings had taken on a new appearance. The hedges shrunk back and the grass straightened itself as the overcast moonlight dimmed to a midsummer's evening. Laughter rang out, but it was eerily hollow.

 

"You scared her, you did. Your parlour trick touched a little too close to her nerves, and she fled. And you, so naive, so /desperate/, chased after her. Did you think it would work? Did you think that what you did was entirely natural, that nobody would stop and question what it truly was?"

 

I strode into the underbrush which parted before me, as if under its own volition. My mind itched, as if there was a thought I wanted to suppress but could not. "That's not what happened. She begged sickness and left to recuperate. Her family said the same. She-"

 

"-said what you told her to say. Made her say." Bushes danced along the path. "Turns out that people do what you say when you have power. Real power. And you told her to /wait/."

 

The path led into a glade, and the midsummer's twilight was gone. I didn't do anything, did I? I-

 

"Celebrated a little too much that evening, didn't you. Perhaps a bottle too much wine. Or three. But you did it! You would have her. Like you always wanted. Too bad you /forgot/."

 

The bones in front of me gleamed harshly. Something in the back of my head was screaming, but all I could see was the tattered dress she had worn and the necklace I had given to her that evening and that smile she had when I presented it to her and the smoothness of her skin as she turned to allow me to put it on her and her voice as she-

 

"And so the deal's done. She's all yours. And you're mine."