Devil's Business

In Monday, the start of daily business was thriving. A wondrous testament of woe, paycheck salarymen and their nine to five duty, strolling down the roadside in their hurried motions. Nobody was aware with their surroundings, even failed to check upon the massive line of people in front of them. No wonder if everyone bashed their head each time towards the lamp post, other bystanders, or the small bump on the road. They were busy already, fallen into their casual schedule and went engrossed with the workload in their possession. Not so far from the hefty grounds, the battered signage was swinging by above the pedestrian walkway. It appears for the display to drop down below and struck any passerby’s head at any period whatsoever. One “no standing beyond this point” order down under, with yellow strip line who were latched in a square-shape, was clearly notified everyone for the hazard and made them watch the way they walk. What it tried to display, then, for the sign to stay and alive so long? A battered, near-rusty apartment, it is. As the showy advertisement before had implied, the building itself were not distant enough to clarify the incorrigible show. Its painting was nearly decapitated, marred with countless downpour and corrode the walls exclusively whenever it rains. The foundations were dilapidated for time to time. The floors, its ceramic-turned-concrete tiles, were severely crushed and scattered in various forms. It’s still intact, but broken and defiled by mossy grass on the surface. If asked, the neighborhood would tell that this lambasted building was abandoned for years. They are definitely not wrong, but a little bit uninformed, since someone has inhabited the house as its own lair from a fairly long time period. The name, as everyone known about in the scriptures of various holy books, is Demon. Well, no one calls it “Demon” in such atrocity of behavior. Each countries, along with their history, has its own moniker to shout at the carrier of debauchery. It is commonly called as an advocate, for the once being its clients had their call on the way to settle with the red master. It has numerous experiences in dealing with soul- trading department for a blissful life it has been living on, all in due respect with the solicitor’s soul or anything equivalent that they could offer to the deity. At one points of the time, somebody had their own figure sold for the bargain of political power. He was a painter, mostly known with his skills to counterfeit well-known artist’s creation, but turned out as a failure for years in consideration with the lack of money in his hands. The ending? While his own career was prosperous, nothing would resemble the accolades with his own head under the aim of a pistol. “Ah it’s been some time since I had a job to harass people’s mind.” It sighed with a long deep exhale from his mouth. The morning of its daily habits were fulfilled with a long sweep to the front yard. Since It is invisible from human’s mindful thinking of an obscure and paranormal being, It could not have been happier to clean the patch of long grass with its automatic, but out of sight, lawnmower. Even a renowned esper wasn’t intelligent enough to detect its presence, not even capture its figure firsthand, since its power was tremendous to reach from the start. (Vroom!) “Hey, Have you heard that? Is it a mower?” said a man with a face mask across his face. He appeared startled by the sudden voice from the front side of the apartment. “Yeah, at some point it is. It might be from that wrecked-up apartment right there.” His companion, in adverse with the man’s abrupt feelings, stood calm in his bland face. “Wow, the eerie story was true, huh. This house was haunted.” However, several passerby from the pedestrian walkways, at certain condition, could apprehend its figure in a whole. When they had an ample distress down their heads, or any forsaken future awaited them for trial, they would transpire the devil’s appearances instantly. The man with the face mask, for instance, has a chronic viral infection down his lungs, in which would be activated and draw his breath away in a matter of 2 weeks from this very day. On the other hand, his counterpart was having a bad family abuse problem, and would be killed by brutal domestic violence afterwards. “Uh, I suppose it’s a best bet for me to look for one desperate individual out--- ah, a well-dressed person are coming for my assistance. Welcome! Welcome!” The demon, once relished a quick trip outside, happened to meet a new client on its radar. It is a tramp, coated with rags and looked famished with something succulent to chew. The tramp’s empty vision made the red creature more intrigued with the backstory, for him to wander around aimlessly with no vibrance to the world down beyond. “Memory overview—begin!” The sunlight immediately faded after the demon’s recital of its ritual mechanism. In a short moment, a darkness void enveloped both of them in entirety. The jet-black shadow, in such a small period of time, then got shifted out to be an augmented reflection of the person’s past. The landscape appeared before it, contrary to his pitiful state, was filled with fancy palette of architecture. A mansion was featured as the foremost background of his past. It has numerous doors in every accessible corridors of the house. Pristine white paintings were coated each stints of the wall, alongside with the intricated sculptures who were laid down in each corner as a form of dressing to the plain decoration. It would make anyone unsettled with their own appearances, even the demon, since it has a natural flame-bursting red skin emanated off its chiseled body. For the time being, they were resided within one of the room of the north-eastern side corridor of the huge mansion. However, It would not be a matter of woe to the demon. With the enormous magical power of the demonic apparition, it could change their current position to be the one that it wanted to apply and scrutinize without having to stroll or moving anywhere from its standing point. “Oh, so he is a former big spender, huh... Interesting. He could be my next soul harvester! Hahaha!” Said the demon with its villainous guffaw. Likewise to his surroundings, the unfortunate tramp was stuck in a static phase. He seemed full in sorrow in face, practically contradictory to the finest thread of linen who was enveloping his torso by the will of the demon’s memory projection realm beforehand. “His expression is astounding.... What is the genesis of such sour emotion? I’ll have to do a massive research around this huge lair for lucrative answer.” The demon is looking towards the tramp’s eye direction. He stalled over something disheartening from the south, but none of harm was there up to his front. For the sake of profound information, the demon sets his hand to the air, enchant a simple spell, and moving both of them into the different chambers of the house. In a single flip, they are arrived to the house’ kitchen. The demon tried to match the jigsaw of the man’s haunting grievances with the chef and maid, whose body were also frozen to their work, but failed miserably since no one was looking at him momentarily. “This random searching might take some time, huh.” Mutter the demon to itself while preparing for another sequence of spell. For the second in queue to delve through, it is the master bedroom of the house. The scenery of human pairs were greeting them both in nudity. As the male smeared the sense of guilt to his air, the female was groveling to the ground with her shed of tears dropping down against the floor. The tramp’s expression, on the other hand, turned grumpy and boiled by wrath towards the man. “I might have resolved the problems right here, huh.” The Demon was smirking to the unconscious tramp before him,”You are being double-crossed by your former friend as he gone wild with your spouse. HAHAHAHA! Amazing, it is definitely amazing!!” In a flick of its index finger, the Demon returned the sunlight back to its reign. The ghastly shadow of the man, by a tiny speck of his memories, excites the demon completely. He assembled an exclusive contract, with a fancy desk for signature from the other party, by his another set of convenient enchantment from his mouth. “What? Whoa!” Shout the man immediately. The fair figure of a demon was fully disclosed upon his eyes. In his astonishment to the creepy revelation, He attempted to run away from the house, but missed his chance to escape due to the magical bar that shuts the door in full. His body was trembling in terror, repeatedly gritting his teeth by the sight of horrid creature ahead. “Go away, foul beast! I have nothing left to share!” Shrieked the tramp to the demon. In spite of the solid sentences that he had muttered, The tramp didn’t even have the courage to dwell on facing it directly. As the demon notified the slight terror from his expression, he swell the uncontrollable roar,”Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, Fear me, king of the future end! For you shall have the control of the universe in a glance!” “Huh, what do you mean? Control? Fear? I’m not afraid of you, satan!” uttered the man, with his prompts to embellish the voice with a bold pitch. It seemed as the fright itself was vanished from his head, despite the legs were shaken uncontrollably and ruining the view of might from the man. “Your stance was futile, young human. What if I propose you a tremendous wealth to appease the foe?” “Wealth? You mean money?” “For I am a generous and humble deity, you shall bestowed any source of happiness by this contract. Please, input the amount you wished to bear down within.” Said the demon. It smiles to the man with humble mannerisms and offering a helping hand to his end. As his reply, the man accepted the demon’s hands and gratefully inclined towards the desk afterwards,“I am suffering too many losses anyway. Where’s the pen?” With the magical tap to the air, a knife was coming up out of whim. “Here, this is the common courtesy to our kind. The blood pact would serve as the painstaking interest of your behalf towards the deal.” The tramp guy appeared hesitant to snap the contract by the bond of his vital fluids. He touched the knife’s hilt a few times, but not firm enough to grab and use it at his own disposal. The demon, on the other way around, looking at the childish behavior of the man with its slanted smile and leering at him in mischievous gaze. “Do not be afraid to lay down your avarice, young human. Sometimes the greed would carry greatness to your aid.” The man finally grabs the knife and tearing a wound to one of his finger, “Alright, I’ll write the amount. Can you fulfill it, though?” He halted the signing process with a phrase of contort. “You will see.”