Demon's Protégé

"The Two Contracts"

He had never really believed in the existence of God or in any heavenly creatures, much less in the reality of demons and the Devil.

The only thing he had ever given utmost credence to in the question of relevance and significance was all himself alone. And for most of his life, there was nothing else that held great importance and of the highest authority other than his own existence. A young talented man who had impressively managed to put together a well-recognized name, a highly-established career, a beautiful and doting lover, a perfect abundant life, and all the countless riches that made him feel capable of anything, in the very palm of his hand. You could very well say that he was basically a god himself in his own overbearing way. And to him, the whole world was his oyster. He no longer cared about anything else outside that small realm he had called his own empire. He made his own beliefs, his own rules, his own fame, his own will, his own perception of how the world came to be. He did not need any sort of blind faith for any supernatural illusion that would foolishly promise him eternal salvation. 

Why would he now? When he had already gotten all that he ever wanted? So what does the dire necessity to convince himself into deluding about the existence of such unproven things ever benefit him? 

He obviously handled his own magnificent and entirely successful abundant life even at such a young age to even try of ever believing in a god anymore. He never needed it. His own power, money, and fame were the only necessary things he would ever really need to live with. That was how he had viewed his life, at least until that night. That one utterly crucial and death-defying night that had drastically changed everything in his life in a drop of a hat when he first came across Anyone.

Perhaps, it might have been the most significant turning point he ever really had encountered in the last twenty-five years he had walked on this earth. Most of the time, it would only be about a risky brain surgery with a very minuscule chance of success for him that eventually, like a Midas' touch, would end up more like a miraculous work of hands where he would overcome the odds and still end up ensuring the complete survival of his patient. There weren't really that too many things in his life where he had to experience such an enormous change to make him completely doubt himself right away and begin to reconsider other things. But on that night... he did.

It had not been that easy though. But he had been so damn desperate to finally think otherwise of how he perceived a god's existence. Don't let me die. All he wanted was to be saved. He was seething, pleading, wanting to be taken out from that cold hopelessness, from the burning hot pain of the ultimate betrayal, while he felt the slow fading of his sense of reality and drowning in the shaking terror and horrid remorse of selfish regrets, and of absolute anger and of deep ache. He was beyond desperate.

He was begging face-down and almost weeping like a baby, all alone while lying half-dead on the icy moist floor in that dark abandoned smelled-like-s**t-and-piss room with no one else to turn to because he was dying. It was the only thing he could think of other than shouting for help to get some sort of comfort as his eyes slowly lose their focus, his breath pleading for more air, rasping, heavier, and spurting rapidly, while his body went numb. He helplessly sought for the last thread of consolation, denying doubt and embracing the faith that he had always just neglected. He was really going to die. And it took him a while to process all of that because he had never really imagined himself to end up in such a tragic situation, but he did... 

And instantly, his mind tried to recompensate for all of his shortcomings and his indifference to what had always been an unseen ridiculous faith. And as he tried to hold onto the small remainder of his consciousness, the barest of his sanity, he cried... for help. 

Someone. Somehow. Anyone. He no longer cared how, he just didn't want to end up being dead there... Not yet.

So he hurried and tried to call Him out... God. You. Whoever. He. The Father. Names that he had never uttered in his life out of foolish belief. He really had thought by then that quickly resorting to believing in the existence of the so-called God above him, he would really be saved from that most desperate situation he had ever been in. And all he needed was to put his entire faith in it. In Him.

Please save me. 

But instead of a light that he thought would come to his aid, it was a dark smoke that came into vision. Like a scene from a well-produced sci-fi film, the thick black and grey cloud that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere swirled down to a dark shadow in the form of a human and it stood before him. Giacomo Faun was no longer sure if he had been hallucinating or if it was even really happening, and he just gaped, while gasping and writhing in extreme discomfort, at the unexpected existence of something he could not sanely describe what was or who was.

"Oh no, you don't," a voice suddenly spoke, invading right into what was left of his consciousness as if it had somehow entered the depths of his mind, talking to him. "After all that I've spent looking after you, you're not going to make this difficult. Your soul is mine."

Is this the god? Faun wondered immediately and he opened his mouth to confirm his suspicions but all that came out were hoarse dried wheezing sounds.

"Save m-m-m-me... p-p-please. If you're... g-g-god, s-s-s-save me."

The shadow moved and it quickly turned into a figure of a man, silver eyes dancing through the darkness as it sparkled and glowed with white flecks. His face was very pale and sharpened with edges, his eyes shadowed with hollowed holes underneath them and his lips quite too red, his face leaning down to Giacomo's figure on the floor. He was smirking.

He was very close.

"You think," the stranger said in an amused tone, "... that he would really save you? Just because you finally believed that he might actually be real after all."

He was desperate.

"P-p--p-please."

"Oh, don't look at me like that, Faun," the shadowed figure said in vain pity, his eyes frowning at him with a pretentious grimace, "You never even believed in him before. Not even once."

But he wanted to... Maybe he needed to. 

"S-s-s-save... m-m-m-me..."

The shadow started clicking his tongue. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.

"Save you? Why? I don't do saving. It's complete rubbish and a waste of time. And that's your profession, Faun," the shadow said to him, almost like a pitiful statement. Yet his eyes flashed a look of mischievous delight, almost glowing in green as he looked at Giacomo in the eyes, "But since you're making this all too boring for me, I'll let you have your way."

Giacomo's vision started to blackout but in those last few seconds, before he had closed his eyes, he was very sure that he heard the shadow spoke again and he said...

"Your soul will be mine when you die, but not tonight, Faun," the shadow's voice echoed in his mind, "Not tonight." 

And that was three months ago... When they first signed his first contract.  The contract for the sale of his soul... To a demon named Anyone.

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"So, am I, like, the very first one who has ever done it?"

It seemed rather very familiar than ominously strange, signing down a contract like it was just some kind of a business deal for Faun. But he knew he must be completely a fool to consider signing one again, another dangerous contract with a demon. Faun looked up to stare at the very image of Anyone, sitting on the couch from the distance, his face grinning down as he checked the authenticity of their signatures on the red paper, and he waited for the demon to finally address his question.

"First one for what?" the demon intoned, barely giving him any sort of attention from where he remained in his human form, looking comfortable while he leaned back on the cushion behind him.

"The first-ever human to ever sign two contracts.. with the likes of you."

"Aah..." Anyone stopped and finally met his eyes, crinkling and directing his grin at Faun as he shook his head and simply waved off the red paper into smoke and it quickly vanished. Just like that. 

"No," Anyone continued, putting a finger over his lips as he spoke, "Well, we don't really do that sort of thing like the Guinness of humans. We don't really bode in the insignificant fleeting sentiments of firsts and lasts. But I guess, you could be... At least, to me. I've never signed a human for two contracts before. You're the first one."

"Hmn." Faun looked just displeased and discontented as he pursed his lips into a thin line, keeping his thoughts reserved and he looked away. 

And even though Anyone could not read what he was thinking, he was obviously aware of Faun's disappointment to his very bland response. He smirked, briefly chortling at the expense of this one conceited bastard's ego crushed just because he wasn't first, at least, not that he could prove he was at all. No one really cared about that. But this one did.

"Would that even change anything if you were really the first human, Faun?" Anyone inquired, his lips curved into a mild grin as he stared at the guy. Faun flitted his gaze back at him, he was scowling.

"Well, at least," he said to Anyone, "That could have sat well together with my other life achievements. You know, being the first human to sell his own life and soul to a demon. Twice. That's kind of flattering, in a way. Isn't it?"

Oh, very well. Like his pride had gone insane and made a total vanity out of this hellish agreement. Anyone can only laugh.

"Whatever suits you, Faun," Anyone remarked after a moment, clicking his tongue, "Whatever suits you."

And Faun dropped his gaze, seeming to realize how unimportant that was so he stood up and turned to leave. But not before Anyone had stopped him.

"Where are you going now?" the demon asked, watching him from the seat.

"To bed," Faun answered, partly turning his body to face the demon, "I'm still human, after all. I need to sleep."

"Aren't you going to ask me about anything regarding this contract?"

Faun frowned, shaking his head, "No. I don't have to," he said as if that was completely unnecessary. "But maybe tomorrow, I would."

Anyone raised a brow, resting the side of his face over his palm as he leaned forward on the chair, "You mean you're not curious about the abilities? The clauses? You didn't seem to read anything before you even signed, Faun. Don't be so reckless."

And a demon thought he'd be reckless not to read it all first? How ironic. He was supposed to be deceitful, not wary.

"Why would I? You'd just give me a copy anyway. I'd just figure it all out soon. What's the point?"

"You just signed a contract with a demon," Anyone seemed to feel the need to repeatedly emphasize those words for some reason, "...without even checking anything for your own assurance."

Faun flared his nostrils. It had been a very long day for him and the very mention of the word 'assurance' had somehow touched a slightly annoying memory in his mind. He gritted his teeth and flashed Anyone a look of irritation.

"I've been fooled and betrayed, Anyone," he said in a slight growl, "And right now the only one I could seem to trust next to myself is you. I don't care if you fool me too, I don't really have anything to lose. As long as you give me the money you promised with the contract and all those sorts of abilities you said there'll be then I'd just be grateful that you did."

Anyone stared at him, pausing for a moment, as if trying to read between his words then he said, "Well said... But that's not the only thing there is."

"What are you getting at?" Faun pulled his head back, looking at Anyone with a deeper frown. 

"Well, why don't you just see for yourself?" Anyone raised an arm and gracefully gestured to something out of Faun's vision, something on his right. Then Faun quickly followed it with his assertive eyes and stopping short to a presence that had been standing right there, next to him. And he never even noticed.

"Hi." Long raven hair, slipping past his shoulders, taller than him for about four centimeters, eyes that were so green it almost looked like it's glowing with golden flecks, and a red suit, red pants, and unusual cane to make him completely stand out and rather weirdly striking at first glance. On top of that, he was also wearing a red fedora hat. A fedora hat! He looked so odd and out of fashion that Faun caught himself silently disapproving of his unlikely choice of attire.

"And who the hell are you?" he asked the unexpected guest, giving him a stink eye with an incredulous look on his face, stepping to the side as he gaped.

"Warm greetings, I suppose," the long-haired man said with a tip of his red overtly polish-looking hat and raised a brow, "Is that how humans do it now?"

The red man directed his gaze at Anyone who was now laughing at them from his seat.

"You're a demon," Faun found himself saying, although it was no longer quite alarming to see another figure of a demon in his house, present company included. He just did not get the sense of having an additional housemate. He treasured minimal attachment and private space, so he gave the red guy a discerning look, "Why are you in my house...?"

"I'm Pride," the demon in red just said, as if that already answered Faun's question. 

"Pride?" Faun eyed him with suspicion.

"I'm one of your Cardinal Demons," Pride said with a pretentious smile, showing his fanged teeth as he introduced himself in polite regard, "And you seemed to have just summoned me tonight. You must be really really evil to pull that off," --then the demon slowly extended his hand to Faun for a shake, before saying, as if customary,---"Nice to meet you, Demon's Protégé."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------to be continued