The Contract

I know some of you might find this story hard to believe. Honestly, I didn't believe it at first either. If I had, I might never have signed that deal at all... But then I would never have met him. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to tell you about how it all started. To really get why I agreed to do this, you need to understand where I come from. It's nowhere. Im not trying to be funny here, I live in the middle of nowhere. There's more farm animals than people by... Like thousands. There's not much to do here. We have 2 schools, one for elementary and one for middle/high school. So everyone knows everything about everyone else. It's a small town and gossip spreads like wildfire. I always fit in well enough here though. I did scouts, played sports, went to the occasional party. But then senior year came and I had to make decisions. Scary decisions. College, or a job, or some way to leave this nowhere place. And then one night I found it. Or it found me. One night I was having those weird dreams. The ones were you wake up over and over but still have the same dream. It was this little girl, just waiting in the corner of my room. To make a bad sleep worse, around 4 in the morning I couldn't take it anymore and went to get a glass of water. Passing by the corner where the girl was in my dream I felt I could almost see her. In a rush to get back to my warm bed, I brushed it off and hurried down the hallway. I carefully carried the cup back my room and closed the door gingerly behind me. I then heard a loud voice, "took you long enough". Jumping at the sound, I dropped the cup and sent water flying across my pajamas and carpet. The voice started to giggle. I looked up to see the little girl, laughing and pointing at my wet clothes. "Boo!" she crackled in between fits of laughter. I stared at her, she was much younger than she sounded, and dressed in a fancy white dress, the kind my parents might have forced me to wear for church. "Can I help you?" I asked, annoyed. Maybe not the most logical response when your dreams come to life, but I was grumpy this little kid was laughing at me! She composed herself and wiped her face, as though she had laughed so hard she was crying. "Look, we have some history with this town. If you pass it up it will just go to someone else here. But you, you have promise. We've been tracking you. You have an ability to make decisions quickly, you follow instructions well, and you're determined. Plus your the perfect age to train. Sooo... " I stared at her blankly. She looked back, as if I should know exactly what she's talking about." Soooo.. " She paused as if I could fill in the blank. "So you qualify for entry level demon hunter training!" "entry level what?" I responded. Maybe I was still asleep. I pinched my hand, but the pain told me I was definitely awake. "Look, our last hunter... She's just got a lot on her plate right now and we need someone new. She's willing to train you." The girl extended her hand and a white scroll appeared. Gold ink swirled around on the page and formed words, a contract. "Look this over, and I'll be back tomorrow night. We'll talk about it then." She reached over to my desk and placed the contract down. She looked at me one last time, smiled mischievously, and faded into a mist. I approached my desk carefully, as if it might be a mimic ready to swallow me if I got close. I breathed a sigh of relief as I drew to stand beside it. Well, at least my desk wasn't a monster. I looked down at the contract she had left. It was a lot of legal terms to be some weird dream. I sat down at my desk and started to read, but the words became blurry. I laid my head down and must have fallen asleep. I woke up as my alarm blared for school. I only had a few months left, and it was already a chore to find the strength to go to classes. I rubbed my eyes and looked down, shocked to see the contract still there. I was sure it was a dream. I stuffed it in my backpack, got ready as quickly as I could, and ran out the door.