The room is afire and a large man sits behind the untouched desk. His skin has a tint of red and his goatee is unnerving. Two tiny horns protrude from his scalp curving upwards. A tail flicks menacingly behind him, pointed at the tip. He cackles, making the man sitting on the opposite side flinch. Fear emanates from him but he’s determined.

“So in return of the deeds I will be performing for you, John, making your life perfect, you will feed my son,” the goateed man smiles, with an inhuman curve up to his eyes.

“W-what does y-y-your son e-e-eat?” John stutters, relieved the demon will fulfill his wishes, but he knows there’s a catch.

“In good time, John, first we discuss the arrangements of your contract. Now you completely understand this is all at the cost of your soul correct?” the demon asks, pushing a paper with large letters atop of it reading CONTRACT. John’s hands shake as he reaches towards the paper skimming over the fine details. He looks up into the smiling eyes of the Devil and nods shakily but determined to have the life he deserves.

He never understood why he had to be made to suffer while all the other people around him lived happy and wealthy lives. While they had moved on to live in spectacular homes after school, he had committed himself to many years of debt and a crappy paying job. Now at a simple cost he could live the way he’d always wanted. Again he looked into the Devil’s eyes and nodded more confident. The demon smiled, triumphal, and magically made a pen appear in front of John. John snatched the pen and in the same instant scribbled his signature on the paper.

“Now, what is it your son eats?” John asked the fear faded from his face, his eyes black as night. The Devil snatched up the contract and as it touched his fingers it burst into flames. His face was covered in shadow as the next words fell from his lips.

“He eats,” he paused standing up and gradually walking over towards John’s chair. He leans in close to John and his fist comes flying out from behind his back, plunging into John’s chest. He pulls back, neither his arm nor John covered in what should’ve been blood. Sitting in his hand, luminescent in the shadowed room, was John’s soul. And as the light of the little remnants of his soul fade, leaving John forever, he hears the whisper of the Devils final words.

“He eats human souls.”