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The Deal 

Written by Cynthia Farrington

 

 

“I want to go home,” Alice whimpered as she stared at the woods in front of her. “This is too scary.”

 

I really couldn’t blame her.

 

I quietly hushed her and said gently, “It’s gonna be OK, Alice. Just… don’t let go of my hand.”

 

The child tightened her grip and nodded fearfully.

 

I looked back at the woods, reluctant to walk into them. The trees swayed slightly, apparently not in the mood to dance along with the wind. Noises unknown drowned us as the leaves rustled.The moon did nothing but cast eerie shadows.

 

I could hear my own breath, my own heartbeat. I could feel my own fear eating away at my bravery.

 

I was so scared.

 

The wind howled and began to whip harder, making the trees sway as if the woods were trying to ward us off. Like a warning.

 

“I want to go home,” Alice repeated, more nervously. “I’m cold.”

 

I want to, too, I thought. I wish I could go in alone, and leave my sister here, in safe arms, under a roof and in a warm bed. But then he would know. He would see through my plan. Once he sensed that my sister wasn’t in the woods with me...

 

“No.” I ordered, my voice as cold as the night. I held onto Alice’s hand and charged into the woods.

 

That was all enough to make Alice burst into tears. She wailed inaudible words, hiccupping in between sobs.

 

She tugged at her hand that was trapped in mine so she could run back. She screamed at me as she pulled at my hand. When none of that could claim her freedom, she stomped on my foot and clawed at my arm. She kicked me as I dragged her deeper into the woods. She tried to run in the other direction while I pulled her in another.

 

We reached a point where the woods completely swallowed us, where there was no escape visible. 

 

“Now look at what you’ve done!” Alice hiccupped. “We’re lost!”

 

Alice erupted in an ocean of tears.

 

“That’s a good thing,” I corrected her, slipping my backpack off. “This is the only place we’re safe… The only place you’re safe.”

 

What a lie.

 

Alice didn’t say anything, but instead sat on a rock and slid her own backpack off, trying to calm herself.

 

I fished into my backpack, trying to find my pot, cursing at the night’s unnatural darkness.

 

“Did you pack them?” I asked as I tried to find the scented oils.

 

“Yes. But I don’t know why you asked me to get these,” Alice sniffed as she picked up an antique, probably worth some hundred dollars. “They’ll be useless! ”

 

I found some herbs and ground chillies. “Trust me, they won’t be.”

 

Alice blinked at me as I worked. 

 

“Sam?” she asked innocently.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Where will we live?”

 

I looked up at her before saying “I’ve been in here before. Trust me, I know the perfect place.”

 

“Sam?”

 

“What?”

 

“Where are we going? We’re not running away, are we?”

 

“Look Alice, I know you want to ask a lot of questions right now, but they’ll have to wait.”

 

Alice nodded. 

 

I mixed all of the ingredients in my pot and stirred, wishing we had a warm fire going.

 

“Sam?”

 

“Alice, I said-”

 

“What are you doing?”

 

I stopped. My heart suddenly couldn’t take the pain, and the tears grew heavy in my eyes. I looked away, staring into the pot.

“I’m trying to protect you, Alice.” I said, my voice unstable.

 

Alice could sense right away that something was wrong.

 

“Sam…?” My sister said, sounding uncertain. 

 

I took in deep, rattling breaths as I turned my head to look my sister in the eye.

 

“Alice, listen to me.”

 

“Sam?” My sister said nervously, seeing my tears. “Are you ok? You’re-”

 

“Alice, after this, I need you to run away from these woods, do you hear me?!” I added when my sister started crying again. “Do not come back looking for me. I won’t be here. Alice, Alice, please stop crying, you have to listen to me.”

 

I wiped my sister’s cheeks for her as tears poured from her eyes, staring at me in confusion.

 

“Sam, what’s going on?”

 

“Go back the way we came,” I pointed to my right. “Straight that way. It may seem like an hour’s walk, but don’t stop or change your direction. Don’t fall for their tricks, no matter how long you think you’ve been walking. It’ll be a trap. And don’t go home!”

 

“Sam?” Alice cried. “Are you leaving me?”

 

“Trust me. I’m doing this for your own good.” I said as I made a small cut on my sister’s shoulder. She cried out as I collected a drop of blood and added it to my concoction. 

 

“Don’t follow me,” I said as I slit my own shoulder. It hurt more than it should have. “You have to trust me.”

 

But do I trust myself?

 

I allowed a drop of my blood to fall into the pot before I took one last look at my younger sister.

 

She was only six, the age when the world seems to be all pure, all innocence. She hasn’t learned to hate yet. She was too trusting. It was dangerous to leave her alone in this world.

 

It was even more dangerous to do nothing, though.

 

I threw the concoction onto the tree that had the burnt mark. I yelled,

 

“I am here for the payment!”

 

For a second, nothing happened, and I feared that I hadn’t done it right, that by sunrise my sister would die because the payment would be overdue.

 

The sky was no longer black, but a dark blue. The sun was going to rise soon.

 

The tree opened up, bringing both relief and dread. Inside was blackness that was too black to be possible.

 

My sister shrieked my name.

 

I jumped in with my sack, yelling “GO!”.

 

I prayed she wouldn’t follow.

 

. . .

 

 

All I could see was black.

 

Then the next thing I knew, I was at the far end of a table, sitting in a chair.

 

I looked up, and saw a figure. A black figure. I didn’t know who he was until he spoke.

 

“You aren’t her. Where’s the girl?”

 

I sat up straight, trying my best to appear confident, strong.

 

“You’ll never find her,” I shot at him. “She’ll be long gone from these woods by the time you can even start looking.”

 

He laughed.

 

“You fool girl, All you have done now is doom yourself, along with your sister.”

 

He smiled his disgusting smile. “The only difference from the original plan is that you die too. You die now.”

 

I panicked and said quickly, “You can’t! It’s either me or her.”

 

My plan was failing. He was supposed to kill me, not my sister.

 

The demon quit his laughter and snarled, “These are my woods. I make the rules here. I can break the rules as I please. And you have no power to stop me.”

 

He paused for a second to stare at his fingers. “And to think, as long as you two are in my woods, all it takes is a snap for either one of you to fall dead. But which one first?”

 

You’d think that after this entire mess, I would have learned to never make a deal with a demon. But unlike my father, I knew what I was doing.

 

“How about this?” I interrupted him. “I know we owe you from the last deal and we will pay you back. In fact, we will pay you double if you let my sister go tonight. Kill me. Take me in her place for now. My sister will bring you all the souls you can feast on for a year afterwards.”

 

The demon narrowed his eyes at me as if I were tricking him. “A year is barely day for me.”

 

I bit my lip. I couldn’t imprison my sister in a life of forever murdering others and taking their souls to this demon.

The demon looked away and said, “I want her blood. It’s one of a kind. You don’t have it.”

 

I thought for a moment before saying, “Then you will take her children?”

 

“They might not have it, though.”

 

“But they might.”

 

The demon stopped walking to consider.

“Fine. I’ll take her children, however many she has. If she has no children with the blood, I’ll take her.”

 

I sighed with relief. “However… There’s a catch.”

 

I froze.

 

“What? What else could you possibly want?”

 

“I want food.” He looked at me. “You are merely one little soul, one that barely shines at all. You will serve me, capture souls, for the rest of your life”

 

He smiled evilly before adding, “Do we have a deal?”

 

“We have a deal.”

 

 

Cynthia Farrington is a certified book nerd and bed-time-story enthusiast, even at 16 years old. She has a nasty habit of checking out way too many books from the library and returning them all way overdue. She is from Seattle, Washington (yes, books help her escape from the dreary weather!)