Bet Your Soul

Aisha could feel herself shrink under his evil gaze. He was sarcastic and a bit of a sadist and she didn’t know whether to believe Damien or not with his words. All she could think of now was that she was totally screwed.

“Sign a contract with me, Aisah Yang,” he repeated, this time with much force and demand.

She stared at his piercing red eyes and asked, “What’s the catch? I guess you are going to trick me again, aren’t you? Take advantage of my ‘innocence’ and ‘gullibility’,” she quoted in the air with her fingers for emphasis.

Aisha felt stupid and pathetic. She should’ve known it from the very start! Demons shouldn’t be trusted.

Damien smiled coyly and he held her closer to him as he said, “I won’t trick you, Aisha Yang. But in order for me to be legally bound to an agreement, you must first sign a contract with me.”

Aisha’s pulse quickened with the dangers laced in Damien’s words. What did he mean she will need to sign a contract with him? It didn’t sound too appealing – especially after he tricked her with their last deal.

Damien’s smirk turned cynical, and he suddenly licked her cheek that had the smeared black blood. Aisha’s senses went into a frenzied overdrive as she felt the wet and warm touch of his tongue on her face. The demon quickly switched and nipped Aisha’s left earlobe, and Aisha squirmed to break away from his deadly embrace.

“Prove yourself worthy in a month’s time, and I shall grant you your wish to go back to the land of the living,” Damien whispered seductively, “However, if you fail, you shall serve me for all of eternity.”

Aisha shivered with the deadly honey laden words Damien woven into a proposal for her. She felt herself go weak with his expert touch, and her eyes wavered from the gaze that she worked so hard not to break. She was slowly being sucked into his poisonous game of words and seduction.

What the heck was he doing to her? Aisha’s body was reacting to every little thing he did to her. It was as if she was a candle and he was the fire that consumed her slowly.

Her brains didn’t want to admit it, but despite the danger signs, Aisha’s heart literally raced. Her whole body quivered with how sensuous his acts were, and that was not supposed to be something good!

This must be her karma for disregarding all the red flags of her past relationships.

‘Wait,’ she thought. ‘I only had one past relationship. That should have been ‘relationship’ as in singular form, just like my status as of the moment - single.’

Aisha doubted the sincerity of the man who held her in his strong arms. After he denied Aisha her way home when she already learned his name, she knew that there was nothing good that she could get out of him. Damien had no integrity in his words, that was for sure.

“How will I even know you will keep your word for it?” she asked Damien with nothing but a whisper in her voice. It was a tempting offer, but Aisha still had reserves. “For all I know, you will just measure my worth through impossible means.”

Damien held his gaze steady at Aisha, the seductive smile on his face vanishing slowly. She bit her tongue, instantly regretting she even tried to raise her doubts against a demon with magic. Was he going to kill her now?

Damien tightened his grip on her, and Aisha steeled herself for her inevitable doom. Ah… she still wanted to achieve so much. Being an orphan raised by monks, she had to work hard to get that dream life of freedom and independence after entering university.

Aisha shut her eyes, as she feared she wasn’t strong enough to face her death in the arms of a high-ranking demon. But after several seconds, she didn’t feel any pain at all. Nothing stabbed her or burned, or whatever kind of pain one would feel when they were killed.

She opened her eyes, and two bright rubies were staring at her. Damien’s expression was brooding, a bit sly as well with his grin, and Aisha stopped breathing for a second. It was as if he waited for her to look at him straight in the eyes before he would speak.

“You have two choices here, Aisha Yang,” he began, “Either you bet your soul for a chance to live just as you are right now, or you don’t and I’ll immediately send you off to the worst rebirth center.”

Damien wasn’t playing around when he offered Aisha to sign a legal contract with him. He wouldn’t pass on the opportunity that bumped into him to get a peculiar soul to serve him. Aisha truly piqued his interest, and he was going to make sure she stays in Hell no matter what.

“So, which one would you want? If you chose to be reborn, do note that every soul that comes to Hell ends up at the lowest of the food chain when they return to the land of the living. Would you want to risk being reborn as an amoeba?” he teased.

Aisha mulled over his question, and Damien started counting to pressure her into choosing. “One, two, three… There is no one in Hell that would help you here, Miss Hot Chili Condoms,” he snickered.

“Wait! Let me think!” she said as she tried to weigh her options. Was she confident she would at least be reborn better than an amoeba? Probably not.

“… eight, nine, nine and a half, nine and three fourths… What will it be, Aisha Yang?” Damien asked.

“Alright! I’ll sign the contract!” Aisha finally decided. She looked at Damien and said with finality, “I will sign the damn contract, prove myself worthy, and then return to the land of the living as Aisha Yang and not an amoeba.”

Damien smiled triumphantly, silently rejoicing that Aisha chose to bet her soul for a chance to return home as herself. A little servant that was neither dead nor alive to give him a bit of fun in this damned place. She is his now.

“What are you going to do now?” Aisha asked with a slight tremble in her voice.

The 4th Harbinger of Hell flicked his wrist, and with his finger, he drew a symbol on the walls of the alleyway. The symbol expanded and then turned into a rectangular door. The edges were rimmed with the same glowing red symbols she saw before, glimmering in the darkness.

Damien roughly spun Aisha around to face the door. Using his other free hand, he twisted the golden knob to open a portal to another part of Hell. Aisha’s eyes widened with awe, as what lay in front of her was surprisingly much different than where she stood now.

The first step felt immensely important and pressuring as well. Aisha hesitated for a moment if she should actually cross. Because if she did, it was going to be permanent – there was no turning back.