Friday, August 30, 2013

Photo-Microfic: The Bargain

Photo taken by Steven Ormosi with his Samsung Galaxy S3 and edited in G+. Click on the picture for a larger version.

The Bargain



The demon passed up through the table demanding his yearly sacrifice. I was expecting him, of course, as per the terms of our agreement. One tenth of my soul each year, paid in ten equal installments in exchange for a lifetime of happiness with my then-estranged son.  My son came to the house the very night I made the deal and we worked everything out.  I promised to be a better parent than I had been when he was young.  He promised to give me that chance.  It was all I wanted. 

My boy died in a crash two weeks later. I’d raged at the demon for having the gall to come for his pay at the end of the first year, but he only said, “Our bargain was for a lifetime, you didn't say whose.”

Each year he came to take what I had promised and each year he journeyed back to hell with a little more of my essence.

This was now the tenth year and I could not say that I was any emptier than after the first.

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