No Price

When good and evil barter, is there ever a price?

Sam watched the others carefully as he began to pour himself a cup of coffee. Bringing the steaming, black liquid to his lips, he held it there for a moment. The rich aroma filled his nose and sent a warm sensation tingling through his body. The others, three in total, studied him with earnest.

Each of his visitors stood out unique from the other, though there was a sense of connection between all of them. Their movements seemed choreographed and synchronized; one would yawn will the other would cover his mouth. One would tell a joke and another would laugh.

“Our boss will come by later to give you the rest of your instructions,” said the tall, blond one, “I accept that you will treat him as kindly as you have treated us.”

Sam smiled, “Oh, definitely. So long as he is as gracious of a visitor as you all have been.” Sam set his coffee down and joined the other three at his kitchen table, scanning each of their faces, searching for a hint that this entire encounter is nothing more than an elaborate joke.

“I assure you that there is no trickery here,” the black haired one piped in, “We are, in fact, who we claim to be.”

“Are you now?” Sam said with a smile, “Excuse my disbelief, but it isn't every day that a trio of demons comes to your door to pave the wave for your ‘boss.’ And, by boss, I assume you mean-“

“The Bearer of Light,” responded the ginger.

“Right, so, despite all the impressive tricks you've shown me, I still find it hard to swallow that Lucifer himself will be knocking on my door to offer me the deal of a lifetime,” Sam leaned back in his chair and stretched out his arms, “Just doesn't make much sense to me.”

“It is not our place to explain the will of our boss. He simply commands, and we obey by his wisdom,” the three spoke in unison, startling Sam and nearly knocking him backwards off his chair.

He stood up to grab his coffee off the counter, “Right, understandable. But, you still see why I’m hung up; I honestly can’t think of anything the ruler of the Hell would want from me. See, I don’t really have much of anything to offer and my soul really isn't worth all that much.”

He turned around to join his company at the table again, but the three had vanished, leaving only the faint smell of charred flesh behind them. Shrugging, he sipped his coffee and made his way to the couch to watch T.V. before he had to go to work. Nothing on the television, so he settled for enjoying his drink while infomercials danced on the screen muted. Other than three demons from Hell visiting him this morning, everything seemed pretty normal.

Standing up, he clicked the T.V. off and dropped his mug in the sink on his way out to the car. Another boring drive to work. Another boring day at work. Another boring drive back from work. This was his life, and that was perfectly ok. Not great, but ok for the time being. No one chooses a desk job if they crave a life of excitement. There was no thrill from taking down numbers from one column just to move them over to another. But, it was decent pay, and no one ever expected much from him.

On his way back from the office, he stopped at a diner to grab himself a bagel before heading home. He knew they weren't good for him, but he didn't eat much today, so the calorie load wouldn't be all that harmful.

“What sort of bagel would you like? We have onion, cinnamon, everything, sesame seed, egg, raisin, oat, whole-grain, gluten-free, high-fiber, cranberry, pumpkin-spice, blueberry, sea-salt, and plain.”

“Plain,” Sam said with a small smile.

“Would you like any spread with that? We have-“

“No.” Sam responded curtly, though still smiling. He placed his exact change down in front of the bagel girl, leaned over the counter, and helped himself to a plain bagel. The clerk looked dumbfounded, so he simply turned around and left the store munching on his bagel, “Have a nice day,” Sam said as bread bits spilled over chin.

As he finished his drive home, he noticed that three crows were following him. In fact, when he pulled into his driveway, he saw three crows resting in his lawn. No way to tell if they were the same three crows he seemed to see around every stop light on his way back, but, nevertheless, there were three crows currently staring intently in his direction. He smiled to himself as he thought about leaving out some poisoned bread crumbs for them.

Fishing his keys out of his pocket as he walked up to his house, he stopped and stared in wonderment at the scene before him. Someone had taken the time to paint his front door black. Upon closer inspection, he found that his door wasn't painted over at all, rather, someone had gone through the trouble to replace the entire thing with a very nice and probably expensive black oak door. All along the sides written in a bright red that seemed to shimmer even when light didn't touch it were inscriptions of a language that he, nor anyone he knew for that matter, could decipher. The lettering didn't seem to come from any root language on the earth at all.

There was no lock on this new door, so he grabbed it by the handle and pushed it open. Stepping into his home, he was startled by how dark it was. Even with all the lights off, his house had never been this dark before. It was almost as if the absence of light had managed to create a presence all on its own.

Taking a few cautious steps forward, he reached his hand out for the light switch, but felt his arm jab through nothingness. No light switch, no wall. A pure, black abyss. “Hello?” He called out.

“Hello, Sam,” a voice answered, smooth and silky. He could feel the vibrations of sound pass through the air around him and rattle his entire body.  He could feel the temperature start to rise. Waves of heat pounded against him as giant flames began to spurt and flare around him. The occasional flash of fire lighting the silhouette of a man that stood before him. “It is I. The Prince of Darkness. The Father of Lies. The one who-“

“It’s wonderful to meet you too, Lucifer.”

The flames stopped instantly. The pitch-black melted away and filled the outline of the man and made his form full. In just mere moments, he was standing in his living room again while a man in an expensive black suit smiled at him.

His head was shaven bald and his brilliant green eyes seemed to sparkle as he flashed a smile at Sam with two rows of perfect teeth. Pale, tall, and thin, he extended a hand outwards to greet the owner of the house.

Sam walked up and shook Lucifer’s hand heartily, “Welcome to my home. It’s a pleasure to have you here.”

“The pleasure is all mine. May we take a seat? The information I have for you may seem like a little much.” The two sat down. Lucifer crossed his legs and gave Sam another smile, “I hope my escorts didn't take too much of your time this morning.”

“Not at all,” Sam said, “I actually rather enjoyed their company. Not exactly a lively bunch, but it’s still nice to have company in the morning.”

“Well, I’m glad they weren't a bother to you. Smoothing out his black eyebrows, Lucifer hung his head low and sighed. “I wish I was here on a more pleasant occasion, but, I have a bit of nasty business to tend to, and you may prove to be quite helpful.”

“Oh?” Sam said, “And how is that?”

“The world is ending soon,” Lucifer’s eyes narrowed as his handsome face took on a solemn expression, “Tomorrow morning the world will be bathed in fire as the human scourge is wiped from the face of the planet.”

“Congratulations,” Sam smiled at him, “It took you quite a while, but I suppose later is better than never.”

“No, see.” Lucifer seemed puzzled by Sam’s reaction, “I don’t want the world to end. It’s kind of hard to pillage the souls of the innocent when there are no innocent souls left on the planet. Have you ever read Revelations? The world becomes a rather nasty place; whether you’re the enslaved or the Master, a s**t hole is still a s**t hole. No, I’d much rather everything continues as it is, but there’s an issue.”

“And I suppose this is the issue that you think I may be able to help with?”

“Yes, you see, there is a certain contractual restraint. After very specific, set circumstances are met, the ruler of Hell that watched these events unfold will be unleashed on the Earth to wreak his destruction.” Lucifer reached out his hand and summoned swirls of black smoke that formed into a goblet that he began to sip from. “Would you like something to drink?”

“No thank you, I’m good,” Sam said with a smile and nod, “Please continue.”

 “Yes, well. I have ruled Hell for all of these events. I've bore witness to the world for all eternity, so, as long as I rule Hell, the world will end.”

“So?”

“So,” Lucifer smiled, “I want you to rule Hell. You have not seen the sign of the plagues, the fall of seven empires, or anything for that matter. You travel within a void of existence. Cut off from the trials of life existing within an abyss, interconnected yet totally isolated.”

“Ah,” Sam said as he leaned back in his seat, “My appeal to you as the ruler of Hell is that I’m lonely and prefer it that way. A blank slate to restart the countdown to Armageddon, but, I have to wonder how this truly benefits you?”

Lucifer smiled, “I see my reputation precedes me. Well, there is no catch to this one. True your position as ruler will be more of a title than anything else, and I’ll continue running the day to day operations, but there are only the perks of being an all-powerful immortal being with an army of demons at his command.”

“Immortal, did you say?” Sam scratched his chin and studied Lucifer carefully.

“Yes. Not by hand, spear, bullets, or time will your life force be undone. You shall observe the passing of eternity besides the others gifted with such ability.”

Sam stood up, “In that case, I’m dreadfully sorry, but I will have to turn down your offer.”

Sitting there, blinking stupidly in the light, Lucifer wasn't sure how to respond. “Um, yes. Well… why?” was all he could manage after a few unsuccessful attempts at stuttering.

“I have no taste for immortality,” Sam said as he walked into the kitchen, “You have an eternity to do all things and to learn all things. What happens after you having discovered all that was, is, and will be of the universe? What happens after you’ve received every pleasure imaginable and felt every pain there is to feel? Even after heat-death clutches the universe and everything is reduced to a state of death suspended in equilibrium, what then? Nothing. Immortals die. Even though their bodies may stay preserved, they are rotting and decaying inside their mind. A fate that may be worse than death.”

Unsure of himself now, Lucifer stood up and slowly made his way to the front door. As he reached out for the knob, he turned back and said, “But the world will end?”

“Only our world will end. Besides, I’m sure you can find some other dimwit to sign that contract.”

Chuckling to himself, Lucifer opened the door, “Not in enough time. The paperwork’s already been drawn up for you, and if you think lawyers are bad up here, you should see them where I’m from.”

After Lucifer shut the door behind him, Sam ran up to the window to peep outside, curious as to what model the master of all satanic hellfire drives. But there was nothing. No car, no ruler of hell; just some kids playing kickball in the street.

Sighing, Sam turned around only to be startled by an obscene amount of white light, flowing like water out of his kitchen, where a spritely orb danced back and forth. Pools of light radiated from it in a chorus of colors that all blended together to form a white smoke that seemed to be made of light itself.

“Samuel.” The orb spoke in a great booming voice, “I am Gabriel , Messenger of He who is He. The Lord is pleased with your turn against evil, and commands that you lead an army of angels against the demonic scourge upon first light of the morrow.”

“I really didn’t understand any of that,” Sam said, shielding his eyes from the blinding light.

“You are to be His Immortal General of the Heavens, the-“

“No, no, no, no!” Sam said, shouting into the beam, “I just got done explain that I don’t want to be immortal! What is wrong with you specters? Is that really the best you have to offer? The curse of immortality? I want to go to bed. I’ve had a very long day, and I’m done with all this bullshit.”

“The fate of billions is in your hands,” Gabriel the Orb responded, this time in a softer voice.

“Wrong. I did nothing to them and will continue doing nothing about them. This oncoming war between heaven and hell is the exact sort of thing that only happens with immortals. Neither of you can be happy until you totally destroy everything that isn’t immortal. Everything should have a lifespan, even Gods.”

“But-“

“No! No more of this. Now I am going to bed. What happens tomorrow happens. Please show yourself out.”

Walking upstairs, Sam turned out all the lights, leaving Gabriel along to glow, and even he eventually faded out and dimmed away.

The next morning when Sam awoke, he drew back his curtains and looked outside at the monstrous ocean of fire that had brewed around his house. He listened to the screams of the innocent and the laughs of the wicked. He watched as the entire reality he knew was slowly consumed into the hellish magma. He watched all of this as he laughed.