A Deal with Despair

Growing up, my parents often pushed me to follow their footsteps and become a doctor. My elder brother was fine with it, but that’s not what I wanted. Even if I did, I didn’t have the talent for it. Science was the bane of my existence; I couldn’t retain any information no matter how hard I tried. I would have preferred a career in either art or writing, but no, they always dismissed those ideas. By the time I reached my final school year, things were looking bleak: I was constantly hearing complaints from my parents about how bad my Science grades were that it even affected the grades of the subjects I was good at.

One night, I overheard my parents talking about me in the living room. I got out of bed to grab some water, but they made me wish I had never woken up at all.

“Simone, just what are we to do with Sherry? At the rate she’s going, she won’t even be able to become a nurse.”

“I don’t know, Clyde. Maybe we’ll have to get her to redo this year’s work.”

Hearing those words was devastating. It burned away what little confidence I had left within me. The next day, I skipped school and went to the beach. I switched off my phone and stayed there all day, just letting my mind empty itself of all the thoughts that were whirling within. Evening came before I knew it, but when I was preparing to leave, a soft voice suddenly called out to me.

“Sherry, I can help you.”

I looked around to see who it was, but there was no one in the vicinity.

“Down here,” the voice whispered.

I found a vague face form between the waves that were foaming at my feet.

“Who… What are you?”

“Someone who can help you with your grades.”

“And what do you want in return?”

The voice chuckled. “Your soul would suffice.”

“What? What makes you think I’d go that far for good grades?”

“The fact that you haven’t left already.”

The voice was right. What little faith I had in myself had slowly shredded away over the course of that year. I didn’t know what else to do.

“How long? How long before you take my soul?”

“Let’s see… I’ll be generous and give you thirty years.”

I thought it over. Thirty years didn’t seem so bad at the time. Anything was better than what I was feeling back then.

“Do we have a deal?” the voice asked.

I nodded.

The voice I heard that day was a demon. The deal I made with it ensured that it would inhabit my body and help me succeed in anything I set my mind on. I used its powers to ace all my exams and, when time came for me to choose a job, I chose to be a writer just to spite my parents and show them I could do anything. They were both displeased at my decision but were at least happy that I became successful in my field. 

Twenty years passed and I couldn’t have felt any better. I was at the top of my field, famous and unrivalled. I was married by then and was also expecting. The closer the due date drew, however, the more I dreaded how I only had ten years left to spend with my child. I tried bargaining with the demon, but it rejected my every offer.

“You gave me your word back then, you cannot go back on it now,” the demon said.

What had I done? I didn’t know what to think anymore. I could have gone through my life being a failure and not have to leave my baby behind, but then again, if I hadn’t made that deal back then, who knows where I would have been now? The irony bludgeoned me.

Later that year, I gave birth to a baby girl, and to my surprise, that same day, I found that the demon had disappeared from my body.

What’s happening? Where are you?

It would usually answer my thoughts, but I heard not a hum from it. Had it changed its mind? No, it was never that simple. It was then that I saw the most terrifying sight I had ever seen. My daughter, who had been sleeping in my arms for a minute, suddenly opened her eyes and grinned. Her face changed—it was the demon that I saw staring back at me.

“No! No, no, no! Get out of her body, you monster!”

The nurses and doctors rushed inside and sedated me right away. I was asked to get a psychological evaluation the next day and I didn’t know what to say. I lied my way through it but was kept under observation for a couple of weeks before I was finally allowed to leave.

Once home, my entire body ran cold whenever I was near my daughter, Shannon. One night, when my husband was asleep, I took her to the living room and whispered to the demon inside her.

“What are you doing? This was not our deal.”

“Your mind oscillates so much. One moment, you want me here, the next you want me gone, and now you want me back again.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, damn it!”

I was too loud. My husband found me yelling at Shannon and was furious at me. Desperate, I tried telling him the truth, but that only made him angrier. He said I needed help; I was soon forced to get admitted to an institution. I didn’t know what to do anymore. I regretted making the deal that day, but it was far too late for me now. I couldn’t change the past, and I had no future to look forward to.