A Deal With Dark

Seventeen

"What if we made a new deal?" As I spoke, I had no idea what kind of deal I was going to propose to him, I was just focused on making a distraction. Mark was losing it, and I couldn't see him getting any more hurt than he already was. I feared that Dark really was capable of murder, and that this time he might not stop until someone was dead.

"You couldn't even keep one deal with me and you have the gall to try to negotiate a new one?" Dark's hands balled up into fists, shaking with fury once again.

"I'm sorry that I broke our deal, Dark. I know that was wrong. But hell, I was miserable half the time. It feels shitty knowing that someone you care about is being hurt and not really being able to talk to them about it. And it feels shitty having to lie to my best friend about where I'm going all the time and who I'm spending my time with," I admitted.

"You knew what you were getting yourself into-"

"While you held a knife to me and threatened to murder if I didn't say yes! Or did you forget that part?"

So much for treading lightly - I couldn't help but show my frustration. Dark obviously cared about me at least a little. Maybe showing him that I was miserable would make him have enough empathy to hear me out.

"With desperate times come desperate measures. I'm aware that I didn't give you much choice, but I couldn't let such a great opportunity slip away from me," Dark confessed.

"Then give me a choice now. Let me pitch a new deal to you, and we can put this one behind us," I pleaded, having a difficult time reading him.

"Fine, I'll bite," Dark decided, his hands behind his back, waiting for my response.

"I'll continue to be with you, we'll keep everything the same, but let Mark and I speak freely and be around each other. I don't care if you want to chaperone anytime we're together, but if I hadn't felt like I had to sneak around just to speak to him, nothing else would have come of meeting with him. And I want to chaperone you when you visit Mark. I can't see him physically getting hurt anymore."

Dark thought about this for a moment, then shook his head. "No. That's not good enough for me."

"I'll let you have free reign over my channel," Mark spoke up. There were tears on his face, sadness in his eyes, but his voice was hard, strong. "You can appear on it whenever you'd like, do whatever you want to me on camera. You decide what goes on it, you can use my social medias to connect with my fans, the whole nine yards. As long as you don't hurt anyone besides me."

"No! Mark, you don't deserve to get hurt. You can't just let him do whatever he wants to you. That's not okay!" I protested. But Dark's frown was transforming into a smile.

"All you want is to torture me, right? You want control over me. My channel is my career, my entire life. Of course I care about Maddy probably more than I could ever explain with words, but my world doesn't revolve around her every day like it revolves around Youtube. I know you want control, you want to take things away from me. Obviously taking away Maddy didn't pan out, but taking away everything I've worked so hard for while I just sit back and watch sounds appealing, doesn't it?" The conversation was solely between Mark and Dark now, and I was being ignored.

"It is tempting," Dark replied. I could see the gears turning in his head, trying to figure out if it would be worth his while to say yes to the idea.

"The fans would love it. They already love you and want to see more of you. You could do anything and they'd think it was just part of a sketch. They wouldn't care. They'd eat it up." Mark had good points, and Dark knew it. But all of the power Mark was offering to him...he could very easily abuse it. He could hurt Mark as much as he wanted with this deal. And what if he eventually stopped caring about torturing Mark and just wanted him dead? What if he decided to replace Mark for good with himself? There was so much that could go wrong...but Mark cared too much about me and my safety, and he didn't care if he got hurt, as long as I was safe along with everyone else he loves.

"If I agree to your deal, I of course still have to address the fact that Maddy broke her deal with me first. Then you and I can make our deal official," Dark reminded him.

"If you're going to kill someone, just kill me. Leave my friends and family alone," I begged.

"Oh, I'm not so sure that i feel like killing anyone today. I think I'll choose a different punishment for you," Dark revealed, putting his knife away. "I'll be right back, I'll need to fetch someone. I'd tell you not to go anywhere, but even if you did manage to free yourselves, you know I'd find you easily anyways."

One second Dark was standing there with a smug grin on his face, and the next he was gone. I gulped, concerned about what kind of punishment he had chosen and wondering why he needed someone else to help with it.

"Are you really sure about this deal you're about to make?" I questioned Mark.

"It's not like it's something I want to do, but I was just as much a part of breaking your deal as you were. It's only fair that I help make up for it. This is what he wants. If he gets it, you and your family will be safe."

"But what if he really hurts you? What if he kills you?!" I cried, images of him dying from my dreams flashing through my mind.

"He likes seeing my reactions, seeing me hurting. He won't kill me. He'll keep me alive. I'll be fine, Mads."

I wanted to argue more, but Dark reappeared with a death grip on the arm of a man with ink covering the majority of his skin. Dark let go harshly and snapped his fingers, some equipment appearing around my chair. There were several things that had showed up, but what stood out most among them were needles, bottles of ink, and a machine, all of which looked like they belonged at a tattoo shop. The guy Dark had dragged back with him must have been a tattoo artist.

"This is what she'll be getting," Dark said, handing the man a piece of paper. "Get to work."

The rope on my wrists disappeared and I was instructed to hold my left arm out for the tattoo artist. He got a stencil ready and transferred it to my skin. It was simply Dark's name, written in his handwriting, and it was going on my wrist. somewhere that I'd see it often. I guess Dark wasn't feeling mean enough to carve his name into me like he had suggested earlier, but he still wanted to let me know that I was his, and that no matter what I wasn't allowed to forget him.

The needles stung as they jabbed my skin over and over again. Of course it hurt, but to me it was just as if a bee was stinging me for a few minutes straight, with a few second long breaks in between for cleaning. The process didn't take too long, and it was nothing I couldn't handle, but it certainly seemed to make Dark happy.

When the tattoo was finished, cleaned, and wrapped, Dark teleported the man and his equipment back and quickly returned to wherever we were.

"Consider yourself forgiven and our deal over. But know that the next time you piss me off, I won't let you off so easily," Dark said, before turning to Mark. "Now, does your offer still stand?"

Mark nodded. The rope around my ankles and all of the rope binding Mark to his chair vanished. "So, should we shake on it?"

Dark laughed, making his way towards Mark.

"We don't 'shake on it' for demon deals. We kiss."

Before Mark could argue or really even react at all, Dark leaned down, cupped Marks face, and kissed him on the lips. "We'll meet tomorrow to begin preparations for our agreement."