Look. I need a Favour

OneShot

"Look. I need a favour."

I give a glance to a man across the room, shrouded in the shadows that the dim-lit corner of the coffee shop provided. The voice had echoed from there, alluring and seemingly directed towards me. Tilting my head sideways, deep in thought, I decide to move towards the figure from where I sat. Getting closer I could see that he was dressed sharply. The clean-cut suit, tailored to fit. A dark purple tie straight down his front. He clearly had money, and it seemed like he had a lot of it.

As I drag my heels across the floor his face became more and more visible. I have seen him somewhere, although where exactly I can't pinpoint. All I knew is that he was familiar.

"And am I supposed to know who you are?" I ask as I sit in the chair across from him, the two of us now only separated by a wooden table that looked like it could be knocked over if a hard-enough gust of wind blew in.

"Oh honey, I hoped you hadn't forgotten your little meeting. Well then, this seems like a mistake, I have more on the list to pick from, although you did seem like the best candidate." He sighs and pushes his chair out to make the move to stand.

"Wait." I call, "Stay." He turns his head back to look at me, a smirk appearing on his lips, making his eyes crinkle in a way that made my spine tingle. A tingle that again felt familiar, in the worst kind of way.

The man turns back around and makes way to his seat, sitting down and adjusting his tie, his smirk holding. "So," He starts, and I look away, anywhere but in his eyes, the green that was held in them were inviting, but another part of me was saying that all that he held was trouble.

Stirring his drink, he leans further back, almost to study me, raking me with his eyes. "I need a favour." He says simply, waiting for my reaction.

"Yea I know, you've already said that." I stare at him blankly as he coughs, giving a silent chuckle, amused. "She was right, you really are a...hoot." I give a giggle back, now it was me amused, "I wouldn't say that would be the first word that comes to mind when people describe me." I mutter as I take a sip of my coffee. Warm.

"That's how Shyann said it." The man smirks ever wider as I chock on my coffee. "Shyann? What's Shyann doing here, I know I've got 6 days left." I hurry out as the man starts laughing. How did he know? There was no way!

"6 days huh. And this is how you decide to spend those precious hours...in a run-down coffee shop? Isolated." He stares at the ceiling, looking as if he's questioning life. I'm certainly questioning mine. "If I'm gonna go out might as well go out with a bang," I say, staring out the window at the people walking by, so free. Looking as if they're without care when we all know for a fact half of them are dying inside. Only for me. it might be literal.

"How do you know? How did you find out? I still don't know who you are!" I turn back around in my seat, staring at the stranger in front of me. He sits forward, seemingly entertained by this whole situation.

"My darling you have no idea." He says, leaning forward in his seat. Opening his eyes, I see purple, the same as that tie that first caught your eye. An impossible purple. A purple that mimicked royalty, only darker.

"You...you're him." I stutter as the realisation hits me. I'm staring at the man who once tried to overthrow god. The devil himself.

"So, my dear, what do you say?" He questions further as I stare into the void of his eyes, now returning to their normal green. "I..I-"

"I know, you're now thinking 'oh my god, it's the devil ah!' but I promise, I'm not here to hurt you. If I was, you would be dead already. That I promise." He chuckles as I return to my normal composure. "Okay then, what are you here for?" I ask. Curiosity filling my mind with a thousand questions on what he could be doing here, sitting in a dusk covered coffee shop, asking someone like me for a favour.

"Well, darling. I'm here for you." He says again, not answering my question with his cryptid answers. "I've got that far; I'm asking what you want from me?" I stare directly at him again, searching his face for answers, getting none, only that damned smirk.

"You made a deal with one of my loyal demons' years earlier. To be precise 9 years, 360 days, 12 hours, 37 minutes, and 16 seconds ago," He looks at his watch, "And it was fulfilled was it not? You became a successful writer, in fact, you were one of the best sellers in the country." He says smiling at his handy work. "Were?" I ask offended, I'm not dead yet.

"Yes, were darling. You're not due back at work until 2 days after your death date. 10 years after that cursed deal." He snickers at this, finding amusement in my fear. I look down, knowing he's right.

"But I have a proposition." He looks at me once again, searching for my eyes which snap towards him after hearing those 5 words. "What sort of proposition?" I ask, hope in every inch of my voice, and he can tell because that cursed smirk returns once again to cover his face.

"You do me a favour, and I give you your soul back." He sips his drink waiting for a reply. I almost burst out laughing in joy, because imagine, after 10 years of my death date haunting my every waking thought, the devil has shown up and offered me a way out. But the first words hit me.

"Favour? What sort of favour could the devil want?" I think out loud. He simply shrugs his shoulder and continues to wait for an answer to pass my lips. "I'm not gonna know until I make a pact with the devil, am I?" He smiles and nods his head, holding out his hand. "Do we have a deal?" He asks, urging for my reply.

What else was there that I could do? I couldn't run, I couldn't hide, and I don't want to die! If the devil was the only way out, it was the best way. Any way out was the best way, he just happened to be their first, and he just might be the only way out.

"It seems you have," I smirk back at him and shake his hand. "Good." Comes the reply as he grips my hand harder.

After a few seconds, he drops my hand and I look around the room. "So," I begin, "Do I get my soul back or like...what happens now?" I ask, lifting my shoulders. "You have it back. I just gave it back." The man says, a look of confusion passing in his eyes. "Oh, I guess I expected some sparkles or a big fulfilling of this big hole in my chest."

"That's just the gaping void of loneliness, I can't fix that." I stare at him with a look of anger, before shrugging and nodding. He nods along with me. "Now for my end of the bargain." He says. "Until next time." He smiles at me and walks towards the exit of the shop. "Wait!" I begin, uttering the words that got me into this conversation in the first place. "No magic portal back to hell or anything? No spell that makes you disappear?" I ask, disappointed in no display of power.

"What? No. I live in an apartment across the street." He says before continuing to walk towards and out of the exit to the coffee shop. I stand there stunned as he just continues to walk into the apartment building and up the stairs.

I plonk back down into my seat, overwhelmed by what has just happened, laughing a bit at my misfortune and convenience. I shake my head as I gather my things to leave, a piece of paper sticking out from under my coffee cup catching my eye right before I turn to the door.

Pulling out the piece of paper from underneath the cup and opening it, staring at the note in shock. I put the note back on the table, knowing that it was from the devil, it'll burst into flames in the next couple minutes. Standing staring at the note until the mysterious flames come and swallow up the note, no remnants of what once laid there.

Leaving the shop, I laugh, manically. I laugh until tears are streaming down my face, people staring at me on the street and avoiding my general direction, weird glances thrown here and there from passing strangers.

The man we know as the devil watches from his window on the 5th floor, laughing along with the girl on the street below, a tinge of infatuation glowing in his green eyes. Looking to her and back to the stack of books surrounding his shelf, books with her name etched in the side. He chuckles as he looks at the to-do list hanging from that shelf.

I have one simple favour, your fans deserve another book.