Contract Sealed

Chapter 4

“Wha? div you sway sumfin?” Enkeli’s mouth was stuffed with the lobster meat she was eating so she was barely audible. Moreover, the sides of her mouth were puffed out resembling that of a squirrel. Shedim suddenly had an unnatural urge to squeeze her cheeks. His hand reached out only slightly before retreating once again. He cleared his throat, embarrassed by what he was just about to do. He was grateful that he hadn’t gone and done it.

The image of her eating like a hungry chipmunk was so overwhelming that Shedmi managed to get over the anger of her blatantly ignoring his flirting. He had a whole plan to seduce her and then terrify her but things weren’t exactly going along with his intention. He watched chew and chew while standing on the side.

“Hey, sit down and eat. I feel weird eating all alone.”

Shedim’s eyebrow twitched with annoyance. He felt like he was being ordered around. The Demon King wasn’t one to be swayed by a mere lowly mortal. The words were on his tongue, almost dripping and letting his vicious intentions be enunciated. He wanted to say ‘Listen here you piece of shit, I could crush you with my finger if I wanted to. You’re alive only because I am allowing it so perhaps you should show a little bit of respect to me! I am not an old acquaintance, I am the fearsome Demon King.’ Despite his desire, he sat down on the chair in front of her in a man spread, his hands in his pockets.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” She asked, wiping some lobster sauce from her chin. She was about to dig into her next dish. Shedim had no idea how she could still have space in that tiny figure of hers. He had always assumed that all humans barely had a diet. As for demons, they could eat as much as they wanted and would remain the same. In fact, they could continue eating for hours and end if that was what they wished to do. That’s because human food doesn’t actually provide them with any substance except for taste. The main substance they get is by stealing someone’s positive energy. They latch on to anyone who radiates positivity and suck it out of their soul as a meal.

Usually, humans recover from the bout of depression in a few days but if a demon takes a particular liking to a human and constantly latches on to them then the human might even commit suicide from the depression and feelings of hopelessness. Similarly, other creatures like demons may also do the same to acquire substance, however, some species of demons or some other type of negative creatures might have a different substance. For example, succubus and incubus gains it’s substance through sexual energy.

“I would eat but it doesn’t seem like you need much help.” He commented, seeing how she was already down by 2 plates. He had just created so many because he wasn’t sure what she would like. He didn’t expect that she was capable of eating that much on her own.

Normally Enkeli might blush out of embarrassment but what did she need to be embarrassed about in front of a demon who didn’t even go to the same school as her?

“It’s called nutrition. If you heard of it, maybe you wouldn’t be so skinny.” She huffed as she continued her meal.

Shedim was angry this time. He had borrowed the biochemical composition from the time he was human, assuming he made it to adult hood, this was what he would look like. He didn’t particularly have a problem with it, he liked how he looked.

‘What does it matter, I look worse in my true form than this human one.’

“Perhaps that’s what you’re into? Considering that you were ogling at me for a while.” He smirked.

“That- That’s because you have nice hair. It’s red. I haven’t seen anyone with hair as red as yours. I’m going to call you Red from now on.”

He laughed humourlessly. “No.”

“It’s too late. It has already been chosen.”

“Okay, I’m serious this time. No.”

“Why not, Red? Getting a little shy?” She put her fork down and tilted her head downwards while looking up at him, blinking her eyes slowly whilst showing off her long eyelashes flirtatiously. She was good at this and she knew it. Enkeli might seem like an innocent petite girl but she knew enough about the world to know that you need to use what you have to your advantage. And considering the amount of weird people that showed up to that cult church her parents owned, she had more than enough experience with flirting.

She may not look like it, but she considered herself to be quite good at seduction.

“Red is something you’d call a pretty girl you saw dancing in a bar. This.” He pointed at himself. “This is not ‘Red’. This is ‘Shedim’, like we discussed.” For the first time, he felt a little flustered. He knew it wasn’t normal. He knew she wasn’t normal.

“Alright, Red. I’ve had enough. Let’s make the deal now.” She gracefully wiped her mouth with the napkin through gentle pats as if she was at the royale palace and was pretending to be a snobbish aristocrat.

“Pretending to be a lady after eating like that.” Shedim muttered under his breath. Of course, he meant for her to hear it accidentally. She smiled brightly in return, not seeming affected by his comment at all. Instead her eyes sparkled at the thought of making the deal. She had finally come to a solution for all of her problems. Enkeli was strong. She had never thought of simply killing herself to end the pain. She wanted to live but she knew that it would be extremely difficult as long as she was being haunted by all of these creatures. To live a peaceful life, she had to first make her surroundings peaceful and there is no way that could happen unless she had some outside help. Truthfully, she had even tried to go to a real church.

She thought that since churches perform rituals like exorcism that they might be able to help her with her problem. However, no matter which church she went to, they wanted solid proof that the ghosts exist and only then would they speak to the head of the church and the head bishop would then perform the exorcism. The other half of the churches did not even believe her. It seemed that they continued worshiping God and angels yet refused to believe that entities like ghosts even existed on the earth. Enkeli found it extremely strange. Despite that, she continued to have hope and tried to get enough proof to make the exorcism happen.

It wasn’t enough. The spirits were smart. They would disappear whenever it was time to record the paranormal activity. Her only alibi was the bruises on her body, but they worked against her favour when the church people thought she was being abused at home and that was how she had gotten all those bruises. It wasn’t uncommon for kids born in an abusive family to turn mentally ill to cope with their surroundings, they thought she had developed some kind of disorder where she was comparing her family to spirits and monsters and imagined that she was being attacked by spirits instead of her own parents. It made sense to them. It meant that the spirits were only an analogy because her mind did not want to remind her that she was being abused.

They were wrong.

And this was her last option.

“What do you need from me then exactly?” He raised his eyebrow, curious of what her answer would be.

“I need you to get rid of these negative entities from my room and whenever they return I want to be able to call you for help.”

“And what? You expect me to do this for the rest of your measly life?” He scoffed. It didn’t seem like an appealing deal to him. Since she wasn’t being bothered by demons, it wouldn’t be so easy as to simply send out a command to the demons in his jurisdiction so that they wouldn’t bother her. Instead it was entities. Entities belonged to various species and various breeds. Some were intelligent and capable of conversation whereas others were stupid and mindlessly wandered in search of food.

“What do you want in return? I’ll give you what I can.”

“Anything?” The corner of his lips raised.

“Of course not. I need to know what it is first.”

It wasn’t enough. Shedim wanted to have more fun. He couldn’t let this opportunity go. If he just sent a lowly demon to do his bidding, he would get rid of the ghosts for her and when the time came, they’d collect on her lifespan by 10-20 years. Shedim could do that if he wanted. It would be easy for him. Another easy deal done without having to do anything himself.

It didn’t matter. There was a certain clench in his heart, forcing him to turn away from that option. He didn’t know if it was how bravely stupid she was and how she wasn’t afraid of him at all, not even how he seemed to look at her, or if it was the fact that she smiled so brightly that her eyes seemed to twinkle whenever she was excited about something. Moreover, she was excited about what Shedim could do. He might have been angry at first about her not being scared, but he realised that it was the first time he had seen someone get excited about him over something so simple.

He was the Great Demon King, he knew how to do many things and he was supposed to know them as his duty and position. Such a pathetic magic trick was nothing but shameful in Abaddon.

“I’ll call in a favour someday. Don’t worry, I promise it won’t shorten your lifespan.”

“I knew it.” She whispered.

Shedim furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”

“You want to take my first born haven’t you. I’ve read enough books and seen enough movies to know this.”

He bursts out laughing. As someone who hated kids, there was no way in hell that Shedim would want a firstborn as a prize. What could he even do with it? Take all of it’s lifespan? It wasn’t possible to judge an infant’s lifespan. It’s only easy once humans become teenagers. This is why there is rarely any negative energy around children, toddlers and infants. Usually teenagers are targeted.

“I don’t want your firstborn. It won’t be a complicated favour.”

“But.. I need you to promise that you won’t collect a death. No one will die right?” Enkeli was about to say that it was fine if it was her life and not others, she didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of her but she bit her tongue just in time. What if he hadn’t thought of that and she ended up giving him the idea to do exactly what she suggested? She was going to avoid death at any cost if it was possible.

“I promise no one will die because of me.” He nodded.

“Wait a second. You could get someone else to do your bidding. Say that you promise no one will die because of our deal and your minions will also be included.”

This time instead of being annoyed, Shedim was impressed.

“Alright, here’s the contract.” He brought out a contract from thin air after a few black sparks and placed it on the table after whisking the plates away into oblivion.

After reading each and every detail thoroughly, which mainly consisted of what they had talked about. She signed it.

“One more thing.” He said. “The contract can’t be sealed without a kiss.”

“Have you done this with men too?” She asked because she was suspicious of his intentions. She doubted that it was actually required to seal the contract as it didn’t make sense.

“Of course I have.” He lied through his teeth.

Enkeli leaned across the table and pouted her lips at him after closing her eyes.

‘She’s kind of cute.’ He couldn’t help but notice.

Instead of kissing her back right there, he removed the table with a snap of his fingers. Enkeli had been resting her elbows on it for support resulting in her losing balance and toppling forward. He had created the perfect opportunity to grab her forearm and pull her towards him so she was sitting on his lap, her legs on either side.

Enkeli swallowed, suddenly feeling her heart beat faster. Was she nervous because he was a demon and she was scared? Or because he looked handsome? Or perhaps because he was the one who was going to make all of her problems go away? She couldn’t figure it out.

Shedim rubbed her lower lip with his thumb and then applied pressure to part her lips. Then he replaced the gap with his own lips but not before whispering against her mouth. “Contract sealed.”