A Deal With The Devil

 Nurse Harrison would say that it was a rather normal day at the hospital. Doom and gloom filled the air like oppressive smog, and the halls were silent. It was the same as always.

In fact, just like any other day, the door to Room 15 was open, and the same scene greeted her. Even as used to it as she was, it never failed to elicit a pang of sympathy from her old heart.

Maya Hunt sat quietly by a bed, head lowered. Her hands held those of the patient lying still. It was almost like she was clutching on for dear life. Although the birds outside the window chirped cheerfully, and the sun pleasantly warmed the room, it felt like a sphere of cold misery surrounded that bed.

The nurse sighed with pity. She had a daughter of her own, and couldn’t help but sympathise with a mother’s love and worry for her child. Harrison had tried to talk to the poor woman and help her with the pain, but she never spoke. She only stared with her dark, empty eyes at her son’s unmoving form.

Once a famous and highly successful lawyer, Maya Hunt had been reduced to a shell of a woman after her son was hospitalised in a nasty car crash. The doctors didn’t think he’d ever wake up, yet the desperate mother visited her son every day. Nurse Harrison could tell that these visits didn’t help. Each day, the weighty atmosphere seemed to get heavier, and her eyes duller.

But she noticed something was different today. As she moved into the room to finish up her daily morning tasks, she found a change in Maya’s countenance. Her eyes, dark as ever, seemed to burn with a cold fire. Even though the gaze wasn’t directed at her, the nurse felt a shiver of apprehension run down her spine.

The nurse was unable to see everything in the room, however. While she changed the sheets of empty beds and opened the windows, a dark being invisible to her gaze watched her silently from the corner. Even as she left the room, she couldn’t help but think something was very wrong.

She would never find out what exactly was wrong, in the end. It was far too late. The deal had already been made, and Maya was simply saying her last goodbyes.

For the first time in the year since Richard Hunt’s car crash, the oppressive silence of the hospital room was broken by someone other than the doctors and nurses.

“I’m ready,” Came the whisper of a voice that seemed to be long unused. If someone else had been in the room, they would have been rather unnerved by the strange sight of her speaking to what was seemingly thin air. But those who could see more, would be even more unnerved at the sight of the demon her words were directed to.

There was no reply, and no movement. Although Maya had braced herself, nothing had happened. But even without instructions, she knew what her final steps had to be.

Seemingly unprompted, she lifted her eyes from the person she loved most in the world, to the creature that she felt both extreme hatred towards, and yet was unbelievably grateful for. Her eyes detailed its unnatural form, its proportions so unnerving that it could be known at a glance that it was a being beyond her comprehension.

And yet. She needed its help. And she would sacrifice anything to ensure her son was alive and happy.

“I, Maya Hunt,” She declared, her soft voice raspy yet firm. Her hands tightened around her son’s, as if to gain some confidence with his presence. “Agree to give my soul to the demon in exchange for my son’s recovery and happiness.”

There was a subtle yet obvious shift in the air. The moment she stopped speaking, all noise stopped for a second. The birds stopped chirping. It even felt like the sun had momentarily stopped giving any warmth.

The moment ended, though it might have been after a second, or a century. The room was rather different from when Nurse Harrison was in it. For one, there was no longer a demon, or a Maya Hunt in the room.

And secondly, there was now a rather confused but awake Richard Hunt sitting on his bed in a hospital gown.