Storytime Blog Hop July 2025 - Contract

  Hello, and welcome to my third blog hop contribution! Thanks for reading if you do <3

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“Remember, twenty years. Twenty years, and I come and collect my dues.” With that, the crossroads demon was gone, leaving Diana alone on the dusty, country road she’d stumbled onto. It seemed so much like a dream that she ended up writing the whole thing off. 

Twenty years later, Diana Rothbert was a household name. Her image flew on banners, was stuck to the sides of buildings, was featured across commercials on skincare to military spending. She was on her way to the presidency.

But when the demon showed up, Diana wanted to buy herself more time.

“What if…what if I could promise you something?” she asked.

The demon was intrigued. “What could you possibly promise me?”

Diana thought hard. “Let me win the presidency. I can promise you as many souls as you’d ever want.”

The demon laughed. “With your platform?”

Diana winced. Despite her deal with the devil, her platform was one of peace, one of military reform, for social care, for international relations. She aimed to solve homelessness and create programs for mental health care. It was not a platform the devil could be proud of.

Unfortunately, the demon tilted its head. “Actually,” it grinned. “I have an idea. Alright,” it reached its long, pale hand out to her, it’s smile wide and wicked. “Do we have another deal?”

Diana thought hard about what she was about to do, what it meant for the world. But when she weighed it against her own death, her fear won out. She reached a weak hand forward, and the demon seized it, shaking it steadily.

“Now, we begin,” it said, eyes slating to red. And as it did, Diana Rothbert felt herself lose consciousness.

Over the next few months, Diana awoke at many different points. Except, it wasn’t her life, not anymore.

The first time she “woke up,” she could feel something else controlling her limbs. She felt herself move, walk up a short set of stairs, and then step onto a podium to announce major cutbacks on environmental protections that President Rothbert was now promising. She could feel her lips moving, but even though her mind was screaming to stop talking, to change subjects, to get down from the podium, the something else was moving her against her will.

Diana “woke up” again, maybe a month later. She was in the middle of some sort of meeting, where she and several right-wing senators were talking. They were laughing, but not at her. The senators Diana was so used to butting heads with were currently laughing with her, and the longer she stayed conscious, the more she could hear. There was something about a pedophile ring at least two of the present senators were part of. There were talks about putting tariffs on allied countries. There was also talk of starting another war with the middle east, something President Rothbert swore she’d make happen.

Each time Diana awoke, she was smacked by another nightmare, another sanction placed, another ally pissed off, and more homeless and civilian unrest.

And yet, she’d willingly shaken the demon’s hand.

When Diana awoke another month later, she was surprised to see so many angry faces posed toward her. The last few times she’d awoken, she’d been met by the smiling faces of racists, supremacists, and fascists that she could never have imagined working with. But now, at this press conference from the looks of it, she could see that the eyes of the media, and therefore the public, were pissed.

President Rothbert was slammed by question after question about why she’d decided to place Tariffs on Australia, why the US was helping Russia commit war crimes in Congo, and how this administration planned on making up for thousands of jobs lost over the course of the last few months. She was also slammed by accusation after accusation about her shifting platform, about the lies she told to get to the Presidency when it was clear that her campaign was a ruse, that she was really looking to dismantle the well-built infrastructure of her great nation.

President Rothbert was speechless. She kept climbing over her own words, coughing and clearing her throat when she couldn’t answer this question or that, and it was clear to Diana that the demon was entirely unsure of how to navigate the consequences of their actions when proceeding with this active presidency. Part of Diana was appalled at the whole scene, as she had been upon awakening before. But another part of her was curious, hopeful even, that this would mean impeachment.

Diana didn’t want to lose what she’d worked so hard to achieve, but after everything the demon had done, it was clear that President Rothbert needed to go.

They made it to the end of the press conference, where Diana was whisked off before even more unanswerable questions could be asked. Then she was in and out of consciousness for several hours. It wasn’t until nighttime, days later, Diana wasn’t sure, that she found herself standing in front of a mirror. Her makeup was tear-smeared, her hair was disheveled, and her shirt buttons were askew.

“Had your fun?” she asked the demon, her lips unmoving in the mirror.

The demon frowned with Diana’s face. “You knew this would happen. You knew they’d turn on you.”

Diana sighed in relief. “Politics are tricky. Demons? Not so much,” she admitted.

The demon sighed but then smiled with all of Diana’s teeth. “It was fun well it lasted. But it looks like your contract didn’t pan out.”

Diana took a deep breath. “So, what’s next?”

The demon straightened up, fixed Diana’s coat and button-up shirt. Diana watched as the demon made their way over to the balcony doors before stepping out into the chilly, dark air. Then, the demon walked over to the edge and climbed up and over the railing before sitting with Diana’s bare feet dangling over the edge.

“Hell,” the demon said, and jumped.

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Other July Blog Hop Stories Here:

Bookmarked by Magic by Juneta Key

Engraved by Barbara Lund

The Saga of Psycho Shannon by Vanessa Wells

Petrichor and Roses by Chris Makowski

Pixels and Bites by Katharina Gerlach

Comments

  1. Nasty, but good. :D
    I know at least 4 heads of state who should take the demon's solution. And if I think about it, I might come up with more...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you! and unfortunately, there's probably more than even that to go around lol

      Delete

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