Storytime Blog Hop July 2025 - Contract
Hello, and welcome to my third blog hop contribution! Thanks for reading if you do <3
-----
“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.
-----
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
Nasty, but good. :D
ReplyDeleteI 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...
thank you! and unfortunately, there's probably more than even that to go around lol
Delete