To Sell a Soul

I knew that I shouldn’t have agreed to go in this chamber. I suspected that something was off when I saw the escorts, strange men with white masks and black suits who ushered me into the secret space. They said nothing and for a moment I was not sure they could speak. Maybe the horror that they were leading me to had even robbed them of that basic function. The inside soon confirmed all of my fears. Pentagrams made of a red liquid which I hoped to God was not blood covered the floor, several of them scattered throughout. Owls perched on skeletal shaped roosts, eyes gaunt in their faces as they stared at me. Paintings of Baphomet covered the wall and their gaze seemed to follow me as I walked deeper into the room.

I followed behind the masked men until they reached the end of the chamber, an area covered in a veil of shadows. There a black orb floated sinisterly, right beneath a tapestry of Satan engaging in acts with men that are better left undescribed. My escorts, no perhaps that was too innocent a word, captors might be a better description seemed entranced by the object. Each of them gathered around the orb, bowing and chanting around it like it was a God. What cult bullshit had I walked into? The orb glowed blacker and blacker with their chants, releasing a strange mist the more fervently they chanted. I wondered if leaving was still an option or if just by being here I was too far gone.

When their adoration was over they beckoned me over and I seriously considered running away. Is fame and money worth whatever evil these creatures took part in? Eenie meenie minie mo, money, power, hoes. Yeah, this shit is worth it. I’m tired of being nothing and going nowhere, if these horrors could make my dreams come true I could tolerate the demonic.

I walked over tentatively, like a baby deer taking its first steps. The tallest masked man grabbed my man with inhuman strength and placed it over the swirling black orb. He turned his head and some of his underlings handed him a black knife with a skull face acting as a handle. That skull looked really realistic. Sweat started to bead down my face as my eyes turned towards that knife. It looked awfully sharp, killing sharp some might say. I had signed up for power, not to be cut like a pig. My breathing grew short and I turned towards the leader of the Masked with a puppy dog face.

His face was covered so I couldn’t read his expressions but he hesitated to make the cut. I tilted my head quizzically but then I realized that I had to want this completely. They could do me no harm or shed no blood unless I allowed them to. Once again I had a choice. Would the promise of a new life really be worth all of this occult shit? I swallowed deeply because I already knew the answer. Momma ain’t raise no bitch.

“ Do it already.” I screamed.

I did not have to say anything more. With lightning speed he made the cut and blood spilled like tap water from my hand. It did not hurt the way I thought it would, instead I felt a strange peace. My blood spilled cavalierly unto the black orb and it started to spin even more, not like the calm spinning of before, more akin to a whirling dervish. The hand they had cut somehow found itself on the sphere itself. It felt smooth like baby skin, surprisingly gentle to the touch but it radiated chaos. To my horror my hand started to shift and I couldn’t remove it from the sphere.

White claws burst from nails and black skin turned to ebon scales. I could feel myself changing continuously. A tail burst from my behind and just as quickly vanished. Leathery dragon wings sprung from my back only to be replaced by dark feathered wings. The claws I grew turned bony and horns sprouted from my head, and fangs grew in my mouth. This could not be right, this could not be happening.

My mind changed with my body, nothing made sense. First I started to see double, and instead of thirteen masked men there were twenty six. Then I saw red, not in anger, but literal red, the world dyed bloody. Everything that made me myself vanished the more I changed, the more I shifted. why I had done this, what my purpose was, the light I had hoped to be swallowed up by an abyss. There was no more me, just a wicked creature, a thing made in the image of the devil.

The person who awoke was not me. It awoke, a mouth full of fangs and a searing evil mark on its cheek. Despite the masks this thing could tell they were pleased with their handiwork.

“ Mossst can’t take the processssss. You are ssssspecial.” The largest of them hissed.

Whatever doubts there were before were confirmed. These things could not be human.”

“ He will be an excellent soldier.” Another buzzed.

“ Quickly hide his true form.” A growling one ordered.

Once again they chanted that chant of theirs and again this caricature of him changed. The fangs vanished, the slitted pupils became regular, and the mark vanished. For all intents and purposes nothing had ever changed. No one would ever know what had become of the real him.