The Devil’s in the Details

The room around Emmy Lou’s hospital bed lay still, her sobs the only sound disrupting the silence. She was surrounded by balloons, well wishes, and empty seats. She was young, the light of her star dulling before its chance to be brilliant. Her sickness had taken her hair and everything else, but she wasn’t sure her family and friends had ever really existed.

For all the hospital’s talk of wish making, she’d only ever had the one. “I just want a friend,” she said, pressing her fingertips against her eyes. “I’d give anything. I don’t wanna be alone.”

The air shimmered over her bed, a whir of red spinning into existence before settling to alight on her blanket covered knee. The creature was two-feet tall with ears like a fennec fox and covered in red fur.

“Ta-da!” he proclaimed, a black top hat atop his head, the tip of its spindly tail curling over as if into a question mark. “’Tis I, Barnabus Infernacus, the Only.” He deliberately drew in air through his snub nose. “Oh, how I love the smell of desperation in the…”

He glanced to a wall-mounted clock. ‘11:23.’ He shrugged, then turned back to Emmy Lou. “Well, like they say, ‘it’s 5 o’clock somewhere,’ right?”

She stared at him, her hands drawn up to her chest. “Barnabus?” she asked.

“Infernacus, the Only,” he corrected, then bowed. “Listen, love. I know you like your ‘better late than nevers,’ but this is cutting it a bit close. This bargain is something of a limited time offer. It’s time sensitive, something that’s out of my control. So if there’s a deal to be made, you best get to it.”

He twirled his clawed index finger towards the ceiling. “Shall, I cure your illness? Gift you a million dollars? Or perhaps bestow you with a super power?” He trailed off. “Though, you won’t see much use out of the last two.”

Emmy Lou’s bare brows scrunched. “You could give super powers?”

Barnabus Infernacus, the Only shook his head. “Look, take the cure. You can deliberate about money and power when you have the time to. It’s the only thing that’ll give you time enough to enjoy it. Or regret it for that matter.”

She reached, taking his hand before he could withdraw, then shook her head. “My family is waiting for me. In heaven. And there’s nothing for me here.” She sobbed. “All I want is to not be alone no more. A friend. That’s all I want.”

He was tensed, staring at their joined hands — they were the same size. Over the centuries, people had asked him for all manner of things. All of them selfish. Then, when it came time for him to collect, they begged, pleaded, mewled, and tried all the weaselly little things humans did to get out of a thing. None of them worked. But still, they tried.

She doesn’t get that this deal won’t get her the happy reunion she’s expecting. Barnabus Infernacus, the Only shook his head and looked down. Giving everything and only asking for a friend in return? A friend? It is a small thing, isn’t it? He sighed. “Fine,” he replied, meeting her gaze. “In exchange for your soul, I’ll stay with you until you breathe your last.”

Tracts of tears enclosed her smile like parenthesis. “Thank you, Barnabus Infernacus, the Only. I just wish I could’ve known you longer.”

“Yeah. Me too, kid.”

She settled back onto her pillow, her hand tugging him and causing him to stumble forward, where he stooped, his tail curling around him.

He watched as her eyes fluttered closed, his stomach in a knot. Emmy Lou had taken his hand, but he couldn’t deny the grip she’d placed on his heart. No one had ever asked him for friendship, and now that he thought about it, he really did wish they had known each other for longer.

When her grip loosened into sleepfulness, he moved closer, gripped her thumb in both hands, then curled up alongside her. Until you breathe your last, he thought, then joined her in sleep.

Emmy Lou awoke to a steady purr, a ball of red fur nestled up to her cheek. “Huh? A kitty!” She scooped it up immediately.

Reowr, it replied on meeting her gaze, its forelegs straight out as it sat up-right with the aid of her hands at its sides. It was oddly colored — red and black. If not for the purring and snub nose, its large ears might have confused it for a fox.

She frowned with she saw a collar, because of course, it had an owner. Its tag read, ‘Barnabus. If found, return to my best friend Emmy Lou.’

The name furrowed her brow, but only for a moment, her eyes growing in astonishment. “I’m Emmy Lou,” she proclaimed in his face, then hugged him with all the strength she could muster.

Ten-years later.

Emmy Lou sat on a park bench where the old hospital had once stood. Everyone involved back then had moved up in the world, even the facility, which relocated to a better part of the city. Her story had been the talk of the time. Or at least, a more profitable version of it had been.

‘The medical staff that did the impossible.’

‘Meet the girl that beat every odd.’

The donations came flooding in. Some thought, If the staff could work miracles with what they had, just what could they achieve with cutting edge tech? It was a question that many sought an answer to, so they flung this park over their shoulder, an afterthought as they marched into the future.

Emmy Lou wore a simple summer dress. When her hair had grown back, it returned a bright scarlet — a color she found no where in her ancestry. Her eye color was gray, which tended to shift with her mood. Mostly, they were green, but today, they were a glistening blue.

Barnabus rested in her lap. His hair had fallen out, his eyes were milky, and he seemed to sleep longer everyday.

She sniffled, the wind sifting her hair. “I know,” she began. “It wasn’t just a dream.” She looked down and pulled him up to cradle him. “You did something. And now you’re paying for it.”

It had been a long while since he last meowed, but that’s not the response she was after. Even though he had never behaved like anything more than a cat, she knew he was more than he led on. She was convinced it was all an act; she just couldn’t work out the why.

“If you were ever my friend… I just need to know why.”

Something like a sigh expressed in her thoughts, her eyes widening in response. “Barnabus?”

“You wanted a friend,” her thoughts said. “I decided I wanted one too.”

Emmy Lou pulled him into a sobbing hug, rocking as she buried her face into his head. Every time she tried to speak, she failed. After a time, she barely managed, “why?”

His form didn’t move as he addressed her. “Why you? Why me? Why any of us? Hell, why why*? But you have to remember, ‘the devil’s in the details,’ and you left a lot up to interpretation. I admit…I took some liberties.”*

“Like?”

“As long as you’re breathing, I can remain as your friend instead of your escort to hell. But that friendship is also a tether, one preventing me from returning before you die. It’s unhealthy for a devil to be away for so long. I’m starving. And soon, it’ll be my time.”

She shook her head. “Just tell me what I can do.”

“You can do nothing. You will do nothing. When a contract holder dies, it voids.”

“But I don’t want you to die!”

“And I don’t want you to go to hell. So…we’re even. I…don’t know what happens…to devils…when they die. I’d say…I’d get back to you on that. But I don’t think I will.”

His body turned to ash and kicked up on the wind.

Emmy Lou tried to close them in a hug but they spun away, his weight suddenly shifting from her arms and into her heart, leaving her off balance to collapse into the grass. It hurt. Everything did.

In time, she would question why he did this to her. Also in time, she would ask why he did this for her. But she already had the answer to both. He simply did what he said; he became her friend.

Reddit Writing Prompt:

As a devil, your deal is making pacts with humans, a soul in exchange for a wish. This time, it’s a dying adolescent, and her only wish is for you to stay with her until her last breath leaves her body.