Bargain (A1)

Prompt A1: A day late, a dollar short, and the door is locked.

As soon as she steps off of the bus, she sprints to her apartment.

It’s not the nicest neighborhood, but it’s one she could afford. Or rather it was one she could afford before she was laid off of her job. Unemployment and temp work only went so far. She finally managed to get and advance and she was going to drop the money straight in the landlord’s hand before it was too late.

He’d say it was already too late, and tack on some fees, but she’s still have a home, and that’s all she can ask for. A place of her own.

The streetlights turn on around her, illuminating the bags of trash on the sidewalk and scaring a stray cat from its hiding spot. She rounds the corner and takes the steps two at a time. She rings the doorbell as she tries to catch her breath. She could put the cash envelope in the door slot, but he’d likely take it and claim she didn’t pay him. He really was a terrible man, but there wasn’t much choice for her.

“Go away.” He answers as she rings the bell again. “I changed the locks. You are no longer my tenant. This is trespassing.”

“Wait… No! What do you mean? I have the money. My life is in that room!” She screams at the door. “This is illegal!” she shouts as she bangs her fist on the door in front of her.

There is no answer.

Illegal or not, she’s without a place to sleep. She’s without a home, again. She’s a day late, a dollar short, and the doors are locked.

“You know, I could help with that.” The voice rolls over her shoulders with malice, leaving goosebumps in their wake as the hair on her neck stood on edge.

“Was this your doing?” She asks, turning over to see him. He grins at her. It stretches further than a person would be able to grin, and he crosses his arms slowly as he leans on the pillar. Everything about him is just a little off. His skin is a little too mobile. His jaw a little too sharp. His eyes are too bright. His legs and arms are too skinny and his fingers too long

“Tut tut, it’s easy to blame me, but I promised you I wouldn’t intervene unless you asked me to.”

He promised her lots of things. Apparently, she summoned him ages ago, when she was a teen running from home and wishing for nothing more than a safe place with a bed and more money than she could ever spend. The strength of her wish was seen as an invitation, as intent for some sort of demonic contract, and he appeared. She’d sent him away. He left, but he appears every so often to remind her of his power and her wish.

“I told you, I never will bargain with you. I’m going to make it on my own.”

“You never even let me explain-”

“And I won’t now!” She shouts. She crushes the envelope of cash in her hands. It’s not enough for a deposit. It will somehow have to last her weeks. There is nowhere for her to return home to and she won’t go back to the homeless shelter, not after the last time.

Lightning streaks across the sky, and the rain and thunder come a second later. He turns to the street, as if curious, but his eyes glow with malice. It rolled off of him in waves. Even now, in the casual way he watches her shake.

She’s shaking. She angrily wipes away her tears but they keep coming. She lets out a whimper, then a sob. Her entire life is in that envelope now, and it’s not even enough to feed her. All of her hard work and she has nothing.

She is nothing.

“Let me help.” He says.

His voice rolls over her, sweet like honey in its temptation. What could he want from her that would be worth his help now? She couldn’t turn over the eternity her soul had for the century her body does. She never let him ask. Maybe… Maybe it’s not so bad…

“How?”