Infernal Contract: Bugsby, The Dark Apprentice (III)

--- Booker H. Freeman ---

“You know what? Why not?” He laughed, appreciating the boy’s gumption. “One permanent contract between you and I, and I’ll set all of these souls free.” He agreed, offering his hand and a smile full of fangs.

The boy Bugsby, swallowed clearly sensing the weight of what he was about to do. A hesitation that lasted for but a moment before the boy slapped his hand against Booker’s.

(Greed: Alrighty then, let’s do this!)

Power -one so very different and yet so similar to his omnipresent hunger- surged out from within his core, crawling down long limbs, and into the palm of his hand where he grasped the (foolishly) heroic boy’s.

Busby’s face twisted as the power creeped into the boy’s flesh, slowly signing their dark pact as the power accumulated on the back of the boy’s hand.

(Greed: Watch close now…)

He twisted the boy’s hand so that he could watch with dark fascination as black and red lightning danced upon the boy’s skin, his power creeping into the Bugsby’s flesh and slowly signing their dark pact in the blackest of inks as a pair of rabbits one with antlers and one without formed on the back of the boy’s hand. (The same emblem on my watch…)

(Pride: Our emblem.)

As the flow of power came to an end he let go of Bugsby’s hand with a grin, clearly able to feel a connection between his power and the boy. A connection that while but a trickle, he could tell was slowly feeding into his own power once more.

(Greed: This’ll do nicely~)

(Envy: He has no idea what he’s signed on for…)

(Lust: A new friend!)

(Sloth: A new minion.)

Bugsby rubbed at his hand, before giving a (hideous) grimace upon catching sight of the mark on the back of it.

“Come now my boy, put on a smile!” He told the lad with a maddening grin. “After all, it’s not every day that you save a dozen souls from a delightfully demented demon!”

(Envy: Not that we could’ve really done much with them.)

(Wrath: Better to leave such things to their natural cycle.)

“Speaking of…” He turned towards the nearest coffin not harboring a deceased necromancer. (How do I free these without letting all of their power loose?)

(Envy: Just open the coffin and break the salt line. In that order if you want to siphon as much power as you can.)

Keeping that in mind, he stepped up to the coffin and began undoing its latches in reverse order of how he’d done the necromancer’s prison.

Upon cracking the coffin open a smidge he was flooded with a warm light that, (Honestly, that kind of burns…) He grinned through grit teeth.

(Wrath: This soul truly was innocent.)

(Envy: And that innocence is why it burns.)

(Gluttony: It’s not ripe enough…)

(Greed: Are we at least getting something out of this?)

(Envy: Something, but not a lot… The heat is rising though. So we might want to break the circle before it becomes too much.)

He slid his foot back and broke the salt circle, allowing the warmth to rush past him like a hot summer breeze, and allowing him in turn to regain his sense from such an odd experience.

(Do we have any idea what caused that?) He wondered, as he used the coffin lid to maintain his balance while he shook his head clear.

(Envy: Given our own… Demonic nature, and our use of Sin, it’s possible that a true innocence is… an anathema of sorts… maybe?)

(Pride: You sound unsure of your hypothesis.)

(Envy: I reiterate that I’m working with only half the book.)

(Yes, but how could a soul be so innocent?) What little he could remember of humanity, said that wasn’t normally possible. Even ones as young as Bugsby and Lydia lacked this much innocence.

(Wrath: Suffering brings refinement…)

(Gluttony: Or corruption.)

(Meaning?) He stepped away from the coffin, allowing it to open. (Oh…)

Inside the steel tomb was a body, one old, decayed, and so very small…

His eyes drifted to the other eleven coffins as his mouth began to twitch, before falling on the last one in the center of the circle where he could just make out the deceased necromancer’s face behind the glass.

(Wrath: He didn’t suffer nearly enough.)

(No. He did not.)

(Sloth: Nothing we can do about it right now.)

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

(Envy: Beyond letting the rest free.) A task he wasted no time in completing fully aware of the fact that Bugsby’s eyes were on him the entire time he spent opening the coffins and breaking the circles.

Something that became more apparent the longer he took, until with a grin strained from the constant burning exposure to innocence he found himself turning towards Bugsby. Only to freeze as he caught sight of the pale lady with midnight black hair and dark clothes lined with silver standing behind the boy.

His heart pounded within his chest, the organ desperate to escape the bones that caged it as his mouth somehow went dry and watered at the same time as he stared at the (beautiful/terrifying/amazing/wretched/delightful) woman in front of him, his every instinct assuring him that she was in no way whatsoever human.

“Who… who are you?” He asked, his question making the pale lady’s smile grow.

Bugsby followed his gaze before looking back at him with a look of confusion. “Who is who?”

The pale lady disappeared from behind the boy before suddenly reappearing in front of Booker and forcing him to take a step back. Pinning him against the necromancer’s coffin as she put two fingers to his torso.

“I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight.” The woman told him, her voice feeling him with (fear/awe/hate/love) as she walked her fingers up his torso. An effect that made his heartbeat all the more apparent with each step, even more so as they went up his throat. “You know, usually I take issue when people cheat me but…”

The pale lady stared into his eyes and he could feel something inside of him writhing under her gaze, her smile taking on a (fascinating/horrifying/loving) edge. “You broke in such a beautiful way, I can’t wait to see what you become after stagnating for so long.”

“W-what?” He stuttered out with a nervousness he hadn’t once felt since awakening in that alley.

The pale lady pulled his chin down until their lips were mere inches apart. “It’ll make it all the greater when I finally make you mine again.”

He blinked and the woman was gone, leaving him with wide eyes, a pounding heart, and a manic grin as he tried to gather himself. “Who… who was that?!”

(Pride: The keeper of all secrets…)

(Greed: A collector of the finest things…)

(Lust: A friend who’ll always be there in the end…)

(Envy: The one to accept you no matter your sins…)

(Gluttony: A connoisseur who puts our hunger to shame…)

(Wrath: The only true fairness in this world or the next…)

(Sloth: Where wary souls can finally lay their heads to rest…)

“Death…” He realized breathlessly. “But why was she here? Now?!”

“Who?” A voice asked.

His eyes snapped to Bugsby, watching him with an odd mix of fear, concern, and confusion as the boy reminded him that he was not alone with himself.

“Who was here?” Bugsby repeated.

He wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that question, especially as flustered as he currently was and the fact that it was clear the boy hadn’t seen what he had.

“That doesn’t matter.” He smiled at the boy, fully aware it was even more crazed than his usual one. “What does matter however is that I believe I have now fulfilled my end of our little bargain… Unless you’ve more coffins stored away somewhere?”

“I hope not…” Bugsby practically whimpered.

(So do I…) He wasn’t really up for continuing to burn himself alive at the moment.

A solemn sort of silence fell over both of them, the Demon and Practitioner both unsure of how to feel about recent events. At least until the Practitioner broke the silence.

“So… what now?”

He blinked before considering the question. (Is… is there anything else to do here?)

(Greed: Nope. Our deal is binding, and we’ve fulfilled our end of it already. We’ve also got a decent amount of… something to take back with us.)

(Envy: It’s Anima, a form of life energy. Most mortal magic -or the safe ones at least- use it.)

“Well, I do believe I’ve accomplished everything I’ve set out to do for now.” He admitted, seeing no other reason to stick around. “Unless there’s something else you wish to ask of me?”

“No I meant… What, what do I do now?” The boy asked while raising the emblem on the back of his hand. “What does this mean?”

(Greed: It means he can summon us whenever he wants to make a deal, or whenever we feel like collecting on one of his debts. Though that investment will take time to mature.)

(Pride: Perhaps that Dimensional Drift phenomenon will aid us with speeding that up a bit.)

(Lust: Ooh, ooh, or we can take him back with us so Lydia has a friend!)

(Envy: Which would mean uprooting him and taking him from everything he knows when he’s already in a bad spot.)

(Lust: Oh, that would be bad wouldn’t it?)

(Greed: Not just because it means we’d probably be tossing away half his value.)

(Sloth: Yeah, he’s more useful as a mortal minion than one back home. Here he can do work that we can’t. Maybe even make things easier for future deals.)

(In that case…) “It would be best for you to return to your normal life for now. Should you wish to make another lesser deal you can now call me whenever you please, though I may pop in to see how things are progressing should the mood strike me.” He explained to the lad.

(Lust: Oh, you really should not have said it that way…)

(Sloth: This is going to be a pain…)

(What do you mean?)

“Return to my normal life?” Bugsby repeated as the boy began to shake. “How am I supposed to go back to my normal life when there’s nothing left of it?! I mean, my family’s dead and I’m, I’m the one to blame! Me! I could’ve stopped this but I didn’t and now! I’m a murderer now, no better than-than, him!” The boy glared at the coffin next to Booker before turning it onto him. “And to top it all off I’m now bound to you, a Demon who was happy to eat the souls of a bunch of kids I helped gather! So tell me, how the fuck am I supposed to go back to a normal life now?!”

(Ah…) “Perhaps there was a better way to have phrased that.” He admitted, as he ran a hand through his hair, not quite sure how he was supposed to handle the crying child in front of him.

(Pride: He needs a purpose. A direction to keep him moving towards. Without one, he’ll continue to blame himself and never work through these issues.)

(Envy:…)

(Sloth:…)

(Wrath:…)

(Alright, but… what kind of purpose?)

(Lust: Oh! He could make some friends to help make the hard times better! That way he doesn’t sit alone thinking about all the thoughts that make him want to cry when no one is looking!)

(Wrath: Given what he did tonight. Perhaps a form of penance will sate him. We could show him how to properly deal with those that dare to harm the innocent.)

(Gluttony: Yes, we’ll show him how to hunt down the monsters as the prey they are.)

(Pride: That’s perhaps a bit much for one so young. Why not start him off with something more intellectual such as learning to use the workshop above to build something from the pain?)

(Envy: If we’re going to be teaching him things… Maybe teaching him magic -the lighter things- will help him handle all of this. Show him there’s still something good beyond the darkness.)

(Good ideas all around.) He wanted to suggest all of them, but-

(Sloth: Kid can only split himself so thin before he overworks himself and breaks. If he tried to do more than one, maybe two, of these he’d end up doing more harm than good.)

He turned his attention back to the lad who had spent the last few moments sobbing awkwardly, before suggesting that the boy try [Insert Scene Choice]