Chapter 7

The conditions of the contract were simple enough. As long as he had the strength, the stories would continue until either one could no longer continue. Considering Suit was a supernatural being, he would obviously never get tired. That left him. It had suddenly turned into a game of attrition. For him, at least. ‘That means as long as I don’t break down from tiredness, I should be okay. Thankfully I brought enough supplies, rations and a tent to last me a while.’ Anderson thought and unconsciously patted his bag.

 Next, after the setting was provided, he would tell his stories, but he needed to survive. That part was difficult to understand. Did it mean he would be stopped from telling the story? Would he be hunted down? He tried hard to not think about the guns in his duffle bag so as to not give them away. He had to be ready for anything.  

The story was considered to be over when closure and or justice had been met by all involving characters, or if he died or was unable to continue in the story. ‘Another sketchy statement, but it just means I need to give a satisfying ending to all the directly involved characters.’. Those were the main points to the contract. He just needed to not tire himself out, protect himself and give a satisfying ending.

Nodding to the demon he pulled out a jackknife and made a small cut, enough to draw blood in his palm. Suit also cut his forefinger with his thumb nail as both beings’ blood flew up to the tattered scroll and merged with it. The previous writings disappeared as new writings of blood began appearing on the scroll. After it was done it furled itself and dropped on the ground. The golden eyed Suit widened his smile even more, almost threatening to split his face, then it turned sinister, then finally into a full-blown maniacal laughter reverberating around the desolate deserted roads.

Suit picked up the scroll and tossed it to Anderson “As a measure of goodwill I’ll let you keep it” He said with the friendliest smile. Suit cleared his throat and straightened his jacket with a calm visage and stared at Anderson with an almost childlike anticipating look in his eyes.

“Once upon a tim…” Anderson had no idea what was about to happen, but e could only start and figure things out as they came.

“What are you doing?” Suit looked at him as if he was dumb, cutting him off from his ‘story telling’. Anderson who was now quiet was beginning to have a bad feeling. “No, no, no, no no, dear boy. That is not how this works. I give you the setting of the story, you tell me your side of it, then you survive what I throw at you. I told you. I’m feeling improv.” Suit was almost laughing at Anderson. “Well, calm down first.” A black wooden chair with the back as tall as a grown man suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It had intricately carved designs all over. It looked like chair fit for royalty. Suit fixed his tie and walked slowly towards it before sitting down with his legs crossed. “Don’t disappoint me.” With that, he snapped his fingers. Anderson who was about to say something, suddenly felt dizzy before everything went black.

…

“Ander…ke up..” The words were inaudible but they kept repeating in his mind. He tried so hard to properly listen to the words, but the darkness he was seeing was not helping much. It sounded as if the person trying to speak the words were so far from him, trying to shout it to him. Fortunately, it seemed to be drawing closer and closer. “Wake p” The words were finally closer and much more audible. ‘Wake?’ He thought to himself. Looking out in the darkness, it looked like a blurry face that kept drawing closer to him as the words became more audible.

Now that it was closer, he could tell that the voice sounded uncomfortably familiar. Anderson patiently waited for the glowing lamps to get closer, but it stopped a few meters from him. Anderson became confused until it suddenly appeared before him. What he thought to be lamps were deep glowing golden eyes. Upon closer look he saw a burnt face with blood dripping down the mouth. The person with the burnt face run towards Anderson, and stood right in his face.  “Wake Up!”

“AAAH!!” Startled awake by the weird dream, Anderson screamed out. He tried to sit up but immediately fell back down as a wave of dizziness washed over him and slight nausea. Thankfully, he fell back unto what he could assume was a bed, although quite uncomfortable, it was better than falling on the hard ground. ‘Huh? A bed? Where did the bed come from?’ Still groggy, he looked to his left, only to see nothing but white walls. No matter where he turned to, he only saw white walls.

Perhaps he was still dreaming after blacking out? The situation was too odd. Anderson’s vision was still a little blurry. He closed his eyes a for a short while, trying to think about what might have happened and hoping to wake up from the ‘dream’ he was in. For some reason, he was feeling uncomfortable. Like he was being restricted for some reason. After laying there for a while, the grogginess he was feeling gradually faded. Still with his eyes closed, he slowly sat up on the bed with some difficulty, not wanting to experience that earlier feeling of dizziness and nausea.

He slowly opened his eyes, praying to whatever he could, that what he saw earlier was but a dream. Too bad for him. With his eyes fully open, came the feeling of dread. The four walls of the room were padded white. There was nothing else except for the bed he laid on. Looking down, he finally saw what made him uncomfortable. His breathing began to quicken as he recognized the dull white straight jacket he was locked with. His thoughts began to race, as he hyperventilated. ‘Where am I? Was I not with the demon? Is this his doing?’ The more he thought, the faster his breathing. Finally unable to handle it any more, he let lose a vomit of spit and gastric contents before his eyes rolled up to the back of his head, with darkness greeting him once more.