Contract [PART II]

"Can I go now?"

"Of course," He waved the parchment about, waiting for the bloody signature to dry. "Our agreement is set."

"It'll really work?" She shivered out of nowhere and wrapped her jacket tighter around her shoulders. The night was getting colder.

"When have I lied to you dearie? The life of the one you hate the most, for riches beyond your imagination - just as it was written."

She really didn't like his smile, which held an undertone of mockery under that merry twinkle of his eye. It was almost as if he was an audience to an amusing show, anticipating a hilarious end.

"I'm going then. Goodbye." She turned around and walked away briskly. Turning her back to a dangerous demon was uncomfortable, but she ignored the sensation of fear that brushed along her spine like spider legs.

…

When she got home, the house was dark. The sight made her quicken her step. Almost running to the front door, she fumbled with the keys before shoving the right on into the lock. She tried several times before finally opening the aged lock with a curse. Flipping on the hallway lights, she kicked off her shoes before hurrying towards the little room at the end of the hall.

"Mum?" The little boy's voice was still soft with sleep. He yawned audibly and called again. "Mum?"

She opened the door, amber light seeped softly through the crack and illuminated the sparse room. "Hey Sammy. Mommy's here."

"Mum? Where'd you go?"

"Mommy had to run an errand." She walked over to the chair besides the bed and plopped down wearily. "Did you have a good dream Sammy?" She rubbed his fuzzy head.

Sammy struggled to sit up, almost swimming in the heavy blankets around him. His frail form sunk into the pillows, so thin and small that he almost disappeared into the baby blue bedding.

She got up immediately to help prop him up. Making sure that he was comfortable with a pillow wedged between his bony back and the wall, she kissed him on the forehead before settling back down into her seat.

"I dreamt that you, me, and Isaac were at the beach that we went for my birthday." Sammy's face was full of seriousness as he told his little story like headline news.

She smiled and nodded, but her mind was far away. The beach last year. Yes she remembered it well. It was one of the rare happy moments after the divorce. Between the tedious legal work and the emotional spiral, she somehow managed to find the time and took the boys to the beach.

Sammy had been ecstatic, running around chasing after his brother, splashing her with water before getting scolded. The sun had been bright, and the air tasted faintly of salt and seaweed. It was at that moment that she decided to pick herself up and give her boys a good life. But reality always finds a way to thwart hopeful dreams. Shortly after that trip to the beach, Sammy was diagnosed with leukemia.

After the broken marriage, she'd naively thought that divorce was the most eventful year in her life. But Sammy's condition quickly escalated, and watching her baby boy suffer through the treatments was worse than anything she's gone through. Divorce and heartbreak didn't even come close to the despair that she carried every day for the past year as she worked her fingers to the bone trying to cough up enough money to keep him on his treatment.

Throughout it all, Sammy had been trying to stay strong for his family in his own quirky ways. She's caught him shaving his own head in the bathroom before, saying that he wanted to be just like One-Punch Man when the chemotherapy made his beautiful curls fall out in clumps.

"Mum? Where's Isaac?" Sammy's thin hands tugged on her sleeve to draw her attention.

She blink slowly. Yeah, where was her eldest son anyways? When she got home the lights weren't on, but usually Isaac arrived home long before it got dark.

Just then, the telephone suddenly rang, startling both her and Sammy and interrupting her answer to his question. She got up and left to get the phone, but not before leaving Sammy with words of assurance and another gentle pat on the head.

She picked up the phone with a frown, who was calling at this hour of the night?

The sound of sirens and panicked voices on the other end muffled the speaker's words, but the sparse sentences she managed to catch made her blood run cold.