Back to part one

"So, let me get this straight. For just thinking about this deal with you, I signed it? How is that fair?"

"Fairness is not part of the deal."

"Damn. I wish I had known about this. I would have made the deal more elaborate."

"Well. " The Devil looked almost embarrassed. "Fact is, that since this is a mind-deal, you are allowed to amend the deal the first 30 minutes of it's existance. You are even allowed to change some of the crucial elements, but only up to a certain point of course."

"Where is that point?" I asked. My mind immediately started working on a loophole that would get me out of this mess.

"Well, for example you can't ask for the contract to stipulate that you can keep your soul, or that the contract is only fulfilled after you have arrived in heaven or something like that."

My heart sank. Of course it could not be that easy.

"You can make the contract last for your entire lifetime, though. Since your soul really is no good to me until you die."

"May I ask what good my soul is to you, WHEN I die."

"You may. I collect souls, as you might have gathered. But the purpose of my collection is not to torment them forever, at least not in the way that you think. I collect them so that HE does not get them. Fact is that hell is quite a nice place to be. It's been getting a bad rap from his PR group, that's all."

"What? You're telling me that Hell is a nice place?"

"Nice isn't even the start of it. It's a great place. Everything associated with sin is rampant. Drugs, sex, rock'n'roll."

"Rock'n'roll isn't sin!"

"Oh, didn't you know? It is. Almost anything that's fun is sinful."

At this I had to shut up and think for a few seconds. This must be a trick, was my line of thinking. A trick to get me to choose everlasting torment. I made a quick addition to the contract.

"Good one. But I am not lying to you, nor have I lied to you so far. So I'm not in breach of the contract."

I swore to myself.

"I do plan ahead a bit, and I did see this one coming a mile away. You're one of few who have thought of it, but not the only one, and my memory is very long and thorough."

"Besides, you can't make me break the contract by adding a clause to it which I have already broken. It is only after the 30 minutes of additions have passed..." he looked at his wrist, where a golden rolex studded with diamonds told perfect time, "and 10 of them have already passed, that I sign the contract."

Again I swore to myself. My chances were deminishing by the second.

"I must also congratulate you in so quickly coming to grips with your predicament. You are a fast learning, Mr Tangiers. As I said, you have a very interesting soul."

"But you never told me what happens with it when you get it."

"It's quite simple, really, you will percieve to have ended up in a place where your most sinful dreams have come true. You will enjoy all the vices that I have to offer and then... then you will suffer great agony and mental anguish."

"What, remorse?"

"Yeah. You will regret everything you've done and promise yourself never to do them again, but just end up doing it all over again."

"Sounds like any party I've been to."

The Devil laughed at this.

"It is! It's just like that. That stuff is what I live on, you know. Only when it is under my jurisdiction the pleasures and the pains are a thousand times more potent."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Wow."

"Wow indeed. I do pride myself on that."

A silence spread inside the limousine as I considered this. I needed to think, and that asian girl, whom the Devil introduced as Mei Mei, was starting to look itching to do my back. So I took off my stinky shirt and laid face down on the back seat, which was surprisingly comfortable and didn't stick to my body as I would have imagined that leather seats would to sweaty skin.

As soon as I did so, Mei Mei's hands were all over my back, squeezing and pounding. Gently but firmly she was massaging the pain right out of my back. It fealt heavenly, to again make this inappropriate comparison.

"'Percieve to be', you said. What will actually be happening?"

"Smart man." the Devil smiled at me. "You would in fact be a part of me. Adding your life energy to mine, making me stronger. I need smart guys like you in me to make myself more effective."

"Aha."

My mind was working as hard as it could, unfortunately the lady giving me my massage was sending some of the brain's much needed blood elsewhere and the massage itself was soothing to the point of making my faculties, mere student fraternities, after a huge kegger, some bong usage and several cheerleaders at the same time.

I snapped out of it after a few moments, however, when again I was reminded of the seriousness of my predicament.

"How much time have I left?" I asked. The Devil did not even check his clock this time.

"You have five more minutes. You slept for fifteen."

"What!? Damn!"

"Indeed."

part three