SCENT OF CALLING
A long, tiring day in school. You immediately plop down your bed without even bothering to change clothes due to fatigue. Staring at the ceiling, you mumble to yourself: It's just the same boring thing every day, isn't it?
You breathe out a long sigh, hating the mediocrity of your life. Everything about you is on the brink of downfall: your grades, your parents' marriage, and your love life (which, to be honest, was never really that existent). The lack of exciting things to look forward to and the abundance of depressing things to think about traps you in this strange middle ground. A boy lost in the gray area.
As you are about to close your eyes, the scent of something burning engulfs your entire room.
"What the..." Startled, you stand up to find the source of the scent. "Is something burning?"
And so without warning, you suddenly vanish in a cloud of smoke. Opening your eyes, you find yourself standing on a pentagram drawn on the ground with blood, surrounded by a ring of black candles." Why am I...in the middle of a dark freaking forest?" you mutter to yourself as you look around.
"It worked! It actually worked!" said the excited voice of a man behind you. You turn around to see a teenage boy wearing school uniform, looking like he's just around your age. Still bouncing in excitement, he pulls something out of his backpack, pointing it at you. A gun.
"W-what the fuck?" you say, retreating in fear with your hands up in the air.
"Wow, I didn't know demons are actually this afraid of guns," the boy says, staring at the weapon in his hand in amusement.
"D-demon? W-what are you t-talking about? Where am I?" you stutter, your knees now on the ground.
"You...don't know what you are?" he questions, confusion evident in his face. "You're a demon, and I just summoned you from hell because I need something.
"From...hell?"
"What's wrong?" he asks.
"N-nothing. It's just...we don't call our place 'hell' and we're not 'demons'." You pause for a bit before speaking again. "Well...actually, no. That depends on who you ask."
Turns out Earth is Hell, and we're the demons, you say in your head. Well, my shitty life makes a lot more sense now.
"Now that I think of it, you look too...human compared to how they describe your kind in the books. You're even wearing a school uniform!"
"Yeah. Weird, right? So, um...can you put the gun down now, dude? Let's discuss the deal."
"Umm...wait, just like that? You're not gonna attempt to attack me or suck my soul or something?"
"We can deal with...whatever payment you can offer after we get done with this," you say, playing along with the role just to get this over with. "What were you gonna threaten me with anyways? Aside from the gun, that is."
"Oh. Well, you can't go back to your world without my permission, so you're trapped with me anyways," he says, putting the gun back his bag along with his other things.
"C'mon, I'll show you my house," the boy says before starting to walk down the forest trail as if nothing just happened. Having no choice, you follow him, leaving the candles alone and flickering in the dark.
* * *
"So what's your case? Is this a revenge story? Want me to torment someone to death?" you say when you finally enter his room.
