Devil's Soul

Chapter 6 (the Devil's favorite digit)

One week after Abhinav, Chung, and I started practicing yoga and meditation every day (yes, every single day), things were finally starting to click for me. I felt more aware and in control of my body. I started to be able to sense when my eyes were going to change. The sense enabled me to put the sunglasses on before the change happened. Once I learned to feel the change coming on, I concentrated on that feeling and studied it. Eventually, with a lot of focus, I could change my eyes at will. I was still a little rocky with this after only a week of meditation, but it was progress, and I was feeling good!

After the session on Monday, my friends and I were in a delightful mood as we loaded into the Zipcar (which is not really cost effective when you start to use it every day, by the way).

"Turn them on! Turn them on!" Abhinav cheered.

I grinned. "Alright, I'll try, just give me a sec." I paused by the car door, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and found a quiet space in my mind. Then I opened my eyes.

Abhinav and Chung erupted into cheers and gave me high fives.

"Good job, Mavis!" Chung said.

"I knew you could do it," Abhinav told me.

"Thanks guys. I would still be hiding behind my sunglasses if I didn't have you." I opened the car door, but then closed it when I realized I had left my sunglasses inside. "Speaking of which, I left them in Mr. Bajaj's house. I'll be right back." I ran down the tree lined path to go retrieve them.

I was humming happily when I emerged from the house again because Mr. Bajaj had just told me that I had improved magnificently since I first came to him.

"You think meditation will keep me away?" a slick male voice asked.

I froze. There, right in front of me, was the Devil, wearing his suave suit. His features were a little more distinctive than the last time I had seen him. He probably had many faces. This face looked to be at least middle aged. His hair was dark and peppered with gray in a strangely tasteful fashion. He had a few wrinkles that made him appear to have a good number of years to back his wisdom and sophistication but not so many years that would make him be weathered down.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, still trying to gain my bearings.

"Well, I'm checking on you, my dear. I hope you didn't actually think that your meditation was working." He flashed me a charming smile.

"B-but it has been working," I stuttered.

He cocked his head and linked his hands behind his back. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"I wasn't trying to keep you away." I actually had started to think that he was done with me, and I would never see him again. "I was learning to control my eyes." I switched to my demon vision. Yes, I was showing off. At the time, I thought that I was just trying to support my point, but now that I'm looking back on it, I can definitely say that I was showing off. I mean, think about it. I had just acquired the skills to control the stupid eye problem that the Devil had cursed me with, and now here he was, claiming that my meditation hadn't even been working. I was freaking proud of what I could do, and I was more than happy to prove the Devil wrong.

The result was pretty satisfying. The Devil raised his eyebrows in surprise and let out a laugh. "You learned to do that all on your own? I'm impressed."

"Well, you didn't exactly leave me with a choice. It's not like you left me with an instruction manual," I said, trying to play off my new skill as being a no-biggy.

"Hey, don't be like that. If I had, you wouldn't have had this great learning experience! Look at you practicing yoga. It's so adorable!"

"Did you come here just to harass me?" I asked, wondering if he would stop me if I tried to walk past him.