The man with the golden hair stood right in front of me with his hand outstretched out.
It was hard to move in the circle, so I just looked at him from the corner of my eyes.
I was panicking, the surroundings resembled the place where my sister and me encountered the creature, but it seemed that a lot of time had passed. Then there was this circle that made it hard for me to move and that I was surrounded by strangers. And final, but not least the fact that this wasn't my boy. I had no idea what to do, and then came this guy calling me a demon and saying that he wanted to make a deal.
Then the man continued.
"My name is Alex, and this is Gert. the grill who is chanting is Elisa ant the last one is Allenya. If you follow the commands of our boss, Yerald, you can have all our souls."
I couldn't care less. Everything I believed in, everything I thought had meaning had crumbled to pieces. But something seemed suspicious.
"If he wants my aid, why give me your souls?"
Alex looked at me in shock. Then it seemingly hit him. He directed his gaze towards the rest of his group, who had all the same expression at this point. Even touch Elisa was still chanting.
Allenya nodded towards Alex.
Alex looked back at me.
"Fine, then you can have his soul."
I didn't know how much a soul was worth, how it should be handed to me, what I should do with it and for how long I had to follow Yeralds orders. But I just didn't care anymore. All I wanted to do was lie down and cry.
Alex continued.
"Now, do we have a deal?"
I managed to fully turn around in the circle. It seemed that it became harder to move as time went by. I shook his hand with my now clawed, scaled, red hand.
"Deal!"
As I shook his hand indicating that I agreed to the deal. A quick flash of energy ran trough our hands like an electric shock
The moment I agreed to the deal was the moment Elisa stopped chanting and the circle disappeared. It crumbled to pieces resembling white blossom flawing down from the spring threes, and simply disappeared with the wind. She fell to her knees and was trembling all over. It seemed that keeping the circle active took a heavy toll on her.
I felt bad for her, but I didn't know how to help her.
Luckily, Gert who stood next to her helped her up. He had no longer that serious look in his eyes. It felt like the heavy wind had blown away all the pressure along with the glowing fragments of the circle, now that the deal was made.
"I know that I'm not in the position to ask this, but would you like to follow us to Yerald?"
I had no reason to refuse Alex's request, so, I simply nodded.
He walked in the direction of the mountains. I slowly followed him. Thoughts about my situation ran through my mind.
("why did I agree to eventually take the soul of this Yerald person? And what really happened that time? If I was brought back like this, could the same happen to Allice?")
"By the way, what is your name?"
Alex's voice interrupted my rai of thoughts, he was being rather annoying.
("Can't he stop talking for five minutes?!")
"Gustave."
"wow, I didn't expect such a human sounding name for a demon. I don't know of any demons with a name like that. Is this your first time being summoned?"
"yes"
"How was it on the other side?"
I didn't want to answer that question, so I just shrugged.
Gert and Allenya walked the whole time behind me with their weapons ready. Only Elisa didn't seem to have a weapon. But I was sure that she could fight me of just as well as her companions with her chanting.
Alex continued to bombard me with questions as we walked up the mountain. However, I didn't have the answers to those questions, so I tried to ignore Alex, who for some reason had to be annoying.
Eventually he realised that I had stopped giving answers and stopped asking questions.
I wold be happy with that, if not for the flashbacks that continued to enter my mind now that I had time to think without the annoying sounds that Alex made. Sounds that were called, asking questions that I had no answer to.
Because of the newfound silence and terrible memory's that entered my mind as long as I wasn't distracted, I decided to pay attention to my surrounding a bit more.
The area hadn't chanced much from what I remembered. The mountains stood as glorious as ever and the river flowing through the lively green hills was still the same. The only thing different was my village. The place where I created so much memory's, the place that was so lively and warm and the place where I knew everyone name and story. All of that was in ruins.
Even from up here I could clearly see the lanterns that once lid up the dark street in the night with a flickering fire that seemed to dance to its own rhythm, were now thrown over. Never more would they lid up the night.
And then there were the buildings that I had known since the day I could walk. Each of those buildings had their own creative twist to it. Some had plants hanging from the walls, seated in decorated pots. Those buildings who once brought the life to the village were now completely destroyed, crumbled to pieces, never to be brought back again, never to emit such life again.