jannock
[jan-uh k]
1. honest; fair; straightforward.
***********************
The man was tall and thin. He wore a neatly pressed three-piece suit and sported a neatly trimmed
mustache and goatee. The only thing he was missing was a monocle and a top hat. He stood directly
in front of Troy and Josh like he was expecting them.
“Hello boys.” He said. “Fine night, isn’t it?”
The two young men looked at each other, and then to the odd man.
“Uh, I guess?” Troy said. Both of them took a few slow steps back.
“Now, now, don’t be alarmed. I have no ill intentions towards either of you. No, what I want is a
simple business transaction.”
“What?” Josh asked.
“I want to make a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“The simplest kind there is. I do something, and then you do something. Simple as that. In more
complicated terms, I perform a service for you two. Anything you want, just name it and it can be done.
Then, at a time of my choosing, you perform an action in service of me. Simple, isn’t it?”
“I guess.” Troy said slowly. “What kind of things can you give us?” He was very ready to refuse at
any time, but curiosity got the better of him.
“Anything. Anything at all. The sky’s the limit, really. Whatever you can imagine, I can provide.
You want endless wealth? It will be done. The love of you life? Easy. Power over the world? Done.
Anything and everything can be granted.”
Josh and Troy looked at each other with a very different look in their eyes.
“Yeah, thanks for the offer, but we’ll be going now.” Troy said.
“Ah, I see. Of course you don’t believe me. I don’t blame you, really. Of course such grandiose
claims would need evidence to back them up. How about a freebee? One simple request, free of
charge. Of course, nothing big, mind you. Just a little sample.”
“Okay, how about a new computer? Top of the line.” Troy said.
“Hm. Pushing the limits of small, but I suppose that’s acceptable, if only just.”
The man put his hands together. Black and red light surrounded them, giving off an eerie glow to the
man. The light pulsed like the beating of a heart and left his hands, hovering in the air. The light
swirled and shifted, forming the rough outline of a laptop. It shrank to the appropriate size and
dimensions. Then it stopped. The light vanished, leaving a high end laptop in its wake. The computer
slowly descended in front of Troy, hovering there until he gingerly held out his hands, at which point
gravity took hold of the device. The two young men looked dumbfounded at the newly created
computer.
“There we go, one top of the line computer, as requested. Now, do I have your attention?”
“Oh yeah, definitely.” Josh said. His mind was already racing with what he wanted.
“What...how...did...how did you? What are you?” Troy stammered before asking the complete
question.
“Well, technically speaking I’m an angel.” The well dressed man said while stroking his beard.
“An angel, huh? That wouldn’t happen to be of the fallen variety, would it?”
“Depends on who you ask. Some would call me fallen, yes. As for myself, I prefer differently
oriented.”
“So you are a demon then.”
“Oh goodness no. No I am most certainly not a demon. Reprehensible creatures, demons. The
worst, really. Don’t go associating with that lot if you want to keep your skin intact.”
“Why should we trust you? WHy trust a fallen angel? I mean, aren’t you guys always tricking
us humans with bad deals?”
The man looked shocked and held his hand over his heart. “You wound me, sir. Such
accusations. I will have you know I am an honest, forthright businessman. I will never attempt
to trick you, nor will I bog you down with, ugh, fine print. The terms of my deal are always
straightforward and simple to understand. I provide a service, you do me a favor. Plain and
simple. And no, I don’t know what the favor will be. I can tell you that it will not involve the
separation of either of you from your souls. I have no interest in those. Others do though.
They’re the ones who delight in tricking people. Not me though. No, it will be some sort of
service that I require.”
Troy thought about it. It was hard to know if the fallen angel was actually telling the truth or not.
He looked to his friend. Josh seemed to have made up his mind already.
“Okay, fine. But with some extra terms.”
“Of course, of course.”
“You can’t ask for anything criminal. Like, no stealing or murdering or anything.”
The man thought about that. “Yes, I find those limits agreeable. Very well, one request each, for one...
legal favor from each of you. Deal?”
Josh let out a heavy sigh.
“Okay, deal.”
***************************
I'm sure NOTHING will go wrong. Yup, everything will be TOTALLY fine, with everything working
out perfectly for these two. No way this will EVER come back to bit them. Nope.
No comments:
Post a Comment