Photograph | Mammon

Prologue

Mammon sighed deeply as he lay on the hospital's rooftop. He couldn't bring himself to do it... to steal a life span. Due to his ludicrous debt to the wicked witches, he made a deal to steal a few years of a human's life in exchange for money.

So he thought going to a hospital where people die all the time would be easy enough. Stealing a year or two off of people about to die was as morally correct as he could be. But he couldn't do it.

He just couldn't do it.

"Curse my humanity..." he painfully muttered trying to wrack his brain for excuses for those witches.

He sat himself up preparing to face the wrath of the witches or god forbid his eldest brother. He noticed a figure on the rooftop. A human with black hair swayed along the night breeze. He initially brushed it off until they stood on the ledge.

Were they...?

Stupid foolish humans, killing themselves. Humans were stupid... so stupid. That was what he forcefully told himself as his gaze was unable to avoid her. If she wanted to die she wouldn't have done it in such a public place... right? But isn't this an advantage for him? He could steal her remaining years before her skull crushed against the concrete...

His eyes flashed a soft yellow... to no avail, nothing appeared. He was unable to see her expected lifespan. He assumed he grew weak from not using his devil powers as often as he once did. A slight guilt swarmed in his soul. How could he even think to steal from a suicidal person? Was he truly such a corrupted soul?

"ARGH!" he groaned in self-annoyance before teleporting behind her.

His arm snaked around her body before forcefully pulling her backwards. The both of them tumbled towards the ground, the noise was loud but Mammon took most of the impact as he was confident he'd crush her beneath him and that would make this action useless.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!?" he wasn't sure if that was directed at her or him but he was pissed and needed to let it out. "IF YOU WANTED TO DIE THEN--"

"Fuck..." she loudly whispered beneath her breath.

He felt a blood vessel pop. Did this human swear at him? He was visibly appalled at how such an insignificant species was able to effortlessly belittle him with a single profanity.

"YOU--" his gaze followed hers until he found a shattered camera on the ground right where he pulled her from.

She seemed to be holding back her feelings at the moment, as she sighed while looking at him, "I'm sorry, but why did you tackle me... then yell at me?" he was silent.

The fucking audacity, of a human nonetheless!

He saved her life and she was acting like he did something wrong. But noticing the slightly tangled earphones draped around her shoulder she might have been unaware of his yells and concerns.

Her expression softened, it appeared like she understood what had happened. "I wasn't... trying to kill myself"

"Then, what were you doing on the ledge like that!?"

She gestured to the damaged camera, "A photograph..."

He knew she was being reasonable. He could not admit his error in this situation and just needed to prove himself right. "So, you're risking your life!? For a photograph?"

"Risking my life? Pfft-- look over the ledge." Her snicker and demanding tone pissed him off, but for some reason, he reluctantly obliged to her words... it was not a death drop it was just another rooftop. It was around a foot below their current height.

At the most, her ankle would sprain if she jumped. Even that was unlikely.

He continued to look down unable to meet the human's eyes. "Do you--"

"JUST-- don't speak." This time he was speaking to himself. He would not have to admit his faults if he had just shut up and left with a half-assed apology.

Now he had to, he was staring right at it—the proof of his stupidity.

He decided to handle this as a mature devil.

Without even sparing her a glance he swiftly started to walk away.

As he moved... it felt like time had slowed down. She was enamoured by his beauty, it seemed otherworldly—the contrast between his white hair and his tanned skin along with his strange but charming outfit.

Without even realising, she lifted her scuffed camera towards him.

"Eh?" She froze.

...He didn't appear on camera.