Short Stories By Yours Truly

| #6 Forever |

"Are you sure you want this?" The young man asked his girlfriend.

The girl, Naomi, nodded. She was sure she wanted it. She was sure she was ready.

"Alright, I'll do it," Naomi's boyfriend said with a small smile. He placed his hand onto Naomi's forehead and muttered something in Latin. His skin turned ashen and as he closed his eyes, Naomi could see her boyfriend's true form emerging from within him, his eyes turning an endless pool of black abyss.

A wicked smile made its way onto her boyfriend's lips, revealing sharp jagged teeth stained in black goo. Naomi  felt afraid, but she thought she was supposed to feel afraid. Her gut told her to back out, to tell Ziggy not to do this, but she couldn't. It was too late.

Ziggy's palm pushed on Naomi's forehead, making the girl fall into the lake behind her. She expected to feel cold water wrap around her as she sank into the bottom of the lake,but she didn't.

Instead, she saw the same black goo that had stained Ziggy's teeth. This black goo grabbed on to Naomi's limbs and hair, pulling on them and refusing to let go. Naomi struggled against the dense goo, unable to get out of its grasp.

"Don't do that, Naomi," Ziggy said, opening his black eyes. His transformation had finished and his body had morphed into something that didn't look like Ziggy. His deep dark curls and mocha brown skin were replaced by deep green scales, brown eyes dilated to the point that only his iris could be seen. His formerly perfectly white teeth were now stained black and sharp as knives, and his legs had changed into a snake-like tail. He looked nothing like the Ziggy that Naomi had grown to love over the past two months.

Naomi kept struggling against the goo as it slowly changed from the lukewarm temperature it was when she was pushed into it to a temperature surely above boiling. The goo that was stuck on Naomi's skin burned her and she screamed in agony.

Ziggy only laughed at her pain, slithering into the black goo and stopping next to her. He placed his finger onto his lips to tell her to be quiet. "You wanted this, Naomi. This is how you can live forever, just like you wanted to. You just have to get through this," He said.

"You just have to live through the pain."

...

Naomi woke up with a sheen of cold sweat covering her dark skin. She ran a hand through her curls, only to have her hand get tangled up in them. She needed to brush her hair.

It had been so long since that day at the lake. Since the day she was pushed into the black abyss and nearly torn apart by smoldering hot goo.

When she'd woken up later that day, out of the lake and with no traces of the goo on her body or hair, she felt like something had changed. Like she was missing something.

She returned to her home, not caring much about it, but as years went by and everyone else got older, Naomi stayed the same. She still looked sixteen, no matter what she did.

Eventually she was forced to abandon her life as she knew it just because people began to wonder why she wasn't getting older. She disappeared from the lives of her family and friends.

Even Ziggy had disappeared, but not for long enough.

Ninety years came and went after Naomi left her previous life before she met Ziggy again. He looked the same as he had that day at the lake before he'd pushed her into the lake.

Naomi knew he was watching her, she felt his eyes on her as she walked across the street.

He followed he home that day. He never said a single word, just stared and followed as Naomi made her way inside her small studio apartment. She locked her door behind her in attempt to keep him out, but as she turned around, Ziggy stood mere metres away from her.

"I see you haven't aged. Good," he said with a smirk.

"You haven't aged either," Naomi stated, unsure of whether or not to feel threatened by Ziggy.

"People like me don't age, Naomi dearest. And neither do people like you," Ziggy answered, turning around to go sit on the couch.

"You never told me what you are," Naomi said. "You just told me you could get me what I wanted if I signed a contract."

Ziggy sighed, making himself comfortable on the small leather couch. "I thought you already figured out that I'm a demon of sorts," He said, placing one leg on top of another.

"A demon?"

"Didn't you read the contract? It said my position on it. Silly girl," Ziggy muttered. "I know you want something now. I can feel it, the question is what exactly is that something that you want."

Naomi chose to ignore Ziggy's words and answered his question. "I want this to stop. I want to age like normal. I just want to die," She said.

A smile made its way onto Ziggy's lips and he stood up to approach Naomi. "I can't do that," He said, hands cradling Naomi's face.

"Why not?" Naomi demanded. She felt anger bubbling up in her. All she wanted was to die. Was that too much to ask for?

"Because I don't have the power to break a contract. You made a deal by promising me your soul and I gave you what you asked for," The demon said.

"But-"

Ziggy shushed her before she could get any more words out. "No buts. I can't undo a contract, no matter how much I would wan to, - which I really don't - I just don't have the power to do that. You have to figure out how to die by yourself. I won't help you," He said, letting go of Naomi's face.

He turned around and took a few steps away from her. "I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer, Naomi dearest," Ziggy whispered before disappearing in a black cloud of smoke, only two footprints of the same black goo Naomi had encountered before left behind as proof of Ziggy's visit.

Naomi fell to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks. She'd already tried everything. Every way to try to die that she could think of,  she'd tried it, but it never worked because every time she tried, she still woke up.

---

May 8, 2020

1088 words

It's been a hot minute, eh?

Anyway this is inspired by the song The Wolf And The Sheep by Alec Benjamin.

Thanks to -galactictraveler for reminding me that this song exists.