The sound of burning air and the smell of smokey doom alerted me that he had returned. "Having fun, Servo5678?" he asked.

I turned around in my computer chair slowly, afraid of what I'd see but knowing I had to see it. "So you've come to collect," I said. Satan himself was standing there, his hooves leaving nasty imprints in the carpet and the cloud of ash that surrounded him coating my walls with black soot.

"Well, being the Devil and all that is what I do. We had a deal, Servo. I gave you one week's worth of story ideas for the Halloween quest and now it's time to pay the price."

"It can't be time already. There's still so much more to write. I mean, sure I've covered the jelly lady, the lover with a secret, the talking snake, the digital woman, the enchanted music book, and the mysterious plant, but I'm not done yet. What about the story about the redneck vampire bar or the one about the haunted dance club? And I really think I can do something neat with the demon who sells souls on eBay. Plus I've heard from dozens of people that I've never heard from before. They all love what I've been coming up with and want to see more. Someone suggested I try to get my work published and one of my pieces even got an ed-cool!"

"Now now, Servo, you know that XP and C!s don't mean a thing in the end."

"I know, but, please, just a few more days. I can do so much more!"

"The quest is over, Servo. Accept it. Now put away your ideas for next year and let's get you started on my payment."

"Fine," I said, defeated. We had a deal, after all, and backing out of a deal with the devil is never a good idea. Satan held out his palm and an ornate scroll appeared in it in a small blast of flame.

"I have here the topics of your next one hundred writeups," he explained. "They're all obscure video games that nobody either knows of or cares about."

"Please, no!"

"We'll begin," he said with an evil glint in his eyes, "With Nester's Funky Bowling!"

My screams echoed throughout the nodegel.


Written for The Blood is the Life: A Frightful Halloween Quest.

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