[ WP ] A demon is sent to steal a human 's soul and bring it back to Hell . Make me feel a strong emotion , whether good or bad .

“ Do you think that I ’ m bound by your time? ” 
 
 The demon sat upon an old oak stump, clawed feet digging grooves into the rotten wood. It still came up only to eye-level. 
 
 I glanced away from the window to peer at the sulfurous pits where a living thing might have had eyes. 
 
 “ I can wait for a million years. It ’ s no more than a moment of your eternal suffering. ” 
 
 I looked back into the glass. A family of four sat on an old, comfortable couch. A father, mother, two children. 
 
 “ You ’ re dead now. You can ’ t change anything. They ’ re not yours. ” 
 
 It had been speaking for years. I had been dead nearly as long. Nothing too dramatic, a heart attack at sixty-one, I think. I know how old I was, but I never really heard what killed me. 
 
 It hurt, though. 
 
 “ Imagine that pain times a million. It will feel like a feather ’ s touch before the pain I carve into you. ” 
 
 I left behind a wife and son. She died a little while after me. Maybe she went to Heaven, because I never saw her after. 
 
 “ She ’ s gone without you. She ’ ll find someone better. She ’ s in paradise, after all. ” 
 
 My son ’ s alive, but he checked out a long time ago. Dementia ran in his mother ’ s side of the family. He doesn ’ t talk anymore. He just spits and shits himself like he was a baby again. 
 
 “ There ’ s nothing left of him. His soul is stuck in there. He would scream if he remembered how. ” 
 
 I never got to meet my grandson while I was alive. All he knows of me is the stories his father told him and a single photo in his living room. I see it hanging over him right now. 
 
 “ He doesn ’ t remember you. He doesn ’ t care to. The photo is rotting. Just like you will. ” 
 
 The wife stands up and glances at the paper and ink that ’ s left of me. Something passes through her eyes. 
 
 “ Hon, who ’ s this photo of? ” 
 
 She wouldn ’ t remember. She ’ s not family. My grandson, her husband, looks at the photo as well. A moment of recognition, and then – apathy. 
 
 “ I ’ m not sure. Why? ” 
 
 I know he recognizes it. 
 
 “ It stares, hon. Do you mind if I move it? ” 
 
 I don ’ t want her to. The photo is me. 
 
 “ No, go ahead. ” 
 
 She places the photo face down on the table. Before the world around me becomes void, I see a look of mild satisfaction on her face. 
 
 “ That was it. All that was left of you. We ’ re leaving now. This is how our forever begins. ” 
 
 The demon grins, but then for the first time in sixty years, its features soften. 
 
 “ Sorry. ” 
 
 Together we are dragged down, for the first time and once again. 

