Four years ago, Eliot Sanders was a nobody. On a morose day, he found a place in his own social history by making an unbreakable deal. Eliot walked out and into the country one day, not so far away from his home, and found a crossroads. Eliot found a man sitting in the middle of the fork. The man was dressed in a black suit with a cowboy hat pulled low against his brow. Eliot moved to see the man, but couldn’t meet his gaze from the mop of snaky, black hair that shielded the man’s eyes. The man stood, towering over Eliot and blocking the little amount of sunshine. “I’ll make you a deal.” The man said, eyes flickering with fire under his brim. “I’ll give you what you want, if you give me what I want.” The man clicked his black alligator skin boots against the gravel. “Come on, Eliot.” Eliot jumped at the sound of his name. How did the mysterious man know what his name was? Eliot was sure that he had never seen the man before in his life. “You know you want it.” He outstretched his black-gloved hand. Eliot took it.

“Deal.” He said.

Four years had passed since the deal had been made. In that time span, Eliot had completed high school. He had become the quarterback for his school’s football team, easily the most popular boy in school, and the Valedictorian. Eliot Sanders was living a teenager’s dream life. He had forgotten about the deal he had made when he was fourteen. His life was filled with women, parties, and his best friend Charlie. Eliot had known Charlie his entire life. Charlie had been his neighbor for as long as he could remember. Of course, wild forest was the neighbor across the road. Charlie lived two doors down from him.

Eliot pulled on his letterman’s jacket and stepped out into the chilly night air. It was the day after his high school’s graduation, and he was ready to pick up Charlie and get going. He didn’t bother to drive; he could see his friend trotting up the road.

Charlotte Parks walked along the road with her head held high, long brown hair flowing in soft waves around her hear-shaped waist. She was wearing a white shirt along with a pink high-wasted skirt that had an elastic waistband. Charlie adjusted her worn jean jacket and picked the pace up a bit, her black converse taking her a little bit closer to Eli. “Hey, Ellie!” She called, raising a hand to him.

He laughed. “Charlie!” Eliot laughed a bit. He ran up and hugged his friend, smirking. She did look pretty good tonight. Charlie had always been pretty, though. Elliot sighed. He had a girlfriend. She was some cheerleader with a cookie-cutter appearance. “Come on, Char. We’re going to be late to Blackwood’s party.” He smirked, opening a door of his truck for her. “Hop in.” He called, walking around to the other side and jumping in.

Roy Blackwood’s house was definitely huge and set off in the country on a beautiful lake. “I’m glad a grabbed a jacket.” Charlie said, pulling the denim tighter around her shoulders. “It’s getting chilly tonight. So much for summer.”

“Yeah. That’s true.” Eliot said, stepping out of his truck. He looked around the flickering house and sighed. “Roy’s really got a party going on. Think there’ll be some artistic boy for you?”

“Haha, Eliot. You know I’ve chosen to be into musicians this week.” Charlie winked at him as they started to walk into the house. Charlotte’s tastes in boys flickered every one to two weeks. “I’ll come find you when I’m ready. Go hang out with your cheerleader of the month.”

“Hey! Two months!” Eliot called, pushing back a dark blond tuft of hair. He sighed and shook his head. Charlie didn’t hear him. He followed her through the threshold and into the party.

The party was full of people sprawled on sofas and walking around. The lake house was spacious and the view outside was wonderful. A couple hours had passed since Eliot had arrived. A movie was playing and most of the people downstairs were winding down while the ones upstairs were still shouting and being wild. Eliot dropped an empty water bottle on the floor. He wasn’t drinking tonight. Charlie on the other hand, was getting tipsy. She was in the lounge chair beside him, looking a big groggy.

“I want a water now.” Charlie muttered, standing and walking towards the kitchen.

“Me too, please!” Eliot called, and resumed watching the movie and checking his cell phone. No new messages.

Twenty minutes passed and Elliot hadn’t seen Charlie come back. That was odd for her. He stood up, wondering if she had passed out. She wasn’t that drunk. He walked into the kitchen and saw the host himself leaned up against a counter talking to a couple of junior girls. “Hey, Blackwood!” Eliot called. “You seen Charlotte?”

“No, man. You want one of these girls, though? They like football players.” Roy smirked. “That girl ran off with some cowboy that said he was in a band. Weird guy, he was in all black. They went out towards the lake. You can check out there.”

“Thanks.” Eliot said, ducking out of the back door. A man that was dressed in solid black seemed somewhat familiar to him. Like he met the man once in a dream. Eliot walked forward a few paces and stopped. He heard something towards the woods. A scream? Yes. That was definitely a scream. “Charlie.” He said, turning and running towards the tree line.

“Eliot!” A voice called back from the bleak woods. “Ellie! Help!” She called again, this time the voice was fainter.

Eliot’s feet carried him faster into the forest, designer shoes crunching the uneven path of the game trail. He ran and ran until he met a wall made out of roughened stone. He bit his lip. “A wall? Why would a wall be here? This isn’t a colonial place.” Eliot said, scratching his head. There was a dark wooden door in the center of the wall, and the stone stopped ten feet in each way from the door. Trees replaced the tall stone, but looked impassible. The door was his only key through.

He approached the door and bit his lip. Eliot’s hand touched the fine grain of the wood first; testing it to make sure it was real. He found the wrought iron handle and pushed on the door with all of his weight. The door didn’t budge at first, but slowly moved open on it’s own accord.

Eli stepped into the corridor that opened up before him. The soil underneath him turned into cobblestone and the tunnel ended into a beautiful garden. Trees and plants over bloomed from every crack in the small area. He followed the path until it ended with a large, stone pillar. He looked up and bit his lip. An arm was draped over one side of the top of the column. “I’m coming for you, Charlie. Don’t worry.” He called up to the canopy.

He found a small staircase made out of the same stone beside the altar. Eliot’s feet carried him up to the top of the steps. A large chair was carved out of the rock a few yards behind the place where a small body lay. A jean jacket, white shirt, pink skirt, and converse flooded into Eliot’s vision. There was only one person he knew that was wearing that – Charlotte.

He ran over to the spot where she lay against the cold ground. Suddenly, Eliot hit a wall. There was a glass-like barrier between himself and Charlie. A small laugh came from behind him. Eliot turned and saw the man from his nightmares.

The man in black walked over to him, smirking. “You don’t remember me, but I remember you.” He said, “I thought I could take something important to you instead of taking your own soul.” The man shrugged. “That seems a bit worse. Losing something you love is very different than losing your own soul, but if you were selfish about her life I would’ve let her go.” He shrugged. “Since you’ve proved yourself I’ll make you another deal.”

“T-tell me who you are first.” Eliot called, trying to form some kind of courage. Unfortunately, his bravery was wavering.

The man laughed coldly. “I am someone who has always lurked in shadows, waiting at the crossroads for unsuspecting people to come across me. I grant their wishes in exchange for their soul. You should know me by now, boy.”

“The devil.” Eliot breathed.

“Good boy.” The devil muttered, looking over to the boy. “Let’s make a deal. You complete an impossible task, and I will set her free. If you fail, I’ll drag both of you home with me. Deal?”

“Yeah. Deal.” Eliot said, moving forward. He held his hand out to the man, glaring into his soulless eyes.
The devil laughed, holding out his hand and shaking the boy’s hand. “Now we have to find you an impossible task.” The devil pulled his hand back, putting it against his chin. “There’s a river not far away from here, and at the bottom of the river there are some gold coins. I want a few coins from that river.” He shrugged. “Bring them back and I’ll let her go.”

“Okay.” Elliot muttered, nodding once. He turned and started stumbling off into the woods.

He walked for as long as he could, and finally heard the relieving sound of running water. Eliot’s feet carried him to the rushing water. He sighed, looking down into the rocky stream. Gold glittered in the moonlight from under the water. “This seems too easy.” Eliot said, and reached down to touch the water. When he touched the surface, the water froze. He tapped the glassy surface and sighed. “I thought so.” He muttered, looking around the scene for a way to crack this puzzle. He found a few sticks and brought them back to the shore of the river. He put a stick into the water, but it stuck better than his hand did. He pulled the stick out and smirked. He arranged the sticks in his hand like a box and pushed them into the water. The sticks created a small opening and he managed to quickly grab a couple coins from the bottom. Eliot pulled his hand out, clutching the coins in his hand. He stood up and started walking back to where the devil was sitting.

Eliot approached the man in black and held out his hand. “Catch.” He said, while the man held his hand. Eliot dropped the coins in the man’s hand and smirked. The devilish man scowled and clasped his gnarled fingers around the metal.

“She’s free, I suppose.” He shook his head. “That was too easy, I suppose.” He shook his head. “I’ve tried to get a coin from the bottom of that river for years, I don’t understand how you achieved this.” He shook his head and stood up. He vanished in a cloud and was whisked away by the wind.

Eliot walked over to Charlie and shook her. She woke up gently, groaning softly. “What happened to that guy? We were taking a walk in the woods and I just blacked out.” Eliot helped Charlie sit herself up.

“You imagined that. No more drinking.” Eliot said, helping her stand up fully. She wobbled, but he held her up. “Come on, let’s get you home where you’re safe.” Elliot said, walking with her back to the path. He smiled softly, even though his friend wasn’t fully awake yet, he was still glad that she was safe and sound.