Paige Walker’s Deal with the Devil
In a rural Massachusetts town, there lived a young girl named Paige. Paige was a mousy little girl, who never had many friends. She lived on the wrong side of the tracks, with no father and a mother who was rarely around. Paige went to a small school, where everybody seemed to know everything about everyone. The halls were filled with gossiping teenagers, always ready to stab one another in the back for selfish gain, and Paige wasn’t much better than them.
She had one friend, Sharon, and even they were barely friends. The only difference between Sharon and everyone else was that instead of flat out ignoring Paige, Sharon walked with her and occasionally gave a spiteful opinion or a hard elbow to the arm when Paige was being annoying. Sharon was a large girl, both in height and weight, and she looked like she could crush a man with her bare hands. Paige considered her to more of a begrudging nuisance that she was stuck with. Neither one of them much liked it, but neither one of them was willing to make a change. Paige always saw all the people around her, surrounded by friends, seeming happy and content, and grew quickly jealous.
“Why did all these people get to be happy but not me?” Paige regularly pondered this question to herself. When she started to feel lonely, Paige would go to her own little spot, right on the corner of a large field on campus that no one visited except her. There was a lone, small tree, and a small bench made of pavement.
One fall day, Paige decided to go her spot, despite the cold that seemed to shock her skin. Paige approached the spot, intending to read and wallow in self-pity about why no one liked her. However, as she broke through the woods that bordered her little bench, she saw someone sitting there, facing away from her. She was shocked to see someone, as she thought no one even knew this place existed. Paige cleared her throat, and the figure turned. Much to Paige’s surprise, it was a boy, one who looked about her age. He was pale as a ghost, with messy dark hair that had a shock of red running through it.
“Oh, hello, Paige.” The boy said calmly, an unnervingly calm smile resting on his face. He was tall, with black eyes that seemed to pierce her soul.
“W-who are you? And how do you know my name?” Paige stuttered out, trying to look tougher than she felt. The truth was, he had a magnetizing sort of attraction. It felt like the boy radiated a dark power, and it was scary.
“I go by many names. Lucifer, is one you might know best.” His calm smile grew more wide and wicked, as his name struck fear into Paige’s heart.
“And what are you doing here?” She tried to sound tough but it came across as a meager squeak.
“The thing I do best, I am here to strike a deal with you, darling.” His eyes glinted with anticipation. At first, Paige was going to say no immediately. She could never make a deal with the devil! But she began to think… She was miserable the way her life was currently. Why shouldn’t she change it? Didn’t she deserve to be happy? Paige had tried the ways of God for long enough, and it had gotten her nothing.
“Obviously I already know your terms. Whatever my heart desires in return for my soul to be yours once I die?” Paige asked warily, and the devil nodded back with an amused smile.
“So what’ll it be?” He asked, pondering as always what this puny human would want. Paige’s head ran a million miles a second. As much as she wanted to be happy and popular, she was hesitant to turn her back on God and sin.
“I-I need to think it over. Is that alright?” Paige sounded firm at first, but got more nervous with each word. The devil turned away from her.
“Fine, if you must.” He sighed, as Paige turned to go back into the woods.
“Thank yo-” As she turned back to say something, the man was gone, as though the air had swept him away like dust. Paige shuddered and ran home. Once she arrived, Paige texted Sharon.
“OMG, you’ll never believe what happened today.” Paige began. As she waited for Sharon to read her message, she pondered her options.
“I probably don’t care, but knock yourself out.” typical Sharon, rude and bitter.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I met the devil.” Paige’s heart was in her throat.
“Sure you did Paige, sure you did.” Of course Sharon was skeptical, she never believed Paige about anything.
“It’s true! And I can prove it. You know that place I showed you, with the bench and the tree?” Paige was eager to prove Sharon wrong, for once.
“Yeah, your loser hang out spot.” Sharon replied.
“Whatever, go there tomorrow, directly after school. If you do, you’ll be able to have your greatest wish come true.” They bet money on it.
Paige knew Sharon could never resist temptation. Of course she would go. Sure enough, the next day at school, Sharon was asking questions about the spot.
“So, uh, not like I’m gonna go or anything, but where’s the entrance to that trail again?” She asked, trying to sound nonchalant. Paige chuckled and told her.
Sharon didn’t come to school the next day. Paige wondered what had happened, but she didn’t think about it too much. The second day of Sharon being missing came around, and Paige started to get concerned. Sharon owed her $20! No way was she getting out of that. The third day came, and Paige decided to go out and look for Sharon, maybe ask the devil some questions. When she arrived at her old spot, she saw the boy, sitting, turned away from her again. She also saw some blood, on the stone bench she had sat on a thousand times.
“Where is she?” Paige asked, demanded. Without turning around, the devil held out a hand with one $20 bill. Paige went silent. She took her money, and waited for him to turn around.
“I will ask again. What’ll it be?” He turned just his head, and she saw that his red streak had grown larger, thicker, and brighter.
“I want to be popular, loved by all. I no longer want to spend every day alone.” Paige looked at the ground. She was ashamed, but this was what she wanted. She could no longer bear to be alone. The devil turned all the way around, a large grin on his face.
“Your wish is my command.” He laughed, and snapped his fingers, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Nothing felt different, and Paige ran back home.
The next day, as Paige walked into school, two of the most popular girls in school linked arms with her.
“Oh my gosh, Paige, darling, how are you?” One asked, flipping her long hair over one shoulder. The girls were tall and beautiful, a big difference from Sharon or anyone else Paige had ever been friends with. She wasn’t even sure how these girls knew her name.
“Fine…” Paige replied warily. She knew this was gonna be odd, but she was surprised by how odd. She knew people were going to talk to her but she wasn’t expecting all this touching. They were playing with her hair, rubbing her arm, grabbing her shoulder. It freaked Paige out. It was nice to be noticed, but it was also very odd. She missed the quiet of being alone. Paige put up with it for about a week, until she couldn’t take it anymore. She skipped class, and ran as fast as she could to her old spot. People saw her leave, followed, hoping to gain favor with the most popular girl in school. Paige tried to weave her way through the forest, avoiding them, but they ran after her, calling her name. She ignored them, hoping they’d leave her be. They didn’t. She climbed a tree, and waited for everyone to go away. Once the sun started to go down. She climbed down and ran over to her spot.
“”Lucifer!” She roared, “Lucifer come here this instant!” Her screams were desperate, and angry. She didn’t stop for twenty minutes, until he finally stepped out from behind the tree.
“What do you want?! You’re giving me a headache.” He sounded exasperated, rubbing his head.
“Change me back. This was a mistake. Please, I’ll do anything just reverse the deal. It’s not worth it.” Paige pleaded, hoping the devil would show some remorse and trade back. Alas, there was no sympathy in this unholy being.
“I can’t, and even if I could I wouldn’t. You knew what you were getting into, and know you can’t turn back. Did you seriously just bug me for twenty minutes over a pointless negotiation?” He looked annoyed.
“No but you don’t understand, I need you to change everything back. I can’t handle the constant attention. Please, just undo it. You’re the devil, you must have a way of changing this!” She begged and begged as he devil sighed and ignored her.
“I can’t do anything. You’re stuck like this until you die. I’d say I’m sorry but I’m not. Goodbye puny little human.” He walked back behind the tree and as Paige followed him, he was gone. She sat on her sad little bench, stained with the blood of the only person she could stand in this world. She cried, and cried and cried, until she couldn’t anymore and curled into a ball to sleep.
Paige Walker spent the rest of her life dodging attention. Through high school, college, work, and retirement, she avoided as many people as she could. Finally, at the end of her life, when she could no longer speak, and there were crowds of people at her deathbed, Paige saw a face, moving through to the front of the crowd. That of a young man, who had not aged a day in all the years that had passed. He took her hand, and a devious smile rose to his face.
“You ready for some more fun? This is only the beginning.” He smiled wickedly. Paige tried to shake her head no as violently as he could, but it was becoming harder to breathe. She knew the end was coming. All she wanted was to die in peace, but no one would let her. Finally, the devil squeezed her hand, and the heart monitor flat lined.