POV Blair

  Location: Cave system under Lockerbie, Scotland

  'You should eat that guy.' The voice whispered

  'I'm not eating some corpse so you can claim part of my soul.'

  'But, you might like it, it looks tasty?' It questions like a confused child as I look in disgust at the half-eaten corpse of a young lady, her crimson lifeblood splattered around the greystone, giving colour to the monotone tunnels we've travelled through for the last few hours.

  'Still not eating the copse, you freaky shit, even if it lets me complete a contract. I'm not touching any corpse, and I'm not selling you part of my soul.'

  'But…' It starts again before I interrupt it.

  ‘No buts! Shut it!’

  'If you fuck the corpse, I will give you something interesting, hehe.' A sweet, feminine voice whispers huskily into my mind, a demon of lust if I had to guess. They come around from time to time, but I mainly have to deal with gluttony, greed and wrath.

  'Jesus Christ, no, I'm not doing that, the fuck is wrong with you?'

  'You want to live, don't you? You want to be strong, don't you? Respected, powerful, it can all be yours, but only if you do some tiny little things for us.' The seductive voice whispers into my mind, trying to tempt me to complete one of the many contracts the Demons keep trying to offer me. Never in my 30 years have I heard such deranged and, quite frankly, annoying people, and now they have a direct line into my head to whisper deals and temptation into my mind.

  'Okay, what if you get someone else to eat human flesh? The contract would be weaker, but you could still get a consumption ability for the price of part of someone else's soul. Although if you told them it was human flesh, we could steal a little more of their soul. Depends on how you want to play it.' The first demon of gluttony tries to convince me that cannibalism is a good idea and is fun for the whole family.

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  'Why would anyone eat another human?' I ask, generally confused and disturbed.

  'I don't know, force them, trick them, be charismatic, the more willing they are, the more soul I can take to fuel myself and your contract.' The Gluttony demon whispers into my mind.

  'There it is, you just want to get stronger yourself. These contracted powers only last a week, but you get part of my soul forever.' I refute.

  'It doesn't have to be your soul, it can be anyone you can get to complete a task for us, it's not like it won't grow back if you get stronger, you could convince that pretty little wife of yours, for example, I'm sure she would be down to do some absolutely scrumptious activities hehehe,' Lust sniggers.

  "You leave her out of this!" I hissed out in a rage, causing Sammy, my Wife, and her family, whom we were visiting in Lockerbie, to jump in fright and stare at me.

  "It's okay, Blair, just ignore them; they can't make you do anything. I trust you." She says, with her sweet, caring smile, which tries its best to fill me with warmth, that I haven't been able to feel since our baby turned to dust in our arms.

  The horrifying memory of our child's last moments floods into my mind before I can stop it. Visions of our baby Adam crying while I lay collapsed on the floor from the pain the self-proclaimed God Jeremy caused us, excruciating, mind-numbing pain just because he could, because he wanted to.

  I'm surprised Adam's 6-month-old heart didn't give out from the pain, but I was so happy he made it that I crawled my way over to him and Sammy, forgetting the words that evil creature had said. When I finally made it to my family on the kitchen floor and held them within my arms to try and comfort my son, my sweet, sweet son, he turned to dust within my arms. Arms that were meant to hold and protect him.

  After that, Sammy and I fell into depression, just going through the motions, hiding within my sister in laws house from the undead and beasts that now roamed the land. Sammy's sister and brother were friendly enough at first until they learned I had demons living in my head. They took it as a sign that I was evil and plotting against humanity, despite the abilities being random. Or maybe I deserve it in some fucked up way? 'No, I will remain strong, for Sammy, for Adam's memory.'

  Now I just had to suffer my in-laws' glares and whispers behind my back while we slowly walked through the tunnels, careful not to go too deep after encountering our first giant centipede monster and running away.

  "Thank you, sweety." I smile at Sammy while ignoring her family as we continue to trek through the dark tunnels, in a desperate hope of finding somewhere safe away from the blood thirsty monsters, both human and beast.