The Roads Were Never Really The Same After-Halloween Prompt #13

It was him, with his guitar in it’s worn guitar case and her with her suitcase made of soft green leather standing at the Crossroads in a field out in the middle of nowhere.

” It’s not what I thought it would look like ” he said to her.

Her face was turned away from him, she was looking down the dirt road. ” Everybody says that. ” was all she said.

He set his guitar case down and after looking at the back of her head, her dusty wide brimmed hat, her claws -no wait he thought to himself, her hands- why did he think those long slender fingers were claws?.  She drug her case closer to her legs and then she raised her leg and rested one foot on top of it.

” So is this the part where we  talk about deals, ” he sounded tired ” because I’m going to say straight up right now- I’m not in the deal making mood. So say your piece. I don’t want anything and I have nothing to offer. ”

” Oh but you do Robert. You have something I want very very much and I am willing to offer you riches beyond  your wildest dreams for it. ”

He considered his wildest dreams – the ones of men on horseback, their Hell Hounds at their heels  and he decided right then and there the world didn’t hold enough riches to erase those memories. ” So this deal involves my Soul, I suppose.

He pulled his guitar case close to him and she turned her face toward him- he looked away and she said, her voice as smooth as silk but the words coming from her lips her hard and jagged, they had teeth. ” Souls are a dime a dozen, that’s not what I want from you Robert. ”

He picked up his guitar case and stepped back. She dropped her foot to the ground and stepped around her suitcase.  ” I want this. ”

She reached for his case and he stepped back.

Her eyes were as black as midnight and full of fire.

” I want this- every note, every word, every tune that is in your head and rests around your heart like a scab on a wound. That is what I want. Sell it to me Robert. ”

” Why?” he almost looked into her face.

Almost.

” Because every single note you play, every song you sing, they will be there when people laugh and drink , when they take apart their lives and cry to God almighty WHY. It will be the food that feeds  their LIVES Robert. It will move them. It will soothe them. It will give them hope and put a face on their despair and I CAN’T HAVE THAT. ”

She took a breath.

” Riches Robert, oblivion Robert. I offer you those things if you swear tonight, here to never ever play another note again. ”

He dropped his case to  his side. He looked her in the eye.

” Go to Hell ” he told the Devil at the Crossroads.

He turned his back to her, he walked away  and that is where he left her.

She’s probably still there at the Crossroads that don’t look like what you would expect the crossroads to look like- her foot resting on her suitcase, her wide brimmed hat that should be faded and dusty with age, but it’s not and she’s not going anywhere anytime soon. She’s always there waiting to make a deal.