{"id":2883,"date":"2015-10-28T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=2883"},"modified":"2015-10-28T02:53:58","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T02:53:58","slug":"dance-with-the-devil-by-tim-sacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/dance-with-the-devil-by-tim-sacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance with the Devil by Tim Sacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vorspiel<\/a>
Vorspiel by Ann Dunn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dance with the Devil<\/h1>\n

by Tim Sacks<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s that over there?\u201d Alex inquired, surreptitiously pointing to an arguing pair in the back. They were an odd twosome to be sure. The girl, while decked out in the usual scant attire, also bore a pair of spectacles on her nose which gave her a kind of scholarly look. In fact, as far as she could recall, she was the only stripper Alex had ever seen who wore glasses on the job. The man with whom she was arguing was no less puzzling. He appeared to be extremely sunburned despite the fact that it was the dead of winter and he wore a long, grey habit, the likes of which, Alex supposed, had not been seen since the fourteenth century.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, that\u2019s Fallon,\u201d replied Tiffany nonchalantly. \u201cShe\u2019s going out with a demon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex\u2019s brow furrowed. \u201cExcuse me? … A demon?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, from Hell. Mephistopheles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMephistopheles?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiffany shook her head. \u201cIt\u2019ll never work,\u201d she whispered, patting Alex on the shoulder as she walked towards the bar. Alex, meanwhile, curious as ever, made her way slowly towards the couple and stood about five feet away from them, facing the stage and pretending to be engaged with the routine currently being performed. She could just overhear the conversation at hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get angry at me, babe!\u201d cried the girl apparently called Fallon. \u201cI was just curious about God\u2019s creation, that\u2019s all. You don\u2019t have to yell at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were having second thoughts about our contract, weren\u2019t you?!\u201d demanded Mephistopheles. \u201cAll of a sudden, the idea of salvation through the Lord is becoming attractive to you, is it not?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, baby!\u201d pleaded Fallon. \u201cI\u2019d never think about God that way. I swear to no master but you! I would never think of even looking at another spirit!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou better not!\u201d growled Mephistopheles. \u201cThe contract clearly stipulates that you must banish all thoughts of piety and heaven from your mind, otherwise I will tear you to pieces!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re so jealous!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a deal! My services are available to you only insofar as you abide by the rules laid out in our agreement! Otherwise, you can forget about being a weatherwoman!\u201d And with that, Mephistopheles seemed to vanish in a burst of smoke and flame, although Alex assumed it must have just been the light. Nevertheless, there was a distinctly sulfuric odor emanating from the spot.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Fallon fell to her knees and cried out, \u201cDon\u2019t go like that, baby! I swear to Lucifer that I serve only the infernal kingdom! Why are you mad at me? Why do we have to fight?\u201d She gasped. \u201cWas this our first fight?\u201d She finally burst into tears and rushed into the dressing room. Alex, equally perplexed and horrified, watched her go. Tiffany approached her from behind and patted her on the shoulder again.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry about her. She\u2019s a spaz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex turned around with a worried expression. \u201cI think she sold her soul to him!\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiffany rolled her eyes. \u201cYeah, tell me about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWho\u2019s that over there?\u201d Alex inquired, surreptitiously pointing to an arguing pair in the back. They were an odd twosome to be sure. The girl, while decked out <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-short-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2884,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions\/2884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}