"Is the nasty bird trained?" Egan continued to ask. The one who had introduced himself as Noxfor stopped laughing instantly. A moment later, the man found himself completely enveloped in a blue flame. Egan screamed; all the voice he had in his throat came out in a single, endless scream. The flame surrounded him as if he were a burning ember; a few seconds after the initial fright, he realized it didn't burn, and he wasn't turning into a piece of charcoal.
Noxfor snapped his fingers, and the large flame vanished. "A warning, for this time. Be careful not to offend my friend again."
Egan's trembling hands fell to his sides, and he dropped to his knees. His breath was broken, and his heart was pounding. The shock had passed, but now he wondered if that was really an illusionist or something much worse. Noxfor had said he was a demon... Egan's hand searched for the crucifix he wore under his shirt, and held it between his index finger and thumb.
Noxfor smiled and approached him. Egan fell on his backside, on the damp dirt, his hands digging to distance himself from that dark, threatening presence. "You can also stop being afraid of me. If you do everything I order you, you will have nothing to fear."
Egan raised his gray eyes and stared at him; from so close, he was even more intimidating. "Who are you, really?"
"Exactly who I told you I am."
"Noxfor? I don't have-"
"Oh, don't bother trying to find a reminiscence or any glimmer of information about me in your memory. In the books you've studied, incomplete and often very fanciful, there is no trace of me and my world," the demon interrupted him, and smiled again immediately after.
"And... and what do you want from me, Noxfor?" Egan tried to stand up – even though he was shaky – the important thing was to be as far away as possible from that being.
"Before we begin. I see you are still not entirely convinced of my words, so I will give you another demonstration," and before Egan could say a word, he found himself lifted into the air. He didn't even have time to scream this time. Noxfor spun him in the air like a leaf in a vortex. The demon landed him gently, just a moment before Egan threw up. "Any more doubts?" Egan raised a hand, dazed, wanting to tell him he believed him, but the hand he had raised to protect himself turned into that of a woman. Then followed the arm, and a pair of breasts pushed out his shirt. Egan's eyes widened. His brown hair had suddenly grown, silky and shiny, covering his face. It wasn't true what he saw; he didn't want to believe it.
Noxfor's laughter became once again loud and overwhelming. "Do you believe now that I am a demon? However, I must admit, your female version has quite a charm," and he laughed, laughed as if there were no tomorrow.
Egan nodded, without taking his eyes off his body, which he was afraid to touch. Not even the time to raise his head when a squall of air took away his female appearance, and the old Egan reappeared as he had always been.
"And mind you, I can turn you into many, many different things."
"I believe you! Please, stop!"
Noxfor nodded and became serious. "Alright, now that there are no more doubts and misunderstandings. Let's get to the point," with one hand he grabbed the young man's and pulled him to his feet. Eye to eye. Egan found himself lost in the yellow, almost orange, of the demon's irises. "You interfered with my hunt, and you must pay your debt."
"What?" Egan immediately raised his hands as if to apologize. "I don't want to contradict you, but what are you talking about?"
Noxfor raised a finger and made the bag with the ferret appear. The little creature was still in the state Egan had left it. The instinct to protect it overcame even at that moment, despite who he had in front of him. "Don't worry, you saved him, and now he is free," the finger waved over the ferret, and a glow enveloped it. The little animal instantly healed from every wound. When he awoke, it bared his teeth at the demon, as if wanting to attack him. Noxfor clenched his teeth, and his eyebrows bent sinisterly. The ferret changed appearance, taking on that of a luminous, undefined creature. Egan looked at him with his mouth open.
"Go away," the demon's voice was peremptory and addressed to what had appeared until a moment before as a fragile little animal.
The creature rose half a meter off the ground; the head, with human features, turned towards Egan with a compassionate and sad expression. The young man also saw something akin to dismay. Then the creature reserved another grim look at the demon, finally shattering into golden dust, exiting the cave. Only the empty bag remained on the ground, which Noxfor made disappear, sending it back to the car seat. "You saved a gill, but you will have to pay the consequences."
"A what?" Egan still had to recover from the astonishment.
"A gill. It's useless for me to explain further; now it's not necessary for you to know. The Underground territory I inhabit is not a ball of fire or a dark and cavernous recess, as you are probably imagining it, but it is... let's say, another face of your world."
"Another face?"
"Yes, like a flipped coin. But this is not a matter that should concern you. Let's get back to the crux of the matter."
"The debt?"
"Exactly," Noxfor smiled. "Here is your punishment: you will have to carry out every order of mine, every command, without ever failing. Be my puppet."
Egan worried about that phrase.
"You will have to be my faithful servant until I decide the debt is paid."
"Forgive me," Egan swallowed. "I didn't know that... the gill, as you called it, was a prey, and you... your crow, your friend... was hunting gills..." he stammered. "I couldn't have known!"
"Yes, but you could have minded your own business. Men must not intervene in the natural cycle of things," Noxfor shrugged. "When they do, they only cause harm."
Egan shook his head; a pinch of anger replaced the fear. "So, if I see an animal in danger, I shouldn't save it? If a chick falls from the nest, should I leave it there to die?! If a cat is about to be run over by a car, should I pretend not to see it?!"
"What do you want me to say," Noxfor curved his lips, showing a sneer. "This time you meddled where you shouldn't have."
"There's nothing natural about a crow attacking a ferret!"
"Precisely for that reason, you should have had the doubt not to get involved," Noxfor became serious and threatening. Egan, once again, subdued by that powerful presence, and didn't find the courage to argue further. If he had irritated him, Noxfor could have turned him into who knows what. As long as if he wasn't dreaming. Egan caressed his face and wiped the sweat from his forehead. It all seemed too real to be a nightmare.
"Do you accept to be my servant, for a period?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Yes, if you refuse, you will repay the debt in one go."
"And how?" he asked, hopeful of ending that horrible experience quickly.
"Well..." Noxfor touched his black beard, slightly graying. "I will take you with me, to my world. You will become my toy, slave, prisoner in every sense," he concluded with a mean smile, and Egan's eyes widened. "Don't look at me that way, I'm a demon, after all... and when a toy starts to bore me, maybe I'll turn it into a woman and start a new game, and then another, in every conceivable way, as long as it amuses me," he widened the mocking smile. "And when I'm tired of a toy... I'll destroy it."
Egan felt his body tremble. He took a breath and lowered his head.
"What do you choose?"
"I don't have a choice..." damned demon, his life was devastated, and just the thought of what Noxfor could do to him could drive him mad. "Alright, I'll follow your orders but..." he raised his eyes, and angry tears clouded them. "Know that I won't harm anyone on behalf of a demon! Rather kill me right away!"
"Oh... really?" the demon approached him and grabbed him by the throat. "You will do everything I ask, otherwise you will have to pay a penalty," he laughed again. "And the penalty to be paid could be even worse than the order you didn't carry out, Egan."
Egan felt suffocated under the grip of the being who had him under his game. The anxiety mixed with anger turned his words into a whisper, almost a lament. "Please..." he tried to say, but Noxfor's grip was like a lead clamp.
"Your place is now at my service, in one way or another," Noxfor interrupted him, raising a finger towards the ground. "You are stuck in this middle space, between the things you know and what you can never understand. You are in debt to the Underground territory and its master. Speak, and tell me what you have decided, immediately," he released him like that, suddenly. Egan fell to the ground.
The man's hand went to his neck, to relieve the sense of constriction that was still present. The air returned to flow. "I will do as I said... I will be at your service..." Egan gritted his teeth and held back a cry of frustration. "Let's go, take me where you want."
Noxfor looked at him as one looks at a child who has just said something foolish. "I don't have to take you anywhere; my playground will be your world."
"How? Why?"
"Because it's more fun here," he widened his lips, showing his white teeth. "Go home now. Tomorrow we will start playing," Noxfor turned and began to walk to the other side of the cave. Egan saw him vanish. Curious to know what had become of him, he followed his steps, but the cave lost light as he advanced, so he turned and started running, towards the exit. Now I will wake up... now I will wake up and find out that none of this really happened. Running, he passed the mouth of the cavity. The darkness swallowed everything behind him. When he turned, there was no longer any cave; only earth and the slope of a hill. He swallowed the saliva, and the cool night air hit him, freezing his blood. The car was still parked where he had left it. He approached with uncertain steps, and opened the door cautiously. His eyes focused on the bag placed on the seat. Empty. He took the mobile from his pants pocket, turned it on; it worked. He put it away, then looked at the hood, expecting to see that disturbing bird again, but there was nothing but some dust residue carried by the wind. Egan turned the key in the ignition, the roar of the engine made his hair stand on end.